Obama heads back to Washington as “cliff” deadline nears

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama was flying back to Washington on Thursday and the top Republican in Congress planned to speak with House of Representatives lawmakers as the clock ticked toward a year-end deadline for action to avert the looming “fiscal cliff” tax hikes and spending cuts.

Markets around the world awaited action in Washington to prevent tax hikes on nearly all Americans and the deep automatic government spending cuts due to kick in at the beginning of next month that could push the U.S. economy back into recession.

Such action, however, remained far from certain, with Republicans and Democrats each insisting the other side move first amid continuing partisan gridlock.

Air Force One carrying Obama from Hawaii took off at about 3 a.m. EST for a journey that can take nearly half a day.

The U.S. Senate was scheduled to meet later on Thursday but on matters unrelated to the “fiscal cliff.” The Democrats control the Senate and the Republicans control the House.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday said through a spokesman that the Senate was ready to consider any bills coming from the House but would take no action on its own.

Speaker John Boehner and other House Republican leaders, who said on Wednesday they were willing to take up a “fiscal cliff” measure only after the Senate acts on one, planned a conference call with Republican House members on Thursday.

The expectation for the call was that lawmakers would be told to get back to Washington within 48 hours to consider anything the Senate might pass.

Weather permitting, that would bring them to Washington with perhaps three days left before the deadline for action. Storms affecting the Midwest, the South and the Northeast played havoc with airline schedules.

“This isn’t a one party or one house problem. This is (that) leaders in both parties in all branches of the government are not willing to make the deal that they know they have to make. Everybody wants their stuff but doesn’t want to give up what they don’t want to give up,” Republican U.S. Representative Steven LaTourette told CNN on Thursday.

The House and Senate passed bills months ago reflecting their own sharply divergent positions on the expiring low tax rates, which went into effect during the administration of Republican former President George W. Bush.

‘ALL TOO SLOWLY’

Democrats want to allow the tax cuts to expire on the wealthiest Americans. Republicans want to extend the tax cuts for everyone.

“We’re in an economy now that is fragile – still recovering, all too slowly. These tax cuts must be extended for the middle class. We need to protect the middle class from that huge tax increase,” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal told CNN.

While Obama and congressional leaders have said that they are willing to negotiate, no substantive discussions are known to have taken place over the holidays and the gap between them appears to remain.

A senior Obama administration official told reporters traveling with Obama that Republican leaders in Congress should step up to head off the looming tax and spending hit.

Congress has proven that it can act swiftly once an agreement is reached. Hope persisted that Republicans and Democrats might come up with a resolution before New Year’s Day that might at least postpone the impact of the tax hikes and spending cuts while further discussions take place.

On that basis, world shares and the euro edged higher on Thursday.

“There is still hope for a last-minute deal, otherwise we’re in for a correction in January. People have already priced in an agreement. Without it, the market can’t stay at these levels,” a Paris-based trader said.

Another battle is just over the horizon in late January or early February over raising the debt ceiling, which puts a limit on the amount of money the U.S. government can borrow to pay its debts and can be raised only with the approval of Congress.

Republican leaders have said they will insist on more budget cuts as a condition of raising the ceiling. Without any action, the U.S. Treasury said on Wednesday the government is set to reach its $ 16.4 trillion debt ceiling on December 31.

The Treasury Department said in a statement it would begin “extraordinary measures” to buy time. Many analysts believe the government can stave the default date off into late February.

(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Alina Selyukh; Editing by Will Dunham)

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‘Boxing Day record’ for web retail

27 December 2012 Last updated at 07:44 ET

By Kevin Peachey Personal finance reporter, BBC News

Record numbers visited UK retail websites on Boxing Day, with analysts suggesting shoppers are also using the internet to identify bargains.

Information service Experian said UK consumers made 113 million visits to retailers’ websites during 26 December.

High Streets are expected to be busy again for the post-Christmas sales, with large department stores such as John Lewis throwing open their doors.

Some big name retailers started their online sales on Christmas Day.

UK internet users made 84 million visits to retail websites on Christmas Eve and 107 million visits on Christmas Day, up 86% and 71% respectively compared to the same days in December 2011, according to Experian.

