POP CULTURE-Engineering Wonder-a Water Bridge! Couric Continues to Tank as Anchor

Catching up on Pop Culture for the new year, we begin with the first baby born this New Year only NOT.....

And what’s up with Disney’s Tigger? We’ve got a video of the incident, with some excellent narration that explains what exactly went down.

Katie Couric continues to tank as CBS anchor and an amazing engineering feat....a WATER BRIDGE!

Some media nuggets and blind items asked and guessed round out this week's Pop Culture Update.

Pic of the Day

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Quote of the Day Re the New Year: The Old Year has gone. Let the dead past bury its own dead. The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time. All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months! --Edward Payson Powell Never tell your resolution beforehand, or it's twice as onerous a duty. --John Selden New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights. --Hamilton Wright Mabie Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. --Oprah Winfrey Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. --Hal Borland An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. --Bill Vaughan Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. --Benjamin Franklin New Year's Day is every man's birthday. --Charles Lamb The merry year is born Like the bright berry from the naked thorn. --Hartley Coleridge

Web Site Worth the Visit Funny Cats Here’s a quick video compilation of cats getting themselves into all sorts of trouble. Click in for a feline smile. CLICK HERE

TIDBITS Rejected Metaphors & Similes (from an upcoming novel based on "24") ...The information that Jack Bauer found imbedded on the stolen computer chip was like an explosive so explosive it could explode, creating a massive explosion. ...Nina Myers' blazing eyes danced like Astaire and Rogers, but since they were crossed on account of the intense pain she was experiencing, it was an ocular tango, and Jack's eyes had to foxtrot just to maintain eye contact. ...Ramon Salazar had a voice so husky it could have pulled a dogsled, and the gun he was holding gave Nina a bad case of barrel envy. ...Sherry's parting words lingered heavily inside David Palmer's gut like last night's Taco Bell. ...The neon sign reflected off Chloe's gun, like the moonlight reflects off my brother-in-law's bald head after a night of beer drinking and cow-tipping. ...The killer was a misplaced comma in the jaunty, happy sentence that made up the party crowd. ...A single drop of sweat slowly inched down Jack's brow -- a tiny, glistening Times Square New Year's Eve Ball of desperation.

 


Out of Control Tigger Terrorizing Disney MGM

A smart alec adolescent gets it into his head that it would be really cool to mess with the Tigger character at California’s Disney theme park. So the kid grabs the back of Tigger’s costume and the Tigger character, peripherally blind from the costume’s headpiece design, instinctively waves his big paw all about and manages to swat the smart alec teenager.

The poor widdle adolescent got a face swat with a big furry costumed paw and now his parents are suing Disney.

From WESH.com:

Union representative Donna Lyne Dalton said it was the teenager who was agitating the character, and she said it is clear from the videotape that the boy's parents were telling him not to get so close to Tigger.

Well here in America one can sue for anything and I’m betting right now that Disney will likely give these folks some bucks to make them go away.

Let the record show, however, that this kid’s parents had warned their son about bothering Tigger BEFORE the incident. Watch the video below to see how this all came down.



The story of the crazed Tigger wildly attacking innocent adolescents has captured the fancy of the public. The phenomena of YouTube helps things along so the public too can join in the debate.

What I see is a snarky teenager paying no attention to his father’s warning. Perhaps these folks will get some blood money from Disney but I, for one and not that they much care, will never think much of those parents for allowing their adolescent to not only engage in such silly behavior, but for allowing him to be rewarded for it as well.

Media Nuggets

Thanks for Anita at FreeRepublic.com.

Wash.Post's Dana Milbank admits - WH press corps worse than Hugo Chavez.

How low can they go! - Church Slimed By the Wash.Post

NBC getting a lesson from - Jessica Gaulke, Beauty-Queen Soldier

NYTimes public editor Byron Calame revealed that the paper had seriously misrepresented a key fact in a story about abortion. Now public editor job is in jeopardy!

Water Bridge in Germany

Well I just thought this was so neat. Below a pic and below that, some details on this engineering marvel.

Six years, 500 million euros, 918 meters long.......now this is engineering!

