How Might One Justify Their Love?

Everybody knows Madonna.

Don’t they?

If anyone does not know who Madonna is, they must learn.

If they have forgotten, they must be reminded.

At least, according to Madonna, herself, and her 2015 single with select lyrics shown above wherein she reintroduces herself.

In 1982, Madonna’s first single, Everybody, Madonna demands, “Everybody, come on, dance and sing!”

For those that were not there or those who may have blocked it out of their heads, Madonna became one of the biggest pop stars of the 80s in the USA, through media like Music Television (MTV) on cable TV and FM radio.

33 years later, Madonna, along with six others, including Nicki Minaj, of Young Money fame, wrote the aforementioned song, Bitch, I’m Madonna, in which she records, “Beep-beep bitch, move ‘fore I bang-bang with that uzi.”

Madonna must have a CIA file as thick as the bible!

I have had Madonna on the mind ever since I sat down with this turn of the 90s periodical my secret admirer bestowed upon me.

Some headlines were a little bit confusing due to how sometimes words in the English language have a few different definitions. It’s like, wait, Madonna’s royal what?

But, it turned out only to be innuendo, intentional or not, we can only speculate. For anyone who believes they may write to the contest address for more information, Ste.300 at 9171 Wilshire Blvd. is currently occupied by an accounting firm.

Contests were held by all sorts of companies on a frequent basis in the 20th Century with prizes ranging from hunks of junk to millions of dollars. It appeared that loads of generosity was just flowing through society. But perhaps this was just an old fashioned way of information phishing.

Still, whenever I come across contests like this one in old media, I wonder about all the people that won and how the experience of winning affected them. What an idea for a volume of books!

But anyway, I hope whomever won this collection of music had fun dancing the day away to Madonna’s Billboard hit, Vogue.

Another headline that grabbed my interest promised to share a glimpse of life backstage at a Madonna performance. Whay on Earth could they be getting up to back there?

So, the only thing in the magazine that came close to sharing “Rare Photos of Madonna Backstage” was Madonna practicing dancing in her “dressing room”. Okay, I can see this onstage too? It really did not give any candid insight in my personal opinion.

It was revealed that some sectors of feminism were not exactly pleased with Madonna. Her belt buckle reading “Boy Toy” was scrutinized and Madonna was criticized for not upholding the values of feminism. I was a little bit dumbfounded to read this. I never took the belt to mean that Madonna, herself, was the “Boy Toy”. I thought it meant that Madonna toyed with boys. Ooopsies!

Also, in a dramatic spin, Planned Parenthood started bitching when the song and video for Papa Don’t Preach came out. They argued it was not responsible of Madonna to sing about a teen who gets pregnant and decides to keep their baby. It is worth pointing out that nowhere in the song’s lyrics does it mention being a teenager or what age the woman in the song is. The video for Papa Don’t Preach was released in 1986. Madonna was born in 1958, making her 28 at its release. She was clearly no teenager. Yes, in the video Madonna appears to still live with her father. This could suggest any number of circumstances. Okay, she has stuffed animals in her fictitious bedroom. I am 40 and have 40 stuffed animals. Planned Parenthood is the big loser here.

Now MTV has marathons of a reality show called Teen Mom. Planned Parenthood has their hands full these days battling the Texas Union, so perhaps that is why no commentary has surfaced, at least to my personal attention, about Teen Mom or Teen Mom 2, the sequel.

Further reading contemplated what would happen if Madonna decided to keep her baby in real life. Bette Midler was mentioned as a performer who was outwardly sexual. This was news to me. Was this the same performer that told us that from a distance, God was watching us? Had God watched her behave unmotherly in her early career? According to this magazine, which I must add was just really one very long editorial with added photography from all sorts of sources, Bette Midler’s entire act changed when she became a mother. Coincidence or not? Music Industry decision or her own? Fascinating. All I know is that when Madonna became a mother, she released one very spiritual album entitled Ray of Light (title song being a cover of Curtiss Maldoon’s beautiful piece, Sepheryn). After that, it was basically business as usual.

Madonna is the mother of three children today, and here she is a few weeks ago. Is this sexual? Would Bette Midler do this? Does motherhood factor in to this or that? A feminist clusterfuck of a discussion for sure.

Who knew Mick Jagger struggled to become a movie star? Not I! So much is lost to popular amnesia! What else is there to uncover?

To me, Madonna will always be a movie star. Desperately Seeking Susan and Who’s that Girl? are classics in my eyes! They are fun with beautiful cinematography as well as creatively scripted. It’s all a matter of opinion, anyway.

I felt that these two quotes did not match up in ideology to one another. However, one or the other may have been stated after some thought about whichever the former was.

In the first quote of order, Madonna was complaining about her video Justify My Love being banned from MTV. They refused to air it because it was considered too risque.

Madonna and team resolved the matter by releasing a VHS tape of the video for $9.98 apiece. It sold over one million copies.

I recall my sister, a Madonna fan, showing a Madonna video to her boyfriend at the time. I was there but wasn’t paying attention to the video because at the time, black and white film was impossible to hold my attention, for one thing. I kept trying to tell him something but he told me to hold on and after a few tries I gave up.

Then, Madonna comments on a video that taped Sam Kinison singing with Aerosmith and supposedly spitting on Jessica Hahn, as if she hadn’t suffered enough as a victim of rape. Jessica Hahn was a secretery for Jim Bakker, infamous televangelist along with his wife, the tortured soul, Tammy Faye. She was 21, and in a 2017 article quoting Hahn, she says she is still angry 30 years later. She told sources he used his position as a man of God to rape her. Madonna felt that MTV was wrong for playing this video, especially when they refused to allow her own video onto airwaves.

Some people did not care for the fact that Madonna encouraged fans via cable television to vote in the upcoming presidential election and was not even registered to vote.

Also, I found a typo. The 30th word should be exactly, and not, I wouldn’t think, exacly. This publication has two different editors.

