The still curiously named SyFy channel has imported a Canadian series titled Lost Girl and it is showing Mondays at 10 pm EST. Similar to the import of the first season of Sanctuary, the channel has snagged an existing quirky show that is a modest hit for its ever changing lineup.

Lost Girl is the very sexy tale of a mysterious woman named Bo. For the last decade, Bo has roamed the country feeding her hunger for human energy but not understanding it. It’s a hunger that is fatal to the human involved.

Bo is discovered by the two factions of the Fae, the show’s amalgam of mythic creatures from a number of different cultures. She learns that she is a succubus, a supernatural being that feeds of the life force of humans. The Light and Dark factions of the Fae put her to a test, which she survives with the assistance of a new found human friend, a teen named Kenzi. In an act of defiance, Bo chooses neither side and thus begins the series.

The Light and the Dark war with each other. They also intend to keep their secret hold over humanity, no matter what. Dyson, a Fae working in the police force, acts as a guide and mentor for Bo, and his true motivation remains to be seen.

The show carries a TV M rating, and it was well deserved in the first episode. Bo feeds in manner that feels sexual and gratifying to the human, whether clothing is on or off. There is a lot of very attractive skin shown, and Bo appears willing to feed of men and women, to add a bi-sexual kink to the process.

Anna Silk as Bo in Lost Girl

Street urchin sidekick Kenzi is played by Latvian Ksenia Solo. At age 24, she has been working for over a decade. She portrays Kenzi, a somewhat street smart and tech savvy teen, with gusto.

Providing the eye candy for female viewers is Kris Holden-Ried, who plays Dyson. A year older than Silk, he has had been a model and had a nearly twenty year career in show business. He was also a world-class athlete, competing for Canada on the Canadian National Pentathlon Team (riding and fencing).

This is going to be a must watch for fans of supernatural tales. The beasties will be drawn from a variety of cultures so there will be some the viewer will recognize and other will be new. The drama will take Bo into the world of Fae and into her own background as she learns to control her power and discover herself.

Poppy Montgomery in episode 3 of Unforgettable. CBS photo

One addition to the CBS lineup for Fall of 2011 is the police drama Unforgettable. Starring Without a Trace veteran Poppy Montgomery, it adds a little quirk to the usual ensemble cast detective story.

Montgomery plays a former Syracuse, NY, police detective who is discovered to be living in New York City by her former boss and ex-lover. She is haunted by the childhood death of her sister. Her character, Carrie Wells, has a problem, hyperthymestic syndrome, which means that she is unable to forget anything, ever. Except, disturbingly, she cannot recall the details of her sister’s childhood death.

Wells is recruited to the NYC police department by Al Burns, played by Dylan Walsh. Wells’s ability plays a key role in solving the crimes that the unit investigates. The rest of the unit is played by Michael Gaston as the grumpy older detective Mike Costello, Kevin Rankin as the quirky Roe Saunders, and Daya Vaidya as Nina Anara.

Poppy Montgomery is gorgeous with red hair and a casual wardrobe. Some of the best qualities from her character on Without a Trace are featured in her current role. She is sexy, humorous, confident and appears very comfortable in the role.

This is must-see TV. The writers and directors of Unforgettable are working hard to provide the viewer with challenges each week. Some of the details Wells discovers are also seen by the viewer, allowing for some detecting at home. As Carrie Wells slowly recalls details of her sister’s death, the viewer is drawn into that mystery. The contrast between the successful police work and the unsolved mystery in the past is well executed and compelling.

In the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, appearance is almost everything and plastic surgery – to achieve the perfect body, the perfect face, and perfect skin – is commonplace if tabloids and TV shows can be believed.

So, as soap opera star J.R. Martinez of “All My Children” sees it, he fits right in. After all, he’s had more than 30 surgeries. The only difference between Martinez and other young actors: Instead of getting a nose job or Botox shots from high-priced Beverly Hills surgeons, Martinez spent more than two years at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, undergoing skin grafts and treatments for burns that covered 40 percent of his body.

