The GOP bosses have endorsed Tom Corbett in the primary, and it's a foregone conclusion that he's going to win the nomination, and run for governor.

Blondie doesn't remember it, but she's not only blondie, but she's younger than me. Anyhow, during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations, there was a science fiction series on TV called "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet". And yes, it was on the air when the candidate was born.

Avoiding VietNam

It's not clear where he was born and grew up, other than that he's a life-long Pennsylvanian. His biography doesn't list parents, siblings, or local schools. The earliest item in his biography has him joining the National Guard in 1972. If he'd been in college, Corbett would have had a 2-S deferment through December 1971, when the 2-S was eliminated, and everyone was reclassified 1-A. The birthday gave him a lottery number of 82, which was going to be called up, so joining the Guard kept him out of VietNam.

If you ask me what company to invest in, on the stock market, I'd normally tell you none of them.

Back when Forbes magazine was worth paying a lot of money for - I got an ad today, begging me to subscribe for $10, and I discarded it - Malcolm used to talk a story about the new hire at the investment house.

The New Hire

It just so happened that the annual company outing fell on his starting day, so the boss grabbed the tyro and headed for the yacht club.

The boss introduced him to everybody, then took him for a walk, pointing to large yachts owned by various analysts, huge yachts owned by various brokers, and the largest yacht of all, belonging to the chairman.

"But where," asked the beginner, "are the yachts of all the customers?"

Steve Forbes Isn't Malcolm

Steve Forbes isn't Malcolm Forbes, his father, and Malcolm wasn't B.C. Forbes, his father. If you are familiar with Pearl Buck, it's like The Good Earth.

Frank Frazetta was the most influential artist in the world of science fiction and fantasy. You've seen his work. His art for the paperback covers of Conan, and of Edgar Rice Burroughs paperbacks, made the stories come alive. He obviously knew anatomy, not only of humans, but of other life forms as well.

I learned his name in the 1960s, but I remember admiring his artwork as far back as the early days of Mad Magazine in the 1950s, back before it was gelded. He did the posters for such classics as What’s New Pussycat?, and The Secret of My Success.

It looks like the new Prime Minister for the United Kingdom of Great Britain And North Ireland will be a guy named Ed Balls.

Titter, titter, giggle, on all the news channels, at such a surname.

Some of us are more mature than that, of course. Ed Balls name isn't really funny, once you consider that Harry Baals was the mayor of Fort Wayne Indiana from 1934 to 1947 and again from 1951 until his death in 1954. He was 68 when he died, but it was of a kidney infection, not of old age.

A Popular Mayor

He was popular, even among Democrats. There's a street in Fort Wayne named Harry Baals Drive, but when they last replaced the street signs, they decided to label it H. Baals Drive. I think there were people upset that there was so much sniggering at the name.