The Live Indian Entertainment Blog

Saturday, January 7, 2012 was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Charles Addams, and Google honored him with one of its Doodles. Charles Addams was an American cartoonist, and the creator of the macabre set of characters known as the Addams Family.

The Addams Family is perhaps better known from appearances in television (both live and animated) and movies than from Charles Addams' cartoons, but it was in there that they got their start.

Charles Addams' cartoons, mostly single panel black-and-white strips, first appeared as an unrelated group of 150 cartoons, about half of which were originally published in The New Yorker between 1938 and Addams's death. Charles Addams died on September 29, 1988, at St. Clare's Hospital and Health Center in New York City, after having suffered a heart attack, still in his car, after parking it.

In the Google Doodle, you can see (L to R) Morticia and Gomez, Cousin Itt (the hairy one), Pugsley, Wednesday and Lurch, and Uncle Fester.

The Tee and Charles Addams Foundation, which was created in 1999 by Addams' widow Tee, who passed away in 2002, describes Charles Addams' work thusly:

"Ghoulish, macabre, demonic, depraved, bizarre, eerie, and weird have all been used to describe his work and the characters therein. Adorable, sweet, charming, humorous, enchanting, tender, and captivating are also adjectives used to describe the same body of work, as well as the man himself, the extraordinary artist Charles Addams. His rare gift was the ability to enjoin such dichotomies in wonderfully crafted cartoons and drawings loved by millions worldwide."

While the Addams Family first came to the fore in 1938, in 1964 Charles Addams was asked to turn them into a TV series. The Addams Family series, starring Carolyn Jones as Morticia and John Astin as Gomez, was only on the air for two years, but can still be seen in syndication.

In 1991 it was turned into a full-length movie starring Anjelica Huston as Morticia and Raul Julia as Gomez, with Christopher Lloyd as the frenetic Uncle Fester. There was a sequel in 1993. Also starring was a young, young Christina Ricci, and who could have imagining her "blossoming" (you know what we mean) as she has.

There was also a direct-to-video movie, Addams Family Reunion, which starred Daryl Hannah and Tim Curry as the "odd couple." That movie was released in 1998.

During the 90s, possibly as a result of the popularity of the movies, there was also an animated series and another live-action TV show. In 2010, the First Family of the macabre came to Broadway as a musical starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth as Gomez and Morticia; it ran until Dec. 31, 2011.

The Boston Globe has an interesting article about a rising trend among teenagers. These teens are losing sleep because they don't want to miss any text messages. It wouldn't be so bad if they weren't getting any, but apparently, they are, and they are waking them up.

Brookline 10th-grader Ashley Olafsson sleeps with her cellphone under her pillow so she doesn’t miss “emergency’’ texts — “like if a friend broke up with her boyfriend.’’ Stephanie Kimball of Waltham, 14, is also available for urgent overnight correspondence, such as, “Hey, seeing if you’re awake.’’ Dedham ninth-grader Courtney Johnson gets as many as 100 texts while in bed. “I just don’t feel like myself if I don’t have my phone near me or I’m not on it,’’ she said.

Sure, all that middle-of-the-night communication leaves them tired, but as Olafsson explained, “It’s impolite not to respond if someone is coming to you with their problems.’’

The biggest problem, according to Michael Rich, director of Children’s Hospital Boston’s Center on Media and Child Health, is that children who text like this do not fall asleep as well, meaning that often they don’t enter Stage 4 REM sleep, “which is crucial to moving experiences and lessons of the day from short-term into long-term memory — in other words, completing the learning process."

The obvious answer is for parents to set some limits, or to get some cojones. It seems, that they don't have them. Ashley Olaffson’s mother, Louise, in fact, said,

“They say they need their phones as alarm clocks. Or they tell me they need to charge their phones.’’

There's an obvious answer to both of those. Buy an alarm clock. For the second, do what some do: set up a charging area in the parent's bedroom.

Another mother, Leanne, said, “You can tell them all you want that there’s no reason be on the phone at 2 a.m., but after a certain point, unless you want to sit on top of them, you know it happens.’’

Once again, someone needs to be the parent, and set some limits. What do you readers think? Have you seen this sort of behavior among your own children?

