maul [mawl] -noun 1. a heavy hammer, as for driving stakes or wedges. 2. Archaic. a heavy club or mace. –verb (used with object) 3. to handle or use roughly: 4. to injure by a rough beating, shoving, or the like; Also, mall.
Dallas County officials spar over 'black hole' comment
A special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets turned tense and bizarre this afternoon.
County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.
Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections "has become a black hole" because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.
Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud "Excuse me!" He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a "white hole."
That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.
Mayfield shot back that it was a figure of speech and a science term. A black hole, according to Webster's, is perhaps "the invisible remains of a collapsed star, with an intense gravitational field from which neither light nor matter can escape."
Other county officials quickly interceded to break it up and get the meeting back on track. TV news cameras were rolling, after all
BTW, according to SciGuy, Eric Berger, a "white hole" is a a theoretical object that ejects matter from beyond its event horizon, rather than sucking it in.
So, I open my PO Box the other day and inside I find a letter from my area's Postmaster.
The Post Office must be doing some anti-terror initiative to keep ner-do-wells from using PO Boxes for their nefarious activities because the first part of the letter said:
Please complete the attached PS Form 1093, Application for Post Office Box Service, and return it to our office. Postal regulations require that the form contain undated current information. We are in the process of updating these forms and appreciate your cooperation.
Being a good citizen, I filled out this form and, as requested, schlepped it back to the post office with two pieces of photo ID.
The guy behind the counter looks up and asks me WHY I'm filling out an application form for a box I already have. Has my information changed? No, I say. This was something YOU GUYS asked me to do.
He wanders to the back so he can ask someone else about it (the people waiting in line must have loved me). After a few minutes, he comes back and begrudgingly files my newly completed form. All the while, he's still shaking his head in confusion.
Doesn't the Post Office have departmental meetings to discuss these things?
On July Fourth, the morning news shows were slobbering over these two clods because they got married while in character as Betsy Ross and Ben Franklin.
If it had been two Trekkies dressed up as Mr. Spock and Nurse Chapel, then all the networks would have been snickering.
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Benjamin Franklin and Betsy Ross celebrated the eve of the Fourth of July not with fireworks but with wedding vows.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter officiates the real-life ceremony. 3 of 3 Ralph Archbold and Linda Wilde, who portray the historical figures, tied the knot Thursday evening in a public ceremony in front of Independence Hall, where the real Franklin helped draft the nation's founding documents.
The bride and groom, as well as the entire wedding party, were in costume for the event.
The teaser trailer for The Day the Earth Stood Still, a remake of 1951 classic sci-fi flick, is out. It's scheduled release date is December twelve.
Most of the Internet buzz I've seen has been negative. People get so upset when great movies are redone. But I'm actually looking forward to seeing it. I know it's blasphemy to say this, but the original is starting to show it's age.
The new version stars Keanu Reeves as Klaatu (Michacl Rennie in original) and Jennifer Connaly as Helen (Patricia Neal in original). John Cleese plays the Sam Jaffe role of Dr. Barnhardt. Mad Men's John Hamm can be seen in the trailer and is credited as "Dr. Granier". But I can't tell if he's playing the Hugh Marlowe role of Helen's boyfriend (and Judas to Klaatu), Tom Stevens.
You only get a quick glimpse of what looks like Gort in the trailer, so it's not clear how much screen time he'll get.
It'll be interesting to see if in this version Klaatu once again dies and is resurrected for the sake of mankind.
I'm only guessing, but since Keanu Reeves has already done that as cyber-Jesus in The Matrix, I suspect that the remake may be more faithful to the original short story, "Farewell to the Master," which has a different ending.
The best thing about the Limbaugh deal is how much it'll piss off that light-weight Keith Olbermann.
BTW, the NY Times Mag cover makes him look like Tony Soprano.
LIMBAUGH SIGNS THROUGH 2016; $400 MILLION DEAL SHATTERS BROADCAST RECORDS
Wed Jul 02 2008 09:02:18 ET **Exclusive**
The American broadcast industry is rocked, realigned and blasted into a new orbit, yet again, by Rush Limbaugh, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
In what is being described as an unprecedented radio contract, Limbaugh will keep his syndicated show on-the-air and e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e through 2016 with CLEAR CHANNEL and PREMIERE RADIO.
