'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Selected Sunday Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
Wedding #5
Geraldo Rivera
An excerpt from the May 15 "The Reliable Source" column in the
Washington Post by Lloyd Grove and Anne Schroeder:
Mazel tov to 59-year-old Fox News star Geraldo Rivera -- who will
wed his 28-year-old girlfriend, television producer Erica Levy, at
New York's historic Central Synagogue on Aug. 10, The Post's
Christine Haughney reports. "You can't be my age and getting
married and not be an optimist," Rivera, the son of a Jewish
mother and Puerto Rican father, told us yesterday. He noted that
he had been to the altar four times previously....
He added that "hundreds of people" -- including Bill and Hillary
Clinton, former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a top
Palestinian official, the foreign minister of Afghanistan and
various U.S. military commanders from Iraq -- have been invited to
the Reform Jewish ceremony and the reception at the Four Seasons
restaurant. "I was not only bar mitzvahed; I was confirmed. But
this is actually my first 'church' wedding, as opposed to some
hippie thing in a back yard," Rivera said. "I'm making a conscious
decision to take this whole Judaism thing seriously. I think the
Jews need me right now."
Geraldo Rivera
Thanks, Steve D!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
'June Gloom' again, and that's nice.
Things were going well til just before supper - that's when the kid started spewing lunch. He's feeling better now, and the washer & dryer are rocking in overtime.
While we were camped out in the bathroom, he wanted to know if I thought he had SARS - seems the hot rumor at the grade school is you can 'get' it by touching an Asian kid. Guess I rolled my eyes & said 'What?' in one of those parental voices that makes a kid realize something absurd has been stated, and then
we hashed it out. We're going to the Chinese buffet for brunch in the morning.
Tonight, Sunday, CBS opens the night with a 'special' 2-hour '60 Minutes', and is followed by part 1 (of 2) of the FRESH made-for-TV movie 'Hitler: The Rise of Evil' (unless you live in Corpus Christi or Laredo, TX).
NBC starts the evening with 'Dateline', followed by the Season Finale 'American Dreams', followed by part 1 of the Season Finale of 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent', and then
part 2 of the Season Finale of 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent'.
ABC begins the night with the movie 'The Waterboy', followed by the Season Finale of 'The Bachelor'.
The WB offers the movie 'The Mummy', and follows it with a RERUN 'Jamie Kennedy'.
Faux has a FRESH 'King Of The Hill', followed by the Season Finale of 'King Of The Hill', then a FRESH 'Simpsons', followed by the
Season Finale 'Simpsons', then a FRESH 'Malcolm', followed by the Season Finale 'Malcolm'.
UPN offers a RERUN 'Enterprise', followed by another RERUN 'Enterprise'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Gordon Parks, right, world-renowned photographer, author, filmmaker and composer, waves after receiving an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Connecticut, Satruday, May 17, 2003, in Storrs, Conn. Seated at left is Les Payne, a columnist and editor at Newsday. Payne also received an honorary degree.
Photo by Peter Morenus
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
No Secrets This Time
Hollywood Blacklist
In his TV commercials for telephone giant MCI, actor Danny Glover is appealing and likable. He's honed to perfection the character of a trustworthy buddy, a genuine guy.
But Danny Glover's image is under revision. It's being revamped on cable TV and talk shows that portray him as an un-American creep who deserves to lose his job for speaking out against the Bush administration.
His is the latest name on the new Hollywood blacklist that's being compiled by high-tech bullies trying to work a two-fer: drum up ratings and drown out dissent.
Round 'em up: Sean Penn, for doing Saddam Hussein's PR in the month before the war broke out. Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, whose anti-war comments got a Baseball Hall of Fame event in honor of Bull Durham's 15th anniversary canceled.
And please don't forget the Dixie Chicks.
All of a sudden, making contrary or outre political comments isn't only not OK, it's a punishable offense.
