Andrew Tobias: 'P' As In 'Pneumonia'
… when I went to place my order for CISG a week or so back - by cell phone from the West Indies to my actual human broker - I wanted to be sure he bought the right thing. (I've been down that road before.) So I spelled it out: "C-I-S-G: C as in China, I as in Israel, S as in Somalia" . . . I was having fun with this, because life is short and almost every minute can be fun if you try . . . "G as in Georgia. The country, not the state."
Leo Benedictus: Unreliable statistics of 2013 (Guardian)
2013 was the year that 800,000 people were lifted out of fuel poverty - by a change in the definition. As always, voters were subjected to their fair share of lies, damned lies - and these things. Here are the worst fudged stats of the year.
Lauren Davis: US judge rules Sherlock Holmes and Watson are in the public domain (io9)
If you've had a Sherlock Holmes in space novel idea kicking around your head, now might be a good time to start writing it. A United States federal judge has ruled that Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and other elements of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories are no longer covered by US copyright law.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Children (Athens News)
When he was a young man, Ernest Rutherford, the father of nuclear science and a future Noble-Prize winner in Chemistry, occasionally taught his three youngest sisters at the request of their mother. They were fidgety, so he kept them from fidgeting by tying the braids of each sister to the braids of another sister.
Ralph Pierre LaCock, better known by his stage name Peter Marshall (born March 30, 1926), is an American television and radio personality, singer, and actor.
He was the original host of The Hollywood Squares, from 1966 to 1981. He has almost fifty television, movie, and Broadway credits.
Peter Marshall was born Ralph Pierre LaCock in 1926 in Huntington, West Virginia, to a show business family. Following his father's death, he moved to New York City when he was a teenager to be with his mother, a costume designer. His elder sister, Joanne Dru, was an actress who is best remembered for her roles in the films Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and All the King's Men.
Source
Charlie was first, and correct, with:
Peter Marshall
Alan J said:
Peter Marshall
Jim from CA, retired to ID, wrote:
Peter Marshall
Adam answered:
Peter Marshall.
Lois Of The Roosters Of Oregon replied:
Why would Peter Marshall give up such a WONDERFUL name?
Probably didn't want to get confused with that ball player,
or have to listen to "I'll take Totie Fields to block,
LaCock!"
Marian responded:
Peter Marshall
Sally said:
Ralph Pierre LaCock, actor and game show host is better known by Peter Marshall.
I don't know either of these dudes, but then, I am NOT a game show fan...
PS: Only a day left till the NEW YEAR! I am now busy cleaning my house to welcome in 2014!! It's so redundant. Sigh...
Dale of Diamondy Springs, Still Norfallcali answered:
Knew that one due to my fascination with cool names. Ralph Pierre LaCock changed his name to Peter Marshall. He should have kept at least Pierre LaCock as his stage name. Never had to worry if he ever needed a porn name. I remember that he had a son Pete LaCock that played in MLB for a while. And then there Was:
BttbBob responded:
AHHH - HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! That's more like it, an' tha's a fact! LaCock!
Per-FECT-a-mundo! Seriously! Hoo ha, Boss, an' ya hit the ol' 'bulls-eye' with that one, I'm here to tell ya!
~~~~~
"BZ" is an age-old maritime signal flag hoist that means, "Well Done!"
You have just been rewarded the official crest for it...
~~~~~
We, in the CG, used that acronym (or, said "Bravo Zulu"), too...
See? (That's a 47' Motor Lifeboat - standard heavy weather SAR SRU (Surface Rescue Unit) It replaced my ol' 44'-er after I left the CG, so's I never gotsta run one. But, I damn'd sure could, I'm thinkin'! She's a beaut!)
~~~~~
Peter Marshall is the answer and I'm dagnab glad, nay - ecstatic, that I didn't have "LaCock" as a last name growin' up. Egad's the word!
~~~~~
Happy Birthday this day to:
(75) He's, um - rather good at what he does...
(53) Did a fine job as the dissolute "Doc Holiday"...
(54) I always figured that this was the real "Lilith"...
