Wednesday, January 30, 2002

 

I just had to share this picture of my nephew taken on Christmas morning. He sure has grown since last I saw him in May.



No shirt? Blue guitar? Future rockstar. I can see it coming.

posted by Anne 1/30/2002 04:20:00 PM (0) comments

 

Jish asked me to say HI! to my webloggers webring neighbours.
» to the left of me: Girl Meets Boy.
» to the right of me: Starjewel.

posted by Anne 1/30/2002 10:00:00 AM (0) comments

 

Freak!

The Nevada State Athletic Commission denied Mike Tyson a boxing license Tuesday, meaning he can't fight Lennox Lewis April 6 in Las Vegas.

Good! The man is a freak and seriously needs help. At the very least, he needs to attend anger management classes. One thing Tyson told the boad is ``I'm crazy but I'm not crazy like that. I don't want to kill or rape nobody or nothing like that.'' Now why don't I buy that? OK. Maybe he doesn't want to kill or rape anyone, but he's already done one and I wouldn't be even the tiniest bit surprised if he did the other.

Board member Amy Ayoub said her vote was in part to send a message to the children who looked up to the fighter. Good for her.

The fight probably would have brought a much-needed boost to the Las Vegas economy, which has been hit hard by decline in travel since Sept. 11. Good for the board who put integrity over money.

posted by Anne 1/30/2002 09:25:00 AM (0) comments

Tuesday, January 29, 2002

 

This column gives the legal definition of the difference between prisoners of war and unlawful combatants. The columnist wrote it because of the all the fuss that's being made about the al Qaeda fighters currently being held captive at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Our government is calling them unlawful combatants, not prisoners of war, which means they don't have some of the rights POWs have.

I don't care what they're called. They're scum and I wish they didn't have any rights at all. Human rights activists, however, don't agree. They think these people are being treated unfairly in Cuba. Boo hoo. Next time these do-gooders start spewing their drivel I wish they'd stop and think about Sept. 11.

posted by Anne 1/29/2002 03:03:00 PM (0) comments

Monday, January 28, 2002

 

I found these "nursery crimes" via Pamela and omg they had me cracking up! Just a sample:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Pointed and laughed.
or
stick and stones may break my bones
but it only takes 4 pounds of pressure to rip your balls off..!
or(which is, by far, my favorite)
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
She smelled like old socks.

Go check 'em out. You won't be sorry. *s*

posted by Anne 1/28/2002 05:11:00 PM (0) comments

 

I found this very interesting. "The closest thing to a universal rule is that most men like a woman who's comfortable with her body, whatever her body happens to look like."

(link via Jish)

posted by Anne 1/28/2002 05:03:00 PM (0) comments

 

What makes a man a man?

There's a custody battle in Florida right now in which a woman is fighting her transsexual husband for custody of their two children. (One is her biological son whom he adopted. The other is the product of his brother's sperm.)

According to Court TV, the big question in court last week was "Is sex in the mind or the body?" "Sex is between your ears, not between your legs," testified Walter Bockting, an expert on transsexualism, on behalf of Michael Kantaras, the husband. Bockting went on to testify that fewer than 10 percent of the women undergoing gender reassignment actually have the surgery to "construct" a penis, thus pointing out that it's not a person's sex organs that tell them what sex they are.

The judge in the case went on to ask "Do you believe that having a small penis or having no penis at all makes an individual less of a man?" Of course Bockting said "No."

I think this trial could teach people not just about transsexuals, but about all men. Maybe it could even teach men a little bit about themselves. Maybe, just maybe, the men who put so much emphasis on penis size and performance would realize that's not what makes a man a man.

