'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Weekly Review
HARPER'S WEEKLY REVIEW
December 10, 2002
Iraq delivered its 12,000-page weapons declaration to the
United Nations, and American officials said they will be
ready to mount an invasion by next month.
General Amir
al-Saadi, one of Saddam Hussein's closest advisers,
challenged the United States to come up with proof that Iraq
has resumed nuclear-, biological-, or chemical-weapons
programs. "We don't understand the rush to judgment," the
general said. "A superpower should study and take its time
in judging, especially as everyone is looking on as it
prepares for a huge military campaign, for an aggression
against Iraq. It should behave wisely."
President Bush said
that America will make the final decision as to whether Iraq
is telling the truth, and he noted that "this is not a court
of law."
Administration officials said they were
"disappointed" that North Korea has refused to allow
inspections of its nuclear-weapons program.
Ari Fleischer,
the White House spokesman, rejected any comparison with the
Iraqi situation and said that there is no double standard
for weapons of mass destruction. "Not every policy," he
said, "needs to be put into a photocopier."
President Bush
decided to restore a patronage system created by his father
and eliminated by Bill Clinton that permits federal agencies
to give political appointees large cash bonuses.
President
Vladimir Putin of Russia asked Pakistan to please stop
funding Islamic terrorists.
Britain's Broadcast Advertising
Clearance Center banned an advertisement for a comedy
program that depicts George W. Bush putting a videotape into
a toaster.
A Russian diplomat named Konstantin Pulikovsky
published a memoir of his travels with North Korean dictator
Kim Jong Il and revealed that the Dear Leader is an
accomplished gourmet.
John DiIulio Jr., the former head of
the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, made an
abject apology for his recent criticisms of Karl Rove, the
president's political adviser. He explained that his
criticisms were "groundless and baseless due to poorly
chosen words and examples." He added that he was "deeply
remorseful."
Continued at www.harpers.org/weekly-review
-- Roger D. Hodge
And Another Fresh One!
The Worried Shrimp
'Least Favorite Christmas Carols' - The Sequel
from Ray & Sharon
Least Favorite Christmas Carols
See: Sunday, 8 December
OK, I know I'm probably at risk wearing this theme out, but a visit to Barnes & Noble last night led to getting some more twisted books, and well, with that inspiration, the wheels just keep on grinding:
A Second Tier of Undesirable Christmas Carols (The Dreaded Sequel):
I Wonder as I Launder
We Three Actuaries
Chainsaws We Have Heard on High
The Little Drunken Boy
Away in a Wood Chipper
O Come, O Come Jack Daniels
Deck the Slob
God Rest Ye Richard Nixon
I Saw Three Chicks
It Splattered Upon the Midwife Clear
Jolly Old Saint Syphilis
Whose Bastard is This?
The Jalapeno Chorus
... and especially for all the dyslexics out there:
The First Leon
Ray & Sharon
Thanks, Ray & Sharon
Bonus Komix
from Rob C
Useful Link
from Lorena
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Generally, a sunny day. Jo (the remaining) lizard sure enjoys the sun, and it helps keep him from going into hibernation, too.
The kid's teacher told the class that there are alligators in the sewers of NYC, so I gave the kid a book on urban legends to read. He took the book to the teacher,
but, the teacher still believes in sewer gators.
Needed space to hide Christmas stuff, so, had to get into the hall closet. It's full of boxes of stuff of my mom's (& grandmother's), and it's time to finally start going through it all. First box
I opened had an old paper bag, and in the bag was swizzle sticks. Hundreds of freaking swizzle sticks. So, spent the day looking at the swizzle sticks, having flashbacks & shaking my head. Little red
propellers with 'TWA' on them, long red plastic golf clubs from United, and thick blue sticks from Pan Am; the Frontier, the Sands, Desert Inn, Riviera, Star Dust & MGM Grand from Vegas; Jackie Kannon's Rat Fink Room; little plastic monkeys who
held a cherry or onion on the side of a glass...I remembered that the monkeys came from our first trip to Washington, D.C. - the Kennedy years. At this rate won't be getting through too many boxes, better buy just little things for Christmas. ; )
Tonight, Wednesday, CBS starts the evening with '60 Minutes II', then a fresh 'Amazing Race 3', and caps the night with '48 Hours'.
Scheduled on a fresh Dave are Nia Vardalos and Barry Sonnenfeld.
Scheduled on a fresh Craiggers are Anthony LaPaglia and Christine Baranski.
NBC opens with a fresh 'Ed', then a fresh 'West Wing', and finally, a fresh 'Law & Order'.
Scheduled on a fresh Jay are Dennis Quaid, Benny "Boom Boom" Koske, and Johnny Rzeznik.
Scheduled on a fresh Conan are Al Gore and Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band.
