"Soup Nazi" offering franchises

The soup maker made famous in Seinfeld, aka "the Soup Nazi," plans to sell soup franchises across North America, at $135,000 a pop. It won't be called the Soup Nazi, but the Original Soup Man.
[nydn]

Imus blowup = 5,000-plus hits

The Brazosport News hit the motherlode (for us) yesterday when more than 5,000 people checked in, all due to the Imus-Contessa feud we've been following. The morning traffic was so heavy the computer started smoking and shaking. We nearly called the Lake Jackson Volunteer Fire Department, but decided instead to throw a bucket of water on the damn thing. It's dried out now.

Imus & Co. bludgeon Contessa Brewer

A one-sentence item in the NY Post's Page Six gossip column this morning brought the fading feud between MSNBC radio yakker Don Imus and former news reader Contessa Brewer back to the red-hot level of schoolyard name-calling.

Here's the gossip item that led to Imus going nuts:

April 29, 2005 -- MSNBC's Contessa Brewer, a former news reader on Don Imus' show, telling pals at Cain that she thinks Imus is a "cantankerous old fool" who doesn't know how to relate to "beautiful women" . .-----

Imus & Crew immediately lit into Contessa at the start of their morning show, saying traffic tie-ups in New York City were caused by her "BIG BUTT" being stuck in a tunnel and her "FAT ASS" being stuck in the door at Burger King.

"Why didn't she just keep her mouth shut?" Imus demanded. "Why would she bring this on herself? She knows how we are. SHE IS SO PAINFULLY STUPID. That's the reason I got rid of her. I'd ask her to explain a story she had read and she didn't have a clue."

They went on and on about how Contessa was ugly, comparing her to "Miss Piggy," and saying how she looked terrible in the tight outfits she wore.

"I don't think Amy (Robach) or any of those in the back have to worry about HER taking over the Today show."

"She is MSNBC's answer to Candy Crowley," said Bernard, Imus' producer, comparing Contessa to the heavy-set CNN reporter.

Imus: "Why would she want to say anything about me with (Page Six scribe) Richard Johnson sitting near by? She must have been liquored-up. I was trying to keep my big mouth shut. But not anymore."

They called Contessa a "bimbo" with no sense of humor who got her job by winning a hot dog eating contest, that she makes Paris Hilton look like Condaleeza Rice (in intellect), that's she's an "ignorant slut."

That's about all Scooter, my wife and assistant, had time to scribble down due to the fast and furious pace of the name-calling.

At one point during the verbal assault, Charles McCord, the long-time news reader and Imus friend for more than 20 years, ducked his head and muttered something about "Abu Ghraib," referring, of course, to the Iraq torture prison. This torture, though, didn't take place in a prison but a radio studio.

Had we not witnessed the diatribe, Scooter and I could have sworn we were back in junior high. No, junior high was more dignified.

You'd have thought Brewer had called Imus a child molester.

Imus is a seasoned veteran in these sort of verbal fisticuffs, and the gossip item seemed to bring him back to life following his bout with kidney stone surgery that apparently didn't go all that well. He's on Vicodin for pain, so maybe that played a part in his over-reaction.

Indeed, the I-Man appeared more angry and animated over the alleged comments Contessa made than he was when the Wall Street Journal recently published an article that questioned the integrity of his New Mexico ranch, where kids with cancer are given of a week of therapeutic cowboy work.

Since Imus has the microphone Monday through Friday, he's at a decided advantage over Contessa, who's a mere news reader in the afternoons on the ratings-challenged MSNBC. He's in his element now.

Moreover, Imus has a band of loyal on-air sycophants who are more than happy to chime in when Imus goes nuclear. It's like Lord of the Flies on the radio.

In boxing terms, Imus vs. Contessa is comparable to the Muhammad Ali-Cleveland Williams fight held in the Astrodome back in the day. It's a mismatch. No contest. Maybe we should ask for our money back? Oh, yeah, it's free. And apparently what passes for morning radio entertainment in the media capital of the world.

What might happen next?

I doubt Richard Johnson, the NY Post writer, was sitting next to Contessa and friends when the alleged comments were made. More than likely, one of his tipsters phoned it in. Who's to say she really said it? And even if she did, so what? I's a private conversation!

Here's where Scooter and I disagree. She contends Contessa should have shown better judgment than to spout off in a public place about Imus, even if it was a private conversation at a table with friends. Better to say such things without prying ears nearby.

I, however, contend anyone in this country most certainly has the right to speak their mind to their friends in a public place and not be slandered for it on a radio program that is simulcast around the world.

I guess I'm naive.

I'm just glad I live in Texas, where most of us still have enough manners than to treat a lady this way.
Update: Brewer was a no-show at her Friday afternoon newsreading gig on MSNBC. There is no official word from management regarding the Imus & Co. contretemps.

Our past articles about Imus/Contessa:
Brazosport News, March 2, 2005
Brazosport News, April 1, 2005
Brazosport News, April 13, 2005
Brazosport News, April 21, 2005

Clara Harris does Oprah

If you're like me and you missed Oprah interviewing former Lake Jackson-Clear Lake dentist/husband killer Clara Harris today, you can read the link below and pretend you were in front of the TV enjoying every dramatic, tear-soaked moment.
[inthepinktexas]

Make Lemonade sequel #1 in Houston

For the second week, True Believer is the top-selling book in Houston.

True Believer is the second book in a trilogy. The first, Make Lemonade, was critically acclaimed.

It's interesting that a book that's categorized by many as "young people's fiction" is doing so well, but I doubt only young people are buying and reading it.

Both books are written in the verse prose of a 15-year-old girl who describes her day to day struggles growing up poor in the inner city.

Publishers Weekly said: "Eight years after the publication of her groundbreaking Make Lemonade, (the author) surpasses herself with this sequel. In delving into LaVaughn's life, the author unmasks the secret thoughts adolescents hold sacred and lets her readers know they are not alone."

Speaking as a parent, mining the thoughts of an adolescent is no easy task. I think I need to read these books.


[thebookstandard]
[amazon]

Ivory-billed woodpecker, once thought extinct, spotted in woods of Arkansas

Bird lovers rejoice!

Reports of the demise of the ivory-billed woodpecker are premature. And wrong.

The Associated Press reports:

The ivory-billed woodpecker, one of the largest such birds in the world, is one of six North American bird species thought to have become extinct since 1880. While somewhat rare, the bird ranged widely across the southeastern United States until logging eliminated many forests between 1880 and the 1940s.

Sometimes called the white-back, pearly bill, poule de bois and even Lord God bird, the ivory bill was known for the two-note rap of its bill as it ripped into tree bark in search of edible grubs and beetle larvae.

There have been anecdotal reports of the birds, but the last conclusive sighting in continental North America was in 1944 in northern Louisiana. A subspecies of the bird has been reported in Cuba.

The new sightings have been in the Big Woods region of Arkansas and each involved a different person or group,

[ashleycountyledger]

Bloggers deserve same rights as journos

Vanessa Leggett: Houston writer jailed 5 months by feds who insisted she wasn't a journalist
-------------------------------------
Bloggers share the same legal risks as journalists and thus deserve the same legal rights, writes attorney Julie Hilden.

Hilden brings up the case of Vanessa Leggett, the freelance writer in Houston who was jailed for 5 months for refusing to comply with the federal government's demands that she turn over material she gathered in the murder case against River Oaks bookie James Angleton.

The reason: She was called a "virtually unpublished freelance writer."

It was uncontroverted that Leggett, an English professor, was taking notes for a nonfiction book; one that was intended to be a work of journalism. But it would have been her first book of any kind. For this reason, the court refused to deem Leggett a journalist, even though no one disputed she was researching a journalistic work.

That was a mistake. The prosecutors who went after Leggett would never argue that a prosecutor on his or her first day in the office is not really a prosecutor. For every profession, there must be a first time practicing it.

Requiring experience, then, is a mistake when one tries to determine if a particular person is a journalist. So is requiring elite credentials from traditional media organizations.

