'Best of TBH Politoons'
Reader Comment
Re: Missing Flag
I don't see the USA flag (
) in there - am I the only USA reader, and
am I configured incorrectly?
;-)
73,
Jeff M
Good question, Jeff!
It was an editorial decision by the massive staff of the e-page in an effort to contain redundancy redundancy.
Close to 80% of all visitors here are from the good old USA - figured most of them know where they live.
; )
Thought it was kinda cool there were so many off-shore hits - and the flags added a festive touch.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Scott Ritter: EXCERPT: Iraq Confidential (AlterNet.org)
In his book, 'Iraq Confidential,' the author is faced with overwhelming evidence that the CIA is using the U.N. inspections team in Iraq as cover for its own intelligence collection.
Jamie Moses: Artvoice Goes to China
On the day we returned from China there was a front-page story in the New York Times that provided a remarkable finish to our 23,172-mile journey into Asia. The Times article was about Russia and the headline read "With Lenin's Ideas Dead, Russia Weighs What to do With Body."
Francis Heaney: The Short Life of Flash Mobs (Stay Free! Magazine. Posted on Alternet.org)
Who'd have thought a single email designed to mock New York scenesters would have turned into an international craze?
M. Faust: Cracking! An Interview With the Creator of 'Wallace and Gromit'
As a duo, their popularity has steadily risen since the public discovered their ingenious antics in the 1980s. The big one talks a good deal, at least partly because he enjoys the sound of his own voice. He's clever, if not quite as smart as he thinks he is. His shorter sidekick doesn't talk at all, and may in fact be the smarter of the two, though it's hard to imagine either one without the other.
Roger Ebert: Hoffman shines in Truman show
"I don't think Capote knew exactly what he was setting himself up for," Philip Seymour Hoffman said. "He said later if he'd known what was going to happen, he would have driven right through the town like a bat out of hell."
Prairie Home Companion: Pretty Good Jokes
"Satire, kids, is your sacred duty as Americans. Be funny. Poke them cows and make them moo." - Garrison Keillor
Hubert's Poetry Corner
OVER AND OUTED
EVERYONE ALREADY KNOWS - SO OUT WITH IT!
Purple Gene Reviews
'My Fair Brady'
Purple Gene's review of the reality pop culture docu-drama "My Fair Brady" on VH 1 Television:
I had just finished watching the end of VH 1's series "One Hit Wonders" top 100…..and the # 1 song?????? "The Macarena" by two old dudes known as "Los Del Rio"….thinking that I had just wasted another hour of my life, I saw the trailer for a new VH 1 series called "My Fair Brady" …..I was perversely intrigued by the idea of "Liza Doolittle meets Peter Brady" ……
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another rainy day. Rather nice, except poor old Jo, the (lucky) lizard wasn't able to go outside again today.
Recoups Its $12M Investment
'Spamalot'
"Monty Python's Spamalot" has made a lot. The Tony-winning musical based on the film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" has recouped its $12 million investment, less than seven months after opening on Broadway.
The show has done strong business at the Shubert Theatre since its premiere last March, repeatedly breaking box-office records.
"Spamalot," which has a book by Eric Idle and a score by Idle and John Du Prez, begins a North American tour next March in Boston.
'Spamalot'
Deemed Top Magazine Cover
Lennon-Ono Photo
On what would be the last day of his life, John Lennon posed for photographs with Yoko Ono in a session with photographer Annie Liebovitz. One of the pictures, a naked Lennon curled around and kissing a clothed Ono, became the cover for Rolling Stone magazine's tribute to him.
That iconic image published a month after his December 1980 death has been ranked the top magazine cover of the last 40 years by a panel of magazine editors, artists and designers. Others on the list include images from the Sept. 11 attacks, the Vietnam War and of Katiti Kironde II, the first black woman on the cover of a national women's magazine, in the August 1968 Glamour.
The American Society of Magazine Editors announced the winners of the competition on Monday during the American Magazine Conference in Puerto Rico. The competition was held as a way to mark the 40th anniversary of the group's awards.
Lennon-Ono Photo
TOP 40 MAGAZINE COVERS OF THE PAST 40 YEARS
ABC Replacing Koppel With 3 Anchors
Ted Koppel
Ending months of speculation, ABC News said on Monday it will replace departing "Nightline" veteran Ted Koppel with a three-host team of British journalist Martin Bashir, White House correspondent Terry Moran and "Primetime" anchor Cynthia McFadden.
The new three-anchor format, with Moran based in Washington and McFadden and Bashir in New York, will begin with the program's first post-Koppel broadcast on November 28, ABC said.
