Posts tagged cold
“The Iceman” about a Cold-Hearted Killer
0May 25, 2013
“Cold-Hearted Killer”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Iceman is based on a true story about a man named Richard Kuklinski who worked for many years as a hit man for organized crime on the East Coast.
The movie begins in 1964 in New Jersey and we meet Richie, played by Michael Shannon, as he finally gets a girl named Deborah, played by Winona Ryder, to go out with him.
She works across the street from where he works, but right off the bat he is secretive about his personal life. When Deborah asks Richie what he does for a living, Richie tells her, “I dub cartoons.”
Actually, however, Richie makes duplicate copies of pornographic films for his mobster boss, Roy, played by Ray Liotta.
When Deborah asks about Richie’s family, he says that he has a brother who is around somewhere, but Richie doesn’t talk to him, and later we will find out why in a scene that foretells Richie’s own future.
Deborah thinks that Richie is funny, is glad that he asked her out, and tells him that she had a really good time.
Well, a year later, Richie and Deborah are married, they have a baby girl, Deborah likes the way that Richie takes care of her, but she wants them to move into a bigger apartment.
At the same time, Roy tells Richie that he is closing the pornography lab, but he gives Richie a chance to make money by working for him as a hired killer, and Richie takes it, after proving to Roy that he can do the job.
Then we skip ahead 10 years, and we see more of Richie’s work, as well as more of the men who work for Roy and how he makes sure that jobs will get done.
Richie and Deborah have two daughters now, and Richie is devoted to his family, but he tells everybody that he makes money in currency exchange.
Meanwhile, another of Roy’s workers, Josh, played by David Schwimmer, messes up, and Richie is given a job that Roy also hired another hit man to take care of at the same time.
The other hit man is Mr. Freezy, played by Chris Evans, and by a series of circumstances Richie and Mr. Freezy start working together.
The Iceman is about such a cold-hearted killer that he was called “The Iceman.”
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
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Jann Scotts Journal : “Can’t we all just get along”
0March 7, 2013
Jann Scott’s Journal is the story and life of Boulder Icon and talk host Jann Scott. He has been in print, on radio and on TV in Boulder since 1989. Some consider him the voice of Boulder’s soul.
This has been an interesting week. All of the bulbs are 3 weeks early this spring so my crocus are up. Tulips and daffodils are on the way, too. And there were honey bees out today too. The winter here in Colorado has been mostly warm with temps in the 50′s and 60′s now 70′s.
The week started out with an “old lady” at the front desk of the local nursing home yelling at one of our reps over my TV show. Then we got written apologies. The driver of the rental car van recognized me from TV and radio so we had a nice chat about talk radio. Last night another fan came up to me outside a coffee shop and heaped more praise on Boulder channel 1 and me.
This morning I awoke with laryngitis so I haven’t been able to talk all day. so I yelled at a PR person in an email for jerking me around and wasting my time. They were offended and demanded that I apologize. so now I have to call that person and :”oh bla bla bla I didn’t really mean to say that you wasted my fucking time you cheap bastard” No I didn’t say that. I’m sick with a cold.
from Boulder Colorado
the Icon Speaks
Jann Scott
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My Cold, Dead Fingers The Naked Curmudgeon by Dan Culberson
0December 22, 2012
The Naked Curmudgeon curmudgeon n [origin unknown] (1577) a crusty, ill-tempered, and usu. old man. naked adj 6: devoid of concealment or disguise. Attempting to cover everything that annoys me, Dan Culberson.
Here’s what gets me.
Does it have to take an English major to explain the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution and put to rest this unjustifiable crutch of the right-wing, gun-toting fanatics and their conservative supporters?
For those of you who don’t remember, Amendment II states “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Even for those of you who do remember, Amendment II states “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
That is what it says word for word, comma for comma, capitalization for capitalization. Notice that the subject is “Militia,” the verb is “shall not be infringed,” and the sentence becomes “A well regulated Militia shall not be infringed.”
“What about the bits between commas?” you say? Those are two appositional phrases, and an apposition is “a grammatical construction in which a noun or pronoun is followed by another that explains it.”
The subject, a noun (See how it works?), is followed by “being necessary to the security of a free State,” and it is followed by “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms” in order to explain “a well regulated Militia,” the subject of the sentence.
The subject cannot be “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,” because you cannot put a single comma between the subject and the verb of a sentence. You cannot write “The dog, ran around the yard.” You can write “The dog, being frightened by the gunfire, ran around the yard,” because now we have two commas separating the subject and the verb. You can also write “The dog, being frightened by the gunfire, the pet of the neighbor, ran around the yard.”
That sentence is not “The pet of the neighbor, ran around the yard,” because that would be ungrammatical, just as “The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” is ungrammatical and therefore not the sentence of Amendment II.
“The right of the people to keep and bear Arms” is an apposition that explains the subject, “a well regulated Militia,” just as the other apposition, “being necessary to the security of a free State,” does. It is a “Militia” that is “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,” which is necessary to the security of a free State and which shall not be infringed.
In other words, the citizens of the United States have the right to keep and bear Arms in “a well regulated Militia,” not to stockpile weapons at home and to carry a gun around with them in some Old West mentality.
And what did the sheriff in the Old West do to maintain order? Do the words “Check your guns at the door” strike a familiar note? That didn’t mean “Inspect your guns to ensure that they are in proper working order.” That meant “Turn your guns in at the door. It’s too dangerous for you to carry guns here.”
