Bucky in the Burbs

So remember all those weeks ago when I wrote about the column I had to submit some sample pieces for and everyone gushed about what a great "voice" I had and how much they loved my columns, etc., etc. And then nothing.

Well that was until now. Yesterday I had an e-mail from the page's editor and she said she had gotten all the levels of approval she needed and everyone was on board with having me writing the column, except my immediate supervisor who would really rather just have me do more employee reviews, I think. (I also, apparently, write amazing employee reviews and so of course the reward for good work is to load me up with more work. So I'll probably have even more of those to do, which is just ridiculous. I feel like such a fraud writing those reviews. I have no idea what I'm doing. And yet, that is exactly what they want, somehow.) But clearly, I have digressed.

So today I had my photo taken for the column. I didn't get much sleep last night due to a totally unrelated reason, but as I was dragging my tired self into the office today I had vision of that Sex and The City where Carrie gets asked to be the covergirl for New York Magazine's 40 and Fabulous or whatever the hell the issue was called, but it wound up being Whatever and Fabulous? and this crappy picture of her without making, dark circles under eyes with a coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other. THAT's what I envision my photo will turn out to be. Though, luckily I convinced the one photographer I get along with really well to take my photo. So I think he'll do right by me.

Anyway, my first column runs October 6. I'll be sending you all the links. I have to keep my page views up. Now all I have to do is decide which column should be my first and tweak it. Probably most of what you read in the future columns you'll first read a version of here, but there's a chance I might throw in some original material too. After all, I want to keep you, loyal readers, on the edge of your keyboard with excitement and anticipation.

Tears of a Mime...

PARIS (AP) — Marcel Marceau, the master of mime who transformed silence into poetry with lithe gestures and pliant facial expressions that spoke to generations of young and old, has died. He was 84.

Did anyone know he was still alive?

The Tabloids Speak For All of Us

Uhm, except everyone I actually know.

Second Stalker: Update

Today, as usual, I was walking the dog when my second stalker - the guy who works for the complex and whose sole job, it seems, is to park his little golf cart somewhere along my dog walking route and then lie in wait while pretending to pick up trash - asks, "Hey, so I wanted to ask, are you single, or..."

I tried to not to sigh. I think I was successful. I quickly answered,"I have a boyfriend." And so instead of saying "OK" or some other typically quick response to such an answer and driving off, Stalker2 says, "I was just wondering, because I've been trying to meet someone and I live talking to you." (Mind you our conversations - are almost entirely one-sided and almost always involved the weather. I'm not sure what kind of conversation he's used to, but it strikes as very bad if what I've just described is enjoyable conversation.) Then he finishes with, "Well let me know if you become single." And he drives off.

Yes, Stalker2, you'll be at the top of the list when I dump my imaginary boyfriend.

This apartment complex is starting to scare me with it's stalkers-per-me ratio.

Brooklyn: Part the first

Though really I haven't lived in New York long enough to make comments like the following, I'm going to anyway.

I'm a little bit embarrassed to admit this, but I thing I have a little crush on Brooklyn Heights. I don't know the exact latitudes and longitudes of this particular neighborhood, but it begins, I believe, in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge and heads south to some unknown (to me) point.


I spent the day there today, wandering it's streets, watching kids play in its parks, sitting on its waterfront promenade — which right now isn't all that pretty due to some unsightly piers operated by Port Authority, but I understand that those soon will be demolished and a meandering waterfront park will be put up in its place — window shopping.


We ate brunch at a restaurant called Heights Cafe on Montague Street.

I had a spinach and feta tart that was heavy on the spinach, light on the feta and seemed more quiche-ish than tart-ly to me. My dining companion, who was sporting a hangover, had a cheeseburger and reported it was perfect. So meat beats tarts once again.

I've been here before and I always find it too cute for words. Today we passed a dad and son holding a sidewalk sell. The dad had a dad-sized table in front of him featuring such items as paperback novels and pint glass. The son had a kiddie-sized table in front of him featuring such items as plastic armor and stuffed dinosaurs. Seriously it looked like a sidewalk scene from a movie. It was too perfect.

In addition to being too cute for words, I'm sure it's also too expensive for words to set up a home there, but it's nice to wander it's streets, hang out in its dog parks and daydream.

Danger. Stalker Alert Level: Orange-Red

So my mom befriended my not-as-stalkerish-as-before, downstairs neighbor while my parents were here. (They left at like 2 a.m. this morning, determined to drive straight through, back home. Crazy people!)

Anyway, while I was off working the last two days, she would take the dog outside where he would play with the other dogs. My mom will talk to a wall, as will my downstairs neighbor. So they struck up a conversation and the next thing I know my mom is promising to send a package of cookies back with me for him when I go home over Christmas.

Traitor! She's supposed to helping discourage the stalker-y behavior. You just KNOW this is going to take a lot of damage control to fix!

A mini break

My parents are visiting this means there will be a lack of posts as I try not to kill my mom who keeps insisting I eat more and study more. I'm taking a quick break right now while they've been distracted by Gunsmoke on the television to check my e-mail, pay bills, etc.

They leave this weekend, so hopefully, soon I'll be back to providing valuable insight into New York living. I know, I know. It's hard to live without, but I'm sure you will survive.

In the meantime I'll leave you with this little tidbit I learned from my Spanish book this week. There are more Puerto Ricans living in New York City than live in San Juan.

Sharks Galore

Following up on the original shark stories, The New York Daily News had made mention of a second shark sighting her in NY.

The summer of '07 came to an end on Coney Island yesterday with an only-in-New York fish story: meet the city lifeguard who saved - a shark.

Tender-hearted muscleman Marius Mironescu rescued a 2-foot sand shark from a mob of panicked swimmers, grabbing the wriggling fish in his arms and - in a neat reversal of the usual scenario - swimming out to sea with the stunned animal.

"There must have been 75 to 100 people circled around the shark in the water and they were bugging out," said Mironescu, 39, of Brooklyn.

"They were holding on to it and some people were actually hitting him, smacking his face. Well, I wasn't going to let them hurt the poor thing," he said.

He carried the shark - a baby, he reckons, and harmless to humans - to a less populated area and started backstroking out to sea, dragging the shark with one hand.

"He was making believe like he's dead, then he wiggled his whole body and tried to bite me. He didn't get it," Mironescu said.

A lifeguard since 1985, Mironescu has never dealt with a shark before.

After a relatively uneventful summer, the weekend was packed with sharks. A small one was seen at South Beach in Staten Island on Sunday, following the 5-foot thresher shark that startled swimmers at Rockaway Beach on Saturday before its lifeless body washed ashore the next day.

"We had a little bit of a punctuation mark at the end of summer with 'Jaws' junior showing up and frightening people," said Adrian Benepe, the city parks commissioner.

In all, about 16 million people visited New York City's beaches this season, and another 1.4 million splashed in its 52 outdoor pools.

At Coney Island, Joana Vasquez, 12, had mixed feelings about the end of summer.

"I'm happy to be starting school because I get to see my friends," she said. "I'm not happy because I don't get to go to the beach anymore."



And because that wasn't enough, The New York Post had yet another shark on record:

September 4, 2007 -- The "Jaws" drama in the Rockaways over the weekend nearly had a terrifying prequel - as a maneating mako shark was caught just a mile off the shore.

Two veteran fisherman reeled in the 200-pound predator after a nearly one-hour fight near the Rockaway reef.

"It was one tremendous, 51/2-foot shark," said John Doyle Sr., 62, who tied it to the side of the boat with pal Dennis Mannarino, 56.

"We fought this fish back and forth. It was a great fight."

Mannarino added, "He was nasty. He opened his mouth. That's when we really got nervous. He had about 300 teeth - fuhgeddaboutit!"

As news of Wednesday's mako catch spread, Rockaway lifeguards said they were told to keep an eye out in case any of its cousins made it closer to shore.

The Parks Department did not return a call for comment.

Meanwhile yesterday, a 14-inch sand shark was reeled in on Coney Island.

"Everybody got out when he caught that," said witness Smith Yanez.

New York Aquarium shark expert Hans Walters said he's not surprised that sharks are coming to coastal waters, but admitted that the ferocious mako is rare for this area.

"It is a little unusual to me that somebody caught a mako shark that close to shore," he said.

But Walters noted that while "those teeth could do a lot of damage," they are more likely to "bite people when they haul them into their boats."

