Wednesday, August 18, 2004

THESE ARE THE HEADLINES....

BOOKS!
I read a book review on Salon.com of Washington Post reporter Jonathan Randal’s new biography of Bin Laden, OSAMA: THE MAKING OF A TERRORIST.

Laura Miller’s review contained this:

“Randal finds an old soccer buddy of bin Laden's who recalls being gently if persistently urged by Osama to attend mosque and make daily prayers more regularly. Bin Laden would stage quiz competitions among his teammates with questions on the Koran and sharia (Islamic law), but would distribute the cakes he had brought to the losers as well as to the rest.”

Doesn’t this sound like a Reality Television/game show in the making? Well, we wouldn’t do Islamic law, of course, but Bible lore, baseball stats, movie trivia…. And all you’d have to give as prizes is cakes! If we could get Osama to host, man, we’d be sitting pretty.

LET IT SNOW
According to the European Environment Agency (Reuters reports) cold winters in Europe could disappear by the year 2080, thanks to global warming.

This will put a serious crimp in the St. Bernard-with-cask-of-brandy-around-neck-avalanche-rescue service industry.

WHY OH WHY DO I LOVE PARIS?
Paris Hilton’s little doggy (“Tinkerbell”) has been found. Oh, and Nickie (Nicky? Nicki?) got married.

PEACE PLAN ACCEPTED!
Muqtada al-Sadr accepted a peace plan Wednesda evening. He and his militia will disarm and leave their Shiite shrine hideout.

Gunfire, however, continued (according to the Associated Press) after the deal was announced.

DUCK’S BREATH DVD!
Still coming.

BEATLES!
It is alleged now that the vacationing guy in Australia who bought a suitcase at a flea market, which contained a trove of Beatles memorabilia, including unreleased recordings, may have been a con man. The contents of the suitcase consists mainly, apparently, of poorly scanned photographs of copies of orginaal material.

But here’s my question:

Does a trove always contain treasure? Do some troves contain, I dunno, garbage, cats, pencils? What exactly is a trove?

MEDIA TROPES!
Lanky socialite.
Radical cleric.

MEDIA TROPES OF YESTERYEAR!
Panamanian strongman.
Dacha.
Chad.

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