Blergh

Not sure this happened to anyone else but around the turn of the last century, one of my great-grandmother's ate a big helping of meatballs right before she was set to sail across the Atlantic and immigrate to our nation. Alas, said meatballs have her such violent food poisoning that she almost died and she wasn't sure she could make the boat- and for the rest of her life she absolutely refused to eat another meatball. No, I never got to meet her but this became family folklore and my father whom she'd live to raise often told that story.

Although I admit I'm tempted to do so, I'm NOT getting into politics here. However; both the individuals whose tasteless convo has been talked about were are married so why didn't either of them shut down that conversation ASAP out of respect for their wives and families even if they couldn't have cared less about these other women? Oh, and to keep things on topic, IMO the Mr. Bush of the tabloid TV set always had the charm of gnat in an ear canal (and I never liked the 'reality' shows a certain Presidential nominee hosted) so as infuriating as this exchange was, it was by no means a case of hero disillusionment.

topanga, I cosign all the above you said AND would like to add how infuriating it is to me how are parents told by many medical and educational 'authorities' that they must turn their kids into zombies via drugs rather than attempt to teach them to sit still or spend time with . Moreover it's also maddening how, rather than encourage adults to find the means to positively cope with their demons (or, even better, try to overcome them) the TV and 'Net's chock-full of ads selling them zombie pills that have the 'side effect' of suicidal thoughts ! How can we tell kids to 'say no to drugs' when we're telling them that drugs are THE answer to everyone's problems even if folks wind up killing themselves?! Why would I not be surprised if folks in 50 years time will wonder WHY this mentality happened even MORE than we wondered in retrospect why folks thought shag carpets and leisure suits were great ideas back in the day?

Well, at LEAST they didn't show what a bladder was supposed to look like. Too bad it sounded like an Andrews Sister song re its beat and tempo because, were it not for the subject matter, I'd have liked it.

OK, here's a blast from the past: In the otherwise forgettable and lamentable MTM spinoff of "Phyllis" , the now-widowed title character was living with her mother-in-law as well her stepfather and stepgrandmother-in-law (the latter called 'Mother' Dexter- virtually the only likable or interesting character on the show mainly because she was the one who most openly dissed Phyllis ). Anyway, amongst one of her less-than-satisfying dates, Phyllis Lindstrom found out that she was dating a gay man and discussed it with her in-laws. During this discussion Phyllis exclaimed something to the effect of: "But he IS gay- which means there's not the slightest possibility I could MARRY him!" To which Mother Dexter gave the perfect zinger: " I guess being gay does have its advantages!"

As long as we're doing trivial links: the Miss 'Melba' s hometown of Melbourne was named after Lord Melbourne (AKA William Lamb), Queen Victoria's first (and possibly favorite) Prime Minister AND the city itself was the capital of the British Crown Colony of Victoria during the Queen's reign so I can't help but think that she must have been amused by that. Oh, and Lord Melbourne was the widower of Lady Caroline Lamb who had fallen into ruin via her rather public fling with the notorious Lord Byron who was also carrying on with Mary Shelley's sister Claire Clairmont whilst separated from Lady Byron after the birth of their own daughter the mathematician (!)Lady Ada Byron (believed by some to have invented the first proto computer). Whew! That 'triangle' had so many sides it was a virtual circle!

He beat what likely was the last witness to the living Lincoln by roughly a decade- as 5-year-old Maryland native Sam Seymour had been in Ford's Theatre with his nursemaid and family friends when John Wilkes Booth did the deed. The elderly Mr. Seymour would recount his historic encounter in 1956 on "I've Got a Secret" to the panel and home audience when he was 96 just two months before his own death! So , yes there was indeed someone who had seen the living Lincoln who lived to see (and participate in) the advent of television! Alas, the panel did not think to ask him relevant questions as to what his parents and their friends' sympathies were and whether the nursemaid herself was African-American (almost a given) and whether she was more positive in getting to see the President than the other adults.

Oddly enough, I like travelling by air (as long as I have that window seat) but wish there was a way to avoid driving. It's not me but a large percentage of other drivers who sour the experience.

Actually, it was first reported in Leavenworth, Kansas but did not get call the 'Spanish flu' until it had ALREADY decimated North America before crossing the Atlantic to hit neutral Spain thanks to WWI. I guess folks here thought it would sap morale to call it the 'Kansas flu'. Well, I had a great-uncle who died of it after getting hit with mustard gas in France and whose death impacted two generations of folks who'd never met him. That pandemic was horrific. Anyway to keep this 'relevant' to the thread's intent, amongst its casualties was a 27-year-old silent movie star named Myrtle Gonzalez who left behind a husband and son AND had been known for making physically challenging movies similar to Lillian Gish's as well as having had a good soprano voice . However; all this was cut short a good decade before the advent of sound movies thanks to the 1918 Influenza.

Obviously, I can't get too detailed but has anyone here ever had an employer who felt that the sound of their voice was THE most important thing happening in the workplace to the exclusion of ontask phone calls and even the work itself?

