'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Weekly Review
HARPER'S WEEKLY REVIEW
November 26, 2002
The United States Senate voted overwhelmingly to approve a
bill creating a department of "homeland" security one week
after the House did so. Nine senators opposed the bill,
including Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who argued
forcefully that this "monstrosity," which will be cobbled
together from the parts of 22 separate agencies, will do
very little to prevent terrorist attacks. "Osama bin Laden
is still alive and plotting more attacks while we play
bureaucratic shuffleboard," Byrd said.
The Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review issued its first
opinion ever; the court decided that the federal government
need not be bound by a procedural "wall" that has kept
criminal prosecutors from fully utilizing wiretaps
authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court,
which has accused the Department of Justice of using FISA
wiretaps to evade the more stringent requirements of
standard criminal investigations. The ruling was denounced
as a misguided expansion of the government's powers to spy
on American citizens. "This is a giant step forward," said
Attorney General John Ashcroft. "This revolutionizes our
ability to investigate terrorists and prosecute terrorist
acts."
Al Gore denounced George W. Bush for taking "the most
fateful step in the direction of the Big Brother nightmare
that any president has ever allowed to occur."
Investigators
concluded that a fatal train wreck last year in Michigan
occurred because the engineer and the conductor on the train
were both suffering from severe sleep apnea.
American
intelligence experts decided that the new Osama bin Laden
tape is probably genuine.
United Nations weapons inspectors
arrived in Baghdad.
The State Department warned Americans
traveling abroad that they might be the targets of terrorist
attacks, which "may include, but are not limited to, suicide
operations or kidnappings."
The Senate voted to cover the
financial losses of insurance companies in the event of a
major terrorist attack; the bill will cover losses up to
$100 billion annually for three years.
The National Nuclear
Security Administration, which is responsible for overseeing
the security of the nation's nuclear stockpile, ordered a
hiring freeze because of budgetary problems.
The head of the
Transportation Security Administration admitted that his
agency would not be able to scan all airline baggage for
bombs by the end of the year as required by law.
A judge
rejected a challenge to the detention of prisoners at Camp
X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, saying that the
plaintiffs, a coalition of clergy and professors, have no
legal standing in the matter.
Chief Justice William H.
Rehnquist fell down and hurt his knee.
Continued at www.harpers.org/weekly-review
-- Roger D. Hodge
new komix...hippies baby...they served a purpose
from Rob C
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Had some strong winds today, but nothing like they had inland.
The turkey is nearly defrosted in the fridge - don't plan on going near a grocery store til Friday.
Loads of cool-tv on Thursday, will highlight some of it on tomorrow's page.
Will be feeding a houseful on Thursday, so Wednesday is pie-day. Going to do pumpkin, pecan & mincemeat.
Tonight, Wednesday, CBS opens with a fresh 'Survivor: Thailand', then a fresh 'Amazing Race 3' followed by a fresh 'Presidio Med'.
Scheduled on a fresh Dave is Ray Romano.
Scheduled on a fresh Craiggers are Pierce Brosnan, Eddie Izzard, and comic Wayne Federman.
NBC has a fresh 'special' - 'Tim McGraw: Sing Me Home', then a fresh 'West Wing' and a fresh 'Law & Order'.
Scheduled on a fresh Jay are Al Gore, 75-year-married couple Mr. and Mrs. Wright, and Faith Hill.
Scheduled on a fresh Conan are Andy Ritcher, Brian "The Rocket Guy" Walker, and Snoop Dogg.
Scheduled on a fresh Carson Daly are Elisha Cuthbert and 30 Seconds to Mars.
ABC offers a fresh 'My Wife & Kids' and a fresh 'George Lopez', then a fresh 'special' - 'Back In The U.S', 2 hours of the current Paul McCartney tour.
The WB - well, the guide says that there are 2 episodes of 'Birds of Prey' scheduled - the first one a RERUN, the 2nd fresh. However, since the program has been cancelled, something else will probably be filling in.
Faux has a fresh 'Bernie Mac', a fresh 'Cedric The Entertainer', and a fresh 'Fastlane'.
