'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Fun Site
BAG News
Attached is a funny cartoon lampooning Bush's commando press opportunity on the Abraham Lincoln. It speaks for itself.
The cartoon-on-a-bag strip, BAGNews, started as a civics lesson for the artist's teenage son. It soon became uncool for the boy to carry a lunch bag drawn on by his father, and now the strip is on the Web.
Susan W
Thanks, Susan!
Sorry - I didn't use the picture because it was too 'big', but I really liked the site.
Will see if one of the jpg-wizards can help us out on this one.
Another Fun Site
from Alvin
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, windy & very pretty day.
Did the grocery shopping, and picked up the weekly fresh batch o' crickets at Reptiles Unlimited. Jo, the (remaining) lizard isn't a glutton, so we let all the crickets loose in his
terrarium (free-range crickets?), and they're singing pretty good tonight.
PTA sent home the Krispy Kreme cards today. The latest fund-raiser - it's not like we're ass-deep in wrapping paper, so at least it's different. Everytime you buy a dozen donuts, you get a dozen free, and good for 10 visits.
The kid, currently 'Mr. UFO', wants me to see if Kingman, AZ, is celebrating it's 50th anniversary of finding their very own alien - he says the crash happened 5/20/53. So, guess what I'm going to be googling....LOL
Tonight, Saturday, CBS opens the evening with a FRESH 'The Price Is Right Million Dollar Spectacular', followed by a
FRESH 'The District' (which acknowledges the always wonderful Lynne Thigpen, then a FRESH
'The Agency'.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH 'Hunter', followed by a FRESH 'Law & Order', then the weekly
throw-away -er- I mean, RERUN 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'.
Even though my usually reliable schedule says 'SNL' is a rerun with Jennifer Garner, saw a promo - and it is FRESH & hosted by Adrien Brody.
ABC fills the night with the movie 'The Green Mile'.
The WB has the movie 'Pretty Woman'.
Faux has the traditional FRESH 'Cops', followed by a RERUN 'Cops', and then
'America's Most Wanted'.
Tom Arnold hosts 'MAD TV'.
UPN offers the movie 'Homeward Bound II: Lost In San Francisco'.
AMC offers an extended, re-dubbed, and no commercials version of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" (Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, (1966)) - scroll down for a bit more (I love spaghetti westerns!).
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Sea lions await medical treatment and testing in a holding pen at the Marnie Mammal Care Center in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles, Friday, May 9, 2003. Two dozen dolphins and sea lions have washed ashore in Southern California in recent weeks, the likely victims of a naturally occurring toxin. Scientists believe the deaths signal a repeat of last year, when domoic acid killed hundreds of marine mammals.
Photo by Nick Ut
It's Sweeps!
Conan in Clay
NBC plans to air an entire installment of its "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" in stop-motion clay animation for next Thursday's broadcast of the show, the network said on Friday.
The May "sweeps" stunt, which has been in production for months, is a complete clay-animated re-creation of an episode of "Late Night" from last October, including the show's opening monologue, guest appearances, and even the "bumpers" that lead in and out of commercials.
The animation is not nearly as life-like as the popular "Celebrity Death Match" caricatures on MTV, hewing closer to the more crudely rendered "Mr. Bill" segments of "Saturday Night Live" fame.
Guests for the special Conan episode, produced in-house by NBC's scenic department, are "Jackass" star Johnny Knoxville, comedian Richard Lewis and rocker David Bowie. In addition, the show features O'Brien's recurring look into the future in one of his signature sketches, "In the Year 2000," with surprise guest Mr. T.
Conan in Clay
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Tonight On AMC - No Commercials
'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly'
"The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" (Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, (1966)) gets better, badder and uglier with 14 minutes of newly restored footage.
As part of a
Clint Eastwood marathon, the uncut three-hour version of
Sergio Leone's revisionist Western is airing for the first time on AMC, without commercials, at 8 p.m. EDT Saturday.
Restoring scenes from the seminal 1966 film required Eastwood to redub the voice of his quick-shooting, soft-spoken character, The Man With No Name.
With its iconic Ennio Morricone score, "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" follows Eastwood's character and competing gunslingers Tuco (Eli Wallach, who also revoiced his scenes) and Angel Eyes (the late
Lee Van Cleef) as they search for $200,000 in buried gold at the height of the Civil War.
The film is the third in Leone's trilogy of spaghetti Westerns, shot in Italy and dubbed into English, starring Eastwood as The Man With No Name. "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964) and "For a Few Dollars More" (1965) were the first two.
The new material includes:
_ The good: Tuco and Eastwood's character, nicknamed "Blondie" by Tuco, display a faint trace of humanity in an extended talk about the war with the drunk, disillusioned Union Army captain.
_ The bad: Blondie shoots even more bad guys who lie in wait as he and Angel Eyes search for the gold.
_ The ugly: Tuco taunts an exhausted, sunburned Blondie with water as they trek across the desert.
'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly'
American Movie Classics
Unkie, top right, a male siamang, reaches down to playfully tug at the orange-colored hair of Karen, a female orangutan, as Unkie's infant looks on at the San Diego Zoo's newest exhibit, 'Absolutely Apes,' Thursday afternoon, May 8, 2003. For the first time ever in the Zoo's history, orangutans and siamangs are living, playing and swinging through trees together in the same exhibit.
Photo by Ken Bohn
HGTV & National Trust for Historic Preservation
Historic Sites
Home and Garden Television and the National Trust for Historic Preservation are starting a multimillion-dollar campaign to help restore 12 historic sites around the country.
HGTV is donating $1 million to the effort. The network will feature one site a month on its "Restore America" program and will air public service announcements by celebrities such as actress Sharon Stone, TV personality Bryant Gumbel and New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan.
The complete list of sites:
_Hubbell House in Albuquerque, N.M., a large adobe house that predates New Mexico's 1912 admission as a state.
_Liberty Theater in Astoria, Ore., a vaudeville and motion picture palace built in the 1920s.
_Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
_Cranbrook House in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., an example of early 20th century design.
_Mark Twain house in Hartford, Conn., a monument to the writer.
_Far East Building in Los Angeles, a 1909 hotel, storefront and restaurant located in the city's Little Tokyo Historic District.
_The Mount in Lenox, Mass., home of author Edith Wharton.
_Bodie Island Lighthouse in Manteo, N.C.
_Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York City.
_Frederick C. Robie House in Oak Park, Ill., built in the style of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
_Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco, home to rare tropical plants.
_Lincoln Cottage in Washington, located on the grounds of the Soldiers' and Airmen's Home. The site, now a national monument, was a presidential retreat.
Historic Sites
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Home & Garden Television
Arrested Again In Assault Case
Tom Sizemore
Actor Tom Sizemore, star of defunct TV drama "Robbery Homicide Division," has been arrested for allegedly threatening former "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss to keep her from testifying in his domestic violence case.
Sizemore, who is facing charges of assaulting an ex-girlfriend in November and trying to intimidate another witness, surrendered to police late Thursday in response to an arrest warrant issued earlier in the day.
The 41-year-old actor was released on Friday after posting $100,000 bail, a city attorney's spokesman said.
A judge issued a second protective order -- this one to keep Sizemore from contacting Fleiss, his former fiancee and a potential witness in the domestic violence case. A previous "keep-away" order was issued after witness Kaarl Waldrop said Sizemore threatened him for refusing to give false testimony.
Prosecutors said they would consider adding more charges to the misdemeanor counts of battery, making criminal threats and dissuading a witness that are pending against the "Saving Private Ryan" actor.
Tom Sizemore
Birthday Bash for Husband
Liza Minnelli
Stars of the stage and screen gathered at a plush London hotel Friday night for an extravagant 50th-birthday party thrown by Liza Minnelli for her husband, David Gest.
Actress Jane Russell, Rolling Stones rocker Bill Wyman, and Sir Bob Geldof, the Live Aid founder and former punk musician, were among the popular entertainers who attended the bash at the Dorchester Hotel.
More than 250 stars were invited to the party, according to the couple's publicists, Warren Cowan and Associates.
They included shoe designer Jimmy Choo, actord Sir Ian McKellan, Dame Diana Rigg, Joan Collins, and singers Tom Jones, Boy George, and Neil Tennant of The Pet Shop Boys.
Liza Minnelli
In Bone Marrow Campaign
Nelly
Rap star Nelly is joining his sister, Jackie Donahue, at the forefront of a bone marrow donation awareness and recruitment campaign. Donahue, who suffers from leukemia, is also hoping to find a donor for herself through the "Jes Us 4 Jackie" effort.
A June 21 nationwide donor drive will be held for patients in need of bone marrow transplants in conjunction with Nelly's non-profit organization, 4 Sho 4 Kids.
Simultaneous events will be staged in Los Angeles, New York, and the rapper's St. Louis hometown. That day, the organization will pay the cost of tests required to join the bone marrow donors registry. Donors must be 18 to 60 years old and in general good health.
More information will be posted at the still-under-construction JesUs4Jackie.com (http://www.jesus4jackie.com) Web site in the coming weeks.
Nelly
Leave Sony Music
Ozzy & Kelly Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne is leaving Sony Music after nearly 23 years, citing boredom with the partnership and the departure of record executive Tommy Mottola. Ozzy's wife, Sharon Osbourne also separated their daughter, Kelly Osbourne, from the label. Sharon told People magazine, "It's an opportunity to start fresh."
There is some talk that Ozzy and Kelly might wind up on the new record label venture being started by Mottola, but a publicist couldn't be reached for comment at press time.
Ozzy & Kelly Osbourne
Exits Broadcast Booth
Pat Summerall
Pat Summerall, who has been associated with pro football for 51 years -- the past 41 as an announcer -- is retiring, Fox Sports confirmed Thursday.
Summerall, who will be 73 on Saturday, told the Dallas Morning News that he decided to retire after he and Fox could not come to an agreement over his schedule for next season. He said he wanted to call only Dallas Cowboys games, while Fox reportedly preferred he work a full 17-week schedule.
Last season, Summerall worked the entire schedule, calling games alongside Brian Baldinger, including 10 involving the Cowboys, after Fox removed him from the network's lead time following John Madden's departure to ABC's 'Monday Night Football.' Summerall was used to working on the No. 1 announcing team, having done so since 1981.
Pat Summerall
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Wayward Wallaby Lassoed in Vegas
Wayne Newton
Wayne Newton's wallaby escaped from the performer's home Thursday morning, leading police, animal control officers and an urban cowboy on a two-mile chase through south Las Vegas.
The female adult wallaby, a marsupial with clawed fingers and powerful legs, first was seen about 6:30 a.m. running down a busy street near Newton's walled compound, said Joe Boteilho of Clark County Animal Control.
About the same time, Harry Sullard, 49, got a call from his oldest son, who said there was a kangaroo on the loose.
"I asked him what he had been smoking," Sullard recalled.
But Sullard, a self-described redneck and cowboy, grabbed a lasso from his truck and took off on foot after the hopping wallaby, named Priscilla.
The chase lasted nearly two miles, Sullard said, as he hoped the animal would tire. When she did, Sullard pounced with his authentic rodeo rope.
Wayne Newton
A white stork couple mate in their nest on top of an East German Trabant car fixed to a metal pole in the eastern town of Neuruppin, some 80km north of the German capital Berlin on May 8, 2003.
Photo by Fabrizio Bensch
Released From Hospital
Roger Moore
Roger Moore, the suave star of seven James Bond movies, was released from a hospital Friday after being fitted for a pacemaker, according to a spokeswoman.
Moore, 75, collapsed during a Wednesday matinee performance of the Broadway comedy "The Play What I Wrote," but finished the show after a 10-minute break.
Moore was fitted for a pacemaker Thursday. "He's feeling absolutely fine," said Mary Cahill, a spokeswoman for UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency for which Moore has served as a goodwill ambassador for 12 years.
Moore plans to keep a previously scheduled engagement Friday night, accepting an award on behalf of UNICEF from the French-American Aid for Children organization at a benefit dinner in Manhattan.
Moore's agents originally said he had breathing problems on stage and was diagnosed with dehydration and exhaustion. But Moore had been told in the past that he would eventually have to get a pacemaker, Cahill said.
Roger Moore
Judge Rules Against Milne Heir
Pooh
A federal judge in Los Angeles on Friday denied a bid by the granddaughter of Winnie the Pooh creator A.A. Milne to reclaim the copyright to the classic children's books, dealing a setback to Milne's partner, The Walt Disney Co.
