The Weekly Poll
Results
The 'Ham-demic' Edition
USDA Confirms H1N1 in Minnesota Pig - CBS News
Will you get an H1N1 (swine) flu inoculation, if it's made available to you?
DRD first up writes...
As I'm sure we all are aware, we are faced with a multitude of viral infections that require us to make decisions to safeguard ourselves and others around us! As we fret over the numbers being reported each year with the HIV virus we can assume they for the most part didn't practice 'safe-sex!' Indeed, there are exceptions as many were infected in Hospitals by dirty equipment. We are nearing our 44th wedding anniversary. Not that I'm able or willing, but if I were in younger years inclined to stray I would have to make the decision of should I or should I not practice 'safe-sex.' We can see from the recent reports that this season seems to be a real flu time. With the addition of H1N1 virus the flu can be lethal to some in certain age groups at a greatly increased rate. So I approach the question of taking the H1N1 flu shot in the same manner I would 'safe-sex.' If the shot is available to me; I would in a heartbeat!
Bob, this is a very good question, glad you raised it!
Dee in NJ says she'll gamble...
Every year I get a damned flu shot, I get sick. Since I quit smoking three years ago (Oct 15 hubby and I both quit), I'm no longer a walking bronchitis/pneumonia factory (six times a year for bronchitis, two times a year for pneumonia on average until we quit). I had one surprise bout of pneumonia in May 2009 that came out of no where. So unless something weird happens, I'm not going to get the shot. So far, no one around me (work, home, family, neighborhood) has had this flu. I'm going to play those odds and since I've been reasonably healthy with one small exception, I'll take my chances.
kww is gonna hedge...
I'll get one, but I won't go right away. Let others be the guinea pigs
Charlie will take his chances, too...
I used to get myself shot every year, but I quit that four or five years ago. I haven't had any version of flu since then, which is certainly a good thing, and I think the powers that be are trying to scare us here.
If I don't answer the next few questions though, it probably means this latest strain has done me in, and he who laughs last laughs best.
Adam in NoHo says not to worry...
I've never gotten a flu shot to this point and I'm not the groups with the most to fear from H1N1. This despite: I am prone to a killer cold or flu every 2-3 yrs (my last flu was the worst I've had); I know we are overdue for a flu epidemic, my husband has been following stories about this too closely for comfort.
I have already fought off a minor cold for this season, but even if I get H1N1, I expect to live through it.
SallyP(al) sees a conspiracy (Why am I not surprised?)...
No way, Jose!
H1N1 "Flu":
First symptom = Fear
Fear = run for the "quick fix" or vaccination.
I think this link will hold information to those who are open to it. Click here: ALERT: Special Swine Flu Update It cites a 60-Minute Report.
OTOH, I feel people must do that in which they believe.
PS: funny how only a few years ago and the makers of "Tamiflu" were lamenting their overstock and potential loss of profits?
PPS: From where did this, "flu" come? A Pharmaceutical lab perhaps?
I just saying... Let the chips fall where they may.
hubcap's been there-done that already...
No, because I've already had the damn H1N1 flu. I caught it from my girlfriend (who had it confirmed from her Dr.'s office) and since I work at home and it really wasn't that bad I kept going to work. I couldn't get rid of it though until I finally took a couple of days off and rested. I have to say though that if I did work in an office with people, I would have stayed home for the whole time. It is really dangerous to pregnant women, there is some speculation that women in the early months of pregnancy are more prone to miscarry if they get the disease.
DanD agreeably pipes up...
(Mercury rising, or Pigs in Space) The 'Ham-demic' Edition
Why of course! I mean, why should my last functioning brain cell be spared (you know, the one rotting away from mad cow disease)?
jacksonpal rounds it out...
yup! u bet
Well then, Poll-fans, I've received a flu shot the past seven years. I pneumonia shot, too, three years ago. The VA pushes them vigorously for people in my medical condition. They haven't started the H1N1 yet, why I do not know. They say it'll be available in a few weeks. If my medical provider (a super sharp Top-Gun Nurse Practitioner) thinks I should get one, I will. I trust her judgement... So, there it is... and remember...
Wash yer dang hands, dagnabbit!... Yer the Best!
BadToTheBoneBob
New Question
The 'BCE Files' Edition...
Eenie Meenie, Chili Beanie, The Spirits are about to speak!
Have you ever experienced any manner of 'Paranormal Activity'?
(er, No, episodes involving 'shrooms, Blotter, Maui Wowie, etc. do NOT count, haha!)
