Rant 2,198: Bits and Pieces

Yes, it is time again for another round of Bits and Pieces, that semi-regular compendium of stories that we look at here at the Ranting and Raving Blog that might not deserve a full Rant overview, but certainly deserve a mention.

So without further ado, here are a few of those types of stories.

Margot Kidder's Death Ruled As a Suicide: Margot Kidder, the Canadian actress best known for playing Lois Lane in several of the Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve, has had her May 13 death ruled as a suicide.

According to Park County, Montana, Coroner Richard Wood, Kidder died of "as a result of a self-inflicted drug and alcohol overdose," leading to her death at age 69.

Kidder, who had had psychological problems related to drug and alcohol use throughout her adult life, was also bipolar, leading to a complete mental breakdown about 20 years ago.

Kidder was on my personal radar a bit before she made her big splash in the Superman films. She had made several movies prior to the Man of Steel movies, including one called "Sisters," a 1973 Brian DePalma film where Kidder starred as a French Canadian model whose separated cojoined twin is suspected of a murder that takes place in Staten Island, New York.

It is probably Kidder's best film, really allowed her to put her acting chops on display, as well as her body, which is featured in one of the all-time great legit movie nude scenes in a bathtub.

And for this then 16-year-old boy, heck, that was memorable, but looking at the film as an adult, well, the entire movie is terrific, one of DePalma's best movies and one to search out if you haven't yet seen it.

Kidder had one child, a daughter, and had been married a couple of times and was also linked with DePalma, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and Steven Spielberg.

Yes, as the "It" girl of the early to mid-1970s, Kidder got around a bit, but now that fire is gone.

Storms Hit Northeast: Well, when hurricanes hit my old home borough of Queens, you just know that things are truly awry in the weather world.

That is just what happened not once, but two or three times in the past week, and while the hurricanes were minor in comparison to the hurricanes that often hit the Midwest and other areas of the country, they did uproot trees, destroy some cars, and alter many people's lives when they touched down in that New York borough.

Out where I live on Long Island, we have been hit hard by rain, rain and more rain, in virtual buckets, a lot at a time.

On Tuesday night, we got hit with one of the stranger storms that I could ever remember. It was teeming outside, we lost our satellite TV transmission for a while, and we ultimately never lost power, but lost our router for a short period.

I could never, ever remember losing the router without losing power, but I will bet it had to do with perhaps lightning and heavy rains pelting the utility pole outside our house.

Whatever the case, the router went absolutely crazy, flashing wildly at times, and since the router controls our Internet and our bedroom TVs, we lost those services too. I will bet that we also lost our phone service for a while, but we didn't need the phone so I never checked it.

Things got back to normal in about an hour, but we did hear smatterings of thunder for the rest of the night, and, in fact, when I woke up today, I heard more thunder after a relatively mild day for that type of thing yesterday.

Crazy weather indeed, and what's more, every time we have had such a storm, and my car becomes clean of bird gunk, it seems that afterward, the birds let go, and my car is as full of bird gunk as it ever was.

I guess they can hold it in, too, until the storm passes.

Yankees Change Sox, Get Wins In the Process: Sometimes, you just have to change your socks in order to feel better about yourself, and this is exactly what happened to the New York Yankees over the past six days.

The Yankees were swept--and completely embarrassed--by the Boston Red Sox last weekend in Boston, and they appeared to be a crumpled team when they moved onto their next opponent.

That next opponent was of the pale hose variety--the Chicago White Sox--and a change of Sox certainly worked.

The Yankees completed a sweep last night of the Windy City team, and look to be reinvigorated as they come home to face the Texas Rangers today.

Look, the Red Sox and White Sox might play in the same league, but they really are on different planets right now.

The Red Sox are baseball's best team by their record, and they might actually win about 110 games this season--or even a few more than that--they way that they are playing. They have it all, and haven't really experienced a bad streak yet.

The White Sox are a rebuilding team, and that is being kind to the organization. The team has few real, tried and true major league players on its roster, and they are going through the motions now, and could possibly be headed for a 100-loss season.

What's worse, their former ace, Chris Sale, now pitches for the Red Sox.

The Yankees have been decimated by injuries this season, but unless they have a total breakdown, they are probably headed to the playoffs again as the American League wild card team, or the one with the best record of the two wild card teams that will battle in a one-game showdown to see who advances in the playoffs.

I just found it funny how the schedule makers knew just what the Yankees needed to reboot themselves, and it was simply a change of Sox.

That is about it for now. Speak to you again tomorrow.