The LuLac Edition #2148, August 5th, 2012

Reward Offering from PA Crime stoppers. 

VITAL INFORMATION NEEDED

The family of Rebecca McCallick is deeply grateful for the outpouring of love and support we have received during our tragic loss. Becca was struck and killed by a hit and run driver during the early hours of July 24th, 2012 on Hazle Street in Wilkes-Barre. In addition to the cash reward offered by PA Crime Stoppers, we are offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual responsible for the death of our beloved daughter and sister. We humbly beg anyone with information to come forward at this time. Anyone with information about the driver or vehicle is asked to call Wilkes-Barre police at 208-4201. 
Tom and Judy Pribula 
Claire McCallick

Monroe in a photo taken a few weeks before her death. 

MONROE OBIT AT 50

 I remember there being a big buzz the neighborhood that August day. The last time there was anything like it was on September 9th, 1961, the day the first pastor I had ever known, Father John Bednarcik died in a Doctor’s office. At the age of 8 words were beginning to have a sound. The name, Marilyn Monroe flowed off of the tongue just as the movie public relations people intended. There was talk about a playwright, a baseball player and an unfinished movie. As a young boy riding my bike and making my first attempts at competitive baseball, this was not on my radar screen. But the incessant talk about it from the baker, the neighbors, the huckster and my family intrigued me. They talked about the beauty. The elegance and even though I was young and uninformed, I knew I had to check this out. Surely this would be on the 6:30 News. I walked into the TV room and began to sort through some magazines before supper. I pulled our a Reader’s Digest and in the index I saw the name, Marilyn Monroe. I turned the pages and I believe it was some type of puff piece about how the movie star juggled her busy schedule and ironically enough staying healthy. The words on the right really meant nothing to me at that age. But I looked to the left and saw a very big picture of the movie star. (Yes even Reader’s Digest back in 1962 knew when they could get a circulation spike!) The picture revealed that smile, the perfect hair, a strapless tomato red dress and a certain something women had that I was not yet tuned in for. But I knew that she was beautiful and wondered in my innocence how someone that spectacular could die. Fifty years later people are wondering the same thing. Marilyn Monroe is frozen in time. She is a pop icon because by her alleged suicide or whatever happened that day in California the ravages of old age will escape that heavily crafted image. If you take a look a Monroe’s body of film work, you’ll see some real gems. One wonders that if she had better management or listened to it, would she have escaped her fate. Like Elvis and other media icons of that time, Monroe was pigeon holed in a small box that was very difficult to escape. If she had lived, would this bombastic movie star have made a shift taking on more serious and complex roles (despite the image, she did have the innate intelligence) or would she have wound up like her co-star in “GPB” (“Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”) Jane Russell doing bra commercials but living a long life? The lasting legacy of Marilyn Monroe is that no will can ever know that. As time has passed, the tiresome “insiders”, “friends” and “conspiracy experts” have passed on themselves. The memory of Marilyn Monroe fifty years after her death still gets our attention. Still reels us in. While the chatter about her life is documented and debated, the iconic beauty stays like a statue or picture one silently looks at. We are still drawn to that image. Marilyn Monroe was news fifty years ago today when she died. A half century later, she is still news. Someway, somehow, I think that would please her. Or puzzle her. Either way, she is remembered. More talented  stars of that era can never make that claim. And in a way, that might be a small reward for all the pain she was in at the end.

Mars Probe landing early Monday. 

MARS PROBE 

Another by product of growing up in the 60s was the Space program. Having been born at the right age, I got to see the Mercury Astronauts pioneer space travel. Tomorrow morning, a probe is landing on Mars that might reveal something or nothing. Media coverage will most likely begin after 1AM eastern on the Cable Networks. The eight month journey of Curiosity is a make or break landing with no margin of error. The space lab, about the size of a sports car might shed some light if Mars once had life on it and was the building block for interplanetary existence. This will be exciting.