I only mention these newspapers because in one of my first daily readings of the Brantford Expositor, I found a column in which the writer mused about headlines he had always hoped to be able to write. In fact, he said (in a clearly apocryphal story), he knew of one headline writer who always wrote his first headline before he read any of the stories on offer that day. He began every shift by typing: “Bishop murders black mistress;” that was the story for which he longed so passionately, because it had everything - crime, church scandal, race, sex. Ah, those were indeed simpler days; today, such a headline would simply invoke the jaded response, “What, again?”

 

 

from

 

Baltica

 

 

 

 

from

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16934151&method=full&siteid=66633&headline=old-school-bully--name_page.html 

 

Baltica

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Even after lying in a swamp you can pick up this rifle, aim it and shoot. That's the best job description there is for a gun. Real soldiers know that and understand it," the 86-year-old gunmaker told a weekend news conference in Moscow.

"In Vietnam, American soldiers threw away their M-16 rifles and used (Kalashnikov) AK-47s from dead Vietnamese soldiers, with bullets they captured. That was because the climate is different to America, where M-16s may work properly," he said.

"Look what's happening now: every day on television we see that the Americans in Iraq have my machine guns and assault rifles in their armored vehicles. Even there American rifles don't work properly."

Some U.S. troops in Iraq have reportedly taken to using AK-47s in preference to the standard-issue M-16. The Cold War-era gun, renowned for its durability and easy handling, is plentiful in Iraq.

Kalashnikov designed his first weapon in 1947 and is still chief constructor at Izhmash arms factory in Izhevsk in the Urals mountains.

The factory's director Vladimir Grodetsky told the news conference that around a billion rifles had been produced around the world using parts of Kalashnikovs or based on the same design, only 10-12 percent of which were made in Russia.

from

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/russia_kalashnikov_dc

Baltica

 

 

 

 

 

From the northern tip of Hebron, down to the southwestern corner of Batavia, they usually appear in two forms – boys and girls.

Sometimes, these kids play high school sports, and they unite under a common team nickname befitting the local taste and sensibility.

Alden-Hebron, with its burgeoning community of Amazons, is the Giants. Burlington Central and Richmond-Burton, the sites of too many space launches to count, are the Rockets.

Freeport – twisted, red and salty – is the Pretzels.

Teutopolis, always noisy when it walks with the "clickety-clack," is the Wooden Shoes. Batavia, which starts with the letter "B," is the Bulldogs.

The list of nicknames goes on, and it is especially long when you consider modifications that these schools and others sometimes make to their girls teams.

They add "Lady" to the nickname – either on the uniform, or to school stationery, or on the IHSA.org Web site, or all three places.

Freeport's girls teams, for real, are the Lady Pretzels. T-Town actually calls its girls the Lady Shoes. Pretzels and shoes are so masculine that activist Gloria Steinem reportedly refused to use either in the 1970s.

Such "Lady" characterizations manage to be both redundant and contradictory, while at the same time are just plain dumb and insulting.

from

http://www.nwherald.com/SportsSection/brown/307079120480990.php

 

Baltica

 

 

 

 

 

Though the show presents many memorable portraits of individuals — including the dark, big-haired Morticia in "Hocus Pocus" and "Big Gulp," the two visages of "Jo Beth," the cool stance of local painter and rocker Bill Hafer and the unnamed man in "C-Rocket" with "Ooh la la" scripted on his T-shirt — the real tours de force of the exhibition are her up-to-8–feet-tall, larger-than-life dynamic duos. These couples, a man and a woman or two women — so far no male and male pairings — strike poses in shallow spaces, attired in clothing chosen by Beaver (either their own or thrift shop finds by the artist). The theatrical poses, combined with palettes both candied and acidic and wardrobes that play pattern against pattern — matchy-matchy versus mismatched, or retro kitsch jostling sleek contemporary — produce scene-stealing performances.

from

http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=9056

 

Baltica

 

 

 

 

 

The form-fitting shirts and sweaters rock, harking back to the houndstooths, stripes, and argyle of the rat-pack ’60s, and to Sweden’s avant-garde heyday when filmgoers were Curious—Yellow and Scandinavian modern ruled industrial design. Sex kitten Anita Ekberg was every man’s wet dream, and part of an illustrious legacy of libido-lubricating screen goddesses including the passionate Ingrid Bergman and the ice queen Greta Garbo. Tiger isn’t afraid of arousing a little sexual tension either.

from

http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=17115

 

Baltica

 

 

 

 

 

''Fact: The Priory of Sion -- a European secret society founded in 1099 -- is a real organization. In 1975, Paris's Bibliothque Nationale discovered parchments known as Les Dossiers Secrets, identifying numerous members of the Priory of Sion, including Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Leonardo da Vinci. The Vatican prelature known as Opus Dei is a deeply devout Catholic group that has been the topic of recent controversy due to reports of brain-washing, coercion, and a practice known as ``corporal mortification.'' Opus Dei has just completed construction of a $47 million National Headquarters at 243 Lexington Avenue in New York City. All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.'

from

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/14344760.htm

 

Baltica

 

 

 

 

 

Officers arrived at the Low Valley Arms pub near Barnsley in South Yorkshire, 250 miles north of London, after being told the alarm had been set off, but instead of finding any signs of a robbery, they were faced with a shaken landlord convinced he had encountered a ghost with half a face missing in the ladies washroom.

