Get Ready For GREAT MUSLIM ADVENTURE DAY – Burqas optional.
Great Adventure’s Muslims-only day
Theme park’s Islam-exclusive event draws fire, anticipates 10,000
A popular North American amusement park is scheduled to host a “Great Muslim Adventure Day” this week in which the park will be open only to Muslims, drawing fire from various monitor groups, WorldNetDaily has learned. The Muslim Youth Division of the Islamic Circle of North America and the Muslim American Society, two of the largest Muslim organizations in America, has arranged exclusive use of Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, N.J., for the entire day Friday. The ICNA website boasts, “First Time Ever – All Day – Entire Park Exclusively for Muslims!” The event is designed to “provide entertainment for the entire family!” says the site. Imam Zaid Shakir will lead the Friday afternoon prayers at 2 p.m., the comedy routine “Allah Made Me Funny” will show twice, Comedian Azhar Usman will perform, and “Alhamdulillah, the entire park is reserved for Muslims only!” The organization expects more than 10,000 Muslims. Debbie Nauser, vice president of public relations for the Six Flags theme park, confirmed the park would be open only for “Muslims and their friends.” Six Flags has previously hosted other event days, including an annual Passover theme in which the park is predominantly filled with Orthodox Jews, but the venue is still open to outsiders and seasonal ticket holders, and organizers of previous events have never claimed exclusivity of the park. “The exclusionary nature of the event, which disallows anyone but Muslims from being present on the fairgrounds, raises questions about the legality of permitting only members of one faith in what is a public venue,” said Beila Rabinowitz, director of Militant Islam Monitor. “Militant Islam Monitor calls on the management of Six Flags amusement park to disallow this discrimination on its property. And MIM calls on the State of New Jersey to cancel this ‘Muslims Only’ event.” Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, said “it is scandalous that Six Flags – a publicly held corporation whose stock trades on the NYSE – allows such a restriction for access to its property. It’s fine for a Muslim organization to sponsor a day at the theme park, it’s quite another to proclaim it for Muslims only, as ICNA does. ” The ICNA has drawn much controversy to itself in recent years. WorldNetDaily attended a conference in Orlando, Fla., sponsored in part by the ICNA, which featured a main speaker who voiced empathy and support for suicide bombers, denied Muslims were involved in 9-11, characterized the war on terror as a conspiratorial Zionist plot designed to destroy Islam and Muslims, and blamed attacks on affirmative action on “the rise of the Jewish cracker.” Judicial Watch says the ICNA has ties to Hamas, and terrorism expert Steve Emerson stated: “The ICNA’s hatred of the Jews is so fierce that it taunted them with a repetition of what Hitler did to them.” In his book, “American Jihad,” Emerson writes: “The ICNA openly supports militant Islamic fundamentalist organizations, praises terror attacks, issues incendiary attacks on Western values and policies, and supports the imposition of Sharia [Islamic code of law].”
Minnesota Man Named University Homecoming Queen. First The Wrestler Governor, Now This!
St. Cloud State Elects First Male Homecoming Queen
St. Cloud, Minn. (AP) Some people might say that the new homecoming queen at Saint Cloud State University is unqualified for the job. That’s because the new queen is a man. Fue Khang, a student from Minneapolis, was crowned homecoming queen on Thursday night after a vote by students. School officials say a man has never been chosen queen in the 65 years the school has elected royalty. University clubs and organizations nominate royalty candidates, and Kang was the nominee for the student senate. A school official says it is rare for student groups to nominate a man for the post. Student government president Hal Kimball says the nomination was sincere. He says the student leaders wanted to make a point about not supporting gender stereotypes. But the mother of one queen candidate wasn’t too impressed. Kim Ferber says she was disappointed and is questioning whether she wants her daughter Annie to keep going to the school.
Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy Register To Vote. It’s Official: This Election Will Be A Quagmire
Fantasy figures produce poll legal nightmare
Election fraud is rife, writes Roland Watson in Washington
MARY Poppins and Dick Tracy are giving election officials sleepless nights as the US heads towards what is likely to be the most litigious presidential poll in history. The pair are among a cast of fictional characters who have tried to register to vote next Tuesday, clearly as a prelude to attempted fraud. But they are only the tip of an iceberg which at best threatens to delay the result beyond November 2, and at worst will cripple the credibility of the winner. Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, said the result could be “an election that would make Florida in 2000 look like a picnic”. Already more than 40 lawsuits have been filed in several swing states, including Florida, challenging the registration of new voters and the procedures for counting the ballot. There are concerns about an urgent shortage of poll workers, and whether the volunteers, whose average age is 72, will be able to explain to voters how the new touch- screen ballot machines work. The worries have sparked warnings that the first US presidential election of the 21st century, and by far the most expensive yet, is heading for disaster. The tense wait has introduced a new phrase into the US political lexicon — the “margin of litigation” — which refers to the percentage of the vote that divides the two main candidates. The smaller the margin is, and the closer the vote in the decisive electoral college, the more likely it is that the initial result will be legally challenged. Before the 2000 debacle in Florida, there was deep reluctance among candidates to resort to the courts. Richard Nixon did not challenge John F. Kennedy’s election in 1960, despite close results in several states and some claims of fraud. This year there will be no such restraint. Already both Republicans and Democrats have launched a flurry of legal challenges. With 10,000 lawyers hired by both sides, the filing of lawsuits could quickly become a blizzard. The points of contention break down into two areas: who should be allowed to vote and how the new ballot category should be counted. Both are potentially critical to the result, because in this closest of races both sides have invested large amounts of time and money in their extensive efforts to register new voters. But the registration drives have thrown up claims and evidence of fraud. Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie claimed last week that Democrat canvassers were offering crack cocaine in exchange for filing false voter registrations. The Democrats have cried foul in Las Vegas, where the torn remains of Democratic registration forms have been found in rubbish bins. The party tried to have the registration process reopened, but the attempt was rejected. In Florida, a federal judge dismissed a Democratic lawsuit filed on behalf of 10,000 new voters, many of them African-Americans, whose registration forms were disallowed. In Ohio, Republicans are challenging about 25,000 new registrations, and the Democrats are counter-suing. The main problem is the new provisional ballots, introduced by the 2002 Help America Vote Act. They allow people to cast a ballot even if they find their name is not on the registration list when they turn up to vote on the day. But those votes are not counted immediately. And the act gives no indication about how they should be verified and when they should be counted. There is one outcome that might avoid a legal crisis, and presidential historian Robert Dallek, for one, is confident it will occur — he expects a clear result. “My sense is the election is not going to be as close as people think.” The Times
Look Out, New York. Here Comes the “JAP Squad”
A casting call for a cable makeover show about “Jewish American Princesses” in New York City has a lot people in a schvitz. The show’s tentative title, “JAP Squad,” made the rounds last week in an email from an E! Network casting executive who was looking for participants to appear on the show. The project is in the works for The Style Network, a sister channel of the E! Network. “We’re casting a show in N.Y., filmed in N.Y., called ‘JAP Squad,’ ” the e-mail read. “I know, it’s an awful name. [But] I need girls who know where to go in NYC for the best deals, who know the nail salons, the bakeries, the spas, the nice places, too. If you know people who might be interested, can you please forward them to me?” Network officials described the project as a makeover show along the lines of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” – but with women. The email angered several recipients who say the term “JAP” is demeaning and derogatory. A network official confirmed that the show was in development, but said “JAP Squad” would not be the final title. “Style is developing a pilot – that’s not the title,” an E! Network spokeswoman said. “We’re looking to cast a broad range of style-conscious women.” The term “JAP” usually denotes a materialistic, spoiled young woman. A prominent official at the Anti-Defamation League told The Post that “JAP” is a horrible word to use in the title of a television show. “The term is used to invoke an image,” said Caryl Stern, the Jewish group’s associate national director. “It is a stereotyped image and no one uses that term for any other purpose,” said Stern. “I would hope that the channel would choose to name its show something else,” she said.
Score One For Homeland Security. Old Bag Gets Tasered At Nursing Home. That’ll Teach Her.
Visitor Tasered At Assisted Living Center
ROCK HILL, S.C. — A 75-year-old woman was subdued with a taser gun at an assisted living center Rock Hill last week. Now Rock Hill police expect to get a formal complaint from her family. According to management at the Eden Gardens assisted living center, Margaret Kimbrell was trespassing when she visited on Friday, October 10th. The executive director says she also refused to leave. A female officer on the scene says Kimbrell became combative and tried to assault her. The officer tazered Kimbrell once and charged her with trespassing and resisting arrest. The executive director at Eden Gardens says Kimbrell had been visiting a man who lived there.
The Fall of Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro still ‘in one piece’ after fall in Cuba
HAVANA — Cuban President Fidel Castro tripped on a step and tumbled to the ground after leaving the stage at a graduation ceremony, fracturing a knee and arm but quickly returning to say that he was “all in one piece.” Castro’s fall after a Wednesday night speech in the central city of Santa Clara was certain to launch a new round of speculation about the 78-year-old communist leader’s health and the eventual succession after his 45 years of rule. Castro’s designated successor has long been his younger brother, 73-year-old Defense Minister Raul Castro, who fought with him in the Cuban revolution that overthrew President Fulgencio Batista on Jan. 1, 1959. A medical examination early Thursday confirmed that Castro suffered a broken left knee and a hairline fracture in his upper right arm, said an official notice read early Thursday on state television. Castro asked that the note be made public, the statement said. Exclusive Associated Press Television News footage of the incident showed Castro tripping on a concrete step after he finished walking down the stairs from the stage. He fell onto the ground on his right side into the first line of chairs, banging his knee, hip, elbow and arm on the way down, as spectators looked on in surprise. He was immediately surrounded by scores of security agents and others who rushed to help him up. Castro’s speech before the graduation ceremony for arts instructors was broadcast live on state-run television, but viewers could not see his fall. All that was visible was several of his security men running off to the side, evidently to assist him. Less than a minute later, Castro appeared live on state TV, sitting in a folding chair and sweating profusely in his olive green uniform, and explained what happened to viewers across the island of 11.2 million people. He said he felt like he had broken his knee and perhaps his arm _ “but I am all in one piece.” “I will do what is possible to recover as fast as possible, but as you can see I can still talk,” he said. “Even if they put me in a cast, I can continue in my work.” The note aired Thursday morning said Castro expressed thanks “for the innumerable expressions of concern and solidarity from the people.” “His general health is good, and is in excellent spirits,” the note said. “He asked for calm, considering that very soon he will be back in place.” Castro was earlier seen leaving Santa Clara, about a three-hour drive east of Havana, in his regular black Mercedes Benz sedan. As he has grown older, Castro’s knees have seemed more wobbly, his step less steady. Nevertheless, he maintains a busy schedule that frequently includes all-night meetings with aides and visitors. Parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon, who has been by Castro’s side more than four decades, said Thursday he was confident the president would have a speedy recovery. “He is a man of much strength,” Alarcon told international journalists in Havana at a Foreign Ministry ceremony commemorating the founding of the United Nations. Castro’s health has long been closely watched _ particularly by his political enemies in Miami, home to a large Cuban exile community. Such speculation was particularly fierce three years ago when he apparently fainted during a speech under a scorching Caribbean summer sun before a crowd of thousands. Many people burst into tears after watching Cuba’s commander in chief start to collapse behind the podium several hours into that speech on June 23, 2001. Castro returned minutes later to assure people in the audience _ and millions more watching it live on television _ that he was fine. But the incident prompted many average Cubans to reflect for the first time on their leader’s mortality and the future of their country after he dies. The Wednesday night incident seemed far less serious. Castro on Wednesday asked Cubans to forgive him for “any suffering this may have caused.” Castro noted the presence of international photographers and television camera crews at the event. “The international press has captured it and surely tomorrow it will be on the front pages of the newspapers,” said Castro. He then encouraged those at the event to continue with their televised musical program, which they did.
Halloween Cancelled in Seattle Suburb – for Wiccans! When did Wiccans Become a Demographic?
