Saturday 9

Saturday 9: American Pie (1971)

1) In the lyrics, Don McLean refers to having once been a paper boy. When you were a kid, what job or household chores did you do for spending money? I babysat local kids for $1/hour, $1.50/hour after midnight. It's still the best job I ever had. The wee ones always went to bed early, so I got paid to watch TV and eat potato chips.



2) Them good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye. What's the last drink you ordered?
An airmail -- rum, honey, lime and a touch of sparkling wine. 

3) He drove to the levee but it was dry. When is the last time it rained where you are? This afternoon. And yesterday. And probably tomorrow. I'd complain about it, except then I remember all the news stories I heard about drought when I was in LA. The rain really is our friend!

4) When McLean was working on the song, he wrote the lyrics out in long hand. It took him 16 pages of lined notebook paper. Today it's a laptop/smartphone/tablet world, and Sam can't remember the last time she hand wrote anything longer than a sign on her front door that read, "Bell broken. Plz knock." What about you? What's the last thing you wrote with pen or pencil? I take notes in longhand all the time in meetings, scribbling all over any handouts I'm given.
 
5) McLean's most recent CD is called "Addicted to Black," in reference to Olivia in The Twelfth Night. Quick! Without looking it up, name another character from Shakespeare. Petruchio. I've always thought he was hot, and never more charming than when he was played by David Addison on Moonlighting. This clip makes me want to dig out those DVDs and have a Blue Moon binge.



6) Don was born in New Rochelle, New York, which was named one of The Best Walking Cities in America by the American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA). What about your neighborhood? Is it easily walkable? Very.

7) In 1971, the year this song was popular, Walt Disney World officially opened. Have you ever been to DisneyLand or Disney World? Yes. I'd love to go back, to either one.

8) Also in 1971, Mattel introduced Malibu Barbie. This doll was a "sun-loving California girl" and had a distinct tan. Have you ever used a tanning bed? Not in 20 years.

9) American Pie is also the name of a 1999 movie. Have you seen it? Not the whole thing. Just seems like such a guy movie.

Ah!

It's 6:00 on Friday and I'm already done with the grocery shopping and laundry.

For all I complain about my job -- and, boy, could I* -- summer Fridays is a benefit I dearly love. The office officially closes at 1:00. Sometimes I slip out even earlier, since people start drifting out at noon and no one plans meetings for Fridays. I stayed a little later today, talking to Long Tall Sally (formerly known as The New Girl, but since a newer team member starts on Monday, she needs a new nom de blog). But still, I was back here by 2:30.

And now, when I wake up tomorrow, there's nothing I need to do. No errands, no appointments. I can't tell you how deluxe that feels.

*I'm looking at you, Christine!

Hooked

I can't get enough of this story. It's so jaw-droppingly dramatic I can barely believe it's real.

More than a week ago, two very bad men broke out of a maximum security prison. Using power tools to cut through a steel wall. The cheeky bastards even left a Post-It note for their erstwhile captors that said, "Have a nice day." And then they crawled through a series of tunnels until they emerged on the outside ... through a manhole cover. C'mon now, tell me this doesn't sound like a 1980s action movie.

Except John McLane was a very good man

The thing of it is, once they emerged from the manhole cover, their plan fell apart. Because their ride didn't show up. So they've been scraping by -- probably in the rural area right outside the prison. In the rain. Possibly eating out of garbage cans.

Now today a 51-year-old woman who worked in the prison tailor shop has been arraigned for helping the two very bad men. Because one of the men made her feel "special," she somehow managed to provide them with hacksaw blades and lighted goggles. On the day of the break, she checked herself into a hospital because of "extreme nerves." Law enforcement suspects she was supposed to be waiting for them when they came up through the manhole cover, but she got extreme cold feet.

Her name is Joyce Mitchell. I swear I knew what she'd look like before they released her photo. Though I was surprised to learn that she has a husband instead of a house full of cats.

While I'm riveted, and am casting the movie in my head, I do pray this comes to a peaceful resolution. I especially hope no hostages are taken pr law enforcement officers injured when these two very bad men are inevitably apprehended.

THURSDAY THIRTEEN #239

Commemorated by countries the world over

The "Isn't She Lovely?" Edition: 

THIRTEEN THINGS ABOUT PRINCESS GRACE

Tuesday night my classic movie group watched Dial M for Murder. Later this summer, we've got Rear Window and To Catch a Thief on tap. All three movies starred Hitchcock's favorite leading lady, Grace Kelly. Consequently I have been giving some thought to the iconic blonde who won an Oscar and turned her back on Hollywood to become Her Serene Highness, Princess Grace.

