imkittymyers at hotmail dot com
Saturday, April 09, 2005
WEEKEND KICK BACK QUESTION
Which celebrities are your "guilty pleasures"? The ones whose politics drive you to shout, SHUT UP AND ACT! (Apologies to Laura Ingraham:) Three come to my mind.
Susan Sarandon
I know it was a feminist film, but I still loved Thelma & Louise. She did a great job in The Client, too. Those are just two of her movies which come to mind.
George Clooney
For someone whose politics are idiotic, he gives an intelligent performance in nearly all of his movies. Not to mention that he's drop dead gorgeous. I still remember him as Booker on Roseanne.
Alec Baldwin
In my humble opinion, Baldwin was the quintessential Jack Ryan in Clancy's Hunt For Red October. None of the other sequels interested me because Baldwin did not play Ryan in those. He was excellent in The Cooler, too. Those are the two I can think of.
Who are your guilty celebrity pleasures?
Friday, April 08, 2005
MISS ME?
Blogger has been up'n'down since yesterday. This is the first time I've been able to post a thing. I had to post almost all of my goodies on LifelikePundits:
ANOTHER TERRI SCHIAVO!: A loving granddaughter pulls the tubes from her non-terminal 81-year-old grandma against her explicitly written wishes!
LINKS OF INTEREST: Newsy items.
WHATABOUTERY: Great gossipy fun, including close-up photos of Michael Douglas’ face lift surgery!
Plus, Lorie has posted a fabulous picture which she took in her yard. She's very proud of that picture, as well she should!
Thursday, April 07, 2005
AH, SPRING
Just as the sump pump finished its job, it began to rain again. Lightly, however. The nuclear explosion of blooms is still in the offing for us, but Lorie Byrd, who lives down south, has posted a gorgeous picture she took in her yard.
LOGON LAKE BOOKS
Last month I blogged on the writer Harold Adams after first learning about his books on TinkertyTonk.
The mysteries in these books are secondary to the characters and the atmosphere. Not that Adams wastes much time on description, most of the books are less than 200 pages long, he just has an uncanny knack for creating a place. And his leading character, Carl Wilcox, an itinerant sign painter, some-time private eye and black sheep of his respectable small-town family, is a treat.
I immediately ordered his first three books, which have arrived. These are used books, and when I find a great dealer in used books, I'm happy to pass the info along. Two of the book cames from Logon Lake Books. The books were well wrapped and packed with the info of their online site.
What's New at Logan Lake Books
Update: April 1, 2005 Movies! We have added hundreds of VHS and DVD movies on-line. Search title just like you would for books or go to category Available Movies for a complete list. We have just completed adding all of the Horror / Thriller and Legal Thriller sections. The team has moved on to Mystery and Action / Adventure so look for more of those books coming this month. Also we have several hundred more Sci-Fi / Fantasy books to add to that section. (Just when I thought I had that section caught up, he went out and bought a whole mess more books.) In non-fiction: Sports and Canadiana are the next sections up to be completely entered. One section at a time we are getting the store on line and we try to keep you up to date on all of what's going on.
PLUS: International Toilet Paper Olympics
To learn all about it please visit the International Toilet Paper Olympics page by clicking here.
THAT MEMO
Lost in the memo dust-up is the fact that Republicans were trying to save Terri Schiavo's life.
Hindrocket’s Mystery Solved?: The story as we currently have it does not account for the two versions of the memo, the second of which corrected three of the typos in the first draft. I have no idea what that means, except that the story as we are currently getting it from the AP, the Washington Post, and Senator Martinez does not account for all of the known facts.
And Big Trunk’s Speaking for me: There are still several unanswered questions, of which the most important is: Did Harkin (or possibly someone else) misinform the reporters about the source, nature and distriubtion of the memo, or did the reporters see the memo and leap to the wrong conclusion?
Lorie at Polipundit: I also would like to point out that Martinez, and all other GOP senators I have seen quoted, disavowed the memo from the get-go. This stands in stark contrast to many Democrat senators who have not only embraced the hatred of the extreme Left, but have even aligned themselves with groups like MoveOn.org by speaking at their functions.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BILLIE HOLIDAY
4/7/1915 to 7/17/1959
Don't bother with that crappy movie starring Diana Ross; read Holiday's autobiography, instead. It begins with the best lede I have ever read:
Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married. He was eighteen, she was sixteen, and I was three.In 1956, when it was written, that was scandalous. I have a 1984 copy, and even then it could produce a double take. I doubt that people would even bother doing the math these days.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
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REDUCED TO PEANUTS
Jimmy Carter Who?
