Edition 12-05-03

Dec 5th, 1933 Prohibition repealed

The New York state Health Dept has sanctioned a New York City doctor who disclosed details of the final days of George Harrison, a member of the Beatles. Dr. Gil Lederman, director of radiation oncology at Staten Island University Hospital, has been censured, reprimanded and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, the New York Post reports. An investigation following a complaint from Harrison's estate determined a violation of patient confidentiality had occurred when Harrison died two years ago. At the time, Lederman was quoted in media reports as saying, among other things, that his famous patient did not fear death and was writing and recording songs. 
Damn that was a terrible thing to say?
Mistletoe is for more than just kissing, it also provides essential food, cover and nesting sites for a large number of
birds, butterflies and mammals in the United States. The 1,300 species of mistletoe worldwide -- of which more than 20 are endangered -- are rather strange plants that grow on the branches of trees and shrubs. U.S. Geological Survey biologists say once a mistletoe seed lands on a host tree or bush the mistletoe sends out roots that penetrate the tree and eventually start pirating some of the host tree's nutrients and minerals. Mistletoe is not a true parasite, however, just a "semi-parasite" because most species have the green leaves necessary for photosynthesis. 		Federal agents raided Hells Angels motorcycle club hangouts across the West on Wednesday and made 38 arrests, including nine in Washington and Alaska, after a two-year undercover investigation into alleged violations of gun and drug laws.

All 38 people arrested were either members or associates of the Hells Angels, according to Patrick Berarducci, senior special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (search) in Los Angeles.

Agents arrested five people in Washington state at homes in Tacoma, Kirkland, Silverdale, Spokane and Wenatchee, said ATF spokeswoman Vera Fedorak in Seattle. Four arrests were made in Alaska, at three homes in Anchorage and one in Two Rivers.

Agents also searched three clubhouses in Washington and Alaska -- on Sprague Street in Spokane, and in Anchorage and North Pole, Alaska -- but made no arrests there.

The raids came before dawn, and the arrests were for drug trafficking, weapons charges, possession of stolen explosives and other crimes, Fedorak said.

The San Francisco headquarters of the Hells Angels was targeted, and other search and arrest warrants were executed in Southern California, Arizona, Nevada and Alaska.

The Northern California warrants resulted in 16 or 17 arrests, said Marti McKee, a bureau spokeswoman in San Francisco. She declined to say what agents were looking for, saying the supporting documents were sealed by court order.

Targets in Northern California included 29 search warrants and 24 arrest warrants in locations that included Richmond, San Jose and Santa Cruz County.

"San Francisco police did the entry and secured the scene," she said of the Hells Angels raid. "Now that they've taken care of that, ATF agents are going in to search."

More information on the raids will be released "once we've determined the court documents have been unsealed," McKee said.


How many film titles contain the word "white"? Here are but a few: White Christmas (1954), White Lightning (1973), White Nights (1985), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), The Great White Hope (1970), White Men Can't Jump (1992), The Spy in White (1936), White Heat (1949), White Man's Burden (1995), The White Cliffs of Dover (1944), White Cargo (1942), White Hunter, Black Heart (1990), White Zombie (1932), Three Men in White (1944), The Girl in White (1952), Miracle of the White Stallions (1963), Wedding in White (1972), White Orchid (1990), White Tie and Tails (1946), White Slave Ship (1962).

 

Rider's Prayer

May the sun rise in front of me, may the rain fall behind me and the wind follow me.
May the angels of my brothers and sisters who have gone before me guard my travels,
for they know the perils of the road ahead of me.
Keep me safe through the rough city streets on my way to the land of the swirling turns and rolling hills.
Let the turning colors of fall keep me warm. Let the eagle guide me to the mountain tops.
Let the Moon's light guide me through the night.

May my tires not fail me, nor my engine grow old.
May my bike draw life from the streams I pass. Keep my seat soft and my mind sharp.
Let the air of spring breathe life into my soul, to journey to another adventure beside my brothers and sisters.

 

Borrowed from Independent Freedom Riders

 

 

Word of the Day
bathetic \buh-THEH-tik\ adjective

1 : extremely commonplace or trite
*2 : characterized by insincere or overdone pathos : excessively sentimental
Example sentence:
The movie is a bathetic weeper, one that all but the most maudlin and sentimental viewers will find overly dramatic and unbelievable.
Did you know?
When English speakers turned "apathy" into "apathetic" in the 1700s, using the suffix "-etic" to turn the noun into the adjective, they modeled it on "pathetic," the adjectival form of "pathos" from Greek "pathētikos." People also applied that bit of linguistic transformation to coin "bathetic." In the mid-19th century, English speakers added the suffix "-etic" to "bathos," the Greek word for "depth," which has been used in English since the early 1700s and means "triteness" or "excessive sentimentalism." The result: the ideal adjective for the incredibly commonplace or the overly sentimental.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/map_new.htm