A day after Doyle's catch, another pair of fishermen a mile from the beach reeled in a thresher shark similar in size to the one that gave beachgoers a scare when it washed ashore Saturday on Rockaway Beach. Saturday's shark returned to the beach the next day and died.

City swimmers shrugged off any dangers the thresher sharks might pose to them ever since news of the beached fish broke, but their opinions changed yesterday when they were told a mako was part of the mix.

"A mako shark? That's scary," said Maria Valez, who had been swimming with her two children, 8 and 11. "I'm going to start taking my kids to a pool."

Petra Petrano, 24, added, "I'm so glad summer's over. I don't want to swim with sharks."

Bad, Ad Man! Bad! No commission for you!

Courtsey of AP:

A member of a Riverside newspaper’s advertising staff was arrested in connection with a garage sale advertisement placed in its classified pages promising that proceeds would go to a “memorial fund” for District Attorney Rod Pacheco. The man, Chandler W. Cardwell, 32, was booked Saturday on suspicion of making terrorist threats and possession of a concealed firearm. Mr. Cardwell was a member of the East Side Riva street gang, against which Mr. Pacheco had recently announced a crackdown, said Chief Russ Leach of the Riverside police. Mr. Cardwell was arrested after the authorities carried out search warrants at the newspaper, The Press-Enterprise, and discovered that his cellphone had been used to order the advertisement, the authorities said.

Last Day of Summer

In New York, everyone (EVERYONE) considers Labor Day as the last day of summer. The close the swimming pools, kids go back to school, everyone goes back to work from their summer vacations come the Tuesday after Labor Day.

It's strange to me to witness this because in the South, especially the Deep South where I grew up, summer stretches to October...long past the official start of fall and return to school. And it's not unheard of for summer weather to continue straight through Halloween. How many of us haven't sweated up a Halloween costume as a child. (I've noticed as I've gotten older that the adult costumes seem to be growing smaller, so that, unless you're an executioner, your freezing your fanny off at parties. Actually, now that I think of it, I'm SURE there's a "sexy executioner" costume out there. So you probably freeze no matter what you wear.)

As the end of summer, Labor Day is a huge day to blow out your end of summer outdoors. About a million people were at the apartment complex pool, cooking out at the grills or just at various festivals and other outdoor events. I spent the day cleaning and waiting. I was supposed to go to a riverfront festival about three miles away from my home but by the time my "date" showed up, the fireworks that ended the last day of the festival had already started. I did get in a little drinking on the stoop with my neighbors. So I guess it wasn't all that bad. Plus my apartment is super clean, right now.

Summer at Shea

Last weekend I spent much of my time at Shea Stadium watching the Mets first beat the Dodgers and then suffer an embarrassing loss to the same team. It's one of the aspects of baseball that I find fascinating - that the same teams can play three/four nights in a row and it's like watching totally different teams play...I mean, in a way, they ARE different teams because different players are cycled in, but still. That you can totally dominate a team one day and the very next lose spectacularly. That doesn't happen in any other sport.

Anyway, I've seen the Mets play before, but this is my first time at Shea, which soon will be demolished and the team will move next door to Citi Field. It's a corporate sponsorship (Citi Bank), but people seem not as ticked off at it as they could be because they can convince themselves that Citi seems to, sort of, kinda make reference to NYC.

More photos from my camera phone follow. Warning, not the best quality.

Sharks in NY? Who knew?

A Rockaways beach (in Queens) was closed Saturday afternoon after a shark washed up on the shore.

Park officials say a shark washed up on the shore this morning near Beach 109th Street.

Some beach-goers approached the creature and pushed it back into the water.

As a result, the Parks Department has closed the beach and the surrounding bay.

For more check out The New York Daily News story.

For Sale: 1 Journalist. (Free to a good home)

So I found this posting on Gawker today. It made me laugh...but only to keep from crying for how true it is.

How's The Journalism Job Market?

We like to take stock of the journalism job market through the most obvious raw data: Job listings! This week, the Chicago bureau of the New York Times posted an ad for a reporter/office clerk/stringer. You should have: a minimum of a "few years" experience at a newspaper, and should be able to order office supplies while reporting other people's stories—and you should know that the "right applicant will care more about getting good stories and learning the craft than about the paycheck." So we're going with: The job market unrelentingly sucks.

Chicago stringer - The New York Times Posted by: [REDACTED] Wed Aug 29, 2007 3:22 pm (PST) The Chicago Bureau of The New York Times has an opening for a fulltime reporting assistant/stringer. We seek an unflappable, tested, hungry reporter to handle a variety of support duties in our Midwest bureau. We require a poised juggler of tasks -- deadline reporting and writing of hard news, research and legwork for our national correspondents' stories, tracking news trends and developments every day in 11 states, paying bills and ordering supplies, and far more. At minimum, applicants should have a few years of experience at a newspaper. The right applicant will care more about getting good stories and learning the craft than about the paycheck. Please send a cover letter, resume and clips to: [REDACTED] or Monica Davey; The New York Times; Chicago Bureau Chief; 111 E. Wacker Dr.; Suite 2912; Chicago IL 60601. No phone calls please.

How much you wanna bet their office is drowning in applicants?

Re-Stalkered

So just as I've managed to get rid of one stalker, I've acquired another.

I haven't seen the downstairs neighbors in WEEKS and it has been blissfully wonderful. Now, it's like he's avoiding me. Yeah! He finally got the hint.

Since there was an opening for stalker in my life, though, someone else has stepped up to the plate and unfortunately he works here, which I suppose means in theory he has access to my apartment. I can't even remember his name.

This apartment complex is large and spreads over a lot of space. There aren't a lot of units per building but there are a lot of buildings. So they have a pretty big staff that keeps the place up. For the most part the people who work here are very friendly. They wave and say hello whenever I'm walking the dog. I tend to see the same couple of guys every day.

Then one day a few weeks ago this one guy was driving by on the supped up golf carts they use to get around and he stops as Roland is peeing and makes small talk about the weather. I don't think anything of it. Till the next he stops again and asks the dog's name and continues small talk. Whenever I see him thereafter, the same. He even shouted to me out of second floor window.

So today I see him over where all workers take their break. Everyone waves as I walk by. I wave back, say hello, etc. Keep going. The next thing I know, he's driving up beside me and stops. He starts with, "We've gotten a bit of a break with the weather, huh?" And then starts telling me about how he has a couple tickets to go see Jethro Tull up near Albany and then asks me if I'm from around here. I say no, but I don't offer up anything else. He doesn't seem put off by this, he seems nervous. Then he's says, "Well have a nice weekend." And drives off.

I think this guy is going to be even harder to avoid. Sigh. You know, if I had to have a stalker, it could have at least been one of the cute workers. At least then he wouldn't be creepy AND unpleasant on the eyes.

To Kill An Arts Director

The Big Read book for the city (and I guess the universe) this year is To Kill A Mockingbird. Yesterday, the arts reporter who was working on the story was interviewing the director of the arts council, which is coordinating the local Big Read. And lo and behold, he admits he has never read To Kill A Mockingbird. Though, he quickly added, he's read "parts" of it. The newsroom went wild.

"Didn't he go to 9th grade?"

"By parts of it, does he mean Cliffnotes?"

"Has he, perhaps, also read parts of Huckleberry Finn and 1984?"

You really can't make up stuff like this.

Not-so-funny spoofing

Today the weirdest thing happened to me.

I got accused of calling someone whose phone number or last name I do not know. (It's a long story.) It's been bothering me all day. I looked at my statement online (I only have a cell phone and it lists every call I make): nothing. So I'm wracking (also, while we're having silly little asides, is that the right wracking? doesn't anyone know?) my brain all day trying to figure out how my name and number wound up on this person's Caller ID.

I come home and Google "Caller ID". I thought, "I'm going to get a thousand ads for the service." I paused, tried to thing of what to add that might give me some insight into my problem and NOT the ads. Didn't come up with anything so I pushed search.

The first thing that came up was a link to this Wikipedia article:

Caller ID spoofing is the practice of causing the telephone network to display a number on the recipient's caller ID display which is not that of the actual originating station; the term is commonly used to describe situations in which the motivation is considered nefarious by the speaker. Just as e-mail spoofing can make it appear that a message came from any e-mail address the sender chooses, caller ID spoofing can make a call appear to have come from any phone number the caller wishes. Because people are prone to assume a call is coming from the number (and hence, the associated person, or persons), this can call the service's value into question.


