A day after the devastation in the south there's looting in Louisiana and mayhem in Mississippi and I have to say if one were going to shoplift then right after a major disaster such as Katrina would be the time to do it. Just beware of the cops with the shotguns ordering people to drop their loot.

The first great new show of the tv season is Fox's Prison Break, or as I like to call it, this year's 24. It follows structural designer Michael Scofield and his plan to get himself put away in the same maximum security prison as his brother. Michael's brother is played by hunkalicious Dominic Purcell who was on the short lived tv show John Doe. Purcell's character, Lincoln, was convicted of killing the Vice President's brother. No, not the v.p. of GMC, the v.p. of the free world. All of the evidence pointed to his guilt but Michael is certain there's been a cover up and that Lincoln was framed. Once inside the prison, Michael starts his plan in motion. The show features, in just the first two episodes, a riot, the shooting of a bishop, and the chopping off of a characters pinky toe with garden shears. It should be interesting with twists and turns galore and a conspiracy that may go right to the top of the U.S. government. Helping Michael and his brother is lawyer Veronica, who was once romantically involved with Lincoln. Oh, and there's one more snag: Lincoln is set to be executed in 90 days. I don't think it's a coincidence that Purcell's character is named Lincoln (possibly after our 16th president).

Don't cross us: Since 1983 the Red Cross has prohibited any man, who's had sex with another man since 1977, from giving blood. Now comes news that gay friendly churches and organizations in Ohio are refusing to host bloodmobiles. Also gay tolerant volunteers who might otherwise help out with such efforts such as disaster relief are starting to turn against the Red Cross. Australia and the Netherlands are backing away from the prohibitive policy. The testing of blood has come a long way since 1983 and I think it's time the Red Cross stopped the discrimination. A whole population out there is being denied permission to give blood in a nation where blood shortage is a common occurrence. Kudos to other countries that are realizing the absurdity of prohibiting gay men from giving blood. It's just like all of the other nations around the U.S. that are granting same sex couples all of the rights of marriage that different sex couples have. Maybe, as a country, we are still in the dark ages.

Enjoy your day but not in the dark,

paul

The Hualapai tribe is spending $40 million dollars to turn 1,000 acres of land into a major tourist attraction. The land will feature a Western-themed town, an Indian village and a glass skywalk that will jut out 70 feet from the Grand Canyon. This picture was done by an artist and based on this picture the glass walk looks awesome. Expected to open in January it would probably be amazing to watch this being built.

Mother nature has struck again: Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana all hit hard by Katrina. Over 20 feet of water, damage in the billions of dollars, and people's whole lives literally washed away. Mother nature seems intent on showing us the massive strength and power that she holds.

Jaw dropper of the day: A man in Savannah, Ga, will think twice before attempting to rob a bank. Michael Lyons was celebrating his 13yr-old daughter's birthday with a group of other 13 year olds when he gave a note to one of the girls to give to one of the tellers inside the bank. The note read, 'Give me all of your money, this is a stick up.' Needless to say the teller pressed the alarm and police promptly responded. All they found in the way of criminals was Lyons and the girls. Lyons is charged with criminal intent of robbery by intimidation.

Wherever you are today, enjoy and pray for our sisters and brothers in the South.

The big story this morning is of course Big Meana Katrina. She's no longer a category 5 storm but still mighty deadly and threatens to cause catastrophic damage to New Orleans. Here is a pic of Fort Lauderdale, FL from Aug 25. The sand from the beach is blown around. Since 1900 there have only been three cat 5 storms and they've only had names since 1950. The three we've had were in 35, 69, and 92. The one in 35 hit the Florida Keys. 1969 saw the arrival of Camille as she slammed into Mississippi and Louisiana and 92's storm was Andrew as he devestated Florida.

Another story out of Spain this morning is the running of the bulls. 63 people were injured during this sport and two were seriously injured. The injuries happened as a result of a pileup at the bullring's entrance which is where the run ends. The bulls weigh up to 1,300 pounds. What a wonderful idea, let's see if we can outrun these huge animals before they gore us or trample over us. Why?

Enjoy your day,

paul

The hilarious movie The 40-year-old Virgin is #1 at the box office for the 2nd week. I'm so glad it kept the top spot, it's a fun movie with a lot of funny lines.

I can't even imagine having to deal with the situation in New Orleans. Over a million people trying to leave the city and having the threat of a completely flooded city.

