John Bloom: Muslim Girls Gone Wild (joebobbriggs.com)
So I'm reading this old Christianity Today article about discrimination against Christian women in India, and suddenly I notice the picture: they're all wearing headscarves. All the Christian women in India (at least in the picture selected by Christianity Today) are wearing headscarves.
FROMA HARROP: "Obama: The Audacity of Hype" (creators.com)
Barack Obama stands on stage with Oprah Winfrey and says he's in the race because of what Martin Luther King Jr. called "the fierce urgency of now." Does the Illinois senator's candidacy really mark a major advance for civil rights?
Paul Krugman: After the Money's Gone (nytimes.com)
Anyone who expects the Federal Reserve or anyone else to come up with a plan that makes the current financial crisis just go away will be sorely disappointed.
SUSAN ESTRICH: Early Answers (creators.com)
This is early decision week. If you don't know what that is, then you're not the parent or aunt or uncle or cousin or friend of anyone who's a senior in high school and waiting on pins and needles to find out whether they've been accepted at their first-choice college. But maybe you were once, or will be someday.
Tom DANEHY: Snapshots from a night of women's college basketball (tucsonweekly.com)
During basketball season, when I'm not coaching, I like to do that busman's holiday thing and go watch other basketball teams play. I'd probably enjoy doing it all year 'round, but for the most part, they only have basketball games during basketball season. It's just funny that way.
Scott Foundas: That old 'last man on earth' setup? It really works (villagevoice.com)
There are two momentous performances in I Am Legend. One is by the movie's star, Will Smith. The other is by the movie's visual effects--not the ones that bring to life a nocturnal army of shrieking, carnivorous beasties, but rather the ones that render a near-future New York City that has been "ground zero" for a different kind of terror attack--Mother Nature's.
She came to Oakland a while back and it was the same pandemonium....some tickets going for thousands of dollars.......I didn't go to see the "tweener" phenom....
I was back in Nashville a few years ago and I went to the Bluebird Cafe to see a buddy of mine play music there. He was producing an album for Billy Ray Cyrus...I met Billy Ray, his wife Tish and his daughter Destiny Hope (Miley)....who seemed like a normal eleven year old.
Billy Ray was finished with his TV series "Doc" and was trying to re-establish the music career he had with "Achy Breaky Heart" and "Some Gave All" with a song called "I Want My Mullet Back"! But his daughter had just recently been signed with Disney and had her own recording contract......Disney signed her not ony because of her wholesome and energetic presence, but also because of her Southern accent and her squeeky clean christian values (Billy Ray is a born again)
Anyway...to understand why people will stand in lines a mile long and buy wristbands to reserve a spot in those lines just on the hope that they may get a ticket for their kids to see Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus).you have to understand that the Disney money machine is making millions off the rhymey series name Hannah Montana (it kinda rolls off the tongue like Betty Boop) and combined with the record sales, a new clothing line and acccessories....the buzz is working well draining parents of millions of young girls... thousands of dollars at a pop.
One good thing.....maybe....Miley Cyrus will not become like Paris or Brittney...because she goes to church every Sunday.
It's a month before the Presidential Primary here in Michigan and Mitt
Romney's ads are up and running on the local TV Stations.
The "Weird Thing" about them is that they are all (so far) detailed attacks
on Hillary Clinton! I can't figure it out. It would seem that somebody
running in a primary election, if in attack mode, would be after the other
members running against them and not after someone not even in their
political party. The "Swift Boating" happens after the candidates are
chosen.
This is different than any primary here that I can remember... live and
learn.
Yust wanted to share vat Norwegians do to punish
themselves!
Teacher Ed
St Olaf College Class of 74
Oh Lutefisk
by Red Stangeland last verse by Robert L. Lee
[Sung to the tune of Oh Christmas Tree]
Oh Lutefisk... Oh Lutefisk... how fragrant your aroma
Oh Lutefisk... Oh Lutefisk... You put me in a coma
You smell so strong... You look like glue
You taste yust like an overshoe
But Lutefisk ... come Saturday
I tink I'll eat you anyvay.
