Author: Eugene Glover

It was only yesterday when coming back from lunch that I was commenting on the sad state of affairs on TV.

“We need less TV detective teams working with DNA and psychologists and more proper TV heroes like Simon Templar, The Saint.”

And lo, minutes later I was greeted by the news that the cable network TNT was making a new series of the Saint. Despite being gun shy after that insipid Val Kilmer film, I’m optimistically looking forward to this – especially since today’s news is even better.

Today’s news is from Burl Barer, Brilliant Author => THE SAINT on TNT

The Roger Moore series that began in 1962 used the “glob trotting celebrity” character found in Charteris later short stories, and due to the restrictive TV codes of the time, Charteris lamented that the Saint on TV bore as much similarity to his creation as Winnie the Pooh did to Captain Blood.

Times have changed — restrictions have relaxed. Soooo…this version of The Saint will be the more dangerous and picaresque adventurer, having way too much fun as he takes on recalcitrant and contumacious oppressors while bedding the requisite bevy of beauties — including the mercurial and romantic Ms Patricia Holm. As all Saint fans know, Simon Templar parks his shoes in numerous international locales, but Holm is where he hangs his hat — or halo.

Bill Macdonald asked me to serve as “consultant” to the project, and has honestly taken my suggestions to heart (and page). The show should be really cool, faithful to the character, and won’t have Charteris getting what he termed Graveyard Torque from spinning in his metaphoric grave.

I just hope they don’t call him the “gay buccaneer” anymore… I think that may need be left as a legacy of the 1930’s…

Technorati Tags: Blog, The Saint, Television

KTAR => Appeals Court: No Fake Snow at Arizona Snowbowl

Operators of the Arizona Snowbowl can’t use treated wastewater to make snow, a federal appeals court ruled Monday in a decision that found the procedure would have violated the religious freedom of Navajos and a dozen other American Indian tribes.

The 777-acre resort north of Flagstaff wanted to add a fifth chair lift, spray man-made snow and clear about 100 acres of forest to extend the ski season on the western flank of the San Francisco Peaks that have spiritual and religious significance to 13 Southwest tribes.

It’s one thing to believe idiotic superstitions, it’s another altogether to waste one penny of taxpayer’s money on this nonsense…

In a 64-page decision, Judge William A. Fletcher of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the snowmaking scheme violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 and was akin to using wastewater in Christian baptisms.

And why not? It’s a waste of water any way you go about it. Might as well be treated.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Commentary, Superstition, Rant

Today is James’ second birthday.

That means it is the day we’d normally go out an take his picture with “his tree”. Unfortunately, since the deep freeze, there’s been no further sign of life in either his or Michelle’s tree.

I don’t think the tree will be there to photograph next year. Still, we have the pine trees in the back that we planted for their christmases.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Family, Kids

We stopped in a Baskin Robbins yesterday investigating the possibility of an ice cream cake for James’ birthday. The store was apparently run by an indo-pakistani family.

While we were enjoying our ice cream, the skin-head you see at the counter came in, said something to the older man working the counter, who, in turn, quite clearly said, “yes, sir.”

You can see from this cameraphone snap how far away I am from the counter. Some time passed and the skin-head said, “Don’t you speak English? Is that why you’re ignoring me?”

The counter man simply replied, “What can I get you?.”

Skin-head proceeded to point at a sign taped to the front of the counter (which is not visible to someone working behind the counter) and said, “What’s this?”

Counter man, “What, sir?”

Skin-head, shouting, “Can’t you f**king speak English?. Can we get someone at the counter who can f**king speak English?”

We left about this point, but I snapped this picture of the asshole and I hope someday it comes back to haunt him, cause he’s a shithead.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Commentary, Rant

I received a notice that someone had used one of my flickr photos in a mosaic, which is all right, but, of course, I had to go see it.

This wasn’t anything I was expecting. It’s a photo of various Cong You Bing (green onion pancakes). [Mine is center-left] Note that most of them are pan-fried, not deep-fried, which I think is the secret that makes the guy whose shop is just around the corner from my in-laws house so darned famous.

Still, now I want to visit and eat cong you bing.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Flickr, Food, Taiwan

Well, I don’t know how long this will last on YouTube, but obviously, someone else has spotted what could be called Torchwood’s rather obvious nature.

Gotta love Dead Ringers…

Technorati Tags: Blog, Television, Torchwood, UK, Video, YouTube

The Invasion
Episode 46
Starring Patrick Troughton as the Doctor
Frazer Hines as Jaime, Wendy Padbury as Zoe and Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart

Cybernetically enhanced Doctor Who? Not quite, but it has been rebuilt using children’s home recordings and stylistic animation.
(more…)

Wednesday night at Chick-Fil-A at 83rd & Bell is free kids meal night, so we bundled the kids in the car and headed out to the western Egyptian side of town to feed the kids cheap.

After dinner, Irene took the kids into the playground, while I walked around the shopping complex. I’ve been in this area a thousand times and never realized there was a Macintosh store called MacMedia right there. It was small, but well-stocked, and seemed to have knowledgeable staff.

I actually live much, much closer to an Apple store (5 miles versus 18 miles – I love Google Earth) but it is nice to have alternatives.

They told me they’d been there five years and that the iPod Store was only nine months old.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Computer, Mac

Old news by now, but I just found out about it.

This is a heck of a nice piece of video. I can’t help thinking about that PETA bumper sticker I saw recently that said “Rats were people, too.”

Link to video

Story from wnbc is here.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Restaurant