This is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany, as part of the unification project. It is located in the city of Magdeburg, near Berlin. The photo was taken on the day of inauguration.

To those who appreciate engineering projects, here's a puzzle for you armchair engineers and physicists. Did that bridge have to be designed to withstand the additional weight of ship and barge traffic, or just the weight of the water?

Answer:

It only needs to be designed to withstand the weight of the water!
Why? A ship always displaces an amount of water that weighs the same as the ship, regardless of how heavily a ship may be loaded.

BLIND ITEM FUN

ASKED

WHICH ubiquitous blond clotheshorse is gaining a reputation for being dumb as a brick, obnoxious, spoiled and hard to work with? Look for several business deals to fall through next year due to her waning appeal . . .

GUESSED

Paris Hilton or Sienna Miller.
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ASKED

WHICH terrifyingly thin celeb convinced friends she needs to re-enter rehab for anorexia by telling them she survives on decaf Starbucks and mixed nuts? . . .

GUESSED

Nicole Richie or Kate Bosworth.
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From: PANACHE REPORT 12/24
ASKED

This non-black actor comes off as macho and he likes to strut around and flaunt his masculinity. In reality: He's impotent due to steroids and once relied on a sexual device, "the pump" to become sexually aroused. This is why he's so generous to women, including his former and current wives, because he lacks in the sex department. He's also controlling and his wife can't leave the house unless he inspects her clothes.
When he takes a woman out to dinner, he orders dinner for her and all of his mistresses are referred to his physician for a AIDS test despite the fact he's not sexually functional.

GUESSED

I'm thinking Sylvester Stallone.....
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Katie Couric Not Doing Well at CBS

Us idiots in the Blogosphere predicted right along that Couric as vaunted news anchor would never work.

And folks, it has not.

How on earth is Katie going to save her job and reputation?

And who the hell cares?



From Marketwatch.com:

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Katie Couric's discouraging prospects are becoming clearer with each new disheartening television ratings update.

I wonder if anyone at CBS has concluded that the time has come to move Couric back to where she belonged, all along: early-morning television. I suspect that could find a place for Katie on the couch, yukking it up with Harry, Hannah and Julie.

Richard Gere, Friend to “Sex Workers”

Well he did play a fellow who found himself a beautiful prostitute in the movie “Pretty Woman”. This factoid does, of course, make him an expert.

Dear Lord I must ask myself that of all the causes for a celebrity to embrace, why would one go all the way over to India to rouse up a group of so-called “sex workers”? Shouldn’t the country of India be doing this?

From the NY Post.com:

RICHARD Gere supports hookers. The 57-year-old star whipped up a pep rally of 10,000 sex workers in Mumbai, India, this week, getting them to chant, "No condoms, no sex!" at an AIDS awareness event.

Not that there’s anything wrong with doing one’s part to prevent AIDS, mind you.

Just odd, and a good snort to boot.

Controversy Over First Baby of New Year

At first “Toys ‘R’ Us” stuck to its guns. Its contest to award the first baby born in 2007 a $25,000 prize had a rule that the entrant had to be a legal citizen of the United States.

From Yahoo.com:

NEW YORK - After coming under fire for denying a Chinese-American infant a $25,000 prize in a New Year's baby contest because her mother was not a legal U.S. resident, Toys "R" Us Inc. said Saturday evening that it had reversed its decision.

The company said it would award each of the three babies in the grand prize pool of the "First Baby of the Year Sweepstakes" a $25,000 savings bond. Toys "R" us is the parent company of Babies "R" Us, which sponsored the contest.

The baby is now an American citizen by virtue of America’s “anchor-baby” rule but its parents are illegal aliens.

Now “Toys ‘R’ Us” has backed down from its original decision to not allow the parents to win the prize due to that little matter of the rules. The original decision by “Toys ‘R’ Us” was greeted by Americans as a shot across the bow against illegal aliens.

Ah so. Turns out that “Toys ‘R’ Us” has just opened its first store in mainland China and…

So the illegal alien will win the prize for all is far in capitalism and war.

More Gossip/Speculation HERE


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