More details are emerging about the White House's decision -- really President Bush's personal decision -- not to include former President Jimmy Carter in the official U.S. delegation to the funeral of Pope John Paul II.
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"There was no misunderstanding. It wasn't Carter who made the actual call, but the message was pure Carter gumption," says a White House source.
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Carter claimed a kinship with the Catholic priest, though it isn't clear that the Vatican thought so highly of Carter's diplomatic skills, particularly after he left office.
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"The other thing that people forget is that Carter has treated President Bush very badly. He has openly criticized the President in a manner that President Clinton has not," says a Bush administration source. "He has traveled around the world bad-mouthing this president and this country's policies. I would be surprised if a single person gave a thought to including him in the delegation."
GOOD DOG, GOOD DOG
SANDY ROLLS OVER FOR BILL & HILL
By Dick Morris
FORMER National Security Adviser Sandy Berger has now joined the pantheon of those who, in the immortal words of Webb Hubbell, have chosen to "roll over one more time" to protect Bill and Hillary Clinton.
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Berger has admitted that he stuffed top-secret documents into his pockets, shirt and pants, and why he sliced some up with scissors, destroyed them and then lied about it. Until he gives a credible explanation for this behavior, we are all entitled to make the logical inference — that he was hiding something to protect himself and his old bosses.
The documents were an "after-action review" by Richard Clarke, then the National Security Council's terrorism expert, discussing and analyzing our efforts to stop attacks during the Millennium celebrations. They were so secret, the Washington Times reports, that anyone seeking to remove the documents would have had to do so in a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. And, it seems, they were so critical of the former administration that Berger felt he needed to steal them. But why did Berger steal them?
The most obvious reason would be to stop the 9/11 commission from including embarrassing revelations in its report.
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Picture the fevered atmosphere in the months after 9/11. Any indication by the commission investigating the attack that the Clinton administration hadn't taken terrorism seriously would badly damage the former president's reputation and the former first lady's chances. Any loyal adviser would have worked to mitigate the possible damage. The measure of how serious the damage may have been is how far Berger risked falling to prevent it — and how far he did fall rather than reveal why.
BLOG OFF
Bloggorhea
The Observer has learned that Warren Beatty, the 68-year-old actor and director, will likely join a lineup of liberal all-stars who will "group blog" on a Web site to be launched next month by columnist Arianna Huffington.
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The "Huffington Report," as Ms. Huffington has dubbed it, will also feature such boldface bloggers as Senator Jon Corzine, David Geffen, Viacom co-chief Tom Freston, Barry Diller, Tina Brown and Gwyneth Paltrow. If the name seems to echo that of the Drudge Report—the mega-site operated by the rightward-tilting unofficial editorial director of America’s news cycle, Matt Drudge—well, it’s supposed to. And Mr. Beatty approved of that.
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"I still refuse to be put into the category of feeding completely Republican talking points," Mr. Drudge said. "That’s ridiculous. If they’re accusing me of doing Republican, we can assume all Warren Beatty is going to do is be putting out Democratic talking points.
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Mr. Drudge has stayed on top by being essential—a "utility," he said—and always being there for his readers, day and night. He operates from anywhere he chooses, most recently from his new "newsroom," a brand-new 2005 Mustang GT that he outfitted with a broadband connection. (He engaged in a recent instant-messenger conversation discussing his would-be challengers while sitting in the parking lot of a Chinese restaurant in his hometown of Miami.)
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Mr. Drudge said he didn’t read other blogs, but he admitted to enjoying Rosie O’Donnell’s blog entries—dubbed by Ms. O’Donnell as "the unedited rantings of a fat 43 year old menopausal ex-talk show host."
THE ONE WITH THE BLOG
Skip Huff-huff-huffington's rants and read Chandler's, instead.
Could I Be Any More Disa... Ah, Screw It
"I've got some good news and some bad news," my agent said when I picked up the phone. The last time he opened a conversation that way, I wound up starring in the Windows 95 Video Guide.
"The good news," he continued, "is that Courtney is very excited about doing a Friends spinoff."
"Well, that's grea..."
"The bad news is, she doesn't want to do it with you."
TODAY’S SNARK
Sean Penn is an idiot: Sean Penn mumbles for a living. And he doesn’t even make up the stuff he mumbles. Someone else does that for him. Anyone who saw him at the Oscars knows what a joyless, spoiled prick he is. He’s a NRA opponent who keeps loaded handguns in his car. He’s an environmentalist who drives a 260hp muscle car. He’s an anti war activist who spends three days on a guided tour in Iraq and then lectures America like he's an expert. I’ve spent more time than that at Magic Mountain, it doesn’t make me a fuckin engineer.
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
ATM PRICELESS
Click for larger view.