1) Grace Patricia Kelly was born in Philadelphia to John and Margaret Kelly. The family was prominent, since her father was an Olympic Gold Medalist and served as FDR's Director of Physical Fitness. 

2) Looking at her, it's hard to believe that within the Kelly clan, her older sister Peggy was considered "the pretty one." Yet that's what Grace told interviewers, and her father unapologetically confirmed it.

3) As a student at a conservative all-girl Catholic high school, she modeled at charity fashion shows and discovered she enjoyed the attention. It was then that she began to consider a life on stage. Her parents were emphatically against it, with John Kelly calling actresses "just a slim cut above street walkers."

4) Still, upon graduation, she went to New York to study acting. It was an uncharacteristic act of rebellion against her strong-willed parents, but she did it with the complete support of the Kelly family black sheep, her playwright uncle, George Kelly.

5) She found early success in New York not onstage but on television. Her small parts in TV dramas and on commercials got her noticed by casting agents in Hollywood. Her big break came as Gary Cooper's young Quaker bride in High Noon.

6) She made just 11 movies, but every one of them was prestigious. She worked with the best directors, writers and fellow actors. Director John Ford credited her inherent "breeding, quality and class" for the way she commanded respect on screen. She was twice nominated for an Oscar and won the coveted statuette in 1954 for The Country Girl.

7) For such a beautiful and successful woman, Grace Kelly was surprisingly unlucky at love. Biographers agree that once she got to Hollywood, she fell into ill-advised on-set relationships with her leading men, most of whom were older (Clark Gable) or both older and married (Bing Crosby, Ray Milland, Gary Cooper). This reportedly left her disillusioned.

8) So when Prince Rainier III began wooing her, she was intrigued and receptive. He was age appropriate, sophisticated, and from a completely different milieu than the Philadelphia Mainline families and Hollywood entertainment types that had surrounded Grace. Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi received his education in England, Switzerland and France, was decorated for heroism during WWII and returned to Monaco to become its sovereign prince … all before his 27th birthday.

9) In April, 1956, Grace Kelly became her Serene Highness, Princess Grace of Monaco. She never made another movie, though Hitchcock tried to coax her out of retirement by promising her the lead, opposite Sean Connery, in Marnie. When she refused, the part went to Tippi Hedren. In the mid 1970s, director Herbert Ross offered her the lead in The Turning Point. Since she had given up acting to be a princess and mother, Ross thought she could relate to the role of Didi, who gave up the big city and professional ballet for family life in Oklahoma City. Herbert Ross was no more successful than Hitchcock had been, and the part of Didi was played by Shirley MacLaine.

10) Together Grace and Rainier had three children, Princess Caroline, Prince Albert II (who currently sits on the throne) and Princess Stephanie.

11) Princess Grace is remembered by Monegasqes for more than just glamor.

•  She founded AMADE Mondial, a  charity so successful in helping underprivileged children throughout the world that it was recognized by the United Nations. Today, her oldest daughter Princess Caroline continues her work with the organization.

•  She was also an outspoken advocate and fundraiser for the La Leche League and was dedicated to helping young mothers understand the benefits of breast feeding.

•  Her Princess Grace Foundation funded local artists.

12) When Lady Di had a difficult time adjusting to her role as Princess of Wales, Grace reached out to her with support and counsel. This photograph was taken the night they met, and they continued to correspond until the end of Grace's life.

13) In 1982, she had a stroke. She was driving herself and daughter Stephanie through the French countryside when she was stricken and lost control of the vehicle. Stephanie survived the crash but Princess Grace died at age 52.

Please join us for The NEW THURSDAY THIRTEEN. Click here to play along, and to see other interesting compilations of 13 things.

A very pleasant "huh, wha ..." moment

I have been thinking about Caitlyn Jenner a lot because ... well, she's everywhere. The Kardashian media machine is firing on all cylinders. Also because, like all sports fans of my generation, Bruce Jenner meant something to me. He was courageous, he was dishy, he was the best. And now he's a she. That kinda thing captures a Gal's attention.

I do not pretend to remotely understand what happened to Bruce Jenner. I'm not for her transition. I'm not against her transition. I simply respect her transition. Or, put another way:

"I haven't walked in her shoes. I don't have all the answers to the mysteries of life," he said. "I can only imagine the torment that Bruce Jenner went through. I hope he's -- I hope she has found peace."

