Links to the past with relevance today:
BOING BOING: The movie version of Grease (1978) may be getting a prequel. Are you excited for it, or are you too hopelessly devoted to the original?
TWITTER: A question by Christopher Mims inspired this — what was the first computer YOU ever owned? For me, it was this Macintosh Performa 200, which I bought with a store credit card from a mall in New Jersey when I first lived in NYC. I believe I bought it in early 1993. I still own it, and it's the only of my previous computers I've ever kept, not counting hard drives.
NYT: National Enquirer, founded in 1926 (!), is a major liability these days, so American Media, Inc., is rumored to be selling it. One possible buyer — billionaire Ron Burkle, 66. Burkle specialized in bailing out failing businesses, but more interestingly, he is a Democrat — and National Enquirer has a far-right slant.
KENNETH IN THE (212): God, Debbie Reynolds (1932-2016) was only 51 when her infamous workout video Do It Debbie's Way hit the market in 1983. She looks beautiful, but I remember thinking she was a total matron, and listen to her banter — she's talking like she's so far over the hill she can't even see it anymore. Times have changed! Miss Debbie's pizzazz.
The other ladies in the video include three still with us (Teri Garr, b. 1947; Terry Moore, b. 1929; Dionne Warwick, b. 1940) and four (not counting Debbie) who are not (Florence Henderson, 1934-2016; Rose Marie, 1923-2017; Virginia Mayo, 1920-2005; Shelley Winters, 1920-2006).
Best bit: Shelley Winters asking who there had slept with Howard Hughes (1905-1976)!
VARIETY: Country singer Earl Thomas Conley dies at 77.