Has anyone even heard of this? I'm so behind the times. Apparently there's legislation that's passed some Senate committee this year to make it illegal. And I didn't even know it existed. You KNOW if Congress is taking up the issue, it's like so 20 years ago.

The thing is, I can't think of anyone who would spoof my phone number. Do I have any enemies? I don't think so. Now I feel all paranoid. Like I need to move out my apartment and into a bunker and start printing newsletters about alien conspiracies.

Any similar stories? Thoughts? Government conspiracy theories.

Fun fact o' the week

A sperm can survive for up to a week inside the female.

Thank you WebMD for teaching me that, in fact, I do NOT know everything there is to know about sex.

Reports from the front line

As some of you perhaps don't follow the happenings of our dead king as much as I do, you may not have realized that Thursday was the 30th anniversary of Elvis' death. This meant much hoopla...well, everywhere there are Elvis fans, I guess. But nowhere more so than in Memphis where Death Week is celebrated every year, but the major milestones are even crazier, as you can imagine.

Anyway, today I got this e-mail from the photo assignment editor of the Commercial Appeal. I wanted to share. The subject line: Elvis has not left the building

Well you missed another anniversary of The King's death here in
Memphis.
It was particularly freaky this year.
My grossest Elvis fan sighting was Wednesday (death day) in the lobby
of the Peabody Hotel.
He was a man about 65 years old with a huge belly, wearing a black
fish-net tank top, a huge crop of hair on his chest, a huge crop of hair on
his back protruding thru the tank top, wearing black shorts, black
loafers and black socks. Of course he was also adorned with the
mutton-chop sideburns and shades, and one of those little Elvis boat captian
hats. Or I guess it could have been a motorcycle cap.
Naturally he was lugging two shopping bags full of his Elvis crap
around with him.
He was standing in the traffic jam in the lobby outside Lansky's (you
know where the King used to shop for all his clothes).
Tourist were jammed up outside the store shooting video of the window
displays.
And I thought I didn't have a life.

It wasn't two minutes later that I almost bumped into a little midget
Elvis as I was leaving the hotel.
At least he was dressed like he had some dignity. All three and a half
feet of him.

Just thought you'd enjoy the vision as much as I did.
Now you write back ya hear.

MM

What I'm reading

Reading:
Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson
Marley & Me by John Grogan
Getting Away With It by S. Soderbergh

Bought:
Bruno's Dream by Iris Murdoch ($2.50 used)
Banana Diplomacy by Roy Gutman ($1 used + $5 shipping)
Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold ($7.50 used hardback)

Read:
Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold

We can all see where this going...

I am not overly fond of magicians. They're fine. I have nothing against them. They don't creep me out like clowns. I've just never been wowed by seeing the Statue of Liberty disappear or watching some dude escape from a buried glass box filled with water and sharks or whatever. I rather grudgingly watched The Illusionist. It pretty much furthered my previous opinion of magicians and also of Jessica Biel's acting ability.

So it was with something less than enthusiasm that I agreed to read Carter Beats the Devil when it was handed to me by Deadman as a MUST read. I set it aside and it has mocked me since April. I finally decided I had to read it so I could send it back.

Well I have to tell you, I just finished it the other day and I LOVED it. Toward the end, though I had guessed most of the ending, I still couldn't put it down. I stayed up one night till 4 a.m. getting to the story's climax. I bought a copy of the book because I liked it so much and I have someone I plan on forcing it on.

After finishing it Wednesday night I was surprised to find out that Charles Carter, the main character, was a real person that the author based his fiction on. This made me realized, in turn, that I knew very little about Warren G. Harding. And THAT made me depressed at once again how little I know about everything. I have resisted the urge to go and immediately buy a book on Harding. But I plan to make a visit to a certain used book store in the City when my parents are visiting in September. Don't be surprised if the next installment of my book review lists some biographies.

In fact this is why I am now reading the Che book, because I realized after a year of pretending to know stuff about Che that, of course, I knew nothing about him other than he had something to do with Cuban revolution, my dad and others like him hate him and The Motorcycle Diaries. I'm a little disappointed because I had hoped for at least a semi-unbiased account of his life, but the author of this book did the weirdest thing by putting his acknowledgments at the front of the book, in which he gushes about Che and Cuba, etc. I'm only a few pages in, but it's already colored my judgment of everything he writes.

And in case your interested, I'm reading Marley & Me because 1) I love dogs and 2) the Che book is not at all transportable. I needed something that I could take "to go" and you need a pushcart to move that Che book.

My namesake

For the few who don't know, this blog is not, in fact, named after the former Yankees player from Savannah, but after the comic strip cat who is named after the former Yankees player from Savannah. "Get Fuzzy" and I had a rough start in that I did not care for the executive editor that tore up our comics strips page and got rid of one of my favorite comics, "Mixed Media" in order to get his favorites in. He introduced "Get Fuzzy" in the spot where "Mixed Media" was previously and I kept finding myself reading it out of habit due to its location. Well, long story short, I fell in love with that crazy cat and his roommates, Satchel the dog and Rob the human.

To make an even longer story not all that much shorter, the purpose of this entry is that I felt most of you reading would love the series that ran last week, which I am totally illegally posting (in part) below in case you missed it.







For more, check out Get Fuzzy site at Comics.com

And winner of gaudiest apartment living room is...

I'm sure there are better candidates for that title out there, but I came across this place yesterday and it cracked me up. This is the living room of the "apartment" in a two-family home. (It's like a duplex only split bottom and top. Usually the owner lives in the bottom part with garage and basement fun room and the smaller upstairs is rented as an apartment. It's the only way people can afford houses up here.) That fact made it even funnier to me because someone did up their rental apartment like it was a Roman palace.

So. Very. Tired. (Or, This is what happens when you give up your only addiction.)

I recently decided to cut back on my caffeine consumption. I went from who knows how much caffeine to one caffeinated beverage a day. I did it in part because my doctor freaked out when I told her how much caffeine I had in a day (and as you always do with the doctor, I lied and undercut the amount I really drink), but mostly just to see if I could do it.

It's been surprisingly easy. I take my one beverage in the morning to stave off the caffeine headaches I get when I don't. But other than that, I haven't had any cravings. What I have noticed, however, is my inability to get up in the morning and how tired I am at the end of the day. The getting up in the morning is really bad. I sleep till 11 most days and today until noon. (This was bad since I was supposed to be at work at 1 p.m.) And when I sleep I feel like lead. I wake up and I also feel like I'm made of lead. I feel impossibly heavy. I also bought my first caffeine free Diet Pepsi the other day. Though, I must admit that was mostly due to the fact that the 7-11 I was at was out of regular Diet Pepsi and I needed something to mix with my bourbon and did not want Diet Coke or any un-diet sodas.

I also started taking a new multi-vitamin made by Wild Oats that turns my pee neon yellow...but that's a whole different story.

The update from Staten Island

Looks like the Staten Island Advance also reads my blog:


African American, Asian populations jump on Island
Posted by Staten Island Advance August 10, 2007 5:00PM
Categories: News

Staten Island has become increasingly attractive to minorities as evidenced by significant spikes in its Asian and black population over the past six years.

Among the five boroughs, Staten Island experienced the largest growth, percentage-wise, in Asian residents, jumping nearly 36 percent from 27,916 in 2000 to an estimated 37,959 in 2006.

The number of blacks calling the borough home bumped up almost 13 percent to 55,782 in the same period. That figure also represented the biggest increase, percentage-wise, in the city.

In all, Staten Island's population growth rate of nearly 8 percent topped the city between 2000 and last year. An estimated 484,176 people lived here in 2006, compared to 449,196 in 2000.

"The changing demographics reflect a pattern that you're having a more diverse Staten Island. It's becoming less of a white-bread borough," said Jonathan Peters, associate finance professor at the College of Staten Island, who also studies demographics and transportation.

Yet, Peters noted, Staten Island's white population, which includes persons of Hispanic descent also remains strong, rising almost 5 percent to an estimated 386,485 in 2006.

Hmm, looks like maybe Rupert Murdoch heard me

August 10, 2007
Gannett Changes Pay Rule in Case of Sale

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) -- Gannett Co. Inc., the nation's largest newspaper publisher, changed agreements with its top two executives that would accelerate payment of retirement and deferred compensation if the company is sold, according to a regulatory filing.

