This Date in History - November 30

 

Happy anniversary, Lucy and Desi.

1700:  AT THE BATTLE OF NARVA, A SWEDISH ARMY OF 8,500 MEN UNDER CHARLES XII DEFEATS A MUCH LARGER RUSSIAN ARMY.

This was Sweden.  So how many of those 8,500 men actually started out as men?

1718:  SWEDISH KING CHARLES XII DIES DURING A SIEGE OF THE FORTRESS FREDRIKSTEN IN NORWAY.

I hope this Sweden thing isn't a trend for November 30.

1783:  A 5.3 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE STRIKES NEW JERSEY.

If we had another one 239 years later, we could wipe out those Real Housewives.

1786:  PETER LEOPOLD JOSEPHY OF HABSBURG-LORRAINE, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY, PROMULGATES A PENAL REFORM MAKING HIS COUNTRY THE FIRST STATE TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY.  CONSEQUENTLY, NOVEMBER 30 IS COMMEMORATED BY 300 CITIES AROUND THE WORLD AS CITIES FOR LIFE DAY.

That's a long way to say..."what a stupid decision!"

1803:  IN NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, SPANISH REPRESENTATIVES OFFICIALLY TRANSFER THE LOUISIANA TERRITORY TO A FRENCH REPRESENTATIVE.  JUST 20 DAYS LATER, FRANCE TRANSFERS THE SAME LAND TO THE UNITED STATES AS THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE.

Plus a ghetto to be named later.

1824:  FIRST GROUND IS BROKEN AT ALLENBURG FOR THE BUILDING OF THE ORIGINAL WELLAND CANAL.

And this is interesting why?

1829:  FIRST WELLAND CANAL OPENS FOR A TRIAL RUN, FIVE YEARS TO THE DAY FROM THE GROUND BREAKING.

I'm really starting to lose interest in November 30.

1835:  WRITER MARK TWAIN IS BORN.

And so is, in a way, the Mississippi River.

1868:  THE INAUGURATION OF A STATUE OF KING CHARLES XII OF SWEDEN TAKES PLACE IN STOCKHOLM.

I hope they weren't waiting for the statue to deliver an inaugural address.

1874:  SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL IS BORN.

His father later flashed V for "Vasectomy."

1886:  THE FOLIES BERGERE STAGES ITS FIRST REVUE.

Okay, now this November 30 is starting to perk up.

1900:  WRITER OSCAR WILDE DIES.

Finally tamed.

1918:  ACTOR EFREM ZIMBALIST JR. IS BORN.

77 Sunset Strip, snap, snap.

1920:  ACTRESS VIRGINIA MAYO IS BORN.

Hold the...

1924:  COMEDIAN ALLAN SHERMAN IS BORN.

Hello muddah, hello faddah...

1929:  TV PERSONALITY DICK CLARK IS BORN.

Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Virginia Mayo, Dick Clark....um, people born on November 30.

1934:  THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE "FLYING SCOTSMAN" BECOMES THE FIRST TO OFFICIALLY EXCEED 100 MPH.

Amtrak, please note.

1936:  ACTIVIST ABBIE HOFFMAN IS BORN.

That should read "activist/creep."

1940:  LUCILLE BALL MARRIES DESI ARNAZ IN GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT.

Which was later used as a plot on "I Love Lucy" and the Ricardos married in the exact same place.

1954:  IN SYLACAUGA, ALABAMA, THE HODGES METEORITE CRASHES THROUGH A ROOF AND HITS A WOMAN TAKING AN AFTERNOON NAP IN THE ONLY DOCUMENTED CASE OF A HUMAN BEING BEING HIT BY A ROCK FROM SPACE.

Well, for the sake of today's blog, I'm glad the woman wasn't living in Sweden at the time.

1965:  ACTOR BEN STILLER IS BORN.

His parents were ten times more talented.

1966:  BARBADOS BECOMES INDEPENDENT FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM.

The dullness that is November 30 continues unabated.

1971:  IRAN SEIZES THE GREATER AND LESSER TUNBS FROM THE UNITED EMIRATES.

Seeking the correct pronunciation please of the word "tunbs."

1979:  COMIC ZEPPO MARX DIES.

He was forgotten in life, but I remember you in death.

1982:  MICHAEL JACKSON'S "THRILLER," THE BEST SELLING ALBUM OF ALL TIME, IS RELEASED.

The music lives on.  His bony ass, however, does not.

1993:  PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON SIGNS THE BRADY HANDGUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION ACT INTO LAW.

Because it was important that we stop a firearm from being in the hands of Ann B. Davis.

1995:  OFFICIAL END OF OPERATION DESERT STORM.

T-shirts available at the gift shop.

1996:  SINGER TINY TIM DIES.

