Big Love Season Three

I haven't watched "Big Love" as regularly as Mad Men" or "Weeds", but I've set the DVR to record new episodes of Season Three, which debuted on HBO last night.

This has as much to do with the end of the NFL Playoffs, and the awful hiatus before the baseball season starts, as it does with the show itself.

But what I've seen of "Big Love" has been interesting, in the way that science fiction is interesting as it deals with alternate universes -- a notion reinforced by the endless coverage of the Texas polygamy community last year.

I'll let you know whether I'm able to stick with the show when Spring finally arrives.

Jennifer Love Hewitt

When I was a kid, "Paint-By-Numbers" kits were all the rage, and I thought I was on my way to becoming an artist because I could fill in the colors between the lines.

Then in college I met my wife-to-be, discovered how a real artist works, and got busy finding more practical things to do with my life. But I've stayed interested in the creative process.

I don't know whether this is art, but it sure is fun to watch:



Speed painting by Nico Di Mattia

Virginity Auction Now At $3.8 Million

Click here for an update to the following post from September

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A 22-year-old woman in the United States is publicly auctioning her virginity to pay for her college education, sparking a heated online debate about sex and morality.

The student from San Diego, California, who is using the pseudonym Natalie Dylan for "safety reasons," said she had no moral dilemma with her decision and found it "empowering".

"I don't think auctioning my virginity will solve all my problems," she told celebrity television show The Insider on Wednesday. "But it will create some financial stability. I'm ready for the controversy, I know it will come along. I'm ready to do this. We live in a capitalist society. Why shouldn't I be allowed to capitalize on my virginity?" she added.

The woman, who has earned a bachelor degree in women's studies and now wants to start a master's degree in marriage and family therapy, is hoping the bidding will hit $1 million. The online auction site eBay turned her down so the auction will take place at a Nevada brothel, the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, where her sister is working to pay off her college debts. The date for the auction was not immediately available.

In a flurry of media interviews and appearances, she admitted that her mother, a fourth grade teacher, does not agree with her decision.

(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

Team Of Vipers: Bob Woodward On W

Some pretty interesting stuff in the Washington Post, from our best political journalist.

Here's a sample:

"Presidents set the tone. Don't be passive or tolerate virulent divisions."

"In the fall of 2002, Bush personally witnessed a startling face-off between National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in the White House Situation Room after Rumsfeld had briefed the National Security Council on the Iraq war plan.

"Rice wanted to hold onto a copy of the Pentagon briefing slides, code-named Polo Step.

"You won't be needing that," Rumsfeld said, reaching across the table and snatching the Top Secret packet away from Rice -- in front of the president.

"I'll let you two work it out," Bush said, then turned and walked out. Rice had to send an aide to the Pentagon to get a bootlegged copy from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"Bush should never have put up with Rumsfeld's power play. Instead of a team of rivals, Bush wound up with a team of back-stabbers with long-running, poisonous disagreements about foreign policy fundamentals."

Botox For Eyelashes

The lead for this news item today doesn't really come as a surprise:

"First it was frozen foreheads. Now it’s Betty Boop eyelashes."


"Allergan, the company that turned an obscure muscle paralyzer for eyelid spasms, Botox, into a blockbuster wrinkle smoother, hopes to perform cosmetic alchemy yet again.

"At the end of the month, the company plans to introduce Latisse, the first federally approved prescription drug for growing longer, lusher lashes."

Speaking as a guy with a wife who doesn't need this crap to stay beautiful, the surprising thing is buried further down in the article:

An Allergan spokesman said that "many women would not blink at spending $120 for a one-month, three-milliliter supply of the drug. He compared the cost of longer lashes to a daily cup of coffee.

“If you think about it in terms of luxury, it’s four dollars a day,” he said. “We think this is fairly acceptable to a large segment of people even in these times.”

"But one analyst...said the expense of Latisse and the inconvenience of obtaining a doctor’s prescription might deter many women from trying it. Health insurance does not typically cover such cosmetic treatments.

"[He] said Latisse might have more value to Allergan as a gateway drug that brings new patients to cosmetic medicine and leads them to try Botox.

"Indeed, Jennifer Nobriga, one of a pair of stay-at-home mothers behind the Web site beautyinreallife.blogspot.com, said she intends to stick with plain old mascara rather than splurge on the eyelash drug.

“It would not be at the top of my list,” said Ms. Nobriga of Woodbridge, Va. “I would rather spend the money on a good under-eye cream.”

The $120 per month doesn't surprise me either.

What does surprise me is the casual use of the phrase "gateway drug" in the article, in referring to Latisse.

That's scary, just like an earlier Botox post on the Freeway.

United States Of Tara

We watched the first episode of "United States of Tara" on Showtime OnDemand tonight (the formal premiere will be on Sunday night).

It's even better than advertised.

In this episode, we meet two of Tara's four "alters," and Toni Collette is astonishing.

If you like "Weeds" and "Californication," you'll love "United States of Tara."

Here's a little preview:

Andromeda: Trance Gemini

"I am the avatar of a sun, a star.

All things come from me.

You are elements of the sun.

As I make you, I am able to destroy you.

As I destroy you, I am able to create.

Awareness is where we travel.

No path.

I am all gravity, and we exist in all universes and those in between.

What destroys you in this universe will deliver you to the next."
--Trance Gemini

Here's everything else you need to know about Trance Gemini.

And here's how to become Trance Gemini:

Obama's BlackBerry


From today's New York Times:

"Of all the fights facing Mr. Obama as he prepares for the White House, one of the most maddening for him is the prospect of losing the BlackBerry that has been attached to his belt for years.

"It is, he has vigorously argued, an essential link to keeping him apprised of events outside his ever-tightening cocoon."

I love my BlackBerry too, and would miss it. But I'm guessing that many people interpret this as missing the ability to read emails, or to text friends on-demand.

But those are not the primary reasons.

I would hate to lose access to my personal calendar and contacts, and to all of the instant connections I have to media, sports, and other things I'm interested in, through the various BB apps I've installed.

That's the stuff I'd really miss. And I think he will miss them, too.