In another change to the show under incoming executive producer James Goldston, "Nightline" will cover multiple news topics each night, rather than its traditional devotion of each broadcast to a single subject.
Ted Koppel
Los Angeles Critics Hail
Richard Widmark
The Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. has selected Richard Widmark for its annual Career Achievement Award. The 90-year-old actor will be honored at the group's awards ceremonies in January.
Widmark debuted on Broadway in 1943 but didn't make his first movie until he was in his early 30s. His performance as cold-blooded killer Tommy Udo in 1947's "Kiss of Death" marked a spectacular screen debut for the actor, who created one of cinema's most frightening and sadistic villains. He sent chills down the spines of moviegoers, especially with his maniacal laugh after pushing an old lady in a wheelchair down a flight of stairs. In addition to winning an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor, Widmark was named most promising newcomer at the Golden Globe Awards.
He began a second career, producing films in the late '50s. After he starred in two Westerns for John Ford -- "Two Rode Together" (1961) and "Cheyenne Autumn" (1964) -- he turned increasingly to roles in TV movies. He starred in his own TV series in 1972, "Madigan," based on his hit movie of 1968 directed by Don Siegel. His last film role occurred in Herb Ross' "True Colors" in 1991.
Richard Widmark
Set To Star In Sixth 'Rocky'
Sylvester Stallone
Yo Adrian! Rocky is planning another comeback. Fifteen years after starring in "Rocky V," Sylvester Stallone is reprising his role as the boxing champ in the sixth "Rocky" movie, publicist Michelle Bega said Monday.
The 59-year-old actor will write and direct "Rocky Balboa," which will begin shooting in Philadelphia and Las Vegas next year.
Stallone told the Daily Variety trade magazine the movie will focus on an aging, widowed Rocky who is reluctant to get back in the ring but ends up doing it "just to compete, not to win."
Sylvester Stallone
Comic Book Big Seller In India
Kalpana Chawla
A comic book biography of Kalpana Chawla, the Indian-born astronaut killed in the Columbia shuttle disaster, is flying off bookshelves in India.
The 32-page comic is being snapped up by children and adults eager to read its portrayal of Chawla's life, from her childhood dreams of flying to her becoming an American citizen and an astronaut. Her space flight in 1997, the first by an Indian-born woman, made her a household name in India.
Priced at 67 cents US, the comic is the first of the Indian Amar Chitra Katha series - which usually retells mythological or historical tales - to chronicle a contemporary Indian.
Kalpana Chawla
New U.S. Citizen
Peter Mayhew
In the movies, his characters bark, growl and grunt. In real life, 7-foot-3 British actor Peter Mayhew softly recited the oath and became a U.S. citizen Monday, his raised right hand trembling ever so slightly.
Mayhew, 60, best known as the furry Chewbacca in the "Star Wars" movies, was among more than 400 people from 77 countries who became naturalized Americans in a ceremony in Arlington.
Mayhew was born in Barnes, England. His film career was launched in 1977 as the role of the minotaur in "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger." He had been working as an orderly at London's King's College Hospital when he was featured in a newspaper article about men with large feet, which caught the eye of the movie's producers.
Peter Mayhew
Fear, Loathing And Fast Food
The Burger King
It's hard to overstate how frightened people are of the Burger King, who log-rolls with a lumberjack in his latest ad. Here's a sampling of what people are saying about him online:
"If I were to ever chop down a tree to find the creepy King standing behind it with a nasty sandwich on a silver platter ... well, I would all of a sudden have a new use for my saw."
"If that sumbitch just appeared out of nowhere, I'd 1) mess myself; 2) kick him in the jimmy; 3) run like hell."
"I'm going to McD's. At least their clown isn't stalking people."
"The reason why I have guns is in case I wake up and some creepy guy in a Burger King mask is looking in my window."
The Burger King
Perfect Baby Present
Tasmanian Devils
Australian authorities are sending a pair of threatened Tasmanian devils to the Copenhagen Zoo to mark the birth of the future king of Denmark to Australian-born Crown Princess Mary.
The pair of feisty marsupials is part of a series of gifts for the baby prince from the island state of Tasmania, Mary's original home, state officials said Monday.
Mary gave birth to her first child at the Copenhagen University Hospital on Saturday, with Crown Prince Frederik at her side.
The newborn prince is second in line to the throne in Europe's oldest reigning monarchy, after Frederik, 37, the older son of Queen Margrethe.
Tasmanian Devils
Doctor Who Spinoff
'Torchwood'
The British Broadcasting Corp. is spinning off a new show from its popular revival of the cult hit Doctor Who, the network said Monday.