“The UK sales creep continues to advance so that now the post-Christmas sales are starting before Christmas,” said James Murray, digital insight manager at Experian.

“Five years ago we called it the January sales, before it became the Boxing Day sales, now retailers have to call it the winter sales as discounting starts earlier to encourage higher spending.”

Retail consultants have said that many people heading out to the shops will have already browsed online to choose the items they want.

Activity

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

[The internet] has an influence on the High Street with shoppers doing more research beforehand”

End Quote Matt Piner Founder, Conlumino

The squeeze on family finances is likely to keep the lid on retail sales, especially on big ticket items.

A lack of activity in the housing market is also reducing demand for some household items that might have been replaced as people move home.

However, some positive news in employment levels means that some stores could still record a decent level of sales in the significant post-Christmas sales period.

The first indications of the level of activity in the post-Christmas sales, the footfall figures from Experian, will be published later.

Online research

The growth of the internet means that the peak in sales might already have taken place.

Mr Murray, of Experian, said that 26 December was traditionally the single biggest shopping day of the year online.

And now, shoppers are using digital devices such as tablets and smartphones to search for bargains – then only travel to those specific shops to buy those items.

“The internet has been a huge factor in retail all year, and has an influence on the High Street with shoppers doing more research beforehand,” said Matt Piner, founder of retail research agency Conlumino.

He said items such as laptops and furniture in particular were identified by shoppers during online browsing, rather than in a store.

‘Cautious’

John Lewis, which starts its sale in department stores on Thursday, said it had seen notable activity during its online clearance sale. That started at 1700GMT on 24 December.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

UK retailing is set for another year of tough trading”

End Quote Maureen Hinton Verdict

On Christmas Day, the department store said online sales peaked late in the evening. Items that proved popular included electrical items, sheets and pillowcases, luxury towels and candles.

Analysts said the departure of some high-profile names from the High Street had helped some of the remaining department stores. However, many had targeted “cautious” shoppers with discounts in the run-up to Christmas, according to Rahul Sharma, of Neev Capital, a retail consultancy.

He said that shoppers were offered discounts of 20% to 30% in the build up to Christmas, to tempt them into buying items for themselves, as well as presents.

This meant that clearance sales might be muted this year, with many of the items that stores wanted to shift already having been sold.

Predictions

Analysts have suggested that DIY and gardening will see the strongest performance in the retail sector in 2013, compared with 2012.

Poor weather in the past 12 months meant that sales have been low. This, together with homeowners improving homes ready to go on the market, should lead to a rebound in the coming year, according to Verdict and SAS UK.

The groups predicted that spending on food was likely to raise roughly in line with inflation.

However, they say that music and video spending will be hit the hardest, with a predicted 6.3% fall compared with 2012, owing to online streaming and cheaper internet prices.

The amount people spent online was expected to account for 12% of total retail spending, they added.

“UK retailing is set for another year of tough trading,” said Maureen Hinton, of Verdict.

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VP says Chavez up, walking; doubts persist

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Vice President Nicolas Maduro surprised Venezuelans with a Christmas Eve announcement that President Hugo Chavez is up and walking two weeks after cancer surgery in Cuba, but the news did little to ease uncertainty surrounding the leader’s condition.

Sounding giddy, Maduro told state television Venezolana de Television that he had spoken by phone with Chavez for 20 minutes Monday night. It was the first time a top Venezuelan government official had confirmed talking personally with Chavez since the Dec. 11 operation, his fourth cancer surgery since 2011.

“He was in a good mood,” Maduro said. “He was walking, he was exercising.”

Chavez supporters reacted with relief, but the statement inspired more questions, given the sparse information the Venezuelan government has provided so far about the president’s cancer. Chavez has kept secret various details about his illness, including the precise location of the tumors and the type of cancer. His long-term prognosis remains a mystery.

Dr. Michael Pishvaian, an oncologist at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Cancer Center in Washington, said it was an encouraging sign that Chavez was walking, and it indicated he would be able to return to Venezuela relatively soon. But he said the long term outlook remained poor.

