TWO MEN & A (HEADLESS) LADY
In nearby Horseheads, NY, about 10 minutes east of my home,
there's one helluva treacherous intersection called Hanover Square.
It's treacherous because instead of the normal four-way intersection,
some idiot designed a FIVE-way, and it's been a nightmare ever since.
So, two enterprising merchants dreamed up a humorous way of
slowing traffic, but all it got them was in trouble.
Dummy in crosswalk lands two in trouble
Two Hanover Square merchants who said
they were trying to slow motorists by placing
a headless mannequin in a crosswalk
were charged Thursday morning with
disorderly conduct.Tim King, co-owner
of Horseheads MercanTile, and David Quinn,
owner of Village Vacuum, were arrested after
they placed the standing mannequin in the crosswalk on South Main Street
in the square.The mannequin had a sign taped to its chest that said:
"Don't be a dummy. Please stop." The village has signs posted in some
crosswalks warning motorists to yield to pedestrians.
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PLANNING WAAAAY AHEAD
 | The Man discovered a hilarious goof from that Goof of goofs himself, J F'n Kerry. |
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LET THEM BLUNDER!
 | Dem Rove Apology Demand Is A Terrible Strategic Blunder Why Democrats want to make a big issue of this is beyond me. During my time in the political trenches, I've learned a thing or two about fights you want to pick and those you want to avoid. This is one the Democrats should seek to avoid. Instead, their worst instincts have gotten the best of them and they are digging it. |
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HELL HATH NO FURY ...
 | Angry Wife Gets Revenge Via eBay "I need to get rid of this car immediately ideally in the next 2-3 hours before my cheating [jerk] husband gets home to find it gone and all his belongings in the street." h/t LoanCat |
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LUCKY BASTARD(s), INDEED!
I was reading Peggy Noonan's column today in which she says, We need a serious book about Hillary Clinton. Ed Klein's isn't it.
[T]he problem all Hillary biographers have: It's too grim to believe. To believe that her story as presented by the books so far is true is to believe that she has clung to a premeditated plan for 40 years, that she is ruthless in the pursuit both of her own ambitions and of a deep and intractable leftist political agenda. And that she found her equal in a partner sufficiently hardhearted to stick with the plan, and the secrecy, and the weirdness. It's too over the top. It seems hard to believe, not because it isn't true but because it isn't likely, usual, expected. It isn't the kind of biography we are used to in our leaders. That is her great advantage.
Instead, Noonan suggested: For those who'd enjoy an excellent fictional gloss on [the Clintons'] story, see Charles McCarry's [1998] "Lucky Bastard." Which sounded like an acceptable alternative for those of us who can easily believe most (but definitely not all) of Klein's sordid Clinton tales while not wanting to sully "our side" by reading it."Lucky Bastard" must be something special because the cheapest one I found was a used edition at Amazon for $36.74. You could get a new edition starting at $90.00 and running up to $599.95.
B&N was my next stop; they only had used copies beginning at $39.02 up to $334.95 for an autographed copy of an ARC (advance reader copy).
Alibris had used copies beginning at $39.26 and new copies beginning at $199.95.
Reviews:
Bill Clinton as Lech, Coward -- and Soviet Agent Farce takes a fictional swipe at the president
(8/23/98)
McCarry, who has co-authored two books with Alexander Haig, is clearly no friend to Democrats. His last novel -- ``Shelley's Heart,'' a gripper -- shared some of the themes of ``Lucky Bastard.'' But clever plotting, intriguing characters and a good eye for Washington detail made ``Shelley's Heart'' effective. There, McCarry's rancor was a device. In ``Lucky Bastard,'' rancor is all there is.
VOTER BEWARE
(8/31/98)
Although most of the story stretches credulity, McCarry's portrait of Adams [Clinton] captures only too well today's narcissistic political candidates: Telegenic politicians who manage to be articulate without saying anything are proliferating.
More disturbing is McCarry's description of American voters. They are smitten by Jack's charm and fall for his lies. When Morgan worries that the true source of his campaign funds will be exposed, Jack nonchalantly shrugs off the potential danger. Not to worry, he concludes. No one's going to believe that he's a KGB or Beijing dupe who got this far by spending drug lords' profits. It's too preposterous.
Peggy Noonan had a good idea, and the book does sound quite interesting, but I'm financially challenged -- most days I'm sliding by on financial fumes as it is -- so I won't be spending money I don't have on the this book, especially since it originally retailed for $24.95. Seems as though the only lucky bastards are the people who sell this book at these exorbitant prices.
But the question remains: What gives with those prices?
