Not our Chicago cubbies, but our little Amur tiger cubs at the Brookfield Zoo:

Tiger cubs recovering after attack by parents Chicago Tribute 11:46 AM CDT, October 1, 2007

Two tiger cubs injured Sunday, apparently by their parents, are recuperating after surgery, Brookfield Zoo officials said this morning.

One cub had its right front leg amputated and its tail repaired during a two-hour surgery. The other was in surgery for an hour to repair its tail.

"Both cubs are alert, navigating well and displaying typical tiger behavior ... all good signs at this stage in their recovery," zoo officials said in a statement.

Full Article

Turns out, the cubs were in their enclosure with their mom, Tiara, who have been off-exhibit since their birth in May. Their enclosure is next to their father, Robecki. The male cub was sticking his paw through a small opening between the two pens and his father did some pretty bad damage to it. The damage to the cubs tails was the mother trying to pull the two cubs away from the opening to protect them.

Who would have thought that the cute tiger in the picture below could attack his own kin?

More news here.

Poor little cubbies.

Give me a break!

Oversalted burger leads to charges

UNION CITY, Ga. - A McDonald's employee spent a night in jail and is facing criminal charges because a police officer's burger was too salty, so salty that he says it made him sick.

Kendra Bull was arrested Friday, charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct and freed on $1,000 bail.

Bull, 20, said she accidentally spilled salt on hamburger meat and told her supervisor and a co-worker, who "tried to thump the salt off."

Read the whole article

This isn't food poisoning, it's a crappy burger. Just ask for you money back, jerk!

Over the last month or so, I've gotten comments, emails, text messages and phone calls, all pretty much starting out the same way - "Hey, did you know that Apolo's going to be on Dancing With the Stars?"

This "Apolo" being Apolo Anton Ohno, who I've filed under "those years that short track was a hobby". You all may know that I was (and still am to a point) a huge fan of the sport, going to competitions when I could and making some amazing friends along the way. So in a way, I owe it all to that long-haired soul patched foxtrotter.

It makes me laugh that when friends and family see his name they think of me, even though that's been a part of my life that I really haven't had time for lately. My short track life is something that is a distant memory, replaced by dirty diapers, pureed banana on my floor and waking up to a giggling, smiling face (when he isn't falling off the bed, that is).

But yes, I'm aware that Apolo's going to be dancing in this season of DWTS, I've known for some time yet. I have mixed feelings about it. Part of me is interested to see how he does, to see if his moves on the ballroom floor are as good as his moves on the ice. Part of me is wary of this move - I've felt that DWTS is a place where publicity hungry people go to extend their 15 minutes of fame. Nonetheless, I'll be watching it (like I do every year - Mario was cheated, man!) and I'll be cheering for A-Lo.

Thanks to all of you who thought of me and let me know, just so I didn't miss it.

For those of you interested, here's a link to some video, courtesy of the OZ:

Click image to watch their interview:

If you're in New York City today and have got some time tonight, check out my best friend Jaygee's show! She's amazingly talented, and everything she touches turns to gold, so I'm sure that this show is going to be a blast.

Redpac requested a pimping by me:

3rd Annual Mardi Gras Contest That's right, I'm starting it a tad early...this benefits you consistant readers. You can win a swanky Mardi Gras prize pack, consisting mainly of stuff I catch at parades and other places in New Orleans along with various other goodies I have from the Tall Steve giveaway archives. Here's how it works:

There are 5 of us this year, and we all enjoy a cocktail or 4. We should arrive in the quarter around noon on Friday, Feb. 16th and leave at 3:00pm on Monday, the 19th. All you have to do is guess when the first drunken vomit will be. Date and time is needed. Closest guess that has not passed wins. (Ex. a guess at 7pm and a guess at 7:30pm. The vomit attempt happens at 7:05, the 7:30 guess wins.) If you think there will be none, you can say that too, however there will only be one "no puke" entry allowed, first come first served.
As a hint, 2 years ago it was 2:30 on Friday, last year it was 7:19 on Friday, so guess well.

Check out his site here.

Believe me, he always has awesome prize bags!

As I may have mentioned already, I'm a big fan of the show "Heroes". I'm also a huge fan of comic books. One aspect that I love about Heroes and comics is how these people use their powers to help people, that no matter how dire the situation is, there's someone to come in and save the day. These people often put themselves in danger to save lives.

It's very rare that you see that happen in real life, but it turns out that this week is the week of heroes:

Passerby catches falling child, say NY police

A three-year-old boy fell from the fourth-floor window of an apartment in New York City on Thursday, but was caught by a passerby, police said.

The boy was caught by a 39-year-old man passing under the window, police said in a brief statement. The boy was taken to hospital with just minor cuts and abrasions to his head and face. Police are still investigating and gave no more details.
Story is here

Crazy, isn't it? I mean, that kid must have been so heavy falling from the fourth floor.

Here's another one, same city, and it's pretty incredible...

Rescuer pins fallen teenager as subway passes over them Wesley Autrey faced a harrowing choice, as he tried to rescue a teenager who had fallen off a platform onto a subway track in front of an approaching train: Struggle to hoist him back up to the platform in time, or take a chance on finding safety under the train.

At first, he tried to pull the young man up, but he was afraid he wouldn't make it in time and they would both be killed.

"So I just chose to dive on top of him and pin him down," he said.

Autrey had been waiting for a train with his two young daughters. After the train stopped, he heard bystanders scream and yelled out: "We're OK down here but I've got two daughters up there. Let them know their father's OK," The New York Times reported.
Read story here

Can you believe that? It's like something out of a movie. He gets extra points for the pimp blue playboy hat!

With all that's going wrong in the world right now, it's good to know that there are still heroes there, to be there when we need them...

LOS ANGELES - Peter Boyle, the tall, prematurely bald actor who was the tap-dancing monster in "Young Frankenstein" and the curmudgeonly father in the long-running sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," has died. He was 71. Article: Actor Peter Boyle dead at 71

I'll miss Peter Boyle...he was one of the best actors of his generation. I also have a soft spot for him in my heart because he was the main character in one of my favorite X-Files episodes (I'm an X-Files freak, ya know) - "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", for which he won an Emmy. He played a man who could see how people would die, and did it so effortlessly - making such a sad, tragic character so charming and lovable. He uttered one of the best lines of the whole series - when Scully finally relented to his question, "Don't you want to know how you're going to die?" he tells her, "You don't."

Of course, most of you may know him from "Everybody Loves Raymond", where he played Ray's father in law. Or maybe "Young Frankenstein", where he danced.

So goodbye, Peter, you'll forever be Clyde to me...

Got this cool link via Redpac. You may know that New Orleans is a place close to his heart, and this is a great way to help them out AND get your loved ones some personalized Johnnie Walker labels!

Home For the Holidays Customized Johnnie Walker Labels

Best thing about it - it's free to you! All you have to do is customize your label on the site (after signing up and a little survey), and they will donate $5 to New Orleans Habitat for Humanity for up to $150,000.

Here's the one I made:

Sorry I've only been posting news and such - I've been busy with all this holiday crap. I've got a lot to do before I go out of town next week!

Anyway, as a kid, I always loved gazing at the stars, so I thought this would be something really cool to share with you all:

Stargazers will get a rare triple planetary treat this weekend with Jupiter, Mercury and Mars appearing to nestle together in the predawn skies. About 45 minutes before dawn on Sunday those three planets will be so close that the average person's thumb can obscure all three from view.

The way to find the planets, which will be low on the east-southeast horizon, is to hold your arm straight out, with your hand in a fist and the pinky at the bottom. Halfway up your fist is how high the planets will appear above the horizon, Nichols said.

Jupiter will be white, Mercury pinkish and Mars butterscotch-colored.

Ahh, Mars, the Butterscotch Planet!

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii - With their number quickly dwindling, survivors of Pearl Harbor will gather Thursday one last time to honor those killed by the Japanese 65 years ago, and to mark a day that lives in infamy.

This will be their last visit to this watery grave to share stories, exchange smiles, find peace and salute their fallen friends. This, they say, will be their final farewell.

The survivors have met here every five years for four decades, but they're now in their 80s or 90s and are not counting on a 70th reunion. They have made every effort to report for one final roll call.

Memories of a shocking, two-hour aerial raid that destroyed or heavily damaged 21 ships and 320 aircraft, that killed 2,390 people and wounded 1,178 others, that plunged the United States into World War II and set in motion the events that led to atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"I suspect not many people have thought about this, but we're witnessing history," said Daniel Martinez, chief historian at the USS Arizona Memorial. "We are seeing the passing of a generation."

Pearl Harbor Remembered

Saw this one on Fark:

Castro Valley hoops coach can't win
Angry parents get a panel to pick team, cry foul when daughters don't make cut

The results are in at Castro Valley High School. That's where a group of parents were in an uproar over girls varsity basketball coach Nancy Nibarger and demanded that her team be picked by a six-person panel. This week the team roster was posted.

