January 11, 2020

Edd Byrnes, Who Combed His Way to TV Stardom, Dies at 86

This is a couple of days late.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/arts/television/edd-byrnes-dead.html

Edd Byrnes, Who Combed His Way to TV Stardom, Dies at 86

Edd Byrnes, who became one of television’s first teen idols as Kookie — the hair-combing, jive-talking youth on the hit series “77 Sunset Strip” — but found ever after that he could not live the character down, died on Wednesday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 86.

His son, Logan Byrnes, said the cause was probably a stroke.

Broadcast on ABC from 1958 to 1964, “77 Sunset Strip” starred Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and Roger Smith as a pair of suave Los Angeles private eyes and Mr. Byrnes as the parking-lot attendant at the restaurant next door to their office.

<snip>

Mr. Byrnes, an immediate object of desire for the show’s young female viewers, was soon receiving 15,000 fan letters a week. At public appearances he was pelted with combs. With Connie Stevens, he recorded a single, “Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb,” which sold more than a million copies and reached No. 4 on the Billboard chart, despite the fact that by his own cheerful admission he could not sing.

Much more at link, but it is behind a paywall. You get 4 free articles a month if you aren't a subscriber.

January 7, 2020

How Iran could really get at Trump without firing a shot.

Hack into the IRS computers and get Trumps's tax returns. Then post them everywhere. There's got to be all kinds of stuff or he wouldn't be so terrified of releasing them.

Problem solved.