“It’s definitely good news. It means that he is on the road to recover fully from the surgery,” Pishvaian said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “The overall prognosis is still pretty poor. He likely has a terminal diagnosis with his cancer that has come back.”

Pishvaian and other outside doctors have said that given the details Chavez has provided about his cancer, it is most likely a soft-tissue sarcoma.

Chavez first underwent surgery for an unspecified type of pelvic cancer in Cuba in June 2011 and went back this month after tests had found a return of malignant cells in the same area where tumors were previously removed.

Venezuelan officials said that, following the six-hour surgery two weeks ago, Chavez suffered internal bleeding that was stanched and a respiratory infection that was being treated.

Maduro’s announcement came just hours after Information Minister Ernesto Villegas read a statement saying Chavez was showing “a slight improvement with a progressive trend.”

Dr. Carlos Castro, director of the Colombian League against Cancer, an association that promotes cancer prevention, treatment and education, said Maduro’s announcement was too vague to paint a clear picture of Chavez’s condition.

“It’s possible (that he is walking) because everything is possible,” Castro told AP. “They probably had him sit in up in bed and take two steps.”

“It’s unclear what they mean by exercise. Was it four little steps?” he added. “I think he is still in critical condition.”

Maduro’s near-midnight announcement came just as Venezuelan families were gathering for traditional late Christmas Eve dinners and setting off the usual deafening fireworks that accompany the festivities. There was still little outward reaction on a quiet Christmas morning.

Danny Moreno, a software technician watching her 2-year-old son try out his new tricycle, was among the few people at a Caracas plaza who said she had heard Maduro’s announcement. She said she saw a government Twitter message saying an announcement was coming and her mother rushed to turn on the TV.

“We all said, thank God, he’s okay,” she said, smiling.

Dr. Gustavo Medrano, a lung specialist at the Centro Medico hospital in Caracas, said if Chavez is talking, it suggests he is breathing on his own despite the respiratory infection and is not in intensive care. But Medrano said he remained skeptical about Maduro’s comments and could deduce little from them about Chavez’s prognosis for recovery.

“I have no idea because if it was such a serious, urgent, important operation, and that was 14 days ago, I don’t think he could be walking and exercising after a surgery like that,” Medrano said.

Over the weekend, Chavez’s ally, Bolivian President Evo Morales, made a lightning visit to Cuba that only added to the uncertainty.

Journalists had been summoned to cover his arrival and departure in Havana, but hours later that invitation was canceled. No explanation was given, though it could have been due to confusion over Morales’ itinerary as he apparently arrived later than initially scheduled.

Cuban state media published photos of President Raul Castro receiving Morales at the airport and said he came “to express his support” for Chavez, his close ally, but did not give further details. He left Sunday without making any public comments.

For the second day in a row Tuesday, Morales made no mention of his trip to Cuba during public events in Bolivia.

Yet more questions surround Chavez’s political future, with the surgery coming two months after he won re-election to a six-year term.

If he is unable to continue in office, the Venezuelan Constitution calls for new elections to be held. Chavez has asked his followers to back Maduro, his hand-picked successor, in that event.

Venezuelan officials have said Chavez might not return in time for his Jan. 10 inauguration.

Opposition leaders have argued that the constitution does not allow the president’s swearing-in to be postponed, and say new elections should be called if Chavez is unable to take the oath on time.

But government officials have said the constitution lets the Supreme Court administer the oath of office at any time if the National Assembly is unable to do it Jan. 10 as scheduled.

___

Associated Press writers Peter Orsi in Havana, Vivian Sequera in Caracas, Camilo Hernandez in Bogota, Colombia, and Paola Flores in La Paz, Bolivia, contributed to this report.

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Britain’s royal family attends Christmas services

LONDON (AP) — Britain‘s royal family is attending Christmas Day church services — with a few notable absences.

Wearing a turquoise coat and matching hat, Queen Elizabeth II arrived at St. Mary Magdelene Church on her sprawling Sandringham estate in Norfolk. She was accompanied in a Bentley by granddaughters Beatrice and Eugenie.

