I'm kinda busy tonight with deadlines, plus there's this: A friend of mine who has been watching the Phil Spector trial with great interest is convinced that tomorrow is Verdict Day. I don't know how she knows this but some people have actually given up studying the evidence in this case and are now studying what the jury is wearing when they report each morning. Apparently, if the foreman doesn't wear a tie and the rest of the deliberaters are in casual clothes, that means No Verdict Today and it's immediately reported on blogs that follow such things. I don't think my friend has any inside info on what the jurors will be wearing tomorrow but she seems to have some reason to believe this thing will be drawing to a close.
So just in case (a) she's right and (b) Spector is acquitted, I have to spend some time tonight planning my killing spree. I'd tentatively decided to start with my eleventh-grade Chemistry teacher but then I found out he's already dead so there's not much point in killing him...although it's still tempting. I was going to go after the guy who invented cole slaw but I decided killing's too good for him. So I think I'll off the neighbor whose car alarm goes off at 4 AM if a sparrow flies by and then maybe Osama Bin Laden (bet I can find him before Bush does) and after that, I'll just play it by ear. If you're smart, you'll stay out of my path.
Which is all my way of saying that I'm busy. I'll slap a great Video Link up here later — I have a whole batch that are already written — but posting will otherwise be light here for a few days. It'll still be busier than your average blog, which gets updated every time Halley's Comet goes overhead, but not as busy as usual.
Before I go, though: I've just received a copy of the Jonathan Ross documentary, In Search of Steve Ditko that aired the other night on BBC4. I haven't the time to watch it all now but the ten or so minutes I did see were quite well done and intriguing. I'll post an actual response soon. Oh, and also: I haven't forgotten that I promised a review of that Sony DVD Carousel I recently acquired and I have another long-awaited chapter in the story of Scrappy Doo. Also, a lot of you have sent e-mails that I should post here. We'll get to everything after Paying Work.
The New York Times is doing away with "TimesSelect," its subscription-only section. We mentioned back here that it was going bye-bye and now they've made it official. The firewall goes away tomorrow night at midnight. So yet another Internet attempt to charge for non-porn content fails.
It hasn't hit the wire services yet but the website of actress and game show personality Brett Somers is reporting that she passed away on Saturday morning. At the moment, that's all it says so that's all we know.
Ms. Somers, who was born in 1924 in New Brunswick, Canada, was best known for her long run on The Match Game and for her marriage to actor Jack Klugman. She used to joke that the game show lasted longer than the marriage but in fact, they were wed from 1956 until 1974 and she did Match Game from 1974 until 1982. Still, it's what made her famous. If there's a place that game show panelists go after this life, she's probably already annoying Charles Nelson Reilly.
Thanks to Andy Rose for the tip-off. I would imagine it'll be on all the usual news venues shortly and that GSN will air a bunch of Match Game episodes in tribute.
Most of you probably come to this site only because you want to see if there's any further news about the almost non-existent chain of Love's Barbecue Restaurants. As you no doubt recall, I was once a big fan of them and have watched sadly as they've closed, one after another after another after another, etc. As of my last report, we were down to the alleged one in Jakarta, Indonesia. I say "alleged" because I always wondered if there really ever was one there. I suspect that, given what's happened lately in that part of the world, if there was one there, it ain't there no mo'.
In any case, all the Love's in the United States have closed. As I mentioned in August, there were still two former Love's that were operating and serving essentially the Love's menu. One was a place called Riley's in Brea, California. The other was The Great Rib Restaurant in Chula Vista, just outside of San Diego. (That's it in the above photo, back when it was a Love's.) Every year when I journey to the latter vicinity for the Comic-Con International, I toy with the idea of making a field trip to Chula Vista but I'm always too busy. A reader of this site named Mike Rossi was a patron of The Great Rib Restaurant though and he informs me that it's now closed, dark and not answering its phone. Guess we can scratch that one off, too.
Which seems to leave us with Riley's as the last standing remnant of the Love's chain. It's not a Love's but as you can see from the above photo, it has the same look and feel of one. That's the old Love's heart logo sign but with the name "Riley's" in place of "Love's." That's the same tag line that was on every Love's — "Wood Pit Barbecue Restaurant." And when I ate there in August of 2003, it was the old Love's cuisine, right down to the great beans.
Will I soon be journeying to Brea again for the near-Love's experience? Doubtful. Google Maps says it's 41.1 miles from me...about 49 minutes but adds (this is a new feature of Google Maps, apparently...a striving for honesty) that it can be "up to 2 hours, 10 mins in traffic." What are the chances of there not being traffic on the I-10 at any hour of the day when Riley's is open? If you're anywhere near there though, it's located at 720 N. Brea Blvd. in the city of Brea. Enjoy the ribs and think of me when you do.
You'll recognize this commercial for Tootsie Roll Pops. It's been running on television, off and on, since its debut in 1969. They've recut it and reanimated parts of it and it was even redone in CGI...but this seems to be the full, original, minute-long version.
Here's the rundown on the voices. The little boy is Buddy Foster, who was the older brother of Jodie Foster. The cow is Frank Nelson, who you may recall as the man on The Jack Benny Program who always said, "Yesssss?" The fox is Paul Frees, who was the voice of everything while he was alive. The turtle is Ralph James, an actor who is probably best known today for voicing Orson, the commander of Mork on Mork & Mindy. The owl is the great ventriloquist, Paul Winchell, and the announcer at the end is Herschel Bernardi. Mr. Bernardi, of course, was starring in a TV series called Arnie around the time this was done, and was best known as the voice of Charlie the Tuna.
And while we're at it, here's the 30-second CGI version. Does anyone not like the original better?
September 18, 2007
