'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Commencement Address At William & Mary
Jon Stewart
Thank you Mr. President, I had forgotten how crushingly dull these ceremonies are. Thank you.
My best to the choir. I have to say, that song never grows old for me. Whenever I hear that song, it reminds me of nothing.
I am honored to be here, I do have a confession to make before we get going that I should explain very quickly. When I am not on television, this is actually how I dress. I apologize, but there's something very freeing about it. I congratulate the students for being able to walk even a half a mile in this non-breathable fabric in the Williamsburg heat. I am sure the environment that now exists under your robes, are the same conditions that primordial life began on this earth.
For the rest, Jon Stewart ('84) Commencement Address
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Fairly overcast, but nice.
Well, hell. Put up the Wednesday TV schedule on yesterday's page - and nobody said a thing!
Went to the library where the kid picked up an anthology of H. G. Wells' work. Got his head stuck in the book & forgot to turn on the TV.
Many thanks to Tom B of Long Beach for the recommendation of where to find an amazing display of jacaranda trees. Hope the pictures turn out.
British pop singer Mick Jagger arrives at the Festival Palace to attend the screening of "Fahrenheit 911," directed by Michael Moore, being shown in competition at the 57th International film festival in Cannes, southern France, Monday, May 17, 2004.
Photo by Laurent Rebours
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Radiohead Guitarist Named BBC Composer
Jonny Greenwood
Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood will become the British Broadcasting Corp.'s new composer in residence and will write a new work for one of its radio stations.
The assignment, expected to last three years, will allow Greenwood to use the BBC's musical resources, including the BBC Concert Orchestra. His manager, Bryce Edge, said Tuesday that the appointment would allow him to "learn how an orchestra works."
The Radiohead guitarist is a trained viola player but has not been educated in classical composition.
Last year, Radiohead was voted the world's best band at the annual Q music awards, winning the prize for the third straight year.
The band's most recent album, "Hail to the Thief," has been widely praised by critics in Britain and the United States.
Jonny Greenwood
AIDS activists hold up banners calling U.S. resident George W. Bush a puppet of U.S. drug companies, as Irish singer Bono (foreground) prepares to make a statement at a Senate Appropriations hearing on AIDS programs and research on Capitol Hill, in Washington May 18, 2004. Several protestors calling for more global availability of generic AIDS medicines disrupted the hearing and were ejected as the U.S.'s global AIDS coordinator Randall Tobias made remarks.
Photo by Jason Reed
Staff Abused by U.S. Troops in Iraq
Reuters & NBC
U.S. forces beat three Iraqis working for Reuters and subjected them to sexual and religious taunts and humiliation during their detention last January in a military camp near Falluja, the three said on Tuesday.
The three first told Reuters of the ordeal after their release but only decided to make it public when the U.S. military said there was no evidence they had been abused, and following the exposure of similar mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
An Iraqi journalist working for U.S. network NBC, who was arrested with the Reuters staff, also said he had been beaten and mistreated, NBC said on Tuesday.
Two of the three Reuters staff said they had been forced to insert a finger into their anuses and then lick it, and were forced to put shoes in their mouths, particularly humiliating in Arab culture.
All three said they were forced to make demeaning gestures as soldiers laughed, taunted them and took photographs. They said they did not want to give details publicly earlier because of the degrading nature of the abuse.
The abuse happened at Forward Operating Base Volturno, near Falluja, the Reuters staff said. They were detained on January 2 while covering the aftermath of the shooting down of a U.S. helicopter near Falluja and held for three days, first at Volturno and then at Forward Operating Base St Mere.
The three -- Baghdad-based cameraman Salem Ureibi, Falluja-based freelance television journalist Ahmad Mohammad Hussein al-Badrani and driver Sattar Jabar al-Badrani -- were released without charge on January 5.
