From the Red Cross

WHAT THE PUBLIC CAN DO TO HELP:

• Make financial donations to the International Relief Fund by calling 1-800-RED-CROSS (800-257-7575--Spanish language line) or online at www.redcross.org. The Ulster County Chapter is also accepting donor designated dollars and will steward those funds to the International Relief Fund.
• Donors may also text "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be given to the American Red Cross to help with relief efforts. This donation will be added to the mobile phone user's next cell phone bill or deducted from their pre-paid plan balance.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR THE PUBLIC:

• At this time, the American Red Cross has not been asked to provide blood products to Haiti. Those looking to donate blood are encouraged to do so by making an appointment with 1-800-RED-CROSS or online at www.redcrossblood.org, but should be aware that blood will be used for domestic disaster relief efforts. If the Haitian Red Cross indicates a need for blood supplies, the American Red Cross will respond to any request based on availability.
• The American Red Cross cannot accept individual donations of blankets, food, clothing or other material items.
• Those concerned about people travelling abroad or living in Haiti should contact the U.S. State Department at 1-888-407-4747 for assistance. The American Red Cross Safe & Well website does not apply to international disasters.

Google search FAIL!

And that's not all:




And then there's this:



You get the picture.

Promo FAIL!

It will all be explained Wednesday.

And here's the explanation.

Meaty matters

Joshua Applestone of Fleisher's Grass-fed & Organic Meats in Uptown Kingston is scheduled to join Emeril Lagassi Tuesday morning on satellite radio, Fleisher's announced today.


From your friends at Fleisher's:

Tune in TOMORROW, Tuesday, January 12th at 11am to join Emeril and Josh talkin' 'bout meat matters LIVE on "Cooking With Emeril" on Martha Stewart Living Radio, which can be heard on Sirius 112, XM 157, and online at sirius.com.

We are starting a pool to guess how quickly Josh manages to drop the F-bomb on Live radio. Educated handicappers give it a 10-1 shot. The suspense is killing us!

BAM!

"Today Show" FAIL!

City officials were very excited today when NBC's "Today Show" mentioned Kingston in a segment. The background said "Top 10 cities for bargain homes."

Here's the part where Kingston is mentioned.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Immediately, you might ask simple questions, like:

* What part of Kingston has houses like that?
* Where is it?
* How is a whole city ranking based on a single house price?
* And what's the price?

The segment ends with, "And you can get more information on our web site at todayshow.com." And that's what I did, to find out that you can't get more information at todayshow.com.

So after a couple of minutes using The Googles, I found that the house in question is not in Kingston — Alderman Tom Hoffay's admirable cheerleading efforts notwithstanding — but in Lake Katrine. And it's more than $200,000, which is not a bargain, at least for this humble correspondent.

What I didn't find, however, was the criteria this list was based on.

So, sorry Tom. No story.

...
Here's the house in Kingston on the "Today Show":



And here's the same house — in the town of Ulster — on the Realtor's Web Site.


And, NO. Kingston and the town of Ulster are not the same, just like my beloved Prince Street (BANG! BANG!) is not the same as Sawkill Road and Kingston Mayor James Sottile is not the same as town of Ulster Supervisor James Quigley.

BANG!

UPDATE: Alderman Hoffay replies:

"ah...picky, picky, picky......the greater Kingston metropolitan area....

"...the bottom line here is that the Kingston housing market got a plug on the today show!"

UPDATE 2: Barbara Corcoran, Inc. (?) responds to my question about the criteria:

To find the bargains, we looked for low prices and big value We also looked for signs of recovery in the market, with home prices increases over the last three quarters or more. Other factors were job growth, low unemployment, and lots of young people moving in, all adding up to a vibrant, attractive place to live at bargain prices. Hope this answers your question!

The stars among us

Adrian Grenier, who plays "Vincent Chase" on HBO's Golden Globe-nominated "Entourage," was hanging out on Nov. 19 at Keegan Ales and Nov. 20 at The Basement, both in Kingston. Local yokels, myself included, were wondering what his area connection was.

According to his HBO bio, he attended Bard College.


Or, as IMDB.com puts it, He "Was a stone-cold hippie bongo drum player while attending Bard College."

That might explain what the New York Post called his "bongo bonanza."

Season six is over, but you can catch the whole thing Monday starting at 11 a.m. on HBO2.

Drum roll.

UPDATE: The folks at the Kingston-based www.secondchange4me.com inform me that Grenier was at Savona's restaurant in Kingston on Dec. 13. No word if the bong drum was present.

Have you seen him anywhere?