Oh Lutefisk ... Oh Lutefisk ... I put you by the
doorvay
I vanted you to ripen up ... yust like dey do in
Norway
A dog came by and sprinkled you ... I hit him vit an
army shoe
Oh Lutefisk ... now I suppose
I'll eat you as I hold my nose.
Oh Lutefisk ... Oh Lutefisk ... how well I do remember
On Christmas Eve how we'd receive ... our big treat of
December
It vasn't turkey or fried ham ... it vasn't even
pickled spam
My mudder knew dere vas no risk ...
In serving buttered lutefisk.
Oh Lutefisk ... Oh Lutefisk ... now everyone discovers
Dat Lutefisk and lefse makes-Norweigians better lovers
Now all da vorld can have a ball ... you're better dan
dat Yeritol
Oh Lutefisk ... vit brennevin
You make me feel like Errol Flynn.
Oh Lutefisk ... Oh lutefisk ... You have a special
flavor
Oh Lutefisk ... Oh lutefisk ... All good Norwegians
savor.
That slimy slab we know so well ... Identified by
ghastly smell
Oh Lutefisk ... Oh lutefisk ... Our loyalty won't
waver.
Oh Lutefisk...Oh lutefisk...When my poor heart stops
beating
The pearly gates will open wide, I'll see the angels
eating
From steaming platters of the stuff, and there will
always be enough
O piece of cod that I adore, O lutefisk forevermore!
Thanks, Ed!
Some Vasterbotten cheese, too, please.
Answer to Baron Dave's Ultra-Duper Trivia of Yesterday
If Longfellow had been accurate he would have written about the midnight ride of?
A: James Otis
B: Israel Bissel
C: Crispus Attucs
D: Benjamin Rush Source
mj was first, but wrong:
I watch too many movies on TV. But they're usually on in the background. I recently watch National Treasure, and I think the name linked with Revere was Otis, A.
S. Bennett was second, and right:
Israel Bissel (actually spelled Bissell) would be the correct answer.
He later would invent a bellows operated sucking machine whose original intended purpose is unknown but was adapted by his wife, who by the way was most unattractive, to pick up crumbs on the kitchen floor.*
*Ok so I made the last part up.
DanD was also right:
I read an article on this one time and the name Israel seemed to stick in
my head.
Alan J got it right with a succinct:
Israel Bissell
Sally P was right, also:
James Otis was a highly respected lawyer and protester (who also held various military appointments) circa 1750.
Crispus Attucks was a runaway slave who was shot (circa 1770) in a protest AKA the Boston Massacre.
Benjamin Rush was a doctor and professor of chemistry in Philadelphia. He was also an ardent abolitionist (circa 1787) and an outspoken critic of the entire institution of slavery.
But, I think the correct answer is "B" Israel Bissell, the 23-year old, little known post rider, who carried the, "Call to Arms" alerting the colonists of the British attack on April 19, 1775. In fact, Bissell out rode Paul Revere yet didn't get a poem!
And, Joe Bacon nailed it, too:
It's B--Israel Bissell
He rode for four days and six hours covering the 345 miles from
Watertown, Massachusetts to Philadelphia along the Old Post Road,
shouting "To arms, to arms, the war has begun," and carrying a message
from General Joseph Palmer which was copied at each of his stops and
redistributed
NOTE from Baron Dave ("Ha ha. Puny receptacle!" -- Troll on Buffy the Vampire Slayer):
While the people who answered C. Mary Tyler Moore to Friday's
question have a point, I don't accept it.
The question might have
been clearer yet easier to simply say "Phyllis" and "Rhoda" so I gave
their full names. The claim that MTM was the answer because it was
not the character's name is also not true for Gordy the Weatherman
(who's character on the show is Gordon Howard). "The Weatherman" is
a title, not a name.
I'm glad that everyone has their thinking caps
on, though.
Thanks to Buzzcook for Today's And Yesterday's Trivia questions.
