NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – McDonald’s Corp reported a quarterly profit that handily topped Wall Street estimates, but said it saw growth in some overseas markets soften as a U.S.-led recession went global.
Shares of the world’s largest hamburger chain were down 0.5 percent in afternoon trade after falling as much as 2.6 percent earlier in the session.
McDonald’s posted a 5.8 percent rise in worldwide December sales at restaurants open at least 13 months.
The results are still ahead of most other restaurant operators, but mark a slowdown from the company’s own November and October results, when McDonald’s said same-store sales rose 7.7 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Gov. Rod Blagojevich, taking his defense to television rather than his impeachment trial, lashed out at his accusers Monday and revealed he had considered naming Oprah Winfrey to the U.S. Senate.
The embattled governor told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that the idea of nominating the talk show host came to him as he explored potential candidates for the job that federal prosecutors allege he tried to sell to the highest bidder.
“She seemed to be someone who would help Barack Obama in a significant way become president,” he said. “She was obviously someone with a much broader bully pulpit than other senators.”
Come, I will hide nothing from you: my basic criterion for a decent film is whether or not an exploding starship is in it at any point (although a sufficient number of explosions, preferably involving techno music, will make up for it). So the movie Fireproof neither pinged on my radar, nor am I particularly planning to see it when it comes out on DVD tomorrow.
But I have noticed that it’s being ordered through links to my site, and that made me curious enough to look it up. That led me to Big Hollywood’s article about how the directors have been quietly making successful Christian-friendly independent films for the last few years was very interesting: so was the fact that it managed to score positive reviews from The New York Times and Variety on Rotten Tomatoes. Fireproof has apparently grossed 33.4 million on a 500K budget; I understand that a certain contingent of my readership may roll their eyes at this particular part of the counterculture, but that’s one heck of an ROI. There are indy filmmakers who would hyperventilate at the thought of making half that. Continue reading Fireproof?
…this one was merely due to the prosaic methods of natural decay. Nonetheless, it happened five years ago today, so remember it in whatever way pleases you.
It’s a webcomic called Kitty Hawk, and it looks nicely pulpy. It’s also just getting started, so there’s not the usual “five million pages of backstory to get through first” to worry about. Although that may not be a selling point.
Moe Lane
PS: I should note that Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is probably the best pulp-evocative movie that we’ve had recently, and that Adventure! still does the best job at recreating pulp-era adventures for roleplaying games. I welcome arguments otherwise.
became totally awesome for me:
neither pinged on my radar, nor am I particularly planning to see it when it comes out on DVD tomorrow.
is probably the best pulp-evocative movie that we’ve had recently, and that