I’ve been messing with the style sheet on the site today. OK, pretty much all day, which is why you haven’t seen any posts. I’ve got the layout for Internet Explorer working alright, but Firefox and Safari are hosed, for now. So, if you view the site in either of those browsers, you’ll see some funky stuff happening. Please pardon the noise, as I’m still tweaking, breaking, fixing, breaking and fixing the site.
Hope you had a less frustrating Sunday. More from me tomorrow.
Although the majority of people might remember Darren McGavin as the father to Ralphie in “A Christmas Story”, I remember him best as Carl Kolchack from “The Night Stalker”, a TV series that didn’t last long enough. That show used to scare me to death.
McGavin died today at the age of 83.
McGavin died of natural causes at a Los Angeles-area hospital with his family at his side, said his son Bogart McGavin.
McGavin made his film debut in 1945 when he switched from painter of movie sets to bit actor in “A Song to Remember.” After a decade of learning his craft in New York, he returned to Hollywood and became one of the busiest actors in television and films.
He starred in five series, including cult favorite “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” and “Riverboat,” and became a prolific actor in TV movies. Among his memorable portrayals was Gen. George Patton in the 1979 TV biography “Ike.”
He may be best recognized for his role as the hot-tempered father of a boy yearning for the gift of a BB gun in the 1983 comedy “A Christmas Story.” The film has become a holiday-season staple on TV.
The following announcement was made from McGavin’s website:
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Darren McGavin at approximately 7:10 A.M. Pacific time today, Saturday 25, 2006. Darren was just three months short of his 84th birthday. While we suspect none of us can imagine a world without the beloved, feisty little red-head, it is time to reflect, give thanks for his life and hold in reverence his memory. Darren is gone, but in many respects he will always be with us: as Carl Kolchak, fighting authority and battling monsters; the grumpy Old Man sending curses over Lake Michigan; as David Ross, the outsider, Grey Holden, captain of the Enterprise, the irascible detective Mike Hammer or any number of memorable guest star appearances, most notably as Joe Bascome on GUNSMOKE and as the washed-up old actor from “Distant Signals.”
Please take a moment in your sadness to reflect upon all the ways Darren touched your lives, say a prayer and raise a glass to toast a career which spanned over fifty years and affected us all in ways too numerous to count.
Actor Don Knotts died today. He was 81 years old.
Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory complications at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center, said Sherwin Bash, his friend and manager.
Andy Griffith, who had visited Knotts in the hospital before his death, said his longtime friend had a brilliant comedic mind and wrote some of the show’s best scenes.
“Don was a small man … but everything else about him was large: his mind, his expressions,” Griffith told The Associated Press on Saturday. “Don was special. There’s nobody like him.
“I loved him very much,” Griffith added. “We had a long and wonderful life together.”
Unspecified health problems had forced Knotts to cancel an appearance in his native Morgantown, W.Va., in August.
From Episode #103, “Opie’s Ill-Gotten Gain”
Barney: Boy, I tell you, if I ever came home with anything less than As, I just didn’t dare come home.
Andy: I don’t remember you getting all As.
Barney: I did that once. Remember? The teacher made such a fuss about it that all the kids hated me.
Andy: I don’t remember.
Barney: Well, it’s a fact. I didn’t want ’em thinking I was some kind of a snob or an egghead or something, so I buckled down and got bad marks.
Andy: That must have taken real effort.
Barney: You think you’re kidding. Listen, an IQ can be a mixed blessing sometimes. Some people want it and can’t get it. I got it and had to get rid of it. Life’s funny that way, you know?
Others: Jack Lewis |
According to a report from WorldNetDaily, Dubai Ports World is scheduled to take over 22 U.S. ports, not 6.
According to the website of P&O Ports, the port-operations subsidiary of the London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (P&O), DPW will pick up stevedore services at 12 East Coast ports including Portland, Maine; Boston; Davisville, R.I.; New York; Newark; Philadelphia; Camden, N.J.; Wilmington, Del.; Baltimore, Md.; and Virginia locations at Newport News, Norfolk, and Portsmouth.
Additionally, DPW will take over P&O stevedoring operations at nine ports along the Gulf of Mexico including the Texas ports of Lake Charles, Beaumont, Port Arthur, Galveston, Houston, Freeport, and Corpus Christi, plus the Louisana ports of Lake Charles and New Orleans.
Previously reported have only been P&O Ports’ container operations at New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami, and New Orleans. Stevedore services also typically involve the loading and unloading of containers on and off cargo ships, as well as moving and storing containers, though often in separate facilities from where containers are initially loaded and unloaded from the cargo ships. Thus, while DPW will be operating the container terminal operations of only the six ports initially disclosed, DPW will be managing stevedore services, handling containers at a total of 21 ports, located along the Eastern seaboard from Maine to Virginia, and across the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Louisiana.