Her husband, Prince Philip, walked from the house to the church with other members of the royal family.

Three familiar faces were missing from the family outing. Prince William is spending the holiday with his pregnant wife Kate and his in-laws in the southern England village of Bucklebury. Prince Harry is serving with British troops in Afghanistan.

Later Tuesday, the queen will deliver her traditional, pre-recorded Christmas message, which for the first time will be broadcast in 3D.

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Light Therapy Helps Ease Winter Blues

Every October as the clocks are turned back, Jose Balido notices that his mood changes, almost as if his body were going into hibernation.

His limbs are heavy and he has trouble moving around. Simple household chores like loading the dishwasher seem “insurmountable,” he said. But when spring arrives, the lethargy lifts.

“It took me a while to realize what it was,” said Balido, owner of a travel social network site, Tripatini. “I was cranky, short-tempered, depressed, feeling hopeless and having difficulty concentrating.”

Balido, 51, was diagnosed a decade ago with seasonal affective disorder or SAD. The condition affects 62 million Americans, according to Michael Terman, director of the Center for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms at Columbia University and a leader in the field.

About 5 percent of the population experiences the most severe symptoms of SAD — depression and hopelessness — while another 15 percent have the so-called “winter blues” or “winter doldrums.”

The vast majority never fall into full depression, according to Terman, but “plod through winters with slowness and gloominess that takes effort to hide from others.”

Two decades ago, SAD was identified as a legitimate disorder by the National Institute of Mental Health. Since then, the treatment of choice has been light therapy.

Balido, who lives in Miami, sought help from Terman and now undergoes light therapy. He sits in front of a daylight simulator for a half an hour each morning before 10 a.m.

“Within two or three days, the difference was mind-blowing,” he said.

The standard treatment for SAD is 30 minutes of 10,000-lux, diffused, white fluorescent light, used early in the morning. About half the patients are helped quickly — and when treatment is tailored to a person’s individual wake-sleep cycle, remission can climb to 80 percent, according to Terman.

This year, a utility company in the northern Swedish town of Umea installed ultraviolet lights at 30 bus stops to combat the effects of SAD.

“We wanted to celebrate the fact that all our electricity comes from green sources and we wanted to do this in a way that contributed to the citizens in one way or another,” said Umea Energi marketing chief Anna Norrgard in an email to ABCNews.com.

“As it is very dark where we live this time of year, a lot of us are longing for the daylight,” she said. “A lot of us are also a bit more tired this time of year and I would also say we sleep a little bit more. …We wanted to give the citizens of Umea a little energy boost, to be more alert.”

The town is located about 400 miles north of Stockholm. In December, the sun rises at about 10 a.m. and sets around 2:30 p.m. Some towns north of the Arctic Circle have no daylight for several weeks in the winter.

Geography has a strong influence on the prevalence of SAD symptoms, according to Terman.

“The common wisdom is that it’s worse the farther north you live, because winter days are so much shorter,” he said. “Not so simple.”

Columbia research shows that in North America, the incidence of SAD rises from the southern to the middle states, but levels off and stays bad from about 38 degrees North latitude (near such cities as San Francisco, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.) up through the northernmost states and Canada, according to Terman.

But the problem becomes “more severe” at the western edges of the northern states and provinces.

“This important finding reveals the underlying trigger for relapses into winter depression, since the sun rises an hour more later at the western edge of a zone,” said Terman, whose book, “Chronotherapy,” looks at the phenomenon.

Esther Kane, a clinical counselor from Vancouver, Canada, said her practice is filled with patients as the long days descend on British Columbia.

Seasonal Affective Disorder Hits Hard in Canada

“On the West Coast where we live it’s so rampant, I can’t even tell you how many people have it,” said Kane. “Everyone is feeling it with the gray skies and rain. It’s like nighttime all the time here.”

Doctors there routinely prescribe fish oil and vitamin D, as well as light therapy to balance out the sleep hormone melatonin and “boost” the feel-good hormone serotonin, according to Kane. Many are also on antidepressants.

