He’s in good company. Folk legend and protest song pioneer Woodie Guthrie (1912-1967) had a sticker on his guitar saying “This Machine Kills Fascists”.

Well, now we know who’s a good boy...

As you point out, Buster’s later years were unhappy ones due to alcoholism, bad marriages and bad studio deals. He ended up making a string of very, very bad movies, including playing a cruel parody of himself in Frankie and Annette beach movies like Beach Blanket Bingo.

Reminds me of these we had back in the ‘60s. They ran on flashlight batteries.

Reminds me of these we had back in the ‘60s. They ran on flashlight batteries.

Trix... part of a complete breakfast: juice, toast and sugar balls.

A piston engine goes boing, boing, boing... but a Mazda goes Hmmmmmmm...

Back in the ‘70s a friend had to fly from the east coast to Japan with her 2 year old son. The kid was kind of hyper, so she got some pills from her pediatrician to calm him down a bit. Anticipating a quiet trip she dosed the kid just before takeoff, and for the next 15 hours he was totally off the wall, twice as bad…

“A hickey from Kenickie is like a Hallmark card... when you care enough to send the very best.” - Grease, Paramount Pictures, 1978

The password is “Rosabelle believe”, from their favorite song. Medium Arthur Ford guessed it from existing clues.

Not quite onstage, but escapist Harry Houdini (born Eric Weisz, 1874-1926), died in his dressing room. Recovering from a minor injury, he was reclining on a couch when a fan took him up on his boast of having such strong abs that he could withstand any punch. The fan struck him hard while he was reclining, and he…

Left at the alter, Joan Cusack has one of the best lines in movie history. Running out into traffic she shouts:

“...a little proof to substantiate what they were confident was true, using paper cutouts, hat pins, and a camera.”

“And this positively infantile preoccupation with bosoms. In all my time in this wretched, godforsaken country, the one thing that has appalled me most of all is this preposterous preoccupation with bosoms. Don’t you realize they have become the dominant theme in American culture: in literature, advertising and all…

At last, a reason to live in 2018. Thank you Netflix and MST3K!

I was never an official manager, but I often led small project teams of half a dozen or so. One time around two of the team were unpleasant people; one was brash and the other never showered, at least as far as I could tell. We got a new project and in a flash of inspiration I assigned the two of them to work together…

I’m not sure it counts as pop culture, but this weekend I began rereading Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) for the umpteenth time. Written in 1889 by the improbably-named Jerome K. Jerome it is a very engaging and funny comic novel chronicling a boating expedition on the Thames by three friends in a…

Yeah, we had these back in the ‘50s. It was basically the Wagon Queen Family Truckster.

My wife and I once rented a cottage on Hilton Head Island. The guest book said to watch out for “Alvin”, an alligator who lived in the adjacent swampy area. We looked out back and sure enough there he was, swimming around the pond like he owned the place. Which of course he did.

The Beatles had a rule that no girlfriends/wives would be in the recording sessions. John broke this rule, and Yoko’s presence added stress to an already stressful situation. She certainly contributed to the breakup, but I’m sure it would have happened anyway.