For some reason, KittyLitter has been getting a lot of hits looking for this picture. So, here it is. Enjoy?
FOR THOSE WHO CARE
MY TRAVELS WITH JACKO
MICHAEL Jackson's former publicist is set to publish a tell-all book that dishes the dirt on the accused King of Pedophiles' relationships with young boys.
Bob Jones, who was fired by Jackson last year after 30 years of service, teamed up with writer Stacy Brown for "Michael Jackson: The Man Behind the Mask" (Select), which should be hitting book stores by the end of the month.
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The book will also describe Jackson's penchant for playing sick when he doesn't want to fulfill a scheduled obligation. "One time, Michael checked into a hospital and said he had chest pains because he didn't want to perform at a concert," Brown said. "He would come up with these schemes with Bob to get out of commitments."
HOW CONVENIENT
Now that we were forced to watch Terri Schiavo's murder by starvation and dehydration, now that she's conveniently out of his way ...
Zogby Poll: Americans Not in Favor of Starving Terri Schiavo
Polls leading up to the death of Terri Schiavo made it appear Americans had formed a consensus in favor of ending her life. However, a new Zogby poll with fairer questions shows the nation clearly supporting Terri and her parents and wanting to protect the lives of other disabled patients.
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"If a disabled person is not terminally ill, not in a coma, and not being kept alive on life support, and they have no written directive, should or should they not be denied food and water," the poll asked.
A whopping 79 percent said the patient should not have food and water taken away while just 9 percent said yes.
Not that any poll would have stopped Michael Schiavo from having her murdered.
Monday, April 04, 2005
IT’S SPRINGTIME IN NY
The red circle is approximately where the river bank is. (Click for larger view.)
Summer makes me drowsy.
Autumn makes me sing.
Winter's pretty lousy,
but I hate Spring.
By Dorothy Parker
It rained heavily for a couple of days. Not good in spring if you live in a river valley. The snow pack in the hills melts and, combined with the rains, swells the rivers too quickly for the rivers to handle all the water. We have three rivers in this valley, which was flooded big time in June of ’72. During that flood, the water overflowed its banks and kept rising until it overflowed the dikes, too. So, on a day like yesterday, all eyes begin monitoring the main river running through Corning. I took that picture when the river probably crested, because this morning the river was back within its banks. We were surprised since I heard the sump pump kick on around 2:00 this morning. I woke DogMan so he could evacuate the two dogs who sleep in the basement. By the time we awoke later in the morning, the sun was bright, the sky was blue, and we had some water spurting up from cracks in the basement floor. But that’s par for the course here. The pump is working nonstop right now even though there are many dry areas down there. I doubt it will get any worse this time. Several times our basement has filled with nearly 3’ of water. Oh, to be in Corning in spring!
Finally, our local paper reports on the high water!
UPDATE: The water in our basement has gradually risen to cover nearly the entire floor, which is extensive. The pump has been running not-stop since this morning. As I said, this is to be expected. We're very fortunate as other homes in the area have had to be evacuated.
HOT FLICK
'SIN' SELLS AS FLICK HITS NO. 1
Moviegoers yielded to temptation and flocked to "Sin City" over the weekend — making the stylish tale of an ultra-corrupt metropolis inhabited by marauding tough guys and butt-kicking women the nation's No. 1 flick.
Based on Frank Miller's noirish comic book and featuring Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Benicio Del Toro, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Clive Owen and Brittany Murphy, "Sin" earned an impressive $28.1 million.
Sunday, April 03, 2005
TODAY IN HISTORY
On this day in 1860 the Pony Express opens for business in the US, offering customers deliver of goods 'in 10 days or less'.
Recalling the runs of fastest mail in the West
By Bill Croke
In 1860, the firm of Russell, Majors and Waddell started a light mail relay service between St. Joseph, Mo. and Sacramento, Calif. that has come down to us as the "Pony Express." It's brief 18-month history is chronicled in Christopher Corbett's "Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express."
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The title — "Orphans Preferred" — is taken from an 1860 newspaper advertisement seeking riders. Russell, Majors and Waddell hired 80 young men "built like jockeys, weighing an average of 100 to 120 pounds," and supplied them with the fastest horses kept at over150 waystations along the route. The average age of a rider was 19; the average ride was 100 miles, with a change of mounts every 15 miles. They carried a "mochila," a saddlebag filled with just a few pounds of mail.
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"The Pony" (as it came to be called in the newspapers) was shortlived due to the building of the transcontinental telegraph system in 1861 … The railroads spanning the nation by 1869 quickened the delivery of bulk mail and freight. Russell, Majors and Waddell went broke, and the Pony Express became the stuff of historians and Hollywood westerns.
