November
03, 2000 - Monopoly adapted to online
age - BOSTON (AP) - Now, there's a new-economy
version of the world's most famous old-economy board
game. You won't find clunky, bricks-and-mortar
railroads and utilities in the new ".Com"
edition of Monopoly. Instead, there's Lycos, eBay and
Nokia. Gone are the "Chance" and
"Community Chest" squares, replaced by
"Download" and "E-mail Just In."
Land there and read your fate on a card: "Your
dot-com company goes public. Collect $150 million
dollars," or "Receive e-mail of old and
useless jokes. Go back three spaces." The
original Monopoly, unveiled in 1935, is the world's
most successful board game, with over 200 million
copies sold and versions in 26 languages. Now it's
entering the new economy with a version where the bank
shuffles hundreds of millions of dollars instead of
thousands and players circumnavigate the board on a
pewter surfboard or mouse instead of the old thimble
or iron. For all the novelty, however, experienced
Monopoly players will feel right at home. The object -
to bankrupt your opponent - remains unchanged.
February 23, 2001 -
The
Great Moon Hoax - NASA
SCIENCE NEWS, "All the buzz about the Moon began on February
15th when Fox television aired a program called Conspiracy
Theory: Did We Land on the Moon? Guests on the show argued
that NASA technology in the 1960's wasn't up to the task
of a real Moon landing. Instead, anxious to win the Space
Race any way it could, NASA acted out the Apollo program
in movie studios..."
[REVISITED]
August 2000 - The Great
Moon Hoax of 1835
- By R. J. Brown,
HistoryBuff.com
© 2000, Every History of American
journalistic hoaxing properly begins with the
celebrated moon hoax which "made" the New
York Sun of Benjamin Day. It consisted of a series of
articles, allegedly reprinted from the nonexistent
Edinburgh Journal of Science, relating to the
discovery of life on the moon by Sir John Herschel,
eminent British astronomer, who some time before had
gone to the Cape of Good Hope to try out a new type of
powerful telescope...
November
01, 2000 - Elton
John suing
accountants -
LONDON (AP) -
Elton John is
taking his top
accountants to
court to recoup
millions of
dollars in touring
costs he claims
they mistakenly
charged him. The
53-year-old singer
and pianist is
suing
PricewaterhouseCoopers
and Andrew Haydon,
former managing
director of John
Reid Enterprises (JREL).
Both companies
looked after his
business
interests. Both
accused parties
are denying any
wrongdoing. Court
proceedings in the
case began Monday.
John is expected
to be called as a
witness during the
trial, expected to
last eight weeks.
John claims both
showed negligence
by allowing JREL
to charge him tour
expenses,
including booking
agents,
accountants and
producers. Under a
management
agreement, JREL
was responsible
for meeting those
costs, the
prosecution
argued. Exactly
how much money the
rock star claims
to have lost has
not been revealed,
although British
newspapers
reported Tuesday
the amount topped
$29 million.
November
01, 2000 - TV host
Steve Allen dies
at 78 - LOS
ANGELES (AP) -
Steve Allen, the
bespectacled
pioneer of
late-night
television and a
comedian-actor-author
who wrote more
than 4,000 songs,
including
"This May Be
the Start of
Something
Big," has
died of an
apparent heart
attack. He was 78.
He died Monday
night at the
Encino home of his
son, Bill Allen,
relatives said
Tuesday. His wife
of 46 years, Jayne
Meadows, rushed
from their nearby
home. Besides
starting the
"Tonight
Show," Allen
starred as the
King of Swing in
the 1956 movie
"The Benny
Goodman
Story." He
appeared in
Broadway shows, on
soap operas, wrote
newspaper columns
and more than 50
books, commented
on wrestling
broadcasts, made
40 record albums
and wrote plays
and a television
series that
featured
"guest
appearances"
by Sigmund Freud,
Clarence Darrow
and Aristotle.
When an
interviewer asked
Allen in 1985 how
he managed to do
so many creative
things, he
replied: "I
never asked myself
that question. It
would be like
asking how my hair
grows. The mystery
of creativity is
just that: It is a
mystery, and
particularly
mysterious to me
about
myself."
November
01, 2000 - Allen
remained introvert
offstage - LOS
ANGELES (AP) -
"I'm a
semi-introvert,"
Steve Allen once
remarked. "On
stage, I'm an
extrovert."
The self-appraisal
seemed apt to
those who knew the
show business
jack-of-all-trades,
who died of an
apparent heart
attack Monday
night. For a man
who remained a
public figure for
half a century,
Allen was
remarkably
reserved in his
personal life.
"When I'm in
a roomful of
people, I'm never
'on,'" he
said. "I
hardly ever bother
to tell a
joke." At
parties he
contentedly
remained in the
shadow of his
vivacious wife,
Jayne Meadows.
(She described him
as
"desperately
shy" and said
when she first met
him in a
restaurant with
friends, he sat
beside her for two
hours and never
said a word.)
Rather than engage
in party
conversation, he
drifted to the
piano and
entertained guests
for an hour at a
time.
