clint eastwood – saleintothe90s

(Part 3)

26. Sonny Bono becomes mayor of Palm Springs, California.

Sonny Bono, the former musician who teamed up with Cher in the 1970s, became tired of being a second banana, and making appearances on the Love Boat. He opened a restaurant, and had zoning issues with the restaurant’s sign. He also was worried about the economic state of Palm Springs, seeing empty store fronts, and cheap motels moving into town. 1 That’s when his political career began. He later became a Congressman for the Republican party in 1992, until his death in 1998 in a skiing accent.

1. Rosenbaum, Ron, “Solo Bono,” Vanity Fair, February 1988. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1988/02/sonny-bono-199802

27. Clint Eastwood decides that one mayoral term is enough.

28. The lottery begins in Virginia.

And my mom’s life was never the same again.

(source)

29. The Baltimore Orioles lose the first 21 games of the season

(source)

30. The United States Embassy in the Soviet Union is down down for debuggin’

No, not insects, spy bugs:

Reagan couldn`t be more correct. The history of a highly sensitive U.S. construction project in the heart of the Soviet Union, doomed from the start by inexplicably lax security, should be thoroughly analyzed. Then, unless someone comes up with an as yet undiscovered way to make the bug-ridden embassy secure, it should be demolished and a new one built, whatever the cost.

When it became evident that the building had been turned into a communist spy`s delight, the State Department asked a group of engineers, architects and security experts to assess the situation and decide if some part of the structure could be salvaged.

Their conclusion: Tear the building down and start over.

The enormous increase in the cost of a new embassy is due in part to the kind of precautions that should have been taken in the original construction. The main elements of the building would be fabricated in the U.S. instead of in loosely supervised Soviet surroundings. The material would be shipped under guard to the U.S.S.R. and stored in secure warehouses. Unlike the first building, the replacement would be erected by American workers with special security clearances. 3

The building wouldn’t open until 2000! 4

31. “The Dictator”

Christopher Lloyd was supposed to star in an new sitcom for CBS where he played a dictator that was kicked out of his fictional country and immigrated to the United States (Queens) to run a laundromat? HIs aide was also kicked out of the country and worked at Macy’s.

The show was publicized to air on March 15th. However, the show never aired, and was a victim of the 1988 Writer’s Strike, because only two episodes were written before the strike. 5

Oh yeah, and there’s no copies of the first two episodes anywhere.

32. James Brown was mad that someone used his bathroom so he went on a car chase

Why try to explain? Let’s go directly to the just-the-facts FBI report, recounting what Brown told agents who visited him at the state prison at Columbia, S.C.

“Brown stated that … on a Saturday, date not recalled, he drove his pick up truck to his office” in Augusta, Ga. “When arriving at his office he observed that his bathroom door was open. Thinking that possibly there had been a break-in he went back to his truck in the parking lot, got his shot gun and took it back to his office.

"He then learned that there was a meeting going on somewhere in the office complex and that the attendees of this meeting had been using the bathroom in his office.

"Brown was extremely upset about this and began questioning those in attendance as to the reason for using his facility. During this time Brown had placed his shot gun in the corner of his office in full view. Brown then asked for the return of his keys, received same and then locked the bathroom door.

"He then left his office with the shot gun, placed it in the pick up truck and began driving his truck on I-20 into South Carolina… . He observed that a road block had been set up by two police vehicles in a ‘V’ shape. Brown seeing this drove around the police road block to avoid hitting the police vehicles and continued on. 6

33. The Syringe Tide

Syringes washed up ashore on Beaches in Long Island, New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. The source was from the Fresh Kills landfill.

34. “Lunch & Learn Driving Class”

…Across town, the violators who paid $29 to attend the Lunch N Learn at Fine Restaurants class were cutting into London broil and baked potatoes and knocking back glasses of chilled tap water at Thiggy’s, the restaurant at the Lincoln Park Golf Course.

The fine-dining traffic school offers a fringe benefit, movies. Shortly after the chocolate mousse, the students sat back to mull an assortment of stomach-churning videos of car wrecks with titles like ’’Red Asphalt II.” 7

1. Rosenbaum, Ron, “Solo Bono,” Vanity Fair, February 1988. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1988/02/sonny-bono-199802

2. “Lottery ticket sales are brisk,” Smithfield Times, September 21, 1988.

3. “Reagan Correct: Moscow Embassy Must Be Torn Down And Replaced,” SunSentinel , October 31, 1988.

4. Lally, Kathy, “U.S. Finally Opens Moscow Embassy / Building was delayed 15 years after Russians riddled it with bugs,” SFGate.com, July 8, 2000.

5. Irvin, Richard. Forgotten Laughs: An Episode Guide to 150 TV Sitcoms You Probably Never Saw. Duncan, OK: BearManor Media, 2012.

6. Stephens Joe, “FBI File Recounts James Brown’s Side Of ’88 Police Chase,” Washington Post, April 3, 2007. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/02/AR2007040201614.html

7. Bishop, Katherine, “San Francisco Journal; Penalizing Lawbreakers With Laughs and a Meal,” New York Times, July 26, 1988. https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/26/us/san-francisco-journal-penalizing-lawbreakers-with-laughs-and-a-meal.html

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337. 88 Things About 1988, part 4