3 more things about made-up languages

NEWS ITEM The linguist hired for "Avatar" describes the constructed language he created, admits he's the sole fluent user.

• • • Klingon -- Trekker couple tried to raise their son as a native speaker; decided he wanted a normal life instead.

• • • Esperanto -- A language constructed to unify European languages, and George Soros is a native speaker. Dec. 15 is the 150th birthday of its creator. There's a prog-rock band (I own an LP... go figure); the fact their site has English and French versions says a lot about constructed languages.

• • • Elvish -- J.R.R. Tolkien's books inspire obsession over Elves.

3 more things that are weird about the world that are weird about Facebook

NEWS ITEM Mentally ill man attacks a head of state; mentally ill people create a Fan Page.

• • • Oops -- It's a tragedy (in the classical literature sense) when people who desire attention through Facebook get their petards hoisted. It's a comedy (in every sense) to have those captured and collected. New selectivity settings in the privacy protocols might have prevented most of those.

• • • Assassination -- Asking if the President should be killed will have the Secret Service come looking for you. Attitudes that spawn the 2 above citations, make this 1 no less shocking, but not surprising.

• • • Porn -- Note to newbies (this won't be the last time you hear this): Don't click on everything. Anti-porn zealots keep site clean (it's about the commerce); girls just wanna have fun (and make their moms nervous).

3 more things about collecting art

NEWS ITEM Hugh Grant admits his £11 million windfall on a Warhol originated in a drink-infused whimsy.

• • • Nativity scenes -- Creches are art too, sometimes elaborate and intricate examples thereof, and if you value yours ... you're in a world of collectors.

• • • Local markets getting better? -- A view from Oregon on collecting.

• • • He has some nice works -- A plea for spirituality.

3 more updates

REMINDER After the rain, and before the format of this site was set.

• • • Top Chef -- came down to a choice between the 2 brothers, and as with Cain and Abel and the Kaczynski brothers, the younger 1 succeeded. In the latter case, Ted went to prison. In the former, Cain was marked and banished.

• • • Athletes as role models -- Tiger Woods, in the rough.

• • • Lakers -- Kobe, broken finger but still scores 20.

3 more things about golf clubs used as a weapon

NEWS ITEM Early speculation was Tiger Woods was hit with his golf club; reportedly, his SUV windows were smashed out with one in "rescue."

• • • Windshield, unshielded -- Jack Nicholson attacked the car of another motorist with a 2-iron.

• • • Bird, brained -- Pro golfer took multiple attempts before he hit and killed an EPA-protected hawk that was making noise during a TV shoot.

• • • Golf club assault -- 44,000+ hits.

3 more things about health care

NEWS ITEM Something will happen on health care reform, just don't know what exactly yet.

• • • The U.S. spends more and gets less -- The most as a percentage of GNP, 2nd lowest doctor consults and lowest number of hospital beds per capita.

• • • The U.S. is 44th on infant mortality rates -- At #180 out of 224, we're worse than Cuba, better than Bosnia.

• • • The U.S. is #50 on life expectancy rates -- At #50 out of 224, we're worse than Bosnia, better than Cuba.

3 more things about tap water

NEWS ITEM National tap water study released.

• • • Bottled vs. Tap -- This study says tap is equitable.

• • • Reclamation -- Making clean water out of gray water.

• • • Fluoride -- Despite the fact it didn't make the country communist, some people still are against it.

3 more things about ants

NEWS ITEM Bio-mimicry computer program application uses ant behavior as a model for military strategy.

• • • Ant cam -- Watch ants from a safe distance.

• • • Parasitism and mutualism -- When the hollow ant-friendly plants are used up in the ant-created meadows, ants will destroy nearby trees.

• • •Pests-- Argentine super-colonies exist here because neighboring nests aren't enemies. Now, scientists have found the means to trigger aggression between cousins. Similarly, new research shows a nest-absorption phenomenon in army ants.

3 more Senators who aren't who they seem to be

1 more thing More people who aren't who they seem.
So many Sparks.

• • • Bill Nelson -- Not the guitar wizard.

• • • Paul Simon -- Not the genius songwriter.

• • • Fred Thompson -- Not the Olympic gold medalist.

3 more words to describe hyperbole, deflections, lies and distortions

EXAMPLE Justice in the long-ago case of the rape of a young girl isn't the important story. What's important is to dwell on an industry that has a lot of Democrats.

• • • Mucopurulent -- An emission of mucus and pus.

• • • Paranym -- Euphemism; word whose meaning is altered to conceal evasion.

• • • Verbicide -- Deliberate distortion of the sense of a word.

3 more things about painters

NEWS ITEM NYT reports on Frank Auerbach's post-war London paintings, pegged on a gallery exhibit. Pix here.

• • • Damaged painting OK-- Paul Delarouche work survived the Nazis.

• • • Museum pieces -- Joann Tod paints from photos she shoots in museums.

