Tuesday, February 16, 1999
Bar owner loses her head, again
BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
And on a happy note, Pati Gilliece got her head back.
Referring here to the 4-foot, 25 pound Marge Simpson head she made for a friend to wear in the Big Head Parade MainStrasse threw Friday and Saturday for Mardi Gras.
Marge and son Bart were to be the entries from Chez Nora, the bar Pati owns with husband Jimmy.
But the head was stolen, recall, at a Hurricane Party at Jillian's. People get bold once they uncork the Bacardi.
Gilliece whined, complained and, finally, offered a reward in last Thursday's Psst! column.
It worked. Walt Illg turned up Thursday with the head and a confession. The DHL pilot, a transplant from New Orleans, also confessed to lifting an alligator from another bar and flying it around the country, taking pictures to send to the bar owner. Which tells us neighbors better nail down their objets d'art.
But Gilliece, she was delighted. Until a few hours later.
“She (the Marge head) was sitting in the bar and I ran back to the kitchen. I came out and she was gone,” Gilliece wailed. “No clue who, but he better be at the parade with a headful of Marge.”
Bad news: No one showed. Bart had to march as an orphan and Marge remains at large.
MOVING ON: This one has an upside and a downside.
Up: No one will tattle anymore if you leave toilet seats up.
Down: Brian Krueger, co-author with Jack York of Beyond Putting Down the Toilet Seat and Hard Labor, is off to Los Angeles.
Turns out Krueger has landed a job with Kasky Csupo, one of the nation's hottest animation studios (Rugrats, Rocket Power, Wild Thornberries).
He spent three months there auditioning for the job. Last week he got it. Next week, he moves.
“This part isn't going to be fun. I have two weeks to load up the U-Haul and drive across the country.
“But the job part, that's fun. I've been working on Rocket Power, but Kasky Csupo wants to aggressively develop new stuff for TV so they hired a couple of development guys. I'm one of them.”
Krueger was free-lancing out of Cincinnati for K-C when he got the invitation to audition.
Meaning what for the Krueger-York partnership? “It's kind of nebulous right now,” Krueger says, “but I don't see it fading. We still have several irons in the fire.
“But, I've been doing this since I was 4 years old — as a sideline. Now, I'll get to do it all the time and get paid.”
SMILE: Oh, so that's what romance readers want: A few laughs with the ripped bodices.
Guess so, judging from Lynn Miller's explosive 1999. Miller is the local author who specializes in romantic comedies — traditional romance with a humorous twist. Her first in fall of '97 was Is There a Husband in the House? (Silhouette; $3.50), abouta pregnant single woman looking for a husband before her boss discovers the pregnancy and fires her.
Now this: Silhouette will unleash her second book in March. Did You Say Baby?! is a romantic comedy about a woman who finds a baby at her door and a note telling her to take it to “my brother in Texas; he'll know what to do.” But he's a bachelor and doesn't know what to do so she hangs around and, well, you know the rest.
There's more: Miller has two more books, these under the pen name Meg Lacey, being published this year by Harlequin.
Sexy as Sin, based on her experiences here at the Renaissance Fair, is set in New York and due this spring. Make Me Over, set in Cincinnati, is due in November.
Psst! appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
Psst! appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
KNIPPENBERG ARCHIVE
