Marc Dion: Vote for the Eunuch of Your Choice (Creators Syndicate)
I propose that men who want to enter American politics submit to voluntary castration. Not that you'd need to force 'em. I've known guys who would have cheerfully de-berried themselves for a shot at a city council seat somewhere in Iowa.
Charlotte Church goes off-grid in Iceland (Guardian)
I am sat deep under the ground in a 2,000-year-old lava tube, a cave-like tunnel, in total darkness. If you stay down here long enough, I am told by our guide, Oskar, your eyes adjust to the pitch black and you are eventually able to see your hand in front of your face.
Charlyn Fargo: Those Hunger Pangs (Creators Syndicate)
Whether we are trying to lose a few pounds or simply trying to eat healthier, hunger can get in the way. Hunger is a normal body reaction and survival mechanism. Often, hunger can cause us to overeat, including foods that aren't so good for us.
Kudzu (Pueraria lobata) is a serious invasive plant in the United States. It has been spreading in the southern U.S. at the rate of 150,000 acres (61,000 ha) annually, "easily outpacing the use of herbicide spraying and mowing, as well increasing the costs of these controls by $6 million annually." Its introduction has produced devastating environmental consequences. This has earned it the nickname, "The vine that ate the South."
Source
Marian was first, and correct, with:
Lived in outskirts of Atlanta in the 70s, has to be Kudzu...nasty vine.
Green Leafy Lois Of Oregon wrote:
The vine that ate the South? 'Fraid not. Too much south left
down there for my taste, and when the hell is Texass gonna
secede? Anyway, I know, from a brief encounter in
Mississippi almost 20 years ago, that the answer is kudzu,
an invasive plant that came in on a meteor, perhaps as an
act of divine retribution, and immediately climbed up
telephone poles, crept across the lines, and crawled under
the bed of every prominent politician, making exact copies,
but even stupider, to take their places in the halls of
government, which explains quite a lot if you stop and think
about it.
@Sally...if I still had those paper dolls I would happily
give them to you, but they have long since moldered to dust
along with my youthful exuberance.
mj responded:
Another bright idea that got out of hand
Kudzu. But goats seem to find it quite tasty.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, replied:
Kudzu
Adam answered:
Kudzu
Sandra wrote:
kudzu
kEN responded:
KUDZU...SOME WEEDS WILL EAT ANYTHING!
Sally said:
One of the common names for the weed, Kudzu is, "The Vine that Ate the South."
I also saw a piece on the TV show, "Sunday Morning" that showed this weed which is slowly taking over - everything. Furthermore, our current pesticides (like 'Roundup') are failing, and so far, Kudzu has been resistant to chemical killing...
OTOH, It is incredible the number of chemicals that are being sprayed on our food - not that many people seem to care...
PS: Special day for me, my son is coming to town - the one I haven't seen in a year! He is on a short tour with a band, and has found some time to "Work me in..." I don't care, I just want to see him...
Leo in Maryland replied:
"The vine that ate the South" is kudzu.
John I from Hawai`i says,
"Kudzu."
Dale of Diamond Springs, Norcali, answered:
Kudzu was introduced from Japan into the United States at the Japanese pavilion in the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. It is now common along roadsides and other disturbed areas throughout most of the southeastern United States. It has been spreading at the rate of 150,000 acres (610 km2) annually. Sounds like it could kill Godzilla! AHHHHH!
Lois: Who's Norman Bates? I'm not Deborah, nor am I Diane, as Muddy said "I'm a Man".
Alcoholism cure? Who knew? Japanese Cuisine-yes! Also known as ko-hemp.
DJ Useo took the day off.
MAM wrote:
Kudzu ~ Introduced from Japan into the United States in 1876, they are climbing, coiling, and trailing perennial vines of the pea family. It grows at an astonishing rate of a foot a day, . . . is a serious invasive plant.
Elayij, Georgia
From the creation of that "religion:" by Joseph Smith back in the 1830s
or so, until perhaps the 1890s, Mormons drank unapologetically, and
Brigham Young is supposed to have publicly praised his daily beer.
But somebody later, during the 1890s, had a "revelation," and the
Prohibitionists gained control of the LDS establishment.
Much later, Catholic Rev. Andrew Greeley, writing about the Irish and
alcoholism , mentions the susceptibility of the group to the disorder,
wherever they live, adding that WASPs in New England and Utah Mormons
are similarly afflicted...
(But Mormons recruited\converted a fair number of Old Country Irish
during the famine days of the 1840s...)
Utah now emerges officially as #1 consumer of antidepressants...
And the late Howard Jarvis of radical California tax reform fame was
both a Mormon and a boozer...