[snip]

Although many bloggers may not be aware of this, the law considers them as much a publisher as the New York Times Corp., to the extent that they are posting their own words. That means that bloggers can be liable for defamation, and for dissemination of trade secrets, among other torts and wrongs, just as journalists can.

It should be noted that Hilden's piece turns on a trade secret case in California, where laws relating to journalists' privilege are markedly different than the law in Texas, which extends no privileges to journalists (or bloggers).
[cnn.com]

Huffington's group blog

What Gwyneth Paltrow, Norman Mailer, Tina Brown and other celebrity bloggers might have to say via Arrianna Huffington's group blog.
[guardian]

Mailer sells papers to UT's Ransom Center

Norman Mailer, who'll be one of the many bloggers for Arrianna Huffington's bloggerama, has sold his papers to the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at UT-Austin for a cool $2.5 million.

Turns out he has great affection not only for Texas money but Texans.

When asked about his connection to Texas and why he placed his archive at the Harry Ransom Center, Mailer said:

“A man who went to a famous prep school in the early ’20s said afterward, ‘It was the worst experience of my life and the most valuable.’

“I can say the same about my time in the U.S. Army. In 1944, I came out of Fort Bragg an artillery replacement and was sent to the 112th Regimental Combat Team, originally from San Antonio but now in the Philippines. There I was converted into an infantry rifleman. So I got to know a fair amount about Texas over the next year. And Texans. Most of them were dirt-poor and damn tough. (For years afterward in New York, when trouble was brewing on the street, I would do my best to talk in a Texas accent.)

“To this, I can add a splendid few days I spent in Austin as a lecturer back in the very early ’60s, and I do remember the university as one of the most exciting and open campuses I ever visited.

“Those are ties, but, of course, one acquires many others over 82 years. I’d say the major part of my decision (and pleasure) to have this archive go to the Ransom Center is that you have one of the best, if not, indeed, the greatest collection of literary archives to be found in America. What the hell. Since it’s going to Texas, let’s say one of the best in the world.”

The Mailer collection includes letters he's written and letters he's received, including correspondence from people like Allen Ginsberg, Lillian Hellman, Aldous Huxley, Truman Capote, Stella Adler, LeRoi Jones, John Lennon and Larry McMurtry.

Apparently, there are no poison pen missives from Gore Vidal, Mailer's infamous literary nemesis.

Mailer is 82.
[ut]

Nixon son in-law may take on Hillary

Ed Cox, son in-law to the late President Richard Milhous Nixon, may challenge Hillary Clinton for the U.S. Senate seat for New York.

Cox wed Tricia Nixon in the White House Rose Garden just as the Pentagon Papers hit the news in '71. An original member of Nader's Raiders, he was loyal to Nixon until his death and had urged him not to resign the presidency.

So is that a plus or minus? Who knows in these wacky times!

None of the Republican heavyweights in NY (Gov. Pataki, Giuliani, etc.) appear ready to challenge Sen. Clinton, but Cox, a corporate lawyer, has formed an exploratory committee, raised money and conducted private polling, the NY Observer reports.

Republicans say their polling shows Sen. Clinton won't receive more than 55 percent of the vote. (Memo to Republicans: that's more than enough to win.)

Irony Department: Hillary Clinton started her political career working on the committee that investigated Watergate. Almost Hamlet-like, eh?

"Ed’s about 95, 98 percent there," said (close friend Lawrence) Kudlow of Mr. Cox’s decision to run. "In my discussions with Ed, he’s going to run as a tax-cutting supply-sider—tough on the budget, very strong on national defense, educational choice. I think he’s going to run a pro-life campaign."

Prediction: New York's a blue state; Cox would lose.

[nyo]

Pass the gas

Ten days passed without a Dow emissions event.
But then, the inevitable release: 429 lbs. ethylene (gaseous).
[emission report 57368]

When in Huntington, Ind., don't miss ...

...the Dan Quayle Center & United States Vice Presidential Museum.
Don't forget to bring your book. It's a wonderful place to read. It's quiet, very quiet.
[nyp]

Arrianna: the new queen of Bloggerville?

Arrianna Huffington: dahling, i just love the blogs
--------------------------------------------------
It's official.
Bloggerville is being co-opted by celebrities.
So sit back and pretend you're at one of Arrianna Huffington's intellectually stimulating dinner parties, and be sure you use the right fork and spoon.

Huffington's forthcoming blog will include musings from some of the biggest names in the galaxy:

Warren Beatty, Jon Corzine, Walter Cronkite, Larry David, Nora Ephron, James Fallows, Gary Hart, Vernon Jordan, Diane Keaton, Norman Mailer, David Mamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Arthur Schlesinger, and Mort Zuckerman.

I don't know about you, but I'm sure Sen. Corzine has some knee-slappin' satire to contribute. And Uncle Walter? Who knew he could cut 'n paste? Gwyneth Paltrow, a multi-tasker if there ever was one, will no doubt be blogging away while daughter Apple suckles at her bosom.

Other notable contributors: writer-producer Aaron Sorkin, talk-show host Michael Medved, Playboy Chief Executive Christie Hefner, and actors Harry Shearer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Wall St. Journal writer John Fund.

Fund doesn't mind being outnumbered by libs. Could he fall victim to the Stockholm Syndrome? Already he's sounding a little star-crossed.

(Fund) said he recalled from Huffington's days throwing dinner parties as the wife of former Rep. Michael Huffington (R-Santa Barbara) in the 1990s that she knew how to bring together an interesting stew of people.

"I'm very happy to sample at her buffet table and contribute a little," Fund said. "I think there will be some intellectual nourishment there."

As do other blogs, Huffington plans to link hers to other websites and to encourage responses from readers. It will be up to the commentators how much they want to take part in the back and forth.

Veteran Web commentator John Aravosis predicted that a smaller group of pundits would emerge as the regulars on Huffington's site, and that only then would its true character emerge.

"Every online project morphs into something new eventually," Aravosis said. "That is part of the fun of it. But you really don't know what it's going to become."

Blogs have been credited as a leveler of American journalism — offering a public forum to anyone with a computer and an opinion.

Portions of the blog will be syndicated to newspapers for their print and Web editions.

[e&p]
[lat]

Star Wars: You can't stop it, you can only hope to contain its viral-like spread

Chewbacca: fans' fave alien
-----------------------------------
Two Star Wars TV series will be developed following the release next month of Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas said at the Celebration III convention.
Indiana Jones fans need not feel left out. He's doing another one of those, too.
Do you think Lucas ever feels like he's in a rut? How 'bout a light romantic comedy?
Blasphemy, I know.

More than 30,000 fans attended the (Celebration III) convention. Away from Star Wars, Mr Lucas added a fourth Indiana Jones movie was "definitely in the works".

Meanwhile, The Empire Strikes Back has been named the favourite Star Wars movie in a poll of more than 40,000 readers of film magazine Empire.

Han Solo was voted the favourite hero, Chewbacca was top alien and X-wing pilot Wedge Antilles was favourite minor character.

May The Force yadda yadda yadda...

[bbc]

Introducing the 2006 NFL mock draft

D'Brickshaw Ferguson jumps for joy at being No. 1 pick in 2006.
--------------------------------------
Less than a year away from the 2006 NFL draft! Time's a'wasting!! Time to start second-guessing, projectin', figurin' all the angles. "With the first selection in the 2006 NFL Draft, the San Francisco 49ers select D'Bricksaw Ferguson, offensive tackle, Virginia..."
[GreatBlueNorthReport]

Advertising Elvis

Elvis has been dead since '77, but the business of Elvis goes on.

Elvis Presley Enterprises will soon be running TV ads touting the merits of visiting Graceland, E's home in Memphis. It's the first ad campaign for Graceland, says Ad Age.

"Most kings have a castle. Elvis had a home," the narrator says in one of the spots.

Home movies are shown of E riding a horse, jumping into a swimming pool, riding in a golf cart and performing in Vegas in a sequined cape. One-time wife Priscilla and their toddler baby girl, Lisa Marie, also are featured in the home movies, frolicking at Graceland with The King of Rock 'n Roll in the happy days before Priscilla took up with a karate instructor and Lisa Marie grew up to marry The King of Pop, whose trial for child molestation continues today.