The company also changed the threshold at which an employee buyout constitutes a change in control that would trigger the executive payments. A spokeswoman for the company said she could not immediately confirm whether the change involved lifting the threshold.

Gannet said it made the change to comply with tax codes and the move did not indicate it was entertaining any offers.

''These were routine amendments and were not made in anticipation of a sale,'' said Gannett spokeswoman Tara Connell. ''Nothing is in the works. We were mandated to make these changes by the IRS.''

The newspaper industry has been in turmoil for the past year, as several prominent -- and previously thought to be untouchable -- properties have changed hands. The sector has struggled with a persistent decline in revenue as advertisers shift spending online.

Most recently media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. prevailed in a monthslong courtship of Dow Jones & Co., the family controlled publisher of The Wall Street Journal. Knight Ridder Inc. was sold last year and Tribune Co., publisher of the Los Angeles Times, got bought a few months ago.

Gannett, based in McLean, Va., consistently delivers double-digit profit margins and is considered well run. With a market capitalization of about $11 billion, the company would constitute a large purchase, especially in a market where debt financing is difficult to come by.

Gannett shares fell $1.01, or 2.1 percent, to $46.33 in midday trading. In the past year, the stock has ranged from $45.96 to $63.50.

A new take on Census data

Island's white population rising
Posted by Staten Island Advance August 10, 2007 9:38AM
Categories: News

New York City's white population has increased in every borough but Queens since 2001, according to a published report.

Staten Island's white population rose by about 12,000, an increase of 3.2 percent, a Post analysis of Census data shows.


I don't know. Why do I feel like this is, oh, what? So very white flight? I'm sure it's true. I'm also just as sure that the island's entire population increased.

Seven More

In all the excitement of Spanish and centigrade, I almost forgot. My newspaper laid off seven people on Tuesday - one from the newsroom. We were already down, nine in the newsroom, I think it is, since the beginning of the year. It's because the company is doing so bad, or so we were told at the staff meeting where they announced the cuts. Though, at the same time, our Web hits are through the roof. (Only the executive editor was excited by this because none of us sees any correlation from Web hits to income. That's the part the corporate execs haven't quit worked out yet.)

People are more depressed than usual. Everyone is overworked, stressed out, drinking too much, angry a lot. And now THERE IS NO END IN SIGHT. At least before they had hope some of the positions would be replaced. Now there is a hiring freeze on indefinitely. I think the entire floor left the meeting then went directly to looking for new jobs and polishing their resumes.

The next day after the meeting, we get our daily e-letter from corporate, which include a Wall Street Journal article on our company and how our return to shareholders is up 40 cents a share over the previous year's quarter. This further depresses the staff.

I wish Rupert Murdoch would just buy us and get the whole damn thing over with.

Spanish (Back on that topic AGAIN?! Yes)

Oh, I do have something to mention. I got a note in the mail the other day saying the Spanish class I was going to take was canceled. I assume not enough people signed up. This leaves me with the following options: Sit out the semester (bad) or take 202 with that teacher I hated (worse). If I had more time before the semester started I could have switched to a different school. Now I'm not sure what to do.

Also, randomly today, my air-conditioner switched from Fahrenheit to Centigrade. I have no idea how to switch it back. I've suddenly become fluent in the rest of the world's temperature measurements. Next stop, the metric system.

A brief tour of lower New York

Having nothing to blog about, nothing to do, and wanting to at all costs avoid writing on my novel (I suck at that. I really do need to take a class. I have no motivation at all), I've decided to post some pics Melinda took when she was up here earlier this month. A short tour of lower Manhattan:

After getting waylaid on the subway system, which randomly decided to bypass stops we needed heading in one direction (while the same train stopped in the opposite) we finally started our day with lunch in Chinatown.

Next we had gelato in Little Italy.

Then we walked down to City Hall and saw the Brooklyn Bridge. We did not walk to Brooklyn, however.

Then we rode the Staten Island ferry over and back. It passes by the Statue of Liberty and gives you a nice view. Plus the ferry ride is free. However, it was a high ozone day the day we went and everything was hazy. Typical. I don't have photos of the rest of our day, but the next day we spent some time at The Strand, which is a bookstore I love and yet I can't recall ever actually purchasing anything from there. Isn't that weird?

Eight miles of books and I can't find anything I want to buy. That has to be weird, right? I think it's because I'm not good with a lot of choices. It's the same reason department stores give me headaches and why I rarely buy anything when I'm at one.

My kindom for a Kinkos

Yesterday I sent in the worst package for a job opening ever. Not only did my letter suck and the resume was all weird due to the new Word having different proportions than the old Word that my document began its life on, but the quality of the photocopy reproduction of my clips hit an all new low.

And so we come to today's topic: how can this be considered part of the NYC MSA when there isn't a FedEx Kinkos in the ENTIRE county?! I had to go to Staples, which has a self-service copy center and let me tell you, FedEx Kinkos it is not. (I can't go to copy shops because they won't copy newspaper clippings because of copyright and they don't care if you are the author. And the copying machines at libraries and post offici are not made for this level of reproduction.) The toner was bad, the scissors wouldn't cut, they didn't have one of those medieval-looking devices that allow you to cut a straight edge smoothly. If sucked. It SUCKED. It sucked so much, I had to write a Post It apologizing for the quality to the editor I was sending it to.

I know the chain gets a bad rap and usually for good reason. But I think when it comes to copying, you got have Kinkos. Really. I mean 24 hours and coffee to boot? Come on.

The Candidate. Check.

Not that you all have been waiting on the edge of your seat, but as it turns out I did watch "The Candidate" today and indeed, as the blurb on the box says, it is still as relevant today as it ever was — sadly.

Watch as an idealist gets corrupted by the political machine. Did people make comparisons to Clinton? I can't remember. It seeks like if they didn't, they should have.

Now that I've depressed myself, I think I need to read more chapters in "Carter Beats the Devil" before I can get to bed. What better for cheering up than a novel about a magician. More on that when I finish the book — probably sometime next year.

The Polysyla...Polysylvai...The Po...Oh, screw it! The book I read.

So I was hoping to get "The Candidate" in this weekend, but I haven't yet gotten to it. Don't worry there's still time for me to do so before my work week starts. I've been procrastinating writing a cover letter for my resume to send to Newsday. I hate writing cover letters. I got this really pricey graduate degree in journalism and what they should have taught me — instead of classes on literary journalism and foreign affairs reporting, neither of which I'm likely to use — is how to write a damn cover letter that can get me an interview/job.

I did however finish "The Polysyllabic Spree", which (and Melinda will vouch for this) is completely impossible for me to pronounce. I have no idea why. The book itself is right now on its way to Melinda. Anyway, it was a strange experience for me because Nick Hornby is intimidating with the amount of stuff he can read in a month. Plus he's writing a book while he's doing AND freelancing book reviews for other publications, like The Times of London, AND he's a father of three. How the hell does he have time to do it at all? I'm lucky if I can pick my pants up off the floor during the course of a week and wash the coffee pot before I make a new batch of joe in the morning.

Also intimidating is the fact that of all the books he's read I only read one: "Mystic River." This is somewhat embarrassing because of the set up to his review, which is basically saying it's an excellent book but very plebeian and why oh why doesn't he have any friends common enough to recommend such books to him. Also, he loves Dickens and goes on and on about "Great Expectations," which he read during the course of this series of columns that's in the book. It's the last Dickens he hadn't read. I, on the other hand, have always WANTED to like Dickens. I love the movies they make from Dickens. I loved...LOVED..."Bleak House" that the BBC did with Gillian Anderson. I, however, have never ever read more than a single of page of Dickens. I've tried. Several times. I struggle through the first page and then I say, "Screw this." And go read a People magazine or something.

Finally, it's a little odd to reading about someone reading. Like, instead I should be reading all these books he's reading instead of reading about him reading them?

Despite all this, the book is strangely engrossing. I was fascinated to read his blurbs on books that I know I will never read. (With one exception. In the same two-week span that I bought "The Polysyllabic Spree," I also bought, "Eats, Shoots & Leaves," which he reviews but doesn't seem to care for very much.) I actually couldn't wait to get home and read a couple more of his essays before bed. It helped to have his company on my largely insomnia-ridden week. And if nothing else, you should read this book, simply because you can finish it in a day or two and that will help up the ante in your "Books Read" column — which in my life is always far, far behind "Books Bought."