On Wednesday, operators at MCI took calls all day long from viewers of MSNBC's Scarborough Country. The show's host, Joe Scarborough, a Republican ex-congressman who goes for the jugular, encouraged viewers to urge MCI to cancel Glover's contract.
He even flashed the telephone number on screen, so viewers could "demand that MCI get rid of him."
For the rest, Hollywood Blacklist
Muskegon Summer Celebration
Cancels Ted Nugent
Derogatory racial remarks from rocker Ted Nugent have cost him a gig at the Muskegon Summer Celebration.
Festival officials canceled Nugent's concert following an interview last week with two Denver disc jockeys in which the DJs say he used slurs for Asians and blacks. The festival was scrambling to find a replacement.
Following discussions with community leaders, Summer Celebration's board decided "it was in the best interest of the community" to drop Nugent from the festival lineup, Austin said. The festival runs in late June and early July.
Cancels Ted Nugent
Muskegon Summer Celebration Web site
Nancy Sinatra holds a commemorative plaque honoring her father, Frank Sinatra, during a ceremony in Hoboken, N.J., Friday, May 16, 2003, to rename that city's and Sinatra's hometown main post office the Frank Sinatra Post Office Building.
Photo by Mike Derer
Review of Hunter S. Thompson's Latest By Paul Theroux
'Kingdom Of Fear'
Kingdom of Fear combines memoir, polemic, satire, abuse, diablerie, and something new for Hunter Thompson - a nice line in prophecy. It opens with a memory of childhood, but this being Thompson's childhood the memory is of a nine-year-old's battle with the FBI "in the case of a federal mailbox being turned over in the path of a speeding bus". This was in Louisville, Kentucky, where the author spent his formative years. New York, San Francisco, Big Sur and Rio de Janeiro came later.
After Rio, "suffering from amoebic dysentery and culture shock", he retired at the age of 29 to hunt elk and breed Doberman pinschers in a fortified compound at Woody Creek, Colorado, where much later he beat a rap for sexual assault and also ran for county sheriff - the memoir elements of this present book. No one can accuse Thompson of not living his philosophy: "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Little Hunter and his school friends were guilty of the mailbox crime. As a federal offence, mailbox vandalism carried a five-year sentence. But this was not mindless violence, it was purposeful. Even then, it seems, he adhered to the Bob Dylan dictum he loves to quote: "To live outside the law, you must be honest." The mailbox was part of an elaborate scheme to get "revenge on a rude and stupid bus driver who got a kick out of closing his doors and pulling away just as we staggered to the top of the hill and begged him to let us on".
The avengers, using ingenuity and speed, ropes and pulleys, created a booby-trap with the mailbox. When the bus driver sped away, he became an agent of his own destruction, smashing into the mailbox that was yanked into the path of his bus. Subsequently, refusing to confess or crack under questioning, Hunter ("What witnesses?") is declared innocent, and everything works out fine. A new bus driver is hired, and a lesson is learned: "Never believe the first thing an FBI agent tells you about anything."
For the rest, The Honest Outlaw
Launching Arabic Business Channel from Dubai
CNBC
An affiliate of U.S. network CNBC said on Saturday it would launch in June an Arabic-language channel dedicated to Middle Eastern economic and business news.
The channel, called CNBC Arabiya, will be based in the Gulf emirate of Dubai and will have bureaus in Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain.
It will be owned and operated by Middle East Business News, a Dubai-based company that said it would invest up to $45 million in the channel over the next three years.
The American network has two other regional channels -- CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia.
Several international media organizations, such as Reuters, the Associated Press, the Middle East Broadcasting Corporation and CNN have set up shop at the Dubai Media City, a tax-free zone in the emirate which is the Gulf region's trade and tourism hub.
CNBC
Writing Book
Mary Matalin
Republican strategist Mary Matalin is writing a book — but not on politics.
Matalin, who was Vice President Dick Cheney's top public relations strategist until she resigned in December to spend more time with her young daughters, is writing the book for Matty, 7, and Emma, 5.
The book, slated for publication for Mother's Day 2004, is tentatively titled, "Letters to My Daughters." Matalin says it will be filled with motherly advice about life; "everything I want them to know (after I'm gone.)"
"I want to crystallize my own value system for them," said Matalin, 49, whose mother died at age 50.
Matalin — wife of Democratic consultant James Carville — said she also has been busy with remodeling their suburban Washington home, but is looking forward to joining the Bush administration's re-election campaign when it starts.
Mary Matalin
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Dumping 'Hitler'
CBS Affiliates
CBS affiliates in the Texas towns of Corpus Christi and Laredo won't be showing CBS' Hitler miniseries because it could incite local white supremacists and "disturbed young people" into acts of violence, the station owners say
"The Nazi concept is still very real, and I think anything we do to give that particular thinking a venue, a format, is a mistake," Dale Remy, general manager of KZTV in Corpus Christi, told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
KZTV also owns a station in Laredo, which also won't be showing the two-part "Hitler: The Rise of Evil," which airs tonight and Tuesday.
CBS Affiliates
Alaine Qualla, left, and Claudia Eliasen look over promo photos from the Bing Crosby era at a display in the Crosby Student Center on the campus of Gonzaga University Saturday, May 17, 2003, in Spokane, Wash. Gonzaga is hosting a celebration of Bing Crosby's life, who received an honorary doctorate degree from Gonzaga in 1937.
Photo by Jeff T. Green
No Venezuelan Representative
Miss Universe
It is like Brazil missing the World Cup: for the first time ever Venezuela will not be represented at the Miss Universe beauty pageant.
Venezuelan women have won the event four times since it was first held 44 years ago, and are routinely among the finalists. Venezuelans have also won five Miss World and three Miss International titles.
But this year there is no money to send the country's current beauty queen -- Mariangel Ruiz, 23 -- to the 2003 event, to be held on June 3 in Panama City.
Miss Venezuela Organization president Osmel Sousa blamed strict controls on foreign currency exchange and the country's "grave political and economic situation."
The Miss Venezuela Organization is a subsidiary of the Cisneros Group -- owned by billionaire and media magnate Gustavo Cisneros, a fierce opponent of President Hugo Chavez.
The strict currency controls were imposed on February 5 after a lengthy general strike that failed to force the controversial Chavez from office.
Miss Universe
Writing Memoir
Kris Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson is writing a memoir, which Hyperion will publish in 2005.
"William Blake said, `The Road to Excess leads to the Palace of Wisdom.' He also said, `If the fool would persist in his folly, he'd become wise.' We'll see," Kristofferson, 66, said in a statement Thursday.
Kristofferson has written classic songs such as "Me and Bobby McGee," which Janis Joplin made famous, "Help Me Make It Through the Night" and "For the Good Times." His film credits include Martin Scorsese's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," "A Star Is Born," co-starring Barbra Streisand, and "Heaven's Gate," one of the most famous flops in Hollywood history.
Kris Kristofferson
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Barred From Filming In Red Square
T.A.t.U
They're the first Russian pop sensation to top music charts worldwide, but Moscow police weren't having any of it.
Authorities barred the Russian pop duo t.A.t.U. Thursday from filming their new video on Red Square.
Several hundred fans — many dressed in the skimpy schoolgirl uniforms favored by the duo — turned up to act as extras in what was supposed to be the band's video for the Eurovision song contest. But instead, Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova, both 18, barely emerged from their trailer.
The duo, whose skimpy outfits and flirtation with lesbianism made headlines around the world, had an international hit with "All the Things She Said," and became the first Russian band to break through the tough British singles chart.
Russia chose the duo to represent the country at the Eurovision Song Contest later this month in Riga, Latvia.
