I’ve seen The Nylons in concert five times in my life. The concert in Calgary on June 17, 1994 … well I don’t really remember that one. All I remember is what I saw on TV after the concert. And how dumb I felt for not watching it.
My friend Bridget and I went to see The Nylons in Calgary. After the concert, we peeked in at a bar because I wanted to see the score of the Knicks/Rockets NBA finals game. I looked at the big screen and saw something from NBC News instead of the game, and then left. ‘What do I care about a white truck driving down some freeway?’ I wanted to know who was going to win the first title in the “Michael Jordan is playing baseball now” era. Not whatever that news nonsense on the tube was.
Oh well.
Twenty years later, here’s my Top 5 things resulting from the O.J. Simpson case:
5) Kato Kaelin
- Life in the forest: How Stanley Park’s longest resident survived a changing landscape
- ‘They knew’: Victims of sexual abuse by youth leader sue Anglican Church
- Bird flu risk to humans an ‘enormous concern,’ WHO says. Here’s what to know
- Buzz kill? Gen Z less interested in coffee than older Canadians, survey shows
O.J.’s housemate became a joke for the next decade. Or two. We’re working on a third.
4) “Ugly ass” Bruno Maglis
O.J. said he would never wear the shoes that left bloody footprints at the scene. Then a photo emerged of him wearing Bruno Maglis on a football field. Nowadays random Internet sleuths would have the photo inside five minutes.
3) “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit!”
Johnnie Cochran’s line about how the bloody gloves weren’t O.J.’s. Priceless.
2) The Kardashians
Robert Kardashian was one of O.J.’s lawyers. Thankfully he passed away in 2003 before he could see what his family has become.
1) Jackie Chiles
Seinfeld‘s takeoff on Cochran’s poetic rhetoric was perfection.
- “Oh Henry? That’s one of our top selling candy bars. It’s got chocolate, peanuts, nougat; it’s delicious, scrumptious, outstanding.”
- “Your face is my case!”
- “Who told you to put the balm on?”
The book
If you ever have a chance to read Simpson’s book, now titled If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer, it is fascinating. Simpson wrote it as a “fictional” account of how the killing might have happened. The rights to the book were later awarded to the family of Ronald Goldman to pay part of their $33-million civil suit award.
My takeaway from the book is Simpson painting himself as a good guy who was married to this terrible person with wild personality swings (Nicole Brown Simpson). The ‘woe is me, can you believe what I put up with?’ lament runs throughout. Then he describes the day of Nicole’s and Ronald’s deaths, with a convenient blackout at the moment of the killings. Of course Simpson wouldn’t know the truth — not having been there at the time of their deaths.
Ahem.
As well, the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary June 17, 1994 is worth your time. June 17 was the day of the white Bronco chase and:
- The New York Rangers’ Stanley Cup parade
- The first day of the 1994 World Cup in the U.S.
- Game 5 of the NBA finals between the Knicks and Rockets
- Arnold Palmer’s final round at the U.S. Open
The documentary masterfully weaves all of that together with crowds of people cheering for O.J. as he rode down the interstate. It’s remarkable now to see how many people were cheering for O.J. Then there’s the things we didn’t see:
- O.J.’s two-part interview that was supposed to air on Fox
- OJ starring in a movie called Frogmen for NBC
Both were shelved for obvious reasons. Somehow Frogmen has a 4.9 rating on IMDB.
RELATED: WATCH – 20 years since the infamous O.J. Simpson Bronco chase
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