I'M JUST A LINK IN YOUR CHAIN (From Aretha's Chain of Fools)

1. . . . Ohio, Michigan, Toronto, Ottawa, New York (total 8 states and Canada) became broken links in the power grid of the U.S. body electric.
2. . . . ABC got some free publicity in Times Square when the lights came back on after the blackout. Cameras caught their digital readout of 20/20 with Barbara Walters' and John Stossel's names scrolling by atop their studio.
3. . . . People will remember where they were The Night The Lights Went Out in New York City. That was a song was done by the Trammps back in 1977 and was about a power failure.
4. . . . A little too much on NYC and not enough of the other places affected. It's just because the media giants are based there and it was easier to tell that story, I guess.
5. COPYCAT SNIPER. That's what some authorities think might be going on down in Charleston, West Virginia.
6. PIMP JUICE. Rapper Nelly is putting it out nationwide in September. It's an energy drink full of vitamins and such, they say. To sell for $1.99.
7. ". . . So what do you drink for a pick-me-up?" "Pimp Juice." Sounds nice, huh?
8. MSNBC's Ashleigh Banfield, the one with the trendy glasses, was back out on the street covering the New York blackout. New and rising anchor Natalie Morales went to her for a report and then the gals 2-wayed. Whatever happened to Banfield? She was a rising star once too.
9. Does Arnold Schwarzenegger have a gap tooth or is it covered up sometimes like Lauren Hutton's?
10. If Renee Zellweger married Arnold Schwarzenegger . . .
11. Arnold and Maria Shriver sure make a good-looking couple. Political couple. But I wonder if she's a little ticked about putting her TV career on hold for awhile.
12. THEY STARTED THE SHOW WITHOUT HIM. That's what Bill Press did Friday on MSNBC's Buchanan & Press program. Press said Buchanan was on his way back from blacked out New York and "I guess we'll see him when he pops in." And that's what happened. Press was doing an interview segment and when that was over the camera switched to Pat Buchanan and there he was, like he was there all the time.
13. Is MSNBC's Natalie Morales pregnant? She, uh, looks it.
14. It looks like news correspondent Mark Potter is now with NBC. He blacked out - I mean, he had a blackout story, the other night on Nightly News and several reports on MSNBC. He was a long time ABC reporter and then went to CNN for a spell.
15. . . . Have I mentioned MSNBC enough? Sorry.
16. Katie Couric said this about the blackout the other day on Today: "Where's the Wichita Lineman when you need him?" (That song was done by Glen Campbell back in 1968 and was written by the great Jimmy Webb (MacArthur Park).
17. Mr. Big Stuff likes that Yes We Can Can commercial for Slim-Fast nutrition bars. He goes around singing it all the time. (That song was the first hit the Pointer Sisters had in 1973.)
18. DID I HEAR THIS RIGHT? Hillary Clinton, in a soundbite during the blackout, said she had 50 interns.
19. Looks like Scott Peterson's crewcut grew out and he looks like he did when we first saw him. And he's kept it its normal color and is no longer bleaching it. And he looked pretty healthy.
20. IT'S SO HOT OVER IN EUROPE THAT . . . They're removing prized oil paintings from the walls of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, afraid they might melt in the "sizzling summer heat," reports the Associated Press. They're having a Heatwave ... (Martha & The Vandellas, 1963)
21. Al Roker has his head shaved now. He's changing his appearance all over. First the weight, now the head. Mr. Big Stuff thought he was wearing one of those skull caps that make you look bald - like a Halloween costume.
22. Geraldo Rivera just got married for the 5th time. She's 28, he's 60.
23. BAD NEWS. Kemp Mill record stores in the Washington, D.C. area going out of business. Some employees have worked there for 25 years and are not happy about it.
24. So they want to drop the AOL from AOL Time Warner. I said that might happen months ago. They're building that huge headquarters building in New York at Columbus Ave. Have they made the sign yet? How much is it gonna cost to have it un-made?
25. I'LL BE BACK. Now that line belongs to Liberia's Charles Taylor. He said it upon his exit from the country.
