ON LINE DEFINITION: Strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties.....attraction based on sexual desire.....unselfish, loyal and benevolent concern for another.....the fatherly concern of god for mankind.
ON THE STREET: A word used for a hundred different things in one day...all with a warm feeling attached.
IN A SENTENCE: I saw the look on your face on Christmas morning and it was pure love (something money can't buy)
(Read BartCop Entertainment and learn a useless new word each Tuesday)
Holly Sklar: Billionaires Up, America Down (inteldaily.com)
Until 2005, multimillionaires could still make the
Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans. In 2006, the
Forbes 400 went billionaires only. This year, you'd
need a Forbes 482 to fit all the billionaires.
Herb Greenberg: Straight Talk on the Mortgage Mess from an Insider (marketwatch.com)
Even before this mortgage mess started, one person who
kept emailing me over and over saying that this is
going to get real bad. He kept saying this was beyond
sub-prime, beyond low FICO scores, beyond Alt-A and
beyond the imagination of most pundits, politicians
and the press. When I asked him why somebody from
inside the industry would be so emphatically sounding
the siren, he said, "Someobody's got to warn people."
Jim Hightower: CORPORATE AMERICA'S "CHEAP" IMPORT ADDICTION (jimhightower.com)
The news is filled with horror stories of China's
nasty exports coming to our shores - toy ovens that
burn our children, seafood laden with toxics and
antibiotics, tires that come apart on the highways,
pet food that kills pets… and the list goes on. China
must stop the exportation of these horrors, scream our
corporate, political, and media leaders. But who are
the real culprits here? You can't have an exporter
without an importer.
Beth Quinn: Logic and magic converge in Santa (recordonline.com)
The two boxes were special. Every year, on Christmas
morning, my sister and I knew those boxes would be
back, lying under the tree again. Or perhaps leaning
against the wall behind the branches, peeking out just
a bit to let us know that - yes! - they were back
again! Santa hadn't forgotten.
Richard Roeper's 2007 Goof awards: In trash heap with the stars (suntimes.com)
When I awarded my 2006 GOOF Award to the Unholy
Trinity of Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Britney
Spears, I wrote that they were "so entertainingly
trashy I should probably just induct them into the
GOOF Hall of Fame this year, lest they ruin the
suspense by winning every year from now until 2012."
Answers for Baron Dave's Ultra-Duper Trivia for 12/24/07
1D: George Marshall served as Secretary of State to Hary Truman
2E: John Foster Dulles/Dwight Eisenhower
3B: Henry Kissinger/Nixon
4C: Warren Chrstopher/Bill Clinton
5C: Madelaine Albright/Bill Clinton
6A: William Seward/Abraham Lincoln
7D: Dean Acheson/Harry Truman
8B: John Nance Garner was VP to Franklin Delano Roosevelt
9F: Arron Burr/Thomas Jefferson
10E: Al Gore/Bill Clinton
11B: Henry Wallace/FDR
12D: Calvin Coolidge/Warren G. Harding
13B: Harry Truman/FDR (yes, he had three VPs)
14A: Nelson Rockefeller/Richard Nixon
15F: George Clinton/Thomas Jefferson
16A: Gerald Ford/Richard Nixon
Bad Santa: Tim Allen (The Santa Clause) served two years in jail on a felony drug charge. Not the only time he saw the inside of a cell.
BadtotheboneBob's Bad Santa trivia answer:
That would be Tim Allen (The Santa Clause 1,2 and 3) who was arrested with 1.7lbs of coke at the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek International airport (not far from where I live) in 1978. He could have received life but ended up with a 3-7 year sentence because he 'cooperated' with authorities (i.e. ratted out his partners) He served 28 months in a federal pen in Minnesota. I wonder if he still looks over his shoulder a lot...