Jaw dropper of the day: World-Toilet Organisation, the Singapore based company is offering a course at the Toilet College. Students will learn such things as changing bulbs, getting rid of urine salt in the toilet, and technical cleaning. The first 30 students will begin their training in October and the course is designed to teach cleaners to improve their lavatory cleaning skills. I wonder if the chairs in the classroom are actually toilet seats.

Enjoy your evening,

paul

The breeze this morning was, as my spouse likes to say, delicious. It's warmed up a bit but is only about 80, although I think it feels warmer.

We rented the movie Guess Who with Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher. Guess Who is an updated remake of the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? That film starred Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn. Guess Who has 2 maybe 3 funny moments in the whole film. Otherwise it is predictable and ho-hum, although it is entertaining. The special features (which is usually my favorite part of a dvd) are lame except for the previews of upcoming films. There is a preview of Rent which comes out in November and a non-scene preview of next year's The Da Vinci Code. It's a trailer that shows no scenes from the movie (hmmm could that be because it's still being filmed? Probably).

Speaking of movies, here are the films that I just have to see this fall (or life won't be worth living). I'm so glad I'm not dramatic.

Flightplan: Jodie Foster is back. She last kicked butt in the thriller Panic Room and now she's back kicking butt 40,000 feet in the air. She plays a mom who's daughter disappears on a transatlantic flight. Is she telling the truth or is she some whacked out escaped mental patient?

Proof: Originally done on the stage this film, directed by Shakespeare in Love's John Madden, stars Gwyneth Paltrow (who was directed to an Oscar in Shakespeare) plays daughter to Anthony Hopkins's brilliant mathematician. He's also mentally ill. Yes, it does sound like A Beautiful Mind but it does have a good cast. It will either be really good or really depressing....or both.

Syriana: A CIA agent looking for a terrorist in the Middle East. Sounds heavy and not the sort of film I'd usually want to see. It does star George Clooney though and for me he is eye candy. Yes, even with 35 pounds packed on and his beard and salt and pepper hair, and dreamy eyes... Oh sorry, I forgot where I was.

Walk The Line: Or as I like to call it, this year's Ray. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon play Johnny and June Carter Cash. They supposedly do their own singing and are already being called major Oscar contenders. We'll see.....

Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire: The wizarding tournament, the Quidditch, the death of one of the students, the rebirth of Lord Voldemort (played by Ralph Fiennes, so vicious and creepy in Schindler's List) and the turn from happy go lucky Hogwarts to deadly serious and loss of innocence. Oooooooooo

Rent: Adapted from Jonathan Larson's Tony- and Pulitzer- winning musical (he died right before it hit the stage). Only two of the major cast members were not in the Broadway version of the show. This film could be this year's Chicago or it could be a major flop. I've got my fingers crossed for the former outcome.

The Producers: Not out until December but I'm looking forward to seeing this and thankfully it has the two stars from the Broadway show. Those stars are of course Nathan Lane (my Natey is back) and Matthew Broderick. It would have been nice to have seen these two performers live but I'll have to pay a lot less to see them this way.

Brokeback Mountain: Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger play gay cowboys in a film that promises to be daring and risque. Yeah, we'll see.

These movies are not movies that I have to see but probably will see just because they will no doubt be event movies.

King Kong: Peter Jackson (the hobbit who directed some film called The Lord of the Rings). Naomi Watts plays the role made famous by Fay Wray in the film that boasts cool special effects.

All The King's Men: Another remake, I know. The original film (based on a book, so it wasn't original to begin with) won the Oscar for Best Pic and took two acting awards. The new cast screams Academy Award: Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Sean Penn, James Gandolfini, Kathy Baker, and Anthony Hopkins.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The adaptation of C.S. Lewis's first book of his seven part series. Could be this year's Lord of the Rings.

As they say; See you at the movies.

That's it for now. Enjoy the rest of your Saturday.

paul

Check out this pic of a streaker at the Jackson Hole, Wyoming demolition derby. Police officers brought him down and then one deputy tasered him in the back as over 3,000 spectators looked on. I wonder if he really needed something as big as a fire extinguisher to cover himself. The blue globe is something added to the pic to cover his other (ass)ets.

Ok, I'm officially sick of driving through Geneseo. When I first moved to the area, Geneseo was busy as it is a college town but there was no Enterprise, there was no Cingular, there was no KFC and Taco Bell, there was no Aldi's and there was no Tim Horton's (which just opened). There was no road across the street from Wegman's and now there is a road and as if one Wal-Mart wasn't enough now they have to build another one; a Wal-Mart Super Center. Heaven only knows what's going to go into the old Wal-Mart building. From now on I will NOT drive through that town unless I'm dying and there's a hospital there and it's the only hospital that will take me. I'm so glad I'm no dramatic.