That’s because Martinez – who plays Brot Monroe, an Army veteran burned in combat – used to be Cpl. J.R. Martinez of the 101st Airborne Division. He deployed to Iraq during the initial invasion in March 2003 at the age of 19, only six months after enlisting, still so green he wasn’t sure he could find Iraq on a map. Less than a month later, April 5, the front left tire of the Humvee he was driving hit a landmine. Three other Soldiers were thrown from the vehicle and sustained mostly minor injuries, but he was trapped inside.

Minutes before, he and the Soldier riding shotgun had been joking about how cool it would be to get a Purple Heart and not have to wait in line at restaurants back in the States.

“The things you say and never think it’s going to lead to anything,” he remembered, “because humor is the biggest thing you’ve got to maintain while you’re over there. That’s what keeps you going.”

But it wasn’t cool, and instead of laughing, he was soon screaming for help as smoke filled the Humvee and flames consumed him.

“It’s going to end for me. This is it,” he thought.

Raised by a single mother, Maria Zavala, who had emigrated from El Salvador and had already lost one child, he realized that there was no way he could put her through that again. He had to hang on. By the time his buddies were able to get him out (Martinez later learned insurgents had attacked their convoy as soon as the landmine went off), 10 or 15 minutes had gone by and, conscious the entire time, he was in unspeakable pain.

“It’s really hard to explain,” Martinez said. “You know how you burn yourself on an iron or stove and how painful that is, or maybe a sunburn, and the pain is just excruciating’ This was just on-another-world-, on-another-universe-painful. It was just so far beyond what I had ever known and what I’ve ever experienced that there’s no way to explain it. It’s an unbearable pain. Burns are something I would never wish upon my worst enemy.”

The third-degree burns were so deep, and he lost so much fluid and tissue, that after a while, they destroyed the nerves. The smoke damage was so severe that his lungs and other organs began to shut down. Martinez was put in a medically induced coma for the pain-that and because he kept trying to touch his face, thinking he could make it feel cooler.

One of the medics later told him that he had to be strapped to his bed at the evacuation hospital after he bounced up and told everyone to leave him alone because he was “fine.” In reality, when he arrived at BAMC four days later, doctors still weren’t sure if he would make it, and kept him in the coma for almost three weeks.

After he came out of it, he remained completely dependant on others for weeks, and nurses escorted him to the showers every morning for debridement (removing the dead, scarred skin), which Martinez said was even more painful than the initial burns. But after several days of the torture, he became suspicious: “What the hell is going on’ Why is this so painful’ What does it hurt so much’” he thought, and demanded to see a mirror, although his doctors and nurses were vehemently opposed. They thought it was too soon and would be traumatic, but Martinez insisted.

“‘I want to see my face. I want to see my body, now,’” he told them, explaining that he was the one who would have to live with it for the rest of his life. Why bother putting it off? It would be just as devastating later, so surely it was better to get it over with. When they finally agreed and sat him in front of a mirror, the sight of his face, neck and hands was a shock that sent him into a depression so deep, he began to wonder if he would have been better off dying in that Humvee.

The life he had dreamed of was certainly back in its burned out shell. At the age of 19, he was no longer the handsome young athlete everyone had talked about, and he no longer knew how he would ever find a girlfriend, let alone get married or have children.

“I just felt, looking at my body, there’s no way I’m ever going to be able to experience that,” he said. “My life was spared, but for what?”

Martinez grieved for the man he had been, only going through the motions of his recovery, wondering what he had done to deserve such a punishment, until about five weeks after he had arrived at the hospital when his mother — who had gone through her own ordeal watching her only son face death and disfigurement — snapped him out of it. She explained that he had a lot to learn about life. Looks weren’t everything. In fact, she joked, she was proof.

“‘People are going to be in your life for who you are as a person and not what you look like,’” she told him. “‘I remember when I was younger, everyone told me I was pretty and gave me compliments. No one tells me that now.’”

Something clicked and Martinez immediately answered, “‘You know what, Mom? You’re right. And now, I’m actually glad this happened to me.’”

“‘Wait a minute, what do you mean you’re happy?”

“‘Now I get to see who liked me as a person, versus who liked me for being the popular guy in school, being the athlete, being the handsome young man. Now I get to see who really loves me or likes me for who I am as a person,’” he said. In that instant he understood, and he suddenly had a new mission.

