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A (much) older woman, still spry, sits on a couch and speaks earnestly to someone off-camera

Pablo Picasso’s World War II Mistress is 100 and Still Going Strong

January 30, 2022 | By Fritz Holznagel

Salute to François Gilot, who just turned 100 and is still giving charming interviews to The New York Times. We wrote about François Gilot seven years ago in a piece …..

Marlene Dietrich is glam and beautiful in a slinky embroidered gown. She stands between two slicked-back men in tuxedoes who are staring intently at each other. All three are holding cocktail glasses in some kind of fancy mansion or hotel lobby.

Marlene Dietrich and Champagne: She Didn’t Quite Say That

January 22, 2022 | By Fritz Holznagel

Here’s a story about Hollywood legend Marlene Dietrich, Champagne, and a bad quote. The actress liked her sparkles, that much is clear. A supposed Marlene Dietrich quote about Champagne is …..

A campaign poster reads "Vote Shirley CHISHOLM 1972. Unbought and Unbossed."

Shirley Chisholm, Unbought and Unbossed

January 21, 2022 | By Fritz Holznagel

Shirley Chisholm, unbought and unbossed. Has there been a better political slogan this side of “I Like Ike“? No, there hasn’t. I had always thought the “unbought and unbossed” reference …..

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, right, talks with civil rights leaders in his White House office in Washington, D.C., Jan. 18, 1964. The black leaders, from left, are, Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); James Farmer, national director of the Committee on Racial Equality; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; and Whitney Young, executive director of the Urban League. (AP Photo)

Martin Luther King Pushed for Global Justice, Not Just Civil Rights at Home

January 15, 2022 | By The Conversation

MLK’s vision for nonviolence included abolishing what he called triple evils – racism, poverty and militarism – and his anger at the Vietnam War led him to push for a broader agenda.

People magazine's cover reads 'Betty White Turns 100!' along with a big cover photo of her

Betty White’s 100th Birthday People Magazine Cover

January 1, 2022 | By admin

People magazine, getting ahead of the news, published this 100th birthday tribute to actress Betty White earlier this week. The issue date is January 10, 2022. Unfortunately, Betty White died …..

Betty White Joins the 99 Club, Alas

December 31, 2021 | By admin

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 …..

Side-by-side photos of bell hooks (a black woman in a classroom, holding a microphone and pen) and Evel Knievel (looking through the skeleton of a shark's jawbone)

bell hooks outlived Evel Knievel

December 16, 2021 | By Fritz Holznagel

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

December 16, 2021 | By Fritz Holznagel

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 and Bing Crosby sit in a mod living room with a tree behind them, singing. (They're singing, not the tree.)

Frank Sinatra’s Christmas Special (and his Blue Suit)

December 15, 2021 | By Fritz Holznagel

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

December 13, 2021 | By Fritz Holznagel

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 …..

Mickey Dolenz wears a hat and a big smile. He's an older gent but looks good in a cocked Sinatra-style fedora and open-collar shirt

Micky Dolenz is the Last Monkee Standing

December 12, 2021 | By Fritz Holznagel

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, …..

Side-by-side shots of George Patton and Jean Gordon: she in a nurse's outfit, he in a puffy coat and military helmet

George Patton’s Widow Put a Deadly Hawaiian Curse on his Mistress

December 7, 2021 | By Fritz Holznagel

“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

December 5, 2021 | By Fritz Holznagel

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 …..

Three sweaty Japanese women smile as they hold up their hands in horns with their second and fifth fingers

A “Punk” Christmas With Shonen Knife

December 3, 2021 | By Fritz Holznagel

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

December 2, 2021 | By Fritz Holznagel

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 is a gray-haired man in sensible suit with a striped tie. He has a slight smile on his face.

FDR Probably Got Polio at a Boy Scout Jamboree

December 2, 2021 | By Fritz Holznagel

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?

December 1, 2021 | By Fritz Holznagel

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 …..

Rihanna is In, Queen Elizabeth is Out as Barbados Declares Independence

November 30, 2021 | By admin

Queen Elizabeth II has one less item on her plate: Barbados has become an independent republic. Musical star Rihanna and royal representative Prince Charles were on hand as Barbados cut …..

Lucian Freud Painting That Lucian Freud Denied Painting Was Painted by Lucian Freud

November 28, 2021 | By Fritz Holznagel

Here’s a fascinating little story about hotsy-totsy 20th-century artist Lucian Freud and a portrait he said he didn’t paint. In 1997, a Swiss art collector bought what he thought was …..

Edmund Fitzgerald was Alive When the Edmund Fitzgerald Sank

November 21, 2021 | By Fritz Holznagel

You might have assumed that the ill-fated ship the Edmund Fitzgerald was named for an old-timey sea captain or an Irish bartender or some other sailing-adjacent fellow. Not so! As …..