Already host of the most lucrative hours since radio's inception, Limbaugh's total package is valued north of $400 million, according to media insiders.
The NEW YORK TIMES will claim this weekend that Limbaugh, marking 20 years this summer as a national host, has secured a 9-figure signing bonus for the new deal, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE...
...Earnings now pace him ahead of the annual salaries for network news anchors: Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer - combined!
Amazingly, Pittsburgh made the list. What a bad year for them. First they lose to Detroit (which ISN'T on the list) in the Stanley Cup Finals. Now this!
Associated Press: The latest comments by Imus to come under scrutiny were aired on Monday's broadcast. During a conversation about Jones' run-ins with the law, Imus asked, "What color is he?" Sports announcer Warner Wolf said Jones — formerly known as Pacman — is "African-American." Imus responded: "There you go. Now we know." (Associated Press - June 24, 2008)
Tony Schwartz, credited for the infamous "Daisy Ad" that many feel was instrumental in Lyndon Johnson's defeat of Barry Goldwater in 1964, died on June 15th.
...In a debate about the way detainees are treated at Guantanamo Bay, California Republican Dana Rohrabacher argued that it's not torture to make suspected terrorists wear women's underwear on their heads.
Rohrabacher was taking issue with FBI complaints about inappropriate and potentially illegal tactics used to get al-Qaida detainees to talk. He said interrogation-by-panties was more akin to "hazing," not torture
...Rohrabacher declared he would never apologize for someone putting panties on the head of a 9-11 terrorist.
Like Keith Olbermann, I've never understood the the appeal of diva columnist and all around mediocrity Maureen Dowd.
As a writer, she's neither interesting, insightful or funny.
In her latest column she takes the Republicans to task:
It’s good news for Obama that Hillary’s out of the race. But it’s also bad news. Now Republicans can turn their full attention to demonizing Michelle Obama. Mrs. Obama is the new, unwilling contestant in Round Two of the sulfurous national game of “Kill the witch.”
But wait a minute, didn't Dowd herself spend the last few months tearing into Hillary Clinton?
I'll answer the question. Yes.
Here's just three examples of Down piling on Clinton:
Wrote: "Without nepotism, Hillary would be running for the president of Vassar."
Accused her of talking "girlfriend to girlfriend" to women voters while refusing to share the pain of being married to a sexually exploitative monster who had made her violate all her beliefs and principles
Regarding the idea that Clinton was "playing the woman-as-victim card," Down wrote: "If the gender game worked when Rick Lazio muscled into her space, why shouldn't it work when Obama and Edwards muster some mettle? If she could become a senator by playing the victim after Monica, surely she can become president by playing the victim now."
...you need to know the selection process. The first line of defense at The New Yorker is the cartoon editor's assistant, a twentysomething from Texas named Farley Katz. The cartoon assistant reads every single caption—at least 6,000 per week—and passes his favorite 50 or so to the editors, who narrow the list down to three. If you won't make it past Farley, you will never get your name in print. Knowing how he thinks is crucial. The astute captioner will note that he used to be a rollercoaster operator at Six Flags and a telemarketer. He is an outsider who has never trod in the cemented garden he protects. He had to look up "urban ennui" when he arrived in New York—he didn't learn it riding the subway for 25 years. Exploit the fact that Farley is working off the same stereotypes of The New Yorker readership as you are.
Hmmm....Farley Katz doesn't sound like a REAL name.
More significantly, the May 22nd New York Post points out that the New Yorker isn't above plagarism.
Google NOT only refuses to recognize June 6th for D-Day (a little thing that happened in Normandy which marked the end of WW2) with a special home page graphic, BUT they have the audacity to instead celebrate Diego Velázquez, some POS 17th century Spanish painter.
I should move my blog to Typepad in protest.