That's MOST infuriating! I mean it's not as though you were some mindless groupie wannabee who crashed her tour bus- monies had been paid for her to MEET AND GREET you and she came to see YOU and was getting some monies to do so! The LEAST she could have done was nod and thank you for coming (or, if she truly was offended re leather, have it put in the preset conditions that no fan was to meet her whilst wearing it so you didn't have to get dumped on for wearing something that had great value for you). I had a similar experience but, inasmuch as I don't want to give them any more publicity I WON'T name names, will but just say how infuriating it was for me that after paying $30 PER ITEM they were selling they and their handlers wouldn't let me say more than two sentences before I was rushed out like a cow in a roundup to keep the rest of the herd moving forward to keep paying $30 each for their souvenirs and spit out two sentences a piece. Let's just say I'd supported their golden years enough after that.

I always go for dark chocolate (the closer to that 99% number, the better). To those who say chocolate isn't 'healthy' ,we need to keep in mind that it started out as a bean just like tofu!

NOT to get political here. However; it needs to be said that Mr. Eastwood came of age during the Depression and WWII and ,whilst those times definitely had folks who used ethnic slurs right and left with no regard to how others viewed them, even back then these were considered rude words by those who cared if others thought they were being rude and/or ignorant. Moreover, using the p-word describing people instead of cats and using the f-word back then would have risked a male using them in women's presences to get knocked down by other men. Sad irony is that ,even two decades ago, I could have imagined Mr. Eastwood playing a character who WOULD have punched out another male's lights for using that kind of talk around women.

Can I say I regret not telling off more folks in my youth?

Yep, the best part about that is that one doesn't have to worry about one's monies going to fund said celeb's despicable activities/causes. If I survive Mr. Eastwood , Mr. Gibson and a few others THEN I may start paying money towards their films again but not before after what they've pulled.

GH Scorpio, I have to admit I'd be tempted to do the same were it not for the fact that X amount of my monies would go to help support someone whose activities I disliked. To each their own, though.

I don't know who or what this person was doing but about twenty years ago, for roughly a solid year, I got phone calls asking for " Zach" ONLY in the overnight hours and often despite repeating my phone number, the numerous callers often refused to believe "Zach" wasn't at my number.

The Swedish-born Jenny Lind became a worldwide celebrity with her flawless soprano to the degree that more than one U.S. town built opera houses just so she could make a stop in their locale on her US tour -and she had quite a few novelty items from soup to furniture made with her name and/or image on it that sold like hot cakes. ALL this took place in the 1850's through 1860's- decades before the phonograph or radio had been invented so only her reputation living up to her hype made her a celebrity since no one outside her immediate vicinity could have heard her voice.

One thing I chanced upon in recent years overseas is that in some European countries, they're still re-running the Pippi Longstocking series produced in 1969 and dubbed from Swedish. I'm not knocking Pippi per se but I have to wonder why there'd still be children interesting in seeing something that only had a small number of episodes made that their grandparents had cut their teeth on and was originally in another language to boot.

As long as we're doing a military thread, for her work in entertaining Allied troops in sometimes downright chaotic and dangerous conditions during WWII, Marlene Dietrich received the US Medal of Freedom in 1947. Although from as early as Molly Pitcher and Deborah Sampson in the US Revolutionary War there HAVE been women who fought in combat in the US, it's only relatively recently that they've been able to do so officially so I thought it worth bringing a female celebrity who honored for doing so.

The 8th Season Premiere has gotten me on the verge of cancelling Modern Family. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Every single character had become a mean spirited parody of their former selves - Jay and Lily were the closest things to being vaguely likable and did I mention how all the 'minority' characters (Columbian, gay and . .. . rural?) had become crude stereotypes? Unless the next episode does a 180 and become the humorously, realistic show with likable if flawed human characters I originally liked , I'm DONE!

Would it be wrong for me to say that IMO, No Doubt's "It's My Life" not only did a much better vocalization and instrumental than the 80's band Talk, Talk but their cine noir whodunnit (frameup?) video was far more imaginative than the original safari scenes with the odd shadow flitting about?

Jaded, That's so horrible for the Farrows and I hope someone in that extended family is actively trying to help Mia who has cared for so many but, no doubt, needs some very attentive care for herself.

Now that would be interesting to contemplate what the two CG's could have talked about during their Boxing Day unboxings, Cherpumple. Here's a name humdinger one from the Golden Age: Iconic platinum blonde Jean Harlow used her own mother's full maiden name as a stage name (her own given name being Harlean Carpentier). However; from infancy onward all her family and friends called her 'Baby' or 'the Baby' to such an extent that when she during her first day of school, she had no idea who 'Harlean Carpentier' was when the teacher called her legal name. Oh, and as a coincidence to this nugget 'Babe' was what friends called the portly comedian Oliver Hardy and the two of them worked in a silent movie called Double Whoopee (1929) in which Mr. Hardy and his thinner pal Stan Laurel played bellhops in a fancy hotel who suddenly had to save the 18-year-old ingenue Miss Harlow's rep in the crowded hotel lobby. So one may wonder if at any point during the filming did the two of them hear 'Babe' and simultaneously respond?

I agree- and the historian in me cringed at how the DD folks barely even attempted to pretend to dress or perform music from the supposed timeframe just two decades before the movie's release. Hello, if George Lucas could somehow convince a large number of performers smack in the counterculture when American Graffiti was produced to somehow trim up to look like and play music like they walked out of Wally Cleaver's soda shop , how tough would it have been to find performers in the 80's to do the same re the early 1960's? It annoyed me enough to be able to shrug off Jennifer Beal's character in Flashdance being able to live solo in a loft the size of a Borough when she was a welder aspiring to be a ballerina.