Is a man who's paralyzed from the waist down any less a man than someone who's not? Not if he's a good, decent human being. And isn't that what's more important than what is considered male and what is considered female?

posted by Anne 1/28/2002 02:23:00 PM (0) comments

 

Bottoms up ... or not. This woman got stuck to a toilet seat on an airplane for more than two hours because she didn't stand up before she flushed. Can you think of anything more embarrassing than having people have to pry you from a toilet seat?

posted by Anne 1/28/2002 09:18:00 AM (0) comments

 

This is awesome. Kurt Wenner creates chalk "paintings" on pavement. They are simply unreal! You'd never believe these were done with chalk.

posted by Anne 1/28/2002 09:15:00 AM (0) comments

 

I know how she felt

In St. Paul, Minnesota, a former employee of a public television network is accused of sending threatening e-mail to a customer she considered rude. While I don't condone her actions, I can certainly understand the reasoning behind them.

The newspaper I worked for is very small and doesn't have an answering service/switchboard, so the reporters have to answer all the phones after the business office people leave for the day. I can't tell you the number of times I talked to people who literally yelled at me because they hadn't gotten their paper yet. Take into consideration this is a morning paper that normally hits newsstands/doorsteps/delivery boxes before 7 a.m. The reporters don't get to work until 2 p.m. Most of them expected me to drop whatever I was doing and deliver a paper to their house. If I did that, they'd probably be the first to complain that the City Council meeting wasn't in the next day's paper. (Uh sorry. I was out delivering papers. Didn't have time to go to any meeting.) This paper is more than 100 years old. It has never been published on July 5 or December 26 so the employees can spend July 4 and Christmas Day with their families. But I'm tellin' ya, it never failed. On July 5 and December 26 we'd get dozens of calls from people complaining about not getting their paper.

But not getting their paper is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to complaints. There are the people who get into drunken brawls, are charged with aggravated assault and beg to have it kept out of the paper. "If you print my name, I'll sue." Uh huh. There are the people who write 500-word letters to the editor thinking the 350-word limit can't possibly apply to them because "this is important and people should know about it." Buy an ad, pal. But the worst of the worst are brides. Everyone's name is spelled correctly (including all 16 members of the wedding party), every song that was sung, played, hummed and toe-tapped was mentioned, the wedding gown was described in the fullest of detail, right down to the imported white satin on the miniature decorative buttons adorning the back of the gown. But "you didn't say my bouquet (consisting of 37 varieties of rare, tropical flowers) had baby's breath in it." Honey, every bride's bouquet has baby's breath in it. You ain't nothin' special.

The point is: A person can only take so much abuse. As I said, I don't condone the actions of the woman in St. Paul, but I have to give her credit for sticking to her guns.

By the way, did I mention the former homecoming queen who, when we ran a retrospective story in 2000, had every member of her family call to tell us she was the 1979 crown-wearer and not the person we said it was? Turns out she read it wrong. We were right. Her family never read it. They just took her word for it, not ours. But what can you expect from someone hanging onto a 21-year-old homecoming queen crown?

posted by Anne 1/28/2002 01:11:00 AM (0) comments

Sunday, January 27, 2002

 

Six Degrees of Elvis Presley

Nick and I were watching an Elvis concert video a few weeks ago and I learned something I didn't know before. One of the Oakridge Boys was one of Elivs' backup singers. So, I said that I shook hands with a guy who probably touched Elvis and then I touched Nick with that hand.

This morning we took that a little further. I tried thinking of all the people I've met who've had some kind of Elvis connection. Here's what I came up with:

Ben Vereen: was in "Roots" with Edward Asner, who was in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" with Mary Tyler Moore, who was in "Change of Habit" with Elvis.

Crystal Gayle: is a sister of Loretta Lynn, who (we believe) did some kind of musical revues with Elvis. (Backup connection: Buddy Harman was a session drummer for both Loretta Lynn and Elvis.)

Hillary Clinton: lived in the White House, where Elvis went when he met President Nixon.

Leslie Uggams: see Ben Vereen.

Doc Severinsen: played in an orchestra with Earl Hefley, who played in a band with Elvis.

Maureenn McGovern: sang "The Morning After" and "We May Never Love Like This Again," written by Joel Hirschhorn, who wrote "Your Time Hasn't Come Yet Baby" for Elvis.