I spotted this, too. It is worth mentioning that, compared to today’s internet news articles, hard copy articles had few mistakes. And today, we have spellcheck! But don’t forget, we also deal with the very intrusive autocorrect. Some do not eliminate this function for whatever reason. I might decide to, personally, if I was a journalist. Maybe in a different dimension where all dreams come true! Don’t cry for me, Argentina, many of my dreams have, indeed, occured.

Of course, an offering of sorts must be made to Cher (mother of Deadsy singer, Elijah B. Allman, worth namedropping (as is Cher to the editors of this magazine)). But from my understanding, Cher was basically a model for certain fashion designers such as Bob Mackie. Cyndi Lauper was her own fashion designer, a true artist. It looks as though Madonna, in her younger New York days, borrowed from this or that subculture-dance community, LGBT community, CBGB communtiy-all that and more.

I thought this photo was a strange choice to pair with this quote. Here, we see Madonna positioned below another person.

This was the only ad in the magazine. Also, believe it or not, the only date stamp, albeit for a future date at the press time the ad was created.

In an ironic twist, did Teen Set magazine sponsor Madonna Into the Nineties?

Teen Set magazine was one of many selections children of the age could choose that featured write ups and posters of song and dance groups like New Kids on the Block, two of five members shown in this ad with the guy who is credited for creating the ensemble , Maurice Starr.

Anyway, Teen Set was looking for subscribers. “Foreign ad $10”, according to the small print.

Credits.

What became of Jim Kohls, publisher, I wondered?

WARNING: Don’t get too far into Rabbit holes, or you will have a hard time finding a way out sometimes!

Merry Christmas from Playboy!

My Secret Admirer gave me the 1987 Christmas Issue of Playboy, so readers: Merry Early Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Brigitte Nielsen, now famous for the classic 2005 television show, co-starring Public Enemy artist, Flava Flav, Strange Love, was the cover girl. She was headlined as “Brigitte Nielsen Stallone, even though in July 1987 she and her then husband were formally separated and Mr. Stallone had filed for divorce. Some people decide to keep their altered names, however. They have their reasons and they don’t owe anyone an explanation. It is perfectly legal, no matter how much it may vex their former partners.

This issue is packed with many topics including, according to the bottom right headline, …”last, but not least, more.”

Many magazines begin issues with commentary sent in by readers. Normally letters are written in reference to past articles. This individual, name and address withheld notably, warns others of the new pedestrian product on the market-the cordless telephone. This landline could be used without the limitations of a curly cue cord. One may even choose to talk on the phone while floating around on a floaty in the swimming pool (it was the 80s: the average factory worker may purchase a pool and home if they so chose to).

This person is shaken up to to the possibility of eavesdropping neighbors who may utilize devices that could use antennae technology to listen in on others. If this person is still around today, they are probably going apeshit with all of the surveillance being used in the post 9-11 society.

Whomever decides to listen in on neighbors strike me, personally, as a rare specimen. The Playboy reader says these types don’t care about large fines or lengthy prison sentences. But I think most people care more about themselves and their own endeavors than the neighbor down the street. Although, I do feel that people were more sensitive to issues revolving around privacy rights in that time. The idea of anyone listening to conversations based on what happened on Thirtysomething last night or an alarming new case of athlete’s foot was horrifying. Today many people don’t care if the government decides to pop in and out of random phone calls because they are told it may stop some sort of crime. Also, today’s society hands out their phone numbers to any retailer that asks. Then they wonder why they are getting robocalls day and night or texts from goobers who want to know if you’d like to lose 31 lbs. in two weeks.

I really feel for anyone who went out with this Playboy report in the back of their minds and had sex with members of the opposite sex with abandon only to find their immune system failing terribly some months later. This short write up basically tells readers it is difficult to transmit AIDS from heterosexual sex. The Journal of the American Medical Association, which sounds off the bat like a reputable source, is cited as a source. However, we are not told what the findings were, exactly, or who interpreted said findings. Most people would have gone ahead and taken this for gospel simply because it was published.

Playboy passed around a little 80s celebrity gossip in this issue. Traci Lords, infamous for her underage sex tapes, was putting out an exercise tape. It turned out, from the looks of things, to be very on brand.

Here is a more flattering picure of Traci:

Next is a discussion about Madonna and Sean Penn, who were a married couple at the time. It starts by saying Penn was a regular in “the poky”, which the only poky I have ever heard of is Gumby’s horse. Penn is and was well known for hating to have his picture taken without his express permission. Madonna, referred to a his “little woman”, gratingly, says that Sean is often baited. The extra may have been just an innocent last straw for Sean Penn, or, who knows, may have been interested in selling the picture of a yet to be released film featuring big names. whichever the case, Sean Penn got violent-this all on the tail end of some songwriter trying to get with his wife. Sean Penn and Madonna seemingly did not want to put up with the constant barrage of their love being messed with and divorced in 1989.

Next item of print is basically saying Bruce Willis fucked up a cop. And has noisy ass parties.

Smoking was more of a common occurrence in 1987. But of course, if you wanted to, you could certainly set a structure fire with this innovative hybrid. We also see that Colorado is demanding a 3.6% tax charge. Now, of course, they have other ways to make cash like bales and bales of marijuana.

This tricky shoe could make someone a whole two inches taller. When I was in high school, I used to love platform shoes, which were easy to find in stores. But these shoes were probably designed to ease some people’s insecurities about being short. I don’t know what the big problem with being smaller statured is. With men in particular, it is supposed to be some marker of normalcy to be over a certain height. When did this become a norm?

I want this.

September 2001 and Beyond

This special edition of People Magazine was given to me by my secret admirer. He just knew I would find some interesting pieces of history to dissect in this Most Intriguing People of 2001 edition. I remarked that all of the hijackers should be on this list and discussed at length. What does the average American really know about any of them? It should be no surprise that this issue did not delve too much into why 9/11 happened or what led up to it. We revisit the old story about how Rudy Gulliani wanted to become a Senator for New York state, but his plans were foiled citing medical reasons. I suppose that is of intrigue. But besides Gulliani and Bush, along with Condoleeza Rice and the ever shrouded in mystery Gary Conduit, most were of the entertainment sector. I don’t know about anyone else, but Jennifer Aniston really was not very interesting to me against the backdrop of the 2001 tapestry. Nor Julia Roberts. Mariah Carey was on the list, too, but she gets a pass for the good music she releases.

