Susan Estrich: The $6 Billion Scam (Creators Syndicate)
While all the figures aren't in and almost certainly never will be, the Center for Responsive Politics has estimated that roughly $6 billion was spent on the 2012 election, including $2 billion on the presidential contest and something on the order of $4 billion on congressional and state races.
Susan Estrich: Marriage Without Pregnancy (Creators Syndicate)
My two favorite stories in last Sunday's New York Times Style Section, which reports on weddings and relationships (I am not the only one who calls it the ladies' sports page), report on late-life marriages.
An American folk event, Sadie Hawkins Day is a pseudo-holiday that originated in Al Capp's classic hillbilly comic strip, Li'l Abner (1934-1978). This inspired real-world Sadie Hawkins dances, where girls ask boys out.
Source
Baron Dave ("Don't overthink slime." -- The Mindy Project 11/27/12) was first, and correct, with:
Hmm... my current ear worm is "Jubilation T. Cornpone", and this question pops up.
Anyway, the answer is "Li'l Abner.
ekimtod said:
Came from the comic strip Lil Abner
Alan J answered:
Li'l Abner
mj said:
First place I saw it was
In the depiction of the customs of Dogpatch created by Al Capp for Lil' Abner.
John I from Hawai`i says,
"Li`l Abner."
Jim from CA, retired to ID, responded:
Sadie Hawkins Day was first mentioned in the November 15, 1937 Li'l Abner
daily strip, with the race actually taking place between November 19 and
November 30 in the continuity.
Adam answered:
Li'l Abner.
Charlie replied:
Li'l Abner
DanD wrote:
Lil' Abner.
Marian responded:
Li'l Abner
Sally said:
Al Capp's classic hillbilly comic strip, Li'l Abner (1934-1978) gave us Sadie Hawkins Day.
Sweet
To the point...
PS: On Sunday mornings, when I was young, there was a man who came on the radio and read the comics to listeners. He always started with, "Li'l Abner." I can still remember lying on the floor and following along. I thought the show was for children, although the reader never talked down to, or referred to listeners as, 'kids.' I later learned that he was very popular with rural listeners, adults who could not read...
BttbBob replied:
Li'l Abner, and that's a fact!...
Me? She needs me? Holy frijoles! Catch me, Daisy Mae! Catch me!
~~~~~
Gong Moment - So, I was wrong with the 'birth order' thing... OK, I've been wrong before... let me see if I can remember the last time... Oh, yeah, it was yesterday! - Har!
(See? Being wrong CAN be fun if'n ya look at it all askew like...)
~~~~~
Memo to JoeS: I got yer back on the Ravens thing today, bro. Sure and it'll be a near run thing like yer sayin'. Got a feelin', though, that 'Bo's Ghost' is rootin' fer Jimmy...
There's a lot of Bo Schembechler in feisty Jim Harbaugh | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com
I ain't rootin' against the 'Niners', mind you now (cuz I'm loathe to oppose a former Wolverine quarterback, ya see?) I merely think that the Ray Lewis 'manifest legacy' thing will prevail...
~~~~~
Reminder Moment - But, I've been wrong before - Har!
~~~~~
Wait! "Eli" the howlin' Orangutan picked the Ravens! It's a lock then...
Dale of Diamond Springs answered:
Sadie Hawkins Day, an American folk event, made its debut in Al Capp's Li'l Abner strip November 15, 1937. Sadie Hawkins was "the homeliest gal in the hills" who grew tired of waiting for the fellows to come a courtin'. Her father, Hekzebiah Hawkins, a prominent resident of Dogpatch, was even more worried about Sadie living at home for the rest of his life, so he decreed the first annual Sadie Hawkins Day, a foot race in which the unmarried gals pursued the town's bachelors, with matrimony the consequence.
I remember Sadie Hawkins' Dances in high school. I was always the pick of the litter!!!! Kind of like a blind date!! Yo! There I am enjoying myself at the dance!!!
49ers gonna roll in da Big EZ tomorrow!
MAM wrote:
Al Capp's classic hillbilly comic strip, 'Li'l Abner' (1934-1978).
-- Cory!! Strode (The Best Dressed Man In Comics) said:
That would be L'il Abner, but Al Capp...well until he could afford ghost artists like Frank Frazetta to draw it!