Send your response to
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) humbles Hudson Institute dilettante over health care bankruptcies (youtube.com)
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) humbles Hudson Institute dilettante over health care bankruptcies This during a senate Judiciary sub-committee hearing on bankruptcies driven by catastrophic medical expenses...
Paul Krugman: After Reform Passes (nytimes.com)
If the Massachusetts experience is any guide, health care reform will have broad public support once it's in place.
Froma Harrop: 'America's Best Idea' Meets One of the Worst (creators.com)
The Ken Burns series "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" got me thinking about one of America's worst ideas, the war on drugs. Particularly ill-conceived is the crusade against marijuana.
FRANK RICH: In Defense of the 'Balloon Boy' Dad (nytimes.com)
To see what "balloon boy" says about 2009, you have to look past the sentimental moral absolutes.
Susan Estrich: Time Flying (creators.com)
Caution: To read this essay, you may have to undergo annoying and intrusive advertising from the Community Union Credit Union.
MAUREEN DOWD: The Nuns' Story (nytimes.com)
Forty years after feminism utterly changed America, nuns are still considered second-class citizens by the Roman Catholic Church.
roger ebert's journal: The man who didn't sleep
I met a man who didn't sleep.
"Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life" By Bill Minutaglio and W. Michael Smith: A Review by STEVEN G. KELLMAN (sacurrent.com)
Though she dubbed him Shrub and persistently ridiculed him as "just another upper-class white boy trying to prove he's tough," Molly Ivins and George W. Bush grew up in the same 'hood.
Ian Sample: "What the Dog Saw" by Malcolm Gladwell (guardian.co.uk)
Gladwell's great strength is his ability to make his readers think.
the linster: Living dolls get graphic in "Dolltopia" (afterellen.com)
Abby Denson's new graphic novel follows a ballerina doll who knows there's more to life than looking pretty and marrying Soccer Steve.
Soupy Sales: Come Pie with Me (obit-mag.com)
Soupy Sales' comedy never aimed to be high art, and his puppet antics, elastic expressions and gangly body produced a comedy that appealed to a broad base of fans. Generations of watchers loved Soupy for his wit, his energy and his persistence. His most enduring cultural contribution, however, crystallized comedy into a single act. He canonized a routine as old as Vaudeville and the early days of Barnum's circus: the pie in the f ace.
Robert Lloyd: An appreciation: Soupy Sales, hip and elemental (latimes.com)
Even though the occasion is sad, there is something oddly bracing in setting out to write about a man who called himself "Soupy."
Dareland
Worst. Album. Ever.
Whether or not you like Bob Dylan could very much
depend upon whether you've heard Blood on the Tracks, which is a
masterpiece by absolutely any standard. On the other hand, if his Christmas
album, Christmas in the Heart, is the only Bob Dylan album you've
ever heard, you would have every right to rank him somewhere between Mrs.
Miller and Tiny Tim in the pantheon of singing oddities. Here Comes Santa
Claus, Winter Wonderland, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, O Little Town of
Bethlehem, there will never, ever, be worse versions of these songs.
Impossible. Christmas in the Heart bubbled up from some insane reverse
Bizarro world American Idol where only those with the most
disagreeable vocal cords are free to embarrass themselves.
There's no blood on these tracks, just phlegm, buckets of phlegm, tangled up in sputum, you need shelter from the expectorant, Heimlich me in the morning, the idiot cough, if you see him, say gesundheit, he's gonna make me grateful when he goes. The songs aren't uplifting, imbued with subtle texture, but Leonard Cohen times Tom Waits divided by Josh Groban. Dylan finally proves to the world that he can sing worse than ANYBODY, just try to sing worse than this, I dare you.
And all those people who think they can do a Dylan impersonation? Like Elvis impersonators, they've now got to decide between the early Dylan who couldn't sing or the older, degraded Dylan who REALLY can't sing. Good luck with it and don't hurt yourself.
Most importantly, this album is going to have a profound effect upon the war on terror. If al Qaeda wants statements from American soldiers they've captured in Afghanistan, all they have to do is play Dylan's Christmas album over and over and the troops will be begging to confess to the fact Dick Cheney was behind 9/11.
MD
,;;;;;,
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liberal!
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What was the first (US) TV series filmed in color?
nailed it with:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Comment
Re: Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby has lost his mind
It's a prize Cosby has turned down twice before because he said he was disgusted with profanity and N-words thrown around by performers honoring Richard Pryor, who was the first recipient in 1998.
