CURIOSITY KILLS: BEWARE THE LEAD MONKEY Marvel Enterprises says it has halted shipments of Curious George products made in China. And it says it will issue a recall if testing backs up claims by a nonprofit group that says it found a product had an illegally high amount of lead. The allegation was made by the California-based Center for Environmental Health. It says tests on a Curious George doll revealed 10 times the new legal maximum of lead. C-E-H says that it bought the toy at a Toys “R” Us. Marvel spokesman David Collins says his firm will order a […]
PAPERBOY: ‘I Got Yer Subprime Right HERE!’ Edition
BY AMY Z. QUINN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right — these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. Hey, we know how it is — so many words to read, so little time to surf for free porn. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you, freeing up […]
SOAP OPERA: Talk To Your Daughter Before The Beauty Industry Does
BY AMY Z. QUINN Can a commercial, through sheer innovation and noble message, exceed its own status as a cheap marketing tool and become art? Or at the very least an important, buzz-worthy cultural artifact? “Onslaught,” Dove’s latest advert-cum-girlpower call to arms, sure gives it the old college try. It’s the follow-up to the legendarily creepy “Evolution,” which showed how an average-looking model is transformed, through the magic of beauty products and Photoshop, into a diva staring imperiously from a billboard ad. Like its sister video, “Onslaught” isn’t meant for the TV airwaves, aside from snippets in the TV news […]
WORTH REPEATING: Reality Has A Liberal Bias
“That’s right, hate mongers like Media Matters [SEE upper right of blog] take innocent statements like mine, Rush Limbaugh’s, John Gibson‘s, and Bill O’Reilly’s and make them offensive by posting them on the internet, allowing the general public to hear words that were meant for people who already agree with us. Media Matters, you want to end offensive speech? Then stop recording it for people who would be offended.” –Stephen Colbert [via CROOKS & LIARS]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
AWOL G.I. BUSTED IN GREAT PUMPKIN HEIST BENTLEYVILLE, Pa. — A soldier accused of deserting the Army and two other men tried to steal a 200-pound pumpkin from a grocery store, state police said. A trooper on patrol early Thursday saw a pickup truck driving fast out of the store parking lot with two men drinking beer in the truck bed next to the giant gourd, police said. One of the three men, Jordan Ivill, was arrested on a warrant accusing him of leaving the base at Fort Benning, Ga., without leave, police said. Summons charging the two other men […]
VOX POPULI: People Are Strange
From Philly.com a few minutes ago: Hard to say what is more shocking and appalling: That 1502 people actually took the time to vote on such an issue or that 789 people actually want to duly deputize the underpants police. What’s next? Bad breath? Problem hair? Is this what you people want?
WORTH REPEATING: Dead Letter Office
BY DAN RUBIN INQUIRER COLUMNIST What happened to the mailboxes? That’s what Republican committeeman Jim Finnegan wanted to know this summer as he made his twice-a-week rounds through the narrow streets around Kensington and Allegheny. “There used to be three in front of the 7-Eleven at Kensington and Ontario,” Finnegan says. “Then one at Jasper and Ontario, one at Frankford and Ontario, and then one at Jasper and Westmoreland.” That was a few months ago. Now they’re gone. All told, he says, a dozen mailboxes from his division have disappeared. The U.S. Postal Service says it’s aware of the situation. […]
HOLLA: Jay-Z Finds 100th Problem & Bitch Ain’t It
BY JAMES DOOLITTLE If only the fine folks over at Jump the Shark weren’t so television-centric, they’d assuredly recognize that these last few weeks marked a bevy of downtrending “career defining moments” in the lives of hip-hop royalty…and Lansdale’s own Dwight Grant, whose run-ins with Johnny Law are more on point than anything birthed from his creative loins, if only sitcomish by design.Then again, considering how formulaic and rote hip-hop careers have become, why the hell aren’t they TV shows? * JIGGA WHAT? (Tuesday, 9PM – FOX): Beyonce questions Jay‘s manhood after Rocawear loses naming rights to the clothing line […]
ROLLING STONES: She’s A Rainbow
Love it. From Her Satanic Majesty’s Request.
WORTH REPEATING: No Moss On Rolling Stone
In the new Hot Issue — not to be confused with last week’s Best Of Hot Issue or the 100 Hottest Hot Issues issue before that — Rolling Stone declares us smoked habanero HOT, as in they would ‘do’ us, best we can tell. Also they talk to the The Teeth and find out Spank Rock lives in a…wait for it…warehouse. Man! Is that a roll of Certs in Jann Wenner’s pocket or is he just really, really glad to see us? HOT SCENE: Just try to live like this in New York: Peter McDavis, bassist for rising Philadelphia indie […]
WORTH REPEATING: Born In The USA
The Boss on 60 Minutes, in a segment that airs Sunday: In the interview, Springsteen points out the direction in which the U.S. is going, by his estimation. “I think we’ve seen things happen over the past six years that I don’t think anybody ever thought they’d ever see in the United States,” says Springsteen. “When people think of the Unites States’ identity, they don’t think of torture. They don’t think of illegal wiretapping. They don’t think of voter suppression,” he tells Pelley. “They don’t think of no habeas corpus,” he says, referring to the people being held by the […]
TYRANTS CANNOT HIDE ON THEM INTERNETS: Footage The Junta Does Not Want The World To See
BBC: Images of saffron-robed monks leading throngs of people along the streets of Rangoon have been seeping out of a country famed for its totalitarian regime and repressive control of information. The pictures are sometimes grainy and the video footage shaky — captured at great personal risk on mobile phones — but each represents a powerful statement of political dissent. “It is amazing how the Burmese are able through underground networks to get things from outside and inside,” says Vincent Brussels, head of the Asian section of press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders. “Before, they were moving things hand-to-hand and […]
INFINITE JUSTICE: Spare A Square?
[Click image to activate Internet] BREAKING: Judge Denies GOP Senator Larry Craig’s Motion To Rescind Guilty Plea