The above was said in IOWA by Presidential Candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). It would have been very easy for him, in that setting to embrace the hate being spewed by right wing talk show hosts. After all, that inflammatory rhetoric has made these cynical broadcasters very rich.

Instead he chose to be compassionate, sincere and -- dare I say it? -- patriotic. This is, after all, a nation founded on religious freedom. We don't have a national religion, and to hear a legislator speak with sensitivity but not judgement about Jenner's private, individual choice feels very American to me.

Foreign policy? Sen. Graham are on opposite sides. But Lindsey Graham just made my Monday morning and gave me hope for civility and decency in what Roosevelt called The Arena.

Sunday Stealing

Would You Rather?


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Would you rather go into the past and meet your ancestors or go into the future and meet your great-great grandchildren? Since there's no way I'll have great-great grandchildren, I'll have to go with meeting my ancestors. Though I've gotta tell you, I don't feel any great connection to my family's long-ago history, which took place in Europe. I'd rather know what it was like to live here in Illinois hundreds of years ago.

 

Would you rather have more time or more money? Money.

Would you rather have a rewind button or a pause button on your life? Rewind.

Would you rather be able to talk with the animals or speak all foreign languages? Oh, how I would love to be able to talk with the animals!

Would you rather win the lottery or live twice as long? Lottery. I imagine living twice as long and outliving everyone I care about would be heartbreaking.

Would you feel worse if no one showed up to your wedding or to your funeral? Funeral, but only because I won't be having a wedding for no one to show up to.

Would you rather be without internet for a week, or without your phone? Phone. I really don't use it that often. And I feel positively bereft without the internet!

 

Would you rather meet George Washington, or the current President? 

I'm proud of Chicago's very own

While I think meeting any President would be an honor, there are others I'd rather meet. If you read this blog regularly, you know I feel the greatest emotional connection to Abe and JFK. And wouldn't FDR, Jefferson, Truman and Nixon be fascinating, too? Washington and Obama would certainly come in before, say, Franklin Pierce, but neither is in my Top 10. But I'm going to run the Obamas photo here, just to piss off the haters.

Would you rather lose your vision or your hearing? My hearing. I can't imagine not being able to read or look at photos or see the sky. 

Would you rather work more hours per day, but fewer days or work fewer hours per day, but more days? Fewer days

Would you rather listen to music from the 70’s or music from today? I do listen to more music from the 70s than from today.

Would you rather become someone else or just stay you? Who would that someone else be?

Would you rather be Batman or Spiderman? Batman. Clearly.

Would you rather be stuck on a broken ski lift or in a broken elevator? Elevator.

 

For your birthday, would you rather receive cash or gifts? Cash.

Such a funny girl

I've watched Mike and Molly a few times and don't really like it. It doesn't feel like it has anything to do with Chicago, where it supposedly takes place, and I don't sense any chemistry among the castmembers.

My lukewarm response to Melissa McCarthy's TV show makes my enthusiasm for her movies surprising. But I've completely enjoyed her in Bridesmaids, The Heat, St. Vincent and now Spy. She plays a smart but self conscious low-level CIA operative (when she was a little girl, her mother left notes in her lunchbox that said, "Give up on your dreams") who becomes a force of nature. And, oh, is she ever funny when she dispatches her nemeses.

At one point she says, "I'm not one to toot my own horn. But you know what? I'm gonna toot."

You go, Melissa. You toot. You are one funny girl. Thank you for an entertaining afternoon at the movies.

PS And who knew Jude Law could be funny?

He was a champ!

Who's a good boy? Rey-Rey is a good boy!

He had his annual check up and he's not only healthy (thank God), he was completely agreeable about the entire experience. He was not at all resistant to the carrier and we saved cabfare by walking all the way to and from the vet. He seemed to enjoy being out in the sunshine. He was responsive and friendly to the vet and the techs who examined him.

He's been far more quiet today than usual. I think the shock of being outdoors -- a rarity for this indoor-only cat -- and being handled by new people tuckered him out. Maybe I'll have to take him to the park on summer Saturdays. I can read and he can watch the leaves and the squirrels and the people from his carrier.

