'Best of TBH Politoons'
Reader Comment
Re: Paris Hilton Xmas Display
"Ho ho..................HO!"
Terry C
NJ
Thanks, Terry!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Alan Bisbort: Bumper Crop of Truth (hartfordadvocate.com)
The only option left, at least as far as I can see, is to make Republicans on all levels -- national, state and local -- pay for the failure that is Bush in 2006. Let's allow Bush to destroy his own party, shall we?
Will Shank: Doughnuts and name-calling (Advocate.com)
When is it all right to tell drivers who advertise their bigoted politics on their bumpers exactly what you think of their self-righteousness?
Tim Smith: Casting stones at Baylor (advocate.com)
The author donated thousands of dollars and hours to his Texas alma matter. Then the supposedly Christian university turned him away, citing his "alternative lifestyle." No thank-yous, no apologies, and no refunds.
TONY PHILLIPS: Twisted Tidings (frontierspublishing.com)
John Waters gears up to celebrate Christmas in his own inimitable style
RICHARD ANDREOLI: DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN (frontierspublishing.com)
As for working on such a high-profile and controversial film, neither [Ang] Lee nor [Jake] Gyllenhaal seems particularly fazed by potential protests from religious and conservative circles.
Gregg Shapiro: Interview with Brokeback Mountain Director Ang Lee (afterelton.com)
Ang Lee's latest film, Brokeback Mountain, a stunning piece of work about the unlikely and long-lasting intimate relationship between a pair of Wyoming ranch hands played by Heath Ledger (Ennis) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Jack), is one of the most anticipated movies of the year.
ROGER EBERT: Richard Pryor: 1940--2005
In the 1982 film, he dealt frankly with his cocaine addiction and his accident. The movie was filmed live over two nights. We sense at the beginning that he is shaky, but he gains confidence and builds into "the most talented one-man stage show in existence right now," I wrote in my review, effortlessly bringing to life a series of impressions ranging from Mafioso to water buffalos.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
BONER EXPRESS
Food for thought for Senator Joseph Lieberman!
Purple Gene Reviews
'Syriana'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly sunny.
No new flags.
L.A. Critics Honor
'Brokeback Mountain'
"Brokeback Mountain," a gay Western about two ranch hands who share a summer of love and then conceal their ongoing affair, was picked as 2005's best film by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the group announced Saturday.
The movie, which stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, also earned director Ang Lee the critics' award for best director, and Ledger was the runner-up for the best actor's award.
The award for best actor went to Phillip Seymour Hoffman for his work in "Capote," which chronicled author Truman Capote as he pursued his true-crime book "In Cold Blood."
Other 2005 picks:
Foreign language film: "Cache."
Documentary/nonfiction film: "Grizzly Man."
Animation: "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit."
Cinematography: "Good Night, And Good Luck."
Career Achievement: actor Richard Widmark.
For more, 'Brokeback Mountain'
Paramount Buying
DreamWorks
Paramount Pictures on Sunday agreed to buy independent film studio DreamWorks SKG Inc. for nearly $1 billion cash in a deal designed to help both companies reverse their troubled fortunes.
The sale marks the end of an 11-year dream for Hollywood moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey 'Sparky' Katzenberg and David Geffen, who had ambitious goals for DreamWorks that once included television, music, films and the Internet.
Paramount will pay $775 million in cash and assume $825 million in debt and other obligations, the company said.
The studio will finance the deal by immediately selling the DreamWorks film library, which Paramount values at between $850 million and $1 billion. The company said it is in advanced talks with several parties and expects to have a deal within weeks.
It will also have the right to make television shows using DreamWorks Animation characters.
DreamWorks
10 Best Films of 2005
American Film Institute
Steven Spielberg's Munich, which centres on the aftermath of the killings of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, and the oil-industry thriller Syriana were named Sunday among the American Film Institute's 10 best movies of 2005.
The other films AFI selected were: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, King Kong, Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck, The Squid and the Whale and A History of Violence.
The institute also named its 10 best television programs, with honourees including 24, Battlestar Galactica, and Lost.
American Film Institute
Found in Hawaii
Time Capsule
Using radar equipment along a wall of a landmark Hawaiian building, military specialists Saturday quickly located a time capsule buried more than a century ago by King Kamehameha V.
Historians knew the capsule contained priceless pieces of the islands' history, including photos of royal families dating back to Kamehameha the Great and a constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom. But until now the capsule's exact location was unknown.
"We found it within the first 10 minutes we were here," said Larry Conyers, a University of Denver professor who used ground penetrating radar to find the hollow spot in the northeast corner of the Aliiolani Hale building.
The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command located the capsule so it could be protected during future renovations or natural disasters.
Time Capsule
Wedding News
Yearwood - Brooks
Country music stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood said "I do" on Saturday in a private ceremony at their Oklahoma home.
Brooks, an Oklahoma native, and Yearwood exchanged vows before family members, said Nancy Seltzer, a publicist for the couple.
"Yearwood - Brooks
Live News Show for West Coast
ABC
In an age when stories spread instantly, ABC News executive Jon Banner says the idea of airing a daily newscast on the West Coast that is three hours old "is kind of an insult."