The guy in the red jacket is (65) - Burton Cummings, lead singer and founder of
The Guess Who: Greatest Hits (Full Album)
They being Canada's first big rock band were very popular 'round these here parts... They are on my high-school experience 'sound track'...
Born this day:
(1948-2012) I have to admit, for the first time ever to anybody, that although I disdained 'Disco' over all, I had this 'thing' goin' on for the "Queen"... Seriously
DONNA SUMMER GREATEST HITS - YouTube Oh, yeah...
(1943-1997) This is about how John looked when I saw him perform at the DAR Constitution Hall in D.C. the autumn of '72... Yeah, it was a
John Denver - Rocky Mountain High time there. He did this, too, which I really like, but is not as well known
John Denver - Prisoners (1972) (on the "Tonight Show" with Johnny...
MAM wrote:
Peter Marshall (born 1926) ~ He was the original host of The Hollywood Squares, from 1966 to 1981.
PS ~ I really liked Joe S.'s link, the Mayans were pretty cool
And, Joe S replied:
Let's see, who is that? Wait a minute, I'll get out my magic wand named Fred and wave it around a bit. Ah, there it is, Peter Marshall. Magic is such a handy thing. It helps if you say a few magic words like "where the hell did I leave that?" when you're searching for your lost keys or cell phone, but it's not necessary.
Peter Marshall, that brings to mind my uncle. One of my uncles, I have lots of them, rather I had lots of them they have all died but one. Anyway, this particular uncle's first name was Edward and his middle name was Lenhardt so naturally he was called Uncle Pete. I had another uncle named Harvey, he was Uncle Jack. Another uncle Sylvester was Uncle Art, all the rest of them were pretty much what you would expect. I just thought you might like to know that.
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'NCIS', followed by a RERUN'NCIS: The 2nd One', then a RERUN'Person Of Interest'.
On a RERUNDave (from 11/15/13) are Stupid Pet Tricks, Connie Britton, and Lady Antebellum.
On a RERUNCraig (from 11/13/13) are Kaley Cuoco and Kellie Pickler.
NBC starts the night with the FRESH'A Toast To 2013!', followed by the FRESH'NBC's New Year's Eve With Carson Daly'.
On a RERUNLeno (from 11/7/13) are Andy Samberg, Bailee Madison, and Goo Goo Dolls.
On a RERUNJimmy Fallon (from 11/26/13) are Josh Hutcherson, Budd Friedman, and Kelly Clarkson.
On a RERUNCarson 'The Scab' Daly (from 12/12/13) are Scott Aukerman, Robbie Fulks, and Bughouse.
ABC opens the night with the FRESH'New Year's Rockin' Eve Presents The 30 Greatest Women In Music', followed by FRESH'Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2014'.
On a RERUNJimmy Kimmel is pre-empted.
The CW offers a RERUN'iHeartRadio Music Festival: Night 2'.
On a RERUNArsenio Hall (from 11/29/13) are Anthony Anderson, Loni Love, and Doug E. Fresh.
Faux has a RERUN'Dads', followed by a RERUN'Brooklyn Nine-Nine', then a RERUN'New Girl', followed by a RERUN'The Mindy Project'.
MY recycles an old 'Bones', followed by another old 'Bones'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] BBC WORLD NEWS
[6:30AM] BBC WORLD NEWS
[7:00AM] BBC WORLD NEWS
[7:30AM] BBC WORLD NEWS
[8:00AM] DOCTOR WHO: THE COMPANIONS
[9:00AM] DOCTOR WHO: TALES FROM THE TARDIS
[10:00AM] DOCTOR WHO: EXPLAINED
[11:00AM] AN ADVENTURE IN SPACE AND TIME
[1:00PM] DOCTOR WHO: VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED
[2:00PM] DOCTOR WHO: THE NEXT DOCTOR
[3:00PM] DOCTOR WHO: PLANET OF THE DEAD
[4:00PM] DOCTOR WHO: THE WATERS OF MARS
[5:00PM] DOCTOR WHO: THE END OF TIME
[8:00PM] DOCTOR WHO: THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR
[9:40PM] DOCTOR WHO: THE TIME OF THE DOCTOR
[11:00PM] DOCTOR WHO: FAREWELL TO MATT SMITH
[12:00AM] DOCTOR WHO: THE END OF TIME
[3:00AM] DOCTOR WHO: THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR
[4:40AM] DOCTOR WHO: THE TIME OF THE DOCTOR (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has all 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta' all night.
