Secret Pop

Feb 27, 2006

"A can of Simoniz."

I just found out that Darren McGavin died this weekend, too. I would make some "it comes in threes" speculative remark, but apparently Dennis Weaver also passed away. So, I guess no one else need die for a while. We're covered.

And I don't mean to sound glib. I love Darren McGavin. Given the number of rounds of A Christmas Story I've watched in recent years' TBS A Christmas Story Marathons, I may have a greater impression of Darren McGavin as a father figure than I do of my own father*. And, while I often get Dennis Weaver mixed up with similarly white-haired actor Harold Gould, I respect his IMDb playlist, too.

What a sad weekend for Hollywood. It's a shame that people get old at all. I saw a commercial this morning for Ameriprise, and it basically said, Your generation changed the world and rock and roll and all that stuff, and now you're changing the way people retire. Then you see an old guy in a hang glider or some sort of experimental airplane. It's really depressing. I'm sure those Woodstock mud-dancers would be utterly dismayed if they could have seen into the future and caught a glimpse of themselves keeping their grey hair a little on the long side and also diversifying their investment portfolios. I guess you have to market to people. But I wonder how effective it is to market to people as they truly are as opposed to marketing to them as they see themselves. I'm too young to be as old as I am and too old to not have lived through both of the great wars. How do you get someone like me to buy a flat of Lunchables? Answer: Make a melon-flavored variety and package it like it's from Japan. And then use a Bing Crosby song in the commercial.

*This is distinctly not true.

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