Odds and Ends

I'm sure most of you have heard that Luciano Pavarotti passed on but for me it was the news of the passing of Miyoshi Umeki that has saddened my day. She was the first Asian to win an Oscar back in 1957 for "Sayonara". She was also in "Flower Drum Song" and acted in many TV shows including "The Courtship of Eddie's Father",  playing Mrs Livingston, replacing the Caucasian actress who played the role in the movie. There was just something about her manner that I adored. Requescat in pace.

My favorite mystery author Dick Francis has a new book Dead Heat coming out, this one co-written with his son. There were rumors that his late wife co-wrote most of his books and when she passed on he didn't write for a number of years until coming out with Under Orders last year ostensibly written by himself. I'm curious to see how this book stacks up against his previous work.

I'm so anti-commercials I rarely let them intrude on my consciousness but every once in a while something comes along that really grabs my attention. I think the agency that makes the commercials for Geico is really quite brilliant. First we get the Gecko from Downunder then the cavemen (being made into a fall TV series) and now we get ads featuring a grown up Cabbage Patch Kid and an "expose" of Fred Flintstone - how can he afford the rocks Wilma wears? Why by saving money using Geico. I love it *g*

ETA: Geico may be making a whole series of those ads as I've just seen one with "The Beverly Hillbillies".