None of the disgruntled parents' daughters made it.

If you think that's poetic justice and the end of things, you clearly haven't been following the situation. The parents are not going to let this go.

See the whole story HERE

Fine, I understand being bummed that your kid didn't make it on the basketball team. I mean, yeah, I'll be a bit bummed if Benjamin doesn't make the 2022 Olympics for the pentathalon. But I'm not going to cry and complain about it and say that rather having the coach pick the team, to have a panel of people choose the team instead. The coach SHOULD pick her own team - she's the one who knows their abilities the best, she's the one who has to work with them, she's the one who will be criticized if they don't win.

But what I find to be the funniest part of this is that the whiny parents' kids didn't even make the cut after the panel decided....and STILL the parents cry foul. Get over it! Your kid sucks!

If Benjamin doesn't make the track and field team, that's fine! We'll move on to curling for the Winter Olympics!

It's been brought to my attention that people have been playing multiple times in the trivia game, giving them better scores if questions are re-used. So I just wanted to post a couple rules and notes about the YWIM trivia game (which you can find HERE if you're interested in playing - it's fun!):

1) Only one login ID per person. Which means you can only play once per day. I have access to all the IP addresses of players so I know who's got more than one ID. I also know that there are some players that live in the same household, so if that is the case, please leave a comment below stating the ID's for your household. I have having to do this, but this is what happens when people take advantage of the loose rules I had before (which were no rules). If I see anything suspicious, I'll give a warning, and after the second offense I will ban the IP address from playing.

2) If you ever need to recreate your ID, let me know.

3) I try to change the topics as often as I can, but things happen and sometimes there will be a sucky topic two or three days in a row. Shit happens! Literally, that's all I do nowadays...clean up shit.

4) Weekends are the best time to play because I usually make it an easy, generic subject like "Easy Trivia" or "80's Trivia".

5) Feel free to trashtalk...just be nice! Everyone's been pretty good about it so far!

6) If two or more people play the trivia before I've had a chance to change the topic, chances are I won't change it for that day. Remember, the games reset at around 11pm CT. I usually change the topic between 10pm - 3am.

7) Feel free to suggest topics...most of the time I'd be happy to use them.

If there are any questions, suggestions, comments you'd like to make about trivia, please say them now! I'll be constantly monitoring this post and linking it in the trivia so feel free to comment here anytime!

Walter, my other "internet addiction" pimp (the main one being Mike), got me hooked on Yelp, an online review site. Yelp is a community that started out in San Francisco that reviews local businesses - restaurants, stores, nightlife, pretty much anything around the area. It currently has about 20 cities in its listing (mostly around California), and they are always adding more.

I love reading reviews. When I was buying stuff for Benjamin I spent hour poring over reviews on the Babies R Us site, trying to see what experiences people have had with whatever bathtub, crib or toy I was planning to buy. I always told myself that I would do reviews on things, too, since I rely so heavily on others. So that's what I'm doing with Yelp...However, I'm having a hard time reviewing because I really haven't encountered too many places that I'm disappointed in, so pretty much everything gets a high score from me.

So today my review for Cafe Iberico was chosen as the review of the day, so I thought I'd give them some linky lovin' back. You can see all my reviews here. So go ahead and check it out! Feel free to add me as a friend!

Because I'm the queen of useless but interesting information...here's a little thing I found while surfing the net. Ever wonder why the 24 second shot clock started in basketball? Or why it's 24 seconds. Probably not. But let me tell ya! Back in the day, all a team had to do was get a nice lead in the game, then just waste the rest of the game passing to each other and playing keep away from the other team until the game was over. This made some really low scoring games, and people weren't interested to come to watch because it was so boring! So they decided to create a time clock for possession. But why the 24 seconds? Here's why:

The question we want to consider here, though, is "Why 24 seconds?" Given our penchant for favoring round numbers, why didn't the NBA adopt a 30-second clock, or at least a 25-second clock? What's so special about the 24 seconds?

The answer is that Danny Biasone, the aforementioned owner who pushed for the adoption of the 24-second rule, based his proposal upon his observations, experience, and simple arithmetic. In Biasone's judgment, basketball was most exciting when it was neither a stalling contest nor a wild shootout, but a well-paced game in which team took 60 shots apiece. Since professional basketball games were 48 minutes long, Biasone divided 2880 (the number of seconds in 48 minutes) by 120 (the total number of shots taken per game when each team attempted 60 shots) and arrived at an optimal figure of one shot every 24 seconds. From such a simple formula came a change that completely reinvigorated professional basketball, a rule it is now hard to imagine the game ever did without.
From snopes.com

Now you know! You can spread this knowledge to your friends at critical times during basketball games so they can say "Shut up!" and kick you in the head.

Is anyone else having problems with the daily YWIM quiz? I got an email from a concerned player who said she couldn't access the page.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, feel free to play the daily Yanowhatimean? Trivia Game! That is, if you can access it. The game is hot and heavy with Noelle, Cav and Redpac currently fighting for the top spot. It's always a lot of fun, and trashtalking is welcome!

You know, I get a lot of emails that end up being scams. I usually check any emails I have against Snopes.com to check if it's legit or not. I got this one in the email today that turned out to be the real deal:

Here's a new twist scammers are using to commit identity theft: the jury duty scam. Here's how it works:

The scammer calls claiming to work for the local court and claims you've failed to report for jury duty. He tells you that a warrant has been issued for your arrest.

The victim will often rightly claim they never received the jury duty notification. The scammer then asks the victim for confidential information for "verification" purposes.

Specifically, the scammer asks for the victim's Social Security number, birth date, and sometimes even for credit card numbers and other private information — exactly what the scammer needs to commit identity theft.

So far, this jury duty scam has been reported in Michigan, Ohio, Texas, Arizona, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington state.

It's easy to see why this works. The victim is clearly caught off guard, and is understandably upset at the prospect of a warrant being issued for his or her arrest. So, the victim is much less likely to be vigilant about protecting their confidential information.

In reality, court workers will never call you to ask for social security numbers and other private information. In fact, most courts follow up via snail mail and rarely, if ever, call prospective jurors.

Action: Never give out your Social Security number, credit card numbers or other personal confidential information when you receive a telephone call.

This jury duty scam is the latest in a series of identity theft scams where scammers use the phone to try to get people to reveal their Social Security number, credit card numbers or other personal confidential information.

It doesn't matter *why* they are calling — all the reasons are just different variants of the same scam.

Protecting yourself is simple: Never give this info out when you receive a phone call.

This has been verified in this article by snopes and this article by the FBI.

So watch out...always be suspicious when someone is asking for your information over the phone or online!

Thanks to Megan for the heads up!

Over the last couple months I've had a new internet addiction - The Hollywood Stock Exchange. It's a free site where you get $2 million Hollywood Dollars and you can invest in different things, like movies, movie stars, etc. You can also try to predict how much a movie will make in its opening weekend - will it meet the industries estimates or fall short?

It's a lot of fun to do, though it can get pretty stressing. I got screwed over because "Superman" did so crappy. Sure, it made tons of money, but it really didn't do as well as suspected. Luckily, "Little Man" did surprisingly well, just like I knew it would. I was also able to cash in a little on the success of Pirates II.

For this weekend, I've got my fingers crossed that "The Descent" falls flat, that "The Barnyard" ends the losing streak of weak performing childrens' movies (Ant Bully and Monster House didn't do well) and that "The Night Listener" makes at LEAST $6 mil at the boxoffice.

Those of you who like Project Runway can have some fun with hsx also, since you can invest in the contestants to see where they will place. I've got stock in Uli Herzner and Robert Best. As long as they place in the top 5 I'll be making a nice profit.

So check out the site, see if you enjoy it as much as I do. It's a bit confusing at first but I'd be happy to give you some help, even though I'm still learning how to use it. I lost a million my first couple weeks because I didn't know how to play, but I made it back and then some.

If you want to see how other people are doing, you can also add friends to your "league". You can't see what stocks they have, but you can see how well they're doing. Post up your screen name if you want me to add you to mine...my sn is Kwannon if you want to add me.

Have fun!

So a couple weeks after Benjamin was born I had stated that I had thoughts of creating a blog for my little man, but then said I was crazy for thinking it because I didn't even have time to update my own.

Well, I am crazy because I've just created "The Ben Blog", a little journal for little Ben-pao to share his perspective on the world with all of you out there. To tell the truth, one of the reasons I haven't been updating lately is because not much has happened to me, or if something has happened, it would take too much time to write about it. But Ben, on the other hand, has tons of things happening in his life, and like his attention span, these events are nice and short, which would be easy to blog about.

So yeah, rather than making this into a mommy blog where I gush about every little thing that my little booger does, he can have his own blog where he can just tell you what's going on. Which leaves me to write about more important things on this blog, like how I'm addicted to the E! network. You know, important things.

