Posted by: Vic at December 18, 2012 06:57 AM (53z96)

---- I do not believe there will be a next Republican President.

Good morning, ‘rons and ‘ronettes.  And thanks for the news, Gabe and Vic.  Hey, Vic, maybe itÂ’s just me, but the links at #20 and #22 donÂ’t work.

Yesterday, I promised to mention the sad death of one of my favorite actors, William Holden.  A cornfed Illinois boy, Holden's first break was as a violinist turned boxer in the 1938 film Golden Boy, during which, incidentally, he began his side career of bedding some of Hollywood's most glamorous women by going to bed with co-star Barbara Stanwyck.  But Columbia wasnÂ’t a good fit for Holden, and his career limped along until 1950, when Billy Wilder - casting about for a replacement for Montgomery Clift - signed Holden to play the down and out hack screenwriter Joe Gillis in the magnificent Sunset Boulevard.  From there, Holden's star never wavered through the 50s, as he went from strength to strength in Stalag 17, Picnic, Sabrina and The Bridge on the River Kwai..

 
In 1959, he founded the Mount Kenya Safari Club and became partner of an African wildlife preserve, always trying to balance his screen work with his longstanding passion for animal rescue.  However, Holden's erratic career after Kwai also led to more and more frequent bouts with the bottle, his drunkenness at one point resulting in a 1966 suspended sentence for vehicular manslaughter.

 
Holden made something of a comeback in the 1970s (The Wild Bunch, The Towering Inferno and, especially, Network, in which he essentially played a returned Joe Gillis turned bitter and rancid), but never quite returned to the heights of popularity he had enjoyed in the 1950s.

On November 12, 1981, Holden was alone, drunk, in his apartment in Santa Monica, when he slipped on a rug, crashing to the floor and lacerating his head on a nearby night table.  He was apparently conscious for another half hour after the fall, but either didn't - or couldn't - call for help.  His body wasn't found until four days later.

 
Holden was only 63, but years of heavy drinking had weathered him so much that he looked like a man in his late 70s.  As he'd directed, his body was cremated and his ashes scattered over the Pacific Ocean.  In his will, he left $50,000 dollars to the French actress Capucine, who had been his lover in the early 1960s.

 
I know I've told this story before, but since I hate to end on such a down note, here it is again:  during the filming of Sunset Boulevard a friend of Holden's, knowing the actor's reputation as a ferocious cocksman (his conquests including, besides Stanwyck and Capucine, Lucille Ball, Shelly Winters, Jackie Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, Stefanie Powers, Grace Kelly, Dorothy Lamour and Susan Hayward), asked if he'd seduced his co-star Gloria Swanson.  No, Holden admitted, he hadn't - only because he was too busy staying out of the clutches of Swanson's mother, who wanted to seduce him!

I hope you all have a wonderful day.  Tomorrow, I'll tell you about the murky, suspicious and still unsolved death of screen goddess Natalie Wood.

Posted by: Zombie John Gotti at December 18, 2012 07:17 AM (Gkhxf)

Yes, but these are fired by EVIL SEMI AUTOMATIC weapons. The most dangerous of all weapons.

/s

Posted by: Bruce at December 18, 2012 07:25 AM (Q6u7O)

Oh yeah, that's right.  Plus the weapons are black which just adds to the evilness.

Posted by: Sean Bannion at December 18, 2012 07:09 AM (sbV1u)

*raised eyebrow*

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at December 18, 2012 07:11 AM (zF6Iw)

I thought they knew how she died.  She fell overboard and drowned. I suspect alcohol was involved but out of respect they simply will not release that.

One thing to keep in mind about the ocean off the cost of CA, it is not like the East coast.  It is COLD.  If you get in without a wet suit you can not stay long before hypothermia sets in. 

The East cast current runs from the South to the North, hence warm water.  The West coast runs from the North South.  I once waded out in the water in CA up near SF.  It was too cold to even wade in.

Posted by: CarolT at December 18, 2012 07:29 AM (z4WKX)

Thank you.  Yes, I am through  with chemo and hopefully one day soon this stuff will start going away. And I love writing about "this day in history".  I am a big fan of history stuff.

But I challenge you to name the last Nobel Prize winner who was also a cheerleader.

Michael Mann.

No, wait...

Posted by: Sean Bannion at December 18, 2012 07:37 AM (sbV1u)

TFG won a Nobel Prize. Your point?

Cheerleaders are no different than any other cross section of society. Smart ones, dumb ones, etc. Hell, the Valedictorian and the Salutatorian of my high school were both cheerleaders.

Posted by: Sean Bannion at December 18, 2012 07:46 AM (sbV1u)

Do you have any to back yours up? And if you start posting articles about NFL cheerleaders "behaving badly" it's really going to disappoint me. There are thousands upon thousands of cheerleaders in this country. Some of the smartest people I know are former cheerleaders. Doctors, nurses, business owners, etc.

