I still have my wits about me in my late 50s. This is despite decades of sustaining myself on my 3 major food groups: Whiskey, Pizza, & Mary Jane, & yet, I am still a font of show business trivia. I recently demonstrated that I can name the composer & lyricist, Broadway show, stars, director & producer associated with almost any song from the first 6 decades of the 20th century, all to a small audience that could have cared less. But, like most people who have made it to their 6th decade, I can get a bit addled if I am not concentrating.
This week I was continually hearing radio & TV spots for a big major, multi-media, high tech event with the provocative title of Walking With Dinah Shore. This event was teasing me with the offer of dazzling & astounding, 20 million dollar arena spectacle with 15 life size & life-like Dinah Shores walking the earth once more!
I had always found Dinah to be a charming, even underrated singer & TV personality. I would sometimes catch her on the Dinah Shore Chevy Show (“see the USA in your Chevrolet”) in the late 1950s, her television musical specials in the 1960s, & her 2 talk shows- Dinah & Friends & Cooking With Dinah in the 1970s. I recall trying to wrap my head around the Burt Reynolds + Dinah Shore romance. I was somewhat bewildered that she was Jewish, but her ticket to fame was her “Southern Charm” (I tought Jews were only in NYC or L.A). I have been out of the loop on how her name became connected with something having to do with Palm Springs, Golf & the Lesbian version of the White Party.
But nothing flummoxed me as to how there was touring extravaganza with 15 animatronic Dinahs, that was soon to fill The Rose Quarter Arena in Portland, “thrilling for all ages”, before moving on to Lake Tahoe. It seemed that I was loosing my touch with the pulse of what was popular. & here I was, thinking how cool I was to be in late middle-age & enjoying the musical pleasures of Vampire Weekend & Lady GaGa. I was loathed to admit that I wasn’t GaGa for Walking With Dinah Shore.
To add to my confusion, I misunderstood the morning news, & I believed that the Dali Lama was having a joint press conference with Tiger Woods.
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