'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Reader Contribution (Rerun from 8/25/03)
Astrology Warning
Astro Young'uns!
Quite a time a'comin'! (it's really here already, if you want to know)
This week, Thursday in fact, Mercury will go retrograde. It runs backwards until 9/20, but I've learned to expect its effects for at least 2 weeks after the forward movement begins. These effects involve:
1. Travel - Avoid long distance travel if possible. If you have to travel, triple check all that goes with it. If by air, check flight times before you leave the house and take something to read or to knit for me because delays will not be surprising. Same goes for trains/busses. If driving, assume not that your car, the roads and conditions will be of perfect working order.
2. Mechanical/Electronic devices - Do not purchase such in this time. Postpone such if you want to avoid problems. Expect irregularities with the ones you have.
3. Legalities - If you can, avoid signing any type of legal paper in this time. If you have to, triple check it and have a focused lawyer double check it. You do not want to sign your name to something that has a clause that causes you regret.
4. Communication - Written, spoken, etc....Take no piece of it for granted. If it is important to you, take great steps in making sure that you understand and that you are understood. It is the classic time of: "Oh, I thought you meant.....". Don't assume any meaning or believe that someone "gets" you upon your first utterance. Have it spelled out if you have to and repeat yourself until you see understanding from your fellow communicator.
This Retro finds Mercury in the last part of Virgo and proceeds to 12 degrees of it. So, if you are and/or know someone born 9/20 - 9/4 (yes, backwards, huh?), be extra diligent in checking important communication with them. And, bless them, they usually have to be practical and have life make sense, but in this time, they could just short out and use a good cry. Be heedful (love talking Biblical) of Pisces born opposite this time, as well. Like me. We could use some sympathy. The Full Moon of 9/9 - 9/11 will be particularly stressful. Mercy.
In this same period (right now) that ever-close Mars in early Pisces will be opposing Venus in early Virgo. This goes on all this week. Watch these poor Feb Pisces/August Virgos as love issues will be biting them on the ass: basically how to balance the idealistic romance with the earthly practicalities. Look at your chart to see where the opposition falls and how it will plop on you. Once Venus stops opposing Mars, then Jupiter does. This goes to virtually the end of the month. It will be quite the wake up call for early Pisces and Virgos, or those with planets in that early part of those signs. Fortune will not come to those who just dream... there must be a plan to implement those dreams. Or as Lynn Fontanne put it brilliantly: "It's not enough to have talent. You must have a talent for having talent."
So there,
Gare
Thanks, Gare!
Cool Idea
Bush Piñatas
Handmade in paper mache by artist in New Mexico
Perfect piece for demonstrations or events
Head 17" tall
$ 45.00 (+ shipping $10)
For more info: Bush Piñatas
Selected Saturday Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Nice weather is still holding.
The local grade school finally had the classroom assignments posted, so we went to check it out. The kid was massively bummed when he realized summer was 'over' this coming Wednesday, when his classes resume.
Picked up a copy of 'Lying Liars' by Al Franken at CostCo, and nobody even looked at me funny.
Tonight, Saturday, CBS has 'College Football' that'll intrude on prime time, so expect a RERUN 'Hack', followed by a RERUN 'The District'.
NBC starts the night with a RERUN 'NBC's Funniest Outtakes', followed by a
FRESH 'Race To The Altar', then a RERUN 'Law & Order'.
Of course, 'SNL' is a rerun.
ABC also has 'College Football' stepping on prime time, so those of us on the left coast get to see the movie 'Mr. Saturday Night'.
The WB offers a RERUN 'Reba', followed by another RERUN 'Reba', then a RERUN 'Grounded For Life', followed by
another RERUN 'Grounded For Life'.
Faux has the traditional RERUN 'Cops', followed by another RERUN 'Cops', then 'America's Most Wanted'.
UPN here has more baseball - the Rockies are visiting Rupert's Doggers.
A&E has 'American Justice', followed by 'Cold Case Files'.
AMC offers the movie 'Alien Resurrection', followed by the movie 'Jaws', then the movie 'Tales From The Crypt'.
