Now the WGA has filed a lawsuit against the producers with the NLRB , claiming the employers aren't bargaining in good faith. With George W. Bush's "No-CEO-Is-Ever-Wrong" Washington in control of the NLRB, good luck with that...... The DGA is delaying it's negotiations until the writers are resolved.

It's down to a game of chicken to see who will hold out the longest. The first side to ask for talks again will be seen as blinking first. So the layoffs in LA continue. The Simpson's artists will be laid off before Christmas. Merry, merry...

This would be a good time for our Governor Arnold to intercede. He has the power to compel both sides to return to the bargaining table. It would prove to us it was worth voting for someone from entertainment to go to Sacramento. Most of the politicos there are more concerned with artichoke subsidies than showbiz. It would be a win-win for him.

In the meantime, writers have to stay united, and not argue with one another. Now is the tough part of a strike when people in frustration start to turn on one another. One writer notes that the news of the contract talks breaking down over animation and reality show jurisdiction may have only been a tactic to get writers angry with their committee for breaking on such small potatoes. Who knows. The important thing, is to remember who the real adversaries are, and they are not your fellow film people. Good Luck.
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QUIZ: Why is a man with old-fashioned ideas about the sexes called a Chauvanist?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is a swashbuckler? A pirate?
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History for 12/14/2007
Birthdays: 1553-King Henry IV of Navarre, Tycho Brahe, Nostradamus -Michel de Nostre Dame-1503, English King George VI-1895, Spike Jones the bandleader, Morey Amsterdam, Charlie Rich, Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, Lee Remick, Patty Duke-Astin , Adult film star Ginger Lynn,Clark Terry, trumpeteer & ex-Ellingtonian- 87. Cecil Pay, Saxophonist, 85. Jane Birkin "Je t'aime moi non plus" chanteuse is 60.

Welcome to the first day of what is referred to as the HALCYON DAYS. The seven days prior to and after the Winter Solstice, a time of tranquility and peace.

1776-After kicking George Washington's rebel butt from New York to Philadelphia, British General Lord William Howe announced the customary holiday truce and beds his army down for the winter. His subordinate Lord Percy wrote home:” It’s just about over with those people, we shall be home shortly.” Lord Howe took as a mistress the wife of his Boston superintendent of prisons a Mr. Loring, who grew rich enough on army contracts to not mind. A rebel poem of the time said: "Sir William He, snug as a Flea, lay in his bed a Snorring. Nor thought of Harm, as he lay Warm, in bed with Mrs......"

1798-David Wilkinson of Rhode Island patented a machine that made the new inventions metal screws, nuts and bolts.

1799- GEORGE WASHINGTON DIED. 67 year old Washington had retired to Mount Vernon after his last presidential term in 1796. In many letters and anecdotes he would describe this health as fragile and he never expected to live a long life. On Dec. 12th he went riding five hours during a sleet storm and caught the flu. Another theory was a viral infection of the epiglottis.
Washington might yet have survived, had it not been for modern medicine. Doctors bled him of four pints of blood, while applying leeches, mustard sulfur packs and laxatives to purge him of the ill humours. In other words, the finest treatments of the time. He developed pneumonia. Because coma was so little understood people had a dread of premature burial. Washington left instructions that his body be left out several days to make sure he was dead before being sealed in a tomb. After assurances put his mind at ease, his last words were:" Tis well." No priests, prayers or religious last rites were performed at his request. The US government wanted to place his tomb at the center of the planned dome in the capitol building, but Washington’s wish was to be in a simple tomb in Mt. Vernon.

1871- Verdi's opera "Aida" debuts in Cairo.

1901- The first Ping-Pong tournament held in London.

1911- Norwegian explorer Roald Ammundsen and four others first reached the South Pole, winning the race against Captain Robert Falcon Scott.

1913- Cartoonist Johnny Gruelle entertained his dying daughter by making up stories involving her rag dollies. After her passing friends, urged Gruelle to publish them. The RAGGEDY ANN & ANDY stories are born.

1924- Ottorino Respighi ‘s stirring rhapsody the Pines of Rome premiered.

1927- Charles Lindbergh does one last flight with his famous monoplane the Spirit of Saint Louis, from Washington to Mexico City. This is at the request of American Ambassador Dwight Murrow who wanted to improve Mexican-American relations. Lindbergh would not only improve relations but also marry Murrow's daughter Anne. To make the flight a challenge Lindbergh took off at night in a rainstorm to prove air travel was safe. The President of Mexico and 150,000 people greeted him in Mexico City. When flying he noticed many Mexican towns had a sign named 'Caballeros' in their railroad stations. He reasoned Caballeros must be a popular name for a town.

1944- The film National Velvet premiered, making a star out of 12 year old Elizabeth Taylor.

1947- The National Association of Stock Car Racing or NASCAR formed.

1957- Hanna Barbera's first t.v. cartoon "Ruff and Ready" premieres. The first use of Hanna & Barbera's system of limited animation. Mouthcharts and eyeblinks, anyone?

1970- George Harrison’s single My Sweet Lord went gold.

1972-THE LAST MAN LEAVES THE MOON. Apollo 17 blasts off. We all remember the first man on the moon, but do you remember the last? Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt. President Nixon annoyed NASA by saying he doubted that men would return to the moon in the Twentieth Century, but he was right.

1977- DISCO! The movie Saturday Night Fever starring John Travolta and the music of the Bee Gees make the Disco dancing scene a national craze.

1979- STUDIO 54 RAIDED- The Internal Revenue Service busted the worlds most notorious disco club. Formerly the hangout of Andy Warhol, Bianca Jagger, Truman Capote and other “Beautiful People”, now the Feds were on to them. The IRS seized doctored account books, cocaine and undeclared cash, landing the owners in jail and bringing the celebrity playland’s days to an end.

1984- Howard Cosell retired from sports reporting and calling the Monday Night Football game. “And now to Dandy Don down on the field.”
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Yesterday’s Question: What is a swashbuckler? A pirate?

ANSWER: No. In Renaissance Italy, young toughs carried a sword and a small shield called a buckler. To show you were looking for a fight you would walk the streets slapping the flat of your sword across the little shield, to swash your buckler.