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Serious question: what does it mean in layman's terms when someone says a solo has been "resolved" or brought to its "resolution"?

Ghost: Do happen to know where that little epigram or whatever at the beginning of "Appt." came from? I read the book years and years ago, and I still can't that out of my mind.

You know, it's funny this offends the NFL but having a team called the "Redskins" doesn't ...

If you can ever track down a copy, check out O'Hara's "Lovey Childs: A Philadelphians Story." People would find this pretty racy today ... He's pretty far out of vogue nowadays, but I really enjoy his work.

It's scary, yet typical ... it seems like sex/nudity = bad, hate/violence = good for too many Americans.

While doing some, uh, research on, um, "wardrobe malfunctions," I came across this titbit (couldn't resist). The context was a claim that the Super Bowl half-time show was the "most replayed moment" ever. "TiVo said it used its technology to measure audience behavior among 20,000 users during the Super Bowl. The exercise revealed a 180% spike in viewership at the time of the -- as Timberlake refers to it -- "wardrobe malfunction. ... This marks the third year that TiVo has released details of its second-by-second review of how Super Bowl viewers used their TiVo units. Not only did users pause and replay the infamous portion of the halftime show more than any moment during the game, but they also did the same for some commercials." Are there any TiVo users out there? I'm curious about whether their upfront in letting customers know they (TiVo) monitors their (customers') watching habits.

Boy, I sure didn't see this coming ...

From the Slate guy's review of Super Bowl ads ... "Pizza Hut introduces a new four-section pie (I believe it was termed the "Four-for-all") with Jessica Simpson and the Muppets. I have not much to say about this, except: Did you notice Miss Piggy's new haircut? It used to be curly and brassy (sort of a '70s Farrah Fawcett look), but now she's had it straightened, with bangs (more like a Sex and the City Kim Cattrall look). I think she had some work done, too." Emphasis mine!

Something weird happened to me over the weekend (weirder than normal, I mean) ... I was watching one of those "I love the 70s/80s" shows on VH1 and they had Kermit the Frog on as one of the snarky critics ... giving his comments about various pop culture, uh, icons, and that was strange enough, but then they had a clip from "The Muppets Movie" and had Kermit commenting on that, too ... my head almost exploded!

Just to get serious for a moment ... I'm usually on the fence about this kind of thing. On the one hand, it seems pretty tacky. On the other, if no one is forcing the groom to do this, who am I to be offended? Of course, that's w/o getting into an argument about whether he's somehow being "forced" into it because society marginalizes dwarves and he can't do anything else.

That happened to our cat ... seriously ... damn thing jumped up on the kitchen table when we had some candles there and caught himself on fire! He was one of those "-ese" cats ... Burmese? ... I don't know, but with long hair and his whole side went up in flames. Luckily (?) I was right there and wrapped him in a dish towel to put out the fire ... no burns to either of us, but the cat looked even stranger than normal for a while.

Dwarf-date show sparks controversy Some criticize, but show has support from little-people group Friday, January 30, 2004 Posted: 9:43 AM EST (1443 GMT) LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Critics may roll their eyes at Fox television's upcoming dwarf-dating contest "The Littlest Groom," but the head of the advocacy group Little People of America says the show could end up giving his members a boost. While some audiences may snicker at the spectacle of a dozen dwarf women competing with average-sized females for the affections of a 4-foot-5-inch bachelor, LPA president Matt Roloff said the Fox show may benefit people of short stature by depicting them as regular folks "just being themselves." In other words, a person's size doesn't matter. "Yes, the radio jocks will have a field day," Roloff told Reuters in a telephone interview. "(But) hiding us behind closed doors or in funny costumes will never give us the exposure needed to desensitize society to us." Fox said this week that it would air the show, essentially a dwarf version of ABC's "The Bachelor," as a two-part special next month on February 16 and February 23. The announcement sparked a flurry of angry letters to the LPA from little people and their parents and a debate within the Portland, Oregon-based organization over its response to the show, Roloff said. "The fact that Fox is doing this reality show is outrageous," Roloff quoted one e-mail he received from the parent of a dwarf child. "It is one more avenue to make fun of their stature." Roloff credited the producers of the show for consulting with his group in an apparent effort to develop and promote the show in a sensitive manner. While the LPA neither supports nor endorses the program, Roloff said he would withhold judgment until he sees it. "My sense is that they probably didn't do anything too derogatory." But the retired software design and sales executive said he remains troubled about the idea of throwing averaged-sized women into the mix, an element of the show he called "ill-advised" and potentially hurtful to his members. "Personally, I think that the (bachelor) guy might have the same tastes I have and prefer a little woman and reject the average-sized women," he said. "But at the same time, if it did go the other way around, it might be problematic, and make America think there's something wrong with little people." He said there are roughly 100,000 people in the United States who have been born with dwarfism, a genetic condition that usually results in an adult height of 4-foot-10 or less and disproportionately short arms and legs. "Littlest Groom" Executive Producer Bill Paolantonio defended the program as a "celebration of diversity." "We have gone to great lengths to make sure everybody on this program is treated with dignity and respect," he said. "Human emotion is human emotion, no matter what the package is, and this program ultimately is about that" He said all the dwarf contestants on the program had dated a mix of little and average-sized people, and that one little woman on the show had never dated a little person.

