We have some balloons floating around the house from some kids thing we went to recently. They are the metallized nylon or foil kind that you see in hospitals (often wrongly called Mylar balloons), not the choking-hazard balloon animal kind and they have kids characters on them like SpongeBob and Dora.
Jack said something to me about his “SpongeBob balloon” and I laughed and told him he sounded like Ricky Ricardo saying “the Babalu.” That got me thinking about Desi Arnaz’s hit song and sent me to the Wikipedia to read up on Desi and Lucille Ball.
When we got together with Grandma Jackie this weekend someone mentioned couples where the wives are older than the husbands and I pointed out that Lucy was six years older than Desi and my mother and I went on and on about how he cheated on her, how they divorced but stayed in daily contact and how the television networks originally didn’t want to see an all-American redhead with a Latino husband. I ‘splained the original premise of the show and how they went on tour to prove that the pairing could be popular and refine their concept with their writing team.
In addition to his one hit song, Desi is credited with inventing the rerun, with pioneering the use of a multi-camera setup on a show with a live audience and with designing a set that would allow for filming in front of a live audience while following safety codes.
Brian Alvey 