Weasel of The Week: Jeannine Pirro

 Jeannine Pirro, former Fox No News whiner, former TV judge, currently the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, can't win a conviction if her life depended on it, and that's not about to change anytime soon.

Photo courtesy MSN.com.

You see, Ms. Pirro has charged former Olympic canoeist David Hearn with felony vandalism just for touching a loose piece of lining at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Initially, Hearn was charged with a misdemeanor, but Ms. Pirro, on orders from President Pampers, and despite a glaring lack of evidence, as per usual, upgraded the charge to a felony.

That this is even happening is another distraction from the myriad of issues facing the White House, including poor attendance at the Great American State Fair at the National Mall. Seems most folks are more interested in watching the World Cup on the big screen, and ignoring everything else. Welp, if the organizers didn't insist on most of the artists having peaked in the 80's or 90's, they wouldn't have that problem, either.

Back to the topic at hand. Hearn will be cleared, Jeannine Pirro, this week's Weasel, will be disgraced yet again, and President Pampers will have egg on his face. Again.

What Might've Been: Call Holme (1972)

 Call Holme was a pilot that went nowhere for NBC in 1972. Writers Gerald Gardner & Dee Caruso had worked on The Monkees & Get Smart, among their credits, and concocted this farce about a PI who's also a master of disguise (Arte Johnson, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), who somehow gets his job done. In the course of this story, Johnson breaks out some of his characters from Laugh-In for quick cameos.

Our ensemble also includes Reta Shaw (ex-The Ghost & Mrs. Muir), Arlene Golonka (ex-Mayberry RFD), Jim Hutton, and Vic Tayback, plus a brief cameo from Danny Bonaduce (The Partridge Family)

Unfortunately, the credits were edited off.

Years later, Dana Carvey tried mining the same concept with the movie, "Master of Disguise", but that, too, was a dud. Gerald Gardner later became better known for his political satires.

Swinging for tea (1960)

 A year before being cast in The Hathaways, the Marquis Chimps were signed to do a series of ads for Red Rose tea.

Here, the chimps rock out as a jazz band. Like, swing it!

A child passes away, and some idiot decides to play the race card at the wrong time

 For the first time that I can think of, a message flashed across my television screen Sunday night that wasn't warning of inclement weather.

Instead, the message had to do with a young Menands boy who had gone missing. 7 year old Harbe Nagi, diagnosed as being autistic & non-verbal, had wandered off from his parents. Nearly 48 hours later, young Harbe was found dead as a result of drowning in a neighbor's swimming pool.

                                      

Funeral services will take place later this week. While the entire community is mourning Harbe, some goober decided to play Ugly American, and use the tragedy to make some racist statements.

Chuck Miller's take:

A Taste of Italy and its black heart – Chuck The Writer

A Taste of Italy, which has been a sponsor of Siena University basketball, may be losing that sponsorship unless the truth about the social media kerfluffle comes out soon. Redditors are already ripping into the restaurant, and are planning a peaceful protest not too far from the eatery in Latham. I should point out that Jesus taught us to love, not hate, and that he did not have hate in His heart for anyone. To suggest that He "doesn't like ugly" is missing the point by a country mile.

Rest in peace, Harbe.

Wild West Wednesdays: Zorro's Secret Passage (1957)

 It is known that part of the inspiration for Batman came from Johnston McCulley's Zorro, and one example comes in this 1st season episode, "Zorro's Secret Passage". Don Diego (Guy Williams) discovered a secret cave beneath his home, and asserts his grandfather had built it years earlier. Of course, you know that Batman would have a Batcave.......

CBS Fall preview 1975-6

 Back in the day, the networks would start rolling out commercials promoting new series for the following fall around the middle of July. As it's the end of June, we're turning back the clock to 1975 for CBS' fall preview that year. We've previously reviewed the following:

Phyllis. 2nd spinoff from The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Bronk. Jack Palance stars in his first series since 1963's Greatest Show on Earth. Carroll O'Connor (All in The Family) and Terry Becker (ex-Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea) produced the series for MGM.

Three For The Road. Family drama with Alex Rocco & Leif Garrett.

Big Eddie: Sheldon Leonard's return to acting.

Bicentennial Minutes. Short features leading up to the bicentennial.

Switch. Glen Larson's pairing of Robert Wagner (ex-It Takes a Thief) and Eddie Albert (ex-Green Acres) lasted three seasons. Co-starring Sharon Gless and Charlie Callas.

Doc. Broadway favorite Barnard Hughes as a doctor (of course).

We will be on the lookout for Beacon Hill. William Conrad (Cannon) is our tour guide.

Of this group of frosh, only Phyllis & Switch returned the next season.

Notes from around town

 Another school has bitten the dust in the 518.

Doane Stuart School just completed its 51st season earlier this month, but, due to a shrinking enrollment that saw just 40 students on campus this season, the Rensselaer based school is closing its doors.

Photo courtesy Albany Times-Union.

Things had gotten so bad that the school's athletic program had merged with Rensselaer the last couple of years. Enrollment has gone downhill since Doane Stuart moved from Albany to Rensselaer a few years ago. The students still enrolled, absent any graduating seniors, will be transferred elsewhere.

If you're walking around Watervliet, you've probably noticed by now some stenciled signage on the sidewalks marking the city's 200th birthday. Commissioned by Meneely Bell, the signs promote the fact that the city, originally West Troy, was founded in 1826, 50 years after American independence.

This will make this year's 4th of July parade that much more of a landmark occasion.

Unfortunately, the pending rain this week might wash away the signage......

Very quietly, there was a carnival at Powers Park in Lansingburgh over the weekend. Outside of maybe a mention in the pages of El Cheapo Media, or on social media, few probably knew about it.

Powers Park will also host a rummage sale for residents on July 25, a far cry from the days of monthly flea markets sponsored by a local church. There hasn't been a rummage sale or flea market at Powers Park in years, but that will soon change. If this works out, there will be more.

Today's technology allows for radio stations to very sneakily let their on-air talent pre-record their bumpers & cues.

One such case was last night, during Ben Patten's evening show on WROW. What listeners didn't know, and didn't find out until this morning, was that Patten had recorded promos, bumpers, & cues in advance so he & his wife could attend the Barry Manilow concert at MVP Arena. While the pre-recording was not acknowledged on the air, listeners could figure it out on their own. I've often suspected this has been done in the past, especially on holidays. Now, it's almost certain.