One Way Or Another

The way she peered out of the TV screen, it was hard to tell if Debbie Harry wanted to cut us or kiss us, and that was the way we liked it. A blonde bombshell with a powerful sneer to match the beauty of her smile, she was hot enough to melt the mic stand but had the chops to blow out the monitor.  

Rocketing out of the punk/New Wave movement in the late ’70s with Blondie, the former Max’s Kansas City waitress took her hazy gaze and soaring vocals to the top of the charts. Today the femme fatale turns 64 — and, yes, we would.

Discussing how she coped with the boozy throng of drunken men when she worked at New York’s Playboy Club in the early ’70s, before she became a star. 

A "glass heart" — not to be confused with a "Heart of Glass" — invented by aviator Charles Morrow Lindbergh. The pump, made from Pyrex glass, sustains organs removed from the body for study or transplantation.   

Years later, another pump would be invented that sustained one organ prior to insertion in another’s body. This pump was made out of a plastic and ran for about $19.95 in the back of most men’s magazines.

Debuting in 1981, "Rapture" was the first rap video ever broadcast on MTV. Ever the chic chick, Debbie had her hand on the pulse of street art and music in their infancy. The music video for the #1 hit featured cameos by Fab Five Freddy and graffiti artist Les Quinones. Grandmaster Flash was also supposed to appear, but when he failed to show, Jean-Michel Basquiat was hired at the last minute.