Guess I never was meant for glitter, rock and roll...

Nope, I didn't go stand in line to see "Harry Potter."

What did that Piratehead poet say? Guess I never was meant for glitter, rock and roll...

It's crowdin' midnight as I type this and I'm in my PJs, listening to Vic Damone sing "Till There Was You" on Peter "Hollywood Squares" Marshall's radio show.



Channeling his best game show host, Peter proffers bits of trivia. The year Doris Day delivered a song. The name of the guy who conducted on Sinatra's "At Long Last Love." (Yep, it was Nelson Riddle.)

Peter says today (well, yesterday) is the late Gerald Ford's birthday. He asks if we knew what Gerald Ford's real name was. I remembered enough to recall Leslie King Jr. Found that out when we visited Mr. Ford's museum in 2005.

After I wrote an article about the trip I received an email from a reader who once met one of Ford's half brothers on the King side. Small world.

Peter's playing Dionne Warwick, live on the Sullivan show circa '69, singing "This Girl's in Love with You." Man, you just can't top Bacharach/David. If not I'll just die...



I can only imagine the chaos at the cinema tonight. Channel 6 was going to do a live remote from one of the Regal multiplexes.

Me? Well, here I sit, me and the oldies, the music of my life, 40 years too late.

'Ford to City: Drop Dead!'

So I'm whiling away the free moments at work tonight in between editing pages by reading "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning," Jonathan Mahler's engaging, well-written book about 1977 New York City. Picked it up at the library today.

The book centers around the mayoral campaign that year, a face off between two newcomers -- Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo -- as well as the New York Yankees' tumultuous chase for the World Series championship.

Everybody in the Big Apple, it seems, was fighting. (Koch v. Cuomo, Billy v. Reggie, New York v. The World). A murderer (the so-called "Son of Sam") was on the loose). The city was broke.

A couple of years earlier, President Gerald Ford had famously refused to bail the city out of debt, leading to this classic headline in the Daily News:

Anyway, it's a good read. And if you haven't heard, ESPN is airing a miniseries beginning Monday, July 9, 10 p.m. (EDT) after the Home Run Derby.

OK, back to compo to see how much longer till I can get out of here. Y'all have a good weekend.