I defy you to find a better commercial than this old pie-eating contest ad for Alka-Seltzer from 500 years ago. I remember my friends and I marveling over it when it first appeared.
It came to mind today as I read the obit for Howie Cohen in The Times. Cohen was famous for the “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” ads.
The guy in the ad is Milt Moss, a comic. Cohen got the idea for it when he was gorging on an Italian dinner hosted by the director Milos Forman who had filmed a commercial for him.
“I’m a nice Jewish kid from the Bronx, so I ate everything until I couldn’t fit one more thing in my body,” Mr. Cohen would often recall. “I leaned back in my chair and said, ‘I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.’ And my wife said, ‘There’s your next Alka-Seltzer commercial.’”
Cohen was 81. He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Carol; his brother Jerry; children Jonathan and Johanna; a stepdaughter Cristina; and a granddaughter, not a single one of whom can believe they ate the whole thing.
In the puzzle today at 19D the clue was “18th-century French novelist whose name means ‘the wise man’” and the answer was, of course, Alain-Rene LESAGE. Just kidding with that “of course,” of course, I never came close to hearing of him. Word is he was very independent and refused to accept patronage. Here’s a story about him from Wikipedia.
According to the fashion of the day, he had been entreated to read his manuscript, a comedy, at noon at the Hotel de Bouillon by the Duchess de Bouillon. But he was detained until 1 o’clock attending the decision of a lawsuit. When he finally appeared and attempted to apologize, the Duchess was cold and haughty, observing that he had made her guests lose one hour waiting for his arrival. “It is easy to make up the loss madame,” replied Lesage; “I will not read my comedy, and thus you will gain two hours.” With that, he left the Hôtel and could never be persuaded to return.
Hrrrrrrumph!
Here he is. I bet you’d never catch him with bed head.
At 26D, the clue was “Friends, in slang,” and the answer was PEEPS, because, Rex explained, your friends are neon-colored marshmallow birds.
So for Trump’s recent rally in Asheville NC, the city made him (the campaign) pay the $82,000 of related expenses in advance. Word had gotten out that other locations were stiffed. So here’s this schmuck running for President of the United fu*king States and he can’t get anyone to take his check.
Felix Hernandez, retired Seattle pitcher, was interviewed on ESPN today on the 12th anniversary of his perfect game. He was asked: “After twelve years, what do you remember most about that game?” Hernandez answered: “I remember every pitch.”
Well, my summer session ended today with the final exam. It’s the last time I’ll be teaching that course — Individual Taxation. It was a decent last hurrah. The class was a nice bunch of kids (see below). I’ll wrap up the career with the law course and Business Taxes in the fall, God and NJ Transit willing. Then I’ll ride the #6 train downtown into the sunset.
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 