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From 'TBH Politoons'
Great Site!
Thanks, again, Tim!
Reader Comment/Correction
Re: Thomas Crapper
From Marianne M
" Although Thomas Crapper took out nine plumbing patents between 1881 and 1896, none of these patents was for the "valveless water-waste preventer" he is often credited with having invented. The first patent for a siphonic flush was taken out by Joseph Adamson
in 1853, eight years before Crapper started his plumbing business...."
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Business (Thomas Crapper)
~~ Marianne M
Thanks, Marianne. The 9-year old resident enjoyed the story, though, and the 'new' word for his vocabulary.
I liked that this story was linked to a British newspaper - Thomas Crapper.
(Sorta OT - nationalism - an interesting concept?)
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Played in the dirt hole/garden. One of the tomato plants has a little tomato already! Pepper plants are ok, but not thriving like the
tomatoes. Got the kid a couple of Venus Fly-Traps, and had to fix a terrarium for them. Lucky one of my pals is in the pond business &
gets terrariums at cost. : )
Plan on finally getting to see 'Star Wars: Clones' on Sunday.
Once again, Saturday night TV was so appalling, ended up on PBS for Orange Country (KOCE), and reruns of the old 'Ed Sullivan Show'.
Johnny Mathis and the Lennon Sisters sang 'Johnny One-Note' - jeez, Johnny had one helluva a set of lungs for that one. Damn impressive.
Speaking of Orange County, 'Saturday Night Live' was a rerun (as it will be for at least the next 4 months), with Jack Black.
Tonight, Sunday, as is tradition, CBS starts the evening with '60 Minutes', then a rerun 'Max Bickford' and follows with the
movie 'Nicholas' Gift'.
NBC has NBA Playoffs intruding a bit on primetime, so expect some local programming. Also, a 'celebrities from NBC's past' issue of
'Weakest Link' and then a rerun of 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent', followed by a rerun of plain 'Law & Order'.
ABC starts the night with a rerun of an Olsen Twin movie, 'Switching Goals', then a rerun of 'Alias' and a rerun of 'The Practice'.
The WB has the Greg Nava directed 'Selena' with J-Lo.
Faux has disappeared 'Futurama' and starts the night with an old episode of 'Married With Children', then an old episode of 'King Of The Hill',
followed by 2 old episodes of the 'Simpsons' and wraps the night with a rerun episode of 'X-Files', that, thankfully, features 'The Lone Gunmen'.
UPN has a rerun of Wednesday night's season finale of 'Enterprise', followed by another rerun of 'Enterprise'.
TNN has 6 hours of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation', then the movie, 'Beavis & Butthead Do America', followed by 2 more hours of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
The 2 Pauls Tour
''Africa 'On Fire' with Misery'' - Bono
Africa is a continent on fire from the misery of debt, poverty and disease and rich Western nations would be well-advised to offer more help now to quench the flames, Irish rock singer Bono said on Saturday.
Even in South Africa, by far the wealthiest nation in the region, government statistics say 29 percent of people are out of work. Unofficial estimates put the figure closer to 40 percent.
Bono, casually dressed as always and with his trademark wraparound blue glasses, said he has been engaged in continual discussion with the more formal O'Neill and said he accepts
there is U.S. skepticism about aid because of the lack of success of past spending.
He and O'Neill travel on to Uganda Sunday and wrap up their tour in Ethiopia at the end of the week. The U.S. Treasury chief heads back to Washington next Friday.
''Africa 'On Fire' with Misery'' - Bono
Heading Back to the WB
Jamie Foxx
Jamie Foxx had a sitcom on the WB between 1996 and 2000, and now, it looks like the comedian is headed back to the network.
The Hollywood Reporter says the WB has given the green light to "Small Talk," a half-hour reality show based on an idea the comedian came up with.
The show is about kids sharing stories from their lives while carpooling in the back seat of a minivan. "Small Talk" will have the same executive
producer as another reality series that has made a splash - "The Osbournes."
Jamie Foxx
Liberal Radio !
Erin Hart
Liberal radio - what a concept!
Join Erin Hart Sunday (only) this week, at near-regulation time (10 pm to 1 am [pdt]) on www.710kiro.com or www.kiro710.com (It's
a browser thing).
And there's a chatroom, too!
For more details, visit Erin's fan page (courtesy of 14Dem), http://www.erinistas.com/, or to join her mailing list, drop a
note to erinistas@aol.com
'Must See TV'?