• • • One artist that paints on command.

3 more things about pine trees

NEWS ITEM Rare conifer cut down in arboretum.

• • • Adopt a redwood -- Donors needed to plant seedlings.

• • • Real trees are greener -- So says the public relations manager for the Christmas Tree Association. Go figure.

• • • Long-leaf pines -- Variety could be the tree of the future for their adaptability, longevity and quality of wood.

3 more things photographed underwater

NEWS ITEM Norbert Wu's journey into the Antarctic underworld.

• • • People -- Jolene Monheim evokes Baroque paintings. I don't even want to know how these get lit and how many shots she burns to get the image. Digital photo filtering helps, no doubt; via Photography.ca

• • • Sea Dragons -- Long Beach's Aquarium of the Pacific has a great display of these animals, related to sea horses; foto via ScienceRay.com

• • • Tigers -- These are just cool; via Pravda.

3 more movies that open with a lead character dead already or saying they'll be dead by the time it's over

NEWS ITEM "Lovely Bones" is the tale of a murder victim watching her family and killer.

• • • "American Beauty" -- Kevin Spacey remarks, "Remember those posters that say 'Today is the first day of the rest of your life' ...? Well that's true every day but one."


• • • "Sunset Boulevard" -- William Holden says "That's me floating in the pool."


• • • "Milk" -- Sean Penn narration says the tape he's making is only to be revealed "upon his death by assassination."

3 more mistakes in Google Maps

View Larger Map

CONTEXT Maybe I'm just not paying enough attention.

• • • The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport -- Renamed Bob Hope Airport in 2003.

• • • Gemco -- Not a city just northwest of there, even if there's more cars surrounding this building than people in a small town

• • • Vega -- I think this is pointing to someone's ugly car.

3 more movies that show a real part of L.A. not commonly shown

NEWS ITEM "A Single Man" will show a niche of life in 60's Los Angeles.

• • • "Mask" --Not the Jim Carrey movie, but the Peter Bogdonovich movie shows San Gabriel Valley and other north county areas; foto via IMCDB







• • • "Repo Man" -- Lots of now seemingly archival locations throughout the Atwater region north of downtown; watch the trailer; foto via aric








• • • "Real Women Have Curves" -- There's a great montage of East LA while the not-yet-a-major-star America Ferrera walks to her garment factory job; watch the trailer; foto via BlueGrassFilmSociety

3 more things about going from prison to the presidency

NEWS ITEM In Uruguay, former imprisoned dissident wins election to high office.

• • • Czech Republic --Vaclav Havel, playwright and former imprisoned dissident, won election to high office.

• • • South Africa -- Nelson Mandela, former lawyer and imprisoned dissident, won election to high office.

• • • Boston --"From Prison To President," an album by Mike Boston, Christian hip-hop artist

3 more things to do through next week

NEWS ITEM Hear NoHo, emerging artists musical festival, is Thursday, featuring among others The Flutterbies.

• • • Unique Los Angeles -- Dec. 5 & 6 at Calif Mart, via LAist.

• • • Divine Design -- Marketplace is Dec. 3-7 at the Beverly Hilton, benefits Project Angel Food, via Los Angeles Magazine.

• • • Dick Dale -- Dec. 5 at Jon Lovitz Comedy Club at Universal CityWalk, via LA Weekly.

3 more things about advertising

NEWS ITEM An aggregate of "Black Friday" ads.

• • • False advertising -- Hall of Shame

• • • Slogans -- Hall of Fame

• • • Playboy -- 10 safe-for-work ads, and a clever anti-porn ad from the United Arab Emirates that verifies the power of the brand.

3 more things about Thanksgiving

NEWS ITEM Marinated turkey? "You're soaking in it."

• • • Stolen food -- The Puritans weren't so pure.

• • • Pardoned turkeys -- A reprieve is really just a slow death sentence.

• • • Canadian Thanksgiving -- Second Monday in October.

3 more things for Thanksgiving that aren't exactly traditional

NEWS ITEM It's a big movie-going weekend.

• • • Bad families -- TV ain't Ozzie and Harriet anymore.

• • • Hedonistic advice -- A Thanksgiving for grown-ups.

• • • Cheers -- Need proof for family stress and misplaced expectations?

3 more things about seasonal yardwork

NEWS ITEM Fall is a good time to prune perennials.

• • • Hydrangea -- Acidic soils turn flowers blue; alkaline turns them pink.

• • • Broadleaf weed control -- Cooler temperatures aid effectiveness of chemical applications in turf.

• • • Planting -- Now is probably the perfect time to plant.

3 more things deemed unfit for TV

NEWS ITEM Adam Lambert kisses a man during the American Music Awards.

• • • Elvis Presley -- His first number on Ed Sullivan was cropped close, though he and his hips got plenty of air time previously on other shows, and later during that same CBS show.

