News of the Week: Son Evicted, Hurricane Season Begins, and There’s Always Room for Jell-O

In the news for the week ending June 1, 2018, are a 30-year-old evicted by his parents, scratch-and-sniff postage stamps, websites going all-social, FREE DOUGHNUTS! and more.

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Parents vs. 30-Year-Old

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I moved out of the house at 23. I don’t think that’s too late in life. Though a lot of younger people are living at home until their late 20s (and every family is different, for different reasons), I couldn’t imagine staying until I hit my 30s.

That’s what this guy did, and his parents sued him for it. Seems they’ve been pleading with the man to get a job for eight years and even offered him money to get his own place. It finally got to the point where they served him with five “please get the hell out of our house” notices and filed a lawsuit against him. The case went to court last week and the judge sided with the parents.

He’s going to appeal the decision, of course. If he stays in the house during the appeal, that’s going to be one awkward dinnertime. But earlier this week, he was offered a job at Villa Italian Kitchen restaurant. And while his parents only offered him $1,100 to move, they’re going to give him a bonus of $1,101. Stay tuned.

Alberto, Beryl, Chris, Debby…

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June 1 marks the first official day of the hurricane season, and we already have the first one, named Alberto. Actually, it’s officially “Subtropical Depression Alberto.” That makes it sound like he needs to take medication, but it was still packing winds and a lot of rain for the southeast as I write this.

Other names coming up this season in the Atlantic include Beryl, Chris, Debby, and Ernesto. Here’s the full list. This year’s list is the same as the 2012 list, with one exception: Sara has replaced Sandy, a name that has been retired for obvious reasons.

Scratch-and-Sniff

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I’ve never collected postage stamps. It’s something I have a mild interest in and I bet it would be fun, but at this point it just seems like a Herculean task. I mean, they’re stamps, and they’ve been around for decades. Where do you begin?

Maybe with the first scratch-and-sniff stamps. These new stamps from the United States Postal Service picture various multicolored ice pops, but they will all smell the same — and the exact scent is being kept under wraps. Now when you send the electric company a check (do you still send checks?), the people who work there can have the added fun of smelling some outdoor merriment they don’t get to partake in.

I just hope they don’t come out with scratch-and-sniff stamps for U.S. presidents. Nobody wants to know what Millard Fillmore smelled like.

When Bad Things Happen to Good Websites

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I’ve seen a disturbing trend online the past few years: writers, artists, even entire companies abandoning their websites and moving completely to social media. This strikes me as not only foolish, but also dangerous. Why give your entire identity and online presence to Facebook and Twitter? What if they go out of business or change their terms of service? You certainly can’t design it the way you want to, and what about people who aren’t on social media?

The latest site to shut down is TV Shows on DVD. It was a great site (one I’ve linked to many times here), but I went there the other day and found this message. Sure, you are still going to be able to follow them on Facebook and Twitter, but it’s not going to be the same.

Look That Up in Your Funk & Wagnall’s

Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In turns 50 this year. Here’s a look back at the show from Post Archive Director Jeff Nilsson, and here’s a story that CBS Sunday Morning did this week, which includes interviews with producer George Schlatter and star Lily Tomlin:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Gd_hAeHnX5k

RIP Alan Bean, Bill Gold, Allyn Ann McLerie, and Patricia O’Grady

Alan Bean was the fourth person to walk on the moon, during the Apollo 12 mission in 1969. He also spent 59 days on the Skylab space station in 1973. He died Saturday at the age of 86.

Here’s Bean’s official site, where you can see his artwork, and here’s the short story that Tom Hanks wrote for The New Yorker in which Bean plays a central part, “Alan Bean Plus Four.”

Bill Gold designed the posters for many classic films, including Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Exorcist, Alien, The Sting, and dozens more. He died Sunday at the age of 97.

Allyn Ann McLerie was a veteran actress who appeared in such movies as Where’s Charley?, The Way We Were, All the President’s Men, Calamity Jane, and They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? She was also a regular on the TV shows The Tony Randall Show and The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, and performed many times on Broadway. She died last week at the age of 91.

Patricia Grady’s story is a fascinating one. She was an acclaimed stage actress many years ago and appeared in small parts in a few movies and TV shows, but her real claim to fame is how and where she lived. Grady moved into a Greenwich Village apartment with three roommates in 1955, and because they agreed to do chores around the building, they were only charged $16 a month.

Her girlfriends eventually moved out, but Grady stayed. And that’s where she was still living when she was struck and killed by a car in March at the age of 84. At the time of her death, she was paying only $28.43 a month, thanks to rent control laws and a landlord who really liked her. Here’s the story at CNN, and here’s another one in The New York Post.

I’d advise the 30-year-old above that there’s an apartment available in New York City, but the rent for O’Grady’s place is about to increase a lot.

Quote of the Week

“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant, and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.” —ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey, after the star made some (more) dumb remarks online.

This Week in History

Jell-O introduced (May 28, 1897)

I haven’t had it in several years, but I remember liking the lime flavor.

Here’s an ad for the quivering dessert that ran in the Post in 1924, illustrated by Norman Rockwell.

Little Girl with Jell-O from May 17, 1924
Little Girl with Jell-O from May 17, 1924

Marilyn Monroe born (June 1, 1926)

The Post’s Pete Martin had a three-part interview with the famous sex symbol in 1956 that focused on the “new” Marilyn Monroe.

This Week in Saturday Evening Post History: Wedding Dress-Up (June 1, 1946)

This cover is by Constantin Alajálov. Weddings are popular in June because the goddess Juno is a protector of all things female. It’s also popular because of the weather, though you would think that October would be even more popular because the bride and groom and guests wouldn’t sweat as much.

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Wedding Dress-up
Constantin Alajalov
June 1, 1946

Today Is National Doughnut Day

You don’t need another reason to get a doughnut today, but a lot of places are giving away free food, including Krispy Kreme, which is giving away a free doughnut to each customer, and Dunkin’ Donuts, which is giving away a free doughnut with the purchase of a beverage.

Next Week’s Holidays and Events

National Ketchup Day (June 5)

Or do you say catsup? I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone call it catsup. My spellchecker doesn’t even recognize the word. Are there still places where you’ll find it spelled that way? Let me know in the comments.

D-Day (June 6)

This refers, of course, to the Allied invasion of France, but it has also become a general military term to describe when a battle or operation is going to take place.

 

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Comments

  1. Bob, thanks for using a ‘stock’ photo for the top story instead of the real one.

    Scratch and sniff stamps. This IS to get more people to buy stamps. Let’s see how well it works, or not.

    I’m sorry the CBS This Morning video is disabled. I’ll have to try and find it on YouTube. It no doubt featured the November ’68 POST ‘Laugh-In’ cover girls issue, ALWAYS a personal favorite and still is.

    Thanks for the Marilyn interview link, of course. ONLY Alajalov could have pulled off the ’46 ‘Wedding Dress-Up’ cover. On an unrelated related note, I’m going to my 2nd Basset hound wedding this weekend which will be fun. No doubt the female’s wedding gown will look equally awkward, but she won’t mind a bit.

    As far as catsup goes, I have seen it spelled and pronounced that way somewhere, a long time ago. I think both spellings (of ketchup) go back to the 18th century and ‘ketchup’ won out as the dominant pronunciation.

  2. Thank you Post. My husband is a big ketchup fan, but I get on his case telling him it’s nothing but syrup 🙁 I guess I’ll let him splurge tomorrow for the special day. Watch out fries!!!

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