'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Reader Response
Re: Quizno's "Creature" Spokes-Whatevers
Marty
THANK GOD someone else finally noticed those horrid little creatures that
Quizno's has been running on their tv spots.
Your son is right - they do
look like cat poop. Gross.
I think they are some sort of decorated naked
mole rat superimposed with human features and top hats.
The irritating
little "foreign" accent is a nice touch too.
My kids and I agree that we do
NOT want to eat at anyplace that has rodents for it's spokesmen.
Heather P-F
http://houndog2.blogspot.com
Thanks, Heather!
He's B-A-A-A-A-C-K!
The Worried Shrimp
Reader Response
Re: Cat Poop
I read your web site daily and really enjoy it, and have been meaning to email you and after today I knew it was time.
You can tell your son that the sub commercial with the singing cat poop is really the spongemonkeys, you can find them on
rathergood.com (I might have discovered that site thru yours, it had the viking cats).
The sponge monkeys sing "I like the moon"
My ten-year-old granddaughters like the "stamping laibach kittens" on that site--just monitor 1-2 are more PG13 types.'
'k'
Thanks, k!
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
Reader Comment
FAIR on Dennis Miller
The link: http://www.fair.org/activism/miller-defense.html
Excerpt:
FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Dennis Miller's Defense: Ethics Don't Apply to Him
Dennis Miller show employs a consulting producer, Mike Murphy, who at the
same time continues to work as a consultant and fundraiser for California
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Murphy, who has been nicknamed "the Merchant of
Mud" for his expertise in negative advertising (Toronto Star, 4/5/00), is a
leader of two committees set up to promote Schwarzenegger's policies and
raise money for his political activities. Murphy's client is scheduled to be
the featured guest on the show's debut tonight.
Though from all descriptions, the show is intended to focus heavily on news
and politics, Miller has suggested that rules against journalistic conflicts
of interest don't apply to him. "I don't have the vaguest pretension to
journalistic ethics, I'm a comedian," he told the Hollywood Reporter
(1/26/04), saying that his show would be "entertainment" rather than "a font
of pristine journalistic ethics." He suggested at a news conference, in
fact, that he's actively hostile to the idea of such ethics: "I'm a
comedian," he told reporters on January 23 (Dallas Morning News, 1/24/04).
"Mike's my friend and a very funny writer. I'm sorry if it's violated
anybody's bullshit sense of journalistic ethics."
On the other hand, AP reported (1/25/04) that Miller indicated that "he's
not making a comedy show." "I don't want it to be a screaming shriekfest,"
the news service quoted Miller. "I want it to be a pretty reasoned
discourse." CNBC, of course, is not Comedy Central, but a cable news channel
specializing in business reporting.
Thanks, Jeffrey!
Reader Comment
Mel Gibson is N-U-T-S!
Don't you just love these people who claim that God speaks directly to them?
Ya think he's taken too many hits to the head making those four dumb
movies he made with Danny Glover?
This idiot says his own wife is going to hell because she's an
Episcopalian. I think she needs to LOSE his sorry ass!
A religious fanatic is dangerous whether he's a Christian, Muslim,
Jew or whatever!
Terry C
Thanks, Terry!
I spent 2 years at a fairly fundamental college - Pepperdine (the old LA-campus at 78th & Vermont and the Heidelberg campus) in the early 70s, where religion classes & weekly chapel were mandatory & only their flavor of religion mattered.
They made the nuns I grew up with seem open-minded & totally lacking prejudice.
Reader Comment
Cat Poop Part II (the sequel)
I wrote earlier to explain about the spongemonkeys/cat poop but forgot to add that with 3 10-year-old granddaughters often at the house (one lives here) I kept reading about Zoo Tycoon on your site, it sounded fun so I got it for them.
Then, because they wanted to get to do the dolphins shows at Marineland right off, I got into it- to help speed the process, do the scenarios, etc. and -it was fun.
