| Sharapova v Henin promises to be a sight for sore eyes
Rafael Nadal remarked last week that he kept falling asleep during the afternoon in his hotel room. It was a feeling many others experienced here yesterday after Saturday's night match between Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis did not finish until 4.34am, with the Australian thankfully the winner. But there was no trace of the sandman in the Spaniard's eyes as he ripped into Paul-Henri Mathieu under the Rod Laver Arena floodlights, Nadal reaching his second successive Australian Open quarter-final when the Frenchman had to quit at 6-4, 3-0 down after 50 minutes. Nadal now plays Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, another left-hander. Something like mild hysteria broke out in certain sections of the Melbourne Park tennis centre when Mathieu's injuredleft calf made it impossible for him to continue.
Suzanne Pleshette, known as 'Newhart's' wife, dies in Los Angeles
But the beautiful, husky-voiced TV, film and theater star died before she could reach that milestone. Pleshette, who underwent chemotherapy for lung cancer in 2006, died of respiratory failure Saturday evening at her Los Angeles home, said attorney and family friend Robert Finkelstein. "She was a pro's pro," said Bob Newhart, who played her husband on television's long-running "The Bob Newhart Show." "Although we knew she was quite sick, she was one of those people that you thought would go on forever." "The Bob Newhart Show, a hit throughout its six-year run, starred comedian Newhart as a Chicago psychiatrist surrounded by eccentric patients. Pleshette — as his sardonic wife — provided the voice of reason. .
Whole Foods getting rid of plastic bags in all stores
Whole Foods Market Inc. has expanded its ban on disposable plastic bans to include all of its 270 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The company says its goal is to be plastic bag-free by Earth Day on April 22. Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFMI) is the first U.S. supermarket to commit to completely eliminating disposable plastic grocery bags. The company first eliminated disposable plastic grocery bags last year at stores in San Francisco, Toronto and Austin. "Central to Whole Foods Market's core values is caring for our communities and the environment, and this includes adopting wise environmental practices," says A.C. Gallo, co-president and chief operating officer for Whole Foods. "More and more cities and countries are beginning to place serious restrictions on single-use plastic shopping bags since they don't break down in our landfills, can harm nature by clogging waterways and endangering wildlife, and litter our roadsides.
Bergeron says school panel still owes him $19K
The committee hired interim Superintendent Daniel O'Connor in July 2006 and Bergeron went back to being the assistant superintendent. Perry asked Bergeron in March to draft a written agreement to "memorialize" the oral agreement they made to pay Bergeron $15,000 the year before, court documents say.
The document was prepared, and Perry signed it and presented it to the committee that month. The committee voted 4-1 during an executive session to not give Bergeron the money, court documents say.
However, School Committee minutes from the executive session March 7 say the committee voted 4-0 against giving Bergeron the money. The minutes say Perry "was not present at the time of the vote," but he was there at the beginning of the meeting.
Bergeron asked O'Connor for $10,000 in "merit pay" in May 2007, a month before he left North Andover to become superintendent of the Contoocook Valley School District in New Hampshire.
January 2008
In a lot of cases, some of the districts fall, and you cannot react quickly to the situation," Afghan Defense Minister General Rahim Wardak said at a Pentagon press conference last October. "The result is that the district's fallen and then -- Afghanistan is a mountainous country; it takes a long time, I mean, to reach by ground." Last March, the Afghan government received two Mi-17 transport helicopters modified for President Karzai's executive air charters. The U.S. purchased and donated the two Russian-made helicopters that are "equipped with wireless communication, TV and armored plates and were bought from the Czech Republic for $5 million," according to a Pajhwok Afghan News . Around the same time, Poland defense officials awarded a grant to Afghanistan indicating they soon would provide an undisclosed number of military aircraft and helicopters to the Afghan air force.
New laser may widen scope for eye surgery
New techniques in laser eye surgery could eliminate night vision problems and other undesirable side-effects of the treatment, enabling thousands more people to put aside their glasses and contact lenses. The latest high-speed, high-precision lasers and iris recognition technology can provide customised procedures to replace the previous "one treatment fits all" approach, resulting in an operation that produces 20/20 vision or better, ophthalmologists say. The innovations improve the popular LASIK (Laser in Situ Keratomileusis) method of eye surgery, which is used to correct sight and astigmatism – problems resulting from an irregular-shaped cornea. While this treatment can correct mild sight impairments for the majority of patients, those with more severe problems or natural fluctuations in the shape and thickness of the cornea can be considered ineligible for surgery because of the risk of complications.
Hominy & Hash
George Reeves legend has left the archives of old newspapers and entered into the lore of unsolved mysteries. Not all celebrity deaths are clouded in mysterious who dunnits. Some are mysteries simply because we'll never know why? Why would famous actress Lupe Valez, the Mexican Spitfire of the 1940's, find life so bad, have a desire for front page stardom so great, that she would dress in her finest, prepare a final meal so sumptuous, take barbiturates and alcohol to assure a long final sleep visualizing her beautiful death photo in the morning paper, and then stagger to the bathroom to vomit that last meal dying with her head in the toilet? Why? We want to ask, What were you thinking? Handsome, rich, debonair George Sanders left a note: "Dear World: I am leaving because I am bored.
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