I wonder if his grave has tulips.

2003:  OLYMPIC SWIMMER GERTRUDE EDERLE DIES.

It's tough to do a flip turn in a grave.

2004:  LONGTIME JEOPARDY CHAMPION KEN JENNINGS FINALLY LOSES, LEAVING HIM WITH OVER 2.5 MILLION DOLLARS, TELEVISION'S BIGGEST GAME SHOW WINNINGS.

No need to give him that Rice-A-Roni and a home version of the game.

2007:  DAREDEVIL EVEL KNIEVEL DIES.

Nobody survives that very last jump.

2013:  ACTOR PAUL WALKER DIES IN A CAR CRASH.

Not so fast and furious.

2017:  ACTOR JIM NABORS DIES.

Goll-ee.

2018:  PRESIDENT GEORGE H.W. BUSH DIES.

Joining Barbara who passed seven months earlier.

Dinner last night:  Pasta Orechetti at Gianna's.

Hollywood Then and Now - November 2022

The amazing thing about Hollywood is that its proximity to the film industry prompts the whole city to be part of the sound stage.  Indeed, back in the silent era and the early days of talkies, it was not uncommon to see stars and crews just out and about shooting their movies.

And one of the most celebrated "sets" is in the Oscar-winning Laurel and Hardy short "The Music Box."  You may remember it.  Stan and Ollie lugging a piano up a long, long flight of stairs.

The steps are quite steep and mayhem occurs.

You truly can't build that on a sound stage.  And they didn't.  Because said steps still can be found in Silver Lake.  And they are so easy to find that I did just that about ten years ago.

Yes, that is me in the photo and thank God there is now a bannister there because that's the only way I could climb to even the first landing.

Still, more wonderful Hollywood history...right outside your door.

Dinner last night:  Spicy Korean chicken at the Cheesecake Factory.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - November 28, 2022

 Black Friday riots even extend to lingerie.

Dinner last night:  Veal Alla Anna and Tony at....wait for it...Anna and Tony's Restaurant.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - Sliders and a Lasting Memory

 

Thanksgiving weekend always prompts this memory.

I've been known to lament on these cyberpages about memories that no longer exist.  Movie theaters torn down.  Wonderful hometowns now less so.  Baseball stadiums now parking lots.

This White Castle from Minnesota apparently falls under the same category.  Instead of hamburgers, it's now selling jewelry.  I'm sure some folks in that town have been bitching about this for years.

But, there is some good news.  The White Castle of my youth still sits in the very spot where I left it.  On the corner of Allerton Avenue and Boston Post Road in the Bronx, with the grills still cooking up those bizarre sliders of chopped meat, onion bits, and dill pickles.  This was the place of many good childhood memories.

And one lasting and final one from my adult life.

I don't remember how old I was when I first sampled that White Castle.  Maybe when I was five or six or seven.  But, most likely, I was in the back seat of some Buick as I anxiously awaited my father to roll down the driver's side window and give his order to some chick on roller skates.  Yep, she was probably a car hop who would be rolling back to us in five minutes with a tray full of goodies.  Next to getting pizza at Sorrento's underneath the White Plains Road elevated tracks near 233rd Street in the Bronx, White Castle was my favorite place to "eat out."

The combined flavor of meat patties with five holes punched into them and those fried onions was sheer heaven to me.  The sign on the building said "Buy 'Em by the Sack" and we did.  They were so small that I could wolf down five or six in one sitting.  We sat there in the car, constructing a dinner table out of the dashboard or maybe the back seat.  It was okay to get a little sloppy and those little onion bits would turn up on the leather interior days after the meal had been consumed.

My father would relate to me that this White Castle tradition had been handed down from a previous generation.  When he was a kid, they also got White Castle burgers, although I'm guessing it was a little harder to work the crank on the window that was needed to hold up the dinner tray.  Then, as he grew up, White Castle was the place to go after dances and movies with your dates.  I'd sit there hearing the stories, surveying the parking lot for any strands of history that hadn't been yet tucked away into a dusty book on a shelf.  This very drive-in restaurant had obviously acted as a very connective thread in the fabric of my family.

After a while, we stopped going and I completely forgot what a White Castle Hamburger tasted like.  Sure, there was one right across the street from Fordham University where I went to college, but we never went there.  We said they sold "murder burgers," not so much for the food quality but more because it frequently was the site of some robberies at gun point.

Yeah, White Castle disappeared from my world almost as quickly as it had appeared.

I flip the calendar pages ahead a number of years.  My father's prostate cancer had re-emerged and nestled in the bone of his leg.  Things were winding down for Dad, but he opted for a weekly chemo treatment anyway.  Usually, one of his cronies would pick him up and drive him every Friday for whatever injection he needed to have. 

