'Best of TBH Politoons'
PURPLE GENE'S WEIRD WORD OF THE WEEK
CURMUDGEON
"CURMUDGEON"
ON LINE DEFINITION: A crusty, ill tempered old man.
ON THE STREET: An angry, wisecracking and frustrated octogenarian.
IN A SENTENCE: Otto is the epitome of resentment and disdain, and yet he is a true "Curmudgeon" in that he is neither malevolent or misanthropic...maybe a little maudlin.
(Read BartCop Entertainment and learn a useless new word each Tuesday)
Reader Comment
Re; Bill Cardille
Marty
Found this tonight. Bill Cardille is still on the air at WJAS in Pittsburgh!
You can hear Chilly Billy every weekday on 1320 WJAS from 10am - 3pm. He and his wife, Louise, currently live in the North Hills and are proud parents of Lori, Marea and Bill. They have four grandchildren.
<>
There is a link on the site to listen to WJAS.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Jim Hightower: SAVING THE NASTINESS OF WAR FOR YOU (jimhightower.com)
Butch Hancock is a wonderful singer-songwriter who was raised in the Lubbock area, out in West Texas. Butch once told me about growing up in the sometimes confusing fundamentalist Christian ethic of that bastion of the Bible belt. He said that, as hormone-charged teenagers, they were instructed that sex is the nastiest, filthiest thing in the world... and they should save it for someone they love.
Will Durst: Saying Goodbye to Rove
The 43rd President of the United States visibly choked up saying "so long" to the man he affectionately called "Turd Blossom," as his alter ego was pried away from him for the first time in 14 years.
Kim Ficera: "Don't Quote Me: Anti-Gay Violence isn't funny, capiche?" (afterelton.com)
Sopranos actor Joseph Gannascoli misses the point.
Christopher Hitchens: God Bless Me, It's a Best-Seller!
You hear all the time that America is an intensely religious nation, but you don't hear that there are almost as many religions as there are believers.
Mark Morford: My Life With Jenna Bush (sfgate.com)
What's it like to be married to the booze-friendly, party-ready Bush twin? A vision.
Mark Morford: America, The Sexy Fascist State (sfgate.com)
Surveillance cameras are booming. The question is, do they make your butt look big?
Germaine Greer: Cuddly toys are ugly monstrosities (arts.guardian.co.uk)
Soft toys are left along with the flowers at the scenes of fatalities. Wherever they are, they are truly hideous, beyond kitsch. By making our children fall in love with such ugliness, we are preparing them for a life without taste.
Roger Ebert: Resurrecting the Champ (3 stars)
In the news business, there is an intoxication in making a big story your own. In "Zodiac," a cartoonist strays off his beat and tries to solve a string of serial killings. In Rod Lurie's "Resurrecting the Champ," a sportswriter stumbles on the story of a Skid Row drunk who used to be a contender. Erik (Josh Hartnett) has been told by his editor he is sloppy and lazy, and when he comes upon Champ, it's like a gift from heaven. The former heavyweight boxer (Samuel L. Jackson) has just been beaten up by some young punks, but harbors little resentment against them. He's talkative and tells Erik his story.
Roger Ebert: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (3 stars)
Remember Donkey Kong? This would have been in the early 1980s, and you would have been standing in a video arcade, bar, truck stop or bowling alley, trying to save the damsel in distress from the gorilla. It was voted the third best coin-operated arcade video game of all time. Yes, and now it is 2007 and grown men still pursue each other across the country in pursuit of the world-record Donkey Kong score.
Colin Covert: "'Mr. Bean' speaks! (About his new movie)" (popmatters.com)
Rowan Atkinson's character Mr. Bean is a man of few words, but the actor himself is as articulate and thoughtful as he is entertaining.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Getting hot again. Humidity is back, too.
Big Dog Interviews
Bill Clinton
Former President Clinton will appear on Oprah Winfrey's TV talk show next Tuesday, Sept. 4, his first interview to promote "Giving," a book on philanthropy and civic action coming out the same day.
Clinton's appearance was announced Monday in an e-mail - "The first interview about his new passion!" - sent to members of Winfrey's book club.
Clinton has other interviews planned next week, including one with Larry King on CNN and with David Letterman on CBS television's "Late Show."