The number to call for tickets is 888 elvislives.
[adage.com]
[elvis.com]

Of Barbie dolls, Contessa & Imus

Mediabistro.com's TVNEWSER columnist has been getting a lot of emails about the Contessa Brewer situation, which we've been following now for the last few months. Viewers are OUTRAGED!
[tvnewser]

Angleton High principal kills himself

Marcus Cloud, hired Jan. 18 as Angleton High School principal, resigned Friday and shot himself to death Saturday after learning he was accused of improper conduct with a student at his previous job in Hempstead.

Details of the allegations against Cloud weren't released but the Hempstead school superintendent said, “There was nothing in there that said they had sex.”

Hmmm, something's no adding up. Narcotics, perhaps?
[TheFacts}

Mel Kiper Jr. Day

David Carr: picked first in 2002
--------------------------------------
The ultimate poker game of professional sports -- the National Football League's annual draft of "student athletes" from college -- commences today at 11 a.m. CST.

Yep, I'm kindofa a draft junkie. I check the mock drafts on the Web, read the papers, listen to sports talk radio, but I'm nothing like one of my nephews. He calls draft day his favorite day of the year. Over Christmas. The Fourth of July. His birthday.

The football draft is a sports version of Spy vs. Spy. Much disinformation is disseminated to hide the true aims of the various teams. Loose lips sink ships, and sometimes football franchises. Multi-million dollar bets are placed on young men in their early 20s. They're psychoanalyzed, intelligence tested, physically weighed and measured and still, teams sometimes make major boo-boos.

It's a nutty, fun time of year for pro football fans, and the sporting press. Speaking of the sporting press, here's my favorite lede of a sports columnist in today's editions, courtesy of Martin Fennelly of the Tampa Tribune:

Vatican sources tell Mel Kiper Jr. the new supreme pontiff has good knee bend and can deliver an accurate Hail Mary. Some thought Benedict a reach at No. XVI. The cardinals considered trading down to stock up on archbishops. Spiritual leaders at One Buc Place cringe at his youth. The new pope is only 78. And they just hate praying rookies.
OK, maybe we're thinking about the NFL draft too much.

[bucs.tbo.com]

The gentleman judge

Tom Kirkendall, Houston attorney & blogger, offers some interesting insights into the federal judge who delivered punishments yesterday in the Enron Nigerian barge case.
[Houston'sClearThinkers]

Lil' Ricky nixes Liz Smith's admiralship

NY Post gossip columnist Liz Smith returns to her native Texas and writes about the flap over naming a toll road after Willie Nelson, Gov. Rick Perry torpedoing a plan byAnn Richards to commission Liz into the Texas Navy and the big-as-all-get-out Whole Foods in the state capital.
[nyp]

Texas targets rogue barbers

The State of Texas, acting through the Texas State Board of Barber Examiners, is planning a major assault on so-called rogue barbers who cut hair without the proper license and/or permit.

The hair-trimming scalawags -- operating out of unmarked vehicles and in back alleys, college dorm rooms and abandoned storefronts -- undercut market barber rates by offering cheaper prices to clients who aren't fussy about their coiffures or whether their sideburns are even.

The so-called "fly-by-night barbers" typically don't have adequate supplies of the blue liquid glass containers in which properly permitted barbers sterilize their combs, scissors, ear lobe clamps and other implements.

As state regulations now stand, illegal barbers are given a "warning" when they are caught cutting hair while unlicensed.

Under the new proposal, first-time offenders will be fined $100. If the rule change is approved, it would raise $10,000 during the first five years.

State officials are unsure how the increased revenue will be used, but there has been growing support for a Texas Barber Hall of Fame to trace the history of barbering in the state and to recognize outstanding Texas barbers who made contributions to the field.

Determining where the facility would be located is expected to spark intense competition between several Texas cities and towns who believe it could become a tourism draw.

State officeholders have not yet endorsed the informal proposal for the Texas Barber Hall of Fame and it is not expected to come up during the current legislative session.

[TexasBarberExamingBoard]

What do you say to Ken Lay at a party?

Tony Curtis, the famous actor, was in Houston recently, being feted at a River Oaks home, where among the party guests was none other than Ken Lay, who may go to prison because of the illegal dealings of Enron.

You've gotta wonder if guests at the party steer around the Enron topic if they find themselves standing by Lay in the line for the bean dip.

I'd guess yes. But if you greet Lay with a standard conversation opener, do you dare ask, "Hello, Ken. What's new?"

Lay could take that as an innocuous question.

"Oh, not much, Bob. What's new with you?"

Or he could take it as sarcasm.

"Whattya mean by that, Bob? WHAT'S NEW? Do you ever read a newspaper? Watch TV news? Have a radio?"

Maybe Lay would just be honest.

"Well, Bob, I spent six hours with the lawyers today. Going over my testimony, the depositions, what I should wear. The fashion consultant says a simple blue Brooks Brothers suit. But not a red tie. A red tie is a power tie, they say. They want a green tie. Green is a friendly color, non-threatening. That's what the color consultant says."

Maybe you could talk about baseball with Lay. No, No! That might lead to the Astros, which might lead to where they play, Minute Maid Park -- which used to be ENRON FIELD!

The stock market? No, not the stock market. The market was the root of all Enron's evil.

The weather? Yeah, the weather, so long as it's not the weather in California. Could lead to all that business about ripping off California consumers on their electricity bills during that long hot summer.

But the weather in Houston? OK. But that will only take up five minutes, tops. Followed by that long, awkward silence, and the wistful sigh.

If Lay's upcoming trial does comes up, should you tell Lay that "I'm pullin' for ya, Ken. It'll all turn out OK," even if you want him jailed the rest of his natural life?

Possibly. Lying in such uncomfortable social situations is completely acceptable.

Even if you lost beaucoup bucks on Enron stock? That might be tough. Lying in this case would only make you feel like a worthless hypocrite, and why make yourself feel bad all over again? You didn't do anything wrong. Just tell him he has a great lawyer and that he's in good hands.

Wait a minute. Tony Curtis is at this party. You could talk about Tony Curtis.
He was in Spartacus. Spartacus was a prisoner, though. Bad topic. He was in The Boston Strangler. Way too dark a movie, with prison overtones. Not that one. Some Like It Hot? Cross-dressing men competing for the attentions of Marilyn Monroe? Fun movie. Jack Lemmon and Tony. High on the all-time great comedy lists. Talk about that one. Then get your bean dip, tell him it was nice to see him and pretend you see someone across the room with whom you simply must converse.



Tony Curtis
[Shelby Hodge High Society column, first item]
[TonyCurtis IMDb filmography]

Contessa Brewer escapes Imus hell

MSNBC is stonewalling our questions about Contessa Brewer's absence from its Imus in the Morning show, where she's been sexually harassed in a most unpleasant way.

It's obvious, though, that she's been allowed to leave the Imus frat house, so she'll no longer be subjected to the sexually-tinged questions and innuendos of Imus & Co.

Brewer is now reading the afternoon news on MSNBC. It looks like she'll be OK, but may need some counseling down the line, and maybe a good lawyer.
[brazosport news]

Happy San Jacinto Day

Top of the San Jacinto Monument, with Houston in the background.
---------------------------------------------
It wasn't until I checked Bill Crider's Blog that I realized today is San Jacinto Day. Now, I feel unworthy, as a native Texan. Go ahead, rip off my epaulets and relieve me of my Bowie knife!

If you're middle-aged and grew up in Texas, you know that you get a heavy indoctrination in our state's history. I don't know if they still do that in public school today.

Since the San Jacinto Monument was so close to where I grew up (Baytown), I was always mindful of what the monument represented. I had at least one or two birthday parties over there, too. The restored Battleship Texas was a great place to run around and go nuts if you were around 7 years old.

Anyhow, check out Bill Crider's Blog, which says the Chron had some interesting historical information about the superior firepower of Sam Houston's Texians compared with Santa Anna's troops.

