Headlines & Headliners

Interesting headline from an op-ed piece by Nicole Gelinas at nypost.com: “Soaring US road deaths reflect the same lawlessness as murder surge does.” And it seems unique to America, as other countries report a decrease. Recklessness, speeding on less crowded roads, is cited as the main cause. Of course, drunk-driving is a factor. She made no mention of marijuana, now legal in many states.

Taste of its own medicine, headline from NYP: “Ex-Google AI researchers accuse firm of ‘white supremacy.’”

Is this true or a clever stratagem by an L.A. official to keep folks from using? Headline from foxnews.com: “DA warns virtually all drugs on the streets are laced with fentanyl.”

I have a hunch a certain day of the week will be popular for those who wish to skip school. Headline from FN: “NYC schools launching vegan lunches on Fridays.”

Last night Movies! ran yet another flick with which I was completely unfamiliar, The Garment Jungle (1957), based on a series of articles titled Gangsters in the Dress Business by Lester Velie. Vincent Sherman and Robert Aldrich directed, the latter’s work uncredited, Harry Kleiner adapted the screenplay. It’s only okay, failing to soar, too tidy at the end. Surprisingly, the goombah was the hero, not the hood, played by Robert Loggia. The other names were generic, father and son Mitchell, played by the great Lee J. Cobb and Kerwin Matthews, who boomers will remember as the star of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958). The head bad guy, Ravidge, is played by the always excellent Richard Boone, his main henchman by the icy Wesley Addy. There are two other interesting aspects regarding the cast, one grim. Gia Scala as the wife of the hero, and Susan Alexander as a model, committed suicide at 38 and 44 respectively. Scala is so full of life in the role. According to her bio at IMDb, she went into a tailspin when her mom died. The blurb of her bio at Amazon, co-written by her sister, suggests it was caused by being dumped by the love of her life. I suspect there is more to it than that. Almost everyone goes through such pain at some time… Celia Lovsky, a Viennese immigrant, plays the mamma of the hero. She will always be remembered by Trekkies as the woman who oversees the duel in Amok Time, the episode where the horny Spock returns to Vulcan and is tricked into battling Kirk to the “death.” She piled up 129 credits in a career than spanned 1930-’74. Her only marriage was to Peter Lorre, an eleven year union. I bet she had some stories to tell. She passed away at 82 in 1979.

Born in England, her dad Sicilian, her mom Irish, Scala has 31 titles under her name, the most notable The Guns of Navarone (1961). Why, Gia, why?

Born Gwendolyn Ann White in Canada, Suzanne Alexander has 29 titles beneath her name, none memorable. No reason is given for her jumping to her death from a San Francisco hotel room. Why, Suzanne, why? She too was the subject of a book by an author with an interesting, familiar name:

Born in Omaha, Addy has 83 titles under his name, mostly in TV, including long arcs on soaps. He made multiple appearances on many prime time shows. His most significant role was Andrew Jackson in The Adams Chronicles, the acclaimed 1976 mini-series. He was married to Hollywood legend Celeste Holm for 30 years until his death at 83 in 1996.

For the seventh time in the last eleven days, foul weather put the kibosh on the floating book shop. There is some good news — five recent sales at Amazon, four of them Kindle downloads. Yay team.

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