Friday, May 30, 2003

 
Cat-Centric TV Show Set for Its Debut
AP
Thu May 29, 8:13 PM ET

By CHRISTY LEMIRE, AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK - Balls of yarn, little plastic toys with bells inside and the occasional whiff of catnip simply aren't enough to satisfy the entertainment needs of today's sophisticated, high-tech felines. Cats need television. And now they have it. "Meow TV," which bills itself as being for cats "and the people they tolerate," debuts at 7:30 p.m. EDT Friday on the Oxygen network.

The tongue-in-furry-cheek comedy mixes video of squirrels and fish with segments titled "Cat Yoga" and "Cat Haiku."

An interminably perky host on "The House Cat Shopping Network" urges kitties to "use those paws — you've seen your owners do it, you know how to dial a phone."

And an ad for a collection of favorite feline songs includes "Spay You, Spay Me" and "Mice, Mice Baby."

Lazy, lasagna-loving Garfield had his own animated series for a while. So did the cranky comic-strip cat Heathcliff and the animated troublemaker Felix. Then there was Salem, the spooky animatronic talking cat on "Sabrina the Teenage Witch." And of course, there was the "Toonces the Driving Cat" sketch on "Saturday Night Live (news - Y! TV)."

"Meow TV" executive producer Elyse Roth likened her show to "Cat-urday Night Live," and said at least two more episodes are in the works. Actress Annabelle Gurwitch, formerly of TBS' "Dinner and a Movie," plays host while sitting on the couch with her 9-year-old black cat, Stinky.

"The artistic mission was to create programming you could watch with your cat," Roth said. "I don't know that you're going to park your cat and do whatever."

(A recent advance showing of "Meow TV" at a Brooklyn loft, however, failed to hold the attention of a certain pair of overfed 11-year-old cats. Cali, the calico, licked herself the whole time, while Silver, who's gray and white, stared blankly out the window, then slinked away for food about halfway through.)

But some cats really do watch television, insisted Pat Marengo as she cuddled her brown-and-orange Persian, Maggie.

"She watches anything that's fast. She likes sports, she likes cartoons. She likes to see other cats on TV," said Marengo, who lives on Long Island with her husband and a family of cats who act and model. "We have a cat perch near the television, and she goes up, looks at it and tries to touch it."

Marengo and Maggie were at the "Meow TV" launch party on Tuesday night. Also in attendance was Vincent Pastore, who starred in "The Sopranos (news - Y! TV)" as Big Pussy.
___

On the Net:

"Meow TV" Web site: http://www.meowtv.com/

Oxygen Web site: http://www.oxygen.com
soulspirals 10:31 AM

Thursday, May 29, 2003

 
Seniors Get New Lease on Love and Sex
Reuters
Wed May 28, 8:15 AM ET

By Andrea Orr

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - What happens when a sexually frustrated 66-year-old woman advertises her plight and calls for men of all ages to step up to the plate?

If Jane Juska's experience is typical, she spends a weekend in a romantic hotel room with a man who makes her feel young again. Young by comparison, at least. Her new lover is 82.

So much for friendly companionship in the golden years. Juska's new memoir "A Round Heeled Woman" is a graphic reminder that not everyone approaching 70, 80 or even 90 is content just to hold hands and gaze at the sunset.

Long-divorced, widowed and never-married older people are finding it easier than ever to satisfy their desires, partially due to the growing popularity of online dating. The same dating Web sites that were first adopted by people a third their age are helping isolated senior citizens connect with others who do not wish to spend all their days doting on grandchildren.

The popular Internet dating service Match.com features hundreds of members over the age of 80, including one 83-year-old man from Missouri who said he wanted a woman who was "lovely to look at, delightful to know and heaven to kiss."

One 70-year-old retired New Jersey school teacher who tried the service thinking it might be a good way to find someone to go to lunch with said she was turned off by the overtly sexual messages of most of the men who wrote to her.

Match.com said a survey of its members suggests that seniors as a whole remain a lot less romantically and sexually active than their children and grandchildren.

Only 20 percent of those who responded to one survey said they had been in a romantic relationship in the last year. Just 37 percent said they had been kissed.

Juska, a long-divorced schoolteacher living in liberal Berkeley, California, took a more conservative approach when she decided it was time to end a 15-year celibacy. Rather than placing an ad on the Internet, she turned to the august New York Review of Books, where she thought she might meet someone who shared her love of literature.

