Paulo Coelho: Manual for Climbing Mountains
Choose the mountain you want to climb: don't pay attention to what other people say, such as "that one's more beautiful" or "this one's easier". You'll be spending lots of energy and enthusiasm to reach your objective, so you're the only one responsible and you should be sure of what you're doing.
Roger Ebert: In a meadow, we can pan a snowman
"This movie doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels." - From the Review of "Freddie Got Fingered"
Katie Roiphe: We Are All Lisbeth Salander (Slate)
Our 'Dragon Tattoo' psychology is schizophrenic, theatrical, vivid, in both directions; we can see in our current self-image the wounded superhero, the brilliant Goth paradox, the dynamic, interesting play between power and its opposite. Larsson's inspiration was to create a weird, singular character out of all this, and she is, in a certain way, the truest, most realistic, down-to-earth heroine to emerge from a novel or movie in a long time.
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
The nutmeg tree is any of several species of trees in genus Myristica. The most important commercial species is Myristica fragrans, an evergreen tree indigenous to the Banda Islands in the Moluccas (or Spice Islands) of Indonesia. The nutmeg tree is important for two spices derived from the fruit: nutmeg and mace.
Source
Alan J was first, and correct, with:
Nutmeg
mj wrote:
One of my favorites
Nutmeg (actual seed of the fruit) and mace (seed cover).
Marian responded:
nutmeg
Sally said:
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL THE READERS (who do Christmas, of course)!!
Hahaha!
Last gift wrapped at midnight, but that damn gift-wrap fairy was a no-show! Bet he was out egg-nogging...
Speaking of that, nutmeg is the only tropical fruit that is the source of two different spices.
Gee, eggnog sure does make gift-wrapping (seem to) fly by, huh??
PS: I am taking off tomorrow to spend time with my whole immediate family - all together for the holidays, in a long, long time... (Divorce can be a bitch...)
Jim from Ca, retired to ID, replied:
Merry Christmas Marty and all..... The nutmeg tree is important for two
spices derived from the fruit: nutmeg and mace.
Charlie answered:
Nutmeg, which provides both nutmeg and mace. Nutmeg is from the seed, while mace is from the dried seed covering.
MAM wrote:
Nutmeg for nutmeg and mace: Nutmeg is the actual seed of the tree mace is the dried "lacy" reddish covering or aril of the seed.
PS to All . . . Merry Christmas.
PS to Sally . . . Wowser says he will join the cats with their Christmas Carols.
BttbB responded:
The fruit of the Nutmeg tree yields two spices: Nutmeg (yummy on rice pudding), from the seed, and Mace (which I've never used), from the seed covering (aril)... and to all a good night!
THE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY I WORK FOR IS DOING AN EXTENSIVE REMODEL ON A HOME IN NASHVILLE. IN THE TRUE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS THE CUSTOMER CREATED A BEAUTIFUL WORKERS CHRISTMAS TREE AND PLACED IT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PROJECT.
CBS starts the night with '60 Minutes', followed by a RERUN'CSI: The Original One', then a RERUN'The Good Wife', followed by a RERUN'CSI: The 2nd One'.
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 the chestnut 'Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas', followed by the movie 'Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas'.
The CW offers an old 'Friends', followed by another old 'Friends', then the movie 'The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising'.
Faux has a RERUN'Bob's Burgers', followed by a RERUN'Cleveland Show', then a RERUN'Simpsons', followed by a RERUN'Cleveland Show', followed by a RERUNFamily Guy', then a RERUN'American Dad'.
MY has an old 'How I Met Your Mother', followed by another 'How I Met Your Mother', then an old 'Big Bang Theory', followed by another 'Big Bang Theory', then still another 'Big Bang Theory', followed by yet another 'Big Bang Theory'.
