A fond farewell to actor Ricardo Montalban who died today at the age of 88. To many, he is remembered as the voiceover for the Chrysler Cordoba, extolling the virtues of its soft… Corinthian leather. Others will always see him alongside the diminutive Herve Villechaize, both resplendent in white formal wear, declaring “I am your host, Mr. Roarke. Welcome… to Fantasy Island!”

For me, a closet pre-Trekkie high school senior in 1982, the year Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was released, Montalban will always be remembered as Khan, the only man to push James T. Kirk to the limits of his abilities and the only actor to push William Shatner to the limits of overacting. I have the perverse hope that Montalban managed to conjure Khan’s last words (from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick), “To the last, I will grapple with thee… from Hell’s heart, I stab at thee! For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee!” Rest in peace, Ricardo, in thickly cushioned luxury.

The headline reads: Ex-FEMA head Brown evacuated in Boulder wildfire

And it’s not even from The Onion.

There has to be a way to insert this into every English dictionary under the word ‘irony’. There just has to. Heck of a job, cosmos.

Happy holidays, New Orleans. If you spot someone at a club trying to dance like the kid in the orange shirt, that could be me.

The Rouses at 400 N. Carrollton in Mid City is surrounded by fire trucks and NOFD personnel at the moment. Looks like there was a flare up in the rotisserie. The store is open, with fans blowing smoke out the doors, but the hot food area is closed for the time being. Hopefully no one was hurt. The number of succulent roast chickens that may be casualties of this incident remains unknown.

Gustav, Ike… Frosty? My kids have now seen snow come down twice in New Orleans and my oldest is only 7. So much for “it never snows here!” Global warming will be a tough sell for them too.

Aside from the kids going completely bonkers over the weather, the best image of the day was my neighbor HOSING the snow off his car this morning. Which is just about as clever as putting out a fire with a blowtorch.