WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia – It was a real-life version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears — only in reverse — when a woman came home to find a young bear eating oatmeal in her kitchen.
The bear apparently entered through an open sliding glass door, broke a ceramic food container and started eating, West Vancouver police Sgt. Paul Skelton said.
Day: June 19, 2006
Best line of the day, so far
Specialist Mike Moriarty is filming his squad leader, Staff Sgt. Kevin Shangraw, as they bounce along in a Humvee. He asks his leader for his take on the broader mission, and Sergeant Shangraw comes straight off the dome with a government-issue rationale.
“Well, I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for the Iraqis to establish a new history in the country and be able to be a free and democratic society, which in turn should stabilize the whole Middle East and create a freer and more stable earth as we know it.”
“Tell me how you really feel,” an unseen Specialist Moriarty prompts.
Sergeant. Shangraw waits a beat as the bleak landscape flies by in the window before answering.
“Then, after that happens, maybe we can buy everybody in the world a puppy.”
Quoted in column by David Carr
Best line of Sunday, so far
“I am such an idiot.”
Phil Mickelson after some incredibly poor choices led to a double-bogey on the final hole of the U.S. Open (and cost him the championship).
Best line of the day, so far
“Children should get Pfizer stock options for each pill they swallow. That might help the moodiness.”
“Get Your War On” by David Rees (in Rolling Stone), referring to the fact that drug use to “treat” kids increased fivefold 1993-2002.
Confession
Dilbert creator Scott Adams confesses he likes television and explains why it’s better than most movies.
The Man Who Made Deadwood
An excellent interview with Deadwood producer David Milch by Allen Barra. It includes this:
Don’t you think it had more to do with the idea that that language was used in the context of a Western? That people weren’t used to hearing those words used in a setting that Gary Cooper and John Wayne once inhabited? I mean, for older viewers at least, the saloon talk sounds a heck of a lot saltier than anything Matt Dillon and Miss Kitty said.
That probably has a lot to do with it, but if you’re going to talk about language, I wish more people had noticed the overall language, the rhythms of period speech that we tried so hard to re-create, and the richness of the imagery. Profanity, I’ve come to believe, was the lingua franca of the time and place, which is to say that anyone, no matter what his or her background, could connect with almost anyone else on the frontier through the use of profanity. But there’s so much more to the dialogue than just the profanity. The language of the characters in the show is never generic, and everyone’s is different. They come from different backgrounds, different parts of the country, and they all express themselves a little differently.
That’s one of the things people like about the show, that after they’ve watched for a while, they can instantly identify each character by the quirkiness of his or her speech. These are people, you know, who all grew up long before the age of electronic media, when regional speech patterns began to lose their distinctiveness. Many of them might have been illiterate, but they knew the King James Bible and Shakespeare, and that’s what shaped the way they thought and the way they expressed themselves.
I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll
Late in 2004 Rolling Stone released its list of the 500 Greatest Songs — “the greatest rock & roll songs of all time, chosen by a five-star jury of singers, musicians, producers, industry figures, critics and, of course, songwriters.”
While the 500 is far from satisfactory in many ways, being obsessive NewMexiKen began to see how many of the 500 I had, then how many more I could acquire. By last summer I reached 499 — all acquired through perfectly legal means I hasten to add. Most are directly from CD; others are from iTunes. The 500th song, the one I still need — “I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll,” by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (#484) isn’t available as a single track and, though I have done it before, I refuse to buy a whole CD for that one tune.
Now I have a new list. Well actually, an older list, but newly in my sights. It’s the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. This is the list put together in 1995 by the curators of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame of what they considered the “most influential” songs. It’s actually a much more interesting list than the Rolling Stone 500, though of course there are many, many tunes that are on both lists. The 500 That Shaped has seven selections recorded in the 1920s and ten from the 1930s.
I’m closing on 400 with this newest, shall we say, obsessive-compulsive activity. As I look down the list to the songs I need to find, there’s one that stares back at me — “I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll,” by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.
It’s the birthday
… of Gena Rowlands. She’s 70. Miss Rowlands has been nominated for the best actress Oscar twice — Gloria (1980) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974).
… of Phylicia Rashad. Clair Hanks Huxtable is 58.
… of Kathleen Turner. She’s 52. Miss Turner was nominated for the best actress Oscar for Peggy Sue Got Married (1986).
… of Paula Abdul. She’s 44. A former Lakers cheerleader, Miss Abdul had six number one records 1988-1991. She topped the charts for 15 weeks altogether.
Lou Gehrig was born on this date in 1903.
Lou Gehrig teamed with Babe Ruth to form baseball’s most devastating hitting tandem ever. “The Iron Horse” had 13 consecutive seasons with both 100 runs scored and 100 RBI, averaging 139 runs and 148 RBI; set an American League mark with 184 RBI in 1931; hit a record 23 grand slams; and won the 1934 Triple Crown. His .361 batting average in seven World Series led the Yankees to six titles. A true gentleman and a tragic figure, Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak ended at 2,130 when he was felled by a disease that later carried his own name. (National Baseball Hall of Fame)
Gehrig died in 1941. As Christopher Moltisanti of The Sopranos put it, “You ever think what a coincidence it is that Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig’s disease?”