Buy A Plant. Now.

In fact, buy two - and then go buy an acre of rainforest, and throw away the keys to your car. Yesterday I saw Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and was utterly blown away. Gore crunches the data in all sorts of different ways and again and again comes up with one conclusion: the planet is headed for disaster, and it's one of our own making. C02 levels are at astronomical heights, tornadoes and hurricanes are increasing in frequency and intensity, and chunks of land-based ice sheets are breaking off into the ocean, swelling the waters massively - and dangerously (where will you be when sea level rises 20 feet? You'd better hope not in L.A. or Manhattan) (actually, you'd be almost lucky; you wouldn't be in coastal India). Those snows of Kilimanjaro? Virtually gone. Like us, if we don't do something drastic, now.

"Oh, reeeaaaaally?" says the skeptic as he guns his Hummer, tosses his cigarette butt out the window and gleefully plots how he'll throw out his recyclable beer can with the trash. Yes, actually. Really. Per New York magazine film critic David Edelstein:

Perhaps the most amazing statistic in An Inconvenient Truth is that of 900-plus peer-reviewed studies in recognized journals, not one has challenged the idea of global warming, whereas more than 53 percent of articles in the mainstream media have presented it as a theory or been careful to include the demurrals of a tiny handful of bought-and-paid-for scientists or politicians. In the course of Gore’s lecture tour comes the unsurprising news that Bush aide Philip Cooney routinely red-penciled the conclusions of impartial government scientists; when exposed, he resigned and took a job with ExxonMobil.

Did you catch that? Over nine HUNDRED scientists assessed the data and agreed that the planet was on the brink of man-made calamity. Who doesn't agree: the oil stooge hired by the White House to doctor environmental reports in favor of...oil companies. As Edelstein says of the film: "Watch closely to see who attacks it and on what grounds."

The mosquito line in Africa, rising. Polar bears swimming in search of receding ice, drowning. People sweltering through record heat waves last summer, dying. Hurricanes whipping into a frenzy over warm waters. Those waters, ever-warming. Moment after chilling, terrifying moment, the very real doom of the planet is laid out clearly (think "Ice Age." Right. Now, think of the reverse. Hot enough for ya?). As the trailer says bluntly: "Nothing is scarier than the truth." I'll go one step further: It's fucking terrifying.

See this movie. And seriously, buy that plant.

Live from New York, it's Bucky Turco!

God bless Bucky Turco, Animal's hilariously intrepid everywhere-you-look reporter-about-town. The dude is anyplace there's a story, from 2 a.m. during the transit strike to the bloody,mutilated Santa of Christmas past to slippy, slidey Snapple accidents to anything relating to grafitti. In short, Bucky is everywhere, and everywhere is better for it.

(Disclosure: I'm a big ol' Bucky fan - we bonded over email when I was at Fishbowl, as per those links above. Happy to laud his reportorial flair yet again.)

Anyhow, I am LOVING this pic because I am a big fan of the crack SNL women and get a kick of seeing themn out together - Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler and cute little Rachel Dratch peeking out next to Bucky's giant head. I learned the phrase "six ways to Sunday" from Rachel Dratch. See more of Bucky's pictures here. I should say, however, that this is in no way indicative of my having changed my position on Macs.

p.s. Here's Maya's mama, Minnie Ripperton, singing her classic "Lovin' You" (you know the la-la-la-la-la's and if you don't then I'm old). Also, here she is getting attacked by a lion.

The name is Ralks. Lehcar Ralks.

For some strange reason, this is the most emailed story in the New York Times today. It's a pretty name but it makes me think of hand cream.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

I am busy writing up today's edition of RussertWatch for HuffPo, but I wanted to take a moment to tell my mom that I love her, because she rules. I love you Mom! You rule! Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. FYI, giving birth to the rest of you was apparently REALLY painful. So go buy flowers.

I Want Someone To Smell Cheese With

Apparently this one's giving Chanel No. 5 a run for its money.

(Jeff Garlin gives a shout-out to us, we give him one right back.)

Ahem

"But mainly its appeal lies in Bob Martin, who plays Man in Chair with the easy offhandedness and perfect timing that seem to be dispensed with Canadian passports."
— Jeremy McCarter, New York Magazine, May 15, 2006 issue

Liza With A Zed, Part II

Last Monday night I had the opportunity to see the incredibly delightful and fantastically clever and totally winsome new Broadway Musical (and not-as-new-Canadian musical) "The Drowsy Chaperone". I loved it as much as I hate Ben Brantley (yes yes, Ben Brantley, we're very impressed that you have the bestest knowledge of 1920's musicals, you must be MUCH smarter than all the sophisticated theatergoers in the audience on opening night who laughed uproariously the whole way through, because, you know, they had "no choice but to applaud." Whatever. The show was smart and fresh and unexpected and transporting. I have no choice but to call you an idiot).

In any case, I had one hell of a sighting: LIZA! Not only working her charm and magic down the red carpet (very amusing to see a no-name starlet hanging back after her, knowing that not a single camera would care if she walked right past), but laughing and blowing kisses and posing with the writers. Even cooler, I actually MET her in the one bastion of privacy in any public place: the ladies' room (we were the only two people at the mirror, it would have been rude NOT to say something). She looked great and was chatty and friendly. In any case, she said she was a huge fan of the show and was a big supporter, also showing up at the after party and being very nice to people who didn't have the temerity to accost her in the bathroom. Upshot: Liza loves Canadians. Ergo, zed.



Here's more vid of Liza hugging Aubrey Reuben, whom theater fans will know from his own star turn in the New Yorker.

There is TOTALLY gonna be cake in the conference room tomorrow

This is just a little bit of AWESOME: Arianna Huffington, rockin' the Time Magazine 100 list of "People Who Shape Our World." And also, my boss.

p.s. There's no conference room per se at the HuffPo office, but saying "there is totally going to be cake around the oblong white table in the kitchen part" doesn't have quite the same ring.