Obama lama ding dong.

Its not every day one sees Bono upstaged by, well, the stage. The Lincoln Memorial managed to do so quite nicely.



Good show though- even the Garth Brooks bit.

And their sports guy looks like the late Senator Reed Smoot

From Bangor, Maine via MSNBC:

TV anchor who resembles Palin gets 'hate mail


BANGOR, Maine - A television news anchor in Maine who looks a lot like Sarah Palin says she's been getting "hate mail and nasty phone calls."

Cindy Michaels from WVII-TV has long brown hair that she sometimes wears up in a style similar to Palin's, and she also wears glasses on occasion.

Michaels says some viewers recently began accusing her of trying to copy Palin's style or, worse, somehow trying to subliminally sway votes.

While smarting over accusations of bias, Michaels says she's generally flattered by the comparisons to Palin. Michaels describes her as a "beautiful woman."

Having been subjected to the news on WVII on occasion, I am inclined to suspect that any 'hate mail'* is more due to her working for the most inane and pointless news operation in Eastern Maine than her sharing that c1993 senior flight attendant look with Palin.

I think of greater interest is the extent to which rival station WABI's weather man looks like President William Howard Taft:




(*Hate mail? I wonder who takes the time to compose hate mail- that shows real dedication to one's irrational, puce-faced anger. In this day and age surely one just blogs?)

Rickles and Griffin

I am so glad I flicked over to the Emmys in time to see Don Rickles and Kathy Griffin beat the snot out of the crowd, the TV audience, and each other.

"Everyone standing? What is this- a Jewish holiday?"

"And the Emmy goes to, Hardy Dickman."

Man, I love Rickles. And even better, they had him followed by Sally Field. I wish he had shaken off his model-minder and stuck around on stage.

UPDATE: They gave Rickles an Emmy, so he insulted Clint Eastwood.

Are the Rusholme Ruffians the next NFL franchise?

Jim. not Stephen Patrick, Morrissey

I'm not sure what was more astonishing this afternoon, the infuriatingly inventive play of the Miami Dolphins as they humbled our New England Patriots, or the fact that the NFL is now using "Every Day is Like Sunday" by Morrissey to promote NFL.com. If this trend continues can we expect Major League Baseball to promote the post season with "Hand in Glove"?

Who Wrote Beethoven's 5th Symphony?

When my friend Listmaker began his recent campaign to raise awareness about the inanity of the American radio interviewer Terry Gross I have to admit I was resistant to joining his charge. Ms. Gross may not always ask the most probing of questions on her show Fresh Air she does have good guests and her conversations with mendacious conservative blowhard Bill O'Reilly and mediocre bassist Gene Simmons are classics of the art.

Last night however Ms. Goss uttered a statement about her guest Rhett Miller (from the Old 97s) that brought me over to Listmaker's dark side. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you what might be Terry Gross's most idiotic comment to date. I wish I could find it verbatim, but this is as close as I can remember it:

We'll talk more with Rhett Miller about his serious- but thank god unsuccessful- suicide attempt...

I'm glad she pointed out that he was unsuccessful, otherwise she would have blown my mind, conducting a probing interview via a ouija board.

Chippy Scouse Bird to Wed Potato

Seeing as the football/soccer season is over (apart from some crap competition in Europe of no account, in the same way as the 1994 World Cup wasn't a real world cup) there isn't much news to report. However, just when you thought you'd have to wait until the end of August for the return of overheated British sports coverage, lumpy and thuggish Man U and England superstar Wayne Rooney is about to get married to his life long gold digger Colleen.

The ceremony is going to be a closely guarded affair with no press coverage. Thankfully, a sharp eyed paparazzi was able to infiltrate the stag night:

This Is Not A Baseball Blog 18

Nice to see the long lost baseball playing Wilson brother back at Fenway last night to throw out the first pitch:

Two Thoughts on Tonight's News

I no longer have control of the remote in my house and we tend to eat earlier now that Scout is here. So instead of getting an hour of The Dead Nazis and Communists of Stalingrad- Where's The Downside? on the Hitler Channel before tucking into dinner, I find myself shovelling my scran in front of one of the American network news broadcasts.

Tonight it was the turn of NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Lead story- Dow approaches 14,000, but who will be making money? Here's a clue, how about the $10 million a year anchor of NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams? I bet he's on that list.

Second thought. I know that the networks believe the news to be the sole preserve of the nearly dead and so they instruct their reporters to shout slowly and every advertisement is for some kind of medication. Tonight's fave : some bladder control potion that plays on women's fear of pissing down their legs into their sling backs by having the spokesmodel wear a sandwich board that reads "I Have a Bladder Control Problem". I want that sandwich board so I can wear it around town. But here's the twist: I want to paint "Or do I???" on the back.

Keep 'em guessing, that's what I say.

Gawd Bless 'Er

Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith photographed arriving at Dulles Airport.
Her Majestink the Quink, good old Brenda the 2, is visiting Virginia in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the English at Jamestown. As we all know, that hardy band of settlers set the tone for all future British overseas excursions by getting drunk a lot, refusing to work, and fighting with the locals. So it is quite appropriate that Mrs. Queen is in the States, even if the people she meets either think she looked younger and prettier in her recent film or are sad that she didn't bring that nice deceased Princess Lady Di with her.

While the official reason for the visit is the recognition of the long historical ties between Great Britain and the United States, there are some who feel the Queen is hedging her bets should the Scottish elections turn in favour of the SNP. After all, the monarchy is probably regarded more fondly along the Banks of the James River than it is along the banks of the Tay.And Virginia does describe itself as a commonwealth (see Her Maj's title).

The one potential fly in the ointment is the presence of her husband and consort Phil the Greek, Duke of Edinburgh. Given his reputation as a well-known firearms enthusiast and anti-Asian bigot, officials from the Royal Household are praying that nobody brings up the Virginia Tech killings to him for comment.

Happy/Sad

I'm sad that the members of The Jam are so short on cash that they are allowing Cadillac to use Start to advertise ugly repub-mobiles driven by self-satisfied tosspots, and that they let them use the song without lyrics apart from the chorus.

I'm happy that my father-in-law, who came to visit Friday, gave me a great line for future use. We were discussing both the iminent arrival of David Beckham and the post-Downing Street US lecture circuit possibilities for Tony Blair. I mentioned how funny it would be if they teamed up to do a speech together, at which point father-in-law observed that the poster tagline should read "One has balls, one doesn't".

That is all.

British Comedian Inman Dead at 71

British children of the seventies and American viewers of PBS will probably have no problem identifying the catchphrase "I'm Free". Issued with regularity by the character Mr. Humphries on the sitcom Are You Being Served? it punctuated popular culture, even beyond it's sell-by date. Alas, the actor behind the trilling phrase, John Inman, died yesterday aged 71.

I wasn't the greatest fan of the show, even as a kid, although it's innocently naughty humour was far superior to the annoying Benny Hill and occasionally as good as that put out by the Two Ronnies, Morcambe and Wise, and Dick Emery. I just wanted to note that even given the fashion excesses all around him in the late sixties and early seventies, John Inman was one hell of a snappy dresser:


Just shorten those collars a bit and you'd be all set today.

At Least It Wasn't "Bigger Than Jesus"

Gandhi searches for Madonna's sense of proportion
According to the BBC, Madonna Wants To Be 'Like Gandhi

In related news, Cyndi Lauper has expressed a desire to emulate Jawaharlal Nehru, while Toni Basil is taking steps to follow in the career of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

(Yes, I know I've swtiched to the new blogger despite previous protests, but like Robert Peel I can accept change once it has finally been shown to work)