Picture of the Day

In 1970, Jane Fonda was arrested on spurious drug smuggling charges while travelling around the country working to bring an end to the Vietnam War. (For complete details, click here. For a short history of the raised fist salute, click here.)

Below: A 2009 photo of Rosario Dawson carrying a small purse with Fonda's mug shot on it.)

The complete mug shot 

I'm not sure why, but it appears that they took mug shots of Fonda two days in a row.

As an added bonus, here's a album cover photo of John Lennon giving the raised fist salute. I don't think he had been arrested or anything.

Abandoned books and/or movies #11

These are the books I have stopped reading over the past three months.

Rat Girl-- Kristin Hersh

Eating Mud Crabs in Kandahar: Stories of Food During Wartime by the World's Leading Correspondents-- edited by Matt McAllester

Intern Nation-- Ross Perlin

Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper-- Geoffrey Gray

Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts-- Julian Rubinstein

Los Macheteros: The Wells Fargo Robbery and the Violent Struggle for Puerto Rican Independence-- Ronald Fernandez

Foucault's Pendulum-- Umberto Eco

Ocean's of Words-- Ha Jin

Sleeping Where I Fall-- Peter Coyote

A Radical Line-- Thai Jones

The Making of Black Revolutionaries-- James Forman

Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour-- David Bianculli

Champions League final tickets

Shevchenko steals some reporter's wallet

Last month, Dynamo Kiev beat KAA Gent in a Champions League qualifying round match. After the game, Dynamo's Andriy Shevchenko (who had earlier scored a goal) picked this reporter's pocket. Or, as the description on the video says: "Shevchenko after game has stolen purse at the journalist."

Togo football team's bus attacked

According to news reports, the team bus of Togo's national football team was attacked on Friday as it drove into Angola for the African Cup of Nations. The bus driver is reported to have died, and at least nine others have been hurt. Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor was not hurt in the attack, which is believed to have been carried out by separatist rebels. To hear his description of the event, click here.

Update (January 9, 2010): Togo have withdrawn from the tournament.

Abandoned Books and/or Movies #6

Deconstructing Sammy: Music, Money, Madness, and the Mob by Matt Birkbeck

Despite what I had hoped, this book is not about Sammy Davis, Jr. It is really about a lawyer named Sonny Murray who attempted to help Sammy's widow, Altovise Davis, deal with the millions of dollars in debt that Sammy left behind when he died. While it was interesting for a while, I gave up halfway through-- I felt that I read enough about insurance policies, legal documents, the Internal Revenue Service, and stolen jewelry.

I did learn two fun facts, however-- Sammy Davis, Jr. was obsessed with the video arcade game Pac-Man and spent hours and hours playing it each day. Additionally, both Sammy and his wife were close personal friends with Donald Rumsfeld, who would later go on to become Secretary of Defense under President Bush.

Above: Pac-Man

Below: Donald Rumsfeld

Berlusconi attacked

The man above (identified as Massimo Tartaglia) attacked Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Milan today, either by hitting him with a small souvenir statue or throwing it from a close distance. Berlusconi suffered a broken nose and some damage to his teeth, but was otherwise unhurt. The man's motives are not known-- hopefully he is not an AC Milan fan upset by the team's poor performance against Palermo.

Update on the beer-throwing Cubs fan

As reported earlier, on Wednesday night a Cubs fan threw beer at Philadelphia Phillies centerfielder Shane Victorino. Another fan was blamed for the incident, which allowed the real culprit to escape. Later, however, he turned himself in to police and now faces some kind of criminal charges.

The fan's name is Johnny Macchione, and he has been very apologetic about what happened. At least one public relations expert thinks that Macchione has done a very good job at handling the incident. The fan who was inaccurately blamed for the incident is actually the cousin of Macchione's friend. Both men have subsequently spoken to Chicago media about what happened.

Last night's Phillies-Cubs game

The Cubs were losing again, and the fans were angry. Someone threw a beer at Phillies centerfielder Shane Victorino while Victorino was trying to catch a fly ball. Cubs security guards grabbed the wrong guy, and now the police are looking for the real beer thrower.

For video of the incident, click here. For predictable world-wide reaction, click here.

Update (later the same day): The wanted beer-thrower has turned himself in to police.