Though they saw no ghoul_ described as a woman in flowing white gown_ officers were shocked to find toilets flushing themselves, said Inspector John Bowler of South Yorkshire Police.

Pub landlord Roger Froggat, 55, and his wife Kathryn, 49, moved in a year ago and said they had seen nothing before, despite rumors of a resident specter.

"I heard the alarm go off for a second time, went into the pub and all the television screens had turned on," the pub owner said.

"I went to check the rest of the pub and standing in the women's lavatories was a woman with half her face missing. I was petrified."

Officers found no signs of forced entry and were left quite scared, Bowler added.

Since the ghost story became public, the pub has become the talk of the town, attracting everyone from mediums to a national television film crew determined to catch a glimpse of the mystery woman should she appear again.

 

From

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/britain_ghost_sighting

 

 

In America, new recruits included Yvonne Chouteau, one of five American Indians who joined the companies; Raven Wilkinson, who became in 1954 the first African American woman hired as a permanent member of a major ballet company and who was later forced to retire when the Ku-Klux-Klan invaded the stage in Alabama; and Yvonne Craig who later became Batgirl in the Batman television series. By the end of the 1950s, despite their enormous popularity, the companies were past their heyday and finances were low. They had their last performance in Brooklyn in 1962.

 

from

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/film/features/article357121.ece

 

Baltica

 

 

 

 

 

French actress Sophie Marceau was born to be amazing. The director of "Boum, La" insisted that Sophie play the lead after one glimpse of her profile. In 1993, Marceau starred in "Fanfan" and helped the film reap big profits in her home country. Two years later, the French babydoll's career brought her to Hollywood for "Braveheart". Her charm rocked the world and she proved herself an international box office draw. Not long thereafter she played the lead in a 007 flick, "The World Is Not Enough". She's now regarded as the best James Bond girl ever.

from

http://english.cctv.com/program/cultureexpress/20060410/101557.shtml

 

Baltica

 

 

 

 

 

The fate of Canadian film lies in the hands of Bubbles, Ricky and Julian - better-known as the Trailer Park Boys.

Ridiculous as it seems, that's what it has come down to. The whole future of the film biz in this country might depend on a gang of foul-mouthed, beer-swilling, pot-smoking misfits.

Well maybe not just them. Quebec funnyman Patrick Huard may also have a hand in saving Canadian film. The sagging English-Canadian film scene is also set to get some emergency relief from comic icon Mary Walsh, Red Violin director Francois Girard and Pirates of the Caribbean beauty Keira Knightley.

These high-profile folks will all be doing their bit in the coming months to try to persuade Canadians to spend their hard-earned bucks to see homegrown flicks and, for the first time in years, there is some cautious optimism that English-language Canadian cinema might finally be ready for its close-up.

From

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/popculture/story.html?id=110f3ede-f372-476e-9dc1-96d14a1ff9de

 

 

A conservative US think tank said that it had offered a position to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a right-wing Somali-born Dutch lawmaker who is leaving the Netherlands amid a row over her citizenship.

"She has been offered a position of resident fellow at American Enterprise Institute (AEI)," Andrew Pappas, a spokesman at the Washington-based think tank, told AFP.

He said AEI president Christopher DeMuth on Tuesday sent a letter to Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of conservative Islam, saying that her application to join the think tank had been approved.

"We are confident that your work at AEI could make important contributions to urgent issues of politics and social understanding -- in particular, to furthering the reconciliation of Muslim teachings with the ideals of individual freedom and responsibility and the 'open society'," the letter states.

It said that AEI was aware of Hirsi Ali's controversial views but believes that "controversies such as these, when conducted in a spirit of civility and reasoned inquiry, are essential to intellectual progress, and are to be welcomed rather than feared".

The letter added that in light of the uproar surrounding Hirsi Ali's citizenship, she could join AEI before autumn, as originally expected.

Pappas said he did not know when Hirsi Ali would arrive in the United States or what topic she will be researching at the think tank.

From

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/060517/1/40wdz.html

 

 

 

Several weeks later (plus several coats of paint, though a faint pinkness lingers), what had been a gruesome morgue has now reverted to its natural domestic state, save an editing station assembled at one end. A framed poster commemorating Popko and West's first feature, 2003's Monsturd, hangs on a nearby wall.

