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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check
November 3, 2009
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Christmas Shopping:
Deloitte's 24th Annual Holiday Survey finds of the nearly 11,000 adults it surveyed, 64% plan to buy a gift card this season, making it the top gift for six years running. And they plan to spend $35 per card, up from $28 last year. (Kaye)
Looking at Logos:
One of the nation's last independent brewers is going up for sale.
It's Pabst Brewing Company, the company is known for producing a "virtual who's who of beers," including Old Milwaukee, Ballantine, Schmidt and Colt 45.
In recent years, the company enjoyed a resurgence as its flagship beer, Pabst Blue Ribbon, became somewhat of a hipster icon, boosting case sales by 21 percent over the past year.
According to the NY Post, Pabst has hired Merrill Lynch to seek out potential buyers and is allegedly asking $300 million for the company.
Editor's note: I dunno why, but I can't say "Pabst" without a little piece of spittle flying out of my mouth. --Maiman)
Broadcast, cable and video news:
Another TV series in the works for JIM BELUSHI, who, up until now, has been a fixture in the sitcom department with "According to Jim" on ABC.
However, according to Daily Variety magazine, Belushi has teamed up with "Murphy Brown" creator DIANE ENGLISH and BARRY LEVINSON for legal drama based on lawyer and TV commentator MICKEY SHERMAN. Sherman successfully used the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder defense to defend a Vietnam War veteran who was charged with murder years ago and also defended MICHAEL SKAKEL, a Kennedy family cousin who was convicted of murdering a female teenage neighbor in 1975.
Sherman also wrote the book "How Can You Defend Those People?," and Variety says the idea is for Belushi to play a likable lawyer who defends the guilty and the innocent with equal vigor.
Sheer stupidity:
Think driving and texting is bad? Wait 'til you hear what taxi drivers in South Korea do while driving.
Agence France-Presse says taxi drivers in the town of Seoul are infamous for watching television while driving. And, even though the city passed a law banning the dangerous practice --the law was overturned by the local courts.
Police there say two people have died so far and 351 have been injured because of drivers watching TV. Lawmakers are promising to keep pushing the issue until the ban is made permanent. They're also promising to ban the use of cell phones while driving --another practice that's still legal in Seoul. (Still)
Asleep at the switch:
A television cooking show in England is in hot water right now because of the "mystery ingredient" they used.
The Daily Telegraph says the BBC show --called Master Chef-- features three chefs competing against each other. But, it turns out the mystery ingredient they were given to use was on the endangered species list. Conservationists are outraged after a recent episode showed the rare European Eel being chopped up and prepared. The fish is considered "critically endangered" and one step short of being extinct.
WILLIE MacKENZIE, a spokesperson for Greenpeace, says, "It is really irresponsible of the BBC to focus on a specific species of fish without looking into its background and taking these things into consideration." (Still)
Tampering with Mother Nature:
For the first time, Beijing has gotten snow, courtesy of cloud seeding.
China's ominously titled Weather Modification Office induced Beijing's earliest snowfall in 10 years by seeding clouds with silver iodine over the weekend. It was intended to end an ongoing drought.
They may have overdone it, though. The spraying was intended to produce a light dusting, but Beijing residents awoke Sunday to heavy snowfall that continued for a day and a half, disrupting air and road traffic.
By the time it ended, there were more than 16 million tons of snow. (Maiman)
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