Alistair Cooke, the veteran BBC broadcaster who straddled two continents and cultures, has died in his New York home. He was 95.

Cooke was best known to U.S. audiences as the host of PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre," of which he was the host for 22 years — from the show's premiere in 1971 until he retired in 1992. Cooke won an Emmy for the show in 1975.

Cooke's commentaries provided "Masterpiece Theatre" audiences with context about the dramatic productions they were about to see — primarily adaptations of such literary classics as "Emma" and "Then Golden Bowl" or original productions such as "The Six Wives of Henry VIII." The series also featured popular continuing serials, such as "Upstairs, Downstairs," which ran from 1974-77.

Rest In Peace, Alistair.

"There is something ignorant in the way they dismiss the overthrow of a brutal dictator and the sowing of the seeds of basic human freedom in that troubled part of the world."

Former President George H.W. Bush speaking at the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association annual convention.

If you really want to start your own liberal cable television channel, go for it.

If you really want to spend $70 million to make your voice heard, then by all means do it.

But why on earth would you kiss up to Le Worm to try and get a better deal?

The Observer will also report that Mr. Gore approached French-owned Vivendi through French President Jacques Chirac in 2003, hoping to get a better deal from Vivendi CEO Jean-Rene Fourtou.

A California Superior Court judge has thrown out a lawsuit against Walt Disney Co. over hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from Winnie the Pooh, Disney's lawyer Daniel Petrocelli said on Monday.

"It is all over. After 13 years the Winnie the Pooh case is finally over," Petrocelli told Reuters.

I doubt, after 13 years, that the family is going to drop it.

Stephen Slesinger Inc., the family firm with U.S. merchandising rights to the honey-loving bear, had argued that Disney reneged on promises to pay royalties on video cassettes and short-changed it on other items. Disney denied the charges, but warned that losing the case could cost it hundreds of millions of dollars.

Yeah, I bet we see the pooh hit the fan again later this year.

I have been quite busy this past 2 weeks, but the one thing I have not been busy with is reading spam.

I reset the counters on my ZAEP installation last Wednesday and since then ZAEP has already deleted 2,114 messages. As far as I know I have received all of the legitimate email that has been sent to me (since legitimate senders verify they are "real") and I have yet to see a single spam message in my email since the original installation.

Once again, if you have not decided on an anti-spam solution, or you are not happy with the one you have, check out Zaep. They have a free trial period, and I am sure you will be very pleased with the results.