Maria Shriver, nor any of the Kennedys, made the 2001 list. However, this paid ad features Shriver’s second children’s book following her 1999 debut, What’s Heaven?, (as if she has the authority to answer that). What’s Wrong with Timmy? hits us with an ablest title, right off the bat. I was able to read a few excerpts from Google Images and the words “mental retardation” are used. Yes, 2001 was a time that was a little less sensitive with language used to describe some members of society. But “retarded” was on the way out of popular lexicon by the late 90s and the fact that Maria Shriver, especially with her mother at the helm of the Special Olympics, uses this terminology is troubling.

A little later in the magazine we see this ad. Rosemary Kennedy, there is nothing “wrong” with you. It was your batshit crazy father that would allow his flesh and blood to get a chunk taken out of her brain who has something wrong with him.

Since the 20 year marker of September 11, 2001 I have been studying pictures of the event closely. The pictures I find the most fascinating are crowd shots. I admire the photographers who risked their lives to capture these telling shots. This picture is interesting to me for a few reasons. Yet, the person I can’t seem to take my eyes off of is the guy on the very left. I wonder what is in that envelope and also what he is clutching in his left hand. Also, is the guy who is front and center saying something?

Also, the opening paragraph for this editorial gets the facts wrong. No, a plane did not “plummet” into the Pentagon, rather it is said to have taken a straight path right into the side of the building. So, who is right? People magazine or the Pentagon? There are many claims to what happened in Washington DC that day. Some claim there was no plane to begin with, that the building endured some sort of a explosive device demolishing a fifth of its structure. No matter the case, I’d like to know what was all kept in that portion of the building. No one has ever really been able to give me a definite answer. Maybe Donald Rumsfeld knows.

As a quick aside, Getty Images also has some telling photographs in its archives. Someone holds a paper that says Primary Colors. The sun is probably just in their eyes.

Primary Colors is a late 90s film based more tightly than loosely on the life of one time President, Bill Clinton.

Finally, this remodel job shows you how to turn your nice, colorful bathroom into a depressing prison.

What the shit is a “kidult”, Mandy? On the show Dead Like Me we learn Patinkin has potential for singing, if only in a 1910s warble. Yet, I must say, I don’t get the best feeling from learning of this album.

This is the only time I have seen these two hug. And that is the creator of 60 Minutes who told Barbara Walters to get out of the news industry. But I am going off on a tangent now!

Bay City Central Wolves: Class of 1973

I love flipping through old yearbooks. When I see a local yearbook, such as The Centralia from Bay City Central in Michigan, it is even better because a lot of the time I will recognize some faces and places. This 1973 copy of the aforementioned publication offered many talking points.

Forty eight years have gone by since the days in which this yearbook captured.

I know my eyes are playing tricks on me because that is certainly an IPad in that young man’s hands, isn’t it?

I tried to figure out what else it could be. Perhaps an original tablet? As in, the paper form? But once my eyes are seeing an IPad, they don’t want to pick up any other suggestions.

Here is a phone, but we can be sure it is not an IPhone, at least.

The first thing I notice here as a citizen of the 21st Century is Captain America about to hurdle off of this young man’s shirt.

Secondly, I notice an old timey paper hat like the old fast food employees used to wear.

Here is a boy I found pictured on Pinterest from about the same era.

It turns out there was a class called Restaurant Management class in 1973 at Central. It is interesting to me that this seems to be a male oriented class.

While the Restaurant Class seems to be testing its students on the art of cake making, on a completely separate note here is a cake contest that was held much later in the book.

It appears to be something women ran and/or participated in, on the other hand.

Psychology was offered for the first time in 1973 to Central students. The teacher chosen to teach the class looks like the perfect psychological specimen for pupils to dissect.

This teacher, Mr. Murphy, looks like he could be a peer!

And look, is that a member of the band, Greta Van Fleet to the left?

“The Chaperone” could be a thriller on USA Cable TV station.

This little page gave me pause because it reminded me a little of a montage we know from pop culture from around the same time.

Remember when they go shopping for tuxedos in Stephan King’s Carrie?

So glad Dan Sugar went with a traditional suit.

I liked this picture because the girl in it just seemed so laid back and happy. Check out her cheerleader letter. That is one very busy symbol, the B over the C. It strikes me as a little unclear. Is that an “S”in there?

Today’s team goes with a BCC in straight sequence, no overlapping.

Myra Selby was also Homecoming Queen of 1973.

Another student that stuck out to me was Meinard Studer. We are unlikely to see him walking around Bay City today because he was from a different country. If anyone has any idea where this exchange student is from or what his whereabouts are today, please let us know!

Okay, was someone being a jerk with a humongous swooping signature, or did little brother or sister get a hold of the yearbook?

I am digging those ‘burns!

It looks like Smackwater, “Water” for short according to their drum kit, got an early start on the long hair trend.

Did James Klass provide inspiration for The Ramones?

Couldn’t that be his doppelganger on the far left?

This was an ad for the BCC Majorettes at the end of the book.

“I’d like to buy the world a Coke!” Remember that program?

I guess they were a bunch of blonde Coke drinkers?

This ad for a now defunct store called The Jean House was also featured toward the end. I can’t find any information about this establishment but I would love to hear any anecdotes about it!

I felt intense nostalgia for this period from these pictures even though I was born in 1981. It must have been a wild time to be a teenager. Look, they had their own Burning Man!

These guys just jump through hoops to get recruits, don’t they? That’s one thing that has NOT changed ; )

Sibling Rivalry

These two dolls look like ice skating competitors in the couple’s event at the olympics or something like that, but the real life pair they are based off of always dressed this extravagantly. That is because they were on one of the goofiest shows of their time, besides Jeff and Pink Lady. They starred in a variety show called Donnie and Marie. These types of shows included celebrity guests, comedy skits and lots of singing and dancing. Donnie Osmond was a singer with his brothers in a group named for their surname, The Osmonds. Marie Osmond was their sister that could have been Donnie’s twin. Variety Show gold, Donnie and Marie.

