'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Weekly Review
HARPER'S WEEKLY REVIEW
May 27, 2003
The United States and several other countries banned
Canadian beef after a mad cow was discovered in Alberta.
Officials were quick to point out that there was no evidence
that beef from the cow, which was slaughtered in January,
had entered the food chain, although they admitted that the
carcass had been sent to a rendering plant and that the
protein produced by the plant is sometimes used in pet food.
The SARS virus was found in six masked palm civit
cats and in a raccoon dog; SARS antibodies were also found
in a Chinese ferret badger. Investigators said it was
probable that the virus had jumped from one of the Chinese
delicacies to humans.
A British man who
walked alone to the North Pole was sitting there waiting for
somebody to come give him a ride home, and a 70-year-old
Japanese man climbed Mount Everest.
A wild turkey was found
perched on a 28th-floor balcony in Manhattan.
American intelligence officials decided that two trailers
found in Iraq were used to manufacture bioweapons even
though they had found no evidence that the trailers were
used for that purpose.
Bush Administration officials claimed
to have "rock-hard intelligence" that an Al Qaeda cell
operating in Iran had directed the recent bombings in Saudi
Arabia. Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, was asked
to describe the role played by the Iranian cell; he said he
knew but wasn't "going to get into it. That's for others to
do."
State Department officials revealed that the
administration was planning to destabilize the Iranian
government; other officials were more worried about the
Al Qaeda cells in Saudi Arabia said to be plotting new attacks.
American interrogators were forcing Iraqi prisoners to
listen to songs by the rock band Metallica -- as well as the
"Sesame Street" theme song and the "I Love You" song by
Barney the purple dinosaur -- in order to make them talk.
"These people haven't heard heavy metal. They can't take
it," said one Psy Ops officer. "If you play it for 24 hours,
your brain and body functions start to slide, your train of
thought slows down and your will is broken. That's when we
come in and talk to them."
The Republican Party was selling lunch with
Karl Rove, the president's political adviser, to anyone who
can raise $50,000, and the Center for Public Integrity
reported that Federal Communications Commission officials
have taken more than two thousand trips to tourist
destinations such as Las Vegas and New Orleans that were
paid for by media and telecommunications companies.
Continued at www.harpers.org/weekly-review
--Roger D. Hodge
Theater Review
from Alex
Some info for your NYC readers. . . this is a great play. I saw it a few weeks ago. John Turturro was great, so was Linda Emond. Helen Hunt was kind of blah. I got to meet Mr. Turturro after the show, a friend of mine is his neighbor, we went to his dressing room. The nicest man!
Alex
** John Turturro burns through three versions of reality in 'Life x 3'
John Turturro did not plan to do his "slow burn" in "Life x 3." Yasmina Rezas comedy about dinner guests who arrive a day too early seemed a natural forum for Turturro to show off one of the calm-to-storming transformations he....'Life x 3'
Thanks, Alex!
Mike Hudson & The Pagans
Re: 'Niagra Falls Reporter'
Hey!
The name on the Niagara Falls Reporter column looked familiar and then I
remembered that Mike Hudson of the amazing Cleveland punk band the Pagans
was a reporter in Niagara Falls. It's the same guy.
Here's his story:
The Pagans
by Mike Hudson
Cleveland in the summer 1977 was a fun and cool place to be. The mayor of
the town, Dennis Kucinich, was barely in his 30s and was the closest thing
to a Communist you could ever find in mainstream American politics. He
thwarted a plan that would have sold the municipal lighting company to
private interests -- using the slogan "Power to the People" -- thus
incurring the wrath of the city's banks, which stood to make a killing on
the deal. This would eventually lead to the banks foreclosing on the city,
and Cleveland became the first major municipality to go into default since
the Great Depression. The mayor's brother, who was somewhat mental,
retaliated by actually going out and robbing a bank! We had a river, the
Cuyahoga, whose waters were in fact flammable, and the factories which had
employed our fathers and their fathers before them had luckily all closed,
sparing our youthful generation the indignity of getting our hands dirty. At
the mammoth old Cleveland Stadium, the ushers in the bleachers section would
let you in free after the fifth inning, and you could sit in the sun and
drink a beer and watch the hapless Indians drop another one.
For the rest of a great read, Mike Hudson & The Pagans
Kip
From yesterday's e-page -
Voted For Bush
Kirstie Alley
"I'm an absolutist," Alley said. "I'm very adamant against drugs.
When teachers and school administrators talk about problems with
attention span and left brain, right brain, I say '[Bleep] the
left brain, [bleep] the right brain!' We're talking about a whole
human being, not one side of the brain or another side!"