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LEARNING FROM PRIVATE BENJAMIN
George Wittman wrote a great piece in TAS today which answers the question:
What Could Be Worse Than Gitmo?
For those of us -- and there are millions -- who have gone through U.S. Army basic training or Marine Corps boot camp the complaints of Senator Richard Durbin regarding the treatment of the prisoners at Camp Delta in Guantanamo are laughable.
Reading this reminded me of the 1980 movie Private Benjamin, starring Goldie Hawn as Private Judy Benjamin. Remember Judy's rude awakening ... literally ... when she got to "the fort"? We still howl over her asking, "Do these come in any other color?" How about when she informed her captain (Eileen Brennan) that she'd be up at the crack of dawn: "What, couldn't the Army afford drapes?" Or asking her captain, "Have you seen the bathrooms?" And, of course, her recruiting officer's promise to her of "condos and yachts." The Hollywood-ized version of basic training was mild, albeit humorous, compared to reality. But basic training is supposed to brutal in order to prepare young kids for the even worse brutalities of war.
One wonders what Durbin and the folks at Amnesty International would say if their little darlings had been forced to stand at attention in 100-degree heat for two or more hours at Fort Jackson or Camp Lejeune in full combat gear, with 60 pounds of ammo and equipment, waiting for a general inspection. "What time did you get up, soldier?" the inspecting officer invariably asks the first trooper in line. The answer is always the same. "Reveille, sir."
As long as you said that, you didn't have to admit you and your buddies had been up for 36 hours straight "G I-ing" the barracks, the company street, your weapons and everything that moved or stood in the area."Drop down and give me 20, 30, 50," the training cadre would demand, and the shaved head recruit falls to the ground and completes his push-ups -- sometimes to the point of exhaustion for those not in top condition. The heel of the corporal on your back tends to make the task a bit more difficult. Gosh, we should have had some of those ACLU lawyers.
Private Benjamin almost quit basic, with her captain's overly enthusiastic blessing, but instead she persevered. Like millions of real military privates before her (male and female), fictional Judy learned how to follow orders and accomplish more than she probably thought she was capable of doing. In a few short weeks she morphed from a whiny little princess who needed Daddy into a woman who could stand on her own two feet, an adult prepared for life and combat.
Perhaps Senator Durbin doesn't understand what it takes to be an American soldier or Marine. Perhaps he thinks the families of the terrorists should be thought of before the families of the victims of 9/11 or those of our fallen warriors. He speaks of Guantanamo as an embarrassment. It is he who embarrasses those who have served.It seems to me if the real life Private Judy Benjamins can make it through basic training, the catered-to detainees can put up with Gitmo.
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FEET BEGINNING TO COOL?
Wedding plans now up in the air
It's now uncertain whether the 32-year-old medical assistant will marry John Mason, the fiancé who stood by her.
"We'll play it by ear," Wilbanks told Couric. "I don't want to give myself to John until I feel like I'm the right person for him. And right now, I don't."
...
Wilbanks says she hasn't read any of the newspaper accounts of her famous flight except the allegation she ran off to see another man.
"That was absolutely not true," she said
...
[W]hen Couric asked how she came up with the fictitious abductors a Hispanic man and a blonde female Wilbanks said maybe she'd seen "too many cops and robbers movies."
"It is scary that it came so easy for me," she was quoted as saying in an NBC transcript. "That scares me to death. And I'm trying to figure out why it was so easy for me. Because I did, I gave great detail."
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WORTH ANOTHER MENTION
DENZEL Washington made some new fans when he and his family visited the Brooks Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where soldiers wounded in Iraq, especially burn victims, are hospitalized. The base has buildings known as Fisher Houses, founded by the Fisher family of New York real estate fame, where relatives of the wounded can stay for little or no charge. When Washington learned there weren't enough Fisher House facilities, he asked how much one would cost to build. "He wrote a check for the full amount right there on the spot," said a source, who added: "The question I have is why do Madonna, Sean Penn and other Hollywood types make front-page news with their anti-everything America crap and this doesn't even get reported?"
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SUMMER SOLSTICE
 |
| Over 20,000 druids, spiritualists and revellers are expected to descend on Stonehenge early on Tuesday to celebrate the annual summer solstice at the ancient stone circle. This file picture shows revellers watching a cloudy sunrise on the day of the summer solstice at the 5000-year-old monument Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, June 21, 2004. REUTERS/Kieran Doherty |
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ANTICIPATION
“Is makin’ me late, is keepin’ me waitin’”
(subscription necessary)
By Mark Steyn
Canada's Supreme Court struck down the government health-care monopoly, at least as far as the Province of Quebec is concerned. This has vast implications for the Oscar-winning crockumentary maker Michael Moore, whose forthcoming film Sicko is a savage indictment of U.S. health care leavened with a Bowling for Columbine-type suck-up about how we Canadians do these things so much better. That section may have to be re-edited.