CBS starts the night with '60 Minutes', followed by the (LIVE on the East Coast, tape-delayed and edited for the left coast) 'The 56th Annual Grammy Awards'.
NBC fills the night with LIVE'Sunday Night Football', then pads the left coast with local crap and maybe an old 'Dateline'.
ABC begins the night with a FRESH'America's So-Called Funniest Home Videos', followed by 'The Bachelor', then a RERUN'Castle'.
The CW offers a FRESH'SAF3', followed by 2 hours of what passes for local news and other fluffery.
Faux has a RERUN'Bob's Burgers', followed by a RERUN'American Dad', then a FRESH'The Simpsons', followed by a FRESH'Bob's Burgers', then a FRESH'Family Guy', followed by a FRESH'American Dad'.
MY has an old 'How I Met Your Mother', followed by another old 'How I Met Your Mother', then an old 'Big Bang Theory', followed by another old 'Big Bang Theory', then still another old 'Big Bang Theory', followed by yet another old 'Big Bang Theory'.
A&E has 'Duck Dynasty', another 'Duck Dynasty', still another 'Duck Dynasty', yet another 'Duck Dynasty', 'Don't Trust Andrew Mayne', another 'Don't Trust Andrew Mayne', still another 'Don't Trust Andrew Mayne', and yet another 'Don't Trust Andrew Mayne'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Godfather: Part II', followed by the movie 'The Godfather'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] TOP GEAR: 50 YEARS OF BOND CARS
[7:30AM] THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS
[10:00AM] THE MAKING OF FLEMING: THE MAN WHO WOULD BE BOND
[10:30AM] A VIEW TO A KILL
[1:00PM] FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
[4:00PM] YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
[6:30PM] GOLDFINGER
[9:00PM] FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
[11:30PM] FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
[2:00AM] THE MAKING OF FLEMING: THE MAN WHO WOULD BE BOND
[2:30AM] YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
[5:00AM] TOP GEAR: 50 YEARS OF BOND CARS (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta', followed by a FRESH'Real Housewives Of Atlanta', then a FRESH'Blood, Sweat & Heels', and 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta'.
Comedy Central has 'Futurama', another 'Futurama', followed by the movie 'Grandma's Boy', 'Tosh.0', and another 'Tosh.0'.
FX has the movie 'Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes', followed by the movie 'The Hangover: Part II'.
History has 'Pawn Stars', another 'Pawn Stars', 'Ax Men', followed by a FRESH'Ax Men', then a FRESH'The Curse Of Oak Island'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] Whitest Kids U'Know
[6:15AM] Batman & Robin
[9:00AM] Malcolm in the Middle-Softball
[9:30AM] Malcolm in the Middle-Lois' Sister
[10:00AM] Malcolm in the Middle-Malcolm Dates a Family
[10:30AM] Malcolm in the Middle-Reese's Apartment
[11:00AM] Batman Forever
[1:30PM] Close Encounters of the Third Kind
[4:30PM] The Aviator
[8:00PM] We Were Soldiers
[11:00PM] The Spoils of Babylon-Kicking the Habit
[11:30PM] The Spoils of Babylon-The Rise of the Empire
[12:00AM] The Aviator
[3:30AM] Blade Runner (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00AM] Amadeus
[10:00AM] You've Got Mail
[12:30PM] Lipsett Diaries
[12:45PM] The Freshman
[3:00PM] Bulworth
[5:15PM] Donnie Darko
[7:45PM] The Professional
[10:00PM] Serpico
[1:00AM] Serpico
[4:00AM] Another Earth (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Skyline', followed by the movie 'Pitch Black'.
Singer Carole King (C) poses with her daughters Louise Goffin (R) and Sherry Goffin Kondor (L) at the 2014 MusiCares Person of the Year gala in her honor in Los Angeles, January 24, 2014. The tribute will benefit MusiCares' emergency financial assistance and addiction recovery programs.
Photo by Danny Moloshok
Most victims of Oscar snubbings tend to the take the high road. Like Robert Redford, who last Thursday waved off the fact that his performance in All Is Lost did not score a nod from the Academy even though he went partially deaf for the role.
So hats off to the snubbed songwriter whose publicity firm hired a private eye to figure out how he/she was elbowed out of Oscar contention by W.T.F. nominee "Alone Yet Not Alone," a theme song by Bruce Broughton that appeared in the little-seen, faith-based movie of the same name. (Broughton, coincidentally or not, is a former member of the Academy's board of governors who represented the music branch from 2003-2012.)
