Jay Maynard

I got a check today for my first appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Not a whole pile of bucks, but not chump change, either. (It might be for a star, but not for me.) I'm expecting another check this time next week, and it'll be for a little more money - I was listed as a panel guest for the first show, and a principal performer for the second. (Dunno what the difference is, but it's about a 30% raise.)

The real hit will be when I get a bill for the AFTRA initiation fee, though; it'll probably wipe out my earnings to date.

Update: They won't send me a bill. If I do more than a specific number of appearances in a certain length of time (the talent coordinator said she thought it was 3 in a month, but she wasn't sure), then I'll have to agree to send future pay to AFTRA until the initiation fee is paid. I get to keep the money I've already received.

If there weren't any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, where did terrorists get an artillery shell designed to release sarin gas on detonation, as reported in this CNN story? Or another shell containing mustard gas?

No, they didn't get them from the US. The US military, by law, cannot use chemical weapons, and has none that would be safe to use...and would have none at all if it weren't for environmentalists blocking all efforts to destroy the ones stockpiled for decades and unsafe to use.