School Halloween parades canceled; parents angry
SEATTLE — School officials have canceled Halloween costume parades for children in a suburb south of here – and some parents are angry enough to protest. “I have one very disappointed little girl. She was going to be Dorothy. I’ve been sewing her costume,” said Tonya Reynolds, mother of a second-grader at Maplewood Elementary School in Puyallup. Children in costumes have traditionally paraded through the school and partied during about an hour of class time at Halloween. Reynolds plans to join a delegation of as many as 20 protesting parents at the Puyallup school board’s meeting on Monday. Puyallup School District officials decided to cancel festivities to stop losing instructional time and to avoid offending believers in the Wiccan religion, a spokeswoman said. “It takes time and when kids dress up in costumes it’s a distraction. It takes the focus away from learning,” said Karen Hansen, a district spokeswoman in the Pierce County community 30 miles south of Seattle. “The actual party might only be an hour but activities getting ready for it, the excitement and focus on Halloween, takes away from our instructional time,” Hansen told The Associated Press on Thursday. Wiccans who have met with school officials have not asked for cancellation of Halloween events, she said. They are entitled to protection like other religions under district rules. “But they do … express displeasure with witches, with pointy noses and witches flying on broomsticks, and that offends them and we don’t want to be offensive to anyone,” she said. Parents at Maplewood were notified Wednesday that students may not wear or bring costumes to school on Oct. 29. Woodland Elementary School canceled a kindergarten costume parade but no other schools were affected, Hansen said. Many schools in Puyallup and elsewhere have already changed to seasonal “harvest festivals,” she added. Parents said students already lose class time because schools close for a half-day every Wednesday. But the district spokeswoman said those hours, intended for staff development, are replaced at other times. Karen Harmes, a mother of two children attending Maplewood, said the children typically have brought their costumes in paper bags to wear only at day’s end. Witch costumes were already prohibited. “It’s been a really fun social thing,” she said. “A lot of times we see parents who come into the classroom only at that time … I think it’s just terrible that something like this is going to get canceled.” Reynolds said, “It comes back to everybody is so worried about being politically correct anymore that the minority rules our society. Our rights have been taken away.” The Wiccan religion is based on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons. Wiccans try to reconnect with the life force of nature, both on Earth and throughout the universe. At the Church of the Sacred Spiral, a Wiccan church in Lacey, near Olympia, the Rev. M.L. Gittings said Wiccans differ on whether Halloween celebrations in general – or witch costumes in particular – are offensive. “From my own perspective, I enjoy and encourage people to celebrate the holiday. Dressing up in costumes is fine with me. If you want to dress up as a little witch, that’s fine with me,” she told The AP. She said witch costumes remind her of times when witches were killed during the Middle Ages in Europe and of the need to respect others’ religions. Oct. 31 – Halloween – is observed as Samhain (pronounced SOW-een) by some pagans. It grew out of the beliefs of the ancient Celts who considered the day to be the eve of the New Year and a night when the barriers between the living and the dead were uncertain, allowing ancestors to walk in this world. The Celts marked the day with a feast to welcome their departed kin.
Red Sox Fan Offers Wife for World Series Tickets. Breaking the Curse is Getting to the Chowderheads.
Sex sure sells, but can it buy a bleacher seat?
Talk about hitting a home run. As the competition for World Series tickets heats up, so have the personal ads at www.craigslist.com, with Red Sox fans offering sex for seats at Fenway Park. “Willing to give up my incredible World Series tickets in exchange for sex with a beautiful woman. E-mail me for more info – but I’m a good-looking guy, so you have nothing to worry about. Just not a big Sox fan. Those e-mails with pics get first priority.” “E-mail me pictures of the tickets,” said a 32-year-old fan from Haverhill, who is desperate to go to the Series. But not that desperate. Still, the pleas are being posted relentlessy. “I have World Series tickets for Game 2 when Curt Schilling takes the mound. I’m looking for a hot female to come with me. Hit me up with an e-mail. I’m looking for a great night of hot sex in return.” And those who don’t have tickets are using their feminine wiles to score. “Were unable to get tickets to Game 1 or 2 so looking for guys who have tickets and lookin’ for girls they want to go with. We are two attractive, wicked fun girls (24 and 29 years old) who love the Sox. We attended an ALCS game and would love to keep the tradition going in this postgame season. So two guys looking forward to sharing four tickets to Game 1 or 2, let us know! 
No sexual favors, just looking for nice guys willing to have fun . . .” Even couples are shilling to see Schilling. “Red Sox Nation have 2 extra tickets for Game 2 of the World Series! A kinky couple. She: 36, blonde/blue very bi-sexual, 5′ 115 lbs 34C very cute. He: 47 brown/hazel 6′ 240 not bad looking . . . write us, we have to decide this evening!” “We got responses from several people,” said the 47-year-old. “A college coed and a female friend. A young freaky couple, really would do anything. Have e-mailed back and forth with a young, married couple who posted you could have sex with his wife for tickets. First time she has been with anyone else since they were married. Several guys saying their wives would do things. Some with pictures. The Red Sox Nation truly loves their baseball!”
Ashlee Blames Acid Reflux? This Is Getting Crazier By The Minute.
Ashlee: Acid reflux caused ‘SNL’ gaffe
Pop star performs at Radio Music Awards
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) — This time Ashlee Simpson sang it for real. We think. The 19-year-old pop artist was among a slew of stars who played Monday during the 2004 Radio Music Awards at the Aladdin hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Despite numerous performances by big-name acts such as Destiny’s Child and Alanis Morissette, Simpson was at the center of the show thanks to a glitch on “Saturday Night Live” last weekend that revealed she had been lip-synching one of her songs. Monday night she told awards show host Carson Daly in an off-stage interview that acid reflux disease had made her lose her voice four hours before her “SNL” appearances. She didn’t seem concerned about her slip up. “You move on,” Simpson said. “Things happen.” During the awards show, she had fun with the slip-up. Before she sang “Autobiography” off her hit album, Daly reassured Monday’s audience they were getting a live performance. “Live, yes live,” he said. When Simpson’s band started playing, the younger sister of pop starlet Jessica Simpson screamed, “It’s the wrong song.” Seconds later, she told a stunned theater filled with hundreds of people that she was “only kidding.” Earlier Monday, Simpson’s manager-father told radio host Ryan Seacrest that his daughter used the extra help because acid reflux disease had made her voice hoarse. “Just like any artist in America, she has a backing track that she pushes so you don’t have to hear her croak through a song on national television,” Joe Simpson told Seacrest on Los Angeles radio station KIIS-FM. “No one wants to hear that.” He said she’s never used the extra help before. Not uncommon Saturday’s incident exposed what many consider an obvious secret: that some singers who appear onstage aren’t singing live at all, or at least have their voices augmented by backing tracks. And it’s happened before on “Saturday Night Live,” too, executive producer Lorne Michaels told The Associated Press. “She was mortified and in her dressing room, but (producer) Marci (Klein) got her to come out for goodnights and explained that it wasn’t the end of the world. It wasn’t her fault,” Michaels told AP Radio. “Every artist that I know in this business has had vocal problems at some time — from Celine on down,” said Joe Simpson, also father of Jessica Simpson. “So you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.” He said it was his decision to use the tapes when it became apparent that acid reflux disease had swollen Ashlee’s vocal cords. After consulting Wayne Newton’s doctor, she received a cortisone shot to get her ready for the Radio Music Awards, he said. Billboard magazine noted that Ashlee Simpson also responded to the controversy on her Web site. “I can’t cancel something like ‘SNL,’ ” Simpson is said to have written in a posting. “You and I know that even if I synched on it or not, I’d still get seen by millions, maybe even make a few more fans.” The message board has been overwhelmed by both Simpson defenders and Simpson antagonists, the latter often posting vicious and vulgar messages. One contributor referred to a Simpson interview in Lucky magazine in which the singer was asked about lip-synching. “I’m totally against it and offended by it,” she said. “I’m going out to let my real talent show, not to just stand there and dance around. Personally, I’d never lip-synch. It’s just not me.” No politics Politics didn’t spoil the night at the Aladdin either, where rocker Linda Ronstadt was told to leave in July after praising “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Michael Moore’s unflattering documentary about President Bush. Neither Moore nor Ronstadt appeared at the awards show but former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan made himself seen by wearing a T-shirt “Vote or Die!” The two-hour show broadcast live on NBC. The nominees in each category were based on radio’s top-playing songs. Radio program and music directors nationwide voted on the winners.
Ashlee Simpson Exposed As a Pop Fraud. Blame It On The Rain!
Ashlee Simpson flees after talent malfunction on ‘SNL’ 
Singer Ashlee Simpson left the “live” out of “Saturday Night Live” this weekend in an aborted performance that culminated with the singer scrambling offstage after viewers heard her recorded voice — singing the wrong song — while her actual mouth stayed shut. After first playing “Pieces of Me,” the sister of singer Jessica returned later in the show to perform “Autobiography.” But the sound engineers responsible for providing the music part of the performance mistakenly piped in “Pieces” again, and Simpson and her quote-fingers band fidgeted uncomfortably while the canned band played on (complete with the singer’s recorded vocals). After just 35 seconds — and an impromptu hoedown dance — Ashlee scampered off, abandoning her band onstage. On Sunday, her record company, Geffen, blamed “a computer glitch,” but reaction on the singer’s Web site was swift and judgmental. “Finally, you’re exposed for the fraud that you are,” wrote drdrewby. “You have cheated your fans and people who actually thought that you had a lick of talent.” Added CowboyJeff99: “I knew she sounded like crap live, so I was ‘wondering’ what was going on when her voice sounded like the radio edit.” But the principals involved shrugged it off. “What can I say, folks — live TV!” host Jude Law gamely offered in the show’s goodbye, as Simpson bravely laid the blame at the feet of her band: “[They] started playing the wrong song!” Jeff Vrabel: USA Today KRT Wire
Wal-Mart Wages War On Ancient Burial Sites.
Wal-Mart already blacktopped a Hawaiian burial site
Now they’re working on defacing Aztec ruins in Mexico
Anti-Wal-Mart protest near ancient ruins
Many protestors arrive in traditional Aztec headdresses
TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico (AP) — About 300 protesters, some wearing traditional Aztec headdresses and dancing to a steady drum beat, rallied near the entrance of the ancient ruins of Teotihuacan on Sunday to protest the construction of a Wal-Mart-owned store nearby. Organizers set up sheets of paper among the cactuses outside the national park and used the space to paint makeshift murals depicting pre-Columbian scenes. Others shouted slogans and waved signs. “Multinational corporations get rich while you go hungry,” read one prominent banner. “Wal-Mart represents nothing more than the penetration of imperialism,” said Fausto Trejo, one of the demonstration’s organizers and a well-known activist against alleged atrocities committed by the government during the so-called “dirty war” of the 1960s and 1970s. “It’s a fact that all of this is an abuse of the very roots of the Mexican people,” he said of the store’s construction. (more)
World’s Biggest Wal-Mart Opens On Ancient Hawaiian Burial Ground. Brady Family Spotted Close By With Tiki.
Wal-Mart opens in Hawaii amid protest
HONOLULU, Hawaii (AP) — Wal-Mart opened a store in Hawaii on Wednesday with hundreds of eager shoppers rushing past a handful of protesters who accuse the giant retailer of desecrating ancient gravesites. Customers lined up hours ahead and then poured into the discount store after a traditional Hawaiian blessing and the untying of a lei at the main doors. Native Hawaiian groups had tried to stop the opening until 44 remains of Hawaiians unearthed during construction could be reburied at the Wal-Mart site. “Wal-Mart’s pitch is that it’s slashing prices for you. In this instance, it’s slashing graves,” said Moses Haia, a Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. lawyer who has filed a suit against the store. Wal-Mart spokeswoman Cynthia Lin said the retailer is treating the Hawaiian remains with respect, placing them “in an air-conditioned, darkened trailer in a secure location on the site.” State approval is needed to rebury them on the site, she said. Wal-Mart’s seventh — and largest — store on the islands employs 800 people, bringing the total to 4,400 in Hawaii. The site also has a Sam’s Club members-only outlet scheduled to open next week.
Iraq’s Official Tourism Strategy: Stay Away If You Know What’s Good For You.