Sally's Baron Dave's Ultra-Duper Trivia reply
Lincoln - 6 William H. Seward
Nixon - 3 Henry Kissinger
Clinton - 5 Madelaine Albright
Truman - 7 Dean Acheson
Eisenhower - 2 John Foster Dulles
President's and their vices:
Richard Nixon - Spiro T. Agnew and 16 Gerald Ford
Franklin Roosevelt - 08 John Nance, Garner 13 Harry Truman, and 11 Henry Wallace
Ronald Reagan - (?) George HW Bush
Warren Harding - 12 Calvin Coolidge
Bill Clinton - 10 Al Gore
Thomas Jefferson - 9 Aaron Burr and 15 George Clinton
Best Christmas Card: The best "Christmas Card" that I received (several years ago) was one that featured a cover photo of several newspaper headlines laid out - all with "War" banners prominently displayed: "150 Dead in African Village," Bombing in Laos Continues," "'Shoot to Kill,' orders Army Officer," etc. And, right there, in the middle of the headlines, is the sweet, tiny infant, "Jesus," swaddled in white, halo over His sleeping eyes and above His head. So precious, even in the mist of such chaos portrayed in the headlines. Inside the verse simply states, "Peace On Earth, Good Will Towards Men."
I blew up the cover, and hang it on my front door it every year - verse on the bottom of the photo. I've had many, many comments on this every year.
Is it better than my "Christmas Cards?" - well yes, because I send out Hanukkah cards you see.
Yesterday's Trivia Question
How many men have walked on the moon?
A: 3
B: 9
C: 12
D: 15
Marian the Teacher was first, and correct:
twelve men have walked on the moon and by the way, Merry Christmas!! After tomorrow I won't have access to your site until next year, so Hapry New Year to all of you too!!
Sally also got it right:
I believe that "C" 12 men have walked on the moon to date (not counting any UFO pilots, or those found living in the ancient remains often seen there by Richard C. Hoagland on his telescope...)
Baron Dave ("Two Zen masters walk into a bar. Or do they?" -- Jay Bernzweig) was also right:
C: 12 Men walked on the moon (that we know of). Two each from
Apollos 11-17, minus 13.
And, Wayne (at the edge of civilization in Georgia, U.S., where enlightenment is a dirty word) answered:
Answer: None. Logic behind this: Cold War + Nixon + Xtian astronaut who refused to swear on a bible that he had walked on the moon + a lot more. Remember all the accidents happened here (on earth). Apollo 13 so called accident was designed to show people that even NASA was not perfect. Numerous missions all for propaganda to intimidate the Russkies. All except # 13 were perfect. Now I ask you? Is that reasonable?
Why no more missions to the moon in 35 or so years?
The price of sanity is eternal skepticism.
:
Thanks to Baron Dave for the Ultra-Duper Questions
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'NCIS', followed by a RERUN'The Unit', then '48 Hours'.
On a RERUNDave (from 12/22/06) are Cate Blanchett, Jay Thomas, and Darlene Love.
On a RERUNCraig (from 3/27/07) are Randy Jackson, Piper Perabo, and Roy Wood Jr.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH 2-hour 'Deal Or No Deal', followed by a RERUN'Law & Order'.
On a RERUNLeno (from 12/19/02) are Sandra Bullock, Sean Astin, and Brian Setzer Orchestra.
On a RERUNConan (from 12/1/05) are Alan Alda and Billy Joel.
On a RERUNCarson 'The Scab' Daly (from 12/6/07) are Yvonne Strahovski and Gym Class Heroes.
ABC fills the night with the movie 'Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl'.
On a RERUNJimmy Kimmel (from 6/26/07) are Don Rickles, Bob Newhart, and Keely Smith.
The CW offers a RERUN'Crowned', followed by a RERUN'Reaper'.
Faux has a RERUN'Bones', followed by a RERUN'House'.
MY has a FRESH'Control Room', followed by another FRESH'Control Room'.
A&E has 'CSI: The 2nd One', followed by the movie 'Forrest Gump'.
AMC offers the movie 'High Plains Drifter', followed by the movie 'Rio Bravo', then the movie 'The Searchers'.
