Mickey Rooney died yesterday at age 93 even though practically nobody realized he was still alive.

In this post: A powerhouse, a Putz.

Hey, did you miss me yesterday? I decided to take a day off from Howdygrammin’ and spent my entire Sunday in various stages of sloth ... sleeping, eating, watching old movies and occasional combinations of all three. Monday, though, started off with more promise, waking up at 5 and spending the next three hours at my desk swallowing pills, drinking flat leftover Coke Zero from last night and sneezing.

The Howdygram’s Hollywood correspondent — moi, if you care — is frownyfaced today and sad to report that teeny movie powerhouse Mickey Rooney died yesterday at age 93 even though practically nobody realized he was still alive. (Judging from the following geezer portrait it’s easy to make that assumption.)

TCM has already announced a memorial tribute of Mickey Rooney films on Sunday, April 13, so grab the remote and record a few of your favorites. Here’s the lineup for your possible interest.

• Broadway to Hollywood (1933) with Alice Brady and Frank Morgan.
• The Devil Is a Sissy (1936) with Freddie Bartholomew and Jackie Cooper.
• A Family Affair (1936) was the original Andy Hardy “pilot.” With Lionel Barrymore.
• You’re Only Young Once (1938) with Lewis Stone and Cecelia Parker.
• Captains Courageous (1937) with Freddie Bartholomew and Spencer Tracy.
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939) with Walter Connolly.
• The Human Comedy (1943) with Frank Morgan and James Craig.
• Killer McCoy (1947) with Brian Donlevy and Ann Blyth.
• Boys Town (1938) with Spencer Tracy.
• Men of Boys Town (1941) with Spencer Tracy.
• National Velvet (1944) with Elizabeth Taylor.
• Babes on Broadway (1941) with Judy Garland.
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) with Ian Hunter.

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And now for the Howdygram’s latest Putz of the Week! Let me introduce you to Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin, a Republican douchebag state senator who tried to repeal the requirement that workers receive at least one day off every week and argued that public employees should be forced work on Martin Luther King Day. Grothman has decided to run for a seat in Congress because apparently he believes Congress doesn’t already have enough right-wing ignoramuses.

“Right now in Wisconsin you’re not supposed to work seven days in a row, which is a little ridiculous because all sorts of people want to work seven days a week,” he told the Huffington Post, clearly making a case for reinstating popular 19th century sweatshops. Grothman previously insisted that public employees should be expected to work on Martin Luther King Day because “giving government employees time off has nothing to do with honoring Martin Luther King and it’s just about getting another day off.”

Grothman also decided to trash Kwanzaa, the week-long harvest and gift-giving celebration celebrated by African-Americans, saying that “almost no black people today care about Kwanzaa” which was promoted by “white left-wingers who try to shove this down black people’s throats in an effort to divide Americans.” What?

Just in case you’ve got the overall impression that Grothman only hates poors and minorities, you’d be dead wrong. A true Republican, he clearly can’t stand WOMEN, either, proposing to kill a bill aimed at gender pay equality with the remark: “Money is more important for men.”

Then Grothman tried to cut a program that provided free birth control to women and promoted a bill that labeled single parenthood as “a contributing factor to child abuse and neglect.” Holy crap.

Seriously? MONEY IS MORE IMPORTANT FOR MEN? Yes, you miserable dickhead, I suppose you could argue that point if you were participating in the Misogynist Primary Debates, because women just waste their money on silly, frivolous crap like food, rent and tampons.

All of a sudden I want to strangle somebody really hard.

Thank you for putting up with me.