that jacket

How badly does Hala love that blazer of hers? Look up Liz's photobucket account, and I guarantee you that blazer shows up in at least half of them.

Aww. Hala overdose. I would like to thank the French population for voting on the EU referendum, as it gave me an extra hour of Hala today.



Hala: (on the Yoko Ono dress-cutting fundraiser) Good excuse to go shopping.
Richard: You don't need an excuse to go shopping. 'Oh, it's Thursday! Got to go shopping!' 'It's Friday, must go shopping!' What are you talking about, 'a good excuse to go shopping'?"
(i can't remember the date right now. Just, back in the days of Richard-Hala anchoring together)

the night she saved my life

okay, that's overly dramatic, but bear with me.

yesterday i was so depressed i wanted to go into primal scream therapy. i was so violently moody that all i wanted to do when i got home was to crawl into bed and wake up on saturday. maybe even june 4, to make it worth my while.

then i get home and Hala is doing World News (saving me from having to learn my current events through Ralitsa Vassileva). And she's being light-hearted and friendly, not grave and serious. When Guillermo flattered her and said it was "nice to see (her) again," I loved Hala's amused expression, as if she's thinking, "uh huh, yeah right. flattery's not going to get you anywhere, weather boy."

thank God for Hala. i feel much better today.

and who says watching global tragedy unfold isn't uplifting?

Questy and Hala rule.

This is a random thing, just popped in my head after reading the CNNfan anchors forum:
1) Am green with envy for Liz's treasure, and want to have her friend who was nice enough to feed her obsessions.
2) Questy and Hala rule.
3) The only reason Alessio Vinci's forum thread is viewed more often is because few people can ignore an Italian man who is more than just a pretty face. (read what you want in that, Vic)
4) QUESTY AND HALA RULE. especially when they are together. (Michael and Hala come as a close second, and only because they're like the world's most intelligent brother-sister tandem.)

The weekend of June 5, everybody. ItME. June 5. (subject to time zone differences.)

Heh. Time zones. Oh Hala... (*shaking head sympathetically*)


And there's a new thread on the forum for Sumi Das. Sumi!!! You've come a long way!

If you notice there's a new link to the Chad Cleanly comic strip, by a forum guest under the alias Scarlet Termite. It seemed funny enough, and it's based on Bill Hemmer. Anyway, it's something to amuse myself with, you don't have to (look at it) if you don't want to.

Time Zone

What is the deal with Hala's (seeming) inability to calculate time zones? Even when she was in London, she always confused about the time differences, and usually I'd be LMAO about this clueless behavior, but since it's Hala I'm more than willing to forgive her.

> Coming up is World Sport. I'm sorry, I can't calculate the time... it's 8:00 GMT right now...
(20 November 2004)

> We hope you took note of those time zones... There'll be a quiz on those time zones later.
(19 May 2005)

> We're still trying to figure out the whole GMT thing.
(20 May 2005)

Oh Hala. Look at the clocks in the control room.

co-anchor duties

Hala was on Your World Today!!! with Michael Holmes!!! oh thank god somebody who controls these things realized how brilliant Hala can be with a co-anchor. She was (as she usually is) so funny, and cute, and just plain adorable, and you can't imagine how embarassed I am to know I'm using these words to describe a CNN anchor.
More Hala, come on! Put her with Michael more often, for pete's sake. Come on, CNN producers, make me happy.

But somebody's got to do something about those lights in the studio.

In a galaxy far, far away...

Last weekend, George Lucas premiered the third installment of the Star Wars prequel in the Cannes film festival. Last Sunday (Monday here, Sunday to everyone else including Hala), Hala said:

Hala: Now it was 28 years ago when film maker George Lucas first took us to his galaxy far, far away. Sunday night he unveiled the final installment of the series at the Cannes film festival in France. In Star Wars: The Revenge Of The Sith fans will finally learn what caused Anakin Skywalker (stumbles over the name and laughs) – see you can tell, you can tell I’m not absolutely a fan as much as some people are – to become the....

And then, yesterday, just to make me happy, Monita was waxing rhapsodic about the opening of Star Wars, while Richard looked on with an expression that could be described as bemusement.

I find this so amusing because while Hala stays true to form and is not a Star Wars fan, I never expected Monita to be one.



I have something in common with Monita.

questy

Because Hala pissed me off by knowing who Katie Holmes is, I will talk about Questy first.

Why am I not surprised that for CNN's 25th anniversary, the story Richard chose to discuss is the last Concorde flight? I know I've often mentioned how Hala openly mocked his excitement over being part of the flight, but... Okay, it was historic (for tech geeks and Questy fans), but would it really change your life?
Ahh, fine. I'd love to have been part of that flight too, only without the other celebrities on it (Elizabeth Taylor? shouldn't you be, oh, i don't know, getting married?)

Now: Hala. Hala, how can you betray me so? Giving Katie Holmes' opportunistic behavior the benefit of the doubt? Is this because you like Tom Cruise (I sincerely hope you don't, because that would be so... American of you)?
Speaking of celebrities, I remember Hala talking to Christian Slater. Now, I used to have a wicked crush on Christian Slater (I'm over it, thankyouverymuch), and if I had any way to create still photos from the TV...
Aggh. Okay. Earlier (5am here) Hala was talking to some guy (their gossip guy or something from LA), and he talked of two things: Episode 3(!!!) and Tom and Katie. Now, I already know Hala has very little interest in Star Wars (not a fan, Hala? Talk to Monita, she might enlighten you on The Force ;) ), but defending Katie Holmes?
We need to talk.

Hogwarts

In "You Nerd", I pointed out that Richard talks about Harry Potter and Hala can't care less. A few years back, around the release of Book 5, and the first paragraph was read out on what I think was still Biz News, and after Richard read the excerpt, he asked Hala if she follows the series. When she said no, he said he would "give (her) a copy".
I bring this up for two reasons: one, book 6 is coming out, and I wonder if he followed through on trying to get Hala to read this ridiculously brilliant series. The second: the other day, Richard wore his striped tie that when I saw it, I was like, "Gryffindor?" Now, I actually asked Liz/Tina/Hala'sbiggestfan for a still of Richard's tie, thinking it was new. She followed through, but I was stupid enough to not check her photobucket account first ()

Check it out:

unorthodox

first: the Orthodox Easter celebrations. How funny was that? My mom even noted that only Hala can make a simple report sound even more off-beat than it already is.

But: ItME. and Quest. Was a little unhappy that the explosions in Cairo interrupted the replay of Quest on our Saturday night, but I'd seen it already that morning anyway. And Hala speaking Arabic! Yes, we've heard her do so before, but she did it quite a lot this time.

Inside the Middle East. Hala and Robyn (Curnow, to the uninitiated) in the same half-hour. Nice. I wonder how much of a homecoming Hala's visit to Aleppo is. The road trip feel of her segment? Priceless. It's so nice to see Hala out of the studio. She's so lively and vibrant, and reveals how personable she can be instead of being one of the best talking heads ever.
But who else loved how she almost slipped at the tail end of the show? As she was telling us to email at mideast@cnn.com, i don't know who else saw it, but she definitely took a semi-stumble.

And, Quest. Stephen Colbert once said that nothing takes the fun out of comedy than trying to analyze it, but Richard did a pretty good job of analyzing it and still managing to keep it funny.

I take it back. THIS was the best weekend ever. (Labor Day holiday included) I got Hala, Richard, Robyn, Liz George (c/o MainSail), The Daily Show, Andrea and Questy doing CNN Today, and Max Foster!

happy happy joy joy and



now if only Richard and Hala could co-anchor again...