I'm gonna take a break for a week or two to catch up from the holidays and focus on some personal affairs (mainly relocation closer to my immediate family).
I'll be back soon, I assure you!... Meanwhile, don't let the bastards get ya down!
zEN mAN (observing Ariane Sherine who is not only really cute but she started the "Atheist Bus Campaign"...it makes me wanna ......not believe....in god that is)
Paul Krugman: Ideas for Obama (nytimes.com)
President-elect Barack Obama's economic plan falls well short of what's needed. To fix it, he needs to stop talking about "jump-starts" and focus on long-term investment.
FRANK RICH: Eight Years of Madoffs (nytimes.com)
THREE days after the world learned that $50 billion may have disappeared in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, The Times led its front page of Dec. 14 with the revelation of another $50 billion rip-off. This time the vanished loot belonged to American taxpayers. That was our collective contribution to the $117 billion spent (as of mid-2008) on Iraq reconstruction - a sinkhole of corruption, cronyism, incompetence and outright theft that epitomized Bush management at home and abroad.
"Einstein for the 21st Century: His Legacy in Science, Art, and Modern Culture" by Peter L. Galison and Gerald Holton and Silvan S. Schweber: A review by Daniel Kennefick
This book makes an entertaining, engaging and informative effort to tackle a notoriously difficult topic: Albert Einstein's influence on society and culture. Einstein is strongly associated with modernism in the public mind. But the natural impulse to portray the man himself as a modernist has always been complicated by his own conservative taste in the arts (and even, it could be argued, in the sciences), as well as by the emerging division of the arts and sciences into two cultures, which became prominent during the course of Einstein's life and is visible in his own attitudes toward the arts.
Roger Ebert: The birds of prey are circling
Why do we thirst for movie stars to fail? Why are so many showbiz journalists like hyenas circling a crippled prey? Why do so many gossip columnists behave like jilted lovers or betrayed investors, livid with anger at what they once valued so highly? Why are a few stars singled out like the victims of school bullies? Why do the box office receipts of "Australia" appear in almost every news outlet, but an actual review of it appears in so few?
Who was the original host of 'The Price Is Right'?
A Bob Barker
B Bill Cullen
C Hugh Downs
D Dennis James
E Peter Marshall
Source
The original version of The Price is Right was an American television game show where the contestants won prizes by giving the closest bid to merchandise items and other products.
This original version - hosted by Bill Cullen - aired from 1956-1963 on NBC and from 1963-1965 on ABC. Versions aired in both daytime and (from 1957-1964) prime-time. It was the precursor to the current and most well known version of The Price Is Right, which has been running on CBS since 1972, with Bob Barker as host from 1972-2007 and Drew Carey as host beginning in 2007.
Bill Cullen hosted both the daytime and nighttime versions of the show. For two seasons (1959-1961), the nighttime version of the show was eighth in the prime time Nielsen ratings, making it by far the most watched game show on television at the time. Critics cited Cullen's easygoing personality as a key part of the show's success.
Source
mj was first, and correct, with:
That ubiquitous personality of early TV
Bill Cullen is who I seem to recall, B.
Alan J answered:
B Bill Cullen
Jim from Ca said:
Bill Cullen...Jim from Ca
Marian the Teacher responded:
Bill Cullen
Charlie replied:
From memory, though I double checked, it was
B Bill Cullen
from 1956-1965.
(A prize is presented. It's a full home-entertainment center with a built-in bed.)
Bill: (Looking only at the bed) Yessir, this is a full entertainment center.
It took me about 3 hours to dig out of the snowstorm, but I needed the workout.
~ Tony In Philly answered:
B - Bill Cullen
Kenneth responded:
Gotta be old for this one…Bill Cullen. As I recall, he had a pretty quick wit.
Adam in NoHo replied:
B Bill Cullen
Cullen hosted an early version of the show that appeared on ABC & NBC.
Contestant guessed the price of items without winning the item or much else.
The show was off the air for 7 years before appearing again on CBS in its
current incarnation first with Bob Barker as host, and now, Drew Carey. It's now owned by the Brits.
