When Is the Best Time to Eat?

We’ve all heard “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!” But is it?
A statement from the American Heart Association indicates it might be. Their researchers found that we metabolize foods differently at different times of the time. They found that people who eat within two hours of waking had lower heart disease risk factor compared to those who skip breakfast.

The Association cautions that these results are not conclusive because researchers did no further study to determine if people who ate a healthy breakfast also had other health habits that contributed to their lower risk factors.

Nonetheless, the report offered these general guidelines to lower your chances for heart disease and type-2 diabetes:

Stick to a meal routine. Don’t eat whenever or change you schedule from day to day/
Schedule your snacking. Just as with meals, planning and timing your snacks can help keep you from indulging in too much junk food.
Eat less at night. It’s easier for your body to process sugar earlier in the day.
Eliminate late night snacks altogether. Overnight, your metabolism is at its slowest. Throwing in more calories during this time is asking for trouble.

R.I.P. Meat Loaf (1947-2022)

The year is not even a month old and we’ve already lost another rock icon – Meat Loaf passed away on January 20^th. Cause of death has not been officially confirmed, but has been reported as COVID-related. He was 74 and unvaccinated.

Born Marvin Lee Aday, the singer acquired his stage name while still a football player at Thomas Jefferson High School in Texas. His friends called him “M. L.” (his legit initials), but the football coach, ever the sensitive souls, said the “M. L.” should stand for “Meat Loaf” and the name stuck.

After some time at the University of North Texas ad following the death of his mother, Meat Loaf took off for Los Angeles. Fronting various bands, Meat Loaf found a degree of local success that led to a contract with Motown records, who teamed him with another singer, Shaun “Stoney” Murphy.

The failure of their one and only Motown album drove Meat Loaf to turn his attention to theater, where he found his first taste of real success. Loaf appeared in productions of Hair, Rainbow, National Lampoon’s Lemmings (as John Belushi’s understudy) and, of course, The Rocky Horror Show.

When Rocky Horror became a movie, Meat Loaf made his screen debut as the psychotic biker Eddie. It didn’t really help his career because the film initially bombed at the box office. By the time it became a sensation on the midnight movie circuit, Meat Loaf had already found recording success.

However, it was through these acting gigs that Loaf met the ying to his rock & roll yang – a young composer who wanted to write rock & roll musicals, Jim Steinman. In Meat Loaf, Steinman found the perfect voice for his over-heated, bombastic style of songwriting.

The pair began working on what became Bat Out of Hell in 1972. It took them almost two years to whip the project into shape. They shopped it to every major label and found no takers. Then, another rock icon, Todd Rundgren entered the picture. He agreed to produce the album, even before they had a record deal. When the album was completed, they finally managed to sell it to a small independent label, Cleveland International Records, who got it into record stores in 1977.

After a slow start, Bat Out of Hell caught on – spectacularly! It has become one of the biggest selling albums of all time, still moving over 200,000 copies every year, 45 years after its initial release.

With everyone eager for a follow-up, disaster struck. Constant touring, drugs and the fact that Meat Loaf had never been trained how to use his voice professionally resulted in Loaf losing his singing voice for what turned out to be almost a year. Steinman grew frustrated and under pressure from the record label, recorded the songs intended for Meat Loaf by himself. Unfortunately, Steinman was a gifted composer, but not that great a singer and that album, Bad for Good, sold poorly.

In the meantime, Meat Loaf returned to acting, playing the title role in the movie Roadie. The film proved a success and even better, Loaf’s singing voice recovered. He and Steinman finally recorded a follow-up to Bat Out of Hell – Dead Ringer. But the long wait and the impossible task of following up such a classic release resulted in disappointing sales for the LP in the U.S. (although it was a monster hit in the UK).

