Epitaph to a Great American Car

As the media pay final homages to noteworthy passings in 2010 - Tony Curtis, Lena Horne, Bud Greenspan, Don Van Vilet (Captain Beefheart) - one death went without the fanfare that it deserved: the end of production of the Pontiac automobiles by the General Motors Corporation (GM).

Pontiac Spring and Wagon Works produced their first automobiles- high-wheeled station wagons - in 1908. GM bought the company, and introduced the Pontiac brand of automobiles in 1926. One year later, Pontiac ranked amongst the top-selling automobiles in America. As a nod to Chief Pontiac, the Native American leader who fought against British military occupation in the 18th century, the division renamed its 1940s models the Chieftain and Star Chief.

In 1958, Pontiac general manager Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen and his design gurus - E.M. Estes and John Z. DeLorean (the guy who headed the company that produced the cars used in the Back to the Future series) - retooled the division and launched a limited-edition, fuel-injected engine in its Star Chief Bonneville. Scribes dubbed the Bonneville - the pace car for the 1958 Indianapolis 500 - "America's No. 1 road car."

Pontiac introduced new design changes to the 1959 models: wide-track styling, longer and lower bodies, larger areas of glass, Quad headlights, twin V-shape fins, and the iconic "V" emblem. Motor Trend magazine selected the Pontiac as its 1959 Car of the Year.

In 1961, the Tempest - Pontiac's compact model - received kudos as Motor Trend's Car of the Year.

Continuing to push the creative envelope, Pontiac introduced the Gran Turismo Omologato (Italian for "Grand Touring, Homologated"), aka, GTO in 1964. Like the division's Grand Prix, which debuted three years earlier, the GTO - dubbed as the first American muscle car - celebrated the Pontiac's sporty bucket-seat sport coupes. For a few extra bucks, consumers could purchase a GTO option that sported a 381-ci engine, which was larger than that of the high-performance Chevrolet Corvette. Motor Trend named the Pontiac division as its 1965 Car of the Year.

The surf group Ronnie and the Daytonas recorded the single "GTO", which was released in 1964. The pop tune reached the No. 4 spot on Billboard magazine's pop singles chart. Pontiac couldn't buy the publicity of a hit single that played on rock 'n roll stations throughout the country - back before Top-40 music became so fractured and specialized. Imagine a two-minute advertisement that played constantly on AM radio throughout the country.

Wind it up, blow it out, GTO.

Pontiac introduced the Firebird pony car in 1967 as the GM alternative to the white-hot popular Ford Mustang.

When the James Garner series, The Rockford Files, premiered in September 1974, Pontiac enjoyed the publicity that came when Los Angeles private detective Jim Rockford tooled around Southern California in a gold Firebird. Who wouldn't want to use the Pacific Coast and Ventura highways as one's personal racetracks?

GM enjoyed the luxury of a wildly popular division in the 1960s and 70s. So what happened in the intervening 30 years to drive the Pontiac brand from enormous brand-name popularity to discontinued division?

In his tome American Cars, 1960-1982, J. "Kelly" Flory Jr. attributes Pontiac's slow decline and ultimate death to rising gasoline prices, increased insurance costs, federal safety and emissions regulations. The author also notes Pontiac's failed attempts to build plush and luxurious automobiles along the lines of the GM Oldsmobile (which was discontinued) and Buick (which surprisingly remains in production). Others point their fingers at the hiring of general manager Martin J. Caseiro, who emphasized sales and marketing than car performance. This change in focus represented a dramatic departure from that of Knudsen and DeLorean, who sought to highly coveted, high-performance vehicles.

Perhaps the Pontiac's demise should also lie at the hands of GM executives, who focused on pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, which generally were manufactured at lower costs and sold for higher profit margins that sedans.

The blame-game, though, is meaningless because the Motor City stuck a fork in Pontiac, and the once-great division isn't coming back to life.

In the mid-1960s, it was hip to be a square, outpowering southpaw

Happy 75th birthday to Hall of Fame (HOF) southpaw Sandy Koufax.

