Drinking whiskey clear!
My take on news from around the world…
Today, the world lost a philandering drunk who killed a girl back in 1969… and also lost a gifted crime writer:
Writer Dominick Dunne has died, Vanity Fair is reporting. He was 83.
He died of bladder cancer today at home in Manhattan, said his son, actor-director Griffin Dunne.
Dunne was a best-selling author who also spent 25 years as a correspondent and editor with Vanity Fair. He covered some of the most celebrated figures and their legal travails.
For those of you who don’t know, the city of Charlotte, North Carolina juts up against the North Carolina\South Carolina border. In fact, many towns in South Carolina – like Fort Mill, Tega Cay, and Lake Wylie – are considered suburbs of Charlotte. So it’s not uncommon for our local news to report on happenings in South Carolina… such as an Asian woman named “Jane” who was recently offended by a “No Colors” sign at The Knot Hole, a Lake Wylie biker bar. As anyone who’s ever even considered going to a biker bar knows, a “no colors” sign refers to gang clothing…. you know, “Hell’s Angels” colors or patches vs. “Bandidos” colors or patches… that sort of thing.
Well, even though “Jane” was college educated, she was apparently completely oblivious of the gang meaning and thought the bar meant “no coloreds”. She was so offended that she did the only reasonable thing – she called a local TV station to complain:
“At first looking at it I was offended, and then after that I got kind of angry,” said Jane.
A few days ago Jane, who is of Asian descent, and some girlfriends headed to the bar for a drink and the sign stopped her in her tracks.
“Whether you are white, black, Asian, Hispanic — it doesn’t matter what race you are, just reading that sign you should be offended by it,” Jane said.
I don’t have children, but if I did I would weep for their future.
Read all about it here.
Here are a couple of quick stories from the UK I meant to post earlier this week:
– A pedophile in North Yorkshire was caught… after burglars broke into his house and stole his laptop! Once back at their “hideout”, they booted up the computer and found child pornography on it. They then hid the laptop in a public location and called the police. It’s nice to know that even thieves have consciences, right? Read more here.
– Anyone familiar with marijuana culture probably knows about “herbal highs”, which are herbs and plants sold as “legal highs” in head shops across the US and UK. Years ago, such “herbal high” products contained real (but very weak) herbs that could, in fact, give you an ever so slight “high”… as “high” as one could get off rabbit tobacco. Over the years, the makers of these products have stepped up their game, and have figured out ways to make these “legal highs” more potent. Unfortunately this includes spraying the herbs with unknown and unregulated substances which often cause paranoia and panic attacks in users. This effectively makes them more dangerous than marijuana, the illegal drug they were attempting to mimic. So now there’s a plan to ban these substances in the UK… which leads to an amusing situation where production might go underground… and people will have to buy the stuff from the same drug dealers they thought they were bypassing by buying the once-legal herbs!
This guy gets arrested more often than a $10 whore! Is he in some kind of competition with Peter Doherty or something?
George Michael was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of drink or drugs yesterday – only two months after getting his licence back.
The singer was breathalysed at the side of the road and taken into police custody after his £60,000 Range Rover crashed into the back of an articulated lorry.
He was held at the police station for almost five hours before being released without charge. Laurie Rowe, the driver of the lorry, said: ‘He seemed completely disorientated, like he had no idea what was going on.
via ‘Dazed’ George Michael held after crashing into a lorry.
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey came this close to declaring bankruptcy earlier this year. Apparently the global recession has caused business to collapse at his worldwide chain of over 20 restaurants – in fact, profits have fallen from £3 million (around $5 million) to just under £400,000 (around $665,000). Things were so dire for Ramsey that he could no longer afford to keep up payments on a £10.5 million ($17 million) loan, and he and his father-in-law were compelled to put in £5 million of their own money into the business. Times are so tough that Ramsey had to sell his Ferrari F430 (one of his most prized possessions) and he even considered selling his London home. Interestingly, Ramsey says that business on the weekend isn’t so bad, but the weekday trade at his various restaurants has nearly come to a complete stop. Read more.