"I told them flat out no because I will not be used, nor will Mark Twain be used, in that way," he told The Associated Press from his home in New York.
Bill Cosby is protecting the Mark Twain Award from the use of the N word? Has he read Huckleberry Finn? It's got the word "nigger" more than 200 times. And they shouldn't give the Mark Twain award to black people who use the word "nigger?" Gimme a fucking break. What a maroon.
MD
Thanks, Michael!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and nearly 90°.
Non-English Addresses
Internets
The Internet is set to undergo one of the biggest changes in its four-decade history with the expected approval this week of international domain names - or addresses - that can be written in languages other than English, an official said Monday.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN - the non-profit group that oversees domain names - is holding a meeting this week in Seoul. Domain names are the monikers behind every Web site, e-mail address and Twitter post, such as ".com" and other suffixes.
One of the key issues to be taken up by ICANN's board at this week's gathering is whether to allow for the first time entire Internet addresses to be in scripts that are not based on Latin letters. That could potentially open up the Web to more people around the world as addresses could be in characters as diverse as Arabic, Korean, Japanese, Greek, Hindi and Cyrillic - in which Russian is written.
"This is the biggest change technically to the Internet since it was invented 40 years ago," Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of the ICANN board, told reporters, calling it a "fantastically complicated technical feature." He said he expects the board to grant approval on Friday, the conference's final day.
Internets
Hosting Golden Globe Awards
Ricky Gervais
British comedian Rick Gervais will host this January's Golden Globe Awards, long called Hollywood's biggest party for its more casual atmosphere compared to other honors like the Oscars.
Organizers on Monday said that Gervais, 48, the Emmy-award winning creator of "The Office" television show and the writer, director and star of comedy film "The Invention of Lying", will be the first official host of the Golden Globes since 1995.
The Golden Globes, broadcast live on U.S. TV, hand out awards for the year's best movies and TV shows as chosen by members of Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Ricky Gervais
Shocking! Kids Watch A Lot!
TV
The Nielsen Co. says in a study released Monday that children ages 2 to 5 watch more than 32 hours of television each week.
Kids 6 to 11 spend a little less time in front of a TV screen - more than 28 hours. But that's partly because they have to go to school.
The younger kids, or at least their parents, are tech-savvy. The 32 hours of TV-watching includes an hour and a half of shows taped on a digital video recorder, and 4 1/2 hours of programs on a DVD.
Nielsen also says children ages 6 to 11 play video games on a television for nearly 2 1/2 hours a week on average.
TV
Broadway Debut
Scarlett Johansson
Actress Scarlett Johansson will make her Broadway debut starring in a revival of American playwright Arthur Miller's drama "A View from the Bridge," the show's organizers said on Monday.
Amid a growing trend of Hollywood stars appearing in Broadway plays, Johansson, 24, will appear on the Great White Way opposite actor Liev Schreiber in the drama set in 1950s America about a Brooklyn dockyard worker obsessed with his 17-year-old niece, to be played by Johansson.
Previews will begin December 28 and the show will run for 14 weeks.
Scarlett Johansson
Hospital News
Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton has pulled out of this week's Rock and Roll Hall concert extravaganza in New York to have gallstones removed, organizers said on Monday.
Clapton, 64, "will spend time recuperating at home in the UK and is very sorry to disappoint the fans and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," a statement said.
The guitarist was scheduled to perform at Madison Square Garden on Friday, the second of a two-night celebration of the hall's 25th anniversary. Others on the bill include U2, Aretha Franklin, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne and Annie Lennox.
Eric Clapton
Iceland Says Goodbye
Big Mac
The Big Mac, long a symbol of globalization, has become the latest victim of this tiny island nation's overexposure to the world financial crisis.
Iceland's three McDonald's restaurants - all in the capital Reykjavik - will close next weekend, as the franchise owner gives in to falling profits caused by the collapse in the Icelandic krona.
Costs had doubled over the past year because of the fall in the krona and high import tariffs on imported goods, making it impossible for the company to raise prices further and remain competitive with competitors that use locally sourced produce.
A Big Mac in Reykjavik already retails for 650 krona ($5.29). But the 20 percent increase needed to make a decent profit would have pushed that to 780 krona ($6.36).
Big Mac
Off To War
"P"
George P. Bush, or "P" as he's known to some, thought to be the biggest hope for a fourth generation of Bush family political leaders, with some suggesting that he might run for statewide office in Texas at some point in the next four to eight years. But, as The Daily Beast points out today, any future George P. Bush political ambitions will have to be put on hold as his Navy Reserve unit is set to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan in the coming weeks.