Few will argue that New York Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter is the straw that stirs the Manhattan - really, Bronx - baseball cocktail. The iconic Yankee captain lives the picture-perfect life for which some men would give their right arms: drop-dead gorgeous eligible bachelor, 2,926 career hits, five World Series rings, a trail of actress/model girlfriends (Minka Kelly, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba, Joy Enriquez, Mariah Carey). A-Rod without the personal and professional package.

Forty-five years earlier and one coast away, Koufax (aka, The Left Arm of God) led the dream life in Los Angeles that Jeter now enjoys in Manhattan. Handsome, stylish and at the top of his game, Koufax was considered one of the most eligible bachelors in a town full of movie stars.

At age 29, Koufax amassed an impressive collection of Major League Baseball (MLB) bric-a-brac while pitching for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers: four World Series rings; two Cy Young Awards as MLB's top pitcher of the year (1963 and 1965, back when sportswriters selected one hurler amongst the National and American leagues); 1963 NL Most Valuable Player (MVP) plaque; and two Chevrolet Corvettes presented to Koufax as the 1963 and 1965 World Series MVP (back when Sport magazine - remember them? - honored Series MVPs with kick-ass sports cars).

At age 29, Koufax distinguished himself as the most dominating left-hander in baseball. From 1961 to 1965, Koufax amassed an astonishing record of 102-38 (.729 winning percentage), 2.31 ERA and 1,396 strikeouts. Koufax hurled four no-hitters, including one perfect game.

In 1964, doctors diagnosed Koufax with traumatic arthritis after the pitcher was unable to straighten out his left arm pitching a 13-strikeout game. One year later, Koufax experienced hemorrhaging that turned his invaluable arm black and blue. The Dodgers team physician warned Koufax that he would someday lose full use of his left arm. According to the 1966 autobiography Koufax, the All-Star pitcher subjected himself to a treatment regimen that included Empirin with codeine for pain, Butazolidin for inflammation, application of the capsaicin-based analgesic ointment (referenced as "atomic balm" by baseball players) and a post-game ice bath. (Mark McGwire attempted to justify his use of performance-enhancement drugs as a means to treat the numerous - and inevitable - nagging injuries that he experienced over the course of his career. Compare and contrast: stoic hero and whiner who resorts to rationalizations.)

Tailors altered Koufax's his suits altered to compensate for the permanent shortening of the left arm.

Koufax made headlines when he declined to pitch in the first game of the 1965 World series. Game One fell on Yom Kippur, the holiest of all Jewish holidays. Koufax did not resort to grandstanding tactics to express his devotion to his religion.

Koufax would pitch only one more amazing season in which he would compile a 27-9 record (.750), yield only 62 earned runs in 323 innings (1.73 ERA) and strike out 317 batters. Game Two of the 1966 World Series pitted Koufax against the Baltimore Orioles' promising right hander named Jim Palmer. Leaving the sixth inning after center fielder Willie Davis uncharacteristically committed three errors, Koufax lost the game to Palmer, who threw a four-hit shutout. After Baltimore swept the Dodgers, Koufax announced his retirement.

In an abbreviated 12-year career, Koufax's career statistics (165-87, 2,396 strikeouts, 2.76 ERA) provide interesting contrasts with those of southpaw Steve Carlton (329-244, 4,136 strikeouts, 3.22 ERA) and Randy Johnson (303-166, 4,875 strikeouts, 3.29 ERA). Koufax stands apart for his New Frontier cool that would enable him to fit in on the Mad Men set.

We should all be as cool.

Celebrate Christmas with holiday music from one cool cat

Christmas time is here... and you likely have grown weary of Andy Williams and Johnny Williams telling you "it's the most wonderful time of the year" two weeks ago. Why on earth do radio broadcast executives - programmers ruled by the bottom line than viewer interest - pump the airwaves with holiday ditties from Thanksgiving forward? You can't help but experience holiday music fatigue by the start of Hanukkah.