BBC -
[6pm] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 3;
[6:40pm] 'My Hero' - Episode 1;
[7:20pm] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 4;
[8pm] 'Rebus' - The Hanging Garden;
[10pm] 'Jonathan Creek' - Time Waits for Norman;
[11pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Heidi Klum;
[11:30pm] 'So Graham Norton' - James Van Der Beek;
[12am] 'Jonathan Creek' - Time Waits for Norman;
[1am] 'Rebus' - The Hanging Garden;
[3am] 'Truth or Dare';
[5am] 'Parkinson' - Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Anne Robinson, Andrea Bocelli; and
[6am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'Queer Eye', followed by the movie 'The Untouchables', then the movie 'The Untouchables', again.
History has the movie 'Apollo 13', followed by the movie 'Wild Bill'.
SciFi has the movie 'Spiders', followed by the movie 'Spiders 2'.
TCM pays a long overdue 24-hour tribute to the always fabulous Doris Day.
[6am] 'The Tunnel Of Love' (1958);
[8am] 'Romance On The High Seas' (1948);
[10am] 'The Glass Bottom Boat' (1966);
[12pm] 'Billy Rose's Jumbo' (1962);
[2:15pm] 'My Dream Is Yours' (1949);
[4pm] 'Please Don't Eat The Daisies' (1960);
[6pm] 'That Touch of Mink' (1962);
[8pm] 'Pillow Talk' (1959);
[10pm] 'Send Me No Flowers' (1964);
[12am] 'Julie' (1956);
[2am] 'Love Me Or Leave Me' (1955); and
[4:15am] 'It's A Great Feeling' (1949). (ALL TIMES EDT)
A man braves the desert heat next to the Burning Man statue, at the Burning Man Festival in Black Rock City, Nevada, on August 28, 2003. The Burning Man Festival has been celebrated annually since 1986 and draws around 20,000 people to the Black Rock Desert celebrating radical self expression.
Photo by Shannon Stapleton
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Narrates 'Peter and the Wolf'
Bill Clinton
Sergei Prokofiev's musical fairy tale Peter and the Wolf is popular with children but not with wolf lovers, and two former world leaders -- Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev -- aim to put that right in a new recording.
They have teamed up in a new recording that couples the tale with a contemporary version featuring the same two protagonists but a very different ending.
Prokofiev's version ends with Peter capturing the wolf and leading a triumphant procession to the zoo, paining music-loving environmentalists with romantic visions of wolves in the wild.
In the new version, narrated by former U.S. president Clinton and called Wolf Tracks, Peter again captures the wolf, but this time repents of his act and releases the animal, who howls a grateful goodbye.
Bill Clinton
Celebrates 10 Years at CBS
David Letterman
David Letterman will mark the 10th anniversary of his move to CBS Friday night with the 2,036th edition of "Late Show With David Letterman," scheduled to feature comedians Bonnie Hunt and Don Gavin and an anniversary-themed Top 10 List.
Letterman also is planning an hourlong CBS primetime special to air in February, which will dovetail with the 22nd anniversary of his debut as a late-night host on NBC in 1982.
David Letterman
Receives Achievement Award
Artie Shaw
Swing jazz bandleader Artie Shaw traded two of his clarinets with the Smithsonian Institution for a lifetime achievement award.
Shaw's clarinets, including one he used to play the Cole Porter hit "Begin the Beguine," will be on display in April at the Museum of American History in Washington, alongside other jazz treasures including Dizzy Gillespie's angled trumpet and Ella Fitzgerald's red dress.
Shaw, who retired from music in 1954 to write books, said it wasn't easy to donate the clarinets.
"They were a big part of my life for years," he said. "It's like parting with an old and valued friend. But I can't think of anything else that's better to do with them."
Artie Shaw
www.artieshaw.com
www.smithsonianjazz.org
Shuan shuan, one of three female Pandas at Mexico City's Chapultepec Zoo, nibbles a bamboo shoot in her pen August 29, 2003. One of Mexico City's three female pandas will travel to Ueno Zoo in Tokyo to be artificially inseminated with the sperm of male panda Ling Ling. Ling Ling has visited the Mexico City zoo three times to mate with the female pandas, but has failed to procreate.
