So we readers never learn the answer to the only real question we have about him. Great. 👌

The worst movie I ever paid money to see in a theater (in my defense, I was only a teenager):

So predictable: To Fox News, the story is not how many people lost their jobs with the end of the Colbert Late Show, but how “bloated” the staff was.

Happy birthday to not one but two legendary composers: Johannes Brahms (1833) and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840). Which is kind of an ironic pairing ... (cont'd)

To give you a visual reference, this was the $15 solution to our broadcast reception problem. No amplifiers, no trendy design, just functionality. (The circular part is what's hidden inside flat antennas. It works fine for UHF signals, but for VHF, you need long straight rods like the rabbit ears.)

Happy birthday to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791). Free plug: SiriusXM's Symphony Hall (Channel 78) is playing nothing but Mozart today until midnight.

Happy Birthday, Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980). Some people here are posting their top 5 films of his. I need 11 (mostly unranked): 1. North by Northwest Vertigo Psycho The Lady Vanishes The 39 Steps Shadow of a Doubt Foreign Correspondent Strangers on a Train Notorious Rear Window To Catch a Thief

That didn't stop them from making a TV series (a prequel) a decade later. It lasted all of five episodes, but it actually won an Emmy (for cinematography).

(See alt text.)

A few years after Ted's previous gig guarding Norman Bates.

... [two surviving] Ritz Brothers stepping into the Stooges' shoes and released as Blazing Stewardesses (1975). (While you may not know the name, you'd recognize Emil Sitka on sight. He was the only actor to work with all six Stooges, and his tombstone includes his most famous line!)

Wiki says Larry's stroke was in 1970, and this didn't come out until '75. But it also says there was an attempt to replace him with Emil Sitka, so ... ? While they were in two later movies, I like to think of their farewell as being the brilliant cameo in 1963's "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."

I chose to be amused by this category on Jeopardy Masters tonight. I imagine some people might disagree.

See, the NYT gets it, too! Make clearer graphics, Bloomberg.

"The interior decoration of graphics generates a lot of ink that does not tell the viewer anything new. The purpose of decoration varies—to make the graphic appear more scientific and precise, to enliven the display, to give the designer an opportunity to exercise artistic skills...." 1/2

I learned only a few years ago that the producers of Mission Impossible tried to replace Peter Lupus with a young, clean-shaven Sam Elliott during season 5 ... but the show's fans were NOT having it. Never officially fired, Lupus returned for good in season 6.

I see what she did there ...

Newsflash: News outlets are capable of reporting more than one story per day.

Here's a good visual illustration of how thoroughly intermeshed the North American auto industry industry is. It's a rear suspension from an unnamed midsize crossover, showing the countries the parts originate from. Now imagine adding 25% to the CA and MX ones. www.autonews.com/opinion/colu...

Another jazz great appeared as the mystery guest in the early to mid 1970s: Dizzy Gillespie (although the graphics person misspelled his name!). Once again, Soupy Sales made the ID, and by his given name yet: John Birks Gillespie. From that and other guests, I suspect that Soupy was a jazz fan.

The diamond heart pendant was popularized in part by Arlene Francis, who received hers as a gift from husband Martin Gabel. She wore it constantly for about 40 years, and everyone saw it on tv. In the early 70s, a jeweler who had licensed the rights to sell a replica appeared on What’s My Line.

Soupy Sales had a great ear for identifying mystery guests on What’s My Line? But actress Joan Fontaine used a deep voice that thoroughly fooled him; he guessed she was Jon Voight, which got a huge laugh. Fontaine was particularly amused that her friend Arlene Francis couldn’t identify her.

Early in the run of the syndicated version of What’s My Line?, circa 1968, Arlene Francis was delighted when her longtime panelist friend from the network version Bennett Cerf showed up as the mystery guest. They had sat next to each other each Sunday night for more than a decade and a half.