The sunrise was so fucking beautiful this morning.
The impressionists laid down their brushes in surrender and bowed down before Ra.
As I left the shore a long, high, sharp cloud lay like a scimitar across the sky, its blade slicing that great god in two.
This is not how you were meant to go
oh cupcake
Your creamy center spilled upon
the sidewalk
like so much spent seed
You are of noble roots
Your surname “Hostess” once meant
so much, meant all
now, not so much
Now you lay, disheveled upon the pavement
your icing pecked off
by birds of fortune
your soul gone, spent
You once noble cupcake, are now wasted
This is your ultimate destiny
all your grandeur for naught
all your sugary goodness
untasted
We poke a lot of fun and derision at celebrity, here at Fortune’s Pawn mostly because we think it distracts so many, so frightfully many, people from the important news of our world. A headline over at CNN caught our eye this afternoon, however, which we just couldn’t ignore. “Love loses weight thanks to diet – and colonics” Okay, once we figured out that the headline referred to Courtney Love, it made a bit more sense.
My daughter (Frances Bean) and I were kind of going for it because the dessert’s fantastic,” she says. “I put on 30 pounds, and I put on another 15 out of emotional depression. Then I finally get an Italian Vogue cover, and I’m 182 pounds.””By the way,” she adds, “I hate reading magazines where the actresses are saying, ‘Broccoli and fish, broccoli and fish.’ You liars. You bulimic liars.”
Love, whose last stint in rehab was about two years ago, is trying to leave her troubled past behind.
“For many years, I took pills. I felt like I had this dirty secret,” she says.
Love loses weight thanks to diet — and colonics – CNN.com
As the photo above shows, this diet has had good effect. And if anyone
thinks that Courtney lacks style, you simply must check out this shot.
We could understand the reader thinking that Courtney might be a good role model for Amy Winehouse, given her recent exploits (see below as well):
The father of troubled singer Amy Winehouse has insisted she is on the road to recovery after collapsing from a drugs overdose.The 23-year-old, who is notorious for her wild partying, was treated in a London hospital last week after taking a cocktail of heroin, ecstasy, cocaine and the horse tranquiliser ketamine.
However, after spending a weekend in “crisis” talks with his daughter, former taxi driver Mitch Winehouse said he was confident she would pull through.
Amy Winehouse Admits Massive Overdose, Refuses Rehab, “Will Be Fine” – Entertainment on The Huffington Post
One might think that, but then there’s this:
Courtney Love is being sued by Beau Monde International for $181,286, who claim she didn’t pay her rehab bill.
Courtney checked into the Orange County, California center in 2005.
The rocker put up the $10,000 to check in, but failed to pay the
$10,000 a week tab for the remainder of her two week stay.
Courtney Love Sued For Failing To Pay For Rehab | Pop Crunch
So maybe Amy really does know best (doubt it!).
It may be early in the presidential primary season (really, it is!) but there is already a steady stream of irrelevant press coming out. This particular one goes beyond such fluffy issue stories as Mitt Romney’s (R-MA) wife once made a donation to Planned Parenthood and is instead a process story focusing on the John Edwards (D-NC) campaign’s decision to move campaign staff from Nevada to other early primary states:
It’s the first western state to weigh in on the 2008 Democratic candidates, but White House hopeful John Edwards is transferring a “handful” of his Nevada staff to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, the campaign said Wednesday.
Jonathan Prince, Edwards’ deputy campaign manager, said the move is not a consequence of strained resources or a sign that the former North Carolina senator is less committed to winning the Nevada caucuses.
“As the calendar fluctuates, with Iowa and New Hampshire moving up significantly, we need to accelerate hiring there to hit our organizing targets, so we’re shifting some trained staffers there, but we are as committed as ever to winning Nevada,” said Prince in an e-mail to CNN.
CNN.com – CNN Political Ticker
CNN ran the story on their Political Ticker blog with the slug “Edwards moves staff out of Nevada.” While technically accurate, this is nonetheless a misleading headline. The implication is that he is folding his tents there are relocating the whole staff. This is a basic, and wise, strategic decision. The more appropriate headline would be “Primary reshuffling inspires strategic shift for Edwards.” which article could then go on to explore whether other campaigns have made similar moves, and if not, why.
With the seemingly constant state of flux in the primary calendar, such basics as where to place staff, equipment, supplies, etc. must remain in near constant flux as well. Any campaign which does not reflect the fluid state of the calendar is either spending too much on excess staff and support, or is not keeping a strategic view of the race.
So, CNN, what’s the real story here? What are the other campaigns doing? Why are you pretending that any one campaign is operating in a vacuum?
PS – No, I am not endorsing Edwards. That’s not the point, I just think we need a bit more intellectual honesty, or intellectual rigor, in our coverage.
