Rocci Fisch

July 14, 2004

NIKE HERE, EVERLAST THERE

. . . The swimmers in the U.S. Olympic Trials wear Nike or Everlast caps, T-shirts and jackets, rubberized body hugging bathing suits, and the goggles are probably made by made by those sports companies too. The athletes are all decked out like walking advertisements.

. . . Are the new trunks more aerodynamic or something? Are Speedos dead now?

The picture of a jukebox accompanying last Sunday's New York Times article about political campaign theme songs misspelled Johnny B. Goode for the Kerry-Edwards ticket. It was spelled Johnny Be Goode which is incorrect, for the Chuck Berry hit song of 1958.

I heard that Spider-Man 3 is coming May 4, 2007. They already know that?

Nutrisse means nature, they say, in that Garnier shampoo ad that shows a very blond Sarah Jessica Parker waving her hair back and forth. Oh yeah, in what language?

GROUP THINK. That's what the CIA was accused of in a report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence regarding going to war with Iraq. In other words, everybody assumed Iraq had WMDs and that was what the CIA thought the White House wanted to hear. So the group won out and we went to war.

. . . Always do your own thinking.

Mr. Big Stuff thinks those rice cake things taste like salted styrofoam. Sorta.

NEW TO ME. Pella, the window company, now makes between-the-glass blinds. I guess that's not a bad idea. But what if a bug gets in there?

Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi looks like a cross between Charles Kuralt and Tony Soprano.

ANCHORMAN. Funny, silly movie. It's the 70s and before women's lib. Will Ferrell is good as San Diego air head anchorman Ron Burgundy and Christina Applegate plays ambitious reporter, anchor wannabe Veronica Corningstone. Burgundy's news team posse is No. 1 in the local TV ratings wars. Ron reads anything that's on the TelePrompTer (that's how they used to spell it) and one night he reads a dirty epithet at the end of the newscast and there's backlash. He's fired and Veronica steps in.

. . . I've noticed that the previews they're showing on TV show scenes I never saw in the movie. I hate it when they do that.

What's so great about that grotto at Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion? The magazine's coming out with a swimsuit calendar with the girls actually wearing something and we're told they're shown "cavorting in the grotto." Hmm.

Is John McEnroe's CNBC show gonna make it? Is he good enough to carry a TV show? He always seems ticked off to me.

. . . Is Dennis Miller's show making it?

Sean Combs kicked off his new Citizen Change organization, a get-out-the-vote campaign to increase "minority and youth participation in the electoral process" at his annual Fourth of July white party in Bridgehampton, N.Y. They passed out T-shirts saying Vote or Die. P. Diddy admits the slogan is a bit dramatic but said the election did need "some drama, some emotion, some passion." Maybe he picked that up from starring on Broadway. (A Raisin in the Sun). Those people are always wearing their hearts on their sleeves.

Kerry and Edwards need to stop praising each other. It's a bit much. And the touching and the football tossing and the smiling and the backslapping last week. Jeesh. I'd like to see Saturday Night Live do a gay spoof of the couple.

The memorial fountain for Princess Diana was "unveiled" last week in London's Hyde Park. Water flows two ways in it. Video showed kids wading and stepping in it. I don't think that's right. The GD thing isn't a swimming pool, for crissakes.

. . . "Memories mellow with the passing of years," said Queen Elizabeth II at the fountain tribute for Diana. That's true.

David Hasselhoff will be following his heart, challenging himself and having fun. That's what he said he was gonna do when asked for a comment about him taking the role of Billy Flynn in the musical Chicago to the London stage. I guess he didn't follow his heart enough in Baywatch. On that show he followed his libido.

Is that old man, the dancing guy in those Six Flags America ads a woman in disguise? Maybe, maybe not. He was on Good Morning America and danced his funny way among the kids in the audience but didn't talk. He's a bit weird - like a mime or something. That song he dances to is We Like to Party by the Vengaboys.

Why does Teresa Heinz Kerry pronounce her name TER AAY SAH? They don't say Mother Teresa's name that way.

. . . And I bet the next time young little Jack Edwards sucks his thumb that she won't be the one to remove it. A lot of people were critical of her doing that to the kid. If anybody should have done it it should've been Elizabeth, the kid's mother.

NBC has ordered 24 million Greek Anthora coffee cups (the kind they've been using in New York for years) and plans to distribute them to cities to hype their Olympics coverage. Good idea.

Are John Kerry and John Edwards, Herman Munster and Eddie?

That Bush-Cheney ad that Sen. John McCain does looks out of sync. It looks like it was shot on video and transferred to film and when McCain talks, the movement of his lips and what comes out seem to be slightly off. Fix it!

Tom Ridge has a small mouth.

DO THIS: Sing the Loew's movie theater song.

There's something fishy about U.S. Marine Wassef Ali Hassoun and his kidnapping. Are we gonna know the truth on that one?

Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, greeted the FedEx man last week by licking his legs. He had shorts on. He said to her, "Hanna, quit licking the cologne off my legs." Whaaat? I asked owner Sally why he had cologne on his legs but she didn't know. She wondered herself but thought it was too personal to ask.

NEW NICKEL? On the tails side it shows a handshake with a crossed ax and peace pipe underneath Louisiana Purchase and the date, 1803, and at the bottom it says E Pluribus Unum which is Latin for "out of many, one," a motto of the U.S. Isn't that what the Wizard of Oz said near the end of the movie when he was giving out the gifts to the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion?

JUICY AIR. That's a new one on me. One of the local weathermen said that to, I guess, describe the humid air and the possibility of oncoming showers and thunderstorms. Somehow I can't see myself saying, "Boy, the air sure is juicy today."

NEW BOOK: The Original Marvelettes: Motown's Mystery Girl Group, by Marc Taylor. Five girls from Inkster, Mich., gave the record company its first No. 1 pop hit, Please Mr. Postman, in 1961 in the formative years of the Motown Record Corporation. Book explores their ups and downs and the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of a group that paved the way for the Supremes and other future superstars of the company.

Carol Lin, CNN anchor, now sports darker hair. It was lightened for a while but it's back to being dark for that more natural look.

Weekend Today anchor Lester Holt is still on crutches and used them when he was out on the plaza last week, talking with a dog expert about how to approach canines. He didn't seem like he was in much pain.

Is John Edwards' hair dyed? If so, it's a good ad for Just for Men.

Someone sent me a How to Swear in Italian list of words and phrases. It's colorful language.

"Stop that bull run. Just stop it," demanded Diane Sawyer after Good Morning America showed pictures of the Running of the Bulls in Spain in which several people were gorged. She's had it and so have I. It's stupid, dangerous and cruel to the animals. What is it with bulls in that country? Why, it's bulls_ _ _.

CORECTED BLUNDER. The New York Post front-page headline on Tuesday, July 6, said, Kerry's Choice in large lettering and underneath it said, "Dem picks Gephardt as VP candidate" with the word EXCLUSIVE on a red banner line. The next day was the same headline with a few word changes, like, "Dem picks Edwards as VP candidate" and the word REALLY underneath that. And the EXCLUSIVE had a NOT slammed onto it.

. . . Sometimes you're only as good as your sources. I wonder who theirs was?

UH . . . Who Is He and What Is He To You - Creative Source on Sussex Records, 1974. (Later done by Bill Withers.)