Between his 32 (eventually 33) surgeries, and therapies to stretch his tender, growing skin (he even had to wear a mask to compress the scarring on his face), Martinez began to visit other, newly wounded servicemembers on the wards at BAMC. They too were often badly burned, some with faces that had been nearly charred off. They too were devastated and sometimes didn’t want to go on living, but Martinez noticed that after he talked to them, they seemed to cope a little better.

“I said to myself, ‘I think this is my gift. I’m going to share my gift with other wounded troops because a lot of these guys are arriving here without a clue of what to expect. I’ve been through it. Maybe I can just kind of help them and prepare them on what to expect.’ So I started visiting patients on the wards every day,” he explained.

The local and then national media began to pick up his story, and before he knew it, he was in the Washington Post and on “60 Minutes” and “Oprah,” talking about hope and renewal, explaining that if wounded warriors could just find the strength they had in battle, or even when they enlisted, they could make it through this war too.

Due to his heavy scarring, Martinez is used to getting some strange looks when he hits the streets, and he wants injured servicemembers, burn victims and other people with disfigurements to know that that’s OK. In fact, he embraces the strange looks, and if someone wants to ask about his scars, that’s fine too, because Martinez views the looks and questions as opportunities to educate people about true beauty.

“We have the power,” he explained. “The more we sit there, the more we accept the unfortunate things that have happened, the more we embrace those things and own them, we have the power to actually change the mindset and allow these people to be completely comfortable with scarring, with disfigurement. But what we have to do is go out to the public. We can’t be afraid. We have to step up and say we’re going to go out there, because the more they see, the more they start to say, ‘OK, you know what’ There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s unfortunate, but it’s kind of common.’”

In 2006, when one of his noncommissioned officers urged him to stay in the Army and continue motivating other Soldiers after he was finally discharged from BAMC, Martinez explained that his new uniform was his scarred skin, and his new weapons were his words. He spent two years doing motivational speaking and nonprofit work for wounded troops, and then one day in 2008 he got an e-mail: “All My Children” had decided to launch a short-term storyline about the difficulties returning veterans faced, and thought it might be interesting to cast the role with a real veteran. Martinez had no acting experience, but he had done hundreds of speaking events at that point, and figured he had nothing to lose by auditioning.

Getting the role of Brot Monroe, who had let his fiancee and family believe he was dead rather than let them see his scars, was surreal to Martinez, especially because during his recovery at BAMC, while forced to watch his mother’s telenovelas every night from his hospital bed, he had joked with her that he would be on a soap one day. He already knew the plot and everything: Man gets beautiful girl. Man is in car accident or fire. Girl visits man in hospital. Man turns out to be Martinez. Martinez gets beautiful girl.

Things have been far from that straightforward for Brot as he struggles to come to terms with his scars and civilian life in fictional Pine Valley, Pa., but he has connected with audiences. Martinez’s three-month stint became a long-term contract, with Brot joining the local police force, and even finding possible romance with a beautiful lady detective. The show’s writers and producers, Martinez said, try to be as accurate as possible, and give him a lot of input. They even incorporated his 33rd surgery last summer to fix one of his eyelids into “All My Children’s” storyline.

While his character carries a lot of anger and grief, and occasionally lashes out at friends and coworkers, Martinez hasn’t found those scenes to be especially painful, explaining that because he has already worked through his own pain, he can go to that place for the scene and then turn his emotions off. Many viewers are actually surprised that he’s a real veteran and not a regular actor wearing heavy makeup, waiting for a “miracle” plastic surgery cure.

“I remember one day sitting in Grand Central Station (in New York), waiting for a friend, and all of a sudden a guy’s walking by and he said, ‘Are you guys filming a scene here” At first it’s understandable that people think it’s makeup because TV does crazy things. However, it’s nice for people to understand and learn over time that it’s real and become educated about it,” Martinez explained, adding that “All My Children” is a great way for him to educate people about wounded Soldiers and motivate people going through their own battles.

Martinez is writing a book about his experiences, and hopes to have his own talk show some day. In the mean time, he still does a host of motivational speaking and charity work on behalf of wounded troops, who he’ll often invite to the show’s new Los Angeles set (the show, and Martinez, just moved to LA from New York). In time-honored military tradition, once they’ve finished making fun of him for acting on a soap opera, and bonding over shared experiences, Martinez explains that it might be his name and face out there, but that’s it. He’s out there for them. They inspire him. He’s been home from war for seven years, so recently returning vets are fighting for his freedom as much as anyone else’s, and he has a debt to repay.