Addendum: In case you missed it in the comments section of my last review, Deadman had this to say about TPS:

"I'm glad they put out the Polysyllabic Spree editions. I love Nick Hornby on music, but can't bring myself to spend $8 on the Believer for it alone. (P.S. Hornby's last book "Long Way Down" is really fun and a high point for him)."

Please let this be a neighbor update

Listen, I by no means want to jinx this, but I think — I THINK — judging by what I've overheard, that the creepy, downstairs neighbor might just have a...girlfriend!

Oh, is it too much to pray for. Man, I hope it's true. Please. PLEASE, let it be true.

Please.

Do you come here often?

Up until now, the record holder for "Worst Pickup Line Ever Used on Me" was a guy in the Library in Baton Rouge (a bar, for those of you who are too young to remember or were never there to begin with), who said to me one night, "You have great hands. You must be a writer."

But great hands man has meet a very strong challenger in yelling from a van man whom I had the pleasure(?) of meeting(?) Thursday night as I was driving home from work on my Vespa.

We're stopped at a stop light on a winding two-lane route that connects the southwestern part of my county to the central north-south artery, Route 9. I'm at the light. The van behind me. When I hear: "Hey! Do you pick up hitchhikers?"

I turn around and hanging out the passenger side window of this old, white van (from the waist up is out the window) is a a 20- 30-ish something guy who looks like maybe he likes going on tour with Widespread Panic. I am used to getting a lot of chatter on my Vespa. People run across parking lots to ask me what kind of gas mileage I get. How fast it goes. How much did it cost. I get stranger questions and comments and even chat up lines as well. But I think so far this is the most bizarre incident to date.

I simply said, "No. No spare helmet." To which the van man replied, "Oh. Too bad then."

And then thankfully the light changed.

Mini Reviews

This past weekend I watched "Casablanca" at long last. I know, I know. I pretend to love movies and yet I own a copy of "The Divorce" but have never seen "Casablanca." It's embarrassing. But I have now fixed at least this one little thing. I liked it...of course I liked it. You're almost required to if you plan to go on living. So I won't bother to give you my review, only my favorite line.

Perhaps I just liked it because it wasn't one of the famous ones from the movie, but something about it made me laugh. I think it was the flippancy of it. Anyway, it's near the beginning when Renault says to Rick he has often speculated on why he doesn't return to America and there is a list of potential reasons he rattles off and then he says: "I like to think you killed a man. It's the romantic in me."

Funny.

I also, after much time, finished reading "Down and Dirty Pictures", which is about the rise and Hollywood-ization of the modern independent film industry, focusing primarily on Miramax and Sundance. It was as thorough as it could be, I suppose. At times it was a little text booky and hard to get through. Something the author went off on tangents within a story that made no sense. Other topics seem to go nowhere. And it was definitely a chapter too long. Though it also needs to be updated since Miramax isn't really Miramax any more. Their contract with Disney was up in 2005 and I'd like to know how that played out because Bob and Harvey now run the Weinstein Companies. [In case you're really interested this is what Wikipedia says, though that is only so trustworthy: The Weinstein Company is an independent American film studio founded by Harvey and Bob Weinstein in 2005 after the pair left the Disney-owned Miramax Films, which they had co-founded in 1979. The Dimension Films label of Miramax followed the brothers to their new company.]

Also there was a part near the end that I lived through and I don't remember Harvey being so involved in the battle for "Confederacy of Dunces" with Paramount, or involved at all. So then that made me question the accuracy of the rest of the book that I just read, which was really disappointing since I'd spend months trying to get through that thing. So in the end I'd say, if you really LOVE film, read it. If not, pass.

Next up: on DVD "The Candidate" (another classic I haven't seen) and on the written page "The Polysyllabic Spree" (which will then be on its way to you, Melinda).

Bucky's Turn is a-go...sort of

So I turned in my sample columns on the following topics/former blog entries:
1. Little Baby Superstar
2. Not My Space
3. Searching for the Bloody Veil
4. Gross stuff I see from my Vespa - not a previous blog topic, actually, but a whole new piece just for the column.

I also suggested for future columns the following topics:
1. Mother of the Koumbara (from last year's wedding that I was in)
2. Being stalked by my neighbor (not sure if I'll actually do that one)
3. Who is Al Sharpton? - a sad, but witty tale from my brother's and cousin's visit over New Year's, which speaks to the complete lack of knowledge the average 20- and 30-something has about what's going on in the world.

I got back this note from the editor today:

You rock!
These are very good columns and I like your ideas for future columns.
They're very witty and you've already developed a "voice."
Stayed tuned .....


P.S. I swear I saw your mom in that movie!!!

Help for the Broken Hearted. Also Known As: Give a sista a hand!

Due to the very dark period I'm going through right now, I am putting out a request for your best/favorite Broken Heart songs. Please post the titles here (also feel free to send me the MP3s via e-mail). I am working on a Compilation for the Broken Hearted. [Deadman, this is in addition to the Dead Inside Mix, which you sent me. I am still striving for Dead Inside status. Right now I am still at DEFCON: Weak and weepy girl.]

Once completed the album will stand ready for anyone once they find their hearts, inexplicably, shattered by someone they really shouldn't have liked all that much to begin with.

My album thus far —it's not refined I just dumped a lot of Ani DiFranco in there and I'm looking to diversify:

Untouchable Face (Ani DiFranco)
Metal Heart (Cat Power)
Wrecking Ball (Crooked Fingers)
Done Wrong (Ani DiFranco)
Out Of Reach (Gabrielle)
Sorry I Am (Ani DiFranco)
Asking Too Much (Ani DiFranco)
Tailspin (The Jayhawks)
Save It For A Rainy Day (The Jayhawks)
Easier Done Than Said (Kim Richardson)
How Do You Tell Someone? (Cowboy Mouth) {sorry. it had to be done}
Loopy Loopy Love (The Brunettes)
Sorry (Madonna)
One Of These Things First (Nick Drake)
Dónde Estás Corazón (Shakira)
Superhero (Ani DiFranco)
Sleep To Dream (Fionna Apple)

...And in other shocking news: the sky, blue

From our friends at The New York Times...

Young Adults Are Giving Newspapers Scant Notice

By JUSTON JONES
With the United States military fighting a protracted war in Iraq and a wide-open presidential campaign already making headlines daily, Americans of all ages are interested in current affairs and are consuming news like never before, right?

Not so, especially not teenagers and young adults, according to a report released last week by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

In fact, most teenagers and adults 30 and younger are not following the news closely at all, the report, titled “Young People and News,” concluded. It is based on a national sample of 1,800 Americans that included teenagers, young adults aged 18 to 30 and older adults.

Thomas Patterson, a professor of government and the press at Harvard who conducted the survey, said that young people today do not make an appointment with news every day the way older adults do.

“We found that most young adults don’t have an ingrained news habit,” he said. “Most children today, when watching television, are not watching the same TV set that their parents are watching. So even if their parents are watching the news every day, the children are likely to be in another room watching something else and aren’t acquiring the news habit.”

The survey went a step further to see what the respondents meant when they said that they did pay attention to the news. Those results, especially among the younger groups, were equally discouraging for the news industry, said Alex S. Jones, the director of the Shorenstein Center.

“What we found is that what people mean when they say they are engaged in the news has much more of a glancing, superficial basis than anything we would have hoped,” he said. “Young people seemed to think that just listening to the radio in the background was listening to the news.”

The results were especially grim for newspapers. Only 16 percent of the young adults surveyed aged 18 to 30 said that they read a newspaper every day and 9 percent of teenagers said that they did. That compared with 35 percent of adults over 30. Furthermore, despite the popular belief that young people are flocking to the Internet, the survey found that teenagers and young adults were twice as likely to get daily news from television than from the Web.

Despite this, some in the industry say the situation is not hopeless.

Jane Hirt, the editor of RedEye, a free daily newspaper that is published by The Chicago Tribune specifically for young, urban professionals, said that her publication had succeeded and had even expanded its audience by adopting some of the lessons learned from television and the Internet and by experimenting with ways to tell stories.

“We may have a short face-off with two sides of an issue,” she said. “We believe it is a way of delivering content in a form like younger people are used to getting on the Internet.”

