| 'Pod People
New eras can reveal themselves in the oddest ways. A revelation came to me at a recent Los Angeles screening of an animated feature for kids. As soon as the lights went down and the first sequence filled the screen -- a huge curved expanse in one of the city's last remaining single-screen movie palaces -- a young mother sitting with two kids near me pulled out a pair of earbuds, stuck them in her ears and started watching her own show on her iPhone. I couldn't tell what it was because her screen was so small, but it didn't matter. Watching her fixated by whatever wee spectacle it was, I thought I could see the death knell -- can you see a knell? In this case yes -- of theatrical exhibition as we know it. The YouTube generation has already begun to lose the theatergoing habit, this mother's semipresence notwithstanding, and has embraced the notion of video on iPods and cellphones, as well as on computers.
Sorry Sal, no mulligan this time
Alas, I'm not talking golf here, but politics. Let's face it: You bogeyed the appropriate-appearances hole of the public affairs course. It's really not that difficult. A wide, generous fairway, with just a few hazards to keep clear of. Like, say, the sand trap of special access for monied interests. Or the murky pond of possible proffered favors. It shouldn't be hard for an accomplished pro like you. And yet, you sure misplayed this one. Your friend Joe O'Donnell, a top shareholder at Suffolk Downs - an establishment that hopes to build a casino - has told the Globe that he's golfed with you twice recently in Florida, once with you as his guest. While on the links, the two of you talked about the issue of casino gambling, O'Donnell said.
Zipping along in Quebec's Laurentians
Fall slips gently into Quebec, like the sinking afternoon sun. Bugs disappear, steamy hot weather cools, crowds dwindle. Hotel rates inch downward too. Make no mistake, though, fun still runs full throttle.
Just an hour north of Montreal in the Laurentians, scream the entire 987 feet of North America's longest zip line, part of the adventure course at Acro-Nature at Ski Morin Heights. Zip lines, suspended ladders and wobbly wooden beams wind high in the trees on a four-zone, 58-station course.
College student instructors hook you up with lessons on how to use the lines, ensuring that you don't forget to latch your carabineer to the red "life line" of safety. And since the course gradually climbs, even if you're a bit squeamish about heights you probably won't notice until that last long zip line just how high up you are.
Hunt hounds ‘must have leads’
It is the latest issue to be raised over the controversial orders, which were were were rubber-stamped in December after councillors back-tracked on a bylaw which would have seen dogs kept on leads in Shrewsbury's Quarry Park. Councillor Williams said: "Under the order, dogs used in hound and equestrian activities are not exempt. .
Recap of Saturday, December 15
A lot of people have forgotten that there is this thing called winter! It usually comes once a year, and there's industries built around it! So if we have a normal winter we're going to have actual winter industries do well, which is good for the economy! .
Courteney buys Jennifer Aniston a $12,000 bicycle
Courteney Cox has bought Jennifer Aniston a $12,000 Chanel bicycle. The actress bought her 'Friends' pal the expensive pushbike after she expressed an interest taking up cycling. A source close to the star said, "Jennifer said she wanted to start bike riding because it's such good exercise. So Courteney sent her the new, ultra-chic Chanel bicycle." .
Marvelous on Murray Hill
Her first project was a transom for the window over the kitchen door. Next, she tackled the lower staircase window depicting pink and red waterlilies. It took her two years, she said, with many do-overs and lots of advice from her instructor, Jim Forrester. The upper window, depicting koi and a purple waterlily, went much faster -- nine months. Mrs. Short also laid the tile around the new gas fireplace in the living room and in the kitchen floor. "On the day before my daughter's engagement party, I finished the kitchen floor," she said, rolling her eyes. Her husband, who gleefully demonstrated the gas fireplace's remote control, "was the guy in the basement with the tile saw," she said. He also installed greenhouse windows in the living room and kitchen to give her a little more space for her 200 orchids, which overwinter throughout the house.
Hodge attacks Salmond's Chessmen gambit
Scotland as we all know, was a barbarous nation that should have been easily conquered by the extremely civilised Nation to it's South.And of course any sort of artistic ability evaporates the further it gets from the wee triangle of Oxford Cambridge and London. .
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