Alley's convictions are so strong, she said, that in the last
presidential election she voted for George W. Bush instead of her
preferred candidate, Al Gore. "My personal reason was that,
although I love Al Gore and I like many of his ideas, I just had a
problem with his wife," Tipper, a mental health advocate who,
during the campaign, candidly discussed her own bouts of
depression and how she was aided by therapy and drugs.
Kirstie Alley
Thanks, Steve D!
More Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
Reader Comment
'King George II'
Just how many Americans does this unelected moron have to kill before the electorate wakes up? He is in a temp job and we, the people, are his employer. He is due for a job evaluation and he seems to have forgotten that he works for us!
Every day I read or hear of another person that has a life threatening decease loosing health coverage. You know they will never be able to get coverage again. All this so his rich friends can get richer and Haliburton, et al can gain all economic control.
Teachers are working for free (in Oregon), NYC is laying off police, firefighters and paramedics (where is the aid you promise, you C-student), he praises the military while delaying their return to their families so he can sleep on a boat (he could have done that in "his own war" had he not gone AWOL), and he keeps changing the reason we went to Iraq (which has made the whole world hate us) all the while denying the previous reasons were ever stated.
Guess what, not all of us were C-students!
Thanks for letting me sound off.
Joanne H
Great rant, Joanne. Please, send more!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
June gloom burned off early, but it wasn't as hot as yesterday.
Have spent the better part of the evening dealing with AO-Hell. Haven't been able to get into my mail, or send anything from any of the screen names at the aol-account.
Talk about a company with no regard for their customers. Talked with 3 different techs - all 3 had different ideas as to what the problem was - none of them came close to
solving the problem.
Have been expecting the weekly missive from Michael Dare - for all I know, it's sitting in my ao-hell mailbox, doing no
good for anyone.
Going to go talk with tech #4 - and I'm NOT a happy camper.
Tonight, Wednesday, CBS opens the evening with 'Funny Flubs & Screw-Ups', followed by '60 Minutes II', and then '48 Hours'.
On a RERUN Dave are Michael Douglas and Todd Rundgren.
On a RERUN Craiggers are Kirk Douglas, Leslie Bibb, and Chantal Kreviazuk.
NBC starts their night with the 2-hour Series Premiere of 'Fame', followed by a
RERUN 'Law & Order'.
On a RERUN Jay are Rosie O'Donnell, Neal McDonough, and Boomkat.
On a RERUN Conan are LL Cool J, Joe Pantoliano, and Neil Finn.
On a RERUN Carson Daly (from 5/1/03), are Ed Burns, Les Nubians, and Talib Kweli.
ABC begins the evening with a RERUN 'My Wife & Kids', followed by a RERUN 'George Lopez', then
another RERUN 'My Wife & Kids', followed by another RERUN 'George Lopez', and then a RERUN 'Extreme Makeover'.
On a RERUN Jimmy Kimmel (from 3/26/06), are Ashton Kutcher, Pat O'Brien, and Cypress Hill, with guest co-host Slash.
The WB offers a RERUN of the 2-hour Series Finale of 'Dawson's Creek'.
Faux has a RERUN 'That 70's Show', followed by another RERUN 'That 70's Show', then a RERUN 'Bernie Mac', followed by
'Cedric the Entertainer'.
UPN offers a RERUN 'Enterprise', followed by a RERUN 'Twilight Zone'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Robert Plant, lead singer of the rock band Led Zeppelin, arrives at the premiere of 'Led Zeppelin DVD' a collection of concert footage spanning the band's entire career, in New York on May 27, 2003.
Photo by Peter Morgan
New York Pressed to Pardon
Lenny Bruce
Supporters of Lenny Bruce, the foul-mouthed comic convicted of obscenity charges in 1964, have launched a campaign to win him a legal reprieve — 37 years after his tragic death.
The goal is to "correct a grave injustice — the prosecution and persecution of comedian Lenny Bruce for nothing more than speaking his mind," said Ron Collins, co-author of "The Trials of Lenny Bruce: The Fall and Rise of an American Icon."
The movement to win Bruce a pardon boasts an impressive roster of backers, from 25 First Amendment lawyers (including Floyd Abrams) to 10 artists and writers (including Robin Williams, the Smothers Brothers and Penn and Teller).
Bruce's daughter, Kitty, and his former wife, Honey Bruce Friedman, both sent along letters of support for the campaign, which was launched last week.
During a November 1964 performance at Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village, Bruce used more than 100 "obscene" words — most of the four-letter variety, although one contained a dozen letters. Undercover police detectives attended the show, and later testified against Bruce.
