Archive for December, 2006
An Alcoholic Stoops to a New Low:
The Brief Return of O.J. Simpson
O.J. tries to recapture the limelight with
his (ghostwriter's) new book, If I Did I
Extraordinary overachievers are, perversely, frequently alcoholics. Horrific acts are terrific clues to alcoholism. The bizarre can also be an excellent indicator of addiction. If overachieving, horrific and bizarre are combined, we get O.J. Simpson: former football great and Heisman Trophy winner, convicted (in civil court) murderer and someone who recently wanted to tell the world"and his children"how he "would have"murdered their mother "if"he had done so.
"Experts"suggested his book was merely a continuation of Simpson's well-known narcissistic tendencies, in which he has sought attention on the playing field, car-rental ads, movies and the trial of the century. ...
Runners-up for top story: Actors Lindsay Lohan, Michael “Kramer” Richards, Daniel Baldwin, Pamela Anderson, Kid Rock and Tawny Kitaen Finley
Actor Daniel Baldwin, arrested on suspicion of grand theft auto. Just a few months earlier, Baldwin made news crashing a rented car into two parked vehicles after speeding at over 80 mph on Los Angeles area streets, which in turn occurred shortly after an arrest on suspicion of cocaine possession, which in turn…well, you get the idea. Baldwin is the brother of actors Alec, Stephen and William.
Actors Pamela Anderson, 39 and Kid Rock, 35 filing for divorce, citing "irreconcilable differences"after getting married on a yacht in St. Tropez four months before. Anderson was previously married to rocker Tommy Lee for three years. Theirs is a classic case of alcoholic antics continuously providing fodder for the tabloids.
Actress Tawny Kitaen Finley, 45, ...
Co-dependent of the month: the mother of a dead toddler
Suzie Marie Pena's mother, Lorena Lopez, announcing that she would press ahead with her lawsuit against the LAPD to avenge her daughter's death when the L.A. police board concluded after a 15-month investigation that the toddler's death was the fault of her father, Jose Raul Lemos, a.k.a. Jose Raul Pena, in July 2005. I wrote in "runners-up,"August 2005, that Pena used his "19-month-old daughter Suzie Marie Pena as a shield against police trying to arrest him after being reported for making domestic threats against Suzie's mother, Lorena Lopez and, in a separate report, for physical threats against Lopez's 16-year-old daughter. Pena's family in El Salvador described his relationship with Lopez as ‘troubled' and punctuated with fights. Pena, an illegal migrant, ...
Enabler-of-the-month: Lohan’s publicist, Leslie Sloane-Zelnik
Enabler of the Month:
When Actress Lindsay Lohan was found unconscious on a recent Sunday morning before the announcement that she began attending AA meetings, a doctor was summoned. After finding "a stash of cocaine and a pile of prescription drugs"including Vicodin, Dilaudid, Ambien and nitrous oxide (laughing gas), the doctor insisted she go to a hospital for what he termed a "serious drug overdose,"and then into rehab. After Lohan later that day announced she would no longer be dealing with the physician who attended to her, her publicist Leslie Sloane-Zelnik explained that "a doctor was called because Lindsay fell and scraped both her arms. She needed bandaging."You just can't make this stuff up. If she dies, her friends, family and ...
“House”: An excellent portrayal of an NT addict
Houseâ€
Rude, condescending, sarcastic, belittling and brilliant.
If the combination of words that best describes someone has seemingly inherent contradictions, we need to look for addiction, however improbable it may at first seem. Since these terms are an apt description of Dr. Gregory House, the lead character on the show "House,"the odds are if we are able to peer into the person's private life we'll prove addictive use.
I recently discovered "House,"which airs on FOX on Tuesdays at 9pm (repeated Fridays at 10pm), in its third season. There is little on TV that brings thoughts such as "brilliant"or several belly laughs in almost every episode, but "House"manages. The tight and acerbic writing is comparable to that of the original "Law and Order"starring the ...
“He’ll Never Change” (Yes, He Will, but only with the right motivation)
Dear Doug: He'll Never Change
Dear Doug:
I'm losing my patience with my husband. He calls almost every week night near the end of the work day to tell me he's going out for a beer. Most of his drinking buddies are single guys, but one is a young single divorcee from his office. He often drives home as late as 10 or 11 at night and is sometimes almost incoherent. He's already had one bad incident on the way home and was able to buy his way out of it.
My counselor has told me he's not going to change. I'm hurt, jealous and afraid. His behavior tells me he'd rather be out drinking than come home to a wonderful meal I ...
Richard Pryor’s “demons”
"He fought his demons."
So said Rain Pryor in regards to her father, the late comedian Richard Pryor, in an interview with Bill Handel on a recent "The Bill Handel Show"(KFI 640am, Los Angeles), in a publicity interview for her new book, Jokes My Father Never Taught Me: Life, Love, and Loss with Richard Pryor. Unfortunately, both she and Handel (who is a long-time recovering addict) used the term "demons"repeatedly. The term, a euphemism for "drug addiction,"serves only to confuse the uninitiated by suggesting the idea that demons cause psychotropic drug addiction rather than addiction causes demons. Instead of educating, it misguides.
Richard Pryor was married six times. His daughter describes him as misogynistic, mercurial, unpredictable and violent. She describes life with ...
Beer, two idiots and manslaughter
Amazing Antics: Stories of Alcoholism-Driven Behaviors
Story from "This is True"by Randy Cassingham, with his "tagline:â€
"You can't shoot me, I'm invisible!"
"FOOL ME ONCE, SHAME ON YOU: James Walter Quick, 42, and Richard Allen Johnson, 43, went hunting together, then watched a college football game at Johnson's house in Lexington, S.C. They had $20 riding on the game, and the South Carolina Gamecocks beat the Clemson Tigers. Quick asked Johnson to pay up, but Johnson said the Tigers should have won and refused to pay. Quick, police say, went to his car and grabbed his hunting rifle, returned to the house, and demanded his $20. Witnesses say Johnson, who was still wearing camouflage clothing from the hunting trip, replied, "You can't shoot ...