Marvin Kisses Up To Ken

Marvin Zindler

This one won't make much sense to non-Houstonians, but then again, neither does much of my rambling about Mayor Pothole and the Chron, but for some reason you people keep reading the site and encouraging me. So Connelly has this to say at the end of this week's column:

Add Channel 13's legendary Marvin Zindler to the list of vocal Ken Lay defenders. Twice in the past week he has offered commentaries on the departed executive. "My instinct tells me he has done nothing wrong," he said January 30. The next night he took time to heap praise on Lay's character by noting how twice (in the last ten years) Lay had let Zindler use Enron's corporate jet to transport sick kids to treatment.

Is it just us, or do Dave Ward and Shara Fryer look more and more alarmed whenever the camera cuts to them after one of Zindler's unhinged speeches?

No, Rich, it's not just you! I think Marvin scares the hell out of all of them. Well, Shara may not actually be scared. She's so giggly and excited lately that she reminds me of a relative of mine who used to take Prozac for the sheer joy of it all. And Dave -- well, who knows if he hasn't sneaked away to brother's dive bar in between the 6 and 10 reports on any given night?

Marvin, of course, was the character portrayed by Dom DeLuise in The Best Little WhoreHouse In Texas. And as outrageous as Dom was in that movie, the real Marvin Zindler is even more of a freak. To give but one example, the nutcase actually has a regular feature on restaurants that have gotten in trouble with the health department, entitled "Slime In The Ice Machine." The regular feature even has theme music (sadly, the wav seems not to be working tonight). And graphics. I wish I were making this up.

[Posted at 23:58 CST on 02/11/02] [Link]