And, Joe S answered:
Li'l Abner. I enjoyed Al Capp until he succumbed to the Dark Side.
Ravens by four
Groundhog Day forecast: Punxsutawney Phil predicts early spring
Groundhog co-handler Ron Ploucha (R) holds Punxsutawney Phil as the Groundhog Club's Bob Roberts (L) reads the famous groundhog's annual weather prediction on Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, on the 127th Groundhog Day, February 2, 2013. Phil did not see his shadow signaling an early end to winter. Photo by Jason Cohn
At first, I thought it looked like my old grade school, West End, in Johnsonburg.
Then I realized it looks much more like the Elk County Courthouse over in Ridgway.
Tonight, Sunday:
CBS fills the night with LIVE'Super Bowl', followed by a FRESH'Elementary', then pads the left coast with local crap and maybe an old 'The Mentalist', and/or an old 'The Good Wife'.
Scheduled on a bonus FRESHCraig it's a Super Bowl Special with Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Julie Chen, Neil Patrick Harris, Nikki Reed, and Drew Brees.
NBC opens the night with a RERUN'Betty White's Off Their Rockers', followed by another RERUN'Betty White's Off Their Rockers', then another RERUN'Betty White's Off Their Rockers', followed by yet another RERUN'Betty White's Off Their Rockers', then 'Saturday Night Live' (originally aired 2/20/05) (runs 2 hours, 8 minutes).
ABC begins the night with a RERUN'America's So-Called Funniest Home Videos', followed by another RERUN'America's So-Called Funniest Home Videos', then a RERUN'Shark Tank', followed by a RERUN'Modern Family', then another RERUN'Modern Family'.
The CW fills the night with what passes for local news and other fluffery.
Faux has a RERUN'Bob's Burgers', followed by a RERUN'The Cleveland Show', then a RERUN'The Simpsons', followed by a RERUN'Bob's Burgers', then a RERUN'Family Guy', followed by a RERUN'American Dad'.
MY has 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 another old 'Big Bang Theory'.
A&E has 'Storage Wars Texas', another 'Storage Wars Texas', 'Storage Wars', another 'Storage Wars', still another 'Storage Wars', yet another 'Storage Wars', still another 'Storage Wars', and yes, yet another 'Storage Wars'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] TOP GEAR - Season 6 - Episode 1
[7:00AM] TOP GEAR - Season 6 - Episode 2
[8:00AM] ALL ABOUT APES
[9:00AM] ALL ABOUT MONKEYS
[10:00AM] WILD THINGS WITH DOMINIC MONAGHAN-Season 1 - Ep 2 - Giant Huntsman Spider
[11:00AM] RAMSAY BEHIND BARS-Episode 2
[12:00PM] TOP GEAR - Season 4 - Episode 1
[1:00PM] TOP GEAR - Season 4 - Episode 2
[2:00PM] TOP GEAR - Season 4 - Episode 3
[3:00PM] TOP GEAR - Season 4 - Episode 4
[4:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 23 - I, Borg
[5:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 24 - The Next Phase
[6:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 25 - The Inner Light
[7:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 26 - Time's Arrow - Part 1
[8:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 6 - Ep 1 - Time's Arrow, Part 2
[9:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 6 - Ep 2 - Realm of Fear
[10:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 6 - Ep 3 - Man of the People
[11:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 6 - Ep 4 - Relics
[12:00AM] TOP GEAR - Season 4 - Episode 5
[1:00AM] TOP GEAR - Season 4 - Episode 6
[2:00AM] TOP GEAR - Season 4 - Episode 7
[3:00AM] TOP GEAR - Season 4 - Episode 8
[4:00AM] TOP GEAR - Season 4 - Episode 9
[5:00AM] TOP GEAR - Season 4 - Episode 10 (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta', followed by the movie 'How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days', and 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta'.
FX has the movie 'Iron Man 2', followed by the movie 'The Proposal', then the movie 'The Proposal', again.
