As Michael Jackson prepares for his latest court appearance, over the issue of a $7 million dollar gift (I wish I had friends like that, the last gift I got was a cookery book I already owned), the perennial question remains: can the biggest selling solo artist of all time make a comeback?

There was never a question of his losing his talent, more his grip on reality. Relentless plastic surgery, the Peter Pan fixation, the megalomania, his strange relationship with his own and other people's children, these are the kind of things that can distract you from giving a catchy chorus your full attention.

Never satisfied: Michael Jackson wants to remain 'King of Pop'

I think I might have a solution. And that is Michael Jackson: Unplugged. If he was to go into a studio with a simple acoustic and string flavoured band and perform his greatest hits, without the razzmatazz, special effects and moondancing, and just put all the focus on the quality of his greatest songs performed by in a pure soul style by that rather wonderful voice then maybe, just maybe, he could remind everyone what a truly extraordinary musical talent he really is.

I suggested this recently to a senior executive at his record company, SonyBMG. His eyes lit up for a second and then he slumped. The problem, I was told, is that Jackson would get all excited with the idea for a week, then he would want to bring in the latest hip production teams, then it would turn into a double concept album that would take years and millions of dollars to record, and never satisfy his desire for an unstoppable commercial impact. He still wants to be the King of Pop, a title that he conferred upon himself, and clings on to like a lunatic in the asylum insisting he really is Elvis. The consensus was the project would start out as Michael Jackson: Unplugged, turn into Michael Jackson: Rebooted, and wind up as Michael Jackson: Unreleased.

Anyway, if the court bankrupts him, I hear the Glitter Band are on the look out for a new singer.

This super simple project will add a touch of class and practicality to your upcoming holiday paprty. These Wine Glass Tags will cut down on the party confusion with just a bit of memory wire and some beautiful beads!

Click here to download this project and make as many as you need!

This smart project comes from Beading Basics by Carole Rodgers. Everything you need to know about this beading is in this authoritative and inexpensive resource. If you are just starting out in beading, you will discover easy-to-follow instructions in basic techniques for simple projects. As you gain more experience you can also turn to this book as a trusted refresher guide.

Beading Basics by Carole Rodgers, $19.99

While appearing at an event in Wasilla to pardon a turkey in preparation for the upcoming holiday...Thanksgiving (you might have heard of it) Mrs. Sarah neglected to notice the turkeys being slaughtered in the background.

ummm.......... a w k w a r d.........

Breathe a sigh of relief if you are built for comfort rather than speed and plan to travel on internal flights in the Dominion of Canada, home of the slim-line mouflon and the toping brief.

Fatties get two seats now! No more apologising to your row-mate for flopping into their space. You can let it all hang out now without demur. Apparently you deserve it. (Sounds like a cosmetic add, yes.)

But the rest of us who are relatively gravitationally challenged should read the small print. Thin chaps have to share a seat! Unless of course they have French genes and then they can claim independent treatment under the law.

Otherwise when Carla's little fella visits his colony in Quebec he might have to share. Sacré bleu!

Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy are the proud parents of a new baby boy!

Ashlee pushed him out Thursday. 7 pounds, 11 ounces.

His name is BRONX MOWGLI WENTZ....okay then....

No pics yet because Joe Simpson is probably out making deals for them....

Wanna get that family member something special this holiday season?? 

Might I suggest a 2009 calender... courtesy of Chubby Mike!!

(click the picture to order your calender)

OK Mikie, I will humor you...unless this is too revealing...in which case...I will chicken out on posting it!  lol

Uh oh...eleven....hummmm...OMG, I'm 'normal'  ...how insulting!!!  lol  

Ye gads....my biggest fear...BEING NORMAL!!!  UH OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oK...HERE'S THE GAME:

if you get more than 30, I strongly recommend some counseling!

if you get more than 20, you're paranoid.

if you get 10-20 then you are normal.

If you get 10 or less you're fearless.

If you don't have any, you're full of ****!

you Fear...


