The GUILD 9-2-2002 Happy Labor Day

[Iowa Granny]

Go soak your feet, then come back and tell us about the Peach Festival. Do they have fresh peach pie there? I am salivatating thinking about the awesome treats they must have had there.

[GnuHere]

Speaking of Labor Day, did anyone see Jerry Lewis on the telethon? My family MADE me look at him, because they couldn't believe how bad he looks. Seems like it was only a few years ago when he'd had a heart scare, that he was talking about spending an hour or more on the treadmill each day - now he looks like an absolute blimp. I'm wondering whether it's because of some medical problem (for instance, is he having to take steroids?), or what. I felt sorry for him.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Jerry Lewis has very severe health problems that almost killed him. He is very embarassed about how he looks but he can't help it. He is on a hideous steroid that is a miracle drug but it causes that 'moon face' and you get an incredable weight gain. It also discolors the skin and leaves you with sores.

The drug is called predisone. I was on it and the same thing happened to me. Matter of fact I lost friends when I was on it because they were embarassed to be seen with me.

[GnuHere]

That is what I suspected when I saw him, but I hadn't read anything about him for quite some time. Thanks for the info. My mother has had to take prednisone frequently for asthma, but fortunately not on a daily basis.

Um, what kinds of friends WERE those who deserted you when you were sick? (A rhetorical question, I guess.)

[CARepubGal]

Good heavens! Isn't Ol' Crusty a bit inappropriate for a fair? And its wearer looks awful. That is one plastic surgeon I will avoid. Happy Labor Day!

[mountaineer]

Yes, we'll rendezvous with Timeout in Paris after visiting London and Normandy. There will be photos. Hmmm, one would think we could get together with Guild friends without having to travel quite that far!

[BigWaveBetty]

As Mr. M and I will be in London next month, we may have to follow in their plump raven-like footsteps!

Don't forget to cluck! The latest on Liza and David....

ADOPTION IN WORKS FOR LIZA AND HUBBY

WHILE everyone puffs and fluffs about an unreal huff between Liza Minnelli and the groom David Gest, let me tell you their first adopted child joins the family around January.

"The baby's a girl," says David.

"Her name will be Serena," says Liza. "She's American," says David.

"She's Christian," says Liza.

"She's a little more than 3. Adoptions often take years but ours was only a four-month process. The situation was somebody who couldn't provide for her."

And that reported spat they just had? Sunday attendees at Denise Rich's Southampton home where Liza was to sing - and did sing - fretted she mightn't appear.

"Didn't happen," said Liza.

"People don't want us to be happy. Liza's back again. They figure she's an easy target, so stuff gets said," said David.

"I'm grateful for the attention, but you know what?" said Liza. "I forgot what it's like to be so hot that you keep making news whether there's news to make or not."

Meantime, she's lost another 10 pounds. The hips are gone. Also meantime, their TV program starts Nov. 3. "It's musical comedy/reality not just a you're-coming-home-for-dinner-type show. We'll have guests like Michael Jackson, Walter Cronkite, Mary J. Blige."

Cindy Adams for the rest of the story.

How disgusting, they'll give anybody a baby these days. Putting aside the fact these two are whack-jobs, how does a couple that have been married for so short a time make the grade for adoption?! This would have to be through an agency no? Or are three year olds being sold by their mothers through attorneys these days?

[mountaineer]

There are many things I don't understand, and this whole notion of celebrities - many of whom are of questionable mental stability - buying babies is among them.

[BigWaveBetty]

From our fav liberal suck up Liz Smith:

HEY, I hate to contradict, but what's with all this talk that Barbra Streisand is "coming out of retirement" to sing at Democratic fund-raisers? Did she retire when I wasn't looking? All the lady ever said is that she'd never sing again, for money, in concert - because she hates performing live. Believe me, Miss Streisand is not retired. How could she be, she hasn't won a Best Director Oscar yet?

And if she ever directs a movie that doesn't star Barbra Streisand, she'll probably cop that prize, too. Link

Also from Liz a story about DiCaprio where she disses him a bit, but being the good liberal (and probably lusting in her heart for the little toad) she leaves out the part where after bashing President Bush for not going to the Johannesburg Earth Summit, Leo didn't bother to show for this most important event. Link

Stars Not Coming Out for Earth Summit

[Iowa Granny]

Good Morning folks! No Adoption Agency in their right minds would allow this couple of fruitcakes to have a child. Clearly, this is a private job. It is very troubling to even think about what lies ahead for this poor child. Changing a babies name at age 3 cannot be a healthy situation, can it? Anybody with Psych background that could back this opinion up?

[habs4ever]

The babies are accessories to them, like a fine handbag or some such thing, and they make for a nice accoutrement when People Magazine come over to photograph the happy couple.I pine for the days of Robin Leach exposing gaudy car collections and dubious art memorabilia from some second rate TV star;now, its a poor baby that gets to be shown off like its one of Zza Zza's rings ;-)

[BigWaveBetty]

Good Morning!

Whew! Lance won't be going into space afterall.

Russia Axes 'N Sync Singer's Space Plan over Cash
Tue Sep 3, 7:16 AM ET

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's space agency has scrapped 'N Sync ( news - web sites) singer Lance Bass's plans to join an October space mission after the U.S. pop star failed to meet payment deadlines, a spokesman for the agency said on Tuesday.

Bass, 23, who would have become the youngest person ever in space, has been told to leave Russia's Star City cosmonaut training center outside Moscow, where he had been preparing to join a mission to the International Space Station ( news - web sites).

"After failing to fulfil the conditions of his contract, Lance Bass has been told that his training at the Cosmonaut Training Center has ended and that his flight to the ISS is impossible," spokesman Sergei Gorbunov told Reuters.

