Marc Dion: Playing the Numbers (Creators Syndicate)
In Texas, where life is cheap, and so are the senators, a plucky church security force member raised his gun in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and shot dead a gunman who'd already killed two people. Praise Jayzus! Praise his holy name!
And, of course, pass the ammunition! The killing of the killer is being touted as one of those "only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun" situations. Prayer, we know, is useless. Even in the house of God, prayers will be met with dead silence. Unless, of course, some devotee of Jesus is packin' a piece.
Ted Rall: A Grim New Definition of Generation X (Creators Syndicate)
People born in the 1960s may be the last human beings who will get to live out their full actuarial life expectancies. "Climate change now represents a near- to mid-term existential threat" to humanity, warns a recent policy paper by an Australian think tank. Civilization, scientists say, could collapse by 2050. Some people may survive. Not many. Some dismiss such purveyors of apocalyptic prognoses as hysterics. To the contrary, they're Pollyannas. Every previous "worst-case scenario" prediction for the climate has turned out to have understated the gravity of the situation.
Mark Shields: Try to Remember … (Creators Syndicate)
Maybe you recall the gentle rebuke Army Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf had for the fawning flatterers who lionized him after his successful leadership in the Persian Gulf War. He said: "It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle." These thoughts all come back when an American president, our only chief executive never to have served a single day in either public service or military service before coming to the White House, again confronted a hostile Iran by sending more American troops into harm's way in Iraq. Now is the time to be sure to remember.
Lenore Skenazy: Kindergarten Isn't Fun Anymore -- and That's a Problem (Creators Syndicate)
Increased academic pressure and testing in kindergarten is bringing everyone to tears - including the teachers. … "I had to retire in 2017 because I could not take the pressure of having to force my 5- and 6-year-old students to sit with books ... no talking allowed," wrote one. "I taught for 18 years, and in the last three years ... I heard students cry, talk about how they didn't understand, say they hated reading time."
Froma Harrop: The Phantom Momentum of Bernie Sanders (Creators Syndicate)
[…] we had a headline in The New York Times reading, "Why Bernie Sanders Is Tough to Beat," and one in Politico that said, "Democratic Insiders: Bernie Could Win the Nomination." The polls, however, have barely budged. In a humorous tweet saying, "ThE PriMaRy HaS BeEn A CrAzY UnPrEDiCtAbLe RoLLer CoAsTer RiDe," statistical analyst Nate Silver compared recent RealClearPolitics averages for Joe Biden and Sanders to those of a year ago. On Dec. 19, 2018, Biden was at 27.5 percent and Sanders at 19 percent. Exactly a year later, Biden was at 27.8 percent and Sanders at 19.3 percent. […] The latest Economist/YouGov poll, meanwhile, shows Biden ahead of Warren by 11 points and ahead of Sanders by 13. As they say, the more things change …
Froma Harrop: Do Americans Even Want Time off? (Creators Syndicate)
John de Graaf, who writes on free time and consumption, has a theory on why Americans don't pound the table for more paid vacation. "Until you actually get a block of time off," he said, "you don't really appreciate it."
Tess Trueheart is the love interest character in the American comic strip Dick Tracy which was created by Chester Gould in 1931.
The character eventually became the wife of Dick Tracy in the original comic strip.
The character of Tess Trueheart has been featured in films including 1945's Dick Tracy and its sequel Dick Tracy vs. Cueball, portrayed in both by actress Anne Jeffreys, and in 1990's Dick Tracy, which starred Glenne Headly as Tess.
Source
Randall was first, and correct, with:
Dick Tracy
Mark. said:
Dick Tracy.
Mac Mac wrote:
Dick Tracy
Alan J answered:
Dick Tracy.
mj replied:
A truly weird
And in some ways prescient strip (two way wrist TVs anyone?), Dick Tracy.
Dave responded:
Dick Tracy. I had to look it up. Like "Little Abner," "Dick Tracy" was another comic strip our lame ass local paper didn't carry, although it did carry the ridiculous "Mary Worth" and other trash. Supposedly the strip is still carried in some newspapers.
Some years back (1990) Warren Beatty starred in and directed a Disney movie about Dick Tracy. As late as 2013, Beatty was still threatening to make a sequel.
