Three on a match

Three on a Match "... that's great for you and me" Annette Funicello: was the Olsen Twins or Emma Watson of my generation.  The Mousketeer that every pre (and post) pubescent boy was in love with.   CNN says she "embodied an all-American ideal of wholesome, perky, spunky mid-'60s sexuality."  Especially the spunky part.  There was no mystery about why we loved her; we kids discussed it daily.  She had the best, (and with Darlene, only) Mouske-knockers.  Once when Annette was in Baltimore for something or other, when I was 15, I screwed up all my courage and called the hotel she was staying at according to the newspaper.  I wanted to have a date with her.  I figured that she might accept because it would be good publicity to be seen with common boy, and then would of course fall in love with me.  The hotel said there was no Annette Funicello registered there, by way of a put-out.  Too bad, I could have been her Spin Evans, the only guy good enough for her, by our vote. Frankie Avalon was a douche. . Anyway, she hung in there one hell of a long time for someone with MS. There was never any scandal in her life, and despite having been married twice and having three children, Annette died a virgin. RIP. "The Lady's not for turning" Mrs Thatcher.  When the Democrat mantra was "Republicans  are afraid of strong women, we had the  Mrs. Thatcher and Jeane Kirkpatrick. rejoinder: "You fools. We're not afraid of strong women. We're afraid of incompetent  nincompoops like Geraldine Ferraro and  Patricia Schroeder!" And it was true.  On his Top Gear Race from London to Oslo, Jeremy Clarkson had with him, in order to keep him alert,  a CD of  her greatest speeches.  Oddly, I have heard most of them from watching C-Span's House of Commons Q&A.  That's how much I thought of her, ROGER EBERT Did Not Win a Golden Globe I used to like watching "At The Movies" with Siskel and Ebert.   Every year I bought "Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook" as stocking stuffer  for friends who enjoyed the cinema.  Watching  "If We Picked The Winners" pre Oscar show was an event (here's one from 1989).  Around 1992 (it seems) the blush went off the Ebert rose for me.  It seemed to me that he had taken to considering whether a film professed proper social (political) values  in his revues. After Gene Siskel died (the better of the two in my opinion) Ebert went off the rails completely. When in 2006 he gave his imprimatur to a film based on President Bush's  assassination,  I responded with my own film.  I stand by it.