Get ready to rumble, Howdygramsters, because I’ve got a pile of fabulous crap for you! For starters, you may recall an
earlier post in which I charged that Charo lies about her age. She may want the world to think she’s 61 years old, but the Howdygram can promise you she’s NOT. I hunted around online for the real scoop — which was a no-brainer — and found that: 1) official documents in Spain and the U.S. indicate Charo was born in 1941,
not 1951; 2) press reports gave her age as 20 in the early 1960s when she became engaged to Xavier Cugat; and 3) she was 36 when she divorced him in 1977. If you do the math, she was clearly born in 1941 but
petitioned the courts to shave off 10 years when she applied for citizenship in the 1970s. Also see her
biography on Wikipedia. (Just between us, I don’t really know why I’m so damn happy about this.)
Breaking news from the city of Forth Worth, where the MedStar ambulance service has introduced a new program that will send you a
taxi cab if the Einstein 911 operator decides your call doesn’t require a paramedic. Holy crap. Fort Worth’s unsuspecting cab drivers are definitely in for a surprise when they start picking up fares in labor or various stages of cardiac arrest. I’m just saying.
Please bear with me while I show off a few new fonts, okay? Fonts have been my #1 addiction since I bought my first Mac in 1986 and I even love them more than Loma Linda fake meat in a can and old movies.
I recently discovered
Lost Type, a terrific website that gives away very high quality fonts. Actually, they ask for a donation but you can download fonts for free if you type “$0” in the little box. I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never donated a dime. (Okay, I’m not really embarrassed.)
From our Do You Want Fries With That department, here’s a hot story from the Windy City. Police in Chicago have arrested a pimp named DaJuan Brown, currently being held in lieu of $1 million bond, who pays his prostitutes — all very young girls — with drugs, cell phones and
food from the dollar menu at McDonald’s. He would also beat the girls regularly and withhold hamburgers as punishment. The advertising departments at Burger King and Arby’s are probably working overtime trying to figure out an advantage ... but don’t hold your breath.
I was flipping channels yesterday and ran across a painfully horrible movie on TCM. I refer to
Spy Chasers, a disastrous 1955 whodunit starring Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall — both 40+ years old — still pretending to be the “Dead End Kids” from the 1930s. Worse yet, they’re hunting German spies 10 years after the end of World War II. This was so thoroughly lousy I had to turn off the TV. And I almost NEVER turn off the TV.
And finally, a movie recommendation! Sam and I both enjoyed
Ace of Aces (1932) with Richard Dix, Elizabeth Allan and Ralph Bellamy. This is a well-done story about the morality of war despite the fact that Dix is a former silent film star who’s frequently a little too “hammy” with the facial expressions. (You know, a male version of Norma Shearer.)
So here’s the basic plot. It’s 1918 and Dix is a pacifist sculptor who gets pushed into enlisting by his girlfriend (Elizabeth Allan) who thinks he’s a coward. Now stationed in France, the air force turns Dix into a bloodthirsty flying ace with no conscience or remorse until — SPOILER ALERT — he’s eventually responsible for the death of an enemy cadet he actually knew. Ralph Bellamy plays Dix’s cranky superior officer and there are lots of dogfight scenes with miniature airplanes, sweaty pilots, stupid helmets and fake bullets. My only complaint would be Elizabeth Allan’s 1930s hair and wardrobe, which made her look like she got dropped off in the middle of World War I by a time machine. If you can get beyond that,
Ace of Aces is a winner.
Thank you for reading this.
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