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The wearers of the winged wheel overcame the curse of the "President's Trophy" to capture the Stanley Cup for the fourth time in eleven years after a Game Five win over the PittsburghPenguins (who darn near tied it up with ONE second left) for a final score of 3 to 2.
It's been a while since I got a "Team of Destiny" prediction correct.
Normally, I would have taken MSNBC, the Democratic Party's answer to Fox News, to task for interrupting John McCain's speech yesterday to announce that they were projecting Barack Obama's winning of the delegates he needs for the nomination.
This certainly could have waited a few minutes as a projection isn't exactly "breaking news."
However, given how bad McCain's stiff and stumbling performance was, I think they did him a huge favor by giving viewers something else to watch.
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The International Space Station commode malfunctioned last week, forcing the three ISS astronauts to rig up a still-troublesome bypass for liquid waste.'
Discovery is taking along a spare pump from Russia, which the two cosmonauts on the station are expected to install as soon as the shuttle arrives.
Until the repair is complete, the three-member station crew will use the shuttle's toilet -- or they will use extra emergency bags that Discovery is also bringing.
Asked in Sunday's interviews who would do the plumbing repair, [NASA astronaut Michael] Fossum said: "The fact is that the toilet is Russian hardware ... (but) if they need a hand and some wrenches we'll help out."
Here's a demo of how the commode is SUPPOSED to work.
Just days after I whined about Google ignoring Memorial Day, they posted a homepage graphic celebrating the Anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest. I'm no flag-pin wearing zealot, but come on!
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In the opening credits for the updated version of The Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton, author of the 1969 novel, is listed as "J Michael Crichton." This made me wonder if he's trying to put some symbolic distance between himself and this new outing.
Truth be told, I went into the miniseries with a chip on my shoulder.
I LOVED the original novel and Robert Wise's very faithful 1971 film. I wasn't sure how it could be brought into the twenty-first century without losing something in the process.
After seeing part one, I don't think that they've succeeded.
The Andromeda Strain was very much a product of it's time.
We had just landed on the moon and the world still held all things space and science related with a bit of awe. I remember in 1969 an undercurrent of concern that the returning astronauts might bring back some sort of alien moon virus that could infect the planet.
Crichton's novel, as he would do almost ad nauseum with every subsequent effort, showed the flip-side of the technology coin as a military satellite brings back an unearthly microbe that causes instant death in living organisms through massive blood coagulation.
Enter Wildfire, a secret, underground government lab that exists in constant "standby" mode for the sole purpose of springing into action once a biological emergency (presumably alien) has been declared.
Fighting Andromeda turns into a race against time where luck is equally important as mankind's less than godlike technology. The new Andromeda Strain is less a statement about unchecked scientific advancement and more clearly a product of September 11th and the Iraq war.
As I suspected, in the hands of the Scott brothers, Tony and Ridley, the new effort feels the need to add gratuitous violence and pyrotechnics. They also, a la Alien, pull the military biowarfare conspiracy, originally a backstory, more front and center.
Frankly, I lost interest after seeing the forth head explode from close range gunfire.
At his best, Crichton keeps his plots very grounded in plausibility. He seamlessly lets the morality tale unfold through a straight forward presentation of the actions or inactions of his imperfect protagonists.
The new miniseries is more heavy handed.
The initial scenes establishing Dr. Stone's (Benjamin Bratt) strained (no pun) domestic situation felt like a bad Lifetime Network movie.
The conference room discussions between the Wildfire team (now wearing form fitting outfits that look unintentionally close to the uniforms worn by the crew of the Enterprise in another Robert Wise effort, Star Trek: The Motion Picture), start out as scientific discussions about the crisis at hand (which seem to be intended to bring the audience up to speed) before mutating Andromeda-like into barb trading arguments about the ethical implications of it all.
Rather than advance the story, the dialog struck me mostly like the banter one would hear in a bad Law and Order or Boston Legal episode.
Sure, the original Andromeda Strain, with it's green screen monitors and sometimes slow pacing is a bit dated.
But this new effort is far from a cure.
