SPECIALS
Heaven Sent
I’ve got a few bon mots to jumpstart your entrée into 2011. Hope you enjoy … There are seven steps to Heaven, and they’re probably the Seven Deadly Sins transcended. Here’s the list, along with suggestions for their resolution. PRIDE: Give up foolish pride. LUST: Doesn’t it depend on what you lust for? GLUTTONY: Look at yourself naked in a mirror. ENVY: Be happy with what you’ve got. COVETOUSNESS: You don’t even own your own body, so there is no real owning when everything is on loan, right? SLOTH: Quit being so lazy … WRATH: … Or I’ll kill ya! In an ecological world, the only sin is waste — waste of an opportunity or a resource. Happy Chinese New…
entered on 01/05/11 at 11:53 AM | read more »
2011: The Event Horizon
Predicting the future is pointless. There is no future. In fact, there is no past. Neither exists. There is only the infinite now. So-called predictions are in reality observations of current events and conditions. A common phrase demonstrates the past and the future are not real. Computer technology gave us the term “real time.” It refers to something that is happening in the “now,” such as “real time” information: real time stock quotes or real time graphics or real time simulation, and so on. The inference is clear. If “now” is real time then anything not “now” must be unreal. Simple as that. De-stress now. The very fact that the future does not at any time exist is a good…
entered on 01/05/11 at 11:50 AM | read more »
Ten wins and a cloud of doubt
How do you win 10 games in a college football season and finish unranked? With their embarrassing 19-7 loss to a previously .500 Washington team, the Nebraska Cornhuskers might be about to find out. Heading into the Holiday Bowl the Huskers were ranked 16th and 17th respectively in the Coaches’ and AP polls; but as losers of three of their last four they could be on the outside looking in when the final polls are released. Since Bob Devaney arrived in 1962 the Huskers have never won 10 games and finished unranked, a span that includes the era where only 10 teams were ranked by the AP and UPI. Ranked or not, this season was still a success when compared…
entered on 01/05/11 at 09:56 AM | read more »
Cosmic Forecast for Dec. 30-Jan. 5
Happy New Year’s everyone! Thanks for another year of PLANET POWER. I promise my CD, The ZODIAC, will be released in 2011 through my Website one sign at a time, and next week I’ll prepare my year ahead article for your amusement and perusal in The Reader’s Jan. 6 issue. When people party, I work. When people work, I party. I like it like that. Always have, always will. Thanks for the thrill. I love you all. See you next year, from the best dressed barefoot man you know, the Golden (Silver?) Troll of Rock ‘n’ Roll, MOJO PO(PE) — the High Holy Guru of Omaha Rock ‘n’ Roll Vou Dou. — MojoPoPlanetPower.com j CAPRICORN (12.22-1.20) How was…
entered on 12/30/10 at 01:42 PM | read more »
Chrome and Carcinogens in Your Tap Water by Michael Braunstein
Your relationship with Steven Soderbergh is at least as personal as mine. Soderbergh is the Oscar-winning director of such fabled films as Sex, Lies and Videotape, Erin Brockovich, Oceans Eleven and Traffic. In 2001 he became the first film director since 1938 to be nominated for Best Director Oscar for two movies in the same year: Traffic and Erin Brockovich. He is the only director ever to be double-nominated for Oscar, Golden Globes and Directors Guild awards all in the same year. (He won for Brockovich.) I knew him when: Soderbergh’s Erin Brockovich also earned Julia Roberts an Oscar. The film was about a small town in California that was polluted by a cancer-causing chemical called hexavalent chromium or chromium-6.…
entered on 12/30/10 at 01:36 PM | read more »
Nostalgia and new beginnings
In 1991 Madonna wrote a terrible song called “This Used to be My Playground.” It was a nostalgic slab of nothingness designed to support the singer’s lead role in the significantly-better-by-comparison baseball film A League of Their Own. The nice thing about 2010 is that, as far as I know, no one used that song in tribute to Rosenblatt Stadium. This was the year of farewells to the old South Omaha ball yard and from the start of summer on it felt like there was hardly time to do anything but say goodbye. The temptation towards wistfulness was everywhere but folks largely elected to party instead. Well played, Omaha. In June, Rosenbaltt hosted its final College World Series. This was…
entered on 12/29/10 at 08:04 AM | read more »
The look of a big man
I wholeheartedly approve of Gregory Echenique’s look. The new Creighton big man sports goggles and the number 00 — the same number Jays alum Benoit Benjamin wore for most of his 15-year NBA career. It’s redolent of late ’80s/early ’90s NBA post players and I can’t decide if he reminds more of Benjamin, Kevin Duckworth, Moses Malone or Antoine Carr (another MVC alum). Those were all big and occasionally begoggled bruisers and that’s what I see when I look at Echenique. If his play reminds Jays fans of any of those guys, Creighton could be in good shape. Coach Greg McDermott has shown patience working Echenique into the rotation, playing the transfer 18 and 21 minutes in his first two…
entered on 12/29/10 at 08:01 AM | read more »
McDermott Carries Creighton to Valley Title
The stakes couldn’t have been higher. The atmosphere couldn’t have been more electric. And the Jays couldn’t have come up with a more clutch effort...
more »Doug’s sigh said it all. The Jays were mired in a slump, and Illinois State had just come into the CenturyLink Center and handed Creighton another...
more »Seismic shifts in conference alignment have been rocking college athletics over the past few seasons, and it appears likely that Creighton could...
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Cosmic Forecast, May 30-June 5
Sorry about last week’s repeat of the previous week’s article. My record with the “Reader” so far — in 16 1/2 glorious years, encompassing 858...
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Cosmic Forecast, May 23-May 29
Happy Full Moon in early Sagittarius just before midnight on Friday, kickin’ off the wildest weekend this spring! It’s time to talk, talk, talk...
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Cosmic Forecast, May 16-May 22
Happy spring (I hope and pray)! It’s time to move from planting seeds for the/your economy (Taurus) to talkin’/squawkin’ ’bout it (Gemini) with...
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Cosmic Forecast, May 2-May 8¿Cómo ésta? Happy Cinco de Mayo. This is the/a week to clean up, take care of and finish up your spring cleaning. Take care of all the/your loose...
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Big Pharma and the Money-Go-Round
Another record fine has been levied against a Big Pharma company. This time it’s GlaxoSmithKline, the fourth largest drug company in the world with...
more »Nature’s Perfect Food? Eggs-actly!
It comes in its own package, albeit a tad fragile. It has a reasonable shelf life, even at room temperature. It has relatively low production costs...
more »It looked good on the label. And, to the best of my recollection, the product info described a loving pet owner in Colorado whose longtime canine...
more »“What are words for? When no one listens, what are words for?” So hiccupped Dale Bozzio in 1980 as I stood watching her and my friend Terry Bozzio...
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