| Ex-mobster warns of gambling's dangers
FAIRFAX, Va. | It's clear right away -- long before the woman sitting up front asks, "Did you shoot anyone?" -- that this guy with the straight-out-of-central-casting Brooklyn accent and gold chain is not your typical college lecturer.It's clear from Michael Franzese's life story -- the 17 years in the mafia, the millions upon millions of ill-gotten gains, the "Yuppie Don" nickname, the prison term -- that he is a breed apart from the professors usually addressing this crowd.And it's clear, from the wide eyes and dropped jaws in a George Mason University auditorium on a recent evening, that these kids in their gray hooded sweat shirts are listening intently, drawn in by Franzese's message and mien.They're hearing Franzese deliver the same, simple points he makes to college athletes and coaches, to NBA rookies and Major League Baseball players and umpires, to professional tennis players and NFL veterans.Know the dangers of gambling, because, he says, "If you don't have a gambling problem, you know somebody that does.
ABC's 'Supernanny' begins filming in Lincoln
A brisk wind blows from the west, making it feel much colder than 34 degrees.A TV boom camera focuses on the empty residential streets.Headlights glow against the dreary gray sky. A shiny black Lincoln Taxi with a lit up orange sign, "London," atop rounds the curve. .
ED GRANEY: Trainers' talk needs plenty of translation
WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. gets his hands taped before training on April 20 at the Mayweather Boxing Club in Las Vegas as uncle and trainer Roger Mayweather stands behind him. Roger Mayweather and Ricky Hatton's trainers, Billy Graham and Kerry Kayes, had plenty to say Tuesday about the Dec. 8 title fight between Mayweather Jr. and Hatton.
Photo by Jeff Scheid.
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Frusciante is the best musician out of all three.
Derek Trucks is amazing. i have seen him live several times and he truly is amazing. For those of you that think he just plays blues, get a clue. He is the most versitile guitarist around right now. Listen to his version of greensleaves - jazz listen to Sahib Teri Bandi - Middle eastern influence….he does to the guitar what Bela Fleck does to the banjo. This guy does not play straight blues…Maybe there is a reason Clapton has been taking him around the world with him in tour. .
Cape Meares now has Oregon's largest Sitka spruce
CAPE MEARES, Ore. (AP) - Almost three months after a windstorm toppled the Klootchy Creek Giant, the Oregon Big Tree Registry has crowned a new champion Sitka spruce. The Sitka spruce at Cape Meares State Scenic Viewpoint stands 144 feet tall, with a circumference of 48 feet and an average crown spread of 93 feet. That's much shorter and skinnier than the Klootchy Creek Giant, which topped out at 206 feet and a circumference of 56 feet 1 inch. "The reason it is so small is that the top blew out probably 100 years or more ago," Brian French, an arborist who is part of a group dedicated to documenting Oregon's most impressive trees, told The Oregonian newspaper. "At one time, it was a massive, massive tree. It was very close in size to the Klootchy Creek Sitka spruce." Designation as one of Oregon's champion trees does not earn it legal protection, but people are less likely to damage it if they know it's on the registry, said Cindy Deacon Williams, program coordinator for the Oregon Big Tree Registry.
Get Off of My Cloud
It also demonstrates that movie pirates are fundamentally parasitic, not predatory. My interest in this topic came from experiencing how difficult it is to get into even very bad Sundance films. For the public, tickets are scarce and assigned by lottery, and even a press pass is no guarantee. That's why I decided to try using BitTorrent to re-create Sundance in my Park City, Utah, living room. No more cold, no more lines, and no more pesky Q&As with the director, so I reasoned. But the experiment failed. Not a single 2008 Sundance film is on any major pirate site that I could find. That might be accounted for by anti-piracy measures, but here's the kicker: There are also almost no 2007 films on leading pirate sites, and none of last year's Sundance "hits." The online pirate world and the Sundance world are, as far as I can tell, separate domains.
Harvard-Westlake's Hamlin commits to Colgate
Jakarri Hamlin, a Harvard-Westlake of Studio City defensive lineman, has committed to play football at Colgate. Hamlin, a 6-foot-3, 250-pounder, also plays on the basketball team. "Jakarri really liked his visit to Colgate," Harvard-Westlake coach Vic Eumont said. "He was going to visit Lehigh, too. They were interested, but he liked Colgate so much that he canceled." A couple of other Harvard-Westlake football players are receiving recruiting interest. Defensive lineman Ross Gruber could be headed to Johns Hopkins, and defensive back Andy Firestone is considering Div. III Williams College in Massachusetts. Also, Firestone's brother, Nicky, is expected to make a splash as a varsity sophomore this coming season as a multi-purpose back and return specialist. "Nicky is quick.
Buzz Briefs: Madonna, Ethan Hawke
The pop star's "Confessions" world tour pulled in $260 million, Forbes said. She also made money from album sales, her fashion line with H&M and a deal with NBC to broadcast her concert performance at London's Wembley Stadium.
Forbes.com said it compiled the list by examining concert grosses, merchandising revenue, album sales and other revenue from clothing lines, fragrance deals and endorsements.
Barbra Streisand is No. 2 with $60 million, thanks to her comeback tour of North America and Europe.
Celine Dion ranks third with $45 million, largely from her successful "A New Day" show in Las Vegas, which she wrapped up in December after a five-year engagement at Caesars Palace.
Shakira is fourth with $38 million, followed by Beyonce ($27 million), Gwen Stefani ($26 million), Christina Aguilera ($20 million), Faith Hill ($19 million), the Dixie Chicks ($18 million) and Mariah Carey ($13 million).
Review: 'Tir na nÓg' a bumpy ride
It's a disappointing outing for both Smith, directing his last play as the Magic's outgoing artistic director, and O'Brien. Her inventively constructed and tantalizingly oblique "Triptych" in '03 remains one of the highlights of Smith's five-year tenure. "Girls" and the succeeding novels that make up "The Country Girls Trilogy" ("The Lonely Girl" and "Girls in Their Married Bliss") were the books that established O'Brien as one of Ireland's leading contemporary writers (getting banned in Ireland didn't hurt). But the lack of descriptive clarity that haunts the novels carries over into the dramatization in ways that will frustrate those who know the books and perplex those who don't. Characters who play important roles in young Kate's life are reduced to broad caricatures - or, in the case of Michael Louis Wells' Hickey, touching anomalies - whose relationship to her or purpose in the story is left unexplained.
The day politics stopped working
Barack Obama calls it the audacity of hope. But what happened? Where did all that energy go? There are all kinds of possible answers, focused on everything from the tactics of the organisers to the idea that modern protest might be a banal matter of registering one's individual dissent - "Not in my name," as the slogan put it - then going home happy. Some people are yet more cynical, claiming that the march was another one of those modern Dianaesque spasms, indicative of not much more than a fleeting national pang of banal humanitarian sentiment, and that very modern desire to break out of our atomised lives and seek solace in crowds. But never mind them. There are reasons to take what happened that day much more seriously, chiefly because the march both dramatised and accelerated an ongoing disconnection between millions of Britons and the people who affect to speak in their name.
Braves bullish on Morton
Lake Buena Vista, Fla. — He threw harder and had a better breaking ball than many pitchers who surpassed him on the Braves' organizational ladder. But Charlie Morton couldn't seem to embrace that fact. Not until late last summer, when the right-hander improved his delivery and began striking out twice as many hitters as he walked. He started to believe, at least to a degree, what so many had been telling him: That he could be good. Really good. .
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