503: Remembering Murray the K
1960s and 70s Radio disc jockey, real name Murray Kaufman; dubbed the fifth Beatle by either George, Ringo, or himself; played love songs for couples in cars watching the submarine races (for a long time I didn't get the joke); profiled by Tom Wolfe ("the first big hysterical disc jockey"); called his show The Swinging Soiree; don't mess with his ubiquitous straw hat (one man tried, once); invented the eponymous language Meusurray (which is Murray in Meusurray); bowled with the Ronettes;
presided over all-star rock shows at the Brooklyn Fox Theater;
and signed a random press release:
504: So much depends on a key and Bisquick
Two downtrodden friends on the 104 bus. “They got me a place. I'm on my way to pick up my key.” Key: a half-ounce melding of the metaphorical and the literal. I worry the keys in my pocket like amulets, conjuring long-forgotten doors. "After I get my key come over and I'll make my biscuits. Get me Bisquick. None of that Jiffy. You gotta get me Bisquick." Now I'm on Nantucket, sun setting, the key to my rental bike somewhere in the sand, no place to stay, running to catch the last ferry. Backdoor opens: "Get me Bisquick!"
505:
The greatest advertisement for color TV was black-and-white TV.