Saturday 9

Saturday 9: You're No Good (1974)

... because Harriet suggested Linda Ronstadt

1) This week's featured artist, Linda Ronstadt, turns 69 next month. Will you be celebrating any family/friend birthdays this summer? I just celebrated Barb's birthday with dinner and the Gloria Estefan play. It was fun. My friend John and I are celebrating his landmark 60th within The Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field. I am soooo excited!

2) Linda sings that she's learned her lesson and it's left a scar. Tell us how you got one of your scars. In 2013 I had a mole removed from my lip. It was the only thing I had in common with Cindy Crawford, and now it's gone. Anyway, the plastic surgeon did a very good job and all that's there is a thin, vertical scar that looks like a laugh line.

3) This song is about a lover who is, obviously, no good. Let's be more positive. Who is the nicest person you know? I suppose my friend Mindy. She tries to see the good in everyone.

4) Linda says that she grew up on Mexican music, which was sung by her entire family. Do you speak any Spanish? Una muy pequeña

5) She toured often throughout her career and is quoted as saying, "they haven't invented a word for that loneliness that everybody goes through on the road." Are you missing someone right now? Yes

6) Ms. Ronstadt was once involved with George Lucas of Star Wars fame. Who is your favorite Star Wars character? Not really. I never enjoyed those movies.
  
7) In 1974, when this song was a hit, The Magic 8 Ball was still a top-seller at toy stores. It retailed for just $1.99, and promised that all you had to do was gaze at it, concentrate, and wait to learn your fate ... "if you dare!" If you could get an answer to one question about the future, what would you ask? How soon will icky Christine be out of my life?

8) 1974 is the year when Mikhail Baryshnikov defected to the United States. Have you ever been to the ballet? Yes. And back in the 1980s I saw Mischa twice: first in a Sinatra/Twyla Tharp piece and then in Le Corsaire. It was thrilling. Watching him dance was like watching Michael Jordan play. It's a privilege to be in the presence of that level of awesome. I'm so lucky to live in a world class city.

9) Random question: What's your shoe size? 6.5. Used to be a 6. Everything spreads with age.

I'm not sorry

I think I hate her.

Christine is the woman my agency brought in, on a free lance basis, to help with my projects until The New Girl gets up to speed. With luck, Christine will be gone around the Fourth of July.

She worked at my agency for 5 years, where she was a (la-de-dah) Vice President. Eight years ago she was let go when her client left us for another agency. Now she's back, as a contractor in a far more junior position. Only she's not acting junior. She's all bossy pants.

"You need to do this …"
"You need to give me that …"

You need to bite my fat ass, Granny. You're not a VP anymore, you're a free lance account exec sitting out in the open, just like the rest of us.

She's tight with my boss and consults him about everything first. Then she asks me what I think we should do (these are my projects, after all) as though she hadn't already spoken to my boss.  She sets herself up as the savior of us benighted savages when she talks to upper management, even though I have explained to her time and again that she's simply wrong about her suppositions. I think she's wangling for a full time position again. Oh, good. Then I can work with someone on a daily basis who alternately doesn't give me what I need and tries to make me look like a failure.

So I went to her boss, The New Girl. TNG likes me because I am, indeed, good at this job, despite what Christine seems to think. I told The New Girl that if I was her, I'd get Christine out of here as soon as possible. That Christine seems to have an agenda that is not about the work at hand, and if she is trying to make me look bad to upper management -- and I'm not even in the way of her possible plans for global domination -- it's more than just possible she's running The New Girl into the ground, too.

Bottom line, Christine: You want to exploit your relationship with my boss? Then I'll exploit mine with yours.

I suppose I should feel bad about being manipulative, but I don't. I want this bitch gone. I have a lot of work to do these days, and I'm enjoying it, and I'm not going to let her get in my way.

Sometimes I worry that I may have backed the wrong horse -- that they may decide to keep Christine and let TNG go. It seems unlikely, though. Christine really does look every minute of her 60 years and this is an industry that idolizes youth. And another new, young (cheap) account exec (Ellen) is starting on May 15th and I don't know how much free lance money we've got in the budget.

So I think I'm halfway through Christine's siege. Let's hope her reign of terror is free of bloodshed.

The nature of celebrity

Last night we saw On Your Feet, the Broadway-bound musical that's premiering here in Chicago. It's the life story/love story of Gloria and Emilio Estefan. If you like her music (and I've been singing "Conga" to the cats all morning), you'll like this production. And Emilio wishes he's as hot as Josh Segarra, who plays him so adeptly.

For me, the most interesting part of the evening was my friend Barb's reaction. She was only there because the show was part of our subscription series. As we were taking our seats in the first row of the loge, she said, "What is this again?"