AMC offers the movie 'El Dorado', followed by the movie 'Rio Bravo'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] Doctor Who: The Christmas Invasion (2005)
[7:00AM] Doctor Who: The Runaway Bride (2006)
[8:00AM] Doctor Who-Eps 1&2
[10:00AM] Doctor Who3 - The Curse of the Black Spot
[11:00AM] Doctor Who4 - The Doctor's Wife
[12:00PM] Doctor Who-Eps 5&6
[2:00PM] Doctor Who7 - A Good Man Goes to War
[3:00PM] Doctor Who-Ep 8 - Let's Kill Hitler
[4:00PM] Doctor Who-Ep 9 - Night Terrors
[5:00PM] Doctor Who-Ep 10 - The Girl Who Waited
[6:00PM] Doctor Who-Ep 11 - The God Complex
[7:00PM] Doctor Who-Ep 12 - Closing Time
[8:00PM] Doctor Who-Ep 13 - The Wedding of River Song
[9:00PM] Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe NEW
[10:20PM] Doctor Who: Best of the Christmas Specials
[11:20PM] Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe
[12:40AM] The Nerdist-Year in Review
[1:40AM] Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe
[3:00AM] Doctor Who: Best of the Christmas Specials
[4:00AM] Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol
[5:00AM] Doctor Who: The Christmas Invasion (2005) (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has all 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta' all night.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Just Friends', followed by the movie 'Bad Santa', then the movie 'Zack & Miri Make A Porno'.
FX has the movie 'Kung Fu Panda', followed by the movie 'Kung Fu Panda', again.
History has 'Pawn Stars', another 'Pawn Stars', still another 'Pawn Stars', yet another 'Pawn Stars', 'American Pickers', 'American Restoration', and 'Pawn Stars'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] Freaks and Geeks-Chokin and Tokin
[7:00AM] Freaks and Geeks-Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers
[8:00AM] Freaks and Geeks-Noshing and Moshing
[9:00AM] Freaks and Geeks-Smooching and Mooching
[10:00AM] Freaks and Geeks-The Little Things
[11:00AM] Freaks and Geeks-Discos and Dragons
[12:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Reese Comes Home
[12:30PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Buseys Run Away
[1:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Standee
[1:30PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Pearl Harbor
[2:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Kitty's Back
[2:30PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Hal's Christmas Gift
[3:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Hal Sleepwalks
[3:30PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Lois Battles Jamie
[4:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Malcolm's Car
[4:30PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Billboard
[5:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Opera
[5:30PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Living Will
[6:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Tiki Lounge
[6:30PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Ida Loses a Leg
[7:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Chad's Sleepover
[7:30PM] Malcolm in the Middle-No Motorcycles
[8:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Butterflies
[8:30PM] The Whitest Kids U'Know
[8:45PM] House Party
[11:00PM] The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret-The Snooker Player, The Black Canadian, The Turkish Terrorist and the Peanut
[11:30PM] The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret-In Which Brent Wilts Arrives and Things Take a Turn for the Worse
[12:00AM] House Party
[2:15AM] Johnson Family Vacation
[4:15AM] Chapter 27 (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[7:00A] THE MORTIFIED SESSIONS - Parks and Rec's Nick Offerman & Will & Grace's Megan Mullally
[7:30A] THE MORTIFIED SESSIONS - SNL's Will Forte & Dirty Dancing's Jennifer Grey
[8:00A] Angel
[10:00A] MY SO-CALLED LIFE - Other People's Mothers (Episode 10, Season 1)
[11:00A] MY SO-CALLED LIFE - Life of Brian (Episode 11, Season 1)
[12:00P] MY SO-CALLED LIFE - Self-Esteem (Episode 12, Season 1)
[1:00P] MY SO-CALLED LIFE - Pressure (Episode 13, Season 1)
[2:00P] MY SO-CALLED LIFE - On the Wagon (Episode 14, Season 1)
[3:00P] MY SO-CALLED LIFE - So-Called Angels (Episode 15, Season 1)
[4:00P] In A Day
[5:30P] Brideshead Revisited
[7:45P] Oscar and Lucinda
[10:00P] A Good Year
[12:00A] MY SO-CALLED LIFE - Resolutions (Episode 16, Season 1)
[1:00A] THE MORTIFIED SESSIONS - Parks and Rec's Nick Offerman & Will & Grace's Megan Mullally
[1:30A] THE MORTIFIED SESSIONS - SNL's Will Forte & Dirty Dancing's Jennifer Grey
[2:00A] GIRLS WHO LIKE BOYS WHO LIKE BOYS - He Sucks Me In (Nashville)
[2:30A] GIRLS WHO LIKE BOYS WHO LIKE BOYS - Clean, Sexy & Classy (Nashville)
[4:00A] A Good Year (ALL TIMES EST)
U.S. singer Suzanne Vega gives a short improvised performance at the concert in honour of Vaclav Havel in Lucerna Hall in Prague Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. Musicians and bands participated in the multicultural event conceived as a homage to the Czech ex-president, dissident leader and playwright Havel who died on December 18, aged 75.
