I was so thrilled to see Marlene Dietrich come up as the central image on Google on Wednesday. She was, in many ways, my first movie star. The Milwaukee PBS station showed an old movie in the afternoon in the summer when I was 13, usually with a theme for the week. One week the theme was Dietrich, and they showed *Shanghai Express,* *Seven Sinners,* *The Flame of New Orleans,* *Song of Songs,* I don't remember the fifth movie. I fell for Dietrich, hook, line, and sinker. And I still adore her above all others. Other actresses are more beautiful, thousands are more talented, but none of them have that mysterious <<je ne sais quoi>> of Dietrich.

I'll give you two Dietrich clips. The first is a clip from *Touch of Evil.* I read somewhere that she borrowed the black wig from Elizabeth Taylor. And why shouldn't we believe that? Her show-stopping line in this clip, "Your future's all used up," is a line that Richard and I often use, in a variety of contexts.

ME: Are we out of mayo?

HIM: Your mayo's all used up.

And Dietrich singing "Sag Mir Wo Die Blumen Sind" (aka "Where Have All the Flowers Gone"), live in Stockholm, 1963.