This Oscar business is really starting to become an obsession. I like the Oscars, a lot. Not only have I channeled my inner nerd and memorized all of the winners of Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress but now I'm watching all of the films that won one of those awards that I've never seen. I went to one of the big libraries in the city today and checked out four movies that I had never seen that were major Oscar winners of some sort (two of which I really don't want to watch because they are musicals but will anyway). It's almost like I'm taking a college course. Which isn't that far off since I took a couple of film courses in college. I saw three other older movies I had never seen that I wanted to see but denied myself because they had nothing to do with Oscar. One of those movies was the original The Ladykillers with Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers. Peter Sellers is the main reason I wanted the movie. Ever since I saw him in Being There I find myself wanting to see some of his other work; besides the Pink Panther.

Well I hope you are enjoying your Friday. I am and now I'm going to turn on and tune in.

paul

My Oscar video pick of the week is a good-natured and heartwarming story made in 1979 about a simpleton (read: mentally challenged) who goes from being a nobody to knowing the President of the US. Being There tells the story of Chance the Gardener, aka Chauncey Gardiner, who doesn't seem to exist. He has learned everything he knows from watching tv. After a slight misfortune he meets Eve (played nicely by Shirley MacLaine) and her husband, financial tycoon Rand. Peter Sellers plays Chance and I haven't seen a lot of Peter Sellers's films but I know a good performance when I see one. Sellers is truly wonderful in the movie and doesn't play Chance as a victim or a joke. Everyone who meets Chance/Chauncey is quite taken with him. Because of his silence and cryptic answers and the suits he wears people think Chauncey is a brilliant, intelligent and well-bred man. What I knew about this movie before watching it: It was Sellers's penultimate (I really like that word) role, he had been nominated for an Oscar, it had a man who was dying. I did some research after watching the film and found out that the thinking is Sellers lost the Oscar (to Dustin Hoffman) because of the blooper scene that played over the end credits. It's quite funny, don't get me wrong (although the scene was NOT in the movie) but it did not fit at all with the rest of the movie and should not have been played over the credits. It was a violation of the movie and I believe that's why Sellers didn't get the Oscar that year. I've seen Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer (the role he won for) and I believe Sellers had the better role and was more talented. Not to mention dashing, sexy. Melvyn Douglas who played the financial tycoon won the award for Supporting Actor and Shirley MacLaine should have been nominated for her performance for the masturbation scene alone. I also read after watching the film that Laurence Olivier had been offered the role of Chance but didn't want to be in a scene in which MacLaine had to masturbate (it's one of the best scenes).
Sometimes the Academy gets it so right and sometimes they get it so wrong. Sellers was robbed but don't let that stop you from seeing Being There.

According to tests run on frozen urine samples from 1999, Lance Armstrong had EPO in his system. EPO is a substance that boosts red-blood cells. Armstrong has defiantly denied that there was EPO in the samples and all of the other samples tested since then have been negative. I'm not saying that Lance Armstrong is guilty or not guilty what I am saying is this: Baltimore Orioles player Rafael Palmiero vehemently denied that he used steroids and then got caught with them in his system, Jose Canseco admitted to using steroids, Mark McGuire refused to answer whether or not he did (but did use Andro at one time) so what's the difference between them saying they never used drugs and getting caught and Lance Armstrong?

Jaw dropper of the day: Or should I say eye dropper? An eye doctor in South Orange, NJ, was performing a cataract surgery when an SUV crashed into the building. The doctor had just put in the silicone lens with a plunger (probably not the kind used in the bathroom) when the vehicle smashed through the wall and stopped short of hitting the doctor and the patient. The doctor was thrown onto the patient (who wasn't totally sedated by the way) and only missed being hit because the vehicle's rear tires hit the curb. The 77-year old driver was backing his Toyota 4-Runner out of the parking spot only he didn't put it in reverse, he put it in drive. The driver had been leaving the office after making an appointment. I myself would probably look for another doctor at that point.

And where in the world is Patrick McDermott, Olivia Newton-John's boyfriend of nine years?

Enjoy your day,

paul

Mei Sheng, at the San Diego zoo, celebrates her birthday on August 19. Happy Birthday to her. That is frosting on her cheek, not blush. 