"Before I turn 67," her ad said, "I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me."

Juska minced no words either, when she began to hear from eager suitors. "If I can't kiss you all over then cancel your travel plans," she wrote to one suitor. "Because long walks on the beach will simply not do."

A recent study of 1,300 men and women over the age of 60 by the National Council on the Aging found that 61 percent of the men and 37 percent of the women were sexually active. Some 61 percent of the men and 62 percent of the women said that sex was as satisfying or more satisfying than it was in their 40s.

Juska, who slept with a handful of men ranging from 32 to 84, and her book are drawing attention to sex among seniors.

"Dating is just as terrifying and interesting, risky, fun and exciting at 70 as it is at 26," she said in an interview. The "round-heeled woman" the book is named for is an old-fashioned term for a promiscuous female.

Still, her frank memoir also devotes considerable time to showing that sex after a certain age is different.

"What once was firm was loose, what once went up went down," she writes of her own body. Perhaps because of these flaws, a baggy sweater is her preferred attire when she goes to meet a new man.

The men, of course, are flawed too.

"His color is gone, his hair is gone, and My God, I think this man is old," she wrote of her initial reaction when her 82-year-old lover stepped off the plane.

But Juska spent a torrid weekend with him anyway. After a 15-year dry spell, she said, just about any man would have done.

"I was just teeming. If he had gotten off the plane in a wheelchair -- or on a stretcher -- it probably would not have dissuaded me. I was just in white heat."
soulspirals 9:08 AM

Wednesday, May 28, 2003

 
Yay! I'm back online after our moving saga. Not that it was a particularly bad saga...it actually went amazingly well, thanks to the help of some amazing friends. But moving is always a saga and an adventure. Almost done cleaning out the old place - hopefully it will be done tomorrow.
soulspirals 10:38 PM

Friday, May 23, 2003

 
Home-Schooled Student Wins Geography Prize
Reuters
Thu May 22, 9:32 AM ET

By Niala Boodhoo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A 14-year-old who is taught at home by his mother beat 54 other students to win the title of U.S. National Geographic (news - web sites) Bee champion and a prize worth $25,000 on Wednesday.

After blitzing through a series of stumpers such as questions about volcanic formations in Tanzania, James Williams from Washington state correctly answered a tie-breaker about which country possessed the Indian state of Goa until 1961.

Runner-up Dallas Simons said the United Kingdom, but James, who missed just three questions during the two-day National Geographic Society competition, never wavered when he wrote Portugal.

James and his fellow competitors are a far cry from the vast majority of young Americans.

About 11 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 cannot find their own country on a map, and another 50 percent could not properly identify China, the United Kingdom or Japan, according to last year's National Geographic-Roper Global Literacy Survey.

The survey placed the United States second to last and in front of only Mexico in terms of geographic literacy.

The curriculum in U.S. public schools is determined by each state, but only seven require that geography be taught as a separate course.

James has never attended any schools but is educated at home by his mother, who said he "pretty much teaches himself."

He said he studied up to five hours a day for the contest, where he won a $25,000 college scholarship.

"I'm pretty excited about winning," said the 8th-grader, who has already taken the SAT college entrance exam -- and made an almost perfect score -- but he said he hasn't thought yet about where he wants to attend university.
soulspirals 10:16 AM

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

 
Hungry Ferret Terrorizes Train
Mon May 19,11:06 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - A hungry ferret caused chaos on a commuter train in central England on Sunday, leaping from passenger to passenger before ducking into the driver's cab and devouring his lunch.



The wild ferret jumped on to the northbound Midland Mainline train as it picked up passengers at Leicester Station.

"It ran up and down the train causing more than a little consternation -- although it is hard to say if the ferret or the passengers were more frightened," a company spokeswoman said.

"It then got into the driver's cab and ate his lunch -- a cheese sandwich I think -- before he realized what was going on," she told Reuters.

The quick thinking driver radioed ahead for experts from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) to meet the train, capture the ferret and remove it so the journey could continue.

"So we have a hungry driver and a full ferret -- which is spending the night with the RSPCA while they try to find it a new home," the spokeswoman said, adding that it was a first for the company.
soulspirals 9:00 AM

Monday, May 19, 2003

 
A chant/song for the day. Learned from a dear friend:

when words hide
everything you feel inside
just hold still
the music will sing

a sunrise
symphony just for your eyes
to hold still
the music will sing
soulspirals 11:25 AM

 
I am struck by the irony:
I just logged into the home page for a Yahoo! group that I am a part of that focuses on organic lifestyle issues. The banner ad above the page for for Walmart.
*sigh*
soulspirals 11:20 AM

Wednesday, May 14, 2003

 
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Renegade Democratic Texas legislators hunted by state police made their stand against a Republican congressional redistricting plan and holed up in a hotel across the border in Oklahoma on Tuesday.

