In the nearby hard-hit city of Poway, Don and Susan Buckley, both 49, sneaked into their exclusive Highlands Ranch neighborhood and trekked up a long hill past a locked gate to see whether their Mediterranean-style house had survived.
When she caught sight of its roof, Susan, a sales executive at an advertising firm, let out a deep sigh and exclaimed: “It’s there! Oh my God, we are so lucky.”
Walking hesitantly through their smashed-in wooden door, they saw that the flames had come within 10 yards of the house and had decimated four large homes up the hill.
On their kitchen counter were empty Gatorade bottles and energy-bar wrappers, and a note from the crew of San Diego Fire Engine 12, Lincoln Park.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Porter Wagoner has been hospitalized with an undisclosed ailment and is in serious condition, his publicist says. Darlene Bieber said the 80-year-old Grand Ole Opry star, known for his trademark rhinestone stage outfits, “is asking for prayers from his friends and fans.”
She had no other information, Bieber said Thursday. WSMV-TV reported that Wagoner was admitted to the hospital earlier this week for observation. He was hospitalized for two weeks in July 2006 after suffering a stomach aneurism. In May, he celebrated his 50th year on the Grand Ole Opry, the long-running live country music show. He helped launch Dolly Parton’s career by hiring her as his duet partner in 1967.
Wagoner’s career took an upturn this year when he signed with ANTI-records, an eclectic Los Angeles label best known for alt-rock acts such as Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Neko Case. He released the album “Wagonmaster,” earning Wagoner some of the best reviews of his career.
Wagoner was the opening act for the White Stripes at a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan this summer.
Glenn Greenwald’s on the Bush administration’s contempt for civil liberties and the rule of law — a high official hoping for another terrorist attack so they can extend warrantless searches.
In May, 2006, Maupin and Turner were going up to the Lake District, and McKellen had hitched a ride to Grange-Over-Sands, where he was making fortnightly visits to his ninety-six-year-old stepmother, Gladys. As a teen-ager, McKellen had had a strained relationship with Gladys; in adulthood, he had grown devoted to her, the oldest witness to his life. Now senile, however, Gladys had become convinced that the only reason McKellen came to see her so often was that he was having an affair with her cleaning lady. “Ian spun it as a great source of laughs,” Maupin said. “He said, ‘She wasn’t even an attractive cleaning lady. She had an ass like the back-end of two lorries.’” McKellen tried repeatedly to disabuse Gladys of the notion, but she persisted. Finally, in frustration, he said, “Gladys, for heaven’s sake, I’m gay.”
“So they say,” she said.
(No link. I bloodied my goddamn finger typing this for you ingrates.)
Though Ms. Paley?s work also rings with Irish and Italian and black voices, it was for the language of her childhood, a heady blend of Yiddish, Russian and English, that she was best known. Reviewers sometimes called her prose postmodern, but all of it ? even the death-defying, almost surreal turns of logic that were a stylistic hallmark ? was already present in Yiddish oral tradition. For instance:
A man meets a friend on the street.
?So, how?s by you?? the friend asks.
?Ach,? the man replies. ?My wife left me; the children don?t call; business is bad. With life so terrible, better not to have been born.?
?Yes,? his friend says. ?But how many are so lucky? Not one in ten thousand.?
Sea of Love clips are sadly scarce so you’ll have to do without the clip. But this captures a bit o’ the flavor, no?
MAN: Yo, bro. Where the Yankees at?
FRANK KELLER: They’re coming.
MAN: You a Yankee?
FRANK KELLER: You don’t recognize me?
MAN: Shortstop?
FRANK KELLER: Used to be.
MAN: What?
FRANK KELLER: Sure… holy cow!
MAN: I thought so. You’re the Scooter! Yo, Efram, this dude is Phil Rizzuto.
MAN #2: Do that again.
FRANK KELLER: Holy cow!
MAN #2: Phil, how come you pouring us juice?
MAN #3: How we get to the game?
FRANK KELLER: We got you covered.
MAN #1: Yanks up in here?
FRANK KELLER: Oh, yeah.
MAN #2: Right. I’m sitting down.
MAN #4: Yo, Scooter.
MAN #5: Scooter!