Photo by Michal Dolezal
Comedian Louis CK has proved a point: people are willing to pay a reasonable amount of money for DRM-free content from a performer they love, even though it would be trivial for them to pirate the same content for free.
Twelve days ago, Louis CK decided to skip the distribution, DRM, ads and everything else that goes into marketing and sale of a video, and simply offer the video of his latest performance on his website for 5 dollars.
It took 4 days for Louis to earn $200,000, and another 8 days to earn a whopping $1 million.
"The experiment was: if I put out a brand new standup special at a drastically low price ($5) and make it as easy as possible to buy, download and enjoy, free of any restrictions, will everyone just go and steal it? Will they pay for it? And how much money can be made by an individual in this manner?" explained Louis in a statement shortly after the video earned its first $200k.
Artists dressed as Santa Claus create a Santa Claus sculpture on the eve of Christmas Puri golden beach, 67 kilometers (42 miles) from the eastern city of Bhubaneswar, India, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. Christmas Day is observed as a national holiday in India.
Photo by Biswaranjan Rout
As scientists at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland continue their search http://www.tecca.com/news/2011/12/22/lhc-atlas-chi-b/> for the elusive Higgs boson "God particle," one physicist has built a tribute to their work entirely out of Lego bricks. Sascha Mehlhase, a researcher at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, spent more than 80 hours designing and constructing a model of the supercollider's intricate ATLAS detector.
Mehlhase, who is part of the institute's high energy physics group, spent about 48 hours modeling the ATLAS on his laptop in Lego's Digital Designer software. He used the application's ability to generate a custom construction manual, but decided to simply eyeball most of the work after seeing the 4,500-page tome it spit out. With some help from his wife, Mehlhase spent 33 hours over the course of several weeks assembling 9,500 bricks to reproduce even the smallest details.
The final model stands nearly two feet tall and is 1:50 scale - or actual size, if you're a little Lego person. In fact, Mehlhase even chose jumpsuit-wearing Lego minifigs to represent the CERN scientists and recreated the passageways they use to access the inner areas of the ATLAS experiment. The total cost for the project was almost $2,600 in Lego bricks, which had to be custom ordered from the Danish toymaker.
Mehlhase hopes to eventually publish a construction manual online and intends to showcase the finished model at the Niels Bohr Institute for visitors and students to marvel at. You can see more images of it at the University of Copenhagen's site.
In the little town of Bethlehem, a cloistered nun whose luminous blue eyes entranced Elvis Presley in his first on-screen movie kiss is praying for a Christmas miracle.
Dolores Hart, who walked away from Hollywood stardom in 1963 to become a nun in rural Bethlehem, Conn., now finds herself back in the spotlight. But this time it's all about serving the King of Kings, not smooching the King of Rock and Roll.
The former brass factory that houses Mother Dolores and about 40 other nuns cloistered at the Abbey of Regina Laudis needs millions of dollars in renovations to meet fire and safety codes, add an elevator and make handicap accessibility upgrades.
Like 73-year-old Mother Dolores, the order's nuns have taken a vow of stability with the intent to live, work and die at the complex. The order was established in 1947 in Bethlehem, a small burg in Connecticut's rolling western hills.