Sally saod:
Did anyone notice how I tried to make myself "younger" by attributing, "Froggy" to the, "Muppet Show" rather than remembering him from the, "Buster Brown Show" every Saturday, on the radio (1944 - 1952)? Of course you know that I was sitting there, glued to my radio, "watching" the Froggy perform back then. Guess I am indeed, busted... (But, at least I did remember the blasted twanger/frog connection!)
As for that insipid show, "Price Is Right," the first host was Bill Cullen (B) who was, for a time, many a Game Show's darling.
PS: Oh, my goodness, Professor Charlie, I feel your pain! May I take a moment to caution you (AWA all the snow infested viewers) to keep your shoveling in moderation? (Think rock salt and kitty litter - messy, but a way safer guys.) Aside from the occupational sore backs - and arms - and knees, that can result from enthusiastic shoveling, it is also a well known cause of heart attacks for those who are over say, ah, 30 (wink, wink). After all, we wouldn't want to lose any readers to the great snowdrift in the sky...
On the bright side, spring is right around the corner, I have my seed catalogues out already!
MAM responded:
B Bill Cullen was the original host of 'The Price is Right'. He hosted the show from 1956 - 1965. Was a Pittsburger! Worked on WWSW Radio when he started his radio career. in the 1930's.
circa 1958
And, Joe S ("Commuting from New York to Hollywood to do this show gets more interesting every week. Before I used to think the country was just New York on one end and Los Angeles on the other, with sand and mountains in the middle."
~ Bill Cullen) answered:
Wow! I know this one too. B Bill Cullen
I remember reading about Bill Cullen's life on the Internets recently, I don't remember why exactly, but he was an interesting man.
CBS begins the night with a FRESH'NCIS', followed by a FRESH'The Mentalist', then a FRESH'Without A Trace'.
Scheduled on a FRESHDave are Salma Hayek and Jimmie Walker.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Kristin Scott Thomas, and Joshua Jackson.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH'Biggest Loser 7', followed by a FRESH'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'.
Scheduled on a FRESHLeno are Mickey Rourke, Toni Collette, and John Legend.
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Rosario Dawson, Donald Faison, and Susan Tedeschi.
Scheduled on a FRESHCarson 'The Scab' Daly are Jaime King and Tom Freund featuring Ben Harper.
ABC opens the night with a FRESH'Homeland Security Theater', followed by a FRESH'Scrubs', then another FRESH'Scrubs', and 'Primetime: What Would You Do?'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Kiefer Sutherland, Malcolm Gladwell, and David Cook.
The CW offers a FRESH'90210', followed by a FRESH'Privileged'.
Faux fills the night with the SEASON PREMIERE'American Idol'.
MY has 'Street Patrol', another 'Street Patrol', 'Vice Squad', and another Vice Squad'.
A&E has 'CSI: The 2nd One', 'The First 48', another 'The First 48', 'Manhunters: Fugitive Task Force', followed by a FRESH'Manhunters: Fugitive Task Force'.
AMC offers the movie 'October Sky', followed by the movie 'Clear And Present Danger'.
BBC -
[12:00 PM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 13
[12:30 PM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 14
[1:00 PM] How Clean Is Your House? US - Episode 6
[1:30 PM] How Clean Is Your House? - Episode 10
[2:00 PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - Ep 4 The Fish and Anchor
[3:00 PM] Gordon Ramsay's F Word - Episode 9
[4:00 PM] How Clean Is Your House? US - Episode 7
[4:30 PM] How Clean Is Your House? - Episode 11
[5:00 PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - Ep 1 La Parra de Burriana
[6:00 PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - Ep 3 Momma Cherri's
[7:00 PM] BBC World News America
[8:00 PM] Arthur
[10:00 PM] BBC World News America
[11:00 PM] Arthur
[1:00 AM] Arthur
[3:00 AM] The Graham Norton Show - Ep 12 James Nesbitt, Catherine Tate and The Kooks
[4:00 AM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 2
[4:30 AM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 3
[5:00 AM] Cash in the Attic - Ep. 8 Anthony
[5:30 AM] Cash in the Attic - Ep. 9 Hawkridge
[6:00 AM] BBC World News (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of OC', another 'Real Housewives Of OC', still another 'Real Housewives Of OC', and a FRESH'Real Housewives Of OC'.