UPN has a fresh 'Enterprise' and a fresh 'Twilight Zone'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
'Takalani Sesame'
Kami & Whoopi
Actress Whoopi Goldberg gets a hug from Kami, the HIV positive muppet from South Africas 'Takalani Sesame,' a locally produced versions of the children's program
Sesame Street, at the United Nations Aids meeting at the U.N. in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2002. The new muppet was introduced in preperation for the upcoming World Aids Day 2002.
Photo by Ed Bailey
#3
Seattle Marks 60th Birthday
Jimi Hendrix
Sixty years after his birth, one of the most important artists ever to emerge from Seattle is — at least officially — almost invisible here.
There's no Jimi Hendrix Boulevard, no Hendrix Arena, no Hendrix Elementary School.
That's not to say the composer of "Purple Haze," born Nov. 27, 1942, isn't loved in his hometown, where he spent two-thirds of his life and cut his teeth in the music scene. He
still has plenty of fans in Seattle — and around the world — who revere him as a genius for his unprecedented, searing acid rock-blues sound.
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen first envisioned his $240 million Experience Music Project as a temple to Hendrix, who remains the rock museum's focus. On Sunday, the EMP threw
him a 60th birthday party, featuring blues legend Buddy Guy.
For years after his death, Seattle officials refused to name anything after him because of his drug use.
Hendrix died Sept. 18, 1970, when he choked on his own vomit. After drinking wine earlier in the night, he'd taken eight sleeping pills, as he often did to get rest while touring. The
pills were German, four times stronger than the American ones he was used to.
Hendrix grew up poor in Seattle, and his favorite local bands — the Dynamics and the Statics, among others — were of mixed race. He became one of the first major black artists with
a predominantly white fan base, and when the Jimi Hendrix Experience formed in London in late 1966, it was the first major rock band featuring a black frontman backed by whites.
Hendrix was never comfortable being a poster boy for political causes, said Jim Fricke, senior curator at the EMP, but "sometimes those subtle messages are the most important ones.
The fact that people got used to seeing a black frontman with a white band may have had some effect on people's ideas about race."
Jimi Hendrix
Experience Music Project
'Irreconcilable Differences'
Presley & Cage
Oscar winning actor Nicolas Cage has filed for divorce from second wife Lisa Marie Presley after just three months marriage in a short-lived union even by Hollywood standards.
The 38-year-old star of "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Captain Corelli's Mandolin," cited irreconcilable differences with the only child of Elvis Presley in divorce papers filed in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
Cage and Presley were married in a secret ceremony in Hawaii in August, cementing an 18 month on-off romance between two of the more eccentric figures in showbusiness.
It was the third marriage for Presley, 34, a budding singer who was married to superstar Michael Jackson for less than two years and who previously had two children with musician Danny Keogh.
Cage, who once ate a live cockroach for the movie "Vampire's Kiss," is a big Elvis fan. He recorded the Elvis hit "Love Me Tender" for the soundtrack of the 1990 movie "Wild at Heart"
and reportedly has a voicemail message using his Elvis voice.
He impersonated Elvis in a scene from the 1992 movie "Honeymoon in Vegas" and his marriage to Lisa Marie took place on the eve of the 25th anniversary of Elvis's death.
Presley & Cage
Mystic Aquarium, Mystic, CN
'PT 109 Courage Under Fire'
Underwater explorer Robert Ballard poses at the 'PT 109 Courage Under Fire' exhibit at the Mystic Aquarium, Tuesday, Nov. 26 2002, in Mystic Conn. The
year-long Mystic display, includes artifacts, displays, videos and pictures. Ballard found the torpedo launcher and a hand crank of P-T-109 peeking out
from layers of sediment on the ocean floor in May, almost 59 years after it sank in World War Two.
Photo by Douglas Healey
Lawsuit Settled
Fred Durst
A woman who sued Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst for $5 million, claiming he threw a microphone at her "in a fit of rage" during the band's Anger Management tour
has settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed sum, her attorney said on Tuesday.
The confidential settlement, reached several weeks ago, was not made public until Tuesday, according to attorneys for Durst and lighting technician Connie Paulson.
In her lawsuit, Paulson claimed that an enraged Durst hurled a microphone at her "with no provocation" and "in conscious disregard" while she was dismantling
lights at the end of a show in Birmingham, Alabama.