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Google has once again capriciously decided (for reasons unclear) to NOT acknowledge Memorial Day with a special home page graphic, even though they celebrated the following days with "Holiday Logos" this year:
125th Birthday of Walter Gropius - May 18, 2008 Invention of the First Laser - May 16, 2008 Earth Day - April 22, 2008
Persian New Year - March 20, 2008
Chinese New Year - February 7, 2008 50th anniversary of the LEGO brick - January 28, 2008 Read more!
Apparently, we need to develop less helium guzzling clown acts or face a world without "Lordy, Lordy, Look Who's Forty" birthday balloons.
From Washington University in St. Louis (Dec 31, 2007):
Helium supplies endangered, threatening science and technology
...The element that lifts things like balloons, spirits and voice ranges is being depleted so rapidly in the world's largest reserve, outside of Amarillo, Texas, that supplies are expected to be depleted there within the next eight years.
According to Lee Sobotka, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis:
The price of liquid helium is about $5 per liter, having gone up more than 50 percent over the past year because of what Sobotka calls "conventional" economics. He cited the withdrawal of some companies from the marketplace, and the emergence of others that are not yet in production, as the driving force behind higher prices, and not (as yet) a scarcity of the element.
Helium capture in the United States began after World War I, when the primary use of the gas was for dirigibles. Because helium is non-flammable, its use in balloons prevented another Hindenburg tragedy. The U.S. government ran the helium industry for 70 years, but since the mid-90s it has been in the domain of the oil and natural gas industries.
Although I stand by my "Team of Destiny" prediction for the Detroit Red Wings, their last two games against Dallas haven't been encouraging.
Especially when one considers the history of the President's Trophy (the award given out to the NHL team with the highest points accumulated during the regular season).
Since it's inception in the 1985-86 season, only six teams which won the trophy went on to win the Stanley Cup.
Counting this season, the Wings have won the President's Trophy six times. But in their three Stanley Cup seasons (1996-97, 1997-98, and 2001-02), only ONE (2001-02) coincided with having the best regular season record.
Of course, this kind of analysis is meaningless. I'm just saying.
Cops: Texas teens admit stealing child's skull, using it to smoke weed Houston police say three teens admitted digging up a child's corpse, removing the skull and using it to smoke marijuana.
Battlestar Galatica's latest outing, "Faith," was GREAT!
I'm going to really miss it when it ends this year.
Some thoughts:
Roslyn's bald wig cap at the beginning looked rather fake Apparently, Mary McDonnell didn't want to "take one for the team" and shave her head.
One one could question the use of a ticking countdown clock near the end as a forced dramatic element (especially for BSG which generally avoids such clichés). On the other hand, like the shots of the dripping IV in a parallel storyline, it did support the notion of "time running out" that was developed in the episode.
As in the Sopranos, when, Tony had to keep the peace by personally killing his cousin who had capped Phil's brother, blond Six was taken out by one of the other 6's after she killed Barolay. But, I love the fact that BSG set up and resolved that conflict in only five minutes compared to the Sopranos which devoted a number of episodes to do that same idea.
I took sadistic pleasure in Gaeta's suffering because of his leg wound. He's been a bit self-righteous after his stint as Baltar's assistant.
Speaking of Baltar, is he becoming the BSG equivalent of talk radio or the blogosphere?
Lastly, a silly thought.
Since President Rosyln has always been an analog for George W. Bush, it's appropriate that, as shown in her dream, her mother resembles Barbara Bush.
Admittedly, my submission was a reworking of the punchline to a famous joke:
"I've been bringing it to work ever since the wife found it in my briefcase"
But the three "winners" are PATHETIC:
"I couldn't find a real naked woman to ride with me in the H.O.V. lane." - why would one NEED "a real naked woman" to ride with them in the H.O.V lane?
"Hey, you teach C.P.R. your way, and I'll teach it mine." - mediocre AT BEST
"She's my Seeing Eye doll." - that doesn't even make sense! And why is "Seeing Eye doll" capitalized?
The Detroit City Council should either vote to remove Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick from office, ask Gov. Jennifer Granholm to oust him or censure the mayor, according to a report from the independent attorney hired by the council to assist with its investigation of the text message scandal.
