Domino's New "Breakfast Pizza"

Domino's is apparently test marketing a "breakfast pizza" (with eggs and cheese as the main toppings) in an attempt to get its slice of the lucrative fast food breakfast market (i.e. McMuffin dollars).  According to a New York Daily News article HERE, the corporate idea behind it is, "to improve sales during the slow, typically non-pizza-eating hours between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m." (Is 5 AM still prime pizza time?)


It strikes me that there's a direct analogy to alcoholism here.  If you're waking up at 6 AM and craving pizza on a regular basis, and maybe sneaking by a Domino's on the way to work, you've probably got a problem. (Maybe more than one.)

When I Met Tony Curtis At 1 AM In Las Vegas

News is just breaking that actor Tony Curtis has died today at the age of 85. His most famous role was in Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959), with Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. But that film was made well before I was born.  So to me he was most famous for having had relationships with some of Hollywood's most famous leading ladies back in the day, and then for having been married six times.


I remember seeing a  piece about him on Entertainment Tonight 15 years ago or so, which profiled his retired life in Las Vegas as he turned 70. It noted that he had become a well-regarded painter whose works sold for tens of thousands of dollars. But what impressed me most at the time was that he was accompanied by a statuesqe blonde woman who looked to be 30 or 40 years younger than he.  (He later married her.  Jill Vandenberg was 42 years younger than he, as it turns out.)


That profile made a surprisingly strong impression on me at the time. So I I was oddly less surprised than I might have been when I bumped into the couple, literally, on the dance floor of "Club Ra" at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas about a decade ago.  It was well after midnight, and the techno dance music was blaring. As I was dancing on the not-so crowded dance floor, I accidentally bumped into someone behind me.  I turned around to apologize and there was Tony Curtis and this same beautiful, tall blonde woman, looking pretty much like that photo above.  Despite never having seen Some Like It Hot, I instantly knew who they were.  My first reaction was not, "No way! It's Tony Curtis!" though.  Instead, I remember thinking in that instant, "This guy is amazing.  He must be 75, and yet he's out dancing at 1 AM at a club with this beautiful woman in her 30s.  Incredible!"


Before I could say anything, he immediately apologized for bumping into me.  He was really nice, and didn't 'big time' me at all. Then there was that moment he must've had a million times in his life, where he could see in my eyes that flash of recognition. But then my eyes darted to his wife for a second (I couldn't help myself), and then back to him.  I could tell that he knew exactly what I was thinking in that moment, because he flashed a knowing smile at me before dancing on.

"You'll Do More Before 9 AM..."

Listening to the radio this morning in the car I heard a recruiting advertisement for the the US Army. The tag line at the end promised, "You'll do more in a few years than most people do in a  lifetime."  That caught my attention because when I was growing up in the early 1980s that tag line went slightly differently.  It used to say, "You'll do more before 9 AM than most people do all day."  


Even as a teenager I thought that was an unusual point of emphasis when trying to recruit high school kids to join the military. I wonder if it says anything about changing attitudes among 18-20 year olds today that this tag line has now been revised in this way.

Chinese Spy Caught "Red Handed"

Last night  CBS's 60 Minutes aired a piece examining the extent of Chinese espionage in America today, including hidden camera footage from the FBI in which one such spy and a Defense Department employee are caught 'red handed' exchanging cash for secrets in an SUV.  I particularly enjoyed the part at the end where, after their transaction is concluded and the Defense Department employee exits the car, the FBI surveillance tape captures the Chinese spy pulling out his own hidden recording device.  You can watch the  entire 13 minute segment HERE. 

Leia's Metal Bikini.Com

Personally, I was never as entranced as some by the metal bikini that Princess Leia wore as a captive of Jabba The Hut at the start of Return of the Jedi.  In fact, until I saw it parodied on an episode of Friends in the 1990s I was totally unaware that among guys from "Generation X" like me it apparently remained a powerful object of adolescent attraction even into adulthood.


But if I told you that there was a website devoted solely to every aspect of this outfit; one which features hundreds of photos of fans dressed in that same costume, would you click on it?  Only you can answer that for yourself..... HERE.

Dead Spy Was Apparently A "Keen Cyclist"

Did you see the story earlier this week about the British spy who was found murdered in his London apartment? His dead body had been mysteriously dismembered and stuffed in a duffel bag.  The discovery of his body (a full two weeks after he died) set off a wave of speculation that he may have been killed by an enemy agent, or perhaps by the "Islamists" on whom he was reportedly spying.  Well, more details are now emerging about 31 year old Gareth Williams that paint a very different picture.  The first clue, perhaps, that there was more to the story may have been that he was apparently a "keen cycling enthusiast."


He was indeed a 'spy.' In a sense. But not a James Bond-type spy.  He was an introverted math prodigy who worked as a code breaker for Britain's GCHQ (the rough equivalent of our National Security Agency, or NSA).  It's now emerged that he had few friends and no open relationships, but according to an article in the Daily Mail newspaper today HERE, "gay magazines and the phone numbers of gay escort men were found in the apartment near the agent's body."


Perhaps they were merely plants to throw investigators of the trail, however, as some have speculated.  His parents were apparently totally unaware that he might have been gay.  So they may have been dismayed by the further revelations in the same article, "The latest reports on Mr Williams include claims that bondage gear and equipment associated with sado-masochism had been discovered in the flat he used in Pimlico, London, while it has also been claimed he had links to a male escort."


Disturbingly, no one seems to be able to explain how someone holding such a sensitive post could have been missing for two weeks before police were called.  And it's also now been revealed that Mr. Williams travelled to the United States several times a year to liaise with the NSA. 


Oh, in case you don't recognize it,  that photo above is of Sean Connery in one of his post-Bond films, the 1973 science-fantasy Zardoz.

Well Adjusted, Surely

Have you ever considered home-schooling your three daughters?  If so, had you also considered incorporating Dungeons & Dragons into the curriculum?  If you have, then you should read THIS.  Here's an excerpt:

"My oldest daughter - known on this blog as Elerisa Celerna - expressed concerns over this. When we first got started and I kept changing my mind about what system we would be running (AD&D 2nd Ed., then D20 SRD, and finally Pathfinder RPG), we kept making changes to hers and her sisters' character sheets. The other girls just kind of rolled with it, but Elerisa by nature is a bit of a rules lawyer... "