Iraqi official advises tourists to stay away
BAGHDAD, Iraq – As a young expatriate working at a travel agency in Stockholm in the 1960s, Ahmad al-Jobori dreamed of bringing Western tourists back to his native Iraq. Decades later, Jobori now has a heavily guarded office in a run-down government complex, a passel of armed guards, and a tough job in the new Iraq: heading its state-run tourism board. But he isn’t trying to lure Western tourists to Iraq. He’s trying to keep them away. “I understand all about wanting to have an adventure, but Iraq could be a one-way trip,” he said, shaking his head. “This is just not a place for tourists.” With the country beset by a bloody guerrilla war, Jobori’s point might seem obvious. But despite the violence, a small number of determined adventure-seekers are planning to visit Iraq in coming months. Phil Lalani, a hotel owner from Blackpool, England, hopes to be one of the pioneers. He and his girlfriend, Katrina Copsey, are among the 10 tourists who have paid to reserve space in an eight-day tour of the country later this month with Don Lucey, a former British special-forces officer. Cost: $2,200 per person, plus another $1,000 in mandatory insurance. “I wish I had been in Berlin when the wall came down, and I wish I had been in Hong Kong when it was repatriated,” said Lalani, 38. “This is a chance to do something groundbreaking.” For security reasons, Lucey refuses to tell the tourists their exact itinerary until they arrive in Iraq. Lucey, 52, also says the group will wear non-Western clothing, travel discreetly and be protected at all times by armed guards. “People think we’ll be walking around with cameras around our necks snapping pictures, but this will be a covert operation,” Lucey said. “You can’t get away from the fact that Iraq is a very dangerous place, but I’m determined to begin bringing tourists here.” Not if Jobori has anything to say about it. His paycheck comes from the U.S.-appointed Iraqi interim government, and he is advising tourists not to set foot in the country anytime soon. “For now, I advise our friends around the world to be patient until the terrorism ends,” he said. “We can keep tourists safe from animals. We can keep tourists safe from natural disasters. But we can’t keep tourists safe from unknown enemies, chaos and violence.” Jobori says he dreams of ultimately bringing unspecified Western hospitality companies into Iraq. He thinks tourists would flock into the country to see Saddam Hussein’s former palaces and prisons, too. Tourism, he thinks, might someday replace oil as Iraq’s biggest industry. “Tourism can be our river of gold,” he said. “Our oil will eventually run out, but, for better or worse, there will always be people who want to see Iraq.” Just not now.
What a horrendous way to go.
Roofer dies after falling into hot tar
TORRINGTON, Conn. (AP) _ A 21-year-old construction worker died Friday after falling from a roof into a large kettle of 500-degree tar, police said. Robert Halvorsen, of South Windsor, was doing work on a Main Street theater when he slipped and fell around 11 a.m. Two co-workers were able to pull him out of the container, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. Both co-workers sustained burns trying to save him and one man, Claude Blackshev, was transported to the Greater Bridgeport Burn Center for treatment.
Hooters coming to Shanghai. ” What’s This – The Two Of You At Once?” General Tso’s Wings Not Too Far Behind.
Hooters opens first China outlet in Shanghai
Hooters is also famous for its young and active “Hooters girls”, who add the attractions to the restaurant. Hooters chose 150 Chineses girls in Shanghai this September to work for the furture Hooters Shanghai restaurant after having training course in America. America’s Hooters restaurant chain plans to open its first China outlet in Shanghai on Friday, bringing its racy combination of cold beer, chicken wings and skimpily dressed waitresses to one of the world’s fastest growing economies. The outlet in the foreigner-friendly Hongqiao district adds to the more than 375 stores now operated by the chain famed for its busty waitresses clad in clingy low-cut tank tops and high-cut shorts _ an image the company describes as “delightfully tacky, yet unrefined.” A VIP party is scheduled for Friday evening with the store opening to the general public on Sunday. Following decades of austerity, Shanghai now boasts hundreds of hostess bars, massage parlors, sex shops and telephone chat lines. Couples kiss and hug openly, while public opinion surveys show broad acceptance of premarital sex among young people. Hooters’ investors are betting those changing attitudes will take its “Hooters Girls” in stride. Since opening its first store in Clearwater, Florida, in 1983, the chain has expanded across the United States and into more than a dozen foreign countries ranging from Taiwan to Venezuela. While critics deride its portrayal of women, the Atlanta, Georgia-based chain has overcome a U.S. federal investigation and several lawsuits to become a cash cow. Along with aggressively expanding its restaurant chain, parent company Hooters of America, Inc. now runs a discount airline – Hooters Air – sports events, and a planned Las Vegas hotel and casino. A number of well-known American food chains are already competing for increasingly choosy Chinese diners. Kentucky Fried Chicken already operates 1,000 stores in the country, McDonald’s 567, and the TGI Friday’s chain five. With China’s economy growing at an annual rate of more than 9 percent, all plan further expansions. With its large expatriate population, Shanghai seems a natural choice for establishing the brand in China. Yet it’s unclear how the native Shanghainese, who are increasingly spoiled for dining choices, will respond to the newcomer. “The market share is only so big for American food, and chains like Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald’s won’t easily give way to Hooters,” said Xue Yuanqing, a director with the Shanghai Culinary Association. He added: “I don’t know much about this restaurant, but generally, American food is not known for any particular virtues.”
MTV Getting Out The Vote With Video Game Characters. But Where’s Max Payne and the GTA3 Guy Shooting Prostitutes?
MTV, Gamers Hope Video Clicks With Young Voters
It’s not JoJo, not Britney, but Lara Croft in that hip-hugging outfit, who raps, “You’ve got to stand and choose.” “Everybody.” The lyrics aren’t regular music video flava either, certainly not out of “Baby It’s You” or “My Prerogative,” which crowned last week’s Top 10 hits on “TRL” — or “Total Request Live,” the viewer-voted countdown on MTV that is prime real estate for anyone scrambling for the elusive youth vote. Then again, “Stand and Choose,” the 2-minute 46-second music video debuting on “TRL” today, is an all-star cast of more than 50 video gaming characters, a “We Are the World” virtual reality extravaganza set in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The music is hip-hop. The mood is serious. The message is clear: Young people need to take this voting thing seriously. The other message is clearer still: For the 18-to-24-year-old electorate, Psymon (of SSX Tricky), Nick Kang (of True Crime), Raiden (of Mortal Kombat) and SpongeBob (of, well, SpongeBob), are pop culture icons to rival most anyone in Spin magazine. In an unprecedented move, MTV and 12 interactive game publishers, spearheaded by Bruno Bonnell of Atari Inc., teamed up for this get-out-the-vote music video, which will play in rotation (viewers can vote for it) on MTV, MTV2, mtvU, MTV.com, Spike TV and The N. “The popularity of video games is through the roof,” says Dave Sirulnick, head of MTV News. “It’s a very important part of young people’s lives. So, for us, this makes sense.” For the video game industry, it’s a baptism of sorts — the first time video game characters, or “intellectual properties,” as industry insiders call it, are used to encourage voting in a presidential election. It’s a “natural fit,” says Douglas Lowenstein, head of the Washington-based Entertainment Software Association. ” ‘Stand and Choose’ is a creative, nonpartisan way to reach the generation that has grown up both wanting their MTV and playing computer and video games.” The video is written and produced by Ross Robinson, who has worked with Limp Bizkit, Korn and, most recently, the Cure. It starts off with Psymon walking through Washington Square Park, as a virtual Tony Hawk, Lara Croft, Sonic and characters from the Sims and Leisure Suit Larry come into view, all singing the chorus, “Come on and stand / Choose / Everybody / Anybody stand / Choose / Anybody / Come on.” The project was directed by Tony Shiff, a producer for MTV2. It’s only one of many components used by MTV’s Choose or Lose: 20 Million Loud! campaign to mobilize the more than 20 million young adults ages 18 to 30 who could greatly influence the election but who routinely have not shown up at the polls. This generation is hyper-connected, with a slew of fast-moving images inundating them at every turn. That, however, has not translated into increased voting participation. Since the 26th Amendment took effect in 1971, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18, the percentage of the country’s eligible 18- to 24-year-olds who voted has consistently decreased. It was 49.6 percent in 1972, when Nixon crushed McGovern; it was 26.7 percent in 2000. Now, MTV and the gaming industry are hoping the characters from the gaming world will be able to reach this double-click generation. “Using these video game characters — in a music video, no less — is a new device that’s a new channel to the voter,” says Phil Sharp, director of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a congressman from Indiana from 1975 to 1995. “I hadn’t thought of this one. But that’s probably my generational problem, and it’s a wise thing that somebody did think of it.” After all, his sons — one is 28, the other 22 — grew up playing video games.
There’s a political party for guys who want to ban alcohol. And they’re not doing too well.
The Worst Year for Prohibition Since 1933?
A schism in the party has two candidates out to split the anti-alcohol vote — which was down to 208 in the 2000 presidential election.
LAKEWOOD, Colo. – Earl Dodge is a 71-year-old teetotaler with a Carry Nation coffee mug and a passion for the days when beer was illegal, gin was brewed in bathtubs and alcoholism was a moral failing, not a disease. Now for the sixth time, the antibooze activist from suburban Denver is running for president as head of the Prohibition Party. So far, he’s on the ballot only in Colorado, a state brimming with microbreweries, where the mayor of Denver runs seven bars and the Republican candidate for Senate is Pete Coors, owner of one of the world’s biggest beer makers. “What better place to be?” asked Dodge, sitting in a cluttered office festooned with unsmiling portraits of past Prohibitionists. “I don’t want to puff myself up, but I think this is a calling. God wants me to do this.” But some of his former colleagues don’t. The Prohibition Party has been on the skids for nearly a century. Efforts to drum up excitement for a postmodern temperance movement have fizzled. And the dismal 2000 election result, when Dodge netted 208 votes, was the worst showing in party history. Disaffected Prohibitionists grumbled that their leader was dragging them down, paying more attention to his mail order campaign button business than the future of the party. “Selling buttons is my livelihood,” Dodge retorted. “And it’s a fascinating hobby. I’ve learned so much about history.” Late last year, a group of dissidents got together at a rural Tennessee condo and voted Dodge out as national chairman. They formed the Concerns of People (Prohibition) Party and nominated their own presidential candidate. “Earl was promoted to chairman emeritus – which is a nice way of saying you’re fired,” said James Hedges, one of the dissident leaders. The 66-year-old tax assessor in rural Thompson Township, Penn., is the only Prohibitionist in office today. He’s a retired tuba player for the U.S. Marine Band, and his political biography notes he was twice named Outstanding Individual Recycler by the Pennsylvania Resources Council. “Our party has been tapering off for about 100 years, and Earl wasn’t doing anything to keep it going,” Hedges said. “He still can’t get used to the idea that he’s been replaced.” Dodge ignored the coup, held a party convention at a Baptist church and was again nominated for president. Hedges said the convention was simply a gathering of seven or eight family members and friends. Dodge insists there were as many as 25. “These other people – they all want to be big chiefs in a little pond,” he said. Thanks to the schism, Colorado voters will have two temperance parties to choose from in November. Unlike other states, Colorado doesn’t require a petition to get on the presidential ballot. No one actually knows how many members either party has. Hedges figures his group has two dozen or so and Dodge has fewer than 200. The Rev. Gene Amondson is the candidate for the breakaway party. He’s an artist from Vashon Island, Wash., who travels the country reenacting the fiery antidrinking sermons of the late evangelist Billy Sunday. Amondson, 60, describes himself as a “redneck, Bible-thumping preacher,” with a simple message: Drinking alcohol is stupid. “Alcohol has no taste at all; it’s just a burning sensation,” he said. “You don’t drink to have a good time; you drink to forget a bad time.” And he dismisses the story of Jesus turning water into wine. “If Jesus turned water into alcohol he wasn’t very bright about alcohol was he?” he said. “I think it was grape juice.” Dodge takes a more measured tone. He sees himself as standard bearer of a once great party that was among the first to fight for child labor laws, women’s suffrage and the right of workers to unionize. The Prohibition Party began in 1869 and was one of the first “third parties” in American history. Its symbol was the camel, a creature that drank little and then only water. Carry Nation, the hatchet-wielding zealot who chopped up saloons in the late 1800s, was probably the best-known antiliquor crusader. In 1920, the 18th Amendment was passed banning the sale of alcohol. Clandestine bars flourished while gangsters like Al Capone made fortunes running moonshine. Prohibition was repealed in 1933. Dodge believes it was a golden age in American history, a time when jail populations dropped, alcoholism decreased and the quality of life rose for everyone. He lectures around the country on the glories of those years. “I have, for many years, offered $20,000 to any student who would study the Prohibition era and could prove crime, alcohol consumption and other alcohol-related ills actually increased from 1920 to 1933,” Dodge told an audience at Yale University this year. “My money is still safe.” The father of seven doesn’t fit the stereotype of the priggish Prohibitionist. He is a chatty, good-natured man with a seemingly endless supply of historical anecdotes. His office is a shrine to teetotalers gone by. One entire corner is covered with photos and memorabilia of President Coolidge, the taciturn New Englander who spoke so little he was nicknamed “Silent Cal.” “A woman once came up to Coolidge when he was eating and said, ‘I just bet my friend I could make you say three words,’ ” said Dodge, suppressing a chuckle. “Without missing a beat, Coolidge lifted his head and said, ‘You lose.’ ” Dodge grew up in Malden, Mass., outside Boston. He recalls walking by saloons and feeling nauseated at the smell of stale beer. His parents didn’t drink and his Baptist church frowned on alcohol. He never drinks either and calls those who do “drunkards.” In 1952, Dodge joined the Prohibition Party, and he has spent more than three decades as national chairman. Over the years, he supplemented his income by driving a frozen food truck as well as selling cemetery plots and life insurance. Now he deals in old campaign buttons. The buttons bear the faces of politicians like Alf Landon, Wendell Wilkie, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and of course Earl Dodge, as leader of the Prohibition Party. Yet he understands politics enough not to be naive about his chances for higher office. “To me it’s a tremendous honor just to run,” he said. “But I know if I go to the White House, it will be on a publicly guided tour.”