History has 'American Pickers', another 'American Pickers', still another 'American Pickers', 'American Restoration', and 'Pawn Stars'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] Whitest Kids U'Know
[6:30AM] Whitest Kids U'Know
[6:45AM] Batman Forever
[9:30AM] Dilbert-Art
[10:00AM] Dilbert-The Trial
[10:30AM] Dilbert-The Dupey
[11:00AM] Dilbert-The Security Guard
[11:30AM] Dilbert-The Merger
[12:00PM] Portlandia-Brunch Village
[12:30PM] Portlandia-Winter in Portlandia
[1:00PM] Portlandia-Take Back MTV
[1:30PM] Portlandia-Missionaries
[2:00PM] Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut)-The Not-So-Interesting Beginnings
[3:15PM] Spy Game
[6:00PM] Lord of War
[8:30PM] Lethal Weapon
[11:00PM] Portlandia-The Temp
[11:30PM] Portlandia-Aimee
[12:00AM] Lethal Weapon 2
[2:30AM] Lethal Weapon
[5:00AM] Portlandia-The Temp
[5:30AM] Portlandia-Aimee (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00A] ICONOCLASTS - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar + Chuck D (Episode 6, Season 6)
[6:30A] Still Walking
[8:30A] Colin Fitz Lives!
[10:00A] Volver
[12:00P] Barton Fink
[2:00P] Frantic
[4:30P] Colin Fitz Lives!
[6:00P] 24 Hour Party People
[8:00P] Ghost World
[10:00P] Mommie Dearest
[12:15A] Another Day In Paradise
[2:00A] 24 Hour Party People
[4:00A] Ghost World (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Land Of The Lost', followed by the movie 'The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian'.
Actor Sidney Poitier (L) presents Harry Belafonte with the Spingarn Award during the 44th Annual NAACP Image Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California February 01, 2013.
Photo by Mario Anzuoni
It's the end of the line for the Canadian penny in retail purchases. On Feb. 4 the Canadian Mint, which stopped producing pennies last spring, will stop circulating the coins to financial institutions and will encourage them to send back any pennies they have on hand. And the majority of retailers will follow the government's proposal to round the prices of all cash transactions.
"The penny is a currency without any currency in Canada, and it costs us 1.5 cents to produce a penny," said Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.
While there may be some nostalgic souls north of the U.S. border who lament the passing of the iconic twin-maple-leaf coin, Flaherty said that when the Canadian senate committee held hearings on axing the penny last year, not one witness came forward to say it should be preserved.
Canadians, though, won't be forced to go cold turkey. Retailers will still be allowed to make exact change in pennies until the supply runs outs. And rounding applies only to cash transactions; it will not affect electronic forms of payment, such as credit and debit transaction.
Canada will not be the first penniless nation. New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Norway and Finland are among those that have made smooth transitions to a penny-free economy, according to the Canadian government.
Actress Alfre Woodard poses with her trophy in the press room at the 44th NAACP Image Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, February 1, 2013.
Photo by Patrick T. Fallon
Whoever successfully cracks Google's Chrome operating system at this year's Pwnium hacking contest will walk away with a piece of the pi.
Google, which had previously offered totals of $1 million, then $2 million, in prizes for successful hacks, is upping the ante at the contest, to be held in March at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, B.C. The company is offering a total of $3.14159 million in cash rewards.
That's a nod to pi, math's most intriguing irrational number, and to the added challenges that come with cracking Google's ever-improving security measures.
It's unlikely that any single hacker will get the whole pi. Instead, many contestants could win $110,000 for each temporary compromise of Chrome OS, or $150,000 for each compromise that survives a system reboot.
All exploits must be delivered via webpages on a basic-model Samsung 550 Chromebook using a Wi-Fi connection.
The Muppet duo star in Sesame Street's new "Upside Downton Abbey" skit, which will air during the show's season 43 premiere on Feb. 4 on PBS. The spoof literally turns the Golden Globe-winning British period drama on its head, causing dinner woes for the hungry Crawley.
Downton Abbey recently took home a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, while Maggie Smith (who plays the Dowager Countess) won this year's Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television.
Sesame Street's new season will feature a star-studded guest cast, including Kristen Bell, Jon Hamm, Matt Kemp, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Melissa McCarthy, Paula Patton, Amy Ryan, Donald Glover, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bobby Moynihan and Dax Shepard.
