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The nexus between politics and entertainment ... has seldom been closer ...
OLDER-YOUNGER BROTHERS? - NBC's chief on-air legal analyst Dan Abrams and film star Jake Gyllenhaal.
Yes, the walls are starting to close in ... but before they do: stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
CRIME NOTES - here in New Hampshire, we present Paul Baldwin - no, not the guy that "Coffee Talk" host Linda I'm a little verklempt Richman replaced, who was suffering from "spilgus in his gezook-ticus" ....
... no, the Granite State's Paul Baldwin is in jail after his 154th arrest - this time, trying to pilfer 48 cans of beer from a store in Kittery, Maine. Hey, now wait a sec .....
DIRECT DESCENDANTS? .... doesn't it look like our local criminal (left) ...is descended from the late Merlin Olsen the NFL Hall-of-Famer? Wotta shame ...
Help keep this crazy train rolling: stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
3pm
As a child, I recall my parents discussing a certain criminal with a very colorful name. Many years later, I was astonished to learn that Jack Roland Murphy - better known as Murf the Surf - by the age of 30 had accomplished more in life (both good and evil) than many people do in a lifetime. To think that he was able to convince authorities that he could be paroled from a life sentence ... and become a role model ... well, let's have a look at a fascinating life.
It's not just in the political arena: even a latter-day media star may have some unforeseen antecedents:
FATHER-SON? - Johnny Henshaw-Jacobs from the "Airplane!" films (as portrayed by the late Stephen Stucker) and newly-famous JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater.
Cue the movie tag-lines. Well, perhaps before you do: stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
One of my favorite singers of all time - Abbey Lincoln has died at the age of 80. As this excerpt from the NY Times says:
Ms. Lincoln's career encompassed outspoken civil rights advocacy in the 1960s and fearless introspection in more recent years, and for a time in the 1960s she acted in films with Sidney Poitier.
Long recognized as one of jazz's most arresting and uncompromising singers, Ms. Lincoln gained similar stature as a songwriter only over the last two decades.
After the jump is a profile I wrote about her some time ago.
"Good eve-a-ning", indeed. But at least for now: stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
This is a profile of someone I've neither met, nor have any particular liking or disliking of. It may well be that others here have had dealings with him; would welcome your comments thereof. But this fellow went from trying to design a nuclear bomb all the way to unlocking the secrets of voter lists - so it's worth a look.
Not something I took notice of before - but being in politics can wear oneself down ...
YOUNGER-OLDER BROTHERS? - former UK prime minister Tony Blair and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Gadzooks - well, why not stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
... I couldn't help but recall Monday nights from my youth when Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In would come on.
In those 1968 pre-cable TV days: you could come in to school the next day, ask a classmate "Hey, what did you think of "Laugh-In" last night?" - and get a response 4-out-of-5 times, or "Dang, I had school band practice!" as an excuse. Some thirty-seven years after it left the air in May 1973: it's worth a quick look back (after the jump).
Sometimes images from the past fade ..... except when they don't:
DIRECT DESCENDANTS? - Canadian film star Keanu Reeves and Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky.
Roll over Beethoven, and tell ..... you-know-who to stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
On June 27, 2002, the US Supreme Court rendered a verdict on a case brought by Lindsay Earls, a member of the Cherokee Nation, whom I refer to as a great American heroine. Even though she is an Oklahoma resident, her case received a great deal of coverage in my region (Vermont/New Hampshire border) as she was by then a student at Dartmouth College (whose medical center I am employed at).
I wrote about this several years ago; alas, several links which I cite here no longer work. But here first is her story of courage, followed by what she is doing today.
In the political world, doppelgangers seem to be more the norm than ever. Exhibit A:
SEPARATED at BIRTH - Politico's Mike Allen and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.)
Our men in Washington, indeed. For now: stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
Nothing like the separation between the distant past and the present, huh? Well ... not so fast ....
DIRECT DESCENDANTS? - English TV star Ricky Gervais and French composer Claude Debussy.
Keep this crazy train rolling - and stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
Keep those cards and letters coming, folks, and stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
Always remember that "the past is not prologue" ..... err..... except when it is:
DIRECT DESCENDANTS? - TV host Stephen Colbert and General Ignacio Zaragoza (pictured on Mexico's 500 peso note).
....Zounds! While you're battening down the hatches, why not stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
