Who is "Carlo" on the last Soprano's episode?

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Many people are puzzled by the reference to Carlo on the final episode of The Sopranos. Carlo Gervasi apparently becomes an informant after his son is busted. Several references in the last show allude to Carlo's upcoming testimony against Anthony. This is not the Carlo who was killed earlier in the series. Carlo Gervasi, played by Arthur J. Nascarella.

Carlo Gervasi first appears in Season Four, as a captain of Jimmy Altieri's old crew (Jimmy you may remember was also disposed of as a rat). Gervasi runs the Bloomfield Avenue casino, and was part of the Soprano family's port hijackings. In Season 6, Carlo attended two celebration dinners at Nuovo Vesuvio, first when his cousin Burt Gervasi becomes a made man and a second when he attends Christopher's bachelor party.

After Vito's murder, Gervasi is given all of his construction action. He stated once that he wanted Spatafore "dragged behind his car." When Tony decided that Spatafore had to be killed, Silvio (Steven Van Zandt) suggested Gervasi for the job because of his views. Carlo later avenged his family's honor in a memorable episode by stabbing Fat Dom for making jokes about Spatafore's murder and implying that Gervasi was also gay. He freaked out and stabbed him in the back room of Satriale's Pork Store with Silvio also getting sucked into the action. Tony Soprano discovers them waiting to dispose of the body and was angry because of the murder's possible blowback. Gervasi takes charge of disposing of Gamiello's body and even drives to Connecticut to deposit his head in a storm drain, if you remember that scene earlier in the season. You actually did see Carlo a great deal, but the glimpses were usually fleeting.

In the series finale, Gervasi's son is picked up by the FBI for drug-dealing. When Carlo fails to show up for a meeting with Paulie Walnuts, he warns Tony that he may be cutting a deal. Soprano's attorney confirms that someone is, in fact testifying before a grand jury and that indictments are forthcoming. In the final scene, Tony tells Carmela that Carlo is testifying, thus confirming that he turned informant to keep his son out of jail and possibly out of revenge for the murder of his cousin.
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Blog Wars--> Boycott This Blog: Almost There In No Time

The proprietor of Almost There In No Time, a favorite blog of NMBLA members,
as well as the NRA, the Republican National Committee, and Ralph Nader.
One follower describes Ericksen's eyes as "penetrating and insidious.
When he looks at you it's like a hypnotist's watch."

An insidious presence has crept into the "blogosphere." Dean Ericksen, a native Seattleite and environmental executive, recently initiated a scandalous blog known as Almost There In No Time. Mr. Ericksen is slowly and insidiously building a cult following in the Pacific Northwest. One person who escaped his clutches told All This Is That "Ericksen plans to increase his following until he has the numbers to make a national splash. . .and what he plans on doing will make David Koresh's conflagration look like a marshmallow roast, and will make the Jonestown Massacre look--literally--like a kool-aid party. His intention is to create such an apocalyptic meltdown that he will be long-remembered. Unlike some of those other leaders, however, he has no intention of going down with the ship!" He increases his following by preaching a strangely polyglot mixture of several seemingly incompatible philosophies, not unlike, say Heinrich Himmler or Adolph Shicklegruber himself. "He's able to pull it off, " one former cult member told All This Is That, "because unlike most of those other wackos, he doesn't seem to be in it for the sex, or the money."

Ericksen's blog is listed as a favorite on the websites of the National Rifle Association, the National Man-Boy Love Association, The King County Republican Party, the American Nazi and Communist Parties, The Junior League, Aryan Nations, Volksfront, the VFW, the fraternal orders of Elks, Moose, and Eagles, The Masonic Lodge, The National Vanguard, White Revolution, the National Alliance, the G.O.P., the Moral Majority, as well as the individual blogs of Charles Manson, Oral Roberts, Mark David Chapman, and the entertainers Celine Dion, David Hassehof, and Rosie O'Donnell. How does this seemingly random stew of no talents, hate groups, and political reactionaries join in agreement about one blogger's website? I have no idea. But I do know that Mr. Ericksen needs to be stopped well before he reaches critical mass. Perhaps it's even too late for that. One well-known deprogrammer said "it's virtually impossible to deprogram one of his followers. Once Ericksen has rooted into their psyches, it is very difficult to evict him. It's like zombies; once you cross the line you don't go back."
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A Painting Of A Moroccan Dance Scene (artist unknown)

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This massive painting (I'd guess it is about 10 feet by five feet) hangs in a stairwell in my parent-in-laws 1904 mansion. It is a painterly rendition of a "casbah" scene. I've always loved the drapery and the pastel palette. If I am lucky I can buy or glom onto this painting when they sell the house--despite the fact it is too large to hang in anything approaching a normal house. I never saw a scene like this when I was in Morocco...the women in Morocco aren't nearly so pale, and I certainly never saw any of the women dancing. When you saw the women at all. . .

Idiot, moron, imbecile: an old illustration

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No, I am not talking about a specific person. . . this is an illustration from a textbook, outling the now apparently verboten system of categorzing people's mental acuity.
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The spooks come clean: CIA to release details on decades of secrets

The Central Intelligence Agency will soon declassify thousands of pages of documents on spook operations from over three decades ago. The , CIA Director Michael Hayden said according to Reuters.

