I Mae Have Just Discovered Something Awesome

You know those days when you wake up at 5:30 am with jet lag and just think, how am I going to face this day?

I always just say, WWMD. What Would Mae Do?

And you know what? A little googling and I discover this.


And this.



And now I can face the day. Maebe.

This'es And That

It's that time again - Shorty's Book Club!

So what's Shorty reading now? Why, it's This 'N That by Little Miss Bette Davis.



This 'N That is the second memoir by Miss Davis, from 1987. Her first one, The Lonely Life, came out in 1962. As Shorty explained it, the first book was a proper memoir, the second one is a cornucopia of different things. It's part memoir of her career post-1962, including a lot about her made-for-TV movies. It's part about her stroke and recuperation, and it's partly a refute to the 'Mommie Dearest' knock-off memoir her daughter wrote a few years before.

Anyway, Shorty is - no surprise - mostly interested in the pictures. So, we broke out the Scanner from the Up High Storage Space, and put it to work.

Here she is in what she calls a "cheesecake" photo. I'm confused by what the purpose of the medicine ball is in this snap. Maybe that's some sort of sexual thing I'm not aware of?

We both liked this one of her and that handsome devil (ha! entendre!) Robert J. Wagner. It was almost exactly a year ago that Shorty and I couldn't sleep and read his memoirs late one night. I think this is when she guest-starred on It Takes A Thief.

This pic though, this takes all the cakes in the world. It's Bette, Mae West, and Beverly Sills.

My greatest regret is that there's no index to the book, so we can't quickly enjoy reading about that "fascinating evening." What a dinner party!

Shorty had a few other faves, including one that's a bit morally iffy. We'll save that for the Bonus Content!

Until next time.

! This post was updated from its original content to include links to some other blog's discussion of Robert J. Wagner's classic TV program, It Takes A Thief.

What A Bunch Of Flakes

Seriously? After all that hullabaloo, this is all the snow we get?



Last night I was on the video chat with Amber while she was on hold with Delta on her iPhone and had Kevin on speaker on her BlackBerry as they tried to sort out their flight to San Francisco today (8am canceled, rescheduled for 5pm).

And this AM my boss, who lives in the Westchester, emails to say he's working from home due to the blizzard. And the Post has the not so witty pun headline, "Not Snow Fast."

All this for four inches? (almost sounds like a Mae West quote).

I'm just saying, for this much weather angst, I should be able to go outside and make a little snowman.



On the plus side, I'm going to wear dungarees and go in late to work due to "inclement weather."

Good Birthday Come In Threes

Who knew such great Dames of America shared the same birthday?

Three ladies I like heaps are all blowing out candles today.

The eldest on our list is Miss Katharine Ross. I like her mostly because she's so pretty, but I also enjoyed her very much in The Graduate and The Stepford Wives (the original movie, not the one I saw in the theatre simply to enjoy the A/C, later to realize standing outside and melting might have been preferable.

Next up is Miss Bettye LaVette. LaVette is an old school R&B musician who had some minor hits in the early 70s, then languished for far too long. In the mid-aughts she came out with I've Got My Own Hell To Raise, followed quickly by Scene Of The Crime. These two albums blow me away - she's R&B, country, rock, everything. On the albums she covers Aimee Mann, Bruce Springsteen, Dolly Parton, Elton John, Joan Armatrading (woohoo!), Lucinda Williams, Rosanne Cash, Willie Nelson, and more. Her versions are so unique and in cases wrenching, that even if they don't surpass the originals in my mind, they stand firmly on their own. She recently did a kick-bum version of "A Change Is Gonna Come" with Bon Jovi at an inauguration event, available on the YouTube.

Here though we're going to see her do a Fiona Apple song medley'd into Sinead O'Connor. God Bless America.



And finally, cheers to Miss Ann Jillian. We know her from Kevin's third favorite sitcom, It's A Living, and as the star of the made-for-TV Mae West bio. I liked her best in Jennifer Slept Here, a comedy that ran for one season in 1983. She played the ghost of a famous actress who haunted her old house, currently occupied by a family with a teenage son, whom I swore was Jason Bateman but apparently wasn't. Georgette from the Mary Tyler Moore show had a nice part too.

Here's the opening credits to Jennifer Slept Here.



Happy Birthday, Ladies!

2 Hot 2 Handle

And they say the Golden Girls were racy. Blanche Deveraux, eat your heart out.



I don't care what Raquel Welch says, this dame is pretty great.

The Movie That Shouldn't Be Viewed

This movie made Amber so mad she almost spit on my floor. Gore Vidal said it was the 2nd worst movie he had ever seen. Raquel Welch said Mae West looks like a dockworker in drag.

I dunno. The box said it was 30 years ahead of its time. I think it might need to percolate another thirty.