Month: April 2005

But this seems to be particularly bad. ABCNews announced today that Peter Jennings has been diagnosed with lung cancer.

“Almost 10 million Americans are living with cancer,” Jennings wrote. “I am sure I will learn from them how to cope with the facts of life that none of us anticipated.”

Although lung cancer is the leading cause of death in industrialized nations, immunotherapy can boost survivability, according to Cancernet.

MORE: Jennings vows to continue.

STILL MORE: He tried to quit smoking.

Jennings did not anchor the newscast Tuesday (4/5/05) evening, but at the end of the World News Tonight, ABC aired a taped statement from the anchor. Jennings told viewers that he had tried to quit smoking 20 years ago, but he had taken the habit up again. “I was weak and smoked over 9/11,” he said.

“Certainly, it’s been a long time, and I hope it goes without saying that a journalist who doesn’t value, deeply, the audience’s loyalty should be in another line of work,” Jennings said, acknowledging that his voice sounded hoarse. “Finally, I wonder if other men and women ask their doctors right away, ‘OK, Doc, when does the hair go?’ “

Jennings had told CNN’s Larry King in a 1994 interview that he used to smoke “like a chimney.”

“My kids were on my case to quit. … Some of the best pictures of me as a kid … (were taken during) the moon landing. There am I doing the graveyard shift in a sports jacket, which would embarrass me now, with my sideburns down to here and a cigarette in my hand. On television! How times have changed.”

Read Peter’s email sent to staff at ABC News.

$58 a barrel. When will it end?

In my neck-of-the-woods, gas costs $2.40 a gallon. It costs $75 to fill up my KIA Sedona and Toyota Pickup (not mine, but it looks like mine). That’s SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS, and my drive into work is 50 miles round trip Monday through Friday.

Trying to feel better about it all, I found this little nugget:

In real terms, prices were still higher in the 1980s when they peaked at roughly $90 a barrel in today’s money for U.S. crude, according to calculations by the International Energy Agency, using the U.S. Consumer Price Index as an inflation adjuster.

It didn’t make me feel better.

There will be no royal wedding on Friday, as originally planned.

Royal wedding postponed

The Prince of Wales’s wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles is to be postponed to Saturday, Clarence House announced today. Charles will be representing the Queen at the funeral of Pope John Paul II on Friday instead. A spokesman said the Prince took the decision with Mrs Parker Bowles after returning today from his skiing trip. Camilla will not be accompanying the Prince to the funeral.

After Charles announced his decision about the date switch, some amongst the staff swear they heard him mutter, “Bloody Catholics!”.

And as for Camilla, she misses being the queen-in-waiting by one day and suffers an 11th hour diplomatic snub.

Priceless.

Who are you now Al?

This is the ultimate geek post of the day.

Pope’s would-be assassin mourns natural death.

Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who seriously wounded the pope during a 1981 assassination attempt, is mourning the pope’s death from his Turkish prison cell, his brother said Sunday. 

Adnan Agca said his brother told him Wednesday in Istanbul’s Kartal prison that he hoped the pope lived a bit longer.

Yeah, so he could get out and give the job another try. Weird.

That’s “More Good News from Afghanistan”, and Chrenkoff delivers the positive information.

But wait, there’s still more.

Arthur discovers something else.

A new study has supposedly overturned the Western experts’ perceptions and common stereotypes by finding that – shock! – Al Qaeda terrorists are not poor but come from comfortable middle-to-upper class backgrounds.

Keep reading.

A “star-studded” blog…hah.

In a move unlikely only because it’s taken this long to happen, pundit-about-town Arianna Huffington is extending her hosting largess to the blogosphere.

This month the wannabe California governor is launching a Slate-like Web site where a cast of bigwigs, including Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), David Geffen, Barry Diller, Larry David, Tom Freston, Ari Emanuel, Jim Wiatt, Tina Brown and Harold Evans will each have their own blog from which to spout Big Thoughts about politics.

Huffington wouldn’t comment, but it was confirmed that a soft-launch of the Huffington Report would be up and running before the end of April.

Something tells me this “blog” will be nothing but a bunch of “posts” that you’d normally call “columns” or “editorials” you’d find in a typical newspaper or magazine any day of the week. I find it funny that (with few exceptions), most “stars” who have their own “blog” don’t have a blog at all. They have a website with articles on it (mostly republished stuff). They have no comment section, not trackback. One post, every other day or so. That’s hardly a blog. Will Arianna’s be any different? We’ll see. 

Pope’s Body Lies in State at Vatican

Mourners Pack St. Peter’s Square

Who’s the next Pope?

Final images of Pope stir deep emotions

Thousands mourn in Poland
Polish faithful pray during a special mass for the late Pope John Paul II at Pilsudski Square in Warsaw April 3, 2005. More than 100,000 worshippers packed the central square in the capital Warsaw, while 60,000 gathered in Krakow, where Wojtyla was archbishop from 1964 until he became Pope in 1978, to hear John Paul’s last message to his homeland.

What happens next?