I thought they knew how she died. She fell overboard and drowned. I suspect alcohol was involved but out of respect they simply will not release that.

They know how - drowning - but not why.  Booze was involved, as Wood had a BAC of .14, I believe.  The mystery comes from the bruises the coroner noted on her face and arms as well as the testimony of various people around Catalina Bay at the time that they heard Wood shouting for help whe both Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken testified they heard nothing.

The case was reopened this year when the captain of the yacht claimed Wagner beat up Wood and threw her overboard - apparently, a real or suspected affair with Walken was the cause - to let her drown.  Apparently there is some "new" audio that contradicts the official story, but what it is I do not know.

Apologies for any inaccuracies above - I'm typing from work and don't have all of my sources at hand.

Posted by: Empire of Jeff's penis at December 18, 2012 07:54 AM (JDIKC)

Noted. Allow me to rephrase.

Cheerleaders are no different than any other cross section of society when it comes to intelligence.

the "All told, ObamaÂ’s latest offer calls for about $2.15 trillion in savings."

bs

Why not just report that Obama wants 500000000000 gazillion in savings and a unicorn?

ItÂ’s like ObamaÂ’s promise that his health care law would save money. ItÂ’s the opposite. Now everyone is paying much more.

If Clinton era tax hikes are so amazing – we should just go over the cliff and return to them. ALL of them.

Posted by: Sean Bannion at December 18, 2012 08:01 AM (sbV1u)

I swung by my local Gander Mountain yesterday. (Struck out btw) It wasn't "packed" but it was def busier than the other times I've been in there.

The Teacher's Unions in South Bend, Indiana have figgered' a way out of waiting for a doctor in the Obamacare World....build their own clinics!

http://tinyurl.com/cz66olc

Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at December 18, 2012 07:56 AM (piMMO)

My position was related to MM's book "In Defense of Internment". It was both necessary and not as bad as the liberals make it out to be.

If your local library has that book I urge you to read it.

Posted by: Sean Bannion at December 18, 2012 08:04 AM (sbV1u)

That's pretty much the standard LIB response to any logical statement made by a conservative.

Headed to grab some grab. See you Morons in a few.

>>>On this day in 1944 the Supreme Court upheld the wartime internment of Japanese-Americans.

Still the strongest argument for the imposition of Obamacare based on precedent of Federal powers

Posted by: uterus cannon at December 18, 2012 08:10 AM (3ZtZW)

If it had been I am sure Roberts would have referenced it instead of "its a tax".  In actuality, IIANM,  this ruling is where the "the Constitution is not a suicide pact" came from.

MPPP, going to talk about Natalie Wood and the movie Brainstorm?

Wasn't planning to, no.  I've never seen the movie (frankly, that sort of SF/  mind control / alternate reality plotline isn't appealing to me) and I've never been particularly enamored of Wood.  Though if she was having an affair with Walken, it was probably during that time.  Despite her marriages to Wagner, Wood was always a lonely, searching person; it probably didn't help her emotional development that she had affairs with both James Dean and director Nicholas Ray in Rebel Without A Cause.

Actually, since Vic brought up Wood's drowning, I've basically covered most of what I would have said already, so I'll have a different story tomorrow.

And as far as The Graduate - is that a joke I don't get?  I've seen the movie twice and hated it both times.  William Daniels is the only reason the thing is watchable, IMHO (btw, I'm friends with the son of Graduate co-writer Calder Willingham).

Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at December 18, 2012 08:13 AM (piMMO)

Probably not.\

BTW, it wasn't just Japanese who were interred. They had camps for Italians and Germans as well. But you never hear about those.

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at December 18, 2012 08:31 AM (XkWWK)

OK, J.J., let me give you a little palate cleanser - near the end of his life, Holden said one of his best memories was watching Audrey Hepburn and Capucine in bed together before they asked him to jon them.

>>Hey, has anyone
else noticed the racism/classism in the "ban guns!" response? Poor black
kids have been getting shot every week for decades in "gun-free"
cities

And yet, to quote a good piece from AllahP. (http://tinyurl.com/bl89muu):

>>But look. With this issue even more so than with other issues, a huge part of the stubbornness and vitriol comes from cultural divisions and suspicions about the other side’s motives, not from policy disagreements. I understand the left’s point about high-capacity magazines; banning them might very well drop the death toll at some of these horrors. It’s not crazy to think so. The best counterargument is the slippery-slope argument and I’ve never thought much of slippery-slope arguments outside the free-speech context. The truth, though, is that I don’t trust them and find the media groupthink on this subject endlessly irritating. It takes a lot to get a New Yorker to stick up for rural America, but their disdain for “gun culture” is often transparently a function of their disdain for rural culture. The One’s condescending bitter-clinger remarks were a classic expression of it.

