I’ve only seen 5 of the Oscar nominees so far…
… but I knew two of them were clearly going to end up on the list when I saw them. Unfortunately they are competing against each other. I enjoyed
them both with equal enthusiasm.
Hugo was a salute to the early film industry in France (the fantastic films of Georges Melies) with chase and mystery in the Paris railroad station. I brought two of my grandsons to see it and I don’t know who liked it more, them or me. Martin Scorsese
made a real winner here… and it was in 3D!
The Artist, which Elly and I saw last week, was a tribute to silent movies… black and white, some sound added for effect… and funny. One of the few movies I’ve seen lately that I would have watched again on the same day.
Both of these are worth winning the Oscar. I hope one of them comes through.
The Newt in the Moon…
While he makes the budget balanced as President, Newt Gingrich has now promised to put a US base on the moon… by the end of his second term!
The two problems with this are 1.) the cost would blow us even deeper into debt, and 2.) we have to elect Newt for Two Terms!
Now we know he was angling for the NASA vote on the “Space Coast”, but doesn’t Newtie realize that the whole nation is watching (and laughing)?
Nicol Williamson, legendary British actor, dies at 75…
He was once heralded as the greatest British actor of his generation. Nicol Williamson was known for stormy onstage behavior- including calling off a 1969 performance of “Hamlet” mid-speech because he was too tired to go on.
“I’ll pay for the seats, but I won’t shortchange you by not giving my best.” said Williamson. And then he walked off stage.
At age 26 when he auditioned for “Inadmissible Evidence,” playwright John Osborne wrote in his diary that this “pouting, delinquent cherub produced the face to match the torment below the surface. He is much too young, 26, to the character’s 39, but no matter. He is old within.” The playwright called Williamson “the greatest actor since Marlon Brando.”
After appearing in films, television productions and plays on the English and Broadway stages, he retreated to Amsterdam about two decades ago and focused on playing country music. Before he died, he was able to finish recording the CD he had been working on, said his son, Williamson’s only immediate survivor. “He didn’t want any fuss made over his passing. He was not interested in publicity,” said Luke Williamson.
Nicol Williamson was known for being hard to get along with, especially by directors and producers (he once punched David Merrick during a rehearsal), and he commentd on his own personality:
“I think the only valuable thing you can do as an actor is to make people recognize in themselves what is also there in you, and what you see in them. Then they’ll hate you because they don’t want you to do that to them. That’s why I’m hated a lot of the time. They don’t want you to show these things in you because it makes them uncomfortable. It makes them frightened. But I think you must show these things in order to be true to yourself.”
Boy, I’m sick of Spam…
Akismet, the spam removal software that’s put up by WordPress for bloggers using their program, is very efficient in removing comments that are meaningless, or advertising, or just inappropriate.
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I’m not sure why anyone reading these comments would print them. So why do these idiots waste their time posting them?
I must have missed this over the Holidays…
…but it’s worth playing it now. I need some humor this afternoon.
Thanks for your Donation:
My thanks to Laura Bakin for today’s donation to Under The LobsterScope. Watch your e-mail, your Bill’s Barnhart Ornaments font is on the way!
- Bill
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Did you see this article? This is why the Republican right scares the s#%t out of me…
From Think Progress:
Oklahoma Lawmaker Wants To Outlaw Use Of Human Fetuses In Production Of Food
By Adam Peck on Jan 24, 2012 at 7:40 pm
Oklahoma State Sen. Ralph Shortey (R)
Oklahoma GOP State Senator Ralph Shortey is on a mission to finally put an end to his state’s allegedly rampant cannibalism problem. Alarmed after his own research, which consisted of reading a nameless report stating that companies have used stem cells in the production of food, Shortey introduced a bill that would prohibit the manufacturing and sale of food “which contains aborted human fetuses.”
Shortey explained his reasoning to local radio station News Talk Radio KRMG in Tulsa:
There is a potential that there are companies that are using aborted human babies in their research and development of basically enhancing flavor for artificial flavors.
Shortey was unable to provide any specific examples of the problem he’s trying to curb, and admits that it’s possible there aren’t any human fetuses in Oklahoma’s food. “I don’t know if it is happening in Oklahoma, it may be, it may not be,” he said.