If WARM radio's blitz of yuletide tunes leaves you cold, you will find solace in nontraditional but iconic holiday music of one of the coolest cats in jazz, pianist and composer Vince Guaraldi.

A self-described "reformed boogie-woogie player," the San Francisco native - working at the San Francisco Daily News - nearly lost a finger to an occupational accident. The San Francisco State University (SFSU) alum performed at weddings, high-school concerts and Bay Area clubs while seeking the Big Break to which hungry musicians aspire. In the late 1950s, Guaraldi began incorporating American cool jazz (a staple of 1950s music) and Brazilian bossa nova compositions (which would experience unprecedented popularity in the 1960s) in his compositions. Blame it on the bossa nova: A star would emerge.

In 1962, the Vince Guaraldi Trio's 1962 limited play (LP) album Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus. The LP comprised music from songs from the Brazilian film released in three years earlier ("Samba de Orpheus", "Manha de Carnaval", "Generique") a contemporary favorite ("Moon River") and a songbook standard "Since I Fell For You"). "Cast Your Fate to the Wind", though, became a breakout hit and propelled the trio to stardom and captured the Grammy award for Best Original Jazz Composition.

Guaraldi's popularity caught the attention of a trio of men producing an animated holiday program in 1965. Lee Mendelson, Bill Menendez and Charles M. Schulz made up the group of three wise men. Their passion project involved a Christmas special featuring the characters of the white-hot Peanuts comic strip. We know the special as A Charlie Brown Christmas. Schulz, Mendelson and Menendez resisted the implorations of executives from the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) to deep-six the original jazz compositions that would serve as the program's soundtrack. Nobody could foresee that "Linus and Lucy" - a staple of all future Peanuts TV shows - would resonate with an American television audience that favored episodes of The Fugitive (#5), The Andy Griffith Show (#4), Gomer Pyle, USMC (#3), Bewitched (#2) and Bonanza (#1) during the 1964-1965 television season.

How big significant was Guaraldi's trailblazing endeavors to the beloved Peanuts holiday special? Producer Mendelson once told a reporter: "I think Vince's music was one of the contributions that made the Charlie Brown shows so special." Guaraldi, Mendelson explained, "gave it a sound, an individuality, that no other cartoon ever had. I'd say over the last 15 years we've received as much mail asking about the music as we have about anything else in the shows."

If Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus and "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" didn't make Guaraldi a household name, A Charlie Brown Christmas propelled the beatnik musician into the American mainstream. Billboard writer Shirley Lewis Harris later lauded Guaraldi as "still playing the same jazz as he did years ago, but with more guts than ever. This man can turn a piano into the closet thing a human being just putting his hands on the keys. He makes the piano laugh, cry, sigh, be coy or intellectual."

Critical respect, though, didn't provide Guaraldi the commercial and financial success that he deserved. Guaraldi returned to the Bay Area club scene. In February 1976 - a little more than a decade after A Charlie Brown Christmas premiered - Guaraldi suffered a fatal heart attack. Only 47 years old, he died while playing between sets during a gig at Butterfield's Bar in Menlo Park, CA.

Despite the explosion of video clips available on YouTube, you won't find a live performance of the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Any individual with access to a tape of a live Guaraldi performance is implored to post on YouTube. We want to see the man playing his groundbreaking music.

The music was silenced 30 years ago today

Imagine if a different outcome occurring in front of The Dakota in New York City on December 8, 1980.

What if John Lennon were less accommodating to his fans who regularly waited outside and obtained autographs at the entrance of The Dakota? Would life be different if somebody observed the fat, delusional psychotic -- obsessed with assassinating the former Beatle -- who stalked the building hours after securing the singer's autograph on a couple of Double Fantasy, the last album that Lennon would record?

Try to envision a world in which Lennon lived to see December 9, 1980... and beyond.

Three days ago, the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts feted Paul McCartney during a ceremony that celebrated the careers of "five extraordinary artists." Singer Merle Haggard. Broadway composer Jerry Herman. Choreographer Bill T. Jones. McCartney. Television producer Oprah Winfrey. If he had lived, 70 year-old John Ono Lennon -- nee John Winston Lennon -- would have made the group six.

Critics will celebrate Lennon's musical career that spanned from a LIverpool ruffian singing "Ain't She Sweet" in working-class cavern, mop-top teen idol donned in collar-less Pierre Cardin suit, drug-fueled solo artist champion of working-class heroes and "Mr. Mom" singer contented with staying at home with his young son. Sociologists will pontificate about Lennon's personification as a rock star "bigger than Jesus", anti-war and peace activist, target of the ire of former President Richard M. Nixon.

Lennon's anti-war protests got him caught in Tricky Dick's cross hairs. The former Beatle and wife Yoko Ono kept company in the early 1970s with Chicago Seven defendants Jerry Rubin and Abby Hoffman, poet John Sinclair, and Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale. Lennon and Ono co-hosted The Mike Douglas Show in February 1972. Their special guests included a group as diverse as Rubin, Seale and singer Chuck Berry, consumer advocate Ralph Nader, musicians The Chambers Brothers and comedian Louis Nye. Needless to say that occupants of the green room that week did not resemble Douglas' usual roster of visiting guests. Nixon took the sage advice of South Carolina Republican Senator Strom Thurmond. An extremist for the political right, Thurmond penned a memo in February 1972 that advised that "deportation would be a strategic counter-measure" against the former Beatle.

One month later, the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) commenced deportation proceedings based, in part, on Lennon's 1968 conviction in Great Britain for possession of marijuana. While Ono was granted permanent residency in 1973; on March 23, 1973 the INS gave Lennon 60 days notice to leave the country. Soon, though, larger political issues -- resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew, Watergate hearings, economic inflation and Nixon's impending departure from the White House -- occupied the President's time. The INS' deportation order was overturned in 1975. Lennon's application for permanent residency was granted a year later.

Lennon became a house husband in 1975 after the birth of his son Sean. While McCartney and his wife Linda Eastman -- never blamed as a spousal source of the group's breakup -- crooned "silly love songs", George Harrison established his own recording (Dark Horse Records) and movie-production (HandMade Films) companies, and Ringo Starr toured with an All-Star band, Lennon changed diapers. In 1980, he and Ono returned to the studio to record what would become his last album, Double Fantasy.

In an Associated Press (AP) interview, widow Yoko Ono offered her impression of Lennon at age 70. She suggested that Lennon would initially have become angry at the idea of reaching his eighth decade. The "smart Beatle" resented turning 40 in 1980 -- a time when people considered 40 as "old". Ono said that if her husband lived to see 70, he would have accepted his what some still characterize as "old age."

A psychopath attempting to impress a Yale coed took Lennon away from us much too soon. More than a few of us would have loved to know Lennon's opinions on Reagonomics, yuppies, reunification of East and West Germany, fall of the Soviet Union, untimely death of Princess Diana, weapons of mass destruction, "war on terror", Napster, YouTube, iTunes and the election of President Barrack Obama.

All we can do is imagine.

"Say yes" to Angie Dickinson, aka Police Woman

It's 1975, and 44 year-old actress Angie Dickinson is enjoying an improbable hot streak. Portraying Los Angeles Police detective Sergeant Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson, the fortysomething actress won a Golden Globe Award for "Best Actress - Drama Series". Her hit series ranked 15th in the Nielsen ratings during the 1974-1975 television season. Although finishing behind the All in the Family, Sanford and Son, M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Rockford Files, Dickinson's series surpassed S.W.A.T., The Bob Newhart Show, Mannix and The Streets of San Francisco.

Married to prolific composer Burt Bacharach ("I Say A Little Prayer", "The Look of Love", "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head"), Dickinson and Bacharach conveyed mellow, So-Cal cool. Angie donning a soft pantsuit bringing a turtlenecked Burt, playing the piano, a glass of Martini and Rossi on the rocks. Say "yes".

