July 2012
"Have you ever spied on anyone?" Here is a list of questions that Scientology asks a six-year-old in order to vet them because clearly these guys have the patent on guilt and sadness. →
blogs.villagevoice.com
A+ divorce move, Katie Holmes. We should have talked several years ago, but you know what? You eventually showed up at the party, and that is what counts.
Alec Baldwin & Hilaria Thomas Are Married! →
people.com
The 30 Rock star, 54, and yoga instructor, who is at least 25 years his junior, wed on Saturday at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in New York, a friend of the couple’s confirms to PEOPLE.
The bride – who’ll now take Baldwin’s name – wore a silk magnolia trumpet Amsale gown with cap sleeves and a keyhole back neckline accented with crystal buttons.
Amsale also dressed Hilaria’s mother and Baldwin’s daughter Ireland. Baldwin had a tuxedo by Tom Ford.The Rev. George Deas performed the ceremony, which was conducted in English with readings in Spanish (the bride grew up mostly in Spain), and guests included Baldwin’s costar Tina Fey and his brothers Stephen and Billy Baldwin.
Also attending were Woody Allen and wife Soon Yi, Mariska Hargitay, Robert Kennedy Jr. and Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels.
June 2012
This article. You should read it. →
rollingstone.com
…[E]mergency food stamps, she was told, are not for imminent emergencies; they’re for emergencies already in progress. You can’t get them if you can make it through the next week – you have to be down to the last few meals you can afford.
“The money’s for my phone, it’s for gas, it’s for my bills,” Adkins said.
“Why are you in a crisis,” the woman asked, “when you have a phone bill?”
“I need the phone so I can get a job. You can’t look for a job without a phone.”
“Why do you have bills?” the woman asked. “I thought you didn’t have a place to live.”
“I live in my van,” Adkins said. “I have insurance.”
“You have a 2007 van,” the woman said. “I think you need to sell that.”
“Please, I need a break,” Adkins said. “I need some help. I need to take a shower.”
“Why didn’t you have a shower?”
“I live in a van.”
The woman told Adkins to come back when she really needed help.
(via sylvysparrow)
“He stuttered when he was young,” says Richardson. “He’s stuttered all his life, actually. I think it was something honestly as he got older he tried to hide. When it came out in the media it was just a shock to his system but it was also a relief at how people embraced it. “But more importantly he has to understand that every day you wake up is to be a blessing to somebody else. We don’t wake up for ourselves. And there’s some kids out there, some adults out there, that stutter and they have a hard time with it. “They are not comfortable in their own skin. They suffer from a low self-esteem. Michael walks in confidence, he really, really does. And I just think he was a blessing to a lot of people.” The blessing: Here’s the youngest player in the NBA; he’s 18 and won’t turn 19 until September. Look how tall he is. Look how elegant. Look at the great life he lives. And he stutters, and he’s not ashamed. So why should anybody else be? “He’s had a speech pathologist for quite some time,” says Richardson. “He’s been in speech since third grade. But like any stutterer it will never go away. So now he’s at the point where (he’ll say), ‘Mom, I love who I am.’ And he should.”
—Tom Sorensen: Mother’s love speaks volumes for Bobcats’ draft pick Kidd-Gilchrist
“In 2009, when Holmes reportedly enrolled 3-year-old Suri in a Catholic pre-school, the Daily Mail presented it as a victory for her. (“Holmes, 30, has not been seen at the Church of Scientology for more than five months,” the paper reported). It’s more than likely that in coming weeks the barrage of gossip emerging about the couple’s split will include details about their religious rift. What are the odds Holmes remains a Scientologist post-divorce? This is shaping up to be a crummy season for Scientology. New Yorker writer Paul Haggis is said to be writing an exposé of the church. The movie The Master, due in the fall, takes a highly critical look at a church/cult that appears awfully similar to Scientology. And of course, Scientologist John Travolta has been inundated with lawsuits from several men, including massage therapists and a personal assistant, alleging he made unwanted sexual advances, including asking one of the men to “take me.” This is not the sort of scandal Travolta can fix by simply kissing his wife on the red carpet, though he did try.”
—Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes split, Scientology won’t fare well
“I could have just scratched after bars and said, ‘I’m finished,’” Liukin said. She didn’t, and patiently answered question after question in the aftermath and has no plans to skip out on the finals. “I was taught at a young age by my mom and dad to never give up and that’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to finish what I started,” Liukin said. Her father and coach Valeri stood quietly off to the side watching his daughter talk about a career that has taken her to the greatest heights. “I’m sure she wants to cry right now, I’m sure that will come later,” he said. “She’s very tough. Very strong.”
—Defending Olympic champion Nastia Liukin falters again as London prospects dim - The Washington Post
Life sucks if you use Instagram, Netflix or Pinterest right now. A huge storm knocked out an Amazon data farm in Virginia which ran all three. →
venturebeat.com
An outage of Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud in North Virginia has taken down Netflix, Pinterest, Instagram, and other services. According to numerous Twitter updates and our own checks, all three services are unavailable as of Friday evening at 9:10 p.m. PT.
Amazon’s service health dashboard indicates that there are power issues in its North Virginia data center, most likely caused by severe storms in the region.
OH GOD THE POWER IS OUT AND NETFLIX IS DOWN. WHAT DO I DO? — Ernie @ SFB
Update (7:45 a.m.): Netflix and Pinterest? Back up. (Hearing word Instagram is still down, though.) Bigger problem? The power’s still out. More than 2 million lost power in the Mid-Atlantic region last night. Mind you, it was insanely hot yesterday, so this is bad.
“Sometime that week, her friends say, she flew to Los Angeles for a meeting with Cruise about a role in “Mission: Impossible 3.” The meeting took place after April 11. The next time anyone heard from Holmes was on April 27, when she appeared in public as Cruise’s girlfriend and love of his life. Where was she during those 16 days? Somewhere during that time, she decided to fire both her manager and agent, each of whom she had been with for years and who were devoted to her. The manager, John Carrabino, also handles Renée Zellweger and is beloved by his clients. Holmes also acquired a new best friend, Jessica Feshbach, the daughter of Joe Feshbach, a controversial Palo Alto, Calif., bond trader. The Feshbach family, according to published documents, has donated millions to the Church of Scientology. Jessica’s aunt even runs a Scientology center in Florida.”
—
Katie Holmes’ Missing Days | Fox News
Reading this article from 2005 about the beginning of Tom and Katie’s ‘relationship’. Chills, man. I’d forgotten just how creepy this all was.
Shawn Johnson cheering on Gabby!
So sweet. Loved how nervous Shawn looked for her.
The third baby chicken died. →
apsies.tumblr.com
That’s four total in the last two months for those keeping score at home. I don’t even want to discuss it.
I just felt like I should provide some kind of update to the previous post.
I am the worst. I’m never hatching eggs again.
Obviously the Cruise/Holmes marriage is the first casualty in the wake of the Chief Justice’s belief that the Commerce Clause “is not a general license to regulate an individual from cradle to grave.”
Things Pinterest has made me hate
TUMBLR.
JESUS CHRIST ON A GODDAMN CRACKER, PEOPLE.
P.S. Tom and Katie are divorcing? Whoa. I never thought Katie would get away.
How should I respond to this?
President Obama stated plainly that there would be absolutely no tax increases on anyone making less than 250,000 per year. Looks like those who cannot afford insurance and don’t have good enough jobs that will pay for their health insurance are about to see about a $2000 tax increase per year. Why hurt the working man like that?
So I hear Obamacare passed.
And a whole load of Republicans are threatening to move to Canada in light of this?
Should- should somebody tell them?
No, no, no. Let’s let it be a surprise.
“It’s “going to be a bit of a tough day,” she told USA TODAY in a 40-minute phone interview Wednesday, sounding as though she were fighting back tears. “I’m going to have to tell our viewers. That’s what makes me more emotional than anything. I don’t want to leave them. I love them. And I will really miss them.”