Photo by Henry Romero
Liverpool Officials Give Memorials
Yoko Ono
A delegation from John Lennon's hometown presented city officials and Yoko Ono, Lennon's widow, with a resolution and other memorials honoring emergency workers killed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Ron Gould, lord mayor of Liverpool, England, presented a Freedom Scroll to honor police, fire and emergency workers killed in the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.
The Freedom Scroll, the highest honor in Liverpool, is awarded to those who display courage, strength and kindness and dedicate their lives to service.
Yoko Ono
2-Year Deal At Caesars Palace
Elton John
Elton John has struck a two-year deal to play hundreds of concerts at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, taking over from Celine Dion on the nights the diva is off in the new Colosseum theater, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.
The source declined to say how much the British singer would be paid but the Las Vegas Sun newspaper said he would receive $54 million for about 300 shows over two years, rivaling Dion's paycheck of $100 million for 600 shows over three years.
Elton John
World's Highest-Paid Actress
Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz is the world's highest-paid actress, snatching the title from previous winner Julia Roberts, Guinness World Records said Friday.
Diaz, who will be 31 on Saturday, is listed as the biggest earner in the 2004 edition of the group's record book, based on earnings of $42.2 million in 2001.
The reported earnings of Diaz, the blonde star of the "Charlie's Angels" films and "There's Something About Mary," are approaching the pay given to male actors in Hollywood.
Cameron Diaz
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Rumors Afoot
Stella McCartney Wedding?
Either the rumors that Stella McCartney's wedding will be held this weekend in Scotland have been spot on, or a whole galaxy of stars have just received the same wrong invitation.
Madonna, Kate Moss and Liv Tyler were among the rock stars, supermodels and Hollywood sensations who arrived by ferry on a Scottish island Friday, where dozens of paparazzi have camped to wait for the 31-year-old fashion designer to tie the knot.
The daughter of former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney is due to marry her publisher boyfriend Alasdhair Willis, also 31.
The precise time and place have been a closely guarded secret, but the word on the street is that it will be this weekend, somewhere in the western Scottish countryside immortalized in song by her father.
Stella McCartney Wedding?
Afghan Bibi Zalaikha, 35, and her chidren Abdul Anan, 4, left, and Salima, one and a half-years-old, beg for money in a street in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Aug. 29, 2003. She and her family returned to Afghanistan six months ago after being refugees in Pakistan. U.N. and Afghan officials said that between 30 percent and 40 percent of the estimated 2.4 million refugees or displaced people who have resettled in Afghanistan since 2002 have ended up in greater Kabul.
Photo by Natacha Pisarenko
Hosting British TV Series
Jack Osbourne
Jack Osbourne will give a "Brit's eye view" of Los Angeles in a new television series, Britain's Channel 4 said Friday.
The 17-year-old son of heavy metal star Ozzy Osbourne will host "Union Jack," which is scheduled to air in November. The program will follow Osbourne to parties, premieres and celebrity haunts and feature his opinions on the latest movies and music.
Channel 4 said the show would "give a fresh take on all things cool and strange in Hollywood."
Jack Osbourne
Girl Director Almost Barred
Hana Makhmalbaf
The 14-year-old Iranian girl, Hana Makhmalbaf, whose first feature film debuted at the 60th Venice Film Festival Thursday, was almost barred from attending her own premiere.
Under Italian law, minors cannot see movies which have no rating -- even if they directed them.
But organizers of the Venice competition obtained last-minute permission to let Makhmalbaf, who comes from Iran's leading filmmaking family, hit the red carpet at the Lido's Palazzo del Cinema and watch the official screening.
Makhmalbaf's film follows her sister in Afghanistan as she shoots "At Five In The Afternoon." The film won the Jury Prize at Cannes this year for her portrayal of life in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban.
For more, Hana Makhmalbaf
Wedding News
Crown Prince Hamza bin Hussein
The young heir to the throne of Jordan, Crown Prince Hamza bin Hussein, married a distant relative, Princess Nur, in a ceremony held at the home of his half-brother, King Abdullah II.