She said that she reminds her editors that their younger readers are used to customizing their lives. “They pick and choose what they want on their iPods, what to TiVo and watch whenever they want, and so forth,” she said. “Therefore, because we are targeting that niche audience, we make story selections to really connect with them, and we can do that because we are thinking about them all day.”

Still, her publication and newspapers in general may be facing an uphill battle.

“My sense is that newspapers in their traditional form are not going to be able to recapture this audience,” said Professor Patterson. “What’s happened over time is that we have become more of a viewing nation than a reading nation, and the Internet is a little of both. My sense is that, like it or not, the future of news is going to be in the electronic media, but we don’t really know what that form is going to look like.”

Amelie

Did I mention that someone has foolishly asked me to be godmother to her child?

My friend Sarah, who lives in the UK and with whom I started a long-lasting friendship based solely on nail polish and the fact that we were two women in an otherwise all-male film class, just had a baby at the end of April...I think. See I'm already a bad godmother. I can't even remember her birthday. Not content to screw up the child herself, she has asked me along for the ride. Luckily she has two other godparents, who perhaps will lend some normality to her life.

I was fascinated to find out that in English tradition you have three godparents for your child. I'm not totally sure why. You have one of each sex and then a third based on the sex of your child. So little Amelie has a godfather and two godmothers. If she had been born, say Alan, instead, it would be a godmother and two godfathers.

As I am now out of my prime child bearing years without any prospect of acquiring a mate anytime soon, this will probably be the closest I come to children. I wonder what kind of godmother I will make? I wonder what it will be like for her to have a godparent in a different country? I wonder what one wears to a christening....Oh, I have so much to learn.

Little baby superstar

One of my neighbors babysits a little girl named Shelby. Shelby came over today as I was brushing Roland to talk about pets and to pet the pup. After we exhausted all possible pet conversation that a 5 year-old (I'm guessing, I don't know her actual age) and a 31-year-old can have — including her observation to me that, "Sometimes cats and dogs make out" (How does a 5-year-old know about making out?), she said to me: "Do you have any kids?"

"No. Just a dog and a cat."

"That's all?! Do you have a husband?"

"No."

"Not even a boyfriend?!" She said this with such shock, it caught me off guard. This 5 year-old couldn't understand a world in which a person didn't have a boyfriend. The idea was so foreign to her. Meanwhile when I was 5, I didn't know what a boyfriend was.

So I said, "Yes. I have a boyfriend."

"Oh," she said relieved. "Which one is his car?" she immediately asked, looking out over the parking lot.

"He doesn't live here," I said.

"He doesn't?!" Again, shock from her. Like, how can you have a boyfriend if he doesn't live with you, is what she was really saying to me.

"He's at work right now," I say.

Suddenly I realize I'm justifying my life to a 5 year-old girl who has previously told me that when she grows up what she wants to be is a "superstar." (It was so matter of fact, too. I said, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Expecting nurse, teacher, hair stylists, lawyer...any of these things. Instead, without hesitating, she said, "Superstar." The most normal answer in the world.)

That's when I decided I should take my decidedly un-superstar self back inside. I may be a single, 31 year old newspaper editor, but at least I have all my teeth.

A call for the Best of Bucky

One of the feature's editors asked me if I'd be interested in writing a column today. It runs at the bottom of the life page and rotates through a few staffers and is about anything. It's not political nature. It's about life, or the lives of those who write it. Of the four or five people she had writing it, only two are still around. I think I'd like it. But I have to turn in some sample columns first.

I just finished a draft of one on my search for my mother's movie. It's very serious in its tone and I am mostly known around the office for my wit. So I'd like the other two sample columns to be funny. I think I can just recycle and expand some of my blog topics. Any suggestions on which ones would be best? I'd like to do my downstairs neighbor woes, but my name and photo would run with column, so I don't know if I'm that mean. It's one thing to blog to you guys about him...then again he doesn't get the paper, so he'd probably never know. I think eventually I'll do one on my misadventures in dating a government agent, but to start out with I think some more inane or innocuous topics might be better. So suggestions?

(Not So) Quickie Movie Review

Due to some personal drama - and the purchase of several new books, thus even further backlogging my reading - I have fallen behind on my movie watching. I did recently see "Children of Men" however and was blown away by how much I liked it. I think Clive Owen does not get the respect he deserves as an actor. He is incredible in this movie. His character development from bored, alcoholic government worker to martyr for mankind is totally believable.

The plot outline, courtesy of IMDB is as follows: In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child's birth may help scientists save the future of humankind.

The film itself covers a lot of ground in the history of this future world the characters inhabit and the history of these characters, but it does so quickly and I can't really come up with any holes in the plot.

The film also features some great performances from the indomitable Michael Caine and Chiwetel Ejiofor - who gave a jaw dropping performance in "Dirty Pretty Things", which I only watched because Audrey Tautou was in it but then he blew her away; though most people probably know him better from "Love, Actually" or "Melinda and Melinda" or, at least with this group, "Serenity". Julianne Moore is also in this and she is fine. I've never been a huge fan. Also newcomer Claire-Hope Ashitey as the pregnant woman Kee is pretty good.

I think I'm going to read this book. That's how much I liked the movie. This means my movie watching will be pushed back even more.

BTW: Cheri, if you haven't seen this film, THIS IS the film for your class. Under special features they even all these philosophers (whom you probably know, though, of course, I've never heard of) talking about the nature of humanity.

Nothing says Fourth of July like...

...a two year old, a second story walk-up and Queens.

I spent the afternoon/evening at a friend's house, which is right across the bay from Manhattan. Every year people pack the park across from her house to see the Macy's fireworks show from across the water. The crowd was thinner this year due to rain, as were the fireworks. All and all we agreed, a let down.

In addition to my friend and her boyfriend, the boyfriend's mother and his two-year-old nephew that lives with his mother were there. The baby was cute, but exhausting. The baby also cared more for puddles than fireworks and went crazy - and I mean crazy - when Sponge Bob Square Pants came on the television. I have never witnessed anything quite like it.

I tried to take some lame-o pics with my camera phone of the fireworks (to match the lame shots from New Years) but they're not even worth trying to post.

Are you kidding me?!

I have to say, this is EXACTLY what I thought when I read that Scooter Libby had his sentenced commuted.

Finally, broken beyond repair

This is my Google horiscope for today:

"Doing the same old thing in the same old way isn't working for you now and it's crucial for you to break out of any patterns that have served their purpose. Part of your problem, however, is in the difficulty you have distinguishing what you call a groove from a rut. Don't let your attachment to the past keep you needlessly attached to it for too long."

Oh Google, how do you know my life better than I know it myself.

Not My Space

Things I've learned from My Space: apparently all the single guys around here are losers.

Let us take the two most recent requests I've gotten. The first is Mike who is 30 and from East Fishkill. His photo is of his abs, which apparently he is very proud of. Mike's quote is: "Looking for good looking fun girls." His message to me was:

"How are you? I saw your profile and I really like what I see. I would like to get to know you better. Check out my profile and let me know if you're interested. I do have more face pics I can send you." He also included his e-mail and Yahoo/AIM screen names.

The second request is from John, who is cute, I will say, but he is also in the Army National Guard and he doesn't like to read. He's 28 and from Brewster. In his "about me" section he closes with: "i would like to meet some hot kool girl to chill with, so hit me up!"

But the best part is his message to me, which says: "hey i think your hot would like to talk to you : ) " — Does that WORK for guys? I mean what part of me says, "Uhm, I have no self respect. Can I show you my breasts?" Oh and also YOUR? YOUR HOT....Yes, it is my hot; now please leave it alone.

I gotta move some place where they know who the Coen brothers are.

Regionalisms

As with, well, everywhere, New York has it's own regionalisms in language. And it's not the stereotypes (which are painfully true) that you see on TV. It's small things that are so striking.

1) People here wait "on line," not "in line" as we do in the South.

2) Employees "call out sick" to work, not "call in sick".

Those are the ones that come immediately to mind. More to come...

What tha....

Okay. We ALL know I was no cheerleader of Memphis. But what tha...Memphis is 10th for BBQ and NYC is #1. The one negative thing any New Yorker you stop on the street will tell you about the City is that you CANNOT get BBQ in this town!!!

AND WHO GOES TO LITTLE ROCK FOR BARBECUE?!!


