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Never has a painting in the Chuck Jones Gallery window attracted so much attention. It has stopped Old Town pedestrians midstep, eliciting smiles and thoughtful looks from some; frowns, angry telephone calls and unfriendly notes demanding its removal from others. Two weeks ago, the gallery put on display an oil painting parody of Leonardo da Vinci's “The Last Supper.” Named “The Gathering,” it substitutes Looney Tunes and other cartoon characters for disciples and Bugs Bunny for Jesus. “We never intended to offend anyone,” said Mike Dicken, national sales director for the gallery at 2501 San Diego Ave. “Most people think...

ALL is forgiven. Though Courtenay Semel beat up Casey Johnson (above) and set her hair on fire last month, the lesbian lovers spent a romantic week together at Sundance. "Courtenay and Casey are back in love and believe that they are soul partners," said a friend of the billion-heiresses. "Casey's daughter loves Court, and they are very much the family unit. They are back in LA now, and they are both working to rebuild their relationship." A rep for Semel said, "Courtenay is in a great place right now . . . and everyone is really excited."

Yesterday, cartoonist Tom Tomorrow revealed the dire news that his strip, This Modern World, and all other weekly cartoons were being canceled by Village Voice Media, publisher of the Village Voice, the LA Weekly, and 13 other newsweeklies. This still leaves me with eighty-odd papers, as well as Salon and Credo, so it’s not a fatal blow. And believe me, I wasn’t so naive as to imagine I was going to get through this economic mess without taking some hits. Nonetheless it’s a serious chunk of major cities to lose in one fell swoop (don’t get me started on the...

It's for the good of the country and for those who're bitter for a reason and armed because they're scared. As a lifelong Caucasian, I am beginning to think the time has finally come to take the right to vote away from white people, at least until we come to our senses. Seriously, I just don't think we can be trusted to exercise it responsibly anymore. I give you Exhibit A: The last eight years. In 2000, Bush-Cheney stole the election, got us attacked, and then got us into two no-exit wars. Four years later, white people reelected them. Is...

Paulsboro, N.J. - October 14, 2008 - (WPVI) -- Paulsboro, New Jersey has long been known as a middle class town with an industrial edge. But now the borough is in a fight with ExxonMobil, its biggest tax payer, and that is putting a drain on the entire community. "This plant, when it was built, actually saved Paulsboro from a standpoint of its financial structure because its a wonderful neighbor and a contributor to the tax base. Until now." said Paulsboro Mayor John Burzichelli. That's because six years ago ExxonMobil appealed the assessment made on its lube plant located at...

FBI Monitoring 'Incident' At Ridley Township Plant RIDLEY TOWNSHIP, Pa. (CBS3/AP) ― Boeing Rotorcraft Systems temporarily shut down a production line for several hours Tuesday at its suburban Philadelphia plant because of possible irregularities discovered in two military helicopters. The company disclosed few specifics about why the shutdown of the H-47 Chinook helicopter line at the plant in Ridley Township, Pa., occurred. It said an investigation was under way and it was working with the Defense Contract Management Agency, which oversees military suppliers. Boeing officials said they discovered "irregularities" in two of the aircrafts that were being assembled at the...

Raised on Nintendo and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, the troops fighting this war want to experience the kind of battle promised to them by Splinter Cell and Total Recall. The videos they make are an attempt to salvage a war whose coherence crumbled soon after Saddam's statue fell. < snip > Critics of the mainstream media's war coverage might hope that the soldier's unmediated view would be a more positive one. < snip >There's music in a lot of the soldiers' videos, but precious little uplift. In "The War Tapes," one soldier/auteur complains frequently about the risks he and his comrades...

PHILADELPHIA -- The city of Chester was put on trial Wednesday as convicted killer Andre Cooper’s defense team tried to persuade a federal jury to spare his life. Cooper, 26, faces possible execution for his involvement in three murders committed to maintain the status of Chester’s Boyle Street Boys’ lucrative drug operation. Cooper’s defense team played two films for the jury, produced in 1985 and 2004, documenting the contemporary history of Chester from its heyday as a prosperous port city through the infamous reign of Republican mayor and convicted racketeer Jack Nacrelli. Those who appeared in sound bites in the...

PRESENT AT THE DESTRUCTION For almost half a century, the world's most powerful nuclear states have been locked in a military stalemate known as mutual assured destruction (MAD). By the early 1960s, the nuclear arsenals of the United States and the Soviet Union had grown so large and sophisticated that neither country could entirely destroy the other's retaliatory force by launching first, even with a surprise attack. Starting a nuclear war was therefore tantamount to committing suicide. During the Cold War, many scholars and policy analysts believed that MAD made the world relatively stable and peaceful because it induced great...

