Baron Dave Romm
No Column
By Baron Dave Romm
The Minnesota Fringe Festival started this week, and it's
been Total Immersion Fringe. My reviews some pictures are on
my LifeJournal (http://barondave.livejournal.com/).
Podcasts will be
announced later. I don't have time to go to shows, do interviews AND
edit audio...
2008 Minnesota Fringe Festival
--////
"This is an example of what I call 'pure' writing, which occurs when
there is no possibility of its becoming a screenplay."
-- Steve Martin
Results & Fresh Question
The Monday Poll
The current question is:
Rate your interest in watching the Olympic Games...
1.) Extremely interested! ... All Olympics, All the time! USA! USA! USA!
2.) Very interested ... I am a/an _______ fan and will watch those events without fail and perhaps some others, too, ever mindful of the true spirit of the games...
3.) Moderately interested ... Maybe, if I'm in the mood and, besides, my partner wants to watch it together all snuggle-bunnies like...
4.) Little interest ... Only if I'm bored to tears because the weather sucks and I'm completely unmotivated to do anything else indoors and there's nothing else interesting on TV and I don't have a new book to read...
5.) Zero interest ... Olympics!... Ack!... I'd sooner watch 'Brady Bunch' reruns than that display of nationalistic commercialism. Besides, they're all doped up anyway...
Send your response, and a (short) explanation, to BadtotheBoneBob ( BCEpoll 'at' aol.com )
The previous question was:
What's your choice for the best Drama Series?
'Boston Legal' 4 votes based mostly on it's anti-Bush attitude (something to be said for that)
'Damages' 0
'Dexter' 1 vote
'House' 3 votes
'Lost' 0
'Mad Men' 3 votes
Haven't watched any of these shows 2 votes
There was one responder who wanted to give it to three different programs simultaneously. Sorry, your vote(s) didn't count. I don't give thirds in such a poll and I doubt they will for the Emmy either.... Thanks to all for voting!
BadtotheboneBob
TODAY!
Erin Hart
Please join Erin Hart as she fills in
for Jay Marvin on AM760 Progressive Talk in Denver
this week (4 - 8 August), from 5am to 9am (pdt) | 6am to 10am (mdt) | 7am to 11am (cdt) | 8am to noon (edt).
Continue the Countdown to the Convention!
Talk about the Race for the White House; Record Oil Profits; the Search for Viable Green Energy; How to Protect Our Votes; the Rove Effect and who is going to testify?
For more information check out Erin Hart Show
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Ted Rall: NEWS DOES NOT WANT TO BE FREE (uexpress.com)
"I feel I'm being catapulted into another world, a world I don't really understand," Denis Finley told the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.
Jane Wardell: In Britain, pub owners are crying in their beers (Associated Press)
LONDON - Raise a pint to the old British pub: Dark-paneled, fixed on the English landscape-and, more than ever these days, empty.
FROMA HARROP: Could a VP Romney Be Health-Care Tsar? (creators.com)
We who obsess over universal health coverage may soon confront a startling development: The only candidate on a major-party presidential ticket to have proposed and implemented a universal plan could well be a Republican. I speak of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, now high on the list of John McCain's possible running mates.
Susan Estrich: Attack, He Said (creators.com)
What does Barack Obama have to do with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton? Absolutely nothing, as far as I can tell.
Richard Belzer: "Regrets: I Have a Few" (huffingtonpost.com)
One hopes, most likely in vain, that Lee Atwater's deathbed epiphany of regret would be an object lesson to others. But, alas there are those who have completely ignored any lessons to be gleamed from his dying wishes.
Richard Roeper: Million bucks on a candidate? Put it on McCain (suntimes.com)
Over the weekend, I had an extensive conversation about the presidential election with a longtime friend who works as a reporter for a national news publication.
John Paulsen: A Chat with Justin Kirk, Co-star of "Weeds"
So if the script shows up at my door and I have to put my tongue in Mary-Louise's mouth, then so be it.
Garrison Keillor: No time to dither
Another paradise day in our old river town and we linger over supper in the backyard and talk about the dry weather and bats (Do they eat 3,000 mosquitoes per night? No, says the family biologist) and ...
Felicia Cousart Matlosz: Fans eagerly await last 'Twilight' book (McClatchy Newspapers)
For the uninitiated, there's a phenomenon out there called the "Twilight" series, which has grabbed a lot of teen and adult fans by the throat.
The true cost of music downloading (timesonline.co.uk)
Fighting the illegal downloading of music isn't for the benefit of millionaires, says Mike Batt. It's to save music itself.
Laura Barton: Misheard it through the grapevine (guardian.co.uk)
When songs are downloaded they don't come with sleevenotes and lyrics websites are often unreliable. Does it really matter if we mishear or don't understand music lyrics?