[ ] the dark
[X] staying single forever
[ ] being a parent
[ ] giving birth
[ ] being myself in front of others
[ ] empty/open spaces
[ ] closed spaces
[ ] heights
[ ] black cats
[ ] dogs
[ ] birds
[ ] fish
[ ] spiders
[ ] flowers or other plants
[ ] being touched
[ ] fire
[ ] deep water
[ ] lakes
[ ] slugs
[ ] the ocean
[ ] failure
[X] success
[ ] thunder/lightning
[ ] frogs/toads
[ ] my boyfriends/girlfriends dad [LOLOL]
[ ] my boyfriends/girlfriends mom
[X] mice/rats
[X] jumping from high places
[ ] snow
[ ] rain
[ ] wind
[X] crossing hanging bridges
[ ] death
[ ] heaven
[X] being robbed
[ ] falling off high ledges
[ ] clowns
[ ] large crowds of people
[X] men (some)
[ ] women (some)
[ ] having great responsibilities
[X] doctors,including dentists
[ ] tornadoes
[ ] hurricanes
[ ] incurable diseases
[ ] snakes
[X] sharks
[  ] friday the 13th
[ ] ghosts
[ ] poverty
[ ] halloween
[ ] school
[ ] trains
[ ] planes
[ ] odd numbers
[ ] even numbers
[ ] being alone
[X] becoming blind
[ ] becoming deaf
[ ] growing up
[ ] monsters under my bed/ in my closet
[ ]creepy noises in the night
[ ] bee stings
[X] not accomplishing my dreams/goals
[ ] needles
[ ] blood
[ ] dinosaurs
[ ] the welcome mat
[ ]high speeds
[ ] throwing up
[ ] falling in love
[ ]  bugs
[ ] being kidnapped
HOW DID YOU ALL DO?YOU ARE NOW TAGGED TO POST THIS.

Because of the Parade Saturday Night there will be street closings and CTA Route changes

For more information go to the CTA Website

ET came strong to the mic.  Former Bengal All-Pro cornerback Eric Thomas has a great deal of respect for Chad the player. But, when it comes to Chad and what he does to the team, ET surprised me by going this far.

"Cut the cancer out of the team," says ET.  And, he said it more than once.

ET says get what you can get for Chad and just move on !  ET compares Chad to Carl Pickens and his negative effect on the team.

There has been a lot of outsourcing of services form UK to India in recent past. Leading the sectors providing maximum outsourcing are Customer Care services, Manpower Outsourcing and IT outsourcing. You would even be fascinated to by a piece of news that made headlines last year. A university in United Kingdom decided to outsource the correction of English Papers to an Indian University. As you can understand emotions exploded on both sides. Being an erstwhile British colony where English was introduced by the British themselves India now stand in a position where there are more English speakers than UK. Anyway some people did seem to take this as a national insult. Even after this the deal went through.

 So what is it that makes outsourcing so lucrative for companies? Is it just the monetary gains? I am of opinion that it’s hiring extra manpower and maintaining them that a headache for business houses. Let’s analyze the situation mentioned above. A British university has 10000 English papers to correct. They have 10 English professors who can efficiently correct 15 papers then it will take them 67 days to finish the job. Can the results wait for 2 and half months to be declared? To finish the task faster the University has to appoint more people to evaluate the papers. It’s very difficult to hire 10 more professors for a month. Professors will not agree to work with you for a month and they are already a rare breed in market. Even if you do manage to get 10 of them they will charge hefty amounts; considerably more than the serving professors. If you agree to pay them the extra amount the serving professors will object to the inequality and this definitely cannot be tolerated in UK as far as I reckon. You may wonder why it can’t be outsourced to another English University. Yes it can be done but the only problem is that other universities will be facing the same problem during the exam times too. So only one option remains and that is to outsource the job to some foreign university. India has been the flag bearer among such destinations where you can get quality job done for a tenth of the costs in some fields. So the decision of the university in question is completely justified in today’s competitive market.

 
I understand that there are other reason why people oppose outsourcing but unless the Govt does not give special credits nullify the advantages of outsourcing I guess it would be difficult to stop it.

A recent Ohio State graduate moved to Michigan after accepting a great job that she could not refuse.  She felt as if she betrayed her Ohioan ancestry by now living in "the state up north".  She had an apartment with a Michigan address and winced every time she looked at her driver's license.  When she registered her car, she got an idea.

