October 22, 2010
Every year, the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-off crowns a champion for the largest pumpkin. In this Halloween season, we keep track of these things. The Half Moon Bay competition this year declared a California pumpkin the winner for the first time in eleven years. Citrus Heights resident Ron Root's winning squash was 410 inches over the top and weighed 1,535 pounds. He was awarded $9.210 for his huge gourd, which works out to $6 a pound plus a $1,000 bonus for the largest pumpkin in California. Mr Root says he grew it from seeds of a previous winner. The pumpkin is not a world record holder, however. That honor belongs to a Wisconsin man whose pumpkin weighed in at 1,880 pounds a few years ago. 
Posted by ChiefJack Hawk. Posted In : Food
October 20, 2010
Doom mongers and scientists who have been telling us about the Mayan calendar and the upcoming apocalypse in 2012 may have to cool their heels a while longer. According to a new book titled "Calendars and Years II: Astronomy and Time In the Ancient and Medieval World", scientists used a Latin formula to convert the Mayan calendar, and that formula lost something in the translation. The book's author reveals that the Latin and Mayan calendars are a bit out of sync, which means that our calcu... Continue reading...
Posted by ChiefJack Hawk. Posted In : Archeology
October 20, 2010
Taylor Swift's new album, "Speak Now" is little more than a digital confessional session as she sings tracks dedicated to the men who either broke or messed with her heart. For a young lady who's only 20 years old, this is an impressive array of lovers, and will no doubt cast her in a new light to men who will see her as what used to be called an "easy" girl, maybe even a willing target for their advances. Speaking of targets, as the tracks are being released, we've seen Kanye Wesy and "Twi... Continue reading...
Posted by ChiefJack Hawk. Posted In : Music
October 20, 2010
Ready for this? According to the Vatican, Homer Simpson is Catholic. The official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano ran a story over this past weekend with the heading "Homer and Bart are Catholic". Show producer Al Jean was amused by this since he says the program has "pretty clearly shown that Homer is not Catholic". Indeed, even the church he attends on the show isn't Catholic. It makes you wonder: is the Catholic church so shaken by the large number of its members who are leavin... Continue reading...
Posted by ChiefJack Hawk. Posted In : Religion
October 18, 2010
Northeastern U.S. television provider Cablevision has put its foot down as far as Fox's greed is concerned. The company was forking over a sum of $70 million a year to carry Fox programming, and when the News Corporation said they now wanted to raise the fee to over $150 million, Cablevision said no, and has allowed Fox TV, National Geographic, and Fox Business and Sports to go dark. As you know, Dish Network is also refusing to play Fox's mind games and has already dropped Fox Sports, FX, ... Continue reading...
Posted by ChiefJack Hawk. Posted In : Television
October 18, 2010
While the Chilean miners who were rescued last week after 69 days of being trapped under ground have a pact of silence about their ordeal so they can get the best deal for their story as a group, at least two of them differ. Jorge Gallegiullas says the pact is non-binding and he'd be willing to talk for the right price. Another of the group, Mario Sepulveda, gave an interview to England's Mail yesterday without revealing too much. He merely rebuled rumors that the men had sex while they we... Continue reading...
Posted by ChiefJack Hawk. Posted In : People
October 18, 2010
America has a new engineering wonder close to the Hoover Dam. Opened earlier this month, the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge stretches over the Colorado River at a height of 890 feet and is part of a project to allow commercial traffic to reach the Las Vegas area without taking the narrow, hairpin curved two lane highway that runs along the top of the dam. This will speed traffic and allow tourists faster access to the region, which draws millions every year. After 9/11, the F... Continue reading...
Posted by ChiefJack Hawk. Posted In : Engineering
October 13, 2010
Anything bad that happens to Wal-Mart is good news, and this one had me rolling on the floor. Earlier this year, the retailing giant passed a series of large price cuts, known in Wal-Martese as "rollbacks". Wally M hoped that this would generate a higher customer count in stores, and it did, but not with the expected results. Savvy shoppers walked in, bought the "rollback" items, then went on to their regular stores for the rest of their grocery shopping, leaving Wal-Mart bleeding heavily.... Continue reading...
Posted by ChiefJack Hawk. Posted In : Business
October 13, 2010
Is Lady Gaga's train losing steam? The nominations are all in for the 2010 American Music Awards, and leading the pack with five nominations each are Lady Antebellum and Eminem, followed by Justin Bieber with four. Gaga has only been nominated for two awards this year---favorite female artist and artist of the year. Last year, you'll recall, she went home empty-handed like the other falling female star, Taylor Swift, who herself was only nominated for one award this year. The AMA's are v... Continue reading...
Posted by ChiefJack Hawk. Posted In : Music
October 13, 2010
Tokyo's Mandarin Oriental hotel is trying to set a new world record price by offering the highest price ever for a hotel in a deal to commemorate its fifth anniversary. The offer will allow use of the entire hotel, including its nine restaurants and all 178 rooms for $671,000 a night, each period going from three in the afternoon to noon the next day, and the hotel will apply for the record as soon as a night is booked at this price. The catch? You can only rent it on a day when there are ... Continue reading...
Posted by ChiefJack Hawk. Posted In : Business
Chief Jack has hosted The Mohawk Radio Show since August 1969. He is a champion for the cause of Indie artists, and many Indies have had great success since having their music played on the station. He is a Mohawk chief who played with a Canadian band for about 10 years. He publishes articles under the name Jacques Boulerice for Yahoo! Voices and is working on a new movie script.