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the aforementioned public relations firm hired a P.I. to investigate whether the film Alone Yet Not Alone, which screened in theaters one week this fall, was even eligible for a nomination considering that Academy law requires that a film be "advertised and exploited during its Los Angeles County qualifying run in print media." And, uh, Alone Yet Not Alone's qualifying run consisted of once-daily screenings at a theater in Encino from November 15 through November 22. (Yet somehow, the project was high profile enough to beat out Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey.
Even so, when the industry outlet confronted the Academy with this evidence, the Academy ruled that the advertisements posted by the Encino theater for those once-daily screenings were enough to qualify the song for an Oscar nomination. Better luck next year, songwriters who did not represent a branch of the Academy for nine consecutive years.
Singer David Crosby (L) and wife Jan Dance pose at the 2014 MusiCares Person of the Year gala honoring Carole King in Los Angeles, January 24, 2014. The tribute will benefit MusiCares' emergency financial assistance and addiction recovery programs.
Photo by Danny Moloshok
NBC's "The Blacklist" continues to burnish its credentials as the TV season's hottest new show, setting a DVR playback for its second original episode of the year.
"The Blacklist" padded its same-night viewership total for the Jan. 20 installment by 5.430 million - a record for any U.S. broadcast or cable series, according to Nielsen - going from 8.83 million in the previously reported "Live + same-day" ratings to 14.26 million in "Live+3," or three days' worth of DVR playback.
This narrowly tops the previous record, also set by "The Blacklist," of a L+3 gain of 5.426 million viewers. In fact, "The Blacklist" now accounts for the seven biggest total-viewer increases of all time.
The surge for a January episode is noteworthy because it comes at a time when "The Blacklist" does not benefit from a "The Voice" lead-in. So, while the James Spader drama's same-night averages (2.3 in 18-49, 8.83 million viewer overall) were below what it did when the music contest funneled into it a considerably larger base of viewers, "Blacklist" clearly has a large group of followers who make sure to catch up on their DVRs, irregardless (sic) of when it airs.
This week, the cereal experts at Foodbeast did their own taste-tasting experiment in an attempt to disprove this, "only to find that each loop does in fact taste like mildly sweetened cardboard, with negligible or no differences between them."
They followed up the Froot Loops test with Trix and Fruity Pebbles, both of which had similar results.
Singer James Taylor (R) and his wife Caroline Smedvig (L) pose with singer Steven Tyler (C) at the 2014 MusiCares Person of the Year gala honoring Carole King in Los Angeles, January 24, 2014. The tribute will benefit MusiCares' emergency financial assistance and addiction recovery programs.
Danny Moloshok
It seems US travelers would prefer a fish and chip-fueled trip to London over a macaron-scented Paris, after the British capital emerged the top international destination among US travelers in a newly released report.
That's according to Hotels.com, which came up with a list of the most frequented destinations of 2013 based on numbers from its own Hotel Price Index.
The latest ranking -- albeit only focusing on one market -- comes in the aftermath of a recent spat between Paris and London, in which French officials and media disputed claims that London is on track to overtake Paris with a projected 16 million international visitors in 2013.
Meanwhile, in the Hotels.com report, Toronto bumped Rome to fourth place to crack the top three spots thanks to a plunging Canadian dollar and "captivating art scene."
The director and writer of "Weekend at Bernie's" have sued Fox and MGM over the studios' alleged failure to pay them profits from the comedy.
Ted Kotcheff, who directed, and screenwriter Robert Kane filed the action Friday in state court in Los Angeles, alleging breach of contract, breach of covenant and implied faith, improper accounting and violations of the California business and professional code. It seeks a declaratory judgment.
The 1989 comedy starred Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman as employees at an insurance company who are invited by their boss Bernie (Terry Kiser) to his beach house for the weekend after discovering fraud at the company - only to discover that their boss is behind the fraud and has been killed by mobsters.
The suit asserted that the box office gross receipts were more than $30 million and residuals for further venues were more than $16 million. The plaintiffs alleged that they had been deprived of "at least hundreds of millions of dollars" despite delivering what the suit "one of the most hilarious and endearing goofball comedies of the 80s."
The action alleged Kotcheff and Kane have not been given any accounting or any payments from the comedy.
Musician Yoko Ono poses at the 2014 MusiCares Person of the Year gala honoring Carole King in Los Angeles, January 24, 2014. The tribute will benefit MusiCares' emergency financial assistance and addiction recovery programs.
Photo by Danny Moloshok
The Iditarod, a grueling multi-day sled dog race across Alaska, is not - not! - to be confused with the Idiotarod, a pointedly sillier affair due to take place this weekend with costumed participants racing modified shopping carts through New York City.
The organizers of the Alaska race, however, are taking no chances. This week, they got their lawyer to send a cease-and-desist letter to the organizers of the Idiotarod.
