Oops, I left someone out

...so let me remedy that right now. Michael Landon, who played Little Joe on Bonanza and Pa Ingalls on Little House On The Prairie, was not the actor's real name. He was born Eugene Maurice Orowitz in Queens, New York.

Speaking of Little House On The Prairie,, Melissa Gilbert, the little girl who played Laura Ingalls, has been married to three husbands: Bo Brinkman (about whom I know nothing), actor Bruce Boxleitner, and Timothy Busfield, the red-haired actor who played Eliot Weston on the television series thirtysomething and Kevin Costner's brother-in-law in Field Of Dreams. Busfield and Gilbert moved away from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and lived in a rural area near the small town of Howell, Michigan for several years. A couple of years ago, they moved to New York City, so they either are back in their right minds or have lost them completely, depending on your point of view.

Melissa Gilbert's younger half-sister, Sara Gilbert, played Darlene Connor on Roseanne.

Why do I know these things? I have no idea.

Last Night On Jeopardy! Department: The category was U.S. States. The clue mentioned that according to the song "This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land" the land stretches from this state to the New York Island. The defending champion said "What is the redwood forest?" but the last time I looked at the list the redwood forest was not a state. The song does include that phrase in a later line, "from the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters". Another contestant answered correctly, "What is California?"

Last Night On Jeopardy! Department, Example 2: The category was 1821. According to the clue, this king, whose coronation occurred in 1821, was the fourth British monarch to have this name. I knew immediarely that it was George IV since George III reigned from 1760 to 1820. Two of the contestants didn't buzz in at all and the third contestant's answer, obviously a guess, was Edward. I say obviously because Edward VI (two edwards after Edward IV) was the son of Henry VIII back in the sixteenth century.

The Athena-full-grown-from-the-forehead song that greeted me upon waking this morning was another oldie:

Dear, I thought I'd drop a line
The weather's cool, the folks are fine
I'm in bed each night at nine
P.S. I love you

Yesterday we had some rain
But all in all, I can't complain
Was it dusty on the train?
P.S. I love you

Write to the Browns just as soon as you're able
They came around to call
I burned a hole in the dining room table
And let me see, I guess that's all

Nothing else for me to say
And so I'll close, but by the way
Everybody's thinking of you
P.S. I love you

I have a distinct memory of watching Your Hit Parade on a Saturday night and hearing Gisele MacKenzie sing that song. The other singers on the show every week were Dorothy Collins, Snooky Lanson, and Russell Arms.

Tonight on Jeopardy! all three contestants tried but failed to say the title of Dylan Thomas's poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" correctly.

There is no rhyme or reason to this post that I can detect, but I am glad that I remembered to add Michael Landon into the mix.

I am going to make a sincere attempt to think less about trivia from the past and think more about the future instead. After all, as Criswell said at the beginning of the worst movie ever made, Plan 9 From Outer Space, "We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives."