When I was a kid, my love for baseball manifested itself in a love for baseball card collecting. I had just about every Topps set between 1985 and 1992 or so, and have fond memories of biking up to the drugstore to buy 4 or 5 packs at a time. Back then, my parents used to tell me to hang onto the cards, because they’d be worth something someday, and because my dad’s mother had thrown out his cards, that I shouldn’t make the same mistake.
Every Golden Age has to end. Every heyday has to come to a close eventually. Nothing gold can stay. For Jim Varney, Ernest P. Worrell’s legendary winning streak came to an abrupt end with 1993’s Ernest Rides Again, his first movie post-Touchstone and his final film to receive a major national release. The next Ernest movie, 1994’s Ernest Goes to School, was theatrically released in just two lucky cities: Cincinnati and Louisville.
(Above: Jennifer Lopez posted this wedding day photo on her Instagram page jlo as well as on her newsletter which is linked to below. There is sweetness to this photo that actually touched me.) Congratulations to Jennifer Lynn Affleck on her marriage to Ben There Done That. I know. Too glib. But the congratulations is sincere. I wish them a long and happy marriage and much happiness. She first announced it on her newsletter, OntheJLo.
A heads-up that this article contains some frank descriptions of sexual abuse and incest. Please take care while reading. Welcome to Part 2 of Six Degrees of Plácido Domingo, where we’ll be exploring opera’s current #MeToo reckoning through four centuries of misogyny and misconduct in the genre’s history — onstage and off. If you missed Part 1, check out The Medici: Sex, Power, and the Birth of Opera. The fate of Don Giovanni is one thing.
My father died, unexpectedly, the fall I turned 48. In the months that followed, I created a bucket list. The places I wanted to visit. The books I wanted to read. The things I wanted to do. It was the first time I looked forward and considered the rest of my life. I wanted to know what it was I would regret not doing. Writing was at the top of the list.