SCRAP STATUE -- Shocking some Penn State students who were hoping for a slap on the wrist, the NCAA came down hard on Penn's Athletic department assessing $73 million in fines, a four-year ban on bowl games, and stripping Paterno of credit for any wins after 1997. And if that weren't enough, they ruled that Pete Rose should never be allowed to coach Penn State baseball.
HERE I DON'T COME -- Once known as "The Golden State," California is now producing a mother lode of cities declaring bankruptcy, including San Bernardino, Stockton, and Mammoth Lakes. Population growth has leveled off, too, with more people fleeing the state than arriving. And upscale areas are not immune. At Laguna Beach, surfers have been spotted trying to catch OUTWARD waves.
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| L to R: Gene Perret, Si Jacobs, the author, Barney McNulty, Bob Hope, Hal Kanter |
FINAL BOW -- In the summer of 1998, Hope attended a
party celebrating Barney McNulty’s seventy-fifth birthday at a church
hall in North Hollywood. Scores of Barney’s friends and colleagues stopped by, including Angela Lansbury, with whom he had worked on Murder, She Wrote.
Hundreds of photos that he had taken over the years were tacked on
bulletin boards. The event would turn out to be the last time most of
us would see Hope. He now had assistance twenty-four-seven and looked
all of his ninety-five years. After about an hour and a half, he was
helped into a van and waved feebly out the window as it drove off.
Barney ran alongside. “Thanks for coming, boss!”
Copyright (c) 2012 by Robert L. Mills All Rights Reserved
