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January, 2006 Archives | Homepage
Lindsay Lohan and the Mystery of the China Teacup
The New York Daily News reports on the strangest Lindsay Lohan hospitilization story yet: La Lohan was taking a shower at Bryan Adams' mansion in London, then after she was fully moisturized, she started drinking a cup of tea and climbing the stairs, and then...well, here's her mother's explanation of why she ultimatley needed 10 stitches in her leg:
"Lindsay was going up the stairs, carrying a ceramic teacup," Dina Lohan told Star. "She had just come out of the shower, so she was still wet and had some lotion on, and she completely flipped on the stairs. ... The teacup went flying, it was shattered and one of the pieces cut Lindsay on her shin."This story from Dina Lohan raises so many questions that it's hard to know where to start, but we'll dive right in. 1) What in the world was Lindsay Lohan doing at Bryan Adams' mansion in London? News reports show that on the day of the accident he was giving a charity concert in Pakistan, of all places. Was she house-sitting? Did she rent the house? Is she dating Bryan Adams? It's mystifying. 2) Why did Dina feel compelled to tell us that Lindsay had just gotten out of the shower and had put on lotion? Was she worried that the press might report that she failed to moisturize properly? Was it to explain how slippery she was? 3) What kind of murderous china does Bryan Adams have in his house that is so sharp when broken that it cuts open an inches-long gash in one's shin when dropped? We'd go on, but we're feeling kind of faint now. Perhaps a nice cup of tea would do the trick. We'll be heading upstairs now, wish us luck! Posted on January 31, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati The Facism of Blue Sky Thinking
Have you ever heard of the Blue Sky Appreciation Society? It's mission is to counter the facism of blue-sky thinking. The site has pictures of beautiful and unusual cloud formations. It also features a cloud of the month and clouds that look like things, like this amazing blue zombie cloud shot by Graeme Ferris in Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
"Clouds are for dreamers, and their contemplation benefits the soul," www.cloudappreciationsociety.com says on its homepage. Yahoo!, the search engine, nominated the Cloud Appreciation Society site after finding that at one point last year it was receiving seven million visits a month. It takes a poetic, aesthetic view of clouds rather than a meteorological one, and quotes John Ruskin on the sky: "Sometimes gentle, sometimes capricious, sometimes awful, never the same for two moments together; almost human in its passions, almost spiritual in its tenderness, almost divine in its infinity."This is of crucial importance -- stop what you're doing immediately and walk outside. Now, which of those clouds looks like Napoleon Dynamite? Your boss will understand. Now, shout it out with us: "Death to the fascism of blue-sky thinking!" Posted on January 30, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati For those of you who have been feeling down over the news that David Hasselhoff's marriage appears headed for divorce, here's a little something to cheer you up: a video of the man himself singing "Hooked on a Feeling."
We know it's the most awe-inspiring, happening video you've ever seen. Thank god The Superficial decided to re-post the link -- sadly, we had missed it the first time. Posted on January 27, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati Meter Pops in D.C. These Meter Pops placed in D.C. by artist Mark Jenkins are quite a sight. One man was curious enough to want to touch one of the Meter Pops. We wonder how long it was before law enforcement finally came by and removed them. You can see more street installations by Jenkins on his website and blog. One of the comments on the Wooster Collective blog says the Meter Pops were inspired by a Belgian comic book.
Posted on January 25, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati
When they're not fighting off burdensome, privacy-invading, intrusive government subpeonas, the folks at Google spend their time investigating the myriad of uses for 250 lbs of Silly Putty.
Not long ago, I walked by the desk of software engineer JJ Furman, and saw that he had made an interesting addition to his desk: a large blob of Silly Putty, about the size of a grapefruit. Intrigued, I asked how he'd gotten so much of the stuff. The answer? A bulk order directly from the manufacturer! Of course.We say: respond to the subpoena by mailing the government one ton of Silly Putty. Posted on January 24, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati The Deposition of Paris Hilton TMZ tracked down a copy of the transcript of the deposition of Paris Hilton, and it's a doozy. Hilton is being sued for defaming Zeta Graff. Ms. Graff claims that Hilton placed libelous stories about her in the gossip column Page Six. So, opposing counsel got the joy of firing questions at Paris. It's unclear whether her answers caused anyone any joy, though.