NBC, whose stringer Ali Muhammed Hussein Ali al-Badrani was detained along with the Reuters staff, said he reported that a hood was placed over his head for hours, and that he was forced to perform physically debilitating exercises, prevented from sleeping and struck and kicked several times.
A summary of the investigation by the 82nd Airborne Division, dated January 28 and provided to Reuters, said "no specific incidents of abuse were found." It said soldiers responsible for the detainees were interviewed under oath and "none admit or report knowledge of physical abuse or torture."
The U.S. military never interviewed the three for its investigation.
Reuters & NBC
Replacing Barbara Walters
Elizabeth Vargas
ABC News on Tuesday appointed Elizabeth Vargas to replace Barbara Walters as co-host of the newsmagazine "20/20," and hired British celebrity interviewer Martin Bashir for the show.
Vargas has been a frequent fill-in on various ABC News broadcasts and a reporter for its newsmagazine. She'll be teamed with John Stossel on "20/20," which retained its Friday time slot in the fall schedule announced by the network on Tuesday.
ABC is also starting a weekend edition of "Good Morning America" in the fall. After it was abandoned several years ago in a cost-cutting move, ABC ceded weekend news territory to NBC and CBS, and was criticized for moving slowly on news stories that broke on the weekends.
Bill Weir, a former sports reporter at the ABC affiliate in Los Angeles, was appointed host of the weekend "Good Morning America."
Elizabeth Vargas
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Reuniting for Ozzfest
Black Sabbath
British heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath will reunite for the first time since 2001 for Ozzfest, which begins July 10 in Hartford, Conn., a spokeswoman for the annual road show said on Tuesday.
Ozzfest co-founder and headliner Ozzy Osbourne will revisit such hard rocking classics as "War Pigs" and "Paranoid" along with guitarist Tony Iommi and bass player Geezer Butler. But original drummer Bill Ward will be replaced by Mike Bordin, who backs Osbourne on his solo gigs.
Along with three-quarters of the original Black Sabbath, Ozzfest will also feature four-fifths of the original Judas Priest, and such acts as Slayer, Dimmu Borgir, Superjoint Ritual (featuring former Pantera singer Phil Anselmo) and Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society.
Black Sabbath
The Lily of the Valley Egg by Faberge is admired by visitors at the exhibition in the Kremlin in Moscow, May 18, 2004. The Russian industrialist Viktor Vekselberg paid an undisclosed sum of money for the collection containing 180 items, nine Faberge eggs among them. Vekselberg's fund brought the collection to Russia and promises to arrange a permanent public display.
Photo by Sergei Karpukhin
Running For Office
Jerry Brown
One-time US presidential contender, California governor and city mayor, Jerry Brown, has announced plans to run for office again, this time as California's top legal official.
Veteran politician Brown, 66, told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday that he had filed papers signalling his intention to vie for the post of attorney general which incumbent Bill Lockyer must vacate after elections in November 2006.
He was elected mayor of the San Francisco area city of Oakland, a post he still holds, in 1998. Brown is a vigorous opponent of capital punishment which remains in force in California.
Jerry Brown
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Appeals Jail Sentence
Bertrand Cantat
French rock singer Bertrand Cantat, sentenced to eight years in prison by a Lithuanian court for beating to death his actress lover Marie Trintignant, launched an appeal, his French lawyer told AFP.
Cantat, the 40-year-old frontman for the group Noir Desir, was found guilty on March 29 of causing the death of Trintignant, 41, during a violent fight in their Vilnius hotel room last July.
Cantat's attorney Olivier Metzner did not explain why his client has decided to appeal.
Bertrand Cantat
Dr. Hiroya Sugano holds a canteen he recovered from the crash site of a U.S. B-24 bomber during a ceremony of reconcilation Tuesday, May 18, 2004, in San Diego between veterans from Japan and United States aborad the USS Midway. The canteen was filled with holy water and Sugano and an American pilot poured the water over the side of the Midway into San Diego Bay.
Photo by Lenny Ignelzi
Cello Found Damaged in L.A.
