View as a PDF - George W. Bush Garden Gnomes

Orlando Sentinel: PRODUCT: LIV
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DESK: LIV
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DATE: 09-07-2004
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EDITION: FLA
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ZONE: FLA
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PAGE: D1.0
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DEADLINE: 16.30
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OP: tirwin
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COMPOSETIME: 19.56
CMYK
Orlando Sentinel
OrlandoSentinel.com
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2004
SECTION D
CAMPAIGN 2004: POP CULTURE
The
eBay
vote
The campaign is on for memorabilia, with a
bipartisan electorate choosing from a large
field of cleverly collectible candidates.
By LINDA SHRIEVES
SENTINEL STAFF WRITER
A
A gently jabbing
Bush gnome has
been selling to
friends and foes
alike, but a
dartboard (above)
bearing the
likeness of
candidate Kerry
isn’t likely to cross
party lines.
GNOME FROM SAM
GIRTON;
DARTBOARD FROM
NICKY GREENSIDE
s the GOP convention roared
through New York last week, a
bidding war broke out on eBay.
Someone paid $17.49 for a
pin featuring John Kerry and South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle. A half-dozen
others elbowed one another for the
chance to pay $12 for an American Federation of Musicians pin showing Kerry
playing a guitar.
Meanwhile, Republicans bid up to
$10 on a bottle of “W Ketchup,” the
tongue-in-cheek alternative to Heinz.
They vied for a 4-by-7 foot Bush yard
sign, and a handful bid on a deck of
cards featuring 52 reasons to re-elect
George W. Bush.
And people of every political stripe
are bidding up the price of Bush bobbleheads, a Bush jack-in-the-box, and the
latest sensation, the Bush yard gnome.
Long after the chads have been hung,
the bumper stickers have faded and the
passions have died down, there’s one
thing that lasts: campaign memorabilia.
Though die-hard collectors are more
interested in lapel pins than condiments
or bobbleheads, it might be wise to hold
PLEASE SEE
eBAY, D4
MUSIC REVIEW
Country’s king
keeps it simple
on ‘What I Do’
Susan
By JIM ABBOTT
REIMER
SENTINEL POP MUSIC CRITIC
FAMILY MATTERS
Virtual mate
says words you
long to hear
“Hello, honey. How was your
day? I am so glad to have you
home alone with me.
“The house is clean, the dinner
is ready, and I am committed to
give you whatever you need.
“I want to make you feel like a
queen in your own home.’’
Are you aching to hear those
words from your man?
You can cure that ache with a
CD from Internet entrepreneur
James Wilson, producer of Amazing Instant Mate.
“I am just crazy enough to believe that this CD can comfort
lonely people,” said Wilson of Redmond, Mich. “You can tell by the
millions of people going online
looking for love. People want to
feel wanted.’’
Just pop in one of his CDs
(there is a version for men too),
and you will.
It isn’t raunchy. It is barely
PLEASE SEE
COLORSTRIP:
REIMER, D3
ROBERTO GONZALEZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL
Marcus Fontaine points to his smile when asked about his secret for meeting women. He was
among the more than 350 students who auditioned for the WB’s ‘Big Man on Campus.’
Trying to make the grade
UCF students compete for a spot on the reality show Big Man on Campus.
By MARK K. MATTHEWS
SENTINEL STAFF WRITER
Moments after the last hopeful walks away, Luke Conklin
stops smiling and grabs a stack
of applications.
He quickly thumbs through
them, thinking aloud. Too shy,
he says, tossing one aside. Too
young, he says of another.
Then he grabs one off the top
and flashes it to a co-worker.
“How do you think this guy
looks?” he asks, point-blank.
“Short, but cute,” answers a
woman in a white tank top.
And that’s it. Within two
minutes, Conklin and his staff
have sifted through 10 applications, each one representing a
student from the University of
Central Florida.
Two make the cut. The rest
will return to their dorm rooms
and apartments, no longer can-
didates for a new reality show
dubbed the “collegiate version of
The Bachelor.”
“I’m definitely disappointed, I
was looking forward to it,” says
Jackson Strong, one of the eight
eliminated. “But if that’s what
they are going to decide, I’m not
going to cry about it.”
In all, more than 350 students
from UCF auditioned last week
PLEASE SEE
GRADE, D3
With two consecutive best entertainer awards from the Country
Music Association under his big
white hat, Alan Jackson is arguably the reigning king of country
music.
It’s a role that he continues to
handle
with
the easy style
showcased
again on his
new What I
Do, in stores
today.
To his credit, Jackson has
managed
to
resist the kind
Alan Jackson of off-putting
career
deci‘What I Do’ (Arista)
sions that have
★★★★
made
some
(out of five)
other country
megastars
look commercially contrived or
silly.
After the wildly popular postSept. 11 ballad “Where Were You
(When the World Stopped Turning),” Jackson might have exploited the patriotism card, giving Toby “bomb ’em all, let God sort ’em
out” Keith a run for his money.
He might have fallen victim to
PLEASE SEE
JACKSON, D3