Like a lot of guys my age, I was sad to learn of the passing of Raquel Welch, a sex symbol of my youth and far beyond.
She and I were roommates during my freshman year in college — at least her iconic bikini poster from “One Million Years B.C” and I were. The movie was forgettable; Raquel was not.
That poster was displayed on several walls in my dorm and then my frat in the late 1960s. It even played a critical role in the movie, “Shawshank Redemption,” when Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) used it to hide the tunnel out of his jail cell after older posters with Rita Hayworth and then Marilyn Monroe became faded (but hardly outdated).
I had a boy crush on Raquel and always enjoyed watching her as she aged pretty darn well over the years. And if you looked beyond her statuesque presence and gorgeous looks, you could find more talent there than she was given credit for.
Hey, and they say she had a 140 I.Q. — the complete package even though most guys just saw the outside of it.
Rachel Welch was 81 when she died earlier this week. Her last public sighting was apparently several months ago at a hair salon where she was seen enjoying herself with the employees.
Maybe I will remember her more for the smile that the TV camera captured through the salon’s window than for the poster — but then again, probably not. I’m a guy. And I will have to admit that it was sometimes hard to study with Raquel looking over my shoulder.
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It was my wife’s turn to pick the movie last week. So I got dragged to “80 for Brady.” Tom Brady will not win an Oscar for his acting.
Neither will the Hollywood stars — Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sally Field and Rita Moreno. But then again, they don’t need to. Together, they have won five Oscars with seven other nominations and that just scratches the surface of their honors and awards.
I wasn’t looking forward to the movie, but the women — with an average age of 84 — won me over. It’s a silly show but sometimes that’s what you need. To see Rita Moreno at 91 and how vibrant she still appears to be is nothing but amazing. Jane Fonda also can still look 50 with a wig and her “work” that she readily admits to.
And the football footage from Super Bowl LI when Brady’s Patriots overcame a 28-3 lead to beat Atlanta in overtime is the most awesome sequences I have ever seen of a game. The big screen really brought it home.
As I watched the movie, I couldn’t help but think of others — “West Side Story,” “9 to 5,” “Norma Rae,” and “Barbarella.” (Sorry about that last one.)
“80 for Brady” won’t be as unforgettable, but that’s OK. It’s my turn to pick the next “blockbuster.” Maybe Tomlin and Fonda together again in the upcoming “Moving On”? Hmmm, probably not. Liam Neeson has a new film out.
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We don’t have a TV in our bedroom in South Bend. I can live with that. My wife would never allow me to watch a night baseball game in bed anyway.
So it is a little weird for us to have a television with a 54-inch screen (if my hand-over-hand method of measuring is accurate) in our rental’s bedroom here in Tucson. The trouble is that we don’t get Netflix or Prime on it — and we haven’t figured out if we might be able to use our accounts from back home.
So we lie in bed and watch programs from Prime and Netflix on my wife’s little iPad and its nine-inch screen with the big TV off.
When I was growing up, my younger brother and I had a TV in our room about the size of an iPad — maybe just a tad bigger. I loved it.
The only difference now is that my wife takes the place of my brother as a co-watcher. I better say that I love that, too.
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