TiVo
On Wednesday night, the BBC transmitted Dossa and Joe, a drama with an unexpected twist. Owners of TiVo personal video recorders found that their boxes recorded the
show whether they programmed it in or not -- and now it's there, the recording can't be erased for about a week. Dubbed a "must see" by the BBC, the corporation arranged
with TiVo to send the recording command to all registered boxes. They pick up programme information by modem over the Internet, and the command was embedded in the schedules.
The TiVo records TV programmes onto an internal hard disk, giving its owners a great deal of flexibility over scheduling. It also suggests programmes based on its knowledge
of users' preferences, but this is the first time the box has been used by a broadcaster to forcibly record a show regardless of the viewer's wishes.
Viewer reaction has been robust, with hundreds of posts appearing overnight on the TiVo Community bulletin board, an independent discussion forum. Reaction varies from mild surprise
to outright rage, with TiVo representatives saying that they're taking note of everyone's reaction, but the company has also said that it will be doing the same thing again soon.
TiVo
Thirty Hurt at Rock Concert
Eminem
About 30 people were injured on Saturday when the audience at a Washington D.C. rock concert pressed forward as rap singer Eminem took the stage, officials said.
Fire Department spokesman Alan Etter said most of the injuries at RFK Stadium two miles east of the Capitol were not life-threatening but one man had a heart attack and was revived on the scene.
Concert-goers interviewed on local television described being jostled, squeezed and crushed as fans in the standing-only "mosh pit" surged toward the stage.
The concert was suspended for 10 minutes.
Thirty Hurt at Rock Concert
W.C. Handy Blues Awards
B.B. King
B.B. King won entertainer of the year for the fourth straight year at the 23rd annual W.C. Handy Blues Awards.
Other winners included Buddy Guy, guitarist of the year; Koko Taylor, best traditional female artist; "Presumed Innocent" by Marcia Ball, blues album of the year;
and "Here and Now" by Ike Turner, comeback blues album of the year.
Sam Phillips, who founded Sun Records in Memphis and signed Elvis Presley to a recording contract, was given a lifetime achievement award.
The awards are named after the composer of "St. Louis Blues," who is known as "the father of the blues."
B.B. King
W.C. Handy Blues Awards Web site
New Documentary Summer Series
ABC News?
A summer series of documentaries that ABC News has formally unveiled takes care of a lot of unfinished business for the network.
Airing at 10 p.m., the 16-hour series will fill a slot where only repeats of mediocre programming would have appeared. And if "Boston 24/7," "ICU" and "State V." have
the ratings power of their reality-style forebear "Hopkins 24/7," the risk may pay off.
If previews are any indication, the genre does have some originality. Filmed with ubiquitous cameras that almost give it a real-time feel, the series has less flash than a
newsmagazine and is less outrageous than reality TV. But intentionally or not, it definitely tapped into some familiar themes.
"Boston 24/7" -- which focuses on the administration of pugnacious Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino -- almost comes across as a reality-based "The West Wing."
Another part of the series, "State V.," weaves nonfiction takes on the forensic frissons of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and the courtroom conundrums of "Law & Order."
Like "Hopkins," "ICU" capitalizes on public fascination with frenetic "ER"-like tension, though this program features an intensive-care unit for newborns in which several of
the babies die while waiting for heart transplants.
ABC News?
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
The 2 Pauls Tour Continues
Bono & O'Neill
Irish rock singer Bono may be an international superstar, but he can expect a low key welcome when he jets into Uganda Sunday with U.S. treasury secretary Paul O'Neill
on the third leg of their African debt-study tour.
But while fans back home would give anything to see their idol and his trademark wraparound sunglasses, Ugandans on the streets on the capital Kampala scarcely batted an
eyelid when they heard the singer was coming to town.
"Bono? James Bond?" one music hawker said, searching through his shoulder bag of bootlegged CDs to try to find one featuring the 42-year-old Dubliner. He came up empty handed.
The sharp-suited O'Neill and the unshaven, earringed Bono are a most unlikely couple as they fly around Africa, visiting Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Ethiopia to see how
aid from rich countries can help the world's poorest continent drag itself out of the economic mire.
Bono last visited Uganda in January to see the results of debt relief in the east African country, spending two-days touring some of British charity OXFAM's projects.
OXFAM spokeswoman Monica Naggaga said Bono's relative anonymity in Africa was not a big issue, given that his self-appointed task was to raise awareness of third world issues in richer nations.
Uganda is ranked at 141 out of 162 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index.
The country of 23 million people has averaged six percent growth over the past decade, largely helped by donor funds. In 2000 around 35 percent of the population was still
living on less than a dollar a day -- considerably down from 56 percent in 1992.
Bono & O'Neill
New Series For Summer
'Rerun'
NBC is adding some all-new reruns to its summer schedule.