In her deposition, Paris is asked about a companion that night whose first name was Terry. When asked if she knew his last name, Paris replied: "It is like a weird Greek name. Like Douglas." Paris was also asked if she was aware that the article had been republished in various newspapers. Graff's lawyer, Paul Berra, asked, "Were there U.K. publications?" Hilton responded: "No... there is stuff in London." Paris' lawyer, Larry Stein, jumped in: "London is a U.K. publication." Paris' retort: "Right. U.K. Whatever."Here are some more delightful excerpts from the deposition transcript: Paris on friendship:That's so....Zen. We kind of feel the same way about blogging. Posted on January 23, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati Tom Cruise really outdid himself when buying his fiancee Katie Holmes a 27th birthday present. What could it be, you're asking. A diamond ring? A yacht? A new house? Nope, it's much better than that: he gave her a matched set of DVDs of every movie he's ever been in.
The War of the Worlds star, 43, decided there was no better gift for his wife-to-be than a full history of his long and fruitful career. A source tells British newspaper the Daily Express, "Each was inscribed with a special handwritten love message to the future mother of his child."What did he inscribe up the DVD cover of his naughty film starring ex-wife Nicole Kidman, Eyes Wide Shut? We can only imagine. Posted on January 20, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati Scientists Create Glow in the Dark Pigs Those fun-loving Taiwanese scientists are at it again: they've created glow in the dark pigs.
They claim that while other researchers have bred partly fluorescent pigs, theirs are the only pigs in the world which are green through and through. The pigs are transgenic, created by adding genetic material from jellyfish into a normal pig embryo. The researchers hope the pigs will boost the island's stem cell research, as well as helping with the study of human disease.You know that it's just a matter of time before one of these scientists goes all Jeckyll and Hyde on us and injects himself with the jellyfish DNA. Posted on January 19, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati People magazine reports that William Shatner auctioned off his kidney stone to benefit Habitat for Humanity. A fan paid $25,000 for the stone, which presumably Shatner saved after passing it for just such an occasion. The sale of the 74-year-old Shatner's kidney stone was organized by the online casino site GoldenPalace.com, the Associated Press reports. "This takes organ donors to a new height, to a new low, maybe. How much is a piece of me worth?" said Shatner. GoldenPalace.com CEO Richard Rowe called the actor's contribution "a bold new addition to our fleet." "This would be the first Habitat for Humanity house built out of stone," joked Darren Julien, president of Los Angeles-based Julien's Auctions, which handled the sale.But what is the fan going to do with William Shatner's kidney stone? Perhaps it's best not to know. Posted on January 18, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati The Brain Spa Head Massager Here's a nice new product to relieve some of that stress: the Brain Spa Head Massager from Gadget Universe. Here's the ad copy:
This patented Italian design incorporates Japanese engineering and utilizes acupressure to relax and soothe your problems away. It’s like thousands of tiny fingers simultaneously massaging your scalp. Simply place our Brain Spa Head Massager on your head and feel the tension miraculously leave your body. Suitable for any age, this massager stimulates blood circulation and helps to relieve stress. Use it at your desk at work. You can use it on your morning commute in traffic. Use it while relaxing at home in front of the TV after a long day. Its rechargeable battery makes it totally portable and easy to use anytime and anywhere. It’s like a Spa for your brain and your soul.Oh, please. We watch Alias. This is exactly the kind of thing that Sloane would give you for your birthday -- then every time you used it, your brain would be sucked dry of all valuable intel. (Hat tip to Gadgetizer.) Posted on January 17, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati iTunes and Privacy Issues The BBC reports on the iTunes controversy: bloggers discovered that a feature on iTunes was tracking user information without disclosing the info to users. The row arose following the update to the iTunes software released by Apple on 10 January. The new version includes a MiniStore feature that recommends tracks to buy similar to those a user is listening to. MiniStore looks for similar tracks when a user clicks on a tune in a playlist. It even makes recommendations about songs that were not bought via the hugely popular online music store. iTunes sends data about the song selected in your library to the iTunes Music Store to provide relevant recommendations. When the MiniStore is hidden, this data is not sent to the iTunes Music Store.The bottom line is that every service that recommends personalized products to you is tracking your preferences. We have no problem with that so long as everything is disclosed to the customer: otherwise, Amazon.com would have trouble recommending cool new books and CDs to us. But the problem arises when the company does something else with the information it has collected: like sell it to a third party. And that we do have a problem with. Posted on January 16, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati As we were perusing The New York Times last week, we ran across an investigative, in-depth article about how to make the best homemade macaroni and cheese. There's a war on and Sam Alito's confirmation hearings are going on, but hey -- why not spend those journalistic resources on something really important, right?