As part of it's effort to promote their new Pike's Place Roast, Starbucks Coffee replaced their well-known green logo (below right) with a retro logo from the 1970's that featured a topless mermaid (or siren) as shown on left.
However, the new image (unlike the one below) was tweaked to be more modest and has the siren's hair covering her bare breasts.
That's the John the Baptist-like epiphany I had while watching last night's Battlestar Galactia, "Escape Velocity."
Appropriately, it occurred during Baltar's "Sermon on the Mount" speech as he preached about the Cylon god.
From the very beginning, Baltar's had "visions" of Six in his head that no one else could see.
At the time, I chalked it up to his own guilt induced post-traumatic stress syndrome due to the active role he took in the annihilation of his own planet.
However, visions turn out to be a characteristic exhibited in three known Cylons. Galen Tyrol Saul Tigh, and Six all have suffered the distraction of hallucinations. Furthermore, "the four" discovered that they were Cylons because they couldn't get the song "All Along the Watchtower" out of their heads.
Because BG tries to stay grounded in the logic of it's own internal reality, the simplest explanation for these strange, almost supernatural, occurrences is that it's a Cylon thing. This leads me to conclude that Baltar's one of them.
Of course, the good news is that finding out whoever the twelfth Cylon is, while a fun academic exercise, really doesn't matter to me. Whatever happens, I'm just enjoying the ride.
In it's final season, BG is doing a good job of wrapping up all the loose plot threads at a pace that doesn't seem to distract from the stories themselves.
The Sopranos, because of it's huge success (both critically and culturally), sometimes exhibited a self-awareness of the audience. BG, to say it mildly, has never had that problem.
I was worried that the relevation of the four Cylons being with the fleet all the time would turn out to be a weak "gimmick." But they've handled that quite well.
And, as usual, the politics of BG defy partisanship.
In "Escape Velocity," Laura Roslin, BG's analog for George Bush, is trying to enact tough security policies that she sees as necessary keep a lid on hostilities between certain religious extremist factions in the fleet.
Mischievously, Roslin, as characterized throughout the show, is no Neo-con. She was a teacher for goodness sake. Yet, as president, she's had to make some "pragmatic" decisions that, in many cases, went against her own philosophical grain.
Apollo, who has the luxury of NOT being the one where the buck stops, is free to rail against Roslin's often draconian policies on moral grounds. Sure, he's got a point. But he's just so damn self-righteous about it.
MOST of the time, when television shows engage in moral debates (think ANY episode of Boston Legal), there seems to be a clear cut winner. Sure, they'll toss the other side a bone to appear "even-handed." But, one can usually figure out where the writer's are coming from.
In BG, the morality play, like real life, is multi-faceted and often ambiguous.
If Roslin is Bush, than Kara Thrace (Starbuck) has become BG's metaphor for the anti-war movement.
"We're going the wrong way!" she shouts, each time the fleet, implementing Roslin's orders, makes a jump that apparently takes them in the opposite direction of Earth.
Starbuck perfectly epitomizes the frustration many in the real world have felt as they helplessly watch the United States get more entrenched in what they see as the quagmire of Iraq.
Yet, since Adama has given her a chance to find the "right way," she doesn't seem to have any answers and comes across as rather bitchy.
As I said earlier, call me heretical, but in the end, exactly what happens isn't important. It's the manner in which the gospel according to Battlestar Galactica is being told that I'm enjoying.
No heaven on Earth Day - Wintry blast cools global warming fervour
So much for global warming. Earth Day festivities went ahead despite the blast of frigid weather yesterday.
Vendors and presenters from various eco-friendly groups, including Bullfrog Power, CO2 Reduction Edmonton and the local solar energy society, crammed into a lone tent in Hawrelak Park after a blizzard forced them to abandon their original locations. Organizers crammed over 40 groups in a space that would normally be occupied by half that number. Presenters' booths were initially planned to have been spread out between at least five tents, with far larger displays.
As a teenager, the Dean Martin celebrity roasts marked the start of my cynical side regarding "show business" when I realized that the shots of celebrities reacting to their fellow roasters were often strategically edited to create the impression that everyone on the dais found all of proceedings hysterically funny.