Just an FYI, Daniel, I don't mean to seem as if I'm picking on Swedes with this and the anti-Semitism post on the other thread.

Another vote for "Inner Circle" ... that Osby guy seems like he know's what he's doing, huh?

Child pornography was legal in Sweden until 1999?!?!

Georgia considers banning 'evolution' Friday, January 30, 2004 Posted: 7:48 AM EST (1248 GMT) State Superindendent of Schools Kathy Cox answers questions at a news conference in Atlanta, Georgia, Thursday. ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- The state's school superintendent has proposed striking the word evolution from Georgia's science curriculum and replacing it with the phrase "biological changes over time." The change is included in more than 800 pages of draft revisions to Georgia's curriculum that have been posted by the Department of Education on its Web site. The middle and high school standards are expected to be voted on by the state Board of Education in May, after public feedback. Superintendent Kathy Cox said the concept of evolution would still be taught under the proposal, but the word would not be used. The proposal would not require schools to buy new textbooks omitting the word evolution and would not prevent teachers from using it. Cox repeatedly referred to evolution as a "buzzword" Thursday and said the ban was proposed, in part, to alleviate pressure on teachers in socially conservative areas where parents object to its teaching. "If teachers across this state, parents across this state say, 'This is not what we want,' then we'll change it," said Cox, a Republican elected in 2002. Educators and legislators criticized the proposal, saying science teachers understand the theories behind evolution and how to teach them. "Here we are, saying we have to improve standards and improve education, and we're just throwing a bone to the conservatives with total disregard to what scientists say," said state Rep. Bob Holmes, a Democrat. Social conservatives who prefer religious creation to be taught instead of evolution criticized the proposal as well. "If you're teaching the concept without the word, what's the point?" said Rep. Bobby Franklin, a Republican. "It's stupid. It's like teaching gravity without using the word gravity."

In case you haven't checked your recent post in the Art thread: Such piracy or stealing is not acceptable.

Another for "Flight to Jordan" ... and to "Change a Pace," one of his Steeplechase releases. A nice trio date w/NHOP (bass) and Bill Hart (drums). A great showcase for his playing.

Ghost: I think the basic problem comes down to the length (or lack thereof) of the book. Amis is a great stylist, but he needs “room” to in which to work. With enough pages, he could provide anyone with a believable, readable motivation to do just about anything. With Night Train, I often felt he was holding something back. Occasionally he couldn’t help himself and he’d get into a groove, but then those sections didn’t feel integrated with the rest of the book. I think he could have gone the short, hardboiled route on this … or kept closer to his usual style … and I would have like it more. But he tried to do both and it was kind of a muddle. Also, the intro paragraph really grated on me, so the book and I got off to a bad start. I had a hard time believing cops say stuff like “I’m a police” and I thought naming the main character “Mike” when she was a woman was kind of gimmicky. Again, maybe if Amis had more room he could have made the latter point more believable to me.

I think that pretty much covers the industry's point of view, huh? Great idea by Gabriel/Eno!

eric: see above. The Amis/Bellow love affair has been going on a while ... I met Amis at a book signing in Chicago back in the mid/late 1990's ... Bellow was there, too!

Ghost: I'm a huge Amis fan, but to me, Night Train was pretty disappointing ... and while London Fields is excellent, his Time's Arrow is an absolute tour de force. It was one of the best books I've ever read in my life, both stylistically and content-wise. It's about a Nazi doctor who had worked at Auschwitz but escaped to the U.S. ... when he dies in some unrelated accident, his "soul" tells the doctor's story, but going backward in time ... for example, he describes his "work" at the camps as helping people ... taking dead Jews and healing them (the reverse, obviously, of what really happened) and then sending them in crowded trains back to where they originally lived. So it's like watching a movie going backwards and then making up a narration to describe the backward events. Hard to explain, but he totally pulls it off and uses it to great effect in describing some of the horrors of WWII.

I'm from the Detroit area, so it's like White Stripes central here ... if anyone's heard of the Von Bondies, the mother of their lead singer, who was in a much-reported fistfight w/Jack White, was our nurse for the birth of my 4th kid. (The Von Bondies singer got into the fight, not his mother!) The music ... well, on the one hand, not too much of today's rock engages me, but, on the other, I really think part of that is a function of my not focusing too much on it in the first place. I mean, I think most of the criticisms I could lodge against rock could just as easily be lodged against jazz by a non-jazz lover, if that makes sense.

"Photo novel" ... is that like a graphic novel? If so, that actually sounds pretty cool to me.

I second a for Bad Plus ... the covers are interesting, but they sound like they really have their own thing going, too. For example, I've also got MMW's "Tonic," the one on which Medeski plays piano instead of organ, providing an interesting opportunity to compare two semi-similar piano trios ... I found myself preferring the Bad Plus in this context. On the other hand, perhaps MMW playing out of their regular format had an effect, too.