Greta Garbo, Humphrey Bogart, Gene Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, Rudolph Valentino, Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, Robert Cummings, Nelson Eddy, Jeanette McDonald, John Barrymore, Lon Chaney, Joel McCrea, Olivia DeHaviland, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracey, Carole Lombard, William Powell and --- Love.
Emmy Lou Harris sings the song (A Love That Will Never Grow Old) from Brokeback Mountain.
"Donald Rumsfeld is an extraordinary public servant, but more than that he's just a classy, decent man. And it bothers me personally to see great people like him torn apart by people that couldn't even put on his tie every day." Rush Limbaugh
When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it–always. Mahatma Gandhi
Akira Tsuruoka with "a crystal ball" for contact juggling
There is a website that celebrates contact juggling and other circus arts, and has many wonderful video examples of this art of manipulation. (I was particularly fond of Rat Tango.) The site is ministryofmanipulation.com .
Contact juggling has apparently been around for 20 years, yet I only learned the term today, by accident. How I discovered it, I'm not sure. I just wandered there serendipitously.
Here's a video from YouTube that was produced Ministry of Manipulation. A primer of sorts.
Whilst waiting for the cardiologist this morning I read in Popular Science (November 2006, p.42) that caffeine, although beneficial in some ways, can be fatal---If you drink 150 cups a day.
This is sort of what I had in mind for a Christmas card this year. My wife is unsure. She thinks it might take too much explaining. She might be right. I just thought it was cute.
Bush not swayed by findings in Iraq study Los Angeles Times
Bush cool to report on Iraq Toronto Star
Iraq report picked apart — at home and abroad The Seattle Times
Chilling report highlights stark differences in debate Houston Chronicle
Iraq report reads like rebuke to go-it-alone foreign policy International Herald Tribune
Iraqi study report getting nowhere? China View
Bush calls for new Iraq approach Aljazeera
Blair tries to bridge the gap between Bush and 'realists' on Iraq strategy Times Online, UK
Bush awaiting more input before picking Iraq course Reuters
"I believe we need a new approach," Bush said during a press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his closest ally on the Iraq war. "And that's why I've tasked the Pentagon to analyze a way forward. That's why Prime Minister Blair is here to talk about the way forward, so we can achieve the objective, which is an Iraq which can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself and be an ally in the war on terror." President Bush
Arab world welcomes Iraq Study Group report Christian Science Monitor
Carole Coleman of Irish State Broadcasting interviewed Mr. Bush, in the White House, in the summer of 2004, prior to the president's visit to Ireland. The 10 minute interview received much attention at the time for Ms. Coleman's "muscular" journalistic approach with Mr. Bush.
I revisited the interview via a radio piece with Carole Coleman in April on WNYC, New York Public Radio. Some interesting phone calls came in during the interview. It's 18 minutes long.
WNYC also has a link to the White House transcript of interview.
The film, A Christmas Story, is based on the stories contained in Jean Shepherd's In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. Shepherd played the voice role of Ralph Parker, little Ralphy grown up.
Shepherd was a storyteller who held forth nightly on WOR, New York City, for many years, talking non-stop for 45 minutes (without commercials!) with fiction and fact about his Hammond, Indiana childhood, his life in Army Signal Corps and anything that happened to come to his thought. On Saturday night his show originated from the Limelight Restaurant near Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village.
Thanks to WOR being one of the 50,000 watt, clear channel stations, Shepherd was listened to by kids and grownups all up and down the East coast.
I remember one night after I moved to NYC, I turned to WOR to listen to Shepherd and he wasn't there. I called the station to ask why he wasn't on and was coldly informed that he no longer worked there. I never found out why but I suspect it had to do with frequent commercial interruptions. In the earlier days Shep could talk for the entire show gliding smoothly from topic to topic without commercial breaks. That changed in the 70s and the interruptions fitted neither Shepherd's stream of consciousness style nor that of his listeners.
I've heard it said that Shepherd just outgrew the medium. Sad loss for the medium.
Jean Shepherd died on October 16, 1999.
Here's Shep reading from In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash on his radio show, broadcast Christmas day 1967 on WOR, New York. Christmas story
My eleven year old son came home from school yesterday, and while he was eating his chocolate chip cookie and drinking his glass of milk, he started to tell me about the note he found in his locker. He even offered the note to me to read. It was from a girl and she was asking him out on a date. At least, it seemed that way to me. She did warn him, however, that her parents said she wasn't allowed to date until she was 16.