Sam Houston, a hell of a man.
[BillCrider'sBlog]

KRBE-FM owner to explore sale

The company that owns KRBE-FM in Houston, as well as 32 other radio stations in Dallas, San Francisco, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Kansas City and York, Penn., has announced it's exploring a sale.

KRBE, a pop station with a 100 watt signal, was ranked 7th in the last Houston-Galveston area Arbitron ratings.
[suspfz]

Newspapers losing young people's interest

A new study reinforces what everyone's been saying: not many young people read a daily a newspaper while a good percentage look to the Web for news.

The survey of 18-to-34-year-old finds, for instance, that just 19% read a newspaper daily, 17% read it once a month or less -- and 12% said they "never" read a paper to get their news.

By contrast, 44% of the young people visited a Web news portal every day, and 37% watch local TV news daily.

Only 14% of respondents called the newspaper their "most important" source of news. Local TV newscasts were called the most important source for news by 31% of the young adults, while another 25% cited the Internet.

The survey was commissioned by the Carnegie Corp. of New York. Merrill Brown, founding editor of MSNBC.com and a former Washington Post reporter, wrote the report, entitled "Abandoning the News."

Brown, interviewed by Editor & Publisher, called the study results "slightly grimmer than I thought."

Even though they're not reading newspapers, more than half the young people said they still trust newspapers "a lot," but they also said they trust Web portals just as much.

"Abandoning the News" does highlight a few promising newspaper responses, such as The Northwest Voice, a weekly launched by The Bakersfield Californian that is largely written by readers who submit news via the Web.

Newspapers have to think "new product development," Brown said.

"The industry has to make big bets a la Dow Jones Marketwatch, or smaller bets like what's going on in Greensboro. That's got to be the culture of the industry, or the result is going to be really, truly fatal," he said. The News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., as E&P has written recently, is turning its Web site into a kind of virtual town square with continual input from Web users and print readers.

"This will take time, it will take patience and resources-- and it will also take guts," Brown said. "There's not enough risk-taking in the newspaper industry."

[E&P]

Liz Smith unplugged

Texas Monthly did a Q&A with Liz Smith, the gossip columnist from Texas who's still writing at 82 years old. She's plain-spoken and doesn't pull any punches, which I find refreshing, probably because she reminds me a bit of my mother. On George W. Bush:

...How do you feel about the fact that when people around the country or around the world think of Texas, they think of George W. Bush?

That’s one of the things that I really don’t like about the president—that my state would be defined by Mr. Preppy. I think the whole Texas thing with him is such a put-on. I don’t consider him a real Texan. When he tells you how great it was to grow up in Midland, I have to laugh.

Because?

Midland is a place you want to pass through.

Texas Monthly mainly wanted to talk about the entertainment world with Smith, who, after all, is a gossip columnist, but a literate gossip columnist who isn't necessarily enamored of the same people all celeb mags are chasing. She has a vivid memory of the stars of yesteryear. Mostly, today's "stars" don't measure up.

Leaving aside the fashion stuff, are the stars of today less interesting as personalities than the people you once knew?

I’ll say they are. They haven’t been groomed and trained by the studios, which in the old days would have taught them how to wear riding clothes, smoke cigarettes, speak a little French, and hold a cup. It was like a college education. And nothing like that exists now. Renée Zellweger and Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts are likable and attractive, but they don’t begin to have that kind of glamour. You know, no one ever mixed up Bette Davis and Joan Fontaine and Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers. They were total individuals. If you look at Us Weekly or InStyle, there’s a sameness to everyone. There are all these couples that look alike and have on their worst clothes. They’re wearing sweats, sneakers, caps, and T-shirts, and maybe they have some tattoos. They look terrible, like street people. And they present these images of themselves as down-to-earth, happily married for fifteen minutes, wanting a baby if they don’t already have one, and then the public gets totally invested in this bullshit of whether they stay together or not. The biggest story of last year, you know, was Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston breaking up. I went to dinner parties with really intelligent people who actually sat there and analyzed whether they would get back together. And they wanted me to discuss it because I’m supposed to know! But I don’t know any more than they do.

[TM]

Surfers sending out S.O.B. signal

S.O.B. means Save Our Beaches.

It's cool when the surfers get their political juices flowing. I get this mental image of deeply tanned guys and gals in shades, outfitted in their jams and bikinis and wetsuits, zinc oxide on their noses, raising their fists in anger, holding signs, testifying before legislative committees, and grumbling, "This will not stand, dude."

Hey, it keeps them off the streets.

I kid because I care. And they care, too. Somebody's gotta care!

Of course, we're talking about the Texas Open Beaches Act, which is what we're always talking about after storms wipe out large sections of sand on the Texas coast, leaving homes on the public easement, where they almost always remain, as if the magic "vegetation line" will somehow re-appear in a year or two to place the homes back on "private property."

Haven't been any storms lately, but bills authored by State Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, who's usually carrying water for the petrochemical industry, and state Sen. Kyle Janek, R-Houston, have the equivalent effect.

The surfers, acting through their Texas Surfrider chapters, say the measures will compromise the Texas Open Beaches Act, set a bad precedent and lead to "private beaches."

The two lawmakers (Janek replaced the once-mighty Buster Brown of Lake Jackson) want to amend the state Natural Resources Code for the municipal utility district at Treasure Island, a beach subdivision in Brazoria County located on the eastern tip of Follett's Island, at San Luis Pass.

That's prime fishing area, but not much use to surfers, from what I can gather. But all the beach is sacred and belongs to the public, theoretically.

Babe Schwartz, the old liberal war horse ex-state senator from Galveston who authored the original Open Beaches Act, has spoken against the measure, and Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who's shown no inclination to take a hard line on open beach issues, has spoken in favor of it.

The surfers are worried enough that they're sending out a Mayday call:

The (Treasure Island) Municipal Utility District and residents
have continually violated the OBA (Open Beaches Act) by prohibiting public parking in the
subdivision, giving them a private beach.

Visitors are met with signs stating "tenant and permit parking only -
all others will be towed" and "no vehicular beach access" at the
subdivision entrance.

They have also dumped rocks, concrete, and VW-sized boulders along the
shore in a vain attempt to stop erosion.

Their "engineering" has been ill-conceived, and much of it has left
dangerous debris on what is supposed to be public beach.
Beyond that, their actions have actually increased the erosion rate of
"their" beach. Experts agree that the "hard structures" they placed in
daily contact with waves increases the rate of erosion.

Ellis Pickett of Texas Surfriders is trying to rally folks to call their legislators to vote the down the bill. (see first link below)

If you want to join hands with the surfers, read the link and take action. If not, return to your regularly scheduled programming.

[S.O.B.]
[hb1603]
[sb740]

Another message from Kinky Friedman

Ten thousand people already have volunteered to help Kinky Friedman run for governor of Texas, the candidate says in his latest communique.

At first I thought it must be because I was such a charismatic leader. Then I realized, somewhat to my chagrin, that this groundswell from all over the state may not have so much to do with me after all. It has more to do, perhaps, with timing. Simply put, we're tired of this bullshit.

(...)

It's not about politics; if anything, I'm running against politics and those who toil in its lush, corrupt, rarely rotated fields. I think musicians can better run this state than politicians. Hell, I believe beauticians could run it better than politicians. But I plan to be more than merely a ceremonial ribbon cutter. I intend to bring back the glory of Texas. I'm convinced that, if we all get together, we can knock down that windmill of politics as usual, and we can make that Lone Star shine again.
I'm typing this in the middle of the night on the last typewriter in Texas. My five dogs, the Friedmans, are watching me. They're very excited about the prospect of moving into the Governor's Mansion. They may not know it, but they are one of my two special interest groups, the only other being my fellow Texans. With the support of these two special interest groups, we have already achieved spiritual lift-off. We shall not fail. Together we will rise and shine and bring back the glory of Texas.

Help me make it a reality by clicking
here to contribute to our campaign:
Love,

The Gov
Kinky Friedman
April 18, 2005
Medina, Texas

Kinky Friedman: "spiritual liftoff"

Dan Patrick vs. the Houston Chronicle

Dan Patrick, the Houston talk radio host, got short-sheeted by the Houston Chronicle, and now he's threatening legal action.