Donnie’s doll was pretty high quality, save for his head and neck which were not a perfect fit. The dolls are Mattel, so this looks to be a Ken doll body prototype. I’m not 100% on that arm, though. That could have been made just for Donnie, so he could hold his mic. Probably picked up again later for Barbie and the Rockers. If they are treating Donnie as they are treating Ken, he was top of the line for the times, until Sport and Shave Ken arrived, of course. Interestingly the latter was molded with briefs underwear the same as his flesh tone. Not a bright white like some modern Barbie dolls. But yes, Donnie and his Ken counterparts get the Marilyn Manson The Dope Show treatment.

Donnie has some ambiguous markings when it comes to his stamp. And also, isn’t it funny he has a tramp stamp? Those weren’t popular until later on in life, so no correlation is thought to exist b/t the two. I was going to ask my bf, but he looked like he was thinking about deeper issues and I didn’t want to interrupt that train of thought.

Marie’s doll was manufactured in Korea, a theme we revisit here at What’s a Blog? Last time, we observed a relatively low quality Malibu Barbie an girl in the U.S. would run screaming from. Making an educated guess, Donnie was not made in Korea. Marie’s doll is more of an afterthought, I would say. If a girl was at Toys R Us and told she could only have one doll, she is going to choose Donnie over Marie. Girls were conditioned to idolize him. One could buy them as a set, too, but that cost more money, naturally.

Marie has swivel waist unlike the other Korea made doll we examined. I see some excess plastic along the waist. That tells me a few things in where I can guess why that is the way with this doll and not, say, Ballerina Barbie. My main guess is productivity was so rushed, workers were not in the position to take their time. She has the typical V shaped groin area. V for vag!

I don’t really understand why Donnie has a ring hole on his left hand. These dolls came out in 1976. Donnie didn’t get married until 1978. I wondered if maybe the doll was modified for later consumption. I saw no evidence of that from my trusted source. I did see that a Jimmy Osmond doll was released in 1978, though. But, what a fool. When I took a closer look, it was a middle finger ring, which who wears those?

No middle finger ring! Marie has to grin and bare it that her doll is inferior. One has to ask themselves why South Korea didn’t distinguish themselves from North Korea, or maybe even Vice Versa, who knows? Is there something to be drawn from that fact?

Soooo, this outrageous piece of news was featured in my 20th Anniversary of Playboy issue. That picture is equally outrageous and I wonder who agreed to having Cookie Monster go in for her tits. Is she holding the puppet? Cray cray. Anyway, this story reminds me of the persons who carried out the hijacking of Doctor Who I in Chicago. Someone was wearing a Max Headroom mask and carrying on about this and that for a minute and a half, which try doing a plank for that long, it’s a while. Whomever makes a reference to “newspaper nerds”, my favorite part. The Max Headroom video (1987) is up on YouTube, as I guess someone was VHS taping it. I don’t know if there is any footage of this particular interruption that Playboy has documented for us, but 1973 was maybe too early for recording. Definitely super early for cable. We had Cablevision is Dearborn but according to my memory, didn’t get it until around 1983. We liked to record MTV on tape recorder cassette.

Insane.

Doppelgänger Zone

These two Mattel Barbz are from the same time period and at first glance may look to share a few traits, but the similarities end at an obvious point to a trained eye.

From the left is Ballerina Barbie. I did not receive her with her original outfit, I am familiar with this doll from websites of other collectors. Also, we used to own this outfit but never had the doll? Anyhow, she also normally comes with a crown that was engineered into her head. It either broke off or someone tore it out.

Then we have Malibu Barbie. This is more like Chernobyl Barbie, from the looks of things. I have another Malibu Barbie who looks nothing like this. Her bathing suit is very loose fitting, which I have never seen in a Mattel Barbie prior to this.

Barbie

Also Barbie? It’s like someone hatefully created this face.

This hairline is all wrong!

Ballerina’s legs bend, but not her doppelgänger’s.

We see some normal wear and tear for a doll over 40 years old. Her swivel waist works just fine. Eventually that was discontinued into the 80s. Ballerina Barbie was made in Taiwan. Interestingly, Barbie was still waiting on a patent after 10 years.

Malibu Barbie’s stamp is sort of difficult to see. My bf wanted a magnifying glass to read it. Please don’t mind my dirty fingernail, I was digging in dirt. So, this Malibu Barbie was made in Korea. South Korea had not been industrialized for very long. The US probably went to war with them so they could have another sweat shop state. Maybe this Barbie is a protest. No swivel waist either. Cheap!

I have another couple to consider, but I will let that sink in your brain for now.

This article is from “16” magazine. They call Lou Reed sinister. They give Don Goodwin’s (no Wikipedia, scarce internet info) addy? But not Lou Reed’s? Too sinister. Oh well. Not that anyone can write him now. He’s moved on and with any luck someone who deserves his wrath is pregnant with him as we speak. Write. Whatever.

Reality Killed the Sitcom Star

I have three boxes of magazines in my basement and a sea of them under the bed (my bf’s side is spotless). I occasionally make a few selections to flip through at the end of the day. Last Night, I picked the 20th Anniversary Issue of Playboy. Above we see that in 1961, the Harvard Marching Band thought it was cute to make a formation of the Playboy bunny ears logo. I am sure female students just thought that was so awesome.

As a woman, the photography in Playboy doesn’t bother me. They are usually just women standing around naked. They aren’t like sticking fists in their mouths or anything. However, I find the enterprise as a whole to be something dark and disturbing.

My problem with the magazine starts with a ten year old child featured on the pages naked, with body oil and full make up. What were these people thinking? What kind of parents did this unfortunate little girl have?