Last night I saw "I Am Legend" with Will Smith. I enjoyed it, but I was also disapointed. The filmakers took some of the best elements from all of the previous efforts and put them on the screen. But the movie is disjointed.
The first half is really good, but the last half seems like they phoned it in. They took the heart of Richard Matheson's story and made it the first half of the movie. The story about Robert Neville's stark lonliness and his relationship with a mere dog.
In the book that relationship was really heartbreaking and made you want to cry. The screenplay and this movie wrote it differently, but it is essentially the same. The storyline for the plague was taken from the screenplay and more could have done with that. The plague ridden humans do not have vampirism but a form of survivable rabies that turns them canabalistic. I'll accept that.
One thing that I was pleasently surprised with in the movie was that Will Smith was not doing his usual schtick. As a matter of fact he seemed to be the only one doing an earnest part at doing his job. My problem is with the writing. Like I said the first half is good, then the thing just kind of falls flat.
One thing that is common in all of the previous efforts is the betrayal of Robert Neville by a woman. I was kind of expecting that but it didn't happen. I am sorry, I don't want to give away too much of the story. They deviated from previous efforts in other key ways, but I would like people to see the movie and make up their own minds.
Overall, yes a good movie, but lacking. And ya know what Marty? Fer once I would like the $#*&@^#screenwriters to stick with original intent of the original #&!@* author! Enjoy the holidays my friend.
zEN mAN (observing a dog lover party person being stopped in Alameda because they couldn't see through their rear view mirror....the cop had to use his siren...not just the red light)
Hey, Marty... The answer is YEAH, but according to yer California cows, they just don't listen! Oom, go the ducks, as they meditate, but yer cows say it's Moo, instead... It's frickin' hilarious, the commercial I just saw for the first time tonight (watching the Two Towers on TNT) about Cali dairy products being foisted upon us up here in the Great White North (winter storm warning posted - 8-12 inches, blizzard conditions later tonight and tomorrow). Would that be 'brisk' in yer parts? I'm just askin'... Anyway, Cali has gots lots of nerve advertising dairy stuff up here in the land of a bunch of Cheesehead Packer fans, I'm tellin' ya...
Bye the Bye, how's yer Dear Old Dad? I have always enjoyed reading about him and the Babe...
That's it for now. The damn elves have shown up at Helms Deep and the battle is about to begin. F--- a bunch of orcs!.... Later...
BadtotheboneBob
Thanks, B2TBBob!
Cows don't listen & sheep lie. Heh.
Last Sunday Dear Old Dad gave me a BIG lecture on not to send anything for Christmas - then today there was a big box in the mail from them.
Guess I didn't need to feel so guilty standing in line at the post office Friday.
CBS starts the night with '60 Minutes', followed by the SEASON FINALE'Survivor: China'.
NBC fills the night with LIVE'Football Night In America', then pads the left coast with local crap.
ABC begins the night with a FRESH'America's So-Called Funniest Home Videos', followed by a FRESH'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition', then a RERUN'Desperate Housewives', followed by a RERUN'Brothers & Sisters'.
The CW here has LIVE'NBA Basketball' (Clips visit the Lakers), followed by a RERUN'Crowned: The Mother Of All Pageants'.
Faux has a RERUN'King Of The Hill', followed by another RERUN'King Of The Hill', then a FRESH'Simpsons', followed by a FRESH'King Of The Hill', then a RERUN'Family Guy', followed by a FRESH'American Dad'.
MY has 'That 70s Show', another 'That 70s Show', and the movie 'Black Widower'.
A&E has 'Cold Case Files', 'The First 48', another 'The First 48', and still another 'The First 48'.
AMC offers the movie 'Raising Helen', followed by the movie 'The Wedding Planner', then the movie 'The In-Laws'.
