Traditional Mother's Day Quote from Joan Crawford

Since Joan Crawford, a famous actress from the '30s and '40s, was the subject of the tell-all biopic melodrama "Mommie Dearest," which was released four years after the diva's death in 1981, we thought we'd quote Crawford here today as we have for virtually every Mother's Day. Baltimore's cult film director John Waters is a major fan of "Mommie Dearest."

Here is the quip from Crawford:

"It has been said that on screen, I personified the American woman."

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Top 10 Best Comics from This Sunday's Washington Post: Don't Wash the Flamingos

Wow! We had the hardest time finding an image of Captain Crunch! Anyway, no one wants to hear about the cumbersome side of blogging.

Greetings to our blog readers in the Bahamas, where we danced with some flamingos at the zoo in Nassau.

"WUMO," our favorite comic strip of the day featured (SPOILER ALERT) a man telling his wife not to wash flamingos with the laundry. This made us wonder if John Waters, who directed the cult film "Pink Flamingos" saw this strip. Of course, there is a .00009% chance that he reads our blog.

Our runner-up strip is our friend Keith Knight's comic strip "Knight Life," in which Keith (along with "The Pajama Diaries," it's an autobiographical strip) listens to a friend who is as fat as a Japanese sumo wrestler rant about how he likes to make rebellious New Year's resolutions.

Lastly, Captain Crunch, the character who promotes the 70s-era breakfast cereal that is still around and probably not recommended for middle-age adults with diabetes (we're pretty sure our fellow Turkish-American Dr. Mehmet Oz would agree with us) is part of the punchline in "Brewster Rockit."

Alas, "Rhymes with Orange," "Judge Parker" and "Reply All" were among the good comic strips which didn't finish in our top ten, but "The Washington Post" (Sunday edition) has some 30-plus comic strips.

1. WUMO

2. Knight Life

3. Doonesbury

4. Brewster Rockit

5. Sherman's Lagoon

6. Foxtrot

7. Pearls Before Swine

8. Lio

9. The Argyle Sweater

10. Dustin

http://www.gocomics.com/wumo#.UsoHxzYo6Uk

http://www.gocomics.com/theknightlife#.UsoIKDYo6Uk

http://www.bahamas.com/#/ragged

http://www.visitjapan.jp/en/

http://www.capncrunch.com/#show

Coming Attractions-Where in the Soviet Union Will We Go Next

Here are some possible or likely features we will have posted hopefully within the next week assuming we don't get a pie-in-the-face (ala the late tv great Soupy Sales).

1) This week, we finally had a chance to watch the relatively new "Conan" show on TBS with Conan O'Brien who got the shaft at NBC. On the episode I watched, Conan's guest was just-retired NBA great Shaquille O'Neal, who revealed that he likes to go go-kart racing?!

2) Though Lithuania has been in the news, as the mayor of Vilnius unceremoniously crushed a lavish car parked in a bike lane with a tank, we are probably going to go with Turkmenistan as our next destination in our "What We Learned from Google Today" series, which is currently focusing on the former republics of the Soviet Union.

3) We will be continuing our quotes from subversive artists next week. John Waters, R.Crumb and Iggy Pop are among our candidates for the quotes.

_ If you want to take your kids to the movies and you live near Lexington, Va., (one hour north of Roanoke, three hours south of Washington, DC) then the Hull's Drive-in has a lineup geared just for the little ones with a double-feature consisting of "Winnie the Pooh" and "Zookeeper." Of course, for those of us with no kids, we can always stay at home and watch the Criterion version of Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" while munching on Milk Duds.

Quote of the Week- Frank Zappa

Along with the likes of John Waters, the late rock musician Frank Zappa (1940-1993) was one of Baltimore's favorite sons. Until we quoted John Lennon today on our sister blog, I did not realize that both singers were born in 1940, a year before Bob Dylan who turned 70 last week.