—‘Today’ co-host Ann Curry will bid farewell today – USATODAY.com
“I warn you in advance that because the line is long, it’s going to be hard for us to pose for individual pictures for everybody. The exceptions that we make are kids who are 12 and under. How ‘bout that? That’s going to be our cutoff. So little kids, if you want a picture, I don’t mind, I can’t say no to little kids. You bigger folks, you’re just going to get a handshake and maybe a kiss. Unless you haven’t shaved, in which case, you know.”
—Obama plays nice at W.H. picnic - POLITICO.com
“My mom is in Finland today, her 99th country as Secretary of State. Tomorrow she will be in Latvia, #100. The previous record, held by Secretary Albright, was 96 countries — and my mom still has (at least) six months to go!”
—Chelsea Clinton
“With the exception of the imperial offspring of the Ming dynasty and the dauphins of pre-Revolutionary France, contemporary American kids may represent the most indulged young people in the history of the world. It’s not just that they’ve been given unprecedented amounts of stuff—clothes, toys, cameras, skis, computers, televisions, cell phones, PlayStations, iPods. (The market for Burberry Baby and other forms of kiddie “couture” has reportedly been growing by ten per cent a year.) They’ve also been granted unprecedented authority. “Parents want their kids’ approval, a reversal of the past ideal of children striving for their parents’ approval,” Jean Twenge and W. Keith Campbell, both professors of psychology, have written. In many middle-class families, children have one, two, sometimes three adults at their beck and call. This is a social experiment on a grand scale, and a growing number of adults fear that it isn’t working out so well: according to one poll, commissioned by Time and CNN, two-thirds of American parents think that their children are spoiled.”
—Why are American kids so spoiled? | The New Yorker (via kateoplis)
“The thing about Hillary,” a senior official in Bill Clinton’s administration once told me privately, “is that she is always the Girl Scout.”
—Hillary Clinton’s Last Tour as a Rock-Star Diplomat - NYTimes.com
“Ms. Ephron’s collection “I Remember Nothing” concludes with two lists, one of things she says she won’t miss and one of things she will. Among the “won’t miss” items are dry skin, Clarence Thomas, the sound of the vacuum cleaner, and panels on “Women in Film.” The other list, of the things she will miss, begins with “my kids” and “Nick” and ends this way:
“Taking a bath
Coming over the bridge to Manhattan
Pie.” —Nora Ephron, Essayist, Screenwriter and director, Dies at 71 - NYTimes.com
“Taking a bath
Coming over the bridge to Manhattan
Pie.” —Nora Ephron, Essayist, Screenwriter and director, Dies at 71 - NYTimes.com
“Think Mamma Mia only replace Dancing Queen with Wannabe and Waterloo with Spice Up Your Life and “the story of a beautiful, talented girl and her best friends who get swept up in the obsession of today’s TV celebrity culture”. Please. The show will open at the Piccadilly Theatre on December 11. Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you want to see it. I’ll probably see it twice. You realise what happens if Viva Forever is a smash hit? In 50 years they’ll still be singing Say You’ll Be There; their music will be immortal. Am I delirious or just hung over? I can’t believe I just wrote that. So, you know, Viva Forever indeed.”
—The Spice Girls announced a stage production based on their songs. I WANT TO GO THERE.
“Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life. Well, valuable, but small. And sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven’t been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn’t it be the other way around? I don’t really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. So goodnight, dear void.”
—
Rest in sweet peace, Nora Ephron. Thank you so much for the gifts you’ve left with the world.
“Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and “Grey’s Anatomy” star Jesse Williams will head up a benefit for the Clinton Foundation Millennium Network Thursday at House of Blues.”
—
That’s a whole lot of handsome for one room.
“Anthony Davis, who will likely be taken as the No. 1 pick in this Thursday’s NBA Draft by the New Orleans Hornets, is getting down to business — literally. Davis, known for his connected eyebrows, trademarked the phrases “Fear The Brow” and “Raise The Brow” earlier this month. “I don’t want anyone to try to grow a unibrow because of me and then try to make money off of it,” Davis told CNBC. “Me and my family decided to trademark it because it’s very unique.”
—
Anthony Davis Trademarks His Brow - CNBC