The 21-year old princess is the daughter of Prince Assem bin Nayef, a cousin of the late King Hussein, the father of Abdullah II and Hamza.
Abdullah and Queen Rania, attended the wedding, as well as Queen Nur al-Hussein, the widow of King Hussein and the mother of 23-year old Prince Hamza.
Crown Prince Hamza bin Hussein
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Graduating from High School
Jimmy Dean
Jimmy Dean, the 1960s country music star turned sausage mogul, will soon add the new title of high school graduate to his career accomplishments.
Some 57 years after leaving high school in Plainview, Texas, Dean, 75, will finally receive his diploma next week, thanks to a new Texas law that allows schools to give diplomas to a certain category of people who dropped out and joined the military.
Dean left school in 1946 just before his scheduled graduation and started work in order to support his mother. After taking a series of odd jobs, Dean joined the U.S. Army Air Corps.
After leaving military service, Dean recorded songs such as "Big Bad John" -- his biggest hit -- and "PT 109" -- a song dedicated to the naval vessel commanded by former U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
Jimmy Dean
Fans read the last Asterix album 'Asterix et la rentree Gauloise' (Asterix and the Gallic's return) by France's popular cartoon authors Uderzo and Goscinny, Friday Aug. 29, 2003.The new 56-pages album released Friday, features 14 of the Gallic hero's exploits over the past four decades.
Photo by Franck Prevel
* ADULT *
Body Guard Roughs Up Journalist
Sylvester Stallone
A security guard protecting Sylvester Stallone roughed up an Italian journalist covering the Venice Film Festival Friday after the reporter tried to interview the muscular star.
A representative of Stallone, who was in Venice to promote "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over," said the bodyguard had been unnecessarily rough and added that the actor had apologized to journalist Tonino Pinto of RAI state television.
"While I was trying to have a few words with the actor along with my colleagues, there was a bodyguard who was pushing at me with a finger in my ribs. At the end of the interview, I asked for an explanation from the man and he responded by beating me up," the ANSA news agency reported Pinto as saying.
Sylvester Stallone
Ex-Fox Worker Sentenced
Benjamin James Johnson
A former Fox News technician who smuggled a dozen paintings from an Iraqi presidential palace into the United States was sentenced to one year of probation and fined $2,000 Friday.
Benjamin James Johnson, 27, of Alexandria, had pleaded guilty in June to a single count of smuggling. He had faced up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
Customs agents discovered the paintings, along with two chemical suits, a gas mask and some Iraqi monetary bonds, in Johnson's luggage at Washington Dulles International Airport when he returned from Iraq on April 17. None of the items had been declared to Customs.
The paintings, most depicting Saddam Hussein and son Odai, were taken from the palace of Odai Hussein, according to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint against Johnson. It is U.S. policy that all such items belong to the Iraqi people.
Benjamin James Johnson
Fined, Released
Bobby Brown
Calling Bobby Brown a role model, a traffic court judge on Friday ordered the singer to pay $1,450 in fines for charges including possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.
Brown, 34, entered no contest pleas to the marijuana charge as well as having no proof of insurance. He pleaded guilty to driving without a license and speeding.
Accompanied by his lawyer, Maurice Bennett, but not his wife, singer Whitney Houston, Brown paid $800 for the marijuana charge, $150 for the speeding and driving without a license charges, and $350 for driving without proof of insurance.
Despite Brown's history of legal problems, Judge Calvin Graves praised the singer, who lives in Alpharetta, Ga., as a good role model who has "a wonderful wife" and comes from a good family.
Bobby Brown
Reticulated Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata) Saida greets her son Jambo with a tender caring lick in the open-air enclosure at the Frankfurt Zoo, Germany, on Thursday Aug. 28, 2003. After a gestation period of 471 days the little giraffe boy was born on July 10, 2003.
Photo by Bernd Kammerer
'Ark of Darkness'
"The Ark of Darkness", a Political/Science-Fiction online novel.
'The Osbournes'
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