Barb, who is gloriously pop culture challenged, knew little or nothing about the Estefans. The 1990 bus wreck, which is an integral part of the show, was a newsflash to her. She liked the music, but it was clear that she was hearing some of the hits for the first time.

During intermission, when Barb came back to our seats, I pointed to the commotion on the main floor. People were gravitating to the center like antelope moving to a water hole. There were Gloria and Emilio, watching the preview shows from the seats, just like the rest of us.*

"Which one is she?" Barb kept asking, squinting over the railing.

"The one with her arm around the woman in the coral jacket."

"I don't recognize her. What's she doing now?"

"Taking a selfie with a woman in a black blouse."

Then Barb dug her phone out of her purse, leaned waaaaay over the railing,  and kept trying to focus on Gloria Estefan. Even though she didn't know which one was Gloria Estefan, even though she barely recognized any of Gloria Estefan's hits.

Because Gloria Estefan is famous.

* When The Last Ship and The Producers had their pre-Broadway runs in Chicago, Sting and Mel Brooks chose to watch from the wings.

WWW.WEDNESDAY

This meme is no more. And yet I persist in answering the three questions it asked each week. Stubborn, ain't I?

1. What are you currently reading? Edith Head's Hollywood by Edith Head with Paddy Calistro. I just started this book, so I don't have a lot to say about it yet. I picked it up in April at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books because I wanted to buy something about Hollywood while I was in Hollywood. And who better personifies Hollywood than Edith Head? She won a record eight Oscars for costume design, she worked for Hitchcock and dressed just about everybody who was anybody between the 40s and 70s: from Bette Davis and Ginger Rogers to Grace Kelly and Liz Taylor, from Elvis to Redford. I hope it's full of dish.

2. What did you recently finish reading? Night Night, Sleep Tight by Hallie Ephron. Hallie takes a sensational real-life murder -- when the daughter of screen star Lana Turner kinda sorta accidentally stabbed Mom's mafioso lover -- and fictionalizes it. In this book, a famous murder case is suddenly revisited 20 years later when a semi-retired screenwriter is found dead in the pool of his no longer grand Beverly Hills home. He happened to have been at a screen legend's home that long ago night when her mobster boyfriend was stabbed to death. Some of the darker aspects of the dead writer's life come to light, and the authorities begin wondering if his death wasn't an accident, after all, but instead was connected to the scandalous happenings of decades earlier.

This is my second Ephron mystery. I enjoyed it more than the first, There Was an Old Woman. It has everything I liked in the first book -- a distinct sense of time and place and good dialog -- but this one also has a better plot. I didn't guess whodunnit until the villain was revealed.

But here's the thing: the penultimate scene could not have happened as written. It just couldn't. It would take too long and one of the people involved would certainly be noticed as missing and ... Let's just say I'm not sorry I read the book. I'm just sorry I finished because the ending almost ruined it for me.

3.  What will you read next? I don't know. 

Extra Innings!

I haven't posted much about the Cubs so far this season, but that doesn't mean I haven't been following them. This is a talented, young team led by a charismatic manager and I thoroughly enjoy watching them.

Yesterday, they heated up an unseasonably chilly Sunday with an 11th inning, 2-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals. Unlike years gone by, no game is over until the final out. These kids are always in it.

Sunday Stealing

Click here to play

Have you ever played the bongos? Yes, but not well.

Have you ever handled a snake? Touched? Yes. Handled? No. But snakes don't scare me, so I'm not averse.

Have you ever assembled furniture by yourself? Yes.

When did you last go to the beach? Christmas Day. My friend and I were walking the beach in Key West and met a couple who made celebrating Christmas morning at the beach a tradition. Every year they bring their tree to Higgs Beach and decorate it. I hope we run into them again Christmas 2015.

When if ever did you last go to London? Alas, I've never been.

What do you do to cool down when its hot? Retire to the AC.

What's the most unusual thing you've ever eaten? I once had shark for lunch at the Taste of Chicago. It tasted like any other fish would, baked and breaded and smothered in tomato sauce and capers. But still, it was shark!

Do you have a favorite mug?  During the summer, it's my Cub mug.

Do you know any self-defense or martial arts? Nope.

Who's your favorite movie action hero? My favorite action hero in one of my all-time favorite movies.

Have you ever ridden a motorcycle? Ridden? Yes. Driven? No.