In other news, Ramsey announced that he will start charging diners on his Hell’s Kitchen show in a bid to cut down on the number of aspiring actors and “wannabes” on the show. Ramsey was infuriated last year when his alleged mistress, Sarah Symonds, was allowed into the dining room without his knowledge. Read more.
A cargo ship last heard from on July 28th has apparently vanished. The Arctic Sea, known to be carrying £1 million worth of timber from Finland to Algeria, was last heard from by British authorities at Dover and the end of July, but since then… nothing. The ship is thought to have made it through the English Channel, but after rounding the tip of France, the fate of the ship is uncertain. Authorities are pretty sure that the ship didn’t sink, as there was neither a distress call nor has anyone spotted any of the lumber (or any other wreckage).
There are several theories as to what might have happened: that the ship was taken by pirates, a common occurrence off the coast of east Africa, but unknown in Northern European waters for two centuries; that there is some commercial or ownership dispute (the ship is “Latvian-owned, Maltese-flagged and operating from the Russian port of Arkhangelsk”); or possibly that the ship contained some type of undeclared and valuable cargo, and Russian gangsters have seized the ship. The mystery deepens when you consider that the crew complained about the ship being seized by Russian gangsters whilst in Swedish waters; the gangsters are said to have boarded the ship, tied up the crew, then spent 12 hours in the cargo hold looking for something.
Read more about it here.
Britain continues her march towards INGSOC! The Liverpool City Council is planning to reclassify thousands of classic movies that feature smoking. Any film deemed to offend the sensibilities of Big Brother the council will be given an “18 certificate”, the equivalent of an NC-17 rating in the US (and previously reserved for explicitly violent or sexual films).
Although the rule is supposedly for new films only, there is nothing in the measure to prevent the Liverpool Council from banning older films as well. This could mean that no Liverpudlian under the age of 18 would be able to go to a cinema or rent or purchase almost any movie made before 1970, including such classics as Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Citizen Kane, On The Waterfront and even modern classics such as Titanic and Lord of the Rings. What’s more, several classic childrens films – such as 101 Dalmatians and Disney’s Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid and Pinocchio would become 18+ only.
The nannies on the council have graciously exempted any film in which a historical character was known to smoke (Winston Churchill, for example), and they have also exempted any film which “educates” the public on the “dangers” of smoking (“I love you, Big Brother!”)
This is all made possible by a 2003 law with allows local governments to override the British Board of Film Classification, which normally handles such things.
Read more about it here.
– If ever there was any doubt about the supremacy of the NFL in America’s hearts, look no further than last week’s Neilsen ratings, where a lowly pre-season game between two middling teams – the Tennessee Titans and the Buffalo Bills – trounced the competition from MLB, NASCAR and the PGA. The “Hall of Fame Game” (so-called because it takes place at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio) averaged 7.9 million viewers, compared to 6.3 million viewers for the final round of the Bridgestone Invitational, 4.7 million for the Yankees-Red Sox game, and 2.5 million for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. Let me emphasize – this was a pre-season game between two teams with small fan bases… and it beat out Tiger Woods, one of MLB’s classic rivalries, and a bunch of rednecks driving in circles! Read more here.
– Some nutty British scienticians have decided that Britain’s ideal pet would have the “ears of a rabbit, face of a cat, body of a golden retriever and tail of a horse”. Read more about it here.
– Like I lot of people, I occasionally walk past a dirty car and feel an overwhelming urge to write “Wash Me” on it. Texas artist Scott Wade is the same way, only he uses brushes and his fingers to create masterpieces on the windshields of cars:
Read about his work and see more pictures here.
– And lastly, a bit of free advice for Apple: stop censoring so many iPhone apps! As you probably know, Apple’s iconic iPhone has an online store (called, imaginatively enough, the App Store) where users can download programs for their iPhones. The only problem is that Apple has complete control over what apps make it to the App Store, and sometimes the company likes to use a heavy hand when dealing with developers.