That's all I can think of right now. Why don't you try it? I'll bet you can come up with a couple.

posted by Anne 1/27/2002 10:18:00 AM (0) comments

Saturday, January 26, 2002

 

Saint Google?

No, no, no. The patron saint of the Internet won't be Saint Google. According to this story at Wired, the church's leading candidate is Saint Isidore of Seville, who was best known for his massive, 20-volume Etymologiae, ­an attempt at compiling all the world's knowledge, covering grammar, medicine, law, geography, agriculture, theology, cooking and all points between.

Do we really need a patron saint of the Internet. Well, I'm sure my mom will be happy about it. The woman is very close to sainthood herself. I just know that now before she presses the power button on her WebTV (her computer, as she calls it) she'll be asking Saint Isidore to pray for her. Pray that she doesn't get lost and wind up at some porn site? Maybe. Pray that she has e-mail from one of her three children? Possibly. Pray that she gets all the answers right on her favorite on-line trivia game? Could be.

Somehow, I don't see the people running all the porn sites buying into this patron saint business. I'm sure all the spammers and people who flame guestbooks aren't going to think much of it either. But, as Vinton Cerf, the WorldCom executive widely credited as "the father of the Internet," said "Considering all the challenges facing the Internet, having a patron saint doesn't sound like a bad idea."

He's probably right. It couldn't hurt.

posted by Anne 1/26/2002 02:22:00 PM (0) comments

 

New look

I think I'm fairly happy with the look of this blog. I'm not totally happy, but it's closer to what I wanted than what I had before.

posted by Anne 1/26/2002 02:05:00 PM (0) comments

Saturday, January 19, 2002

 

Politically correct. But is it right?

I'm totally outraged and saddened by the statue that is supposed to represent the three firefighters who raised the flag amid the rumble of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. In case you live in a cave and haven't heard, although the three firefighters who raised the flag -- the photograph of which is one of the most poignant from that day -- are white, the statue depicts a white, Hispanic and black firefighter.

This is being politically correct to the extreme, and it's wrong. I probably can't say it any better than the people in this Washington Post article. It pretty much sums up how I feel. The statue, which is supposed to be a reminder of this country's strength and resolve on the worst day in its history, should be historically accurate. This is not the time to make a political statement about ethnic diversity. Even the black firefighters union of New York says its more concerned with real-life diversity, not the symbolic kind.

Of course there should be memorials to all the people who died at the World Trade Center -- all races, sexes, religions -- but let's leave this piece of history the way it is.

As long as I'm writing about being politcally correct, look at this. It's not as important as the firefighter statue, but it says something about our culture. It seems that all new merchandising for The Brady Bunch is being done without the image of Mike Brady, the father.

What's the first thing you thought of when you read/heard that? The people who own the rights to Brady Bunch merchandise don't want to use Mike Brady/Robert Reed anymore because he died an AIDS-related death. Right? Wrong. That's not the reason at all. It seems that shortly before his death Reed refused to sign a deal with Viacom/Paramount that would let the corporation use his '70s-era image on Brady products.

Surprised? So was I when I read the truth. I was also sad that we live in a world that allowed me, possibily even forced me, to think my first thought.

posted by Anne 1/19/2002 01:41:00 PM (0) comments

Tuesday, January 15, 2002

 

Can news be sexy?

When you're in the news business, a good, meaty, interesting story that you know people are going to read is often described as sexy. But that's inside newsrooms. Calling someone who reports the sexy stories sexy just isn't right. But it happened when CNN ran ads describing news anchor Paul Zahn as provocative, smart and “just a little sexy.”

Zahn took offense to the ads and CNN pulled them. Although Bill O'Reilly of the Fox News Channel says Zahn was just being "politically correct" when she wanted the ads nixed, I don't think so. By the way, Zahn left Fox for CNN in September. Anyway, Zahn has been in the business for more than 20 years. To be described as sexy must seem like a slap in the face to her and everything she's worked for.

