~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From 'TBH Politoons'
Great Site!
Thanks, again, Tim!
Alex's Entertainment Report
Alex
"Law & Order" alum Angie Harmon will make the leap to lighthearted spookery as a trainer of teen spies in MGM's upcoming kids movie "Agent Cody Banks."
The picture features young TV stars Frankie Muniz (Fox's "Malcolm in the Middle") and Hilary Duff (Disney Channel's "Lizzie McGuire"), and is scheduled for release next summer.
Harmon, who left a three-year stint as assistant district attorney Abbie Carmichael on "Law & Order" last year, previously starred on "Baywatch Nights" and as the voice of Commissioner Barbara Gordon on the animated "Batman Beyond."
Angie Harmon
~~ Alex
Alex's Site
Thanks, Alex!
Reader Question
Bad Link In 'Helena Handbasket'
Quick question from the Wed 5.29.02 issue:
Under the "Danny Lloyd (Danny Torrance in The Shining)" photo, where it lists the "SITES FROM HELL" there seems to be a link missing. It's the first one listed, where it says, 'Mandatory reading: Go
and type in your birthday'. Only it doesn't point to an outside link. (Although it's just as well, as news about birthday trivia is now depressing for me, as mine is September 11th. All future merriment
and celebration is likely to be ruined with sad, reverent memorials.)
sigh.
(hate to complain because as it goes i am one of the lucky ones who didn't lose family that day, but, geez -- it's my birthday, y'know?)
~~ Miss Helen
Miss Helen -
the link in question is Mandatory reading: Go
here and type in your birthday.
It's a wonderful link, and I offer my best 'mea culpa'
Thanks for letting me know about the lack of a link!
And, while for the near future your birthday may be a date that will 'live in infamy' (to borrow a phrase), attention spans seemingly shorten all the time. And, instead of saying your birthday is 9-11, say
your birthday is the 11th of September. It's not just online that parsing counts!
(Also, see below.)
Reader Movie Review
''On The Beach''
By Carol M
I wanted to pass on the experience of watching this
old movie again.
''On the Beach'' (1959)
from a book by Nevil Shute and
directed by Stanley Kramer.
I saw it when I was a kid and it made such a huge
impression that I have never forgotten it. I recently
purchased it on DVD and watching it was just as much an emotional experience
this time as it was the first time.
The premise is that there has been a
nuclear war and every person in the world is dead except those in Australia.
Gregory Peck is a submarine commander who finds his way there as the only
place not too hot with radioactivity for the submarine to emerge. The
population there knew the radioactivity would reach them in a few weeks.
The story of how they spent their remaining time is wrenching.
We need to
see this film again to understand what a nuclear war could do and how
ineffective all our military, congressional and science experts would be at
a time like that.
I was also amazed to see what fine work was done by the
actors. Fred Astaire was incredible in a serous role without music or
dancing. A much better actor then I realized. And Ava Gardner being helped
into the boat by Gregory Peck was an amazingly sexy scene for the 1950's.
You could see her crotch as she slid backward into the boat in such a
natural pose. Of course Gregory Peck is a master.
I highly recommend
seeing this movie again or for the first time. Tears were streaming from my
eyes as I watched the unthinkable future.
~~ Carol M.
Thanks, Carol! Damn good review of a damn fine movie!
Reader Site Recommendation
'Friends Of Pickles'
From Sharon G
'' Young People! Are millions of years of the myth of "evolution" whispering fevered pornographic commands to your hormone-engorged genitals? Well don't listen! Instead, First
Lady Laura Bush suggests you "tune in" to her good friends, the multi-platinum rock music players SATANICIDE, and their new libido-crushing anthem of patriotic teen abstinence,
"Keep It In Your Pants!"
Friends Of Pickles
Thanks, Sharon!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Miss Helen (scroll up) sent a note asking about the lack of a link in 'Disinfotainment Today/HelenaHandbasket', and I'm mighty grateful!
The missing link is: Go
here and type in your birthday.
Michael Dare's stuff is too damn good to fuck with!
(The archival copy has been corrected)
Watched a show on ABC, 'My Adventures In Television', which, initially aired under the title 'Wednesdays@9:30/8:30 Central'. Has a lot of local/Hollywood references. Rather hope it plays out
into the summer...has a freaking great cast! Yeah - this one could have 'legs' - wonderfully cynical, wonderfully accurate, somewhat esoteric. I liked it!
Started out watching the Peter Jennings 'special', but it wasn't 'special' enough to hold my interest.