It was the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend and I was off.  I decided to give Dad's buddies the week off.  I'd do the honors of acting as driver for the day.  It was the least I could do for his pals who had so diligently helped him over the years.

As I helped him out of the doctor's office and into the car, I wondered what was next in the weekly routine.  Even when he was ill, my father was always all about a consistent schedule of events.  I asked him what happens next.

"Well, we usually go get something to eat."

Where?

"White Castle."

I was perplexed.  There wasn't one nearby in Mount Vernon.

"No, we go to the one down on Allerton.  Where we used to go."

Oh.  All the way down there, I thought.

Yes, all the way down.  And I shouldn't have questioned it for a single moment.

My father and I sat one more time in that parking lot.  The car hops were gone, but I brought the food out of the restaurant.  And we chomped down on five or six sliders as if the years had morphed all together into a single second.

I didn't know it that day, but it would be the very last meal I would share with my father.  Indeed, it was also the very last good memory I would keep of him.

When I went back to work after his death several months later, my friends in the office walked in and said they wanted to do something for me.  They brought in a wrapped frame.  It contained a colored sketch of one of the first White Castle restaurants.  I had obviously mentioned the significance at some point.

An odd way to commemorate my father?  Really it was the only and...best way.

Dinner last night:  SPO at Carlo's.

Classic Movie Trailer of the Month - November 2022

 Thirty years old this month?  That just can't be.

Dinner last night:  Pepperoni pizza at Ciao's.

Black Friday Crowd Avoidance Tips

 

I'm guessing that, even with a looming recessions, stores will be crowded today as people get the jump start on holiday shopping.  Why battle the crowds today for those insipid door buster sales?  You didn't want to be out at 4AM anyway. Try these great Christmas gift ideas culled from some of those paper-wasting catalogs you get in the mail.  Hey, who doesn't want their wine bottle stopped up with one of Santa's reindeer? If that's not your fancy, how about these gems.

A Christmas tree ornament designed after the legendary Bigfoot. I guess the Muppets and the Peanuts gang are now old hat.

A Star Wars toaster. May the force be with your English muffin.

Tired of your family gathering this Yuletide? Simply slap these on and you'll be by yourself in the emergency room before you know it.

Two squirts of this stuff and a complete town in Pennsylvania goes bankrupt.

Fruit.  Oh, wow.  Gee, thanks.  Because it's so hard to get to the super market.

This is a welcome mat for those home owners who are information geeks.  Step to their front door and you'll see the exact latitude and longitude.  Not the ideal Christmas gift for any nomadic families.

 

A vitamin supplement that will cure all problems.  Reversitall.  I'll take two the first morning and see.  If, by the next day, the Dodgers don't have the 2022 World Series trophy and Joe Biden is still President, I will officially announce that Reversitall doesn't work.

The Christmas Skymall also includes items for next Halloween.  How about this life-like creature that will sit next to your front door?  It's over six feet tall and, if that doesn't scare, the sticker price will.  Five hundred dollars!  You'll drop dead at that very front door.  And, if the folks have already purchased the welcome mat shown above, you'll have the exact latitude and longitude of your demise.

It's a clock.  It's a slide rule.  No, it's a clock.  No, it's a slide rule.  Can't make up your mind?  Let me be the judge.  It's a piece of junk.

Dinner last night:  The turkey dinner at the home of good friends Ellen and Bob.

The Thanksgiving Day Tradition

Yep, it's Turkey Lurkey Time from "Promises, Promises."   And I actually found a new video of it.   This one is from when the original Broadway cast did it on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Enjoy your own Turkey day...and the post-dinner nap.

Dinner last night:  Onion burger at Pete's Lounge in Bronxville.

This Date in History - November 23

 

Happy birthday, Harpo.  What do you have to say for yourself?

534 BC: THESPIS OF ICARIA BECOMES THE FIRST ACTOR TO PORTRAY A CHARACTER ONSTAGE.

Later signed as a client by William of Morris.

1227:  POLISH PRINCE LESZEK I THE WHITE IS ASSASSINATED AT AN ASSEMBLY OF PIAST DUKES AT GASAWA.

Perhaps the very first Polish joke.

1499:  PRETENDER TO THE THRONE PERKIN WARBECK IS HANGED FOR REPORTEDLY ATTEMPTING TO ESCAPE FROM THE TOWER OF LONDON.

Except he wasn't pretending to be dead.

1644:  JOHN MILTON PUBLISHES AREOPAGITICA, A PAMPHLET DECRYING CENSORSHIP.

Which was probably banned itself.  The original vicious cycle.

1808:  FRENCH AND POLES DEFEAT THE SPANISH AT THE BATTLE OF TUDELA.

Sure.  You'll notice the French couldn't manage this by themselves.

1859:  BILLY THE KID IS BORN.