Fat Actress Teams Up With Barbarino
TV briefs: Travolta to appear on Kirstie Alley show
NEW YORK – Look who’s joining Kirstie Alley. The former “Cheers” actress will be accompanied by John Travolta, who was featured with Alley in the “Look Who’s Talking” films, in her upcoming Showtime series, “Fat Actress.” The seven-episode, unscripted comedy series won’t debut until March, but the cable network has revealed that several guest stars are slated to step inside Alley’s hyper-reality world. In the series, Alley plays a fictionalized version of herself, a TV and movie actress whose growing weight problem has been well documented in supermarket tabloids. Each “Curb Your Enthusiasm”-like episode emanates from a story outline, with the actors largely improvising the dialogue.
Prostitute Soccer Team Kicked Out Of Tournament – And Them Hos Is Pissed
Officials sideline prostitute soccer squad
A football team made up of prostitutes has cried foul after being ejected from a tournament, that they said was because of their profession. “Just for being prostitutes, society marginalises us, and we want to exercise our rights as women and as mothers,” team captain Valeria said. Her team, the Stars of the Line, lost 5-2 to the Blue Devils, fielded by an exclusive girls’ school in the Guatemalan capital and were ejected from the tournament after Monday’s game. Officials cited the use of foul language from the team’s fans as the reason. “One, two, three, whore!” went the grandstand cheer, according to the judges’ decision. “We have a lot of children here and it is not very nice to hear such language,” stadium manager Eduardo Navas said. Stars of the Line take their team name from Guatemala City’s red-light district, called the Train Line, because it faces the city’s railway tracks. The squad was drawn from the 200 women who work there. “What we want is to play soccer with any other team,” Valeria told AFP. “Being prostitutes does not mean that we are violent, because we are well disciplined.” Valeria said that foul language was not the issue. “When they found out we were prostitutes, they tossed us out like cockroaches,” she said. “It is really discrimination.” The Stars began training daily with the backing of a group of Spanish journalists in Guatemala, who are making a documentary about prostitution. –AFP
This has to be a joke. Burt Reynolds as Boss Hogg? Willie Nelson as Uncle Jesse? They’re not fat. Stiffler as Bo????
The Dukes are coming
Expect star power and other explosions when filming starts soon near Baton Rouge
It’s been a year of monumental competition for the most coveted women’s roles in the movies.First, Lindsay Lohan and Hilary Duff nearly came to blows in the heated battle for the lead in “Mean Girls.” Now Keira Knightley and Beyoncé are in a dazzling toe-to-toe for a shot as Lois Lane in the upcoming “Superman: Last Son of Krypton.” But the most heated contest of the year was for the surefire Oscar- contending role of Daisy Duke in the “Dukes of Hazzard,” the big-screen remake of the bizarrely popular Friday night TV hit from the late ’70s and early ’80s. I’m not making any of this up. (OK, maybe the Oscar part I made up.)Young brunettes Jessica Biel and Mandy Moore were both said to be upfor the nod earlier this year. And then no less an authority on colorful redneck culture than Britney Federline expressed interest inthe role — probably because Daisy’s really tight short-shorts lookfits Britney like, well . . . a pair of really tight short-shorts.Federline would have been perfect, since the movie is going to be madenot far from her Kentwood childhood home, and because she exudes –how do you say? — that certain Louisiana je ne sais crawfish.But, in the end, the role went to America’s reigning sweet blond ditzqueen, Jessica Simpson; it will be her first feature film role aftertwo years being herself — a role she absolutely nailed — on realityTV’s “Newlyweds.”Shooting is scheduled to begin in rural areas south of Baton Rouge inthe coming weeks. There will be lots of star power and some bigexplosions and probably a car chase or two and — will the General Leejump over the Mississippi River ? I’m not allowed to tell you. Burt Reynolds has signed on as the Dukes’ chief nemesis, Boss Hogg,and Willie Nelson is scheduled to play Uncle Jesse. Sean William Scott– Stifler from the historic “American Pie” trilogy (and it’s only amatter of time until the American Film Institute acknowledges thatseries as one of its Top 100 Films of All Time) — will play Bo Duke.Now, all of this is fine casting. As is the go-ahead to JohnnyKnoxville to play Luke Duke, the third cousin from the mostrepresentative rural family to appear on television since “GreenAcres.”But there is trepidation afoot at the Knoxville casting, and it hasnothing to do with his acting ability. It’s just that: When I considerthe implications of Knoxville — he of “Jackass” infamy — and hisdrunken gene-mutated frat boy posse coming to New Orleans, for thefirst time during my long tenure in this city, I am wondering if we
have enough beer.These guys are pros. They know how to get a party started. Forinstance, the last time Knoxville’s sidekick, the irrepressibleprankster Steve-O, was in south Louisiana, he got run out of town.Literally. It was back in the summer of 2002, when he was doing a”performance” at the Abyss nightclub in Houma. After stapling a coupleof pairs of ladies’ undergarments to his chest, he dropped trou andstapled his scrotum to his thigh.I’m going to let this sink in for a minute.It’s part of his comedy routine, a skit he calls The Butterfly and youdon’t want to know why he calls it that. On that night in Houma,Steve-O was arrested and charged with felony obscenity and placed onmore than $1 million bond but if you ask me, I think the staple markswould be penalty enough for such a stunt. But that’s just me. Those folks down in Terrebonne Parish drive a harder brand of justice. Butthe charges eventually were dropped when authorities conceded — nodoubt under great duress — that Steve-O’s actions just might beprotected under his First Amendment right of expression. Part of thedeal was for him to agree to Never Come Back to Terrebonne — whichwould be a great title for a country song.Anyway, I kind of got off on a tangent here but the thought of the”Jackass” crew running amok on Bourbon Street is just too tantalizingto gloss over. Back to the movie for a minute. “Dukes” will bedirected by Jay Chandrasekhar, a young lion of the industry who is onhis way to becoming one of the top filmmakers in America and I don’tsay that just because I auditioned for a role as a reporter last weekand I hope he sees what I said here and gives me the part. Well,actually, that is why I said that. Tell you the truth, I never heardof the guy before we met last week. Chandrasekhar is a member of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe anddirector of its three indie sex-and-booze cult faves “Puddle Cruiser,”"Super Troopers” and “Club Dread.” I guess you could say that BrokenLizard is to high-brow filmmaking what Johnny Knoxville and “Jackass”are to vaudeville. Or something like that. It promises to be anadventure, that much you can bet on.Shooting for “The Dukes of Hazzard” begins in the next couple ofweeks. No word yet on who is playing General Lee, the ‘69 DodgeCharger and the true star of the old TV series.
Kid Arrested for Possessing/Dealing Child Porn – Of Himself!
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) – A 13-year-old boy charged with possessing anddistributing child pornography, including photos of himself, on theInternet has been released to his parents while his case is pending.The Lacey teen appeared in Thurston County Juvenile Court on Friday,two days after he was arrested by Washington State Patrol detectives.They had been investigating who placed the 180 images intercepted byan Internet service provider.Officials in the local criminal justice system are accustomed toseeing much older defendants in child porn cases. They hoped astandard “safe-to-be-at-large” evaluation, scheduled for this week, will shed some light on the teen’s behavior.In addition to photos of the boy, other graphic images showing bothboys and girls were downloaded from other spots on the Internet, theprosecution said.Deputy Prosecutor John Skinder argued against releasing the teen untilthe evaluation was complete but defense lawyer Jim Shackleton notedthe boy had no criminal history, would be under his parents’supervision and would no longer have Internet access at home.After the hearing, the boy’s mother said she thinks her son’s activitybegan out of curiosity and spun into something beyond his control. Shesaid she thought the home computers had filters to block pornography.
TV In Corvallis send distress signal to Air Force in Langley, VA. Is the TV a terrorist? Is Toshiba?
CORVALLIS – When Chris van Rossman moved into his downtown apartment about a year ago, his parents bought him a new 20-inch color TV with all the bells and whistles. … Maybe the television suffered an identity crisis. Maybe it aspired to higher things. Whatever the reason, van Rossman’s TV set sent out a cry for help. It began emitting the international distress signal on the night of Oct. 2. The 121.5 MHz frequency signal was picked up by an orbiting search and rescue satellite, which informed the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. Such signals usually come from electronic locator transponders that help search and rescue workers find overturned boats or crashed airplanes. It is said that more than 90 percent of ELT signals are false alarms, but each and every one is checked out. … (more)
Jon Stewart brings a couple double barrelled shotguns to CNN’s Crossfire
Stewart Caught in the Crossfire – Something actually happens on a talk show!
Boy, I’m telling you. You spend one weekend in the boonies, visiting some crunchy friends with no TV set, and you miss out on the biggest television story in months: something actually happens on a political talk show! Moral of story: never go anywhere, and watch as much TV as possible. But meme time be damned: I just have to say a few words about Jon Stewart’s live freakout on Crossfire last Friday. Well, perhaps not so much “freakout” as “searing moment of lucidity.” STEWART: You know what’s interesting, though? You’re as big a dick on your show as you are on any show. Read The Transcript Watch It
Monkey Steals The Peach
Roseanne calls Dr Phil Hitler. MLB Disagrees
Barnyard psychologists, start your engines
ROSEANNE’s got it in for TV sofa shrink Dr. Phil and goes so far as to call him “Hitler reincarnated.” “I want to go on record and say that I hate Dr. Phil and I would fight a grudge match with him if I were a wrestler,” the outspoken actress rants to Steppin’ Out mag. “Dr. Phil is just a used-car salesman with barnyard psychology. . . . He’s a fat slob talking about how to lose weight. Who wants to hear that?” Certainly not you, Rosie!
Welcome to The Kiasu Konvention – Singapore’s Losers and Wannabes Vacation Weekend
Singaporeans aim to beat 10 Guinness world records over weekend
SINGAPORE : A Singaporean man broke the world record for eating threecream crackers in the fastest time on Saturday as part of a wackycompetition involving attempts at breaking 10 Guinness World Records. Jeffery Koh, 50, the oldest participant in the contest, polished offthe crackers in 14.45 seconds, beating the previous record of 49.15seconds held by United Kingdom citizen Ambrose Mendy, competitionorganisers said.Koh was one half of 10 Singaporean pairs competing over the weekend tobreak records in events such as downing a 397 grammes bottle ofketchup with a straw in the fastest time, eating the most number ofSmarties with a pair of chopsticks in three minutes and speaking themost number of words backwards in one minute.The couple with the highest score at the end of the two-day event willwin $10,000.Four experienced Guinness World Records judges were flown in fromAustralia for the event, which is being staged by a paper company,with 79-time Guinness World Records-breaker John Taylor acting as a consultant for the event.Taylor works with Record Breakers Singapore, a consulting company thathelps to organise such events with the aim of boosting Singapore’sworld records score.The four judges and Taylor will send in the results to Guinness forKoh’s feat and any other world records that are broken to beofficially recognised, a spokeswoman for the competition said. – AFP
It’s been a while since I’ve seen a good crossbow killing – especially involving kin
Police: Son kills mother with bow
PALM CITY – (AP) — A man was charged with murder after fatally shooting his mother with a crossbow, officials said. Bruce Charles Neal, 42, had been fighting with his mother, Jean Neal, 79, over her will, officials said. After taking a bike ride to cool down, he took a crossbow from the trunk of his car and shot a phone book ‘’so he could impress his mother with the power of the crossbow,” according to a report by Martin County sheriff’s officials. He said that when she wasn’t impressed, he shot her in the chest, the report said. Neal told authorities his mother walked into the kitchen before falling. He pulled out the arrow before calling 911, telling a dispatcher ”it wasn’t an accident,” and that he was bipolar, according to The Stuart News. Officials found Jean Neal on the floor of the kitchen and a bloody arrow on the kitchen counter, according to a police report. Neal was handcuffed at the house, but he ”began to cry again and asked me if his mother was dead,” wrote Detective Rebecca S. Bagley. Jean Neal was pronounced dead at Martin Memorial Medical Center. Neighbors Ruth and Gerry Mefferd said Jean Neal was a retired nurse who had moved to Florida eight years ago with her husband, who died in April. Bruce Neal, an unemployed handyman, worked for neighbors, the couple said. ”We all said we don’t know what we’d do without him,” Ruth Mefferd said. “Nobody in the neighborhood understands.” At a court hearing Monday, Neal was ordered held without bail.