Frank Zappa's son Dweezil Zappa leads a tribute band called Zappa Plays Zappa. They will perform at The Klein in Bridgeport, Conn., on July 29. Zappa's other celebrity offspring include Moon Unit Zappa and Ahmet Zappa.

Here is a quote from Frank Zappa, which we may well have used the last and only time we quoted him before now, but it is such a good one that it bears repeating here:

"Stupidity is the basic building block of the universe."

Happy Mother's Day in Advance from Joan Crawford

Much to our shock and amazement, we found out that the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, which is one of the most famous cinemas in America, is presented a special 30th anniversary screening of "Mommie Dearest." The 1981 film starring Faye Dunaway about allegations that legendary actress Joan Crawford (1905-1977) will be shown at 7:00 p.m. A local transvestite named Peaches Christ, who is apparently popular in the communtiy, will present the film. Ticket prices are (and, we are not making this up) from $20-40.....wow, an opera in Roanoke, Va., might actually be cheaper.

Crawford won an Oscar for "Mildred Pierce" (1945) and her last screen appearance was in the horror film "Trog" (1970). Her daughter Christina Crawford wrote the 1978 memoir "Mommie Dearest" which became the basis for the film version which was badly recieved, yet it did become a camp film with a large cult following; John Waters even provides commentary on the dvd of the film though he had nothing to do with its production.

Dunaway has publicly stated that she disdains the film, and we assume she will not be in San Francisco for the screening on Saturday night (that might actually be worth the price of admission!).

Ironically, both Christina Crawford, now 71, and Dunaway, now 70, are close to the age that Joan Crawford was when she died which was 72.

SIDEBAR: We forgot to mention my fellow Turkish-American Mehmet Oz (Dr. Oz) in our last entry. Your mom might like his book "You: Being Beatiful" over his other book "You:On a Diet," which might be an even bigger mistake than buying a Syrian friend a weiner from Trolley Stop Hot Dogs in Boone, NC (a real place).

And, of course, since we have a strong center-left bias, we have to poke fun of our far-right friends. The right-wing blog "I Hate the Media" which is criticizing us liberals for making Barack Obama out to be The Mighty Thor for his killing of Osama bin Laden reported earlier in the week that the San Diego Padres were giving free admission to veterans, past and present; the team also wore camoflage. Since my stepfather the late Donald Sullivan was a WW-2 vet, we think that is very noble of the Padres. Though, the camoflage seems a wee bit over-the-top.

So, we wanted to inform the folks at "I Hate the Media" that the Padres were also the first team to play in Mexico when they faced the New York Mets for three games between Aug. 16-18, 1996. I'm they 'appreciate' us digging up that fact for them.

Happy Joan Crawford Day (In Advance)

Cult film director John Waters ("Pink Flamingos") who directed the film "Serial Mom" about a mother (played by Kathleen Turner) who turns out to be a serial killer in suburban Maryland is a huge fan of "Mommie Dearest," the 1980 film based on the memoir of Christine Crawford about the alleged abuses of her famous movie star mom Joan Crawford (1906-1977).

The movie is perhaps best known for the line: "No more wire hangers ever!"

Faye Dunaway played Crawford in the film, and she has openly ciriticized it. The IMDB says that Dunaway despises the film (image shown here) so much that she actually lists it as a topic that is taboo for reporters to bring up during interviews!

Dunaway is also known for her outstanding performances in films like "Bonnie and Clyde," "Chinatown" and "Network."

Just found out this week, that Dunaway's "Bonnie and Clyde" co-star Warren Beatty was romantically involved with Crawford. I had to pause for a moment and ask "Do they mean Joan Collins?," since the former "Dynasty" star is much closer in age to Crawford who was 29 years older than Beatty.

We traditionally quote Crawford on both of our blogs for Mother's Day Weekend, but this year, we though we'd use a quip from Dunaway:

"Years are not important my dear."

We couldn't agree more!