Thursday, May 18, 2006

Mañana

For what it's worth: About two weeks ago, a friend asked me if I'd like to get into a "When will Karl Rove be indicted?" pool. Well, actually I think it's about guessing when an indictment will be formally announced, assuming one ever is.

I have no idea if Rove will be indicted or if so, how that process is progressing. In fact, I'm not even sure what (if anything) I'd win for being right. Nevertheless, just on a whim, I said, "May 19." That's tomorrow.

• Posted at 11:08 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Michael Kinsley on John McCain, the man who has a reputation for "straight talk," no matter how he bobs and weaves.

Kinsley's article reminds me of something, which is the extent to which some supporters are willing to accept that their chosen candidate is hiding his true views in order to perhaps get elected. Years ago on the old Lou Gordon TV show — and am I the only one who remembers Lou Gordon? — I once saw a man make an interesting presentation. His thesis was that a number of then-current candidates, mostly from the South, were using code words in their speeches.

They couldn't come right out and say they were for rolling back Civil Rights for minorities because then they'd lose. So they'd developed certain phrases that when uttered, would convey their true agendas to voters of like sentiment. A sentence like, "We must protect the sanctity of state governments" sounded reasonable but it really meant, "We must stop Federal Troops from coming in and insisting we let blacks in white classrooms." The gent on Lou Gordon's show ran several clips that, he said, were examples of this. He called them "winks." They were a way of saying one thing and then winking at a certain segment of the electorate to let them know you didn't really mean it; that your heart was with them and they should just accept that you had to say such things to get into office and give them what they want. Whether those particular examples were valid or not, I do think politicians do that a lot. They also bait-and-switch the other way, hinting they'll do the opposite when they really won't. Wish I knew which kind McCain was. Maybe both.

• Posted at 10:25 PM · LINK

A Question

Why are we still looking for Jimmy Hoffa?

• Posted at 9:03 PM · LINK

Correction

I just revised the text of the previous item. When I wrote it at 2:30 this morning, I could've sworn that the film version of Cabaret won the Best Picture Oscar that year and said so. As teeming multitudes are now reminding me, that is not so.

A number of you have suggested that I just stamp Top Secret on my screw-up and claim some sort of National Security Privilege to cover it up. Not a bad idea. If I can tap enough reporters' phones, I might even get away with it.

• Posted at 9:20 AM · LINK

Cy Feuer, R.I.P.

That's a photo of Stubby Kaye stopping the show in the original Broadway production of Guys and Dolls, produced by Cy Feuer and Ernie Martin. The two men were also responsible for Where's Charley?, Can Can, The Boy Friend, Silk Stockings, Little Me, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and a batch of other Broadway shows and even a few movies, including the much-acclaimed 1972 Cabaret.

Mr. Feuer died today at the age of 95. He needs no greater testimonial to his success than to just list those shows. A lot of men have been heralded as major Broadway producers with just two like that. For the rest of time, actors will be performing and audiences will be enjoying works made possible by the producing savvy of Feuer and Martin.

• Posted at 2:32 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

You all know Barbara Feldon as the comely spy "99" on Get Smart. Before that, some of us knew her as the sultry-voiced seductress who writhed about on a tiger rug and sold Top Brass hair dressing in one of those commercials that was better than most shows it was in. (Well, it was if you were my age when it aired. I was around twelve at the time.)

Odd how your memory can overrate something. I just saw this clip, the one I'm sharing with you today, for the first time in around forty years. I remember it as being much sexier and filled with horny innuendo than it is, and I don't think it's because she did other Top Brass ads that were. I think this is what passed for randy in 1964. See if you don't agree...

• Posted at 1:06 AM · LINK

Quick Notes

A couple of things...

• Several folks have written to inform me that Honey Smacks have already been renamed just Smacks. I didn't see that on the shelf or on the Kellogg's website but I'll take your word for it. On that site, by the way, you can see a page devoted to Pops (formerly Sugar Pops, Sugar Corn Pops and Corn Pops). They're trying quite hard to make a connection between hip-hop music and sugar-frosted puffed corn...and of course, I can see how those two things go together like cheap car insurance and talking reptiles, but I wonder how many people can.
• It has also been suggested by some correspondents that the word "sugar" disappeared from a lot of boxes because of the shift from that sweetener to high fructose corn syrup. I suppose that could be part of it but sugar is still the second ingredient listed in Frosted Flakes, right after milled corn, so I'll bet they could still use it in the name if they wanted to. They don't. The only place you'll find the "s" word prominently displayed on the box or in advertising is when they tout the new versions of Frosted Flakes and Froot Loops that have "1/3 less sugar." Absence of sugar is a selling point these days.
• Since we're talking about cereal, I'll mention that the only one I eat these days is Barbara's Shredded Oats. It used to only be available in Southern California at Whole Foods Markets, Trader Joe's and health food emporiums but lately, they have it at Ralph's and Gelson's and maybe other grocers. As you can see here, it contains zero sugar, using molasses for its slight sweetness. It tastes pretty darn good, I think.
• On another topic: People send me a lot of links they think I might want to put up on this site. An awful lot of them lately have been for sites where you get to punch George W. Bush in the face or hit him with pies or watch him morph into a gibbon. I love political humor and not just when it reinforces my views...but there's a certain humorless level of nastiness that just leaves me cold or worse. I think Bush is a pretty bad president but I don't derive any jollies from seeing him Photoshopped into a clown suit or a sex scene with Dick Cheney and Hillary Clinton. My belief in Free Speech accepts that such things have a right to exist but nothing says I have to link to them.
• Lastly, my pal Gordon Kent makes another good point about this argument of, "If you're not doing anything you shouldn't be doing, you should have no problem with having your calls monitored." If Dick Cheney wasn't doing anything he shouldn't have been doing with that Energy Task Force of his, he should have had no problem dilvulging the names of its members, right? This is the most secretive administration ever and I don't buy that it's all about National Security. As Jack Anderson once said (approximately), "In Washington, you don't bury your failures. You stamp Top Secret on them."

• Posted at 1:04 AM · LINK