Do you collect anything? If it's Beatle-related, I want it.


Is there anything you wished would come back into fashion? I don't think a bag can be too big, so I'd like to see massive purses come back.

Do you stick to conventional fashions or like to try and be original? In fashion, I am conservative.

Have you ever given someone a handmade present? A few Christmases ago, I baked cookies for my best friend, who is a foodie.

If you could have any feature from an animal what would you want? I'd like to have my cats' sense of hearing.

I hope he's gay

My oldest friend has been having a terrible time since she moved to California. She's had health problems, money problems, family problems ... and she has precious little support.

I've tried to convince her to make friends by joining a book club, a movie club, a church congregation ... all to no avail. She seems almost frightened by the prospect of making female friends, yet she's tried two different dating services in search of a boyfriend. It hasn't worked out. The first guy was an angry RWNJ who expected her to be sylphlike and consequently dumped her, the second wasn't her type at all and yet wanted to marry her because he was lonely and wanted a wife. These romantic failures made her sad.

A couple weeks ago, she met a younger man at work. He runs the janitorial service that maintains her office. She really enjoyed talking to him and sent me a couple of texts, referring to herself as a cougar. Then last night I got a flurry of emails about how they were having coffee that evening. She was so excited. Yet today I've heard nothing about it.

I hope it went well, but not in the way she expected. I hope he was warm and funny and that they have loads in common. I also hope he's gay. Because if he's everything she wants and needs in a friend, she'll have the companionship she longs for without having to endure a breakup.


BTW, you have just read my 6000th post! That sure sounds like a lot, doesn't it?

Saturday 9

Saturday 9: California Nights (1967)
 
Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.
 
1) Lesley Gore premiered this song on an episode of Batman. She played Pussycat, the protegee of Catwoman. (That explains her outfit in the video.) How many of Batman's nemeses can you name? Lots. The Joker was my favorite. But there's The Riddler, The Penguin, the aforementioned Catwoman, Mr. Freeze, Egghead, King Tut, The Black Widow, Shame ...

  2) At least five actors have played The Caped Crusader already (Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale) and Ben Affleck will play him in 2016's Batman vs. Superman. Who is your favorite Batman? (If any Batmen were inadvertently omitted, Sam apologizes.) In my world, there will only ever be one.
 
3) Unlike most superheroes, Batman doesn't have any superpowers. This Saturday, you're more fortunate. We're bestowing any superpower on you that you want. Which would you like? I'd like to magically, effortlessly glide everywhere and slide up banisters. Part Mary Poppins, part Peggy from Mad Men.

 
 
4) Though she's singing of warm California nights, Lesley Gore was a New Yorker, born in Brooklyn and, in February of this year, dying in Manhattan. Which coast have you spent more time on, the West Coast or the East Coast? I prefer the East Coast, especially Boston and Philly, but lately I've spent more time in Los Angeles because my oldest friend moved there.
 
5) Not many people know that while she was making records, Lesley was also a student at Sarah Lawrence and graduated with her BA in 1968. What's something we would be surprised to know about you? I don't change unless absolutely forced to. I still have AOL. I've never changed cell phone providers. In the 1980s, the Columbia Record Club had to literally bribe me to switch from vinyl to CDs. I bet you can guess how I stand on e-books.

6) In 1967, when this song was popular, the best selling new

camera in the United States was the new Polaroid Swinger. Think about the most recent photo you took. Did you use a camera, a tablet, or a phone? My little Kodak Easy Share M350 camera.
 
7) The big fashion trend of 1967 was bright tights, in shades like Hot Pink, Shock Orange and Grass Green. Tell us about something you wore when it was trendy but now you look back and think, "Oh, God, that was awful!" In the 1980s, I spiked my then-red hair with purple mousse. I am only grateful that no photos have surfaced.
 
8) In 1967, drivers complained about "gas wars." The price  was unpredictable and would rise and fall, day by day, as much as 30¢ per gallon. How much does it cost you to fill up your tank today? No car
 
9) Random question: Are there dishes in your kitchen sink right now? Now and always.

Mom was wrong

My mother never understood my passion for hanging on to newspapers and magazines. Unless they contained a real-time story about a momentous news event, she said, "toss it." I always resisted. I liked looking back a year or two. Especially at the ads. There's the Yardley cologne I was saving for! There's the poncho I wanted so badly!

This post is inspired by a specific issue of LIFE. June 20, 1969, to be exact. I found it while we were staying at a cottage in small-town Wisconsin in August of that year. Previous tenants had left it behind.

