Elections in my old fatherland

Natal-kwaZulu has been holding elections. The current president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, who is a Zulu, attended.

Zululand voting goes from bad to wors:

Voting at the town hall in Eshowe in KwaZulu-Natal, turned into a meat-and-greet on Wednesday as residents lining up to vote in South Africa's 2011 municipal elections were met with competing political choruses -- and boerewors rolls.

With president Jacob Zuma due to pop in at the voting station on Wednesday afternoon the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) -- which runs the municipality -- was embroiled in a sing-off with supporters of their traditional opponents, the African National Congress (ANC).

Political songs were exchanged at high volume, with the IFP upping the ante of the outdoor-festival vibe by serving up mini boerewors rolls to punters from its own braai set-up.

Whether the size of the sausage matters to voters in Eshowe will only become evident once the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) starts tallying up the votes after the 7pm cut-off time this evening.

That's quite cheering considering that as little as ten years ago hundreds of people would be killed whenever the IFP and the ANC faced off in elections in Zululand.

"The Closer" not closing yet - and Mark Pellegrino

TNT is reopening "The Closer::

EW has learned exclusively that TNT just ordered six additional episodes of its veteran hit, extending its final season to prepare for a possible spin-off. The network expects to air the previously announced 10 episodes this summer, followed by five in the winter … and now another six in the summer of 2012.

The final six will be the swan song for star Kyra Sedgwick (Brenda Leigh Johnson), while likely introducing a new central character who will headline the spin-off.

The new show’s working title is…

Major Crimes.

On May 18, 2011, TNT announced that the spin-off, entitled Major Crimes and starring Mary McDonnell as Captain Sharon Raydor, had been picked up for a 10-episode season.

The 11th episode, "Necessary Evil", will air on November 28, 2011.

Well, since the most important "necessary evil", let's hope it's about Brenda investigating why Michelle murdered Barry with her bare (but muscular) hands.

Here's some stuff that I found about Brenda's swishy gay attorney:

From The Closer Forum:

I found this article on a LOST board which related to The Closer. Haven't read this information anywhere else as of yet, but the article tells us who is playing Brenda's lawyer and a little bit about the character.

Lost's Jacob is coming to the aid of The Closer. Actor Mark Pellegrino, who also played Supernatural's Lucifer, will recur on the TNT series beginning in mid-August.

Pellegrino will play Brenda's high-powered defense attorney Gavin Baker, described by executive producer James Duff as "brisk, gay and formidable. He is ruthless in court and still manages to project an air of friendly professionalism."

Mark's character specializes in defending police officers in civil actions. Brenda will require his help after she is sued by the family of a gang member she placed in harm's way. "Though he is easy to like, Gavin is extremely dangerous to underestimate," Duff adds. "He is the only person on earth who can make Brenda hang up her cell phone.

(BTW James Duff is the show's creator and writes and directs most of the episodes.)

Mark Ross Pellegrino (born April 9, 1965) is an American actor of film and television:

Pellegrino lives in Los Angeles with his wife Tracy Aziz, stepdaughter Tess and stepson Misha. He is a teacher at the repertory theater company "Playhouse West", a west coast division of Sanford Meisner's Neighborhood Playhouse in [New York City]. Pellegrino was baptized as a born-again Christian in his mid-20s but now considers himself more "spiritual/philosophical".

I hope Pellegrino acts in the spin-off as the lawyer. His character may be ultra-campy but it's also dry and wry. True camp is always ironical and irony is often simply good-natured and understated (but lethal) sarcasm.

Croatia

The movie that we watched last night, Chekov's The Duel, was filmed there and you saw how stunning the Adriatic coast is. How about this?

Are these the world's most beautiful waterfalls?

The idyllic Plitvice Lakes National Park in the Lika region of Croatia could stake a claim as one of the most spectacular holiday parks on the planet.

The picturesque park has 16 stunning blue-green Plitvice Lakes, which are separated by natural dams of travertine limestone on the Plitvice plateau.

There are two more pics at the link.

More from Jackie

Mrs Kennedy reveals she enjoyed having her husband 'proud of her':

[She] saw no reason to have a policy opinion that wasn't the same as his and laughed at the thought of 'violently liberal women' who preferred the more effete Adlai Stevenson to her husband.

She said: 'Jack so obviously demanded from a woman - a relationship between a man and a woman where a man would be the leader and a woman be his wife and look up to him as a man.

'With Adlai you could have another relationship where - you know, he'd sort of be sweet and you could talk, but you wouldn't ever... I always thought women who were scared of sex loved Adlai.'
...
She referred to French president Charles de Gaulle, whom she famously charmed on a visit to Paris, as 'that egomaniac' and 'that spiteful man'.

While she thought Indira Gandhi, the future prime minister of India, was a 'prune - bitter, kind of pushy, horrible woman.'
...
Meanwhile White House speechwriter Theodore Sorensen had a 'big inferiority complex' and was 'the last person you would invite at night.'