RIP Mary

I think I need to cry now.  Mary Travers, dead at 72.

DANBURY, Conn. — Mary Travers, one-third of the hugely popular 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, has died.

The band’s publicist, Heather Lylis, says Travers died at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut on Wednesday. She was 72 and had battled leukemia for several years.

Alexander Rybak wins Eurovision 2009 for Norway

Not the best set of pipes, but the kid is fun to watch in this and in other things I’ve seen.  Well earned!

Here’s the Eurovision blurb, with a little bio on Alex.  He’s an actual musician – piano and violin, composes, has already performed with many big names.  Read it here.

BCS declares Germany of WWII

Don’t know the original author, but this is priceless.  Goodbye BCS, you can’t die too soon.

US Ranked 4th

After determining the Big-12 championship game participants, the BCS computers were put to work on other major contests and today the BCS declared Germany to be the winner of World War II.

“Germany put together an incredible number of victories beginning with the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland and continuing on into conference play with defeats of Poland, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands. Their only losses came against the US and Russia; however considering their entire body of work–including an incredibly tough Strength of Schedule–our computers deemed them worthy of the #1 ranking.”

• B/R Ticket Guide

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Questioned about the #4 ranking of the United States the BCS commissioner stated “The US only had two major victories–Japan and Germany. The computer models, unlike humans, aren’t influenced by head-to-head contests–they consider each contest to be only a single, equally-weighted event.”

German Chancellor Adolf Hitler said “Yes, we lost to the US; but we defeated #2 ranked France in only 6 weeks.” Herr Hitler has been criticized for seeking dramatic victories to earn ’style points’ to enhance Germany’s rankings. Hitler protested “Our contest with Poland was in doubt until the final day and the conditions in Norway were incredibly challenging and demanded the application of additional forces.”

The French ranking has also come under scrutiny. The BCS commented “ France had a single loss against Germany and following a preseason #1 ranking they only fell to #2.”

Japan was ranked #3 with victories including Manchuria, Borneo and the Philippines.

Because I want to

Not new, I know.  Still worth it.

Not that we’re counting or anything…

Go Utes

As a transplanted Utahn, last night’s beat down of Alabama in the 2008 Sugar Bowl was a joy to behold, even though I didn’t graduate from the University of Utah.

It does highlight, again, what a crock of shit the BCS is and how if is an utter fail in selecting a “champion”.

Well done boys.  Here’s to next year.

Losing a classic

Eartha Kitt passes away at 81.

Here she is performing at age 79.

Her last performance was recorded for PBS just six weeks ago, and will air in February.

RIP Majel Barrett Roddenberry

Majel Barrett Roddenberry passed away at age 76.

An historic occasion

Forty two years ago today was the first time Capt. Kirk called for warp speed.

Wired is sharing favorite Star Trek moments.  Check it out.

Hat tip:  Shaun Mullen

Hat tip:

The hottest ticket in town

Having grown up in the home town of the Utah Shakespearean Festival, I have pretty high standards when it comes to theater in general, and Shakespeare in particular.  But the current Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet is making me swoon:

The Royal Shakespeare Company usually draws genteel, theater-loving crowds to the serene town of Stratford, the playwright’s birthplace. It has never seen anything like the fan frenzy surrounding a new production of “Hamlet” that stars not one but two science fiction icons: David Tennant, hero of the British Broadcasting Corp.’s beloved “Doctor Who,” and Patrick Stewart of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Critics shouldn’t sniff.  Tennant and Stewart both have extensive stage experience, are damn good actors, and deserve to be evaluated on the merits of their performance and not penalize for the crime of having found popular success.

Now if I could just persuade my wife to let me sell one of the kids to afford tickets…

Go surfers!

Poetic justice:

 A paparazzo trying to photograph Matthew McConaughey at the beach told police he was attacked by a mob of surfers who threw his camera in the ocean.

Traumatic movie

Via Andy Borowitz:

A self-styled heterosexual man from Akron, Ohio said today that he was “traumatized” over the weekend after attending a showing of the new Sarah Jessica Parker film, “Sex and the City.”

Hendrick Colton, 34, said that he bought a ticket to the summer blockbuster “Iron Man” at his neighborhood multiplex but wandered into the theater showing “Sex and the City” instead.

“The minute the movie came on, I knew something was terribly, terribly wrong,” he said.

Mr. Colton, a sales clerk at a Home Depot in the Akron suburbs, said he tried to leave the theater immediately but was seated in the middle of a row, making it impossible to escape without causing commotion.

