A few weeks back on January 22nd, retired Los Angeles Times photojournalist Bernard "Bernie" Boston, and a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, died at his home in rural Virginia. Praised as one of the leading photojournalists of his generation, Boston is probably best remembered for his iconic 1960’s photograph of a young Vietnam War protester putting flowers in the barrels of soldiers' gun.

w00t. – interjection: expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word "yay", example: “w00t! I won word of the year”

The word has yet to find its way into the regular Merriam-Webster dictionary—but its inclusion in the online Open Dictionary, along with the top honors might just improve its chances. This year's winning word first became popular in competitive online gaming forums. Although the double "o" in the word is usually represented by double zeroes, the exclamation is also known to be an acronym for "We Owned the Other Team". In 2006 the Merriam-Webster dictionary voted “truthiness”, from the Stephen Colbert Report, as the word of the year.

However! (Drum-roll please)

New Oxford American Dictionary 2007 Word of the Year is “locavore”. Locavore was coined two years ago by a group of four women in San Francisco who proposed that local residents should try to eat only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius. Another spelling variation sometimes seen is “localvores”. The locavore movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to grow or pick their own food, arguing that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. Locavores also shun supermarket offerings as an environmentally friendly measure, since shipping food over long distances often requires more fuel for transportation. The New Oxford American Dictionary word of the year in 2006 was “Carbon Neutral”.

Sometimes I get the impression that our old friend Orenthal James "O. J." Simpson just wants to end up at the top of an old oil refinery like James Cagney in White Heat, screaming at the top of his Hall of Fame lungs “Look at me Ma! Top of the world!” Then boom … infinity and vapor … melted down like a Heisman Trophy.

David Huckabee, the eldest son of presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, made headlines when he was arrested in April for having a loaded Glock pistol in his carry-on bag at the Little Rock Airport. Yeah, but that’s nothing compared to the stunt he pulled as an 18 year old, when he was fired from his Boy Scout counseling job for torturing and killing a stray dog he caught at Camp Pioneer in Hatfield, Arizona. First he hung the dog by the neck, slit its throat, then stoned it to death.

You would think that the biggest story this year in sports would have been Michael Vick and his massive screw-up, but luckily for him we live in an era when athletes massively screw-up all the time.

I’m not trying to play the elitist-snob game here, but I’ve never seen an episode of American Idol … but shit, with characters like Jessica Sierra hanging around, I think I have to mend my ways and check this show out! But the first order of business, get Season Four from Netflix for a better look at this femme fatale.

 
I guess you can say that Daniel Baldwin isn’t the best looking Baldwin, nor is he the Baldwin most likely destined for a career in politics. And you know that’s OK; it’s a terrible profession anyway.

Unfortunately, as I look closer at this mugshot, I have to add, oddly enough … and sadly enough… I can’t decide whether he looks more like my dad or more like me.





 At one point I thought Mickey Rourke was one hell of a weird but pretty interesting actor. With movies like Angel Heart, 9½ Weeks, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Rumble Fish, Diner, Johnny Handsome, they’re not all necessarily great or even good films, but sometimes it doesn’t matter,  I watch Mickey Rourke and I think to myself; “what the hell?’. (Actually way back in the day, before Amoeba-time itself, I used to work for the law firm of Parkinson, Wolf, Lazar and Leo in Century City. One day one of the attorneys walked up to me and said “Hey Whitmore, I just saw a movie starring Mickey Rourke and I thought the character he played reminded me of you. Have you seen the movie Barfly yet?”  What can you do? I lied and said no, then quietly walked away.) Anyway, I haven’t seen much of Mickey Rourke since his last mugshot … by the way; this arrest in November was for drunk driving on a Vespa scooter.

 

Well I wish I could tell you some interesting story or tidbit about the life of thespian/pre-teen role model Lindsay Lohan, but I can’t… anyway, here is her complete set of mugshots from 2007. Collect ‘em all, trade ‘em with your friends.

Here are some of my favorite Presidential campaign quotes, miscues, gaffes, and faux pas’ for 2007…

On Apr. 5, 2007:  Mitt Romney in trying, once again, to re-defend his undetectable machismo stated:  “I'm not a big-game hunter. I've made that very clear. I've always been, if you will, a rodent and rabbit hunter. Small varmints, if you will. And I began when I was 15 or so and have hunted those kinds of varmints since then, more than two times.” Later he acknowledged he had only gone hunting twice in his life.















April 18, 2007:  John McCain, not only proved he was an old rock and roller at heart but a fan of Dr Demento’s as well, when in response to the question, “When do we send them an airmail message to Tehran?”, he sang a parodied version of the old Beach Boys tune of “Barbara Ann”, crooning “Bomb, bomb, bomb ... Bomb, bomb Iran.”

Sept. 21, 2007: Rudy Giuliani, in a classic Rudy moment, explained why he interrupted a speech to the National Rifle Association by answering a cellphone call from his wife: “Quite honestly, since Sept. 11, most of the time when we get on a plane, we talk to each other and just reaffirm the fact that we love each other.” Giuliani answered: “Hello, dear. I'm talking to the members of the NRA right now. Would you like to say hello?” The next day the New York Times under the headline, “Just a Moment. It's My Wife. Again,” questioned whether Giuliani staged the call in front of an unreceptive audience, reminding readers that a similar scene occurred earlier in June during a speech to Cuban immigrants.