Bill Clinton
Honored With Historical Marker
Art Blakey
Art Blakey has been honored with a historical marker that will be placed at his boyhood home in Pittsburgh's Hill District.
Musicians followed Sunday's unveiling ceremony with nearly two hours of music, including some of the jazz drummer's work.
Blakey, a one-man "musical university" who nurtured stars such as Wynton Marsalis and Chuck Mangione, died of lung cancer in 1990 at age 71.
Art Blakey
Global Mala Project
Yoga
Christy Turlington, who relies on yoga to keep her healthy and balanced, is among a group of celebrities hoping to bring those benefits to the world.
Turlington, Russell Simmons and Ziggy Marley are participating in the Global Mala Project, an international effort that aims to use yoga-centered events to raise awareness and funds for global causes on the United Nations' International Day of Peace. Events will be held in 30 countries, including Israel, Africa, India, Australia and the United States, beginning Sept. 21.
"With so many people involved, the impact is going to be quite astounding as a collective consciousness," Turlington told The Associated Press. "There will be an energetic charge."
Yoga
Union Rally In Toronto
Danny Glover
American actor and activist Danny Glover is slated to join a rally outside Rogers Communications Inc. headquarters in Toronto on Tuesday to support efforts to unionize concession workers at the Rogers Centre.
Glover, an advocate for raising employment standards for low-wage hotel and food service workers in North America, is expected to be joined by more than 500 concession workers at the event.
The workers accuse their employer, Delaware North Sportservice Companies, and the Rogers Centre of intimidation during efforts to join the union Unite Here.
Danny Glover
Hosting Creative Arts Emmys
Carlos Mencia
Carlos Mencia and his feisty brand of humor will be front and center next month at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
The comic, who stars in Comedy Central's "Mind of Mencia," has been tapped to host the Sept. 8 event, the show's executive producers, John Moffitt and Lee Miller, announced Monday.
Emmys in 75 categories, including art direction, costume design, makeup and guest acting, will be handed out during the ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium here.
Carlos Mencia
7 Los Angeles Emmys
KCBS
KCBS picked up seven trophies to lead the pack of winners at the 59th annual Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards.
Four of the CBS-owned station's awards were shared with sister station KCAL, which individually earned one additional Emmy.
Other top winners at the ceremony, which took place Saturday (August 25) at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood, were PBS affiliate KCET and NBC-owned-and-operated KNBC, which received six Emmys apiece.
Fox-owned KTTV, which led the nominees going in with 17 mentions, nabbed two awards.
KCBS
Hospital Visit
Owen Wilson
Oscar-nominated film star Owen Wilson, best known for comedies like "Wedding Crashers," sought time on Monday to "heal in private" after media reports claimed he was hospitalized for a suicide attempt.
A fire department official in Santa Monica, California, a beachside community adjacent to Los Angeles, told Reuters that late on Sunday firemen and police officers went to Wilson's home and transported a person to a local hospital where he was treated. The official declined to name Wilson.
Various news reports said Wilson was transferred to Cedars Sinai Medical Center in the Beverly Hills area, but hospital officials declined to comment, citing confidentiality.
U.S. tabloids Star magazine and National Enquirer cited unnamed sources as saying Wilson tried to commit suicide by cutting his wrist and taking drugs. Star said he was discovered by a family member, who called for help.
Owen Wilson
Hulk Hogan's Son Crashes
Nick Bollea
Hulk Hogan's son was released from the hospital Monday, a day after a car crash that critically injured his passenger, authorities said.
A Toyota Supra driven by Hogan's 17-year-old son, Nick Bollea, was traveling at a high rate of speed at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Clearwater Police spokesman Wayne Shelor said. Bollea lost control and hit a raised median. The car flipped around, and the back end hit a palm tree.
Police identified Bollea's passenger as 22-year-old John J. Graziano of Dunedin. He remained in critical condition Monday at Bayfront Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Nick Bollea
Bathroom Etiquette
Sen. Larry Craig
Sen. Larry Craig (R-God's Own Perverts) of Idaho pleaded guilty this month to misdemeanor disorderly conduct after being arrested at the Minneapolis airport.
A Hennepin County court docket showed Craig pleading guilty to the disorderly conduct charge Aug. 8, with the court dismissing a charge of gross misdemeanor interference to privacy.
