The Weekly Poll
Results
The Paul Newman 'Tribute' edition
What are your favorite Paul Newman movies and why?
There were five responses to the poll...
Jack wrote, "The Sting" has to be my all-time favorite, but "The Verdict" is pretty close. I thought Newman deserved the Oscar for "The Verdict". The following year, in another good (but not great) performance in "The Color of Money', Newman got what I thought was a makeup Oscar."
José-Ariel chose, "My two favorites of his are "The Hustler" and "The Color of Money." He then added, "Paul Newman was a King amongst Men."
Ducks opined, "Very hard to choose. Can I say all of them? No? ok, then….the usual suspects, "Butch Cassidy"… and "The Sting", goes without saying. But I also love movies like "Rally 'Round the Flag Boys" and "A New Kind of Love". His humor always showed through and he was so cute with Joanne Woodward in "A New Kind of Love". At the other end of the spectrum, one of the toughest movies was "Fort Apache, the Bronx". You really feel the pain and anger in the character. Speaking of humor, I think his turn in the movie "What a Way to Go" was fabulous."
She went on with, "Also love "Absence of Malice" (heartbreaking), "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (stunning, esp for its time), and I LOVE "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean". He was perfect for that role."
She also recognized, "...his direction of "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-The-Moon Marigolds" was brilliant." And finally, these statements, "What I probably admire most about Paul Newman was his compassion and his integrity. I think he would have been a nice person to know."
That MadCat, JD was adamant with, "COOL HAND LUKE!" NOBODY ELSE COULD EAT THAT MANY HARD BOILED EGGS AND SURVIVE. CASE CLOSED!"
And finally, Sally, with her usual thoroughness, mused, "What are my favorite Paul Newman movies? Hummmmm. How can I even begin to decide? Let me start by saying what a marvelous actor, and magnificent human being was he.
His movies fly through my mind...
"Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" incredibly powerful - spellbinding (and sexy) for my immature 19 year old, ex-parochial school mind.
"The Hustler" went along with my "inner-city" education. He was SO gorgeous back when...
"Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man" he matured as did I.
"HUD" to die for.
"Cool Hand Luke" Who knew there were prison camps in Florida? (But then, who knew they stole elections there as well
"Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid" glorified my sense of the iconoclastic - probably my favorite...
"The Sting" Paul and Bob Redford - con men - be still my beating heart
"The Drowning Pool" Paul is involved with the nymphomaniac daughter (played by Melanie Griffith) of an old flame of his, played by also gorgeous Joanne Woodward - while I'm viewing that particular flick, hugely pregnant and pondering the true insanity of nymphomania. Paul is still quite the leading man - good thing he can't see me...
"Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson" a revisionist western. I'm living in the wild west of a Denver suburb (where Buffalo Bill is buried BTW). By then, I then had two wild Indians of my own - how appropriate can you get here?
"Mr & Mrs Bridge." I'm in the middle of a divorce, and he's playing a lawyer who resists his children's rebellion (he plays a Right-wing asshole) here. Mrs. Bridge, played by the still attractive (but dowdy-looking for the movie) Joanne Woodard. Yes, I recall it well, she plays a "Pollyanna" in her view of the world, against her husband's emotional distance and her children's defiance. Gee, I wonder how it would feel to be divorcing Paul Newman vs my own situation...
"Message in a Bottle" with Newman in a Nicholas Sparks love story - filmed from Maine to the Carolina's what could be wrong there? Although Paul plays the father, I notice, he aged SO well - and I started yearning to my East Coast roots about then...
"Road To Perdition" I believe I saved the best for last for you
Okay, it was not a Hollywood blockbuster that would appeal to the masses - and I honestly had no desire to see this film. Now I'm glad I did. This movie is not your typical Hollywood gangster flick. This is a character driven portrait of the times and people in this story - directed by Sam Mendes (who is only the best). "Road to Perdition" is a dark and bleak film, emphasizing the colorless life of Middle America and Chicago's underworld in 1931. In the story line, Tom Hanks ("adopted" son of Paul Newman) is a quiet family man with a nice home, a loving wife, and two young sons. To support them, he works for kindly old John Rooney (Paul Newman), a well-respected pillar of the community. Grandpa John is actually Al Capone's regional crime boss and dad is his chief enforcer - Hanks is really an assassin. Paul Newman's role (in, I believe, his final theatrical screen appearance) is small but striking, a tortured soul trapped by the choices he has made in life. I would not hesitate to say that this film has tremendous depth and emotion - and will stay with you for a long time to come - as will Newman in this role and in his outstanding life in films."
