'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Have You Registered Yet?
Rolling Stones In LA
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Gray & overcast all day. Finally starting to rain.
ABC is promoing Al Franken vs. George Will on Judas Stephanopolous' show in the morning.
Major influx of new talking heads on all the local TV stations. Rather hard to take a newbie seriously when they're mispronouncing the names of streets & towns, while looking like Bambi in the headlights.
Going up to see the snow on Monday, if the weather cooperates. The kid was waxing nostalgic about some winters in PA. Won't be quite the same, but, he'll get a taste.
Tonight, Sunday, as is tradition, CBS opens the evening with '60 Minutes', and then follows with a RERUN 'Becker', then a RERUN movie - 'You've Got Mail'.
NBC starts the night the with 'Dateline', then a RERUN 'American Dreams', followed by a RERUN 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent', and caps it with a RERUN 'Boomtown'.
ABC fills the entire evening with 'The Sound of Music'.
The WB opens the night with the weekly RERUN of 'Gilmore Girls', then a RERUN 'Charmed', and finally, a RERUN infomercial/'special' from the parent company - 'Return To Middle Earth'.
Faux begins with a RERUN 'Futurama', then the movie 'Die Hard With A Vengeance'.
Nothing fresh on UPN, either. RERUN 'Buffy', RERUN 'Enterprise', and 'Stargate SG-1'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Seattle
Edelweiss
Mike Hart, left, and Laurie Nichols, right, dressed as Edelweiss wait on stage at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, for the audience to vote on their costume,
before a showing of the film 'Sound of Music', Friday Dec. 27, 2002.
Photo by Ralph Radford
Tops Gallup Poll
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Laura Bush and J. Lo have something in common: Americans like them.
A Gallup poll found the nation divided in the contest for "most admired" woman. Among men, resident Bush remained the clear favorite for the second year in a row.
Clinton, the former first lady who now represents New York in the Senate, and her successor in the White House, Laura Bush, topped Gallup's list of women along with talk show host Oprah Winfrey.
Clinton was favored by 7 percent of those surveyed; Bush and Winfrey had 6 percent each.
Jennifer Lopez's new movie and album, along with heavy media coverage of her pending wedding nuptials to actor Ben Affleck, boosted her to the sixth spot with 2 percent. That put
her on par with incoming Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. Former first lady Barbara Bush and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher each got 3 percent.
Party lines had some bearing on results. Clinton pulled 15 percent among Democrats; the first lady led among Republicans, with 13 percent. They remain no match for Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis, who won 60 percent of Americans' vote in 1963 following her husband's assassination.
Poet Maya Angelou and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright also made the top-10 women's list.
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Osaka, Japan
Artifical Fish
Rie Hama, an engineer at Eamex Corporation, looks into a fish tank where two artificial fish swim, in the company's laboratory in Osaka, western Japan on
December 26, 2002. The company says it uses small pieces of artificial muscle, or polymer actuator, attached between the bodies and tails of the fish to
help them swim. The fish were jointly developed by Eamex and Daiichikogei, another Osaka-based company. A set of two fish in a tank will be on sale in
January 2003 for an open price, which company officials expect to be around 16,000 yen ($133).
Photo by Keiko Kanai
Professor Dumbledore
Ian McKellen
There's a new wizard in town. Ian McKellen has been pegged to play Professor Dumbledore in J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" movie series, according to the London Sun. McKellen takes over for Richard Harris, who died earlier this year. The decision means McKellen could be appearing in two magical movies at the same time - as Dumbledore in "Harry Potter," and Gandalf in "The Lord of the Rings." A rep for Warner Bros. said, "We haven't made an announcement yet."
Ian McKellen
Read Unfinished Book to Dying Girl
J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling read an unfinished Harry Potter book over the phone to a young American girl dying of cancer.
Now the world's most successful children's author has donated $100,000 to a special fund set up in memory of Catie Hoch to help other young cancer victims.
News of Rowling's touching involvement with the dying girl -- first by e-mail and then reading on the phone -- was revealed to Britain's Sunday Telegraph by Catie's mother Gina
who hopes it might encourage further donations to the memorial fund at
www.catiehochfoundation.org.
She read the first three Harry Potter books to Catie and then e-mailed the publishers asking when the fourth was due -- as she feared time was running out for her daughter.
Rowling e-mailed Catie back with some tantalizing snippets from her fourth book -- "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" -- and then phoned her in Albany, New York to read extracts.
"Catie's face just lit up," her mother recalled.
J.K. Rowling
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Starring Antonio Banderas
Pancho Villa & HBO
Mexicans are not taking kindly to the idea of Pancho Villa, the stout, pistol-packing hero of the 1910-1917 revolution, being played by a spindly Spaniard for an American audience — two nationalities Villa loathed.
Spanish actor Antonio Banderas filmed the HBO movie "And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself" at a time when Hollywood's treatment of history is becoming a sensitive point for Mexicans. Actress Salma
Hayek recently starred as Mexican artist Frida Kahlo in a Hollywood movie filmed entirely in Mexican-accented English.