And, for a while, I guess he really was a kid.

1863:  DURING THE CIVIL WAR, THE BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA BEGINS.

Choo choo.

1876:  CORRUPT TAMMANY HALL LEADER BOSS TWEED IS DELIVERED TO AUTHORITIES IN NEW YORK CITY AFTER BEING CAPTURED IN SPAIN.

Back when political corruption was the exception and not the norm.

1887:  ACTOR BORIS KARLOFF IS BORN.

It is alive.

1888:  HARPO MARX IS BORN.

His first word?   ___________________!

1889:  THE FIRST JUKEBOX GOES INTO OPERATION IN SAN FRANCISCO.

The only problem was nobody had any quarters.

1890:  KING WILLIAM III OF THE NETHERLANDS DIES WITHOUT A MALE HEIR AND A SPECIAL LAW IS PASSED TO ALLOW HIS DAUGHTER PRINCESS WILHELMINA TO BECOME HIS HEIR.

Hey, that's cheating!

1902:  MEDICAL EXPERT WALTER REED DIES.

Ironically, he died at home.

1914:  DURING THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION, THE LAST OF US FORCES WITHDRAW FROM VERA CRUZ.

Almost a hundred years later, we're now waiting for the Mexicans to withdraw from California.

1936:  THE FIRST EDITION OF LIFE IS PUBLISHED.

And so Life begins...

1940:  BASEBALL PITCHER LUIS TIANT IS BORN.

Or so they say...

1946:  FRENCH NAVY FIRE IN HAI PHONG, VIETNAM, KILLING 6,000 CIVILIANS.

Just in case you thought all the killing over there was our fault.

1955:  STOOGE SHEMP HOWARD DIES.

Several years after the death of Curly.  That third Stooge slot was a killer.

1959:  GENERAL CHARLES DE GAULLE, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE, DECLARES HIS VISION FOR A EUROPE FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE URALS.

Or, in the case of France, the Urinals.

1963:  THE BODY OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY LIES IN STATE AT THE WHITE HOUSE.

What the heck are we going to do with all this PT-109 junk on his desk?

1971:  REPRESENTATIVES OF CHINA ATTEND THE UNITED NATIONS FOR THE FIRST TIME.

Anybody for a game of ping pong?

1972:  ACTRESS MARIE WILSON DIES.

My late friend Irma.

1973:  ACTOR SESSUE HAYAKAWA DIES.

How cheap a joke would it be to simply write "sayonara?"

1974:  AUTHOR CORNELIUS RYAN DIES.

The author of "The Longest Day."  On November 23, he should only know how long.

1979:  ACTRESS MERLE OBERON DIES.

From Wuthering Heights to Withering Depths.

1981:  PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN SIGNS THE TOP SECRET NATIONAL SECURITY DECISION DIRECTIVE 17 GIVING THE CIA THE AUTHORITY TO RECRUIT AND SUPPORT CONTRA REBELS IN NICARAGUA.

You would have thought that Nancy's tarot cards would have told him this was a bad idea.

1990:  THE FIRST ALL WOMAN EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTH POLE SETS OFF.

When you've exhausted all your Match.com contacts on this continent.....

1995:  FILM DIRECTOR LOUIS MALLE DIES.

My Dinner with St. Peter.

2001:  SINGER O.C. SMITH DIES.

I guess the apples ripened.

2003:  GEORGIAN PRESIDENT EDUARD SHEVARDNADZE RESIGNS FOLLOWING WEEKS OF FLAWED ELECTIONS.

I guess those Chicago election booths got used here.

2006:  LYRICIST BETTY COMDEN DIES.

From On the Town to Below the Ground.

2012:  ACTOR LARRY HAGMAN DIES.

Not from a gun shot wound.

2014:  WASHINGTON DC MAYOR/DRUG ADDICT MARION BARRY DIES.

Another inductee into the Politician Hall of Shame.

2016:  BROOKLYN DODGER PITCHER RALPH BRANCA DIES.

You should have thrown a curve ball.

Dinner last night:  Kung Pao Chicken at PF Chang's.

Three Films in One

 

One of my most favorite things to do on this blog is review movies.   And the lack of them recently, thanks to...well...everything, has made me consider curtailing this blog.  

But, in a sudden burst of a return to normal, I'm back at the theaters.   And, with this particular film, it was a spontaneous excursion to the cinema all by myself one afternoon.   I hadn't done that since March 2020.

The drawing card here was a movie I had heard about because it won Best Picture at the Cannes Film Festival.  Its showing was followed by an eight minute standing ovation.  Okay, let's see what this is all about.