Comedy Central has 'Scrubs', another 'Scrubs', lasts night's 'Jon Stewart', last night's "Colbert Report', 'Futurama', 'South Park', and 'Dane Cook: Rough Around The Edges'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJon Stewart is Daniel Craig.
Scheduled on a FRESHColbert Report is Niall Ferguson.
FX has the movie 'Hellboy', followed by the movie 'I, Robot', then a FRESH'Nip/Tuck'.
History has 'Modern Marvels', 'The Universe', another 'The Universe', and 'Extreme Trains'.
IFC -
[6:05 AM] Solaris
[9:00 AM] The Castle
[10:30 AM] Dust to Glory
[12:15 PM] 2009 Spirit Awards Nomination Special
[12:45 PM] Solaris
[3:35 PM] The Castle
[5:00 PM] Dust to Glory
[6:45 PM] Gerry
[8:30 PM] 11:14
[10:00 PM] IFC Film Blast
[10:15 PM] IFC Music Blast
[10:30 PM] The Henry Rollins Show
[11:00 PM] The IT Crowd
[11:30 PM] IFC Web Blast
[12:00 AM] Wilfred
[12:30 AM] Hell Girl
[1:00 AM] IFC Film Blast
[1:15 AM] IFC Music Blast
[1:30 AM] The IT Crowd
[2:00 AM] Witchblade
[2:30 AM] IFC Web Blast
[3:00 AM] Wilfred
[3:30 AM] 11:14
[5:05 AM] Gerry (ALL TIMES EST)
SciFi has 'Scare Tactics', another 'Scare Tactics', still another 'Scare Tactics', yet another 'Scare Tactics', 'ECW', 'Scare Tactics', and still another 'Scare Tactics'.
Sundance -
[05:15 AM] Lights in the Dusk
[06:30 AM] Shot in Bombay
[08:15 AM] La Vie Promise
[10:00 AM] Crazy Love
[11:45 AM] Man Push Cart
[01:15 PM] Looking for Leonard
[02:45 PM] Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams
[04:20 PM] La Vie Promise
[06:00 PM] Iconoclasts - Season 4: Stella McCartney + Ed Ruscha
[07:15 PM] Eve & the Fire Horse
[09:00 PM] Big Ideas for a Small Planet - Season 2: Business
[09:30 PM] The Sierra Club Chronicles: Episode 2
[10:00 PM] 13 Tzameti
[11:30 PM] Harvie Krumpet
[12:00 AM] Waterborne
[01:30 AM] Happily Ever After
[03:15 AM] The President's Last Bang
[05:00 AM] Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams (ALL TIMES EST)
Actress Glenn Close lays on top of her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles on Monday, Jan. 12, 2009, as Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Leron Gubler, kneeling at left, and Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge look on. Applauding in the second row, are actors from left, Tate Donovan, Michael Chiklis, JoBeth Williams, Mary Kay Place and Jeff Goldblum.
Photo by Damian Dovarganes
Actress Glenn Close was honored with a star on Hollywood's "Walk of Fame" here Monday and said she was looking forward to having people walk all over her award.
Close, 61, described the awarding of the 2,378th star on Hollywood Boulevard as a "wonderful, wonderful honor", adding she was delighted to be sharing the famous stretch of sidewalk with some of her childhood heroes.
But she invited movie fans who held a grudge against some of her on-screen personas, such as deranged stalker Alex Forrest in 1987's "Fatal Attraction", to feel free to abuse her award.
"Five-inch heels, flip-flops, Birkenstocks, dropped ice cream cones, the odd tobacco squirt, baby carriages, roller blades, skateboards, wheelchairs -- bring it all on," Close joked.
"And I can just see it years from this moment. Someone will wander by my star, dust off my name and think `Glenn Close? Glenn Close? Oh yeah, I remember. He was good."
The Funk Brothers' drummer Uriel Jones, left, Duke Fakir of The Four Tops, center, and saxophonist Gil Bridges of Rare Earth, sit in the recording studio at the Motown Museum, Monday, Jan. 12, 2009, in Detroit. Motown Records was founded 50 years ago today.