The "Family Jewels" documents chronicle foreign assassination attempts, domestic spying, kidnapping and infiltration of leftist groups from the 1950s to the 1970s. . .according to a summary posted on the National Security Archive site.

The documents to be released next week also include accounts of break-ins and theft, surveillance of U.S. journalists, the agency's opening of private mail to and from China and the Soviet Union, and "behavior modification" experiments on "unwitting" U.S. civilians.

"Much of it has been in the press before, and most of it is unflattering, but it's the CIA's history," Hayden said in a speech on Thursday to the American Foreign Relations Conference.
"This is about telling the American people what we have done in their name," Hayden said.

The CIA chief said the documents provide a glimpse of "a very different time and a very difference agency." Hayden said 11,000 pages of analysis from would be available on the CIA's Web site.
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Ralph Nader, a/k/a The Dingbat, threatens to run for President again

Ralph Nader says he is seriously considering running for president in 2008 because he foresees another election with no real choice to voters.


"You know the two parties are still converging -- they don't even debate the military budget anymore," Nader said in a 30-minute interview. "I really think there needs to be more competition from outside the two parties."


Ralphie, or as he is known on All This Is That, "The Dingbat" has zero chance of winning the presidency should he run, but he knows he doesn't need to win to affect the outcome. Many Democrats blame Nader for siphoning enough votes away from Al Gore in Florida in 2000 to elect George W. Bush. Sure, I blame Al Gore too, but nonetheless, if The Dingbat had stood down, we wouldn't be facing the mess we've lived with these last 6 and a half years.



Ralph, Don't Do It!
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Painting: There's a riot going on

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Video: Hillary Clinton rolls out her campaign song with a homage to the Sopranos finale

The Senator made an interesting choice of themes for her viral video. . .and starred in the video along with the wannabe First Husband.


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Happy 161st Birthday Baseball!

The first baseball game played under the modern rules (also known as the Knickerbocker Rules) occurred in 1846. And Just what were these modern rules? Most notably, a runner could no longer be put out of play by getting hit with a thrown ball; the Knickerbocker Rules required fielders to tag or force the runner, as is done today. The first competitive game under the new rules was probably played by the Knickerbockers at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey.

On the other hand, the old rules sound kind of fun...a sort of X-games/American Gladiator version of baseball. Think of how the game changed that very day. . .you no longer had to be able to lead a runner to peg them. All of sudden the greatest sport of all transmogrified and instead of pegging the runner, you had to learn to throw to a fixed player on your team!

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Some Classic Porn Movie Titles from the Lusty Lady

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The Lusty Lady strip club in Seattle is owned by a co-op of women, and usually features parodies of movie titles on its marquee, a few of which follow:

A Few Hard Men
American Booty
An Officer and a Genitalman
Desperately Seeking Semen
Mutiny on the Booty
Position Impossible
Raiders Of The Lost Arse
Saving Ryan's Privates
The Empire Strokes Black
The Long Ranger
The Object of My Erection
The Reproducers
The Touchables
The White Stuff
There's Something In and Out of Mary
Throbbin Hood
To Drill a Mockingbird
Too Clothed For Comfort

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Video and lyrics: Old 97's Designs On You

The Old 97's perform Designs On You at La Zona Rosa in Austin, Texas. Watching this video reminds me I haven't been to Austin for three months. In the last couple of years, Austin has become one of my main sites for seeing live music, althought I have still not been able to see the Old 97's there (due to schedules, and one rainout at Stubb's).



Standin' on the corner of 6th and how to forget
Tryin' to do right by you all night, Annette.
You can go ahead and get married
And this'll be our secret thing.
I won't tell a soul except the people in the nightclub where I sing.
I don't wanna get you all worked up,
Except secretly I do.

I'd be lyin' if I said I didn't have designs on you.
I'd be lyin' if I said I didn't have designs on you.

Standin' on the corner of 6th and where do I go
The parade shut down now the rain is runnin' the show.
Where did all these people come from
And how soon can they leave?
Normally I'd be headin' to it
But I need to get some sleep
Though I do wish you'd come over but I'm warning you if you do

I'd be lyin' if I said I didn't have designs on you.
I'd be lyin' if I said I didn't have designs on you.

Standin on the corner of 6th and where do I get
Tryin' to do right by you all night, Annette.
This would only be an experiment
In things that could have been
And you can go ahead and get married
And it'll probably never happen again
I don't mean to make you excited except secretly I do.

I'd be lyin' if I said I didn't have designs on you.
I'd be lyin' if I said I didn't have designs on you.
I'd be lyin' if I said I didn't have designs on you.
I'd be lyin' if I said I didn't have designs on you
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YouPorn goes live with beta

YouPorn, a YouTube-type site for pornography has recently gone live with a beta release. I wonder why it took this long? Or how long it will be before this site becomes the mostly widely visited site in the entire internet? No doubt they already have the tens of thousands of internet sex sites quaking in their boots.