The letter, which Idiotarod organizers shared on their Facebook page on Friday, says the New York race, with its "slight variation" in name, is breaching the Iditarod Trail Committee's trademark rights, and said Idiotarod organizers risked a lawsuit to seek damages.
Jon Dawson, the Iditarod committee's lawyer, wrote that the Idiotarod organizers were causing the public to associate the name "with an event that celebrates wacky costumes and antics over one that honors the endurance and athleticism of champion sled dogs and the courage and skill of the men and women that run them."
On Friday, Idiotarod organizers called the letter frivolous, and said its 10th anniversary race, described on its website as an "urban spoof" of the Alaskan race, would proceed virtually as planned this weekend.
Sharon Osbourne (L) and Ozzy Osbourne (R) arrive at the 2014 MusiCares Person of the Year gala honoring Carole King in Los Angeles, January 24, 2014. The tribute will benefit MusiCares' emergency financial assistance and addiction recovery programs.
Photo by Danny Moloshok
Centuries-old glass and porcelain pieces were smashed to powder, a priceless wooden prayer niche was destroyed and manuscripts were soaked by water spewing from broken pipes when a car bombing wreaked havoc on Cairo's renowned Islamic Art Museum.
Experts scrambled to try to save thousands of priceless treasures as ceilings crumbled in the 19th-century building, which had just undergone a multimillion-dollar renovation.
The explosions, which targeted police and the main security headquarters, shook the museum located in the nearby old Cairo district of Bab el-Khalq, propelling steal and ceiling plaster onto its glass cases and wooden artifacts.
Built in 1881, the Cairo Museum of Islamic Art is home to the world's richest collection of artifacts from all periods of Islamic history. It houses nearly 100,000 pieces representing different Islamic eras, 4,000 of them on display and the rest in storage.
Singer Lady Gaga poses at the 2014 MusiCares Person of the Year gala honoring Carole King in Los Angeles, January 24, 2014. The tribute will benefit MusiCares' emergency financial assistance and addiction recovery programs.
Photo by Danny Moloshok
The 25-year effort to elevate to sainthood a beloved Buffalo-area priest known as the "Padre of the Poor" has so far cost upward of $100,000, and plans are in the works to raise hundreds of thousands more.
Even the most fervent supporters of the Rev. Nelson Baker acknowledge it's an amount that probably would have made the humble servant of the needy uncomfortable.
But such canonization expenses are not unusual in the Roman Catholic Church, experts say, and are gaining new attention in the "poor church for the poor" envisioned by Pope Francis.
Monsignor Paul Burkard is shepherding efforts to bank an additional $250,000 for anticipated ceremonies and other future expenses. He believes the outlays so far for lawyers, printing, research and travel has been well spent, even in a former steel city diocese that is closing struggling schools and churches.
Members of the Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin carry an antique wooden statue of their patron saint during an annual rite known as the Saint Vincent Tournante, in Saint-Aubin, central France, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2014. Early in the morning, oenophiles from across France have gathered in this tiny Burgundian village to celebrate a medieval tradition in honor of Saint Vincent, the patron saint of winemakers. Upwards of 40,000 people are expected for the two-day festival, which takes place in a different Burgundian village each year. Following the vineyard procession and a mass, local winemakers open their cellar doors for tastings of their chardonnays and pinot noirs. Organizers say 15,000 bottles of wine will be opened during the weekend.
Photo by Laurent Cipriani
As the spooked elephant starts to run, the vet pulls the trigger. Just a few minutes later the huge beast slumps to the floor unconscious, ready for Ivory Coast's first elephant relocation.
These hunters are not interested in the elephant's ivory. Instead, they want to protect people from the animal -- and vice-versa -- around Daloa, a town in the centre of the country where humans and elephants have recently come into conflict.
This is because the animals' local habitat, the Marahoue national park, has been eaten away bit by bit by agriculture.
"The forest was devastated and the animals fled the park," said Ibo Nahonain, head of Tapeguhe village just outside Daloa. "Gradually they came here."
It became clear that one of the area's two groups of occupants would have to leave, and the government decided to resettle the animals in the Azagny national park, 20,000 hectares of virgin forest 400 kilometres (250 miles) to the south of Daloa.
Ivory Coast used to be home to thousands of elephants, but their numbers have dwindled to barely a few hundred, according to the government.
A clay model is made prior to the sculpting of snow is seen at the 24th annual Breckenridge International Snow Sculpture Championships on Friday, Jan. 24, 2014. The event creates a temporary outdoor art gallery for the 15 pieces of art in downtown Breckenridge, Colo. Sculptures remain on display through Feb. 2, 2014. This model is from Team Colorado.
Photo by Nathan Bilow
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wrote:
took the day off.
said:
