Outside the Beltway

An old woman with no painting skills was allowed to restore an old painting. Oddly, it didn’t turn out very well.

I was more amused than I should have been by the YahooNews headline “Obama Says George Clooney Friendship Born in Sudan, Not Hollywood.”

“Top Gun” director Tony Scott is dead, aged 68, after an apparent suicide.

Calvin Broadus is dropping the “Snoop Dog” moniker and rap for “Snoop Lion” and reggae.

The new Red Dawn promises to be even sillier than the first.

The Elements of F*cking Style drags English grammar out of the ivory tower and into the gutter, injecting a dull subject with a much-needed dose of color.

NBC’s Olympic coverage doesn’t necessarily recognize the realities of social networking and the 24 hour news cycle.

Most of the most popular superheroes in American comics are orphans. Coincidence or something else?

Rob Tornoe has revised his Joe Paterno-Bear Bryant cartoon in light of the Freeh Report.

Rush Limbaugh made perhaps one of the dumber comments I’ve seen from the right about the entire Bain Capital story, and managed to display an apparent inability to use Google to look things up.

Why are USA Network characters suddenly saying “Shit”?

A year old, seconds-long, scene from a show on HBO has apparently become the latest cause for outrage.

Tom and Ray Magliozzi are retiring their “Car Talk” act after 25 years but NPR will keep the show running indefinitely by repackaging old clips.

Funny or Die gives us “The Wire: The Musical.”

Green Lantern is gay. The original Green Lantern. No, the other original Green Lantern.

Thirty-Five years ago, an adventure began.

Eugene Polley, the inventor of the first wireless TV remote control, has died aged 96.

For years, I’ve used Loretta Lynn as an example of how fast societal mores have changed. It turns out that her marriage at age 13 may be a bit of myth making.

Dish Network is offering customers a DVR that will skip commercials. I’m sure their content providers are thrilled.

Another bizarre conservative rant about the President.

The outpouring from my Twitter stream yesterday on the news of the death of Adam Yauch, MCA of the Beastie Boys, surprised me.

HBO’s Game of Thrones is violent and full of sex. Is it too much?

[FAIR WARNING: SPOILERS]

The commander of Fort Knox has canceled a Ted Nugent concert after the rocker’s recent rant about President Obama.

Legendary musician Levon Helm is dying.

Ted Nugent, whose music I really liked when I was in junior high school, said something vile and crazy.

Why the Internet is awesome: a Taiwanese animatronic take on the Secret Service hookers scandal.

Shockingly, the “Springfield” in the long-running sittcom “The Simpsons” is Springfield, Oregon, near where creator Matt Groening grew up.

Jeffrey Brown has a children’s book titled Darth Vader and Son scheduled for release on April 18.