Kodachrome captured Dickinson's transformation from a 1950s ingenue to sassy 1960s blonde to 1970s middle-aged feminist. One could make a convincing argument that Dickinson could not only held her ground against the 1970s jiggle actresses (Farrah Fawcett, Suzanne Somers, Lynda Carter), but stood apart by conveying the wisdom and sexuality of a fortysomething woman would could whip some twentysomething ass. Dig Dickinson's little flip of her hair during the opening credits in Police Woman. Is that cool, or what?

Born Angeline Brown, the actress grew up in Southern California. As a teenager, young Angie won the Sixth Annual Bill of Rights essay contest. Dickson attended Glendale Community College, and transferred to Immaculate Heart College where she earned a business degree. Dickson left the corporate world to pursue an acting career. In the 1950s, Dickinson became a mainstay of television dramas (Death Valley Days, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, General Electric Theater) and variety shows (The Colgate Comedy Hour).

Dickinson's break-out role occurred in Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo (1959). She played gambler "Feathers" with an eye for John Wayne. The cast included Western staple Walter Brennan, team idol Ricky Nelson and Rat Pack founding member Dean Martin. One year later, Dickinson played the wife of Danny Ocean (Frank Sinatra) in the Rat Pack classic Ocean's 11. In the movie's cast credits, only Sinatra, Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford received higher billing.

While the testosterone-driven Rat Pack was male-only, Dickson comprised the female auxiliary that included Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Shirley MacLaine and Marilyn Monroe. Dickinson has been romantically linked with Sinatra ("the most important man in my life"), star of the hit-TV drama The Fugitive David Janssen ("a great date and a great love") and President John F. Kennedy (no comment).

In 1965, Dickinson - later characterized in the Atlanta Monthly magazine as "a thinking man's trophy blonde" - married prolific composer Bacharach. One year later, a pregnant Dickinson gave a difficult birth to the couple's daughter Nikki, who was three months premature at birth. Dickinson rejected movie and television roles to care for her daughter, who experienced disabling vision problems and was later diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism. (A tragic footnote to the story: Dickinson's only child committed suicide in 2007.)

Portraying Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) police detective Lisa Beaumont, Dickinson appeared in "The Gamble" in the Joseph Wambaugh's critically acclaimed anthology Police Story in 1974. The episode proved so popular that Police Woman spun off with Dickinson and Earl Holliman (who replaced Tattletales game-show host Bert Convy as the supervisor of the detective unit). Police Woman premiered on September 13, 1974, and became a runaway fan favorite. Assigned to the LAPD's Criminal Conspiracy Unit, Dickinson's character went undercover - as a prostitute, exotic dancer, teacher, nurse, prisoner - during her assignments with the LAPD's Criminal Conspiracy Unit. Police Woman became the first successful one-hour drama with a female lead.

NBC cancelled Police Woman in 1978. Bacharach and Dickinson separated the same year. She alleged that her husband cheated during their 13-year marriage. Bacharach married composer Carole Bayer Sager in 1982; together they penned "Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do)", "The Minute I Saw You" from Three Men and a Baby and "That's What Friends Are For." Bacharach and Sager divorced in 1991.

In 1999, Playboy magazine ranked Dickinson as #42 in its list of the "100 Sexiest Stars of the Decade." interestingly, Playboy inexplicably rated the actress formerly known as Police Woman behind Heather Locklear (#36), Stella Stevens (#27), Jenny McCarthy (#15) and Pamela Anderson (#8). Not surprisingly, #1 was fellow Rat Pack auxiliary member Marilyn Monroe.

John-John, we hardly knew ye at 40... or 50

Had it not been for talk show host Oprah Winfrey, this milestone would have otherwise slipped past the unobservant of us: John F. Kennedy, son of the newly elected 35th President of the United States, was born 50 years ago today in Washington, D.C. Fate in the form of a small-plane crash on July 16, 1999 deprived us of a fortysomething and fiftysomething John-John.

