- So you’re saying there’s a plan? A lousy, ridiculous and
straight-out-of-the-’70s plan, but there is a scheme in place to help out
depressed Time Warner Cable customers in New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, Boston,
Chicago, Denver, Detroit and Pittsburgh who have been unable to watch some of
their favorite shows for more than a month. On July 23, a contractual dispute
between the cable provider and CBS escalated to the point that customers had
CBS ripped from their channel lineup. Since then, negotiations have skidded to
a near-halt as Time Warner and CBS debate how much the cable operator should
pay to carry CBS programming in places where CBS owns local affiliates,
including the blacked-out markets. When the curtain went down, viewers in
impacted areas lost access to hit CBS shows such as "Under the Dome,"
"NCIS" and "The
Big Bang Theory." After CBS rejected
a truce offer from Time Warner Cable on Aug. 5, those suffering viewers
began casting a wary eye toward the horizon of a new TV season in a few weeks
and the chance that they would be unable to view the new seasons of favorite
shows such as “Person of Interest” and “Survivor.” To provide an option in the
event no deal is struck in between now and next month, Time Warner Cable is
offering free antennas to any subscribers who want to watch CBS programming.
The company offered the rabbit-ear antennas to customers in an email sent
Friday. Time Warner Cable said that it is "making basic indoor antennas
available at no cost," so viewers can watch CBS shows over the air.
"We regret that CBS has put our customers in this position by continuing
to withhold its channels," read the message. We are trying to strike a
balance between our desire to restore the channels as soon as possible and our
responsibility to all of our customers to hold down the rising cost of
TV." As expected, Time Warner is painting CBS as the unreasonable one in
the dispute, saying “cable TV bills would skyrocket” if it agreed to CBS’
demands……….
- Switzerland may be neutral on a few issues, but the
business of hookers is not one of them. The neutral nation’s largest city is
now home to its first sex drive-in. The business has opened in a bid to keep prostitutes
safe and move the trade outside of Switzerland's biggest city. It consists of open
wooden garages, popularly called "sex boxes" by the Swiss media, that
will soon open on a first-come, first-serve basis, for drive-in customers, in
the city where prostitution has been legal since 1942. Several dozen ladies
of the night are expected to make it their new hub will stand along a short
road in a small, circular park. The park was built for this specific purpose
and clients will enter the former industrial area nestled between a rail yard
and the fence along a major highway and negotiate prices for their deviant
acts. Best of all, the park is publicly funded and includes bathrooms, lockers,
small cafe tables and a laundry and shower. There will be no surveillance
cameras, but hookers will be provided with a panic button and on-site social
workers trained to look after them. They will also have to register and
pay a small tax for use of the facility. Oddly enough, many Swiss view the
project as good for everyone, as it gets hookers out of the city and makes for
a safer environment for them as they sell their bodies like pieces of meat.
Even more interesting, many Swiss visited an open house at the park to see what
their tax money is paying for, as if it were open house at the local elementary
school. Voters approved spending up to 2.4 million Swiss francs ($2.6 million)
on the project last year and the city plans to spend 700,000 francs ($760,000)
a year to keep the sex boxes running. The boxes are modeled after the
drive-in brothels used in several cities in Germany and the Netherlands and
will be open daily from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m………
- Soooo….Lamar Odom has issues. First, the forward is a
free agent with professional, personal and emotional baggage who must now
convince an NBA team to take a chance on him even as it becomes painfully clear
he is on the downside of his career. Oh, and there is also the rumor that he is in a Los Angeles hotel where friends
are trying to get him help for an unspecified drug problem. That report broke
Monday even as Odom's agent refuted a report that his client had been missing
for 72 hours after a dispute with his wife Khloe Kardashian. He and Kardashian
may or may not be estranged and their lives have been played out on reality TV
virtually since their engagement because her attention-whorish family can’t get
enough of the reality spotlight. With his marriage potentially on the rocks after
multiple alleged affairs, Odom is allegedly AWOL, although agent Jeff Schwartz
insisted otherwise. "Lamar is not missing. His wife knows exactly where he
is,” Schwartz said. He refused to reveal his client’s whereabouts, but Kardashian
reacted angrily on Twitter to ongoing speculation about her husband, saying:
"Really hard to sit here and listen to people talk s--- about my
family." What’s really funny is that talking sh*t about her family is all
anyone does because that’s exactly what the Kardashian clan wants, thus their
inescapable presence on E! in all manner of reality programming. As for Odom,
he could well be on a sugar bender somewhere, as he is a noted candy addict who
stashes pounds and pounds of sweets all around him. In fact, those claiming he’s
doing drugs should probably make sure that’s cocaine he’s (allegedly) using and
not just a jumbo case of pixie sticks he’s main-lining. Wherever he is,
Schwartz said Odom plans on continuing his career. "Playing in the NBA is
still very much a part of Lamar's plans,” Schwartz added. Odom, who played with
the Clippers last season, has been pursued in free agency this summer by both
the Clippers and the Lakers……..
- Aaaand America’s shameless attempt to rip off another
nation’s proud tradition is off and running….and stumbling….and falling….and
being rushed to the hospital. Yes, the United States of America, land of the
free and the culturally cannibalizing, is trying to thieve another nation’s
culture once more, this time the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. The real version
takes place in early July in Pamplona at the San Fermin festival, but an
American rip-off of the run took place in Dinwiddie County, Va. on Saturday. The
first Great Bull Run in Dinwiddie County kicked off Saturday at 11 a.m. and
wrapped up with a final run around 3:30 p.m. at the Virginia Motorsports
Park. Just like the real run, there were a few fools injured and two of them
were rushed to the hospital after the final run. One person was trampled and Dinwiddie
County Fire and EMS officials confirmed two people taken to the hospital from
injuries directly related to the run. Several dozen more went to first aid
themselves for minor cuts and bruises, although no one was gored severely.
Initially, the bulls appeared calm, but once they became accustomed to the
track, the beasts perked up. Hundreds of runners raced through the pen, coming
within feet of the half-ton bulls as the animals ran through. Unlike the real
race, there was no run down stone-paved, narrow old streets with few places to
escape and onlookers staring down from above and enjoying some sangria. A few
runners were lifted off the ground and thrown in the air by the bulls, but the
Humane Society was on hand to observe the run and make sure the animals - not the
humans - were not harmed. Of course, striking or assaulting the bulls is a
surefire way to get booted from the course in Pamplona, so the two events did
have that in common. This was the first event of its kind in the U.S., although
more are planned………
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