Dan, if I've said it once, I've said it twice, don't pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.

Let's recap.

The Chronicle did a short story that said tax-cutting crusader Patrick owed back taxes. The 238-word story appeared in the newspaper's "Wrap-up" column, where reporters are encouraged to contribute light, breezy, hopefully humorous pieces that ordinarily wouldn't appear elsewhere.

During the interview, Patrick said he told the Chronicle that the tax payment shortfall wasn't his fault, that the taxing authorities had informed him in writing it was their fault, and they gave Patrick until May 1 to resolve it.

The Chron's short story said Patrick owed back taxes, and that it "wasn't Patrick's fault, really."

That's not libel.

The bottom line is Patrick owed the unpaid taxes. Makes for a nice headline, especially if you're an anti-tax crusader, even if it's not your fault.

Patrick also complained the newspaper alluded to the fact that Patrick's real legal name is Dannie Goeb. Not libel. That's just someone pulling the hat on your head down over your ears and running away laughing.

Patrick's been picking on the Chron via KSEV-AM radio a long time now, and since he started The Lone Star Times, he's been picking on them via the Web. So they short-sheeted him, gave him a wedgie, pulled his shorts down in front of the girls gym class, figuratively speaking.

It may not have been the most high-minded thing to do; it may not have been fair, technically speaking. But, shoot, it's not really fair when radio talk show hosts cut off callers who don't agree with them.

Patrick owed the taxes. It might not have been Patrick's fault that the taxes went unpaid, but he still owed.

Gotcha!

Now, Patrick can pull his britches up and see about evening the score.

Maybe he'll have his day in court. It could be a nice bully pulpit, testifying under oath and all, if it got that far, which is highly doubtful.

Or, instead of going all the way to the trial stage, Patrick could file suit and see what kind of settlement the deep pockets of the Hearst Corp. might produce. It might be worth a shot. A long shot, but a shot.

I was involved, peripherally, in a libel/slander case one time.

(Now I'm about to reach back for another one of my yarns from the Way Back Machine ... Cue the music. Let's go with Willie Nelson's "Who'll Buy My Memories.")

A photographer and I were sent down to South Padre Island to do one of those Spring Break stories. This is in the mid-80s. We rounded up the usual suspects for a light, bright feature story about coeds and beer and guys on the make.

That evening, after the sun went down, we're wandering through the pool area of one of the nicer hotels when the photographer spots two couples in the pool, locked in sweet embrace. They're in the water, by the edge of the pool, and the underwater lights backlight their profiles quite nicely. Click, click, click.

Then the photographer, a female, does what she's supposed to do, gets their names, ages, hometowns and where they're pursuing their higher education, for the cutline.

I stand there idly. I've got all the material I need.

It turns out of the hundreds of photos that were taken, that's the one the editors chose to run real big. Great shot. Fit the story. Ran in black & white on the section front.

The parents of the two Houston girls were NOT pleased. Turns out the two girls were not locked in sweet embrace with their boyfriends, but with two boys that weren't their boyfriends. And, though the story itself never quoted the two young women or described what they did or didn't do, it addressed what goes on during a typical Spring Break. And there was that picture of their daughters to illustrate the story.

They sued The Houston Post.

I never saw the pleadings. It was all very hush-hush. In fact, now that I think about it, maybe it was one of those deals where the lawyers sent the lawsuit to the paper BEFORE they filed it, to see what the paper would do. I'm just not sure, and, gosh, it was a long time ago.

The paper settled, I think for about 12 grand, if I'm remembering correctly what I was told. It wasn't libel. I know that. But it was worth around 12 grand. Plus attorney's fees, I'm sure.
[AboutDanPatrick]
[blogHouston]
[LoneStarTimes]
[Lone Star Times]

What we have here is a premature failure of the rupture disc on KR-23

Will the Dow sergeant at-arms please call the emissions roll?
Sir, yes, sir! One-thousand one hundred seventy-five pounds of propylene oxide, sir!
Dis-missed.

[emissions report 56850]

Grip it 'n rip it

The Shell Houston Open is this week. To help get you in the mood, let Tom Kirkendall tell you about Texas sportswriting legend Dan Jenkins, whose sense of humor was tailor made (or is it Taylor made?) for the maddening game of golf.
[hct]

The Houston Post, 10 years after

William P. Hobby: bought The Post in 1939
--------------------------------------------------
The Houston Post died 10 years ago today, just one in a long line of city dailies in the U.S. to go out of business.

This is not good, but it's a trend that won't change, given the declining economics of daily newspapers these days.

Even so, the advent of the Web holds promise that the daily newspapers that have managed to survive will not go unchallenged so far as the expression of opposing opinions is concerned. Someday there will viable Web-only newsgathering organizations in major cities to challenge the remaining dailies. I guess.

But today I wanted to talk about The Houston Post.

I went to work there in November 1980 and stayed til it went out of business. It's the paper I grew up. I wasn't so much interested in the news portion of The Post as a kid, but I paid close attention to the sports section. Wow, wouldn't it be great to be sportswriter, I thought. You go to baseball and football games and write about them. So I grew up on the columns of Mickey Herskowitz, Clark Nealon, John Hollis and Jack Agness, and read the game stories.

I was the sports editor of my high school newspaper, The Gander Gazette, for two years.

Then, in college, I went wrong. I got interested in the news. Big mistake. Oh, I'm just kidding, sort of. Sports went out the window and news reporting replaced it. What would life have been like had I pursued the sportswriting thing? By now, I'd probably hate sports, so everything probably worked out as it should.

Before I made it to The Post, I spent three years at the Wichita Falls Record-News (which went out of business, sort of, combining with the town's afternoon daily for a single daily edition) and a little over a year at the San Antonio Light (which was closed by the Hearst Corp. after it bought out the rival daily Express-News.)

My first job at The Post was as its man in Galveston. It was a one-man bureau, which suited me fine. I covered Galveston County and they pretty much left it up to me to decide what was news and what wasn't news.

Then, it was on to Houston. By then, the Hobby family had sold the newspaper to The Toronto Sun. (William P. Hobby, who had bought The Post in '39, died in '64; his widow, Oveta Culp Hobby, who was known for wandering around The Post building turning off lights that were unnecessarily left on, passed in '95.)

The Canadians put a big red box on the front page to contain The Post masthead, and jazzed up the graphics and coverage. Everyone was afraid they'd make it a tabloid, which they probably should have done to further differentiate it from the Chronicle. Now, some broadsheet newspapers around the country are considering doing just that -- going tabloid, which evidently doesn't carry the low-end stigma it did in the '80s.

The Canadians installed Peter O'Sullivan as editor. He would send reporters overseas, virtually unheard of in the Hobby days, and tried to expand the paper's horizons. The mood of the paper was upbeat and a handful of reporters defected from the Chron -- Pete Brewton, Dan Grothaus and Olive Talley. This was definitely a change.

Unfortunately for the Canadians, they bought the paper when Houston's oil-based economy was bad, so they sold The Post to William Dean Singleton and his MediaNews company. Singleton was known for buying failing newspapers and saving them, or at least trying to save them. He also was known as a cost-cutter.

When the Canadians cashed out, the heady atmosphere grew more wary. The bombastic Dave Burgin took over the editorship. He was combative and volatile, but fiercely competitive and not above taking on the Chron in a public way.

The economics of the paper, though, began to take its toll. Pay raises dried up and the Chron began raiding The Post's staff. Morale plummeted when Singleton brought in a new editor, Gerald Garcia, whose reputation as an editor who guided newspapers through the last stages of death infected the staff with a sense of doom. More Post staffers jumped ship to the Chron or other newspapers. We're going down!

After the paper folded, I caught on with the Chron. I already had interviewed with them before The Post gave up the ghost.

In comparing the two papers, the biggest difference was the atmosphere of the newsroom. At The Post, it would not be uncommon to see a rubber band battle break out between reporters on the city side, or a few paper airplanes fly through the air. "Xerox art" of people's heads superimposed on wire photos decorated computer terminals and walls. It was pretty loose. With a staff that hadn't had pay raises for five years or more, I guess we figured, what the hell, what're they gonna do -- NOT GIVE US A RAISE?

