CROSSING THE LINE. AGAIN.





Pope Backs Turkey’s Bid to Join European Union

ANKARA, Turkey, Nov. 28 — Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Turkey on Tuesday armed with a surprise gesture of good will aimed at blunting Muslim anger toward him: he backed Turkey’s long-stalled desire to join the European Union, reversing a statement he made two years ago.

During your September 12 speech in Regensburg, you triggered a global crisis with your ill-considered comments on Islam. Here you go again. Do you think the Church should have a say on who is to be accepted or not accepted into the European Union? It all says a lot about how out of touch you and the Vatican really are.

BLACK FRIDAY 2006

(sick, sick, sick)

New York, November 26 – On Friday night, I went out to dinner with friends at a Korean restaurant on West 32^nd Street off Sixth Avenue. The restaurant was a couple of blocks from Herald Square and Macy*s. It was NOT pretty.

Hordes of people, obviously whipped up into consumerist frenzy, were everywhere.

It was like New Year’s Eve at Times Square, without the fun. It was like free tickets to Shakespeare in the Park’s The Seagull with Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, minus the spectacle. It was the Champs Elysées, sans the glamour.

It was Black Friday 2006.

For those of you who don’t know what Black Friday is, well -- for decades now, the Friday after Thanksgiving Day has been called Black Friday, the start of the holiday shopping season, the day when retailers hope to move into the ‘black.’ In a perversion of monumental proportions, Americans have been brain-washed into believing that going out and spending big is the patriotic thing to do.

Brain-washing is the only possible explanation for people camping out overnight to be the first ones at opening time. Shortly after midnight Thursday, an estimated 15,000 shoppers pushed and shoved their way into the Fashion Place Mall in Murray, Utah. Police soon joined them, responding to reports of nine skirmishes.

It was the earliest Black Friday on record. Trying to one-up its rivals, CompUSA started its annual Black Friday sales at 9 pm on Thursday, just as many Americans sat down for Thanksgiving dessert. While most malls, from Utah to Maine, opened at midnight, Wal-Mart, Best Buy and J. C. Penney began ringing up sales at 5 a.m. Friday (a 6 a.m. opening at Target seemed so 2005).

To lure customers, merchants dangled all sorts of discounts. Macy’s, Sears, J. C. Penney and Kohl’s all placed the same bet: that a $10 coupon on the front of their circulars would draw crowds. Gap offered 30 percent off everything if customers spent more than $50, and Kmart reduced the price of some apparel by 50 percent.

But once they were in the store, many customers heard a deflating message. “Sold out, sold out, sold out,” announced the manager at a Staples on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan yesterday at 7 a.m. “When?” asked the incredulous customer. “An hour ago,” replied the manager — in other words, the minute the store opened.

At 6 a.m. Friday morning in Times Square, a line of shoppers several hundred deep burst through the doors of Toys “R” Us and promptly formed a second, equally long line to buy the $40 T.M.X. Elmo (Tickle Me Elmo Version No. 10).

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For many of us, the day after Thanksgiving (and November 25 outside of North America) is BUY NOTHING DAY.

On that same day described above, thousands of activists and concerned citizens in 65 countries took a 24-hour consumer detox as part of the 14th annual Buy Nothing Day, a global phenomenon that originated in Vancouver, Canada.

From joining zombie marches through malls to organising credit card cut-ups and shopoholic clinics, Buy Nothing Day activists aim to challenge themselves, their families and their friends to switch off from shopping and tune back into life for one day. Featured in recent years by CNN, Wired, the BBC, and the CBC, the global event is celebrated as a relaxed family holiday, as a non-commercial street party, or even as a politically charged public protest. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending.

Reasons for participating in Buy Nothing Day are as varied as the people who choose to participate. Some see it as an escape from the marketing mind games and frantic consumer binge that has come to characterise the holiday season, and our culture in general. Others use it to expose the environmental and ethical consequences of over- consumption.