Scheduled on a fresh Carson Daly are Rob Schneider and Chris Robinson.
ABC starts the night with a RERUN 'My Wife & Kids', then a fresh 'George Lopez', followed by a 'special' - 'Extreme Makeover', and wraps it all with a fresh 'MDs'.
The WB has a fresh 'Dawson's Creek' and a RERUN 'Birds Of Prey'.
Faux has a fresh 'Bernie Mac', then a fresh 'Cedric The Entertainer', followed by a fresh 'Fastlane'.
UPN has a fresh 'Enterprise' and a fresh 'Twilight Zone'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
2002 Nobel Peace Prize, Oslo, Norway
Jimmy Carter
Former President Jimmy Carter receives the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo City Hall, Norway on Tuesday Dec. 10, 2002.
Photo by Bjoern Sigurdsoen
Stop War Rhetoric
(More Than) 100 Celebrities
Celebrities mobilized against a possible war in Iraq on Tuesday, gathering to publicize a letter urging resident Bush to avoid military action.
More than 100 entertainers signed the missive, which says a war with Iraq will "increase the likelihood of terrorist attacks, damage the economy and undermine our moral standing in the world."
"This notion of pre-emptive war is setting a precedent ... and we must ask ourselves, where does this end?" said Tony Shalhoub, star of the ABC detective show "Monk." "Where
is the next pre-emptive strike?"
Shalhoub, Martin Sheen and Mike Farrell were among nearly a dozen performers who got together to draw attention to their cause.
Among those signing the letter were Academy Award winners Kim Basinger, Helen Hunt, Olympia Dukakis, Susan Sarandon and director Jonathan Demme.
Other names included former "X-Files" stars Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny; "The West Wing" cast members Sheen, Janel Moloney, Bradley Whitford and Lily
Tomlin; "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" actors Marg Helgenberger and Robert David Hall; and "Ocean's Eleven" co-stars Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Elliott Gould and Carl Reiner.
R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills joined fellow musicians Peter Yarrow and Bonnie Raitt.
Asked why the government should care about the feelings of Hollywood actors, Sheen said: "I think the president should care about all citizens."
(More Than) 100 Celebrities
Who Guitarist Going Deaf
Pete Townshend
Rock legend Pete Townshend is almost deaf after nearly 40 years of subjecting his ears to his own crashing guitar riffs with the British band The Who.
The Sun newspaper quoted Townshend on Tuesday as saying his hearing has worsened since the band's U.S. tour this year.
"The recent return to touring and to me playing electric guitar -- albeit more quietly than in the 1970s --- led to further deterioration of my hearing," the paper quoted Townshend, 57, as saying.
"My right ear, which encounters my own edgy guitar and the machinegun strokes of the drums, has suffered badly. I've no idea what I can do about this.
"I am unable to perform with in-ear monitors. In fact, they increase the often unbearable tinnitus I suffer after shows."
Pete Townshend
Jazz Legend
Clark Terry
Jazz legend Clark Terry plays both trumpet and flugelhorn during the 21st anniversary celebration of the Blue Note Club in New York Monday night, Dec. 9, 2002.
Terry, who will be 82 on Dec. 14, is joined on stage by alto saxphonist David Glasser.
Photo by Richard Drew
To Produce, Star In New NBC Series
Whoopi Goldberg
Academy Award-winning comedienne Whoopi Goldberg has signed a deal to star in and executive produce of a new comedy series for NBC, the network said on Tuesday.
Goldberg, most recently seen on television as the featured celebrity on the syndicated game show "Hollywood Squares," which she also produced, will work with TV production company Carsey-Werner-Mandabach on the show.
The network said no plot details have been determined yet, and it did not target a date for the show to premiere.
Whoopi Goldberg
Returning As 'Mad Max'
Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson will earn almost $25 million to return to the "Mad Max" franchise for a fourth time, Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety said in its Tuesday edition.
The $104 million project, called "Fury Road," will start shooting in Australia next May. The project is set up at Twentieth Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment Group Inc.
George Miller, who directed and co-wrote the first three films, will direct "Fury Road" from a script he has been crafting for the past three years, the paper said.
It did not reveal plot details other than to note that "Mad" Max Rockatansky will once again roam the lawless, post-apocalyptic Australian outback.
Mel Gibson
L.A. Post Office Re-Named
Nat King Cole
Singer Natalie Cole and her sister, Carole, took part in a ceremony to rename a post office for their father, Nat King Cole, in the neighborhood where he resettled his family in 1948.
The former Oakwood Postal Station serving an area of small shops, apartments and upscale homes of Hancock Park became the Nat King Cole Post Office under an act of Congress
signed by resident Bush Oct. 30.
The act's sponsor, Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., noted Monday that both the House and Senate passed the measure unanimously.