It's the rural bitter clingers who have the gun culture that is teh evil and somehow responsible for the urban deaths.

Cognative dissonance: it's what for breakfast.

Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at December 18, 2012 08:42 AM (piMMO)

Just like Jessica Simpson.

Btw, I am stunned there's never been a Enquirer or other trash rag piece hinting at an....inappropriate relationship...with her and a certain family member. Cause that dude is creepy as all hell when it comes to his daughters.

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at December 18, 2012 08:31 AM (XkWWK)

___

Hey you can't blame a girl for trying. Holden circa 1950 was a prime cut of beef.

Posted by: CarolT at December 18, 2012 07:43 AM (z4WKX)

Carol, there may be a solution here.  If you use an iPad, Kindle or the like for reading, there are a number of items on sites like Amazon and elsewhere that can function as mounts for such devices.  One item I saw was basically a microphone stand with an adapter you can put your iPad or Kindle in. You can be sitting or laying in bed, have the device at a comfortable reading distance without actually having to hold the thing in your hands.  I'm sure a further bit of digging on the net will provide other workable options to help you around this difficulty.

You're just screwing with us, aren't you?

Says the man with a harem of cheerleaders at his back and call. . .

On Twitter, Tammy Bruce has a pic of a baby Ewok and phoenixgirl is talking about sperm length.

Posted by: Icedog at December 18, 2012 08:48 AM (9ScGj)

Yeah, but with    Vic it was 1850.

I KEED!

Posted by: Mama AJ at December 18, 2012 08:50 AM (SUKHu)

So they've turned Twitter into the ONT?

>>I once waded out in the water in CA up near SF. It was too cold to even wade in.

Ah yes, favorite beach activity 'round those parts: watching the tourists and newcomers jump into the water and leap out again.

My only qualm with permitting teachers to carry in class is the students.  Not because I think the teacher will shoot the students, but because I guarantee - GUARANTEE - some idiot student will steal his or her teacher's gun and either shoot him/herself or shoot someone else.   The more teachers who    are armed, the   higher the possibility this would happen.   Then we'd go through the WHOLE argument again.  

I'm all for arming faculty and staff, but you've got to make sure the people you're arming are     even more responsible than your average gun owner,   because they're going to be surrounded by irresponsible idiots    (ie,   kids).

Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at December 18, 2012 08:51 AM (piMMO)

Said the victim to the thief....

Posted by: Empire of Jeff at December 18, 2012 08:55 AM (XfTMw)

Diet Mountain Dew all over my screen. Thanks.

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at December 18, 2012 08:57 AM (XkWWK)

ISWYDT.

I love this place.

Mama, I'm told Hitchcock is pretty lousy, both in character work and in writing; for instance, when Hitch tells his wife how much she means to him, she says something along the lines of "I've waited 40 years to hear that," to which he responds - really! - "That's why they call me the master of suspense."  Yeah, I think I'll pass.  FWIW, The Girl, an HBO movie with Toby Jones as the director, is said to be much better.

Here's a story - at a Hollywood party, a valet was being briefed on how to pronounce the names of certain guests - "now, Deborah Kerr is pronounced 'car,' not 'krrr.'" - but he got so nervous not wanting to screw up that when a car for Hitch pulled up, he called out, "Alfred Hitchcar, your cock is ready."

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at December 18, 2012 08:59 AM (XkWWK)

No fucking way am I clicking that. I don't care if it is from youtube.

You know what I find comforting?   I glanced at the ingredients on a box of    Wheat Thins earlier and saw that it had one of those special, bold text    allergy notices:   "Contains: Wheat."

Wheat in Wheat Thins?   Y'don't say.

That's almost as amusing as reading the ingredients on a carton of ice cream and seeing "Warning: contains dairy ingredients."

>>No fucking way am I clicking that.

Ah, come on.

>> I'm told Hitchcock is pretty lousy, both in character work and in writing

Bummer.

Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) Channelling Breitbart at December 18, 2012 09:02 AM (/eBe

Oh, I dunno.  I imagine someone with    XY chromosomes could admire the cuteness of the    male    reproductive organs of various species.   It would be creepy as hell and I might be tempted to string garlic and crucifixes around my doors and windows to keep that person away, but YMMV.

Posted by: MrScribbler, banned at TepidAir at December 18, 2012 09:05 AM (yKUrR)

If that doesn't convince you to go on a diet, NOTHING will.   YUM.

Though with all the insect bits that are used for food colorings and other additives, I imagine every one of us has eaten the equivalent of a swarm of locusts in     the past thirty years.    DOUBLE YUM.

>>Can't shake this bug.

Get better! I actually remained standing for minutes at a time yesterday. Quite an improvement...

