My interesting week

National media is busy these days hawking all the new shows coming up on this fall’s TV menus. One particular promo caught my interest because the show, “66 Park Avenue,” will feature a well-known and successful starring lady who once got me in trouble with my wife. Oops, maybe I’d better explain that a little more.

In the summer of 1984, a beautiful young “woman of color” won the Miss America Pageant, but shortly afterward, a full nude photo display came out featuring her in a hard-core men’s magazine, far beyond your Playboy centerfold.

Alas for the talented and pretty young woman. She admitted posing as a teenager for “art” photos, which were meant to be kept confidential. The strict Miss America officials immediately stripped her of the crown, greatly embarrassing her amidst widely publicized pro and con public opinions.

That is how, when and why my troubles occurred, and was explained in this column of Sept. 12, 1984:

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Curiosity is a mighty force upon all living things, and especially on us mere mortals. Sometimes it costs us dearly, like the time I wound up in the hospital trying to see if it really was impossible to ride a coasting wagon down Murphy’s hill. But curiosity is also the instinctive influence which leads us to all knowledge.

I once read that if a man loses curiosity, his education ends. Someplace else it was written, “Show me a disinterested person, and I will show you an uninterested person.”

I never ever want to stop learning, and who among us would deliberately become a boor? These are the absolute and only reasons why I put on dark glasses and a low brimmed hat, then went downtown and bought that Penthouse magazine. When they start firing Miss America, I want to know why.

The way I figure it, First Wife Iris would not have found the dumb magazine under a pile of old newspaper clippings unless she was a bit curious herself; and in the second place, she should have enough faith in her husband to believe what I told her about not actually looking at the “naughty” pictures.

To remain well informed, it seemed we conscientious professional journalists must forever tread the razor’s edge.

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So, that’s the story. If I had Vanessa Williams’ address I’d airmail a letter telling her Iris burned the magazine 28 years ago. In another matter, completely unrelated, the Hungry Horse News editor forwarded me a letter this week:

Dear editor,

I would be very grateful if you would pass my thanks to Mr. George Ostrom for his article about ‘Doc Burns’ published in May this year.

Malcolm was my grandfather, and I came across this article today. I simply loved it. Although I see Malcolm’s picture daily, and stories like this have affected my life and career, it’s also been years since I’ve heard of any remembrances of him or his practice. This was a little gem for me to discover. I’m really touched to know that ‘Doc’ is still thought of in Kalispell.

I hope Mr. Ostrom found the line, and is doing well.

Kathy

Naturally, it was heartwarming for me to get this wonderful letter, and something especially pleasing was revealed in her address: Kathleen H. Burns, M.D. Ph.D., Assistant professor of Pathology and Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205.

Dr. Malcolm Burns did not only leave a legacy of amazing devotion to medical science, he obviously endowed his children and grandchildren with the inspiration to carry that wondrous work even higher.

G. George Ostrom is a national award-winning Hungry Horse News columnist. He lives in Kalispell.