“A lot of people depend on alcohol and drugs all of a sudden,” she said. “They are stuffing themselves with carbs and their food intake is up. They have depression symptoms — what’s the point of getting out of bed in the morning when they feel no energy and there is dark all over them?”

“Some suffer so bad, they can’t function,” said Kane. “Everyone here who can afford to get away for two weeks in the winter, go to Hawaii.”

Even those who live south of the Mason-Dixon Line in the United States can be affected.

Tina Saratsiotis, who works for a faith-based nonprofit group in Towson, Md., was surprised to develop SAD several years ago.

“I used to be a night person and like the dark. Then something changed,” she said. “By fall when it gets darker and the fatigue and sadness comes and by Christmas, it’s difficult to function.”

“It creeps in slowly — I eat more and have trouble concentrating,” she said. “I am more irritable and weeping, like a prolonged version of PMS. It makes it hard to get things done and to enjoy things.”

Columbia’s Terman said there may be genetic influences in who gets SAD — a vulnerability to depression and to insufficient light exposure.

SAD sufferers say it’s especially hard on their relationships when their winter moods kick in.

“Now, he’s very understanding,” said Saratsiotis, who uses both light therapy and antidepressants to deal with the condition. “But before, when I didn’t feel up to going out, I couldn’t explain not feeling great. People wonder, ‘Why doesn’t she like me?’ and, ‘She’s no fun.’”

But when spring rolls around, so does her old self.

“I love the solstice — thank you, Lord, for the solstice,” she said. “I really need [the medication] now, but I may not in the spring and summer.”

But now, in when the days are their shortest, SAD puts a crimp on the holidays.

“It kills Christmas,” said Saratsiotis. “I sit in the middle of the department store with that particular song about the sleigh bells ringing, and I am sobbing. I burst into tears and think, ‘Just kill that song.’”

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Tube drivers in Boxing Day strike

26 December 2012 Last updated at 07:01 ET

BBC News spoke to commuters at Edgware Road station in London, some branding the strike “really inconvenient”

A number of London Underground drivers have gone on strike in a long-running row over bank holiday pay.

Transport for London (TfL) says there is likely to be “significant disruption” to Tube services, and more buses will be laid on.

Members of the Aslef union have walked out for 24 hours after voting 9-1 in favour of strike action.

TfL said limited services were running on the Tube, although there are some services running on all lines.

It urged passengers to check before travelling. There are no services on London Overground.

TfL said the Bakerloo, Central and Victoria lines were running services through central London.

The District, Hammersmith & City, Circle, Metropolitan, Northern and Jubilee lines are running limited services.

The Piccadilly line is operating a shuttle service between Heathrow terminals and Hammersmith, and between Arnos Grove and Cockfosters.

The Docklands Light Railway is also operating, except between Canning Town and Beckton and between Shadwell and Bank.

‘Scandalous actions’

Tfl said services could vary throughout the day depending on the resources available.

It said there would be extra buses for shoppers heading for the West End and for the Westfield shopping centres in east and west London.

Otherwise, the capital’s 700 bus routes will operate a Sunday service.

The congestion charge for vehicles entering central London does not apply during the festive period and there are no on-street parking charges in Westminster.

It is the third successive walkout by Tube drivers on what is the first day of the post-Christmas sales.

Howard Collins, London Underground’s chief operating officer, criticised the union for demanding to be paid “twice for the same work”.

“The scandalous actions of the Aslef leadership are an attempt to hold Londoners to ransom, and demonstrate a wholesale disregard for our customers,” he said.

“We will be running as many services as possible, supported by London’s 700 bus routes, but there will be disruption.”

The disruption, which led to the Premier League derby between Arsenal and West Ham United being postponed, is due to continue with two further walkouts on the last two Fridays in January.

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Jasa SEO Murah

Diseoin.com, Menawarkan Jasa SEO Murah / Optimasi web dan Solusi Internet Marketing. Tim kami berdedikasi dalam Jasa SEO dan memastikan untuk masuk Top 10 peringkat mesin pencari di Google, Yahoo dan MSN.