So check out Ben's blog and say "hello":

The Ben Blog

Who am I kidding, this is still gonna be a mommy blog! I mean, how can I not gush over a cutie like this?

[reposted since the show airs tonight!]

This blog has been very woman-centric lately, and it's going to be like that for a while. But I know I've got some male readers out there so I want to make sure I take care of you guys, too.

So I just wanted you all to mark your calendars - Monday, June 5th - because that is the night the ALMA Awards will be televised. What are the ALMA awards?

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S., announces the return of the NCLR ALMA Awards in a prime-time spot on ABC Monday, June 5 (9:30-11:00 p.m. EST)! The NCLR ALMA Awards honors outstanding Latino artistic achievement in television, film, and music and the enhancement of the Latino image in the entertainment industry.

"But I'm not Latino, Christine, why should I care?"

Well, my friends, you should care because Eva Longoria is hosting the show! Well, you should really care because it's important to celebrate the impact that Latinos have made in entertainment, but you should watch because Eva is the host - and she has several dress changes.

If Eva isn't enough to entice you, the opening act has Eva dancing in a almost-not-there dress with some of the hottest Latina women in entertainment - Carmen Electra, Rosalyn Sanchez (Rush Hour 2), Constance Marie (The George Lopez Show), and Paulina Rubio (singer). I saw clips of their dance on some of the entertainment shows and let me tell you, it was HOT!

Rosalyn, Carmen, Eva, Paulina, Constance

Legs! Legs! Legs! I'm going to start doing lunges while carrying Ben so I can get some hot legs like that.

So watch it. Support Latinos. And after you watch Eva & Co shake their booties and you think to yourself, "Damn, that was hot! I'm glad I caught that!", remember where you heard it first, and say to yourself, "Yano is so good to me. She rocks!"

I just had to post this video of Tom Cruise dancing at BET while doing publicity for Mission Impossible. It makes me laugh.

Here's another thing that I'd love if you all spread the word about - copy it in emails to friends, post it on your blogs, stick it on your office fridge. I checked it out (I'm always wary of email hoaxes so I check things out to make sure that they are legit. This one definitely is and once again, it's a great cause:

PLEASE PASS THIS ON to your friends and family. THANKS!

Mastectomy Hospital Bill in Congress

If you know anyone who has had a mastectomy, there is a lot of discomfort and pain afterwards. Insurance companies are trying to make mastectomies an outpatient procedure. Let's give women the chance to recover properly in the hospital for 2 days after surgery.

It takes 2 seconds to do this and is very important...please take the time and do it really quick!

Breast Cancer Hospitalization Bill - Important legislation for all women.

Please send this to everyone in your address book. If there was ever a time when our voices and choices should be heard, this is one of those times. If you are receiving this it's because I think you will take the 30 seconds to go and vote on this issue and send it on to others you know who will do the same.

There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protec! tion Act which will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the "drive-through mastectomy" where women are forced to go home hours after surgery against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.

Lifetime Television has put this bill on their web page with a petition drive to show your support. Last year over half the House signed on.

Click here for the Lifetime site to sign the petition.

I remember when my mother got home from her operation. She was groggy, out of sorts, and needed a lot of cheering up. I don't remember how long she was at the hospital, but I remember that when she did come home she still needed a lot of TLC. Getting a mastectomy isn't something that should be an in and out procedure - not only is the recovery tough, but it's also mentally and emotionally very trying.

So I beg you to sign this petition, and hopefully this bill gets passed.

Olympian Anthony Lobello is going to be walking for charity in the Relay for Life, trying to raise $50,000 for the American Cancer Society on Friday. I really don't have any extra cash lying around right now - it's all going to diapers and doctor bills, but this is my way of contributing to the cause.

The 2006 Olympian is joining forces with the American Cancer Society to raise money for the Relay for Life Friday in his hometown of Tallahassee, Fla. Typically, participants form teams and take turns walking during the 18-hour event, but Lobello plans to walk the entire time himself. He’s looking forward to the challenge.

...He’s focused on raising $50,000 for Friday’s relay. Individuals or organizations interested in making a donation can call M’Lea Davis at 850-297-0588.

If you've got anything extra to give, please donate. It's a great cause and one that's close to my heart.

Also, I know a lot of you do fundraising out there and have sent me emails (I'm talking about YOU, Leen, the charity queen!). I give when I can, but what I'll also be doing from now on is posting them here so other people will get a chance to donate too!

Did anyone see Reggie Evans from the Denver Nuggets totally stick his hand up Clippers player Chris Kaman's ass the other day? I saw this on ESPN, which is funny because Dave didn't know about it when I told him.

Here's the AP take on it:

NEW YORK -- Denver forward Reggie Evans was fined $10,000 and assessed a flagrant foul penalty two by the NBA on Monday for his actions during the Nuggets' 100-86 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday.

Evans was cited for "unnecessary and excessive contact" with Clippers center Chris Kaman and had his penalty upgraded from the technical foul that was originally called.

Kaman was assessed a flagrant foul penalty one for his actions after the second-quarter incident, but that was downgraded to a technical foul by the league.

What would provoke someone to stick their hand up some other guys butt? Sure, during a pickup game on a playground court, maybe, but not during a playoff game when it's televised and ESPN can replay it over and over again in slow motion, showing your hand totally get stuck up another guys butt.

Eew.

Fatima just informed me that there's going to be a remake of "The Omen", starring Liev Schrieber, Julia Stiles and Mia Farrow. The official website has a pretty interesting trailer. I'm always wary of remakes, they never seem to be as good as the original. The great thing about the original "Omen" was the feeling of impending doom that you felt throughout the movie. No special effects, no gratuitous blood and gore, all of it done with the simple art of directing. I doubt I'll watch this one in the theater, may not even see it on video, I'll probably wait til it's on cable.

You know what the spooky thing is though? The opening day is 06.06.06.

Ohhhhh.......creepy! I think I'll spend that day in church praying for our souls.

As some of you know, I love Conan O'Brien...turns out he's coming to Chicago in May! I don't know how busy I'm going to be with the baby, but I'm definitely going to try and get tickets...just in case!

Here's the 411 for you Chicago cats:

Location: The Chicago Theatre 175 North State Street, Chicago, IL 60601 Show Dates: Tuesday May 9, 2006 - Friday May 12, 2006 Show times: 4:30pm

To obtain tickets please email your Name, Address, Phone Number and Email Address to:
ConanInChicago@nbcuni.com

----------------------------------------------------------

Do not email questions, etc. An allotment of two tickets will be "reserved" per email chosen. Requests for more than 2 tickets WILL NOT BE HONORED. Ticket "reservations" are sent out in excess to seating capacity please be advised that no "reservation" guarantees admission.

Audience line up time: no later than 3:15 pm, day of show you are assigned. Please be advised that lines may form earlier. First come, first served.

Stand by tickets will be given out the day of each show at 12 noon. A line will be formed outside the theatre entrance along the building and one stand-by ticket will be given out per person. You will be asked to re -form a line in an alternate area later in the day in numeric order. No ticket guarantees admission.

Guests must comply with all security procedures. Those bringing excess baggage such as backpacks, shopping bags, and luggage will not be able to enter the theater. It is advised not to bring any unnecessary electronic devices.

Those of you who know me from my pre-pregnancy days and knew the party gal I was in college are aware of my affection for alcohol. Not alcoholic-affection, but an affection for a good night of drinking, dancing and just being plain silly.

With drinking comes the chance of being drunk. It's been rare in the last several years that I've been classified as drunk, but I have been on occasion...Sometimes I just forget to watch my consumption...and open bars make me really happy.

Anyway, looks like I'll be staying out of the state of Texas...seems like they're pretty strict out there:

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - Texas has begun sending undercover agents into bars to arrest drinkers for being drunk, a spokeswoman for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said on Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT

The first sting operation was conducted recently in a Dallas suburb where agents infiltrated 36 bars and arrested 30 people for public intoxication, said the commission's Carolyn Beck.

Being in a bar does not exempt one from the state laws against public drunkenness, Beck said.

The goal, she said, was to detain drunks before they leave a bar and go do something dangerous like drive a car.

"We feel that the only way we're going to get at the drunk driving problem and the problem of people hurting each other while drunk is by crackdowns like this," she said.

"There are a lot of dangerous and stupid things people do when they're intoxicated, other than get behind the wheel of a car," Beck said. "People walk out into traffic and get run over, people jump off of balconies trying to reach a swimming pool and miss."

She said the sting operations would continue throughout the state.

Texas arresting people in bars for being drunk

Hmm, I can see raids in college towns to catch underage drinkers, but people getting arrested when they're IN A BAR? I dunno, I understand their reasons for it, but it seems a little too strict for me. Why not have your undercover agents follow people to their cars or set up surveillance in parking lots? Or wait til those drunk people get kicked out of the bar?

