U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan got a passing grade during the 2012 Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity Game last Friday with this behind-the-back pass (video above). The Secretary was co-captain of the Harvard basketball team and played pro ball in Australia. Mr. Duncan scored big – 17 points, 8 rebounds, 5 steals — and led his team of comics, reality stars and old jocks to a 86-54 victory.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi turned 75 yesterday. The AC Milan soccer team sent greetings to the embattled billionaire — he owns the franchise — but he got brickbats from most Italians. His biggest gift was a new sex scandal: former Miss Montenegro Katarina Knezevic says she had an affair with him.
The personal computer turns 30. IBM’s PC was introduced in August 1981.
Fidel Castro turns 85 today. There was a big party in Havana but el comandante wasn’t there.
It’s 50 years since the birth of the Berlin Wall (Antifaschistischer Schutzwall or “Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart”) and most of it missed the party, too.
Summer’s here, time for Vacation Bible School. This year, Evangelist and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann (R, MN- 6) will lead the classes (the Lord told her to, no doubt). Courses include:
Cable TV’s Top Chef tour is parked at Capitol Hill’s Eastern Market this weekend, pitting Carla Hall, Ariane Duarte, and Spike Mendelsohn against each other. The real action is in the bus (above) where six prep chefs and three runners do the real work. On Saturday, two hundred people watched this spectacle, half of them standing in the hot sun. Amazing.
Food writer Mark Bittman is pitted against Lady Gaga over at Time Magazine. No it’s not about her meat dress. They’re both finalists in the Time Top 100 Poll.
The online poll aims to determine the 100 most influential people of 2011. Every home cook in the known universe has a spattered copy of Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, and if that’s not influential, we don’t know what is.
Vote for Mark here – http://ti.me/fgtvDm
Select “Yes,” enter the word code and click on “submit.”
Pass it on. Right now Mark is ranked below Michael Vick but above John Boehner.
Students at Washington, DC’s George Washington University want controversial television star Charlie Sheen as their 2012 commencement speaker, and they’ve started a Facebook campaign to get him. This year another sexy celeb is featured at the school’s graduation: Michael Bloomberg.
Queen Elizabeth II left a pair of her underdrawers on a private plane in 1968, and they’re being auctioned off to the highest bidder. A pair of Queen Victoria’s panties fetched $9,000 in a recent auction, and these royal bloomers are expected to fetch a similar price. Prospective bidders should keep on eye on Hanson’s, the Derbyshire auctioneers.
We think “The Queen’s Knickers” would be a super name for a pub or a jolly good title for a sequel to the film “The King’s Speech.”
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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In the great news famine that accompanies a National Holiday, we caught up on celebrity scandals and discovered the awful truth about actor Charlie Sheen’s rampage in a Manhattan hotel. Mr. Sheen did something much worse than rough up a rentedporn star, abuse booze (and perhaps drugs), froth at the mouth, and get rushed to the hospital. He destroyed the Eloise Suite at the Plaza. If Mr. Sheen ever faces a jury with American women on it, the television star is a dead man.
The Liberace Museum, a Las Vegas fixture since 1979, closes today, October 17, 2010. The Liberace Foundation promises that the museum’s collection of flamboyant … objets d’art will tour the country.