BBC -
[12:00 PM] Doctor Who - Ep 2 Tooth and Claw;
[1:00 PM] Torchwood - Ep 4 Cyberwoman;
[2:00 PM] The Graham Norton Show - Ep 6 Trinny Woodall, Susannah Constantine, Jo Br;
[3:00 PM] The Graham Norton Show - Ep 7 Dukes of Hazzard: Catherine Bach, Tom Wopat;
[4:00 PM] The Graham Norton Show - Ep 8 Alan Carr;
[5:00 PM] The Graham Norton Show - Ep 9 Nigella Lawson and Rhianna;
[6:00 PM] Robin Hood - Ep 7 The Brothers A Dale;
[7:00 PM] Robin Hood - Ep 8 The Assassin;
[8:00 PM] Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill;
[9:00 PM] Eddie Izzard: Glorious;
[10:00 PM] My Small Breasts And I;
[11:00 PM] Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill;
[12:00 AM] Eddie Izzard: Glorious;
[1:00 AM] My Small Breasts And I;
[2:00 AM] Robin Hood - Ep 8 The Assassin;
[3:00 AM] Changing Rooms - Episode 20;
[3:30 AM] Changing Rooms - Ep.10 Dover;
[4:00 AM] Bargain Hunt - Ep. 7 Harrogate 43;
[4:30 AM] Bargain Hunt - Ep. 8 Oakington 57;
[5:00 AM] Cash in the Attic - Ep. 26 Rabbitts;
[5:30 AM] Cash in the Attic - Ep. 27 Mitchell;
[6:00 AM] BBC World News. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has all 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' all night.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Office Space', 'Sarah Silverman', another 'Sarah Silverman', and 'Jackass: The Movie'.
FX has the movie 'Kingdom Of Heaven', and 'Nip/Tuck'.
History has 'History Rocks', followed by the movie 'Forrest Gump'.
IFC -
[06:25 AM] L'Auberge Espagnole;
[08:35 AM] The Field;
[10:35 AM] Trauma;
[12:15 PM] Requiem;
[01:50 PM] IFC News Special;
[02:00 PM] The Field;
[04:00 PM] Trauma;
[05:40 PM] Requiem;
[07:15 PM] Dallas 362;
[09:00 PM] Reservoir Dogs;
[10:45 PM] City of Industry;
[12:30 AM] Bad Lieutenant;
[02:15 AM] Reservoir Dogs;
[04:00 AM] City of Industry;
[05:45 AM] Trauma. (ALL TIMES EST)
SciFi has fills the night with the movie 'The Poseidon Adventure'.
Sundance -
[05:15 AM] Fela Kuti - Music is the Weapon;
[06:15 AM] Love, Ludlow;
[07:45 AM] The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico;
[09:15 AM] 2 + 2;
[09:30 AM] Zero Degrees of Separation;
[11:00 AM] Alicia Keys + Ruby Dee;
[12:00 PM] Up At the Villa;
[02:00 PM] Chuck D's Musicians Studio;
[03:00 PM] Episode 1;
[03:35 PM] Strange Culture;
[05:15 PM] Episode 1;
[06:00 PM] Breathless (1960);
[07:30 PM] Love, Ludlow;
[09:00 PM] Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snow Patrol & Madeleine Peyroux;
[10:00 PM] The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico;
[11:30 PM] American Fame Part Two: Forgetting Jonathan Brandis;
[12:00 AM] J.S.A. - Joint Security Area;
[02:00 AM] Godless in America;
[03:00 AM] Episode 6;
[03:30 AM] Godly Boyish;
[04:00 AM] Photographing Fairies. (ALL TIMES EST)
Actress Hayden Panettiere poses in the press room at Z100's Jingle Ball, Friday, Dec. 14, 2007 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Photo by Evan Agostini
Faced with the indefinite suspension of negotiations, the union representing striking Hollywood writers told its members Saturday it would try to deal directly with Hollywood studios and production companies, bypassing the umbrella organization that has been representing them.
The news was welcomed by the company that produces David Letterman's "Late Show," which said it hoped to broker a deal that would put the talk show host and his writers back to work.