26. Idi Amin died. Enjoy yourself rotting down in hell.
27. A friend of mine was complaining about commercials in movie theaters, a common occurrence these days. She went to see Winged Migration and had to sit through 5 commercials in addition to the previews. She asks if the theaters have to show these or do they get paid for running the ads? It's getting out of hand. "I really resent having to sit through them while paying full price for my ticket. I would skip them but then I'd be sitting in the front row," she said. Amen.
28. LOVE THOSE SHEEP. In the Serta mattress TV ads. They look so funny. The lastest one features a salesman telling them to get up-to-date and then the herd starts rapping while a startled couple sitting on the bed watches them.
29. Somebody said that Friday's New York Times headline about the blackout was too long. It took up 3 lines. The Washington Post's was just one.
30. Washington's Channel 7 has returned 7 On Your Side to its newscasts and is promoting the feature widely. New guy Ross McLaughlin does it this time. (Remember Paul Berry? He started it up long ago and then the station up and dumped the whole thing.) They help people who have been ripped off by businesses, government, whatever.
31. PERSON OF INTEREST. There's another one in the news now. Steven Hatfill, a 49-year-old scientist, is the current POI in the anthrax mailings that killed five people and sickened 17 others in 2001.
32. A BIT ALOOF. Rush Limbaugh says he played football in high school to get girls but it didn't work. "Then I became a kicker so I wouldn't have face-to-face contact. They let me kick, but I still had to face contact in drills so I got into radio," he tells the latest Sports Illustrated in a Q&A. I guess he likes his privacy.
33. Brian Williams subbed for Tim Russert on Meet the Press. He toned it down a bit.
34. Kate Snow, formerly with CNN and now with ABC, showed up this past week from Crawford, Texas, where she's covering the president.
35. Punk rocker Iggy Pop must have zero body fat. He's 56 now, goes shirtless at his shows and you can see his ribs. Does he eat?
36. EVERYTHING'S GAY. Queer Eye, Boy Meets Boy, Gay Hollywood, Will & Grace, the upcoming ABC show It's All Relative. Will the idea burn out?
37. George Stephanopoulos subbed for Chris Bury who subs for Ted Koppel on Nightline Tuesday night.
38. NOT IDENTIFIED. That front-page picture in The New York Times of Bush, Condoleezza, Rumsfeld, Cheney and Gen. Richard B. Myers all walking to a press conference at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas last week did not make mention one of Bush's dogs, Spotty, the brown and white springer spaniel, son of Millie, who was with them. He was walking behind the troop with his tongue hanging out.
39. Fox News Sunday used the War song, Slippin' Into Darkness (1972), to plug an upcoming segment on the blackout.
40. They're still boiling water in Detroit, said Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who was on Face the Nation talking about her state's condition after the blackout. But she was emanating from Indianapolis. It was confusing. Maybe she wasn't in her home state because they were still without power or she might have been in Indy because of a previously scheduled National Governors Conference
41. Paula Zahn and Elizabeth Vargas had curly hair when they were on during the blackout. I guess they couldn't use the hair dryers because there was no electricity. They looked a bit different. Paula's mane looked a bit springy and Elizabeth's was wavy/curly and a bit sexy.
42. Cruz Bustamante has a good speaking voice.
43. Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, helped the Atlanta police while she was on vacation. A helicopter hovered 50 feet above owner Sally's development while police on the ground searched for a fugitive on the loose. Hanalie led the police up to Sally's condo so they could scour the place but found no one.
44. Sen. John Kerry likes to put mustard on his corn dogs.
45. Good Morning America called that guy who's been cutting off girls' clothes while they sleep in New Hampshire, Jack the Snipper.
46. UH . . . Don't Sleep in the Subway - Petula Clark on Warner. From 1967.

rocci@roccifisch.com

Archives

© Rocci Fisch/Random Thoughts

Services provided by BrowserMedia.com