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Video: The Office Space Trailer Recut As A Horror Movie

Roberto Gonzales's Cleveland Steamer strategy

Attorney Robert Gonzales admitted to a subordinate earlier this week that the only reason he still has a job is that he "has the goods on Cheney." Last Wednesday, the White House aide sent what they believed was an anonymous tip to the All This Is That editorial offices. The tip was subsequently traced back via IP protocols to an aide working in the Executive Office Building. When contacted by an All This Is That staff reporter, the aide admitted sending the tip and offered to provide sources as well as evidence of the act, and the blackmail itself.

Both VP Cheney's and General Gonzales's offices refused comment on the story. Two aides in Cheney's office were willing to discuss certain aspects of the allegations. The story—fairly widely circulated in Beltway political circles—involves the Vice-President, and a White House page who often performed an act known as a "Cleveland Steamer." Photographs of the Vice-President receiving the steamer have reportedly circulated among certain politicos. In a curious sidebar, it has often been noted that Fuhrer Adolph Hitler was also a Cleveland Steamer enthusiast. James Joyce, author of Dubliners, Ulysses,and Finnegan's wake was also reported to be a fan (a fact confirmed in his selected letters).[Tomorrow in All This Is That: photographic and audio evidence of the allegations].

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Poem: Bible Stories 3/The Big Boat

click to enlarge Noah's ark

Abel he took his act to another dusty land
God gave Adam and Eve another child they named him Seth
Their children proceeded to fill the earth
Sons daughters aunts nephews cousins uncles second cousins
sisters brothers nieces third cousins stepbrothers stepsisters
It was an orgy of fruitfulness and everyone was madly begetting
After many years presiding over this begetting Adam and Eve died
Because they had alas partaken of the forbidden apple
By the time they died all the begetting begetting more begetting filled
Their corner of the earth as the children's children had more children
And the children’s children’s children had even more children
And since men and women lived to be 900 years old
That corner of the earth was now filled with wicked people
In that corner of the earth was where Adam's sons and their wives lived
And few of the progeny of all that begetting grew up to become good
It came to pass that even the children of good men and women
Turned to the dark side and God looked down on the evil in his world
In the hearts of the men and women and saw some good people left
And the best of all of them was Enoch from the family of Seth
Enoch did only what was right and walked and talked with God
Enoch was lock stock and barrel God’s boy up front
When Enoch was 365 years old God took him to heaven
Because God just couldn’t wait 600 more years for him
And scooped him up from earth without dying
Enoch left a son Methuselah who lived to be 969 years old
But at last even old Methuselah died And God looked down and said that's it
For men and women because their evil has become first nature
Noah tried to do right for God and he too walked and talked with God
And God said to Noah the time has come when every living on earth
Will be destroyed but you and your family will be saved
Because now it's you alone who try to do right to your fellow women and men
God told Noah to build a big boat and said I am going to flood
The earth and drown all the people and animals
So you must make the ark large enough to hold each animal there is
So animals as well as men may live upon the earth
After the flood and Noah did what God asked
And built a great ark on dry land where there was no water for it to sail
People whispered he's gone crackers and made the cuckoo sign
As Noah and his sons built the ark the wicked people laughed
But after 120 years the ark was finished and stood like a castle on the land
God said to Noah get you and yours into the ark—it's coming down starting now
So Noah his wife and his sons Shem Ham and Japheth and their wives
Climbed into the ark and God led animals birds and creeping things
To the door of the ark and they went into the ark
And Noah and his sons shut the door and battened down the hatches
So no more people or animals could come in as the thunder began
At first it was just rain but then a sprinkle became a drizzle a shower and a torrent
The rivers rose higher and higher and the ark began to float on the water
People left their houses and ran to the hills but soon the hills were covered
For forty days and nights the rain kept on the water kept rising and rising
Climbing up the mountains until even Mt. Everest was beneath the water
And there was no sign of life outside of the ark
After forty days the rain stopped and God sent a wind to dry the waters
Finally the ark ceased to float and settled on the ground on Mt. Ararat
But Noah could not see what had happened on the earth
Because the door was shut and the window was in the roof
He knew that the water must have gone down and sent out a dove
That evening the dove came back to the ark and in its bill was a fresh leaf
He sent the dove later and the dove flew away and never came back
Noah knew that the earth was becoming dry again
So he took off a part of the roof and looked out and saw dry land
Noah and family had lived in the ark more than a year
And was glad to see the green land and the trees once more
God said to Noah: Come out of the ark
With your wife and your sons and their wives and all the living things
That are with you in the ark and so Noah opened the door
Of the ark and with his family came out with all the animals
And the birds and creeping things in the ark came out also
And began again to fly swim wiggle crawl and stomp on the earth
Noah gave thanks to God when he came out of the ark
For saving all his family and the animals and for just being God
He built an altar, and laid upon it an offering to the Lord,
He dedicated himself and his family to God, and promised to do God's will.
God said: No flood shall again cover the earth and you now rule
The air and the waters and the ground and every living thing
Upon the face of the earth and then God caused a rainbow to appear in the sky
And told Noah that when they see a rainbow they should remember
God hung rainbows in the sky to remind us there will be no more floods.
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