THE MONSTER MASH

1. . . . Bobby "Boris" Pickett said on washingtonpost.com Friday that that one song has paid his rent for 43 years. (He did have a follow-up with Monsters' Holiday the same year, 1962.) Mash has sold almost four million copies and has entered the Hot 100 three times over the years. It took one hour for him and Gary Paxton to write it and they recorded the novelty hit in one take.
2. . . . "They did the Mash... "
3. John Kerry told Tom Brokaw last week that he has 10,000 lawyers across the country watching for any improprieties in the voting on election day. Is he paying all those people?
4. George Bush's hair has a yellow hue to it when he's in harsh lights. (Bad dye job?)
5. ASHLEE SIMPSON FALLOUT. The Washington Post and USA Today spell lip-syncing this way but The New York Times spells it lip-synching. But they do spell the noun/verb, lip-sync the same way. You figure it out.
6. One little kid said this about last week's lunar eclipse: "The shadow's taking a bite out of the moon." So right. He was in new ABC7 reporter John Hamilton's report from College Park, Md. New hire. Fresh face.
7. Is CNN's Soledad O'Brien on CSI: NY? She and Vanessa Felito who plays Alden Burn, do resemble one another.
8. LET ‘EM WALK. To FedEx Field outside Washington, D.C. Amen. Why shouldn't the people be able to walk there instead of paying $25 to some rip-off parking lot? The people won that one and the decision ain't gonna be reversed.
9. It was pointed out on the CBS Saturday Early Show that bats' wings act as little fingers and you could see them moving as such. Never knew that.
10. KEVIN SPACEY AS BOBBY DARIN? No thank you. Saw the preview for Beyond the Sea and it don't work. Spacey looks much too old to play the part of Darin and besides that, bad rug. So obvious
11. Friday night, Washington WUSA/Channel 9 sportscaster Frank Herzog said goodbye to everyone. They're dumping him too, just like Gordon Peterson. Herzog quoted CBS's Charles Osgood by saying, "See you on the radio."
12. . . . So former Channel 9 anchor team Maureen Bunyan and Gordon Peterson will be at it again for Channel 7 on the 6:00 news. Reunited. Good ratings move. The station's been aggressive in getting on-air talent. As Martha Stewart would maybe say, "It's a good move." Channel 9, you goofed.
13. BEING JULIA. Annette Bening is as good as the reviews have been. Popular but aging stage actress in London, Bening plays Julia Lambert who's married for convenience to Michael Gosselyn (Jeremy Irons) and strikes up an affair with an aggressive young star-struck American (Tom Fennel) played by Shaun Evans. She's funny, witty, a b_ _ _ h when she wants to be, vulnerable, insecure, mature and childlike. Irons is excellent as the theater business manager and hobnobber. The kid is good too: determined and cunning but shallow. Well worth seeing.
14. CNN's Carlos Watson sure came up fast. He's the political/poll interpreter-type guy Wolfie and Judy and other anchors turn to to make sense out of things. On the air he has a pleasant manner, smiles a lot and knows his stuff. He's already got his own show on Sunday nights: Off Topic (at 10 and repeated at 1. On his first show last week he had interviews with Shaquille O'Neal, Barack Obama and Heidi Klum. Talks about off-beat things.
15. ABC's Brian Ross said Osama bin Laden was 47. That true? He looks as old as Moses to me. LATER: Looked it up. Yup. Ross is right. Osama Baby was born in 1957.
16. Mr. Big Stuff asked, "Who is this Al Jazeera guy?" Ha Ha Ha.
17. CORRECTION. Last week I spelled CNN anchor Daryn Kagan's last name as Kagen. I stand corrected. So is it true that Rushie Baby went to meet her parents?
18. FEEDBACK. Thanks to two readers who did some research and found out that the guy singing Somewhere in that TIAA-CREF (financial investment company) commercial might be David Sylvian of the band Japan or Ian McCulloch of Echo & The Bunnymen. (Apparently there are a couple versions of the commercial.) Thanks.
19. TOO MANY I'Ms: On the opening of 60 Minutes. "I'm Mike Wallace, I'm Morley Safer, I'm Ed Bradley, I'm Steve Kroft, I'm Lesley Stahl ..." on the original or "I'm Scott Pelley, I'm Bob Simon, I'm Charlie Rose, I'm Vickey Mabrey" on the clone which used to be called 60 Minutes II. I'm, I'm, I'm. Plus, the production of it is old-style TV and looks it. They need to modernize it up a bit.
20. The new Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York is not in Lincoln Center. It's in the new Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle.
21. "The adult alligator has 80 teeth and a tail that can dislocate a person's jaw with a single whack." That reported in The New York Times's Science section last Tuesday. It was the caption under a picture of one with his eyes above the water and his mouth beneath it. And that mouth ...
22. President Bush had his picture taken while holding an 18-month-old baby last Tuesday in Onalaska, Wisc. while on his campaign bus tour. And John Kerry picks up babies too. Good photo-ops, they think. David Brinkley used to always poke fun at politicians for doing such things on the campaign trail and for eating countless "chicken and pea dinners."
23. NEW MUSIC CHART. Billboard magazine, the music industry trade publication, will start tracking and rating ring tones each week - the sales of cell phone ring tones. This Top 20 chart supposedly represents "a new revenue stream that some in the music industry believe can offset flagging CD sales." Anything to make a buck.
24. KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY. Terrorism expert Jim Walsh from Harvard said on CNN Saturday that what we have to watch out for is the next generation of Osama bin Laden. What a frightening thought. Will they all look like him?
25. "You're fihudd." That's how somebody phonetically spelled what Donald Trump says on The Apprentice. That was e-mailed in to Lisa de Moraes's washingtonpost.com ‘s online discussion program, On TV, last week. And speaking of Trump, Katie Couric dressed like him last Friday for a pre-Halloween Today show. She was a bit weird looking and seemed like her head was hunched down between her shoulder blades. Does Donald do that? Someone said she looked more like Bob Costas.
26. As mentioned above, longtime local TV anchorman Gordon Peterson is joining Channel 7 to do the 6:00 news. That all? Why don't they repurpose him and put him on Newschannel 8 too? Albritton owns that station too. Get their money out of him. (Actually, his Sunday public affairs show, Inside Washington, comes along with him. Package deal, I guess.
27. How much longer do we have to put up with pained troubadour Bruce Springsteen doing his Bob Dylan impression with the harmonica and the gee-tar singing, with his teeth clenched, "I believe in the promised land ..."? And then saying, "This one's for you John [Kerry] before going into "No Surrender." Is this the 60s? Gimme a Break!
28. Former News4 Washington sports reporter/anchor Jill Sorenson was anchoring the 5 a.m. edition of Fox5 Morning News last week. That's a great shift.
29. Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, is being taunted by Gidget the Cockatoo. The bird sits up in her cage and chews up those little finch nest-type things and then spits them like piñatas down on the poor dog on the floor.
30. UNDECIDEDS. They're not only in politics, they're also in the courtroom. Reportedly there are undecideds in the Scott Peterson trial. They can't make up their minds either. Lack of evidence and pressure to convict are making it hard for the jurors
31. UH . . . Easy To Be Hard - Three Dog Night on Dunhill Records. (Song was from Broadway play Hair. (Don't have year handy. Sorry.)

rocci@roccifisch.com

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