Nearest I can figure out, (taped) Carson Daly is the closest thing to fresh on (commercial network) TV this week! (Oh, Ok, the network news - sorta-kinda)
Tonight, Thursday, CBS starts the night with a military-themed 'The Price Is Right', and follows it with reruns of 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation' and 'The Agency'.
On a rerun Dave (from 4/03/02) are Michael J. Fox and Patti Smith.
On a rerun Craiggers are Andy Dick, Petra Nemcova, and And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead.
It's 5 reruns for NBC - 'Friends', 'Frasier', 'Will & Grace', 'Just Shoot Me', and 'ER'.
On a rerun Jay is Paul McCartney.
On a rerun Conan is ?
Carson Daly has Chris Kattan and Remy Zero.
ABC starts the night with 2 reruns of 'Whose Line', follows with a fresh 'Regis' and then 'PrimeTime Thursday'.
On a rerun Bill Maher (from 4/25/02) are (Comedian) D.L. Hughley, (Actress Fran Drescher), (Radio Talk Show Host) Doug McIntyre, and (Author) Ralph Nader.
The WB starts with 2 reruns of 'Jamie Kennedy Experiment', and then a rerun of 'Charmed'.
Faux has the movie 'Arachnophobia'.
UPN has 'WWE Smackdown'.
TCM has the ever-wonderfully campy Soylent Green (1973). Chuck-with-the-ferret-on-his-head gets to yelp a classic line - (altogether now) - ''It's People!''
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Last Leg Of The 2-Pauls Tour
Bono
Irish rock star Bono made an impassioned appeal to rich nations Wednesday to increase aid to Africa and drop past debts, saying it was in their interests to stop poor countries
from degenerating into another Afghanistan.
"It is just not acceptable that Ethiopia, where 62 percent of adults cannot read, where one million children are orphans, is paying $100 million a year to us," Bono said in a speech
punctuated by applause and cheers from delegates at the African Development Bank's (ADB) annual conference.
Bono, who exchanged his usually casual clothes for a suit and tie -- though his trademark sunglasses remained -- attacked Western institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
saying their approach to Africa was a "new colonialism."
The Dublin-born singer also stressed the pressing need to sit up and take note of the AIDS epidemic sweeping the continent.
"In the last 10 days while we have been on this trip in sub-Saharan Africa, 55,000 people have died of AIDS, $400 million has been spent by Africans on debt payments -- much of this to the IMF and
World Bank -- and 14,000 mothers have given HIV to their children in childbirth," he said.
"Can you believe that? I cannot believe that. It is insanity."
Bono
MTV Signs For New Season
'The Osbournes'
MTV announced a second season for "The Osbournes" on Wednesday in a lucrative deal that threatens to turn the network into "OzTV."
The reality sitcom that depicted the addled rock star, his wife Sharon, daughter Kelly and son Jack alternating swearing at and showing their love for one another drew nearly 8 million viewers
at its peak last month — unprecedented numbers for the cable network.
"It's proven to be a seminal show for MTV," network president Van Toffler said. "Part of the charm is that it was so unexpected, and I believe the reason it works is the juxtaposition of the
freakiest, weirdest human on the planet in the most traditional of situations."
The first season consisted of only 10 episodes, repeated relentlessly. Wednesday's deal is for 20 episodes that will begin filming next month and air in the fall.
MTV wouldn't comment on the financial terms. It is believed the Osbourne family will receive $5 million for the upcoming season, with the potential to make much more if the ratings stay high, if
the show is sold internationally and if there's wide interest in ancillary products like T-shirts.
Although MTV said Wednesday it will air a series of Osbourne specials this summer, including coverage of Ozzfest and "a very special dinner" with the family, Toffler promised
to guard against overexposure. The repeated reruns of the first set of episodes will slow down this summer, he said.
New Season For 'The Osbournes'
Court TV Hires Former CNN Anchor
Andrea Thompson
Andrea Thompson, the former "NYPD Blue" actress and CNN Headline News anchor, has been hired by Court TV.
Thompson will host a three-hour block of programming on Saturday evenings beginning June 8.
The block, in which Thompson will introduce shows and speak during breaks, will include reruns of "NYPD Blue" and episodes of "Forensic Files," a series
about how police solve crimes.
Thompson, 42, left Atlanta-based CNN in March after less than a year there. She joined the cable channel in June 2001 after just a year of experience in
the TV news business, working as a correspondent for KRQE-TV in Albuquerque, N.M.