Lisa Verrico: The Pretenders still know how to rock (timesonline.co.uk)
They have long stopped having hits, but Chrissie Hynde and Co gave a frantically paced rock romp at London's Koko.
In the cartoon Scooby Doo, what is Shaggy's real name?
Alan J was first, and correct, with:
Reader Comment
Link
Hey Marty,
Thanks for this link: Zen Habits | Simple Productivity
What a great article, especially for you, "workaholics!" I have saved this gem for future reference because I suspect that you must reread it many times to get the full effect!
Namaste,
Sally P
Thanks, Sally!
Reader Suggestion
t boone pickens
heard a story on npr radio condemming the tv commercials of t boone pickens.
his energy policy is hiding his true motive.
t boone pickens is also the man who funded the Swift Boaters.
he also reneged on his promise to pay 1 million dollars to anyone who could prove that even one of the swiftys allegations were untrue
this is not the npr story but it does outline his money grab plans
america must find out the truth about his plans
"Some Guy"
Thanks, Some!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny summer day.
NBC Extends Opening Coverage
Olympics
NBC has extended its tape-delayed (and edited) coverage of Friday's opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics by a half hour.
The ceremony now will be broadcast to American audiences at 7:30 p.m. EDT, NBC Sports said during Sunday night's telecast of the NFL Hall of Fame Game from Canton, Ohio. The previous plan was to televise the ceremony beginning at 8 p.m. for four hours.
But NBC Sports said the ceremony looked so good during dress rehearsals last week that it figured out a way to get the party started sooner. There's no way to help, however, the fact that due to the time difference the ceremony will have been over for hours before the coverage begins.
Olympics
Weekend Reunion
Radio Luxembourg
Former presenters of Radio Luxembourg, one of Europe's most influential and historic radio stations, were reunited for the first time this weekend.
The station started broadcasting from the tiny European Duchy in the 1930s and went on to change the course of commercial radio history.
Radio Luxembourg was one of the first stations to target teenage audiences directly with a play list of pop music and the use of jocular "disc jockeys".
Radio Luxembourg's success challenged the dominance of the mighty BBC and led to the emergence of a number of pirate stations such as Radio Caroline which broadcast from a boat off the English coast.
Radio Luxembourg
Set To Defy World Court
Texas
Texas is set to defy the World Court and anger Mexico on Tuesday by executing a Mexican national who was not informed of his right to consular services after his arrest.
Texas, by far America's most active death penalty state, condemned Jose Medellin for the 1993 rape and murder of 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena in Houston. Another girl was killed in the vicious gang-related assault but Medellin was convicted only of Pena's murder.
The World Court last month ordered the U.S. government to "take all measures necessary" to halt the upcoming execution of five Mexicans until it makes a final judgment in a dispute over suspects' rights.
The row, which has strained relations between the United States and Mexico, centers on the fact that the United States failed to inform 51 Mexican citizens sentenced to die in U.S. jails of their right to consular assistance.
Texas
Not Just Laptops
Newly Disclosed Policies
Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.
Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
DHS officials said that the newly disclosed policies -- which apply to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens -- are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism. Officials said such procedures have long been in place but were disclosed last month because of public interest in the matter.
The policies cover "any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form," including hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover "all papers and other written documentation," including books, pamphlets and "written materials commonly referred to as 'pocket trash' or 'pocket litter.' "
Newly Disclosed Policies
World's Smallest Snake
Leptotyphlops carlae
Scientists have identified the world's smallest snake -- a reptile about 4 inches long and as thin as spaghetti that was found lurking under a rock on the Caribbean island of Barbados.
The new species, named Leptotyphlops carlae, is smaller than any of the other 3,100 previously known snake species, according to Pennsylvania State University biologist Blair Hedges, who also had helped find the world's smallest frog and lizard.
It is one of about 300 different species of threadsnake and is a dark brownish gray with two yellow stripes, Hedges said. It was determined to be a newly identified species due to genetic differences from other snakes and its unique color pattern and scales, he said.
The snake, which is not venomous, eats termites and termite larvae but little is known about its behavior, including whether it is nocturnal, Hedges said. It was found in 2006 in a forest on the eastern side of Barbados.
Leptotyphlops carlae
Baseball Card Sells For $1.62 Million
Honus Wagner
An Arkansas man bought a 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card for $1.62 million at a memorabilia auction in Chicago, a sports auction company said Saturday.
The record price for a baseball card is $2.8 million - paid in 2007 for a near-mint condition Wagner card released in 1909 by the American Tobacco Company.
John Rogers, 35, of North Little Rock, Ark., said his winning bid for the T206 Wagner card is the realization of a decades-long dream.