It was as if the Dean Martin producers thought that the audience would unquestioningly accept the fact that Nipsey Russell could be reduced to tears and uncontrollable laughter by a routine Rich Little performance.
I did notice that they didn't have to resort to this tactic very often during a Don Rickles performance. He was ALWAYS the funniest one there. That's understandable given that insulting people was his shtick.
In fact, a Dean Martin roast that didn't have Don Rickles, was a letdown similar to a John Ford movie without John Wayne (only more so).
That and his Tonight Show appearences still hold a very special spot in my memories.
So, I was sincerely excited about the Landis directed HBO documentary, Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (2007), that mixes live recordings from Rickles' Las Vegas act, interviews with various celebrities (including Rickles himself), and clips from Rickles' work in television and movies.
A valiant effort, and seemingly a labor of love, the main problem I had with Mr. Warmth, like the Martin roasts, came down to editing. Landis tries to cram so much in that he is forced cut away from scenes just as they're getting good.
For instance, there's clip from a Rickle's appearance on an old Tonight Show where Frank Sinatra was the guest host. Sinatra asks Rickles who his favorite singer is and without missing a beat Rickles replies Dick Haymes. I'd love to have seen more of that interchange, but Landis cuts to something else.
All too often, that something else Landis cuts away to is not quite as interesting or funny as what he's just left to take us there. If I have a chance to see vintage footage of Don Rickles and Frank Sinatra jousting on air, who cares what comedian Bobby Slayton has to say?
On the other hand, Penn Jillette, comic magician, makes an interesting comparison between Don Rickles and The Sex Pistols, yet gets only one short appearance. John Stamos and Bob Saget, who both hardly talk about Don Rickles, end up with MORE onscreen time.
The dilemma Landis faced was understandable. In addition to segments of Rickles' stage act, old movie and television clips, Landis has to juggle a daunting list of "commentators" who make an appearance in Mr. Warmth. Including: Clint Eastwood, Robert De Niro, Richard Lewis, Sarah Silverman, Bob Newhart, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Lawrence, Robin Williams, Roseanne Barr, Christopher Guest, Billy Crystal, Regis Philbin, Sidney Poitier, Kathy Griffin, Ed McMahon, James Caan, Joan Rivers, Jimmy Kimmel, Harry Shearer, Chris Rock, and Martin Scorsese.
But that doesn't excuse Landis from often making the wrong choices.
Fortunately, the DVD release of Mr. Warmth has extra material that includes some of the things that should have made it to the finished piece. Such as James Caan explaining how he channeled Don Rickles for his characterization of Sonny in The Godfather. Why that didn't make the final cut is a mystery. There's also a neat "extra" where Caan talks about working with Howard Hawks, John Wayne and Robert Mitchum on El Dorado (which, of course, was correctly omitted from the actual documentary).
I also wish Landis had spent a bit more time exploring the question of why Rickles can get away with a persona that, on paper, is so politically incorrect. Chris Rock touches on that idea when, while commenting on Rickles' act, says "of course, it's offensive...unless you're into comedy."
Mr. Warmth was informative, but it could have dug a bit deeper. Mr. Warmth was funny, but it could have been funnier.
Landis just needed to make up his mind.
The irony is that the best part of Mr. Warmth was seeing Rickles make the rounds on various talk shows promoting it.
In March of this year, he made a killer of an appearance on David Letterman's show with Denzel Washington (who elected to remain an extra segment just for the thrill of it).
The clips of that performance are proof that even at eighty, Rickles still has it.
Film star and animal rights advocate, Bridget Bardot gets fined a fourth time for "inciting racial hatred." This time because of her remarks criticizing followers of Islam for slaughtering sheep to mark the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.
I guess being "progressive" depends on who's mutton is being gored.
PARIS (Reuters) - French former film star Brigitte Bardot went on trial on Tuesday for insulting Muslims, the fifth time she has faced the charge of "inciting racial hatred" over her controversial remarks about Islam and its followers.