Photos: Tracy had some futuristic police technology starting back in the 1930's | It wasn't hard to spot the villains because they had bizarre facial features | A sample of bad guys from the 1990 film. The singer and sometimes actress Madonna was spared a rubber mask as her character was the fem fatale who tempted Tracy to cheat on Tess Trueheart. Due to the violence in the film, Disney released it under its Touchstone label.
Deborah wrote:
Tess Trueheart was the love object of Dick Tracy. I remember when talking to your watch was a goal…and now it's a reality. Yet I expected by 2020 to be piloting flying cars, a la the Jetsons.
Who knows what's going to happen after the incident in Iran? We're fucked, I fear.
John I from Hawai`i says,
Dick Tracy
Dave in Tucson answered:
Tess Truheart was the love of Dick Tracy's life.
Rosemary in Columbus replied:
Dick Tracy
Joe S said:
Dick Tracy, that's who. Though I must admit my first thought was Dudley Doright. As a young fellow I listened to Dick Tracy, The Shadow, Crime Busters, and The Phantom, on the radio. Pretty scary, but I never imagined anyone or any thing could be as scary as Donald Trump.
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BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
Song: "Short Rope" from the album THE STUNNED MULLETS
Artist: The Stunned Mullets
Artist Location: Australia
Info: "This is The Stunned Mullets' first release, an EP of six original songs. All Aussie Retro Rock harking back to the 1970's and 1980's. Driving guitars and pumping bass reminiscent of the good old days of Australian Pub Rock."
Released January 4, 2018.
Warren 'Big W' Walker on Bass
Shane Dixon on Guitars and Vocals
Production by Headbits Music
All homegrown in Northern NSW, Australia
Price: $1 (AUS) for song; $1 (AUS) for six-song album)
• Although Christian Johannsen was from Sweden, he went to Russia and became an influential teacher of ballet before the Revolution. He did not give much praise, and his highest praise when a student had learned something really well was, "Now you may do that in public" - that is, in performance.
• Vincent van Gogh once accepted three pupils, who paid him in tubes of paint. Unfortunately, his pupils disliked the technique that he taught him, telling him that he didn't paint with the technique that academic painters used. Mr. van Gogh replied, "I scoff at your technique."
• In talking about dance, choreographer Michel Fokine frequently used two Russian words: naslajdaitesand laska. According to impresario Sol Hurok, these words, freely translated, mean "do it as though you enjoyed yourself" and "caressingly."
Fame
• This is a story that the great theater actor Joseph Jefferson used to tell on himself. He had a great success with the play Rip Van Winkle, and he was impressed with his own success and thought that every well-informed person knew about his success. After a performance, he went to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, where he was staying, and he got on an elevator with a man who had a grizzled beard. The man asked him, "Are you playing in town now, Mr. Jefferson?" Mr. Jefferson thought that the man must be a simpleton if the man did not know that Mr. Jefferson was currently a huge success in the play Rip Van Winkle. They talked briefly, and the man with the grizzled beard got out of the elevator. Mr. Jefferson then asked the elevator boy, "Who was that?" The elevator boy looked at Mr. Jefferson sadly because of Mr. Jefferson's great ignorance and said, "Why, that is General Ulysses S. Grant."
• In his later life, artist Pablo Picasso was so famous that he needed to take steps to get away from the people wanting to see or meet him. Once, he bought a house near Marseilles, but after remodeling the house and moving into it, he discovered that crowds of people gathered on a nearby hill to watch him through binoculars. Therefore, he never settled there permanently.