Nude photos of Thompson appeared on several Internet sites, adding to criticism that CNN had gone Hollywood at the expense of news professionalism.
Andrea Thompson
Working For VH1
Sharon Osbourne
VH1 has picked Sharon Osbourne, the foul-mouthed matriarch of the Osbourne clan, to help pay tribute to a royal matriarch — Queen Elizabeth II.
Osbourne will be the host of VH1's broadcast of the all-star concert celebrating the queen's Golden Jubilee. Osbourne's husband, Ozzy, will perform at the June 3 concert, along
with Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Aretha Franklin and Paul McCartney. A taped performance by Elton John, who will be on tour, will be shown.
VH1 will air highlights from the concert on June 9.
The pop concert will be held in the garden of Buckingham Palace as part of a weekend of festivities to mark the queen's 50 years on the throne.
Sharon Osbourne
Golden Jubilee Web site
Baseball Games for Lou Gehrig
This Saturday
"Sopranos" star James Gandolfini and 13 other celebrities will read New York Yankees baseball legend Lou Gehrig's stirring farewell speech at major league baseball games on
Saturday to raise money for research into the fatal motor neuron disease that bears Gehrig's name.
In what organizers called a major logistical feat, Gandolfini, Chris Rock, John Goodman, Brooke Shields, Katie Couric, Jason Priestley and Matt Dillon will be among those reciting
the immortal 1939 Yankee Stadium speech in which an ailing Gehrig declared himself the "luckiest man on the face of the earth".
Two years later -- on June 2, 1941 -- Gehrig was dead at the age of 37, a victim of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, which has since become widely known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Gandolfini will deliver the speech at Yankee Stadium, site of where Gehrig spoke at home plate in July 1939, before the Yankees face the Red Sox. Chris Rock will do the honors at Dodger Stadium
before the Dodgers host the Arizona Diamondbacks, John Goodman will be at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Brooke Shields at Pac Bell Park in San Francisco, and Matt Dillon at the Pro Player Stadium in Miami.
Go To A Baseball Game On Saturday!
Wins Suit Over Fake Nude Photos
Steffi Graf
Former tennis star Steffi Graf won a court case against Microsoft Germany over fake nude photos of her that were posted on a Web site run by the company.
The state appeals court in Cologne on Tuesday upheld a ruling last October by a lower court, which had ruled that Microsoft Germany was responsible for the
content of the site and must ensure that such pictures don't appear there.
The company would have to pay a fine if similar photos emerge on the site in the future, court spokesman Christian Grueneberg said.
The photos — computer manipulations that put Graf's head on a nude body — appeared last year on the site operated by Microsoft Germany where users could
post pictures and texts to share with others.
Steffi Graf
Big Dog Watch Continues
Bill Clinton In New Zealand
Former United States President Bill Clinton's endorsement may have helped sell 55 luxury cars for his New Zealand sponsors.
But last night he won hundreds more fans with a rousing speech in downtown Auckland.
Speaking under sparkling lights at a marquee in the carpark of the Hilton Hotel, Mr Clinton's hour-long speech, which centred on the importance of building a global community, drew
impassioned applause and hearty cat calls from the 750-strong crowd.
When the audience, who had paid $800 to be present, were finally seated, they dined on South Island salmon and "tournedos" of beef, with Mr Clinton seated at the top table.
The former President was introduced to the crowd - who had evidently ignored advice to dress down - by MC Paul Holmes.
Holmes described Mr Clinton as a rock star, and he lived up to his billing.
To read the whole piece, Bill Clinton In New Zealand
'Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch' Fund Raiser
Pickles & Kinky
First lady Laura Bush, left, is shown with Kinky Friedman, right, before a luncheon on Wednesday, May 29, 2002, in Austin, Texas. The fundraiser was for Friedman's Utopia Animal
Rescue Ranch, which has adopted and placed almost 500 stray and abused animals.
Photo by Harry Cabluck
Pleads No Contest
Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg pleaded no contest to marijuana possession charges, and received a $250 fine and a suspended 30-day jail sentence.
The 30-year-old rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, was charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia after his tour bus was stopped in
nearby Amherst by the State Highway Patrol for speeding on Oct. 17. Drug-sniffing dogs found six bags of marijuana weighing about 200 grams in the cargo hold of the bus.
The rapper and his band were stopped during a concert tour titled "Puff, Puff, Pass 2001." Its name refers to sharing marijuana.
The band had played a show in Cleveland the night before and was en route to Detroit when the tour bus was stopped.
