“Some Things Simply Must Be Seen to Be Believed” Division:
Russian singers from the 70s — awesome. Russian singers lip-synching a vocalise on Soviet television, complete with gorgeous set tricked out in week-old mustard-colored backdrop and tattered fence-like apparatus — incomparable.
Watch it twice. It’s Finkday, after all. Treat yourself.
….when you simply don’t know what to say.
~
Hopefully, it’s just one of those weird-angle pictures, when the paps caught her off-guard, because that’s the only way I can reconcile this thing in my mind. Wasn’t Splash a fun movie? So many facelifts ago…
Another snow day, and we are out of DayQuil. This could be dangerous. Time to call in the reinforcements (snow plow guys).
FO
After I got home at 7:00 last night, I did not feel like working. The Thriller and I watched some TV instead — I think it was the NFL Network. We watched a special on Jim “King” Corcoran.
One word describes my reaction: speechless.
It was one of the more bizarre (yet completely entertaining) bio programs I’ve ever seen. It was produced by NFL Films. You have to watch it. No, really, I mean it. You have to.
As a 30-some-year football fan, I was surprised that I’d never heard of him. I’d seen the name “Corcoran” now and again, but apparently never thought anything of it or bothered to inquire. The Thriller’s first comment upon seeing footage of Corcoran later in life: “He’s a dead ringer for Gene Simmons!” Imagine my delight at finding out in later research that one of Jim’s famous escapades in Las Vegas involved his impersonating the KISS singer. Heh.
Honestly. You just have to read it to believe it. Then catch the NFL Network TV show. If you thought Joe Namath was a boisterous, self-absorbed, womanizing self-promoter, this guy will change your perspective forever. Like someone said in the TV special: “Jim was the ‘off-Broadway’ version of Joe Namath.” Very good assessment. Corcoran, for me, redefined “bizarre.” He was indeed Joe Namath — but with a raging personality disorder thrown in. Amazing. Truly, you have to read his story to get the gist. I’m shocked that even YouTube has nothing on him — no wonder many people hadn’t heard of him. But he is worth checking out, believe it. Wow.
FO
This morning I read that explorers Christopher Columbus and John Smith reported having seen “mermaids” on their travels at sea (1493 and 1614, respectively). The sightings persisted into the 19th century. Marine scientists later postulated that the men might have in fact been seeing manatees or dugongs –– not maids.
Hence, today’s little funny.
Haha.
FO
Last Saturday, Kim Peek died at 58 years old. Known as the inspiration for the film Rain Man (which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and earned Dustin Hoffman a Best Actor Oscar), Peek inspired the medical community as well. Theories regarding his savantism (although he is not thought to have had autism) and his astonishing ability to store and recall facts abound, though not a whole lot is known.
According to the article in the New York Times, Kim was amazing his family at a very young age. Dismissed by doctors in the mid-1950s as profoundly retarded, his father knew better. By the age of six,
‘Kim had read and memorized the first eight volumes of a set of family encyclopedias,’ his father said. He received part-time tutoring from the age of 7 and completed a high school curriculum by 14. He spent great swaths of time absorbing volumes in the Salt Lake City Public Library.”
The journal Scientific American did a feature on him in 2006. In it, they said:
He knows all the area codes and ZIP codes in the U.S., together with the television stations serving those locales. He learns the maps in the front of phone books and can provide MapQuest-like travel directions within any major U.S. city or between any pair of them. He can identify hundreds of classical compositions, tell when and where each was composed and first performed, give the name of the composer and many biographical details, and even discuss the formal and tonal components of the music.
Of course, someone always has to cast a pall; throw a monkey wrench; pee on the birthday cake. The Daily Mail paints quite the different picture of the level of inspiration Kim actually provided the star of Rain Man, Dustin Hoffman. Reportedly, Hoffman remembers little about their initial meeting, and counted Kim as only one of several “inspirations” that contributed to his development of the Raymond Babbitt character.
No matter. It still doesn’t cancel the “amazing” factor. If I can tell someone my birthdate, and within one second, he tells me the day of the week it fell on and what the weather was like in Zion, Illinois, well, I’m impressed.
And the blackjack scene from the film still makes me laugh. Interesting trivia here. Cool.
FO