Jesse Helms is back! And this time he’s black.
You can’t make this stuff up. “Jesse Helms is back! And this time he’s black.” That’s Winston-Salem city councilman Vernon Robinson’s campaign slogan as one of eight GOP candidates in the July 20 primary for North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District. Pretty inoffensive, though, compared to the radio ad he’s running: ANNOUNCER NO. 1: Vernon Robinson,
Dirty Laundry
If you haven’t heard by now, Bill Cosby aired some dirty laundry in full public view a couple of weeks ago, speaking at a gala marking the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation ruling. “Ladies and gentlemen, the lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal,” he
Ladies and gentlemen: Mr. Trent Lott!
Lott Defends Treatment of Iraqi Prisoners By Helen Dewar, Washington Post, Thursday, June 3, 2004 Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) proved he has not lost his knack for inflammatory rhetoric when he defended “really rough” treatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers, including the use of dogs against a prisoner “unless the dog ate him.” …
Pumpkin Seeds: Entertainment Edition
1. The Day After Tomorrow is a stereotypical NYC slam poem: good intentions; overt but shallow politics; a handful of clever moments. New York City flooded; an environment-hating, Dick Cheney-lookalike VP; and American refugees fleeing across the Mexican border are the main highlights of what is basically a special effects exhibition that borrows liberally from
Set This House in Order
Finished Matt Ruff’s Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls yesterday. Absolutely amazing! He’s one of a handful of writers I want to BE. A description of the plot would be inadequate because his work is so layered and full of texture that it wouldn’t do it justice. Kind of like explaining procreation
Cause the whole, world, loves it when you don’t get down (bah da, bah bah bah-da da) And the whole, world, loves it when you make that sound (bah da, bah bah bah-da da) And the whole, world, loves it when you’re in the news (bah da, bah bah bah-da da) And the whole, world,
George Clooney’s tattoos in From Dusk Til Dawn are among my all-time favorites. I got my first tattoo well into my Twenties – a stylized bat, red and black, on my right upper arm – back in 1995 or 1996. Somewhere in Toms River after getting lost trying to find Seaside Heights where I’d never
Dubya is no Reagan
The front page of today’s Daily News proclaims: TEAR DOWN THAT PRISON, inferring a ridiculous comparison of Bush’s speech last night and Reagan’s infamous “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” speech at the Berlin Wall. I wondered last night whether or not the US had continued to use any of the German concentration camps once
Five things I want for Father’s Day: 1. Fool On the Hill 1ST Edition Signed, from Powells.com 2. Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, and anything else on my Amazon.com wish list. 3. Gift Card from Midtown Comics. 4. A 2004 Mini Cooper S. 5. El Nopalito Boutique & Restaurant in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. (pictured)
On Saturday, I lost my glasses on Nitro (the roller coaster at Great Adventure), a fitting epilogue to the tough lesson that was Friday’s watershed louder than words show. I had low expectations for the Friday slot to begin with, but twenty-one paid in the audience – the majority of whom were supportive friends/co-workers from