Sometimes the best strategy is to say nothing.
05-12-2006, 10:53News / SportsPermalinkEASTON, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A man who pleaded guilty to molesting two girls told a judge he did it because of his wife's excessive bingo playing.
"My wife was never home," Floyd Kinney Jr. said during his plea hearing Friday.
Kinney's explanation did not sit well with Northampton County Judge F.P. Kimberly McFadden. "Some people, when their wives are not home, decide to do other things, like clean their living rooms," McFadden said.
Defense attorney Richard Yetter said his client was not articulate and may not have been doing a good job of conveying his rationale to the judge. But McFadden said she found Kinney capable of explaining himself. "I think he is telling me exactly what was going on," the judge said.
iTunes is currently playing: Don't Talk from the album MTV Unplugged by 10,000 Maniacs.
"My wife was never home," Floyd Kinney Jr. said during his plea hearing Friday.
Kinney's explanation did not sit well with Northampton County Judge F.P. Kimberly McFadden. "Some people, when their wives are not home, decide to do other things, like clean their living rooms," McFadden said.
Defense attorney Richard Yetter said his client was not articulate and may not have been doing a good job of conveying his rationale to the judge. But McFadden said she found Kinney capable of explaining himself. "I think he is telling me exactly what was going on," the judge said.
iTunes is currently playing: Don't Talk from the album MTV Unplugged by 10,000 Maniacs.
Comments
What do you do with …
05-12-2006, 10:42News / SportsPermalink... an $800,000 dress???
(AP) -- The black Givenchy gown worn by Audrey Hepburn in the film "Breakfast at Tiffany's" sold at auction Tuesday for $807,000.
The price, paid by a telephone bidder, was almost six times the highest pre-sale estimate. The iconic garment had been expected to fetch between $98,000 and $138,000 as part of a sale of film and television memorabilia at Christie's auction house in London.
Proceeds from the sale will go to the charity City of Joy Aid, which helps India's poor.
iTunes is currently playing: That Girl Belongs To Yesterday from the album Anthology 1961-1968 by Gene Pitney.
(AP) -- The black Givenchy gown worn by Audrey Hepburn in the film "Breakfast at Tiffany's" sold at auction Tuesday for $807,000.
The price, paid by a telephone bidder, was almost six times the highest pre-sale estimate. The iconic garment had been expected to fetch between $98,000 and $138,000 as part of a sale of film and television memorabilia at Christie's auction house in London.
Proceeds from the sale will go to the charity City of Joy Aid, which helps India's poor.
iTunes is currently playing: That Girl Belongs To Yesterday from the album Anthology 1961-1968 by Gene Pitney.
NEWS FLASH! Hil wants to be PREZ!
03-12-2006, 07:15News / SportsPermalinkSen. Clinton asks Dems for help with ’08 bid
Former first lady ‘actively considering a presidential run,’ aide says
ALBANY, N.Y. - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has begun active consideration of a 2008 run for president and has personally asked some fellow top New York Democrats for their support in the event she goes ahead with such a campaign, a top adviser said Sunday.
"As Senator Clinton said, she was going to begin actively considering a presidential run after the election. That process has begun," said Howard Wolfson.
© 2006 The Associated Press.
iTunes is currently playing: Left of Center from the bootleg album Live - Warfield Theatre (San Francisco) by Suzanne Vega.
Former first lady ‘actively considering a presidential run,’ aide says
ALBANY, N.Y. - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has begun active consideration of a 2008 run for president and has personally asked some fellow top New York Democrats for their support in the event she goes ahead with such a campaign, a top adviser said Sunday.
"As Senator Clinton said, she was going to begin actively considering a presidential run after the election. That process has begun," said Howard Wolfson.
© 2006 The Associated Press.
iTunes is currently playing: Left of Center from the bootleg album Live - Warfield Theatre (San Francisco) by Suzanne Vega.
remember this the next time …
02-12-2006, 12:32News / SportsPermalink... Ms. Paltrow is starring in a movie at your neighborhood Cineplex:
Oscar-winning US actress Gwyneth Paltrow feels dinner talk is far more interesting in her adopted homeland Britain than back in her native country.
