I just tumblr'd upon the news that Tura Satana, of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! fame has died in Reno.  That's a bummer.  She was 72.

I have to tell you, of all the famous folks with whom I share a birthday (and there are some real luminaries among them:  Marcel Proust, John Calvin — the dude who invented Calvinism — and Jessica Simpson, to name just three) none so closely shared my sensibility as Tura (well, I mean, with the possible exception of Emperor Go-Hanazono — and, um, Jessica comes pretty close here). 

But Tura and me.  Our childhoods were almost identical.  The daughter of a contortionist and an ex-silent film star, she spent part of her childhood in a World War II Japanese Internment camp and ended up living in a flophouse and working as a dancer in her teens, where her combination of Polynesian and Spanish dancing styles mixed with acrobatics and contortionism made her a young Goddess of burlesque.

But she drew the line at nude scenes.  

Standards, bitches.  

She went on to leading roles in Attack of the Astro Zombies and Doll Squad.  Much like I did.

You may have reached the point of no return, Pussycat, but I can still hear you snap: "Drive! And don't miss!"