Actor Jamie Foxx, named Entertainer of the Year, poses for pictures with his daughter Corinne Bishop in the press room at the NAACP Image Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, February 1, 2013.
Photo by Patrick T. Fallon
"X-Files" fans have wanted to believe that Mulder and Scully's adventures would continue, and now they will - in comic book form.
IDW Publishing announced on Monday that it has partnered with Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products to create a brand-new series of comics that will resume where the 2008 movie "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" left off.
"Few shows have captured the zeitgeist and fans' imaginations like 'The X-Files,' and fewer shows still have left people hungry for more in the way this one did," said Chris Ryall, IDW's chief creative officer and editor in chief. "Our new series will be picking up where the second film left off, which will hopefully be as exciting for fans to read as it is for us to develop."
The San Diego-based publisher will be the third to release "X-FIles" comic books and will reprint classic issues published intermittently between 1995 and 2009. Wildstorm was the last company to hold the license for the beloved property before folding in 2010.
Social media giant Twitter is among the latest U.S. companies to acknowledge that it is among a growing list of victims of Internet security attacks, saying that hackers may have gained access to information on 250,000 of its more than 200 million active users. And now, The Washington Post is joining the chorus, saying that it discovered that it was the target of a sophisticated cyberattack in 2011.
Twitter said a blog post on Friday it detected attempts to gain access to its user data earlier in the week. It shut down one attack moments after it was detected.
But Twitter discovered that the attackers may have stolen user names, email addresses and encrypted passwords belonging to 250,000 users they describe as 'a very small percentage of our users."
The online attack comes on the heels of recent hacks into the computer systems of U.S. media and technology companies, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Both American newspapers reported this week that their computer systems had been infiltrated by China-based hackers, likely to monitor media coverage the Chinese government deems important.
On Friday, The Washington Post disclosed in an article published on its website that it was the target of a sophisticated cyberattack, which was discovered in 2011. The company's spokeswoman, Kris Coratti, didn't offer any details including the duration of the attack or the origins. But according to sources that the paper quoted, who it said spoke on condition of anonymity, the intruders gained access as early as 2008 or 2009.
Actress Sandra Oh arrives at The 44th NAACP Image Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, February 1, 2013.
Photo by Patrick Fallon
Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy resigned abruptly Saturday in a scandal involving thousands of calls to four women on his state-issued cellphone, including one woman who said she had a romantic relationship with the politician.
Gov. Dave Heineman announced Sheehy's resignation in a hastily called news conference Saturday morning. Sheehy, a Republican, had been considered the front-runner in the 2014 gubernatorial race and had been endorsed by Heineman.
Sheehy resigned after questions were raised about the cellphone calls with four women, none of whom were his wife, who filed for divorce last year. The calls, made over the last four years, were first reported by the Omaha World-Herald, which had made a public records request for Sheehy's phone records.
Records released Saturday by the governor's office show Sheehy made thousands of late-night phone calls to the women. He spoke with some of the women numerous times a day in conversations that lasted anywhere from a few minutes to more than an hour, according to the records.
One woman he frequently called, Dr. Theresa Hatcher of Bellevue, told The Associated Press that she and Sheehy had maintained a long-term relationship after they met at a convention of emergency responders in Texas in 2008. As lieutenant governor, Sheehy leads the state's emergency management efforts, and Hatcher is an emergency room doctor.
"I thought I was the only one," she said. "Apparently, I was grossly mistaken."
Actor Don Cheadle and actress Bridgid Coulter arrive at The 44th NAACP Image Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, February 1, 2013.
Photo by Patrick Fallon
The Catholic Church is withholding documents that could shed more light on sexual abuse by priests, a victims' group said on Friday, a day after the Los Angeles archdiocese released 12,000 pages of files on clergy accused of molesting children.
Representatives for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, also said they were not content with the punishments of two top clergymen linked to efforts to conceal the abuse from authorities, calling the move "window dressing."
After years of legal battles, the archdiocese made public 124 personnel files on Thursday that were part of a 2007 civil court settlement with more than 500 child sex abuse victims in the biggest such agreement of its kind in the country.
Victims' groups said they believed that the archdiocese was still sitting on more files that could implicate priests and other officials.