"I love the English lifestyle, it's not as capitalistic as America. People don't talk about work and money, they talk about interesting things at dinner," she told "NS," the weekend magazine supplement of daily Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias on Saturday.
"I like living here because I don't fit into the bad side of American psychology. The British are much more intelligent and civilized than the Americans," the 34-year-old added.
iTunes is currently playing: America from the album West Side Story- Original Broadway Cast by Chita Rivera & Marilyn Cooper.
Oscar-winning US actress Gwyneth Paltrow feels dinner talk is far more interesting in her adopted homeland Britain than back in her native country.
"I love the English lifestyle, it's not as capitalistic as America. People don't talk about work and money, they talk about interesting things at dinner," she told "NS," the weekend magazine supplement of daily Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias on Saturday.
"I like living here because I don't fit into the bad side of American psychology. The British are much more intelligent and civilized than the Americans," the 34-year-old added.
iTunes is currently playing: America from the album West Side Story- Original Broadway Cast by Chita Rivera & Marilyn Cooper.
Comments (1)
PEEKABOO! THEY SEE YOU!
01-12-2006, 07:26News / SportsPermalinkPhoenix airport to test X-ray screening
PHOENIX (AP) -- Sky Harbor International Airport here will test a new federal screening system that takes X-rays of passenger's bodies to detect concealed explosives and other weapons. The technology, called backscatter, has been around for several years but has not been widely used in the U.S. as an anti-terrorism tool because of privacy concerns.
The Transportation Security Administration said it has found a way to refine the machine's images so that the normally graphic pictures can be blurred in certain areas while still being effective in detecting bombs and other threats.
The agency is expected to provide more information about the technology later this month but said one machine will be up and running at Sky Harbor's Terminal 4 by Christmas.
The security agency's Web site indicates that the technology will be used initially as a secondary screening measure, meaning that only those passengers who first fail the standard screening process will be directed to the X-ray area. Even then, passengers will have the option of choosing the backscatter or a traditional pat-down search.
A handful of other U.S. airports will have the X-rays machines in place by early 2007 as part of a nationwide pilot program, TSA officials said.
iTunes is currently playing: You're Gonna See A Lot Of Me from the album Past Perfect, Disc Six by Billie Holiday.
PHOENIX (AP) -- Sky Harbor International Airport here will test a new federal screening system that takes X-rays of passenger's bodies to detect concealed explosives and other weapons. The technology, called backscatter, has been around for several years but has not been widely used in the U.S. as an anti-terrorism tool because of privacy concerns.
The Transportation Security Administration said it has found a way to refine the machine's images so that the normally graphic pictures can be blurred in certain areas while still being effective in detecting bombs and other threats.
The agency is expected to provide more information about the technology later this month but said one machine will be up and running at Sky Harbor's Terminal 4 by Christmas.
The security agency's Web site indicates that the technology will be used initially as a secondary screening measure, meaning that only those passengers who first fail the standard screening process will be directed to the X-ray area. Even then, passengers will have the option of choosing the backscatter or a traditional pat-down search.
A handful of other U.S. airports will have the X-rays machines in place by early 2007 as part of a nationwide pilot program, TSA officials said.
iTunes is currently playing: You're Gonna See A Lot Of Me from the album Past Perfect, Disc Six by Billie Holiday.
American Life in Poetry: Column 088
30-11-2006, 11:07Lit / Art / Music /PhotoPermalinkAmerican Life in Poetry: Column 088
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
This wistful poem shows how the familiar and the odd, the real and imaginary, exist side by side. A Midwestern father transforms himself from a staid businessman into a rock-n-roll star, reclaiming a piece of his imaginary youth. In the end, it shows how fragile moments might be recovered to offer a glimpse into our inner lives.
My Father Holds the Door for Yoko Ono
In New York City for a conference
on weed control, leaving the hotel
in a cluster of horticulturalists,
he alone stops, midwestern, crewcut,
narrow blue tie, cufflinks, wingtips,
holds the door for the Asian woman
in a miniskirt and thigh high
white leather boots. She nods
slightly, a sad and beautiful gesture.