Soon I was the one releasing the dinosaurs & lions on the people, to the girls horror-- But after checking zoo's internet site, I found that if you put the mermaid statue into the tank, it turns into a real mermaid, who sang and swam with the dolphins in the tank.
The girls were amazed,& delighted for about 5 minutes-- they then decided to release the hammerhead shark into the tank--who to their delight ate the little mermaid & friends.
And they said I was cruel releasing the dinosaurs--
Thanks anyways for turning us on to the fun game.
'k'
Thanks, again, k!
Didn't know about the mermaid-thing, but the kid was fairly impressed when I showed him. Thanks!
Selected Saturday Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Cloudy & rainy.
Stayed up to watch the late, late Conan last night, only to see NBC rerun the same Conan that had aired 3 hours earlier - dumped the whole Canadian show.
One of the cats got out last night and ended up in the big piney tree. She finally realized her way down when a can of tuna appeared. Heh - nothing like tuna-whore cats!
Tonight, Saturday, CBS begins the night with a FRESH 'Star Search', followed by a FRESH 'Hack', then a FRESH 'The District'.
NBC once again shows its contempt for what remains of their audience with another Saturday with nothing but RERUNs. The evening begins with a RERUN of last Sunday night's movie, 'Shrek', followed by
a RERUN 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'.
'SNL' is FRESH with Christina Aguilera hosting & music by Maroon 5.
ABC fills the night with the movie 'Castaway'.
The WB has the movie 'Terminator' (as if we aren't seeing enough Ahnold these days...)
Faux has the ususal 'Cops', 'Cops', and 'America's Most Wanted'.
UPN has the movie 'Beverly Hills Cop'.
A&E has 'City Confidential', 'American Justice', 'Cold Case Files', and 'City Confidential'.
AMC offers the movie 'Charade', followed by the movie 'She's Having A Baby', then the movie 'White Palace'.
BBC -
[6pm] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 7;
[6:40pm] 'My Hero' - Wedding;
[7:20pm] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 8;
[8pm] 'Rebus' - Black and Blue;
[10pm] 'The Sins' - Sloth;
[11pm] 'Dead Ringers' - Episode 2;
[11:30pm] 'Dead Ringers' - Episode 1;
[12am] 'Rebus' - Black and Blue;
[2am] 'The Sins' - Sloth;
[3am] 'Dead Ringers' - Episode 2;
[3:30am] 'Dead Ringers' - Episode 1;
[4am] 'Rebus' - Black and Blue;
[6am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Queer Eye', followed by the movie 'Highlander', then the movie 'Rocky Horror Picture Show'.
Comedy Central has 'Trigger Happy TV', another 'Trigger Happy TV', 'Reno 911!', another 'Reno 911!', 'Chappelle's Show', another 'Chappelle's Show',
'The Man Show', and another 'The Man Show'.
History has 'Extreme History With Roger Daltrey', 'Mail Call', 'Stalin: Man Of Steel', and 'History Undercover'.
SciFi has the movie 'Komodo', followed by the movie 'Curse Of The Komodo'.
TCM - Day 21 of '31 Days of Oscar™', where every movie is either an Oscar™ winner or nominee.
[6am] 'Madame Curie' (1943);
[8:30am] 'High Noon' (1952);
[10am] 'The Alamo' (1960);
[1:30pm] 'The Yearling' (1946);
[4pm] 'Johnny Belinda' (1948);
[6pm] 'The Maltese Falcon' (1941);
[8pm] 'Airport' (1970);
[10:30pm] 'Sergeant York' (1941);
[1am] 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' (1938);
[3am] 'The Big House' (1930);
[4:30am] '42nd Street' (1933). (ALL TIMES EST)
David Cronenberg(L) is sworn in as an officer of the Order of Canada by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, February 20, 2004. Cronenberg is an internationally recognized filmmaker.
Photo by Chris Wattie
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Advocates for Deaf Charge Censorship
Closed Captioning
The Bush administration has cut off its closed captioning for nearly 200 TV shows, prompting charges of secret censorship to promote an ideological agenda.