• • • Rolling Stones -- On their second appearance on Ed Sullivan, despite the host swearing they'd never appear again after their first performance, Mick Jagger tweaked the "lewd" lyrics to "Let's Spend Some Time Together."

• • • Bob Dylan -- When told he couldn't perform "Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues" during his scheduled Ed Sullivan performance, Dylan cancelled.

3 more lamentable passings of artists

NEWS ITEM Jeanne-Claude, 74, was the collaborator of conceptual artist Christo on wrapped islands, buildings, forests, NYC's "Gates" and the "Umbrellas" north of L.A. and in Japan.

• • • Daniel Rowen -- Modernist architect, 56.

• • • Irving Kriesberg -- Abstract impressionist painter, 90.

• • • Robert Cameron -- Aerial photographer, 98.

3 more things about clocks

NEWS ITEM Wake up rrrrrrrready to rrrrrrrruuuuuuumble.

• • • Scroll bar clock -- Time for collage.

• • • Procrastinator's clock -- Could be 15 minutes fast, could be on time... you just don't know.

• • • Fuzzy -- In case you need time to be "about noon-ish."

3 more things car dealers use to sell cars

NEWS ITEM Linking the President to Jihadists seems like an odd way to sell cars.

• • • Bigotry -- Mojave, Calif. Ford dealer tells atheists to "buy another car," then apologizes, then retracts the apology.

• • • Fraud -- Pressure, lies, scams can move inventory when salesmen are under pressure.

• • • Incentives -- Then of course, reputable dealers offer rebates and deals on price and options.

3 more things about urban gardening

NEWS ITEM To get a crop, city dwellers have to cope with issues of irrigation, pests, and police.

• • • Home Grown Edible Landscapes -- A (somewhat) regional resource for treating your yard like a produce market.

• • • Food Not Lawns -- One of many local groups urging you to kill your lawn and feed your family.

• • • Lawn Gone -- I can help.

3 more things about avant garde art

NEWS ITEM Man Ray, one of the 20th Century's greatest artistic revolutionaries, died on this date in 1976.

• • • Sculpture -- Exhibit's focus is on artist Julian Voss-Andreae's work inspired by quantum physics.

• • • Drawing -- Video w/ great production values of Chris Piascik working.

• • • Sculpture -- Ex-Chief Bratton, LA Times columnist Steve Lopez, and others, don't quite grasp the public art outside the new LAPD headquarters downtown by Peter Shelton.

3 more things you think you know but don't

NEWS ITEM Day after Thanksgiving isn't biggest retail day; typically it's the Saturday before Christmas.

• • • Kool-Aid -- "Drank the Kool-Aid" is a Jonestown reference to buying in to a doctrine, heart and soul, except it wasn't Kool-Aid they drank there. It was Flav-R-Ade.

• • • Lemmings -- It's part of the language that the rodents commit mass suicide by running off cliffs, but they don't do that. Blame a Disney documentary crew.

• • • Fences -- "Good fences make good neighbors" is a line from a Robert Frost poem that doesn't endorse barriers but mocks needless fences.

3 more things about boxers outside of the box

NEWS ITEM After Manny Pacquiao proved he's among the greatest boxers ever, two hours later he sang at a previously scheduled concert.

• • • Oscar De La Hoya -- His pretty decent CD came out in 2000.

• • • George Foreman -- Yes, he was a champion prizefighter before he was an appliance salesman, yet not a cook like Jack King.

• • • Tex Cobb -- He can not only take a punch but he can take direction, being an awesome nemesis in "Raising Arizona."

3 more things about athletes as role models

NEWS ITEM Not only does the NFL's Josh Cribbs do his late coach's son a solid, he kept it to himself. Story broke 5 weeks later.

• • • Should they be? -- This law prof says yes on his sports law site.
• • • NYTimes in '87 -- Before gunplay and dogfighting and steroid scandals, the issues were the same; consensus: They shouldn't be, but they are.
• • • Pat Tillman -- After 9/11 attacks, he turned his back on NFL fame and fortune to serve, to die in combat under questionable circumstances.

3 more words that are paradoxically ironic oxymorons, sorta

NEWS ITEM HBO's "Bored to Death" is about a slacker private eye with "bored" alluding to palpable disinterest but the word is also a metaphor for intensity, as in drilling, which would be a different show if it were about dentistry.

• • • Strike -- In bowling it's a hit and in baseball it's a miss; for labor, it's a job action of job inaction; for plants, it's about expanding, yet for theater, it's about reducing.

• • • Cleave -- to adhere [Old English cleofian; related to Old High German klebēn to stick], to split apart [Old English clēofan; related to Old Norse kljūfa, Old High German klioban, Latin glūbere to peel].

• • • Cop-- is to steal and a guy whose job it is to prevent stealing and an act of admitting and an act of denying, as in "After copping out, cop copped to the copping."

Follow-up

1 more thing Carrie Prejean knows from inappropriate.

• • • 3 more things about beauty queens