“Although a lot of these guys say that I inspire them, a lot of them inspire me,” Martinez said. “When I’m having a bad day, I just think about a lot of them, and I just think, ‘What am I sitting here complaining about’ These guys have gone through so much more.’”

Elizabeth M. Collins
U.S. Army

In Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare never wrote “A pox on both your houses”. He used the word “plague” instead of “pox”. The word just sounds older than plague, and in the author’s time either term would have been used for the pox and the plague were universal.

Episode 7 of Season 7 of the hit television show, House, M.D., featured the pox as its difficult to diagnose illness. It turns out that there are a number of illnesses that are now called pox, all of which feature sores and rashes of some type.

Perhaps the original pox, syphilis was also known as the “Great Pox”. It is a sexually transmitted illness that seems to have been far more severe centuries ago than it is today. The appearance of sores on the genitals and other parts of the body, the “pox”, were the hallmark of the illness. In its earliest stages, syphilis is quite treatable but can prove fatal if allowed to progress for years. In 2010, the CDC reports over 10,600 cases in the United States through early November.

In the House episode, it was pointed out that smallpox had not been seen since the 1970′s. Samples of the virus are known to exist in storage with the Centers for Disease Control and in a similar facility in Moscow, Russia. There is no treatment for this viral illness although antiviral medicines would be tried if a case was diagnosed. It can be fatal in as much as one third of the cases. As the television show told us, one of the key symptoms is the appearance of the pustules on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet.

Greg House originally thought the illness might be related to the smallpox vaccine the patients had been given. The immunization uses the vaccinia virus, and that may produce similar though less severe symptoms to smallpox.

Cowpox is the virus that was originally used as an immunization from smallpox. In 1796, an English doctor named Edward Jenner first experimented with cowpox as a preventative to smallpox. He had noticed, with others, that milkmaids seemed to have far fewer cases of smallpox and theorized it was due to their exposure to cowpox. Whatever his interest in milkmaids might have been, when done properly the method seemed to be effective.

Chickenpox was undoubtedly rejected by House and his staff for two reasons. Immunization for chickenpox has been common since 1995 and, though unsaid, the non-adult patients may have received it. More importantly, the rash from chickenpox appears on the trunk and face before it travels to the arms and legs, the opposite of smallpox.

Monkeypox is another illness that produces a rash and pustules, though these eventually scab and fall off. Several dozen cases in the Midwest in 2003 created some concerns that a smallpox outbreak was happening. It turned out that the infected patients had all had contact with rodents, prairie dogs and an imported African rodent, that carried the illness. It can be a serious illness, and fatal in less than 10% of cases in Africa. The smallpox vaccine can be used as either a treatment or a preventative.

Amber Tamblyn‘s character, Martha Masters, eventually diagnosed the real culprit, rickettsialpox. This illness is spread through the bite of a mite that lives on mice. It is easily treatable with antibiotics. As the show presented, a key finding is an “eschar “, a black scab at the site of the bite. Due to this sign, the illness is sometimes confused with cutaneous anthrax.

There are many illnesses that can be called a pox. Physicians have to be alert to the appearance of any rash, and its location, in order to diagnose their patient. Greg House and his staff did just that.

Season Four of the History Channel’s series Ice Road Trucker begins tonight at 9 pm. Heart throb and hottie Lisa Kelly continues double clutching and gear jamming her way alongside the big boys.

Lisa Kelly, Ice Road Trucker season 3

Show Schedule

Season Premiere Sunday, June 6, at 9/8c
Episodes in the next 2 weeks

1. Sunday, Jun 6, 8/7c Arctic Thaw: TVPG L
2. Sunday, Jun 6, 9/8c Breaking Through: TVPG L
3. Wednesday, Jun 9, 9/8c Breaking Through: TVPG L
4. Sunday, Jun 13, 8/7c Breaking Through: TVPG L
5. Sunday, Jun 13, 9/8c The Polar Bear Returns: TVPG
6. Wednesday, Jun 16, 9/8c The Polar Bear Returns: TVPG

]]> http://northshorejournal.org/ice-road-trucker-season-four/feed 0 http://northshorejournal.org/miley-cyrus-to-end-hannah-montana-show http://northshorejournal.org/miley-cyrus-to-end-hannah-montana-show#comments Sat, 09 Jan 2010 19:46:41 +0000 Chuck Simmins http://northshorejournal.org/?p=14274

Looks like Miley Cyrus is wrapping up the Hannah Montana show. While some Disney execs seem to be out of the loop, there has been confirmation that this is the show’s last season.