Thank God.
I'm not ready for this.
Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore. Ogden Nash
Mozart For Morning Coffee, a CD of what you might imagine. Worth buying just for cover. It's available at a number of places on the web. Excuse me while a make my second cup and turn the thermostat up a degree or two.
I think I mentioned the new furnace. Actually, new boiler. I've been calling it a furnace, but the guy who installed it corrected me. Boiler. We have radiators in our house. Whatever it is, it does a much better job than the old one. It cost enough. It should. My wife and I think of it as our Christmas present---for the next 15 years or so. We're thinking of having pictures made with us and all the animals standing next to it to send to friends for Christmas.
It is a lovely thing to look at. My wife refuses to go to the basement to see it, though. So I took some pictures. She fell in love with right away, and the next day she mustered the courage to go down to the basement and touch it.
This is the general idea of how a boiler works.
Out of my shoe box of old pictures I give you this one.
Old Movie Section is a site that publishes excerpts each day from G.D. Hamann's more than 170 books on Hollywood's Golden Age 1930-1949. Interesting stuff.
I you haven't been outside tonight, you should go. There's a nip in the air and you won't need a flashlight. Wear a warm jacket and gloves. Ear muffs if you've got 'em. When you get back, have a nice cup of tea or cocoa.
"Not only is it the best song I ever wrote, it's the best song anybody ever wrote." Irving Berlin
White Christmas, had its debut in the 1942 film Holiday Inn, starring Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire and Marjorie Reynolds. The song won Berlin an oscar for best music, original song in 1943, and became the title song of the film White Christmas in 1954 with Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Allen.
"Wedding Bell", Mecca of Romance, Rev. D. Pryce Gillis, Yuma, Arizona" This is the what's written on the back:
"This is a town where one can secure a marriage license immediately and they have several places like this where couples from all over the South West get married. Many movie stars come here to marry. They have very large signs along the highway coming from Calif and just inside the city of Yuma to advertise the ease with which once can get married." (No date.)
My wife and I had a debate about the cost of the wine I was to purchase for the evening's meal. I said "It doesn't matter. You're cooking it. Why waste money." "The recipe calls for Pinot Noir" she said. "Get Pinot Noir." "OK", I said. "But believe me it's just a waste of money." "Pick out a nice label", she said. I buy wine according to the label design. You're going to have to look at the bottle, so why not have something aesthetically appealing. I love the label of the Red Bicycle (bicyclette), a french Merlot--I think. They didn't have a Pinot Noir so I chose a rather attractive bottle from Smoking Loon Wine Company in Napa, California. Then I found a less expensive Australian wine for myself. Kelly's Revenge is a Shiraz with a delightful fruity flavor with just a suggestion of spring rain and orchids blowing in the breeze. I'm making all that up. The label says:
"Had a hard day? Stress getting to you? Packed full of ripe berry fruit flavours, this big Shiraz is perfect at the end of a long day. Kick back, relax, forget about the pressures and take revenge with Kelly. It's all about you now. Are you up to it?"
As I was leaving the store, I noticed they had this little bar set up with Absolut vodka bottles and tiny plastic cups. A very happy young woman called out to me as I passed to ask if I'd like a little sample. Now, I can't remember the last time I had vodka or scotch or any of the stronger stuff, but heck. "Why not" I said. "It's peach flavored Absolut with peach schnapps", she said, as I turned back the wee cup. "Peachy, isn't it?" "Yes", I replied. "Very peachy."
The coq au vin was the best I've ever eaten. Really. Probably had a lot to do with the wine. Just the aroma wafting from the kitchen as it slowly simmered while I sat pecking at this keyboard, wine glass at my elbow, and listening to death cab for cutie that my eldest boy thought I would like.
Summer Skin He was right. I liked them well enough to go to YouTube to hear more. What's in a name.
The last time I made coq au vin, the recipe called for whole chicken pieces--I think it must have been James Beard or Julia Child--whereas the Cook's recipe uses boneless parts. Man! What a difference. Not only is the taste superb, it requires a much shorter prep time.