Do you remember how the teachers and their lackeys behaved in WI during the union protests? How about in Chicago? You really want people like that issued weapons from the state?

Posted by: EC at December 18, 2012 09:09 AM (GQ8sn)

True enough!

There SHOULD be some kind of armed security, though.   I know folks have referenced retired police officers, and that's a possibility.  I   lean more toward ex-military.   Make it a twofer and get him or her in   the classroom.   A teacher who takes no guff and can shoot any would-be Tiny Dick Babykiller   who comes along.     Teacher of the Year      every year, in my opinion.

Mama AJ and Truman North:   I hope you start feeling better soon!   And who was it yesterday who was also complaining of a cold?      And poor Y-Not with her back, too.

Rest up and get healthy, 'rons and 'ronettes!   No one wants to meet the Mayan Apocalypse up to their elbows in used tissues and    extra strength ibuprofen.

Do a internet search on "Celiac Disease" and you'll understand why that's now on the label.

Posted by: BlueFalcon in Boston at December 18, 2012 09:13 AM (KCvsd)

Oh, I know.   I do.   I just find it humorous   that you'd need to warn for wheat content on a box of    Wheat    Thins.

Posted by: MWR, Proud Tea(rrorist) Party Hobbit at December 18, 2012 09:11 AM (4df7R)

I'm a big fan of ex police/military. Mentioned it here once or twice I believe. I put up on the evil Facebook: "How would you feel about your child's safety when you dropped them off if there was an ex-SEAL or Ranger patrolling the grounds?"

*sigh* 

*climbs in barrel*

Oh, EW.  It smells like Guinness farts and despair in here.

Posted by: Icedog at December 18, 2012 09:17 AM (9ScGj)

You sayin' we ain't classy?  

I realize that the "smart" thing to do right now for republican polititians concerning gun control is to lay low, don't talk about it and let things cool down.

Still, I wouldn't mind someone speaking up for the 2nd amendment.  And I don't mean someone talking about hunter's rights or defending against a burglar. 

Our constitution protects our right to bear arms in order to defend our freedom against the government.  There is also a underlying undeniable right to self defense.  Drop this hunting and target shooting nonsense and say the reason to buy an assault rifle is to be able to kill as many people as possible to defend yourself and your family.

Posted by: soothsayer at December 18, 2012 09:17 AM (rme6O)

I saw that linked yesterday on Drudge and had to Heimlich myself with a chair because I laughed so hard I    inhaled my   own tongue.

Thank you MWR.

This is the worst stomach bug I've ever had, in terms of length. Was never super sick, but just can't seem to get well.

"...that Empire of Jeff guy. He's an asshole."

And I hear he's some kind of foreigner.

Thank you, Waterhouse.

I think if you only mangle the formatting in your own comment, or format the entire comments section but catch it before anyone else adds a comment, you should be laughed at, but not put in the barrel.

This is a platform I can endorse.     Especially because that barrel is FOUL.   Has anyone    bothered to hose it out?   Like, EVER?   Because there are things living in there that Should Not Be.

Posted by: Mallamutt, RINO President for Life at December 18, 2012 09:22 AM (OWjjx)

So we've finally found one?   Thank God.   I was beginning to think we'd have to pull over and ask for directions at the next gas station.

>>Sure sign of a RINO.

He sure slants to the left, IYKWIMAITYD.

Question RE: the sidebar article about high speed rail between NYC and Buffalo.    A simple question, really:   who the hell wants to leave NYC to go to Buffalo, and why the HELL would you want to get their   at high speed?

(The same could be said of the reverse journey, but at least NYC has more   shopping and fewer ten foot snow drifts.)

THERE at high speed.   *SIGH*   I dun    type good.

Posted by: Mallamutt, RINO President for Life at December 18, 2012 09:27 AM (OWjjx)

"Sorry, Bob!  Can't stop to chat!  Gotta train to catch!"

"A train?  Train to where?"

"Buffalo!"

"What on earth are you going to Buffalo for in such a hurry?"

"32oz Pepsi, man!"

"No way.  I heard that was just a myth!"

Posted by: Icedog at December 18, 2012 09:33 AM (9ScGj)

Military?  Near Camp Casey?

Because there are things living in there that Should Not Be.

Come on down to Smilin' Cthulhu's Used Cars!  See the deals that Should Not Be!

Posted by: MWR, Proud Tea(rrorist) Party Hobbit at December 18, 2012 09:26 AM (4df7R)

Posted by: Libtardo at December 18, 2012 09:57 AM (8Jp6C)

Only if it     took place roughly three thousand miles away from me, preferably behind a reinforced concrete wall     lined with lead.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at December 18, 2012 09:49 AM (zF6Iw)

"Well,  I'm    leaning    toward the    '03    Altima, but should there be this many tentacles in the glove box?