BBC -
[12:00 PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - Ep 4 Bonapartes;
[1:00 PM] Cash in the Attic - Episode 7;
[2:00 PM] Bargain Hunt - Ep. 16 Detling 23;
[2:30 PM] Bargain Hunt - Ep. 17 Peterborough 37;
[3:00 PM] How Clean Is Your House? - Episode 5;
[3:30 PM] How Clean Is Your House? - Episode 6;
[4:00 PM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 2;
[4:30 PM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 3;
[5:00 PM] My Family - Ep 2 They Shoot Harpers, Don't They?;
[5:30 PM] Coupling - Episode 6;
[7:00 PM] BBC World News;
[7:30 PM] How Clean Is Your House? - Episode 5;
[8:00 PM] Life On Mars - Episode 3;
[9:00 PM] Life On Mars - Episode 4;
[10:00 PM] BBC World News;
[10:30 PM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 5;
[11:00 PM] Life On Mars - Episode 3;
[12:00 AM] Life On Mars - Episode 4;
[1:00 AM] Coupling - Ep. 3 Sex, Death and Nudity;
[1:40 AM] The World Stands Up - Episode 2;
[2:00 AM] The Weakest Link - Episode 2;
[3:00 AM] Changing Rooms - Ep. 8 St. Ives;
[3:30 AM] Changing Rooms - Ep.1 Barnstaple;
[4:00 AM] Bargain Hunt - Ep. 13 Wetherby 5;
[4:30 AM] Bargain Hunt - Ep. 15 Ardingly 16;
[5:00 AM] Cash in the Attic - Episode 3;
[5:30 AM] Cash in the Attic - Episode 4;
[6:00 AM] BBC World News. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has the movie 'The Godfather, Part II', followed by the movie 'The Godfather, Part III'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Bad Santa', followed by the movie 'Blue Collar Comedy Tour Rides Again'.
Jon Stewart is pre-empted.
Colbert Report is pre-empted.
FX has the movie 'Home Alone', followed by the movie 'Home Alone', again, then the movie 'Maid In Manhattan'.
History has 'Modern Marvels', 'Nostradamus: 900 Years Later', and 'Decoding The Past'.
IFC -
[07:10 AM] Media Lab Results;
[07:20 AM] Tadpole;
[08:45 AM] The Field;
[10:45 AM] Dancing At Lughnasa;
[12:25 PM] Tadpole;
[01:45 PM] The Field;
[03:45 PM] Dancing At Lughnasa;
[05:25 PM] IFC News Special;
[05:35 PM] Tadpole;
[07:00 PM] Far from Heaven;
[10:45 PM] L'Auberge Espagnole;
[12:50 AM] Media Lab Results;
[01:00 AM] Intacto;
[04:45 AM] L'Auberge Espagnole. (ALL TIMES EST)
SciFi has 'Stargate SG-1', another 'Stargate SG-1', still another 'Stargate SG-1', and 'ECW'.
Sundance -
[06:00 AM] Djangomania!;
[07:00 AM] Funny Ha Ha;
[08:45 AM] French Beauty;
[10:00 AM] The Mighty Celt;
[11:45 AM] Mutual Appreciation;
[01:45 PM] Mary, Queen of Scots;
[04:00 PM] Screwback;
[04:15 PM] Agnes Browne;
[06:00 PM] Episode 1;
[06:30 PM] Episode 2;
[07:00 PM] Episode 3;
[07:30 PM] Episode 4;
[08:00 PM] Episode 5;
[08:30 PM] Episode 6;
[09:00 PM] The Best of Youth (Part 1);
[10:45 PM] Belly Button;
[11:00 PM] Shameless: Christmas Special;
[12:15 AM] Love + Hate;
[01:45 AM] In This World;
[03:30 AM] Somersault;
[05:30 AM] Short Hymn, Silent War. (ALL TIMES EST)
School children gather near a Santa Claus sand sculpture, created by sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik on the eve of Christmas at the golden sea beach of Puri, about 67 kilometers (42 miles) away from the southeastern Indian temple city Bhubaneswar, India, Monday, Dec. 24, 2007.
Photo by Biswaranjan Rout
With cocktail glasses clinking in the background, jazz singer Billie Holiday stood near a piano amid partygoers inside an apartment overlooking New York City's Hudson River. She began singing "Good Morning Heartache."
It was Nov. 18, 1956. Tony Scott joined her on clarinet as the voices of others gathered at 340 Riverside Drive, including "Tonight Show" founder Steve Allen, receded into a respectful hush.