Indeed, "Triangle of Sadness," stuck with a title that sounds like a soap opera, was a worthy indoctrination back to the multiplex.   Directed by somebody named Ruben Ostlund, it is in English but was seemingly made by a production staff from all over Europe.   It's an interesting 150 minute piece that is really three movie genres at once.   Well, not really at once.   Because it starts out as one thing, meanders to another, and then lands shockingly on a third.

The first 30 minutes or so is really a romantic comedy.   Two young super models, Carl and Yaya, meet and decide to promote a relationship as their connection together will drive their social media numbers up as influencers.  Talk about a modern plot.

Well, since they are truly of the beautiful people group, they are invited on a luxury yacht/hotel full of super rich people and a drunk captain (Woody Harrelson!!!) who rarely leaves his quarters.

On board, we meet both the guests and the wait staff who are very much aware that they are on a lower level than the others.   There's lot of discussions about socialism and capitalism and often borders on becoming a NPR podcast.   But we soon land on the second film genre---the disaster movie.

On a night when all the guests are being given a most exotic meal, a storm kicks up a la "The Poseidon Adventure."  People are tossed about and they are indeed tossing up chunks and emitting copious amounts of diarrhea.   This particular set piece is hilarious and lasts about twenty minutes.  Mercifully, the torture is ended when an oddly placed hand grenade blows up the yacht.

Now we float literally to the third genre...the survival movie that has very "Lord of the Flies" undertones.  There are about eight survivors (including Carl and Yaya) who wash ashore on a deserted island.   Naturally, the mix is part rich and part wait staff and now nobody is really in charge.   You definitely see where this is going.

"Triangle of Sadness" is never ever boring and always gives you something to chew over.   It ends rather abruptly with no really clear conclusion, but it still does not cheat the viewer.  I wouldn't give it an eight minute standing ovation, but my knees have a two minute limit.

Overall, it was fun to see and even more fun now that I am reviewing it.   One note, however: the young girl playing Yaya died suddenly two months ago.   A sad postscript to a decent film.

LEN'S RATING:  Three-and-a-half stars.

Dinner last night:  Long travel day.  Nothing really.  

Monday Morning Video Laugh - November 21, 2022

Somebody needs to rethink Thanksgiving. 

Dinner last night:  Sandwich as I clear out the refrigerator for my trip to NYC.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - Thanksgiving Day Musings

 

I've never been the biggest fan of this holiday.  I love cooking for friends over the holidays, but less so for Thanksgiving.   On Christmas, I can get bold and inventive.   On the fourth Thursday of November, you sort of have to follow a format and those food staples are not that compelling for me.   I make a kick ass stuffing in a slow cooker and I love putting together homemade cranberry sauce.  But, other than that....meh.

So, last year for the first time in 25 years, I ditched the LA kitchen for a seat at the table of friends.   I was so exhilarated by the experience that I am repeating it in 2022.   

Still...not my favorite holiday.  Over the course of my life, I spent it at the Macy's parade or in my kitchen or on my couch arguing with an uncle.  Big whoop!  Throughout it all, I come up with some of the same memories...and recollections that I always do.   For instance...

---Just when are turkeys killed so they can be prepped for super market sale by Thanksgiving.

---I am guessing most turkeys must be sweating out October every year. And then those that get through there with necks attached must get a false sense of security becausem, just around the corner, you get Christmas.

---Which is also a bad time of year if you're a vacuum-packed ham.

---What the hell is a turnip?

---My grandmother used to love to eat the turkey's behind and innards. Sometimes called "the Pope's nose."

---And that only works if the current guy is an Italian.

---They actually conduct a major marketing campaign around that string bean casserole thrown together with a can of cream of mushroom soup and some onion rings. I saw a commercial that talked lovingly about the history of this dish.

---Gee, there's a lot of love that goes into that dish. Three cans to open and you're done.   

---Hope you didn't work up a sweat, Aunt Marge.

---Oh, what am I saying?   I did the same thing the last three Thanksgivings that I hosted.

---Do you wonder what the percentage is of half-eaten meals at a family gathering?  I mean, as soon as somebody brings up Biden or Trump...

---If you go Christmas shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, you are a loser. And an idiot.

---They're already talking about people being lined up at 4AM to be the first ones into Walmart.

---It is a media-concocted event that most stupid Americans have bought into hook, line, and drumstick.

---But why is it you never see people camped outside of a Nordstrom's?

---And look at the people in the news reports around the event.   It's called "Black Friday" for another reason.

---By Friday night, we'll see virtual stampedes of people who all look like they had that extra third or fourth slice of pumpkin pie.

---We haven't see such a storm of angry elephants since "Tarzan Finds a Son."

---Wouldn't the states of Nebraska and Arkansas make great parking lots for New York and California?

---Must be fun Thanksgiving dinners when all those peckerwoods in the middle of the country get together over the paper tablecloth-covered bridge table.