UPDATE: Yes, you have

Reid: "NO," "YES"

Harry Reid, right, votes "no" on his hard-fought health care bill, right before he votes "yes." You can't quite hear it (other than the Senate's laughter), but his gestures speak for themselves.




Later in an interview, he said:

“To be honest, I’d like to say I was trying to be funny or create some bipartisanship. ... But I was just in dreamland, thinking about where we had come. Some said ‘oh bipartisanship or trying to be funny.’ It was neither quite frankly. It was just, I am bushed.”

“And I don’t mean George Bushed.”

Blondie finishes album; O'Reilly muses

Blondie recently finished recording its upcoming album in Woodstock, your friends at the Woodstock Film Festival announced today. The album is set for release next year.

It will feature originals, a few covers and guest musicians.

Blondie performs the holiday classic, "We Three Kings" which you can download for free.

From your friends at the Woodstock Film Festival:

The video (shot in Woodstock) somehow stirred up controversy when Fox News featured a clip on Bill O'Reilly's "Pinheads and Patriots."

"I mean damn! We even mentioned The Deity hisself in the song (as written)," emailed Blondie co-founder Crhis Stein. "Anyway thnx Fox. All i can say is "we accept you gabba gabba etc etc."

Not sure how singing a standard Christmas song can be unpatriotic but ironically, the Fox News segment also singled out Bob Dylan's "Christmas in the Heart," which features a cover of "Must Be Santa."

"This is the song my father wrote 50 years ago," emailed Woodstock's own Tim Moore. "Dylan picked it up and turned it into a madcap, loopy polka and party video."

The song can be downloaded on iTunes. Dylan's royalties go to charity.

"Jersey Shore," redux

Alyssa Milano does Marlboro's Snooki, from MTV's "Jersey Shore":

Alyssa Milano's Evolution: Jersey Shore from Alyssa Milano

And the "Jersey Shore" guys are in on the joke as well (the joke's them):

The REAL Situation (Feat. MTV Jersey Shore's The Situation, Snooki, and Pauly D) - watch more funny videos

That's it. Fifteen minutes are up.

Dear City of Kingston

Since this is a snow emergency ticket from Dec. 9's snowstorm - the $100 kind - let it be known that this image doubles as Christmas presents for my family and friends, who are encouraged to print this image and use it as a Christmas tree decoration.

So what to do when there is a snowstorm in the city? Here are the rules:

Snow Emergency Parking Rules

Since you can't park on public streets, you are to use municipal parking lots.

Good luck getting your car on top of the ones filling up the lots.

Holiday Lights, 2009

View Holiday Lights 2009 in a larger map

Snooki's wisdom

The cast of MTV's "Jersey Shore" stopped by the Jay Leno show recently to showcase their awesome intelligence. Among them was Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi of Marlboro (according to MTV and Leno), or Albany (according to Snooki on Leno). Since she got everything wrong in Leno's quiz, it's safe to assume she's from Marlboro.

Watch her shine:



Where did she learn that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi actually is Lionel Richie? "I Am A TV Junkie" says she went to Ulster County Community College.

Who's Snooki? The Poughkeepsie native (according to her site) is famous for getting punched in the face and for exacerbating Italian stereotypes.

The show is "reprehensible" according to the New York Post, the same paper that hired a prostitute to be a columnist.

She also has a fan page on Facebook.

It was only a matter of time

"Tiger Hunting"

Corrections of the Year

Craig Silverman's Regret the Error has compiled a list of notable corrections for 2009.

Some favorites (aside from the 9/11-911 snafu):

A photo caption on Tuesday’s Page A8 said a student was performing the Heimlich maneuver on a dummy. The student was actually playing around and pretending to choke the dummy.

Bear sighting: An item in the National Briefing in Sunday’s Section A said a bear wandered into a grocery story in Hayward, Wis., on Friday and headed for the beer cooler. It was Thursday.

Newspaper headlines from "The Simpsons"

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Climate change challenged

If you want to know what's what when it comes to climate change, you should visit www.politifact.com, the Pulitzer Prize-winning arm of the St. Petersburg Times, a site where statements from the left and right get a reality check.

Also worth checking is the Obamameter, which has compiled about 500 promises that Barack Obama made during the campaign and is tracking their progress.

New York Post's new advice columnist

I've always wondered how some people get to be columnists. Usually you slave away at some paper, pay your dues and are rewarded for your hard work, if you have the chops.

Some other times, however, you just have to sleep with some governor to get one.



And said governor? He's a columnist too. So I guess I'm in good company.

Palin returns Shatner's favor

Trouble in Toyland

New York Unsafe Toys 2009

Some corrections are priceless

Via Washington Post