Two recent, high-profile disaster warnings outline the sudden urgency of our dilemma. First, in October, a global warming report by economist Sir Nicholas Stern predicted that climate change will lead to the most massive and widest-ranging market failure the world has ever seen. Soon after, a major study published in the journal Science forecast the near-total collapse of global fisheries within 40 years.

Kalle Lasn, co-founder of the Adbusters Media Foundation, which was responsible for turning Buy Nothing Day into an international annual event, said, “Our headlong plunge into ecological collapse requires a profound shift in the way we see things. Driving hybrid cars and limiting industrial emissions is great, but they are band-aid solutions if we don’t address the core problem: we have to consume less. This is the message of Buy Nothing Day.”

As Lasn suggests, Buy Nothing Day isn't just about changing your habits for one day. It’s about starting a lasting lifestyle commitment to consuming less and producing less waste. With six billion people on the planet, the onus if on the most affluent – the upper 20% that consume 80% of the world’s resources – to begin setting the example.

Hoping to spend only dinner fare on Buy Nothing Day (BND), I walked to the restaurant from my apartment, a good 40-minute walk. It turned out I was treated to dinner that night (thank you Norah!). I walked back after dinner, mindful that this was the very first BND when I had not spent one penny all day Black Friday.

And, best of all, I am convinced this was the patriotic thing to do.

HOT OFF THE PRESS:

ShopperTrak RCT, which measures purchases at 45,000 mall-based stores, found that sales for the day after Thanksgiving rose 6 percent from last year, to $9 billion. On the comparable day last year, sales at stores monitored by ShopperTrak dropped 0.9 percent.

An experiment with 12 a.m. openings bolstered mall traffic across the country. The crowds swelled to 15,000 at the Fashion Place Mall in Murray, Utah, 20,000 at the Christiana Mall in Newark, Del. and 50,000 at the Main Mall in Portland, Me.

Wally Brewster, the head of marketing at General Growth Properties, which owns the three malls, said stores that opened at midnight reported “significantly higher sales” than those that waited until 6 a.m.

Sixty percent of the stores at malls like Fashion Place opened at midnight but, because of the turnout, stores that sat it out were already planning to participate next year, Mr. Brewster said.

Emily Spendlove, 35, drove 45 minutes to wait in line outside the Fashion Place Mall Thursday night, skipping sleep “to be part of the excitement.” Once inside, she spent $120 at an athletic clothing store called Fanzz, buying four Chicago Bears football products — two helmets, a beach towel and a photo montage.

***********************************************************

Congratulations Emily! Keep that beach towel all ready for next summer!

You are a patriot and a scholar!

THANKSGIVING 2006

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving Day, we give thanks for the many ways that we have been blessed during this past year.

We are ever grateful for the blessing of good health for ourselves and our loved ones.

We feel privileged to live in peace, with freedom and prosperity.

We are thankful for having the compassion to help those in need.

And, lest we forget, we are just as appreciative for the many pleasures that make our lives worth living: the bliss of family, the joy of love, the gratification of friendship, the exhilaration of nature, the fulfillment from a good deed, the contentment of curling up with a good book.

The list is endless, with things large and small to give thanks for: a delicious meal, a good wine, a fine play, an enthralling opera…

On this Thanksgiving Day, I want to give thanks for Maira Kalman and her blog for the New York Times. Since her column started appearing, the first Wednesday of each month has been transformed into a very special day for me; judging from the hundreds of comments on her blog, I am not alone.

I wanted to share with you what is mere fragments of Maira Kalman’s beguiling world.

Thank you Maira and Happy Thanksgiving to you!

About the Artist

Maira Kalman is an illustrator, author and designer whose artwork is featured in a new edition of Strunk and White’s, “The Elements of Style.” She has created many covers for The New Yorker, including the famous map of “Newyorkistan” (created with Rick Meyerowitz).

