Newscoma

Absolutely just brilliant if you are into pop culture and the Beatles’ Rocky Raccoon

[youtube=[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB4v-GZo3hQ&rel=1]

I’ve been a busy beaver the last few days and on top of it all, I’m on Meth Benedryl, the lovely drug that makes me somewhat of a snot-filled goddess.

Notice I said goddess. I didn’t mean it but you know, we have to keep up illusions.

But this is just so damned ridiculous I just can’t even speak and I’m late out of the gate in crying foul. As many of you know, I adore Steve Cohen. I hope he throws a stick at this whole situation.

I can’t believe that crap like this still exists but every time I think we have moved forward I’m reminded that we haven’t. If you are AGAINST a candidate, go after their policies, how they vote or how they wear bad ties. (Steve, I like your ties. Seriously. And I’ve met you and you smelled pretty good. And you were the first politician to call me Newscoma after I introduced myself which wigged me out.) Okay, I dig Cohen. I’m being transparent here.

With that said, Christian Grantham has a pretty good rundown of national media covering this. And here is the Commercial Appeal story (once again, I’m a day late and a dollar short.)

Nikki, I don’t know you from Adam. I’m sure you are kind to puppies, like a good Cafe Latte and have a good heart, but, baby, you need to condemn this immediately.

Right. Right. We all agree then, so we have that going for us.

And a little blurb isn’t going to get it and GoldnI painstakingly found but it isn’t good enough. Nikki, you need to denounce this in a big way.I mean you said “My faith teaches me to love, not hate,” said Tinker, who is Christian.” but I just don’t think that’s enough. Nice enough but not enough. Was that it? Seriously, someone tell me.

But the AP ran a story yesterday that said this:

The Anti-Defamation League issued a statement from Atlanta describing the flier as an attempt “to incite tension between the Memphis African-American and Jewish communities.”

The flier, which was also sent by mail to the Memphis Jewish Federation, included a contact name, the Rev. George Brooks, and a phone number in Murfreesboro, a town near Nashville and some 200 miles outside Cohen’s district.

A woman who would only identify herself as a friend of Brooks answered a call to the number and said he was out of town. Repeated subsequent calls went unanswered and messages were unreturned.

Now, why is a dude from Murfreesboro getting into Memphis politics? I’ve seen flyers like the one above by Fred Phelps.

Sharon Cobb had it first (sorry I’m so late on this.)

Update: Wait, I’m adding Vibinc because he said Tony Alamo and is, as usual, right.

There are many reasons why I think Badger is unique. Her love for Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, the fact that after I had surgery she came to see me and saw my dogs fight and try to kill each other (and still watched Pumpkinhead after the blood and tears) and the fact that she is dear to me. She’s rough around the edges with a heart of gold and I dig it.

But what I think is so great about Beth is that she can scribble on a pad and turn it into some very fun and amazing things. And to be an artist, she has made concessions that she will have to tell you about. It’s not my tale to tell.

I’ll be honest, I don’t get the Nascar thing but she is into it and, quite frankly, I like the rat. But then again, I’m a connoisseur of velvet art as well.

Yup. She’s pretty gosh-damned groovy.

When I was growing up, I wanted to be a radio news broadcaster. I did. Or an Oscar-winning actress training kids in the inner-city the wonderful words of Tennessee Williams.

Yep, that’s what was on my “What I Want To Be When I Grow Up List.” But because I lived in a small, very rural community (but had great parents who had the means to let me travel so I have to give them kudos) what I saw on Television or in movies was where I got my blueprint for these jobs.

But I knew one thing: I wanted to be clever no matter what I did and I wanted to have style. And, I wanted to break down some doors by being the woman in the room wearing the tattered Fedora that screamed the word “Scoop.” Yes, I’ve seen My Girl Friday with Rosalind Russell perhaps seventy five times. Shut up.

Anyway, it was folks like Rick Selvin who made me want to be clever. He died this week but his legacy lives on:

Rick Selvin arrived at the Daily News in 1980 to apply for a job. When he got to then-managing editor Zack Stalberg’s office, he hesitated at the door.

“I’m really sorry,” Rick said.

“What are you sorry about?” Zack inquired.

“Well, I usually wear a necktie to these interviews,” Rick said, “but my tie was frozen in the trunk of my car when it got wet and when I tried to put it on, it broke.”

Zack, recognizing a guy who would surely become a true Daily News character, hired him on the spot.

“I was on the floor laughing,” Zack said in recounting the incident.

Rick’s broken-tie story was typical of the quirky sense of humor that would keep Daily News staffers amused and captivated for the 17 years he served the paper as features writer and editor.

Richard Selvin, an innovative editor and guest headline writer for some of the major news stories of his day, and a talented musician who could play a number of instruments with professional skill, died Tuesday night of multiple organ failure. He was 63 and lived in West Philadelphia.

Rick’s most famous headline was inspired by the exhumation of the body of Lee Harvey Oswald on Oct. 4, 1981, in Rose Hill Cemetery, Fort Worth, Texas, in a dispute over its identity:

“Oswald Still Dead.”

Selvin was pretty amazing and, for me at least, it goes back to the playful and wickedly clever stereotype of the newsman that formed my thinking 30 years ago. It was Slevin’s dry writing that cut through the BS that gave him such an exquisite uniqueness. People in news do it for a variety of reasons but we don’t get rich.

We do it because we dig it.

Now that I’m older, I think it was that false, yet very sexy, ideology that I could be the fly on the wall watching things as they happened. And I really wanted to be a vehicle of change.

But more than anything else, I wanted to be able to communicate and be good at it. And clever.

Of course, in my tattered Fedora. (Shhh, I’m reliving my past. Be very quiet.)

Hollywood Ron sent me this and it’s fabulous:

I have been Waged. Who knew that Chris Wage’s last name would be turned into a verb. It was really weird to have a blogger with me in the non-virtual world.

Honored and somewhat freaked out.

Told ya I was an old broad.

Anyway, Wage went to the TPA Legislative Reception Wednesday night with me with camera in hand and he has some wonderful pics of folks who were at the conference.

And I look sober which was, of course, is a complete surprise.

When I go to Nashville, I honestly need to bring my stunt liver.

Thanks Chris and to everyone in Nashville that hung out on Wednesday. And special thanks to Ivy, who not only made me a Zombie Elvis but who also has the Stewman benefit Tees. I owe her dinner and a coke.

In the world of Lost, there are no easy answers and questions always arise to where we, the viewer, sometimes are left speechless. Last night, after watching Sayid become a cold-hearted assassin and then turn around and fall for his own blonde, femme fatale mirror image, I was left somewhat speechless. As you know, I’m all about making Sayid the leader of the losties who are sometimes the most dunderheaded wahoos on the planet.

But we found out last night that Sayid remains a follower in many ways on the island and off of it as well. With the Iraqi Republican Guard, he followed orders. On the Island, he followed orders and we see that not much changes as he was revealed to be one of the Oceanic Six. But is he a just a killer for hire or does he have a mission because “they” are going to know that he’s after them. And in a surprise appearance, Ben, who was healing his gunshot wounds at a vet’s office for pete’s sake, said “Good.”

If you haven’t seen it, I’ll put my weekly ramblings and observations after the jump.

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