Word: birdbrain
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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There was Dody Goodman, corn-fed elf and professional birdbrain, whose irrelevance and irreverence were fun until Paar got rid of her in an unseemly family squabble (TIME, March 24). Elsa Maxwell appeared for weekly off-with-their-heads chats, chopped at so many well-known necks (including Winchell's, Presley's, Princess Grace's) that Jack was only half kidding when he rolled his eyes and groaned: "Call the lawyers." For a few frenetic nights, Zsa Zsa Gabor leaned over her cleavage and rattled her host into some now famous fluffs. "It will...
Rich, bighearted, wackish Uncle Daniel Ponder has. among other benefactions, married a pretty little birdbrain (Sarah Marshall) and brought her-with her love of household gadgets-to a house without electricity, where she dies, at length, of fright during a thunderstorm. Prodded by an ambitious lawyer, her back-country kin charge Uncle Daniel with murdering her. The trial-of a modern-day Uncle Toby-calls to mind the trials in Pickwick and Alice in Wonderland. With cousins on the jury, kids overrunning the witness box, refreshments being served, Uncle Daniel first disappearing and then hiring the prosecution lawyer to handle...
...bankroll. Harry has his fawning circle of jesters and helpers. Jake of the G. Washington Motel is happy to send an overflow couple to the Green Glade for their illicit love-making as long as he gets his commission. Gil Leary tickles Harry's "sensayumer" with his birdbrain notions of a Green Glade lounge bar and partnership. Harry's brother. "Morris the Flop,'' sponges off Bachelor Harry to support a wife and kids. In his disciplinarian moods, Harry reminds them all that life is "doggy dog," his own squirrel-lipped version...
Avid for news himself, he was quick to chide when replies were tardy. ("No letter, Goodykin, none today yet?") He came so close to treating his talented wife like an aimless birdbrain that Jane once chided him for writing "as if I were some nice child, writing ... to its Godpapa." But occasionally, Carlyle came close to sharing an idea with his "wee wifiekin," as when he was moved by the human and physical blight of the Industrial Revolution on a South Wales town: "The town might be ... one of the prettiest places in the world...
Comedienne Carol Channihg, 29, admitted that a grave personal problem had grown out of her playing the role of bird-brained Lorelei Lee in Broadway's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. People seemed to be convinced that she is a birdbrain offstage, too: "I won't say that people actually think I'm just two steps removed from outright idiocy, but they do seem to have adopted a protective attitude towards...