Various things caught my eyes in today's NY Daily News ...
Court Stuff:" "Death Row dog free." A state appeals court ruling freed "Duke" from a shelter that he wrongly was held in for three years, a result of mistaken identity in a mauling attack. If the conviction was upheld, the dog would have been killed. Later, we read of the "slinky shrink" who allegedly slept with a incarcerated gang member ("improper therapy") "strutted into court yesterday in a miniskirt and go-go boots." She rejected a plea deal, which the article suggests means she thinks the evidence weak. OTOH, given her outfit, maybe she just is not too bright.
Also in dress related court news, a 19-year-old female "tottering on 4-inch black heels and wearing skintight slacks and a matching top," (ah, tabloid reporting) was released on bond pending her trial for alleged involvement in a hate crime. Her picture (top only, suggesting a restraint in dressing that apparently was not there) accompanied the article. It is not problem-free to include names of alleged (legally innocent) individuals in such sensitive crimes, but to include a picture in this case? Particularly, dubious.
Animated/Comics: The paper did not think much of the new Chipmunks movie, finding it not very funny and overall rather lame, but did have a funny typo: it listed the movie as "Alvin and The Chipmonks."
For Better or Worse had another well written story arc this week, this time involving Liz and his boyfriend's daughter, meeting the mother (the father has custody) in the mall. The cartoonist appears to be working somewhat part-time these days given all the classical strips (at times via flashbacks), but still provides great material. The Flying McCoys, which has an amusing strip enough times to be worth a look, has one today.
Sports: A convention of the Texas High School Coaches Association "could KO speech" ... entitled "My Vigorous Workout, How I Played So Long." The speaker? Roger Clemens. Sadly, the top Late Night hosts are out because of the writers' strike, but that sort of thing writes itself. More on the Jets/Pats coach fued ... snow is schedule, so maybe that 20 something line for the Pats won't be met. Sigh ... when losing by only 10 or so seems a bit too much to hope for, things are sorta bad, huh?
The Diamondbacks got Dan Haren, meaning there is one less replacement for Glavine out there for the Mets. ex-Met (and Cub) Cliff Floyd is going to the Devil Rays. Shawn Estes (best known as a Met for trying to hit Clemens in retaliation, but missing) and Glendon Rusch (another ex-Met and Cub) received minor league Padres contracts. GR was a gamer ... hope he does well.
TV: The NFL Network has a prime match-up ... Cincy at SF, the battle of the disappointing teams.* Miami has the lowly Ravens as perhaps their best shot at avoiding 0-16, but they end their year going against the Bengals. An excellent tearjerker (the young leads are very good) is on CBS tonight ... The Notebook (I reserved the commentary and special feature laden DVD). This leaves the chick network Oxygen with The Sweetest Thing (a bit of an ironic title), which I actually rented in a hotel once. Good to see Christiana Applegate, but sorry, not that good film.
[Connection: A character in The Notebook is named "Duke," which is also the name of the dog mentioned above.]
Hallmark has the latest in the "Love Comes Softly" series (based on the books; began well, later films with mostly different cast members, mixed bag), Love's Unfolding Dream, repeating earlier films as well. I'll end with a "this just to annoy me" moment. I went to tape something (it's on tomorrow too, so it isn't too bad) a couple days ago, and found out there was a problem with the signal. This happens sometimes with Dish Network when the weather is bad. The thing is that it appears only that channel was out. The channel? The Hallmark movie channel. The Hallmark channel, however, was fine.
I growled and watched Corner Gas on WGN. And, I will tape it tomorrow instead, unless something else goes wrong. Oh, and luckily I saw that the movie (The Devil's Arithmetic, which someone wants me to tape) was on. For some reason, it was not listed in the Dish Network television schedule.
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* I have seen ads for alcholic beverages on television for drinks other than lite beer, but that is the beverage favored on sports friendly times. More than one brand at that. That and "male enhancement" products. Do men with problems with their manhood watch a lot of football these days? Or, are these products so hard to sell that limited ad dollars needs to be focused on them?
I like my beer from the tap myself, but if I bought the stuff, lite would not be my option. If you drink enough beer for the calories or alcohol to matter, the difference shouldn't matter much anyway. We are not talking no-calorie beer here. [Update: And, what happens? There is a regular beer commercial during the football game ... at least NFL Network has them, I guess.]