Well, Poll-fans, Thanks for the responses! See ya next time!
BadtotheboneBob
This week's poll is:
OJ... Will it ever end?
OK, Poll-Fans, here it is...
1.) Did OJ get a fair trial? If yes, how long should he be sentenced?
2.) If no, what should be the basis for his appeal?
Go ahead, let us know how you REALLY feel!
BadtotheboneBob
Send your responses to BadtotheBoneBob (BCEpoll (at) aol.com)
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Health Care Destruction (nytimes.com)
Republicans still hate Medicare and have not been able to kill it. Since that is out, John McCain is going after insurance of nonelderly Americans instead.
Susan Estrich: A Heartbeat Away (creators.com)
For all the Republicans' complaints about Gwen Ifill, the moderator's questions were softballs compared to what Sarah Palin faced from Katie Couric. Ifill did not demand that Palin list (OK, how about just name more than one?) Supreme Court decisions. She did not push on the issue of foreign policy experience. She didn't follow up on how it is that Americans who get dropped from the health insurance rolls are supposed to buy a $12,000-a-year health insurance policy for their families with a $5,000 tax credit, ...
Froma Harrop: Law for Poor Didn't Cause Meltdown (creators.com)
Accomplished Googlers can probably find the original talking points off which dozens of conservatives made essentially the same case: The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 caused the financial crisis.
Susan Estrich: Profiles in Cowardice (creators.com)
If you didn't know it, you'd never guess that 95 percent of all House members get re-elected every two years without breaking a sweat. You'd never think that the hardest thing about the House of Representatives is getting in. You probably wouldn't believe that while 90 percent of the American public disapproves of the Congress as a whole, almost as many think that their own representative is the exception, the one good egg in a rotten dozen.
Julie Bolcer: Rachel Maddow, Anchor Woman (afterellen.com)
On new show on MSNBC, sexism in politics, and who she'd most like to interview.
DIANA WALSH: Follow the Leader (curvemag.com)
Elizabeth May, the leader of Canada's Green Party, is unflinchingly pro-gay. A left-leaning environmental activist turned savvy politician, the United States-born May wants to make the party's environmental agenda relevant to progressive communities at large.
SUSAN BURRIS: The Olbermann Effect (popmatters.com)
Keith Olbermann has transformed news into entertainment. Countdown viewers no longer expect the facts; they expect to laugh and to think. Thank goodness.
Roger Ebert: Campaigning with Paul Newman
"I just want to make one thing clear," Paul Newman told the crowd at the American Motors plant. "I'm not here because I'm an actor. I'm here because I got six kids, and I'm worried about their future." He held up his right hand and the thumb of his left, which made six, and a little girl with long brown hair and tears in her eyes could restrain herself no longer. "Oh, Paul," she cried. "Adopt me."
Froma Harrop: Newman Embraced Ordinariness (creators.com)
With his global fame, devastating blue eyes and career of playing lovable anti-heroes, Paul Newman could have gotten away with anything. He could have been a jerk. But he wasn't.
TANIA HAMMIDI: Your Gotta Have Faith (curvemag.com; from 2007)
She loves politics, God and apple pie. Does it get any more American that gay activist Chrissy Gephardt? Doubt it.
Carol Strickland: KARSH'S ART - ICONIC YET INTIMATE (csmonitor.com)
Canadian photographer's celebrity portraits avoided cynicism and remain revealing decades on.
Is Charlie Kaufman out of his head? (timesonline.co.uk)
Kevin Maher meets the 49-year-old absurdist screenwriter of "Being John Malkovich" to find out if he is as crazy as his films.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
Jimmy Don Clyde: Soldier and Accidental Porn Star
Well, I do declare Miss Laura! Is that powdered sugar on your face?
nailed it, also:
Benny Bell Legacy
Presidential Shaving Cream
As I'm sure you'll will agree, this is one election where we just have to laugh--at everybody!
That's why this YouTube video, "Presidential Shaving Cream," based on the legendary novelty song by the late Benny Bell, is the perfect antidote to national frustration. I thought you might like to see it and pass it along.