On the other hand, to spot the drawbacks in your medical treatment, you first have to be getting some. And that's the design flaw in the Canadian system. As the chief justice, Beverley McLachlin, put it, "Access to a waiting list is not access to health care" -- and in Canada you wait for everything. North of the 49th parallel, we accept that if you get something mildly semi-serious it drags on while you wait to be seen, wait to be diagnosed, wait to be treated. Meanwhile, you're working under par, and I doubt any economic impact accrued thereby is factored into those global health-care-as-a-proportion-of-GDP tables. The default mode of any government system is to control health-care costs by providing less health care. Once it becomes natural to wait six months for an MRI, its not difficult to persuade you that its natural to wait ten months, or fifteen. Acceptance of the initial concept of waiting is what matters.
h/t AggravatedDocSurg
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RIK’S ITALY TOUR
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DEATH DUE TO A CIGARETTE?
 | Darwin For Pigeons The bird had simply exploded. The head and hindquarters occupied one slice of lawn and in the middle were the bright red entrails, flecked with the undigested remains of popcorn kernels, chunks of bread, what appeared to be a small dog turd, and, in the center of it all, a still smoldering cigarette butt. |
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MYSTERY SOLVED OF MANDY PATINKIN & OLDER BAREFOOT GENTS
RECAP:
I wrote a story called Stuck In An Elevator With Mandy Patinkin, which is one story in the book of short stories I'm blogging called Briefs and Other Unmentionables. Even though I haven't promoted it recently, I'm still getting a hit or two a day. I check my link stats to see where, if anywhere particular, the hits are coming from, and I've been noticing referrals from an MSN group called Older Barefoot Gents. So I clicked on it out of curiosity. Long story short, it's some sort of adult group to which you had to belong. I didn't have the guts to become a member. It's left me wondering what's with older men and Mandy Patinkin, and how did they find out about my story? Am I missing something here?
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UPDATE:
After several halting tries, I screwed up my courage and applied for membership in the group, OLDER BAREFOOT GENTS. The first thing I had to do was to select a screen name. After umpteen number of tries, I chose "imMichaelMoore" (MichaelMoore was already taken!). Then I had to state why I wanted to join, so I was honest and explained that I wanted to know how and why the group was checking out my story. It wasn't long before I received a reply from the group moderator, "Bald Marco."
There goes my book blog's traffic! I replied that I wasn't bothered a'tall by the group linking to my story. I did, however, decide not to join, although men's barefeet are rather sensual. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Marco did send me these two pictures of Mandy Patinkin :)Thanks for letting me know about this. One of our group members linked your blog to my site, which is a sexually based group. I can imagine you are not too thrilled about this. As the groups moderator, I was unaware of this addition to the links page and have removed it. When investigating the link, I did read your story and it's certainly delightful... but also non-sexual and I certainly hope no member of the group write anything inappropriate or offensive to you.
As you might have guessed, Older Barefoot Gents is a group for men who have an interest in the bare feet of other men. We have a large archive of barefoot male celebrities, as well as more pornographic imagery as well. I haven't approved your membership for that reason, but if your interested I certainly will. I appreciate your kind words. And again, I hope the interest from my members hasn't been an intrusion. It's certainly odd to try to explain the group to someone who hasn't a similar interest!
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QUINTESSENTIAL 80s
INTERVIEW WITH RODGER JACOBS: I have been fascinated by the Wonderland case ever since co-producing the documentary Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmes in 1999. It is such a quintessential L.A. story of the 80s: drugs, sex, excess, night clubs, gangsters, and porn stars. Its like Raymond Chandler on crack.
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LINKS WORTH LINKING
 | Airborne Combat Engineer: "ultra-right-wing hyper-patriot" & part of the "right wing attack machine" |
 | GOP & The City: A blog by a Missouri-born, Tennessee-raised, New York Republican. |
 | AlphaPatriot: observations of a reformed liberal |
 | He refers to me as his "Conservative Friend," and I refer to him as "My Liberal Friend." His slogan: My right arm is slightly bigger than my left...I think you know why... |
 | Sisu loves cats. What more do you need to know? (She blogs on more than just cats, though:) |
It's HOT! Please donate to Operation AC, Inc.