---"I'd like you to meet my new wife, Cousin Shirley."

---Yes, I am an elitist. Always looking to be on the right side of the velvet rope.

---Is it me or has the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade be commercialized beyond belief? Every damn float and balloon comes attached with some corporate sponsor.

---Remember when you had Popeye and Bullwinkle? Now, you've got the freakin' Energizer bunny.

---Maybe Lamisil should sponsor a balloon. I'd love to see that disgusting toe fungus character being dragged down Broadway.

---The best part of the parade is counting the C list caliber of celebrity that shows up.

---"Oh, look, on the Pilgrim Float, why it's Elaine Joyce!!"

---I went to the parade five years in a row when we had third floor offices in New York. You get a great view of how much duct tape they need to hold together Garfield's ass.

---There's already one radio station here in Los Angeles that has flipped to all Christmas music. And I am already sick of "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer." Must be a real knee slapper in Louisiana.

---Okay, I've got a beef with Burl Ives. What the hell is a "holly jolly Christmas?"

---Holly is a noun, not an adjective! I've never heard of somebody being holly.

---What can I expect from some old guy who was singing Jimmy Crackcorn?

---And I don't care!

Enjoy the holiday.   Hopefully more than me.

Dinner last night:  Mongolian beef at Wokcano.

Classic TV Theme Song of the Month - November 2022

 This little ditty had just premiered...40 years ago????

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

Your Weekend Movie Guide for November 2022

 

Ah, this warms my heart so.   Back in the day when a big holiday movie was...well...a big holiday movie.   And I remember seeing this one at the Yonkers Central Plaza theater listed in the ad.

As we head into the season of cinema going, what cinema are you going to...if any?  You know the monthly drill, gang.   I'll comb through the newspapers and let you know what might be worth your time...or not.  

As for me, I'd love to visit the Central Plaza again...but alas, it is now a Party City.

Wakanda Forever:   Given how much I hated the Black Panther movie, this is Wakanda Never.

Triangle of Sadness:   Blog review coming.   This was the Best Picture at the last Cannes Film Festival.   Weird but compelling.

The Estate:   Some family drama with Kathleen Turner and Toni Collette.   What caught my eye?   Producer: Sarah Jessica Parker.

Banshees of Inisherin:   It's in English, but they speak Irish.   That means you still need subtitles.

Lyle, Lyle Crocodile:   For kids.  I hope.

Black Adam:   And I bet Eve is White.

Armageddon Time:  A Jewish family in 1980s Queens with Anne Hathaway, Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Strong, and hopefully Mookie Wilson.

Smile:  Fun and games in a psyche ward.

One Piece Film Red:   Looks like some creepy anime to me.

Till:  Emmett Till's mom looks for justice.   Similar to a dozen other movies out in the past year.

Tar:   Cate Blanchett as music icon Lydia Tar.   Who is?

Call Jane:  Elizabeth Banks as a 60s housewife looking for an abortion.   Similar to the other dozen movies out in the past year.

Prey for the Devil:   A female exorcist.  Well, they want equality.

The Fabelmans:   Oscar buzz for Steven Spielberg as he tells the story about his childhood.

50 Minutes in the Bunker with the President of the US:   Three reporters are locked up with a paranoid POTUS when war breaks out.   Is this a documentary?

Prophet:   About some Cardinal.   Not the retiring Albert Pujols.

Poker Face:  Russell Crowe plays poker.   A fly walking up a curtain.

Christmas With You:   Looks like a Hallmark movie that got lost at the film distributor.

Bad Axe:  A documentary about an Asian-American family trying to keep their restaurant open during COVID.   This probably doesn't end well.

Lamborghini-The Man Behind the Legend:  Guess.

The Inspection:   A military don't ask/don't tell story but with a Black soldier.

The Menu:  A black comedy about an exclusive restaurant.  I'm thinking one scene on food poisoning alone.

She Said:   The two New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story.   What Spotlight was to pedophilia, this movie will be to sexual harassment.

Dinner last night:  Had a late lunch so just a salad.

Len's Recipe of the Month - November 2022

 

What?  Wait!  It's November and that doesn't look like turkey.

It's not.  Deal with it.

So here's how you improvise.   Several weeks ago, I got it into my head that I wanted to make pot roast.  I go to the super market and my first stop is the veggie section.   And here's what I needed for my pot roast.

2 carrots.

1 onion.

1 pound of Yukon Gold potatoes.

2 stalks of celery.

And then I head over to the meat department for the requisite two to three pounds of chuck roast.

Except they didn't have any.

Now I didn't want to go through the hassle of returning all the veggies.   And I discovered that the store did indeed 1 1/2 pound packages of short ribs with the bone intact.  I never had cooked them before but how different could it be?  