Ms. Kalman’s 12 children’s books include “Max Makes a Million,” “Stay Up Late,” “Swami on Rye” and “What Pete Ate.” She also has designed fabric for Isaac Mizrahi, accessories for Kate Spade, sets for the Mark Morris Dance Company and, with her late husband Tibor Kalman under the M&Co. label, clocks, umbrellas and other accessories for the Museum of Modern Art. Ms. Kalman's work is shown at the Julie Saul Gallery in Manhattan.

Ms. Kalman lives in New York City and teaches graduate courses in design at the School of Visual Arts. Her illustrated column for New York Times Select, “The Principles of Uncertainty,” appears on the first Wednesday of each month.

PS-You may click on any picture for a closer view; you may also click on any link in Maira Kalman's bio above for more of her work

White House Turkey Spared

Washington, D.C., November 22 - President Bush spared ''Flyer" during a Rose Garden ceremony today.

What about the rest of us? Can we be spared too?

MEXICAN FOLLIES

MEXICO CITY, Nov. 20 — Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor, swore himself in as president of Mexico before a crowd of 100,000 cheering supporters at the city's Constitution Square.

Despite narrowly losing the election last July, López Obrador has ignored rulings by the Mexican Federal Election Commission and the courts and now promises to head a "parallel government."

I have called the presidential detail, nice men in long white coats, to escort you away. Will you keep the presidential sash on or would you prefer to change into a Napoleon uniform for the Inaugural Ball?

A. A. (1920-2002)

R. I. P.

Four years ago today, on 19 November 2002, my father passed away.

This week’s space, as well as thoughts, is dedicated to his memory with immeasurable love, immense respect, and infinite gratitude.

FRANCE’S NEW ROYALTY

PARIS, November 17. The Socialist party last night overwhelmingly endorsed Ségolène Royal as its candidate in next April's election.

Ms Royal, 53, the president of the Poitou-Charentes region and a former cabinet minister, won 60.6 per cent of the vote in France's first American-style primary campaign, handily beating two more experienced rivals, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 57, a former finance minister, and Laurent Fabius, 60, a former prime minister.

France's presidential election takes place over two rounds on April 22 and May 6, 2007. Her main opponent in 2007 is likely to be conservative front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy, the Interior Minister and head of the ruling party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).

An Ipsos opinion poll released on Thursday put Ms. Royal and Mr. Sarkozy in a dead heat if they were to face off in a second round of voting.

YEAR OF THE DOG?

Beijing, November 14 (Xinhua) - Police in the Chinese capital Tuesday refuted rumors that dogs are being slaughtered in the city.

This follows a demonstration Saturday, when hundreds of angry dog owners confronted police in Beijing to protest the one-dog policy in eight designated districts. The policy is part of a campaign concerning “pet dog management work.” Some twenty demonstrators were arrested before police cordoned off the area and hundreds of reinforcements in nearby streets tried to stop photography and filming.

Dog lovers in China have been outraged as unlicensed dogs have been killed or confiscated. Only dogs shorter than 12" (36cm) are allowed, so those with golden retrievers or German shepherds are given ten days to relocate them.

Beijing is home to over a million dogs, half of which are stray dogs. Beijing is where the 2008 Summer Olympics take place. The official reason for the campaign is rabies, and in provinces where rabies is a problem, extermination is the answer; this past summer, 54,000 dogs were slaughtered in Yunnan Province. However, a state media report confirms rabies is not a problem in Beijing.

So, what is it? Could it be that the Chinese government considers its stray dog population unwelcome guests in the 2008 Olympics?

Could it?

Could it?

BORAT FOREVER

(so many lawsuits, so little humor)

Sacha Baron Cohen and friends in Cannes, France, for the screening of "Borat"

MOSCOW, November 9— A government agency said it would refuse to grant permission for Sacha Baron Cohen's controversial comedy "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan "to be shown in theaters in neighboring Russia, its distributor here said Thursday.

The Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography informed Vadim Ivanov, theatrical sales director at Twentieth Century Fox C.I.S., that it would not grant the permission required to show the film in theaters.