Man Prevents Wife’s Infidelity By Chaining Her Up. A Novel Idea, Indeed!
Wife Who Was Wrapped In Chains Testifies At Trial
Woman Says She Provoked Punishment
SAN ANTONIO — A woman told a jury Tuesday that she was partly to blame for her husband’s decision to wrap her in a chain. Patricia Thomason, 46, told jurors that her husband, Jerry Wayne Thomason, 42, put a chain around her neck with a padlock after he found out she was having an affair. “He asked me to take off my clothes and he left the room,” Patricia Thomason said. “He came back with a chain. He put the chain around my neck and wrapped it, twice I believe. And put a lock on it.” Patricia Thomason also said that she pushed her husband to the limit and that she didn’t want to be on the witness stand. She also admitted that her husband broke her jaw. Jurors viewed photos Wednesday of the woman with a chain and a padlock wrapped around her neck. Jerry Wayne Thomason is on trial on charges of aggravated assault with serious bodily injury and unlawful restraint in April 2003. When police officers arrived at the couple’s home in the 400 block of Prestwick, they found Patricia Thomason chained to a car with a 30-foot chain around her neck with a padlock, police said. Neighbors have also told police they saw the woman chained to a tree. Among the first witnesses to testify for the prosecution was a police officer who arrived at the couple’s home. “The chain (was) wrapped around her neck,” said Officer Robert Valadez, of the San Antonio Police Department. “She was carrying the excess chain on her arms.” Cheryl Puente, a neighbor, told jurors that the defendant explained his actions to her. “He said … ‘I had to do it .. (to) keep her from getting away,’” Puente testified. “It was kind of spooky.” The defense claims the defendant restrained his wife to prevent her from running off, so they could discuss their marriage. The couple, who have been married for 16 years and have two sons, have since reunited. Copyright 2004 by KSAT.com
Tiger Woods DENIED ACCESS on honeymoon.
Rules apply to Woods’ yacht, too
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Golfer Tiger Woods and his wife, Elin Nordegren, were briefly detained Thursday by U.S. Coast Guard officers on their yacht, Privacy, then were turned away from San Juan’s port because they had failed to notify authorities of their arrival. Since July 1, new security regulations require boats to submit an arrival notice at least four days before entering a U.S. port. The yacht entered San Juan’s port at about noon to refuel. The Privacy’s captain said he did not know the security regulations applied to Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory.
From The Dumb Criminals File: Man Arrested In Kinkos Copying Kiddie Porn. And He Asked For Help!
Man Arrested While Copying Child Porn At Kinko’s
33-Year-Old Allegedly Asks Clerk For Help Printing From Disk
CHICAGO — A 33-year-old man was arrested at a North Side office and copy center after police said he asked for help in printing a computer file which contained child pornography, police said Tuesday. Bashiro O. Evans (pictured, left) was arrested Monday at 1:40 a.m. at a Kinko’s business at 3001 N. Clark St. and charged with one count of possession of child pornography, said police News Affairs Officer Laura Kubiak Police were notified after Evans, of the 10500 block of South Wabash Avenue, asked people at the business to help him print a file from his computer disk which contained child pornography, Kubiak said, reading from a report. When police arrived, Evans told them he was a registered child sex offender, Kubiak said. Police searched Evans’ backpack and found child pornography photographs and many pages of Web sites for child pornography, she said, and added he also had several disks with child pornography. Kubiak could nor provide court information for the man or further details.
73-year-old Mobile Dentist (and his wife) arrested. Another great business idea thwarted.
Couple arrested for practicing dentistry without license in Margate
Margate Police in conjunction with Florida Department of Health officials have arrested a husband and wife team on Wednesday for practicing dentistry without a license. Pedro Ortegon, 73, who is known to make house calls for dental work, according to police, offered to perform a root canal for $300 on an undercover officer posing as a patient. His wife Esperanza Carrillo, 52, acted in the capacity of his medical assistant. Both Ortegon and Carrillo were arrested at the scene and transported to the Broward County Jail. The Department of Health is asking anyone who has received dental care by Ortegon or Carrillo to contact their health care professional and to report it to the Unlicensed Activity Unit at 1-877-HALT-ULA.
What’s in the No Spin Zone? Apparently Bill O’Reilly and a Sexually Harassing Potty Mouth.
Amazing how mighty Bill can criticize Ludacris and other rappers and Jenna Jameson (of who he asked for some “samples of her work”) and people still cannot see through his on-screen hypocracy.
O’Reilly Hit With Sex Harass Suit
Female Fox coworker details lewd behavior of cable TV star
OCTOBER 13–Hours after Bill O’Reilly accused her of a multimilliondollar shakedown attempt, a female Fox News producer fired back at theTV star today, filing a lawsuit claiming that he subjected her torepeated instances of sexual harassment and spoke often, andexplicitly, to her about phone sex, vibrators, threesomes,masturbation, the loss of his virginity, and sexual fantasies. Belowyou’ll find a copy of Andrea Mackris’s complaint, an incrediblepage-turner that quotes O’Reilly, 55, on all sorts of lewd matters.Based on the extensive quotations cited in the complaint, it appears asafe bet that Mackris, 33, recorded some of O’Reilly’s more steamysoliloquies. For example, we direct you to his Caribbean showerfantasies. While we suggest reading the entire document, TSG willpoint you to interesting sections on a Thailand sex show, Al Franken,and the climax of one August 2004 phone conversation. (22 pages)
Hilton ‘Ho’s at it again. Paris for her Porn and Nicky for her Anullment. Any bets on whether they make it to age 50?
Just when it looks like Nicky Hilton might have nabbed her tabloid moment in the sun, headline-grabbing big sis Paris is at the ready with a scandal of her own. The younger heiress, who married money manager Todd Meister in a Las Vegas wedding ceremony two months ago, is reportedly following in the fickle-minded footsteps of Britney Spears (Federline?) and working on having the marriage annulled, according to Us Weekly. A Hilton spokesman refused to comment on the report. “This is pure speculation. It is never, ever my position to comment on pure speculation and gossip,” publicist Elliot Mintz told E! “I make it a general rule not to comment on speculative, unsourced stories with respect to my clients.” Nicky, the brunette and usually more restrained Hilton sis, created waves in August when she strutted down the aisle in a late-night Vegas wedding ceremony, where Paris was the only family member present. Despite the apparent haphazardness of her wedding ceremony, Nicky insisted that her marriage to Meister was “planned.” “Paris orchestrated everything,” she told Stuff magazine in the November issue on newsstands next Tuesday. (Note to Nicky: Listening to Paris? Big mistake.) Despite the Hilton family’s claims of support for the union, it looks like the twosome’s wedding vows weren’t meant to last. According to Us Weekly, the Hilton-Meister split is proceeding amicably and occurred largely because Nicky, 21, is not yet ready to be a wife. Plus there’s the small matter of geography–she lives in Los Angeles, while he lives in New York. Nicky turned up sans hubby for a Maxim party in L.A. on Sept. 28. E! Online’s Party Girl columnist Lara Morgenson says Hilton was having a “girl’s night out” with Nicole Richie and Ashlee Simpson, among others. Then, at a function for presidential candidate John Kerry on Oct. 2, Nicky was spotted sans the nine- to 12-carat diamond wedding ring that symbolized her union with Meister. According to Us Weekly, Nicky has since returned the family heirloom, which had an estimated value of $1 million. Now that she’s reportedly a single woman again, it’s anyone’s guess whether Nicky will find herself in as many scandals as her wayward sister, Paris. The older and blonder heiress has reportedly surfaced in a third, yes third, amateur porn video, according to British tabloid News of the World, which claims to have footage showing Paris romping with “the daughter of a world famous pop star” and having sex with two men at the same time. Paris’ publicist scoffed at the report but withheld further comment. According to the sometimes dubious News of the World, the latest raunchy Paris footage, captured on three 45-minute tapes, features the socialite getting it on with a variety of people and objects. The tapes are reportedly being shopped in the United States for almost $55,000 by “a three-man consortium,” per the tabloid. Last month, the News of the World reported that a second sex tape had surfaced that featured Paris separately with exes Jason Shaw and Nick Carter, as well as smoking a joint and using racial slurs. (Paris has emphatically denied that she would ever use any racial epithets.) Of course, Paris’ first infamous foray into the world of amateur porn shot into cyberspace last year, when her videotaped mattress romp with ex-boyfriend Rick Salomon was leaked onto the Internet. The sex session has since been made into a DVD titled One Night in Paris. Paris will reportedly be returning to Fox in the near future for a third season of her reality show, The Simple Life, with sidekick Nicole Richie. There has been no word on her plans for further home-video escapades. As for Nicky, we’re betting she’ll score a reality show of her very own any day now.
ABC to air Growing Pains Reuinon. Will they pour apple juice in Carol Seaver’s champagne glass?
ABC Gets More ‘Growing Pains’
Carol Seaver driving off the freeway
Twelve years after the show ended, the legacy of “Growing Pains” keeps growing. The ABC sitcom about the Seaver family developed another strong following in repeats on Disney Channel, and it also yielded a reunion TV movie in 2000. It spawns a second one with “Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers,” airing as the season premiere of “The Wonderful World of Disney” Saturday, Oct. 16 on ABC. Joanna Kerns — alias Maggie Seaver on the show — directed the new film in which she also reprises her 1985-92 series role. Maggie and her husband Jason (Alan Thicke) have such a positive take on empty-nest syndrome, they’re ready to leave home themselves; he wants to travel cross-country in an RV, while she wants to settle into a villa in Tuscany. Their four children are similarly split: Ben and Chrissie (Jeremy Miller, Ashley Johnson) would be glad to see Mom and Dad go their own way, but Carol and Mike (Tracey Gold, who was pregnant with her third child when the movie was made, and Kirk Cameron) have reasons for wanting their parents to stay put. Series co-star Chelsea Noble, who married on-screen love interest Cameron in real life, also returns as Kate. “We started shooting this in New Orleans during the week of Mardi Gras,” Kerns recalls. “New Orleans, which doubled for Long Island, was having a party while we were trying to work. Everybody is trying to keep production from running away to Canada, though, so this was a really terrific thing.” Kerns has stayed especially close to former “Growing Pains” co-stars Thicke and Gold, but she’s glad for any occasion that draws the whole cast back together. “We had a pretty good family relationship,” she says. “All families have their little things, but making this movie was a really unique situation. Everyone came together knowing I would have to direct this and act in it at the same time, and they all showed up a week early to rehearse — which nobody ever does. That let us reconnect, and it was so much fun that when I went to shoot, everyone knew what everyone else was doing. It made such a difference.” Kerns had directed her “Growing Pains” comrades before, but only once, in an episode toward the end of the series. “It was what got me into the Directors Guild,” she reports. “It was great.” Since then, Kerns has helmed episodes of shows as diverse as “Ally McBeal,” “Felicity,” “Boston Public” and “Strong Medicine.” She’s now shooting a “Scrubs” installment after directing a “One Tree Hill” story made around the hurricanes that recently impacted North Carolina (where that series is filmed). In its final season, “Growing Pains” added a homeless boy named Luke to the Seaver household. He was played by then-newcomer Leonardo DiCaprio, who would go on to “Titanic” big-screen success. Kerns confirms the new TV movie’s makers didn’t even try to lure him back, “but we have a very funny line in the script about Leo. I actually ran into him at a Lakers game recently, and I told him about it. He laughed.” The sister of Olympic-gold-medal swimmer Donna DeVarona, Kerns usually is directing if she isn’t acting, or vice versa. “I wouldn’t want to make a habit” of doing both simultaneously, she says. “I think it was possible this time because I know this character and these people so well, and I was totally supported in their also wanting the project to happen. You don’t always get that. Directing is a full-time job, so I don’t think I’d want too many of these acting-and-directing jobs in my career. “We have minors in this movie, so I had to work around their hours, and there’s even a dog in there — so it’s true ‘Growing Pains’ chaos, but it’s choreographed. This kind of comedy doesn’t just happen with people standing in one place; in fact, this picture never stops moving. It’s great fun, and I’m really pleased with the way it came out.” As a TV director, Kerns prides herself on having the experience to know how to work with series casts that have been together a while: “I know from being on the other side of the camera that some directors are only technically based. You tend to shut such people out, because you think they don’t understand your process. Series actors understand their characters better than anyone else, while a director in episodic TV has to be concerned with things like the budget and getting the show done on time.” Although Kerns is doing much more work behind the camera than in front of it these days, frequent Lifetime repeats of the TV movies in which she starred (”No One Could Protect Her,” “At the Mercy of a Stranger,” etc.) make it seem she’s performing as much as ever. “And I look so much younger in those,” she muses. “It’s great to come back around now as a director and work with people I competed with for roles as an actress.”