This panda, born on July, 9, at Washington's Smithsonian National Zoo weighs 4.2 lbs and is 17in long. The previous pics were of the twin pandas born in China and they were born on August 6 

And the baby starts to kind of look like an actual panda bear. 

Here's another pic of one of the cubs born to 18 year old Xue Xue 

Xue Xue, the giant panda in Northwest China gave birth to twin cubs on August 9. I had no idea that panda cubs were born so small, one could fit it in the hand. How adorable. It almost looks like a tiny pink alien. 

A deliciously cool day here in Western, NY. According to the weatherman though the humidity is supposed to come back. It doesn't matter because August is on it's way out and September will soon be here with fall not too far behind.

Jaw dropper of the day: Talk about having a driver's license from a cracker jack box. An 86-year old woman in Minnesota has been ticketed for reckless driving. Pauline Lillian Meyerhoff of Goodview, Minn, decided to drive down a busy, crowded street on Sunday afternoon. The problem: She drove right through a parade. Driving her red cadillac (surprise, surprise, why do so many elderly people want to drive Cadillacs?) she turned down the town's main drag and almost plowed down adults, children and a gymnastics team. And instead of stopping or at least slowing down, Meyerhoff sped up (now that's a GREAT idea) and got up to speeds of between 35 and 50 according to the police chief. Fortunately not long after she arrived at her home, a policeman also arrived and ticketed her. The police chief explained that Meyerhoff was very upset at being ticketed when the law wasn't enforced to keep people out of the street while she's trying to drive on it. I think it's time to start calling a cab.

Enjoy your day,

paul

Religious 'Right?' Talk about saying stupid things.....Pat Robertson is probably not having a good morning after saying the following about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez: "We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability." He continued, "You know I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it." Robertson is no stranger to controversial statements. In 2003, he said that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." Why don't we just kill anyone who doesn't agree with us. I'm sure Jesus walked around preaching that same thing, "I don't like what that tax collector stands for, let's take him out. Who's with me? Peter? John?"

A California Supreme Court has ruled that same sex couples have the same rights as heterosexual couples when the two of them break up. They must provide for the child. The judge ruled that being a legal parent "brings with it the benefits as well as the responsibilities." One attorney of Liberty Counsel said, "That policy establishes that moms and dads as a unit are irrelevant when it comes to raising children." What?!!??? It doesn't say that at all. Maybe he's the one who's irrelevant.

Ok, enough ranting for the day. Enjoy yours,

paul

The #1 movie over the weekend was the hilarious The 40-Year Old Virgin. This is a funny movie and that's thanks mostly to Steve Carell who carries the film and shows he is a comedy force to be reckoned with. I'd say get this guy his own show but he already has one on NBC called The Office (the American version).

Put those lesbian rumors about Marcia Cross to rest....for now anyway. She's engaged to be married to stockbroker Tom Mahoney. Cross played the deliciously evil Kimberly Shaw on Melrose Place and plays the quintessentially uptight suburban housewife Bree Van De Kamp on Desperate Housewives.

Jaw dropper of the day: Has your child lost his/her doudou? Doudou is colloquial French and means anything that is a security blanket. A woman in France has a service where parents can register their children's most precious toys or security blankets. She sells a kit with a label that can be sewn onto the toy/blanket etc... The label has a toll free hotline (it goes to her home) and a code that identifies the item and who it belongs to. But I thought that young children were selfish and didn't want to share. Suppose an item is lost and the child doesn't want to return it. Hmmm, I guess it belongs to the new owner. Check out her website at www.sosdoudou.com Alrighty then.

Enjoy your day,

paul

Hello,

It's a glorious Saturday and it feels good to be alive. Enjoy the day, do something different and tell someone you love them. Oh, no I sound like a Hallmark card, ugh!

Ok, I'm tired of hearing reporters call Dennis Rader the so-called BTK killer. The police caught him, he admitted to the killings, he IS the BTK killer. Enough said.

Jaw dropper of the day: In Richmond, California, at least six officers were caught on a security camera helping themselves to drinks in a closed Mrs. Fields store. The police were at the Hilltop Mall after a security guard caught two burglars who were trying to open a gate to a jewelry store. The police searched for the burglars then poured themselves some beverages from the cookie store. The management caught the footage on the tape from the security camera. A lawyer representing the officers said, "A couple of them were (dehydrated) to the point of desperation."

Enjoy your day,

paul

Check out this meteor from the Leonid meteor shower in Nov. 2000. I found this rummaging through some old pics and thought it was really cool.