Paulson, 41, said she lost a tooth and suffered a broken nose and two black eyes from the blow, and maintained that she will need future oral and plastic
surgery "to address residual facial scarring."
Durst's attorney Ed McPherson said the singer did not realize Paulson was standing to the side of the stage when he threw the microphone at the end of the show.
"It was the result of an unfortunate accident," McPherson said. "He felt terrible and visited her in the hospital. He never denied that he threw it."
Fred Durst
Shakes Up Sundays
Chris Matthews
In his network television foray, MSNBC star Chris Matthews is finding Beltway-gabber success as easy as a Sunday morning.
On Sunday in New York, where "The Chris Matthews Show" follows NBC's "Meet the Press," it drew better ratings than CBS's "Face the Nation" and ABC's "This Week," which
features a new look and a new anchor, George Stephanopoulos.
"Matthews" scored a 2.5 rating in households and a 7 share -- better than the 2.3/6 of "This Week" and the 2.0/5 of "Face."
Launched Sept. 16, "The Chris Matthews Show" is a week-in-review program that features journalists with potential newsmaking stories, such as Sunday's interview with
New Yorker staff writer Joe Klein, who wrote about John Kerry.
On the whole, the show is up 12% over its average in the top "metered" markets since its bow. Matthews' 9 p.m. MSNBC show "Hardball," though, has been struggling. His
book, "American," has been a New York Times bestseller for two weeks.
Chris Matthews
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Networks Recycle Shows More Often
'Repurposing'
TV networks will be forced to recycle their primetime TV shows several times a week on both broadcast and cable within a few years because of the industry's lousy economics, according
to Jamie Kellner, chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting Systems,
TV networks manage to scrape together only "low profit margins," Kellner said Friday during the Variety-sponsored "Content & Commerce" media conference, "because the cost of programming
keeps going up while the size of the audience is going down." Smaller audience size means diminished ad revenues.
Recycling, euphemistically referred to as "repurposing," is already gathering popularity, with ABC shows getting a second life on ABC Family, and NBC possibly looking to use its soon-to-be
acquired Bravo network as a repurposing outlet.
'Repurposing'
Mr. Potter's Museum of Curiosities
Rabbits
These rabbits, arranged in a classroom scene, are part of a Victorian collection of stuffed animals in whimsical poses at the Mr. Potter's Museum of Curiosities at the Jamaica Inn in Bodmin Moor,
southwest England. The musuem's owners said Tuesday Nov. 26, 2002, they have put one of Britain's oddest collections up for sale.
Photo by Paul Armiger
Shuffling The Schedule
The WB
Coming off its best-ever sweeps in key demographics, the WB will juggle its schedule in an attempt to shore up weak Wednesday and Thursday performances.
The WB will bench struggling Thursday night sitcoms "Family Affair" and "Do Over" and retool the night as an all-reality showcase starting Jan. 9, timed to the premiere of new series "High School Reunion."
"High School Reunion" will debut in its main time slot on Sunday, Jan. 5, at 9 p.m. But the WB will also immediately repeat those episodes of the reality show, on Thursdays at 8 p.m.
Also Thursdays, "Surreal Life" -- the "Real World"-meets-D-level-celebs series starring folks like Emmanuel Lewis and M.C. Hammer -- will premiere with a one-hour episode Jan. 9. Show settles
into the post-"Jamie Kennedy Experiment" slot the following week.
Meanwhile, making room for "High School Reunion's" Sunday night slot, demon drama "Angel" will move to Wednesdays at 9 p.m. in the slot vacated by recently departed "Birds of Prey." Levin
blamed the demise of "Birds of Prey" on the show's poor execution.
The WB is also still mulling over where to put recently acquired comedy "Grounded for Life," which the network won't be able to launch until after February sweeps.
Also waiting in the wings: the actioner "Black Sash," a potential candidate for Sundays at 9 p.m. once "High School Reunion" completes its six-episode run; the
comedy "The O'Keefes"; and improv series "On the Spot."
The WB
Badmouthing Judge Judy
Judge Wapner
Judge Wapner has hammered the gavel down on Judge Judy, calling the tough-talking TV jurist an embarrassment to judges everywhere.
Retired L.A. County Superior Court Judge Joseph Wapner - the original star of "The People's Court" - blasted the reigning queen of TV court, Judith Sheindlin,
saying her "Judge Judy" persona is rude and gives the public an inaccurate view of U.S. courtrooms.