Monsturd is a true B-movie. Thanks to some seriously weird science, a serial killer morphs into a giant hunk of raging poop. Drawn into this sordid small-town tale are an evil doctor, a down-and-out sheriff, and an intense FBI agent, plus Popko and West as a pair of screwball deputies. Toilet jokes abound. After a three-day premiere at San Francisco's Victoria Theatre, Monsturd found some success on video, most triumphantly surfacing in Blockbuster after the chain purchased 4,000 DVD copies.

Popko and West hope Monsturd's cult notoriety will aid RetarDEAD, which happens to be its direct sequel. It starts exactly where Monsturd ended. "Dr. Stern [the mad scientist played by Popko-West pal Dan Burr] rises from the sewer," West explains. "He gets a job at an institute for special education and starts a test group on these special Ed students. They become remarkably intelligent, and then the side effect is they become zombies."

"In a nutshell, we kind of liken it to Flowers for Algernon meets Night of the Living Dead," Popko interjects.

From

http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=707

This week it was the turn of Desperate Housewives. A whopping 28.2 million viewers watched the first episode of this second series in the US, so the pressure is on to woo us all into signing up for another round. The programme's creator, Mark Cherry, has done a great job of creating a little slice of suburbia with a distinctly dark undertone. The tight-knit friendship between four women forms the core, from which the storylines take us off on voyages of love, parenthood and murder. But in this second series things have gone a little awry.

New neighbours have moved into Wisteria Lane, but they've remained on the outskirts rather than become integral to the series. We've now got a long list of unresolved issues cluttering up the neighbourhood.

Thankfully, it's the job of a finale to tie up loose ends, dispose of unpopular characters, introduce some teasers for the next season and leave us with an almighty cliffhanger. So it was goodbye to Betty Applewhite and her murderous son, goodbye to Carlos and his adulterous ways and, oh-my-goodness, is it really goodbye to Mike the plumber after a hit-and-run?

 

 

 

 With just a few months before she turns 60, Tonya Harvey is talking about her generation.

"Tune in, turn on, drop out. Free love. Everything was free. No responsibility. We all still have that kind of feeling, that free spirit," she says.

"We're talking about the Beatles and `Love Child' and round, purple glasses. And we wear the badge proudly. I'm an old hippie."

And how does a hippie grow old?

That's easy. "Hey, we never do. We just progress," she says without missing a beat.

Here they come again.

They are grayer than they once were, and perhaps a bit heavier, too.

They're all in the same boat, staring squarely at a number that once meant one thing: You are old. But these are baby boomers hitting 60, and like everything else they have encountered, they are likely to make it their own.

They've got the power. Those born between 1946 and 1964 number 78 million strong in the United States.

That means they are landing on 60 with startling regularity. Every seven seconds, a baby boomer turns 60 - a phenomenon that will continue for the next 18 years.

It will happen to President Bush on July 6, and former President Bill Clinton on Aug. 19. Dolly Parton and Donald Trump joined the crowd this year, too.

 

from

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/nation/14953921.htm

 

 

 

SHE can look like Morticia from The Addams Family, made her debut in Transylvania, won't let direct sunlight touch her skin and has been nicknamed Draculette. Yet she wears a gold crucifix around her neck, has a passion for old Romanian churches and Orthodox church music, and a voice that most angels would give their wings for. And the temperament of the very devil.

Superficial contradictions swirl around the exotic Angela Gheorghiu, who is appearing in a new sell-out production of Tosca at London's Royal Opera House, with Bryn Terfel as Scarpia and the Argentinian tenor Marcelo Alvarez as Cavaradossi.

Alongside a voice that has made great conductors weep in wonder is a reputation that could earn respect from another Soprano: tough guy Tony. So fractious has been her relationship with a world renowned for the tantrums of its drama queens that Jonathan Miller, the director, famously dubbed Gheorghiu and her husband "the Bonnie and Clyde of opera".

Yet so striking are her thick mane of raven hair, curvaceous body and flashing dark eyes that she is the only 40-year-old opera singer to make it into a lads mag's list of top 100 best-looking women: FHM readers put her atNo.74.

From

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19521524-16947,00.html

 

 

 China's rising tennis star Zheng Jie, fresh from her WTA victory in Stockholm, will make her Thailand debut in the 200,000 dollar PTT Bangkok Open in October, organizers have said.

The Grand Slam doubles winner from the Australia Open and Wimbledon became China's hottest property Monday when she clinched her third career title at the Stockholm Open, taking her world ranking to 27.

From

http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/16082006/3/china-s-hottest-property-bangkok-open-debut.html

1) In the film, Gladiator, in the battle with the Barbarian Horde, one of the chariots is overturned. What anachronisms can be seen in the back of the chariot?

 

 

 

 

A few days ago CQ showed us this cover of Purple Fashion Magazine starring Kate Moss and Mario Sorrenti. Kim loved Kate's super-short, zipped Balmain dress.

Last night we were flipping through Vogue's Fashion Rocks magazine while avoiding our DVR'd episodes of Project Runway and came across Jessica Stam in the same dress.

from

http://www.shinystyle.tv/2008/08/who_wore_it_better_kate_moss_o.html