Stolen Stradivarius
A Los Angeles nurse found a stolen Stradivarius cello worth $3.5 million next to a dumpster and planned to turn it into a CD cabinet until she discovered it was the instrument the whole town was searching for, her lawyer said on Tuesday.
The "General Kyd" cello, made in 1684 and named for the man who brought it to England, was returned on Saturday to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which owns it and offered a $50,000 reward for its return, attorney Ronald Hoffman said.
Police said the cello was taken from the porch of principal cellist Peter Stumpf on April 24 by a thief riding a bicycle.
Three days later, nurse Melanie Stevens spotted the cello peeking from its silver case beside a dumpster while she waited at a red light. "She recognized it as a musical instrument case because she plays guitar. She wasn't thinking that it was old," Hoffman said.
The instrument sat in the couple's spare bedroom until last Friday, when Stevens caught the end of a TV news report on the missing cello, and realized she had found the instrument that all of Los Angeles was looking for.
Stolen Stradivarius
Going on Hiatus
'Martha Stewart Living'
With its star facing a possible prison sentence, the "Martha Stewart Living" TV show will be suspended after this season winds up, the show's producers announced Tuesday.
Production of the award-winning syndicated show, distributed by King World Productions, will continue for the remainder of the 11th season, through September.
The company also will eliminate 40 jobs in its television division by June 30, leaving 35 positions, spokeswoman Elizabeth Estroff said.
'Martha Stewart Living'
Named for Ozzy & Sharon Osbourne
Ice Cream
The co-owner of a Woodbridge (NJ) ice cream shop is serving up ice cream flavors honoring rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his wife, Sharon.
Ed Dubroski Jr. - who owns the Country Cow Creamery along with his sister, Jenn - sent an e-mail in January to the Osbournes offering to design an ice cream flavor in Sharon Osbourne's honor.
The Osbournes accepted the offer, and asked for a flavor for Ozzy, too, Dubroski said recently. The result: Ozzy's Carnivorous Carrot Cake and Death by Sharon.
Ozzy's Carnivorous Carrot Cake is a cinnamon spice ice cream with carrot cake soaked in hazelnut liqueur. Death by Sharon is a deep dark chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate fudge and bits of chocolate brownie soaked in Godiva liqueur.
Ice Cream
Penguin Stressed By Theft
Piglet
Thieves stole a rare penguin called Piglet from a sea life centre in northeast England and dumped it in a garden.
Its donkey-like braying was heard more than a mile from its home and worried residents rang the Scarborough Sea Life and Marine Sanctuary.
Staff say Piglet, a female Humboldt penguin from South America, may die from the stress of being moved and must now take a course of antibiotics.
Piglet
Orders German Men To Sit Down
Talking Toilet
A German inventor who developed a gadget that berates men if they try to use the toilet standing up has sold more than 1.6 million devices, his business manager says.
German women fed up with a man with a poor aim can turn to the ghost-shaped gadget, which lurks under the toilet rim and, if the seat is lifted, declares in a stern female tone:
"Hello, what are you up to then? Put the seat back down right away, you are definitely not to pee standing up ... you will make a right mess..."
Talking Toilet
In Memory
June Taylor
June Taylor, the Emmy-winning choreographer for Jackie Gleason's television variety show and later the Miami Dolphins cheerleading squad, died Monday. She was 86.
Taylor died at the Miami Heart Institute. A cause of death was not immediately announced.
She founded the June Taylor Dancers in 1942 and made her television debut in 1948 on "The Toast of the Town," starring Ed Sullivan. Two years later, she joined Gleason's "Cavalcade of Stars," winning an Emmy for her choreography in 1954.
Gleason's show and the entourage that included Taylor helped give Miami Beach six years of showbiz glamour that is credited by some as helping change the face of South Florida.