What happened next is really anybody’s guess. Both Steinman & Meat Loaf have told various versions and rumors abound, but the bottom line is that two stopped working together and lawsuits flew on both sides (although Meat Loaf was always adamant that there were never any bad feelings between the two individuals, just their management teams). Whatever the reasons, Meat Loaf had trouble selling albums without Steinman’s songs. It didn’t make things any better when Steinman offered two songs to Meat Loaf, but his record label rejected them. Those songs turned out to be “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “Making Love Out of Nothing at All,” both of which became major hits for Bonnie Tyler and Air Supply respectively (reaching #1 & 2 on the Hot 100).

Luckily, time heals most wounds, and eventually Loaf and Steinman collaborated again on two sequels to their best-known work – Bat Out of Hell II and Bat Out of Hell III, with Meat Loaf copping a Grammy for his work on II. Sadly, Steinman’s health had begun to decline and he unable to complete work on BOoH III. Other writers had to be called in to complete the project.

Steinman’s health continued to wprsen until he finally passed away on April 19^th of 2021. Who knew then, that the other half of one of rock’s greatest collaborations would follow him just 9 months later?

The TV That Time Forgot: Hawaiian Eye

In show biz, imitation may not be the sincerest form of flattery, but it is the most predictable.

When 77 Sunset Strip was a rating success in the 1958 -59 TV season, Warner Brothers immediately began working up other series with the same basic components.

First, you need an exotic, but American locale. Hawaii was perfect. Not only was it tropical, but it was very topical as well. During 1959 and 1960, Hawaii was on its way to becoming our 50^th state.

The Hawaiian Eye Detective Agency was headquartered in Honolulu’s upscale Hawaiian Village Hotel. The detectives performed security duties for the hotel in exchange for rent. The offices were quite elaborate with a tiki statue by the front door (often kissed for good luck) and a full sized private swimming pool! (Just what every private eye needs.)

Next, you add a handsome but mature leading man (the Efrem Zimbalist of the show). For Hawaiian Eye, that would be Anthony Eisley as Tracy Steele.

Add to that the younger private eye (the Roger Smith of the show). That was a young Robert Conrad, making his debut as TV series regular as Tom Lopaka, allegedly half-Hawaiian, although Conrad certainly didn’t look or sound even partially Polynesian, but he did emerge from the swimming pool with his shirt off quite often.

For teen appeal (the Ed “Kookie” Brynes of the show), Warners cast a young actress they also hoped might have a singing career, Connie Stevens as Cricket Blake. Cricket was certainly kept busy. When not sleuthing with the boys, she ran the hotel’s gift shop, took photos of the guests and sang in the hotel’s cocktail lounge. She also found time to flirt shamelessly with both Eisley and Conrad.

Hawaiian Eye’s comic relief character (the Roscoe of the show) was local cab driver Kim Quisado, played by Poncie Ponce. One of the running bits on the show involved Kim having relatives all over the island who would occasionally lend a hand in the caper of the week.

Finally, the show also featured a snappy, uptempo title tune crooned by vocal quartet.

Warners Brothers would go on to try the formula two more times (with Surfside 6 and Bourbon Street Beat, set in Miami and New Orleans respectively), but Hawaiian Eye was far and away the most successful of the Sunset Strip clones.

Like their other detective shows, the episodes were really filmed in and around L.A. with location footage edited in. This made it easy for characters from other Warner Brothers series to crossover. In fact, the Hawaiian Eye detectives showed up on 77 Sunset Strip on one occasion with the Sunset Strip team returning the favor.

The show ran for 4 seasons on ABC from 1959 to 1963. Eisley left the show after the 3^rd season and was replaced by Troy Donahue (who came over from the just-cancelled Surfside 6). In those days, TV seasons could stretch well beyond 30 episodes per. In all, Hawaiian Eye filmed 134 episodes and did quite well in syndication until black and white series lost their appeal.

Afterwards, it faded into memory. To date, there has been no home video release although reruns have occasionally shown up on those nostalgia cable channels.

Beware: The “Pop-Up Window of Death”

You know the situation. You’re calmly surfing the web on your PC or laptop when all of a sudden a big pop-up window appears and a loud voice comes over your speakers warning you that your computer is dangerously infected with a virus or malware. There is just one problem…