Over at the Chron newsroom, decorum reigned. There was a hush across the newsroom. They dressed better. They spoke in quiet tones. It was like an insurance office, or what I imagined an insurance office to be. But they received regular pay raises and had better benefits. They were fat and happy. Well, maybe not happy happy, but secure. But it didn't seem as if they had as much fun.

For $120 million, Singleton sold The Post to the Chron, giving the Chron a monopoly in the country's fourth-largest city. As Lynn Ashby pointed in the column to which I linked last Friday, The Post was still making money. Singleton, in a press release, alluded to the rising cost of newsprint, as a major reason for selling the newspaper.

One can't help but think that with Houston's more diversified economy these days, its continued growth, its low cost of living (including relatively cheap housing compared with the rest of the country), and the relocation to Houston of so many Fortune 500 companies, that The Post could have made a go of it if Singleton had hung on.

To me, he's the villain in the story. Hearst was just doing what any businesses do -- making a decision that maximizes profits. Singleton just took the money and ran. OK, that's another "business decision," but one would like to think the role of a newspaper superscedes such economic decisions. One would be naive to think that, it turns out.

The Chron, to its credit, had the good sense to add some of The Post's dismissed staffers to its payroll. Mary Flood, Dan Feldstein, Leigh Hopper and Matt Schwartz are crackerjack reporters on the city side, Clifford Pugh and Hoffy Hoffman are in features and Kappy Kaplan and William Tecumsah Hensel are in business; Herskowitz is a Chron sports columnist, and there also are a host of talented former Post copy editors and management types whose bylines you never see that now call the Chron home.

The funny thing is, I never detected any joy among Chron staffers about the death of The Post. They knew what it meant for them. No one to measure themselves by, except themselves and the expectations of their management. For a newspaper reporter, there's zero gratification in beating TV on a big two story. Newspapers and TV are two different animals. Apples and oranges.

But when there were two papers in town, if The Post beat the Chron, or the Chron beat the Post on a story, even if it just meant getting some relevant details or angles on the same story that the enemy didn't, well, that made you feel good. You felt like you earned your pay that day.

Too bad those days of Houston journalism are over and done with, starting 10 years ago today.

William Dean Singleton: known as "Stinky" to former Post employees

Biggio ties Ted Williams for all-time hits

If Craig Biggio gets hit and killed by a bus after the game today in Cincinnati, he can go to his reward satisfied that he tied Ted Williams at #63 on the Major League Baseball all-time career hit list.

Biggio likely would have tied the record at home in Houston since Astros Manager Phil Garner gave him the day off today, but Biggio was called on to pinch hit in the 7th inning and delivered a single.

Biggio's single on Sunday gives him 2,654 base hits, which he's gathered during a 17-year career that likely will continue a year or two after this season. Williams played 19 seasons.

The fact Biggio started out as a catcher, moved to second base, then moved to the outfield, and now has returned to second base only adds to his impressive hitting resume'.

Other names you might recognize on the all-time hit list that are within Biggio's reach are: Nellie Fox (who ended his career with Houston), 2,663 hits; Luis Aparicio, 2,677; Billy Williams, 2,711; Rusty Staub (who started his career with Houston), 2716; Lou Gehrig, 2,721, and Babe Ruth, 2,873.

Pete Rose leads the all-time hit list at an amazing 4,256.

Shaune Bagwell watch: swimsuit model claims her artist's rights violated by Awfulplasticsurgery.com

You may not consider Shaune Bagwell an artist, but yo, art's in the eye of the beholder, no?

Shaune, the swimsuit model formerly married to Astros first baseman Jeff Bagwell who sold advertising space across her chest to Goldencasino.com, is claiming that the Web site "awfulplasticsurgery.com" has violated her rights as an artist by infringing on copyright law.

The Web site has criticized plastic surgery it says the model has undergone. Bagwell's letter was faxed to Google, Inc.

The purpose of this letter is to notify you that an online company
has stolen my image(s) and are using them illegally.

I am stating the Digital Millennium Copyright act as the portion of
the law under which my rights as an artist are protected.

The copyrighted work at issue appears on awfulplasticsurgery.com.

Infringing web page link:
awfulplasticsurgery.com

My person information where Google may contact me is:

Shaune Bagwell [private] P.1

Shaune Bagwell
[private]
Pacific Palisades, CA
90272
[private]
[private]@aol.com

I do not have current information on how to contact the administrator
of the website in question.

I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials
described above on the allegedly infringing web pages is not
authorized by the copyright owner, it's (sic) agent,or the law.

I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the
notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am
authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that
is allegedly infringed.

Regards,

Shaune Bagwell [private] P.1

Shaune Bagwell

Shaune reportedly is auctioning off ad space on her legs and forehead, according to media reports. Artistic ads, we're sure.
[chillingeffects.org]

Good news for Bloggerville

The U.S. government has concluded former Secretary of Education Rod Paige did nothing illegal when he hired pundit Armstrong Williams to push his agenda, but said Paige exercised poor judgment.

Much of the report's criticism focused on whether the department got its money's worth.

Listen up. I'll give you your money's worth. Give me a ringy dingy. Email. Postcard. Whatever. I love education. No child should be left behind, gawdammit.
[wp]

BP Amoco Chemical process upset

Released over on the banks of scenic Chocolate Bayou: 961 lbs ethylene (gaseous), 695 lbs carbon monoxide, 6.67 lbs nitrogen dioxide, 82.31 lbs nitrogen monoxide.
[emissions report 56710]
[emissions report 56713]

Nielsen out of people meter trial

The market trial in Houston of the "portable people meter" -- a new way to measure TV & radio audiences -- will not include Nielsen Media Research. KTRK-TV (Channel 13) is the only media outlet not going along for the experiment (unless they've changed their mind and we haven't heard).

Volunteers in Houston will be wearing the beeper-sized devices during their waking hours, then plug them into a gizmo at night that will send in data. My question is, can you turn the damn things off when you cuss out the dog for crapping in the house?
[r&r]
[endgadget]

Lynn Ashby, still pissed after 10 years

The Houston Post died 10 years ago on Monday. Lynn Ashby, its former editor, hasn't had a good night's sleep since then. Life is different now. He has to open his own mail. And if he wants anyone to think he still has a secretary, he has to disguise his voice falsetto-style. Lynn, now writing for Houston Community Newspapers, opines that Houston deserves to be a two-newspaper city, apparently not counting the newspapers for which he's still writing. But we catch his drift. Still fixated on The Alamo, the Battle of San Jacinto and Santy Anny, he manages to tie The Post's demise to ALL THREE!
[hcn]

Mapes says blogger shots "hurt terribly"

Mary Mapes, middle, cites "digital McCarthyism."
---------------------------------------------------
CBS execs like Andrew Heyward aren't the only ones bracing themselves for axed CBS producer Mary Mapes' forthcoming book, but, unlike Heyward, the bloggers she targets will undoubtedly revel in the attention.

The Anchoress gives us a glimpse of Mapes' book pitch:

“Conservative bloggers are part of the story. They have vilified me, mounted a “wilding” attack against me…we were, it seemed the first victims of a new kind of digital McCarthyism, which uses the same techniques as the old McCarthyism–rumors, slurs, false charges and ugly attacks–but now employs the Internet, talk radio and cable TV echo chamber to ricochet information around the world…meanwhile, the mainstream media…were happy to stoke the firewood on a competitor’s funeral pyre, repeating the conservative blogs, mischaracterizing events and not doing any real reporting of their own. Honestly, it hurt. It all hurt terribly….”

[TheAnchoress]

Buttcrack -- the new cleavage

[goldenfiddle]

Birdland

Red-bellied woodpecker
-----------------------------------------
I saw a red-bellied woodpecker the other day. He stopped briefly in the tree we planted in the backyard to block the view of our backyard neighbor's parked RV. Then, he was off to a more promising tree. He may or may not be one of the 17 red-bellied woodpeckers counted here on April 11 during The Great Backyard Bird Count.