"Bewitched" and "Scooby-Doo" are out.
So are "The Simpsons," "Law and Order," some American Movie Channel documentaries, "A&E Investigative Reports" and "X-Men Evolution."
The new ruling comes six years after the department rejected attempts to block the captioning of the "Jerry Springer Show," saying its judgment "should not supersede the individual judgment of millions of deaf Americans."
Officials at the department now say, however, that they are acting on the "intent of Congress" to limit captioning to "educational and informational" programming.
"We in the Department of Education had external experts come in and help us determine the parameters for what would be appropriate," said Troy Justesen, deputy secretary for special education and rehabilitative services.
The blocking of the 200 programs was not a cost-cutting measure, Justesen added.
For more, Closed Captioning
Television Captioning Censorship List
Dali - Disney Short
'Destino'
As Hollywood's most celebrated night draws near, a small Oscar-nominated animated film is assuming big symbolism in the feud between Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael Eisner and former board member Roy E. Disney.
The seven-minute-long "Destino," a collaboration between painter Salvador Dali and company founder Walt Disney, languished for decades until Roy Disney made its completion a top priority. He brought in animators to create new scenes while keeping Eisner in the dark for more than a year — partly, he said, because he didn't want any interference.
Now, with the Academy Awards only days away, many veteran animators who have long seen Roy Disney as a champion of their art form have a wish: They want Walt's nephew to win the statuette on Feb. 29 and deliver a nationally televised slap at Eisner and his company, which has laid off hundreds of animators in recent years.
For the rest, 'Destino'
Tibetan masked jesters dance during a break of ritual dance performance at the Sherab Ling monastery, about 65 kilometers (41 miles) away from Dharamasla, India, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2004. Ritual dances are performed every year to cleanse the place of evil spirits before the beginning of the Tibetan New Year, which begins on Feb. 21.
Photo by Ashwini Bhatia
Playing Hindu Goddess in Film
Tina Turner
After drawing massive crowds with her high-voltage rock performances, Tina Turner will now swing to a new tune: she will play a Hindu goddess in a spiritual Merchant-Ivory musical for which she will also sing classical numbers in Latin and Sanskrit.
"I could think of no one but Tina Turner to play this part," said Ismail Merchant who will direct "The Goddess."
Turner, 64, who retired about four years ago after years of electrifying shows in leather minis, will portray the goddess Shakti in the film set in India and London.
Shakti is the goddess of power who takes on the form of destroyer or creator. She is known by different names in different parts of the country, including Kali and Durga.
Tina Turner
Radio Free Europe's 'Big Mistake'
Madeleine Albright
Former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright said she thought the end of FM band transmission of US-funded Radio Free Europe in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine was "a big mistake."
"This is a big mistake," Russian news agencies quoted Albright as saying on the Ukrainian leg of her swing through Eastern Europe.
"A free media plays a very important element in securing the principles of democracy," she was quoted as saying.
The disappearance of Radio Svoboda from the widely-available FM band meant that the programs can now only be picked up on the less accessible short-wave band, as was the case when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.
Madeleine Albright
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Ending Despite Campaign to Save Show
'Ed'
The creators of "Ed" are gratified for a "Save Ed" campaign, but it looks like they're moving out of Stuckeyville.
A group hoping to convince NBC to keep "Ed" alive ran a full-page ad in the trade newspaper Variety on Friday. The fourth season-ending episode ran earlier this month, with characters Ed (Tom Cavanagh) and Carol (Julie Bowen) getting married at the bowling alley in fictional Stuckeyville, Ohio.
Series creators Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman — who took on-air cameos as wedding guests — said it was their understanding with NBC executives that the series was over. They wrote the wedding episode to be a finale.
'Ed'
A kitten peers out from a sidewalk at Bangkok's Lumpini Park February 20, 2004. Two domestic cats in Thailand have died of the same bird flu virus that has killed at least 22 people in Asia, a veterinarian said on Friday.