Neither smile, as if performing
a timeless ritual, as if anticipating
the loss of a son or a lover.
Years later, Christmas, inexplicably
he dons my mother's auburn wig,
my brother's wire-rimmed glasses,
and strikes a pose clowning
with my second hand acoustic guitar.
He is transformed, a working class hero
and a door whispers shut,
like cherry blossoms falling.
Reprinted from "Folio," Winter, 2004, by permission of the author. Copyright (c) 2004 by Christopher Chambers, who teaches creative writing at Loyola University New Orleans. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
iTunes is currently playing: Superstars from the album The Grand Illusion by Styx.
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
This wistful poem shows how the familiar and the odd, the real and imaginary, exist side by side. A Midwestern father transforms himself from a staid businessman into a rock-n-roll star, reclaiming a piece of his imaginary youth. In the end, it shows how fragile moments might be recovered to offer a glimpse into our inner lives.
My Father Holds the Door for Yoko Ono
In New York City for a conference
on weed control, leaving the hotel
in a cluster of horticulturalists,
he alone stops, midwestern, crewcut,
narrow blue tie, cufflinks, wingtips,
holds the door for the Asian woman
in a miniskirt and thigh high
white leather boots. She nods
slightly, a sad and beautiful gesture.
Neither smile, as if performing
a timeless ritual, as if anticipating
the loss of a son or a lover.
Years later, Christmas, inexplicably
he dons my mother's auburn wig,
my brother's wire-rimmed glasses,
and strikes a pose clowning
with my second hand acoustic guitar.
He is transformed, a working class hero
and a door whispers shut,
like cherry blossoms falling.
Reprinted from "Folio," Winter, 2004, by permission of the author. Copyright (c) 2004 by Christopher Chambers, who teaches creative writing at Loyola University New Orleans. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
iTunes is currently playing: Superstars from the album The Grand Illusion by Styx.
Someone call PETA!!!
29-11-2006, 05:34News / SportsPermalinkUS military trains 'air force' of bomb-sniffing bees
US military defense scientists have found a way to train the common honey bee to smell explosives used in bombs, a skill they say could help protect American troops abroad.
Scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said in an online statement published Monday they had developed a method to harness the bee's exceptional olfactory sense.
"The new techniques could become a leading tool in the fight against the use of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, which present a critical vulnerability for American military troops abroad and is an emerging danger for civilians worldwide," the research laboratory said.
iTunes is currently playing: Just Like Honey from the album Lost In Translation by The Jesus & Mary Chain.
US military defense scientists have found a way to train the common honey bee to smell explosives used in bombs, a skill they say could help protect American troops abroad.
Scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said in an online statement published Monday they had developed a method to harness the bee's exceptional olfactory sense.
"The new techniques could become a leading tool in the fight against the use of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, which present a critical vulnerability for American military troops abroad and is an emerging danger for civilians worldwide," the research laboratory said.
iTunes is currently playing: Just Like Honey from the album Lost In Translation by The Jesus & Mary Chain.
A Christmas celebration minus Christmas equals …
28-11-2006, 04:57Family / Misc. PersonalPermalink... a celebration of nothing.
CHICAGO (AP) - A public Christmas festival is no place for the Christmas story, the city says. Officials have asked organizers of a downtown Christmas festival, the German Christkindlmarket, to reconsider using a movie studio as a sponsor because it is worried ads for its film "The Nativity Story" might offend non-Christians.
New Line Cinema, which said it was dropped, had planned to play a loop of the new film on televisions at the event. The decision had both the studio and a prominent Christian group shaking their heads.
"The last time I checked, the first six letters of Christmas still spell out Christ," said Paul Braoudakis, spokesman for the Barrington, Ill.-based Willow Creek Association, a group of more than 11,000 churches of various denominations. "It's tantamount to celebrating Lincoln's birthday without talking about Abraham Lincoln."
The city does not want to appear to endorse one religion over another, said Cindy Gatziolis, a spokeswoman for the Mayor's Office of Special Events.