Judge Florence-Marie Cooper of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles said that Clare Milne could not use a change in the 1998 U.S. copyright law to reclaim rights to the honey-loving bear that her grandfather sold to literary agent Stephen Slesinger over seven decades ago.
Disney, which is involved in a separate long-running contract dispute over royalties with Stephen Slesinger Inc., had backed Milne's bid since a court victory by her would have ended Slesinger's rights to Pooh next year.
Disney has a deal with Milne to continue making Pooh merchandise if she were ultimately to win the case.
Pooh
Sold At Auction
Pair of Goyas
Two small paintings by the Spanish master Francisco de Goya that caught an art expert's eye by chance have been auctioned for $2 million apiece.
The Spanish government quickly snapped them up following the Thursday auction by matching the bids, exercising its right to acquire historic artworks under laws governing Spain's cultural heritage.
Bidding started at $1.75 million for each of the unsigned, oil-on-canvas religious paintings that measure 25 inches by 21 inches. "Sagrada Familia" ("Holy Family") and "Tobias y el Angel" ("Tobias and the Angel") are believed to have been painted in 1787.
The auction house, Alcala Subastas, said it stumbled across the paintings in February when Richard de Willermin, its expert on Spanish and Italian art of the 17th and 18th centuries, went to a home in Madrid to appraise some other works and noticed one of the Goyas hanging in a hallway.
"The owners had absolutely no idea what they had on their hands," said Alcala Subastas official Raquel Lombas. "Richard knew right away."
The owners told him that if he liked that one, there was a similar one on a bedroom wall.
Pair of Goyas
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
California To 'Reclaim'
Roy Rogers Museum
There will be a happy trail after all at the site of the old Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum, which was shut down in March and moved to Branson, Mo.
The City Council has voted to buy the land and build a road through the landmark Mojave Desert site. The city will pay $883,000 for the property, using money derived from bond sales.
The city also decided Tuesday to pay the $100,000 cost to demolish the building that once housed a treasure trove of items Rogers and Evans collected throughout their lives. The Rogers family will have to find the contractors to destroy the building.
"A lot of people have a lot of emotional attachment to the building. We thought it would be a more sensitive idea if the family brought it down themselves," said Councilman Mike Rothschild.
Roy Rogers Museum
Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum Web site
Paola Tuz, 27, is paraded in front of a gathering of the Guamanloma community, Thursday May 8, 2003 in the Tungurahua province of Ecuador, 110 kilometers (70 miles) south of Quito. Tuz and Maria Elena Guanga, both from Quito, were caught selling villagers a lottery ticket they said was a winning ticket in exchange for money and household items, were publicly whipped, dipped in freezing water and imprisoned, in accordance with this Andean village's laws, a practice which is legal inEcuador.
Photo by Dolores Ochoa
Entered Rehab
Kim Delaney
More than a year after she was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving, Kim Delaney has entered rehabilitation for alcohol addiction, her publicist said.
The actress went into an Arizona treatment program in late April, People magazine reported in its May 19 issue. It's unknown how long she'll stay.
Delaney, 41, was arrested in January 2002 after she was seen driving erratically on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Calif. She later pleaded no contest to reckless driving and was sentenced to probation and a safe-driving course.
Kim Delaney
TV Host Breaks Ankle
John Walsh
Television host John Walsh broke his left ankle in three places trying to mimic a child skateboarder on his syndicated show, a spokesman said.
Walsh fell down a skate ramp Thursday at the Chelsea Piers sports complex in Manhattan, where he was taping an episode of "The John Walsh Show" to be titled "Amazing Kids with Unbelievable Talents," show spokesman Gary Rosen said.
The skateboarder had just completed his stunt when Walsh, 57, decided to try it himself, Rosen said.
The accident was taped, and the episode is scheduled to air May 16, Rosen said. The show's remaining Thursday and Friday tapings were canceled.
John Walsh
To Teach Religion
Sinead O'Connor
Sinead O'Connor says she plans to teach religion after quitting the music business this July.
"I am retiring because I want to train to become a religion teacher of primary school children," the 36-year-old Irish singer said in a letter published Thursday in Dublin's Evening Herald newspaper.
Her final recording, a DVD titled, "Goodnight, thank you. You've been a lovely audience," will be released in July.
