So… our “middle cat”, Mimi (a.k.a. Bittle) got up on the kitchen counter last night and got her head stuck in an empty trash bag box. The result was priceless:
Truro Church Wins (Again)
From BabyBlue:
Judge Randy Bellows ruled today that property disputed by The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia is indeed held in trust by Truro Church, Fairfax and therefore, subject to the Virginia Division Statute, 57-9.
This property was originally bought by Christ the Redeemer, a mission church-plant of Truro Church. The original mission dissolved and the property was given to the mother church. TEC and the Diocese intervened, claiming that this particular property was not subject to 57-9 but were unable to answer testimony given in court today by the former Senior Warden of Christ the Redeemer (Truro mission) and the current Senior Warden of Truro Church. The judge ruled from the bench that indeed this particular property is held in trust by Truro Church and therefore subject to 57-9.
The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia acknowledged just prior to trial that the Division Statute 57-9 applies to all the other property held in trust by Truro Church.
BREAKING: Madonna and Guy split!
The BBC is reporting that The Sun newspaper is reporting that Madonna and Guy Ritchie will publicly announce plans to divorce “any time now”.
Mad Men: “The Jet Set”
Wow. I really did not like this episode of Mad Men. I’ll explain why later… but first: the recap… which begins right now:
The episode starts off with Roger and Jane in bed at the Sherry-Netherland hotel. Jane is dressed only in a sheet. Jane writes poems about Roger. Roger proposes to Jane. Seriously. I’m still not buying it.
Meanwhile, Peggy leads a meeting about Right Guard deodorant, with Paul, Harry, Sal, Kurt and Smitty in attendance. Paul mentions a study that found that “80% of men say that Right Guard makes them feel more confident at work”. Wasn’t “confidence at work” at part of Right Guard’s advertising later on? At any rate, it’s clear that no one is very interested in working in Don’s absence: the meeting quickly turns to pop culture gossip: Sal asks if anyone saw The Loretta Young Show the previous night; he then says it was “awful” with “the aprons, the nauseating upholstery on the couch”. Upholstery, huh? Smitty asks if anyone’s heard from Paul Kinsey, who is at Ole Miss protesting on behalf of black student James Meredith (this dates the episode to around September 30, 1962). A conversation starts about prejudice but quickly turns to how the event will affect business. Kurt says the he has no idea what’s going on, since he doesn’t have a TV. Harry tells him that he must have a TV for his job. The guys ask Kurt what he does in his spare time instead of watching TV. He says that he goes to concerts, and Smitty mentions that Kurt recently saw Dylan. This sparks an interest in Peggy, who breaks the meeting up to flirt with Kurt, who asks her if she wants to go see Dylan with him.
Don and Pete have made it to Los Angeles. The airline has apparently lost Don’s luggage, so he’s stuck at the pool in a suit:
Pete wants to spend the day at the pool, but Don tells him to get out his list and get to work. Pete kind of mumbles for a few minutes, then Don snaps him to attention with the best line of the episode:
“Do you want to be on vacation, Pete? ‘Cos I can make that happen.” – Don Draper
30 Rock Preview!
Here’s a preview of the new season of 30 Rock, which starts on October 31st. The first episode will be available online starting October 23!
FCC Sides with NFL Net
The FCC has taken the side of the NFL Network in the network’s ongoing feud with Comcast.
In a nutshell, it goes like this: the NFL wants Comcast to include the NFL Network on its basic cable package. Normally, “contracts of carriage” between cable networks and cable providers state that each household pays a certain rate (say $1/month) for a channel, multiplied by the total number of households each provider has. So if, for example, Time Warner Cable wants E!, and E! costs $1.25 per household month, and TWC has 100 million households, then TWC must give E! $125 million a month to carry the channel on their cable systems.
Comcast thinks that the NFL wants far too much money for the NFL Network, so they want to put it on an optional “sports tier”, in which case Comcast would only pay the NFL for each household that subscribes to the tier. The NFL is opposed to this, as it effectively limits the number of people that will get NFL Network. The only problem for Comcast is this: the cable provider also owns Versus and the Golf Channel, both of which are sports channels that the company happily provides on their basic package.
Look, there’s more than enough blame to go around in this situation. The NFL is being greedy and demanding too much money for their product. But they also have a point in that the network will never get off the ground until it appears on basic cable tiers. And Comcast is being disingenuous when they whine that NFL Net costs too much money… all the while pimping two basic cable sports channels that they happen to own.
According to Ars Technica, the FCC on Friday sided with the NFL Network on at least two issues surrounding this bitter dispute. For starters, the Communications Act of 1996 “forbids a multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) from discriminating against content providers ‘on the basis of affiliation or nonaffiliation’ with the MVPD”. This means that Comcast can’t offer programming by Comcast-owned stations while at the same time discrimination against channels owned by others. The FCC also found “evidence suggesting that Comcast demanded a financial interest NFL Network programming in exchange for carriage, another violation of the agency’s rules”.
According to FCC rules, the issues will now go before an Administrative Law judge, who will send recommendations for action to the full FCC within 60 days.
Maybe… someday… NFL Network will show up on Time Warner Cable!
The Zen of Homemade Pizza
I have a confession to make: I love Chef Boyardee Pizza Kits. They come in a box that contains pizza crust mix, pizza sauce (with or without pepperoni), and some Parmesan cheese. All for just $2.37! You just add some warm water to the pizza crust mix, mix it up, let it rise, put the dough in a pan, add the sauce, sprinkle on the cheese, and in 16-20 minutes you have pizza!