The court docket said the Republican senator paid $575 in fines and fees. He was put on unsupervised probation for a year. A sentence of 10 days in the county workhouse was stayed.
Mike Rogers, who bills himself as a gay activist blogger, published the allegations on his Web site, blogactive.com, in October 2006.
Sen. Larry Craig
Abducted, Killed In Iraq
CBS Translator
An Iraqi translator working for CBS News was found dead five days after he was abducted from his Baghdad home, the U.S. network announced Monday.
Anwar Abbas Lafta, who had worked for CBS for about 10 months, was seized Aug. 20 by eight to 10 armed men, some of whom wore body armor, the network said in a statement issued in New York. It said the attackers beat up the translator's brother and shot his sister in the arm, and that the family later received two calls demanding ransom.
CBS said Abbas was in his early 50s and was not married. He had worked as a translator for the U.S. military in Iraq for about three years before joining CBS News. A CBS spokeswoman said there was no indication that Abbas' affiliation with CBS had anything to do with the kidnapping.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 112 journalists and 40 media support workers - translators, drivers, fixers and guards - have been killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003 - not counting Abbas. Most of the victims were Iraqis, and many of them were believed targeted because they worked for foreigners.
CBS Translator
Lead Lawyer Leaves
Phil Spector
Phil Spector's often-absent lead lawyer, Bruce Cutler, announced Monday that he is leaving the music producer's murder case because of "a difference of opinion between Mr. Spector and me on strategy."
Cutler made the announcement as the trial resumed for what was expected to be the last day of testimony. It wasn't immediately clear if he quit or if Spector fired him.
Cutler had been absent from the trial for many weeks so he could appear on a syndicated TV show. He told Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler that he was prepared to return and do the closing arguments for Spector, but now, Cutler said, "there's nothing I can do for Mr. Spector. I can no longer effectively represent him."
Phil Spector
Scant Support For LA Sheriff Recall
Lee Baca
More than two months after it was initiated, an effort to remove Sheriff Lee Baca from office because of his handling of Paris Hilton's jail sentence has gained scant support.
Andrew Ahlering, the former county employee behind the campaign to relieve Baca of his post, said he had gathered just 40 of the nearly 400,000 signatures needed by December to get a recall measure on the ballot.
Ahlering, who accused the Los Angeles sheriff of giving Hilton preferential treatment by allowing her to return home after serving less than four days of a 23-day jail sentence, also said he had raised less than $100 for the campaign.
Lee Baca
Junta Arrests 50
Myanmar
About 50 pro-democracy activists were arrested Monday outside Yangon, as the Myanmar junta clamped down on dissent following a series of protests last week against a sharp hike in fuel prices.
The activists marched in silence from a market in Bago, a town about 75 kilometres (45 miles) northeast of Yangon, witnesses said.
They did not chant slogans or wave banners, but people on the sidewalks clapped as they walked by. After about 30 minutes, the entire group was arrested and taken to local authorities for questioning, witnesses said.
The activists were all released after two hours, in part because a crowd of about 100 bystanders had followed them to make sure the authorities would not mistreat them, according to Kyaw Win, one of the protest leaders.
Myanmar
Reports For Jury Duty
Janet Reno
Janet Reno, the country's former chief prosecutor, was called to a far humbler position Monday: She reported for jury duty.
Reno, also a former Miami-Dade state attorney, was among a pool of jurors on a robbery and aggravated battery case.
The former U.S. attorney general survived the initial round of questioning: No, she's never been arrested. Yes, she knows many police officers and prosecutors.
Defense attorney Rod Vereen said Reno would certainly be a fair and impartial juror, but doubted if his client would want her on the case.
Janet Reno
One Gene May Be Key
Perfect Pitch
Musicians and singers work for years to develop their sense of pitch but few can name a musical note without a reference tone. U.S. researchers on Monday said one gene may be the key to that coveted ability.
Only 1 in 10,000 people have perfect or absolute pitch, the uncanny ability to name the note of just about any sound without the help of a reference tone.
"One guy said, 'I can name the pitch of anything -- even farts,"' said Dr. Jane Gitschier of the University of California, San Francisco, whose study appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
She and colleagues analyzed the results of a three-year, Web-based survey and musical test that required participants to identify notes without the help of a reference tone. More than 2,200 people completed the 20-minute test.
Perfect Pitch
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