Torchwood, which will begin filming next year, will focus on Captain Jack, played by John Barrowman, who appeared in the first season of the revived Doctor Who. Doctor Who writer Russell Davies is at work on the new show with a team of writers.
While the audience for the time-travelling outer space adventures of Doctor Who includes both children and adults, Davies said Torchwood - the title is an anagram of Doctor Who - would be aimed at adults.
'Torchwood'
Full-Season Pickup
'Surface'
NBC is diving deeper into "Surface," giving a full-season pickup to the fantasy-mystery drama series.
The total number of episodes ordered for the show's first season is still being determined, in part because NBC will pre-empt much of its primetime schedule in February for coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turino, Italy, slated to run February 10-26.
'Surface'
Satellite TV From Latin America
Telesur
It has been labeled a weapon against "cultural imperialism," the voice of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a threat to U.S. influence in Latin America, and "poison for the minds of people longing to be free."
The object of such diverse descriptions is Telesur, a Caracas-based Spanish-language TV channel which became part of a war of words between Venezuela and the United States even before Chavez formally launched it on July 24 and said the network was vital to his vision of Latin American integration.
Telesur was conceived as a Latin American alternative to international networks like CNN, the BBC, TVE of Spain and Germany's Deutsche Welle, all of which broadcast to Latin America in Spanish.
Telesur
Replaced By James Newton Howard
Howard Shore
Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore has left Peter Jackson's "King Kong" and is being replaced by James Newton Howard.
The move comes just two months before Universal Pictures is set to release the film, which bows December 14 in the U.S.
Jackson issued a statement Friday saying that he and Shore were parting ways because of creative differences.
Howard Shore
Arrested at Iraq War Protest
Uppity Grandmothers
Eighteen antiwar grandmothers were arrested and face disorderly conduct charges after they showed up at a military recruiting center in Times Square and said they wanted to enlist, a protest group said.
Police arrested the women, ranging in age from 49 to 90, after they sat down Monday in front of the recruiting station to protest the war in Iraq, police said.
When the women, including Marie Runyon, who is 90 and blind, tried to enter the station, they found it locked, said Joan Wile, 74, director of Grandmothers against the War.
"We tried to ring the bell at the booth, but no one answered," Wile said. "I saw a head poke up from behind the counter every once in a while and then duck back down. I don't know what they were afraid of. Maybe they don't know how to deal with a bunch of grannies."
Uppity Grandmothers
In Memory
Tracey Miller
Tracey Miller, one of the first women in radio in the Los Angeles market to be co-host of a morning drive-time show as part of an all-female team, has died. She was 51.
Two shows featuring Miller were pioneering because they were the only morning-drive radio shows at the time that featured women as co-hosts - instead of acting as sidekicks to a male star - in a major market.
Even Miller was skeptical that such a show could succeed when she was asked in 1990 by KFI-AM (640) to work with Terri-Rae Elmer on "TNT in the Morning."
The show, which lasted three years and eventually came in at the top of the ratings, led to Miller becoming co-host of "Two Chicks on the Radio" with Robin Abcarian in 1997 on KTZN-AM (710).
The show was canceled after six months, when the station's talk format was replaced by Radio Disney, a children's programming service
Intent upon being a camerawoman, she enrolled in 1975 in the Don Martin School of Broadcasting in Hollywood. Miller later recalled that teachers told her that her "unusually low, sexy voice" should be on the air.
Miller married and divorced three times. In addition to her sister, she is survived by two daughters, Taylor Brittenham and Kelsey Showalter; and her mother, Rose, of Montrose.
Tracey Miller
In Memory
Charles Rocket
Actor and comedian Charles Rocket, who had roles in a variety of movies and TV series and briefly gained notoriety for uttering an obscenity on "Saturday Night Live," committed suicide, the state medical examiner ruled.
Rocket, 56, whose real name was Charles Claverie, was found dead in a field near his home in Canterbury on Oct 7. His throat had been cut, the medical examiner said.
Rocket was a cast member on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" during the 1980-81 season. The profanity incident happened during a spoof of the "Who Shot J.R.?" plot line on "Dallas," which created a nationwide sensation at the time.
He went on to appear in numerous TV shows, including "Moonlighting" and "Max Headroom," and provided voices for cartoon series. His movie credits included "Earth Girls are Easy," "Dumb and Dumber" and "Dances With Wolves," according to the Internet Movie Database.
Before his time on "Saturday Night Live," Rocket was an anchorman at television stations in Colorado and Rhode Island and played an influential role in the Providence, R.I., arts scene decades ago, friends said.
Rocket is survived by his wife, Beth, and son, Zane.
Charles Rocket
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