"Our guidance was that this very prominently placed advertisement would not only be insensitive to the many people of different faiths who come to enjoy the market for its food and unique gifts, but also it would be contrary to acceptable advertising standards suggested to the many festivals holding events on Daley Plaza," Jim Law, executive director of the office, said in a statement.
CHICAGO (AP) - A public Christmas festival is no place for the Christmas story, the city says. Officials have asked organizers of a downtown Christmas festival, the German Christkindlmarket, to reconsider using a movie studio as a sponsor because it is worried ads for its film "The Nativity Story" might offend non-Christians.
New Line Cinema, which said it was dropped, had planned to play a loop of the new film on televisions at the event. The decision had both the studio and a prominent Christian group shaking their heads.
"The last time I checked, the first six letters of Christmas still spell out Christ," said Paul Braoudakis, spokesman for the Barrington, Ill.-based Willow Creek Association, a group of more than 11,000 churches of various denominations. "It's tantamount to celebrating Lincoln's birthday without talking about Abraham Lincoln."
The city does not want to appear to endorse one religion over another, said Cindy Gatziolis, a spokeswoman for the Mayor's Office of Special Events.
"Our guidance was that this very prominently placed advertisement would not only be insensitive to the many people of different faiths who come to enjoy the market for its food and unique gifts, but also it would be contrary to acceptable advertising standards suggested to the many festivals holding events on Daley Plaza," Jim Law, executive director of the office, said in a statement.
I guess this dress would make it easy for her …
27-11-2006, 08:58News / SportsPermalink... to nurse her new baby. Of course I doubt that she takes the new baby along when she hits the clubs with Paris ...
iTunes is currently playing: Two Hot Girls (On A Hot Summer Night) from the album Coming Around Again by Carly Simon.
iTunes is currently playing: Two Hot Girls (On A Hot Summer Night) from the album Coming Around Again by Carly Simon.
American Life in Poetry: Column 087
21-11-2006, 08:28Lit / Art / Music /PhotoPermalinkAmerican Life in Poetry: Column 087
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
The first poem we ran in this column was by David Allan Evans of South Dakota, about a couple washing windows together. You can find that poem and all the others on our website, www.americanlifeinpoetry.org. Here Tania Rochelle of Georgia presents us with another couple, this time raking leaves. I especially like the image of the pair "bent like parentheses/ around their brittle little lawn."
Raking
Anna Bell and Lane, eighty,
make small leaf piles in the heat,
each pile a great joint effort,
like fifty years of marriage,
sharing chores a rusty dance.
In my own yard, the stacks
are big as children, who scatter them,
dodge and limbo the poke
of my rake. We're lucky,
young and straight-boned.
And I feel sorry for the couple,
bent like parentheses
around their brittle little lawn.
I like feeling sorry for them,
the tenderness of it, but only
for a moment: John glides in
like a paper airplane, takes
the children for the weekend,
and I remember,
they're the lucky ones--
shriveled Anna Bell, loving
her crooked Lane.
Reprinted from "Karaoke Funeral," Snake Nation Press, 2003, by permission of the author. Copyright (c) 2003 by Tania Rochelle. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
The first poem we ran in this column was by David Allan Evans of South Dakota, about a couple washing windows together. You can find that poem and all the others on our website, www.americanlifeinpoetry.org. Here Tania Rochelle of Georgia presents us with another couple, this time raking leaves. I especially like the image of the pair "bent like parentheses/ around their brittle little lawn."
Raking
Anna Bell and Lane, eighty,
make small leaf piles in the heat,
each pile a great joint effort,
like fifty years of marriage,
sharing chores a rusty dance.
In my own yard, the stacks
are big as children, who scatter them,
dodge and limbo the poke
of my rake. We're lucky,
young and straight-boned.
And I feel sorry for the couple,
bent like parentheses
around their brittle little lawn.
I like feeling sorry for them,
the tenderness of it, but only
for a moment: John glides in
like a paper airplane, takes
the children for the weekend,
and I remember,
they're the lucky ones--
shriveled Anna Bell, loving
her crooked Lane.
Reprinted from "Karaoke Funeral," Snake Nation Press, 2003, by permission of the author. Copyright (c) 2003 by Tania Rochelle. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