Bidders at the Friday night auction also spent $42,000 on Ken Griffey, Jr.'s 600th home run ball and $240,000 for a 1938 Lou Gehrig Yankees road jersey, said Doug Allen, Mastro Auctions chief operating officer.
Honus Wagner
Phlanderer POs Paris' Mom
Kathy Hilton
Paris Hilton's mother doesn't share John McCain's sense of humor.
McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, said last week that his campaign ad mocking Democrat Barack Obama with images of Hilton and singer Britney Spears (both young republicans) was part of an attempt to inject humor into the presidential race.
On Sunday, Hilton's mother, Kathy Hilton, a McCain donor, registered her disapproval.
Kathy Hilton and her husband donated a total of $4,600 to McCain's campaign earlier this year.
Kathy Hilton
Nazi Bunkers Surface
Denmark
With a tight grip on his flashlight, Tommy Cassoe looks like a Danish Indiana Jones as he crawls out of a bunker buried under the sand, one of 7,000 the Nazis built along Denmark's western shores to fend off an allied invasion.
This bunker and three others, entombed under the sand dunes of Houvig since 1945, were uncovered a few months ago in a violent storm, when giant waves swept away the sand, exposing glimpses of the cement and iron structures.
The Nazis built some 8,000 bunkers in Denmark, 7,000 of them on the western coast. They were "emptied by the Danes of their contents after World War II to salvage the scrap iron and electrical devices that were needed."
The discovery in May of the four fully-furnished bunkers, untouched after 63 years under the sand, is considered "unique in Europe," according to Bent Anthonisen, a Danish expert on European bunkers.
Denmark
Grass-Roots Effort In Egypt Fights
'Cutting' Girls
In this small Nile River farming village, Maha Mohammed has started to doubt whether she should circumcise her two daughters.
A year ago, she had few qualms about female genital mutilation, the practice of cutting a girl's clitoris and sometimes other genitalia. She herself was cut two decades ago, and she fears her daughters will not find husbands otherwise.
But Mohammed also has heard that circumcision can be medically risky and emotionally painful. And a strong-willed neighbor, another woman, has been dropping by her house regularly to persuade her to say no.
Such doubts are significant. With vigorous grass-roots campaigns and the passage of tough laws against circumcision, Egypt seems to be making a dent in this deeply ingrained practice, thousands of years old. The number of young girls circumcised is now steadily declining in a country where an estimated 96 percent of married Egyptian women have had their genitals cut mutilated.
'Cutting' Girls
Banned In Australia
Savannah Cats
Australia has banned imports of an exotic breed of cat, calling it an extreme risk to the country's native wildlife, a minister said Sunday.
So-called "Savannah" cats are a cross between domestic cats and an African wildcat known as the serval. They tend to be spotted with slightly larger ears than other cats and have become popular with some cat-lovers.
"The risks associated with allowing this cross-bred cat into the country, when we already have up to 12 million feral cats wreaking havoc on native fauna, are simply too great," Environment Minister Peter Garrett said.
Savannah Cats
Weekend Box Office
`Dark Knight'
The Batman blockbuster "The Dark Knight" hauled in $43.8 million to rank as Hollywood's top movie for the third-straight weekend, fending off "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," which opened a close second with $42.5 million.
Disney's "Swing Vote," about a presidential election that hinges on the lone ballot of an over-the-hill slacker played by Kevin Costner, opened weakly with $6.3 million, coming in at No. 6.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "The Dark Knight," $43.8 million.
2. "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," $42.5 million.
3. "Step Brothers," $16.3 million.
4. "Mamma Mia!", $13.1 million.
5. "Journey to the Center of the Earth," $6.9 million.
6. "Swing Vote," $6.3 million.
7. "Hancock," $5.2 million.
8. "WALL-E," $4.7 million.
9. "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," $3.4 million.
10. "Space Chimps," $2.8 million.
`Dark Knight'
In Memory
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Soviet dissident writer and Nobel literature prize winner, has died aged 89, the Interfax news agency reported on Sunday.
Solzhenitsyn served with the Red Army in World War Two but became one of the most prominent dissidents of the Soviet era, enduring labor camps, cancer and persecution by Soviet officialdom.
His experience in the network of labor camps was vividly described in his "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich."
His major works, including "The First Circle" and "Cancer Ward" brought him world admiration and the 1970 Nobel Literature Prize.
Stripped of his citizenship and sent into exile in 1974 after the publication of "The Gulag Archipelago," his monumental history of the Soviet police state, the writer settled in the United States, returning to post-Soviet Russia as a hero in 1994.
He was born on December 11 1918, studied physics and mathematics at Rostov University and became a Soviet army officer after Hitler's invasion in 1941.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
