Betty White Joins the 99 Club, Alas
Betty White, the actress and entertainer whose working career spanned an astonishing nine decades, has died at age 99. She passed on Friday morning at her home in California; the …..
Monthly Archive: December 2021
bell hooks outlived Evel Knievel
Both were daredevils in their own way. Evel Knievel jumped over buses and fountains on a souped-up motorcycle. Dr. bell hooks jumped over sexists and racists with her deep thinking …..
Elfrida von Nardroff is Dead: Won More Than Charles Van Doren on Rigged Game Show
You’ve heard of Charles Van Doren, the poster boy for game show cheating in the 1950s. But have you heard of Elfrida von Nardroff? She won more than Van Doren …..
Frank Sinatra’s Christmas Special (and his Blue Suit)
Happy Holidays With Bing and Frank, the special was called, and it aired on December 20, 1957. The conceit is that Bing Crosby drops in on Frank Sinatra on Christmas …..
New Astronaut Sleeping Bag Prevents Old Astronaut Eye-squashing
We’re always here for fresh astronaut news, whether it’s an Apollo 11 anniversary or John Glenn outliving Phyllis Diller. Today’s astronaut story is in a more scientific vein: how to …..
Micky Dolenz is the Last Monkee Standing
I’m heartbroken. I’ve lost a dear friend and partner. I’m so grateful that we could spend the last couple of months together doing what we loved best – singing, …..
George Patton’s Widow Put a Deadly Hawaiian Curse on his Mistress
“May the Great Worm gnaw your vitals, and may your bones rot joint by little joint!” Here’s a wild story about General George Patton, hard-driving hero (and cancelled-in-his-own-time villain) of …..
Bob Dole Lost 70 Pounds of Pure Muscle After World War II
Bob Dole — Congressman, Senate majority leader, and three-time presidential candidate — was also once a muscular young man. Bob Dole died this morning at age 98 after a lifetime …..
A “Punk” Christmas With Shonen Knife
Here’s Japanese pop-punk band Shonen Knife playing their song “Sweet Christmas.” It’s one of their two big holiday songs, the other being the more-famous “Space Christmas.” Are you in the …..
Eleanor Roosevelt Wrote a Daily Newspaper Column for 25 Years
Earlier we were speaking of the polio diagnosis of President Franklin Roosevelt. Now let’s chat a bit about the stamina of his wife, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. For years, Eleanor …..
FDR Probably Got Polio at a Boy Scout Jamboree
You learn something new every day, and today we learned how future president Franklin D. Roosevelt got polio at age 39. Or how he probably got it: from the Boy …..
Will Robert Wadlow Always Be the World’s Tallest Man?
Will anyone ever be taller than Robert Wadlow? The small-town boy from Illinois was a whopping 8’11” tall — that’s right: eight feet, eleven inches — when he died in …..