Apple pulled a Bittorrent app from the App Store because “it could be used for piracy” (which is pretty rich from a company that made billions selling iPods!). Apple then banned a Bittorrent viewing program because again “it could be used for piracy” (it’s crucial to note that this program simply connected to a desktop computer and checked the status of the BT app running on that computer; the rejected iPhone app couldn’t download anything by itself). Apple has also taken a caviler attitude with apps that complete with the iPhone’s existing apps (the recent Google Voice drama) or the bread and butter of its main iPhone partner, AT&T (the SlingPlayer drama). But last week might have been the last straw: Apple banned a dictionary app from the App Store… because the program contained “offensive words” (the app was later approved when all the “offensive” words were removed and a “17+” label was added to the app. I just wanted to say this: “Hey, Apple: the Justice Department can investigate companies other than Microsoft and Intel, ya know?”
I haven’t said much about the civil suit against Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger because a) I’m not a lawyer; and b) so far, we’ve only had the alleged victim’s 36-page original complaint to comment on.
However, in an affidavit filed on Friday, Angela Antonetti, a former co-worker of the alleged victim, stated that Andrea McNulty “did not appear to be upset, stressed-out or nervous” about the incident… in fact, she appeared to be “happy and boastful”, and even wondered if she might “have a little Roethlisberger” inside her (i.e. be pregnant).
Antonetti further states that McNulty’s series of psychological treatments and long absences from work after the alleged incident were actually related to the affair she was having with a married man, and another “relationship” she was having with a soldier in Iraq (who was actually an imaginary person made up by the wife of the man she was having an affair with).
Look folks, this is just the opinion of one of Andrea McNulty’s co-workers. I’m sure that if you asked most of your co-workers about you, you’d get several “he’s a great guy” comments and a few “he’s a complete jerk” comments. The point is, just because one woman says that McNulty is lying doesn’t mean that the suit is a slam-dunk for Roethlisberger’s attorneys. It’s not, however, a good sign for McNulty. Her case has always seemed shaky, and a few more affidavits like these and the suit will collapse.
Read more about it here.
John Hughes, director of such iconic 80s and 90s films as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, She’s Having a Baby, Uncle Buck and Curly Sue and the writer of many more such as National Lampoon’s Vacation, Mr. Mom, Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, Home Alone and Career Opportunities, passed away of a heart attack yesterday in New York at the age of 58.
Born in Lansing, Michigan on February 18, 1950, Hughes grew up in Northbrook, Illinois, where many of his films would take place (the city was originally named “Shermerville”, hence the “Shermer, Illinois” name in the movies). He married his high school sweetheart in 1970 and remained with her throughout his life. He began his professional life working for Chicago ad agencies, where he created the famous “foam vs. Edge” credit card commercials.
I’m not going to write a long post about how he was the “voice of a generation”… in fact, I’m not sure I really even know what that phrase means. All I know is that Hughes made me laugh, cry and think about my life. His movies were the first to portray “my” generation in a somewhat realistic manner. And when I saw his characters on the screen, I identified with them. These weren’t movies for my mom, my younger and hipper uncle, or even the babysitter… there were movies for me. And for that, I’m thankful we had John Hughes, if only for a short while.
Here are a couple of neat Hughes-related things:
Here’s the complete text of “Vacation ’58”, Hughes’ “allegedly fictional” short story that inspired the Vacation film. It’s a short (but hilarious) read… you oughta check it out!
And here’s a blog entry by a woman who was “pen pals” with Hughes. It seems that she wrote Hughes a long letter, pouring her heart out to him after she saw The Breakfast Club. Hughes sent her a form letter in return, which made the woman so mad that she sent him another long letter, this time an angry one. Hughes actually wrote her back personally this time, and the two exchanged several letters over the years. Reading her post is sad… not only because of Hughes’ death, but because she quotes a few paragraphs from her letters about why he largely turned his back on Hollywood. It’s a sad and poignant post, and if you were a Highes fan at all, you should really read it.