Gleason brought his show from New York to Miami Beach before the start of the 1964-65 season. It remained in Miami Beach for the rest of its run, until September 1970, first as "The Jackie Gleason Show: The American Scene Magazine," and later as simply "The Jackie Gleason Show."
Taylor began working with what was then known as the Dolphin Starbrites in 1978, remaining with the group until 1990. Her squad was well-known for Broadway-type routines executed on a stage set up in an end zone of the Orange Bowl during Miami's home football games and accompanied by a 22-piece brass band.
Taylor had no children. Her husband, Sol Lerner, a prominent theatrical lawyer, died in 1986. They were married 42 years. Taylor's sister, Marilyn, was Gleason's third and final wife.
Services are scheduled for Wednesday in North Miami Beach, according to officials at the Lithgow Funeral Home.
June Taylor
In Memory
Tony Randall
Tony Randall, who served as a fussy foil for Rock Hudson and Doris Day, David Letterman and Johnny Carson and, most famously, Jack Klugman on "The Odd Couple," has died at 84 after a long illness.
Randall, who'd been hospitalized since December when he developed pneumonia after heart bypass surgery, died in his sleep Monday night at NYU Medical Center. His wife, Heather Harlan Randall - who had made him a father for the first time at age 77 - was by his side.
Broadway's marquee lights were being dimmed in his honor Tuesday night.
"The Odd Couple" ran from 1970-75, but Randall won an Emmy only after it had been canceled. At the awards ceremony he quipped: "I'm so happy I won. Now if I only had a job."
Randall's other famous television persona was as a fixture on late-night talk shows, appearing on Letterman's "Late Night" and "Late Show" more than 100 times. He also had more appearances than any other actor on Carson's "The Tonight Show," according to his publicist, Gary Springer.
After "The Odd Couple," Randall had two short-lived sitcoms, one of which was "The Tony Randall Show," in which he played a stuffy Philadelphia judge, from 1976-78.
From 1981-83, he played the title role in the sitcom "Love, Sidney," as a single, middle-aged commercial artist helping a female friend care for her young daughter. The show was based on a TV movie in which Sidney was gay; in the TV show, the character's sexual orientation was implied, but never specified.
In an effort to bring classic theater back to Broadway, Randall founded and was artistic director of the nonprofit National Actors Theatre in 1991, using $1 million of his own money and $2 million from corporations and foundations. The company's first production was a revival of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," starring Martin Sheen and Michael York, which hadn't been staged on Broadway in 40 years.
He also was socially active, lobbying against smoking in public places, marching in Washington against apartheid in the '80s, and helping raise money for AIDS research in the '90s.
Born Leonard Rosenberg on Feb. 26, 1920, Randall was drawn as a teenager to roadshows that came through his hometown of Tulsa, Okla.
He attended Northwestern University before heading to New York at 19, where he made his stage debut in 1941 in "The Circle of Chalk."
After Army service during World War II from 1942-46, he returned to New York, where he appeared on radio and early television. He got his start in movies in 1957.
He was married to his college sweetheart, Florence Randall, for 54 years until she died of cancer in 1992.
In 1995, Randall married Heather Harlan, who was 50 years his junior. He met her through his National Actors Theatre, where she was an intern; then-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani performed the ceremony.
The couple had two children: 7-year-old Julia Laurette and 5-year-old Jefferson Salvini. Randall told AP Radio that he couldn't believe he'd become a father for the first time in his 70s.
In September, during a speech to the National Funeral Directors Association, Randall joked about how he envisioned his own ceremony: resident Bush and Vice President Cheney would show up to pay their respects, but they'd be turned away because his family knows he didn't like them.
Tony Randall
Giraffe mother Luana licks her newborn baby, which stands on wobbly legs just moments after its birth at the zoo in Rapperswil, a town on Lake Zurich about 50 km outside of Zurich, late May 17, 2004. The young male weighed 85 kilograms and measured 1.5 meters in height at its birth.
Photo by Andreas Meier
'The Osbournes'
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