This virtually unknown bootleg - and about 100 cubic feet of additional reel-to-reel audio tapes, newspaper clippings, films and boxes of a writer's working files - are part of historical material accumulated by musician, producer and critic Leonard Feather in his half-century association with jazz royalty like Holiday. He donated it to the University of Idaho's International Jazz Collection following his death at age 80 in 1994.
While copyright laws have stymied efforts to make the recordings available to a broader commercial audience, the Moscow, Idaho, school plans to make at least a sampling of Holiday's party performance and other Feather materials available to those attending this February's Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival.
A general view shows an ice sculpture of the Tiananmen gate at the Ice and Snow World in Harbin, Heilongjiang province December 22, 2007. Picture taken December 22, 2007.
The Republican chairman madam of the Federal Communications Commission is disputing Democratic assertions that a new rule loosening restrictions on media ownership is full of loopholes and will lead to a another wave of mergers and fewer choices for consumers.
Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps described the commission's decision approving the measure as "one that would make George Orwell proud," referring to the English author best known for his novels critiquing totalitarianism and for popularizing the phrase "Big Brother is watching you."
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin (R-Rupert's Fluffer) said lied the commission action was a "relatively minor loosening" of a single rule.
The conflicting impressions say a lot about the divisive nature of the media ownership debate. Too much media in the hands of too few companies raises fears of an emerging corporate big brother and fewer news and information sources.
Late-night TV history will repeat itself January 2 when, two months into the Hollywood writers strike, NBC's "The Tonight Show" will return to the air without its scribes.
It was May 11, 1988. Two months after the beginning of the last writers strike, "The Tonight Show" returned sans writers. It started off just like any other "Tonight Show" hosted by Johnny Carson, with "Heeeeeere's Johnny!" But then, in the midst of a louder and longer than usual standing ovation, an audience member shouted, "Welcome back, Johnny."
"The public was glad he was back, the staff was glad, everybody was happy to get paychecks again," said Carson's nephew Jeff Sotzing, president of Carson Entertainment, who was an associate producer on "Tonight Show" in 1988. "Nobody wanted to cross the picket line, but when they finally did, it was a huge relief."
Carson, who owned the "The Tonight Show," had been paying his nonwriting staff out of his pocket, something his successors, led by David Letterman, have replicated during the current strike.
Also taking a cue from his idol, Letterman, who owns CBS' "Late Show" and "Late Late Show," has been trying to negotiate an interim deal with the Writers Guild of America that would allow the two shows to return with writers January 2.
Robert Baer dreamed of becoming a Hollywood writer and producer, and thought he had caught his big break in 1995 when he met the man who would become famous for creating "The Sopranos."
But Baer didn't make it in show business, and last week he failed on another front: a lawsuit against David Chase, the series' creator. Baer had been seeking compensation for a tour of Mafia sights around New Jersey he gave Chase and for arranging meetings with mob experts that Baer claimed inspired many of Chase's ideas for the HBO hit show.
The trial offered a behind-the-scenes look at how Hollywood writers turn their ideas into successful television and the way the industry often revolves around friends doing favors for friends.
While the jury found that Baer did help Chase, it ruled that he was not owed anything for assistance he provided while Chase wrote the early draft of the "Sopranos" pilot because he did not prove he had a reasonable expectation of being compensated. The jury also found Baer may have been hoping that Chase would help open doors in the entertainment business.
Will Smith has stunned the world by declaring that even Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was essentially a "good" person.
The Men In Black star, 39, is determined to see the best in people, and is convinced the former German leader did not fully understand the extent of the pain and suffering his actions would cause during his time in power in the 1930s and '40s.
He says, "Even Hitler didn't wake up going, 'Let me do the most evil thing I can do today'.
"I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was 'good'. Stuff like that just needs reprogramming."
Actress Michelle Rodriguez, former star of the hit television series "Lost," has begun a 180-day prison term for probation violation in a hit-and-run case, justice officials said Monday.
The 29-year-old checked into Los Angeles Century Regional Detention Facility on Sunday to start serving her term after being sentenced in October, officials said.
Rodriguez was handed her jail term after it emerged she had failed to carry out community service she had been ordered to undertake last year.
Reports said Rodriguez had claimed to be carrying out community service in Los Angeles on September 25 when in fact she had been in New York.