Photo by Adrees Latif
Shakes Up Emmy Rules
Television Academy
The television academy is shaking up Emmy rules to try and freshen a competition that sees the same shows winning trophies year after year.
As part of changes approved this week by the academy's Board of Governors, members will have the opportunity to choose up to 10 nominees per category — double the current five.
The top five vote-getters will end up as the nominees in each category, keeping the number of contenders the same as it has been traditionally.
But the mix should be more representative of the growing bounty of programming on cable and newer broadcast channels, academy spokeswoman Pam Rubin Golum said Friday.
Television Academy
Returns to the Road
Ozzy 'I'm Not Dead' Osbourne
Apparently invincible, heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne said on Friday he would resume performing in the summer, even as he recovers from a near-fatal accident that left him in a coma late last year.
Osbourne, 55, will headline the ninth annual Ozzfest touring festival, which features more than a dozen hard rock acts, he and his wife/manager, Sharon, who organize the profitable event, said at a news conference.
Ozzfest, which will play 26 venues across the United States, begins in Hartford, Connecticut on July 10 and wraps in West Palm Beach, Florida on Sept. 10.
The main lineup features such headbanging favorites as Judas Priest, Slayer and Slipknot. Representatives of several of the acts were at the news conference, all dressed appropriately in black.
Ozzy 'I'm Not Dead' Osbourne
Oscar Folks Go Hush-Hush
Gift Bags
Oddly enough, things go kind of quiet in Hollywood, the capital of celebrities and gossip, right before the Academy Awards.
There's a lot of hush-hush surrounding which designer gowns the stars are wearing, which plastic surgery and beauty regimens they are undergoing and which escort they will be taking to Tinseltown's biggest night of the year on Feb. 29.
But perhaps one of the best-kept secrets of all revolves around the coveted "goody bags" the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences provides to Oscar presenters.
According to industry sources, the Academy sent an e-mail threatening to ax anyone involved with the "bags" if they leaked the contents before a Feb. 23 media embargo.
For more, Gift Bags
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Receives Hasty Pudding Award
Robert Downey Jr
Actor Robert Downey Jr. had to dust off his cane and re-enact his role as Charlie Chaplin before he could be crowned Hasty Pudding's Man of the Year on Thursday.
Two Harvard students in drag, one wearing a pink and blue plaid dress with a matching hat, the other in a sparkly red dress and blonde wig, joined Downey on stage where he had to prove he loved one more than the other using Chaplin's famous Little Tramp persona.
He rejected the student in the plaid dress by poking her in the rear with the cane, while at the same time showing his affection for the other by giving her a romantic dip.
After receiving the pudding pot, Downey said he was "doubly blessed in that not only am I the man of the year, but this is the first time that a convicted felon has received this award."
Robert Downey Jr
The widow of Laurence Olivier, British actress Joan Plowright (L), meets with Jane Goodall, a world authority on chimpanzees, after they were both made Dames by Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace in London, February 20, 2004.
Photo by Stefan Rousseau
Auctioning Historic Library
9th Earl of Macclesfield
The 9th Earl of Macclesfield, who is being evicted from the family castle, plans to auction much of his vast library, including a recently discovered 14th-century illuminated psalter.
Stephen Roe, head of the European books department of Sotheby's auction house, said Friday the library is "enormous - in excess of 20,000 volumes. "It's an amazing survival of a collection of books that was gathered together before 1750" and "more or less untouched," he said.
The earl, who had been involved in a decades-long dispute with members of his family, lost a court case in July and was given two years to leave the family seat, the 14th-century moated Shirburn Castle in Oxfordshire, central England.
Sotheby's described the library, formed by the 1st and 2nd Earls of Macclesfield, as "one of the greatest to have appeared at auction in modern times."
9th Earl of Macclesfield
Warned to Stay Away From Heidi
Tom Sizemore
A judge Thursday warned actor Tom Sizemore to stay away from his ex-girlfriend, former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss.
After a meeting in his chambers, Superior Court Judge Antonio Barreto Jr. told Sizemore in court "not to contact ... Miss Fleiss in any way."