Anyway, we read the article which struck us as really odd. The author argues vehemently against using a white sauce as the base of macaroni and cheese and instead advocates using cheese and noodles -- and that's about it. That sounded like a great way to get a lot of lumpy cheese and some macaroni with a really tough, leathery top. But we let it pass. But apparently, we weren't the only ones to notice the great Macaroni and Cheese Debate that the Times started. Sara Dickerman over at Slate also saw that recipe and was surprised to find that the recipe for Crusty Macaroni and Cheese remained one of the most-emailed stories at the Times for the past nine days. That's a lot of people reading about how to make really awful macaroni and cheese. [S]omething about the recipe looked off to me. It accompanied an article in which Julia Moskin, whose food reporting I greatly admire, detailed her search for the ideal macaroni and cheese: "Nothing more than tender elbows of pasta suspended in pure molten cheddar, with a chewy, golden-brown crust of cheese on top." A noble goal, certainly. (Kraft was probably trying to evoke something similar when it renamed the dish "cheese and macaroni" in the 1980s.) But Moskin's recipe has odd proportions: a whopping 24 ounces of cheese to a pound of pasta, with just a drizzling of milk to moisten the casserole.If that's not enough to wean you off the kind in the box, well then we can't help you. Posted on January 14, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati The Mystery of the USC Cheerleader and the Inappropriate Cheer
The UCLA fan message board has been discussing this photo of a USC cheerleader showing inappropriate enthusiasm when UT (the opposing team) scored during the Rose Bowl.
So what was she thinking? Did she not realize that it was the other team that scored? Was she a mole placed by the UT cheerleaders to destroy the USC cheerleaders' morale? So far, the mystery remains unsolved.
The look on the other cheerleaders' faces is priceless. (Hat tip to Deadspin). Posted on January 13, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati Lindsay Lohan Backtracks on Vanity Fair Confessions Lindsay Lohan is now denying that she used drugs and that she's bulimic. Lindsay has now hit back, saying she didn't discuss her alleged bulimia with the magazine. In a statement released to America's Teen People magazine, Lindsay said: "The words that I gave to the writer for Vanity Fair were misused and misconstrued, and I'm appalled with the way it was done.After issuing the drug denial, this week Lindsay and new pal Kate Moss "joined forces at Scores strip club early yesterday morning to put on a steamy pole-dance show for 400 slack-jawed male patrons," according to Page Six. The report also notes that Lindsay and Kate made numerous trips to the restroom during the evening. We wonder why. Posted on January 12, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati Britney Spears Named Worst Dressed Britney Spears has been named the Worst Dressed Celebrity by Mr. Blackwell. And as usual, he didn't mince any words, either, saying that Ms. Spears' clothing makes her look like an "over-the-hill Lolita". "When it comes to Couture Chaos, this Tacky Terror should take a bow — she looks like an over-the-hill Lolita," Blackwell said. Spears beat bohemian teen tycoon Mary-Kate Olsen, whose clothes Blackwell called "bag lady rags" and "depressingly decayed". Other offenders on the fashion flop list included Eva Langoria, Jessica Simpson, Mariah Carey, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Renee Zellweger.At least she was at the top of the list, right? Posted on January 11, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati The Star Jones Blogging Drama Newly svelte Star Jones has launched a blog in connection with her new book tour and it's been a really bumpy ride so far. First she posted really strict rules for posting comments. Then the posters went wild and posted horrible, tastless quotes and photos (surprise, surprise). Then, she stopped blogging. Then she started back up. Just Jared has been following it all very closely. Here's a snippet:
Thursday, January 5, 8:47:26 PM ESTAfter reading Just Jared's summary and BloggersBlog's entry on the fiasco, we then decided to head on over to Star's personal website where we encountered this Mission Statement at the top of the homepage: "I am the author of the only dictionary that defines me." After reading that we just gave up. Posted on January 10, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati Pink Marries Corey Hart Pop star Pink married motocross racer and The Surreal Life star Carey Hart in Costa Rica on Saturday, according to People magazine.
