Semantics Wednesday: Shaker maker.

On this day in 1736 in Manchester, England, Ann Lee was born.  A member of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing (otherwise known as the Shakers), "Mother" Lee had a revelation that propelled her to lead her husband and seven followers to America to set up a Shaker community here in 1774.  The Shaker name was derived from "Shaking Quakers," as the group had splintered from Quakerism and practiced ritualistic dancing, shaking and singing in tongues.  They also practiced celibacy, pacifism and gender equality in communal living arrangements.  Which brings me to this book for sale on Amazon:    Yes, you may learn to make a heckuva chair from these instructions, but unless you make it whilst living in a religious commune practicing celebacy, pacifism and gender equality, can your chair be "authentic" Shaker?
Discuss among yourselves.

Goldilocks and the twee bares.

Through a link in the New Yorker, I found these cute-as-pared-down-pumpkin-pie minimalist designs for classic fairy tales at Square Inch Designs.  Worth a quick peek.  http://www.squareinchdesign.com/category/childrens-story-posters/

Phat Tuesday.

A survey conducted by the Kaiser Foundation and the Washington Post found that African American women are heavier and happier with themselves than white women.  According to the WaPo article reporting the results, "although 41 percent of average-sized or thin white women report having high self-esteem, that figure was 66 percent among black women considered by government standards to be overweight or obese."  Also from the article:

In 2008, Heather Hausenblas,  a University of Florida professor of exercise physiology, co-wrote a study looking at the role the media played in body image among white and black women.  Both groups were exposed to the ideal tall, thin white woman's physique, and their moods were compared before and after.  White women felt badly about themselves after viewing the idealized physique; black women were unaffected.

Black women "are just not comparing themselves to these white models," Hausenblas says.  Caucasian women are internalizing the images; black women are not.

Even causasian males are prone to internalize the sight
of the tall uber thin white woman's physique, as writer
Jim Rash revealed at Sunday's Academy Awards.

Here's the link to the WaPo article:  http://tinyurl.com/6otlgnb

Oh, the places you'll go, Pritzker.

It was announced today that Chinese architect Wang Shu has been awarded the 2012 Pritzker Prize.  The first Chinese citizen to win the prestigious architectural award, Wang incorporates recycled materials into his buildings, as in the history museum, shown above, in Ninbo, China.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/arts/design/pritzker-prize-awarded-to-wang-shu-chinese-architect.html?ref=arts

"Seuss on the loose!" is how Fox Network Host Lou Dobbs characterized the news.  Dobbs, who last week expressed outrage over Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, pointed to the award and to Wang's work as further evidence of the pervasive "lefty-loosey influence" of the children's author.


"I meant what I said, and I said what I meant.  Environmentalists are bad one hundred percent." 

States of Emergency.

This morning's New York Magazine put me on to a link to a Wyoming Star-Tribune article, re: emergency preparedness bill  passed by the Wyoming House which will ready Wyoming for the complete collapse of the United States, allowing the state to print its own currency, raise a standing army, "acquire strike aircraft and an aircraft carrier," a measure which backers feel is justified given the nature of global and American problems.  Not sure where they're going to store that aircraft carrier, but Dick Cheney is from there, after all.  Here's the link:   http://tinyurl.com/7ojdtt9

On a related topic, I want to know when FEMA is going to weigh in with an emergency evacuation plan for George Clooney.  Stacy, no doubt, has read his comments about being lonely at public functions like the Oscars last night. (See Feb. 16 post)  It's only a matter of time before he's ready to vacate that relationship, and when your soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend is a professional wrestler, being in her "clutches" takes on a whole new meaning.

To quote the words of a Wyoming "doomsday bill" supporter: 
"To put your head in the sand and think that nothing bad's going to happen, and that we have no obligation to the citizens...to at least have the discussion, is not healthy." 

So I say, where is Janet Napolitano on this matter?  Priorities, people.

On this day in 1922, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the 19th amendment to the constitution, giving women the right to vote.

Rick Santorum in his 2005 book, It Takes a Family:  

 "Sadly the propanda campaign launched in the 1860s 1960s has taken root....The radical feministis succeeded in undermining the traditional family and convincing women that suffrage professional accomplishments are key to happiness." 

Anti-suffrage posters from the Spartacus website: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wanti.htm

They got bigger and louder, and yet, paradoxically, you are correct, Norma Desmond.