Prosecutors asked that the Paris court hand the 73-year-old former sex symbol a two-month suspended prison sentence and fine her 15,000 euros ($23,760) for saying the Muslim community was "destroying our country and imposing its acts".
QUESTION: I want to put a Free Press article and photo on my blog. Do I need permission?
ANSWER: We are pleased if you put a link in your blog or Web site to an article on http://www.freep.com/. However, you cannot use Free Press stories or photos on your site, your blog or in an e-newsletter. Free Press content is protected by copyright law.
According to the U.S. Copyright Office -- online at http://www.copyright.gov/ -- "There is no specific number of words, lines or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission."
Hmm...I wonder if the Freep got permission from the U.S. Copyright Office for the quote?
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On April 6, 1973, Ron Blomberg of the New York Yankees became the first designated hitter in Major League Baseball history, facing Boston Red Sox right-handed pitcher Luis Tiant in his first plate appearance. "Boomer" Blomberg was walked.
Naturally, the result of the first season of the DH was that the American League posted a higher batting average than the National League, something which has remained consistent to this day.
...and now you know the REST of the story.
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I know I shouldn't admit it, but his lame attempt at humor when stating that Charlton Heston had been absent-mindedly repeating the announcement of his Alzheimer's diagnosis has prevented me from appreciating any Clooney movie since.
I realize it was Heston's later conservative politics, especially his advocacy of gun rights as President of the NRA (a cynical PR move on that organization's part) which drew the ire of the new Hollywood stars. Many who seem to forget that Heston marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. too.
That said and for what it's worth, as a gun rights supporter, I cringed whenever I saw the elder Heston stumping for the cause. Sure, Michael Moore is a shameless self-promoter (and all around shit). But Heston took a bit too long to figure out that HE was the butt of a joke at the end of Bowling for Columbine.
Much has been written about Heston playing "larger than life" characters. Moses and Ben Hur of course. He also saved scores from disaster in Airport '75 and Earthquake. Even his role in The Omega Man has a Christ-like feel to it.
However, I generally appreciated the darker, more mortal and down to earth side of Heston's personna as exhibited in Touch of Evil, Planet of the Apes (how much more "down to earth" can you get?) and Soylent Green.
I wonder if George Clooney would have the guts to risk his "high-minded" film image to play the less than heroic characters Heston did in each of those films.
For instance, in Touch of Evil, as Mexican narcotics investigator Vargas, he's so consumed by the pursuit of corrupt cop Hank Quinlan, that he's oblivious to the torments suffered by his wife. At the end, Vargas knowingly engages in the same sort of questionable evidence gathering he despises in Quinlan to trap him.
By the way, regarding Touch of Evil, the New York Times obit incorrectly stated:
Another legendary Hollywood director, Orson Welles, cast him as a Mexican narcotics investigator in the thriller 'Touch of Evil"
Actually, it was HESTON, who had already been cast in the movie, that convinced Touch of Evil producers to give Welles the director's gig. Of course, one could argue that ultimately Heston didn't do him any favor as Touch of Evil effectively finished Welles' Hollywood career.
There's no scene more satisfying for me than when Vargas single-handedly mops the floor of a seedy border-town bar with bunch of sneering Mexican gangsters. It's shot in a style that I suspect influenced a similar scene in Michael Cimino’s Year of the Dragon with Mickey Rourke.
Then there’s the other part that Heston is most widely remembered for, the cynical, world-weary Taylor in Planet of the Apes.
When Tim Burton remade Planet of the Apes, he had Mark Wahlberg play Captain Davidson as the type of gung-ho guy that Heston’s Taylor would have mocked relentlessly in the original.
The only time Taylor laughs during the entire movie is AT one of his fellow astronauts who, in some futile attempt at patriotism, has planted a small American flag in the ground.
The irony for Taylor in Planet of the Apes is that one so down on humanity is ultimately forced to defend it in the face of the vicious ape oppressors.
At the end, when it's revealed that he's been home the entire time, Taylor is mad at his fellow humans for blowing themselves up. BUT, I’ve always felt that he was also more than a little bit pissed at himself for looking stupid after realizing that the apes he had argued with earlier about mankind were right all along.