“Everyone around me was laughing their heads off and shouting ‘You go, girl!’” he said. “It was terrifying.”

A spokesman for New Line Cinema, the company that released “Sex and the City,” said that the film grossed $55 million over the weekend but that Mr. Colton was the only heterosexual man known to have seen it.

Friends of Mr. Colton who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the Akron man seemed shaken by the experience of seeing the movie and was concerned that others might now doubt his longstanding claim of being heterosexual.

Davis Logsdon, a professor of human sexuality at the University of Minnesota, said that a straight man could attend a film such as “Sex and the City” without experiencing any change in his sexual identity.

“A heterosexual man could see that movie and remain heterosexual at its conclusion,” Dr. Logsdon said. “Having said that, it’s totally gay that he did that.”

A bridge in Brooklyn

A nifty bit at Improv Everywhere with cascading lights flashing down the Brooklyn Bridge a week before it’s 125th anniversary.  Go to the site and look at all the photos, the write up, etc.

more about “A bridge in Brooklyn“, posted with vodpod

Ladies and gentlemen, here are your targets for seduction

Does Forbes really have nothing better to do than this?

They’re young, fabulously wealthy and have blue blood coursing through their veins. Meet the “20 Hottest Young Royals” in the world, compiled by influential fortune tracker, Forbes magazine.

Too young

Actor Heath Ledger was found dead in NYC this afternoon.

You can take the girl out of the trailer park, but…

You know, I’ve REALLY REALLY not wanted to comment on the pregnancy of Jamie Lynn Spears – let’s face it, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel – but Dan Savage’s comments are too good to not repeat.

But first, a summary.  Synopses can be found all over the internet, this one comes from HuffPo:

Britney Spears’ younger sister Jamie Lynn Spears has announced in OK! Magazine that she is pregnant. Meanwhile her mom Lynne Spears’ book on Christian parenting, due in Spring 2008, has been indefinitely delayed. Us Weekly reports Jamie Lynn’s father – Lynne’s ex-husband Jamie – is “furious” that mother and daughter sold their story to OK! and “devastated” at the news that his youngest child is pregnant. Jamie Lynn supposedly got a $1 Million back-end deal for the interview.

Jamie Lynn, who is the star of Nickelodeon’s hit show Zoey 101, on which she plays a schoolgirl, turned 16 on April 4 and is a high school junior. She tells OK! Magazine, on newsstands in New York and LA Wednesday and nationwide Friday, that she and (possibly ex) boyfriend Casey Aldridge are expecting a child, that she is 12 weeks along, and that she is keeping it.

The mind boggles.  Where to begin…

OK, first off, the thought of Lynne Spears writing a book on parenting (HuffPo is the only site that specifies “Christian” parenting) is risible.  I’m sure it will be on the best seller list next to such scintillating titles as Marital Fidelity by Rudy Giuliani and the FEMA Disaster Recovery Handbook.

This is where Dan Savage’s insight came in.  He quips:

Uh… Mrs. Spears? Wouldn’t your divorce and your daughter’s divorce, drug use, and spectacularly bad parenting disqualify you from writing a book about “Christian parenting”? Didn’t you think that was a little jinxy–even before your other daughter got herself knocked up at 16?

Next question.  No, make that two questions.  First off, will rules that typically apply only to the “little” people be applied here?  Casey Aldridge appears to be a cute kid and all, but he is 19 years old, and Jamie Lynn is 16.   I’m talking criminal charges.

The follow up question there would be what kind of shitwits are these parents all around?  What kind of ninnies allow such that a child of only 16 has a long time serious boyfriend?  More to the point, when your minor child is “dating” someone sufficiently older as to be outside the Romeo and Juliet laws,  real parents DO things.  Things involving firearms and restraining orders.

And Casey, what WERE you thinking?  Didn’t you learn anything from the example of Jason Alexander, that in Hollywood “I love you” really means, “I’m stoned off my ass and yours is the nearest erection.”

And have you seen the silly cover of the OK! spread? Shocked and scared?  Are we to believe they didn’t know where babies come from?

I do feel sorry for the co-stars on her TV show, whose future plans are going to be changing since it’s unlikely Nick will be inclined to keep her around.

Update:

Brilliant little quip from Balloon Juice:

Will the 18-year-old who nailed Britney Spears’ 16-year-old sister get to spend the same amount of time in jail as Genarlow Wilson?

A very valid question – as I said, criminal charges!