Snoop Dogg
Doesn't Have A Ticket To Ride
Lance Bass
The Russian space agency said Wednesday that it had no plans to give 'N Sync's Lance Bass a ride to space, and that no other space tourist has secured a seat on a
Russian rocket set to blast off to the international space station in October.
"The Russian Aerospace Agency has had no contacts whatsoever with Mr. Bass," agency spokesman Konstantin Kreidenko said. "We have received no requests from either
him or his representatives, not to speak about signing any contracts."
Last week, Moscow's Institute of Biomedical Problems, Russia's premier space medicine center, said Bass and former NASA employee Lori Garver were being evaluated
for their space travel fitness.
But on Wednesday, Kreidenko said: "Anyone has the right to undergo tests in the Institute of Biomedical Problems. But that doesn't mean that such person is
considered to be a candidate for space flight."
Lance Bass
First Series To Rip-Off 'The Osbournes'
Anna Nicole Smith
From aging rocker to embattled Playmate: The first new cable bio series to follow MTV's hit "The Osbournes" will center on Anna Nicole Smith.
E! Networks has greenlit a weekly half-hour reality-based series revolving around the busty model-widow for a late July or early August debut. "The Anna Nicole Smith Show"
likely will air in a 10 p.m. slot on a to-be-determined night.
An E! executive said the network got the idea before "The Osbournes" became a cultural phenomenon.
The series will follow Smith, her teenage son, her attorney and her assistant in their not-so-everyday Los Angeles-based life.
Anna Nicole Smith
Big Dog Watch Continues
Bill Clinton By Peter Max
Scroll down to the 8th poster.
'' This original portrait of President Bill Clinton by Peter Max is destined to become an historical art piece. Painted by an artist with whom he is philosophically
attuned, Clinton by Max will be looked at as a piece that captures an era in the nation's political, artistic and cultural life. Clinton's personality emerges
clearly through the multi-cultural hues painted by Max who was the official artist for the Presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1992. This unframed painting
measures 5-1/8" x 7-3/8" and has an appraised value of $12,000. A certificate of authenticity will be included with the painting. Price: $12,000.00 ''
Great Posters - Peter Max
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
New PBS Series
'Freedom: A History of Us'
resident Bush, "The Today Show" co-anchor Katie Couric and a bevy of Hollywood stars will participate in the upcoming public TV series "Freedom: A History of Us."
The 16-part series, which will air in January, is based on the controversial textbooks written by amateur historian Joy Hakim. Published by Oxford University Press
in the mid-'90s, the 10-book series reportedly sold more than 800,000 copies, but drew the ire of conservatives for the author's polemical take on Ronald Reagan.
Using archival film, artwork and rare photographs, "Freedom" will feature actors such as Julia Roberts, Anthony Hopkins, Angela Bassett, Reese Witherspoon, Billy
Crystal and Robin Williams reading from personal historical accounts.
'Freedom: A History of Us'
It's ''Bob Hope Day'' In LA
Bob Hope
Bob Hope turned 99 on Wednesday with an outpouring of birthday wishes and a new honor from the nation.
The partying started early for the Hope family, with the comic's wife, Dolores, celebrating her 93rd birthday on Monday. Balloons, flowers and gifts arrived at their
Toluca Lake home throughout the week, and the couple had a low-key cake and ice cream party Tuesday night.
Hope, who is frail and was hospitalized briefly last year with pneumonia, did not plan to make any public appearances. His wife was expected to attend the
afternoon chapel ceremony on his behalf.
Born Leslie Townes Hope on May 29, 1903, in Eltham, England, his family immigrated to the United States in 1907 and settled in Cleveland.
Hope made his last overseas visit to entertain U.S. troops at age 87, stopping in Saudi Arabia in 1990 during Operation Desert Storm, but since has
fully retired from show business.
Bob Hope
They Call It Petanque, I Call It Bocci
Not Completely Naked
Members of the UK's nude petanque team, who have signed a sponsorship deal with Persil washing powder, throw their boules, May 29. The team will sport branded hats, socks
and sweatbands at two tournaments in The Netherlands later this Summer.
A Cookie Baker?
Uncle Karen
When Karen Hughes, the one person whose advice President Bush values above all others, suddenly packed up and left D.C. to go home to Texas, it started all
kinds of rumors. No one believed that Karen just wanted to be with her family, baking cookies so to speak. The latest version of what she's really doing comes
via Democratic circles. They say Dubya actually sent her back to Texas because the GOP is facing quite tough battles there this year in the Senate and gubernatorial
elections. Bush would take it as a personal rebuff if his party lost either race, so Karen's been sent in to run things. After that, of course, she'll be heading up
the president's re-election campaign.