(That’s democracy in action here! Wonder if it will open in Kazakhstan? By the way, comrades, the movie is as anti-American as anti-anything else. Ask away and I will be obliged to explain why this is so)

GLOD, Romania, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- The Romanian village that stands in for the fictional Borat's fictional hometown in Kazakhstan wants to take the real comedian Sacha Baron Cohen to court.

Residents of Glod, a poor hamlet in the Carpathian Mountains, told the (London) Daily Mail they thought Baron Cohen and his crew were making a documentary. They only found out recently that it was a fake documentary -- and a major box-office hit.

(Simply sour grapes. Possibly some ambulance-chasing attorney told you that you might get a piece of the action. In any case, as you guys are joining the EU next January, the portrayal of your wretched lives in “Borat” might just mean more €€€ from Brussels come next year)

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Two fraternity boys from a South Carolina university intend to file a lawsuit against "Borat" over their drunken appearance in the hit movie.

The legal action filed Thursday on their behalf claims they were duped into appearing in the spoof documentary "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," in which they made racist and sexist comments on camera.

The young men "engaged in behavior that they otherwise would not have engaged in," the lawsuit says.

(In Vino Veritas. You said it, you meant it.

PS - Ditto for Mel Gibson. And, by the way, I do hope Apocalypto goes down in flames along with you).

Nov. 11, 2006 — Mahir Cagri, a Turkish music teacher, plans to sue Baron Cohen. He claims Borat is based on him.

Mahir was an Internet sensation back in 1999 when, on his Web site, he offered kisses and tantalizingly revealed that he likes sex and taking nude photos, yet lives alone. There is a resemblance.

"I love nice womans, nice jokes. I am active man," Cagri said. "I can take nude pictures. I can see their body who best, which am good for me."

(Mahir, Mahir…. (http://www.ikissyou.org/famous_site/famous_site.html)

Too bad you did not make much of your hilarious website. Mahir-Mania was too short-lived, if you ask me…But a lawsuit? Efendim, you have balls...)

But it’s not all bad news…

LOS ANGELES, December 12 (AP) - A make-believe son of the glorious nation of Kazakhstan continues to rule the American box office.

Sacha Baron Cohen's "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" took in $29 million to remain the No. 1 movie for a second-straight weekend, distributor 20th Century Fox said Sunday. "Borat" raised its 10-day total to $67.8 million.

($68 MIL in 10 days????? and that is just in the US? and not counting the gazillions in DVD rights? No wonder you bought a house in Beverly Hills; I would too)

"Borat" also won in its launches in Denmark, Finland, Holland, Sweden and German-speaking Switzerland, and finished second in Germany and Belgium.

(Draw whatever conclusions you wish about the list of countries where “Borat” was the biggest hit…)

Baron Cohen has landed a $42 million deal to star in a new movie as another fictional alter ego: Bruno. He's a gay, Austrian fashion reporter and appeared on "Da Ali G Show."

(Which proves that laughs best who laughs last)

NEW YORK, November 10 - The Jewish newspaper The Forward has named Baron Cohen one of its Forward 50, individuals in politics, culture, religion, sports and more who are "making a difference in the way American Jews, for better or worse, view the world and themselves." In the Culture category, Baron Cohen tops the list, well ahead of Scarlett Johansson, Barbra Streisand, and Elie Wiesel.

Among the Jewish creed acknowledged in the piece is Baron Cohen's Orthodox upbringing, participation in Habonim and a year on kibbutz.

"And early reports suggest that he's now considered the funniest Jew in America," the Forward concludes. "Jon Stewart, watch your back."

(even Barbra? oy vey…)

and, last but not least…..

Borat Tries To Get Martha Stewart Into Bed

BURBANK, Calif. (November 10, 2006) -- Martha may have met her match. Martha Stewart and Borat were on the "Tonight Show" last night. Sacha Baron Cohen stayed in character as Borat, the Kazakh TV journalist, as Stewart tried to teach him how to make a bed, American style.

Borat couldn't wait to get Martha under the covers. Borat says Jay Leno was very "generous" to give Martha to him. Leno assured Borat there would be no charge. Borat took off his pants, got under the covers and took off his underwear in front of a seemingly shocked Martha Stewart.