The Independent’s John Walsh writes up a century retrospective of the bra, and seems to have far too much fun doing so:
Exactly a hundred years ago, in 1907, the word “brassiere” was used in Vogue for the first time. But its evolution goes back three millennia. Historians have found that, while Roman women sometimes wore a band of cloth over their breasts, to restrict their growth or conceal them, the Greeks favoured a less uptight approach. Some enterprising designer realised that such a belt worn under the breasts might accentuate them, to pleasing effect. (In the hierarchy of ideas that have made the world a better place, this is up there with light bulbs and indoor plumbing.)
The brazen Minoans were streets ahead of the Greeks, however: women in Crete wore material that both supported and revealed their bare breasts, in emulation of the snake goddess – 3,000 years before the invention of glamour modelling.
Breast supporting act: a century of the bra – Independent Online Edition > This Britain
Fresh from the Independent’s Los Angeles bureau:
The Bush administration has consistently thwarted efforts by the World Bank to include global warming in its calculations when considering whether to approve major investments in industry and infrastructure, according to documents made public through a watchdog yesterday.
On one occasion, the White House’s pointman at the bank, the now disgraced Paul Wolfowitz, personally intervened to remove the words “climate change” from the title of a bank progress report and ordered changes to the text of the report to shift the focus away from global warming.
Wolfowitz ‘tried to censor World Bank on climate change’ – Independent Online Edition > Americas
Color us jaded, color us cynical, but this just doesn’t surprise us anymore.
A couple of items on Erratic (or is that Erotic) Songstress Amy Winehouse in today’s Independent:
They rule the pop charts with their acerbic lyrics, and their outrageous antics are well-documented in the tabloid gossip pages.
Now Britain’s two most notorious pop princesses will go head to head at the upcoming MTV Video Music Awards after Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse were both nominated for the best new artist award.
Winehouse is also up for best female artist and best video of the year for her hit single “Rehab”.
MTV sets the stage for the battle of the pop princesses – Independent Online Edition > News
And the denouement:
Amy Winehouse yesterday cancelled her shows this week in Scandinavia. Instead of boarding her flight to Norway to perform at two festivals, I hear that she was admitted to London’s University College Hospital. The gaunt-looking singer’s spokesman said last night that she is suffering from “severe exhaustion”.
Her hospitalisation sets alarm bells ringing. The erratic songstress, pictured yesterday morning, is known as much for her boozy benders and last-minute show cancellations as for her two Ivor Novello awards. She has suffered from eating disorders and depression and has self-harmed in the past.
‘Exhausted’ Amy cancels shows after hospital visit – Independent Online Edition > Pandora
This story ebbed and flowed across the wires all night, last night, as Pawn drifted in and out of sleep to the dulcet tones of the BBC news readers. The New York Times however, came up with the most disarming of headlines, “Musharraf Decides Against Emergency”:
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Thursday decided against declaring a state of emergency in Pakistan and will press ahead with plans to hold free and fair elections, a government minister said.
Pakistani media have been reporting that the military leader would impose a state of emergency to deal with rising violence and political instability — a move that a senior government official confirmed was under consideration.
Musharraf Decides Against Emergency – New York Times
PS – If you like the photo above, or are simply intrigued by it, check out the whole Vogue Italia photo-spread, “State Of Emergency” by Steve Meisel at Foto Decadent.
In the “Say it ain’t so” department, we have this story (thanks to /.) of corporate avarice:
Johnson & Johnson, the health-products giant that uses a red cross as its trademark, sued the American Red Cross on Wednesday, demanding that the charity halt the use of the red cross symbol on products it sells to the public.
Johnson & Johnson said it has had exclusive rights to use the trademark on certain commercial products — including bandages and first-aid cream — for more than 100 years.
It contends that the Red Cross is supposed to use the symbol only in connection with nonprofit relief services.
Johnson & Johnson sues American Red Cross over use of emblem – International Herald Tribune
“A Bloody Failure” is how The Independent subtitles this brilliant piece of reportage from Patrick Cockburn, direct from Baghdad:
The surge is now joining a host of discredited formulae for success and fake turning-points that the US (with the UK tripping along behind) has promoted in Iraq over the past 52 months. In December 2003, there was the capture of Saddam Hussein. Six months later, in June 2004, there was the return of sovereignty to Iraq. “Let freedom reign,” said Bush in a highly publicised response. And yet the present Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, claims he cannot move a company of soldiers without American permission.
In 2005, there were two elections that were both won handsomely by Shia and Kurdish parties. “Despite endless threats from the killers in their midst,” exulted Bush, “nearly 12 million Iraqi citizens came out to vote in a show of hope and solidarity that we should never forget.”
In fact, he himself forgot this almost immediately. A year later, the US forced out the first democratically elected Shia prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, with the then US Ambassador in Baghdad, Zilmay Khalilzad, saying that Bush “doesn’t want, doesn’t support, and doesn’t accept that Jaafari should form the next government”.
The surge: a special report by Patrick Cockburn – Independent Online Edition > Middle East
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