Lives of the Crooners

Welcome once again to our increasingly sporadic yet beloved feature "Lives of the Crooners." Today's sketch comes to us by way of old "blog" friend Tom Junod, who related it the other night at the City Grocery Bar (which has been a rich repository of crooner stories). One night in Los Angeles, reports Mr. Junod, he and the writer James Ellroy (who has "blurbed" Megan Abbott - see how the "blog" is the center of the universe?) were hanging out in a bar when they saw Dean Martin being helped in by two large assistants. Mr. Martin was wearing a Members Only jacket. There is more to the story, including Mr. Martin taking out his false teeth, but now we are much too sad to continue. This has been very possibly the last installment of "Lives of the Crooners."