Holiday in New York

Because my timing is impeccable, I am planning to travel to New York City just a few days after the transit strike begins. I am only hoping that this spectacle will be more vivid than the Paris riots. Despite my presence that the city I saw no sign of unrest. New York is a union town if there are any union towns left so it will be interesting to see where the support and sympathies of New Yorkers go. According to the Gray Lady:

Streets were crowded with workers bundled up against the cold, with a wind chill of as low as 10 degrees Fahrenheit in the early morning hours. Cars were backed up at arteries leading onto the bridges, tunnels and major expressways that feed into Manhattan, as the police peered into cars to enforce the four-passenger rule, turning some away and letting others pass.

Richard Pryor, 1940 - 1965

I was lucky enough to meet Richard Pryor once back in the 1980s. I was about sixteen and we were on the set of the film Brewster's Millions. I was an L.A. kid, not too starstuck, but some where I still have the picture. He was kind and quite the gentleman, and it was after the fire incident so I remember seeing the burns on his skin. One can say that he lived a lot of life, through all types of experiences. And I suppose that that is the best way to live it.

Richard Pryor, comic voice of black America, dies
Richard Pryor, whose genius for turning personal tragedy and social injustice into humour made him one of the most influential American comedians of the last four decades, died yesterday.

Let the Games Begin

Jon Stewart's salvo into the "War on Christmas", priceless.
Jon Stewart 10, "Fat Fundies" 0!

Belgian Bomber

Her passport, which featured a striking image of a European woman, told the security forces that insurgents in Iraq had succeeded in recruiting a new type of suicide bomber...

"Muriel became more Muslim than a Muslim," her mother told Le Parisien newspaper. "When she first converted she wore a simple veil. But with her last husband she wore a [head to toe] chador."

How will we be able to tell who the terrorists are now? The Guardian has the full story.