Terrible news from the art world:
The authenticity of three paintings attributed to Jackson Pollock has been called into question by anaylsis of the pigments in the paint.
According to experts from the Harvard University Art Museums in Boston, Massachusetts, some pigments in the paint only became available long after the U.S. abstract 'drip'-painting master died in a car crash in 1956.
You will be glad to know that I have completed the rehab required by my unfortunate lapse of judgment in making sarcastic comments about funny-looking people. At first, I looked for a facility that offered weekend rehab, but I finally realized I had too much going on and could not make that much of a time commitment.
Radio talk-show host Neal Boortz pretty much sums up a lot of the way I feel about President Bush:
Other than his determination to defend our country from Islamic radicals and his economy-boosting tax cuts... what real conservative credentials does he have?
[. . .]
And to think this man claims to admire Ronald Reagan. He may admire Reagan, but he's starting to sound like Jimmy Carter.
That silly, silly pastor. Doesn't he know the Super Bowl is as close to a national religion as we have?
The NFL has nixed a church's plans to use a wall projector to show the Colts-Bears Super Bowl game, saying it would violate copyright laws.
When I was at Ball State, about the most exciting thing that happened was when a group of anti-war students threatened to set a dog on fire to protest the Nixon administration's policies. They never intended to actually burn a dog, mind you; they just wanted the attention, which of course they got. Something like this would have really livened things up:
Today's tip for would-be criminals -- make sure your car is in working order:
At around 7:20 Tuesday evening, a trooper pulled over a car driven by 23-year old Halie Long going southbound at the 109 mile marker for having a burned out headlight. The trooper noticed the smell of burned marijuana coming from the car. Long didn't have a driver's license and was taken to the patrol car. An inspection of Long's car turned up a duffel bag with about 17 pounds of marijuana inside.
James Taranto at The Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web Today reports on two views of Obamamania (you'll probably have to click on "previous day" to see it). Slate's Tim Noah has begun a new feature, "the Obama Messiah Watch,"which will collect examples of fawning coverage of Obama in the media, like this, from the Los Angeles Times:
A Fort Wayne coalition is going get some of the $575,000 in federal grants aimed at "fostering stronger connections between families and their fathers." I was struck by this:
"All of the applicants, including this new coalition in Fort Wayne, proposed engaging and practical strategies for helping dads become more involved with their children."
In most careers, if you are obsessed with the job, spend too much time at the office and keep taking work home with you, these days you are likely to be told to get some perspective, put some balance in your life, as in, "You wouldn't put 'Should have spent more time at the office' on your tombstone. would you?" But if you are an NFL quarterback, you are praised for your drive and focus:
It's such a pain having to round up a priest or minister to perform the marriage ceremony, isn't it? What if you could just snag the nearest member of state government? Here's the full text of an Associated Press story that has moved over the wire:
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The governor, lieutenant governor and members of the Indiana General Assembly could officially perform marriages under a bill endorsed Tuesday by a Senate panel.
In pushing for Harrison Square, Mayor Graham Richard is right to stress that it is drawing private investment, a must for any such project to succeed:
“It's not about the baseball stadium, it's about the investors,” Richard said of Hardball Capital, the Atlanta-based company that owns Fort Wayne's minor league team and has committed $5 million to the proposed stadium. “If it were just a downtown stadium, I never would have proposed it.”
This doesn't shock me at all:
When Consumer Reports magazine compared coffee from mega-chain Starbucks with java from three fast-food restaurants, the surprising winner was
Indiana's Sen. Richard Lugar, writing in the Washington Post, seems to be one of the few people in Washington looking beyond Iraq to the larger issues at stake:
The president's plan is an early episode in a much broader Middle East realignment that began with our invasion of Iraq and that may not end for years. Nations throughout the Middle East are scrambling to find their footing as regional power balances shift in unpredictable ways.
OK, that's it. Gov. Mitch Daniels stayed too long in Washington and is clearly no longer a real Hoosier. For their food Super Bowl bet, the governor of Illinois is offering up, among other things, a true Chicago delicacy -- deep-dish pizza. But nowhere in Daniels' package is one of Indiana's true claims to food fame -- the wondrous breaded tenderloin.
When I first heard about Barbaro, my reaction was probably about the same as everyone else's, one of great sadness. He was a magnificent animal who did what he was bred and trained to do about as well as it could be done. But when I read something so over the top like this, it makes me cringe a little:
If only we'd had more time with you. You were beautiful. You were brave.
You were the best.
You enriched us all, in the nanosecond that you flashed across our universe.
This is kinda cool, kinda scary:
THE Sixties are swinging back into style thanks to two movies out next month.
Dreamgirls stars beautiful Beyoncé Knowles and has scooped a staggering eight Oscar nominations.
And Factory Girl features the uber-stylish Sienna Miller.
If these movies lead to a full '60s fashion revival, I vote no on the bell- bottoms, yes on the mini-skirt.
People gather because they have a common interest, want to have a good time expressing it, show the world what they're about and, perhaps, make a difference. Some march for peace, and some cheer for the Colts. Are they different kinds of people, deep down? I wonder.
Better to have a teetotaler or a drinker in the White House?
John Popp, in his guest column taking on the "evolution establishment," makes a common mistake in talking about probability:
There may be more Colts fans than Bears fans in this area, but I suspect the Bears fans might be a little more intense. Our weekly Web poll last week was on the Super Bowl, and when I left work on Friday, it was running 70-some percent to 20-some percent in favor of the Colts. When I came in this morning, there were 348 votes, 76 percent for the Bears. Little bit of networking going on there, folks? Calling each other up to urge a Colts smackdown?
