| Beauty contest heads to court
Two beauty pageants each say they have the right to crown a Mrs. Colorado every year, and their dispute has landed in court. The trademark infringement trial, which started in U.S. District Court in Denver Monday, pits Mrs. Colorado-America Inc. against the Mrs. Colorado United States pageant. Mrs. Colorado-America Inc. condends it is the only organization that can crown a "Mrs. Colorado," something that has been done as far back as 1977. On the other side, the Mrs. Colorado United States pageant counters it has been crowning a "Mrs. Colorado United States" since 1986, until the current dispute got rolling in 2004. The Mrs. Colorado-America organizers filed for a state trademark for the term "Mrs. Colorado" in October 2003 and a for federal trademark in June 2007.
'House’ Wins Night; ‘Cane’ Halts Descent
You know that scene in action movies where the hero is trapped in a flooding room, the water has risen to his head, he's up against the ceiling and straining to breathe inside that last couple inches of air? That's CBS' “Cane," which last night managed to stop the compartment from flooding after five consecutive weeks of ratings drops. The show has a 2.0 preliminary Nielsen rating among adults 18 to 49, matching last week. Had the numbers sunk further, the rating would have gone from unacceptable-during-any-season-except-this-one to unacceptable-even-with-a-pending-writers-strike. CBS plans to wait another week to see if “Cane" can start bailing out and give itself some breathing room. Otherwise, Fox won the night with “Bones" (3.2 and on par) and “House" (7.0, down 8 percent from last week).
Mad about castles
MUNICH, Germany -- Winter was cold and dark in the Bavarian Alps during the mid-19th century. Still a few people who ventured outdoors at night would sometimes see a mysterious, bright glow gliding silently through the pines and firs. That would have been Ludwig II, the youthful king of Bavaria, traveling in his elaborate sleigh -- undoubtedly the only sleigh in the world equipped with an electric light. It was powered by a large battery placed under the seats. Winter or summer, Ludwig II was known to spend much of his waking hours moving around the countryside between dusk and dawn. In his short lifetime, Ludwig II was declared officially insane, and he is widely known today as the "Mad King" of Bavaria. Part of the evidence given for his psychotic condition was that he spoke openly of his belief that man would some day fly.
Nick Mwaluko: Becoming a Man
Am I selfish? Or should I live life miserable in the wrong body to support a family that will never support me? Make no mistake, no monthly contribution is large enough for them to accept me should I decide to return to Tanzania today in my new body. So I stay stuck to the same concerns I had as a child: where can I find my home? Not in white America where little old ladies hold their handbags the moment I come close. By home, I mean a place where memory is butchered by the present and future so the past sticks to my shadows, stays dead. And now I know something of death and resurrection, now that my old body died to give birth to a new one. With that experience comes an intense yearning for a resting place, a home where my new body can settle in peace, a village full of people from my tribe who are the same but different.
Black ink, white sheets
The blacks are writing and the whites are publishing, and it's all very exciting for the voracious reader desperate for literature that resonates with modern South African life. I'm not one of those people who think William Shakespeare or Charles Dickens have no place on this continent and I think the banning of books, any books (yes, even hateful ones), is a ludicrous proposition. A vibrant society needs an equally vibrant art life; and cinema, theatre and literature are vital elements of that concoction. The arts are not a luxury, they're an absolute necessity, so to this end, that there is an increasing number of black South Africans writing and being published is a good omen. Some of the books I've immersed myself in over the last couple of months are biographical, such as Fred Khumalo's Touch My Blood.
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