I’m taking the rest of the month off to finish an important audio video project about my late father, who would have been 60 on the 24th. Curiosities until then include FORCE Ministries, the Phallic logo awards, men who look like Kenny Rogers, and Deep Throat confirmed.
35 years young
Hey, it’s my birthday! And so also it is with Donald Trump’s trophy wife Melania Knauss. And Sigmund Freud.
35 years young!
Me
And a lovely, if cheesy, birthday gift: Neil Diamond performed live on the Today Show (but mute the Al Roker duet… yow).
Sadly, though the ending day for Marlene Detrich. Happily, likely the career end for a pastor of a church that kicked out Democrats, as those shunned retain legal counsel. Of note, besides the article’s tongue-twister headline, is that the IRS may review that church’s tax-exempt status, as a church may not endorse a political candidate.
The Colbert Report
Stephen Colbert gets his own half-hour show this fall, following the Daily Show.
In the How-Could-They-Not-See-This-Coming Department: Ford and GM suffer losses as gas prices go up and prospective car buyers say no to SUVs.
TV Turnoff Week
The original version of Godzilla, stripped of political context, for its initial release in the United States. Forgetting political context, conservatives learn to love South Park?
This is the sad fate of the bastard machine: to be blamed for everything. “Oh, my television casts such a spell over me that I’m unable to do anything about it. I’m a helpless victim! For God’s sake, will someone come to my house and unplug it?” Where’s the responsibility here? Why can’t people own up to their faults, their shortcomings? It’s the smoking-gave-me-cancer or McDonald’s-made-me-fat argument.
Tim Goodman of the SF Chronicle offers another take on TV Turnoff Week
Is America slipping back into the Dark Ages? Yes, says a famous atheist.
A most literal and self-explanatory animation of the day.
Action Philosophers!
Senator Al Franken? Personally, I think he’s better suited to radio than to politics, and much more powerful that way.
Steve Jobs pulls a publisher’s books from Apple Store shelves after the release of iCon: Steve Jobs, the Greatest Second Act in the History of Business.
Does your auto make and model determine your political standing? Yes, says this article from the New York Times.
Perhaps the humanitarian gift Iraqi women weren’t expecting.