I mean, yeah, being drunk in a bar = public intoxication, but come on, isn't there another way? People won't want to go to bars anymore and will stick to house parties which a much more dangerous than being in bars (collapsing balconies, alcohol poisoning, etc)

Well, I guess I don't really have anything to worry about right now...since I can't drink any alcohol anyway and even if I did, my drunken partying days are over...that is, until my kid gets into college and I become that mom, the one who goes to the college bars and makes a complete drunken fool of herself as her son looks on and shakes his head. Oh yeah, I'm going to be SO awesome at that....

This one in from Rod...

Richard Simmons on "Who's Line Is It Anyway"

I'll never look at a jetski the same way again....Simmons is CRAZY!!!!

Since Rusty doesn't let me post links on his site, I'll post this here...

For all you Apolo Anton Ohno fans that haven't heard, his online store opened today!

Click on the link for some happy Apolo related shopping!

I think it's always worth a mention when a new species is discovered, so new that it gets its own family and genus name for it.

Introducing...the Kiwa hirsuta, what is also known as the furry blond lobster.

The animal is white and 15 centimeters (5.9 inches) long -- about the size of a salad plate.

In what Segonzac described as a "surprising characteristic," the animal's pincers are covered with sinuous, hair-like strands.

The researchers said that while legions of new ocean species are discovered each year, it is quite rare to find one that merits a new family.

Story: New animal resembles furry lobster

I'm half expecting this thing to jump up and start singing "Copa Cabana" or something like that.

Thanks to Wally for this vid...taken from last weekend's SNL. Even when Natalie Portman's a screaming, swearing banshee, she's still beautiful and classy!

....well, not THE pill, because I'm a little past that now...but THIS pill:

Work has been kicking my ass this week! I haven't had time to sit down and really just relax...

Thanks to Sue for the pick-me-up!

DHL (the delivery service) is holding a contest called the U.S. Olympic Spirit Awards, where people can vote on the US athletes they feel best show the Olympic spirit. You can vote for a team, a male athlete and a female athlete. Also, by registering to vote, you get a chance to be an Olympian for a day - that is, head out to the Colorado Springs Olympic Training center, where the short track team, volleyball team and other Olympic teams train.

This is a pretty cool contest, but unfortunately, much like Dancing with the Stars, it's a mere popularity contest...whoever is the most visible athletes are getting the most votes. Here are the standings so far...

Male U.S. Olympian
1. Shaun White, snowboard
2. Chad Hedrick, speedskating
3. Joey Cheek, speedskating
4. Apolo Anton Ohno, speedskating
5. Ted Ligety, alpine skiing
6. Evan Lysacek, figure skating
7. Bode Miller, alpine skiing
8. Johnny Weir, figure skating

Female U.S. Olympian 1. Lindsey Kildow, alpine skiing 2. Sasha Cohen, figure skating 3. Hannah Teter, snowboard 4. Emily Hughes, figure skating 5. Christine Witty, speedskating 6. Kelly Clark, snowboard 7. Gretchen Bleiler, snowboard 8. Rena Inoue, figure skating

U.S. Olympic Team
1. Snowboarding
2. Figure Skating
3. Speedskating
4. Ice Hockey - Female
5. Alpine Skiing
6. Curling
7. Ice Hockey - Male
8. Bobsled

As much as I love Shaun White, I don't feel he should be at the top of this list. I definitely don't think that Chad should be #2 - yes, he's won us some medals, but showing Olympic spirit? No, I wouldn't have voted him on my list. (FYI - I wouldn't have voted for Shani, either) As for the women, I'm glad to see Lindsey Kildow at the top of the list. Though I voted for Kelly Clark, since she went all out in her last run and really broke the barrier between women and men in terms of how awesome her run was, til the end. Snowboarding is a good choice for the top of the team list, having gotten the most medals, a great team of good sports (let's forget that Lindsey Jacobellis snafu).

But let me bend your ear for a bit, my friends, and let you know who I endorse...

There is one person throughout this whole Olympics who, to me, has exemplified what being an Olympian is - competing his hardest, being a good sport, being unselfish, and playing nice when a storm of controversy surrounded those around him...and that is Joey Cheek.

No one heard of Joey Cheek before these games. He didn't have a cool NBC add with flames and cool rock music. He was hardly talked about by any sportscasters and was off the radar of many people who were making race predictions.

Even now, after winning a gold and silver medal and donating all of his winnings ($40,000) to an organization that brings sports to children of underdeveloped countries, his light is still hidden under the Shani/Chad feud. But his contribution to Right to Play has caused other sponsors to match his donation, currently around $300,000 in matched donations.

During all of this, he stays humble"

He seems genuinely embarrassed by the attention his donation has attracted. "I always felt like if I did something big, I wanted to give something back," Cheek said. "The best way is by helping someone else. It is empowering to think of somebody other than yourself. I can take the time to gush about how wonderful I feel or I can use it for something productive. I skate around ice in tights. It's not that big a deal."

So here's the link to vote, you can vote for whoever you want to, you don't have to vote for Joey...but I ask you to really think about who you're voting for, who really has the Olympic spirit...

Vote for the US Olympic Spirit Award (you have to register to vote, but you can vote every day)

This message is brought to you by Aquaman Sam, who thought my Chicago readers may want to beware!

Illinois will begin using photo radar in freeway work zones in July. Second offense tickets are $1,000 with license suspension.

Beginning in July the State of Illinois will use speed cameras in areas designated as "Work Zones" on major freeways. Anyone caught by these devices will be mailed a $375.00 ticket for the FIRST offense, but he SECOND offense will cost $1000.00 and comes with a 90-Day suspension. Drivers will also receive demerit points against their license, which allows insurance companies to raise their rates.

This represents the harshest penalty structure yet for a city or state using PHOTO enforcements. The State will begin with TWO camera vans issuing tickets in work zones with speed limits lowered to 45 MPH. Photographs of both the Driver's face and License plate are taken.

As someone who doesn't really pay attention to workzones, this is something that I'll really be watching out for.

However, this will be much more effective to slowing people down than those signs that they used to have, written in kid scrawl that I had to actually READ as I was driving..."Please slow down, my daddy has died...etc" I'd think more people would get into accidents reading it!

Since Redpac's driving out to Indiana and buying a lotto ticket for me...

Only a couple more weeks to participate in Redpac's yearly "Guess the date and time the first Mardi Gras drunken vomit will happen" contest. Yes, he's still going to Mardi Gras. I'm sure he'll have many interesting photos and he's more than happy to support the economy of NOLA.

Check out Redpac's contest

If you all haven't heard already, late last week there was a whale in the Thames river in London. It seems that a Northern bottlenose whale got disoriented and swam up the river, passing by landmarks like Big Ben and Westminster Bridge and attracting thousands of onlookers. This is the first time since 1913 that a whale had been sighted in the Thames river, which at its depth of about 20-25 feet isn't deep enough for whales.

Rescue workers came immediately, trying to prevent the adolescent whale from beaching on the shallow banks of the river and trying to point her downstream, back to the ocean. No one knows how she got lost and came up the river, but various theories say predators, sonar from ships, illness or just got lost chasing a meal.

It was obvious to onlookers that the whale's health was deteriorating because of lack of food and the shallow waters. She was put upon a rescue barge so they could take her out to the deep see before her condition worsened. However, Saturday night 'Wally', as she was dubbed by the British press, suffered from convulsions and died.

So now comes the necropsy (which I guess is the same as an autopsy) to see what could have caused the whale to stray so far from deep water. After that is probably the blame game, since people need someone to blame for a tragedy like this. Number one on the list right now, the UK government, who people believe should have been monitoring the cetacean population around its waters in the first place. Wally's resting place will be the Natural History Museum, where her bones will be used for scientific research.

Rest in peace, Wally, and hopefully you found your way home to that big deep blue ocean in the sky...

A big congrats to Bears coach Lovie Smith, for winning the AP NFL Coach of the Year award! He has done a tremendous job this year, in the face of a lot of adversity. First, his main quarterback gets injured in the preseason, and he's forced to decide which of his remaining quarterbacks to start with, finally choosing rookie Kyle Orton. Then, his top draft pick Cedric Benson holds out for more money at the start of the season and misses most of training camp. After that, no one had high hopes for the Bears, it was as if their season ended before it even started.

But lo and behold, Orton did ok as a quarterback, staying uninjured and started 10 games, something almost unheard of in Chicago where we have been cursed with bad, easily broken quarterbacks for more than a decade. Thomas Jones came out from what would have been Cedric Benson's shadow and became one of the best running backs in the league, helped out by the gritting play of Adrian Peterson.

...and that defense! The best defense in the league, rarely allowing touchdowns for the opposing offense and having the best red zone coverage of any of the other teams, only allowing 202 points this year, 45 points lower than the nearest team. The defense that constantly won various 'Defensive Player of the Week' awards, Nathan Vasher getting a record 108 yard touchdown after a missed field goal, and not only did Brian Urlacher get the Defensive Player of the Year award, his teammates Lance Briggs, Nathan Vasher and Alex Brown also received votes.