My latest problem is the plight of Holly Madison. She was one of the three stars of the reality show based in the Playboy Mansion, The Girls Next Door. I watched a lot of late night television at one point in my life, so I often watched this show. I liked the personalities of the girls on the show, and I didn’t understand why they lived with Hugh Hefner. He was not very interesting to me and I hated scenes with him. The Playboy mansion is a really beautiful place and a certain type of location, so I guess that might have been a part of it all.

Anyway, the 2005 television show and the book Holly recently wrote about the whole experience made the reader aware that things were not as they seemed. Holly was pretending her way through a lot of it. In the show, Holly is Hugh Hefner’s main girlfriend. She dotes on him and calls him “Puffin”, so cute, right? It turns out Hugh didn’t care all that much whether it was Holly next to him in bed every night or Rosemary Kennedy’s brain in a cute young blonde’s body. Hefner was basically a lobotomized shell of himself at that time, anyway.

So, her book, Down the Rabbit Hole, reveals that she had curfews, was forbidden certain company, was made to alter her appearance, manipulated into taking drugs during sex, and other things that were not revealed on the show.

Some might say it was her own fault. However, she was 25 at the time. There is a reason a 25 year old can not run for President. The life experience of a 25 year old is relatively limited, even if they tried to live life to its fullest. When she wrote the book, she had time to step back and reflect. Life comes at you fast, sometimes. It can be really hard to juggle so many variables at once, especially if they are new experiences.

This is Kristy. She and a girl named Rachelle were my first two friends ever. We all met in Pre-School. A lot of people claim they cannot remember that far back. I am not one of those people. I remember sleeping in a crib.

We had a really cool preschool class. The teachers let me run with some kind of leadership streak I had going on. Basically, I directed a group of students to cut out all the animals in the never ending supply of magazines we were given. Then they would show me the animals, and I would decide if they were what I wanted for my folder. Then I put the acceptable animals in a scrap book.

I think people have a core personality that emerges in their developmental years. And Kristy always had a very careful eye. Later in life, she became an expert at detecting cancer and, ever an innovator, was trying to come up with new methods and techniques. Montessori preschools, got to love them.

So, Kristy, she was on a little ABC show called The Baccalaureate in 2005. That season, the Bachelor was Jesse Palmer, a one time quarter back in the NFL.

Directors of the show were doing some scouting at a bar in the South East Michigan area. Kristy tagged along with some friends who were interested in being on the show. Kristy really just went to have a good time with her girls, and she had many close close close ones. Directors sensed the energy Kristy exuded. They swayed her into agreeing to be one of the bachelorettes.

I have never seen this show and didn’t even know Kristy was on it until years later. The premise raised my eyebrows when I discovered the Bachelor starts out with what must be nine women to date (there are nine contestants) and that pool is narrowed down to someone he marries. So the show ends in marriage. A small population to choose from, if you ask me, but some people enjoy being on tv and can do silly things for screen time. Would I have liked to have been on tv in the summer of 2005? Ya. Maybe channel zero!

Kristy could have a very sharp tongue given the right (wrong? haha) situation. Here she is glaring a ho down. The show directors were probably hoping to use Kristy for some ratings gold, but didn’t get the chance. She received the first rose, on episode 1, which is supposed to be a big deal. But before the second ceremony, Kristy knew that she did not want to marry Jesse Palmer. Wasn’t the endgame of the entire show to get married? Kristy made a decision that sealed her fate-she quit the show and married the man for her, Tony from the Dearborn Country Club!

We see that Kristy didn’t feel great about letting Jesse Palmer down, because she knew he liked her.

Should Kristy have stayed on the ABC series anyway? A lot of people would have. Some don’t understand how someone can just drop a chance to be on tv. Isn’t that everyone’s dream?

As a U of M alumni, Kristy’s story made it into something the College of Literature, Science and the Arts put out called Your Survival Guide. This is a magazine where the powers that be write articles for the powers that be. It’s all a bunch of esoteric information to anyone on the outside, but it’s worth a look see.

Television Without Pity, an online review site, U of M purports, is quoted as writing, “Kristy rocks…because she thinks Jesse is a tool”. I know in my heart of hearts Kristy would never say that. Did Jesse Palmer feel like a tool? I hope not because she’s not one to make an innocent person look any sort of way. But he maybe did. Who knows? But the first part is ok. Kristy does rock. And it reads in a “ fantastic collision” between her tv life and her real life, Tony (her husband as of 2006) is a Jesse Palmer fan.

This is my favorite picture of Kristy. Normally she is smiling in all of her pictures, but photographer Marie Lamb, a girl who went to our high school, portrayed Kristy with more of a serious undertone this time.

In 2020, when the weather in Michigan was starting to get warmer and most people were absolutely over all the time they had to themselves to maybe think about this or that, Kristy was involved in a fatal accident. Her family lives on a golf course. Kristy, Tony and a few friends were at the clubhouse doing whatever it is those folks get up to in there. They were going to head back home in their two golf carts. Kristy was behind the wheel of one, Tony trailed behind in the other. They took a trail home they frequented. On this night, conditions were so that Kristy’s golf course flipped and she hit her head on a mystery rock.

According to my source, she was conscious for like a few seconds, enough to say “ow, that hurt” and then she passed out, never to wake again.

The outpouring of grief was immense. I cannot even begin to put into words the pain people continue to experience and will forever. Some will try to make sense of seemingly random acts. A huge rock doesn’t just walk into a golf course. I mean, I don’t know the exact size or anything, but come on now.

Clips and Blips

It is fascinating to look back at past projections of what the future was thought to hold.

This science correspondent reports that researchers predicted the internet was a fad as though it were a pet rock or a mood ring. This article appeared in the Daily Mail, which is not exactly considered reputable. The average age of readers was found to be 58 years old in 2014. If that was the case in 2000, when this article was published, this story could have been something readers could commiserate with as older populations have been known to be technologically delayed compared to younger generations.