The network has ordered six new episodes of "The Rerun Show," a half-hour comedy that uses an ensemble troupe to re-create and spoof scenes from classic (or campy) sitcoms such as "The Facts
of Life" or "The Partridge Family." It is set to air Tuesdays at 8:30 starting in mid-July. The cast is still being finalized.
"Rerun," from NBC Studios and Sony's Columbia TriStar Domestic Television, will use the Sony library of sitcoms as the basis for scripts.
While "Rerun" scenes will be shot tongue-in-cheek, "every word spoken will be as written in the original script," said Russ Krasnoff, president of programming and production at Columbia TriStar.
"The costumes and actions will change, but not the words."
'Rerun'
The Bob Hope Veterans Chapel
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, who spent decades leading performers overseas to entertain U.S. troops, will have a veterans chapel named in his honor.
The comic received congressional approval to have a chapel in Los Angeles National Cemetery named after him, Daily Variety reported Friday.
Hope needed special approval for the dedication because he is not a veteran and is not deceased.
The bill was passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday and the Senate unanimously approved it Wednesday.
Hope turns 99 on Wednesday, the day resident Bush is expected to sign the bill. The Bob Hope Veterans Chapel is scheduled to be dedicated that afternoon.
The Bob Hope Veterans Chapel
BartCop TV!
Blasted for Jail Rape Jokes
7 Up Pulls TV Ad
The makers of the 7 Up soft drink have yanked a TV commercial set in a prison off the air after protests from a convict rights group over its alleged jail rape allusions.
The company pulled the 30-second commercial off the airwaves on Friday after the U.S. prisoner rights group, Stop Prison Rape, said the ad trivialized the
"serious physical and psychological injury" inmates suffer from sexual abuse.
The spot titled "Captive Audience," created by New York-based ad agency Young & Rubicam Inc., features 7 Up pitchman Godfrey in the slammer pitching the drink to inmates.
At one point, Godfrey, a comedian who goes by the single name, is walking down a row of cells, handing out soda to each prisoner he passes, when he accidentally drops a can.
"I'm not picking that up," he remarks.
In the final shot, he sits inside a cell with a tattooed inmate whose arm is draped around him. "When you drink 7 Up, everyone is your friend," Godfrey remarks, prompting the
inmate to tighten his arm just a bit to Godfrey's discomfort. "OK, that's enough being friends," he says.
A recurring theme in 7 Up ads has been spoofing the extremes that soft-drink makers go to in marketing their wares, featuring enthusiastic but often inept spokesmen.
In one earlier 7 Up commercial, that drew protests from animal activist groups, former pitchman and up-and-coming actor Orlando Jones tossed a can of 7 Up to a dog which was knocked out by the catch.
Another 7 Up ad featuring flatulence was rejected by CBS as unsuitable for airing before the Super Bowl.
7 Up Pulls TV Ad
Big Surprise
Rosie
Actor Nathan Lane, left, surprises talk show host Rosie O'Donnell with an unidentified half-naked man bearing champagne on the final edition of "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" Wednesday,
May 22, 2002.
Photo by Anders Krusberg
Making Mini-Dishes Look Better All The Time
Adelphia
The family that founded cable operator Adelphia Communications 50 years ago has relinquished control of the troubled company and will transfer privately held assets
worth more than $1 billion to the firm, Adelphia said Thursday.
The moves are part of a settlement sought for days by a special committee of independent directors that is trying to clean up Adelphia's financial and management woes.
Wall Street observers described the settlement as a last-ditch effort by Coudersport, Pa.-based Adelphia to avoid bankruptcy and continue talks with lender banks about financing options.
Under the exit deal between the founding Rigas clan and the committee, the family gave up its four Adelphia board seats and lost its last management positions at
the nation's sixth-largest cable firm.
Founder John Rigas stepped down from his positions as CEO, president and chairman last week but initially retained his board seat. Similarly, his son Tim left his chief
financial officer post but retained his board seat until Thursday.
Adelphia
Adelphia is (was?) based in Coudersport, PA. The town that was the last place of residence for a bitter Elliot Ness, the headwater of the Clarion River, an old ice
mine & Adelphia. The local terrain makes TV signals impossible to receive, and if you want TV, you have cable. Grew up about 40 miles down the road, but, my little town has a community-owned cable TV system.
To visit the area, one flies into the most aptly initialed airport in America - BFD - Bradford. It also has to be one of the safest, and, one of the coolest airports you'll ever encounter.
Still Seeking Volunteers
'The Osbournes'
Page 2 ~ 'The Osbournes' !
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
C'mon....send your thoughts, your impressions, your views, your favorite quotes...
Scroll down for lots of addys to pick from (or 'from which to pick', for the truly anal retentive).