The movies did get smaller, if these Hollywood glamour shots are any guide.  Slate has another Magnum slide show.  Here's the link:  http://todayspictures.slate.com/20120224/

Community is back for a semester....

...Or maybe it's just a quarter.  Or maybe it's just one of those 5-week thingies that people take at the online U-LURN U.  Anyway, it's back on March 15. 

Hey Bill Maher, Sugar Daddy is just another name for you-know-what on a stick.

I mean candy, of course.  And as long as we're on that subject, what Maher accuses the other liberals of being:

 

What he'd like to see lots more of in this race:

The end result:

Actually, through the miracle of online shopping you can order these nostalgic sweet treats and more, like Whoppers, Snickers and PayDays (as popular in political campaigns as in candy) and all that will rot is your teeth.  Happy Days are here again!
http://www.nostalgiccandy.com/nostalgiccandy.aspx?page=5

Since milkbars don't really exist, nor any such thing as milkplus, stop by any old bar today and hoist a white Russian in honor of Alex and his droogs and their creator, Anthony Burgess, born on this day in 1917...and may the rest of your day run like Clockwork of the non-Orange kind.

And speaking of cocktails....

Tahrir Square

On this day in 1890 Vlacheslav Mikhaylovich Skryabin was born in Kurkaka, Russia.  You may have heard of this gentleman by his revolutionary name, Molotov, though he was not the mixologist who originated the incendiary device named for him, the Molotov Cocktail, made by filling a bottle with flammable liquid and stuffing it with a lit rag.  According to About.com, the Molotov cocktail was first used in the Spanish Civil War but given its name by the Finns during WWII.  (In his propaganda broadcasts, Molotov had claimed the Soviets were merely dropping food on Finland rather than bombs, which prompted the Finns to christen the bombs "Molotov bread baskets," and their improvised weapons tossed at Soviet tanks "Molotov cocktails.")

All this thinking about the Molotov cocktail made me wonder about the American contribution to home-made munitions, the 1971 Anarchist's Cookbook, and lo and behold, the Googletron turned up an 2011 interview with its author, William Powell, who was a 19-year-old high school dropout (the son of a UN press officer, irony of ironies) angry over his draft notice when he cooked up the book.  The book's braggadocia was patently false, but the recipes were, to Powell's ultimate sorrow, authentic.  He went on to become a peripatetic educator, trailed by notoreity.  Here's the link to the Newsweek/Daily Beast interview:
http://tinyurl.com/7afzmbf

Katherine Hepburn as Bunny Watson
battling the first Googletron-- EMERAC,
or "Miss Emmy," as it is christened by Corporate.

And because the Googletron, as wonderful as it is for finding former Anarchists, has neither umpire nor Bunny Watson and her team of crack research librarians to settle whether it was the Finns or Spanish who actually invented the first HandyBomb™--and because crikey, the world is a scary place--I leave you with this still from Desk Set, in which the forces of humanity battle the first wave of information technology, old Hollywood style.  Whether it's revolutions or really great movies, the fundamental things continue to apply.

Rum Punch.

That's the title of the 1992 Elmore Leonard novel which Quentin Tarantino used as the basis for his movie Jackie Brown, starring the inimitable Pam Grier and a host of other excellent actors.

And now that I have mentioned "movie," "host," and "punch," I believe that is sufficient lead-in for this link to Oscar nominee-themed punch recipes from The Daily Beast.  If you are going to watch the Academy Awards, it's probably best to do so with drink in hand.  I can't say for sure, but some of these recipes look like they will have you seeing stars well into Monday morning.  Here's the link:  http://tinyurl.com/6n8shgx

Support for Rick Santorum rises among GOP women according to WaPo/ABC poll.

Here's a link to New York mag post about the bounce:
http://tinyurl.com/7ngpuxt

At right, a GOP women's club in Boomshakalaka, Michigan demonstrate the "Foster Friess," clenching a Bayer aspirin tightly between their knees as a method of contraception suggested by Santorum's Super PAC financier Foster Friess.

"It's fresh, it's fun, and it's all natural," said Mildred Mumford, Club president.

Lou Dobbs rushed to Mt. Sinai with chest pains; condition revealed.

After the Fox Business News Network host was hospitalized on Wednesday, his diagnosis was finally revealed at this morning's press conference.

"It's really very simple.  Mr. Dobbs' heart is two sizes too small," said Dr. Leviticus Medicus, head of Mt. Sinai's cardiology department.