Miley turns 18 on November 23, 2010. She may be looking to move into adulthood through another entertainment venue, probably the movies. She is still in the Disney stable, at least until she takes after many of the women that preceded her and fall apart with drugs, lesbian affairs and a career in the toilet.

A two-man team from MTV’s “Real World” program spent a week at Joint Security Station Saydiyah here filming the final portions of a follow-up story on one of the show’s former participants.

Army Spc. Ryan Conklin of the North Carolina National Guard’s Company B, 252nd Combined Arms Battalion, 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, starred in the Brooklyn edition of the show and received notice of his deployment during filming.

MTV followed the Gettysburg, Pa., native through part of his mobilization and pre-deployment training, and is filming the final portion, his deployment to Iraq, for the follow-up story.

At the end of June and early this month, photography director Jason Williams and producer Matt Ruecker covered Conklin patrolling Baghdad’s Saydiyah neighborhood and participating in everyday life at this small base.

The “Real World” program involves moving a handful of people into a house together and covering their daily interactions.

“It is an examination of these people and the way they deal with these things in their lives, and this is just an extension of that,” Ruecker said.

During the show, Conklin received a call from his brother, notifying him that he’d been recalled to active duty. Ruecker and Williams were there when Conklin received the call, and have since followed him to Iraq.

“It’s not just a news story, it’s deeper than that” Ruecker said. “Being the first people from MTV [in Iraq], I think that hopefully, we’re going to provide a story that is not typical that is coming out of this region.”

“And not typical to MTV,” Williams added.

Conklin said he hopes the MTV coverage will help to open eyes among younger American viewers.

“I hope something positive comes out of it,” he said, “even if it’s just a slight introduction to just what things look like, or who’s over here, or a face to soldiers. I think that would be pretty good.”

“It’s been a life experience that neither one of us will ever forget,” Ruecker said.

DVIDS
By Army Pfc. Kelly LeCompte
Multi-National Division – Baghdad
North Carolina National Guard’s 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team public affairs office

The first episode for season 3 of the television drama Saving Grace just blew the lovely wife and me away. Talk about kicking it up a notch. The first episode for season 3 is the one that ought to be on the Emmy reel, and on the resume of every actor that appeared.

Christina Ricci is Grace’s temporary partner, a street cop looking to move up. It is inspired casting. Ricci plays the character well, and Holly Hunter and Ricci combine to create a feminine powerhouse at the core of the show. IMDB shows Ricci as in only three episodes, but I truly hope she is scheduled for more.

Holly Hunter does her usual fantastic job as Grace. Bailey Chase and Kenny Johnson as newly partnered detectives Butch Ada and Ham Dewey play the awkwardness of a new arrangement well, stepping on eachother’s questions and trying to adapt.

Leon Rippy as Earl, the last chance angel, and Bookeem Woodbine as Leon Cooley, the man on death row, have a moving scene when Cooley cries silently as Earl talks about his son.

The actress who play’s Grace’s sister, Paige – Jessica Tuck , adds a comedic touch to the show by insisting on staying with Grace while the serial killer is on the loose. Never mind that, as Grace tries to point out, the sister does not match the killer’s profile.

The final scene of the episode shows how Grace responds to having killed her first man, the serial killer. As she stands at the scene of the shooting, partner Ricci shows up to lend support, and to help her smoke cigars. It was a moment where the events that the two characters had shared brought them closer as partners.

Channel 8, local CBS affiliate, did something very cool with their home page yesterday. They had what they called a live “blog” running. It was actually more of a Twitter stream, but it worked whatever you call it.

Folks could comment on the weather, send in photos and converse in a way that is not the usual interaction between television and consumers. I was a part of it for a while and I enjoyed it greatly.