Memphis No. 10 on BBQ destinations list
Wednesday, June 27, 2007

CheapTickets.com has listed Memphis as the 10th best destination for
barbecue during the Fourth of July holiday.

The online travel agency commissioned its employees across the country to identify the best place to eat barbecue and enjoy Independence Day events.

New York City was listed as No. 1, followed by New Orleans, Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Dallas, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Charleston, S.C. and Little Rock, Ark.

The company suggests eating at the Pig-N-Whistle while in Memphis and lists the average daily rate for a three-star hotel in the city at $100.20.

News of the Weird for you Wednesday evening

Tiger is killed by exhibit mate at zoo
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
June 27, 2007

A tiger at the Charles Paddock Zoo was killed by his longtime exhibit mate, zoo officials said.

Hoshi, an Indochinese tiger who joined the zoo in fall 2000, was found dead in his den Sunday. Zoo Director Alan Baker said the tiger died from asphyxiation caused by exhibit mate Sala. Laboratory tests are incomplete.



Asphyxiation? Do tigers play sex games?

June Movie reviews, part the second

In today's Webisode you'll learn how totally creeped out "Notes on A Scandal" made me. First let me say, it is very hard to watch Judi Dench be bad; though, of course, she's very good at it.

Now, with that out of the way: my critique. The people in that movie were messed up, but in a very sad sort of way. I suppose it's a story about loneliness and the lengths we will go to to fill that void, to drive the loneliness away. These two women, played by Dench and Cate Blanchett, are extreme examples, but I think their pain is something we've all felt, which is what makes it so interesting to watch. But also, I think, is what makes it so creepy. The whole "there, by the grace of God, go I" feeling.

I also saw a version of "Psycho" that spliced the original and the remake together, switching back and forth between the characters to give each two different personalities through out the film. I read it as our "good" self and the self that we really are; the actual idea was to present the self we wanted others to see and the self that we actually are. The most interesting part was the shower scene where it first (if I remember correctly) switched back and forth and then, as she's dying, presents the two selfs next to each other. I can't remember if the overlap at the end. It seems like yes. But what really interested me in this was in the quick cuts to the shower head and the drain — the inanimate objects, there was ALSO two versions. As if, even inanimate objects have the self they present and the self they are. I was really intrigued by that idea, though I have no idea if that was on purpose or not. I forgot to ask. Anyway, I'm supposed to be getting a copy of this mashed up "Psycho," which I'll be happy to share. By the way, I never actually saw the remake. Probably should have done that first...

Can common sense be that hard to find?

Perhaps Cameron Diaz is a perfectly lovely woman, but she is clearly a complete idiot.


LIMA, Peru (AP) -Cameron Diaz apologized Sunday for carrying a bag with a political slogan that evoked painful memories in Peru.

The voice of Princess Fiona in the animated "Shrek" films visited the Incan city of Machu Picchu in Peru's Andes on Friday carrying an olive green bag emblazoned with a red star and the words "Serve the People" printed in Chinese, perhaps Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong's most famous political slogan.

The bags are marketed as fashion accessories in some world capitals, but in Peru the slogan evokes memories of the Maoist Shining Path insurgency that fought the government in the 1980s and early 1990s in a bloody conflict that left nearly 70,000 people dead.

"I sincerely apologize to anyone I may have inadvertently offended. The bag was a purchase I made as a tourist in China and I did not realize the potentially hurtful nature of the slogan printed on it," Diaz said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.

On Friday, one prominent Peruvian human rights activist said Diaz should have been a little more aware of local sensitivities when picking her accessories.

In Sunday's statement, the star of "There's Something About Mary" said the purpose of her visit was to participate in a television show that celebrates Peru's culture. The actress has been in Peru as part of "4 REAL," a Canadian TV production that focuses on young community leaders around the world.

"I'm sorry for any people's pain and suffering and it was certainly never my intention to reopen what I now know is a painful wound in this country's history," she said.

Diaz also spoke of Peruvians' beauty and warmth and said she wished "for their continued healing."

Searching for The Bloody Veil

I supposed I should blog here about my ongoing search for a film my mother was in.

Though I have always been "looking" for it, I think my search has been relatively passive. The last few weeks, however, I've moved into a much more aggressive search due primarily to the fact that about a year ago I told a friend about my mom's "secret" past and he's been on me ever since to track down this movie. Last week I told him what I think the name of the film is, "The Bloody Veil" and he was all like, "I LOVE that name. I'm going to steal it."

I reinterviewed my mom on this topic and she was less forthcoming before. I did find out they filmed it in Athens; in the area where the new airport is. I've also decided to focus my search on the years 1958-1962. She met my dad in 1963 and he knew nothing of this, so I think it must have been made before then and while she was living in Athens. The next time I talk to her I need to find out exactly when she lived in Athens. This could give me an even narrower window to search in — or a wider window, I suppose.

So I've started writing e-mails to Greek film studies professors. I'm also writing to some friends in Greece. This movie is supposed to play fairly regularly on television there, so maybe they'll be able to tell me more. Even a more complete plot line would be helpful. I'll keep you up-to-date and also any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Creepy Neighbor Watch

So I'm at home. You know what that means. I'm being stalked by my downstairs neighbor. Apparently standing outside my bedroom smoking and blowing the smoke into my open window wasn't enough for him. So he came up and knocked on my door.

Earlier today I did some laundry. Not all of the laundry as I had hoped because I did not have enough cash and I didn't feel like a special trip to the bank. So I did two loads. Load 1: Denim. No problem. Load 2: T-shirts, shorts and undies. Problem. The dryer, while turning the clothes round and round, did not actual DRY the clothes. The second time through also did nothing. So I had to hang all my clothes, including said undies, up around the apartment to dry.

The neighbor knocks and says, "We just wanted to see if Roland could come out to play." In the meantime his dog has darted into my apartment and chased the cat under the futon. The dog is growling at the cat. The cat is hissing at the dog. I yell at the dog. Neighbor comes running in to get his dog. Etc. Etc.

I'm really getting tired of these personal intrusions. I'm sure when I go to get the dog or he brings the dog, he's going to ask me to watch a movie or have dinner with him. Today's response: "I really have to get my apartment cleaned. I'm leaving next weekend to on vacation with my boyfriend and I want it clean before I leave." Have to start working imaginary boyfriend into every conversation until real boyfriend materializes.

I thought I left this behind

I was just driving down the street to work yesterday, minding my own business, when I pulled up behind this at a red light:



I know you can't read all the bumper stickers, but you can all imagine what they say. You've seen them on the highways of Tennessee, the river roads of Louisiana, the Main streets of Mississippi.

[Sigh] Apparently the world is getting smaller and not necessarily in a good way.

June Movie reviews

It's been a slow movie month for me. I also haven't read any books...or studying Spanish, for that matter. What have I been doing with my time?

Anyway, this weekend I did watch The Third Man, a Carol Reed/Orson Welles film noir classic from 1949. It was a very good mystery film and made me wonder why we don't make movies like that any more. It seemed like it would have been a crowd pleaser but one that also makes you think. Now we get Mr. Brooks — a movie I have no desire to see. Kevin Costner, you are no Orson Wells or even Joseph Cotton. Anyway, if you're in the mood for a black and white pic, you should check The Third Man.

In the theaters: I went to see Oceans 13. It was entertaining...though not particularly thought provoking. However if you're checking out an Oceans movie for thought provocation, then there is no hope for you anyway and what are you doing reading this blog? You can't really be my friend. Anyway, Oceans 13. WAY better than 12 (granted, not hard to do). The plot makes sense. The inside jokes seem to be jokes the audience is a part of, as opposed to the self indulgence of 12. The actors are having a good time, you're having a good, the producers are having a good time. You don't even notice the movie is over two hours long. If your looking for a movie to take your mind off work or whatever, this is a good one for it.

Next up for review, according to my Netfix queue: Note On a Scandal. Cate Blanchett. Judy Dench. Bill Nighy. They could be reading the user manual for my DVD player and it would be good. But I'll try to keep an open mind.

Money v. Art: $$$ wins every time.

A Change at the Hotel Chelsea, Celebrated in Art and Legend

By LISA CHAMBERLAIN
The New York Times

For six decades the Bard family has managed the Hotel Chelsea, overseeing a bohemian enclave that has been a long-term home for writers, artists and musicians including Mark Twain, O. Henry, Tennessee Williams, Dylan Thomas, Andy Warhol, and Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen.

