Everything is Beautiful to Designer John Galliano
I am not fashionable and don't attend many fashion shows. But, if I were such a chap I would have sold my soul to have seen John Galliano's spring/summer 2006 collection presented in Paris last October.
I ran into some
photos and
video of the show on British Vogue's Web site. For all of the grief people give models and the fashion industry this was a show that asserted "Everything is Beautiful." Contrasting pairs of real people in all shapes and sizes made this an interesting concept. It seems the show was well received and I doubt that anything quite like it will ever happen again. It had an Argentinian-Old Cinema-Cirque du Fellini sort of vibe. Clever!
(Check the photos and if you want to watch the video keep in mind that you can advance it if you want to skip to the actual show.)
Wal-Mart benefits formula drains Medicaid funds
Maryland's Senate voted Thursday to enact a first-in-the-nation requirement that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. spend more on employee health care despite the governor's veto of the legislation. The measure, touted as a money-saver for Medicaid, now goes to the House for a vote. At least 30 state legislatures are considering similar bills.
Larry King and Andy Rooney on Katie Couric (figuratively)
Should this woman deliver the news? (right)LARRY KING interviewed ANDY ROONEY recently. They discussed, among other things, CBS executives' dream to plant KATIE COURIC at the CBS News anchor desk (you know, the desk that WALTER CRONKITE sat behind for 19 years?) As the CNN transcript proves, Rooney had a much better idea.KING: No, OK. Who is going to replace Schieffer?
ROONEY: Well, maybe Schieffer, you know, he's embarrassing the hell out of CBS.
KING: He's doing good.
ROONEY: The ratings keep going up. And they keep talking about replacing him for somebody. I mean, you know, they're talking about giving Katie Couric $20 million. I say take that $20 million you could buy 40 reporters, 40 new reporters. You could give them each $250,000.
I mean, there are hundreds of reporters who would jump at getting $250,000. So take that $20 million don't give to it Katie. Give it to a bunch of reporters and make CBS news the best news report in the world.
KING: Have them everywhere.
ROONEY: Have them everywhere. Open up the bureaus we used to have in Buenos Aires and Warsaw, Poland. We used to have them everywhere. Open those up again with that $20 million. Katie will be all right without it.
KING: And keep Schieffer?
ROONEY: Keep Schieffer, of course.
Bush calls great political minds to WH...and listens to them for 5 to 10 minutes?
"But if it was a bipartisan consultation, as advertised by the White House, it was a brief one. Mr. Bush allowed 5 to 10 minutes for interchange with the group - which included three veterans of the Vietnam era...before herding the whole group into the Oval Office for what he called a 'family picture.'
But a lot of bitterness remains, and several of the former cabinet members invited on Thursday observed that Mr. Bush had waited more than 1,000 days into the war in Iraq - and after many mistakes had been made - to gather together the men and one woman who once held their own skull sessions in that room, and who once used the West Wing as a backdrop for arguments over Vietnam and Somalia, the Balkans and the 1991 Gulf war."
-- New York Times (photo: New York Times)
DOLPHINS: A threat to heterosexual marriage?
My friend Karin has a short list of (known) peeves. She does not like musicals or any situations where people spontaneously break out in song, she does not like Renaissance Faires, she does not like it when my dog slobbers in or on her car, she does not like it when the food on her plate blends together and she definitely does not like swimming with the dolphins or anybody who swims - or swam - with the dolphins. When I saw the story below, I just had to forward it to Karin. "British tourist Sharon Tendler has finally made her dream match - by "marrying" a dolphin she has been visiting for 15 years in the Israeli resort of Eilat, the mass-circulation Yediot Ahronot daily reported. Tendler, 41, has been visiting the city on the Gulf of Aqaba two or three times a year to spend time with her 35-year-old underwater sweetheart."
-- Sydney Morning Herald
(full story)
(slideshow & video)
Lose weight on the WaPo diet
Give yourself a fright. Try the Washington Post's
Fast Food calorie and fat counter
You'll be sad you did!
Best Sex Writing of 2005: Bah Humpbug
End of the year journalism can be routine and predicatable. I complain about assignments that involve the assembly of "best of" lists and end-of-year "roundups." My lists and round-ups usually involve movies and the looming awards season.
Thank heavens I don't have to compile an
anthology of sex writing. I can think of nothing worse. It is a sad fact that "best of" lists involve wading through the "worst of" and the "so-so."
I can't complain, but still do. When it comes to cinema, I can almost always find something valuable in a film. Even the worst of films can have excellent lighting or a lone character worthy of attention.
