I thought the original Zorro (more properly, The Mask of Zorro) was pretty much a perfect summer movie: Noble heroes, a nasty villian, a totally mesmerizing babe, a zippy pace, great sword fights -- and lots of laughs!

We'll see what the sequel (The Legend of Zorro) brings, but so far, the the critics haven't been kind. Check out the reviews at Rotten Tomatoes.

A study in the journal Nature (reported by the Beeb) finds that captive chimpanzees don't help others in their social group, even when it causes them no inconvenience.

Need more oil? The Saudis say, "Don't worry, we can handle it." But some U.S. government officials say, "don't be so sure." They think the Saudis' oil reserve estimates may be a tad optimistic.

CTV News Toronto reported  that some retailers have already had their Christmas displays up for a week.

Do we really need a two-month Christmas shopping season? I say no.

Nat Hentoff, who has worked for the Village Voice since 1958, writes a paean to the personal as part of the Voice's 50th anniversary special.

Harriet Miers, who just couldn't seem to make anyone happy as a nominee for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, withdrew herself as a candidate today.

The fall of Dubya's discontent continues.

All this happens as Lewis I. 'Scooter' Libby, Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and Karl Rove, Bush's brain, await word of whether they'll be indicted or not in Plamegate.

In his appearance before Parliament's standing committee on Canadian heritage this morning, CBC president Robert Rabinovitch defended his decision to impose a lockout on CMG workers, saying it was the only way to prevent a strike at a more critical time.

This CTV.ca story has video of Rabinovitch's remarks.

Oh, and didja know that the CBC didn't save a dime despite not disbursing paycheques for 5,500 people for seven weeks?

Andrew Heyward is being replaced by CBS's sports boss Sean McManus.

Security concerns have led the BBC to close its office in the Uzebekistan capital of Tashkent.

I managed to avoid the temptation of peeing away two bucks on a Lotto 6/49 ticket -- a decision that became all the more justified when I heard the winning $54M ticket was sold in western Canada.

That being said, here's hoping my dear sweet mother succumbed to greed, won big-time -- and feels inspired to do something really, really nice for her son. :)

Update

Unless mom had some reason to be in Camrose and buy a lottery ticket, my faint hope of her winning big bucks is pretty much zero. Damn. :^)

Robert Rabinovitch, the CBC's prez, will appear before the Commons heritage committee later today.

The Toronto Star's Antonia Zerbisias talked a bit about it in her Monday column.

Albert Schultz talks with the Toronto Star about portraying Lord Black of Crossharbour -- Author, intellectual, wit, ruthless businessman and possible corporate crook.

The Beeb will be starting up an Arabic TV service -- mainly at the cost of its eastern European broadcasts.

Judith Miller and the NYT have started talking about her employment options there -- including severance (saw this first at Canadian Journalist, thanks to a post from Jacques Poitras).