All of this under Lovie's watchful, calm as a cucumber eye. That's the thing that I love the most about him - he always keeps his cool. Rarely yells at the players, rarely jumps up to celebrate. His demeanor is the same after a loss as it is after a win. When there was an issue with two team members fighting, he managed to keep the press from getting details and dealt with it himself, only making the team stronger afterwards.

That's the kind of coach that people want to win for. Not because they're scared of being punished or getting yelled at, they win because they want to make someone that that they respect proud of them. They're doing it for Lovie, because each one of those guys on that field know that he's the best coach in the league.

Luckily, the AP reports figure that out, too...

Sorry for the delay on the trivia standings, I know you've all been anticipating my post about them (DAN). Last month was a busy month for Trivia, with Redpac bringing in all his friends to play so he could increase the points that could be won on any given day (the more that play, the more points the winner gets). Short came in and was dominating for the first couple days, and then Zebedest looked lije the months winner, but Redpac came from behind with his superfast reading skills and won the month!

1. Redpac (471 points, 4 wins)
2. zebedest (436 points, 2 wins)
3. noelle (435 points, 4 wins)
4. Cav (433 points, 2 wins)
5. SusanG (371 points, 1 wins)
6. TallSteve (357 points, 0 wins)
7. Yano (356 points, 1 wins)
8. short (346 points, 2 wins)
9. notsosmart (340 points, 1 wins)
10. Trish (335 points, 2 wins)

It infuriates me that this is my own quiz and I'm not even in the top 5. *cries* Just kidding...Anyway, thanks for playing everyone! Spread the word and increase the available points! Remember, I'm always open to new trivia topics, also...

Last month also ended my football pool...where Redpac beat me by ONE POINT. Of course, if I didn't screw up my point spread early in the season my accidentally betting against the Bears (come on now, I NEVER bet against the Bears!) I would have beat him for sure.

However, the true champion of my 2005 pool goes to Jerry, who spanked everyone with his superior football picks!

1 Jerry 1566
2 Steve 1560
3 Dan 1495
4 Christine 1494
5 Jason 1472
6 Giannini 1467
7 Sam 1341
8 Arthur 1256
9 Craig 1223
10 Jose 1166

Thanks to all the guys that played, it was a lot of fun!

Here's a fun game to play - see how long you can last:

http://www.iol.ie/~dluby/escape.htm

OK, I'm lying. It isn't fun. It's addicting. Addicting until you realize that you're going to have a heart attack because your heartrate is going so fast because you're so nervous you're going to fail.

But that's kinda fun, isn't it?

http://www.iol.ie/~dluby/escape.htm

I got up to 21.51 seconds before I realized I was holding my breath the whole time and needed to take a break.

How long can you last?

It seems that a researcher in Washington has discovered that when your dog is panting after you've been playing for a while or when he's anticipating a walk outside is actually "dog laughter". He's happy, and that's his way of showing it.

This same researcher has been trying to find some way to ease the stress levels at dog shelters, where dogs are often barking and whining and the conditions aren't that great.

Patricia Simonet, development and program coordinator for Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service, also found that the sound of dog laughter comforts other dogs. When she played a recording of "play panting" through the speaker system at a shelter in Spokane Valley, all the barking dogs quieted within a minute.

"I wanted to see if I could reduce (the dogs') stress by playing the sound in the shelter," Simonet said. "I was surprised when they were calm and quiet."
Yahoo! News

I think that's really great, that they've found a way to help calm these other dogs.

But we don't really understand dog-speak yet. Sure, it may be dog laughter, but what if the dogs are really saying, "I'm so happy to be out here in the sunshine and playing with a family that loves me! Those poor fucks in shelters are so screwed! This is the life!"

...and then the researchers play the sounds over the loudspeakers, 'calming' the shelter dogs. But maybe it's not actually calming them, maybe they've given up on life, knowing that they may never get to feel the love of a family, that those sounds of laughter are so foreign to them that they've given up hope, that the sleeping room is just one bark away...

Then again, it might be good for the dogs, so they'll totally kiss up to the people who come by to adopt, just so they could have a chance to laugh again...

I don't know. It's late. I'm off to sleep!

Thought this was a cute story....I'd love to see if the little bugger stays green:

ALHAMBRA, Calif -- The littermates of a Northern California puppy may be green with envy.

That's because a golden retriever born last week is green. The little green fella is one of a litter of four. But his littermates are the usual blond color.

The owner, a dog breeder, says he's mystified about the green color.

Veterinarians said that it's possible for a newborn pup's fur to be green because the placenta, which is green, sometimes rubs off during birth. Whatever the cause, the little green guy now has name -- Wasabi. That's the spicy green mustard put on sushi.

His color definitely sets him apart.
The Denver Channel

I'm not going to be back in town until late tonight, but if any of you are interested in going to the Filipino Film Festival in Chicago, it should be a great treat! Here's some information:

THE CHICAGO FILIPINO AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL 2005 THE CHOPIN THEATRE 1543 W. DIVISION STREET CHICAGO, IL 60622 NOVEMBER 3-6, 2005

Check out the schedule at http://cfaff.org/.

Hey! Don't forget to click on the link on the left (or right, depending on which layour you're using) to help fund a free mammogram! Click once to go to the page, and click again on the main page of the site to make your click count.

This is pretty spooky...National Guard in a New Orleans school are starting to see ghosts.

Soldiers Spooked by New Orleans Spirits

Looks like Federated Department Stores, Inc. is planning on changing the name of the beloved Chicago department store Marshall Fields.....to MACY'S. Ugh.

"To better serve our customers in this highly competitive retailing environment, we must concentrate on our best national brands and reduce costs so we can deliver outstanding value to shoppers," said Terry J. Lundgren, Federated's chairman, president and chief executive officer. "We believe that continuing to build Macy's and Bloomingdale's aggressively across America will accelerate our comp store sales performance and increase profitability, thereby driving shareholder value.

The place just won't be the same.

It's hard to comprehend how much this saddens me. I mean, it's going to sell the same things, look more or less the same, but there's so much to a name. Marshall Fields. The name conjures up so many memories - eating in the swanky Walnut Room and seeing Billy Corgan and Courtney Love, taking the train with my mom and dad as a kid to see the window decorations during Christmas, Frango mints, etc. Marshall Fields *IS* Chicago.

Marshall Fields during the holidays

"We have great respect for the legacy and traditions of Marshall Field's, and we carefully researched customer preferences and studied alternatives before making this decision to incorporate Marshall Field's into the nationwide Macy's brand," Lundgren said. "While the store's name will change, much of what customers love will stay the same, including Marshall Field's traditions and its outstanding record of community and charitable giving. As part of this name change process, we will do everything we can to honor the Marshall Field's heritage, particularly in its Chicago birthplace."

WHATEVER! LIARS!

There's a poll in the Chicago Tribune article (which is linked in the first paragraph of this post). Out of 3000 responses, 90.2% of those polled said that the name change will make a difference to them. 96.2% said that they will be less likely to shop there. Does that help the shareholder value? I don't think so.

Here's the comments of some readers:

- Why not change Wrigley Field to Tribune Park? People outside of Chicago just don't get it. Macy's will never be successful here. ( Submitted by: DK)

- This in an outrage. Changing the Marshall Field legacy to Macy's is like renaming McDonald's the Burger Barn. Field's is a class act and its long-standing tradition in Chicago means so much to so many. Why not just keep it the Marshall Field's Division like it was with May Co.? (Submitted by: Karen)

- I couldn't afford to shop Field's often, but I always appreciated the fact that they were there, and had the best service of any department store in town. As I have family on the East Coast, I've seen and shopped Macy's—and have consistently found them to be promotional to the point of schlockiness. (Submitted by: N. Charles Henss, Jr.)

- I'm not a native Chicagoan; I moved to the area recently but have family in Chicago. It was always a treat to visit Marshall Field's when I visited Chicago; like visiting a landmark. Sorry to lose a tradition. Macy's will not have the same appeal and most likely I will not go there any more. (Submitted by: Tony Carbajal)

- Every Christmas for the past 10 years my Mom and I have lunch at the Walnut Room under the tree. It's a special tradition for us that I planned on continuing with my children. Marshall Field's is not just a department store to me but a special place in Chicago. I will not shop at Macy's. (Submitted by: Karrie)

Sure, we're being big babies about it. But it's so hard to see a landmark that you've known all your life change names, because a corporation wants to make more money or wants to advertise. I still call it the Rosemont Horizon, even though it's officially "The Allstate Arena". Same thing with Comiskey Park/US Cellular Field, The Rosemont Convention Center/Donald A Stephens Convention Center, etc. The only one I call by its slave name is 'The United Center'. Because I really had no childhood memories of the Chicago Stadium, and it's not the same building anyway.

