Let’s start off today by greeting a visitor who is new to us: Katey SAGAL. She was clued as the actress who played Peg Bundy on Married With Children. So I knew who she is, just not her name. Hey, it’s her birthday tomorrow — she’s turning 70. Ouch!
Katey comes from a show biz family. How show biz? Her godfather was Norman Lear. Her mom was Amish and died in 1975 from heart disease. Her dad was Ukrainian/Jewish and he married dancer/actress Marge Champion in 1977, but died in an accident in 1981 on the set of the mini-series World War 3. He is, to date, the only casualty of WW3. He was partially decapitated by walking into the tail rotor blades of a helicopter in the parking lot of the Timberline Lodge in Oregon. He turned the wrong way after exiting the helicopter. Let’s all keep that in mind for the next time we’re on a copter: Walk towards the front. He directed episodes of Columbo and The Man from UNCLE. There is a directing fellowship in his name at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in MA.
Back to Katey, she began her career as a singer/songwriter. She was a backup singer for Bob Dylan, Etta James, and Tanya Tucker. She was a member of the Harlettes, Bette Midler’s backup singers.
Katey married three times and has three kids, one, with her current hubby, via surrogacy. She became pregnant while on Married With Children and they worked it into the script. Sadly, however, she lost the baby in the seventh month. The producers didn’t want her to have to relive her grief on the show, so they recast the pregnancy as a dream.
Hi Katey! Make yourself at home. Loved you in MWC — need a refill?
The poem today from the Poetry Foundation is a haiku by Kobayashi Issa, translated by Robert Hass.
All the time I pray to Buddha
I keep on killing mosquitos.
Jeez Louise! Have you seen Barron Trump lately, the one child Melania had with you-know-whom? Owl Chatter ran into him at his grandma’s (Melania’s mom’s) funeral the other day. He’s 6′ 7″ tall! He leads the family in rebounds.
Melania’s mom, Amalija Knavs, passed away at age 78 on January 9th. Mel’s dad Viktor attended the funeral with her and Barron. I recall how horrified we were at the basket of deplorables our Caitlin brought home during her dating years. But nothing could match the disgust Amalija must have felt upon meeting Donald J.
“Melania — he’s a pig! He’s disgusting!”
“I don’t want to hear it, Mom.”
Our hearts go out to them all.
Amalija was born in Austria but the family moved to Slovenia. Her mom was a seamstress and her dad was a cobbler at first, and then a red-onion farmer. She worked on the onion farm for a time. In addition to Melania, who was born in 1970, Amalija and Viktor also had a daughter Ines, born in 1968. Mel skipped the New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago last month, to be at Amalija’s bedside.
This nice shot is of Mel’s parents with her and her sister when they were tots.
Rest in peace, Grandma Amalija.
Responses to our surveys contain so many wonderful ideas and requests. But, to no surprise, the overwhelming majority ask for more songs in Yiddish about watermelons. Here’s a catchy tune that just may become your next earworm!
Can’t imagine a better send-off than that! See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 