Details on what prompted the warning was not disclosed. But Sizemore was ordered to return to court on March 30 for a hearing to determine if he violated his probation.
Tom Sizemore
Anti-war protester Sue Niederer of Hopewell, N.J., shouts at Secretary of State Colin Powell's motorcade as he leaves after speaking at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., Friday, Feb. 20, 2004. Niederer's son, U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Seth Dvorin was recently killed in the war in Iraq. Powell told the audience that the U.S. war in Iraq was justified even though weapons of mass destruction have not been found.
Photo by Daniel Hulshizer
From Alabama to the Grand Canyon
Bible Battle
In the beginning, there was a canyon of stunning natural beauty. And an up-and-coming California computer executive, who gave up four-fifths of his earnings to become a canyon tour guide.
And the guide brought forth a coffee-table album that went on sale in the canyon's bookstores.
Last December, a group of seven prominent geologists and paleontologists fired off a letter to the National Park Service, demanding that a book by Tom Vail, "The Grand Canyon: A Different View," be banished from canyon park bookstores because it "aggressively attacks modern science."
The book indeed promotes a theory that the Grand Canyon was created as a result of the biblical flood, rather than carved in the rock by the Colorado River over two billion years, as scientists claim.
The Alliance Defense Fund, a non-profit group from Phoenix, sent a warning straight to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, saying that if Vail's book is removed from park bookstores, her department "will expose itself to almost certain liability."
That means a lawsuit and possibly an election-year court battle that could sour resident George W. Bush's warm relationship with Christian conservatives, a major Republican constituency.
For more, Bible Battle
Involved in Accident
Shaun Cassidy
A car driven by actor-turned-producer Shaun Cassidy was involved in an accident that broke the leg of a security guard at the Warner Bros. studio Thursday, police said.
He was not cited and the case remained under investigation.
Cassidy was driving into the studio at about 10 a.m. when his car struck a vehicle that was stopped at the security gate, police Lt. William Berry said in a statement. The stopped car was pushed into a third vehicle and guard Conrad Perez was trapped in between the two vehicles, police said.
Shaun Cassidy
A Fake?
'Madonna of the Pinks'
A Raphael painting bought by Britain's National Gallery this month for $41.7 million is a fake, a U.S. art professor says.
The gallery secured the "Madonna of the Pinks," which it called the most significant Old Master in any British collection, after a fight to keep it in the country.
But James Beck, Professor of Art History at Columbia University in New York and the President of ArtWatch International, told Friday's edition of the Times the gallery had paid "a record price for a fake."
An ancestor of the Duke of Northumberland bought the 1507-8 picture in 1853 but it was long considered a copy until 1991 when Nicholas Penny, the Gallery's curator, examined the picture and hailed it as the rediscovered masterpiece.
Beck told the paper his research led him to believe the painting was in fact made in 1827 by Vincenzo Camuccini, a frequent copyist of Raphael and a recognized faker.
'Madonna of the Pinks'
Woman Sues RIAA
RICO Act
A New Jersey woman is accusing the major record labels of making her an offer she can't refuse.
Michele Scimeca, of Rockaway Township, N.J., has filed a civil lawsuit accusing them of attempting to blackmail her when she was named as one of the 531 people that trade group the Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA) accused of illegally downloading sound recordings off peer-to-peer networks.
"Essentially they are saying, 'Pay a little now, or pay the full monty later,"' said her attorney, Bart Lombardo. "This really looks like extortion, and the facts fit under RICO."
RICO Act
* ADULT *
Twin giant panda babies Ryu-Hin and Shu-Hin climb atop their mother Mei-Mei, born in China, as they play at Adventure World in Shirahama, southwestern Japan February 20, 2004. The five-month-old male cubs are a rare case of twin pandas, neither of which has been abandoned by their mother, which is often the case, but instead are both lovingly nurtured, Adventure World said.
Photo by Eriko Sugita
'The Osbournes'
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