Now, the possibility of everyone having a concealed weapon might deter a few criminal acts, but the probability that hotheads and teenagers carrying a weapon could use it in a moment of unbridled emotion is far greater.
Sir William Blackstone (1723-80), a British jurist and Oxford instructor who was the first at a British university to teach English law as opposed to Roman law (See how those appositions work?), wrote in his great work Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69), “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer.”
I believe it is better that ten crimes be committed than one innocent victim be killed by a convenient handgun.
Luke Woodham, a teenager in Pearl, Mississippi, who is spending the rest of his life in prison for murdering his mother and two fellow students in October 1997 when he was 16, kept a map on his bedroom wall with the slogan “One Nation Under My Gun.” Do we want our immature, impressionable children growing up and believing this heinous claim?
We used to see so-called Amendment II supporters brag “I’ll give up my gun when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers.”
After a moment of rage, I don’t want those cold, dead fingers to be mine.
I rest my case.
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Jann Scotts Journal: A night at BOHO in Boulder
15December 12, 2012
Jann Scott’s Journal is the story and life of Boulder Icon and talk host Jann Scott. He has been in print, on radio and on TV in Boulder since 1989. Some consider him the voice of Boulder’s soul.
Some names have been changed in this column out of respect to the homeless men discussed here.
At 6:30 pm I picked up Chad outside of the Boulder One Foundation where he had attended an AA meeting.. Cleo had called me at 5:00 and asked if I could give Chad a ride to St Andrews Church on Baseline which hosts tonight’s BOHO, Boulder Outreach Homeless Overflow. She didn’t feel comfortable giving a homeless street alcoholic a ride anywhere.
I have known Chad for 30 years. He grew up in Boulder and has been on and off the streets due to his chronic addiction to alcohol. Tonight he was sober as a Boulder County judge. He’s been sober for the past few months. But he’s penniless.
When we arrived at St. Andrews there was a line of 130 people outside the door. White Horse who runs BOHO came out to greet me. Inside was his wife Julie and two other staff members. Next a personal media tour took place where I saw an elaborate housing operation under way. Room after room was filled with mats, bedding, plastic floor coverings, dog kennels, snacks. Card tables up with computers were set in the lobby for staff. At seven the doors opened for Boulder’s poor , hungry unwashed and forgotten.
One of the problems is that this population are not sober enough for the Boulder Homeless Shelter.Over 80%of them are intoxicated. They are all alcoholics of the hopeless street variety. White Horse and his team provide dignity, shelter, clothes and food for these chronically ill people. These are not out of work construction workers or scientists. These are chronic street alcoholics.
During the night the police will stop by routinely with more drunk homeless men and women who need shelter.
Unlike the Boulder Homeless Shelter, BOHO is a wet shelter. As long as people behave they can come in. That’s good otherwise we would have more dead frozen guys.
This goes on night after night in Boulder in a different church every night. The churches are all Christian and one Jewish Temple. Christian Judea teachings really call upon its members to help the poor. And thank God it does. It does not seem to be the case in Boulder’s other 200 religions in my experience.
According to the staff no city or county officials, no commissioners, no council member, no judges or city or district attorneys have ever visited BOHO when it is in full swing on a cold winter night. They need to be there and get a tour. This is the low down side of homelessness.
As for Chad, he thanked me for the ride and will try to stay close to the few sober people in BOHO for the night. In the morning when he has to leave at 8:00, he will brave the weather and head back over to Boulder One Foundation for more AA meetings, free coffee and warmth of the building and recovering alcoholics.
BOHO estimates there are over 2, 000 homeless people sleeping outside tonight. 260 more of them are in BOHO or Boulder Homeless Shelter. 30 additional are at the Addiction Recovery Center. 200 more are in the Boulder County Jail. Another 40 will go to Boulder Community Hospital ER homeless entrance. The police, fire and ambulance will go on 10 callsl to pick up more street addicts. We will spend $5,000 tonight providing them emergency services. These are men and women who have lost their ability to metabolize alcohol and drugs and they are dying on our streets. Until they do BOHO offers shelter from the storm.
God Bless them this Christmas
Jann Scott
Boulder, Colorado
“If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your light will become like the noonday.” (Isaiah 58:10).
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My visit to Windsor Castle
0April 14, 2012
Sylvia and I took a day trip up the Thames river to the Royal Castle one summers day in August. Windsor Castle sits on 13 acres in the country in Berkshire county England. Coincidentally, I grew up in the Berkshires in New England not that I lay any claim to royalty or the castle, but a visit to Windsor is awe inspiring.
To give you some perspective, Windsor Castle was originally built by William the Conqueror in the decade after the Norman conquest of 1066. It is surround by the beautiful Windsor park In all it is the size of Boulder….well nearly
Sylvia was American English. She looked very English. We were young in love and on an adventure. She studied fashion design at Bournemouth College. I was a staffer at International Times in London.
The castle is so big it was used as a fortress and was a small town complete with everything for self sustainability. Even today as the Royals official castle and sometime summer home it maintains a staff of 400 just to keep it going.
We were drawn to one part of the castle the Crimson drawing room which stretched on for ever.
And then there was the Kings Bedroom also in crimson.
Anyway, if you do go to England this summer or any summer, do go to Windsor Castle if you want to be blown away. Yes, but go in the summer. The winter is too cold and dreary. and make sure the Royals aren’t there, because they won’t let you in.
From Royal Boulder
Jann Scott
