Classic TV Commercial of the Month - August 2026

 Quenching a summer thirst...plus the Muppets.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

Photo Hell

 

I think I dated her.

I know I dated her.

Chippendale Junior High.

I'm with you, kid.

 I wonder how they erected that.

Sharknado 5: The Wedding Reception.

It's almost time for those yellow pills in the little paper cups.

Just where is Waldo?

A Pepto Bismol family.

We need to stick together in the ocean.   Or so says the warden.

I hope the cops were there for this asshole five minutes after this snapshot was taken.

Most Likely To Be Beaten Up in Gym Class.

Dinner last night:   Grilled beef sausage.

Hollywood Then and Now - August 2026

 Ah, I know this intersection well as it's on my route to the Hollywood Bowl.   Well, the current portion is from a few years ago, but it still looks the same.   As a matter, it's obvious that the church on the left still exists intact.  In fact, it serves as an auxiliary parking lot for the Bowl.

Things change.   Things stay the same.

Dinner last night:  The pre-game buffet at the Dodger Stadium Club.

This Date in History - July 29

 

it's tough for me to ignore my favorite character from the Sopranos.  Here's to you, Tony "Paulie Walnuts" Sirico on your heavenly birthday.

238:  THE PRAETORIAN GUARD STORM THE PALACE AND CAPTURE PUPIENUS AND BALBINUS.  THEY ARE DRAGGED THROUGH THE STREETS OF ROME AND EXECUTED.  ON THE SAME DAY, GORDIAN III, AGE 13, IS PROCLAIMED EMPEROR.

Talk about a nice bar mitzvah present.  Here's your present...Rome.

615:  PAKAL ASCENDS THE THRONE OF PALENQUE AT THE AGE OF 12.

What's with all these rulers with acne?

904:  SACK OF THESSALONICA - SARACEN RAIDERS UNDER LEO OF TRIPOLI SACK THESSALONIKI AFTER A SHORT SIEGE.

Leo of Tripoli must have had some defensive line.

1030:  BATTLE OF STIKLESTAD - KING OLAF II FIGHTS AND DIES TRYING TO REGAIN HIS NORWEGIAN THRONE FROM THE DANES.

Victor Borge would be proud.

1565:  THE WIDOWED MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, MARRIES HENRY STUART AT HOLYROOD PALACE IN SCOTLAND.

If you read this fast, you think it's the Hollywood Palace.

1793:  JOHN GRAVES SIMCOE DECIDES TO BUILD A FORT AND SETTLEMENT AT TORONTO.

Did Simcoe also have a shoe store?

1836:  INAUGURATION OF THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE IN PARIS.

Good.  Now they have something to put on postcards.

1848:  TIPPERARY REVOLT - IN IRELAND, AN UNSUCCESSFUL NATIONALIST REVOLT AGAINST BRITISH RULE IS PUT DOWN BY POLICE.

It's a long way to...

1864:  AMERICAN CIVIL WAR - CONFEDERATE SPY BELLE BOYD IS ARRESTED BY UNION TROOPS AND DETAINED AT THE OLD CAPITOL PRISON IN WASHINGTON, DC.

The Belle of the Jail.

1890:  PAINTER VINCENT VAN GOGH DIES.

Lust for Death.

1892:  ACTOR WILLIAM POWELL IS BORN.

The Thin Man.

1899:  THE FIRST HAGUE CONVENTION IS SIGNED.

Wait for the second one.  They'll have all the kinks worked out.

1905:  ACTRESS CLARA BOW IS BORN.

She was a hottie back in the day.

1905:  DIPLOMAT DAG HAMMARSKJOLD IS BORN.

Now there's a name that defies forgery.

1914:  THE CAPE COD CANAL OPENS.

Not exactly the one in Panama.

1914:  COMEDIAN PROFESSOR IRWIN COREY IS BORN.

He lived to 103.  That's 791 in dog years.

1921:  ADOLF HITLER BECOMES LEADER OF THE NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS PARTY.

Uh oh.

1933:  WRESTLER LOU ALBANO IS BORN.

He also was a cab driver in my hometown of Mount Vernon, NY and had his name painted on the side of the vehicle.

1942:  ACTOR TONY SIRICO IS BORN.

Seriously, he steals every scene he's in with the Sopranos.

1945:  THE BBC LIGHT PROGRAMME STATION IS LAUNCHED.

Fewer calories than the regular BBC.

1948:  AFTER A HIATUS OF 12 YEARS CAUSED BY WORLD WAR II, THE FIRST SUMMER OLYMPICS TO BE HELD SINCE 1936 OPEN IN LONDON.

That Hitler was such a buzzkill.

1958:  US PRESIDENT DWIGHT EISENHOWER SIGNS INTO LAW THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ACT, WHICH CREATES NASA.