Dobbs:  Heartsick but
gunning for grannies.

The commentator collapsed just after completing a show attacking the upcoming film adaptation of the Dr. Seuss book, The Lorax, which as Maura Judkiss in a Washington Post Lifestyle blog points out, is "about the dangers of taking too much from the Earth without giving back." 

Judkiss notes: 

"Where have we all heard this before?" asked Dobbs.  "Occupy Wall Street, forever trying to pit the makers against the takers..."

According to Judkiss, Dobbs' guest, radio show host Matt Patrick, "said the movie's aim was to create 'Occu-toddlers,' and suggested people buy popcorn and candy and leave their trash on the floor."

In discussing Dobbs' prognosis, Dr. Medicus emphasized the low mortality rates associated with the condition.  "True, Mr. Dobbs may not enjoy the quality of life that you or I would want, but there are many, many documented cases of such patients living to advanced ages."

As for Dobbs himself, he vows not to slow down.  "I've got to get back to the studio.  We've got an upcoming segment on old ladies hogging crosswalks, taking their own sweet time getting across.  Matt (Patrick) will be back, and we're going to outline a new course of action.  Granny Clipping is an idea whose time has come."

The link to Judkiss post:  http://tinyurl.com/7zjq2qq

Chilean CoPeepapa Mine Rescue, winner 2011

Yes, I know you were putting the finishing touches on the Great American Novel today.  And there was the Greek bailout to attend to, plus calming the tensions in the Middle East. 
But that can wait.  You've got just 3 days to finish your diorama for the Washington Post Peeps contest.

Here's the link to a last-minute cheat sheet from the Post: 
http://tinyurl.com/6tnw6x2

Goodnight Peeps, finalist 2010

And here's a link to previous winners: 
http://tinyurl.com/7avc4p9

Banned in Boston

Charles McGrath has a piece today on Barney Rosset, who died this week at age 89, and who was responsible for the fact that no one except your pruny great-aunt Minnie uses the word "smutty" anymore.   In 1951, Rosset bought Grove Press; the house had exactly three titles.  He went to Paris to sign Samuel Beckett and bought Waiting for Godot for a hundred bucks.  He published the Beats, a gaggle of Nobel winners (before they were winners) from Pinter to Paz.  He published the Autobiography of Malcolm X, largely because other publishers had turned it down.  He went to court to fight obscenity charges and won three times:  for Lady Chatterly's Lover in 1959, Tropic of Cancer in 1961 and Naked Lunch, finally un-banned in Boston in 1966.   

"...when genuine passion
moves you, say what you've
got to say, and say it hot."
   --D. H. Lawrence

His personal heroes were John Dillinger and Henry Miller.  He owned massive swaths of land in the East Hamptons but sold them to keep Grove Press afloat, which struggled under the weight of legal bills.  When he sold the company to oil heiress Ann Getty in the 80s he thought he was getting an infusion of capital but instead he got the boot, and from the looks of the walkup flat that is his home in the 2008 bio-doc, Obscene, he died many miles from the lap of luxury to which he was born.

Let us hope today he is not resting in peace but is instead cooking up mischief in some parallel universe.

Here is a link to McGrath's piece, which also links to a 2008 interview.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/books/barney-rosset-loved-breaking-publishings-rules.html?hpw

Mine scientist says two heads are better than one in fish population. EPA says good thinking.

EPA official, "Smoking Man,"
 who approved Simplot's report
as "comprehensive."
"Hell, no, I didn't read it.  I
didn't need to.  All I know is
that this country is under seige by
a bunch of nervous Nellies always
worried about every little thing."

And it's left to the Fish and Wildlife Service to call out crappie science.  J. R. Simplot's mining operations have polluted Idaho creeks with selenium levels 14 times higher than currently accepted by the EPA, according to the New York Times.  Simplot's scientists have done a report asking for the EPA acceptable levels to be raised, and the EPA has called the report "comprehensive."  A subsequent review by scientists at U.S. Fish and Wildlife found Simplot's data sadly lacking.  Multiple anomolies that have turned up in creeks include two-headed trout.  Simplot called Fish and Wildlife's objections "totally outside the regulatory process."  In other words, keep your one nose on your one face out of our profit-making business.