Fans
• Science fiction author Ray Bradbury was happy to be famous. He pointed out, "To know you are loved everywhere you go - that's wonderful." One of his daughters, Alexandra, wanted him to use his influence to get her into a sold-out David Bowie concert in Los Angles, and he was willing. He got the telephone number of Mr. Bowie's agent and called him to say that he wanted to buy some tickets. It turned out that Mr. Bowie was a fan of his writing and gave him the tickets and insisted on meeting him after the concert. So there Mr. Bradbury was, backstage, talking with Mr. Bowie and being swarmed by other fans of his writing: John Belushi, Ringo Starr, Bette Midler, and Neil Sedaka. Mr. Bradbury says, "My daughter was standing there, like, 'You know, this is just my father.'" Another encounter, among many more, occurred when he was standing on a corner in Beverly Hills and Sidney Poitier drove by and yelled at him, "Mr. Bradbury, I'm Sidney Poitier and I love you." One final story: During the time he was writing Fahrenheit 451, he was waiting for a bus at a stop. A young man came to the bus stop. He was carrying lots of books - science books. Mr. Bradbury asked him if he belonged to the UCLA science fiction club. The young man replied that he did, and Mr. Bradbury asked who were his favorite authors. They were Asimov, Clarke, Bradbury …" and Mr. Bradbury asked, "Oh! Do you like Bradbury?" The young man did: "Very much." Mr. Bradbury asked, "Would you like to meet him?" Of course, the young man did, and Mr. Bradbury introduced himself. They continued talking, and it turned out that the young man lived in Pica de Via, Havana, Cuba, and that his last name was Hemingway. The young man was Ernest Hemingway's son!
CBS starts the night, as usual, with '60 Minutes', followed by a FRESH'God Friended Me', then a FRESH'NCIS: The Expendable One', followed by a FRESH'Madam Secretary'.
NBC fills the night with FRESH'The 77th Annual Golden Globes Awards'.
ABC begins the night with a FRESH'America's So-Called Funniest Home Videos', followed by a FRESH'Kids Say The Darndest Things', then a FRESH'Shark Tank', followed by a RERUN'Shark Tank'.
The CW offers a RERUN'Batwoman', followed by a RERUN'Supergirl'.
Faux has a RERUN'Last Man Standing', followed by a FRESH'The Simpsons', then a FRESH'Bless The Harts', followed by a FRESH'Bob's Burgers', then a FRESH'Family Guy'.
MY recycles an old 'How I Met Your Mother', followed by another old 'How I Met Your Mother', then an old 'Big Bang Theory', followed by another old 'Big Bang Theory', then still another old 'Big Bang Theory', followed by yet another old 'Big Bang Theory'.
A&E has 'Live PD: Police Patrol', another 'Live PD: Police Patrol', followed by a FRESH'Live PD: Police Patrol', then another FRESH'Live PD: Police Patrol', followed by still another FRESH'Live PD: Police Patrol', then yet another FRESH'Live PD: Police Patrol', followed by a FRESH'Court Cam'.
AMC offers the movie 'X2', followed by the movie 'X-Men: First Class'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE MAKING OF BLUE PLANET II - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 1-The Making of Blue Planet II
[7:00AM] MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 11-The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Goes To the Bathroom
[7:45AM] MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS - Deja Vu
[8:30AM] MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS - Royal Episode 13
[9:15AM] MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS - Whicker's World
[10:00AM] NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN (2007)
[12:30PM] THE HUNGER GAMES (2012)
[3:30PM] THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (2013)
[6:35PM] DOCTOR WHO - Spyfall, Part One
[8:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - Spyfall, Part Two
[9:27PM] DOCTOR WHO - Spyfall, Part One
[10:52PM] DOCTOR WHO - Spyfall, Part Two
[12:18AM] DOCTOR WHO - Spyfall, Part One
[1:43AM] DOCTOR WHO - Spyfall, Part Two
[3:09AM] DOCTOR WHO - Spyfall, Part One
[4:34AM] DOCTOR WHO - Spyfall, Part Two (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta', followed by a FRESH'Real Housewives Of Atlanta', then a FRESH'Married To Medicine', followed by a FRESH'Watch What Happens: Live'.
IFC -
[6:15A] The Three Stooges - If a Body Meets a Body
[6:30A] Java Heat
[8:45A] Machete Kills
[11:15A] Tropic Thunder
[1:45P] Transporter 3
[4:00P] We Were Soldiers
[7:00P] Full Metal Jacket
[9:45P] Full Metal Jacket
[12:30A] We Were Soldiers
[3:30A] Underworld: Awakening
[5:30A] Pee-wee's Playhouse - Ice Cream Soup (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00am] Law & Order
[7:00am] Law & Order
[8:00am] Law & Order
[9:00am] Law & Order
[10:00am] Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter
[11:00am] Dirty Harry
[1:15pm] Magnum Force
[3:45pm] The Enforcer
[5:45pm] Sudden Impact
[8:00pm] Dirty Harry
[10:15pm] Magnum Force
[12:45am] The Enforcer
[2:45am] The Dead Pool
[4:45am] Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter
[5:45am] Love Lust - Love Lust & Sex Symbols (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'ET: The Extra-Terrestrial', followed by the movie 'Hancock', then hours of old 'Futurama'.