Some Americans, on the other hand, may not like the largely sympathetic treatment the HBO film is apparently giving Villa, who led the last army to invade the United States, killing 18 Americans
during a 1916 raid on Columbus, N.M.
Banderas promises the Villa movie, filmed in Mexico, will be evenhanded. But the contradictions are not lost on people here.
"He is a disputed character not only for the Mexican people but throughout the world," Banderas told a news conference in October before filming started in the
north-central state of Guanajuato. "I am not here to judge him. That is up to God.
Pancho Villa & HBO
Shanghai, China
Balloons
A Chinese farmer delivers balloons to an opening ceremony of a new township on the outskirts of Shanghai, December 26, 2002. The township will accomodate more than 80,000 residents when completed in 2005.
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Paying For House Damage, Getting Off Cheap
Air Force
The Air Force said Friday it will pay about $12,000 in damages to a woman whose house was hit by a dummy bomb.
Gloria Aker's west Texas home was hit last July by a bomb accidentally dropped from an Air Force F-117A Nighthawk on a practice run from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.
Although the dummy didn't contain explosives, it pierced the home's roof, flew through a bathroom, slammed through a wall, then plowed 6 feet into the ground. Later, a device
used to locate the bomb discharged smoke throughout the house.
Aker was in her home with her two children when the bomb hit. All three were shaken but unharmed. The family has been living with Aker's parents while the home is repaired.
Air Force
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Ordered to Pay Damages
Master P
Rapper and producer Master P was ordered to pay $105,000 in punitive damages to a grandmother whose voice was secretly recorded and used to introduce a cut on artist Magic's album "Sky's the Limit."
Superior Court Judge R. Bruce Minto said Thursday that 80-year-old Geneva Burger of Pomona should receive the money from Master P, whose real name is Percy Miller, because she
suffered embarrassment and anxiety when she heard her voice on a "crude gangsta rap CD."
Burger asked a friend of her grandson during a 1997 phone call, "When people get hooked on pot, can they get sick if they don't get it?" Burger didn't know the phone call was taped and distributed to various people.
The recording of her question was used to introduce the single "No Limit" on Magic's 1998 album. Rapper Snoop Dogg sang a verse of the song. Master P, as the CD's executive
producer, made more than $3 million, said Burger's lawyer, Neville L. Johnson.
Master P
Berlin Aquarium
Jelly
Ein kleiner Junge schaut mit großen Augen auf eine tropische Qualle im Berliner Aquarium. Mit rund 10.000 Exemplaren gehört die Schau des Zoos der Hauptstadt zu den größten der Welt.
Photo by Fabrizio Bensch
I don't care if it rains of freezes
'Long as I got my
License Revoked
Dr. Jules Lusman
A doctor whose license was revoked for allegedly catering to the drug demands of Hollywood celebrities took advantage of some of his more mentally unstable and chronically ill clients, a newspaper reported Saturday.
In its investigations of Dr. Jules Lusman, the state Medical Board heard from several patients who said Lusman tried to take advantage of them, according to the Los Angeles Times, which cited state and court records.
A state administrative law judge this fall recommended Lusman's license be revoked, saying the doctor "routinely resorted to narcotics as his answer to complaints of pain ... while
charging hundreds or even thousands of dollars for consultations."
The Medical Board agreed. In doing so, the Medical Board's chief of enforcement called Lusman "a drug pusher with a medical license," the Times reported.
Among the celebrities Medical Board investigators connected to Lusman was actress Winona Ryder, who had 37 prescriptions filled by 20 doctors from January 1996 to December
1998, according to her probation report. Lusman lost his license the same day Ryder, 31, was sentenced to three years probation and drug and psychological counseling for shoplifting.
Lusman, who returned earlier this month to his native South Africa, has asked the courts to set aside the Medical Board ruling. He said the accusations were fabricated.
Dr. Jules Lusman
I don't know what I can do
'Long I've got
Helps Nab Poachers
Robo Deer
Tales of Rudolph of red-nose fame, Dasher, Prancer and Santa's other tiny reindeer dominate at Christmas time, but have you heard of the strangest deer of all?
He's Robo Deer. The mechanical decoy helps Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers nab poachers and deter the illegal shooting of Rudolph's real-life cousins at night and from vehicles.
The stories of his exploits have multiplied since 1995 when the agency began using the devices. Robo Deer follows in the hoof-steps of a couple less realistic versions. The first was a cardboard cutout with some burlap on it.
Next was a deer replica similar to those archers can buy as practice targets, but it had no moving parts.
Then came Robo Deer, which can turn its head and twitch its tail. The stories quickly followed.
As the arrests grew, so did the legend. Officers get calls from people claiming they spotted Robo Deer, much like Elvis, in places he's never been.
For a lot more, Robo Deer
Thanks, Michelle!
Hachioji, Japan
'Tonkichi'
Motorbike shop owner Hirokatsu Mikami rides on remodeled scooter with a pig-shaped cowl, named "Tonkichi" (pig fortune), in Hachioji on the outskirts of
Tokyo Friday, Dec. 27, 2002. Mikami, 34, took two months to create his shop's loss leader made of reinforced plastic six months ago.
Photo by Itsuo Inouye
'The Osbournes'
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