Space.  The Next Frontier.

1959:  THE FIRST US CONGRESS ELECTIONS IN HAWAII AS A STATE OF THE UNION.

Vote 'em, Dan-o.

1967:  DURING THE FOURTH DAY OF CELEBRATING ITS 400TH ANNIVERSARY, THE CITY OF CARACAS, VENEZUELA IS SHAKEN BY AN EARTHQUAKE, LEAVING APPROXIMATELY 500 DEAD.

The perfect symmetry would have been 400 dead.

1974:  SINGER CASS ELLIOT DIES.

Should have had soup instead of a sandwich.

1976:  IN NEW YORK CITY, DAVID BERKOWITZ, AKA THE SON OF SAM, KILLS ONE AND WOUNDS ANOTHER IN THE FIRST OF HIS ATTACKS.

A dog told him to do it.  Seriously.

1979:  PRODUCER BILL TODMAN DIES.

He no longer has a secret.

1981:  ON TELEVISION, OVER 700 MILLION PEOPLE WATCH THE WEDDING OF PRINCE CHARLES AND LADY DIANA SPENCER IN LONDON.

She didn't mind the photographers that day.

1981:  URBAN PLANNER ROBERT MOSES DIES.

The real reason the Dodgers moved out of Brooklyn.

1982:  ACTOR HAROLD SAKATA DIES.

Oddjob!

1983:  ACTOR RAYMOND MASSEY DIES.

Paging Dr. Kildare.

1983:  ACTOR DAVID NIVEN DIES.

Separate Coffins.

1987:  BRITISH PRIME MINISTER MARGARET THATCHER AND PRESIDENT OF FRANCE FRANCOIS MITTERRAND SIGN THE AGREEMENT TO BUILD A TUNNEL UNDER THE ENGLISH CHANNEL.

I'd hate to get stuck down there.

1996:  THE CHILD PROTECTION PORTION OF THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT IS STRUCK DOWN BY A US FEDERAL COURT AS TOO BROAD.

Yeah?  Have you seen what kids are writing on the internet these days?

1998:  CHOREOGRAPHER JEROME ROBBINS DIES.

Sharks 0, Jets 0.

2005:  ASTRONOMERS ANNOUNCE THEIR DISCOVERY OF THE DWARF PLANET ERIS.

Eris tu?

Dinner last night:  Bacon and tomato sandwich.

And That's A Career

 

It seems like just yesterday that Howard Stern was one of the most listened-to radio voices in the medium.   So many big laughs.  So many wonderful bits.  So many insightful interviews.

Back when he was rounding up his huge audience totals in the 90s, I was a big fan.   So were most of the people in the NY office I worked in.  No matter where you were in the building, Howard and company were on.

When I moved to LA in the late 90s, I listened to him a little less.   But I can't help but remember how unbelievably moving he was on the air as he was on the air watching the carnage of 9/11.  You could hear his voice crack as he watched the first tower collapse in a round of rubble.

Indeed, that may have been Howard's last hurrah and moment of relevance.   In some respects, his popularity was already eroding with his core audience.  

Frequently, back in the day, Howard used his air time to turn his family into comedic characters in his world.  Lots of jokes and/or arguments with his wife and parents.   It's a way of life that many of his most fervent listeners could identify with.   You see, that audience segment was your typical blue collar guy.

But, then, Howard and his wife split up.  In short order, Howard hooked up with a younger woman who was a model and probably way too hot for him.   I think that subsequent marriage created a bit of a disconnect with Vinny the plumber in the Bronx.  

Then he took a mega deal to move his show to Sirius/XM which meant that Vinny had to pay to keep up with Howard and the gang.   

Disconnect #2.

Over the last fifteen years or so, Howard strayed more and more away from the weekday time slot as he began to work shorter and shorter weeks.  That would result in less people getting into the daily Howard habit.   Vinny's son never followed him as his dad did.

But the final and somewhat fatal blow came in the last six or so years.  You see, Howard's discussions would get more and more political in nature and he clearly had moved to a more liberal POV.   The last straw was one tirade where he announced that anybody in his audience who voted for Trump was stupid.

I have a sense that this really turned away Vinny the plumber for good.

Howard has moved to a point where he is no longer sought after or relevant.  As a matter of fact, I hear he is down to one or two shows a week.   At satellite radio prices.

I'll always remember the 90s where Howard was unmatched.   So will Vinny and a lot of other listeners that Howard has now permanently disenfrenchised.

Dinner last night:  Leftover salad.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - July 27, 2026

 The name of the video says it all.

Dinner last night:  Leftover salad.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - Every Summer Like Clockwork

 

Yeah, that's me.  The knees look shot already.

Summertime.   Every year at this time.