Maybe it will help keep us sane. Or maybe not. The bottom line is that they're all full of it. Though I'd never actually say that.
Reader's Photoshop Project
Reader Question
Re: sparta and citizens
Just out of curiosity, were Spartanj women considered 'citizens'?
Kris
Good question, Kris!
According to this site, women weren't citizens, but they controlled the purse strings.
The freedom and greater respect for Spartan women began at birth with laws that required female infants and children to be given the same care and food as their brothers-in contrast to other Greek cities, where girls were frequently given less and lower-quality food. Like their brothers, Spartan girls were expected or required to attend the public school, although for a shorter period of time than the boys. At school they were allowed and encouraged to engage in sports. (And it was, incidentally, a Spartan who became the first woman to ever have an Olympic victory-by entering a chariot at the races.)
With their husbands confined to barracks and on active service until the age of 31 and frequently called up for campaigns or engaged in political and civic duties thereafter, it was left to Sparta's matrons to run the estates. These meant that Spartan wives controlled the family wealth-and in effect the entire Spartan agricultural economy. A Spartan citizen was dependent on his wife's efficiency to pay his "dues" to his dining club. This economic power is in particularly sharp contrast to cities such as Athens, where it was illegal for a woman to control more money than she needed to buy a bushel of grain. What was more, Spartan women could inherit and so transfer wealth. Athenian women, by contrast, were never heiresses; all property passed to the next male kinsman, who might at most be required to marry the heiress in order to claim the inheritance. Economic power has always had the concomitant effect of increasing status. This is clearly evidenced by contemporary descriptions of Spartan women. They were "notorious" for having opinions ("even on political matters!") and-what was clearly worse from the perspective of other Greek men-"their husbands listened to them." Aristotle claimed that Spartan men were "ruled by their wives"-and cited the freedom of Spartan women as one of two reasons why the Spartan Constitution was reprehensible.
Sparta Reconsidered - Spartan Women
See also: Women in the Ancient World and Spartan Women
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warmer.
Supports Obama
Shakira
Colombian superstar Shakira says Democrat Barack Obama is the best candidate for president, citing his leadership skills.
In a statement Saturday, the Grammy-winning pop artist said Obama can restore peace and the world's confidence in the United States. Obama faces Republican presidential nominee John McCain in the Nov. 4 election.
Shakira encouraged U.S. Latinos to vote in November.
The United States "has a profound importance to me, and I think to the whole world as well," she said.
Shakira
Fourth Fashion Show Disturbance
Sacha Baron Cohen
Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen was ejected from a catwalk show during Paris Fashion Week in France on Friday, after climbing on stage and attempting to slip a note to the models.
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Dressed as his camp alter-ego Bruno, he attempted to carry out his latest stunt at the JC De Castebajac show - scenes which are suspected to feature in his forthcoming comedy.
Cohen twice crashed shows at Madrid Fashion Week in Spain and was also thrown out of a show in Milan, Italy last week after storming the runway and strutting along the catwalk - prompting organisers to call the police.
Sacha Baron Cohen
Fun Playing A Jerk
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert was raised in South Carolina to be a Southern gentleman. But he spends his days being a jerk. It must be tough.
Not really, says the Comedy Central star.
"I was taught to be nice, so it's not in my nature to be a jerk," he told a crowd of fans over the weekend at the New Yorker Festival. "But I do enjoy it."
Colbert figures that's because he's embarrassment-proof. "There's an essential embarrassment to being a jerk, and I just don't get embarrassed about things," he explained.
Stephen Colbert
Hosting American Music Awards Again
Jimmy Kimmel
Jimmy Kimmel is coming back to provide more laughs for the American Music Awards.
The comedian and talk show host is slated to host the annual event on Nov. 23 live from Los Angeles on ABC. Pink and the Jonas Brothers are among those scheduled to perform.
Kimmel has hosted the American Music Awards four previous times.
Jimmy Kimmel
Big Numbers
'SNL'
The politics-fueled ratings train of "Saturday Night Live" keeps rolling along this election season with Tina Fey's impersonations of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin luring viewers.
"SNL" averaged a 7.4 household rating/18 share in the metered market overnights, Nielsen Media Research said on Sunday afternoon. That's within a tenth of a rating point of its September 13 premiere, which itself was the highest-rated show since December 14, 2002, when Al Gore and Phish appeared.