When her personalized plates came for her car, she was so excited that she texted her father, who was also a proud OSU graduate.

She typed, "Daddy, I got my University of Michigan license plates today!"

Her father said, "What?  You have to be joking!"

She replied, "Nope, let me send you a picture."

At last the government is going to change the law to apply sensible penalties to those idiots that endanger other road users by speeding. Six penalty points for speeding will mean a second offence will mean the driver lose his licence. The new penalties will help get some of the idiots off the road but much more needs to be done. As the majority of speeding offences are committed by young people, I belive the time has come to restrict anyone under 25 from driving certain types of car.

Plum, Are my clouds not a little, somewhat more, what can I say, distinctive?  

Actor Ben Vereen on Chicago Insight

Sunday at 6 am

What is one thing Muss hates about the Holidays?

Do you feel hung over after not only a night game, not only a loss, but the Chad mess ?

Chris Crocker......how in the world did he not have a job.  What a hit on Santonio Holmes.

Are you worried that the Bengals will make yet another bad decision.  After what you saw last night don't you want AC to start again at left tackle.  If Levi Jones is healthy, that's nice for Levi.  How in the world do you not start Anthony Collins against Baltimore. 

I have ZERO confidence that the BENGALS WILL DO THE RIGHT THING. Do you ?

Ditto for Nate Livings.  Is it possible that a lot of the offensive line problems can be solved with Collins and Livings ?  And when Whitworth comes back, you can see him playing right tackle next year because they won't want to pay Stacey Andrews the BIG BUCKS. 

I'm not saying that the Bengals were going to win, but '4' plays, '4' makeable plays were huge.  Glenn Holt's '2' drops.  Especially the first one.  Bengals have BIG MO.  He's wide open !!!  Then on the next series, Hines Ward catches a 37 yarder.

Throw in David Jones missing a pick in the opening series and Leon Hall's missed pick, and who knows what could have happened. 

As soon as we knew Chad was out, I knew TJ was not going to have a good day. Quickly said it in the pregame show.  Even with an off-season, Chad takes a lot of attension from the defense.  Now, TJ gets

 e mail of the day....i don't believe this, but it is an out of the box theory. interesting...

 Hey all:

 Has anybody ever thought that there could be other reasons why Chad was deactivated for last nights game?  I love the fact that he was sent home.  I prayed that they would have traded him before the draft and I still wish that they would send this clown away after the season. 

 Maybe though, just maybe.  They could have deactivated Ocho Stinko to show to the rest of the NFL that TJ can't be a number one (4 catches for twenty yards), thus lowering his price tag after the season.  I doubt this is the reason; it's probably just because Chad is just a clown.  It is something to think about.

 Justin

For thousands of Americans there will little to celebrate at Thanksgiving in four days times. Many thousands have already lost their jobs and homes and many thousands more face the same gloomy prospect in the future. In the UK Christmas is looking like a time of misery for hundreds of thousands of people who have either lost their jobs or are simply struggling to live. Neither the 1.5%interest rate cut by the Bof E, which banks have passed onto savers but to borrowers, nor the 1% reduction in food prices, which hardly reduces the hugely increased prices over the past few months, will bring much relief to hard pressed citizens wishing to enjoy the festivities. Already in UK, the January sales have started as though Christmas has been cancelled.

HUMMMMMM...C Words!  I feel like a Sesame Street kid...oops...I AM one!  lol  Or at least my kids sure watched that program a bunch! 

I think I will share my Sesame Street addiction graphic...

OK...My 'C' Words:

Creator

Christ

Change

Candles

Cards...as in Greeting and Playing

Chances as in Risks

Chives...nice mild onion taste!

Chariots of Fire the movie

Cheerful

Choir Music

Cheering (I have lots of people cheering...even in Heaven)

Ok...fresh out of C's...I always do my own list first and not peek at anyone else's!

My little way of playing this alphbet gratitude thingie.  I love it!

Thanks Julie...I haven't gotten a chance to lay around in a while now!  lol 

(See her first post if you don't know to what I refer!!    :)   She asked us to 'lay' and we are not about to let her live this one down...lol )

Love, Charity