The name has a big tie to the people. I've traveled all over the US. I've shopped at Macy's, and no offense, Macy's is no Marshall Fields. Fields has a character that is all its own.

Hmph.

Will I shop there? I might, but not as much as I used to. And I won't be happy about it.

*pouts*

Ohh, I'm rubbing my hands with excitement! I can't wait until this movie comes out!

Latest Trailer for the Goblet of Fire

Thanks to the wonderful Mike for the link!

This was pretty funny....

Bush's Bathroom Break

Redpac has learned the fine art of nagging from his fiance. To stop what could be endless nagging, I'll make this post. (fine, he asked me twice, but I was grumpy so I called it nagging)

Hope on over to his site for two contests he's having for the next couple weeks. He always has fun prize packs that he sends out, and this one will be sure to have some Mardi Gras beads inside, too. Plus, if you're a reader of YWIM and you win, I'll throw in a little something myself!

So give it a try. I'm tired of that Noelle person winning all the contests around here. Give her some competition!

Well, I'm sure no one saw THIS coming!

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Mike Brown, under fire over his qualifications and what critics call a bungled response to Hurricane Katrina, resigned Monday, senior administration sources told CNN.

Brown was recalled Friday to Washington and replaced as the point main for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff named Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen to head Katrina relief efforts.

A senior administration official said Friday that President Bush approved Chertoff's decision.

Brown's reassignment came amid questions raised in Time magazine about whether his resume was padded to overstate his experience in emergency management. A FEMA official quoted in the report said Brown believes the article is inaccurate.

At least he's resigning, rather than getting fired from the job, like most people would have been asking for anyway. I think people on all sides could agree that if fingers were to be pointed, the fattest finger would be pointed to FEMA and how ill-prepared it was for this emergency, which is its job to be ready for.

Bye-bye Brownie!

I swear, this will be my last hurricane related post for a while....or at least til tomorrow. *wink*

I just checked out The Onion, and although it's not positive news, it's still funny in a sad, morbid kind of way...here's a couple of their headlines for this week:

God Outdoes Terrorists Yet Again

Katrina Officials Uncertain Whether To Save Or Shoot Victims

Nation's Politicians Applaud Great Job They're Doing

Government Relief Workers Mosey In To Help

Another Saints Season Ruined Before It Begins

--------------------------

I've never been to New Orleans, but I've always wanted to go. Not during Mardi Gras, but just to see the city, to feel the culture, to taste the food to experience the people. The city has so much character, so much history, so much mysticism...But I never had the chance to go.

Now I never will.

Not that they're not going to rebuild, because I believe they will. But I don't think it will be the same.

I'm a big fan of Anne Rice, I love her books about witches, vampires and other creatures of the night. Through Anne, I'd fallen in love with New Orleans, at least the New Orleans that she had portrayed in her books. I was so saddened to realize that the places she wrote about in her books, places that had become so beloved to me in my mind, like the Garden District, could be gone.

I wondered if she would say anything, of she would make some sort of statement. A couple days ago, she did, and I just wanted to share it with you - the point of view of one person from New Orleans who had shared her beloved city with so many...

September 4, 2005 Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans? By ANNE RICE La Jolla, Calif.

WHAT do people really know about New Orleans?

Do they take away with them an awareness that it has always been not only a great white metropolis but also a great black city, a city where African-Americans have come together again and again to form the strongest African-American culture in the land?

The first literary magazine ever published in Louisiana was the work of black men, French-speaking poets and writers who brought together their work in three issues of a little book called L'Album Littéraire. That was in the 1840's, and by that time the city had a prosperous class of free black artisans, sculptors, businessmen, property owners, skilled laborers in all fields. Thousands of slaves lived on their own in the city, too, making a living at various jobs, and sending home a few dollars to their owners in the country at the end of the month.

This is not to diminish the horror of the slave market in the middle of the famous St. Louis Hotel, or the injustice of the slave labor on plantations from one end of the state to the other. It is merely to say that it was never all "have or have not" in this strange and beautiful city.

Later in the 19th century, as the Irish immigrants poured in by the thousands, filling the holds of ships that had emptied their cargoes of cotton in Liverpool, and as the German and Italian immigrants soon followed, a vital and complex culture emerged. Huge churches went up to serve the great faith of the city's European-born Catholics; convents and schools and orphanages were built for the newly arrived and the struggling; the city expanded in all directions with new neighborhoods of large, graceful houses, or areas of more humble cottages, even the smallest of which, with their floor-length shutters and deep-pitched roofs, possessed an undeniable Caribbean charm.

Through this all, black culture never declined in Louisiana. In fact, New Orleans became home to blacks in a way, perhaps, that few other American cities have ever been. Dillard University and Xavier University became two of the most outstanding black colleges in America; and once the battles of desegregation had been won, black New Orleanians entered all levels of life, building a visible middle class that is absent in far too many Western and Northern American cities to this day.

The influence of blacks on the music of the city and the nation is too immense and too well known to be described. It was black musicians coming down to New Orleans for work who nicknamed the city "the Big Easy" because it was a place where they could always find a job. But it's not fair to the nature of New Orleans to think of jazz and the blues as the poor man's music, or the music of the oppressed.

Something else was going on in New Orleans. The living was good there. The clock ticked more slowly; people laughed more easily; people kissed; people loved; there was joy.

Which is why so many New Orleanians, black and white, never went north. They didn't want to leave a place where they felt at home in neighborhoods that dated back centuries; they didn't want to leave families whose rounds of weddings, births and funerals had become the fabric of their lives. They didn't want to leave a city where tolerance had always been able to outweigh prejudice, where patience had always been able to outweigh rage. They didn't want to leave a place that was theirs.

And so New Orleans prospered, slowly, unevenly, but surely - home to Protestants and Catholics, including the Irish parading through the old neighborhood on St. Patrick's Day as they hand out cabbages and potatoes and onions to the eager crowds; including the Italians, with their lavish St. Joseph's altars spread out with cakes and cookies in homes and restaurants and churches every March; including the uptown traditionalists who seek to preserve the peace and beauty of the Garden District; including the Germans with their clubs and traditions; including the black population playing an ever increasing role in the city's civic affairs.

Now nature has done what the Civil War couldn't do. Nature has done what the labor riots of the 1920's couldn't do. Nature had done what "modern life" with its relentless pursuit of efficiency couldn't do. It has done what racism couldn't do, and what segregation couldn't do either. Nature has laid the city waste - with a scope that brings to mind the end of Pompeii.

....for more, click on the link - Anne talks about what has happened in the last several days...

I share this history for a reason - and to answer questions that have arisen these last few days. Almost as soon as the cameras began panning over the rooftops, and the helicopters began chopping free those trapped in their attics, a chorus of voices rose. "Why didn't they leave?" people asked both on and off camera. "Why did they stay there when they knew a storm was coming?" One reporter even asked me, "Why do people live in such a place?"

Then as conditions became unbearable, the looters took to the streets. Windows were smashed, jewelry snatched, stores broken open, water and food and televisions carried out by fierce and uninhibited crowds.

Now the voices grew even louder. How could these thieves loot and pillage in a time of such crisis? How could people shoot one another? Because the faces of those drowning and the faces of those looting were largely black faces, race came into the picture. What kind of people are these, the people of New Orleans, who stay in a city about to be flooded, and then turn on one another?

Well, here's an answer. Thousands didn't leave New Orleans because they couldn't leave. They didn't have the money. They didn't have the vehicles. They didn't have any place to go. They are the poor, black and white, who dwell in any city in great numbers; and they did what they felt they could do - they huddled together in the strongest houses they could find. There was no way to up and leave and check into the nearest Ramada Inn.

What's more, thousands more who could have left stayed behind to help others. They went out in the helicopters and pulled the survivors off rooftops; they went through the flooded streets in their boats trying to gather those they could find. Meanwhile, city officials tried desperately to alleviate the worsening conditions in the Superdome, while makeshift shelters and hotels and hospitals struggled.

And where was everyone else during all this? Oh, help is coming, New Orleans was told. We are a rich country. Congress is acting. Someone will come to stop the looting and care for the refugees.

And it's true: eventually, help did come. But how many times did Gov. Kathleen Blanco have to say that the situation was desperate? How many times did Mayor Ray Nagin have to call for aid? Why did America ask a city cherished by millions and excoriated by some, but ignored by no one, to fight for its own life for so long? That's my question.

I know that New Orleans will win its fight in the end. I was born in the city and lived there for many years. It shaped who and what I am. Never have I experienced a place where people knew more about love, about family, about loyalty and about getting along than the people of New Orleans. It is perhaps their very gentleness that gives them their endurance.

They will rebuild as they have after storms of the past; and they will stay in New Orleans because it is where they have always lived, where their mothers and their fathers lived, where their churches were built by their ancestors, where their family graves carry names that go back 200 years. They will stay in New Orleans where they can enjoy a sweetness of family life that other communities lost long ago.

