Mr. Bloomberg denied that police officers stop people based on race, adding that members of minority groups were more likely to be stopped because minorities committed most of the crimes.

Boing.

People are not stopped based on race, but they are stopped based on race because they are more likely to be criminals.

 His admonition to his readers starts with an admission that does not seem all too reassuring: "...at the outset of the Iraq invasion, I found myself a reluctant hawk.  That turned out to be a humbling error of judgment, and it left me gun-shy."  

 Of course, as then Executive Editor of the NYT, his little slip contributed, along with journalists such as Judith Miller,  to catastrophic actions by the less reluctant Cheney, et al.   Keller seems to have gotten over his gun-shyness just fine

So as part of this comprehensive program of cleaning and renewal, I go into the local HomeGoods store to purchase a few funky items to place inside my house and freshen things up.

On prominent display in a major aisle is a large 6' tall stone Easter Island statue replica, rather imposing and kinda scary looking.  Price $999 (plus CA tax).

Got to talking to a store clerk about it and the real statues on that remote isle, and she disclosed she was a big fan of the Ancient Aliens show occasionally seen on the History channel.

Thought it was kinda interesting how quickly she offered up the AA hypothesis to explain the statues' existence.  Looks like that show has been having some quiet influence out there among the people.  Maybe some of the elite too, who knows.

For what seems like the first time in a lifetime I know nothing about racing this year other than:

Crazy Cajun Calvin Borel is riding Revolutionary
Female jock Rosie Napravnik is aboard Mylute
Old Timer Gary Stevens is atop Oxbow

One scratch: Black Onyx

I was first introduced to West Side Story in the summer of 1962, prior to entering the 6th grade, while attending day camp out west, in Tucson, AZ.  Another girl in the group I was with, who'd received a copy of the LP soundtrack of the original Broadway stage production of West Side Story for her birthday, brought it to camp and played it for the group.  My love for WSS and the music took off instantly.  West Side Story-mania was in the air that summer, as kids went around in packs,  snapping their fingers, and the songs from West Side Story rang through the buses every day of the week, both to and from camp.  It was cool.

Despite all that, however, I would not get to see the movie West Side Story until several years later, after it had passed the heyday of its popularity and newness, but I more than made up for lost time, as we shall see.  

I first saw West Side Story (the film) around Christmastime of 1968, as a high school senior, and fell in love with the film instantly.  Little did I or my family/friends know that my love of West Side Story would be a lifetime love affair for me (lol!)!  

West Side Story is a beautiful film that encompasses everything, from urban gang warfare, racial/ethnic tensions, delinquency and conflict with the law, love and romance from people of different ethnic groups and backgrounds.  It also depicts the destructive consequences of racial/ethnic hatreds and the senselessness of gang violence (Tony and Maria's love going up in smoke, plus three deaths), and yet it also sends the message that reconciliation between people, as difficult as it often is, is not impossible.  

With the exception of Richard Beymer, who, imo, played kind of a weak, lacklustre Tony, all the actors/actresses who played the various characters in West Side Story were wonderful.   Not long ago, however, I learned several things that made me more willing to give Richard Beymer the benefit of the doubt, especially since the Beymer-bashing in some circles has really gotten out of hand.

A)  Natalie Wood, who played Maria, made no secret of her hostility and resentment towards Richard Beymer, at least in part because she was dating Warren Beatty at the time and wanted him as Tony.  Moreover, Natalie Wood tried to get Richard Beymer kicked off the set on several occasions. Richard Beymer was hurt by Wood's hostility, and it kind of showed.  (Not that long afterwards, however, she and Richard Beymer met in a California diner, Beymer felt attracted to Natalie Wood, and they made up.)

B)  The way in which the original script for both the film and the stage version of West Side Story had been written in such a way as to portray Tony as a soft, tender person, and therefore a truly reformed gangster who was no longer interested in street-fighting and gang warfare.  

C)  Richard Beymer also had certain directorial constraints placed on him by Robert Wise, the director of West Side Story.  Wise wanted Beymer to play a totally soft, gentle, reformed Tony, but Richard Beymer admitted to  having preferred to play the role of a Tony with somewhat more of an edge, if one gets the drift.  It's also said that Beymer walked out of the premiere of the film WSS due to his disappointment in his forced portrayal of Tony, but I'm not 100% positive about how true this is.

Having said all of the above, however, I believe that had Beymer and Wood gotten along better on screen, if the script's Tony had more of an edge, and without so many directorial constraints placed on him, Richard Beymer would've played a much stronger role as Tony.

Tony Mordente (Action), Tucker Smith (Ice), Russ Tamblyn (Riff), George Chakiris (Bernardo the Sharks leader), and Rita Moreno (bernardo's girlfriend, Anita) all played really strong, believable roles, and did excellent jobs,  as did the other actors/actresses.  Simon Oakland was excellent as the bitter, bigoted and cynical Lt. Schrank, and so was Bill Bramley, as Officer Krupke, who was equally cynical, but quieter about it.