Photo by Tony Ding
The Golden Globes award ceremony reeled in the big stars, but not much of a television audience, viewership figures on Monday showed.
Sunday's awards ceremony on the NBC network, featuring teary acceptances speeches by Briton Kate Winslet and a rare posthumous honor for Heath Ledger, averaged 14.6 million viewers, the second-lowest TV audience since 1995, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Two years ago, the audience was 20 million and last year's ceremony was reduced to a star-free news conference because of the Hollywood screenwriters strike.
A dispute over seven nude photographs of Marilyn Monroe taken in a hotel room six weeks before her death has been settled, lawyers said on Monday.
Photographer Bert Stern, who owns the rights to thousands of Monroe images, shot the photographs in July 1962 at Los Angeles' Bel Air Hotel. The session, which became known as the last sitting, is believed to be the final time the star, who died six weeks later at age 36, posed for pictures.
In a lawsuit filed in September in New York State Supreme Court, Stern said he lent the pictures to Eros Magazine and that they were never returned.
Stern said he did not realize they were missing until he was approached by photographers Michael Weiss and Donald Penny, who had the pictures and wanted to license them.
The New York Philharmonic will perform for the first time in Hanoi and Abu Dhabi next season and is getting Alec Baldwin to host its weekly national radio broadcasts.
Alan Gilbert, in his debut season as music director of the nation's oldest orchestra, will lead the musicians in the three-week tour in October, the Philharmonic announced Monday.
The orchestra, which made a historic trip to communist North Korea last winter, has performed in 59 countries but never in Vietnam or in Abu Dhabi, an oil-rich Middle Eastern emirate.
The 2009-2010 season, the orchestra's 168th, starts Sept. 12 with a free open rehearsal in the morning and an afternoon of chamber music and discussions.
British actor Rowan Atkinson, playing Fagin, performs in a press preview of the new production of the musical Oliver at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, in central London January 12, 2009.
Photo by Andrew Winning
A federal lawsuit filed Monday claims Roman Catholic bishops are wrongly imposing their religious beliefs on victims of human trafficking by prohibiting grant money to be used for emergency contraception, condoms and abortion care.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the complaint in federal court in Boston against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The suit claims the agency, which distributes money to help trafficking victims, has allowed the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to limit the services its subcontractors provide. The ACLU claims the bishops' conference is misusing taxpayer money and attempting to impose its religious beliefs on trafficking victims.
The bishops' conference, which promotes Catholic activities and does charitable and social welfare work, began administering the funds under the trafficking law in 2006, using social service organizations as subcontractors to provide the services. In its lawsuit, the ACLU said the agreements between the conference and the subcontractors explicitly prohibit them from using the funds to provide "referral for abortion services or contraceptive materials."
A series of banners designed by Alexander Calder are seen in the lobby of Philadelphia's main public library in Philadelphia, Monday, Jan. 12, 2009. The banners displayed for the first time since they went missing in the 1980s and are scheduled to be on view until March. They disappeared as the downtown building that they were in changed ownership. They were found when the building changed hands again around 2000.
Photo by Matt Rourke
The woman who was raped by fugitive director Roman Polanski three decades ago when she was 13 lashed out at the Los Angeles County district attorney's office on Monday, saying she is being victimized again by prosecutors' focus on lurid details of what happened to her.
Samantha Geimer, 45, filed a legal declaration asking that the charge against Polanski be dismissed in the interest of saving her from further trauma as the case is publicized anew.
Now a wife and mother of three children, Geimer said that the insistence by prosecutors and the court that Polanski must appear in person to seek dismissal "is a joke, a cruel joke being played on me."
Geimer said she believes prosecutors are reciting sexually explicit details of the case to distract from their office's own wrongdoing 31 years ago. The alleged wrongdoing was brought to light in the documentary "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," which prompted the director's lawyer to file a motion for dismissal.
Since the days of the Gold Rush, California has represented the Promised Land, an image celebrated in the songs of the Beach Boys and embodied by Silicon Valley's instant millionaires and the young men and women who achieve stardom in Hollywood.
But for many California families last year, tomorrow started somewhere else.