American pop singer Pink says she is donating $500,000 to help fight the deadly wildfires that have devastated parts of Australia.
"I am totally devastated watching what is happening in Australia right now with the horrific bushfires," Pink tweeted Saturday to her 32.2 million Twitter followers. "I am pledging a donation of $500,000 directly to the local fire services that are battling so hard on the frontlines. My heart goes out to our friends and family in Oz."
The death toll in the wildfire crisis is now up to 23 people. The fires are expected to be particularly fierce throughout the weekend.
The wildfires, which have been raging since September, have already burned about 5 million hectares (12.35 million acres) of land and destroyed more than 1,500 homes.
Stars of 2019's celebrated films and TV shows gathered Friday afternoon for the AFI Awards, which honored projects spanning "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" and "Joker" to "Fleabag" and "Veep."
Brad Pitt crossed a packed ballroom at the Four Seasons Hotel to pay his respects to the "Parasite" cast, including actor Kang-ho Song, who plays the patriarch of a scheming family in director Bong Joon-Ho's hit South Korean film.
The mood at the AFI Awards was celebratory, with famous faces embracing and wishing each other a Happy New Year. The luncheon, which lauds 10 films and 10 TV shows as 2019's best, is marked by the fact that there are no winners' speeches or honorees who go home empty-handed. At this event, everyone is a winner.
Mel Brooks surprised the crowd by popping up to give a tribute to his late wife, Anne Bancroft. "The Producers" writer/director took the opportunity to toast Taika Waititi's WWII satire "Jojo Rabbit."
"He did not ask my permission to use Hitler in a motion picture," cracked Brooks, searching for Waititi from the podium. "I just saw 'Jojo Rabbit' and it's really a beautiful picture. Taika, you did a great job."
She's played on recordings from Frank Sinatra to the Beach Boys to The Monkees. But Carol Kaye isn't playing when it comes to the new character who appears to borrow heavily from her persona on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The 84-year-old and feisty Kaye, who made her mark in a largely man's world of West Coast studio musicians in the 1950s and 1960s as part of the famed "Wrecking Crew" of elite studio musicians, claims a new character introduced in Season 3 of the show - Carole Keen - is somewhat insulting to what the real-life woman accomplished.
"It has nothing to do with me or my history," Kaye told the New York Post. They took a few things out of my book and created a character that's not even me at all. A lot of people are saying, 'That must be you. I love it!' But I am not a cartoon - and my life is not a joke."
Kaye is incensed that the show producers never bothered to talk to her.
"Nobody contacted me. I didn't know a thing about it. I thought that was pretty bad - kind of like slander."
Bong Joon Ho's Parasite won the top prize Saturday from the National Society of Film Critics as the group announced winners of its 54th annual voting meeting in New York.
The South Korean drama was named Best Picture and also picked up the Best Screenplay award.
Mary Kay Place won Best Actress for Diane, and Antonio Banderas was selected as Best Actor for his performance in Pedro Almodóvar's Pain and Glory. The supporting acting honors went to Brad Pitt for Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood and Laura Dern for her roles in Marriage Story and Little Women.
The National Society of Film Critics was founded in 1966. Its members include critics from major papers in Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Denver.
A Shanghai TV station has acknowledged that footage of a formation of 2,000 drones flying over the city broadcast on New Year's Eve had actually been prerecorded days before.
The footage had been the highlight of Dragon TV's holiday gala and presented as occurring live. News organizations including The Associated Press published the video.
However Shanghai residents said they had witnessed no such event, prompting the network to issue a statement saying the event was rehearsed and recorded on Dec. 26 and Dec. 27 because of safety concerns about the size of the crowd along the city's famous riverfront Bund on New Year's Eve.
"Due to the high crowd at the Bund on New Year's Eve, watching the drone show may cause safety problems, so the rehearsal and recording time of the drone was moved forward," the station said in its statement.
The decision was likely informed by memories of a Dec. 31, 2014, stampede on the Bund in which 36 people were killed and 49 injured when a crowd of 300,000 gathered to watch a light show. Several city officials were fired or otherwise reprimanded over the tragedy.
Terry Gilliam's mind is on the #MeToo movement, his self-identification as a "melanin-light male"… and says he has had enough of white males "being blamed for everything that is wrong with the world."
"We're living in a time where there's always somebody responsible for your failures, and I don't like this," Gilliam said of the #MeToo movement in a Saturday interview with The Independent. "I want people to take responsibility and not just constantly point a finger at somebody else, saying, 'You've ruined my life.'"
The director went on to suggest that Harvey Weinstein's 80 accusers were to blame for the "choices" they made.
"There are many victims in Harvey's life," Gilliam said, "and I feel sympathy for them, but then, Hollywood is full of very ambitious people who are adults and they make choices. We all make choices, and I could tell you who did make the choice and who didn't. I hate Harvey. I had to work with him and I know the abuse."
He continued: "I can tell you about a very well-known actress coming up to me and saying, 'What do I have to do to get in your film, Terry?' I don't understand why people behave as if this hasn't been going on as long as there've been powerful people. I understand that men have had more power longer, but I'm tired, as a white male, of being blamed for everything that is wrong with the world. I didn't do it!"
British pop star Rod Stewart has been charged for allegedly punching a hotel security guard in the chest outside a children's party in Florida, according to a police report obtained by US media.
The 74-year-old singer of "Forever Young" and numerous other hits was with his family at The Breakers, a luxury hotel in Palm Beach, on New Year's Eve when he was refused access to a party in the children's section of the resort, US media reported on Friday.
Stewart was attempting to enter the event with his 39-year-old son Sean and other family members including children, according to the police report.
The singer -- recognizable by his hoarse voice and mop of blond hair -- was charged with simple battery, a minor offense which is generally punishable by a fine.
Artificial sweeteners are everywhere, but the jury is still out on whether these chemicals are harmless. Also called non-nutritive sweeteners, these can be synthetic - such as saccharin and aspartame - or naturally derived, such as steviol, which comes from the Stevia plant. To date, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved six types of artificial and two types of natural non-nutritive sweeteners for use in food.
That's been great news for those working hard to curb their sugar consumption. Aspartame, for example, is found in more than 6,000 foods worldwide, and about 5,000-5,500 tons are consumed every year in the United States alone.
The American Diabetes Association - the most well-respected professional group focusing on diabetes - officially recommends diet soda as an alternative to sugar-sweetened beverages. To date, seven U.S. municipalities have imposed a sugary beverage tax to discourage consumption.
However, recent medical studies suggest that policymakers eager to implement a soda tax may also want to include diet drinks because these sweeteners may be contributing to chronic diabetes and cardiovascular diseases as well.
Non-nutritive sweeteners have different byproducts that are not converted into calories. Aspartame, for example, undergoes a different metabolic process that doesn't yield simple sugars. Others such as saccharin and sucralose are not broken down at all, but instead are absorbed directly into the bloodstream and excreted in the urine.
A skeleton found by hikers this fall near California's second-highest peak was identified Friday as a Japanese American artist who had left the Manzanar internment camp to paint in the mountains in the waning days of World War II.
The Inyo County sheriff used DNA to identify the remains of Giichi Matsumura, who succumbed to the elements during a freak summer snow storm while on a hiking trip with other members of the camp. Matsumura had apparently stopped to paint a watercolor while the other men, a group of anglers, continued toward a lake to fish.
His body wasn't found for another month, and the tragedy was overshadowed in the immediate days after his Aug. 2, 1945 disappearance when the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb, hastening Japan's surrender in the war. Matsumura was one of more than 1,800 detainees who died in the 10 prison camps in the West, though it's one of the more unusual deaths.
While his burial in the mountains was well known among members of the camp and his family, the story faded over time and the location of the grave site in a remote boulder-strewn area 12,000 feet above sea level was lost to time.
Lori Matsumura, the granddaughter who provided the DNA sample, was surprised when Sgt. Nate Derr of the Inyo County sheriff's office contacted her to say they believed her grandfather's remains had been discovered. After all, he had been found nearly 75 years ago and buried.
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said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