Given that her talk show would compete against parade coverage and an onslaught on National Football League (NFL) games on Thanksgiving day, Oprah threw down her best weapon against the competition's programing by broadcasting her interview with Kennedy that aired on September 3, 1996. Oprah embodied the reaction of any red-blooded female seated next to Kennedy: She was starstruck, smitten and careful not to offend People magazine's 1988 selection as "The Sexiest Man Alive." Nobody would dare piss off the young man whom the media dubbed "America's prince" -- and risk future opportunities to schmooze with John-John in Manhattan. Or DC. Or The Cape.

Rich and astonishingly handsome, Kennedy could have gone wrong as a spoiled little rich boy or an aristocratic Charlie Sheen: substance abuse, hookers, criminal arrests, multiple arrests. Credit Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis for raising a daughter and son who neither conveyed a sense of obvious entitlement nor lost their sense of proportion, humanity and humility.

Kennedy attended Brown University where he majored in history. Although he aspired to pursue an acting career, Kennedy reportedly earned a law degree from New York University to appease his mother. He required three attempts to pass the New York state bar exam; one failure generated the headline "Hunk flunks" from one of Gotham's tabloids. Kennedy worked as an assistant district attorney in New York City for four years, and then switched gears like he might the bicycle that he rode through the streets of Manhattan. In October 1995, Kennedy launched political magazine George, which sported the tagline "not just politics as usual." While George allowed Kennedy the luxury of playing on the political stage -- albeit, in the back, back stage -- without running for office, Kennedy was not above taking risks.

In August 1997, Kennedy penned an editor's letter that took two of his cousins -- aspiring Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Joseph P. Kennedy and his brother Michael Kennedy -- to task for sexual indiscretions that ultimately ended their political careers. Kennedy violated the family omerta by publicly admonishing others with whom he shared a sacred bloodline. "Two members of my family chased an idealized alternative to their life," he wrote. "One left behind an embittered wife, and another, in what looked to be a hedge against mortality, fell in love with youth and surrendered his judgment in the process. Both became poster boys for bad behavior."

Kennedy's well-documented personal life included dalliances with actresses Daryl Hannah and Sarah Jessica Parker, model Ashley Richardson, pop diva Madonna. In September 1996, he married Carolyn Bessette, a publicist at Calvin Klein, in a secret ceremony at a wood-frame chapel in the First African Baptist Church in Cumberland Island, GA.

A quintessential New Yorker, Kennedy rooted for the New York Mets and -- like Spike Lee, Woody Allen and the Baldwin brothers -- sat court side at New York Knicks games. Images of Kennedy riding through the Manhattan on a bike with his suit pant leg hiked up or on Rollerblades was as iconic as New York as a taxicab or a "bagel with a schmear". While he had a cameo role on Murphy Brown, Kennedy is probably best known for his non-appearance in the 1992 Seinfeld episode "The Contest" as the object of Elaine's lust and the first intimate partner of Marla the virgin.

We'll never know if Kennedy would pursue a career in politics and would run for the U.S. Senate heat once held by his uncle, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. -- to succeed Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 2000 or Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008. It doesn't take Magic 8-ball to predict that Kennedy would have grown more damned handsome and distinguished in his 40s and 50s.

A shout-out to Oprah for giving us food for thought on The Coolest "Sexiest Man Alive." In the 25 years since People first bestowed the honor upon a misleadingly kinder and gentler Mel Gibson, Kennedy remains the only non-actor upon whom the title has been bestowed.

Turducken: the other white meat... and dark meat and carbs and duck fat

Dietitians estimate that the average American consumes an average 3,000 calories (229 grams of fat) for a Thanksgiving meal that ostensibly includes turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, dinner rolls and pumpkin pie.

If you're health conscious, you substitute the meal of gluttony with Tofurky, steamed brussel sprouts and broccoli, whole-cranberry relish and seasonal fruit cocktail.

But if you take the devil-may-care approach (and don't want to burn your pergola down when deep frying your turkey), you can't go wrong with turducken.