The Bard era came to an end yesterday.

On Friday, the board that runs the hotel told Stanley Bard, 73, and David, his son, that they would be replaced on Monday with a new management team.

Yesterday, the Bards were busy filling boxes in the lobby with help from residents who expressed concern about what the management change portends for one of New York’s more quirky cultural institutions.

“Everything is pretty chaotic in the lobby,” said Ed Hamilton, a writer who has lived for 11 years in the hotel, on 23rd Street near Eighth Avenue, and helped create a blog about it called Living with Legends. “Everyone is really worried.”

The new management team is led by BD Hotels NY L.L.C., which owns and operates about 5,000 hotel rooms at several upscale hotels in the city, including the Chambers, Maritime and Bowery Hotels. BD Hotels is also developing a hotel in TriBeCa with the actor Robert De Niro.

The switch in management is the culmination of a power struggle related to Stanley Bard’s efforts to increase his control among the shareholders who own the hotel. After the resulting shakeup, David Bard remains on the board, but he is outvoted by the other two members. They voted to hire new managers, although the Bards will retain their ownership shares.

Stanley Bard said he would cooperate during the transition with the new management, but added that he and the board had differences of opinion about how to run the hotel. Under him, it became famous as a haven for artists and creative performers, and he was known to allow some residents to get behind in their rent.

“This took 50 years of nurturing and development,” Mr. Bard said. “Everyone respected it — the cultural community, the people living there. That’s hard to create.”

One of the board members, Marlene Krauss, said a new management team did not necessarily mean a radical overhaul of the hotel. “I’m very concerned about maintaining the hotel, its dignity and history,” she said. “There are infrastructure needs that have not been addressed. But we have no intention of throwing people out.”

She also said that she would like to find a way to keep the Bards involved with the hotel. “We understand they are an important part of the history and ambience of the hotel,” Ms. Krauss said.

Stanley Bard said he would continue to be associated publicly with the hotel, as an “ambassador.” In the early 1960s, Stanley Bard took over operation of the hotel from his father, David, who along with two partners bought the hotel in 1945.

About 60 percent of the hotel, which was built in 1884, is occupied by long-term residents, and the other rooms are available to short-term guests.

Ms. Krauss, the chief executive of KBL Healthcare Ventures, said a full evaluation of the hotel would be conducted before any changes were made. Two years ago the board told the Bards not to accept any new long-term tenants. “It’s been the plan of the board for a while to have more transient guests,” she said. “I think it’s been hard to maintain the hotel with as many long-term tenants as we have. We’ll look at things on a case-by-case basis.”

Current and former residents said the management change was an unwelcome end to an era.

“That’s a disaster,” said Jeanne-Claude, who along with her husband and artistic partner, Christo, are famous for their large-scale public art installations, including the Gates in Central Park in 2005. They lived at the Chelsea in the early 1960s, before they became successful. They often could not pay the rent and would borrow money from the front desk to eat, Jeanne-Claude said.

The Bards asked them to pay their bill whenever they could, and to leave a piece of art when they left. Their son, Cyril, used to share a baby sitter with Rebecca Miller, the child of the playwright Arthur Miller, who lived at the hotel off and on throughout her childhood.

Christo said of the new management: “They will try to refurbish it and stop being generous with the artists that need help.” Several residents shared the same concern.

“Stanley is a unique character in New York,” said Philip Taaffe, a painter who has lived in the hotel since 1991. “He’s devoted his life to this place, which has become part of the cultural heritage of New York City. It’s hard to survive in this town as a writer, artist, or actor. He’s helped many people over the years. What is going to happen to New York when that’s gone?”

Overheard in my Kitchens

Argh! The creepy downstairs neighbor is singing "Hotel California" — very badly! To the point that I had to leave my sandwich making and flee to the bedroom to write this. I think he's outside singing. Yikes! I'm trying to ignore him for fear he'll start serenading.

I want to put on the radio really loud, but then that will give him something to say to me the next time he lies in wait for me. "So, you didn't like my singing the other night..."

Overheard on the Internets

One of the links from my blog is Overheard in New York, which a friend turned me on to. Sometimes the things there are lame (and usually revolve around sex), but every once in while there are some funny, PG ones...like this one:

I Need to Go Bathe in Urine Now
Bus driver on intercom as it starts to rain: You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are grey... C'mon, everybody!
Entire bus, singing: You'll never know, dear, how much I love you -- please don't take my sunshine away.
Chick: I think that was the least-New York moment of my entire life.

--M79 bus

Writing the novel: Part 4

In which we discover the author has already fallen off the wagon and not written anything in a while.

I think it's been about a week since I've written anything. Very bad start. This portion is one I had previously written and will also change with research...since I've also never been to Madrid.


Wichita Falls wound up being as much of a blur as everything else in his life had been since his draft notice had appeared. The wedding, where his sisters still unhappy about the marriage promised to check on his new bride. "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. Course we'll look in on her. We'd take her to church with us, if she'd come," his youngest sister said. "Just don't expect us to be doing each others hair or anything like that." The departure, where his dad drove him to the bus in awkward silence. Basic training, where he did well and got along fine with his fellow airmen-to-be. In Wichita Falls he excelled at the training, picking up the skills quickly. The work came naturally to him and he enjoyed it. No one in Wichita Falls treated him like a high school drop out. They treated him...they treated him like someone they could depend on — to show up on time; to do the job; to do the job right the first time; hell, to fetch the coffee if that's what needed to be done.

In the fall Bernie boarded a plane for Madrid, Spain. At 20, it would be his first trip out of the country — not all that unusual where he was from. He had been assigned to a unit based in Madrid, though he would only be there a few days before joining his detachment in Athens, Greece, the city they would work from.

Though he wasn't expecting it, the temperature in Madrid was exactly the same as the temperature in Wichita Falls. It hovered around 68 degrees in early October. From what he could glimpse of the city in the blur that was the time he was there, that was the only similarity between the two places.

Madrid felt alive in a way that Wichita Falls, Texas, and Collins, Mississippi, would never know if they continued to exist for 1,000 years. Millions of people will help do that. But even still there was something in the very air of the city that felt both intimate and inaccessible. It was perhaps the feeling that always comes when the crush of people trying to survive collides with the seat of power; when old men sit in cafes sipping drinks as young couples take their turn flirting late into the night; when throngs of theater-goers in The Gran Vía are brought, momentarily to a stop by the passing of the long-hooded Citroëns carrying General Franco's government officials into the night. In Collins, old men sat outside too, but mostly they did a lot of spitting and complaining; and there was never, ever the chance that the country's president might drive by in his armored limousine before passing on into the night.

Bernie saw very little of this, as the Air Force base was about 15 miles northeast of the city, and that is where he spent almost all of his four days in Madrid. But he caught a glimpse of it on his one foray into the city proper. More importantly he felt it in the air when it touched his skin. Bernie wasn't particularly poetic, but he could think of no other way to describe it.

History on the Mount

Montreal gets its name, I'm told, from the mountain that's on the island. (Oh. Montreal is an island, in case you didn't know.) It is called a mountain — thus the Mont part of Montreal. If you call it a hill — and you will want to — you will be verbally assaulted by the natives. On top of the hill is a giant neon cross. It has the ability to change colors, but doesn't because, Cheri tells me, the government is afraid people will start calling it the disco cross.















Yet another thing Southerners would love about the city, I think.

Gravy Fries, Quebecois style

In Montreal, from which I just returned, I ate a lot of food. This is my usual behavior on trips.

While there, however, I learned about a food called "poutine". Poutine is what we, in Louisiana (and apparently also Torontonians), call "gravy fries." It will surprise you to learn that the primary feature of both poutine and gravy fries, therefore, are gravy and fries. Both also feature a cheesy substance. But whereas in Louisiana we favor cheddar, in Montreal they favor fresh cheese curd.

I do not have a photo of any poutine for you because we ate it up too quickly. I do however have a picture of these:



They are called honey balls. They taste like beignets but with honey instead of powdered sugar. They also make it volcano style, which means they put a bunch of soft serve ice cream on top. I've decided to import them to Louisiana. I'm going to call them beignet balls and I'll serve them with powdered sugar or honey. I'll also serve them tsunami-style — with ice cream. I think they'll be a hit.