11 Comments
User's avatar
Andrew Sniderman 🕷️'s avatar

Ladies of the night ... man you bring out the best in me. I got the idea for this week's post—Obsolete—from comment banter here. I gotta lotta experience with prostitutes and not how you're thinking! Growing up in Hollywood there were lots of wannabe starlets that didn't make it and ended up hanging out at my 7-Eleven playing centipede and ms pac man with me. Other adventures too ... but this may not be substack fodder.

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

You've got some deep memories about interesting stuff. I also have some stories that may or may not end up here, but I'm thinking probably so.

Ms Pac Man: I think I played that game more than any other for a couple years at least. It was SO good! So was Galaga, from around the same time.

Expand full comment
Andrew Sniderman 🕷️'s avatar

Galaga high score, right here. I still got it too. Local retro arcade got one - high score. Impressed all the ladies.

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

Galaga was basically Space Invaders done right, wasn't it?

Expand full comment
Andrew Sniderman 🕷️'s avatar

Perhaps my favorite sunset blvd prostitute story is when they'd walk my dad home from 7-Eleven and he'd talk to them about their options and then give them .50 to go buy a coffee. Oh! Remember when Hugh Grant got picked up with Divine Brown? Across the street from my house.

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

Yes! The Hugh Grant story feels so quaint now, doesn't it? That kind of ruined his career, or at least derailed it for a few years. Good on your dad!

Expand full comment
Daniel Nest's avatar

"You can stand under my Umbalella!" - Rihanna. It all makes sense now.

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

Rihanna *almost* could have been conceived during this trip. I could be her father, had I visited one of those "ladies of the night", and had her mother's pregnancy lasted about 11 months. So close!

Expand full comment
Daniel Nest's avatar

The plot thickens!

Expand full comment
Alethea Kontis's avatar

I totally forgot what ALERT stood for!! 😂 I’ll have to go back through my pictures and see if I can find you in NY or DC. Thanks to my dad’s old Miranda, I was a budding photographer even back then…

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

People don't quite grasp just how rare photos were back then! I'm astounded we can find so many of ourselves in spite of this uphill battle against time.

Expand full comment