Dreamways

"One of the most thrilling trailers for a ‘Superman‘ movie featured no blue tights or red cape. It was just the blue sky. Clouds skimming past. Like you were flying.“ This classic image straight out of sleep dreams is conjured up in a recent Denver Post article entitled "Dreams of Flying Solo … On a wing and a Prayer.“ The article explores human flight without sitting in a machine, which is a common and powerful Sleep Dream experience.  read more »

"Kokomo, Ind. A man accidentally shot himself in the groin as he was robbing a convenience store Tuesday, police said. A clerk told police that a man carrying a semiautomatic handgun entered the Village Pantry demanding cash and a pack of cigarettes. The clerk put the cash in a bag, and as she turned to get the cigarettes, she heard the gun discharge. Police say surveillance video shows the man shooting himself as he placed the gun in the waistband of his pants. The clerk wasn’t injured.  read more »

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a "stew of plastic and marine debris, at least twice the size of Texas by some estimates, … floating in the Paciifc Ocean some 1,000 miles off the West Coast.“ The Great Pacific Garbage Patch? This senario sounds like Li’l Abner meets Godzilla, something out of a 1950’s „B“ science fiction movie, but is a waking-world reality, according to Paul Miller („The Plastics Paradox: We’re Drowning in an Ocean of Garbage,“ The Denver Post, 13 Jan 08).

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Jules, the tiger-striped kitty is seated alone on a hill at night, gazing at a star-spangled black sky, in the first panel of this Sunday funnies odyssey. (“Mutts,” Patrick McDonnell, 02 Dec 07) The next panel is headed with: “Jules Dreams of Africa”. The kitty, standing below says: “Ooooh – this is very exciting.” Next we see Jules in the midst of lush green vegetation, surrounded by all sorts of African animals and birds of a friendly nature. The final panel shows Jules alone in the jungle, his body language indicating pleasure: “I might meet Jane Goodall!”

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"New York: A former oral surgeon has agreed to plead guilty to charges that he orchestrated a grisly plot to plunder corpses and sell body parts for transplants, his lawyer said. Prosecutors say Michael Mastromarino, 44, was making millions by covertly carving up hundreds of corpses at a Brooklyn funeral home and selling the parts for dental implants, hip replacements and other procedures nationwide. Prosecutors said that the cadavers were looted without permission or proper screening for diseases and that an untold number of patients were unknowingly exposed to infection.  read more »

In her review, „A Lawyer Who Hears New Ways to Argue“ (The New York Times, 31 Jan 08), Ginia Bellafonte writes about a surprising dreamful aspect of a brand new TV show, "Eli Stone.“ The title character is an attorney who has isolated himself, living, it seems, a stereoptypically ruthless and high-powered life.  read more »

"Canio, the heartbroken clown in 'I Pagliacci,' doesn’t just suffer. In the Seattle Opera’s new version of Ruggero Leoncavallo’s opera … he also dreams. In an 11-muinute sequence inserted after the aira 'Vesti la giubba,' music taken from Leoncavallo’s 'Zaza', a Metropolitan Opera hit in the 1920s, is heard as Canio relives his life with his beloved Nedda: He discovers her as an orphaned waif, teaches her to be an acrobat and actress and, finally, is rejected by her. Acrobats play Canio, as well as Nedda at different ages.  read more »

"Christmastime is bonus time on Wall Street, and the Gucci set has been blessed with another record harvest,“ writes columnist Bob Herbert in „Nightmare Before Christmas“ (The New York Times, 22 Dec 07). He goes on with the startling fact that "the top securities firms are handing out nearly $38 billion in seasonal bonuses, the highest total ever.“ Thirty billion – that's billion with a "b“ – dollars in holiday bonuses! That’s beyond my wildest dreams!

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