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Kami adalah team yang full time bekerja untuk Anda! Kecepatan dan best result adalah target kami. Membuat klien kami puas adalah fondasi utama bisnis jasa kami. Bahkan kami berhak untuk tidak menerima uang sepeserpun jika situs Anda tidak masuk dalam 5 besar hasil pencarian google untuk keywords yang anda tentukan!

SEO kami berdasar pada standarisasi SEO Google. Kami memastikan untuk memberikan Jasa SEO sesuai dengan update terbaru Google Panda dan Penguin sehingga klien kami akan mendapatkan hasil terbaik dalam hal peringkat dan keyword ditargetkan. Selain itu diseoin.com termasuk salah satu Jasa Seo Murah Bergaransi di Indonesia yang sudah berpengalaman

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U.N. General Assembly voices concern for Myanmar’s Muslims

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. General Assembly expressed serious concern on Monday over violence between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar and called upon its government to address reports of human rights abuses by some authorities.

The 193-nation General Assembly approved by consensus a non-binding resolution, which Myanmar said last month contained a “litany of sweeping allegations, accuracies of which have yet to be verified.”

Outbreaks of violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and the Rohingyas have killed dozens and displaced thousands since June. Rights groups also have accused Myanmar security forces of killing, raping and arresting Rohingyas after the riots. Myanmar said it exercised “maximum restraint” to quell the violence.

The unanimously adopted U.N. resolution “expressing particular concern about the situation of the Rohingya minority in Rakhine state, urges the government to take action to bring about an improvement in their situation and to protect all their human rights, including their right to a nationality.”

At least 800,000 Muslim Rohingyas live in Rakhine State along the western coast of Myanmar, also known as Burma. But Buddhist Rakhines and other Burmese view them as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh who deserve neither rights nor sympathy.

The resolution adopted on Monday is identical to one approved last month by the General Assembly’s Third Committee, which focuses on human rights. After that vote, Myanmar’s mission to the United Nations said that it accepted the resolution but objected to the Rohingyas being referred to as a minority.

“There has been no such ethnic group as Rohingya among the ethnic groups of Myanmar,” a representative of Myanmar said at the time. “Despite this fact, the right to citizenship for any member or community has been and will never be denied if they are in line with the law of the land.”

(Reporting By Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Paul Simao)

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Just got a new iPhone, iPad or Android device for Christmas? Gameloft cuts popular iOS and Android games to 99¢

Title Post: Just got a new iPhone, iPad or Android device for Christmas? Gameloft cuts popular iOS and Android games to 99¢
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A huge collection of odd TV stuff needs a home

LOS ANGELES (AP) — James Comisar is the first to acknowledge that more than a few have questioned his sanity for spending the better part of 25 years collecting everything from the costume George Reeves wore in the 1950s TV show “Superman” to the entire set of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.”

Then there’s the pointy Spock ears Leonard Nimoy wore on “Star Trek” and the guns Tony Soprano used to rub out a mob rival in an episode of “The Sopranos.”

“Along the way people thought I was nuts in general for wanting to conserve Keith Partridge’s flared pants from ‘The Partridge Family,’” the good-natured former TV writer says of the 1970s sitcom as he ambles through rows of costumes, props and what have you from the beginnings of television to the present day.

“But they really thought I needed a psychological workup,” Comisar, 48, adds with a smile, “when they learned I was having museum curators take care of these pieces.”

A museum is exactly where he wants to put all 10,000 of his TV memorabilia items, everything from the hairpiece Carl Reiner wore on the 1950s TV variety program “Your Show of Shows” to the gun and badge Kiefer Sutherland flashed on “24″ a couple TV seasons ago.

Finding one that could accommodate his collection, which fills two sprawling, temperature-controlled warehouses, however, has sometimes been as hard as acquiring the boots Larry Hagman used to stomp around in when he was J.R. on “Dallas.” (The show’s production company finally coughed up a pair after plenty of pleading and cajoling.)

Comisar is one of many people who, after a lifetime of collecting, begin to realize that if they can’t find a permanent home for their artifacts those objects could easily end up on the trash heap of history. Or, just as bad as far as he’s concerned, in the hands of private collectors.

