Monday grab-bag

Happy Birthday, Elizabeth Taylor

74 years old today. Excuse me, but in her youth, was there ever anyone MORE gorgeous?

Elizabeth Taylor reportedly marked her birthday by donating a 300-thousand dollar mobile unit to the city of New Orleans to help treat AIDS sufferers.

And speaking of New Orleans...

New Orleans pastor Don Elbourne is blogging again

Don Elbourne, pastor of Lakeshore Baptist Church in Lakeshore, Mississippi, has been understandably scarce in the blogosphere since Hurricane Katrina destroyed his church's facility last year.

But now Lakeshore is rebuilding, and Don's blogging about the church's future plans as well as the church groups who have come down to lend their support.

Don's actual residence is in New Orleans, and thankfully suffered comparatively little damage from Katrina.

This story about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes just STEAMS me...

This one courtesy of my 101QFL co-host Darren Marlar:
"The latest dish from Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes is that they're having a huge tug-of-war over their soon to be born baby. Apparently part of the Scientology teachings is something called 'Processing a New Mother,' which involves separating mother and child for three days, allowing only minimal contact... Scientology teaches that newborns should be left totally alone for the entire first day after birth to help them recuperate spiritually after separation from the womb."

I firmly believe that the best thing for a newborn is to BOND with his mother as soon and as much as possible. Leaving a baby totally alone for the entire first day of its life???!!! This is one of the craziest Scientology tenets I've heard of yet.

I'm not sure why, but when I heard this story, I got visions of Rosemary's baby being whisked off to be hovered over by the keepers of the coven. Too creepy.

R.I.P....

I've blogged about the loss of creationist Henry Morris and pianist Anthony Burger. Now, goodbye also to Don Knotts (1924-2006)--nice tribute here...and Darren McGavin (1922-2006). I'll always remember McGavin as the dad in A Christmas Story.