Now, the historically self-supporting nuns have launched a fundraiser for the $4 million renovation project dubbed "New Horizons." They don't have much money, but they have Mother Dolores: a starlet-turned-supplicant whose unique story might lure the attention and donations of generations of movie fans, particularly those who adore all things Elvis.
Covering her face with a traditional veil, a vendor works at her produce shop on the island of Qeshm, which oversees the strategic waterway of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran, on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011.
Photo by Vahid Salemi
George Eastman is best known as the inventor of photographic film and founder of Eastman Kodak Co, but his century-old legacy of entrepreneurship now rides on the lesser-known Eastman Chemical Co.
That was hardly the case in 1994, when Eastman Kodak spun off its chemicals business to help pay down debt. At that time, Kodak was still a colossus in photography whereas Eastman Chemical was a small player very much in its parent's shadow.
But because of a sea change in digital technology and different approaches to business, Eastman Chemical's stock market value has since increased 71 percent to $5.5 billion today, while Kodak's has plummeted 99 percent to about $185 million.
Interviews with former executives, retirees and analysts describe two companies that were polar opposites in many ways, despite their shared heritage: where Eastman Chemical was swift to move into new markets, Kodak rested on its laurels for too long; where Chemical had a management team obsessed with the bottom line, Kodak retained cushy employee benefits even when the advent of digital cameras caused film demand to crater.
Newt Gingrich (R-Oink) has become the first top candidate in the presidential campaign to feel the full bite of the Super PAC, a fundraising tool that is reshaping the way American political campaigns are run.
His challenge to Mitt Romney to be the Republican Party's nominee to face President Barack Obama in 2012 lost momentum this week when Romney backers took advantage of changes to campaign finance laws that erased restrictions on donations that corporations and wealthy donors can make for campaign advertising.
Political action committees, or PACs, have been a fixture of U.S. political life for over 50 years and have served as a mechanism for individuals and interest groups to spend money to support or oppose candidates and political causes.
But court rulings last year dramatically changed U.S. campaign finance by allowing corporations and wealthy individuals to make unlimited financial contributions, giving birth to the Super PAC.
A couple walk past an art installation symbolizing Korean peninsula and wishing the unification of both Koreas at the Imjinkak pavilion, near the demilitarized zone which separates the two Koreas in Paju, about 50 km (32 miles) north of Seoul, December 24, 2011.
Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon
A curious contest is being waged in Los Angeles. It recalls the battle of the brand titans, such as Coke vs. Pepsi, or McDonald's vs. Burger King. But this time, it's wax museum vs. wax museum.
That's right. It's a battle over whose wax figures are better.
In one corner, the famous Madame Tussauds - the international franchise that's considered the gold standard in the world of wax. And in the other corner, the scrappy, family-run Hollywood Wax Museum that's located just a few blocks away.
Madame Tussauds thinks the competition doesn't measure up, and it's launched an all-out marketing blitz to let everyone know it.
Rapper Young Buck could lose his name and other assets in a bankruptcy case that the rapper says is frustrating his attempts to sign with a new record label.
Davidson County Bankruptcy Judge George Paine converted the artist's bankruptcy from Chapter 11 reorganization to Chapter 7 liquidation this week.
The trustee administering his estate has said she plans to sell the trademarked "Young Buck" name along with other assets. The platinum artist, whose real name is David Darnell Brown, told The Tennessean he was close to signing a recording deal with New Orleans-based Cash Money Records.
To date, creditors have submitted 22 claims totaling $11.5 million in Buck's bankruptcy case, including $10 million that the record label G-Unit Records says Buck owes them over a contract dispute.
A Christmas tree hung with "V for Vendetta" mask decoration is seen at the Occupy London camp outside St. Paul's Cathedral inLondon, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011. More than 200 tents have been pitched outside the famous domed church since Oct. 15 in a protest against capitalist excess inspired by New York's Occupy Wall Street, though the group say they will now cut back on their protest after the new year.