According to the author, users were frustrated by the internet’s limitations. I am not sure what these frustrated people were expecting at the time. The World Wide Web, even earlier on such as at the turn of the century, was fun, exciting, a decent device for learning-and it was developing at a pretty good rate. Also, apparently some people believed email to be an overload of information? Please, as if capitalism wasn’t already throwing ads at the average person from any angle possible. I felt that to be a weak argument for why the internet was destined to fail. And it turned out that it really didn’t matter enough to people that they were bombarded with information from Nigerian Princes and genital enhancing formula companies. Most people have an email address in the present day.

The claim is made that teenager use had fallen off in 2000 because kids realized that there was more to real life than the virtual world. How could one person be so wrong about this, if it even had any iota of truth, being how the future was trending? Kids today are immersed in the online world. It shapes their lives from perception and opinion to social standing and status. These kids are literally losing sleep over what happens on the internet. Some unfortunate souls have been so moved by events on the internet, they take their own lives.

I was a teenager in 2000. I was very enthusiastic about internet use. I obviously could not drag a PC desktop around with me at all hours of the day, so things were kind of different back then. If I were told the internet were just a fad, I would have for sure replied, “says you.”

The author cites the World Society project (lower case p) sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council as his resource. The World Society project must have folded. The Economic and Social Research Council, which receives funding from the British government, does not include any such project on their current website. They are trying to be taken seriously, so I understand why the findings wouldn’t be up. Also, this study is rather old, so no one is going to be looking around for it but me.

This headline from a 1920s newspaper absolutely baffled me. There was no other reference about shopping through the police bulletin mentioned anywhere else in the paper. Readers were given no directions how to go about shopping through the bulletin or what kinds of things they might buy. The headline printed above several police briefs was accompanied by a print of the most sinister looking Santa Claus you have ever seen. He looks downright hateful. Anyhow, the city of Fordson merged with the city of Dearborn in 1929. No one can shop in the Fordson Police Bulletin anymore unless Dearborn is accepting back orders.

I wondered what kind of person was writing this police bulletin? Why do we need to know the girl was beautiful? It is besides the case to such a brief snippet of information. I could see if this were an editorial or something. Going into further detail would be expected. Maybe the crime writer means for people try to pick up Ms. Francis Adams because she is supposedly so beautiful. You know, shop. Anyway, someone could just stroll right on over to her house if they wanted to. Knock on the door. Say, “I heard you were a disorderly bitch so let me in. But also beautiful.”

This piece of early cable television history involves Garden City, Michigan deciding not to air pornography. However, they decided to still air R-rated material. They ended up allowing the Playboy channel to air, which, no surprise, angered religious groups. The groups did not want the channel affecting the people of Garden City, and ultimately the nation.

I’m not sure if the Playboy channel was a premium like HBO where subscribers had to pay extra to receive it. Because if you really didn’t want to see a woman’s exposed genitalia every time you were channel surfing between Night Flight and Nick at Night, it wasn’t very fair. I think if people wanted to spend their money on it and there was a demand in the market for such a paid channel, it would be ok. Good luck stopping your children from seeing the playmates of the month looking at the camera with their mouths ajar and huge nipples beaming out at them. That can be quite a shock to the system for a kid, I’m sure.

This lady’s ass was kicked in a stampede for the Tickle Me Elmo doll in 1996. She needed two hip replacements after the whole ordeal. She sued the Kmart where the incident took place. According to Wall Street Journal, she sued for $50,000. She told them they settled the case “for what my lawyer wanted”.

People still behave this way and there is now a whole holiday shaped around it, Black Friday. I do not participate in this craze, but I did want to know what it was like so I went with my mom and sister once. I liked the concept of doing an activity at a time when it usually isn’t done. We were in a department store at 3 am and it was so alien. I haven’t been since.

Now, more and more people are just shopping for themselves that day. It’s supposed to be the official start of Christmas shopping for other people? Also, it actually crept up to beginning on Thanksgiving evening. This began to offend some people who felt like workers deserved to be with their families on the holiday. I am very corrupted because I get irritated when stores are closed on holidays. I do still like stores to be closed on Christmas though. It is a very silent night and I appreciate that.

This was when people had to have a specific reason to divorce, not just citing irreconcilable differences which didn’t begin until 1969 in California. This was a time when someone had to be at blame for things going to shit. For some reason, Jeanette D’Amore, decided that a 45 year age gap in a marriage was no biggie. But she ended up being sorry when her husband didn’t want her hanging out with anyone her own age.

Jeanette doesn’t have an IMBD page so maybe she was a stage actress or maybe she quit acting before she got any movie roles, I’m not sure. Old Franklyn did not have any Google presence. This story was one I would have liked a follow up to.

In the late 80s or early 90s, Kroger workers went on strike. I am not really sure why they went on strike but it was very controversial to shop there. I recall that they dropped a lot of prices as low as they could go just to retain customers. Many people shopped elsewhere. Some people still decided to work for whatever reasons. Picketers obviously did not care for this.

This blotter blip insinuates that strikers were responsible for a woman’s car being damaged. She was one of those who wasn’t all that upset with Kroger and continued to work there. Or she may have been hired on later. We don’t know.

Did hot headed strikers muster all of their frustration and put a dent in her car? Or did a shopping cart merely roll along in the wind and plunk into the side of her car? Whatever the case, police were labeling it vandalism. It’s not a crime to call a scab a scab.

Hi! I’m Chickie! Why would anyone want to screw with Archie? He’s nice to everyone.

Be a Slueth…or Just Look Like One!

Inside Detective was a publication that was one of a number of true crime periodicals that were popular before things like the Investigation Discovery Channel became mainstream.

I am an Ann Rule fan, love Unsolved Mysteries and have long been following missing persons cases but I found this magazine to be on the low brow side.

Take a look at the headline at the bottom of the cover. “The Soldier Was AWOL … Asphyxiated & Without Life”. That is sort of clever and everything, but shouldn’t certain subjects be met with more of a serious gaze? I think murder might be considered a subject not to make light of.