Uncle Karen
New President & COO Of Playboy
David Zucker
Adult entertainment company Playboy Enterprises Inc. on Tuesday named a new No. 2 executive with experience in television and online technology as it
aims to strengthen its own cable TV and Web operations.
David Zucker, 39, will take up the newly created position of president and chief operating officer, reporting to chief executive Christie Hefner, the company said.
The Chicago-based parent of Playboy magazine, founded by Hugh Hefner, has not had a president since the late 1970s.
Playboy believes its future growth is in TV and online because the magazine is a mature product.
Zucker's appointment does not mean Hefner will be devoting less of her time to her job. "If anything, David's success should keep me busier," she said.
Zucker will be based at Playboy headquarters in Chicago.
David Zucker
BartCop TV!
Acquired By National Library of Ireland
James Joyce Treasure Trove
The National Library of Ireland said Wednesday it had acquired hundreds of pages of previously unseen notes and manuscripts by Irish literary giant James Joyce,
a cultural coup for the writer's homeland.
The 500 pages of writings and jottings are believed to be the most important collection of Joyce's material in the world, and include notebooks from his early days
in Dublin and draft chapters of his masterpiece "Ulysses."
The National Library bought the collection for $11.7 million Tuesday after 18 months of secret negotiations with Alexis Leon, the son of Joyce's former Jewish aide.
The late Paul Leon ventured into German-occupied Paris in 1940 and recovered the papers from Joyce's landlord, who had been about to auction them to recover the writer's
unpaid rent. Joyce had fled Paris when the Germans invaded France and died in Zurich in 1941.
Leon was arrested and died in a Nazi concentration camp, and the papers were given to Joyce's widow Nora after the war.
James Joyce Treasure Trove
Another Nose Job?
Michael Jackson
They say that Michael Jackson has just had another nose job - No. 6, according to those who keep score on these things. The new one is set to be unveiled mid-June, when
Jacko attends a children's charity event put on by the English soccer club owned by his friend, mentalist Uri Geller. Heaven forbid that an errant ball smashes into Michael's
face and damages all the new surgery. There just isn't enough bone left in his nose for any more alterations.
Michael Jackson
Found Off Solomons
PT-109
A World War Two patrol boat captained by President John F. Kennedy which was sunk by a Japanese destroyer has been found off the Solomon Islands by the man who tracked down
the Titanic, local radio said on Wednesday.
The remains of wooden boat PT-109 was found on the seabed of the Blanket Strait off Gizo Island, about 236 miles northwest of the Solomons capital Honiara, by an international
team led by U.S. oceanographer Robert Ballard.
Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC) radio said Ballard had told the corporation he had found the wreckage of Kennedy's boat last week after about a week of searching.
SIBC said Ballard's team would not release any of the details of their find because of contractual obligations over film, magazine and book rights to their search. A National
Geographic documentary is to be released in November, it said.
PT-109
To Portray Serial Philanderer
James Wood
Emmy-winner James Woods will play former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in a two-hour cable movie to air later this year on USA Network.
"Rudy!" is expected to chronicle Giuliani's tenure as mayor of the nation's largest city, culminating with his work after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The script for "Rudy!" is being written by Stanley Weiser, whose credits include "Wall Street," "Fatherland" for HBO and "Witness to the Mob" for NBC. The film will be based on
the book "Rudy!" by The Village Voice senior editor Wayne Barrett.
James Woods
Boycotting Nestles
Germaine Greer
Two prominent writers have pulled out of one of Britain's top literary festivals to protest its sponsorship by Nestle, which they accuse of predatory marketing in
developing countries, organizers said.
Feminist author Germaine Greer and novelist Jim Crace, a former Booker Prize nominee, have canceled their appearances at the annual festival in Hay-on-Wye, Wales,
which begins Friday and runs through June 9.
The writers said they withdrew due to their concerns over Nestle's marketing of powdered infant formula in developing nations. The World Health Organization
says in poor countries, where up to two-thirds of people don't have access to clean water and where mothers are often unable to read instructions properly, baby
formula represents a hazard to newborns.
"I'm not leading a boycott, this was an entirely personal decision, but I will not take part in an event where a Nestle banner is sported," Greer said in an interview
published Monday in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
"There's no clean money out there, but there are some things I stick to and this is one of them."
Germaine Greer
Hay-on-Wye Festival Web site
Used to Kill Selena
Lost Revolver Found
The revolver used to kill Tejano singer Selena turned up at the home of the court reporter from the shooter's 1995 trial, investigators said.