But to my country I want to say this: During this crisis you failed us. You looked down on us; you dismissed our victims; you dismissed us. You want our Jazz Fest, you want our Mardi Gras, you want our cooking and our music. Then when you saw us in real trouble, when you saw a tiny minority preying on the weak among us, you called us "Sin City," and turned your backs.

Well, we are a lot more than all that. And though we may seem the most exotic, the most atmospheric and, at times, the most downtrodden part of this land, we are still part of it. We are Americans. We are you.

I think the emotions from the hurricane are finally dying down - people are finally realizing that there will be time for finger-pointing later, that there have been failures on all levels of government (city state and federal). Hopefully they all learn from it, and that people who did fail will be held accountable.

But what's good to know is that people are getting help. The convention center is empty now, and states are opening their doors to evacuees to help them get their lives back in order. Children who have been separated from their parents have been reunited. Progress is being made. There is still a LONG way to go, but we'll make it.

So I just wanted to share a couple stories that show that there are some positive things happening.

-------------------

So I'm at home today, watching Oprah, and they've got Julia Roberts, Matthew McCaunaughy, Chris Rock and other stars going to the affected areas and helping out and providing comfort. Yeah, some people will say it's a publicity stunt, but it's obvious that the people who are seeing them appreciate them coming out with supplies and hugs. I admit to crying when Chris Rock broke down crying thinking of his own daughter when he saw a little girl who was so happy and knew that nothing bad would happen as long as she was with her daddy. *wahhhh* I'm such a sap.

------------------

Kids are doing what they can to help the cause:

The Frueh family kids began selling lemonade at rush hour Friday and planned to close their lemonade stand Monday afternoon. But the response has been so overwhelming, they said they`ll continue selling during afterwork hours this week.

By Monday evening, the Frueh children had raised more than $1,600, the Cincinnati Enquirer said Tuesday. Police cars, bus drivers and joggers make unscheduled stops to donate, and often say 'no, thanks' to the lemonade before leaving, Laurie Frueh said.

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A six-year old hero brings his little herd of children to safety:

In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard, this group of evacuees stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader.

They were holding hands. Three of the children were about 2 years old, and one was wearing only diapers. A 3-year-old girl had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he said his name was Deamonte Love.

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Oil exec charters a jet to bring evacuees to San Diego:

But he was clearly not content with merely contributing money.

"Everybody wants money," he said. "They don't want food or help," he said. "But I don't want to give money and have it sit there. I'm on the ground to get food to the people."

Perez, who upon landing in Baton Rouge talked his way onto a rescue helicopter that took him to New Orleans, later said he was working with the Louisiana Social Services Department to identify storm victims for the planned evacuation to San Diego.

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This blog has a whole bunch of stories, heart warming and heart breaking, of the people touched by Hurricane Katrina:

http://blogs.chron.com/katrinavoices/

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What has happened to the police force in New Orleans? They're hanging in there. Barely, but they are.

For more than a week, they have dealt with personal tragedies no different from anyone else's here — apartments that are underwater, parents who are missing, children who are being shuttled from one shelter to the next.

Two dozen of them found their way to the home of Lt. David M. Benelli, 55, commander of the city's sex crimes unit, and the woman he calls his child bride, Sgt. Becky Benelli, 42, assistant commander of the crime lab. The Benellis are cops to the core; they met at a traffic fatality and fell in love.

The officers at "Camp Benelli" in the Algiers area of New Orleans reflect the diversity of the department: 21 men and five women, black and white, 33-year veterans and patrol cops with six months under their belts. They have more than 300 years of combined service on the force.

And every morning, they find the strength to go to work.

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18 year-old hijacks a school bus, picks up people and brings them to safety:

The teen packed it full of complete strangers and drove to Houston. He beat thousands of evacuees slated to arrive there. Authorities eventually allowed the renegade passengers inside the dome. But the 18-year-old who ensured their safety could find himself in a world of trouble for stealing the school bus.

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Yesterday I got my copy of "LOST: Season I" in the mail. May not be good news to the people of the south, but hell, it's good news to me! Yay!!! LOST party at my house this weekend! Yay!!!

I never realized my Kanye thread would blow up as it did - thanks to everyone for participating in it (to the person who called me out to "just shut up and help", I've been trying, I've donated and I only wish I could do more). We all have our opinions as to who to blame, what could have been done, what's going wrong now, but I know that in the end, what we care about is what is going to happen to those people, and how we can help.

Here's a list of what ways you can help:

FEMA Approved Charities
• The American Red Cross

• America's Second Harvest, 800-344-8070

• Adventist Community Services, 800-381-7171

• Catholic Charities, 703-549-1390

• Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, 800-848-5818

• Church World Service, 800-297-1516

• Convoy of Hope, 417-823-8998

• Episcopal Relief & Development, 1-800-334-7626 or

• Lutheran Disaster Response, 800-638-3522

• Mennonite Disaster Service, 717-859-2210

• Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, 800-872-3283

• Salvation Army, 800-SAL-ARMY (725-2769)

• Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief, 800-462-8657, ext. 6440

• United Methodist Committee on Relief

...more from FEMA

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• Amazon.com

• Best Buy - Donate at your local Blockbuster and they'll match it up to 1 million

• Bendis Board Charity Auction - Comic Fans get together to auction original art, toys, comics, etc for charity

• Hurricane Katrina Animal Rescue

• Habitat for Humanity

• Network for Good - several different charities you can choose from to donate to

• The Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund - Papa Bush and Bill Clinton team up to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina

• Manilow Fund for Health and Hope - They'll triple your contribution up to $50,000.

• The Ellen Degeneres Show/Warner Bros - Trying to raise $1.5 million, and they will also match your contributions

• Kevin Smith at View Askew is giving away a barbecue at his house - so far it's $5000. There's a lot more here, too, like a walk on part in the "Clerks 2" movie.

Online Poker Charity Tournaments

Where: Full Tilt Poker
When: Sunday Sept. 4th at 9:15pm ET
How Much: $20 + $10
Note: Full Tilt will match your $10 entry fee and that will be donated to the Red Cross’ Hurricane Relief Fund.

Where: Party Poker
When: Wednesday Sept. 7th at 8:50pm ET
How much: $30
Note: Party Poker is donating 90% of the prize pool to charity.

Where: Poker Stars
When: Monday Sept. 12 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $5

Where: Poker Stars
When: Wednesday Sept. 14 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $20

Where: Poker Stars
When: Thursday Sept. 15 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $50

Where: Poker Stars
When: Friday Sept. 16 at 9:30 ET
How Much: $100

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If you know of any more, post the link and I'll add it to the list...

Beware of fake Katrina charity sites out there - I've heard rumors that there are a lot of them out there. Bastards should be shot for using a tragedy like this to make some money.

I know I mentioned this a while ago, but who is interested in playing a football pool this season? It's nothing as time extensive as a fantasy football league - all you have to do in this pool is pick the winners for the games and choose your confidence in your choice.

Here's an example...lets say there's 5 games being played this week.

Red vs. Blue
Green vs. Orange
Black vs. White
Gray vs. Pink
Yellow vs. Purple

Within each game, choose who you think will win. Once you choose your winning teams, then rank them in order of 1-5 as to how confident you are that that team will win. Let's say this is how I think the games will go down:

Red will beat Blue - 4 confidence because red is a pretty strong team
Orange will beat Green - 1 confidence, because both teams are about even
Black will beat White - 2 because Black has been on a losing streak, but I think they'll win this one
Gray will beat Pink - 3
Purple will beat Yellow - 5 because Yellow sucks and Purple is the best team in the league

Depending on what happens with the game, the amount of correct guesses I have adds up the corresponding confidence points. Lets say all my picks were right except for the Black game, that means that my total points come out to 13.

It sounds confusing right now, but really, it's easy!

In a nutshell, you pick the winners each week, assign them a number - if your pick wins, you win that number.

At the end of the season, the overall winner (or top 3 depending on how many people play) will get a nifty prize.

So if you're interested in joining, sign up for an account here:

Office Pools
(when it asks you what tournament you want to join, type yanowhatimean?)

Comment here and leave your address (or if you don't want to comment, email me at kwannon-at-gmail.com) and I'll send you a tournament invite. It'll be a lot of fun!

More instructions coming soon - if you have questions, just comment below!

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For those of you that were winners for the NCAA tourney last March, I haven't forgotten you. Email me your mailing addresses and I'll hook you up with some sweet, useless crap.

Found out they just posted the trailer for "Rent", the movie based on the hit Broadway musical. I totally forgot that this movie was coming, I'm so excited! What's so awesome about the movie is that it's got most of the original cast members, including Jesse L. Martin (who you might remember from Law and Order), Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel (who's been popular lately for being the original Elphaba in Wicked). It will be really strange to see Rent on the big screen - there is so much imagination that is used when you see a musical on stage. Seeing it all laid out for you in film is a bug change.

