Dark Horizons: “‘Lady In The Water’ director M Night Shyamalan admits he considered taking his name off the credits for next film ‘Life Of Pi’ to stop negative reviews.” (via Romancing the Tome)
Month / August 2006
RIP Sue Bierman
Former San Francisco Sue Bierman died today. She apparently crashed her car into a dumpster in Cole Valley. Bierman was always one of my favorite supervisors and I certainly missed her when term limitations forced her out of office. Now I’ll miss her even more.
While she got a late start in politics (she was 68 when she first became Supervisor), Bierman brought a compassionate touch and a wise, no-bullshit voice of skepticism to almost every issue she took on. It was Bierman who stopped the freeway from expanding into the Panhandle.
Bierman offered a progressive voice that was distinctly San Franciscan: tolerant, quirky, and independent. She frequently adopted interesting and controversial positions, such as voting against an alcohol ban in the Panhandle, arguing that the homeless should have a place to drink alcohol as the homeowners did. (The only other supe to vote against the ban was Ammiano.) She even passionately defended the rights of the petitioners to reinstate the former Doggie Diner restaurant as a landmark.
I’ll miss Bierman, one of the few local politicians I never got a chance to meet. But her run as Supervisor through the 90s is a clear reminder that it’s never too late to get involved in politics.
(via SFist)
Holy Shit!
A.L. Kennedy writing an episode of Doctor Who! If this is true, this is a brilliant move on the part of Russell T. Davies and company.
A rumor, but I’m on the case. Calls to be made. (Perhaps Ms. Kennedy might want to jump in and clarify herself.)
[UPDATE: Maud’s been in touch with Kennedy. It’s only a rumor. She’s had no contact with the Who people. Perhaps Russell T. Davies might want to get in touch with Kennedy?]
Current Political Mudslinging Now Reduced to “You Hacked My Website!”
Stanford Advocate: “Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman, locked in a battle with an anti-war challenger in the nation’s most closely watched primary race Tuesday, accused his opponent’s supporters of hacking his campaign Web site and e-mail system.”
The MeFites have plenty of evidence suggesting that this wasn’t a DoS attack. It may be possible that Joe didn’t pay his bills.
Meanwhle, the Lamont campaign has offered to send in their tech guy to fix the Leiberman website problem and offers a cached link to Leiberman at the top of the page. On a microcosmic level, I ask the Connecticut voters to consider this: would you prefer a man who freaks out, makes accusations and calls the DA when he can’t figure out his website problems or a man who offers to fix his competitor’s website as your Senator?
[RELATED: These signs are hilarious.]
Or Perhaps the Man Was Enthusiastic Whenever Paper Was Around
OGIC offers some fascinating excerpts from Anthony Powell’s Memoirs: “…Fitzgerald took a pen from his pocket, and a scrap of paper. On the paper he drew a rough map of North America. Then he added three arrows pointing to the continent. The arrows showed the directions from which culture had flowed into the United States. I am ashamed to say I cannot now remember precisely which these channels were: possibly the New England seabaord; the South (the Old Dominion); up through Latin America; yet I seem to retain some impression of an arrow lancing in from the Pacific. The point of mentioning this diagram is, however, the manner in which a characteristic side of Fitzgerald was revealed. He loved instructing. There was a schoolmasterly streak, a sudden enthusiasm, simplicity of exposition, qualities that might have offered a brilliant career as a teacher or lecturer at school or university.”