Americans trace the history of turducken back to pro-football analyst John Madden, who carved the bird amalgamation -- de-boned chicken, de-boned duck and de-boned turkey wrapped between layers of stuffing -- during an NFL telecast. Food history says otherwise.

Europeans ate roasts of deboned fowls for centuries before the NFL telecast Thanksgiving Day games. Wealth English in the 18th century ate Yorkshire Christmas Pie - layers of de-boned birds baked in a crust. In 1807, French gastronomist Grimond de Reyniere created his piece de resistance: rôti sans pareil ("roast without equal"), a protein-fueled concoction of turkey, goose, pheasant, chicken, duck, guinea fowl, teal, woodcock, partridge, plover, lapwing, quail, trush, ortolan bunting and garden warbler.

Dietitians estimate that a slice of turducken ranges from 900 calories to 1,639 calories.

Skip dessert. And next week's meals.

Start Googling for the names of cardiologists in your locale.

Saluting the first - and thus far only - Cool President

Today marks a dubious and solemn occasion: Forty-seven years ago, a Dallas deranged gunman -- some contend that there was more than one -- assassinated the country's first Cool President, John F. Kennedy.

Thomas Jefferson was an 18th-century Renascence American, Abraham Lincoln was legendary, and Theodore Roosevelt was rugged. Elected to White House in 1960, Kennedy offered a stark and welcome contrast to the older men who occupied the oval office. As Kennedy only served 1,000 days in the White House, historians and political scientists can only speculate as to the long-lasting impact of the New Frontier programs. How influential was Kennedy in the enactment of the Civil Rights bill, Medicare, food-stamp programs?

One issue is indisputable: Kennedy blazed the trail for Presidential Cool. Sure, he sports the conventional curriculum vitae for cool. A World War II Navy officer who skippered patrol torpedo (PT) boats near New Georgia and the Solomon islands, Kennedy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, Purple Heart Medal, American Defense Service Medal and the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with three bronze service stars. The World War II veteran -- no doubt with the assistance of his father's financial and political clout -- was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1948 at age 31. Massachusetts voters elected Kenned to the U.S. Senate in 1952. Dubbed by the media as "Washington's Gay Young Bachelor", Kennedy married drop-dead gorgeous debutante Jacqueline Bouvier one year later.

When younger sister Patricia married British actor Peter Lawford, Kennedy gained access to the Rat Pack, the hippest gang in 1960s Hollywood: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Lawford. The Rat Pack actively campaigned for Kennedy, whom Sinatra dubbed "chicky baby", during the 1960 election. Sinatra sang a campaign song to the tune of "High Hopes". Although Kennedy outpolled (303) Richard Nixon (219) the vote in the Electoral College 303, the popular vote was much closer: The elecorate preferred Kennedy (34,200,984 votes, 49.72%) to Nixon (34,108, 157, 49.55 percent) by a much closer margin. Less than 100,000 votes spelled the difference between the New Frontier and Tricky Dick.

One can discuss politics, which is a topic for the New Republic of the Atlantic Monthly. This post is about cool, and JFK had style, baby. No America's Cup captain looked as commanding while skippering a boat as did the commander and chief. Don Draper finishes a pale second to JFK in sporting early 1960s style and chiuc. No American man -- then or now -- looked as fashionable donning a pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses.

When Kennedy was elected in 1960, an aide observed, "This administration is going to do for sex what the last one did for golf." This prophecy may have proven the understatement of the decade.

Kennedy enjoyed the luxury of a presidency that predated smartphone cameras, YouTube, blogging, talk radio, instant messaging... and, most importantly, a White House press corps that adhered to a code of silence by declining to investigate and report longstanding rumors of presidential indiscretion. Kennedy's dalliances included trysts with with Marilyn Monroe, Kim Novak, Angie Dickinson, Judith Campbell and Mary Pinchot Meyer.

As Bill Clinton demonstrated two-and-a-half decades later, conducting an Oval Office extramarital affair does not personify sex appeal or cool. Wearing sunglasses while playing the saxophone does not make you a hip cat: Zoot, the Muppet Show saxophonist, will dissuade one of this image. Barrack Obama is discovering -- contrary to what Huey Lewis and News once professed -- it's not "hip to be square."