Whoo hoo! Rent comes to theaters on November 23rd. Looks like this will be a busy holiday season for me in the movie theaters, with the next Harry Potter and the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe coming out this winter!

Ever since the bombings in London, I've heard about putting emergency contact information on your phone in case something happens to you and they need to call your next of kin. I've also seen the traffic messageboards on the highway talking about it, too.

A British paramedic came up with the idea of asking cell phone users to input an entry into their cellular phonebook called ICE for "in case of emergency." Accompanying that acronym would be the name and phone numbers of the person who should be called if something has happened to the owner of the phone.

I think this is a great idea. There's no harm in doing it - you're just adding one more name to your addressbook. But if something were to happen, then any emergency personnel who respond will immediately know who to call, and they'll be able to know if you have any allergies or something in your medical history.

So take a couple seconds and put that ICE contact information in your phone. I've put in my dad's home phone#. I was thinking of putting in Dave's info, but if we were in a car accident together, it wouldn't help if my ICE info was his cell phone number. I know it's a bit morbid, but its true.

This public service announcement was brought to you by yanowhatimean and the letter "I".

Found the latest trailer for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on this French site:

Click for trailer

It makes me rub my hands in glee and cry, "YES! YEEEEEESSSS!"

Walken for President

The Campaign starts now. This country needs more cowbell.

Today's Chicago Tribune gives me a reason to add to my Jessica Simpson annoyance:

Be like Simpson--only just a bit bigger

Skinny Jessica Simpson, who wears skimpy denim garments in "The Dukes of Hazzard," has rolled out a retail line of jeans for plus-size women.

The size 12-24 jeans are available at Avenue, USA Today says.

"We have people 300 lbs. or 90 lbs. come up to Jessica and say, `I'm just like you,'" said Simpson's father and manager, Joe Simpson. "It's what's inside."

And, as for those Daisy Dukes Simpson wears in the film, co-star Seann William Scott offered to help choose just the right pair.

"I'm like, `Ah, I think it'd be really beneficial for the film if I stayed behind just to make sure that they pick the right ones,"' he said, according to AP Radio.

That is just about the funniest thing ever. People come out to Jessica Simpson and say "I'm just like you?" Wow, didn't know that there were so many blond ditzes out there who realize that their popularity is waning so she goes against everything she stood for in the beginning of her career and uses sex to sell herself, not to mention killing a really great song by Nancy Sinatra just to sell her movie.

I laugh.

A new trivia contest starts this month! I'm glad people are having a good time, it's fun to see people talk smack on the site's tagboard.

Here's last month's winners:

1. Redpac (391 points, 6 wins)
2. notsosmart (376 points, 3 wins)
3. Yano (332 points, 2 wins)
4. zebedest (331 points, 1 wins)
5. Cav (314 points, 2 wins)
6. noelle (303 points, 2 wins)
7. denise (287 points, 3 wins)
8. Linda (284 points, 3 wins)
9. bruno (274 points, 0 wins)
10. TallSteve (266 points, 0 wins)

Redpac returns to the top this month, not for lack of everyone else trying to get him down! Remember, you don't have to play every day to get in the top ten (I had missed about 5 days this month, and I'm the one running the thing!)

Thanks for playing, everyone! Now go on and beat that bitch ass Redpac at trivia! (I say that with utmost affection, Redpac)

I was in the airplane coming home from Jackson, and I saw this article in American Way magazine. This is a fantastic article based on an interview with John Cusack, Chicago's favorite son. He talks about what he loves about Chicago, and it just makes my heart sing to hear him talk so fondly about my hometown.

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Just a Guy on a Bike
by Mark Seal

John Cusack is a would-be boyfriend in multiplexes this month in Must Love Dogs. Anyone who wants to keep up with him as he guides a tour of Chicago must love riding a bike.

The guy on the bike is famous, but he's not right now. Zipping up and down the skyscraper streets, along the famous lakeshore, and through the heady arts, restaurant, and nightclub districts of Chicago, he's no longer best identified as John Cusack, one of the most venerable actors of his generation. Returning to the city where he grew up, Cusack reverts to the role he loves most. He becomes just another Chicagoan, another guy on a bike in awe of the city sprawling beneath his pumping feet.

'Chicago is the best-kept secret in America, in a weird way,' he says. 'It's an international city, and you have all the great 'architecture and all the stuff that any major international city would have. But it still has a great, down-home, down-to-earth, almost no-nonsense sensibility. They don't suffer fools well.'

Which is why Cusack's favorite way to see Chicago is not from some stupid sports car or silly limousine but from the seat of a bike. And even though America's third-largest city stretches across 229 square miles, Cusack insists that the heart of the city is easily navigated.

'It's a great city for biking around,' he says, rattling off streets, sites, secret places. 'I do it on a little half mountain, half electric bike called the Wavecrest.'

So, with the wind in his hair and his grip on the handlebars of his Tidalforce Spike bike from Wavecrest, Cusack takes us on a tour of his hometown, the City of Big Shoulders, the Windy City, Frank Sinatra's kind of town.

Cusack is calling from a hotel in Los Angeles in the middle of a daylong studio promotion for Must Love Dogs, the romantic comedy in which he stars this month with Diane Lane and Dermot Mulroney. He says he's had a very long day, filled with one interview after another, with photo sessions interspersed.

'So, we're going to talk about Chicago,' I say, and I can hear him brighten.

'Hit me,' says Cusack.

And he's off and riding. Cusack has a home in Los Angeles, but when you're from Chicago, you're a Chicagoan until the day you die. He has a place downtown, and on his first day or two back, he usually wants to see everything at once.

'I'll ride up and down the waterfront, go by Navy Pier, then all the way down the public park toward Montrose,' he says, ticking off a multiday biking itinerary. 'You can go all the way up and down Lake Shore Drive. There are parks all over there. Then you can go through the city and all of its different neighborhoods ' Wrigleyville and near Halsted, everywhere. You can go up toward the South Side, toward Millennium Park, to the Shedd Aquarium and Soldier Field, through Chinatown, and all the way back through the city to the Loop, and then through downtown.'

He could practically bike through Chicago' blindfolded. 'I know the city inside and out,' he says. 'I don't think there's an area I haven't been to.'

Then he begins directing me: 'There is a tour where you can go up and down the river and see the architecture there ' it's just out of control.'

He's talking about a boat tour called Chicago from the Lake, which hits the highlights of Chicago architecture. But Cusack prefers the bike to the boat. 'You go past the Wrigley Building,' he says of the circa-1921 terra-cotta-clad edifice that's known as the gateway to the Magnificent Mile, one of the greatest shopping streets on earth.

He'll bike by the city's landmarks, starting at the Marshall Field's building, where his parents used to take him to see the big tree at Christmas. Then there's the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center, where Cusack will jump off the bike and hop into an elevator, arriving at the top of the Hancock, where a diorama of the history of Chicago competes with the heavenly view. 'The John Hancock is great because you can see the whole city from all the way around,' he says.

Back on the street, he heads into Bucktown, once a scruffy quarter named for the immigrant families who kept goats in their yards and now Chicago's hottest neighborhood. Cusack fans would recognize it from his 2000 movie High Fidelity, in which John starred with his sister Joan as a Chicago record-store owner charting his top five romantic breakups.

'You can take your bike through Bucktown, which is terrific,' Cusack says. 'Just a cool area with lots of great coffee shops and clubs and restaurants. We shot all over there for High Fidelity. It's where Double Door [a live-music venue] is. There are great record stores in Bucktown. Tiny little record stores like the one in High Fidelity. They are all over. You can also find great funky art and stuff like that.'

When the lunch hour looms, Cusack bikes to Leo's. 'Leo's Lunchroom,' he says. 'That's a great little place for lunch, a tiny little diner, down on ' I can't remember where it is [in Bucktown]. I know how to get there on a bike.'

Afterward, he might spin by some of the museums. 'MCA is right downtown,' he says of the Museum of Contemporary Art, dedicated to the avant-garde. 'It's fantastic. And there's the Art Institute of Chicago ' unbelievable.'

But now, since it's July, the middle of baseball season, Cusack's bike will head, almost automatically, to Wrigley Field.

'I'll bike from my apartment, meet somebody for lunch,' he says. 'If the game is at 1:20 p.m., you can leave the restaurant at 1:05 and ride your bike right up to Wrigley Field, lock it outside in this bike rack they have out there, and walk in. Wrigley Field is amazing, right in the heart of the city.'

His restaurant choices are dependent on their proximity to the field.

'I could say, 'Hey, I'll meet you over at Smith & Wollensky,' and we would bike over there, have some food, and then make a mad dash to Wrigley Field.'

A lifelong ritual, returning to Wrigley Field represents much more than baseball to Cusack.

'It totally connects me to Chicago and my childhood,' he say