(If you’ve seen Borat’s two wives in the film, you know Martha is definitely an improvement)

You probably think I am kidding, but this is just in from La Habana, Cuba:

Greece Celebrates Cuban Anniversary

Athens, Nov 8 (Prensa Latina) With a cultural gala, the capital started Wednesday activities for the 50th anniversary of the landing of Granma Yacht on which Fidel Castro arrived in Cuba on December 2, 1956.

The activity also includes the launching of the book translated into Greek "Cuba and Africa: the Cuban Contribution to African Liberation," edited by Dientes Vima publishing house, and the documentary "Sons from Namibia," by Cuban filmmaker Rigoberto Lopez Pego.

Granma members who began the war of liberation in the Sierra Maestra mountain range are Che Guevara, Raul Castro and other heroes of the Cuban Revolution.

You might think Greeks have better things to do than celebrate the «liberation» of the Sierra Maestra mountains; you would also (rightly) think that less than one in a million could place the Sierra Maestra mountains if you were to ask people on the street in Athens.

You might even be tempted to think that Greeks, full citizens of the European Union for over 25 years, would by now have better judgment than celebrate Che Guevara; or that December 2 would be better remembered as Maria Callas’ birthday rather than the arrival of some thugs in La Habana.

Guess you don’t know Greece very well!

PS- I can't help but wonder how many tens of copies "Cuba and Africa" will sell in Greece...

Rumsfeld Resigns as Defense Secretary After Big Election Gains for Democrats

...and please don't let the door hit you on the way out

THE OCTOBER FIASCO

Moscow, November 7. Like every year on this day, hundreds of Russians lined up at the Red Square to visit the mausoleums, graves, and monuments honoring Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin.

It was on October 23, 1917 (according to the Julian calendar in use in Russia at the time), or November 7, 1917 (by the current Gregorian calendar) that Vladimir Lenin led his Bolshevik forces to take control of the Winter Palace.

And thus began the October Revolution in whose name the biggest fraud of the twentieth century was perpetrated. The fiasco that was the Soviet system brought brutal tyranny and deprivation to most of Eastern Europe. Generations suffered.

But people still line up…

our (such) nice grandpas...

Left: (such a) Nice Grandpa Pieter Willem (P.W.) Botha, 90
Right: (such a) Nice Grandpa Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, 90

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I don't know if you have a grandpa. I never met either of mine, so I can write in all honesty that I really miss having had a grandpa. My paternal grandpa was arrested on March 24, 1944, by the German occupying forces in Athens and deported to Auschwitz, where he died in the gas chambers. I remember his framed black-and-white photo in my father's office; I know I owe him alot, not least my name (I was named after him).

My maternal grandpa died of pneumonia in his early 30s. My maternal grandma re-married and moved to Sâo Paulo, Brasil, in the 1950s. My step-grandpa died at their apartment on the Avenida Alameda Santos in Sâo Paulo in the late 60s. And thus in my youth I always longed for a grandpa figure. Even as a grown-up young private banker in the 1980s, I tended to gravitate towards clients who were grandpa figures; John Enepekides and Ramón Cifuentes (both long departed) come to mind.

Which makes me a partial party to a question I was recently asked:

Does advanced age excuse crimes against humanity?

It is a question that comes to mind this week when P W Botha, the apartheid-era president who led South Africa through its worst racial violence and deepest international isolation, died this past Tuesday in Cape Town, age 90. Nicknamed the ''Old Crocodile'' for his feared temper and often ruthless manner, grandpa P. W. served as head of the white racist government from 1978 to 1989. Throughout his leadership, he resisted mounting pressure to free South Africa's most famous political prisoner. Nelson Mandela was released by Botha's successor, F.W. de Klerk in 1990. Botha tenaciously defended the framework of apartheid, sharply restricting the activities of black political organizations and detaining more than 30,000 people. In December 1997, Botha stubbornly resisted appearing before a panel investigating apartheid-era crimes. He risked criminal penalties by repeatedly defying subpoenas from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to testify about the State Security Council that he headed. The council was believed to have sanctioned the killing and torture of anti-apartheid activists, and the panel wanted to know what Botha's involvement was.