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LOOK WHAT WAS IN OUR WANTS ADS
Calling DakotaPundit!
Devils Lake Journal,
in North Dakota,
must be desperate to
fill this position, because
this ad appeared in my
hometown paper here
in Corning, NY.
I think you'd be great at this job,
DakotaPundit.
Besides, it's in your
neck of the woods!
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UPDATE: BUBBLES & HER POLITICS
MEMO TO GAYLE: Scroll down the comments to (I think) #8. She recommends the book SKINNY DIPPING, which involves lawyers, male & female. I thought of you and your trusty Grey Goose :)
UPDATE: Sarah Strohmeyer left this comment:
Actually, this blog brings up an interesting issue. When do politics affect an artist's work? Should they? I think of Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. Much of their impressive work (The Great Waldo Pepper/Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me!) is now overshadowed by politics. Then, on the other side, there's Burt Lancaster (not to mention Ronald Reagan). Remember when rumors circulated that Sean Connery (thumping heart here) was a Nazi sympathizer? The McCarthy Era, Salman Rushdie...on and on.
It all comes back, as it always does, to The Way We Were. We're either Barbara Streisand pamphleting passers by and forgetting to iron our hair while Hubbell boinks blonds and bangs out his unoffensive, insipid hackpiece - A Country Made of Ice Cream.
I mean - if that's what you want in an author - I'm not sure I can deliver. Though I wouldn't mind banging Robert Redford - or living in a country made of ice cream for that matter, either.
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ALWAYS THE LADY SHE IS
| Verbal volley over racket made by grunting women: Maria Sharapova, the 18-year-old Russian defending champion, is the loudest, with her grunts reaching 100 decibels - roughly the same volume as a small aircraft landing. |
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A PROPER DEBUNKING
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THE TIMES THEY ARE A'CHANGIN'
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MEET THE CURLEYS
Pat ventured out of Phoenix and into Cleveland and posted several family photos as proof. Those Curley men may not live up to their name, but they are still a mighty good-lookin clan!
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PARIS IN BLACK & WHITE
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DROP KATIE
BATTY FOR BALE: WARNER Bros. is so happy with the box office of "Batman Begins," the studio plans to remake all the Batman movies with Christian Bale firmly implanted in the Bruce Wayne/Batmanrole. Our source says, "Everyone is in agreement that the movie's strength is with Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman." Sadly, this leaves Katie Holmes out. "She won't be in the sequel . . . the next romantic interest will be a much stronger actress."
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WHAT NEXT?
THIRDWAVE has Durbin Hangover: [T]he last couple days have been a whirlwind of blogging, phone calls, emails, and emotions. It's comforting to see how many in the blogging community have come forward to flex their individual strenghth against the likes of "Little Dickie Durbin" ...Now that the phones in Washington D.C. are being answered by automated devices and the MSM is all but ignoring the Durbin story, one has to ask, what next?
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BYE BYE BIJOU?
There's nothing quite like seeing a movie in a theater on that big screen in Dolby sound. Nothing. It's the best way to escape your cares and woes for a couple of hours and then emerge refreshed. And yet, I honestly can't recall when I last saw a movie in the theater. Is there a movie presently playing worth $8 to see? No wonder Rachel wonders, IS THE CINEMA DEAD?
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JUST ANOTHER RICH BITCH
 | J.LO'S A FUSS 'BUDGET': "[T]here is no one to pay her outrageous bills.". Lopez has already asked to be moved from her hotel room to a private villa and for a new, more luxurious trailer. But "the bleep is going to hit the fan when she is told no one can pay for Oribe," her longtime hairdresser who gets up to $10,000 a day. |
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JUST ANOTHER RICH BA$TARD
 | I liked Brad Pitt the first time I saw him in THELMA & LOUISE. And then he had to fool around with AJ and break JA's heart. Not that I'm a devoted fan of Jennifer's, but nobody deserves to be cheated on, especially so publicly. All of which has nothing to do with this ... PITT KEEPS HIS GUARDS UP: Pitt has hired 24-hour security men to stand outside his new multimillion-dollar Malibu spread on the Pacific Coast Highway to take pictures of anyone who comes near the place. They also note the license plate numbers of any cars that park nearby or cruise the area. |
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REMEMBER FATHERS
Jonah Goldberg wrote a poignant, witty eulogy to his father, Sidney Goldberg, who died a week ago. This has been a hard week for Lucianne and her family.
Lucianne, Jonah and Joshua Goldberg wish to thank all for their love and support. This is Jonah's eulogy to an adored father who will miss Father's Day
The Hop Bird
My Dad
By Jonah Goldberg
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