Forget about the god-like characters who could part waterways and land crippled aircraft, it was the everyday bastards that Heston played for which I will remember him most.
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Only The Strong - 1993 Diretor: Sheldon Lettich Starring: Mark Dacascos
Egads! Where do I start.
One of reasons that West Side Story seems dated today is the way it used dancing to symbolize gang fighting. Somehow, "jazz hands" just don't have the same street cred anymore.
In Only The Strong, a 1993 effort directed by Sheldon Lettich and starring Mark Dacascos, dancing isn't just used as a metaphor for fighting, dancing IS the way these thugs fight.
Our main character, Louis Stevens (Mark Dacascos), a former Green Beret (they're always former Green Berets aren't they) returns home from a stint in Brazil to find the old neighborhood in shambles. A tattered American flag visible behind him, Stevens' old high school teacher and mentor, "Kerrigan" (that's how he's listed in the credits), struggles to explain Darwinism to a bunch of disinterested pupils who are too well aware of how the process of natural selection works (hence, the movie's title).
Stevens, who has mastered Capoeira, a rhythm-based Brazilian martial art form, gets thrown into the mix by beating up a local drug king pin on the high school playground. Seeing the students respond to Louis, Kerrigan decides to enlist him to help clean up the neighborhood.
The school board, portrayed as a mostly ineffectual bunch, approve of an experimental "boot-camp" where ten of the toughest "lost causes" are culled from the student body to be cured by the gift of Capoeria. Kerrigan and Stevens turn an old firehouse into a martial arts studio.
Even by nineties standards the ethnically diverse bunch don't seem ALL that tough. In fact, it appears that the worst infractions of one of the delinquents is that he plays his oversized boom box too loud.
Of course, this boom box comes in handy when Stevens incorporates it into his lessons that are accompanied by the tune "Zoom, Zoom, Zoom."
I hate to be nasty, but it turns out that Only the Strong's most important contribution to our culture is as the source for a Mazda ad campaign theme song.
To be fair, no one watched Fred Astaire movies for the drama off the dance floor. Likewise, nothing Bruce Lee ever did that didn't involve punching, kicking and nunchucks was really all that interesting.
So, I won't be overly critical of Only the Strong's narrative. Suffice to say, there isn't much of one.
That leaves me with just the fighting to judge.
I appreciate the physical talent required to practice this martial art form. And while I'd never say this to the face of a Capoeira master, the fighting in Only the Strong is quite weak.
I'll give them credit for NOT resorting to the sort of ridiculous floating in the air on wires trick that ruined the fight scenes for me in (take your pick) Charlie's Angels, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Kill Bill.The Matrix is the exception that proves the rule because the internal logic of it's premise ALLOWED for that sort of gravity defiance.
I'm also not a fan of the over choreographed battles in current films like the Bourne series, which have always struck me as fake because of their very perfection (plus the fact that I've never bought into Matt Damon as a tough guy).
For my money, two of the VERY best fight scenes in cinema was the hand-to-hand struggle between Sean Connery and Robert Shaw in From Russia with Love and near the end of Enter the Dragon where Bruce Lee beats up henchmen who ambush him in the command center. Both are well planned out, yet seem spontaneous.
Only the Strong suffers from the fact that, in addition to never using their guns, the bad guys politely wait their turn to get their licks in on the hero. Thus, giving Louis the chance to thump his way out of it.
Years ago, my uncle (a tough ex-sailor) and I went to see Billy Jack (a movie about a Green Beret who vents his frustration at the establishment with frequent displays of violent pacifism). I can still remember my uncle laughing and telling me the story about getting jumped by five guys who, for every single punch he threw, hit him with ninety-nine.
The other problem with the fights as staged in Only the Strong, is that the combatants seldom get close enough to actually hit each other. The battles consist of a series of random back flips and gratuitous cartwheels that occasionally get broken up by actual punches.
I've included a YouTube of the Only the Strong's final showdown.
I'll save you from having to watch the previous hour and a half and let you judge for yourself if it's any good.
Then of course, there's the dreaded "A-Hole."