But there's more to it than that. If any of the other networks had run the ads, that would be different. Personally, I don't think it would be right, but it would be different and not quite as offensive. Don't go crying "double standard" on me. They're entertainment networks that happen to provide news as well. CNN is supposed to be a news network. If any network should work against blurring the line between entertainment and news it's CNN.

Let's hope CNN learned something from this.

posted by Anne 1/15/2002 07:44:00 PM (0) comments

Monday, January 14, 2002

 

Priorities

You probably know by now that Thomas Junta was convicted manslaughter for beating another man to death during their sons' hockey practice. If this trial had happened before Sept. 11, I'm sure I'd have different thoughts on it than I do now.

I still think it's pathetic that some parents get so emotional about their children's activities. Getting involved and staying informed is one thing. But beating another to death? Unreal. Arguing with umpires, bribing coaches and pushing the kids until the activities aren't fun anymore aren't any better than what the "hockey dad" did. It's just that people don't usually die because of parents' actions.

Be that as it may, I'm hoping that the events of Sept. 11 put things in perspective for some of those parents. I'm hoping they realize there are more important things in life than their child being the star quarterback or the pitcher with the best ERA or even the ballet dancer who gets the part of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

I'm hoping that doing your best and playing fair become the most important things again.

posted by Anne 1/14/2002 01:52:00 PM (0) comments

 

Sad stories

I went to Court TV to get some facts about the "hockey dad" trial so I could write about that. But I got side-tracked. There are some very sad stories around the country.

Days after single father begins caring for baby, girl starves, father charged with murder
A six-month old baby died because, apparently, she had a virus and her 23-year-old father didn't know how to care for her. The father's mother was concerned that he might not know how to be a "good father." In this day and age, what 23-year-old doesn't know how to care for a baby -- or at least know where to go for help?

Student releases principal, assistant principal after about three hours at Miss. school
The student was suspended so he came back to school with a gun because he was "frustrated with other things" and the suspension was the "crowning blow." Yes, the kid is messed up. But haven't Columbine, et al taught parents anything about keeping guns out of their childrens' hands?

Police make arrest in bizarre stray-bullet killing of toddler in New York
Yonkers Police Commissioner Charles Cola: "This was a senseless, depraved act of stupidity which resulted in the loss of an innocent life." No further comment is necessary.

posted by Anne 1/14/2002 01:38:00 PM (0) comments

Monday, January 07, 2002

 

Where was the father?

Jury selection in the trial of Andrea Yates, the Texas mother accused of drowning her five children begins today. I can't help but wonder how many people called to jury duty will be thinking the same thing I'm thinking: Where was the father?

I don't mean during the actual drowning of his children. I mean, where was he for the months leading up to the drownings? Russell Yates has said his wife suffered from postpartum depression after the births of their two youngest children. Her condition worsened when her father died in March, three months after six-month-old Mary's birth. If he knew she suffered from postpartum depression, what was he doing to help? If he knew she was suffering from postpartum depression after the birth of their 2-year-old, why did they have another baby?

Surely he saw signs that his wife needed help. Did he choose to ignore those signs? Did he hope she would just "get over it" and life would be back to normal soon? Was he overwhelmed by the whole situation?

For whatever reason, Russell Yates was not there for his wife or his children. In my opinion that's enough to charge him as an accessory to the crime. At the very least, because he knew his wife was in no condition to take proper care of their children, he should be charged with endangering the welfare of children.

In the end, however, whether he's ever charged with anything or not, he'll have to live with the question: "Could I have prevented this?" That just may be a worse punishment than anything the State of Texas could give him.

posted by Anne 1/07/2002 09:30:00 AM (0) comments

Saturday, January 05, 2002

 

Censorship revisited

I can understand why the media wants to/has been asked to censor certain war- and security-related issues. I don't agree with it at all, but I understand. However, I do not understand why the American people are, presumably, supposed to forget that Hillary Clinton was practically booed off the stage during the Concert for New York City.

Many of you probably remember that debacle, when the people at the benefit concert organized by Paul McCartney and aired on VH-1 made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that they didn't want the former first lady on the stage. But the concert was reaired on Christmas Day -- without the boos.

