http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/mileycyrus.asp

http://whedonesque.com/comments/17528

http://willdrawforcookies.blogspot.com/2008/09/horrible-thoughts.html

Some more Dr. Horrible fan art by a young artist from Pennsylvania. More of the doctor can be seen here, here, and here.

http://whedonesque.com/comments/17526

http://www.stuartweitzmancelebrityauction.com/auction/auction.asp?AUCTION_ID=190

It's all part of Stuart Weitzman's efforts to raise money for research into ovarian cancer. Michelle Trachtenberg has a shoe up for auction as well. Both shoes are signed by the actresses.

http://whedonesque.com/comments/17524

http://www.newsarama.com/tv/090805-Guild.html

Lucas Siegel [finally] reviews The Guild with encouraging words. Here's to getting more people excited about the series and the future season.

[ edited by buffys_faith on 2008-09-06 04:03 ]

[Please use correct punctuation if your link title is a complete sentence]

http://whedonesque.com/comments/17523

http://www.watchtheguild.com/pax-was-great/

Twelve minutes or so of the panel session for Felicia Day's The Guild from Penny Arcade Expo last weekend in Seattle. And a glowing review of the show can be found over at Newsarama.

Just to round things out, The Guild's also asking for shooting locations, and some folks you might remember from their Firefly fan commentaries have recorded one for The Guild.

The government is taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

That's quite a bailout.

And remind me again why regulation is such a bad thing.

Half of their credit losses came from so-called Alt-A loans, which were made to borrowers with solid credit but little proof of their incomes, or small or no down payments.

http://whedonesque.com/comments/17522

http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/feature/2008/09/06/buffy/

The Shield.

http://whedonesque.com/comments/17521

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/alltherage/2008/09/is-joan-on-mad.html

Are you guys ready to respond with a resounding "NO"? Grrrrr.

I know there's a few of you Whedonites out there who might have...um...some sort of opinion on this. ;-)

Mods: if this post wording is too incendiary, or needs to have Ms. Hendricks' name added more prominently, do your duty...

[ edited by Caroline on 2008-09-06 01:56 ]

http://whedonesque.com/comments/17520

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/hold-10/

In an otherwise depressing article about how the moguls are not living up to the new contract, WGA West president Patric Verrone and WGA East president Michael Winship call Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog one of the "most successful" current new media projects.

The relevant portion of their statement (the rest can--and should--be read in the linked piece by Nikki Finke):

Following the strike, most of us expected that the gains we made in new media coverage would take time to justify the sacrifices, but they already are bearing fruit. Webisodes based on such existing TV series as The Office, Heroes, and Californication are now being written under the new MBA contract and writers working under the PBS contract now are receiving payment for Internet reuse. Original content being created under Guild contracts includes some of the most successful projects, like Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and the most anticipated, including Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy.

As business models quickly evolve, it's imperative that writers, who are fast becoming important entrepreneurs in new media, involve the Writers Guilds in making their deals. We can guide and work with you to negotiate appropriate compensation, separated rights, credits, reuse, and other provisions in addition to the benefits already guaranteed by the MBA.

http://whedonesque.com/comments/17519

http://bloglynch.blogspot.com/2008/09/angel-volume-2-hardcover.html

Courtesy of Brian Lynch's blog.It is very pretty - kudos once again to IDW.

SLIGHTLY OFF THE MARK

When asked how long I plan to keep doing an annual 9/11 column, I reply, “As long as the war goes on”.

But it can be a struggle. Obviously it’s not a humor column, but how do I slant it this year? Do I spend a thousand words reminding everyone, again, that we’re still at war? Do I look back again at the events of that day? Do I make my argument that the terrorists intend to come back again and again until they’ve achieved their goal of a worldwide Caliphate – the overthrow of Western civilization?

Do I again point out the achievement that the Bush administration and its allies managed to prevent another terrorist attack on our soil for seven long years? How do I keep that from devolving into yet another argument about an unpopular President and his other policies? And how inappropriate would it be anyway, during this election year?

I could talk about various conspiracy theories, but I see no reason to dignify them with a response. The attack came from a splinter group of radical Islamic terrorists, and making up stories won’t change that.

Or, for personal reasons that aren’t really connected to 9/11, I could talk about my brothers.

Firefighters call themselves brothers, more recently brothers and sisters. That’s a bit ironic, because it speaks to both the good and bad things. We argue and fight, we defend and blame each other, but in the end we’re family. No one else can see what we’ve seen. No one else knows what it’s like, to go into that particular harm’s way. Diverse as we are, we share unique experiences.

In the last twenty years, civilian fire deaths in the United States dropped by half. Firefighter deaths have stayed the same: about a hundred, give or take, every year. We’re firefighters, you understand; when we see something burning, we want to put it out. When we can’t, we take it personally. We do dumb things to save the property of others, and we die.

Then there was that one day.

I need you to understand why I’m feeling even more sentimental than usual this time. I’ve been a firefighter for 28 years, and for most of that time I’ve had some chronic back pain, but (except for the bad days) you get used to it and soldier on. But this summer, I had breathing problems.