So when ABC announced last week that Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff were the new anchors of "World News Tonight," the network also said they'd work later hours than predecessor Peter Jennings. They will also anchor two separate live newscasts each night for viewers outside the eastern time zones.
The two live later broadcasts begin Jan. 5.
The new editions will be made at 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET. Vargas and Woodruff will often repeat what they did earlier, but will have the opportunity to add details to a still-unfolding story, such as when U.S. marshals shot an airplane passenger last week in Miami. Sometimes stories of greater interest out West - brush fires in California, for instance - could substitute for stories that aired in the rest of the country, Westin said.
ABC
Actor Faces Charges
Lillo Brancato Jr
An actor who once played an aspiring mobster on "The Sopranos" faces murder charges along with another man in the death of an off-duty police officer, authorities said Sunday.
Lillo Brancato Jr., 29, was hospitalized in critical condition with gunshot wounds suffered when the officer shot him after catching two men breaking into a home. Brancato's friend Steven Armento, 48, was also shot and in critical condition.
Brancato got his acting break as a 16-year-old in the Robert De Niro-directed film "A Bronx Tale" in 1993. He appeared in a dozen other films, including "Crimson Tide" and "Enemy of the State." On "The Sopranos," he played mobster wannabe Matt Bevilacqua in a half-dozen episodes before he was executed by the mob boss.
Lillo Brancato Jr
Man Apologizes After Fake Post
Wikipedia
A man who posted false information on an online encyclopedia linking a prominent journalist to the Kennedy assassinations says he was playing a trick on a co-worker.
Brian Chase, 38, ended up resigning from his job and apologizing to John Seigenthaler Sr., the former publisher of the Tennessean newspaper and founding editorial director of USA Today.
Chase said he created the fake online biography in May as a gag to shock a co-worker who was familiar with the Seigenthaler family. He resigned as an operations manager at a Nashville delivery company as a result of the debacle.
Wikipedia
Xavier University
American Pig History
The contributions of an animal that has been reviled, mocked and dined upon for centuries are being recognized in a Xavier University class highlighting American pig history.
"As I was doing research, I found pigs popping up in rather significant settings," said assistant history professor Karim Tiro, who teaches the class.
Few realize that swine sailed to the New World with Columbus, sparked wars between colonists and American Indians and helped pioneer the assembly line, he said.
He covers those and other topics in "A History of the Pig in America with Especial Reference to the City of Cincinnati Otherwise Known as Porkopolis."
American Pig History
Facing Credibility Issues
U.S.
Secret prisons in Eastern Europe. Illegal detentions. Suspects snatched off the streets and shipped without extradition to other countries for harsh interrogation. Government directives cloaked in secrecy.
A flashback to Stalin's Soviet Union?
Hardly.
Dismay over Washington's covert intelligence practices and the seizures of suspected terrorists has swept Europe. It has challenged the administration's credibility and tarnished the nation's status as the premier defender of human rights.
U.S.
Draws Searchers To Arkansas
Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
It has starred in a video, been widely recorded and graced the cover of a prestigious magazine.
But to dispel any doubt the ivory-billed woodpecker -- the Elvis of the bird world -- is back from extinction, searchers are combing a corner of Arkansas in an intensive six-month hunt.
On foot, in canoes and kayaks, even using cherry-picker vehicles that tower over the forest canopy, teams of volunteers and paid workers have been looking for traces of the big bird in the forests and swamps of the White River and Cache River basins, just west of the Mississippi.
Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
For English Football Fans
German Phrases
The British embassy in Germany launched a new website for the 2006 World Cup on Friday that includes handy German phrases for England fans, such as "He was sick as a parrot" or "He puked his guts up."
The website is designed to help the estimated 100,000 English fans expected to travel to Germany for the 32-team tournament that starts in Munich on June 9 and concludes with the July 9 final in Berlin.
The web site contains information for fans and journalists that includes details about the World Cup venues, tips about German soccer culture and other bits of off-beat advice.
"Ihm war kotzuebel" (He was sick as a parrot) and "Er kotzte wie ein Reiher" (He puked his guts up) are in the guide as is "Wembley-tor" (Wembley goal) -- the controversial 1966 World Cup final extra time goal by Geoff Hurst when England beat West Germany.
German Phrases
Academic Unravels Origins Of Lyrics
Grateful Dead
By day he was a mild-mannered, buttoned-down reference librarian. By night - and on weekends and during vacations - David Dodd would shed his jacket and tie for tie-dye and morph into a Grateful Dead fan.
Dodd, who finds great joy paging through books and microfilm or surfing the Web to determine the exact origin of phrases and expressions, decided he would annotate the recorded works of the Grateful Dead.
Ten years later, he has come out with The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics. The 480-page illustrated book was published by Simon & Schuster's Free Press in October. It has a lengthy foreword by the band's principal lyricist, Robert Hunter, who came out of seclusion long enough to pay Dodd the ultimate compliment: he said the researcher got it right.
Grateful Dead
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