Titled thus because I keep thinking of these as “brain fritters.” These are the digressions that I removed from an article I’m working on, because although deep fried, they’re also half baked.
1. When I was on vacation with my family in Hawaii in 1999, there was a feature on Heather Graham, who headlined whatever the positive version of their list was; a year or two later, she fell to their negative version with the sarcastic commentary, “What’s next? A roller-skating nun?” Shortly thereafter, they switched to a single positive “It” list. I remember a quote from Graham – “I also like having big boobs, I must say,” and Google turns up the article I was thinking of – but it’s from People magazine, spring of 2000 (a year after I was in Hawaii supposedly reading it). Eventually I find it – or “It.” The magazine was EW, a feature called “The Fickle Finger of It” https://ew.com/article/2001/06/29/fickle-finger-it/, that contains the categories “Getting It,” “Getting It Back,” and “Losing It.” Their derisive comment was actually “Really stretching her legs, that Heather. May we suggest a roller-skating nun?” In their archives, I find that EW did also have the “It” list. Making my way back to June 25th, 1999, I’m partially vindicated: Heather Graham was indeed their cover star that week, and she was on the It list. My mind had simply merged that article with her quote about her boobs.
2. On the subject of Chernobyl, I was trying to remember why/where I’d heard of Jared Harris (who plays scientist Valery Legasov) before. I IMDB’d him with no luck, but finally recalled something that Lindsay Lohan said in a 2013 article about the making of The Canyons. That was literally the only place I’d ever heard of him. Good job, brain.