It's anyone's guess as to why VH-1 decided to dub out the boos and make it look as if Hillary was welcome at the event. But here are some facts to make the guesses more educated. VH-1 is owned by Viacom. Viacom also owns Simon & Schuster Books. Simon & Schuster just paid Hillary $8 million to write a book.

In and of itself, that scenario just looks like a business protecting its interests. But look a little further. Among Viacom's other holdings are MTV Nickelodeon and Noggin, Comedy Central, Black Entertainment Television, Showtime, the Movie Channel, TNN, and Country Music Television. Viacom owns Paramount Studios, Blockbuster Video, Outdoor Systems billboards, the Star Trek franchise, and King World, distributors of such TV staples as Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Hollywood Squares, Martha Stewart and Oprah. In broadcast television it owns the UPN network and a little network you may have heard of: CBS.

Looks as if Viacom has all its demographic bases covered, doesn't it?

So, while on the surface it may seem that dubbing out a few boos to make a senator look good isn't all that bad, there are more important questions that arise from the incident. The most of important of which are: What does Viacom want us to see and not see, and to what lengths will they go to make it happen?

posted by Anne 1/05/2002 06:25:00 PM (0) comments

Friday, January 04, 2002

 

Thank God he's not president

No, I don't mean Al Gore, although I am thankful that he's not president either. I'm referring to Pat Buchanan.

Buchanan has written a book, The Death of the West : How Mass Immigration, Depopulation & A Dying Faith Are Killing Our Culture and Country. In it, in short, he claims that America is losing its culture because of immigration. I haven't read the book, and don't plan to, but a review from "Publishers Weekly" offers this about it: "Fearful that American is being "de-Christianized," Buchanan argues that "while the prognosis is not good," America must re-evaluate itself and reclaim its white, Christian origins; despite the current "coarseness of her manners, the decadence of her culture, or the sickness in her soul," the nation is worth saving."

Excuse me Mr. Buchanan, but wasn't American built on diversity? Reclaim its white origins? What's that all about? I'm sure Native Americans will be thrilled to hear Buchanan's thoughts on that topic.

I agree that we're seeing a lack of manners and an increase in decadence, but I don't agree in any way that those things can be attributed to ethnic groups "taking over" America. JonBenet Ramsey, Bill Clinton, Gary Condit, Thomas Junta. What do those people have to do with the ethnic groups Buchanan cites? They have a lot to do with a declining moral standard in our country, but little to do with ethnic groups.

Personally, I think Buchanan and people like him are more dangerous to the future of America than Mexicans, Asians or Middle Easterners could ever dream of being. Instead of blaming ethnic groups and trying to cause undo panic, I think Buchanan would be helping more if he tried to figure out why people of almost all races and religions are not living by the Golden Rule.

posted by Anne 1/04/2002 10:02:00 AM (0) comments

Wednesday, January 02, 2002

 

Should they or shouldn't they?

Zacarias Moussaoui, who is suspected of being a highjacker who didn't make it onto an airplane on Sept. 11, will be going to trial later this year. Court TV believes the proceedings should be open to the public and broadcast on television. Prosecuters don't think so.

Citing the "circus" of the O.J. Simpson trial, a lawyer told "Today's" Matt Lauer that cameras don't belong in a courtroom and she's afraid cameras in the Moussaoui case would cause a repeat of the O.J. fiasco.

Uh, hello? Is she really comparing this guy and his trial to O.J.? I think the only comparison will be the ratings.

Americans need to see this trial. It may be the only form of closure we get in regard to Sept. 11. The public execution of Osama bin Laden would be the best form of closure, but it's unlikely he'll be captured alive. Aside from his underestimating the spirit of America, he's an intelligent man. He'll see to it that George W. doesn't get want we all know he wants -- a face-to-face confrontation.

So with bin Laden out of the picture, Americans need something. This trial, at least for now, is as close as we're going to get to getting what we need. Let Court TV's cameras in the courtroom.

posted by Anne 1/02/2002 12:11:00 PM (0) comments