I was in love with Joe Namath that summer. I hated the awful resort town that summer and every other summer I was dragged up there. And so I killed a great deal of time gazing at this magazine. When our week was over, I tried to bring it home. My mom saw it in the car and told me to throw it away or put it back. She didn't care which, but she certainly didn't want my bedroom cluttered with yet another old magazine! (Also, my mother didn't approve of Joe Willie. No, not one bit.)

How I wished I'd kept it! For the issue has become rather famous. See if you can zero in on what makes this issue one of note.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pg... 4 Column: How Many Huts? How Many Tents? By Barry Farrell

Pg... 9 “18 Reviews: Book: "Men in Groups," by Lionel Tiger, Reviewed by Robert Ardrey

Pg... 9A “18 Reviews: Movie: "True Grit" with John Wayne, Reviewed by Richard Schickel

Pg... 22A Letters to the Editors

Pg... 22B Broadway Joe's Friends: Regular Customers at Bachelors III, Namath's New York Bar, Included Three Cosa Nostra Men and Two Thieves. By Sandy Smith

Pg... 34 Newsfronts: Red Summit in the Place of the Czars

Pg... 36 Editorials: An End to Capital Punishment

Pg... 36 Editorials: A First Step at Midway

Pg... 40 Our Happy Moon Journey: The Apollo 10 Crew Describes how it was. "Well, Now that We're Here, what Do We Do?" By Tom Stafford, John Young and Gene Cernan

Pg... 46 Movies: One Film Turns Life Upside Down for the New Star Named Ali. Photographed by Art Kane

Pg... 52 Two Cops on a Tough Beat: A Hard Patrolman and His Patient Partner Work the Menacing Streets of Haight Ashbury. By L. H. Whittemore. Photographed by John Oldenkamp

Pg... 64 Close Up: Mark Van Doren at 75: a Complex Poet Who Talks Calmly in a Troubled Time. By Melvin Maddocks

Pg... 65 Ideas in Houses: Part 39: At Home on a Private Plaza

Pg... 68 The Class of '69

Pg... 69 With Eloquent Defiance, Top Students Carry Their Protest Right Through Commencement

Pg... 74 Miscellany

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Did you spot it? It's the pair of stories that begin on page 68 about the graduating Class of 1969. Speaking for Wellesley, wearing wire-rimmed glasses and very groovy striped slacks, is 22-year-old Hillary Rodham. She hasn't yet been to Yale Law School. She hasn't yet met Bill.  

The way I poured over that magazine, I must have seen this article that summer when I was 11. What did I think of her? I remember thinking "the star named Ali" (MacGraw) was pretty, despite the tooth thing. What were my impressions of Hillary? Did I admire her talk of protest as a way to "question great institutions?" Or did I dismiss her as plain? I truly don't recall.

But this is why, if I didn't absolutely have to, I would never throw anything away.

To Sir, With Love

President Kennedy died on my sixth birthday. That's a tender age, and having my Big Day marred by a national tragedy left its mark. In trying to restore order to my little universe and understand the pervasive agony* all around me, I began reading obsessively the man. And have never stopped.

John F. Kennedy taught me much about life. The biggest lesson is that the way a life looks on the outside isn't necessarily how it feels from the inside. Though he was insulated by wealth, young Jack was plagued by severe, painful medical problems that kept him in the hospital or home convalescing. He missed years of school and had to drop out of Yale because of his fragile health. (And this was as the second son in a family that valued achievement above all else.) His parents had a troubled marriage, and that resulted in a complicated, unsatisfactory relationship with his mother that may have colored his attitude toward women throughout his life. (I've read just as much about his wife, so I'm not unaware of his own failings as a husband.)

So whenever I'm tempted to compare my life to someone else's, whenever I feel envy nipping at my heart, I remember how the world looked at JFK and thought he had it all, while in his heart he always felt rather lonely and isolated.

But look what he accomplished! Cum laude graduate of Harvard, decorated war hero, Pulitzer Prize winner, and the youngest man ever elected to the Presidency. The first Irish Catholic, at a time when people still remembered signs in store windows that said, "Irish need not apply."

Yes, he lucked out being born to one of the country's wealthiest family. But the wit, the intellect, the elegant turn of phrase, the fascinating combination of empathy and detachment he brought to every situation ... those money didn't buy. 

He taught me that if you have imagination, you can visualize your own destiny and if you don't cut yourself too much slack, you can achieve your goals. 