I've just learned that during an operation near Baghdad, this morning, one of our armored vehicles - a brand new one unofficially referred to as "The Rock" - was hit by an IED. The vehicle sustained no major damage, and - best of all - ZERO injuries were suffered by passengers or crew. I first reported on "The Rock" earlier this month at NavySEALs.com and elsewhere. It is being manufactured by Kuwait-based Granite Global Services which was founded in the spring of 2004 by SEAL Reservist Chris Berman, then-working for Blackwater Security. Berman started the company after four of his...

An art exhibit that included photographs of nude Muslim women wearing only a head covering was taken down Thursday afternoon just hours after opening for public viewing at Harper College in Palatine. Muslim students at the college protested to officials about the pieces on display in Building C. Several students say the pieces — some showing young Muslim men with machine guns — were downright offensive. “I think they should rip this down,” student Matt George said. Another student, Hussein Ali, says a number of Muslim students at Harper now are thinking about leaving. “The Muslim students are thinking about...

There are two types of Iraq war veterans that have a tremendous appeal to the anti-war crowd - the fictional and the dead. Both types have a common, irresistible trait - others can claim to speak on their behalf. Dan Kennings is both types. And his daughter Kodee was in a position to become the next Cindy Sheehan. ... There are elements to the story that would reveal it as an obvious fake to anyone remotely familiar with the US military or the war in Iraq, but apparently few folks at Southern Illinois University qualify in that regard. The fictional...

CULTURE IN THE AGE OF TERROR The London bombings make the numerous 9/11 references in the new War of the Worlds seem even odder and more callous than before. For one thing: When Dakota Fanning asks "Is it the terrorists?" as the aliens tear up New Jersey, the audience is supposed to cluck knowingly at the silly little girl and her quaint notions. Today, the little girl doesn't look so silly. For another: I hadn't seen anyone else pick up on this, but I found another 9/11 reference in the alien death ray that incinerates people but leaves their clothes...

A ship's bow, a periscope, an unruly crown of lawn—could it be a boneyard for boats? An innovative work of art? Actually, it's the new Ballard library, the 15th branch to be built or renovated under Seattle's "Libraries for All" bond measure. It boldly blends elements of Ballard's heritage with cutting-edge environmental technology. Opening Saturday, May 14, it might be the "greenest" building in town. It's certainly unique among the city's branch libraries. Consider it a gift for Earth Day, which is Friday, April 22. The new Ballard Branch has a huge, upwardly arched roof supported by enormous wood...

NEW YORK - In the glory days of the French-American cultural love affair, visiting Gallic thinkers brandished Gauloise cigarettes when uneasily fielding questions from reporters here. Sartre, Beauvoir and others swirled their miniature teachers' pointers to signal passion about ideas. They held them skyward to evince disdain. They snuffed them out forcefully to shut down a subject. Welcome to 2005. Now peace-loving Jacques Chirac raises cigarette taxes 20 percent a year as he wages a "war on tobacco" against the third of French adults who still smoke. And here in a Manhattan conference room, Random House also lives by no-smoking...

SHEER TORTURE "As football overseer, Uday kept a private torture scorecard, with written instructions on how many times each player should be beaten on the soles of his feet after a particularly poor showing." "When we arrived, they took off our shirts, tied our feet together and pulled our knees over a bar as we lay on our backs. Then they dragged us over pavement and concrete, pulling the skin off our backs. Then they pulled us through a sandpit to get sand in our backs. Finally, they made us climb a ladder and jump into a vat of raw...

<p>ATLANTA (Reuters) - Several hundred protesters loudly booed President Bush on Thursday as he laid a wreath at the grave of Martin Luther King on the anniversary of the civil rights leader's birth.</p> <p>"Bush go home" and "peace not war" the protesters shouted from behind a barrier of parked buses across the street from King's grave.</p>

Clothes Make the Man Like Jack and his magic beanstalk, Urban Outfitters President Richard Hayne turned a few hippie beans into a hip $700 million retail empire. But did he lose his soul in the process? JONATHAN VALANIA (jvalania@philadelphiaweekly.com) There is, perhaps, no more efficient way to remind yourself that you are no longer 22 than to walk the aisles of Urban Outfitters. For the postcollegiate slackerati it is a mecca of precisely modulated urban hipster cool, a time-warp thrift store aesthetic filtered through a retrograde prism of detached irony and kitsch--proof positive of the fashion adage that everything, no...

<p>NASIRIYA, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Marines searching Iraqi military headquarters in this southern city that was the site of intensive fighting came across a mural depicting a plane crashing into a building complex resembling New York's twin towers, a news agency photograph showed Wednesday.</p>

Sometime last Saturday Saddam Hussein was finally convinced that his French friends could not buy him some extra time and that war was coming. And he acted the way he always has by unveiling a war plan based on his favorite tactic of "cheat-and-retreat." Saddam's war plan has three aims. The first is to slowdown the advance of coalition forces as much as possible. This, he hopes to achieve by creating a tidal wave of refugees, including large numbers of army deserters, in the densely populated southern provinces bordering Kuwait. Sunday elements of the IV Army Corps, alias "Saladin" were...