I was thinking the other day about the entertainment industry – as in why do we have one, for instance. Why do we pay $11 to see movies – is it the witty banter, glamourous settings and costumes, thrilling plots? No, for the most part, it’s because we like to see stuff blowin’ up: But according to Richard Ouzounian, who runs the Youngstown Warren Film Commission, the town is a virtual film set waiting to happen. It has an airport, complete with a new terminal and 9,000-foot runway, which handles only four flights a week. It has a 2,016-bed prison…
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LONDON – Far from being crippled by the U.S.-led war on terror, al-Qaida has more than 18,000 potential terrorists scattered around the world and the war in Iraq (news – web sites) is swelling its ranks, a report said Tuesday. Gee, that prisoner abuse story couldn’t have worked out better for the bad guys. Way to go, military-industrial complex.
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Of most concern, the official said, is that terrorists may possess and use a chemical, biological or radiological weapon that could cause much more damage and casualties than a conventional bomb. Fabulous. Time to buy the duct tape.
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Right. We’re suburbanites. We hardly ever go to downtown Chicago – except for that time recently when I had jury duty at 26th and California. However, we made an exception because of Hanukkah. Here’s how things work in this family – sometimes it’s hard to get everyone together unless it’s one of those holidays that you’re supposed to keep clear. So when my mother-in-law tried to organize a Hanukkah/holiday season get-together, it was harder than ever this year. One of my sisters-in-law is in law school, the other has 4 kids, and their spouses (spice) are also busy and hard…
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These little yellow dudes come out anytime there’s a problem in our buildings – they’re protecting the area where broken safety glass may have fallen from the shattered window on our floor.
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There’s been excitement galore around the office today – a huge new shopping center opened up nearby and the parking lot is visible from our windows, high over a typical vista of mid-American stripmalls. We’d gotten used to seeing a giant empty lot, then a giant empty hole, then a giant empty store, and so on. This went on for almost 2 1/2 years, owing to some zoning hangup or other. Then it seemed that loading up the store and getting it stocked took forever – we got used to seeing a vast expanse of parking lot, with freshly painted…
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This is the infamous House O’ Big Inflatables. The people that live here apparently subscribe to the More is Better mentality when it comes to cheap plastic crap and tasteless seasonal decor. This is a tiny image of the giant bunny inflatable they had up after Valentines Day. It stayed up for about a month and a half; all the way through Lent everything. At Christmess, they had 11 (eleven) large inflatables. Last year, they had 10. The year before, they had 8 or 9. This is all on a normal sized front lawn. There’s very little lawn visible (or…
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A couple of major news organizations have picked up the “Iraqi prison rape” story – The Seattle Times and The Guardian (UK). And if the U.S. military has no jurisdiction over these freelance cowboys, you can be sure no one else in Iraq does. So I guess they can do anything they like. This is a prescription for further trouble. That’s actually a blog entry from my old hometown paper – bloggers are go! It’s a commentary on the item in the Guardian, which seems to be the first “major” running the story. One civilian contractor was accused of raping…
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One of the biographical panels from Maggie Moo’s Ice Cream in Sugar House, Salt Lake. It depicts Maggie driving off to seek fame and fortune, fabulously accesorized. Despite the cartnoonyness, the ice cream really was good there.
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It’s Catsmas at Get Fuzzy. I’m in a partying mood – all I need is a stupid hat (oh, wait…).