He remains the single biggest influence on my politics. He wrote this before I was born, and it still sums up my view of what my country can be if we listen to our better selves.

If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal", then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal.”

That's how I'm honoring him, with gratitude, on his birthday.

*Adults, please hear me. I remember the trauma of 11/22/63 so clearly, remember the riots and assassinations of 1968 so clearly, and I worry about other children when major news events happen. Like children in Boston after the bombing, or St. Louis and Baltimore after the riots. Talk to the kids in your life. They feel the impact without necessarily understanding it, and that can make a painful period even scarier.

She a Ho

I'm always happy to see actress Mariette Hartley. She never became a bankable star, but she's worked regularly, dependably giving very good performances on TV and on stage* for more than 50 years now.

Which is why I am shocked (!) to report that she's clearly a woman of easy virtue. Through my Bonanza obsession I've discovered that she romanced the nearly the entire Cartwright clan.

Season 6, flirting with Adam

Season 10, crushing on Ben

Season 12, preparing to break Hoss' heart

I do wonder how she avoided a lip lock with Little Joe, the swain of the Ponderosa. But that might be just as well, since Little Joe's women tended to die at the :58 mark.

I also found a completely charming interview with Hartley where she said she enjoyed working on the show because the four main actors were so irreverent ("they were all so dirty!"). She was amused that after her second appearance the producer got a letter from an irate fan, wondering how Ben didn't recognize the girl who tried to seduce him as the teacher who'd made eyes at Adam just five years before. Astonishing, really, when you consider that this was before streaming, DVDs, VHS or even Beta. Back in the day, Bonanza had a really slavish fan base.

*I saw her on stage in the touring company of Copenhagen (2001) and she was quite good.

I didn't mean to make him cry

People who knew me in the 1980s and 1990s have delighted in the similarities between the young Gal and Peggy Olsen of Mad Men. I see it, too, of course. We both:

•  Came up through the secretarial pool to become copywriters
•  Were frequently hindered by lack of formal education
•  Slept with wildly inappropriate coworkers
•  Got where we wanted to go professionally in spite of our idiosyncratic work habits



I was a creative director until I quit and decided to work my way down the corporate ladder. I am proud to say that was my choice. I have never been laid off -- rare in this industry -- though God knows there's still time. I have won a Clio, an Echo and a Tempo.

I have found my career both exhilarating and disappointing, both more and less than I dreamed it would be.

And, I suppose, I had a Don Draper. He was not breathtakingly handsome (though he's always had a wonderful head of hair) and, frankly, I ended up surpassing him.

But that's only because he taught me. 

I'd been in the industry a decade by then, still painfully aware of my lack of formal training. I was operating on instinct, not craft. For some reason, my bosses to that point were reluctant to give me any real help with my writing. For example, I had a job for a major catalog house for five years and at the end of my tenure still didn't know what made one page "better" than another. I was rather successful as a writer for a major haircare company, doing product packaging, but any guidance I got was from R&D and the marketing department, not the creative director.

All my supervisors used to tell me was which ass to kiss. I also got stern warnings about my smart mouth and party girl proclivities. But, no matter how I worded the questions, I didn't get any help about my writing. Somehow, perhaps by the dint of my stubbornness, I still moved along and got better jobs.

Then I met Ed. He taught me craft. The rules of the road. The tried-and-true tricks. I had another very good boss a few years later (my friend Barb) but he was the first supervisor to bother, to pay attention, to hear what I was asking and to give me what I needed, and I've always been enormously grateful.

He's also one who never tired of pointing out the Gal/Peggy similarities in Mad Men. So when the last episode aired, I posted this to Facebook:

It isn't just that Don is hot (though God knows he is), it's that he was such a careful and successful mentor to Peggy. When I first made the quantum leap from secretary to copywriter, all my bosses discussed with me was office politics. I was ten years in before a Creative Director finally gave me craft to augment my instincts. If I haven't said it already: THANK YOU, ED.

Ed, who has been unemployed for so long now that people assume he's retired, messaged back that my post made him cry. He's very proud of my success and so pleased that I have been so "generous" in giving him credit.

Sometimes social media is a good thing. Ed's family has been beset by setbacks: he lost his job, he faced down cancer, his daughter was stricken by leukemia and now, while in remission, has embarked on a very high risk pregnancy.

I'm glad I was able to give him such a public shout out. I'm glad it meant to much to him.