(Left)  EPA underling and superfund site
investigator who actually read the
report:  "Look.  I'm with the boss on this one.
So yeah, there's going to be a little evolving
going on in some creeks.  What's the biggie?
These fish might have some pretty good ideas. Eventually.  Now if you'll excuse me I'm going out to have a cigarette break with the boss."

Here's the link to the Times story:  http://tinyurl.com/78nvalo

My dear friend Wolfgang,

I woke this morning with a burning feeling--although that may have been due to the saurkraut at dinner.  Still, I have kind of an idea--not really an idea, but more of a fleeting thought.  And maybe it's half-baked.  No, I guess it's fully baked.  Or at least three-quarters baked.  Maybe I shouldn't have even written you.  Probably you're busy.  You probably don't want a letter from me.  Probably you don't even like me.
Your friend acquaintance,

Werner

On this day in 1927, physicist Werner Heisenberg
wrote a letter to his colleague Wolfgang Pauli
in which he first outlined the uncertainty principle.

Are you there, Oscar? It's me, Judy Blume.

Truly, just as I don't give a rat's tight end about who wins the Super Bowl, I also don't give a golden glute about the naked man statues to be handed out by the dozen this Sunday night. 

And yet I find I am a sucker for the series the New York Times has been running polling famous (non-Oscar voting) types about their picks.  Martha Stewart is the latest, but Judy Blume, Anthony Bourdain and Jeffrey Eugenides are others.  I don't know what I expect; they never give a write-in.

Here's the link to Martha's.  You can see the others from there.  http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/my-oscar-picks-martha-stewart/?ref=arts

Bohemian Rhapsody.

Burn the candle at both ends tonight in honor of the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, born on this day in 1892.  Brought up by a single mother who struggled financially but encouraged her daughter in her writing, Millay showed early precocity as a poet.  Her talents were honed at Vassar, and she was a glam bohemian figure in Greenwich Village.  She wrote frankly about her sexuality andwon a Pulitzer for her poetry in 1923.  She and husband Eugen Boissevain (who supported her staunchly though apparently they were not "exclusive" in their sexual relationship) bought their Steepletop estate in Austerlitz, NY, in 1925.  She lived there until her death in 1950.

I would quote her famous poem--the one about burning the candle at both ends, about not lasting the night but giving a lovely sight--only according to the very prim and proper website of the Millay Society (how easy to embalm a bohemian!) I can't quote even a part of it without their permission.

Here's a link to the Millay Society's website, which renders a colorful life in pale pastels:  http://www.millaysociety.org/millaybio.htm

The photo is from Wikipedia.  They also quote the poem.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_St._Vincent_Millay

One picture is worth a thousand words. That and $80 million.

$80 million is the estimate Sotheby's is putting on Edvard Munch's "The Scream" when it's put on the block May 2nd, according to an article in the New York Times. 

The painting has been hanging in the dining room of Petter Olsen, whose father Thomas was Munch's "neighbor, friend and patron" and rescued 75 of Munch's paintings from the Nazi government in 1937 when the artist's work was declared "degenerate."  When the Olsen family fled the Nazis for New York, Thomas stashed 30 works from his personal collection in a hay barn, where they survived unharmed.

The Times says the painting "has adorned everything from mugs and t-shirts to key chains, anti-George Bush campaign buttons, inflatable dolls and iPad covers." 

Also small children. 

Munch painted 4 versions of "The Scream," and two of them have been stolen in notorious heists.  Sotheby's says it's taking "extra precautions."  Thriller writers take note.

Here's the link:  http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/the-scream-heads-for-the-auction-block/?ref=arts



And we got a pretty good opera and some darn fine ping pong out of it.

James Maddalena as Nixon and
Russell Braun as Chou En-lai

Still smarting from the savage mocking he received when he walked into the sixth grade dance wearing velvet knee breeches, Richard Milhouse Nixon at age 59 finally succeeded in making a grand entrance that wowed the world, when on this day exactly forty years ago Air Force One touched down in Beijing for Nixon in China--the actual Nixon-being-in-China event, as opposed to the opera, which debuted in 1987 to mixed reviews, some of which predicted its quick demise.

Here's a link to an article by Max Frankel, who won a Pulitzer for his coverage of Nixon's trip, on both the trip and the opera.  Despite those tepid initial reviews and the vow by the opera's director (the comically named) Peter Sellars that "you won't have Peter Sellars to kick around anymore," in fact "Nixon in China" kicked around the country for several decades before its premiere last year at the Met.  http://tinyurl.com/86nah7l

Also today Leslie Gelb, another journalist who covered the trip, and Winston Lord, who was Kissinger's assistant, suggest at The Daily Beast that the stealth diplomacy practiced then (lots of table tennis and Kissinger's secret talks) could work today with Iran.  Or we could just offer to let Iran buy whatever's left of us that China doesn't own.  Here's the link:  http://tinyurl.com/73n2q4r

Hat Trick.