He has had a banner year in 2010, and Justin Bieber helps some of his awesome fans have a fabulous Christmas. The "Baby" songs played the final concert of the tour in Atlanta last night December 23 and collected a bus filled with toys for residents of children's heathcare of Atlanta as part of the things Bieber Bus campaign.



Bert Weiss, a deejay at the local radio station Q100 told reporters, I have talked about it on the air for three or four weeks, and I have received a stream of a tweet and an e-mail. Justin tweeted about it yesterday and Suddenly there was a flood of goals I got tweets and email. When the bus filled up very, very fast. Every child in a children's hospital will have a gift now because of Justin.

Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She won an Oscar, four SAG Awards, four BAFTA, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award in his career. Helen Mirren was born Lydia Mironoff in a corridor of the maternity wing of Queen Charlotte's Hospital, Chiswick, West London. 11. May 2010 attended Mirren unveiling her Waxworks at Madame Tussauds in London. The figure allegedly cost £ 150,000 to make and took four months to complete.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, 55, who had a liver transplant last year in Tennessee, made a surprise visit to Stanford's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital on Friday to promote a new legislative effort to expand the number of California organ donors.

While Steve Jobs described how his life was saved by the liver transplant, and said that patients with less wealth and fame should have the same opportunities, it's clear that can never be the case. Jobs' doctors advised him to enroll in a transplant program in Memphis, TN, where the supply-demand ratio of livers is more favorable than it is in California.

Methodist Hospital in Memphis said Jobs did not receive favoritism, but rather received his transplant because he was the sickest patient on the wait list, with a matching blood type, when a donor organ became available. However, only someone with Jobs' wealth and a private jet could make the cross-country trip to Memphis in four hours, the window necessary for the organ to remain viable. Alternatively, they would have to wait in a nearby home or hotel, which also means abandoning one's life and perhaps job, as well as money for the rental.

That said, the new legislation is designed to increase the number of donors in-state. 98 percent of the organs donated in California come via the DMV. The rest come from the online donor registry. However, of the 26 million drivers in the state, only 6.3 million have signed to be organ and tissue donors. This is among the lowest rates in the nation.

Those fearing the new bill should remain calm: the new bill would not require applicants for a driver's license in California to agree to donation. Rather, it would simply require that they answer the question of whether or not they will agree. Currently, the DMV issues a license regardless of whether the applicant answers that question.

The bill would also create a "California Living Donor Registry." That would connect sick patients with altruistic strangers who are willing to donate a kidney. According to Stanford physicians, kidney donation is relatively safe and does not shorten a donor's life span.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger thanked Jobs for his efforts. Steve Jobs is known to be a very private person. He had not spoken publicly regarding his transplant before this event. Schwarzenegger said:

"Steve Jobs was very instrumental in getting us here today. He put the pressure on us to get this bill going."

The governor also added details on how this all came to pass, when Steve Jobs spoke to Schwarzenegger's wife Maria Shriver last Christmas, and ...

"talked to my wife about his transplant and then my wife talked to me about it, and I talked to him about it, and we had these great phone conversations back and forth and now here it is reality — we are introducing the bill.

"What I like about Steve is, because he is a wealthy man that helped him get the transplant. But he doesn't want that — that only wealthy people can get the transplant and have a plane waiting to take him anywhere he needs to go.

"He wants every human being, if you have no money at all or if you're the richest person in the world, everyone ought to have the right to get a transplant immediately."

That sentiment should be applauded but as noted above, it simply won't be possible: the wealthy will always have better access.

The wealthy will also always have the capability of paying for such a transplant. The United States still is the only industrialized nation without Universal Health Care, and the results of that lack are evident statistically: compare UNICEF's statistics for the U.S. vs. Cuba, which is a third-world country yet has universal health care, to be unpleasantly surprised. Additionally, add in Canada, which prior to instituting its own Universal Health Care system was statistically similar to the U.S.:

Under 5 mortality rate (2008): U.S. 8, Cuba 6, Canada 6
Life expectancy at birth (years), 2008: U.S. 79, Cuba 79, Canada 81

For those concerned about deficits: how much would you be willing to spend to an extra two years of life? How many extra taxes would you be willing to pay to ensure a safety net where you would not go bankrupt because of unexpected medical costs, which causes the most bankruptcies in the U.S. every year?

You can watch video of the press event here.