"We are preparing to send a cargo container to the ISS instead of a third crew member." He added: "Bass is now at Star City, gathering his stuff and preparing to leave."

Bass, backed by a consortium of companies rounded up by a Hollywood producer, had already missed initial deadlines to come up with a reported $20 million. U.S. space authorities had also expressed worries that the star was ill-prepared for the flight, though cash-strapped Russia said it needed the fee to service its fleet of Soyuz craft.

Did Lance just space out and forget the payment or was it because he's chick, chick, chicken! Link

[BigWaveBetty]

Has Fred gone to the dark side for money to keep his honey in Dolly Parton outfits?

DURING his eight years on Capitol Hill, retiring Sen. Fred Thompson has rarely minced words and likely won'tdo it this fall when he joins the cast of "Law & Order."

In a clip from the NBC legal drama, Thompson's character, Arthur Branch, says:

"With all the money we spend on the so-called war on drugs, we could buy all the poppy fields in the world and burn them to a crisp. But do we do it? No. And why? Because without a war on something, people in Washington wouldn't get elected."

After the clip was aired Sunday on "Meet the Press," host Tim Russert asked, "What is the difference between politics and movies or TV?"

"The pay," Thompson said

[BigWaveBetty]

Yummy!

Fried Spiders: Crispy and Gooey
Tue Sep 3, 8:27 AM ET
By Ed Cropley

SKUON, Cambodia (Reuters) - First unearthed by starving Cambodians in the dark days of the Khmer Rouge ( news - web sites) "killing fields" rule, Skuon's spiders have transformed from the vital sustenance of desperate refugees into a choice national delicacy.

Black, hairy, and packing vicious, venom-soaked fangs, the burrowing arachnids common to the jungle around this bustling market town do not appear at first sight to be the caviar of Cambodia.

But for many residents of Skuon, the "a-ping" -- as the breed of palm-sized tarantula is known in Khmer -- are a source of fame and fortune in an otherwise impoverished farming region in the east of the war-ravaged southeast Asian nation.

"On a good day, I can sell between 100 and 200 spiders," said Tum Neang, a 28-year-old spider-seller who supports her entire family by hawking the creepy-crawlies, deep fried in garlic and salt, to the people who flock to Skuon for a juicy morsel. [snip]

Crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside, it should then be served piping hot. [snip] Link to story.

[BigWaveBetty]

And Americans are supposed to take these idiots seriously when they tell us we shouldn't take out Saddam? Link

Bare-Flesh Posters, Saucy Slogans Woo Voters
Tue Sep 3, 8:11 AM ET
By Clifford Coonan

BERLIN (Reuters) - German parties are breaking new taboos in a closely fought election campaign, using posters of naked lesbians and gays, thinly veiled innuendo and even a reference to smoking cannabis to sway voters.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats are neck and neck with Edmund Stoiber's conservatives in opinion polls ahead of the September 22 election and some of the racy campaign tactics are causing quite a storm.

The most controversial poster belongs to the Green party, junior partners in the ruling center-left coalition. It depicts two topless same-sex couples, one male, one female, with one partner in each pair holding the other's nipple.

The poster is modeled on a 16th century French Mannerist painting and carries the message "Equal rights for lesbians, gays and heteros."

The poster has drawn fire from religious leaders and local authorities.

"This goes way beyond the borders of good taste. With these kind of posters, the party automatically disqualifies itself," Christoph Heckeley, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cologne, told Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday.

The town of Koenigstein near Frankfurt has banned the poster and was considering slapping a fine on the Greens, who have between six percent and seven percent of the vote in opinion polls.

The Greens responded by painting bikini tops over the offending breasts.

Schroeder's glossy posters depict him as a statesman and problem-solver. But the youth wing of his Social Democrats has adopted a steamy slogan to convince voters that after four years in power the party's reforms are just beginning.

A picture of two lips pursed in a kiss promises: "That was just foreplay. The peak is yet to come."

The liberal Free Democrats, potential partners for the conservatives, have a controversial placard for their Young Liberals. It shows a young woman holding up a polling card beneath the slogan: "Stick it in."

The former Communist Party of Democrat Socialism is also wooing young voters with a vengeance even though opinions polls show the party will not make the threshold of five percent of the vote needed for representation in parliament.

"Today I'll have a shag. Tomorrow I'll smoke a joint. The day after that I'll vote," said a party advertisement in the left-wing Tageszeitung newspaper.

Elisabeth von Baumgartner of the Jung van Matt advertising agency said the racy campaigns would have little impact.

"The parties are breaking new taboos and think they can win votes with naked skin. They're completely wrong. It's all just election tomfoolery," she told Bild.

[Teacup]

Good Morning all. Well, the boys are off to school. I'll be home most of the day, just in case I get a call from the school. Gee, it's so quiet, YEAH!

[BigWaveBetty]

Ahhhhhhhhhh! Enjoy the quiet. :-) Gotta run for a bit, back later.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Meantime, she's lost another 10 pounds. The hips are gone.

This is a very odd adoption. What agency allows the adoption of a 3 year old to a gay man and a wife with no hips?

[Carolina]

Good mornin', y'all! It's good to be back in the land of the living again.

I got the mother-of-all-migraines last Monday and it lasted all week. Dear, dear hubby took the week off to take care of the kids. Thank the Lord for a devoted hubby.

One good thing is that I got the sleep that I've been needing.

Now, I've got to regain my FR sea legs. Whew! I'm trying to catch up with the Badjoe threads. Maybe I'll just skip them or my migraine will return. LOL!

[habs4ever]

Inquiring minds want to know...what happened to the ducks ? ;-)