Talks broke off Dec. 7 after the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, insisted it would not bargain further unless the Writers Guild of America dropped proposals that included the authority to unionize writers on reality shows and animation projects.
US actress Jane Fonda attends the Charity telethon 'Ein Herz fuer Kinder' (A heart for children) in Berlin on Saturday,Dec. 15, 2007.
Photo by Miguel Villagran
Iranian authorities have approved a plan for concerts by an Iranian pop group and singer Chris de Burgh in Tehran, the group's manager said on Saturday.
The concerts, set for the middle of next year, would be the first time since the 1979 revolution that an Iranian pop band had played alongside a Western singer inside the Islamic Republic, Arian's manager Mohsen Rajabpour said.
Rajabpour, director of Taraneh Sharghi music company, said Arian and de Burgh had recorded a song called "A Melody for Peace" which he said was intended "to reflect the peace-seeking spirit of the Iranian people to the world."
The plan is to hold the concert at a 12,000-seat stadium complex in Tehran. De Burgh is expected to visit Iran early next year as a tourist for discussions on the project.
Adrian Grenier, who's usually busy either being a celebrity or playing one on TV, took a break to hang out in more humble surroundings and serve up some grub at a soup kitchen.
The native Brooklynite returned home Friday with his mother and uncle to volunteer at Neighbors Together Soup Kitchen in the Brownsville section of the borough.
"It's so important to give back during the holidays and throughout the year, and I wanted to do my part by helping people here in Brooklyn," the actor said in a statement. "It isn't right that millions of families suffer from hunger and worry about getting their next meal. We all need to help in whatever way we can."
Grenier, who plays Vince Chase on the HBO hit series "Entourage," was taking part in an effort by America's Second Harvest and Netflix Inc. to draw attention to food bank shortages.
Franco Zeffirelli would like to make over what he called Pope Benedict XVI's "cold" image and his "showy" clothes, an Italian newspaper reported Saturday, saying the film, stage and opera director offered his services in an interview.
"Even his wardrobe needs to be revised," the 84-year-old Zeffirelli was quoted as saying. "These are not times of high-tailored church wear." Instead, his vestments should reflect "sobriety," the director said. "The papal vestments have been done over to be too sumptuous and showy."
John Paul II, often spontaneous and sometimes outdoorsy, had little use for fancy papal attire. But Benedict has taken to wearing some eye-stopping outfits in his public appearances, including a red velvet cape trimmed with ermine, a fur-trimmed stocking cap that some first mistook for a Santa Claus hat, and bright red Prada loafers.
"I know (Joseph) Ratzinger personally," the director said, using the German-born pope's name before he became pontiff. "He's very attentive to the importance of how the sacred is represented."
Mud figures, of U.S. resident George W. Bush (L), France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (C) and Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, known as "caganer" (defecator in Catalan language) are sold at the Santa Llucia Christmas market in central Barcelona December 4, 2007. Catalans create Christmas Nativity scenes using models and hide the figures, known as "caganer" or defecator in Catalan, in them before inviting friends to find the figures. Catalans believe the "caganer", by creating faeces, fertilises the earth and brings prosperity and luck for the coming year.
Photo by Albert Gea
The answer is "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek, who was released from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Saturday, nearly a week after suffering a heart attack.
The game show host promised to return to the "Jeopardy!" studio on Jan. 14 to tape the program's "Teen Tournament," one of his favourite competitions. In the meantime, he said, enough episodes were taped before he was hospitalized that people who tune in over the holidays are still seeing new shows.
Trebek, who holds a philosophy degree from the University of Ottawa, was a TV and radio reporter for the CBC before moving to the United States. He became a U.S. citizen in 1998.
In the midst of a drought, Los Angeles officials announced Friday that 600 million gallons of water must be dumped from two reservoirs that supply a swath of the city because an unexpected chemical reaction rendered it undrinkable.
Silver Lake and Elysian reservoirs registered elevated levels of the suspected carcinogen bromate between June and October, the result of an unusual combination of intense sunlight, bromide naturally present in groundwater and chlorine used to kill bacteria.
