Happy Friday!
Cooler weather is on tap this weekend for many across the country after our latest heat wave.
Thank you for taking time to check out my random thoughts.
THE WORLD’S BIGGEST POLLUTERS
China leads the world in air pollution.
This was when I arrived in Beijing in April 2016 and it worsened that afternoon. It got so bad, it looked like it nightfall!
Also, the United States, India, Russia, and Japan are in the top five (in order) doing the most damage to the Earth and creating our current climate crisis.
Temperatures are increasing, oceans are rising, the weather is changing, and ice caps are melting.
While we’re making progress, change is slow due to bureaucracy and the cost!
SO BLAME MARTHA STEWART!
Recently, the style icon was on a cruise around the fjords of Greenland.
She posted a photo of her enjoying a cocktail with the caption, “We actually captured a small iceberg for our cocktails tonight”.
And, then the haters gonna hate!
One Instagram follower wrote, “Martha the ice caps are melting don’t put them in your drink.” and another said, “I generally love Martha and the excesses of her life because she’s about beautiful gardens, homes, and food, but wealthy white people drinking their iceberg cocktails while the planet is in flames is a bit tone deaf.”
Okay, both are correct about the ice caps.
However, I don’t think Martha and her fellow cruisers were pulling a Yukon Cornelius and chipping away the icebergs for an Instagram photo.
And, if they did that, what bitches! (That’s sarcasm!)
Look at this way, they were recycling!
TASTY NEW COFFEE CREAMER
I drink coffee in the mornings at work, but I don’t love coffee unless (1) it’s iced coffee and (2) it has several artificial sweeteners and fun-flavored coffee creamer.
A new one is on the way this fall that’ll take you back to your childhood — peanut butter and jelly. The new “DUO” will feature strawberry jelly.
PRIDE MONTH (AND THE RAINY SEASON) MAY BE OVER
However, this photo of Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias from June’s Chicago gay pride parade was just brought to my attention!
How did I possibly not know about this?
I saw him at the 2010 Chicago Gay Pride Parade when he was running for Senate and I’m still crushing on him!
STILL DISAPPOINTED WEEKS LATER
I was so excited when Kylie Minogue confirmed her first Las Vegas residency at the Venetian Resort’s new venue, Voltaire.
20,000 seats and I couldn’t snag one standing room only ticket ($250). I still have faith that more shows will be added and I’ll see Kylie later this year (or in 2024)!
BUT, I’M VERY EXCITED FOR “TENSION”
While I won’t be fulfilling my bucket list and seeing Kylie in Las Vegas, the “Tension” album release is just two weeks away.
That excites me and makes me smile.
Just last week, Kylie released the second single, the title track, and the video is so much fun. And, the song’s lyrics are hot and steamy!
Which is your favorite Kylie? I love them all!
Meanwhile, the first release from the album, “Padam Padam”, is an international hit (#1 in Israel and the U.K.) and it’s still climbing the charts here in the U.S.
It’s actually being played at Top 40 radio and is at #31.
“WHO IS ERIN CARTER?”
I hadn’t heard anything about this new Netflix series, so I took a chance on it and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Erin Carter, a substitute school teacher, and her daughter are in a grocery store when a robbery goes down. When her daughter is threatened, Erin reacts in a way that makes you realize she’s more than a mother protecting her child.
As of now, it hasn’t been renewed for a second season. However, I’d watch a second season!
Evin Ahmad as Erin Carter is sexy and a badass and her husband Jordi (Sean Teale) is absolutely gorgeous.
GRADE: A-
“GOLDA: THE LIFE OF ISRAEL’S PRIME MINISTER”
Last week I shared a few things from Peggy Mann’s 1971 biography of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.
Here are a few more interesting tidbits from the book:
The Arab nations’ banned Elizabeth Taylor’s movies because she married Eddie Fisher and adopted his religion and became a Jew.
Her political adviser Simcha Dinitz summed up her leadership when she was appointed Prime Minister (the previous leader died in early 1969 and the leaders didn’t want to appoint one of the frontrunners for the top job before the October 1969 election): “She has the best qualities of a woman — intuition, insight, sensitivity, compassion — plus the best qualities of a man — strength, determination, practicality, purposefulness. So we’re lucky. We have double qualities — in one person.”
Meir was very honest and clever with her remarks. In New York City, in the fall of 1969, at an elaborate event in the Grand Hall of the Brooklyn Museum with ancient Egyptian antiques and paintings in the background, Meir told the museum curator, “I promise not to stand in front of any work of art in case I get shot.”
In October 1970, addressing a celebration of the United Nations’ 25th anniversary, Meir told the crowd, “All of those around us, as well as Israel, have paid the terrible price of endless warfare. Billions of dollars have been spent on armaments instead of on war against poverty, disease, and ignorance. There are now deserts of death where there could be blooming fields. I say this today not in rancor but in sorrow.”
REMEMBERING GARY WRIGHT
Last Friday, iconic singer Jimmy Buffett died at the age of 76. When a huge star dies, lesser stars that die the same day or close to it are overlooked.
Singer Gary Wright died on Labor Day at the age of 80.
Wright only charted with three Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, but the first two were huge. “Dream Weaver” and “Love Is Alive” both peaked at #2 in 1976.
“Dream Weaver” is one of my favorite songs from my childhood.
“SUNSET BOULEVARD”
I decided now that I’m heading into my sunset years, I’m going to watch a few classics — movies older than me and some that may be more recent, but I never saw. I kicked it off with “Dog Day Afternoon” and I enjoyed it.
I just watched the 1950 classic, “Sunset Boulevard”, which was nominated for eleven Oscars (four in the acting categories).
It tells the story of a younger man, Joe Gillis, (William Holden), a struggling Hollywood writer, going to work for Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), an aging movie star trying to hold on to her fame and looks.
I liked the movie, but I would’ve much rather have seen it on stage with the amazing Patti Lupone as Desmond!
One final comment, after seeing some of Swanson’s facial expression, I know where Faye Dunaway may have gotten the inspiration for some of her crazed Joan Crawford expressions in “Mommie Dearest”!
“And now, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”
GRADE: B
AND, SPEAKING OF GLORIA SWANSON
The Hollywood star had a not too secret affair in the late-1920s with Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., the father of President John F. Kennedy!
At the time, he and his wife, Rose, had been married for over a decade and had eight children! Their last child, Ted, was born after the Swanson affair cooled.
Later, Swanson would say of Kennedy’s wife Rose that she was either “a fool or a saint”.
THAT’S IT
With all the craziness in the world, make it the best in your little part of it!
Anthony
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