Also present was Nat King Cole's brother Freddie.
When the Coles moved into Hancock Park southwest of downtown Los Angeles, there was animosity from some white residents about having the black singer as a neighbor. Speeches during the
dedication included mention of his dignity in the face of discrimination in the 1930s and '40s. He was often not allowed to stay at the same hotels where he performed.
Nat King Cole
Set to Host PBS Indie Series
Angela Bassett
Angela Bassett will host "Independent Lens," a new PBS primetime series that will feature American and international documentaries and a limited number of dramas.
Slated to debut Feb. 4 at 10 p.m., "Independent Lens" will air in the time period through June 3. It will be on hiatus during the summers, when PBS' documentary showcase "P.O.V." returns to the slot.
"Lens" will return in September with 29 episodes for the 2003-04 TV season. With both "Independent Lens" and "P.O.V.," PBS will have a dedicated weekly time slot for independent films.
"Independent Lens" will kick off with "Maggie Growls," a portrait of Maggie Kuhn, who founded senior advocacy group the Gray Panthers.
Other projects on the series' slate include "Daddy & Papa," a look at gay parenting; "Strange Fruit," which charts the history of the lynching tune made famous by Billie Holiday; "Off the
Charts: The Song Poem Story," which looks at the make-your-own record underworld; "Guns and Mothers," which centers on two mothers on both sides of the gun control issue; and "Heart of a Sea,"
about a Hawaiian woman surfer and breast cancer awareness activist.
Angela Bassett
Coming To America?
Tintin
Getting Steven Spielberg to make a Tintin movie could help the cartoon win more fans in the United States, where their numbers are small enough to throw the boy reporter's friend
Captain Haddock into one of his tantrums.
Despite its legendary status in most parts of the world, the Belgian cartoon has not made much of an impact in a country where superhero Spider-Man and sorcerer Harry Potter battle
it out for the attention of young readers -- and now filmgoers too.
More than two million copies of the adventures of the intrepid reporter are sold every year in 58 languages, but only 100,000 of them find their way into the hands of U.S. readers.
The history of Tintin, whose first adventure in Russia was published in 1929, is not without controversy.
The cartoon appeared regularly in a pro-Nazi newspaper during the German occupation of Belgium in World War II. Its creator was eventually arrested as an alleged
Nazi collaborator after the liberation of the country in 1944.
It would not be the first time that Tintin would appear in a live-action feature film. French director Jean-Jacques Vierne made "The Mystery of the Golden Fleece"
in 1961 and Philippe Condroyer "Tintin and the Blue Oranges" three years later.
Tintin
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Sought Injunction
Britney Spears
Pop star Britney Spears sought an injunction on Monday against a 41-year-old man who has allegedly stalked her at her home and her parents' home and sent her love letters, court documents show.
The 21-year-old superstar identifies her alleged stalker in the court papers as Masahiko Shizawa, and says that he has made repeated attempts to contact her at her Los Angeles home and
once "tried to gain admittance" by unspecified means.
Spears, in her "petition for injunction prohibiting harassment," says she does not know Shizawa but alleges that he "has been stalking plaintiff in this county and elsewhere" beginning in September.
The Kentwood, Louisiana, native claims that Shizawa also tracked her to her parents home and sent a series of love notes, some that have included photographs of himself and one that read: "I'm chasing you."
Britney Spears
Students Of Frida Kahlo
Los 'Fridos'
Students of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, (L-R) Arturo Estrada, Guillermo Monroy, Rina Lazo, and Arturo Garcia Bustos, stand in front of a painting at a joint exhibition
of their work in Mexico City, November 12, 2002. With the exception of Lazo, the group of painters, known as the 'Fridos', studied under Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and
still pay homage to her in their art. Lazo studied under Kahlo's husband, the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera.
Photo by Daniel Aguilar
Win Judgment on Sex Video
Anderson & Lee
A judge has awarded former "Baywatch" star Pam Anderson and her ex-husband, rocker Tommy Lee, $740,000 each in their long-running court fight against a porn company over
a notorious videotape of them having sex.
U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson awarded Anderson and Lee a default judgment in their long-running, 1998 copyright infringement and invasion of privacy lawsuits against
Internet Entertainment Group for selling the videotape over the Web.
Pregerson, in a written ruling issued last week and made public on Tuesday, said that he was granting Lee and Anderson a total of $1,481,786, which amounted to the profit
that IEG made on sales of the tape, to be split between them.
He also awarded them attorneys fees and court costs.
Anderson & Lee
Sought for Exhibit
Original Oscars
Four guys named Oscar are the subject of a search by the keepers of the Academy Awards.
Organizers are trying to track down four of the original 15 statues handed out at the first awards in 1929 to include in an exhibit commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Oscars.
