Our Culture: January 2007 Archives

News arrives that Stonehenge is part of a larger complex in England. Read about it here.

Made me think of Spinal Tap.

Guitar god Nigel Tufnel, introducing a Stonehenge-themed song, tells the crowd: "In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people... the Druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing... '"

The Stonehenge stage prop, due to miscommunication, turns out to be 18-inches tall and in the words of singer David St. Hubbins is threatened with being crushed by a dwarf.

I wrote a column that said, among other things, that the congregation of Rev. Fred Phelps -- the God Hates Fags people -- is really a group of secular progressives and that their act is satirical performance art. They are funny.

Anyway, I heard from one of them, Margie Phelps, apparently related to Fred. Apparently, I'm going to be a stand-up comedian in hell. So I got that going for me.

The text of the e-mail -- and a correction sent by another Phelps, Shirley -- is after the jump...

OK, it's your run-of-the-mill story about an escaped convict who makes his get-away by stealing a Wal-Mart truck and then Crystal Gayle's tour bus and is apprehended watching a race at Daytona while apparently trying to get home to see his sick mother.

Read the CNN story here.

Did they make a movie of this once, with Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed?

Has the makings of a pretty good country song.

The person in the Netherlands did not invent beer for dogs. Jamie Miller, a former radio DJ living in the Napa Valley, did.
Check it out here.
More to come later on this developing story of great importance to all canine-Americans.

The Associated Press reports:

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — After a long day hunting, there's nothing like wrapping your paw around a cold bottle of beer. So Terrie Berenden, a pet shop owner in the southern Dutch town of Zelhem, created a beer for her Weimaraners made from beef extract and malt.

"Once a year we go to Austria to hunt with our dogs, and at the end of the day we sit on the verandah and drink a beer. So we thought, my dog also has earned it," she said.

Berenden consigned a local brewery to make and bottle the nonalcoholic beer, branded as Kwispelbier. It was introduced to the market last week and advertised it as "a beer for your best friend."

"Kwispel" is the Dutch word for wagging a tail.

The beer is fit for human consumption, Berenden said. But at euro1.65 ($2.14) a bottle, it's about four times more expensive than a Heineken.

Don't know about you, but my dog, Homer the retired racing greyhound, really doesn't need beer. He's goofy enough sober.

Just one question: Beer made from "beef extract" is fit for human consumption?

Word just arrived that Art Buchwald has died. He was 81.

Art was one of the great newspaper columnists of the past 50 years. He was funny and gracious and just a nice guy.

I met him once, years ago, at an Orioles' Opening Day at old Memorial Stadium. He was in search of a hot dog at the time.

Last year, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, of which I am the current president, honored Art with its lifetime achievement award. In a videotaped acceptance speech, recorded from his room at the hospice where he spent many months last year, he said, "Dying is easy. Parallel parking is hard."

A great man and a great writer.

He will be missed.

Read the Washington Post obituary here

Watch the New York Times video obit here.

Not much to say about this. O'Reilly commenting on the Missouri kidnapping case, via Media Matters: "On the January 15 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly said of Shawn Hornbeck -- who was abducted at the age of 11, held for four years, and recently found in Missouri -- that "there was an element here that this kid liked about this circumstances" and that he "do[esn't] buy" "the Stockholm syndrome thing."

O'Reilly also said: "The situation here for this kid looks to me to be a lot more fun than what he had under his old parents. He didn't have to go to school. He could run around and do whatever he wanted." When fellow Fox News host Greta Van Susteren pointed out that "[s]ome kids like school," O'Reilly replied: "Well, I don't believe this kid did."

The following day, during his "Talking Points Memo" segment, O'Reilly responded to viewer mail criticizing his comments about Hornbeck. O'Reilly concluded: "I hope he did not make a conscious decision to accept his captivity because" his kidnapper "made things easy for him. No school, play all day long."

Unbelievable.

Gov. Ed Rendell, at his inaugural ball, was serenaded by Jon Bon Jovi.

Wait a minute! Isn't Bon Jovi from Jersey?

Couldn't he find a Pennsylvania band?

Jeff Bezos, billionaire founder of Amazon.com, is building a rocket ship.
Check it out here.
Make sure to watch the video of the spaceship taking off and landing.
It's good to know that all that money I've spent on Amazon over the years is being put to good use.

One of the great musicians many of you've never heard of has died. Sneaky Pete Kleinow was an extraordinary and innovative pedal steel player. One of the founding members of the legendary Flying Burrito Brothers band, he went on to record with a who's who of popular music, from Frank Zappa to John Lennon to Joni Mitchell to Jackson Browne to the Stones to, well, just about everybody.
His "day" job was as an animator and special effects guy for the movies. One of his claims to fame: He animated the original Gumby TV show. He also worked on "The Empire Strikes Back," both "Terminator" films and too many movies and TV shows to list.
He was 72.

Catching up, I'd be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to pay my respects to the Godfather of Soul, the Hardest Working Man in Show Business, Mr. James Brown.
Sure, he had his problems with the law and all, but he was a giant, a true American icon. The man invented funk and ranks among the great innovators in American music.
R.I.P., Brother James, R.I.P.