The .38-caliber Taurus revolver was lost after the trial of Yolanda Saldivar, the former president of Selena's fan club who killed the Grammy winner
at a Corpus Christi motel in March 1995. Saldivar was convicted of murder and is serving a life sentence.
Former court reporter Sandra Oballe, who is now studying law in Houston, didn't know she had the weapon, Nueces County District Attorney Carlos Valdez
said. The gun was found in a box of office supplies at her home.
"When she left employment with the county, they had boxed up a bunch of stuff that was in her office and taken it away," Valdez said in Wednesday's Corpus
Christi Caller-Times. "We asked her to do us a favor and look through the stuff that she had taken home."
Lost Revolver Found
At CBS 'Television City'
Suicidal Gunman
A suicidal gunman stormed into the CBS television network complex and kept police at bay for more than four hours before ending the standoff by shooting himself, officials said.
The standoff forced the evacuation of CBS' Television City, a sprawling complex where "The Price is Right" and other shows are filmed.
David Tom, who plays Billy Abbott on "The Young and the Restless," told KCBS-TV that the gunman interrupted filming on the soap opera.
CBS Television City, which bears the CBS eye logo on its main building, is the entertainment industry's oldest studio built specifically for television. The complex has been home to
numerous CBS fixtures, including: "All in the Family," "The Smothers Brothers," "The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour," and "Hollywood Squares."
Suicidal Gunman
Dancing In Kampala
Bono
Irish rock singer Bono dances with an orphan living with HIV/AIDS at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Kampala May 29, 2002. This was the last stop for
Bono in Uganda before leaving for Ethiopia today on the fourth leg of a debt-study tour that has taken he and U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill to Ghana
and South Africa.
Photo by Patrick Olum
Won't Hyphenate Name
Kah Marries Boom
A recent engagement announcement in the Flint Journal in Michigan had the following headline: "Kah-Boom."
Laura Kah says she won't hyphenate her new name after she marries Scott Boom this December, for the obvious reasons.
She says her mother's even having fun with the names, suggesting the couple name their first child Thunder.
Kah's last name is pronounced "Kay." But it's often mispronounced. She says she's looking forward to becoming Laura Boom.
Kah Marries Boom
In Memory
Millie Benson
Millie Benson, a dedicated newspaperwoman for six decades who wrote the first 23 "Nancy Drew" mystery stories about the intrepid teen-age detective, has died, her editor said on Wednesday.
Benson, 96, fell ill at her desk at the Toledo Blade newspaper on Tuesday and later died at a hospital.
Paid a paltry fee and no royalties by syndicate publisher Edward Stratemeyer to create the Nancy Drew detective series in 1930, Benson infused the character with a backbone she felt other fictional heroines of the time lacked.
"I wanted to do something different," Benson once said of the books she wrote under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. "The heroines of girls' books back then were all namby-pamby. I was expressing a sort of tomboy spirit."
The series was rewritten over the following decades, softening Drew's character, and one of Stratemeyer's daughters, Harriet Adams, later claimed to have written them.
But Benson's testimony during a 1980 lawsuit against the syndicate restored her achievement, winning her numerous honors and a host of media profiles that cited her 58 years as a reporter and columnist in Toledo.
Semi-retired in January, Benson wrote that "going to work was a way of life for me and I had no other."
"Millie Benson was one of the greatest women writers and journalists of the 20th Century," said John Robinson Block, editor-in-chief and publisher of the Blade. "She was gutsy and daring, a living embodiment of her Nancy Drew heroine."
In an interview, Benson said she never read her fictional stories after they were finished, "because the minute I do I'm going into the past, and I never dwell on the past."
Benson frequently traveled to Mexico and Central America to indulge her interest in Mayan culture, paddling a dugout canoe into the jungle, and became a pilot in her 60s.
Through it all, she was dedicated to reporting and writing the news, first for the Toledo Times and later for the Blade.
Her columns reflected on both local and global issues, with a personalized focus on the struggles of the elderly -- "people who are willing to go out and do things," she said.
Born Mildred Augustine on July 10, 1905 in Ladora Iowa, she married Associated Press reporter Asa Wirt in 1928, with whom she had a daughter, Peggy. Three years after his death in 1947 she married newspaper editor George Benson, who died in 1959.
Millie Benson
In Memory
Ruby Bradley
Still Seeking Volunteers
'The Osbournes'
Freshly updated - 'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2 !
'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).