It has been noted in Dallas that Lake Jackson has a lot more grackles than Big D -- 6,151 in LJ compared with 1,043 in J.R. Ewing's hometown. This is patently ridiculous, given the disparity in size. The bird counters in Dallas obviously are just tabulating the pretty birds and skipping the monochromatic ones to enhance their town's image, something right outta J.R. Ewing's playbook. And in Houston, only 484 grackles? Puh-leeeze.

Here in LJ, we count 'em all, choosing not to discriminate against any of God's creatures whether they're known for defecating in the most unfortunate of places or simply beautifying our dreary, humdrum lives.

Moreover, check out the number of grackles in Alvin -- 392! If that's true, they're all living above the Nolan Ryan statue in front of City Hall.

Common grackle
---------------------------------------
[FrontBurner]

Will some lady, preferably conservative, please go find Rush Limbaugh and see to his physical yearnings?

Will the FCC have the 'nads to object to this?

During a monologue on his Tuesday show about Al Gore's soon-to-be-launched liberal TV channel, Premiere-syndicated talk host Rush Limbaugh repeated the former Veep's statement that his channel will reflect young people's points-of-view. Limbaugh said, "What the hell is the point of view of young people? Blow jobs, that's what they're doing out there. They're out there getting oral sex all day long, that's what they're talking about.... So I guess you're going to have a BJ network out there, Al?" Limbaugh later offered a qualified apology, adding, "The staff was so stunned and so scared today they didn't dare hit the delete button.... My reaction is, 'Somebody go ahead and turn me into the FCC. I'll be honored to be fined.'"

[r&r]

More kudos for Alvin CC rock station; DMN says there will be no keystroke counting

KACC-FM, the rock radio station operated by students at Alvin Community College, continues to get rave notices, both by listeners in Bloggerville and by professional broadcasters. Today, on Sportsradio610's afternoon show, co-hosts Rich Lord and Marc Vandermeer said the Alvin station rocks their sports-obsessed world, after they received a call from a fella who's matriculatin' at ACC. Vandermeer said professional broadcasters could learn a few things from the kids at 89.7 on the FM dial. Rock on w/ ya bad selves, Alvin. And while you're at it, get someone to clean up the Nolan Ryan statue in front of City Hall!

Up in Dallas, the publisher of the Dallas Morning News shot down a report on D Magazine's blog that management will be counting keystrokes of its employees to gauge their productivity. So far as we know, Houston Chronicle MC/Editor Jeff Cohen is NOT backing down from his decision to take away his underlings' free rodeo & drink tickets after one of his reporters wrote a story about the half-century-old practice.
[frontburner]

Pearland Councilman Kevin Cole fightin' mad for his man Tommy DeLay, calls opponents "ass hole"

DeLay: Cole has his back in P'Land.
----------------------------------------------
Pearland City Councilman Kevin Cole always reminded me of a banty rooster, strutting around like the cock of the walk.

I tangled with him a few times when I was covering Brazoria County for the Chronicle and he took extreme exception with some the things I wrote about the problems of then-City Manager Paul Grohman. He called and yelled at me and called my editors and yelled at them. "Who is this guy?" my editors asked.

Why, he's Kevin Cole, the banty rooster of Pearland, Texas.

Now Cole is going to the mat defending U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, whose star is falling even among some of his Republican backers in Washington, due to ethics allegations.

DeLay's enemies smell blood and are ratcheting up their campaign against him.

This has Councilman Cole's dander up, his blood boiling, his fists balled up. How do I know this? He's started name-calling. If a banty rooster could talk, that's what he'd do, too, but they can't, so they just strut around, like the cock of the walk.

Ever the statesman, Cole, a Baptist deacon, fired off this email to a group of DeLay's Houston-area opponents, according to the anti-Delay group.

Hey ass hole [sic]. Tom Delay happens to be my congresman [sic] and I am happy with the job he does for me and my district. Why don’t you get the F@&* out of our district and leave us alone. Better yet, come speak to me personally and I will show you what I think of you.

Kevin Cole
Pealrand [sic], TX
[Cell Phone # Redacted]

Yup, that sounds like the Kevin Cole I remember. The Banty Rooster!
[thinkprogress]
[perfectlycromulent]

Texas Avenue Freeze-Out

Houston blogger Laurence Simon gets pub from national media, and most recently from the Hearst-owned San Francisco Chronicle, but is completely and consistently ignored by his hometown newspaper, the Hearst-owned Houston Chronicle, notes Anne Linehan of blogHouston. Maybe they don't like this bloggin' thing everyone's talking about?
[blogHouston]

Barfly is back, scarier than ever

Mickey Rourke used to be a pretty good actor, then he sort of disappeared, and now he's back in the new movie Sin City.

I haven't seen the new movie yet cause I quit going to the picture show after hearing some of my brother in-law's stories about being a theater usher. (When they'd turn the house lights on and he'd go to clean up the mess, it'd be crawling with mice and rats.)

Anyway, back to Mickey Rourke. He was great in Barfly, a movie about the drunken writer Charles Bukowski. And maybe, just maybe, Mickey was kinda playing himself, too. See, I have this buddy who spent some free time in LA, hanging out on the Sunset Strip, and he ended up drinking with Mickey. That's all I'm gonna say.

I read an interview in which he was asked to explain his acting revival.

"Not making any decisions myself anymore," he said.

(Rourke reportedly turned down the Bruce Willis role in Pulp Fiction. Maybe he got queasy at the male rape scene, even though his character wasn't the one being raped.)

Mickey appeared on Late Night With David Letterman on Tuesday night, and he was quite charming. He told a great story about how he adopted the 7th of his seven dogs. They're all chihuahas.

He talked a bit about his short-lived career as a club boxer (during his hiatus from acting) when he fought 11 bouts, ending with 9 wins and 2 draws. And he mentioned something to Dave about "seeing a professional," which leads me to believe he probably went through some sort of substance abuse rehab.

Regarding his movie career, he expressed some regret about being a "whore" for doing certain movies just for the money. Finally, the acting roles, shitty or not, dried up when he didn't show up on the set for for some of the films, preferring to ride his motorcycle around with his buds. Hence, the detour into boxing.

He returned to the movies after meeting this guy in a coffee shop. Turns out the guy was one of the people in LA who "bonds" actors, which is to say, he insures them for the movie people. The guy told Rourke he had refused to bond him for the last movie role that he failed to get. He asked him if he wanted to get back into the game.

Dave was real interested in the stories. You can always tell when Dave's interested and when he's not. The thing of it is, Mickey Rourke doesn't look anything at all like the old Mickey Rourke from the 1980s due to what appears to be major plastic surgery. It's a damn shame. Maybe there were legitimate reasons for all the work, but good God, this man looks nothing like he once did. It looks like he's wearing a mask. Too bad Dave didn't ask him about it. I guess he didn't want to hurt his feelings. Judging from the film clip of Sin City , the reconstructed look works fine in a black & white film based on a comic book, but don't look for him in any romantic leads.
[awfulplasticsurgery]

Counting keystrokes in Big D

The worker bees at The Houston Chronicle should buck up. OK, so they've lost their free rodeo tickets and gratis drink ducats, but that's just a once-a-year kick in the gonads. At the mighty Dallas Morning News, management is counting keystrokes in the newsroom. To measure productivity. Public relations work never look so good, eh.
[frontburner]

Sportswriter par excellence

What can you say about a sportswriter who knew America's greatest baseball players, from Babe Ruth to Cal Ripken Jr.?

Let Richard Justice tell you about the late Shirley Povich:

At the height of Watergate when the Nixon Administration was denouncing the Post almost every day, the president admitted he'd been unable to break the Povich habit.

"I never read the Washington Post," Nixon said. "Well, except for Povich."

[snip]

Shirley wrote about racism before it became fashionable. When baseball finally did integrate, he wrote movingly of how Jim Crow laws kept black and white players isolated from one another.

He constantly needled Redskins owner George Preston Marshall for being the last NFL owner to sign an African-American. He referred to the team's colors as "burgundy, gold and Caucasian."