Also spent some time on Twitter, talking with folks locally and from Channel 13 and Channel 8.

At Channel 8 I was able to chat with on air weathermen, producers, the assignment desk and their web guru. They updated us with official statements and reports they received from other sources. We updated them with snow depths, wind and visibility reports, traffic conditions and photos.

The station used an application from Cover It Live.

CoveritLive’s web based software takes your next live blog to a new level. Your commentary publishes in real time like an instant message. Our ‘one-click’ publishing lets you drop polls, videos, pictures, ads and audio clips as soon as they come to mind. Comments and questions from your readers instantly appear but you control what gets published.

The Chicago Sun Times folks on Twitter told me this:

We’ve used it quite a bit for politics and Bears coverage. Has strengths – community input – and weaknesses – hard to manage large group.

The app is free. I am going to give it some serious thought for this site.

The deputy commissioner of police argued that the terrorists, who were holed up in two major hotels and became involved in floor-by-floor firefights with police, were gaining tactical information from TV. Using powers under Section 19 of the country’s Cable Television Networks Act, he ordered a blackout of TV news channels.

“Transmission of various clippings/live relay/coverage of the actions being taken by the police against the terrorists in South Mumbai is causing impediment in the police action … thereby endangering the lives of the police personnel as also of the hostages,” the order stated.

Cable and satellite channels went off air for nearly half an hour before the order was rescinded.

Media chiefs present at a meeting between the MIB, the Indian Broadcasting Federation and News Broadcasting Assn. hit back by accusing the government information departments and ministerial interfaces of failing to keep up with developments in the media industry.

They said it was unclear which officials had authority to speak to the media, that government and media had never agreed to procedures for coverage of national emergencies, and that the Press Information Bureau is set up to handle print rather than broadcast and online media.

Through blogs, file-sharing and social networking functions on the Internet, dozens of eyewitness reports, some coming from within the two besieged hotels, delivered information faster than conventional media and challenged some of its reporting. Twitter, a user-generated service that delivers text message-sized “tweets,” for instance, reported that there was still gunfire inside the Taj Mahal long after Indian media had said it was finished. Others transcribed lists of casualties from the hospitals faster than mainstream media could access it.

Variety
By PATRICK FRATER

Let’s talk TV.

• CSI Miami: The new ME, played by Megalyn Echikunwoke, has an energy and a freshness that helps the show. For the last two years this CSI franchise has become too much like a David Lynch / “Twin Peaks” clone.
• Big Bang Theory: This comedy continues to be one of our must sees of the week. The lovely wife adores the nerdish interplay. I adore Kaley Cuoco and I am enjoying the unwanted interpersonal growth that the character Sheldon Cooper is undergoing.
• Sarah Connor Chronicles: We are both annoyed by the ongoing pussification of John Connor. I don’t think the writers quite know where they’re headed.
• Bones: Another must see. I am glad that the stupid cannibal plot line from last year is gone. The on-going search to find a replacement for Zack has produced some uneven acting. The Hodgins/Angela relationship needs better writing, more depth.
• The Unit: Wandering well off the believable track, “The Unit” has entered the realm of political fiction in a big way. The mission footage is OK. The family hiding footage and the “trial” and execution of the unit’s commander story line is dreck.
• Two and a Half Men: Relatively new show for us. Easy to watch. Just for laughs.
• Stargate: Atlantis: Finishing its last season, the show is letting everyone act. You couldn’t call much of last season “acting”. A much improved show and too bad it is ending.
• CSI: New York: Another improvement from last year and Mac’s stalker plotline. Still the grittiest of the CSI franchises.
• Sanctuary: Amanda Tapping could have my babies. That said, with just one episode under our belts [we tape], this is a show that remains to be proven a winner. The character played by Emilie Ullerup, Tapping’s daughter, is enchanting. For some reason, Emilie Ullerup reminds me of Linda Cardellini, who plays Sam on “ER”.
• Gary Unmarried: This is a nice half hour venue for comedian Jay Mohr. The ensemble isn’t gelling and I doubt the show will last.

Great story about a Fox News cameraman named Chris Jackson. His Marine unit was hit by and IED. He was injured but went back into the burning Humvee to help rescue a Marine. Video at the link, too.