NPR suggests Shortey may have caught wind of a boycott waged against PepsiCo and others last year after they contracted with the San Diego research and development company Senomyx, which employed the use of stem cells in their research. But the cell line in question dates to the 1970s, and can be traced back to human embryonic kidney cells, a far cry from Shortey’s claim of human fetuses.
And there are people who believe this stuff! The wavin’ wheat may sure smell sweet in Oklahoma, but the politics stinks.
Monsanto Attempts to Lockout Socially Responsible Shareholder at Annual Meeting…
CLICK HERE
In the Organic Consumers Association blog, the report concerns Monsanto shareholder (and organic food activist) Adam Eidinger. A clip:
Eidinger, who organized last October’s a 100 person, 313 mile “Right2Know March” from New York City to the White House for federally mandated GMO food labeling says: “With the rise or
Round-Up resistant ‘superweeds‘ the company is simply telling farmers to spray even more toxic herbicides including 2,4 D, the main ingredient in Agent Orange.
I urge you to go read the article and to contact your representatives about Monsanto poisoning (and hiding their actions concerning) our food.
Boycott the Koch Brothers
________________
Boycott the Koch Brothers
by Ben Hoffman
Reblogged from Tribune of the People:
These products are owned by corporations owned by the Koch Brothers — the fascists that began the whole Tea Bagger movement. Boycott these products.
Wonders of the Law
Ben Stein Sues: “Ad Agency Replaced Me Over My Global-Warming Position”
I found this over at The Wrap and Japan Real Time
Instead of winning Ben Stein’s money, Stein is seeking to win Kyocera’s in a touchy lawsuit.
The conservative pundit and actor — and former Nixon speechwriter — claims that his position on climate change had him kicked off a $300,000 acting gig scheduled to start in 2010, only to be replaced by a lookalike.

Stein filed a discrimination suit against Japanese company Kyocera Corporation and New York ad agency Seiter & Miller Advertising, in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday.
He is alleging breach of contract, wrongful discharge and emotional distress, among other charges.
In the suit, Stein says Kyocera reneged on the deal and replaced him after the company found out that he isn’t sure humans are responsible for climate change.
The deal would have had Stein — who has previously been featured in advertisements for Comcast, Clear Eyes and Hewlett-Packard — acting in commercials for Kyocera and appearing at a major company event.
Apparently, when he was asked about his position on Global Warming, Stein told Kyocera and Seiter & Miller that he was extremely concerned about the environment but unsure whether humans are responsible for global warming.
“He also told Hurwitz to inform defendants that, as a matter of religious belief, he believed that God, and not man, controlled the weather,” the suit claims.
Kyocera then tapped well-known economics professor Peter Morici – a bow tie enthusiast with an uncanny resemblance in appearance and mannerism to the actor – to appear in the commercials. Stein claimed hat they were basing the character of an “economics professor” on his image. According to the suit, Stein has been described as “the most famous economics teacher in the world” for his iconic role in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
“In an astonishingly brazen misappropriation of [Stein's] persona, [they] dressed him up as Stein often appeared in commercials (bow tie, glasses, sports jacket).”
It seems that Stein is claiming a brand logo kind of situation for the image… as if he owned it.
Stein is seeking $300,000 for the work he agreed to do, along with attorney fees, court costs and punitive damages.
I don’t know what Morici will seek from Stein.
Cartoon(ist) of the Week – David Horsey of the L.A. Times
Sorry this didn’t get up yesterday, but Elly and I went down to Frederick to catch The Artist. If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend it highly… a beautiful and funny film.
Anyway, this week I’ve decided to do something I haven’t done in a while, and that is to focus on one editorial cartoonist – David Horsey.
David Horsey in the L. A. Times
The horror show…
- and -
Now I understand primaries…
- and -
It’s the economy, stupid!
- and -
Mitt loves to fire people…
- and -
He still doesn’t see what it takes…
First primary poll I’ve seen from Florida…
After Newt’s win in South Carolina, he seems to be having a surge in Florida. I just saw an InsiderAdvantage poll of of 557 registered Republican voters and Gingrich leads Romney by 8 points:
- Gingrich: 34 percent
- Romney: 26 percent
- Ron Paul: 13 percent
- Rick Santorum: 11 percent
- Other: 2 percent
- No opinion: 14 percent
“Gingrich has been closing the gap nationally, according to the Gallup tracking poll. Florida is a reflection that Republicans nationally are moving toward Gingrich.”
