Look! Up in the Sky!
Were you a Marvel kid or a DC kid? I was the latter. I liked Superman and Batman. A lot of kids were until the Marvel movies changed everything.
I’m not saying I ever owned Action Comics No.1, the issue that introduced the Man from Krypton, but I often wonder what some of the other comics I did own back then would be worth today. The Batmans and the Green Lanterns and the Archies. For some reason I never thought of saving them. It just wasn’t a thing that went through my mind back then (the same with baseball cards), which is probably why I’ll never sell one for $6 million. That’s the amount Action Comics No.1 got at a recent auction.
It’s the most ever paid for a comic book. In second place is Superman No.1 from 1939 and Amazing Fantasy No.15 from 1962. That’s the issue that introduced Spider-Man.
Musical Treasures
What do ABBA and Green Day have in common? Well, besides raw guitar riffs and a defiant punk attitude, they’ve both been named “musical treasures” by the Library of Congress for their National Recording Registry. They join other 2024 inductees that include a 1919 recording by James Reese Europe, Gene Autry’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” Bill Withers’s “Ain’t No Sunshine,” and the 1998 album by The Chicks, Wide Open Spaces. That was back when they were still known as The Dixie Chicks.
Eating Good in the Neighborhood
Actor B.J. Novak has a new business, and it’s not in an office.
Along with chef Tim Hollingsworth, Novak has opened up a new Los Angeles restaurant named Chain, and it recreates the food and vibes of your favorite chain restaurants, past and present. It started as a pop-up place a few years ago but now it has moved to a more permanent location. There’s a waiting list to get in, of course.
Headline of the Week
“The Latest Scandal in Chess: Walking Too Loudly”
RIP Whitey Herzog, Robert MacNeil, Bob Graham, Roberto Cavalli, Ken Holtzman, Richard Leibner, and Frank Olson
Whitey Herzog was a Hall of Fame manager for the St. Louis Cardinals. Under his leadership the team won a World Series and three National League pennants. He died Monday at the age of 92.
Robert MacNeil was one half of PBS’s long-running MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour team and a TV and radio journalist for six decades. He died last week at the age of 93.
Bob Graham was a former Florida governor and senator. He died Tuesday at the age of 87.
Roberto Cavalli was an influential fashion designer. He died last week at the age of 83.
Ken Holtzman was a pitcher who helped the Oakland A’s win three World Series. He also helped turn around a bad Chicago Cubs team and made the All-Star team twice. He died last week at the age of 78.
Richard Leibner was the agent for some of the best-known TV journalists, including Dan Rather, Mike Wallace, Andy Rooney, Diane Sawyer, Morley Safer, and Ed Bradley. He died earlier this month at the age of 85.
On the same day O.J. Simpson died, Frank Olson, the Hertz executive who hired him for the famous series of Hertz rental car commercials, also passed away. He was 91.
This Week in History
Rand McNally Publishes First Road Atlas (April 14, 1924)
Yup, they’re still around, and not only do they still make the paper maps, they now also do GPS, dash cams, and headsets.
Clarence Darrow Born (April 18, 1857)
He’s probably most famous for being the defense attorney in the Scopes Monkey Trial.
This Week in Saturday Evening Post History: Chrysler Automobiles (April 15, 1961)
These two wouldn’t have been able to find this spot without the help of Rand McNally.
How to Recreate Those Chain Restaurant Meals
If you don’t want to travel to that place in Los Angeles, you can try to recreate some of your favorite restaurant meals at home. Several bloggers have been in the lab and have figured out how to make a meal very similar to what you can find outside the home. Like these recipes from Copykat Recipes for Homemade KFC Potato Wedges, the Starbucks Cafe Mocha, and the Big Mac.
Taste of Home has a Panera Bread Copycat Broccoli Cheddar Soup and this California Pizza Kitchen Thai Chicken Pizza Copycat, while Chick-fil-A has posted the recipe for their Cole Slaw, which was discontinued in 2016.
Also: Food Network has an Almost-Famous Bloomin’ Onion, the Almost-Famous Green Bean Fries, and this Almost-Famous Pumpkin Cheesecake.