Photo by Alastair Grant
On a recent shift at a Chicago emergency department, Dr. William Sullivan treated a newly homeless patient who was threatening to kill himself.
"He had been homeless for about two weeks. He hadn't showered or eaten a lot. He asked if we had a meal tray," said Sullivan, a physician at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago and a past president of the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians.
Sullivan said the man kept repeating that he wanted to kill himself. "It seemed almost as if he was interested in being admitted."
Across the country, doctors like Sullivan are facing a spike in psychiatric emergencies - attempted suicide, severe depression, psychosis - as states slash mental health services and the country's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression takes its toll.
Drinking can make some people more aggressive, and now researchers have found a particular personality trait - a focus on the present, with little regard of consequences - that appears to make someone under the influence more likely to become mean.
"People who focus on the here and now, without thinking about the impact on the future, are more aggressive than others when they are sober, but the effect is magnified greatly when they're drunk," said lead study researcher Brad Bushman, a professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University.
Alcohol is believed to have a myopic effect, causing drinkers to focus on the most important aspects of a situation while ignoring the more peripheral features. For people prone to concentrate on the here-and-now rather than on consequences, alcohol-induced myopia can exaggerate this tendency, Bushman and colleagues wrote in a study published online Dec. 8 in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
The link between alcohol and aggressiveness was already clear: Alcohol was a factor in up to 37 percent of violent crimes committed between 1997 and 2008, according to the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Dutch-born entertainer Johannes Heesters, who made his name performing in Adolf Hitler's Germany and was dogged later in his long career by controversy over his Nazi-era past, died Saturday, his agent said. He was 108.
The tenor Heesters made his debut on the big stage at the Volksoper in Vienna, Austria in 1934. His career took off in Berlin where, starting in 1935 - two years after the Nazis took power - he became a crowd favorite at the Komische Oper and Admiralspalast.
Despite his popularity in the Third Reich, Heesters was never accused of being a propagandist or anything other than an artist willing to perform for the Nazis, and the Allies allowed him to continue his career after the war, when he took Austrian citizenship.
In Heesters' native Netherlands - which was occupied by Germany for most of the war - some viewed him as irredeemable given his appearances under the Nazi regime.
In February 2008, he braved protests to perform in the Netherlands for the first time in 44 years at a theater in his native Amersfoort.
In his previous attempt, in 1964, he was booed off the stage in Amsterdam when he tried to appear as the Nazi-hating Captain Von Trapp in "The Sound of Music."
Heesters continued to be a popular performer in Germany well into his old age, making regular appearances on television and on stage. He made 1,600 appearances in his best-known role, as Count Danilo in Franz Lehar's operetta "The Merry Widow," and 750 as Honore in the musical "Gigi."
At age 98, he put health problems such as knee and appendix operations behind him to perform in Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard." As he turned 105 in 2008, Heesters was performing in a musical comedy in Hamburg.
Heesters was born Dec. 5, 1903 in the Dutch city of Amersfoort, the youngest of four sons of a businessman. His first wife, Dutch actress Louisa Ghijs, died in 1983. The couple had two daughters, Wiesje and Nicole.
Heesters married his second wife, German actress Rethel, in 1992.
In this photo provided by the Wildlife Conservation Society and taken on Dec. 20, 2011, a pair of Andean bears examine their paw at a holiday gift at the Queens Zoo in New York. Filled with edible treats, the gifts are part of an ongoing animal enrichment program meant to keep the animals sharp by stimulating them mentally and physically.
Photo by Julie Larsen Maher
You have reached the Home page of BartCop Entertainment.
Make yourself home, take your shoes off...
Go ahead, scratch it if it itches.
The idea is to have fun.
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Anything that increased your blood pressure, or, even better, amused or entertained?
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How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
A popular artist that just plain pisses you off?
A box set the whole world should own?
Vile, filthy rumors about Republican hypocrites?
Just plain vile, filthy rumors?
This is your place.
wrote:
took the night off.