Thursday's release of 12,000 pages of files came more than a week after Church records relating to 14 priests were unsealed as part of a separate civil suit, showing that Church officials plotted to conceal the molestation from police as late as 1987.
Jason Grusky, also known as The Big Chill and a member of the Inner Circle of the Groundhog Club, wears a thermometer showing the current low temperatures on the 127th Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, February 2, 2013, as crowds wait for the weather-prognosticating groundhog Punxsutawney Phil on Gobbler's Knob.
Photo by Jason Cohn
A 15-year-old Icelandic girl has been granted the right to legally use the name given to her by her mother, despite the opposition of authorities and Iceland's strict law on names.
Reykjavik District Court ruled Thursday that the name "Blaer" can be used. It means "light breeze."
The decision overturns an earlier rejection by Icelandic authorities who declared it was not a proper feminine name. Until now, Blaer Bjarkardottir had been identified simply as "Girl" in communications with officials.
Like a handful of other countries, including Germany and Denmark, Iceland has official rules about what a baby can be named. Names are supposed to fit Icelandic grammar and pronunciation rules - choices like Carolina and Christa are not allowed because the letter "c'' is not part of Iceland's alphabet.
Blaer's mother, Bjork Eidsdottir, had fought for the right for the name to be recognized. The court ruling means that other girls will be also allowed to use the name in Iceland.
Folk artists perform a traditional fire dragon dance amid molten iron as part of the celebration activities for the coming Chinese Lunar New Year at a park of Kunming, Yunnan province, February 1, 2013. The fire dragon dancing performance starting on Monday will be put on every evening for 20 days in the park together with lantern exhibition and Sichuan opera "bian lian" or face-changing show during the celebration.
A humble 5-cent coin with a storied past is headed to auction and bidding is expected to top $2 million a century after it was mysteriously minted.
The 1913 Liberty Head nickel is one of only five known to exist, but it's the coin's back story that adds to its cachet: It was surreptitiously and illegally cast, discovered in a car wreck that killed its owner, declared a fake, forgotten in a closet for decades and then found to be the real deal.
It is expected to fetch $2.5 million or more when it goes on the auction block April 25 in suburban Chicago.
The sellers who will split the money equally are four Virginia siblings who never let the coin slip from their hands, even when it was deemed a fake.
The nickel made its debut in a most unusual way. It was struck at the Philadelphia mint in late 1912, the final year of its issue, but with the year 1913 cast on its face - the same year the beloved Buffalo Head nickel was introduced.
Andre Cassagnes, the inventor of the Etch A Sketch toy that generations of children drew on, shook up and started over, has died in France, the toy's maker said.
Cassagnes died Jan. 16 in a Paris suburb at age 86, said the Ohio Art Co., based in Bryan in northwest Ohio. The cause wasn't disclosed Saturday.
Then an electrical technician, Cassagnes came upon the Etch A Sketch idea in the late 1950s when he peeled a translucent decal from a light switch plate and found pencil mark images transferred to the opposite face, the Toy Industry Association said.
Ohio Art saw his idea at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1959. The toy, with its gray screen, red frame and two white knobs that are twisted back and forth to create drawings, was launched in 1960 and became the top seller that holiday season. More than 100 million have been sold worldwide since.
Though passed over in popularity for video games and gadgets, the toy has a steady market, the company has said. It got a big jump in sales after Etch A Sketch was featured in the first two "Toy Story" movies, and Ohio Art capitalized on a much-publicized gaffe by a Mitt Romney aide during last year's presidential election, who was asked about his candidate's views during the primary season versus the general election.
He likened the campaign to an Etch A Sketch: "You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again."
Democrats and Republicans alike seized on the remark as evidence that Romney was willing to change his positions for political gain. And Ohio Art seized on the publicity, creating a politically themed ad campaign and manufacturing blue versions of the famously red toy.
People watch the unveiling of a statue of the Virgin Mary holding a baby Jesus as flares are fired on Santa Barbara hill in the mining city of Oruro, Bolivia, Friday, Feb. 1, 2013. The 45 meter (147 feet) statue of Mary that took four years to build, known in Spanish as "Virgen del Socavón," or the Virgin of the Tunnel, is Oruro's patron, venerated in particular by miners and folkloric Carnival dancers.
Photo by Juan Karita
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