Department of Water and Power officials said they removed the reservoirs from service within two days of learning about the problem in October and diverted wells that fed them. The reservoirs will be drained and cleaned early next year so they can be replenished for the high-demand summer season.
An ice encased tree branch is illuminated by holiday lights in Marysville, Pa., Thursday evening, Dec. 13, 2007. A wintry mix of precipitation fell Thursday across Pennsylvania as rain, sleet, ice or snow.
Photo by Carolyn Kaster
One man and one woman still have "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila" - and viewers are very interested. The zany reality show starring bisexual Internet celebrity Tila Tequila is among the top 15 cable shows and has become MTV's second most popular series, just behind Lauren Conrad and company on "The Hills," according to numbers from Nielsen Media Research.
In case you're one of the few people who hasn't seen or read a blog about "A Shot a Love," the gist of the dating show is this: a 26-year-old MySpace pinup searches for love "Bachelor"-style among 16 men and 16 women, who compete for alone time with her in over-the-top challenges - chocolate syrup wrestling, for example - and share one oversized bed. Then, at the end of each episode, she chirpily tells the non-eliminated contestants, "You still have a shot at love. Are you interested?" And they usually are.
In the finale (airing Dec. 18 at 10 p.m. EST), Tequila - whose real last name is Nguyen - will choose between Dani Campbell, a 29-year-old female firefighter from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Bobby Banhart, a 25-year-old male film student from Worchester, N.Y.
Production on all but two of the last few scripted prime-time television shows shooting in Los Angeles ground to a halt on Friday as a crippling strike by Hollywood writers neared the end of its sixth week, an industry group said.
The cost of the strike in terms of lost TV production spending in Southern California alone has reached about $135 million a week, and idled some 10,000 crew members, according to FilmL.A. President Steve MacDonald.
Viewers, who have seen little change since the strike began, will soon be treated to an onslaught of reality shows and reruns broadcasters plan to use in place of scripted shows halted by the walkout.
That could lead to further ratings woes for the major networks, three of which have already been forced to compensate advertisers with extra commercial time due to a shortfall in viewership at the outset of the current season.
A flake of snow lay on a rose at the flower market near the graveyards in Krusevo December 15, 2007. Macedonia received its first snowfall on December 15, 2007, local media reported.
Photo by Ognen Teofilovski
Quebec diva Celine Dion is set to bring the curtain down on her lavish Las Vegas stage show Saturday night.
Dion has been performing her splashy "A New Day" extravaganza at Caesars Palace since March 2003. It was created by former Cirque du soleil artistic director Franco Dragone.
The singer launches a yearlong global tour in February, stopping in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America.
A cyborg skeleton from "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" brought in nearly $500,000 on Friday in an auction of Hollywood memorabilia dominated by props and costumes from Arnold $chwarzenegger's shoot-em-up sci-fi franchise.
An armored drone went for $109,250, and a full-body Terminator model went for $74,750. Both items were from "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines."
A full-scale tyrannosaurus rex head from "Jurassic Park" was the second priciest item of the day, bringing in $126,500.
Gentle, kindly Mary Poppins could hardly compete. Julie Andrews' signature gabardine coat from the 1964 film brought in a comparatively modest $63,250.
A Gold Stripe Maroon Clownfish (Premnas biaculeatus) is seen swimming in an Anemone in an exotic fish store aquarium in Tyler, Texas on Sunday Dec. 2, 2007.
Photo by Dr. Scott M. Lieberman
You have reached the Home page of BartCop Entertainment.
Make yourself home, take your shoes off...
Go ahead, scratch it if it itches.
The idea is to have fun.
Do you have something to say?
Anything that increased your blood pressure, or, even better,
amused or entertained?
Do you have a great album no one's heard?
How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
A popular artist that just plain pisses you off?
A box set the whole world should own?
Vile, filthy rumors about Republican musicians?
Just plain vile, filthy rumors?
This is your place.