And I wound up with a delicious stew.

So chop and slice all the veggies above.

Salt your short ribs and, in a Dutch oven heated with some EVO, brown them on all sides.   Remove to a plate.

Toss in the carrots, the celery, and the onion.   Let that get happy for about five minutes over medium heat.

Throw in two tablespoons of tomato paste, one cup of red wine, and two cups of beef broth.   Return the meat to the pot.   Place in a pre-heated oven for about two hours at 300 degrees.

Add the potatoes and return to the oven for another hour.

Add a bag of frozen peas and then let this all come together for about twenty minutes.

Serve.   Enjoy.   And remember what you can do if the super market is missing one of your needed ingredients.

Dinner last night:  Grilled Taylor Ham on pretzel bun.

This Date in History - November 16

 

Happy birthday, Dwight Gooden.  You broke my mother's heart.

534:  A SECOND AND FINAL REVISION OF THE CODEX JUSTINIANUS IS PUBLISHED.

I have no idea what this is.  Perhaps the earliest version of a phone book?

1491:  AN AUTO-DA-FE, HELD IN THE BRASERO DE LA DEHESA OUTSIDE OF AVILA, CONCLUDES THE CASE OF THE HOLY CHILD OF LA GUARDIA.

I've frequently flown into his holy airport.

1532:  FRANCISCO PIZARRO AND HIS MEN CAPTURE INCA EMPEROR ATAHUALPA.

I doubt he's any relation to Juan Pizarro who used to pitch for the Chicago White Sox.

1776:  DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, HESSIAN MERCENARIES CAPTURE FORT WASHINGTON FROM THE PATRIOTS.

I should have taken the Patriots with the points.

1805:  DURING THE NAPOLEONIC WARS, RUSSIAN FORCES UNDER PYOTR BAGRATION DELAY THE PURSUIT BY FRENCH TROOPS UNDER MURAT.

Pyotr Bagration???  Now there's a historical name you don't hear every day.

1821:  MISSOURI TRADER WILLIAM BECKNELL ARRIVES IN SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO OVER A ROUTE THAT BECAME KNOWN AS THE SANTA FE TRAIL.

Master of the obvious.

1849:  A RUSSIAN COURT SENTENCES FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY TO DEATH FOR ANTI-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES LINKED TO A RADICAL INTELLECTUAL GROUP.

Sorry, Fyodor, Pyotr Bagration is still the name of the day for me.

1852:  THE ENGLISH ASTRONOMER JOHN RUSSELL HIND DISCOVERS THE ASTEROID 22 KALLIOPE.

He did this while standing on his Hind legs.

1907:  ACTOR BURGESS MEREDITH IS BORN.

The Penguin!!!

1907:  OKLAHOMA IS ADMITTED AS THE 46TH U.S. STATE.

Which means Oklahoma outlived Burgess Meredith who died in 1997.

1914:  THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF THE UNITED STATES OPENS.

And I'm thinking Oklahoma will outlive that, too.

1916:  VOICE OVER ARTIST DAWS BUTLER IS BORN.

The voice of Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, and Elroy Jetson.

1938:  LSD IS FIRST SYNTHESIZED BY SWISS CHEMIST DR. ALBERT HOFMANN.

Unofficially, this is the day that Woodstock was born.

1940:  DURING WORLD WAR II, IN RESPONSE TO THE LEVELING OF COVENTRY, ENGLAND BY THE LUFTWAFFE TWO DAYS BEFORE, THE ROYAL AIR FORCE BOMBS HAMBURG.

Take that, you Nazis!!!

1944:  DUEREN, GERMANY IS DESTROYED BY ALLIED BOMBERS.

And take that, you damn Krauts!!!

1945:  UNESCO IS FOUNDED.

I read this too fast.  I thought it was the day the cookie company got started.

1960:  ACTOR CLARK GABLE DIES.

Just weeks after complaining that Marilyn Monroe was always late to the Misfits set, Clark is now late himself.

1961:  POLITICIAN SAM RAYBURN DIES.

No relation to Gene.  Not a match.

1964:  BASEBALL PITCHER DWIGHT GOODEN IS BORN.

I had a choice of photos to use.  One where he is wearing blue and orange.  The other where he is wearing just orange.

1973:  NASA LAUNCHES SKYLAB 4 WITH A CREW OF THREE ASTRONAUTS.

Were there more Police Academy movies than there were Skylabs?

1973:  US PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON AUTHORIZES THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE ALASKAN PIPELINE.

Perhaps the only legal thing he did do in 1973.

1981:  ACTOR WILLIAM HOLDEN DIES.

Died when, in a drunken stupor, he fell, hit his head on the coffee table, and bled to death.  Conspiracy theorists argue that he was attacked by the furniture.