There could be all sorts of causes, or a combination. My daughter’s cats are living with me, and I’m allergic. I have dust allergies, and we’ve been in a dry spell. Or there’s that 28 years of firefighting. Air masks were a choice back then, and a heavy, unwieldy choice that we often avoided making. I sucked down a lot of smoke. Sometimes I still do at brush fires, although I’ve learned the joy of staying upwind.
Lately I’ve started thinking about how much I’ve beaten my body up over the years, not only from the smoke but from the heat, the cold, and by going from sound asleep to armpit deep in a matter of minutes. I could hang it up. I’m a volunteer, after all; it’s not like I have to worry about retirement
benefits.
Those 343 who died on 9/11, they didn’t have a choice.

Citizens of 115 nations were murdered in those attacks. In New York, 1,717 people were never found, even though searchers located 19,858 body parts. 1,609 people lost a spouse, while 3,051 lost a parent. My point is, it wasn’t just firefighters who suffered that day, but I have some other
statistics to throw at you:

In the year before 9/11, 274 New York City firefighters retired; in the year after, it was 661. 300 had to leave because of respiratory problems. The 343 death number itself is questionable: Among other things, a volunteer firefighter died at the Twin Towers, and I know of at least two emergency services personnel who committed suicide after working that job. The number of post-9/11 health and psychological problems is in the thousands.

It was a pretty bad job that morning, they could tell that going in – but go in they did. Their task was to evacuate, search for more victims, and somehow reach the fire. The elevators were out; it would be a four hour climb to the flames.

In the north tower, some of the firefighters with their hundred pounds of equipment reached the fortieth floor or higher. How they could have had the energy left to fight the blaze, I don’t know, but they never got a chance. One collapse, then another.

You have to wonder about firefighters, after something like that. Collapses happen all the time, in big buildings and small; I’ve seen a few up close, myself. But an entire high rise crashing to the ground? What firefighter could be convinced to go into a high rise fire after that?

Years later, a high rise that had been damaged on 9/11 caught fire. The firefighters went in, no hesitation. Two of them died.

Firefighters will be firefighters, you see.

There are firefighters who are racist, or sexist, or who have other character flaws. But when the bells go off they respond; they want to get the people out, and they want to douse that fire. They don’t care about your religion, or your sex, or the color of your skin. They don’t care if you’re voting for McCain or Obama. They don’t care if you’re a foreign tourist or a fifth generation old-timer. They’re firefighters.

For that reason, let alone all the others, we have to remember that day. After seven years, in an all too familiar cycle, firefighters are being laid off. Stations are being closed, unsafe construction practices go on, sprinkler laws are fought against, and sometimes it seems the only difference between now and 1980 is that 343 of my brothers are gone, and I’m just tired. I want a rest. I want the time to write a book. About firefighters.

Well.

They didn’t have a choice; I do, and I can’t go away just yet. I choose to honor their memory, as much as my energy and health allow. I choose not to give up the fight to make our world a safer place, for both firefighters and civilians. I choose to keep up the warning that more terrorist attacks are coming; that emergency responders will continue to be on the front lines; that this war won’t end just because we wish it. I’m sticking around.

Ask me again when I reach 30 years.

Current Mood: sad

http://whedonesque.com/comments/17518

http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=367

Tara Fallon, the current organizer for CSTS North Texas asked that we help get the word out about the resolution of the missing funds issue in Texas.

ETA - changed the link to a forum post on the site with the same statement. The original link was the front page of http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/kilkenny.asp

http://whedonesque.com/comments/17517

http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/telefile/2008/09/the-six-sexiest-tv-vampires-ev.php

Half of the vamps on the list are from the Buffyverse!

[ edited by zeitgeist on 2008-09-05 20:39 ]

http://whedonesque.com/comments/17516

http://westfieldcomics.com/feature/226

Peter David says Illyria will be guesting in an upcoming three part story arc. In fact, he posts more about it in the comments section of this very entry.

Many thanks to Corey for the heads up.

This may be the most baffling thing about the campaign season so far, even more than the recipes for cooking squirrels in a popcorn popper.

McCain's speech backdrop was used in Matt Sanchez's announcement on West Wing

Some have suggested they were trying for Walter Reed Hospital and got Walter Reed Middle School instead.

Or maybe they just wanted to give Colbert watchers another green screen challenge?

Another query: Who put this up on the CNN main page for a brief period yesterday morning?

http://www.snopes.com/fraud/telephone/family.asp

http://whedonesque.com/comments/17515

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=59493

Interview with the Joss-verse regular bringing Dr. Claire Saunders to life.

http://whedonesque.com/comments/17514

http://nickbrendon.com/2008/09/04/audioblog_942008/

He talks about having a great time in Scotland and a new project he's working on that will be published on iTunes.

http://whedonesque.com/comments/17513

http://popvultures.com/2008/02/01/5-creepiest-scariest-tv-monsters/

Fun little list of the top five freakiest monsters in recent television history; Buffy, Supernatural and the good Doctor make the list.

Gotta say, even though I don't know Lost or Supernatural, I agree with this list, based on the descriptions of the monsters. Plus? Gotta love the Whedon-love.