A group of children run from a large tumbleweed pushed by strong winds in the Sepulveda Dam Recreation area in Van Nuys in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles on Sunday, Dec. 23, 2007.
Photo by David Crane
Seeking a novel remedy to revive its rickety economy, the tiny ex-Soviet state of Kyrgyzstan has declared itself the new home of Santa Claus.
Citing Swedish engineering firm that determined the ideal spot for Santa's global toy delivery hub, officials in this predominantly Muslim country have quickly moved to capitalise on the finding.
They named a mountain peak after Santa, to join Mounts Lenin, and Yeltsin, and declared 2008 "The Year of Santa Claus".
In most Western countries Santa Claus, or Father Christmas , is thought to live at the North Pole or in Finland. However, if he were located in Central Asia and started westwards on his traditional Christmas Eve trips, Kyrgyz officials said he would have a more efficient delivery route.
Paul Smokov doesn't need radar or other high-tech equipment to forecast a major snowstorm on the prairie. He consults pig spleens.
"It looks like a normal year with no major storms," said the 84-year-old Smokov, peering at two of the brown, glistening, foot-long organs on his kitchen counter like a Gypsy gazing into a crystal ball. "That's what the spleens tell me."
If the spleen is wide where it attaches to the pig's stomach and then narrows, it means winter weather will come early with a mild spring, Smokov said. A narrow-to-wider spleen usually means harsh weather in the spring, he said.
A large Mothman sculpture stands along Main Street Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007 in Point Pleasant, W.Va. More than 40 years after the first reported sighting of the mysterious creature later dubbed 'Mothman,' residents here have embraced his legend, helping to turn the town into a destination for people in search of an offbeat tourism experience.
Photo by Jeff Gentner
After nearly 400 years, a few killings and scorned pleas from a king, two powerful clans have settled one of the longest-standing feuds in Korean history, over ancestral burial grounds.
The clash between the Yoon family and the Shim family started in 1614 when the two began burying their ancestors in large burial mounds next to each other, with both claiming rights to the land.
It will finally be sorted out in March 2008 under a settlement deal reached a few days ago. The Yoon family will give about 8,300 square metres (89,340 sq ft) of land to the Shim family, which will use it as a new burial ground for 19 of its ancient clan members.
Choreographer Michael Kidd, whose athletic dances for ballet, Broadway and Hollywood delighted audiences for half a century and won him five Tonys and an Oscar, has died.
Kidd's nephew, Robert Greenwald, told The New York Times that Kidd died at his Los Angeles home Sunday night of cancer. Kidd's age is often listed as 88, but Greenwald told the Times that his uncle was actually 92.
To moviegoers, Kidd was best known for the 1954 film "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," in which a bunch of earthy backwoodsmen prance exuberantly with their prospective brides.
Oscar Peterson, whose early talent and speedy fingers made him one of the world's best known jazz pianists, died at age 82.
During an illustrious career spanning seven decades, Peterson played with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie. He is also remembered for touring in a trio with Ray Brown on bass and Herb Ellis on guitar in the 1950s.
Born on Aug. 15, 1925, in a poor neighborhood southwest of Montreal, Peterson obtained a passion for music from his father. Daniel Peterson, a railway porter and self-taught musician, bestowed his love of music to his five children, offering them a means to escape from poverty.
Oscar Peterson learned to play trumpet and piano at a young age, but after a bout with tuberculosis had to concentrate on the latter.
He became a teen sensation in his native Canada, playing in dance bands and recording in the late 1930s and early 1940s. But he got his real break as a surprise guest at Carnegie Hall in 1949, after which he began touring the United States and Europe.
Peterson never stopped calling Canada home despite his growing international reputation. But at times he felt slighted here, where he was occasionally mistaken for a football player, standing at 6 foot 3 and more than 250 pounds.
In 2005 he became the first living person other than a reigning monarch to obtain a commemorative stamp in Canada, where he is jazz royalty, with streets, squares, concert halls and schools named after him.
A Japanese macaque eats an orange among fruits and vegetables presented by zookeeper as special Christmas treat at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo Monday, Dec. 24, 2007.
Photo by Koji Sasahara
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