IFC -
[5:30AM] The Birthday Boys-Helpful Tips
[6:00AM] Whitest Kids U'Know
[6:15AM] Malcolm in the Middle-Convention
[6:45AM] Malcolm in the Middle-Robbery
[7:15AM] Malcolm in the Middle-Therapy
[7:45AM] Malcolm in the Middle-High School Play
[8:15AM] Malcolm in the Middle-Bully
[8:45AM] Malcolm in the Middle-Old Mrs. Old
[9:15AM] Malcolm in the Middle-Krelboyne Girl
[9:45AM] Malcolm in the Middle-New Neighbors
[10:15AM] Malcolm in the Middle-Hal Quits
[10:45AM] Malcolm in the Middle-The Grandparents
[11:15AM] Malcolm in the Middle-Traffic Ticket
[11:45AM] Malcolm in the Middle-Surgery
[12:15PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Reese Cooks
[12:45PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Tutoring Reese
[1:15PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Bowling
[1:45PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Malcolm vs. Reese
[2:15PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Mini-Bike
[2:45PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Carnival
[3:15PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Evacuation
[3:45PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Flashback
[4:15PM] Vegas Vacation
[6:15PM] Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie
[8:00PM] Half Baked
[9:45PM] Trapped in the Closet - Chapters 1-33
[12:30AM] Up in Smoke
[2:15AM] Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie
[4:00AM] Up in Smoke
[5:45AM] Whitest Kids U'Know (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00AM] Love Lust-Love Lust & the Bikini
[7:00AM] Three Kings
[9:30AM] Sixteen Candles
[11:30AM] Young Frankenstein
[2:00PM] The Producers
[5:00PM] Marie Antoinette
[7:30PM] A League of Their Own
[10:30PM] Kingpin
[1:00AM] A Single Man
[3:15AM] Marie Antoinette
[5:45AM] This Way Up (ALL TIMES EST)
Waterford Crystal Vice President Regan Iglesia holds up a piece of a Waterford Crystal panel that will be installed on the New Year's Eve ball in New York, December 27, 2013. All 2,688 panels on the Times Square New Year's Eve Ball have been replaced with a brand new design, by the crystal company. The ball will drop at midnight on New Year's eve and will be watched by millions of people around the world.
Photo by Darren Ornitz
Bon Jovi not only has the year's top tour, but the rock band has achieved a career high.
The New Jersey-based act's worldwide tour grossed $259.5 million this year, topping Pollstar's annual top 20 list and setting a record for the band itself.
Beyonce is second with $188.6 million. She ended her tour last week in Brooklyn, N.Y. Pink, Justin Bieber, and Bruce Springsteen round out the top five.
The top 20 list also included Taylor Swift, Elton John, Rihanna, Depeche Mode and One Direction. The Rolling Stones' comeback tour ranked twelfth, a notch under Paul McCartney.
A Shaman holds bunches of coca leaves, a cash crop native to western South America, while performing a ceremony of predicting the upcoming year at Agua Dulce Beach in Lima December 30, 2013.
Photo by Enrique Castro-Mendivil
Rock band U2 will receive the Sonny Bono Visionary Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, it was announced Monday. The group's song, "Ordinary Love," seen in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, has been nominated for the best original song Golden Globe and Critics' Choice awards and is considered a top contender for the best original song Oscar.
The award, named after the late pop star-turned-politician who founded the fest, will be presented on Jan. 4 at the Palm Springs Convention Center as part of the festival's 25th edition, which runs from Jan. 3-13. The members of U2 -- Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. -- are expected to accept the award in-person.
