Van Johnson, actor, dead, 92, natural causes

NEW YORK – Van Johnson, whose boy-next-door wholesomeness made him a popular Hollywood star in the '40s and '50s with such films as "30 Seconds over Tokyo," "A Guy Named Joe" and "The Caine Mutiny," died Friday of natural causes. He was 92. Johnson died at Tappan Zee Manor, an assisted living center in Nyack, N.Y., said Wendy Bleisweiss, a close friend.

One of my favorite war movie actors.

Shirley M. Good? yeah you can't make up names like that

PORT ST. LUCIE — A 40-year-old woman is facing charges after allegedly kicking a police officer and pulling and twisting him in his groin, according to a police report released Tuesday.

Shirley M. Good, of the 700 block of Southwest St. Croix Cove, was arrested Friday after allegedly kicking Officer Tony Elliott. She also is accused of grabbing his groin area and pulling and twisting it.

I would say lucky him...but this isn't a James Bond movie it's real life.

Princess Bride star extradited

BOGOTA (AFP) – Colombian drug trafficker Diego Montoya, whose cartel exported almost 70 percent of the cocaine sold in the United States and Europe, was extradited Friday to the United States on drug charges, a police source said.

Hello my name is Diego Montoya, you bought my cocaine, prepare to extradite me.

We'll see if Fark.com green lights my link submission to this story.

Jennifer Aniston in GQ magazine

This image provided by GQ magazine shows actress Jennifer Aniston on the cover of the magazine's January 2009 issue. Aniston wears a tie — and nothing else — on the January cover of GQ magazine. The 39-year-old actress strips down and shows off her toned and tanned body next to the headline 'Is it just us or is Jennifer Aniston getting hotter?'

It's not just you guys. Jennifer IS getting hotter.

I should probably check out the articles in GQ this month.
Hubba, hubba

Bettie Page, Pin-up Queen, dead, 85

Bettie Page, the brunet pinup queen with a shoulder-length pageboy hairdo and kitschy bangs whose saucy photos helped usher in the sexual revolution of the 1960s, has died. She was 85.

The tribute models will be besides themselves today.

When I get home later I'll post up a link to one of the best Bettie Page look-alikes from MySpace.

Man dies after shoveling sand; state may probe death

The death Saturday of a 20-year-old man during apprenticeship tryouts for Seattle Public Utilities could trigger an investigation by the state Department of Labor & Industries.

Jonathan Falo collapsed after shoveling sand during an exercise at the city's joint training facility near White Center, said Andy Ryan, spokesman for Seattle Public Utilities.

Is this a sign of our times?
Trying out for jobs, ala reality TV style?
And are times so hard that 900 people show up for 28 jobs?

Hot for Teacher, Michigan style

A former Michigan high school teacher was in court Monday after being arraigned on a charge of indecent exposure and having sex with a student.

Kelly Ann Abdo, of Luna Pier, pleaded innocent to the count.

Monroe County Prosecutor William Nichols' office said Abdo is accused of having sex with the student in a car on a public street, next to a house where there was a high school party.

Just in case you thought the hot teachers had stopped sleeping with students, here's another story.

Road to Removal video finally out

The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation video Road to Removal: The Cherokees 1800-1840 is finally released. Gilles Carter mailed my copy to me with a lovely letter thanking me for my work. It was a fun time and working with professional film crews was a truly once in a life time experience.

The educational video was produced to be distributed in schools and libraries. It tells the story of the Cherokees and their removal from their ancestral home lands to the present day Oklahoma.

I grabbed a screen capture of some of my scenes. If you get an opportunity to check it out of a library near you I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did being in it. It's a history video so be prepared to learn something you didn't know before.





This was my 4th video and by far the best of the lot. Thank you goes out to my friend Whit Edwards who invited me to participate in this video.

Cancer sucks will be number one

ATLANTA – Cancer will overtake heart disease as the world's top killer by 2010, part of a trend that should more than double global cancer cases and deaths by 2030, international health experts said in a report released Tuesday. Rising tobacco use in developing countries is believed to be a huge reason for the shift, particularly in China and India, where 40 percent of the world's smokers now live.

IF we can get the human voters to vote their hearts and rank Cancer like 3 or 4, maybe the computers will rank it lower as well. Texas thinks it should play Cancer in the BCS championship because they think they are number one.

That sucks. Cancer is a crappy way to die. I could think of a dozen better ways to go.


Two of my favorite ways are found in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.
Yeah I could die either of those ways.

I couldn't find the video online so a transcript will have to suffice.

Analysis: Scandal threatens to dog Obama

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama hasn't even stepped into office and already a scandal is threatening to dog him.

Obama isn't accused of anything. But the fact that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a fellow Democrat, has been charged with trying to sell Obama's now-vacant Senate post gives political opponents an opening to try to link him to the scandal. A slew of questions remain. The investigation is still under way. And the ultimate impact on Obama is far from certain.

Obama is teflon coated. It's not going to stick to Obama. But for certain, Illinois politics are corrupt and Obama grew his political wings in that environment. Let's hope our president isn't corruptible or at least criminally corruptible.

NBC is confused

NBC is looking at "all options" to revamp its broadcast model, including possibly cutting the number of primetime hours or even nights per week, NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker said Monday afternoon.

Zucker said that the entire broadcast industry, including NBC, are under tremendous challenges because of the changing media landscape as well as the downturn in the economy.

"Can we continue to broadcast 22 hours in primetime? Three of our competitors don't," Zucker said during Monday's keynote at the annual UBS Global Media and Communications Conference. "Can we continue to broadcast seven days a week? One of our competitors doesn't."

As you are probably aware, it's not a downturn in the industry. It's the crap they try to pass off to us as entertainment.

Here's a couple of gems from the last few months.

Rosie's Variety show Just awesome.

My Own Worst Enemy Already canceled before the season could even end.

What the hell? They make cars too well? Wow...

ROBERT NARDELLI, CEO, CHRYSLER: Wolf, here's what we've done. You know, since august when we became independent. We spent about half a billion dollars in the first several months. Our warranty costs are down 29 percent. It's an interesting comparison because in the hearing today, going around the panel, the majority of the Senators said that citing specific vehicles that they own that they've got 60, 70, 80,000 miles. The comment was you guys are making them too good and therefore, we're not buying vehicles and we're contributing to your problem. That was from the Senators on the committee today. On the panel today, Wolf.

This is a transcript from a news report you didn't see on TV. Mainly because you were at work when they ran it.

Seriously? Making cars too good because they last 80,000 miles? And they got that from guys who are millionaires and replace their cars every 2-3 years?
Seriously?

Check out this little list of excellent automobiles from Chrysler.

Where is the link to the Mercedes with 400,000 miles on it?
Good luck with selling cars to Americans that only last 80,000 miles again. They should be working on making cars that need parts people want to keep for 800,000 miles.

Follow up: Display yanked

OBERLIN — Wellington conceptual artist Keith McGuckin’s display featuring a legless Santa being pushed down some stairs by a homicidal Christmas tree is coming down today.

Library director Darren McDonough said the display was becoming too much of a distraction, so he asked McGuckin to take it down.

Yeah I thought that was a bit much. If your library doesn't distract from reading you aren't doing your job.