O'Connor, who married for the second time in 2001, said she hopes to start studying theology in September. She is particularly interested in a group called Death Midwives.
"They help people who are dying not to be afraid and help make death gentle and calm and even a growing experience," she wrote. "I am very interested in that area of pastoral care."
Sinead O'Connor
Thanks, Tim H!
Plans Vigil for Vandross
Aretha Franklin
Pop diva Aretha Franklin will hold a candlelight vigil and prayer service May 19 for Luther Vandross, who remains in critical condition after suffering a stroke last month.
Franklin will be joined by The Four Tops, the Ebenezer Mass Choir and other guests to sing and pray for a two-hour period at the Little Rock Baptist Church.
Overflow for the event will be on the grounds of the Northern High School Pavilion, where a sound system will be set up so participants can hear the service, Franklin's media representatives said Friday.
Vandross hasn't regained consciousness since his April 16 stroke and still needs assistance to breathe, his New York-based publicist, Lois Najarian, said Thursday.
Aretha Franklin
Luther Vandross Web site
Spousal Abuse Case Reduced
Tommy Lee
The spousal abuse case against Tommy Lee has been reduced to a misdemeanor and the former Motley Crue drummer was released from a probation sentence he'd been serving for the past five years for allegedly assaulting his ex-wife, actress Pamela Anderson.
Los Angeles County Superior Court spokesman Kyle Christopherson said Lee's judge also granted a defense motion to dismiss the case Thursday. That means Lee must indicate he was arrested if asked, but can say the case against him was dismissed.
He's been attending regular probation progress report hearings at the Malibu Superior Court since his May 1998 sentencing.
Tommy Lee
Suggested Reading
IT'S THE FEROCITY, STUPID
By Ted Rall
Michael S. Dukakis served with honor in the U.S. Army for two years. Three decades later, he was ridiculed for riding in a tank while wearing a helmet and a goofy grin. George W. Bush, a simian-faced draft dodger, hitches a ride to an aircraft carrier decked out in full "Top Gun" regalia and CNN calls dubs him our "warrior president."
and
Go after Bush's ultimate Achilles' heel: run countless loops of the inarticulate Resident's clashes with the English language. "Too dumb to talk," a sinister voiceover reads. "Too stupid to trust." Use time-proven Republican methods, like name-calling: Extremist. Out of touch. Tax and spender. Hates workers. Racist. Homophobe. Corrupt CEO coddler. Idiot. Drunk. Cut to the post-pretzel-incident photo: "America needs a sober president."
Forget ideas--voters respond to the personal stuff. Dwell on the two years Bush went AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard. "Brave Americans gave their lives in Vietnam," a 30-second spot should intone as the camera pans over names of the fallen on the black wall in Washington. "Rich kid George W. Bush deserted. This coward snorted coke and drove drunk while other kids died." Who doubts that if Gore had played up Bush's DUI arrest, he would have picked up an extra 500 votes in Florida?
For the rest, IT'S THE FEROCITY, STUPID by Ted Rall
Don't Write Shakespeare
Typing Monkeys
Give an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters, the theory goes, and they will eventually produce the works of Shakespeare.
Give six monkeys one computer for a month, and they will make a mess.
Researchers at Plymouth University in England reported this week that primates left alone with a computer attacked the machine and failed to produce a single word.
"They pressed a lot of S's," researcher Mike Phillips said Friday. "Obviously, English isn't their first language."
In a project intended more as performance art than scientific experiment, faculty and students in the university's media program left a computer in the monkey enclosure at Paignton Zoo in southwest England, home to six Sulawesi crested macaques.
At first, said Phillips, "the lead male got a stone and started bashing the hell out of it.
"Another thing they were interested in was in defecating and urinating all over the keyboard," added Phillips, who runs the university's Institute of Digital Arts and Technologies.
Eventually, monkeys Elmo, Gum, Heather, Holly, Mistletoe and Rowan produced five pages of text, composed primarily of the letter S. Later, the letters A, J, L and M crept in.
Typing Monkeys
The monkeys' output
Two sheep travel in their owner's car on a road in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, May 9, 2003.
Photo by Murad Sezer
'Ark of Darkness'
"The Ark of Darkness", a Political/Science-Fiction work, in tidy, weekly installments (and updated every Friday).
'The Osbournes'
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 4
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