Lt. Junior Grade Bush, 33, joined the Navy Reserve in 2007 as an intelligence officer. The Navy recently told him, like thousands of others, that the two ongoing wars required him to go active-duty overseas, potentially in Iraq or Afghanistan. "It's been communicated to me that it's not a question of 'if,' it's a question of 'when,'" Bush told The Daily Beast. "It's just a matter of time."
Bush, who said that he was inspired by the service of his grandfather George H.W. Bush as well as former NFL star Pat Tillman, signed up for an eight-year term in the Navy Reserve in 2007.
Other than being arrested at 18 for burglarizing the home of an ex-girlfriend, George P. Bush appears to have all the right credentials to carry the Bush legacy well into the future. While family members often refer to the former presidents Bush as "41" and "43," the Washington Post says that some close to the family have taken to referring to George P. Bush as "47," so it's probably safe to assume that those inside the family see him as a potential future Bush torchbearer just as many outside the family do.
"P"
Not Her Brother's Keeper
Juanita Castro
One of Fidel Castro's sisters says in a memoir released Monday that she collaborated with the CIA against her brother, starting shortly after the United States' failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961.
Juanita Castro, 76, initially supported her brother's 1959 overthrow of the Batista dictatorship but quickly grew disillusioned. In a Spanish-language memoir published by Santillana USA and co-written by journalist Maria Antonieta Collins, she says the wife of the Brazilian ambassador to Cuba persuaded her to meet a CIA officer during a trip to Mexico in 1961.
By then, her house had already become a sanctuary for anti-communists, and Fidel Castro had warned her about getting involved with the "gusanos," or worms, as those who opposed the revolution were called.
Castro says in the book, "My Brothers Fidel and Raul. The Secret Story," that she traveled to Mexico City under the pretense of visiting her younger sister Enma. There she also secretly met a CIA officer who identified himself as "Enrique" at the elegant Camino Real hotel.
Juanita Castro
Major Disconnect
Paul Haggis
"Crash" director Paul Haggis has severed his ties with the Church of Scientology in part because of the organization's stance against gay marriage.
Haggis wrote a letter addressed to Tommy Davis, the head of the Church of Scientology's Celebrity Centre. In it, Haggis said he was disappointed by the church's tacit denial of gay rights and its backing of California's gay marriage ban.
The 56-year-old Haggis, who won an Oscar in 2005 for co-writing "Crash," said he was quitting the church after 35 years.
Ziggy Kozlowski, a publicist for Haggis, confirmed that the director wrote the letter. Kozlowski said the letter was intended to remain private.
Paul Haggis
Paranoid Racist
Larry Whitten
Larry Whitten marched into this northern New Mexico town in late July on a mission: resurrect a failing hotel.
The tough-talking former Marine immediately laid down some new rules. Among them, he forbade the Hispanic workers at the run-down, Southwestern adobe-style hotel from speaking Spanish in his presence (he thought they'd be talking about him), and ordered some to Anglicize their names.
Whitten's management style had worked for him as he's turned around other distressed hotels he bought in recent years across the country.
The Virginia-born Whitten had spent 40 years in the hotel business, turning around more than 20 hotels in Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and South Carolina, before moving with his wife to Taos from Abilene, Texas. He had visited Taos before, and liked its beauty. When Whitten saw that the Paragon Inn was up for sale, he jumped at it.
Larry Whitten
In Memory
Dee Anthony
Dee Anthony, who began a 40-year music-managing career representing neighborhood friend Jerry Vale in the 1950s and later worked for Tony Bennett, Peter Frampton and other popular artists, has died. He was 83.
Anthony was Frampton's manager when the singer-guitarist released the wildly successful "Frampton Comes Alive" album in 1976. He also represented British acts including Traffic, Jethro Tull and Joe Cocker when they first came to the United States in the mid-1960s.
Born Anthony D'Addario, he grew up in the Bronx and met Bennett in 1954 at a nightclub in Yonkers, according to an obituary prepared by his daughter, Michele Anthony, former president and chief operating officer of Sony Music. He represented Bennett for more than a decade.
Anthony founded Bandana Enterprises with his brother, Bill, in 1968. The company managed a host of bands including The J. Geils Band, Ten Years After and Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
Anthony went on to represent Peter Allen and Devo in the 1980s and retired in the mid-1990s.
Dee Anthony
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