"The cops did the act for the grand jury and it stunk, and I got busted," Bruce observed wryly at the time. He was convicted following a six-month trial. Bruce mishandled his own appeal, and died with the conviction still on the books.
Lenny Bruce
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
The Fix Is In
Michael Powell
Keeping current media ownership rules in place could squeeze the broadcast networks and drive them to end free TV, FCC Chairman Michael Powell said Tuesday, campaigning for the changes he favors.
Powell said adjustments are needed to reflect a market changed by cable TV, satellite broadcasts and the Internet. He also said if the FCC fails to act, outdated rules will be swept away by court challenges.
Critics say altering the decades-old rules governing ownership of newspapers and TV and radio stations will kick off a merger frenzy and put a few corporations in control of what people watch, read and hear.
The FCC is considering eliminating many of the restrictions on a single company owning combinations of newspapers and TV and radio stations in the same city. Another proposal would raise a cap preventing one company from owning TV stations that reach more than 35 percent of U.S. households.
Supporters of the existing rules including consumer advocates, small broadcasters, writers, musicians and academics say restrictions are needed because most people still get their news primarily from television and newspapers.
Critics worry television could become like radio: deregulation in 1996 allowed companies to amass hundreds of stations and cut costs by replacing local shows with national programming.
Powell said that example is misleading and that deregulation was a good thing for radio.
Michael Powell
FCC
Former President Bill Clinton greets fans at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 25, 2003, in Indianapolis, before the Indy 500.
Photo by Dave Parker
'60s Jazz Bassist Returns
Henry Grimes
One of the best-known bassists in the avant-garde jazz community during the 1960s, Henry Grimes trained at Juilliard and played with the likes of Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk and John Coltrane.
He made a name for himself with his versatile style of playing, which he lent to some of the most influential albums of the day. But suddenly, Grimes disappeared without a trace; no word was heard from him and he was rumored to be dead.
Social worker Marshall Marrotte searched court records and death certificates and talked to family and friends before finding Grimes living in Los Angeles, no longer even owning a musical instrument.
Grimes explained that he stayed away from music for so long because emotion was interfering with his "perceptions." He last performed in New York in 1968.
"Emotions can get you in a lot of trouble or hassle," Grimes told The New York Times in an interview. "And you can either let them bother you or you can find a way to get something out of them."
Henry Grimes
Military Pundit Sues Fox News
J. Keith "Jack" Idema
A wartime pundit for Fox News Channel has sued the cable news network in Los Angeles, claiming he was not compensated for a videotape of an al Qaeda training camp that Fox aired repeatedly as an exclusive.
Commentator and former Green Beret J. Keith "Jack" Idema also alleges that Fox agreed not to copy the videotape and to return the original to him, but has broken both agreements.
Idema, a former U.S. Army Special Forces commando who figured prominently in Robin Moore's best-selling book "The Hunt for Bin Laden," returned to Afghanistan in October 2001 at the age of 45 to engage in combat and humanitarian operations after a failed attempt to reenlist, according to his lawsuit.
During his nine-month stay, Idema said he became an adviser to the United Front Military Forces, better known as the Northern Alliance, and obtained copyrights to a videotape of an al Qaeda training camp.
Idema said he gave Fox a 52-minute "clip reel," depicting al Qaeda trainees practicing drive-by assassinations and hostage-taking, on the conditions that Fox agree not to copy or broadcast the tapes until a usage agreement was reached.
However, Fox televised "hundreds of minutes in excerpts" from the clip reel without finalizing a licensing or use agreement with Idema, the lawsuit said.
The network, for which the U.S.-led conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq were a ratings bonanza, also breached agreements to pay Idema for hazardous reporting assignments he took into combat zones in Afghanistan where no other journalists were allowed, the lawsuit said.
Urges Berlusconi To Make Good On Promises
Bono
Bono, the Irish rock singer turned campaigner, said he plans to corner Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to demand more aid for Africa when the two men attend a benefit concert in Italy.
Speaking before the concert given by Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti and other stars in aid of Iraqi children, the U2 front man said Italy was one of the countries most committed to reducing African countries' foreign debt.
He said he would urge Berlusconi to increase aid to Africa, where "7,000 children die of AIDS every day".
Bono and fellow rockstar-campaigner Bob Geldof are the joint founders of Data, a new organisation campaigning for a Marshall Plan-style devlopment scheme for Africa, and last week met British Prime Minister Tony Blair to push for tougher action to combat the spread of HIV and AIDS on the continent.