[snip]

He was there when Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in World Series history. "The million-to-one shot came in," Povich wrote. "Hell froze over. A month of Sundays hit the calendar. Don Larsen pitched a no-hit, no-run, no-man-reach-first game in a World Series."

Yes, in case you were wondering, Shirley Povich was the father of TV's Maury.
[chron.com]

Cheese State OKs cat killin'

Wisconsin law prof Ann Althouse issues kitty alert.
[althouse]

Beware, cat killers!

Angleton, the county seat of Brazoria, is overrun with stray cats. When I visited the Brazoria County Historical Museum several weeks ago, at least four of five of them were scampering around in the bushes.

It must get pretty loud over in Angleton when darkness falls. That's why I never try to be in Angleton after the sun sets. Having said that, I must add I have no desire to hunt those cats down and kill them, even if I had a gun, which I don't. Or a bow and arrow, for that matter.

Some folks in Angleton might be tempted to do what some folks in the State of Wisconsin want to do: make it legal to shoot feral cats.

(Feral is another word for wild or stray, apparently.)

But before Angleton takes Wisconsin's lead, they should realize there may be a backlash to such a stray cat strategy -- a boycott.

Already, cat lovers are organizing a boycott of cheese from Wisconsin.

If the cat killin' movement was going on in Michigan, that'd be tantamount to boycotting cars made in Detroit. And there are a lot of cat lovers in the world.

Big Business, in other words.

So, Angleton, before you start killing cats, be aware that a boycott could be aimed at your overrun-by-cats town. People could stop buying whatever it is you make there. I'm not sure what that is, but there must be something. Flanges or brake pads or horse-shoeing equipment, most likely.

[ifoc]
[wisconsinstatejournal]

Imus vs. Contessa, cont'd ...

Contessa Brewer: no implants
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I woke up extra early today, before dawn, to take the pulse of radio's Don Imus and MSNB news reader Contessa Brewer. (Yes, the anti-depressants are kicking in nicely.)

If you remember, it was suggested here that Contessa could have grounds for a sexual harassment lawsuit given her treatment by Imus & Crew on the WFAN radio/MSNBC TV morning program, except the First Amendment might get in the way.

Anyway, Imus was told by the hard-boiled female traffic reporter, that she's been informed they're not to pick on Contessa anymore, and Imus demanded to know who told her that. "Management sources," she said, not naming a name.

Imus tried to draw some MSNBC management type who was off-camera into the conversation, but he wouldn't bite.

When newstime came, Contessa naturally was given the story about silicone breast implants to read.

"You have them?" Imus asked her.

"No, I don't need them," she said.

Know anyone who does?

Of course.

Does Amy? (ie., Amy Robach, Contessa's predecessor, who left the show cause of the I-Man's crew on-air tomfoolery.)

No!

Contessa seemed OK with it, and smiled nicely, but then, mysteriously, that was her last segment on the show, which I don't believe is normal. Before leaving, she asked Charles McCord, the news reader who's spent 30 years with Imus, how he's lasted so long since she goes home everyday and wants to pull her hair out.
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I-Man: reigned in?

Bob to join Willie for picnic jamboree

A reader, H. Brute of Sharpstown, passes this AP wire story along:

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) _ Willie Nelson is returning
this year to
Fort Worth for his Fourth of July picnic, and he's
bringing Bob
Dylan with him.
His 32nd annual picnic will be at the 27-acre North
Forty
concert field, just east of Billy Bob's Texas. Last
year's concert
at the same site drew 19,000 people.
Texas rock trio Los Lonely Boys will perform, and
about 20 more
acts will be announced over the next month. Tickets
will go on sale
April 25 at all Ticketmaster outlets.
``Willie takes such an interest,'' says Pam Minick,
marketing
director for Billy Bob's Texas, which co-organizes the
picnic. ``He
picks every artist according to who he likes, and he
negotiates the
contract. Last year he wrote on a brown paper bag how
much each one
was going to get.''
This year's picnic will honor the memory of Rick
Smith of Fort
Worth-based Smith Music Group, who died in August of
complications
from a heart attack.
Smith, a friend of Nelson's, convinced the Texas
country music
icon that the picnic should be in the Fort Worth
Stockyards. His
brother, Randy, now runs Smith Music Group, also an
organizer of
this year's event.

The "golden age" of Houston columnists

Morris Frank, dean of Houston newsmen
---------------------------------------------------
If you think you're a longtime observor of the Houston newspaper scene and you can't remember when the city had three dailies, then you're just a pup.

Wanda Orton, a longtime reporter/columnist for The Baytown Sun, recently wrote two columns about Space City's long-gone newspaper scene and the columnists she remembers reading.

I learned that Jack Valenti once wrote a column for The Post. Valenti, of course, later went to Washington to work for LBJ, then worked for the motion picture industry.

Most of the folks Orton writes about are gone now, and most of them I never knew. One who is gone but I did know was Harold Scarlett of The Post.

Nearly everything we needed to know about the environment but was afraid to ask could be found in Harold Scarlett’s articles in the Post. He really did help to make a difference in our quality of life by keeping us informed.

While covering numerous state and federal hearings on environmental issues, I should have gotten to know Scarlett but never did. Reserved and quiet, he rarely spoke to the rest of us stationed on duty at the press table. He always looked worried. (I guess he was worried about the environment.)

That sounds like the Harold Scarlett I remember from my days at The Post. He never had much to say and worked quietly in an out-of-way corner of the newsroom. When he retired, I asked him if he planned to do freelance writing and he looked at me like I was crazy. But I heard later that he did continue to do some writing for some environmental organizations. I don't know for sure if that's accurate or not.

Other columnists Orton remembers: Margeurite Johnston, Hubert Mewhinney, Hubert Rousell, David Westheimer, Margaret Young Page, George Fuermann, Ann Valentine and Jane Christopher of The Post, and Morris Frank, Maxine Mesinger, Sigmund Byrd, Ann Criswell, Jane Benefield and Allison Sanders of The Chronicle.

Morris Frank apparently was a larger-than-life newsman back in the day, Orton writes:

He was every reader’s best friend. Frank enjoyed a special kind of popularity in Baytown, being a frequent toastmaster at civic and school banquets, and visiting often with his buddies, Fred Hartman and Dan Stallworth. Whether he greeted a friend or stranger, Frank’s traditional salutation was, “Howdy, howdy,” big grin and warm handshake included.

Orton notes that Mesinger was Houston Press columnist Bill Roberts' "Girl Friday" when he wrote for The Press. When Roberts moved to The Post, "Miss Moonlight" got his columnist job at The Press, then at The Chron. She was a genuine celebrity in Baytown, Orton recalls:

For example, when Mesinger attended a Doc Severinsen/ Robert E. Lee Band concert here, she drew center attention. As the spotlight beamed on Miss Moonlight in the audience, she graciously stood up and waved to her fans.

Curiously, Orton does not include Lynn Ashby or Leon Hale in her pieces. I guess they're just too young to be included in what she calls the "golden age" of Houston columnists.
[BaytownSun]
[BaytownSun]

Remember "Bomba"?

How 'bout "Boy" in the Tarzan movies?
Well, he's 74 years old now.
This is the kind of information you can get by reading Bill Crider's Blog.

Chris Bell's wife

In a guest column in the Burnt Orange Report, the wife of the maybe-gubernatorial-candidate lobbies against a move in the Texas Lege to ban stem cell research, saying she has breast cancer. Her prognosis is good, she says, but asserts stem cell research could help breast cancer patients.[BurntOrangeReport]

Cornyn cracks ''Most Loathesome" list

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, managed to elbow his way onto the coveted "Washington's Most Loathesome" list, but he's only #26 on the 28-member roll call. Why Cornyn?

Cornyn was a complete nobody, and might have remained so, if he hadn't taken the floor this past week and rationalized the actions of an Atlanta area rapist who went on a killing spree last month in a courthouse as the actions of a man frustrated by judicial activism. And you thought that Islamofascists were spooky!

Cornyn's more combative colleague from Texas, U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay of Sugar Land, rates a much more impressive ranking at #2. Tommy, ya made us Texas Proud, boy.
[dcsob.com]via[wonkette]