Born Jan. 12, 1916, the son of a farmer in the rural Orange Free State province, Botha never served in the military or graduated from college. He quit university in 1935 to become a National Party organizer. During World War II, Botha joined the Ossewabrandwag (Ox Wagon Fire Guard), a group that was sympathetic to the Nazis and opposed South Africa's participation on the Allied side. Botha won election to Parliament in 1948, the year the National Party came to power and began codifying apartheid legislation. He joined the Cabinet in 1961 and became defense minister in 1966. As head of the white-minority government in 1978, Botha repeatedly stressed the paramount importance of national security. He charged that the anti-apartheid struggle was a ''total onslaught'' on South Africa instigated by communist forces. During a series of gradual race reforms, he told white South Africans they must ''adapt or die.'' A new constitution in 1983 gave Asians and mixed-race people a limited voice in government, but continued to exclude blacks. The new law also drastically increased Botha's powers, changing his title from prime minister to president. He declared a national emergency in 1986 after widespread violence erupted in black areas, where anger focused on the new constitution. State security forces brutally quelled the opposition, and one of his former lieutenants -- police minister Adriaan Vlok -- told the Truth Commission that Botha had personally congratulated Vlok for successfully bombing a building thought to harbor anti-apartheid activists and weapons.

Such a nice grandpa he was, P. W. Botha. May he rest in peace. I will miss him dearly. NOT.

_____________________________________________________________________

Grandpa Augusto's birthday is coming up soon. He will turn 91 on November 25 and I have been very busy looking for a birthday gift for him. Grandpa Augusto was on the news this past week too. On Tuesday 31 October (same day that Grandpa P.W. passed away), Grandpa Augusto was placed under house arrest, charged with the torture of 23 people, as well as the kidnapping of 34 and one homicide, which were carried out at a secret government detention center after grandpa came to power in his 1973 military coup. It is the first time Pinochet faces prosecution for torture, although he is already being prosecuted on kidnapping charges in connection with the "disappearance" of 119 people in 1975. Until Tuesday, Pinochet had never been charged with torture, which was a systematic practice throughout his rule.

This is a milestone in the struggle for justice in Chile, Human Rights Watch said. The government-appointed National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture reported in 2004 that more than 18,000 people were tortured during the four months after the September 1973 coup, and another 5,266 people from January 1974 until August 1977. "This is an important moment for the thousands of victims of torture in Chile," said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "The man who ran the régime that brutalised them is finally being made to answer for these crimes."

Chilean courts have already convicted 109 military and police officials for crimes including "disappearances," extrajudicial executions and torture committed during the military government. Thirty-five former generals of the army, police and air force have been sentenced or are facing trial for human rights abuses. The Chilean Supreme Court ordered that previous charges against Pinochet be dropped on the grounds that he was mentally unfit to stand trial. However, in October 2005, a court-appointed panel of psychiatrists found that Pinochet was lucid and able to understand and answer questions.

The new charges against Pinochet involve abuses that occurred at the Villa Grimaldi, a secret detention center run by the Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA), where victims were held following the 1973 coup. The evidence against Pinochet includes the testimony of Ricardo Lawrence, a former DINA agent who said that he escorted Pinochet to interrogate Victor Díaz, a former top official of the Chilean Communist Party who was held in 1976 at Villa Grimaldi. Lawrence said he overheard the interview, which took place in a military base in Santiago. Díaz subsequently "disappeared."

The investigating judge, Alejandro Solis, also cited the testimony of the DINA's director, Manuel Contreras, now serving a prison sentence for kidnapping, in which he said that he had reported to Pinochet on a daily basis.

Such a nice grandpa he is, Don Augusto. Happy Birthday to him and Happy Many Returns. NOT.

WORKING SHEEP (in Advertising and other such Noble Pursuits)