Bono
Honorary Degree From Brown
Laura Linney
Oscar nominated actress Laura Linney received an honorary degree from her alma mater, Brown University, during its commencement ceremony.
Linney graduated in 1986 from the Ivy league university with a degree in theater arts.
Also receiving honorary Brown degrees Monday were former Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia; Chinese dissident Xu Wenli; Lowery Stokes Sims, director of the Studio Museum in Harlem; genetic researcher Joan Argetsinger Steitz; and former United Nations undersecretary general Brian Urquhart were the other recipients.
Laura Linney
Sings from Hospital
Liza Minnelli
Liza Minnelli, who fractured her right kneecap in a fall in Italy, sang from her hospital live on Italian television for a benefit concert for Iraqi refugees hosted by tenor Luciano Pavarotti on Tuesday night.
Minnelli, who won an Academy Award for her performance in the 1972 movie Cabaret, decided to sing "Life is a cabaret, my friends" without musical accompaniment for the patients of the hospital in the northern city of Bologna.
Her song was beamed by satellite to the charity show "Pavarotti and Friends" and aired live on RAI state television.
The "Pavarotti and friends annual charity show" in Modena, near Bologna, raised money to help Iraqi refugees return home after the war.
Other performers included rock and pop stars Bono, Eric Clapton, Ricky Martin and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
Liza Minnelli
Sweden Jails MTV's 'Jackass' Star
Steve-O
A star of MTV's "Jackass" admitted in a Swedish court that he had drugs in his hotel room, but said he joked about swallowing a condom filled with marijuana and hashish.
The Stockholm district court ordered Stephen Glover — known as Steve-O on the defunct series — held in jail until June 6 while a prosecutor prepares possible charges of drug smuggling and drug possession. Sweden has some of Europe's strictest anti-drug laws.
"I had an Ecstasy pill in my bag and I smoked marijuana in the hotel room. I admit to both of those crimes," Glover said during the hearing Saturday. He denied smuggling the drugs into Sweden and said he was only joking when he described the condom stunt to a Swedish newspaper and on his Web site.
The reports led police to raid Glover's hotel room Thursday in Stockholm, where they found marijuana and an Ecstasy pill. Glover and other members of the "Jackass" crew had performed their "Don't Try This at Home" show in the Swedish capital the night before.
Steve-O
Steve-O's Web site
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Students Discuss 'Schindler'
Steven Spielberg
Hundreds of high school students got the chance to talk with Steven Spielberg about his film "Schindler's List" as part of the school district's social studies program.
The Los Angeles students had seen the film on the district's educational TV station before meeting with Spielberg at the Hollywood American Legion's auditorium last week.
"I'm known for films that are more entertaining than thought-provoking," Spielberg said during the meeting. The director of "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial", "Saving Private Ryan" and "Minority Report", fielded questions about everything from his favorite scene in the movie, to how many Jews saved by Schindler were still alive.
Steven Spielberg
A table of mannequin heads are dessed with the head costumes of performers in Cirque du Soleil, New York, May 8, 2003. Each mannequin is labeled with the name of a performer, many of them Russian who make up about a third of the cast.
Photo by Bebeto Matthews
Quartet Dismissed
'Boston Public'
Four of the newer cast members on the Fox drama "Boston Public" -- Joey McIntyre, Jon Abrahams, Cara DeLizia and China Shavers -- will not return for the show's fourth season in the fall.
The foursome became regulars on the series last year, with Shavers first joining the show in 2001 in a recurring role. The departures are not unusual for the ensemble drama, which lost original cast members Jessalyn Gilsig and Rashida Jones last season.
"Boston Public" creator David E. Kelley last week axed six stars of his other drama, ABC's "The Practice," including Dylan McDermott and Lara Flynn Boyle, as part of a move to revitalize the ratings-challenged veteran.
'Boston Public'
Plans Quiet 100th Birthday
Hope Family
Two days and counting before Bob Hope turns 100 on Thursday.
Hope's daughter, Linda Hope, said in an AP interview the centerpiece of her dad's day will be a huge birthday cake. It has to be huge to hold all the candles.
Because he's pretty frail, friends and family will be coming to him.
Hope Family
Pop Diva Meets Israeli Leader
Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston on Tuesday visited Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who took time out from preparations for a summit with his Palestinian counterpart and resident Bush to meet the pop diva.
"It's home. It's a friendship I've never had with any other country," Houston, dressed in a long red robe with white embroidery, told Sharon.
Houston was in Israel with her husband, rhythm and blues singer Bobby Brown, to visit "friends and family" among the Black Hebrews, an African-American community that moved to Israel in 1969 and settled in the southern town of Dimona.