Secondly, the re-enactments accompanying some of the literature were hoky. Not that I think every magazine is going to search the world for the greatest director of photography, but consider the body language of the female model. If her face was cropped and that were the only thing I had seen, I would guess she were laughing. Maybe laughing uncomfortably. Is that a paradox?

Whomever originally owned this copy liked to check off each article so they didn’t miss one or start reading the same one twice.

The first layout included this snapshot of a man marching on the first anniversary of the Miami Riots of 1980.

The Miami Riots erupted after four law enforcement officers were acquitted after being tried for murdering Arthur McDuffie in 1979. Coroners found McDuffie to have died from being beaten to death. Before that had been made known, the four men claimed McDuffie had fallen off his motorcycle after they chased him through town for eight minutes due to parking tickets and a suspended license.

It is dumbfounding police can obtain credentials to serve after only a fraction of education compared to other professions. Our society would do well to require at least a bachelors degree then police academy for such careers. My bf says the powers that be don’t want cops to be that smart. There is a personality test they take and supposedly if they show too much critical or free thinking, they flunk out.

I have encountered dozens of police officers in my life. They normally do not feel threatened by me, I think because I smile and treat them with a very friendly disposition. And of course, none of that would be possible if I were anything but a white girl.

There are a few types and their eyes always are usually very telling. Some young officers have young and searching eyes. They want to know the truth of the matter at hand. Some just see right through me and cross me off their potential shitlist. Burnt out light? Just get it fixed now move along. Then some are just reptilian. These guys are dangerous to anybody and to be met with ultimate caution. Their eyes scan, their eyes are comparable to artificial intelligence. It’s like they have Google Glasses contact lenses spitting out certain information to themselves. Women officers just want to prove that they are competent, I suppose. They are very matter of fact and I can tell nothing from their eyes. Perhaps that is one skill male police do not have. Don’t be showing your cards if you the po po. Often, these women are punished for reporting officers that violate the rules.

But anyway, these things are not always easy for everyone to read. And it takes a lot of reflection to get to a certain point where body language or “eye reading” or whatever you want to call it is at least somewhat decipherable. And if one knows that their life is in danger, the threat of the moment bears no time to stop and try to make any sense of what is going on-and in those cases, there is no sense to be made anyway.

In 1981, Sweden outlawed toy guns and any other serious weaponry that enticed children to act out violence. The author writes at the bottom about how Swedish kids will miss out on the joy of playing “Cowboys an’ Indians”. Um, pretty sure that’s an American thing, buddy.

This man shoots his lawn mower in a fit of rage and gets fined 65 dollars. He probably got to keep his gun license. Personally, I cannot even begin to relate to this behavior. I have had many struggles starting up my lawn mower, but I always know there is a reason and if that reason is uncovered, it will start. There have been times when my bf is not home and it has taken me like twenty minutes to figure it out. Of course it is an irritating process, but why damage the lawn mower? Even if it is broken beyond repair, guns are nothing to fool around with. And why not just hurl it through the air? Although, it makes perfect sense to me to enforce violence on a vending machine that doesn’t produce what it is meant to. Why does it make sense to me to kick a vending machine? Maybe because I know there is nothing I can do to get my selection besides maybe spending more money and getting pretty much ripped off.

Wannabes and predators hit gold when they stumbled upon this ad where someone could order lifelike law enforcement badges. “Oh, we’re just selling these so people can set them on a shelf in their house and admire them! Who would ever pretend to be a cop for their own gain? Surely, not anyone who reads a rag full of mayhem and murder!” So many people are just catalysts for disaster.

Elsewhere in the magazine, someone could buy this little gag card. “If you’re not in the mood (for sex) TEAR THIS CARD UP” it says. But then, I guess it is made out of rubber or something because the ad goes on to read that the card cannot be torn up. That is sort of funny, but extremely outdated. In today’s climate, pulling a stunt like giving this card to someone could ruin careers and lives. Plus, if you really analyze the whole idea, it really implies that a woman has no choice in the matter if a man wants to have sex with her.

One of the articles I looked at was about a teenage boy who kills a mother and child who lived across the street from him. The article described the heinous crimes committed by Larry Neal Gates, shown above. I was like, oh this guy has still got to be locked up. I wonder what his latest mug shot looks like. In fact, this sole picture of him that the magazine shows is crap. He is distorting his face and it’s not a true likeness. I wonder what he looked like back then too. So I decided to do a little bit of research.

I googled “Larry Neal Gates” and nothing turned up but information about some doctor. I thought, oh, this can’t be-Larry Neal Gates murdered a baby. There should be all kinds of articles, mugshots and maybe even some 20/20 Investigates episodes. But, only some freakin eye doctor in Texas. What was up with that?

Eventually, I did find two references to the murderer, Larry Neal Gates. That is if murderer Larry Neal Gates and Dr, Larry Neal Gates are not one in the same. Because, don’t most people spell their middle name as “Neil”? What are the chances these two have matching middle names with unusual spellings?

Shown above, an eBay vendor has a photo he bought from a newspaper that was selling its old photographs for sale. It is a similar picture to the one Inside Detective printed.

The ebay vendor’s photo shows Gates with a relaxed face so we can get a better idea of what he looked like in 1981. I wanted to compare this to a picture of the current day Dr Larry Neal Gates. Bitch, there is not one on the internet that I could find throughout the 20 minutes I spent on trying to do so.

I never actually found any follow up information about Larry Neal Gates and whether he was found guilty in these murders or what. He did entered a plea that he would not contest the charges. This was probably to get some kind of a plea deal. I would guess that his records are sealed and no one knows their eye doctor is a monster from hell. Sounds about white.

Oh, now what would you want to do that for???

What We Wear: Now and Then

Like it or not, what we wear on our bodies can make lasting impressions. Some would just like to be viewed as a consciousness floating around, but that is not the reality in this realm. Anyway, one might choose to stand out or blend in. Some might just want to cover anything that is illegal to expose in public. There are also people who take careful time and consideration with anything they may adorn themselves with.

Shown above is the drummer, Adrian Young, from the world famous band, No Doubt. He is wearing a type of shirt that was very popular toward the end of the 90s. I spent a long time searching for some kind of record of this brand, what I think was called “Porn Star”. I was pleased to find this somewhat decent picture of one. One of the favored themes the brand liked to print on their shirts were cast members of the television program, Three’s Company and then some sort of suggestive text underneath.

I watched this show all the time on a station called TBS, where all the shows started five minutes after the hour, probably so audiences could land on it when every other station was airing something stupid. I thought the shirts were kind of interesting but I didn’t feel there was anything remotely kinky about this couple, etc. I mean, in your dreams, people.

I remember the kind of guys who wore these to my school also had Jansport backpacks with all the letters blacked out except for P, O and T. I always felt a million miles away from these types of fashion plates.

When these started cropping up on the cusp on the millennium, they really annoyed me. I felt people were trying too hard to get people to look at their butts. And do people really want everyone to be looking at their asses? Because everyone is going to be. No thanks! I’d rather Maniac Matt or Raging Ron never have my rear end even cross their minds! I was especially disgusted to see school teams begin to put last names of players of their warm up sweats’ behinds. These schools need to lay down the law with some of these children. I know it was not a coach’s idea to buy uniforms like that.

Actually, as with high heels, men were the first to wear something of this nature.

What did these guys mean by calling themselves The Molesters Club?

This name aged like milk. I’m thinking they were probably a bunch of raucous hooligans so the second definition explains as much. We see Oxford Languages noting that this is a dated term.

Teenage boys of Molesters Club on a side walk in Des Moines, IA in 1945. (Photo By Nina Leen/Time
Life Pictures/Getty Images)

There was little information on the internet regarding this group. Getty Images seems to be the only outlet that has anything readily available regarding them. We can gather that there was a chapter in Des Moines, Iowa in 1945 by the caption given here. And someone named Nina Leen watched them walk a boy like a dog.

Wikipedia and Google are so full of information about pedophiles, anything about the club is probably way buried.

Teenage boys of Molesters Club entering a club house through a window in Des Moines, IA in 1945. (Photo By Nina Leen/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

These guys just wanted to shake things up, I guess. This club house probably had a door that worked just fine.

When did pedophiles begin to be called molesters? Surely it was not so when the founders came up with the name!

People from the 90s like to reminisce about how wild they were for wearing wide leg jeans like JNCO. I personally thought these were very cool because the pockets were so long. I bought some with my hard earned cash from bagging groceries at Kroger. These are not pants you want to wear in the rain.

But guess what? JNCOs were just “Oxford Bags” rejuvenated, to be honest. These pants were popularized at Oxford University because the school put a ban on knickers, pants that gather at the knee. One could easily slip these roomy pants over a pair of knickers. I guess they took the pants off when the coast was clear. Who knows. I guess people just started to wear them without a specific function after a while because they remained popular until the fifties. I can’t imagine there was a ban on knickers for that long.

This scan of a 90s Kmart circular page was going around Reddit recently. Everyone was laughing at the contrived poses and dramatic stares the models were giving. And the outfits just appeared costumesque, honestly. “Get into Grunge!” Kmart beckons at the top of the page.

I was in 7th grade when “grunge” swept MTV. Rolling Stone magazine was all about it. The radio was jamming all those bands one would associate with the supposed genre. I felt it to be a little bit grim for my liking. I hope no one felt like they had to wear a hot, stuffy flannel to school just to fit in. However, it did evolve into other things. I used to fall asleep listening to Veruca Salt on my beloved cd boom box. What lovely lullabies. Weren’t my parents so nice for getting me one of my own? Before 9th grade started, me and my friend, Mary, agreed we were going to be the most alternative girls in the whole school.

This is an earlier Kmart ad I found in a magazine. Someone would be able to place the date because of the paragraph underneath the main idea. Those aren’t very common anymore. Who would read them? That’s a lot to ask, companies decided.

The girl in the ad declares she doesn’t want to play follow the leader and does not want to be a carbon copy of the girl sitting next to her. Ok, well, Kmart is going to be selling at your location like a hundred of that same Street Worn shirt. You’re going to be looking like quite a few folks in your radius, sorry to say.

I used to have this attitude. Now I am like, “ew, don’t look at me”, so I dress in athleisure and no one thinks twice. Unless they are admiring my phat bomb ass running shoes. I have a neon orange pair of New Balance. Take that, fashion police!

Some people criticize clothing that advertises name brands or has some kind of printed message because they feel the person wearing such attire is being a billboard. If you have something to say, be a billboard, who cares? Money isn’t the only currency. Even though the Detroit News and Free Press Strikers of 95-97 LOST BIG, it was always important that people realized the truth of the matter. And in the end, only about 200 of the 2000 strikers got their jobs back. Management just decimated all of their intent.

In my opinion, people should just wear what they want to. In the current day and age, Generation Z complains about millennials wearing side parts and skinny jeans. Why do they give a flying f***? 30 year old women aren’t going to cavort around in mom jeans and crop tops like y’all, so just chill.

I showed this to my bf and said, hey, did you know Sugar Bear had a girlfriend? He said, no, that’s just Sugar Bear in drag. If people feel like they want to dress like the “opposite gender” or whatever, no one should give them a hard time about it. They are just doing it because they feel more comfortable that way or they get satisfaction out of it. Not every man wants to wear fugly ass dirty jeans and a blown out Browning T-shirt, sorry. And not every male feels like a guy, and same with females, etc. Some people feel very alien to the concept of dresses, makeup, and generally having woman genitalia. Just because you don’t feel the same way and have trouble imagining how someone could want to be another way than how they were born doesn’t mean you have free range to make them feel bad. Haters, what is your damage?

You do you. Who cares what Cliquey Kristine thinks? I’m not going to be wearing stupid floral tissue paper dresses that fall apart after a month while my legs freeze in the middle of December! Form follows function! I have things to do like Barbie! I am way past standing around in a circle talking about crap that doesn’t matter to me. If it matters to you, great. But I am digging for deeper meaning to this whole existence. And I am dressing the part.