More than 100 guests (including Lisa Marie Presley) attended the non-denominational ceremony, which was held on the beach during sunset at the Four Seasons resort and performed by a local officiant. "We just love the beach, so we knew we wanted it to be at the beach," Pink tells PEOPLE.She's lucky he didn't crash his bike with a proposal like that. It's just so charming and romantic. Posted on January 9, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati Nick, Say it Isn't So! People magazine horrifies everyone by reporting on a really bizarre interview Nick Lachey gave to Elle magazine.
Nick Lachey reveals in an interview that he used to put on Jessica Simpson's shoes and walk around in them – "It was sort of a kinky thing we liked to get into," he tells Elle magazine.This is just way too much information about the secrets of Nick and Jessica's (now defunct) marriage. But it also raises some crucial questions: 1) What size shoes does Jessica Simpson wear that Nick could fit into them? 2) Who in their right mind would find Nick Lachey prancing around in women's shoes to be sexy? and 3) Was Nick on mind-altering substances during the Elle interview or did some sly French journalistic temptress somehow trick him into saying those things? We won't rest until we know. Posted on January 6, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati Lindsay Comes Clean to Vanity Fair
Lindsay Lohan tells all in the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair. She admits to bulimia, trying drugs and having problems because of her family situation and her breakup with Wilmer Valderrama.
Vanity Fair's Evgenia Peretz spent several days with Lindsay and learned about the actress' publicized shrinking act. "When she got out of the hospital after shooting Herbie, she had lost 15 pounds," Peretz told us. "She liked how she looked and she continued to lose weight and part of that included some bulimic episodes."On Monday night, Lindsay was admitted to Miami's Mount Sinai Medical Center with a severe asthma attack. She has suffered from asthma since she was 2 years old. We hope Lindsay gets better soon and stays away from a) nose candy and b) Wilmer Valderrama. She can do better. Posted on January 5, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati She's Not With the Band People magaizne informs us that Mischa Barton is no groupie: in fact, she appears to be bored to tears when forced to endure a set by Cisco Adler and his band Whitestarr. One could never mistake Mischa Barton for a groupie. When her boyfriend, Whitestarr frontman Cisco Adler, played the Roxy in L.A., she spent the time chatting with friends, playing with her Sidekick and barely watching the show. "Every time Cisco would look over at her, she was not even paying attention," says an observer. "It was hard to tell if she was just trying to play it cool or if she was bored out of her skull." The O.C. star did give her beau one sign of acknowledgement, however. When Adler gave her a shout-out from the stage, saying, "Hey baby doll," she responded with a sheepish wave.If you haven't already been forced to see the incredibly disturbing pictures of Cisco Adler, then by all means don't click here. Run, Mischa, run! Posted on January 4, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati Mariah Carey's Eating Habits Cindy Adams of The New York Post examines the backstage eating habits of superstar Mariah Carey. What she discovers is quite puzzling: Superhot again Mariah Carey's concert contracts specify she be provided with Cristal champagne and flutes, Simple Peche sparkling wine, complete Celestial Seasonings tea setup, Wet & Dry handywipes, Dove liquid soap, Famous Amos Fatfree bars, S&W stuffed olives, Newman's Own popcorn, Tostitos mild salsa, lemon Ricola drops, Borden's evaporated milk, Drake's coffee cake, Dijon mustard (with the evaporated milk and coffee cake???), Coca-Cola Classic, lite low lean whole wheat bread. So what's she want under her tree? Tums?That has got to be the strangest collection of food and drink we've seen in awhile. But there could be an explanation. The tea, wipes, fatfreebars, Ricola drops, and lite bread all make sense for a singer who is watching her weight and her voice. The popcorn, salsa, coffee cake, and Coke Classic are for her bodyguards. That works. But what in the world is the Dijon mustard for? It's driving us crazy. Posted on January 3, 2006 Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati |
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