That last one is from a famous factory.
Next Week’s Holidays and Events
Record Store Day (April 20)
Maybe you’ll be able to find some of those honorees from the National Recording Registry.
Arbor Day (April 26)
It’s not just one day anymore, it’s a whole season.
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Comments
Love that Chrysler automobile. That’s when they knew how to make them and styling was important and reflected the good taste of the buyer. I believe you could bring back some retro styles and they would sell today. Take for example the Ford Falcon or Torino or Chevrolet Bel Air or Biscayne, or Dodge Lancer or Coronet. Yep, they don’t make automobiles like they use to. Pretty sad.
With the Hertz executive passing away, perhaps he and OJ will team up in the afterlife for commercials. Just a thought.
We’ll have to see how long “Chain” lasts as a restaurant. B.J. Novak is really only known as being part of ‘The Office’ ensemble, and frankly was the weakest cast member. $65 for starters is pretty steep in this (or any) economy. With inflation about to skyrocket further with the U.S.=Middle East disasters, I’d be worried.
It is a clever idea/concept of combinations invoking nostalgia admittedly, but one that will go over most people’s heads; especially in this fast-paced, phone-addicted age. Short of special occasions, very few people will be dining over one hour, much less two. The restaurant biz is one of the roughest and toughest. The logo is a re-working of Chili’s, that makes you think of their (not so great) chain. As a one-off “boutique”, it might last awhile.
This 1961 Chrysler ad is unusual in a few ways. It features a four-door sedan (not the open version), has the price in big numbers, and is in black and white. So you can still have a Chrysler on a budget. Most ads were in color, featuring the top-of-the-line 2 or 4 door coupes, or the convertible to get you into the dealership. Once there, then the plainer ones would be on the lot, toward the back, not inside. The used car lot, yes.
The fins are awesome, and the canted stacked headlights definitely reminiscent of the ’58-’60 Continental, before the highly influential, tasteful and classic ’61 came out. You can see GM’s take on the look in the beautiful 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix, Oldsmobile Starfire, and Buick Riviera not long after.
I remember buying comic books as a kid in the 1960s during the so-called “Silver Age of Comic Books”. My faves were Superman & Batman, then Spiderman. I occasionally read Archie, Richie Rich, Casper, etc but mostly it was the superheroes for me. I remember when the price jumped from 12 to 15 cents, a big deal back then considering my weekly allowance was just a quarter. The best comics were the 80 page Giant editions for 25 cents. Comics (and Mad Magazine & later Cracked) were important to have during a vacation road trip to pass the time. I had boxes of comics, including many in the “Classics Illustrated” series that got thrown out or given away as a kid so I don’t have even one comic book to this day.
I was saddened to hear of the recent deaths of Whitey Hertzog & Ken Holtzman. Another baseball star also recently died this past week.
Carl Erskine, nicknamed “Oisk”, who pitched two no-hitters as a mainstay on the Brooklyn Dodgers “Boys of Summer” ball club and was a 20-game winner in 1953 when he struck out a then-record 14 in the World Series, died April 16 at age 97.
Erskine spent his entire major league career with the Dodgers from 1948-59, playing on six National League pennant winners, including the first ever Brooklyn Dodgers world championship team of 1955.
In a 1953 World Series game he struck out 14 N.Y. Yankees, retiring the side in the ninth, for a W.S. record that stood for 10 years until Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax struck out 15 Yankees in 1963.
After the ’57 season the Dodgers moved west to Los Angeles, and in 1958 Erskine pitched the first pitch in the Dodgers’ first home game in L.A.
Erskine’s death leaves Sandy Koufax, age 88, as the sole surviving team member of the 1955 championship club. Koufax began his baseball career 69 years ago as a 19 year old lefty rookie for the 1955 Dodgers, finishing with a 2-2 record in 12 games that season. He was activated by the team on June 8. To make room for him, the club optioned their future Hall of Fame manager (and then pitcher), Tommy Lasorda, to the Montreal Royals minor league team. Lasorda would later joke that it took “one of the greatest left-handers in history” to keep him off the Dodgers major league roster!