A cynic might conclude that Presidential Cool perished with Kennedy on November 22, 1963. The optimist suspects -- and hopes -- that Presidential Cool takes more than a couple years to cultivate.

Golden Boy's death spelled the beginning of the end of So-Cal cool and Rat Pack hip

Maybe the recent Veterans Day holiday started the confluent of thoughts. The television in the other room blared the audio from the Travel Channel program Ghost Adventures as the Danger Boys investigated the reputedly haunted La Palazza mansion in Las Vegas, NV. Amongst the swirl ideas emerged what seemed an unlikely theme... the life and death of singer and actor Dean Paul Martin.

The son of the Rat Pack's undisputed "King of Cool," Dean Paul "Dino" Martin Jr. was born on November 17, 1951 in Santa Monica, CA. With Desi Arnaz Jr. on drums and Billy Hinsche on Rickenbacker guitar and 13 year-old Dino playing the Hofner bass, the teen-idol group was cannily dubbed "Dino Desi and Billy." Recording for the Reprise record label -- owned by family friend Frank Sinatra -- the trio twice landed on the Billboard pop lists in 1965 with "I'm A Fool" (#17) and "Not The Lovin' Kind" (#25). Dino Desi and Billy made a bevy of television appearances, including the Ed Sullivan Show, Shindig!, Hullabaloo, Mike Douglas Show, Joey Bishop Show, Hollywood Palace, American Bandstand and Dean Martin Show. Although panned by the critics, the trio served as opening acts for the Beach Boys, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Lovin' Spoonful and Mamas and the Papas.

Is anybody surprised that Dino starred in the "Thru Spray Coloured Glasses" video? Dig the Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses, the Sony transistor radio hanging from the rear-view mirror of the Karmann Ghia. Twisting near the beach with rock music blasting in the background... is that Great Society-era, teenage-era California Dreamin'?

The group broke up in 1970. While Desi Arnaz Jr. kissed Marcia Brady's cheek on The Brady Bunch, Dino polished his tennis game and competed in a juniors' competition in Wimbledon. Dino married actress Olivia Hussey (Romeo and Juliet) in 1971; the marriage lasted seven years. Dino pursued an acting career, and portrayed a professional player and the object of a cougar's affections in the 1979 movie Players with Ali McGraw. The role earned Dino a Golden Globe nomination as "Best New Star of the Year - Male."

Dino and Olympic figure skating gold medalist Dorothy Hamill married in 1982. They were divorced two years later, and remained friends until Dino's untimely death. It's hard to imagine anybody -- even an ex-wife -- staying long at Dino for long.

Note that Dino donned military dress blues during the wedding ceremony. Having earned his pilot's license at age 16, Dino was commissioned as an officer in the California Air National Guard in 1981, and earned his aviator wings. Dino's life was unexpectedly cut short on March 25, 1987 during a Guard exercise. The Phantom II F-4 fighter jet that Dino was flying during a snowstorm in California's San Bernardino Mountains. Only 35 years old when he passed, Dino is interned in the United States National Cemetery in Los Angeles.

The death of the popular actor and aviator son devastated Dean Martin. The elder Martin scaled back his performance schedule -- large-venue concerts with Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. -- and retired four years later. Retreating into a life of solitude, the elder Martin passed away on Christmas Day 1995.

What made Dean Paul Martin Jr. über cool? Dino possessed the suave, self assurance of his famous father with the Southern California, golden-boy looks that catapulted him above the other teen idols of his era. Unlike some self-absorbed, self-destructive young stars who perished from drug overdoses, Dino died serving his country. Mind you, this post isn't a red-state rant against blue-state celebrities. This blog is undeniably and unabashedly Blue State. Don't like it... go away and read your Drudge Report. Rather, this post distinguishes between those who took and those who gave back.

Here's to Dino on what would have been his 59th birthday.