The number of people leaving California for another state outstripped the number moving in from another state during the year ending on July 1, 2008. California lost a net total of 144,000 people during that period - more than any other state, according to census estimates. That is about equal to the population of Syracuse, N.Y.
California's loss is extremely small in a state of 38 million. And, in fact, the state's population continues to increase overall because of births and immigration, legal and illegal. But it is the fourth consecutive year that more residents decamped from California for other states than arrived here from within the U.S.
Japanese women in kimonos attend a ceremony celebrating Coming of Age Day at Toshimaen amusement park in Tokyo January 12, 2009. Youths across Japan are honoured with special coming-of-age ceremonies when they reach the age of 20.
Photo by Toru Hanai
Police have arrested a Greenfield man for allegedly arranging to sell his 14-year-old daughter into marriage in exchange for $16,000, 100 cases of beer and several cases of meat.
Police said they only learned of the deal after the 36-year-old man went to them to get his daughter back because payment wasn't made as promised. The man was arrested Sunday on suspicion of human trafficking.
Officers also arrested an 18-year-old man on suspicion of statutory rape. Investigators believe the girl went willingly with the man, but she's under California's legal age of consent and can't legally marry.
Police say arranged marriages involving underage girls have become a problem in this small Central Coast farming community.
Tom O'Horgan, a leader in New York's experimental theatre scene in the 1960s who went on to direct the exuberant, often freewheeling Broadway productions of "Hair" and "Jesus Christ Superstar," has died at the age of 84.
O'Horgan made his name off-off-Broadway at such performance spaces as Caffe Cino, Judson Memorial Church and particularly La Mama in the East Village. Yet it wasn't until he restaged "Hair" (taking over for another director) when the show moved from off-Broadway's Public Theater to Broadway's Biltmore Theater in April 1968 for a lengthy run - that he was noticed by mainstream audiences.
"Tom was thoroughly theatrical," said Galt MacDermot, who wrote the music for "Hair." "He saw things in terms of theatre. He gave 'Hair' a look and he gave it movement."
O'Horgan also scored with his flamboyant, often campy stage version of "Jesus Christ Superstar" (1971), featuring a score by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. The musical, which starred Jeff Fenholt as Jesus and Ben Vereen as Judas, ran for more than 700 performances.
Among O'Horgan's other notable Broadway productions was "Lenny," a play by Julian Berry about the fabled comedian Lenny Bruce, who was portrayed by Cliff Gorman. He also directed the musical revue "Inner City."
Among his more notable off-Broadway productions were Rochelle Owens's "Futz" and Paul Foster's "Tom Paine," both in 1968.
O'Horgan's later Broadway-directed efforts were not successful. Several, such as the musical "Dude" (1972) and the play "The Leaf People" (1975), folded quickly. His last Broadway project, the musical "Senator Joe" (for which O'Horgan wrote the music and directed), closed during previews.
French director and producer Claude Berri, whose films included the international hit "Jean de Florette," has died, the office of President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday. He was 74.
He won an Oscar for his first short, "Le Poulet" and went on to make a series of pictures ranging from an adaptation of Emile Zola's "Germinal" to the gritty thriller "Tchao Pantin," (So Long, Stooge) starring the iconoclastic comedian Coluche.
In addition, he was a prolific producer, whose credits included major international productions like Roman Polanski's 1979 drama "Tess" as well as last year's "Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis," the most successful French film ever.
But he was also involved in lower-key successes, such as "La graine et le mulet," (The secret of the grain) directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, the story of an Arab immigrant who dreams of setting up a couscous restaurant and runs up against racism.
French actress Josiane Balasko, who directed and starred in "Gazon Maudit" (Accursed Lawn), a dark comedy about lesbians produced by Berri, said he had done much to help directors.
"I am very sad about his death because he was one of the great producers who allowed directors to make their films by trying to dream as much as possible. He really gave them the means to achieve it," she told RTL radio.
Two Rainbow Lorikeet birds fight with each other in their avery during a photocall at Edinburgh zoo's annual stocktake in Edinburgh, Scotland January 8, 2009.
Photo by David Moir
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.
responded:
circa 1958