Remember the Alamo. These 2 soldiers sure will – for reasons you wouldn’t expect.
Soldiers caught having sex at the Alamo remain jailed
SAN ANTONIO – Two soldiers charged with public lewdness remained jailed Monday after they were observed having sex on the grounds of one of the nation’s most revered historic sites, the Alamo. The active-duty U.S. Army personnel from Fort Sam Houston were arrested on the misdemeanor charges about 5:30 p.m. Sunday. Several irate visitors had complained they saw them having sexual intercourse. The witnesses pointed out the oblivious couple to the Alamo Rangers,who found both naked from the waist down. Arrested were Matthew Hotard, 19, and Kristine Nissel, 18, officials said. Hometowns were not available, but they apparently were from out-of-state and assigned to the Army’s 232nd Medical Battalion. john.gonzalez@chron.com
“Shove It In, Shove It In!” – The World’s Burger Record
Man sets record for burgers in mouth
Spurred on by shouts of “shove it in, shove it in,” 19-year-old Ezra Nicholas set a world record by stuffing more than three McDonald’s hamburgers into his mouth — without swallowing – - at the close of Singapore’s contest to be the world’s wackiest. Nicholas jumped up, pumped his fists in the air and shouted, “Yes! I am the Burger King!” as he spat out the last bits of the 3 and one-fifth burgers that could put him in the Guinness Book of World Records. “I just thought to myself, I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do this,” Nicholas said. “I’m on top of the world right now, because everyone’s going to know that I can shove more than three burgers in my mouth!” The previous burger-stuffing record was set in 1998 by American Johnny Reitz, who squeezed three into his mouth without spitting or swallowing. Over the weekend, 20 Singaporeans attempted to smash 10 unusual records and put the tiny island nation on the map. But they only broke two. On Saturday, 50-year-old Jeffery Koh became the world’s fastest eater of dry biscuits by swallowing three cream crackers in a mere 14.45 seconds, smashing the previous mark of 49.15 seconds set by Britain’s Ambrose Mendy in 2002. But other attempts over the weekend failed, ranging from the fastest to drink a 14-ounce bottle of ketchup through a straw to the longest paper airplane flight. Some suffered the agony of defeat. One contestant crashed into a pole and cut his forehead as he raced to push an orange with his nose over a mile in the fastest time. Others reported bruised knees and elbows. Koh said Sunday his biscuit-eating efforts had left blisters in his mouth, hampering his burger-stuffing abilities. He could only stuff a little more than two burgers in his mouth before gagging and spitting them out. Contestants also fought to — do the most push-ups in a minute; — pick up the most Smarties — a brand of candy-coated chocolates — with plastic chopsticks in the fastest time; — talk the fastest backward; — make the longest paper doll chain; and — say the most words in a minute. Four judges were flown in from Australia, and all record- breaking feats will be submitted to the Guinness Book of Records.
Mmmmmmmmm – Brazil
Ashes to Astroturf – Cemeteries using fake grass
Artificial grass covering graves
Sunset Hills Memorial Park in Apple Valley replacing real turf to save on water
APPLE VALLEY – In a move to save water, Sunset Hills Memorial Park has installed artificial turf, perhaps the first cemetery in the nation to do so. The cemetery started replacing real grass with artificial grass on its gravesites and grounds nine months ago. Sunset Hills co-owner Chet Hitt said switching to artificial grass could save the cemetery $180,000 in water and maintenance costs over three years. “I actually believe it will revolutionize the cemetery industry, eventually,” Hitt said. Installing artificial turf in a cemetery was a new concept for Robert Fells, external chief operating officer for the International Cemetery and Funeral Association – which comprises more than 6,000 cemeteries, funeral homes, memorial designers, crematories and related businesses worldwide. Fells said he’d never heard of the idea. But other cemetery officials now have. Hitt said nine representatives of cemeteries around Phoenix, Ariz., have visited Sunset Hills over the past two months to see the turf. The artificial grass is made of polyurethane and purchased from a distributor in Las Vegas, Hitt said. It must be replaced about every eight years, he added. Hitt started out selling artificial grass to individual families for their plots, he said. Gradually, between sales, he said he plans to fill out the park’s entire four-to-five acres. In addition to the maintenance and water savings, the artificial grass has other merits, said Dave Hepburn, the western regional manager of a Huntington Beach-based mausoleum manufacturer, and a member of the Interment Association of California – the state’s largest cemetery trade association. Real grass can grow into flower vases left at grave sites, soiling them and causing problems for the flowers, Hepburn said. Sunset Hills has a lot of concrete on its grounds, Hitt said. “Water expands and pops the concrete in the winter,” he added. Real grass can also discolor grave markers. Natural turf must be trimmed around markers regularly, Hitt said. And the minerals in water can seep into markers and turn the stone a rust color, Hepburn said. Artificial grass has none of those problems. The cemetery business is all about aesthetics and appearances, Hitt and Hepburn agree. “The most important thing for a cemetery is to look good at all times, to look beautiful inside,” Hepburn said. “A well-kept cemetery, trimmed and mowed, makes a big difference to families who’ve purchased their property there, and for those who are looking to.” But well-kept is not enough. The grass must look real to customers. Hitt said the artificial turf he uses looks genuine. Customers often must be told it’s artificial, Hitt said. “I’m not trying to be disrespectful, but if it looked terrible we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Hitt said. “We’ve got to care about the customer at all times.” James Ramage may be reached at 951-6242 or james_ramage@link. freedom.com.
Jacko vs Eminem? My money’s on Shady.
JACKO TELLS EMINEM TO BEAT IT!
MICHAEL JACKSON has hit out over EMINEM’s new video, labelling it as “inappropriate and disrespectful”. The rapper ridicules Jackson in the ‘Just Lose It’ video by poking fun at his reputed plastic surgery and an accident he suffered when his hair caught fire during a Pepsi commercial in 1984, BBC news reports. “I am very angry at Eminem’s depiction of me in his video,” Jackson told Los Angeles radio host Steve Harvey, according to a transcript from the singer’s publicist. “I’ve admired Eminem as an artist, and was shocked by this. “The video was inappropriate and disrespectful to me, my children, my family, and the community at large.” In the video, the rapper dresses up as Jackson and is shown on a bed with young boys. His hair also catches fire and his nose falls off. US cable’s Black Entertainment Network is the first channel to ban it outright. President of the network, Robert Johnson pulled the video on the grounds that “it was inappropriate to disparage a celebrity”. Jackson is now urging other TV stations to do the same. Eminem’s spokesperson said he was “sorry” the BEN decided to pull the single. ‘Just Lose It’ is the first single to be taken from Eminem’s forthcoming album ‘Encore’.
53 Weddings? Damn, that’s a lot of presents. I’d figure the guests would stop giving presents after Marriage #5 or so.
Malaysian Man Marries for 53rd Time
AFP Oct. 12, 2004 – A 72-year-old Malaysian man has married for the 53rd time in what is said to be a national record, and this time around he went back to wife number one, a report said Wednesday. “I am not a playboy, I just love seeing beautiful women,” retiree Kamarudin Mohammed was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times newspaper. The Muslim former policeman, described as a “friendly and easy-going charmer,” became a national celebrity of sorts after he remarried his first wife Khadijah Udin, 74, on Sunday. They were first married in 1957 but divorced a year later after having a daughter, now 47. Among his 51 ex-wives is an Englishwoman and two Thais. “If I like a girl, I’ll ask for her hand in marriage. I don’t like flings. I also don’t believe in marrying more than one woman at a time,” he said. Divorce is relatively easy to obtain among the Muslim majority in Malaysia. A man can end a marriage by simply saying “I divorce you” to his wife. Kamarudin, who hails from northeastern Kelantan state, is believed to have fathered at least seven children. As in his marriages, Kamarudin could not stick to a job. After a stint with the police when he left school in the 1950s, he held various jobs in the private sector until retiring in 1992. “I just moved from one job to another if there were better offers. There have been so many jobs, maybe as many as my marriages,” he said. Sujatha Nair, a staff member with the popular Malaysia Book of Records, said the company does not have any records of marriage feats. “It is not in the records. We don’t have such details. We feel it is difficult to verify,” she told AFP. Setting world and national records is a popular obsession in Malaysia, which once boasted the world’s tallest buildings, the Petronas Twin Towers. Last month, a Malaysian woman overcame 17 scorpion bites to set a new world record by spending 36 days in a glass cage with 6,069 of the poisonous arachnids.
The Official Vegetable Of The Deep South: The Pumpkin
Kendall Shaw, 3, from Palo Alto, Calif., plays ontop of the winning pumpkin in the 31st Annual World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, Calif., Monday, Oct. 11, 2004. At left are friends Honoka Kishino, 3, from Sunnyvale, Calif., and Tina Sato, 3, from Santa Clara, Calif. Joel Holland, from Puyallup, Wash., won with his 1,229 lb. Atlantic Giant pumpkin with a prize of $6,145. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Playboy Bunnies Returning to Vegas
Playboy Headed Back to Las Vegas
Playboy’s long-rumored return to Las Vegas has been given the green light by Hugh Hefner. Hotel industry sources state the courtship is over: Hefner is “fully involved” in designing and planning the maxed-out, 11,000- square foot Playboy villa atop the new Palms tower, which opens in late 2006. The luxurious, two-story, high-roller villa features a spectacular panoramic view of the Strip, indoor and outdoor pools and Jacuzzis, and Hef’s handpicked art from Playboy’s collection. The 400-foot tower, which is being designed by John Jerde, who designed the Bellagio and the Palms, will feature 100 super suites. Copyright Yellowbrix 2004
Darth Vader Light Sabres Pizza Delivery guys.
Man Dressed As Darth Vader Tries To Rob Pizza Deliveryman
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — A man dressed up as Darth Vader used the infamous disguise to scare, and then try to rob, an unsuspecting pizza deliveryman over the weekend. Investigators in Kissimmee have been trying to find him ever since. “This is a criminal mind trying to think of things to do to victimize people,” says Deputy Sheriff Al Dearmas. Dearmas says a Pizza Best employee drove to a home on Oak Drive in Kissimmee on Sunday night to deliver a pizza. He knocked on the door and then returned to his car after no one answered the door. Once inside his car, a man wearing black Star Wars clothing, including a Darth Vader mask, approached him and ordered to give him money. The pizza deliveryman was able to drive away, but not before the suspect pulled a stun gun from his pocket and shocked him. “Thank God nothing happened to the victim. We are very fortunate of that. But things could have been much worse,” says Dearmas. It turns out, the call to order the pizza was made from a public phone located at a pharmacy around the corner from the pizza place. “We were able to obtain some fingerprints from the pay phone and we have sent it out to FDLE to see if we can have a match,” explains Dearmas. Anyone with information is urged to call the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office. Copyright 2004 by wftv.com.
Carrot Top helping ease the burden on the War on Terror
McCarran to unveil star-studded campaign giving security pointers
 Comic Carrot Top carries on a bit too much for airport security.
Comedian Rita Rudner pleas to treat airport security procedures seriously. Clowns from Cirque du Soleil push a stroller through a security checkpoint. Performers from the Star Trek Experience are part of one vignette on security. |
Las Vegas travel leaders are confident an array of sword-wieldingknights, Carrot Top’s comic antics and a touch of Lance Burton magicwill help reduce the length and frequency of security-related delaysat McCarran International Airport.The Clark County Aviation Department, Las Vegas Convention andVisitors Authority and Transportation Security Administration will today unveil their Traveler Information Prescreening Series, or TIPScampaign, at McCarran, the nation’s sixth-busiest passenger airport.Using a series of video vignettes, the $1.6 million effort will uselocal performers to entertain and educate travelers on their way toairport security checkpoints, said Randy Walker, Clark County aviation director…. |
DOWN WITH CLEAR CHANNEL AND THE FCC
Shock jock Howard Stern to jump to satellite radio
Sirius is betting $500 million that his listeners will follow to realm where FCC rules don’t apply.