The fest previously announced that it will honor 12 Years a Slave's helmer Steve McQueen with its Director of the Year Award and supporting actress Lupita Nyong'o with its Breakthrough Performance Award; Captain Phillips' lead actor/Saving Mr. Banks' supporting actor Tom Hanks with its Chairman's Award; August: Osage County's lead actress Meryl Streep with its Icon Award; Dallas Buyers Club's lead actor Matthew McConaughey with its Desert Palm Award, Actor; Gravity's lead actress Sandra Bullock with its Desert Palm Award, Actress; August: Osage County's supporting actress Julia Roberts with its Spotlight Award; Saving Mr. Banks' composer Thomas Newman with its Frederick Loewe Award for Film Composing; and Nebraska's Bruce Dern with its Career Achievement Award.
They are some of the rarest bobblehead dolls ever produced. They're released erratically. They're given away for free, not sold. And if you get a certificate to claim one, you have to redeem it at a Washington, DC, law office.
The limited edition bobbleheads of U.S. Supreme Court justices are the work of law professor Ross Davies, who has been creating them for the past 10 years. When finished, they arrive unannounced on the real justices' desks, secreted there by unnamed confederates. And fans will go to some lengths to get one.
"I think we take seriously trying to do them well," said Davies, a law professor at Virginia's George Mason University and the editor of an entertaining quarterly legal journal called The Green Bag.
Subscribing to the journal is the most reliable way to get a voucher to claim a bobblehead when they are released, but there's no guarantee. The certificates warn that the bearer "might be able" to exchange it for a bobblehead, and the journal also hands out some bobbleheads to non-subscribers, including law school public interest groups that auction them at fundraisers. Some ultimately wobble their way onto eBay, where they reliably sell for hundreds of dollars.
The justices themselves seem to have been charmed by their caricatures. Antonin Scalia once said in an interview that he understands his is the most popular. Stephen Breyer had four of the figures of his colleagues on display in his chambers during a 2009 C-Span interview. His own is currently in the works. And former Chief Justice William Rehnquist sent a thank-you note for his, which was the first to come out in 2003.
A Gurung man in a traditional costume performs during the New Year parade in Kathmandu December 30, 2013. The Gurung community in Nepal celebrates their Tamu Lhosar or Losar (New Year) with a feast and various cultural programs to usher in the year of the horse.
Photo by Navesh Chitrakar
Sin City is set to ring in 2014 with big-name concerts, celebrity-hosted parties and an eight-minute rooftop fireworks display billed as the nation's largest.
John Legend is performing at Haze nightclub at Aria, Ne-Yo is welcoming the new year at Pure nightclub at Caesars Palace and Maroon 5 is playing at Mandalay Bay. Pop star Bruno Mars is christening the Cosmopolitan's new Chelsea Ballroom. The show will be broadcast live on the casino's 65-foot marquee to ice skaters at a rooftop rink and partyers on the Strip below.
Other casinos are touting pricey nightclub bashes with $3,000 bottle service and open bars hosted by reality-TV and music celebrities, including the original celebutante, Paris Hilton.
The winter months are Las Vegas' slowest, which means casino executives are especially eager to lure as many patrons as possible on New Year's Eve, a holiday seemingly custom-made to align with Sin City's boozy, bad-judgment ethos.
One-third of Americans reject the idea of evolution and Republicans have grown more skeptical about it, according to a poll released on Monday.
Sixty percent of Americans say that "humans and other living things have evolved over time," the telephone survey by the Pew Research Center's Religion and Public Life Project showed (Click http://www.pewforum.org/2013/12/30/publics-views-on-human-evolution/ for the full survey).
But 33 percent reject the idea of evolution, saying that "humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time," Pew said in a statement.
Although this percentage remained steady since 2009, the last time Pew asked the question, there was a growing partisan gap on whether humans evolved.
The poll showed 43 percent of Republicans and 67 percent of Democrats say humans have evolved over time, compared with 54 percent and 64 percent respectively four years ago.
Dancers from Romania's northeastern region of Moldova perform the "bear" dance, a ritual for good luck in the New Year, during a traditional parade in Comanesti, 300 km (186 miles) northeast of Bucharest December 30, 2013. In pre-Christian rural traditions dancers used to tour from house to house in villages while singing and dancing to ward off evil.
Photo by Bogdan Cristel
China's top film director Zhang Yimou has said he violated the country's one-child policy because of the traditional belief that having multiple children would lead to greater prosperity, state media said.