T.A.t.U
T.A.t.U. Web site
Arcata councilman Dave Meserve stands beneath a statue of President McKinley in the center of the square in Arcata, Calif., Friday, May 9, 2003 More than 100 cities, and one state, have condemned the USA Patriot Act as giving the government too much snooping power. In Arcata, a liberal fold in Northern California's Redwood Curtain, the City Council has gone a step farther and criminalized it. Starting this month, a new city ordinance makes it a crime punishable by a $57 fine for a city department head to 'voluntarily' comply with the federal law.
Photo by Eric Risberg
Comcast Pulls Boner
QVC channel
A cable company says it's not sure why, but some New Hampshire television viewers got more than they bargained for on a shopping channel.
The shop-at-home QVC channel in Manchester broadcast adult porn for a short time Friday afternoon.
Comcast says it doesn't know how the wires were crossed or how many customers were affected. It's trying to figure out what happened.
QVC channel
Sues Vegas Club
Charo
Entertainer Charo has pulled her cry of "coochie coochie" off the Las Vegas Strip and has filed a lawsuit against the bankrupt nightclub where she performed, seeking $2.2 million in unpaid salary and damages.
Joe Reynolds, executive director at the Sevilla nightclub, said Charo quit after her Wednesday show, and conceded that she was owed money.
"But there's a discrepancy between their lawsuit and what we owe," Reynolds said Friday. He put the amount at $88,675, which the nightclub reported when it filed for Chapter 11 protection April 28 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Las Vegas.
Reynolds said ticket sales for Charo's "Bravo" show were disappointing since opening in January.
The show, featuring her distinctive hip-shaking, mangled English and flamenco guitar, returned to the Las Vegas Strip in November 2001 at the Venetian hotel-casino. It moved to the Sahara hotel-casino before moving to the Aladdin.
Charo
Recovered From North America
6 Artifacts
Egypt's Culture Minister Farouq Hosni presented to reporters Saturday six artefacts dating from the time of the Pharaohs stolen from the country more than 100 years ago and returned last weekend.
Five of the artefacts were recovered from the United States and one from Canada.
They include four colored limestone plates with images of Pharaoh Seti I, a stele showing officials worshipping the God Osiris, and a statue of a cobra.
The plates, discovered in 1817, were later stolen from the tomb of Seti I, a king of the 19th dynasty (1314-1200 BC) and the father of Pharaoh Ramses II. The tomb is located in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor.
They were smuggled out of Egypt in 1860 before eventually turning up at Emory University in Atlanta.
Arrangements were made to return the pieces as part of an agreement signed between Washington and Cairo in July last year that also called for the return to Egypt of a mummy identified as Pharaoh Ramses I.
6 Artifacts
* Vulgarity Warning *
England's Holy Island
Lindisfarne
Thirteen hundred years ago, at a wooden monastery on the tiny windswept island of Lindisfarne off the remote northeast coast of England, one of the most beautiful books on earth was made.
On Saturday, at a quiet procession following a church service, a copy of the Lindisfarne Gospels was returned to the 300-odd inhabitants who scratch a living from sheep farming and crabbing at the place known here as England's Holy Island.
The British Library, which keeps the original, has just completed a three-year project making new paper copies of its 259 leaves of hand painted sheets of animal skin.
The Gospels are believed to be the work of Eadfrith, bishop of Lindisfarne, in the early 700s. His monastery was sacked by Vikings who sailed across the North Sea in 793 on their first of many raids on England, but the book was rescued by monks and survived the Dark Ages, countless wars and the Reformation.
The book eventually came to London, where it has been kept since 1973 at the British Library. Locals have called for the original to be returned to the island, although most recognise that is unlikely.
Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne Heritage Centre
Celtic Illuminated Manuscripts - Lindisfarne
Celtic Symbols, Art and Illuminated Manuscripts
Illuminated Manuscripts
Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
ADULT!
Drei kleine Löwenjunge schauen am Donnerstag aus ihrem Gehege im Ouwehands-Zoo im niederländischen Rhenen. Die drei Kleinen verbringen ihren ersten Tag im Außengehege.
Photo by Michael Kooren
'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