Look, I don’t like the pizza kits because of their kick-ass taste. I like them because they remind me of my childhood. My mom loved buying the kits, because they meant that she’d have the night off in the kitchen. As kids, my sister and I loved them because they were fun to make. And that’s really the gist of it: making pizza at home is fun! Buy one of those kits sometimes – they’re fun to put together… and when you’re done, you have pizza!
Another reason I love the kits so much is that they kicked off my love of homemade pizza. I used to make pizza at home a lot. New York pizzas. Chicago pizzas. Pizzas that creatively used leftovers. Pizzas that cost me $50 in ingredients. You name it, I did it. Especially after I turned 21 and found an awesome recipe for Sam Adams Pizza Crust (2 c flour, 1 c whole wheat flour, 1 T baking powder, 12 oz Samuel Adams Boston Lager).
Even if you don’t buy a kit or become a home pizza baking fanatic, pizza is easy to make at home and cheap, too! Just remember to follow the path of Zen:
THE CRUST
The crust is the most important part of the pizza. Seriously. Don’t skimp on this step, as having a good crust is the heart of a good pizza.
Sign of the Times
The National Debt has grown so large that it can no longer be displayed properly on the National Debt Clock in Times Square in New York.
The sign was originally put up in 1989 to highlight the then-staggering $2.9 trillion US debt. The debt, which now exceeds $10 trillion, is simply too large for the clock, which has run out of digits.
Douglas Durst, son of the late Seymour Durst, the clock’s inventor, says a new version will be installed sometime next year that can hold all the necessary digits. In the meantime, the dollar sign has been removed and replaced with a “1”.
Awesome!
The Saddest Show on TV
Last week, I wrote this article about the return of the ABC show Pushing Daisies. In it, I quoted a poster from the DVD Talk forums who said: “I consider myself a highly cynical, pessimistic person, but there’s just something about this show that is able to give me the warm fuzzies. Every week I get to feel like the Grinch when he rediscovers he has a heart.”
It’s true! Pushing Daisies is like a comfy sweater or favorite pillow. You know the “cuteness” factor in the movie Amelie? Ratchet that up several notches and bring it into your living room ever week, and that’s Pushing Daisies. But it wasn’t until this week that I realized how totally, incredibly, and profoundly sad this show is, too. It makes me downright weepy! Yes, weepy!
This week, Chuck’s aunt Vivian stopped by The Pie Hole to pick up a pie. Since Olive is away at a convent, she hasn’t been able to deliver the pies that Chuck has been making for her aunts these past few months. And with Olive away and Ned and Emerson solving a case, that leaves only Chuck to man The Pie Hole. Vivian, missing the pies that Olive used to deliver, stopped by the restaurant to pick up a pie. But only Chuck is there, and she’s supposed to be dead. Vivian gives a little speech about her loneliness while Chuck hides from her. Chuck can only cry as the woman that reared her talks sadly.
Everyone in this show is terribly hurt in some way. Ned is lonely – not just because he cannot touch Chuck, but also because he misses his family. Chuck… well, Chuck is sad because she’s supposed to be dead and cannot tell her aunts that she is, in fact, alive. Olive is deeply in love with Ned, but Ned is deeply in love with Chuck. Olive also has many secrets she’s forced to bear. Emerson’s daughter is missing, so he makes a series of pop-up books in her honor, perhaps hoping she’ll read them and come home. Vivian is lonely because she misses Lilly. And because she’s nuts. And Lilly apparently has a closet full of secrets. Whew!
Thankfully, the show still brings the laughs, though. This week’s joke with the clown car was completely predicable… but freakin’ hilarious nevertheless!
Life On Mars: What’d ya think?
So – last night was the debut of the American version of Life On Mars. For those of you that watched it: what did you think?
I myself was fairly pleased. Let me say this straight away: no remake of the show can be as good as the original. Full stop, period dot. Keeping that in mind, the American version is pretty faithful to the original.
Lisa Bonet plays Maya, Sam’s girlfriend. Changing her from Asian (Indian) to black makes sense, I suppose.
Unlike that godawful pilot episode leaked earlier this year, the “new and improved” Life On Mars US features Michael Imperioli as Ray Carling and Jonathan Murphy as Chris Skelton – two characters completely absent from the first pilot. I’m not sure that I’m digging either character at this moment – for some reason, Imperioli’s sarcastic Carling just rubs me the wrong way, but not in the same way that the original Ray did.
Annie Cartwright’s character was played by Rachelle Lefèvre in the failed pilot. Her version of Annie was an already street-smart detective that got a fair amount of acclaim from her co-workers. Lefèvre was dumped for Gretchen Mol, who plays Annie Norris (no idea about the name change), a meek character far closer to the “original” Annie. You know – a smart girl trapped in the “Womens Police Force”, busy making coffee and cleaning the station houses than doing actual police work. While Mol’s acting is fine, I’m not sure I buy her as Annie Cartwright. She’s too pretty. Liz White is the type of girl that really isn’t immediately pretty, but after watching several episodes, she sort of slowly “gets pretty”. At any rate, at least they’ve brought back the “suffering Annie” plotline. The whole basis of Sam and Annie’s relationship is that she’s smart as a whip, but trapped in a “housekeeping” job, and that Sam is the only one that appreciates her intellect. With that dynamic gone in the original pilot, the plot suffered terribly. I’m glad it’s back.