NEW YORK — Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. is betting $500 million that Howard Stern is its ticket to the mainstream. The company said Wednesday it would spend at least $100 million a year on five-year deal that will move Stern’s talk show from traditional radio to one of its satellite channels in January 2006. It’s a risky proposition: Sirius, which has never been profitable, has lost more than $1 billion in the five years since it was founded. It has far fewer subscribers than its only satellite competitor, XM Satellite Radio, which also still loses money. The two are now in an expensive frenzy of hiring talent. The question is whether their audience can reach critical mass before their lenders and shareholders lose patience. “I think it’s a pretty good bet to take,” said Joe Clayton, Sirius’ president and CEO. “All we have to do to get our bait back is attract the first million subscribers.” Analysts estimated it would take closer to 1.3 million subscribers, and some components of the deal are unclear. The announcement didn’t specify Stern’s salary or detail extra payments he could get for attracting advertisers or more subscribers than expected. Until now, Sirius has poured money into its business without earth-shattering results. It has spent millions to air National Football League, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League games, but it has only 600,000 subscribers. Yet, “if any one program is going to get people to stand up and say, ‘I want satellite radio,’ Howard is the one,” said Matt Feinberg, the head buyer of national radio advertising time for Zenith Media. Sirius and XM are the aural equivalent of cable TV. To hear their stations, listeners must buy satellite radios and pay a monthly fee. Like cable companies, XM and Sirius also must persuade customers to pay for a service they’re used to getting for free. Most of their channels are commercial-free. Like cable, the satellite broadcasters aren’t subject to decency standards governing traditional radio. To win subscribers, who spend between $9.99 and $12.95 a month, the two companies are trying to sign familiar names. XM debuted a show this week hosted by shock jocks Opie and Anthony, who were fired by Viacom subsidiary Infinity Broadcasting after airing a play-by-play of a couple having sex at New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 2002. XM also launched a show this week hosted by former National Public Radio “Morning Edition” anchor Bob Edwards, whom XM scooped up after public radio bounced him as host. “We’ve gotten more than 50,000 e-mails and letters from fans of Bob Edwards,” said Chance Patterson, XM’s vice president of programming operations. Sirius, for its part, has hired football commentator John Madden and is developing a channel programmed by rapper Eminem. Both companies have reported troubles with their satellites. But that hasn’t scared off investors. Sirius had a $4.79 billion market capitalization Wednesday, with its stock up 52 cents to close at $3.87 a share. XM had a market cap of $5.93 billion, with stock in its parent company, XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. closing at $29 a share, down 48 cents.
Scalia is a freak. But a sexual freak?
The Supreme Court was put in the awkward position yesterday of having to deny that conservative Justice Antonin Scalia is a fan of sexual orgies. The backtracking came after The Harvard Crimson, the Ivy League school’s student newspaper, quoted Scalia as saying group sex can “eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged.” But it appears the jurist was making a rhetorical point – not revealing himself to be a swinger in black robes. The quote was taken “out of context,” court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said. The text of Scalia’s Harvard speech shows that his “orgies” comment came as he derided a European court decision that struck down a ban on group gay sex. “Let me make it clear that the problem I am addressing is not the social evil of the [ruling],” he said. “I accept for the sake of argument, for example, that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged.” Scalia – who recently voted to uphold anti-sodomy laws – also admitted during the speech that his “gaydar” may not be razor sharp. When an audience member asked whether he has any gay friends, Scalia said he’s never bothered to find out. “I probably do have some gay friends,” he said. “I’ve never pressed the point.” Originally published on October 2, 2004
Still Getting No Respect: Rodney Dangerfield Passes On
Comic Rodney Dangerfield Dies at Age 82Rodney Dangerfield, the Bug-Eyed Comic Who Built Career on ‘No Respect’ Catchphrase, Dies at 82
LOS ANGELES Oct. 6, 2004 – Rodney Dangerfield knew “I don’t get no respect” was funny when it cracked up New Yorkers, notorious for being tough. From there on out, the one-liner became his catchphrase and the pudgy, bug-eyed comic became the perennial loser. Dangerfield, 82, died Tuesday afternoon at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center, where he had undergone heart surgery in August, said publicist Kevin Sasaki….Clad in a black suit, red tie and white shirt with collar that seemed too tight, Dangerfield brought down the house with the likes of “When I was born, I was so ugly that the doctor slapped my mother”; “When I started in show business, I played one club that was so far out my act was reviewed in Field and Stream;” and “Every time I get in an elevator, the operator says the same thing to me: `Basement?’”…Dangerfield is most remembered for 1980’s “Caddyshack,” in which he held his own with such comics as Chevy Chase, Ted Knight and Bill Murray.He would later gain more film roles and the respect of fans who howled at his jokes and fellow comedians who admired his talent.”For a guy who got no respect, I will miss him and he always had my respect. I love him,” comedian George Lopez said Tuesday in a statement….After “Caddyshack,” Dangerfield continued starring in and sometimes writing films such as “Easy Money,” “Back to School,” “Moving,” “The Scout,” “Ladybugs” and “Meet Wally Sparks.” He turned dramatic as a sadistic father in Oliver Stone’s 1994 “Natural Born Killers.”In 1995, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rejected Dangerfield’s application for membership. It was the ultimate rejection, and Dangerfield played it to the hilt. He had established his own Web site (”I went out and bought an Apple Computer; it had a worm in it”), and his fans used it to express their indignation. The public reaction prompted the academy to reverse itself and offer membership. Dangerfield declined.”They don’t even apologize or nothing,” he said. “They give no respect at all pardon the pun to comedy.”
Bush: Don’t forget Poland. Poland: Peace Out!
Poland to decide on Iraq pullout soon
WARSAW – Poland should decide soon when to pull its troops out of Iraq and end a political debate that encourages Al-Qaeda, Prime Minister Marek Belka says. Poland’s defence minister said on Monday that most troops should leave Iraq by the end of next year but Mr Belka and other senior officials distanced themselves from the statement, saying a date had yet to be decided. Cited by United States President George W. Bush as a leading ally in Iraq, Poland has 2,500 soldiers in south-central Iraq and runs a multinational division of 8,000 troops there. Mr Belka told TVN24 television yesterday he was unlikely to present a detailed time-table ahead of a parliamentary confidence vote on Oct 15, but a decision on the troop pullout should be taken ‘relatively soon’. ‘We have to remove this topic as fast as possible from the political debate… The more we are flapping our tongues, gathering signatures, the more we invite Al- Qaeda,’ Mr Belka said. Seventeen Poles have died during a 13-month-old deployment and opinion polls show three-quarters of the public oppose the presence of Polish troops in Iraq. A junior partner in the ruling coalition demanded an initial time-table for the troop withdrawal and two opposition parties are collecting signatures for a petition to highlight discontent over the deployment. The government has said it planned to significantly scale down its military presence in Iraq after the general election planned early next year, but it has also said troops would stay in Iraq ‘as long as it takes’ to complete their mission. Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski broke with that position by suggesting the pullout should coincide with the expiry at the end of a United Nations Security Council resolution next year that endorsed Iraq’s current interim government. Yesterday, Mr Szmajdzinski met US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz in Warsaw to discuss the situation in Iraq and military cooperation. Mr Belka’s minority government is expected to win the Oct 15 confidence vote. But it also faces a general election by the middle of next year, when the ruling left is expected to lose to the centre-right opposition, which had also supported Poland’s military involvement in Iraq. — Reuters
Dr. Phil tells a town that they suck – who is this guy?
NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2004(CBS) On Monday, Sept. 13, Dr. Phil McGraw begins the third season of his hit talk show. In the past, he has helped viewers do everything from rescue relationships to lose weight. But you won’t believe what he’s planning to do this year.”Our third season is the most exciting I’ve ever done,” Dr. Phil tells The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. He is offering his guidance to the town of Elgin, Texas, just outside of Austin.The reason this city was selected was not because it is “some bizarre city with a lot of problems,” Dr. Phil says. “We chose this city because it has every challenge that we see in Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, Seattle, L.A., New York. And that is they’re facing problems with their kids, drugs, alcohol, sex in the high schools. We’re seeing racial tension in the community. We’re seeing an economic divide. We’re seeing domestic violence. We’re seeing all of the issues.” So what can a psychologist do to make a town a better place to live? “We get a really big couch and you put everybody on the couch, right? No,” Dr. Phil answers in his unique style. “We’re going to use this as a working example of what’s going on in every community. We’re going to impact all of the issues that you see in every town with working examples within the city.”An example, he says, is focusing on bullying problems within the school system. He explains, There is a lot of problems with bullying. I’ve done shows on bullying before. My son Jay has been involved with anti-bullying pledge along with my other son Jordan. You can talk to them on the show but you can’t impact the school system. Here, we’re working from inside the school system out. If you have children, whether they’re young children, adolescents, teens, whatever, you’re going to want to watch the working experiment of anywhere, USA.”Another issue he deals with often and he is exposing on a larger scale is domestic violence.”This is about being real,” Dr. Phil says. For his show’s third season, he wanted to deal with what he calls “the silent epidemics; the things that don’t get talked about and we’re going to spend all year doing exactly that. This is a good example of people. You go down anywhere USA, any street in America, and every house looks fine, little picket fence, 2.2 kids, barking dog, green grass. Behind that door, there are a lot of things going on. I think emotional and mental abuse and physical abuse are drop-dead icebreakers.”And he confronts couples, both husband and wife. Asked how he manages to get them both to admit their problems on camera, he says, “I tell you why. He is a good man. I know that sounds strange; they had problems early in their marriage. Now, it’s mental, emotional, more than anything else. But he knows it’s not right. He is a good man. Oftentimes, you see couples that have come together in a painful way, but individually, they’re good people. They just lost their way. I believe that people in America are trying to do a good job and he wants help and he is a good man with good values. He’s just lost his way.”
“Dr. Phil” is produced by Paramount Television, owned by Viacom, parent company of CBS.©MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Sweeden proposes tax on men
Tax on Men for Violence on Women Proposed
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A group of Swedish parliamentarians proposed levying a “man tax” to cover the social cost of violence against women. “It must be obvious to all of us that society has a huge problem with male violence against women and that has a cost,” Left Party deputy Gudrun Schyman told Swedish radio on Monday. “We must have a discussion where men understand they as a group have a responsibility,” said Schyman, one of the party members to sign the motion for debate on the new tax. Sweden already has the highest taxes in the European Union (news – web sites) as a percentage of gross domestic product to pay for its famous but hard-pushed cradle-to-grave welfare program. It is also one of the world’s most advanced nations in terms of gender equality, but Schyman said in a headline-hitting 2002 speech that discrimination in Sweden followed “the same pattern” as in Afghanistan (news – web sites) under the Taliban.
Puppet sex? Parker and Stone at it again.