Wapner, 83, made his stinging comments during an interview Sunday, after he ran a mock court in Los Angeles during which lay Jewish scholars put Abraham on trial
for the 3,000-year-old attempted murder of his son Isaac.
Sheindlin's husband - Judge Jerry Sheindlin - sat on "The People's Court" bench from 1999 to 2001, and Judge Judy has been the star of her own hit courtroom show since 1996.
Judge Wapner
Embraces American Cougar
Jane Goodall
Wildlife champion Jane Goodall, best known for her pioneering work with chimpanzees, has embraced a new cause -- the endangered North American cougar.
The cougar, also called the puma or mountain lion, once roamed all 48 contiguous U.S. states and had the largest animal land range in the Western hemisphere.
But it is now extinct in the East and can only be found in 12 Western states where it is still hunted and killed.
They are also the only animal in the United States allowed to be shot when they have dependent young and at the current rate of killing, wildlife experts say, they will soon be gone.
In 1999, after 15,000 people flocked to the National Elk Refuge near Grand Teton National Park to observe the rare event of a mother cougar and three kittens living in the wild, Wyoming
doubled the cougar kill quota in that area.
For a lot more, Jane Goodall
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Letters To Be Auctioned
Maria Callas
Opera diva Maria Callas' private letters, written in the dying days of her love affair with Greek billionaire Aristotle Onassis, will be auctioned in Rome on Wednesday and international interest in the sale was high.
The half-dozen missives, sent to her voice teacher Elvira De Hidalgo and written in the late 1960s, unmask a desire for revenge against Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy, the woman
he would marry, saying they both deserved to suffer.
Penned as her nine-year affair with Onassis was collapsing, Callas's letters also touched on the disillusion she felt and her battle to lose weight, while revealing the anger and
twisted mood swings of the tormented star.
And even as she struggled to hold on to her lover, the woman who film director Franco Zeffirelli dubbed the "high priestess of opera" was fighting to retain her divine voice.
For the rest, Maria Callas
Senate Ledger
Aaron Burr
The signature of Aaron Burr in a Senate ledger that dates back to the early 1800's is on display for the media, Monday, Nov. 25, 2002, after being discovered in the
Capitol building in Washington. The roughly 400 pages of the first book provide a window on the Senate from 1790 to 1881, beginning at a time when senators were
paid $6 for each day they attended a session of Congress. The ledgers were found in an underground Capitol storage area, barely avoiding removal and destruction
as work begins on avisitors' center.
Photo by Lawrence Jackson
Tour Demands
Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney demands some peculiar perks backstage for his 2002 world tour. Court TV's thesmokinggun.com reports that McCartney won't sit on furniture that even looks like an animal
print ("Solid colors without any prints are preferred"), refuses limos with leather seats, and bans "meat or meat by-products" from the backstage area. But McCartney thinks animals are
good for something: "To minimize any disruption caused by the receipt of real or hoax phone calls, and/or the discovery of suspicious packages, a properly trained canine search team will
be required to conduct a sweep" of stage and backstage at 5 p.m., his contract rider states.
Paul McCartney
Tops List of Frigid Celebrities
Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe could make a lot of people's lists of the hottest celebrities, but an online film magazine calls him the coldest person in the entertainment world.
The "Gladiator" star tops Film Threat's "Frigid 50," an annual ranking designed to refute lists of Hollywood's hot and powerful in magazines like Entertainment Weekly and Premiere.
Among the 50 celebrities on the list are Winona Ryder, Cuba Gooding Jr., Richard Gere, and Anna Nicole Smith.
Of Jennifer Lopez, the magazine's writers said this week, "We're just trying to remember when she was any good at all."
Russell Crowe
Film Threat - Features
Thailand
Monkey Buffet
Monkeys partake in the food and drinks spread during the annual monkey buffet fair in Lopburi province, 150 km (93 miles) east of Bangkok, November 24, 2002. Around 3,000
stray monkeys joined the feast in Lopburi, well known for its thousands of monkeys that live in an old palace in the middle of the town. The site attracts some 500 tourists daily.
Photo by Sukree Sukplang
'The Osbournes'
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
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