The songs were wonderful, especially Dance at the Gym, America, Cool, the Jet Song/Prologue, the Pre-Rumble Quintet, and the Rumble itself.  I have no real favorite scenes and sequences in WSS, due to  my intense love for this film, but that's okay.

The beautifully-choreographed dancing by Jerome Robbins was far-out, as was the Leonard Bernstein musical score.  The cinematography was beautiful, too.  All of the songs, the musical score, the dancing, the actors/actresses, and the cinematography, as well as the story itself, are all packaged together to make West Side Story the dynamic classic film/stage play that it really is.  

Although West Side Story's enjoyable on TV, this great classic film absolutely cries out for a great big, wide movie screen, in a real movie theatre, with the lights down low.  When shown on a great big, wide movie theatre screen, WSS takes on a whole new almost 3-dimensional, magical quality to it.  The scenery seems more expansive and one can see all of everything.  The Bernstein musical score, the great dancing, scenery and everything about WSS seem even more brilliant and intense, on a great big, wide movie theatre screen.  Richard Beymer's Tony, too, comes off as being more vital and alive on a great big, wide screen, as do the other actors.  

From the warring Jets and Sharks to the romancing Tony and Maria, the various characters in West Side Story seem to move much more freely and fluidly, in a much wider, more open space, on a great big wide movie theatre screen.  

I have admittedly seen the film West Side Story more times than I'm now able or willing to count, including the 40th-year Anniversary special screening of WSS at Radio City Music hall back in early October of 2001 (less than a month after 9/11 yet!), as well as the 50th-year national re-release of this film in the fall of 2011.  

Believe it or not, I've not only viewed virtually every screening of West Side Story in the independent movie theatres in our area, but have actually made road trips to the opposite end of the Bay State, and even to neighboring states to see this great film.

In addition to another West Side Story screening coming up in our area in early July, I'll be going to Tanglewood to see a West Side Story/Boston Symphony Orchestra concert, in mid-July.  (A restored, HD, remastered version of the film West Side Story will be shown, while the score is played live by the Boston symphony orchestra.  I've bought my ticket, made my room reservation for that night, and am excited about going to both of those showings.

West Side Story is a film that I never ever get tired of seeing over and over and over again, but, as some people say, I'm not harming myself or anybody else.   I know...I know...I can see where people think i'm nuts to love a 50 some odd year old movie, but hey...we're all stuck with that.  It's a wonderful alternative to a lot of the crap coming out nowadays in the way of movies, imo.  

Pardon my rambling.

West Side Story has been digitally restored and it's beautiful as ever.  I agree with the MGM adage  

"Unlike other classics, West Side Story grows younger."  

All sixteen pieces of the Liberator prototype were printed in ABS plastic with a Dimension SST printer from 3D printing company Stratasys, with the exception of a single nail that's used as a firing pin. The gun is designed to fire standard handgun rounds, using interchangeable barrels for different calibers of ammunition.

Technically, Defense Distributed's gun has one other non-printed component: the group added a six ounce chunk of steel into the body to make it detectable by metal detectors in order to comply with the Undetectable Firearms Act. In March, the group also obtained a federal firearms license, making it a legal gun manufacturer.

Of course, Defcad's users may not adhere to so many rules. Once the file is online, anyone will be able to download and print the gun in the privacy of their garage, legally or not, with no serial number, background check, or other regulatory hurdles. "You can print a lethal device," Wilson told me last summer. "It's kind of scary, but that's what we're aiming to show."

Waimea is situated in the district of North Kohala on the north side of the island, about 15 miles inland at an elevation of 2,671 ft. It's the home of Parker Ranch, which few people realize is the oldest cattle ranch in the United States (predating spreads in Texas and elsewhere by some three decades), and at a quarter million acres, also one of the country's largest.

Back in 1910, the white men running the then-U.S. Post Office decided on their own to unofficially rename the town after then-ranch owner Sam Parker ("Kamuela" is the Hawaiian version of Samuel), the ostensible reason being that their mail carriers would thus not confuse it with the town of Waimea over on Kauai -- which is perfectly understandable since, after all, they're only  300 miles apart from one another and on different islands.

When you mention the Big Island's Waimea to local residents, it will often evoke images of and na paniolo (the Hawaiian word for cowboys), and of verdant pastures, with cattle and horses grazing in its gently rolling and (often fog-shrouded) hills.

But when you mention "Kamuela" to the folks at Parents magazine, they're thinking that it's one of the "Top Ten Beach Towns for Families in the United States."

And why is that? Because Hapuna Beach and the three nearby hotels masquerading as "Gilligan's Island" sets, as mentioned in this obviously cut-and-pasted little Parents blurb, are actually in an unincorporated area of North Kona. And per a U.S. Postal Service directive back in 2004, the hotels' mailing addresses are now in -- you guessed it -- "Kamuela."

I think I'd like to start a petition to have the USPS unofficially rename the city of Springfield, MA as "North Hartford," so that nobody who works for them will henceforth ever confuse it with the state capital of Illinois.