Whitney Houston
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Another Fake Reality Show
'Boy Meets Boy'
It's the latest twist in reality television: boy meets boy, boy falls in love with boy, and then boy finds out other boy was pretending to like boys in the first place.
Bravo, the cable arts and entertainment channel owned by the NBC unit of General Electric Co., on Tuesday said it will launch "Boy Meets Boy," billed as TV's first gay dating series, this summer.
But as with most reality programs, this one has a hook -- some of the potential suitors are actually heterosexual but were asked by producers to act homosexual.
Bravo said "Boy Meets Boy" will feature a leading man who spends eight days on location with 15 potential partners and turns to a trusted female friend to whittle down the prospects.
Bravo's summer schedule will also include "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," a reality series where five gay men from various worlds of style make-over a straight man.
'Boy Meets Boy'
Nepalese dancers take to the streets during celebrations Tuesday, May 27, 2003, in Katmandu, Nepal. About 100 other Mount Everest climbers, including Sir Edmund Hillary, are in Katmandu as part of 50th anniversary celebrations marking the conquest of the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak.
Photo by David Longstreath
Bonds Sliding Down the Charts
David Bowie
Moody's Investors Service says it may downgrade about $55 million of bonds backed by music royalties of rock music icon David Bowie in light of the sales slump in the recording industry.
In 1997, Bowie was the first musician to sell bonds supported by future revenues generated from his record master and publishing rights. The sale of these asset-backed securities to private investors raised $55 million upfront for the British rocker.
Moody's originally assigned the Bowie bonds an A3 rating, the seventh highest rating on its scale.
David Bowie
Questionnaire Sells for $120,000
Marcel Proust
A questionnaire filled in by celebrated French author Marcel Proust at the age of only 14 sold at a Paris auction on Tuesday for 102,000 euros ($120,000), more than three times its pre-sale estimate.
French fashion house Gerard Darel won a fierce telephone bidding war for the so-called "Proust Questionnaire," dated 1886, auctioneers said.
Proust's replies gave a foretaste of key themes in "Remembrance of Things Past," his seven-volume semi-autobiographical novel in which he expounded in sensuous detail on topics including art, politics, history and love.
Contrary to popular belief, Proust did not invent the questionnaire, but his precocious and literate replies to it, published posthumously in 1924, were considered so extraordinary that it has been associated with him ever since.
Modified versions of the questionnaire remain popular today. One appears on the back page of monthly magazine Vanity Fair.
Marcel Proust
U.S. Consumers Asked to Return
Dog Food
U.S. consumers are being asked to return dog food that may have come from a Canadian cow that tested positive for mad cow disease.
Pet Pantry International of Carson City, Nev., which issued the request Monday, said customers should search for two products: "Maintenance Diet" with a "use by" date of "17FEB04" and "Beef with Barley" with a date of "05MAR04.
If found, the food should be held for pickup. The company's products are purchased by phone or e-mail and delivered by franchises to consumers' homes.
Customers who purchased dog food since February should check their supplies and, if found, should call the company at 1-800-381-7387. Pet Pantry also is using sales records to contact consumers.
The suspect food, in 50 pound bags, was produced in Canada by Champion Pet Food of Morinville, Alberta.
Dog Food
FDA
Judge Dismisses Lawsuit
Britney Spears
A federal judge dismissed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Britney Spears, saying two Philadelphia songwriters failed to prove the pop singer copied the melody of one of their songs.
U.S. District Judge Berle M. Schiller ruled last week that Michael Cottrill and Lawrence Wnukowski couldn't provide enough evidence to prove Spears had access to their song titled, "What You See Is What You Get," when she recorded, "What U See (Is What U Get)."
Cottrill and Wnukowski said they gave one of Spears' representatives a copyrighted version of their tune in late 1999 after being asked to submit songs for consideration for the singer's upcoming album.
But Schiller, citing defense testimony, said the melody of Spears' song was completed by the beginning of November 1999, before Spears and her representatives "would have had access to a copyrighted version of plaintiffs' song." He also said there weren't enough similarities between the two songs to prove copyright infringement.
Britney Spears
A Puma cub, approximately four months old, plays on a branch inside the Puma exhibit at the Queens Zoo, Tuesday, May 27, 2003, in the Queens borough of New York. The cub, who has not been named, was acquired from Montana.
Photo by Frank Franklin II
'Ark of Darkness'
"The Ark of Darkness", a Political/Science-Fiction work, in tidy, weekly installments (and updated every Friday).
'The Osbournes'
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 4
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