A note to visiting baseball players and front-office personnel about pedestrian safety in Seattle

Many visitors to Seattle (and other west coast cities) do not realize that expectations for pedestrians are different here than in other cities. Specifically, police officers will give tickets to people who cross at the middle of the block or against the light at the crosswalk. Yesterday, Chicago White Sox general manager Ken Williams (pictured above) found this out for himself when he was stopped outside Safeco Field before his team's game against the Mariners and given a ticket for jaywalking.

However, this is actually not the most important baseball/pedestrian safety event to ever take place in Seattle. The most important baseball/pedestrian safety event to ever take place in Seattle is the time in 2008 that a police officer stopped Manny Ramirez for jaywalking outside the stadium after a game and did not even know who Manny was.

Update (later that same day): White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen expressed interest in also getting a ticket for jaywalking.

What I have been watching lately #3

I just finished watching the movie Kelly's Heroes for the first time since I was a little kid. It features many of the most important twentieth-century American actors, including Telly Savalas, Stuart Margolin, Don Rickles, Gavin MacLeod, and Donald Sutherland. I do have the following questions, however:

• If they needed the combat engineers to build a bridge across the river, how did Kelly and his men get across the river before the engineers built the bridge?
• Why was the town completely deserted before and during the battle, but then afterwards all the people came out as if from nowhere?
• When the American soldier was ringing the church bell over and over again, why didn't any of the Germans go investigate?
• Has there ever been a movie that had so many tanks and other vehicles crashing through walls so many times?
• How did Kelly and his men get the stolen gold back to Allied lines, especially since they were driving in captured German vehicles?

Below-- the main soundtrack theme as performed by the Mike Curb Congregation.

Adding insult to injury after injury

The Egyptian national soccer team (above) has had an up-and-down week at the Confederations Cup to say the least.

1. They played brilliantly against Brazil, coming back from 3-1 down to tie, only to commit a handball in injury time (penalty kick converted by Kaka).

2. They played even more brilliantly to beat Italy 1-0 (see celebrating fans below).

3. They then collapsed and lost 3-0 to the USA, thus missing out on the chance to move on to the semi-finals.

4. Several of the players then had their hotel rooms robbed.

5. The South African media subsequently reported that the players were robbed not by burglars but by prostitutes who had been invited up by the players.

Egypt appears unlikely to qualify for the World Cup, so this trip represented their team's only chance to achieve glory in South Africa.

Meanwhile, in much more exciting, but unrelated, news, north Korea qualified for the World Cup finals this week with a draw against Saudi Arabia. They join south Korea, Japan, and Australia in representing Asia at the 2010 tournament.

What I have been reading lately #25

Today I finished Charles Brandt's book "I Heard You Paint Houses": Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran & the Inside Story of the Mafia, the Teamsters, & the Last Ride of Jimmy Hoffa. This book is based upon the author's extensive interviews with Frank Sheeran, a man who worked for years for the Teamsters and certain organized crime families in eastern Pennsylvania and New York. Sheeran was very close to Jimmy Hoffa for many years in the fifties, sixties, and seventies. Sheeran is now dead, but in the book he claims to have killed Jimmy Hoffa. I won't spoil the story as to how it is supposed to have happened. You'll have to read the book. I will say this much, however-- Sheeran is the first union enforcer and Mafia hit man that I have ever heard of who moonlighted as a ballroom dance instructor.

Below: Jimmy Hoffa (left) and Frank Sheeran

There is also word that this book may be made into a movie directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro.

What I have been reading lately #24

I have recently finished reading Robert Sullivan's excellent book, The Meadowlands: Wilderness Adventures at the Edge of a City.  From reading this book, I learned about the many interesting items that can be found or previously could be found in this wilderness/wasteland just a few miles west of New York City.  The list includes (in no particular order):

• many of the AM radio transmitters for New York City radio stations;
• abandoned copper mines:
• abandoned clay pits previously used for digging up clay to make bricks;
• salt hay farms;
• failed land development schemes;
• the cities of Newark and Secaucus (to name only two);
• garbage dumps (both in use and no longer in use) containing such items as rubble from the London Blitz, leachate (the liquid that trash makes after it has sat for a while), and fires (both above and underground);
• toxic waste, including, but not limited to, mercury, chromium, naphthalene, methylene chloride, toluene, and ethylbenzene;
• hunters, fishers, and swimmers;
• sports facilities for professional sports teams;
• highways and railways;
• lunatic asylums;
• organized crime murder victims (including, possibly, Jimmy Hoffa - pictured below);
• hotels;
• factories;
• pig farms;
• chemical and oil refineries;
• piles of coal;
• hills made from garbage;
• the Kearny, NJ Library, which boasts of having the world's largest collection of foriegn-language translations of Gone With The Wind;
• soccer stars, including John Harkes, Tab Ramos, and Tony Meola;
• cedar forests;
• mosquitoes;
• buried pirate treasure; and
• the ruins of the original Penn Station from New York City.

Above, the Meadowlands; below, Jimmy Hoffa.

What I have been reading lately #23

I just finished reading The Lizard King: The True Crimes and Passions of the World's Greatest Reptile Smugglers by Bryan Christy.  It is about international reptile smugglers and the overworked, underfunded U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agents who try to stop them from smuggling reptiles.  While the subject was interesting, the book was not very well written.  The author took a lot of time to set up the main villain (Michael Van Nostrand who operates a Florida-based reptile business called Strictly Reptiles) but then failed to really explain how the federal government finally brought him down.

Below: Michael Van Nostrand with a turtle, or is it a tortoise?

What I have been reading lately #22

Earlier today I finished Where The Money Is: True Tales From the Bank Robbery Capital of the World. This book is written by former FBI agent William J. Rehder (along with Gordon Dillow). For those of you who don't know, the bank robbery capital of the world is apparently Los Angeles, California.

This book was highly informative and entertaining- the author worked for over 30 years in Los Angeles catching bank robbers. The book focuses on just a few of the most interesting cases, including the "Yankee Bandit" (about whom a movie is being produced), LA gangs who took up bank robbing, "The Hole in the Ground Gang" who tunneled under and into bank vaults and were never caught, David Mack (an LA police officer who went bad), and, of course, the two men involved in the North Hollywood Shootout, whose robberies resembled something out of a bad action movie.

The book reminded me of when I worked for Gold Shield Security Services in Connecticut as an unarmed bank guard. I believe I made $6.50 an hour (early 1990s money) and spent most of my time worrying about getting shot at. Hartford, CT is far away from Los Angeles, however, so I did not have to undergo any robbery attempts.

Below: A photo from a random bank robbery - I believe it is from Colorado.

Abandoned Books and/or Movies #1

Below is a list of movies and/or books that I have given up on/walked out on/refused to finish lately.

Movies:

1. Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal.  I think was about an all-Indian football (soccer) team in London trying to keep from going under.  I also think it was a musical.  I made it through about an hour before turning off the DVD player.

2. Gomorrah.  A gritty, realistic look at modern-day gangsters in Naples, Italy.  It was really quite boring, actually.  I walked out of the theater after about thirty minutes.  This movie got rave reviews, but not from me.

3. Shanghai Knights.  Having sat through Shanghai Noon and The Big Bounce, I thought I could watch anything with Owen Wilson in it.  This movie proves me wrong.

Books:

1.  The Dream of Heroes by Adolfo Bioy Casares.  I've read this at least two or three times before, and it's great, but I couldn't quite manage another attempt.  It's an Argentinian novel set in the 1920s about a young man who has a mysterious vision on the third night of carnival in 1927 and sets out to discover the vision's meaning.  I highly recommend this book.

Newcastle owner Mike Ashley drinking a beer

Arsenal 2 - Newcastle 0. As most of you already know, it is actually illegal to drink alcohol within sight of the pitch as football match in the UK.

And now it appears that Ashley may face legal consequences for his actions - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/newcastle/2660366/Newcastle-owner-Mike-Ashley-faces-possible-Police-action-over-pint---Football.html (Updated 9-2-08).

The most hated man in all of Toronto?/Olympic Update #2

Igor Kenk (pictured below) may be the most hated man in all of Toronto, Canada. For years he has operated a bike shop in Toronto, but this summer police discovered that he was the mastermind of a massive bicycle-theft operation - they uncovered more than 2,000 bikes hidden in various storage facilities and garages throughout the city.

Here is one of the many garages in which Igor Kenk and his henchmen hid their stolen bicycles.

Here are some Toronto police officers taking a coffee break during their investigation.

By the way, Maris Strombergs of Latvia did win the gold medal as expected in the men's BMX competition yesterday. The woman who won, Anne-Caroline Chausson, is from France. Her closest competitor, Shanaze Reade from the UK, wiped out near the end.

This guy totally stole the wheel off this woman's bicycle

Watch below as the man completely rips this woman off:

And no one even lifted a finger to help her. What is this country coming to?