Whimsical Wanderings

Bonnie Tyler died. The Welsh singer was 75 and achieved worldwide fame with her hit song “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” It sold 13 million copies and became her standard. Like Tyler, some singers get forever associated with one song. For example, Don McLean and “American Pie.” That monster hit has a long history of interpretations. Is it about the death of Buddy Holly? About Bob Dylan (“the Jester”) stealing the “thorny crown” from “the King” (Elvis Presley)?

Random word: Chalice A chalice is a stemmed goblet, used in rituals like the Eucharist or the Viking drinking game “Pillage and Lay Waste.” Many of you will immediately associate the word with the Danny Kaye movie The Court Jester. Kaye plays Hawkins, a good-hearted doofus who, along with a rebel named Jean (Glynnis Johns) is caught up in a plot to guard a baby who is the true king (because he has the royal birthmark on his buttock).

John Dillinger died on this day in 1934. A real sweetie, Dillinger was, tied to a string of bank robberies and murders. But because this was the Depression, and he managed to escape from jail a couple of times, he was portrayed as some dashing Robin Hood. Nah, he was just a hood, a remorseless punk who became Public Enemy #1, running with a gang that included “Baby Face” Nelson (another cold-blooded killing cutie).

Sometimes, the funnies write themselves. According to the New York Post (July 7), a burglar had his truck stolen as he was robbing a Verizon store.

Random word: Bet You can place a bet, and you can bet your life (though that’s best understood metaphorically). Groucho Marx hosted a TV show in the 1950s called You Bet Your Life, where he’d ad-lib with contestants before playing a Q & A game with them. They could win money, but it wasn’t really gambling, because the stake money was given to them by the show. Back then, gambling was considered a vice, even a sin.

Random word: Air You can breathe air, and put air in your tires. If you’re exceedingly happy, you are “walking on air.” Those Russians who climbed to the tip-top of the Empire State Building’s antenna were close to literally walking on air. But the wind was taken out of their sails by the NYPD.

A Happy 4th of July to you all! 250 years ago 56 men signed their names to the Declaration of Independence, including insurance man John Hancock and shirt maker Button Gwinnett. Hot dogs and beer were served, followed by a game of Frisbee golf.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Crowe died, at age 67. She is described as someone who was “gentle yet strong, and hopeful in the face of adversity,” and that is a good way to be, essential actually, because no one gets through this gig without adversity, piles of it, and the only way to handle it is with hope, because the other kind of attitude is “Well, there’s nothing I can do, nobody to help me, so I’ll just curl up here for a while and wait for the feeling to pass.” Not Betsy.

Random book: 1997 Britannica Book of the Year “For three days after death hair and fingernails continue to grow, but phone calls taper off.” – Johnny Carson The other day I was at a local branch of the L.A. library—the one, in fact, I grew up in and where I got my first library card (which was like getting the key to a vast wonderland) and where years later I met the legendary Ray Bradbury who, like me, loved libraries and Los Angeles (though my love for Los Angeles is strained of late, and...

This edition of Whimsical Wanderings is free to everyone. If you appreciate this work, please consider becoming a paying subscriber. Poor Fred Merkle. He was a 19-year-old first baseman for the New York Giants back in 1908, and will always be associated with what is known as “Merkle’s Boner.” That may be the second-worst injustice in Major League Baseball history, the first being the color barrier that lasted until Jackie Robinson.