Come Together, Beatles: Here’s a Check for Three Grand

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April 24, 1976, marked the last evening that Paul McCartney would spend with John Lennon. That night, Paul and his wife Linda dropped in on John and Yoko, unannounced, and the two former Beatles spent a few hours together in the Lennons' apartment in the monolithic Dakota Building in Manhattan's Upper West Side. Don't you just wonder what the Fab Two engaged in on that Saturday evening? Did they take turns bouncing 6-month-old Baby Sean on their knees? Nosh on a jar of Yoko's expensive caviar? Play "Bohemian Rhapsody" on John's turntable, hoping that Ms. Ono wouldn't screech "scaramouche, scaramouche" along with Freddie Mercury? Well, as it turns out, they sat in the Lennons' living room and watched Saturday Night Live! Imagine their surprise when SNL producer Lorne Michaels appeared on their TV screen, announcing an offer to pay the Beatles $3,000 to come together and perform three songs on his show!

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Mixing Melancholy with Merriment: A Realist’s Guide to Christmas Music

Read more about the article Mixing Melancholy with Merriment: A Realist’s Guide to Christmas Music

Okay, I know it's Christmas season and we're supposed to be happy and peaceful and idealistic, listening to carols both solemn and silly, and trying to be all Norman Rockwelly and stuff. Heck, the last thing I'd want to do is bum you out as you deck the malls, looking for the prettiest Victoria's Secret training bra for little Madison, or the perfect starter rifle for Little Ethan. But, as your faithful blogger, I feel I have a duty to expose you to an alternate version of Christmas culture via a smathering of holiday tunes that are a wee bit more realistic for many at this time of the year.

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The Sex Pistols: Cocked, Loaded, and Firing F Bombs on British Telly

Read more about the article The Sex Pistols: Cocked, Loaded, and Firing F Bombs on British Telly

It all started because Queen frontman Freddie Mercury had to go to the dentist, and his band was forced to cancel a scheduled TV appearance at the last minute. That bit of serendipity gave the U.K. public its first taste of the menace known as the Sex Pistols. On December 1, 1976, the punk rock band was summoned to the studios of Thames Television's "Today" program, an early evening live talk show hosted by Bill Grundy. The program's producers offered its substitute guests the customary assortment of alcoholic treats as they waited in the green room prior to air time. Big mistake. The drunk punks unleashed a torrent of expletives - infuriating scores of TV viewers. The 3-minute interview from hell ended Grundy’s career and catapulted the band to international notoriety overnight.

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The Freshwoman

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If someone had told me back in 1977 that young men barely past their Clearasil years would be saying “What’s your major” to me at age 40, I‘d have said “No way!” Well..."way!” It was all part of my experience as a student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, where I took some non-credit courses in the summer of 2000. Here's what I wrote at the end of my first day of classes.

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Phyllis Diller Shares the Spotlight with My Dad, Freddie Baby

Read more about the article Phyllis Diller Shares the Spotlight with My Dad, Freddie Baby

"What I don't like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day." That's just one of the many funny lines made famous by trailblazing comedian Phyllis Diller, who would have turned 98 today. Did this keen observation of corporate life qualify the flamboyant Phyllis to perform for managers in training? It's debatable. But every year on her birthday I recall the time in 1969 when Westinghouse Electric Corporation sent a group of newly promoted supervisors, including my father, to watch her nightclub act.

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