Read more...
Texas Democrats flees State, Paralyze Legislature
soulspirals 7:42 AM

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

 

Switzerland -
A neutral power for as long as most can remember,
it has avoided war for several centuries.
However, it is still considered highly advanced
and a global power.


Positives:

Judicial.

Neutrality.

World-Renouned.

Powerful without Force.

Makes Excellent Watches, Etc.


Negatives:

Target of Ridicule.

Constant Struggle to Avoid Conflict.

Target of Criminal Bank Accounts.



Which Country of the World are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

soulspirals 8:34 PM

 
So, we decided to take the place we looked at yesterday. We can start moving in on the 24th - which gives us an entire week before we have to be out of the house we're in now.

I'm still nervous about the whole move. I think the cell phone thing is what's really getting me. I haven't been without a cell phone or a pager for 6 or 7 years. I'm really not OK with giving it up. Looks like we may be getting more use out of that 800 voicemail system than we were planning on.

BUT... at least I can really start planning now. Knowing where we're headed makes the packing strategy a bit easier. I'm going to start writing my packing database today, and finish my sketches of where things are going in the new place. If things go exceptionally well, my best girl might be coming to help me pack next week.

Eeek! 11 days! Gotta get going on those volunteer sign-ups and truck reservations. Address changes, utility hook-ups, etc.
soulspirals 4:18 PM

 
Today's Non-Sequiter cartoon
soulspirals 9:39 AM

Monday, May 12, 2003

 
The place ended up loking really good. The only major downsides are:

• no cell reception
  
• no washer or dryer onsite
  
• the cost of high speed will go up
  
• 20 miles from town
  

That compares to the upsides:

• $215 a month less than we pay now
  
• someone else maintains our lawn
  
• 2 porches
  
• large for being only 2 bedrooms
  
• will take our cats
  
• will do a month-to-month lease
  
• has some basement storage
  
• has a dishwasher
  

So, I think we'll probably take it. As usual, more to be revealed.
soulspirals 3:49 PM

 
We've finally found one place "locally" that might be willing to take us and our kitties for a short-term lease AND do it for less money than we're paying now. It's about 30-35 miles form here on the other side of town. Unfortunately, it's going to be a long drive from there to anywhere. We're going to check it out this afternoon.

And then, the packing frenzy will begin.

Bolowolf still has a ton of applications out in our dream locale - and has received notification that he's on the list for at least one of them.

I know that my resume is under review at the place I most want to work. The job would be good, although not perfect. But a good combination of my skills, andexactly the benefits package we've been dreaming of - full health insurance, dental, vision, and tuition remission for Bolowolf studying what he wants to do where he wants to do it.

Perhaps if a combination of those jobs came through we might be able to get at least partial relocation expenses. We'll see what the univers has in store for us!
soulspirals 9:45 AM

Sunday, May 11, 2003

 
A dark and stormy day here - which is nice. It's been a long time since I heard thunder when making breakfast. And today, I'm making waffles. That is notable, as it happens about twice a year. Makes my other half very happy.

In other news, it's time to get more serious about packing. I figure that if I can get really serious about packing this week, I might come up with enough additional things to get rid of that we could try another yard sale next weekend. That means storing our leftovers for another week, but that's not really so bad I guess.

Three weeks from now we'll be somewhere else. I'm really hoping the univers will show us where that is...soon.
soulspirals 12:24 PM

Saturday, May 10, 2003

 
Well, It's up and running. The blog, that is. Much more work to do on the new site before launching. We shall see!

In other news, we cleared over $180 on our yard sale today, plus an even better offer on our mower. We might just give it all another try next weekend.
soulspirals 5:31 PM

 
Well, now I've got the graphics tweaked a bit more to my liking. That's a start. Seems that blogger doesn't currently support comments. There are some options I can look into, though. We'll see. Sort of like seeing if I ever get my site redesign launched.
soulspirals 3:55 PM

 
Just wanted to try out using blogger to my own website. I've used LJ and xanga.com and thought I'd give this a whirl.
soulspirals 2:22 PM