"SNL" is up 49 percent in the metered markets compared with the first four weeks of last season, as well as up 42 percent this past Saturday compared to episode No. 4 last season.
'SNL'
Thurber Prize for American Humor
Larry Doyle
Larry Doyle, a former TV writer-producer for "The Simpsons," was named the winner Monday of this year's Thurber Prize for American Humor. He was cited for the novel "I Love You, Beth Cooper."
"Clearly Larry Doyle was not the BMOC (Big Man On Campus)," Thurber judge Firoozeh Dumas said in a statement. "Had Larry been cool, he could have never written `I Love You, Beth Cooper,' a hilarious yet painfully accurate account of high school in all its pimply glory."
Doyle will receive $5,000. The two other finalists were Patricia Marx, for the novel "Him Her Him Again The End of Him," and Simon Rich for "Ant Farm," an essay collection.
Larry Doyle
Wins Legal Battle
Michelle Bruce
Georgia's top court ruled in favor of a transgender politician who was slapped with a lawsuit by two political opponents who claimed she misled voters by running as a woman.
The Georgia Supreme Court's unanimous ruling on Monday found that the two political opponents who filed the lawsuit failed to produce evidence of fraud, misconduct or illegal action after claiming that Michelle Bruce bamboozled voters by identifying herself as female.
"This is a great victory for me and anyone who believes in equality," Bruce said in a statement. "It gives me hope that the Georgia Supreme Court did what was right and did not buy into hate-based politics."
Michelle Bruce
To Pay TiVo $104 Million
Dish Network
Dish Network Corp and EchoStar Corp will pay $104 million in damages to TiVo Inc after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied Dish's appeal of a patent infringement case.
The court's decision not to review an appellate court's ruling follows years of legal wrangling over TiVo's "Time Warp" software that allows users to record one television program while watching another via a digital video recorder.
"Because of the Supreme Court's decision, we will pay Tivo approximately $104 million (the amount the jury awarded in 2006 plus interest)," Dish said in a statement. "The money is in an escrow account and will be released to Tivo in the next few days."
Still to be determined is how U.S. District Judge David Folsom in Texas will rule on whether EchoStar owes TiVo more damages for allegedly failing to turn off its DVRs, as required in the injunction.
Dish Network
Cutting 1,600 Jobs
eBay
After a series of changes designed to draw more people to its online marketplace, eBay Inc.'s latest alteration is aimed at its own employees. The auction site operator said Monday it will cut about 1,600 jobs, 10 percent of its work force, in its largest round of dismissals ever.
About 1,000 full-time employees will be gone, while eBay will achieve the rest of the cuts by letting temporary and part-time workers go and by leaving open positions unfilled. EBay would not describe which positions would be cut, other than to say they will come across the company and around the world.
EBay Chief Executive John Donahoe, who took over as CEO from Meg Whitman in March, said eBay's leadership had been thinking about making the cuts since midsummer. The moves will make eBay "more responsive and nimble," he said, and will give it an opportunity to reinvest in growth areas like its online payments service PayPal and its classified-ads business - both of which eBay augmented with acquisitions announced Monday.
eBay
The Newest Face Of Greed
Richard S. Fuld
The now-bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers arranged millions in bonuses for fired executives as it pleaded for a federal lifeline, lawmakers learned Monday, as Congress began investigating what went so wrong on Wall Street to prompt a $700 billion government bailout.
That face was Richard S. Fuld Jr., the Lehman chief executive who sat for a two-hour-plus grilling before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as the panel combed through his pay history, management practices and financial strategies.
And he said a compensation system that he estimated paid him about $350 million between 2000 and 2007 even as the company headed for disaster was appropriate.
George H. Walker, resident Bush's cousin and a member of Lehman's executive committee, breezily shot down the ideas, according to the e-mails.
Richard S. Fuld
Kishi Train Station
Tama
As the economic might of Japan faces up to the global banking crisis a single cat has boosted the finances of a small Japanese city by millions of dollars, according to a study.
Tortoiseshell Tama is the master of the unmanned Kishi train station where she was born and raised, on the provincial Kishigawa Line.
But it is not her labours on the platform which have seen the cash rolling in.
With 55,000 more people having used the Kishigawa Line than would normally be expected, Tama is being credited with a contribution to the local economy calculated to have reached as much as 1.1 billion yen (10.44 million dollars) in 2007 alone, according to a study announced last week.
Tama
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