Owners of 10 of the original Oscars have agreed to loan them to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the exhibit, which will run Jan. 24-April 17 at the group's Beverly Hills headquarters.
Another of the Oscars is in limbo; its owner is trying to sell it. But the whereabouts of four statues is a mystery: the best-picture prize for "Wings," the trophy for unique and artistic picture
that went to "Sunrise," the silent-film title-writing honor for Joseph Farnham and an engineering-effects Oscar for Roy Pomeroy for "Wings."
Original Oscars
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Web site
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
A 'Raging Bull'?
Harvey Weinstein
In the town that invented the temper tantrum, Miramax studio chief Harvey Weinstein stands out -- not only as a brilliant filmmaker -- but as a bully whose rages and boorish
behavior have repelled Hollywood, the New Yorker magazine reported on Monday.
But the magazine says Weinstein, whom it describes as "a man with little self-control," has vowed to reform.
Weinstein told New Yorker writer Ken Auletta that his temper "is the thing I hate most about myself," but denied raising his voice or threatening anyone.
Auletta said that "At times, (Weinstein) appears about to burst with fury, his fists closed, his teeth clenched, his large head shaking as he loses the struggle to contain himself."
Although respected as an instinctive editor, Weinstein's sometimes heavy-handed tactics with directors have earned him the nickname "Harvey Scissorhands."
Harvey Weinstein
Cairo, Egypt
Egyptian Museum
An employee cleans an ancient Pharaonic limestone sarcophagus inside the 100-year-old Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Dec10, 2002. The museum, which
was opened in 1902, began celebrations to mark its centenary anniversary.
Photo by Amr Nabil
Divorce News
Sand & Lamas
Tough-guy actor Lorenzo Lamas has lifted a restraining order against his estranged wife Shauna Sand and the divorcing couple agreed to share custody of their
three young children, lawyers said on Tuesday.
Lamas, star of the TV shows "Renegade" and "Falcon Crest," filed for divorce from his former Playboy Playmate wife in October, citing irreconcilable differences.
The couple were married in 1996 and have three children under the age of five.
Sand will get "more than 50 percent of the remaining assets," her lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan told the hearing.
Lamas, 44, is the son of actor Fernando Lamas and actress Arlene Dahl. The marriage to Sand was his fourth.
Sand & Lamas
Lamp Nets Nearly $2M at Auction
Frank Lloyd Wright
A leaded glass lamp designed by Frank Lloyd Wright has been sold for just under $2 million, a record for a Wright piece at auction, Christie's auction house said.
The lamp, created around 1903 for the Susan Lawrence Dana House in Springfield, Ill., was acquired Tuesday for $1,989,500 by a telephone bidder who wished to remain anonymous.
The double-pedestal lamp, designed in shades of green, yellow and amber, was one of a pair of lamps that stood in the library of the house, which was also designed by Wright.
The previous world auction record for a work by Wright was $704,000 for a lamp sold by Christie's in 1988.
Frank Lloyd Wright
Weekly Ratings
NBC Wins
CBS had the top-rated show with "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" while NBC won last week's overall prime-time ratings, claiming six of the top 10 shows.
Along with "Monday Night Football" (tied for fifth) ABC's brightest spot was its special "Prime Time" interview with singer Whitney Houston, which nailed fourth place.
CBS' only other top 10 entry was "Survivor: Thailand" (eighth).
Meanwhile, NBC dominated with "Friends," "ER," "Scrubs," "Will & Grace," "Law & Order" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."
But perhaps the week's most remarkable ratings coup was by HBO with "The Sopranos." Airing Sunday night, the finale of this mob drama was seen by 12.5 million cable viewers, beating all the broadcast networks in its time slot. If cable programming were included in the Nielsen rankings, this "Sopranos" airing would have claimed 19th place — even though HBO reaches only about one-third of all the nation's TV households.
A ratings point represents 1,067,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 106.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
For the week of Dec. 2-8, the top 10 shows, their networks and household ratings: "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 18.0; "Friends," NBC, 15.8; "ER," NBC, 15.2; "Prime Time" Special Edition, ABC, 13.7; tied: "Monday Night Football": New York Jets at Oakland, ABC, "Scrubs," NBC, and "Will & Grace," NBC, 12.2; "Survivor: Thailand," CBS, 12.0; "Law & Order," NBC, 11.2; "Law & Order: SVU," NBC, 11.1.
Weekly Ratings
Eloy, AZ
Skydivers
Skydivers, including astronaut Mary Ellen Weber and her husband, Jerry Elkind, attempt to set a record of a 300-person freefall formation during the first attempt
of three Monday, Dec. 9, 2002, above Eloy, Ariz.
Photo by Norman Kent
'The Osbournes'
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