Additionally, the website of P&O Ports North America lists that P&O provides container services at the Port of Miami, through a subsidiary identified as P&O Ports Florida, Inc. This brings to 22 the total number of American ports where DPW will be acquiring P&O operations.
With all the heat on George W. Bush and his administration’s decision to do this deal, I don’t know how it can proceed as is. There’s just too much noise right now, and the president won’t win by trying to adjust his message upon each new revelation. The best that can be done is for everyone to agree to suspend the transaction. Release all of the details and explain that this issue is really one of bad public relations, nothing more. Right now the goal should be full disclosure. Anything less will be met with further criticism and allegations of corruption, exactly the things we don’t need heading into the mid-terms.
First rule? Make sure you’ve addressed the envelope.
MILL VALLEY, CA (KNX) — Northern California resident Steven Coburn has received a lesson in shipping protocol…always make sure you have an address on your package…especially if you’re mailing marijuana.
Coburn, 48, allegedly mailed the package, containing a half-pound of weed, with no address affixed to it.
The shipping company where Coburn took the package followed protocol by opening the package to determine whether or not the address label had been accidentally sealed inside.
“Once they opened it up and saw what was inside, they immediately called law enforcement,”said Detective Matt Lethin of the Marin County Major Crimes Task Force.
Investigators noted that the package did contain a return address and went to Coburn’s home in Mill Valley where they found another 10 pounds of marijuana worth an estimated $10 thousand.
At that point, Coburn was invited to become a guest of the city. A court date has been set for March 8th.
Imagine what the crime rate would be if criminals had half a brain.
A curfew has been extended for another day in hopes that the Iraqi government can quell the unrest which erupted after the bombing of Golden Mosque in Samarra.
Jim over at Gateway Pundit is providing great coverage of this ongoing story.
Ponder, if you will, this rather torrid story.
Blogger Jason Kottke has given up on trying to make a living by blogging full time.
Kottke announced on Wednesday that he is no longer seeking payments from people who enjoy his blog, Kottke.org. He said he hasn’t managed to attract enough readers or developed “a sufficient cult of personality” to support the subscription model.
He also explained that he wasn’t able to keep providing the time and energy needed to make his blog successful enough.
“My (unstated) intention from the beginning was to approach the site as a start-up, but along the way, life intervened (in a good way), and I couldn’t focus on it as much as I wanted to. The site became a normal job, a 9-to-5 affair, which meant that I could keep up with it, but growth was hard to come by,” Kottke wrote.
Kottke made decent money, at least the first couple of months, but after that things got a little lean.
Kottke revealed on Wednesday that he had raised a total of $39,900 from 1,450 donors. Most of that was received in the initial fund-raising drive in February and March 2005, when his project began.
It’s unclear what Kottke will do next.
“In the short term, (the blog) is going to be taking a backseat to some other things going on in my life. Longer term, who knows? I might look for other ways to fund my efforts on the site, or maybe it goes back to being more of a hobby. But there will be posts and links and other things here almost daily, just like there have been for almost eight years now,” he wrote.
Let’s not kid ourselves – blogging takes a lot of time, not to mention commitment. What makes blogging even more difficult is the lack of payback, appreciation or even attention from blog readers. Often times, bloggers feel like they’re writing for themselves, a few friends and maybe mom. Other than that, bloggers gaze at their daily stats longingly, wondering who’s out there, when they’ll come back, and if they’ll stick around long enough to click on a sidebar ad.
But, we blog, constantly. We love it enough to show up every day, without fame and fortune. At least for now.
Cindy Sheehan’s not ready to retire her act just yet. She’s scheduled to bring her love to Germany next month to protest outside US military institutions. Sheehan and her entourage plan to construct another ‘Camp Casey’ style compound which will serve as temporary headquarters.
And how do the troops feel about a visit from Mother Sheehan?
“Anything I would have to say about her, you couldn’t print,” Army Staff Sgt. Mark Genthner said.
I would bet a majority agrees with Staff Sgt. Genthner.
Tell us again how you support the troops, Cindy.
Wow, that was fast. British cops arrested a man and a woman today in connection with that huge armed robbery. While the figure has changed depending on which report you read, the latest amount of stolen loot stands at 50 million pounds, or roughly 87 million US dollars.
“These arrests are a positive development in the early stages of our investigation,” Assistant Chief Constable Adrian Leppard said, adding the Kent force had already received more than 400 calls from people offering tips.
The robbery bore striking similarities to a 2004 robbery in Northern Ireland. Police blamed criminal gangs – not terrorists – and said the hunt continued for the other men.
“This is organized crime at its top level. This was planned and executed with military precision,” Leppard said of Wednesday’s heist in the sleepy market town about an hour’s drive from the Channel Tunnel, which separates England and France.
Just like a Hollywood movie.