A FOX News cameraman helped save the life of an injured Marine in Afghanistan — and was injured himself — when the armored Humvee convoy he was traveling in was struck by a roadside bomb Sunday night in the Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold.

Two U.S. Marines were badly injured when the improvised explosive device detonated near their convoy. Though FOX News cameraman Chris Jackson was injured in the blast, he went back to the burning vehicle to rescue one of the Marines.

“The cabin was on fire and I jumped out,” said Jackson in a report filed immediately following the attack. “I went, grabbed the sergeant out of the shotgun seat, pulled him out.”

via Grim at Blackfive

Now, before you youngins start mocking me, remember that I grew up in rural New York before cable TV. The CBS station in Buffalo was the easiest and clearest we could pull in with our down-in-the-valley rooftop antenna.

1. The Ed Sullivan Show

   OK, I remember three things about Ed’s show. He would recognize people in the audience, presumably famous people, but as a kid who knew? Topo Gigo, the mouse puppet, that has a crush on Ed. Mom and Dad would make sure we saw the mouse puppet. “I loooooove jew, Meester Soooleeevon!” And, well, four things, the guy with the spinning plates on the poles. Dad and I would be entranced trying to figure which one would fall. Finally, the ventriloquist with the voice in the box, Senor Wences. “S’all right?” “S’all right!”

2. Death Valley Days

   Only because of the mule team crossing the desert. Sponsored by “Twenty Mule Team Borax”, whatever the heck that was.

3. Cleveland Browns football

   Before the Buffalo Bills, there was the Cleveland Browns. Dad watched when he could.

4. Major League Baseball

   I remember Dad telling me to watch this guy catch a fly, with one hand. Probably Willie Mays. Also used to have classes canceled so we could watch the World Series games in the school gym in the afternoon. Baseball in the afternoon… on grass.

5. Branded

   “What do you do when you’re branded, and you know you’re a man?” This guy is stripped of all military insignia and turned out the front gate of the fort in his tattered uniform remnants.

6. The Merv Griffin Show

   and his sidekick Arthur Treacher. And some old lady who evidently went to all the talk shows and sat in the front row.

7. The Mike Douglas Show

   Another singer, fave of the parents. More current guests than Merv.

8. The Edge of Night

   Mom’s soap, though she later became a hard-core ABC soap fan.

9. Lunar Landing

   Yes, I watched. “One small step” and all that.

10. The Beverly Hillbillies

    The first few years, anyway. The later shows are really dumb.

In an effort to force the writers to end their strike, I give you my list:

1. Audrey Marie Anderson: The Unit. The kind of wife a lot of soldiers wish they had. Strong and sexy and tender and caring and hard as nails.
2. Gabrielle Anwar: Burn Notice. Don’t know if this show will return for a second season
3. Tracie Thoms: Cold Case. New to the show, Thoms adds a street smart look, and a wry humor, as well as a terrific counter balance to pale blonde Kathryn Morris. We need more of this actress.
4. Alicia Minshew: All My Children. Playing the part that Sarah Michelle Gellar originated as Kendall Hart. Slender, willowy, style personified. Just the look that Erica Kane’s daughter ought to have.
5. Lea Thompson: Jane Doe: Eye of the Beholder. Thompson is great as a soccer mom, ex-spy. She looks fantastic in casual clothes and eveningware. She should have won Celebrity Duets.
6. Holly Hunter: Saving Grace. We’ve seen a lot of Holly on this show. She’s slender, but, wow! Her personality lights up the television. She’s three years younger than I am, but in much better shape.
7. Emily Procter: CSI: Miami. Gun pr0n. A strong woman who loves to shoot. I doubt real CSI’s dress like she does but I don’t care.
8. Jennifer Love Hewitt: Ghost Whisperer. Yes, she has two lovely attributes. There’s more to her, however. That head tilt. Those deep, soulful eyes.
9. Amanda Tapping: Stargate: Atlantis. Tapping has lit up Sci Fi as Samantha Carter in both the Stargate series. No need to trash dress. And, her comedy backgound provides a delightful surprise on occasion.
10. Summer Glau: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. quirky, kick-ass, drop dead beautiful. All those words describe Summer Glau.

Don’t make these women cry. Go back to work!