- Matt Towery, chief pollster for InsiderAdvantage
This will be interesting to watch, unless, like me, you don’t want to miss the new episode of House.
Gabby Giffords will be leaving Congress…
It is unfortunate, but Rep. Gabby Giffords (D -AZ), who was shot last year while speaking to constituents in a mall parking lot, will be stepping down from her seat in order to continue her recovery.
We are losing a Representative of great promise and distinction.
Here is her statement:
What Fun! The Republicans now have Newt as a Winner :)
Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina Primary and this morning he exploited his win over all the network Sunday morning news shows. His ego glowed like a radium ion.
So Santorum has Iowa (we guess), Romney has New Hampshire, and Newt now has South Carolina. Now there is no REAL leader and we’re looking toward Florida to see what happens next.
I doubt that Ron Paul is going to quit yet. Wouldn’t it be funny if he took Florida?
There’s also the potential, now, for a brokered Republican Convention… this means that a wholly new candidate could be brought in by the Party and made nominee (Chris Christie, maybe?)
So now we have one candidate that often switches positions solely to get the vote (Mitt), one that makes Democrats look sane (Newt) and one who puts religion and ant-gay hysteria on top of governing the country (Santorum.)
As to which one of these Obama would prefer to tun against…who knows? Any one of them has great benefits for the Democrats. I’d prefer Santorum, but that is the least likely.
Not everyone recognizes true talent…
I found this little graphic on Facebook this morning:
Of course, I read it with no trouble, but the comment of being a pointless talent means the idiot who wrote it would probably have been a failure at old time typesetting.
In the days of moveable type, all words and sentences were set backwards (and often, in the old time newspaper production area, upside down as well.) If you couldn’t read – and write – backwards with clarity, you were prone to typos and would not hold a job very long.
This may be a talent which the time of desktop publishing by computer has relegated to specialty shops, but a talent it certainly is. It also promotes discipline and concentration, something we have 
very little of in the work-a-day world these days.
Sitting in the radio station after crawling through ice to get in.
Thank goodness for 4-wheel drive. Fortunately they had already plowed King St. and I could park quite close to WSHC‘s studio in Kunicke Hall.
There’s about 2 inches of snow layered with a half inch of ice. It took me a few minutes to scrape my car off, but it looks like the worst is probably over. The Weather Bureau says the temperature will go above freezing and we’ll have a little light rain and then overcast sun later this afternoon. Can’t wait.
Given the weather, I’m not sure if any of my regular walk-in guests will be on “Talk To Me” today. Hopefully folks will call in to 304-876-5369 and say hello.
The internet is up, so if you’re not in the Shepherdstown, WV, area you can tune in at http://897wshc.org. I’ll be on from 11AM until 1 PM ET.
Since it’s a great day to stay inside and snuggle up with your sweetie take advantage of it. There has been so little winter this year that this is almost like a vacation.
Primary Poem
Today’s the day that Perry quit.
His backing goes to Newt, not Mitt.
And Newt’s ex-wife may crash his carriage…
She says he wanted Open Marriage.
Now Iowa has changed its score
and Rick leaves Mitt upon the floor.
Ron Paul takes all this at its face…
Ignoring his past views on Race.
So four are left in fume and smoke
And Saturday will be a joke.
And you think you have problems…
Looking at commuter problems in this country pale when we look elsewhere. This from All Hat, No Cattle (one of my all-time favorite blogs):
People ride on top of a commuter train in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012. Indonesia has gone to imaginative extremes to try to stop commuters from illegally riding the roofs of trains, hosing down the scofflaws with red paint, threatening them with dogs and appealing for help from religious leaders. Now the authorities have an intimidating and possibly even deadly new tactic: Suspending rows of grapefruit-sized concrete balls to rake over the top of trains as they pull out of stations, or when they go through rail crossings. Photo/Dita Alangkara

My thanks to Laura Bakin for today’s donation to Under The LobsterScope. Watch your e-mail, your Bill’s Barnhart Ornaments font is on the way!

Oklahoma State Sen. Ralph Shortey (R)

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