Magnate with magnetism.  Actor Iain Glen.

We didn't need Euclid to tell us that Sir Richard Carlyle was brought on the scene at Downton Abbey to complete a triangle between Mary and Matthew.  Of course, initially I expected Mary to marry the newspaper magnate, not realizing that Season Two plot complications were to be little kitten tangles, introduced only to dissolve in the next episode or even before the end of the same episode.  Amnesia, anyone?  Still, when Sir Richard smoothed his hair last night and said, "You've seen the last of me," I felt a bit like the Dowager Countess, who replied, "Is that a promise?"

And then today I see this photo posted by New York Magazine in their recap, and all I can say is: Reader, I long for the return of Sir Richard Carlyle.  Lose the fussy Edwardian high hats and frock coats and the snaky Murdochian menace, and this guy can give Matthew a run for his money.  Vive le triangle!

Here's the link to the New York recap:
 http://www.vulture.com/2012/02/downton-abbey-recap-season-2-episode-7.html

And here's a link to a New York Times interview with creator Julian Fellowes:  http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/julian-fellowes-overcomes-his-scruples-and-looks-back-at-season-2-of-downton-abbey/?src=me&ref=general

Leaping lizards, it's President's Day!

Photo of Air Dickie is from Slate's Presidential slideshow.  Here's the link:  http://todayspictures.slate.com/20120217/

Truth be not proud.

Yes, Clooney is mooney for me.
Declare our love or deny it--which
is the greater crime?

It's time to come clean.  The reason George Clooney is lonely (see February 16 post) is because I broke off our affair all those years ago.  It was an intense idyll passionate beyond the wildest imagining, only I'd just come off my ground-breaking effort defining the human genome, and then there was my sculpture exhibit opening at MoMA.  George desperately wanted us to get married and have kids, but I guess it just wasn't the right time for me. 


In related news, Jonathan Turley has an interesting piece in the Washington Post about Xavier Alvarez and his case which the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Wednesday, which will decide if Alvarez will become a felon for falsely declaring himself a recipient of the Medal of Honor.  The Stolen Valor Act of 2004 makes lying about such a thing a criminal offense, whether or not the lie is used to defraud other people of money (traditionally how and why liars are prosecuted).  Turley argues that the law is an overreach and a violation of the First Amendment.

Interestingly, the judge who disagrees with that view is Jay Bybee who, before he became a judge was the assistant attorney general at the Justice Department and author of the "torture memos" which even the Bush administration later retracted.  Turley writes "that form of falsehood, however, appears protected--the Justice Department didn't even report Bybee to his bar association."

I know.  You thought I was going to tell you more about Our Great Love Affair, how it was George and I together who first found his fabulous Italian villa, and exactly what we did and how many times we did in our sailboat atop the gleaming waters of Lake Como...or in the soft undulating hammock under the shade of those all-knowing olive trees.


 Sorry.  I've said too much already.

Here's the link to Turley's piece:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lying-about-winning-a-medal-of-honor-its-shameful--but-it-shouldnt-be-a-crime/2012/02/16/gIQAhpNFKR_story_2.html

"How come you never write anymore about my lips being as fresh as the wilding hedge-rose-cup from which the dew drop slips? Answer me that."

For your bliss, or your bitterness:  Wellesley College and Baylor University have digitized more 1600 of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's letters.  (Even the envelopes).  573 are love letters to each other.
Here's a belated link to the New York Times article about the project:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/elizabeth-barrett-browning/




Portrait by William Charles Ross.  Photo from Today in Literature.  http://tinyurl.com/8657wcm

Comic duo now dud as true true identity revealed: secret love child of Wilfred Brimley and member of cult-like Moostachios Men for the American Way.

Moostachio Grand Visage

"Wastrels and women running
wild--we're gonna clean up this
country with the School
of Hard Knocks and Knocked Up."

Happy 90th, Helen Gurley Brown!

Birthday cake in bed all day today!

Born in Green Forest, Arkansas, the oh-so-fabulous Cosmo editor and author of Sex and the Single Girl was 40 when that book was released.  She edited Cosmo for over 30 years, and she was married to movie producer David Brown for 50 years until his death in 2010.

Good girls go to heaven, but bad girls go everywhere was the line famously attributed to HGB, and though the Googletron has declined to validate this, she also supposedly said that men were like bananas--better by the bunch.

What can one say about a woman like HGB, except you go, Gurley Brown!  Salutations!

Here's a link to an article about her bio "Bad Girls Go Everywhere" written by a Bowdoin academic:  http://www.bowdoin.edu/faculty/j/jscanlon/bad-girls-go-everywhere/index.shtml

True identity of contraceptive comic duo revealed.

Stanley Laurel, III (left) and Oliver Hardy, III

The fact that two of the characters who denounced women's right to contraceptive coverage in this week's House hearings (see post below) seemed straight out of Central Casting may have been because they were.  It was announced today that the Bishop William C. Lori (left) and the Reverend Matthew Harrison are actually the creation of an aspiring comic team, the grandsons of the late Laurel and Hardy.

"We'd been hanging around the House for a while," Oliver Hardy, III, said today.  "We wanted to make our debut here, because, let's face it, the comedy of the House of Representatives is renown.  There's no bigger joke in the world today." 

The two were forced to reveal their identities after Fox Network execs offered them a reality show called "The God Squad," which would feature the pair bursting into boudoirs across America to catch couples practicing safe sex and using contraceptives.  According to the network press release, the show would  "aim for the robust shame dynamic of 'Cops' and 'Cheaters,' capturing the sweet spot where prurience and condemnation meet."

It is unclear now whether the show will go forward.

Stanley Laurel, III, who, like his grandfather, is British, said today, "You must understand I'm not an antediluvian arse who would deny women basic health coverage.  I simply want to play one on American telly."

Grandsons of Laurel and Hardy
ready for Fox's fine mess.

They also decried women "bobbing their hair and baring their limbs in public."



Bishop William E. Lori, a Roman Catholic, left, and the Rev. Dr. Matthew C.
Harrison, a Lutheran, members of the all-male panel appearing at a House
hearing to protest the compromise that allows women employed by
religious-affiliated institutions to receive contraception coverage directly
from their insurance providers.



Hard Times.

On this day in 1906, famous (or infamous) union leader "Big Bill" Haywood was arrested for the murder of a former Colorado governor in a case that hinged on the work of the famous (or infamous) Pinkerton agent and union infiltrator James McPartland, who had earlier helped destroy the Molly Maguires, an Irish labor group (or possibly a complete fiction concocted by ruthless mine owners to destroy any labor organizing) in the Pennsylvania coal fields.

For me that is plenty enough excuse to give a shout out to the 1970 movie, The Molly Maguires, directed by Martin Ritt (a 50s blacklistee), with Richard Harris playing James McPartland and Sean Connery as Molly Bill Kehoe.  It's a tough dark movie that bombed at the box office.  But then again, no one would even attempt it today.  Not unless one of the leads could whip on his tights and cape and set things right with his superpowers in the third act.  Or there were skeeeery ghosts haunting the mine shafts instead of the ordinary terrors lurking in an unregulated mine.

The Molly Maguires is a big Hollywood movie with big movie stars (no anemic indie budget--the coal separator they built just for a prop still works today) about two hard guys doing hard dirty work. 

So here's to those guys.  Let's all hoist a pint of ale tonight.  Preferably dark.

Today is the birthday of writer Richard Ford, born on this day in 1944 in Jackson, Mississippi.  Salutations, Mr. Ford, and let's all have a mintless julep tonight in his honor.  "Your life is the blueprint you make after the building is built," he once wrote.

Must...work...on...blueprint.

George Clooney is lonely.



George's current squeeze in her wrestling days.
Stacy, for the love of God and your fellow woman,
please be gentle when he dumps you, as he
inevitably will.  Remember, the man is a national treasure.


And this is why I do not send him my number.

This is the link to Mr. Lonelyheart(throb):  http://www.centurylink.net/tv/3/player/vendor/E!%20Entertainment/player/fiveminute/series/E!%20Entertainment/asset/gnrc-6gOCT89BJO/source/Recommendations

Disney announces remake of "The Castaways."

Cue poignant Randy Newman score:

"Ricky Santorum.  That's who they love now." 

"To infinity and beyond!"

Sigh.