After months of rumours that he had fathered as many as seven children with several different women, Zhang issued an apology on December 1 acknowledging that he has two sons and a daughter with his current wife, and another daughter with his ex-wife.
Zhang, who faces an official penalty largely based on his and his wife's income in the years before each child was born, also claimed that one year he only earned $450.
In an interview with the official Xinhua news agency Sunday, the director of the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening and closing ceremonies said he broke the law because his father told him before dying that he wanted a grandson to "carry on the family name".
The average amount of electricity consumed in U.S. homes has fallen to levels last seen more than a decade ago, back when the smartest device in people's pockets was a Palm pilot and anyone talking about a tablet was probably an archaeologist or a preacher.
Because of more energy-efficient housing, appliances and gadgets, power usage is on track to decline in 2013 for the third year in a row, to 10,819 kilowatt-hours per household, according to the Energy Information Administration.
That's the lowest level since 2001, when households averaged 10,535 kwh. And the drop has occurred even though our lives are more electrified.
Back in 1990, before most homes had a personal computer and multiple other gadgets, average consumption totaled 9,447 kilowatt-hours per household. That slowly climbed to a peak of 11,504 in 2010. But since then, usage has been steadily dropping.
A worker takes a break while arranging "wishing spheres" along Marina Bay in Singapore, December 30, 2013. People penned their wishes for the new year onto the spheres before placing them into the river.
Photo by Low Youjin
Seiji Sasa hits the train station in this northern Japanese city before dawn most mornings to prowl for homeless men.
He isn't a social worker. He's a recruiter. The men in Sendai Station are potential laborers that Sasa can dispatch to contractors in Japan's nuclear disaster zone for a bounty of $100 a head.
It's also how Japan finds people willing to accept minimum wage for one of the most undesirable jobs in the industrialized world: working on the $35 billion, taxpayer-funded effort to clean up radioactive fallout across an area of northern Japan larger than Hong Kong.
In the October case, homeless men were rounded up at Sendai's train station by Sasa, then put to work clearing radioactive soil and debris in Fukushima City for less than minimum wage, according to police and accounts of those involved. The men reported up through a chain of three other companies to Obayashi, Japan's second-largest construction company.
Obayashi, which is one of more than 20 major contractors involved in government-funded radiation removal projects, has not been accused of any wrongdoing. But the spate of arrests has shown that members of Japan's three largest criminal syndicates - Yamaguchi-gumi, Sumiyoshi-kai and Inagawa-kai - had set up black-market recruiting agencies under Obayashi.
A collector credits a hunch with helping him land one of just 100 sheets of stamps recently issued by the United States Postal Service featuring a corrected version of its rare and famous error, the 1918 "inverted Jenny."
Art Van Riper bought the stamps in Waverly, N.Y., after reading that the Postal Service had printed a new batch of inverted Jenny stamps celebrating the 95-year-old edition that, by mistake, featured an upside-down biplane.
He also read that, as a way to draw more people into stamp collecting, the Postal Service randomly distributed 100 sheets featuring the plane right-side up among the 2.2 million sheets replicating the original and distributed nationwide.
Van Riper's was the fourth of the 100 sheets to turn up since the post office launched the campaign in September, USPS spokesman Mark Saunders said. One of the four is listed at $25,000 online, Van Riper said, but he doesn't have plans to sell his sheet.
George Jacobs, who was Frank Sinatra's valet and confidant for 15 years, has died.
Jacobs' son, Snake Jagger, says his father died of natural causes in Palm Springs Saturday night. He was 87.
Jacobs was working for Hollywood dealmaker Irving "Swifty" Lazar in 1953 when Sinatra hired and entrusted him with his personal affairs. Jacobs' 2003 book, "Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra," gives an insider's look into the crooner's life, his women and his dealings with the Kennedys, the Rat Pack and the mob.
Jacobs said he was fired after the gossip columns reported about him dancing at a nightclub with Sinatra's then-wife, Mia Farrow. Despite Ol' Blue Eyes' temper tantrums, Jacobs wrote that his boss treated him well.
Jacobs was survived by four sons and two daughters.
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