Donald Kendall Dead at 99.....Joan Crawford and Chile

Donald Kendall is dead….at 99. This Blogger was busy being a bum in Larkspur, California, when he was recruited by a smooth-talking professional Recruiter. He told this Blogger that he had the perfect position for this Blogger, in Manhattan, Gotham City, on Park Avenue.

They flew this Blogger to New York, and he was interviewed. At the ultimate interview, Mr. Kendall, the chief honcho at PEPSICO, walked in, looked him over, shook his hand and approved a job offer.

The legendary actress Joan Crawford was still alive at the time. She had been married to a former President of PepsiCo. She hated Mr. Kendall’s guts.

She had an office in the Park Avenue building; when she was in the city, one of the chief duties of this recruited wunderkind were to bring her endless bottles of vodka. Mr. Kendall had been white haired since he was a teenager; Ms. Crawford called him WHITE FANG.

People often ask this Blogger what did Ms. Crawford look like? He could never reply, for he NEVER, as in NEVER, made eye contact with Ms. Crawford. He sneaked into her office, dropped off her daily consignment of vodka and slithered out, looking at the floor. He survived.

PepsiCo worked under the assumption that Latinos could tell the difference between Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola; and that Latinos liked Pepsi better.

Pepsi had a vast operation in Latin America; Pepsi salesmen and technicians were ubiquitous, even on restricted military bases.

In the obituary for Mr. Kendall in the NEW YOK TIMES, there is the following statement: “According to government documents and the 2007 book “Legacy of Ashes: The History of the C.I.A.,” by Tim Weiner, a former Times reporter, in 1970 Mr. Kendall introduced Nixon to a Chilean media magnate and Pepsi bottling-plant owner who was seeking Washington’s help in overthowing President Salvador Allende, who had been democratically elected in Chile on a Marxist platform. Mr. Allende was deposed in 1973 by the military and replaced by the dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet…..NEW YORK TIMES.”

That is a very modest statement; this Blogger can attest, from personal experience, that there would have been no putsch against President Allende without Don Kendall.

Before the Pinochet Coup, there had not been a successful military coup in Chile since 1932; that is eons in Latino political time.

Looking back on the Pinochet Coup, one is stunned by the ferocity of the Chilean Military during and after the coup. They were civilized Catholic officers and gentleman; it was as if they had spent the thirty years, the coup less interregnum, thinking up new cruelties. One can understand mass executions, torture, disappearing opponents, all tools in the acknowledged tool kit of coup makers. But who could possibly think up training dogs to rape female political prisoners? Who does that? Who gets the idea, the original idea, to do that?

Even people of dubious morality; morality made fluid by growing up surrounded by Mafioso in Brooklyn, were shocked into despair on the state of mankind, as exhibited by the actions of the Chilean Military. Pepsi lubricated the HEART OF DARKNESS.

Donald Kendall and his friend Richard Nixon

The Urination Of Nicole Kidman's Career

I went to see EYES WIDE SHUT in total awe of its Director, Stanley Kubrick, who had in his career Directed THE GREATEST Science Fiction/Cosmological film EVER- 2001, SPACE ODYSSEY, the BEST and MOST INSIGHTFUL film essay on American culture EVER- LOLITA, arguably the greatest war movie ever- PATHS OF GLORY, and one of the best film epics ever- SPARTACUS. Mr. Kubrick died SUDDENLY, before EYES WIDE SHUT was released. Everyone was so sad. Then I saw EYES WIDE SHUT, and understood exactly why Herr Director Kubrick had croaked so suddenly; he had willed himself to death before the release of the film, so that he would not have to suffer the slings and shots against his declining genius. EYES WIDE SHUT is the WORST, laughably worst, porn film ever made, EVER. It starred that larger than life couple(at the time), Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. The key scene in the film was Ms. Kidman peeing. I was spending over $60.00(including tickets,parking and snacks for me and my date ) to watch

The Crash of Flight 447: Fate, Moliere and Veronique Gaignard

In 1954 there was the film, THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY about danger in the air; that was followed by the 1964 film, FATE IS THE HUNTER about a fatal airplane crash and the followup investigation; followed by the 1970 film, AIRPORT, about a bomber on a plane, starring every living star in Hollywood at the time; followed by the sequels, AIRPORT 75, AIRPORT 77, AIRPORT 79- THE CONCORDE. All that melodramatic danger in the air was laughed to death by the films AIRPLANE in 1980, followed by AIRPLANE II in 1982. Everything in air flight had been covered, both the tragedy and the comedy of air travel, until Air France Flight 447. Flight 447 was the Air France Airbus Flight from Brazil to France, which,in 2009, crashed in the South Atlantic , killing all on board,228 passengers. Airbuses fly by wire, which means they fly by computers rather than the old mechanical ways. Very up to date, except when something goes awry, then it seems it is very difficult to set right. In the wee hours

Roger Cohen's Russian Think Piece in NEW YORK TIMES Begs the Question: Was Gerry Maxey Right about Russia TEN YEARS AGO?

This Blogger respects Russians; as Frederick the Great stated :” It takes two bullets to take a Russian soldier out; one to kill him and one to stop him.” This Blogger likes Russians; even though once, in Moscow, during the Soviet era, his incredibly attractive tour guide, aka KGB agent, told him and his brother that they were in danger of being hit, fatally, by a Soviet car crossing a Moscow street. T his Blogger’s brother told her that he had ridden in a Soviet Car, the LADA; and that he could damn well survive any hit by that piece of junk. She laughed. That night, this Blogger’s brother slept in his room, under his bed, drunk. This Blogger admires the way Russians do business; when Soviet diplomats were kidnapped in Lebanon, the KGB paid the ransoms immediately, without complaint. Shortly thereafter, Beirut was flooded with Soviet agents and Soviet bribes; the kidnappers were identified. They were abducted, tortured and castrated; their dead bodies strung from l

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