“Some of the biggest bidders for Hollywood memorabilia right now reside in mainland China and Dubai, and our history could leave this country forever,” says Comisar, who these days works as a broker and purchasing expert for memorabilia collectors.

What began as a TV-obsessed kid’s lark morphed into a full-fledged hobby when as a young man writing jokes for Howie Mandel and Joan Rivers, and punching up scripts for such producers as Norman Lear and Fred Silverman, Comisar began scouring studio back lots, looking for discarded stuff from the favorite shows of his childhood. From there it developed into a full-on obsession, dedicated to preserving the entire physical spectrum of television history.

“After a couple years of collecting, it became clear to me,” he says, “that it didn’t much matter what TV shows James watched in the early 1970s but which shows were the most iconic. In that way, I had sort of a curator’s perspective almost from the beginning.”

In the early days, collecting such stuff was easy for anyone with access to a studio back lot. Many items were simply thrown out or given away when shows ceased production. When studios did keep things they often rented them out for small fees, and if you lost or broke them you paid a small replacement fee. So Comisar began renting stuff right and left and promptly losing it, acquiring one of Herman Munster’s jackets that way.

These days almost everything has a price, although Comisar’s reputation as a serious collector has led some people to give him their stuff.

If he simply sold it all, he could probably retire as a millionaire several times over. Just last month someone paid $ 480,000 for a faded dress Judy Garland wore in the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz.” What might Annette Funicello’s original Mickey Mouse Club jacket fetch?

He won’t even think about that.

“I’ve spent 25 years now reuniting these pieces, and I would be so sick if some day they were just broken up and sold to the highest bidder,” he says.

He, and every other serious collector of cool but somewhat oddball stuff, face two major obstacles, say museum curators: Finding a museum or university with the space to take their treasures and persuading deep-pocketed individuals who might bankroll the endeavor that there’s really any compelling reason to preserve something like Maxwell Smart’s shoephone.

“People hold television and popular culture so close to their hearts and embrace it so passionately,” says Dwight Bowers, curator of entertainment collections for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, who calls Comisar’s collection very impressive. “But they don’t put it on the same platform as military history or political history.”

When the Smithsonian acquired Archie Bunker’s chair from the seminal TV comedy “All in the Family,” Bowers said, museum officials took plenty of flak from those offended that some sitcom prop was being placed down the hallway from the nation’s presidential artifacts.

The University of California, Santa Cruz, took similar heat when it accepted the Grateful Dead archives, 30 years of recordings, videos, papers, posters and other memorabilia gifted by the band, said university archivist Nicholas Meriwether.

“What I always graciously say is that if you leave the art and the music aside for one moment, whatever you think of it, what you can say is they are still a huge part of understanding the story of the 1960s and of understanding the nation’s counterculture,” says Meriwether.

Comisar sees his television collection serving the same purpose, tracing societal changes TV shows documented from the post-World War II years to the present.

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation looked into establishing such a museum some years back, and Comisar’s collection came up at the time, said Karen Herman, curator of the foundation’s Archive of American Television.

Instead, the foundation settled on an online archive containing more than 3,000 hours of filmed oral history interviews with more than 700 people.

While the archive doesn’t have any of Mr. Spock’s ears, anyone with a computer can view and listen to an oral history from Spock himself, the actor Leonard Nimoy.

Comisar, meanwhile, believes he’s finally found the right site for a museum, in Phoenix, where he’s been lining up supporters. He estimates it will cost $ 35 million and several years to open the doors, but hopes to have a preview center in place by next year.

Mo Stein, a prominent architect who heads the Phoenix Community Alliance and is working with him, says one of the next steps will be finding a proper space for the collection.

But, really, why all the fuss over a place to save one of the suits Regis Philbin wore on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”?

“In Shakespeare’s time, his work was considered pretty low art,” Comisar responds.

Oh, he’ll admit that “Mike and Molly,” the modern TV love story of a couple who fall for each other at Overeaters Anonymous, may never rank in the same category as “Romeo and Juliet.”

“But what about a show like ‘Star Trek’?” he asks.

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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