I remember my days as a kid.   For most of the summer, I never left the neighborhood and, luckily, neither did my friends.   We developed our standard routine of playing baseball in the lot till it was too dark at night and then we waited for Coot, the Good Humor Man.   Then we would sit on somebody's front stoop and yakked it up until it was time for me to curl up next to the fan with a good book.

Yep, that was my summer.   But there was always that two weeks.

It was annual clockwork. My dad would take his two weeks of vacation every year at the same time. The last week of July and the first week of August. Smack in the middle of the summer. And this would be the time we would pack ourselves into a car and travel someplace. Loaded down with juice and lots of plums and peaches for the road. And usually Colorforms to keep me occupied. I couldn't bring comic books along to read in the car. I did that once. The decoration I upchucked onto the side of Dad's green Buick wasn't exactly Jackson Pollock.

We only went as far as a one-day drive could take us. Perhaps a long one-day drive, but one day nevertheless. So, essentially, our radius was about 300 to 400 miles. No more. No less. As a matter of fact, I never flew on an airplane until I got to college. I think about this every time I see some five-year-old throwing Cheerios around on one of my cross country flights.

Ideally, my folks and I would travel with another family. Another mom and dad to give my parents somebody to gossip with and perhaps another kid or two that I could hang with. There were a few times where we went solo and those trips tended to drag. After 50 weeks together as a family unit, we needed a break from each other as well. Invariably, though, there would be some point in the vacation with another family that something would happen. A sour word exchanged. A nasty look shared. And then the edict would come from Mom.

"Stay away from THEM."

I remember a bunch of these destinations. 

Lake George, New York, was popular. They had a couple of Disney-like theme parks. Storyland where you walked around some nursery rhyme settings and then fed the wandering animals. 

There was another gimmick called the North Pole and it was always odd to visit there in the sweltering July humidity. You got to meet elves and the complete Santa Claus clan. I was always curious why Mrs. Claus never had any kids. My mom would tell me that all the little workers were all the children they needed. I guess I was too young for the real explanation, which was readily apparent when you toured their house. Santa and the missus were sleeping in separate rooms.

The longest trip we ever made was to Niagara Falls, New York. All day in the car. Extra peaches and plums. Sheer boredom. But the view of the falls was worth it, especially when a wave knocked me clear across the Maid of the Mist. 

In those days, my father was an amateur photographer and loved taking slides with his Argus Technicolor camera. I remember when these particular slides came back from the developer. Somehow, two got superimposed over each other and the Maid of the Mist was poised right on top of the Horseshoe Falls. Was the Fotomat guy fooling around or was it an accident? We'll never know.

I'll always remember Niagara Falls for the huge case of food poisoning I must have got. All I can recall is lying on a hotel bed with alcohol soaked washcloths all over me. There was a visit from a doctor. I think I was there for about two days. At one point, I was visited by Vivian Vance in a nurse's outfit. Sheer delirium without a drop of liquor.

One summer after I had become a baseball fan, our familial trip trooped up to Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame. A great, great excursion for me. But, the little hamlet in upstate New York features few hotels and even fewer with air conditioning. One of my mom's pre-requisites for summer fun was the ability to go someplace and sleep in an air conditioned room. Without the cooling at night, my mom was even less impressed with Mickey Mantle's uniform pants displayed during the day.

Atlantic City, in its pre-casino days, was another popular destination over a few summers. The Boardwalk. The Million Dollar Pier. Salt water taffy. The Steel Pier where the Diving Horse worked and where I shook hands with Paul Anka after a performance. I was probably seven years old and already taller than he was. Another year, we saw the Lennon Sisters. Anything connected to the Lawrence Welk Show bored me shitless. I fell sound asleep in the aisle of the theater.

No trip to Atlantic City was complete without a visit to Zaberer's Restaurant. This place was such a big deal that you kept seeing the signs all along the road to Atlantic City.

"Ten miles to Zaberer's."

"Five miles to Zaberer's."

"Zaberer's right around the bend!"

Sort of like when the Ricardos and the Mertzes were driving west and looking for Aunt Martha's Pecan Pralines.

This was a total dress-up eating event and probably the biggest meal we had all year. You made reservations several days in advance and still waited an hour in the lounge for your table and the ultimate heart-stopping slab of prime rib. The big draw in the waiting room was a color TV, back in the days when nobody had one that worked correctly. At Zaberer's, Mitch Miller's beard was not purple.

On one Atlantic City trip, there was such a rift with THEM that my folks and I hightailed it out of there. Up the road to Asbury Park. Where there was nothing to do. And we stared at each other for what seemed to be an eternity. I ran to a bench and buried myself in the library books I had packed for the trip.

It was the last time we ever traveled anywhere as a family.

I was happy to go home and stand in the sandlot with my buddies again.

Dinner last night:   Sicilian potato salad.