Puppet Sex Leads to Rating Rift
The filmmakers behind ‘Team America’ want to get an NC-17 cut to an R, but the MPAA objects to an explicit scene. By Rachel Abramowitz, Times Staff Writer They call it puppet love. But the folks who determine film ratings call it NC-17. The filmmakers behind “Team America: World Police,” an action-genre satire featuring a team of muscular marionettes that save the world, are butting heads with the Motion Picture Assn. of America over the film’s proposed rare rating, which would bar admission to anyone younger than 17. At the heart of the dispute is a scene in the film that shows simulated sex between the puppets. Thus far, the production team has submitted the scene nine times — each progressively less graphic — to the MPAA board, said Scott Rudin, the film’s producer. Each time, the MPAA insisted that the NC-17 rating would remain unless further cuts were made, the filmmakers said. The MPAA did not return phone calls late Monday. “It’s something we all did as kids with Barbie and Ken dolls,” said Trey Parker, the film’s director and co- creator of the animated TV show “South Park.” “The whole joke of it is that it’s just two dolls flopping around on each other. You see the hinges on their legs. [The MPAA] read into it way more than we ever didâ?¦. They said you can’t do anything but missionary position.” Among other things, the offending material includes shots of a male puppet simulating oral sex. The production team has already excised explicit scatological puppet sex acts in its attempt to gain an R rating, allowing entrance to teenagers under 18 when accompanied by an adult. “There’s nothing we’re asking for that hasn’t appeared in other R-rated movies, and our characters are made of wood and have no genitalia. If the puppets did to each other what we show them doing, all they’d get is splinters,” Rudin said. “I can appreciate the ratings board has a responsibility to its constituents. But it’s incredibly enervating for us as it must be for them to have to be going through this nine times.” To help Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures, which is distributing the film, argue its case, Rudin commissioned his staff to prepare a 45-page memorandum featuring such R-rated films as “Eyes Wide Shut,” “American Psycho” and “In the Cut,” all of which had comparable sex acts, albeit performed by humans. A Paramount spokesman declined to comment. The MPAA decision has financial as well as artistic implications; an NC-17 rating limits a film’s audience and thus its box-office potential. The ratings fight is particularly tense because the filmmakers are contractually required to deliver an R- rated film, and “Team America” is due in theaters Oct. 15. That deadline is complicated by the fact that the studio is planning a sneak preview this weekend as part of its marketing campaign and the ratings issue must be settled. The raunchy, politically incorrect film is written and directed by Matt Stone and Parker, the writing- directing team behind “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.” That 1999 film, which featured a humorous sendup of the film ratings system, was also the subject of a protracted and very public ratings battle with the MPAA but ultimately got an R rating. “Team America” features violent scenes in which a Tim Robbins puppet is set afire and a Susan Sarandon puppet is dropped off a 20-story building — all acts that passed MPAA muster. “We blow Janeane Garofalo’s head clean off, [but for the MPAA] it’s all about the positions of the dolls having sex,” Parker said. “It’s not funny — it’s tragic.”
Strippers report hazards in their jobs. I never would have known.
Assault, disease, among hazards reported by strippers in new report
MONTREAL (CP) – Strippers in Canada’s two largest cities faceaggressive clients, unsafe stages and clubs that don’t meet firecodes, says a study released on Thursday. Researchers, who interviewed 120 sex workers in Montreal and Toronto,urged all levels of government to enact new laws or enforce existingones to make the sex trade safer. The report, sponsored in part byConcordia University and the University of Windsor, noted a litany ofhazards faced by exotic dancers. Strippers reported unsafe stages,poor lighting, unclean washrooms and aggressive and intoxicatedcustomers.Some respondents to the four-year study also reported exposure toinfectious diseases ranging from colds and flu to sexually transmittedinfections.In some cases, sex workers trained as researchers conducted theinterviews. Police officers, social workers and health care providerswere also consulted. Frances Shaver, a Concordia sociologist who worked on the study, saidcitizens need better information about the sex industry if they’re tohave an informed debate.”What happens in the street is just a small part of the whole sexindustry,” Shaver told Concordia’s web site on Thursday.”We need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture if we’regoing to come up with plans and programs to make a difference.”The study’s findings were used to develop English and French-languagebrochures for sex workers that cover legal, security, financial andhealth issues.The flyers contain advice for strippers, such as using a scarf ortowel while sitting. Exotic dancers are also advised to scream ifassaulted in private rooms. One of the study’s main findings was the diversity of workers in theprofession, said Shaver.”We see the person in crisis on the news, but there are also lots ofpeople who drive to work then go home and take their kids to school,”she said.”They don’t get arrested and they don’t need clean needles.”
Nothing like washing down the ecstasy pills with some B to the E
New drink mixes beer with herbs, caffeine
ST. LOUIS — In an effort to revive flattening sales and attract new drinkers, Anheuser-Busch is unveiling a new concoction — a fruity-smelling beer, spiked with caffeine, guarana and ginseng.The world’s largest brewer said Monday its planned offering — pronounced B-to-the-E, with the “E” denoting something “extra” and shown as an exponent of B — should appeal to 20-something consumers looking for something zippy.The St. Louis-based brewer said the new beverage — pending governmental approval — should debut in November against the backdrop of the company’s existing line of Bacardi liquor-branded flavored malt beverages. The drink also faces competition from the ever-increasing line of alcohol-free energy drinks, such as Red Bull, often used as mixers in clubs.B-to-the-E will be slightly sweet but tart, coming in the aromas of blackberry, raspberry and cherry. Anheuser-Busch trumpeted itself as the first major brewer to infuse beer with caffeine, ginseng and guarana, a caffeine-bearing herb.The brewer did not specify possible pricing for the new beverage, suggesting only that the “very unique product” would fetch slightly more than Budweiser as a premium product.
War on Terror weapons cache thwarted
Vibrator shuts down Australian airport
Hundreds of airline passengers suffered disruption to their travel plans when a major regional airport was shut down for an hour after a humming and vibrating adult sex toy was mistaken for a bomb.The vibrator was discovered at 9:15 am (2315 GMT Sunday) by a security officer who checked out a suspicious package inside a rubbish bin at the terminal cafeteria of Mackay Airport in the northeastern state of Queensland, a police spokeswoman said.The terminal was evacuated immediately while passengers who had just arrived from a flight, check-in staff, cafeteria employees and hire car personnel were all forced to leave.Cafeteria manager Lynne Bryant said her staff had been cleaning tables when they noticed a strange humming noise coming from the rubbish bin.”It was rather disconcerting when the rubbish bin started humming furiously,” she said.”We called security and next minute everybody was being evacuated while they checked it out.”The police spokeswoman said another two flights were expected to land at that stage and alternate arrangements were made for the passengers to collect their luggage away from the terminal.She said the emergency situation was revoked just before 10:00 am when the package was identified as “an adult novelty device”.Bryant said at the time of the upheaval the airport had been quite busy with two main flights due in and out of the airport – wreaking havoc with people’s schedules.
She said in retrospect the humming sounded exactly like a vibrator – but it was better to be safe then sorry.”You can’t afford to take chances,” she added.
Are you an Undecided Voter? Check This Out
For Shame, Wonder Woman. What would Major Steve Trevor Think? What about Paradise Island?
Wonder Woman to launch first gay TV station
AFP Paris, September 29 France’s first gay TV station, which from next month will offer its viewers a heavy diet of English-language comedy and homosexual porn, has lassoed in a pop culture icon as its media mascot: Wonder Woman.The scantily clad superhero — in the form of Lynda Carter, star of the 1970s US television series — will be seen every day of the week on the channel, Pink TV, when it begins broadcasting on cable and satellite October 25, executives told a press conference in Paris on Tuesday.Her lithe figure, tucked into the customary skin-tight stars-and-stripes costume, will be the figurehead of a wide-ranging programming mix of gay erotica, documentaries, interview shows and imported series that the fledgling station hopes will attract its niche “gay and gay-friendly” audience. More widely, however, the management of Pink TV (slogan: “Liberty is worth watching”) figure their time has come in a country where homosexuality has hit the mainstream.In recent months, newspapers have given extensive coverage to the first legally gay family, headed by two lesbians, an ongoing debate over gay marriage sparked by a June wedding of two men, and a government-sponsored bill to toughen punishment for homophobic crimes.Add to that the influence of Paris’s first openly homosexual mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, on cultural events in the capital, and the annual welcome given to a lively Gay Pride parade, and it’s no surprise the station feels the time is ripe to bring gender-bending broadcasting out of the closet.”There is a real viewer base today for Pink TV,” the channel’s president, Pascal Houzelot, said, adding that it planned on becoming “a real laboratory of cultural diversity”.As one of its presenters, Eric Gueho, put it in a recorded message played at the press conference: “This is a big step for TV — and a little step in platform shoes.”Perhaps the most eye-catching news confirmed at the conference was that gay porn movies would be a staple on the channel after midnight on weekends.That X-rated recipe proved an early success for France’s first cable channel, Canal Plus, which has gone on to be one of Europe’s biggest pay-TV operators — and which is one of the major investors in the new station.Pink TV will also offer a slew of shows imported from Britain and the United States, where gay programming has become firmly established in the past few years. Thus viewers in France hungry for such fare as “Metrosexuality”, “Queer as Folk” and “French and Saunders” — all in English with French subtitles — will find their fill on the channel.Another notable feature will be Pink’s sports coverage — presented by a 45-year-old transvestite, “Brigitte Boreale”, who has an evident passion for field exploits practised by men in tight shorts.Gay opera and ballet and documentaries will also be screened, as will interview shows, notably one hosted by one of France’s leading news presenters, Claire Chazal, who is moonlighting from the top-rating commercial network TF1, which is also associated with the channel.TF1 is not leaving the sudden “vague rose” entirely to the upstart, however.One hit US programme that banks on gay aestheticism, “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”, involving homosexual style mavens giving heterosexual slobs a cosmetic and clothing makeover, started its French version on TF1 last week.Given the copycat culture reigning in reality TV programming, other channels, notably the commercial competitor M6 (also a Pink participant) are also likely to follow suit with gay-style offerings if “Queer” proves successful.For all the attention the media trend has generated — including the newspaper Le Monde asking “Are we seeing a gay wave in television?” — it remains to be seen whether the distinctly urban edge to the fare will win many viewers outside the French capital, in a country noted for its general conservatism.For city TV-watchers, however, the new programming will offer a bridge to many English-language shows previously unseen here — and will restore some contemporary punch to the term “Gay Paree”.
Best Headline Ever: Dr. Phil puts Bush on the couch
Dr. Phil puts Bush on the couch
President George W. Bush fielded questions about family from popular TV psychologist Phil McGraw in an interview to be broadcast Wednesday, in a warm-and-fuzzy wooing of the coveted undecided woman’s vote.The timing of the broadcast is great for the president, who needs to try to win over likely voters who have yet to make up their minds. Campaign officials, having seen former president Bill Clinton work the daytime-television trick like a charm, are convinced it can work.Indeed, the timing for such a sit-down chat on family is equally as fortuitous for Bush’s Democratic rival John Kerry, who will appear with his wife in an interview with McGraw next week.McGraw is a wide-smiling clinical psychologist with a blunt tongue and words of hope for the troubled who has won over legions of US fans since appearing as an advice guru on Oprah Winfrey’s show. He now has his own show, “Dr. Phil.” The good doctor with the southern drawl spared Bush niggling questions about weapons of mass destruction, the slow-growing economy and unrest in Iraq.And the encounter, taped in July and including First Lady Laura Bush, was not about the show’s daily fare of dependency, denial or worse.The show, filmed at his beloved ranch in Crawford, Texas, focused on family and child-rearing. Coincidentally, making family the top priority is the subject of the host’s latest book, ‘Family First’.”I am really committed to putting family back in America,” McGraw says in an outtake from the show. “I think it’s what you have put in the White House, and I think it’s what we need to put back in America.”A smiling and casually attired Bush, the father of twin girls who are recent university graduates, concurred.”If you have a child, that child has got to be the number-one priority in your life,” Bush says in the excerpt. “If you are fortunate enough to be a mother or a father, you’re responsible for loving that child with all your heart.”McGraw’s show is said to regularly reach nearly seven million viewers, with the balance weighted toward women.”I think our viewers are really interested in what these men are like when the cameras are off on the campaign trail, when they’re at home living as parents and husbands,” McGraw added. Clinton’s appearances on late-night television and MTV are widely credited with having helped him win recognition among young voters – though at the time, some critics saw the interviews as less than presidential.AFP
Man Mistakenly Cuts Off Penis, Dog Eats It
Mon Oct 4,10:41 AM ET Oddly Enough –
Reuters BUCHAREST (Reuters) – A elderly Romanian man mistook his penis for a chicken’s neck, cut it off and his dog rushed up and ate it, the state Rompres news agency said Monday. It said 67 year-old Constantin Mocanu, from a village near the southeastern town of Galati, rushed out into his yard in his underwear to kill a noisy chicken keeping him awake at night. “I confused it with the chicken’s neck,” Mocanu, who was admitted to the emergency hospital in Galati, was quoted as saying. “I cut it … and the dog rushed and ate it.” Doctors said the man, who was brought in by an ambulance bleeding heavily, was now out of danger.
Virgin Atlantic? Not for long. More like Virgin Shaglantic.
No sex please, we’re in the air
Virgin Atlantic is making aviation history by installing double bedson its flights between Britain and the US.Announicng the move in London on Friday, Sir Richard Branson, theairline’s chairman, said he wanted to bring passengers “closer together”.A Virgin spokesman said: “We are not going to dissuade couples fromhaving fun as long as they don’t upset others.”The airline has fitted two of its Boeing 747-400s with four doublesuites, protected by low privacy screens.Press Release
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