1989:  A DEATH SQUAD OF EL SALVADORAN TROOPS KILLS SIX JESUIT PRIESTS AT JOSE SIMEON CANAS UNIVERSITY.

Is it too late to send them over to Fordham?

2000:  BILL CLINTON BECOMES THE FIRST US PRESIDENT TO VISIT VIETNAM SINCE THE END OF THE VIETNAM WAR.

He needed to see where all that Southeast Asian porn gets produced for his laptop.

2005:  TV HOST RALPH EDWARDS DIES.

This is Your Death.

2006:  ECONOMIST MILTON FRIEDMAN DIES.

Moving over to the debit side of the ledger.

2009:  ACTOR EDWARD WOODWARD DIES.

Death is the true Equalizer.

2010:  FILM PUBLICIST RONNI CHASEN IS KILLED.

About a mile from my Los Angeles apartment.  I'm still locking the doors at night.

2015:  ACTOR DAVID CANARY DIES.

Remember Candy from "Bonanza?"

Dinner last night:  Leftover chicken thighs.

Only In Theaters!!!!

 

These days, those are the three words I want to see in any movie trailer.

Only In Theaters.

It forces you out of the house and away from your 60 inch television on which movies were not supposed to be enjoyed.  It compels you to partake in the communal experience of seeing a film.   Laughing together at the right parts.  Sighing as one at the other right parts.   

In essence, being part of an audience.

Such is the case with "Ticket to Paradise" and there are those three words right there on the ad.  A movie you're supposed to go out and see.   With two solid performers who can elevate any material from mediocrity.   In this instance, Julia Roberts and George Clooney do their level best to raise the quality meter beyond the usual sappy traits of a romcom.  So what if they don't completely succeed?

You're in a theater.

Yes, "Ticket to Paradise" likely was made because Julia and George wanted to get out of the house post-COVID and spend a month in Bali.  Who wouldn't?  Indeed, the movie itself is tripped up by a script that got a C+ instead of a B+.   And, despite an obvious friendship, the two leads don't seem to have all the chemistry you would expect.   But, like I said...

You're in a theater.

In this one, Julia and George, now old enough to have a grown daughter, really have had zero of a relationship since their kid was born.   As a matter of fact, they hate each other.   But their kid has gone on vacation to Bali, met a hunky seaweed farmer, and now is summoning Mom and Dad to come for the wedding.   Of course, you know where this is going.   The problem is that the road getting there is a bumpy and uneven one, despite the gallant tries of Roberts and Clooney.   It's like that tired old car that needs to turn over about ten times before it gets moving.   By the time the car is humming, you have forgotten where you were going.

But, like I said...

Who cares?  I'M IN A THEATER!!!!

LEN'S RATING:  Two-and-a-half stars.

Dinner last night:  Hamburger.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - November 14, 2022

The now requisite monthly visit with Oliver the Beagle.   And, if Thanksgiving is on your mind...

Dinner last night:  Grilled teriyaki chicken thighs and noodles.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - Back When I Cared About the NFL

 

Because I don't know now.   Care, I mean.   But when I was a kid, I used to make a smooth and seamless transition from Met fan to Jet fan.

Ah, remember this configuration above.   Shea Stadium, a baseball park, being used for football.  Those field level seats on tracks and moved to create some semblance of pro football dimensions.  Regardless of the layout, the place was still a wind tunnel of nuclear proportions.   An October game in the upper deck was your quickest route to frost bite.

Still, since I rooted for the Mets, it made total sense for me to adopt the Jets, the football team that played in this frozen tundra.  Shea was my stadium.  I was a "one stop" shopper when it came to playing fields.

The only problem was that it was a lot harder to get tickets to see the Jets than it was for the Mets.  Back then, the Mets played 81 home games a year and it was a lot harder for them to fill 55,000 chairs for all those contests.  The Jets, however, had only 7 home games a season.  Plus, as soon as the franchise signed quarterback Joe Namath, this was one hot ducat.  Meanwhile, there was no television of home games.  If you really wanted to see the Green and White, you had to know somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody else. 

I knew nobody.  But, then again, I was only 11.

My father also knew nobody that could get us even remotely close to the stadium.  In those days, to watch a home football game on television, you had to drive to Connecticut where it was usually televised inexplicably on New Haven TV stations.   So, New Yorkers would drive there and set up shop on a bar stool.  Or take a room in a motel.

I once suggested the latter to Dad.

"WHAT ARE YOU SOME KIND OF NUT?"

So, that's a no?

At this rate, the only way I would ever see the New York Jets play at Shea is by flipping through the team yearbook.

Enter an unlikely solution to the problem.  In the body of my mother.

Mom had gone back to work once I hit the age of 8.  And was doing some sort of nightly factory work at the Union Pen Company on McQuesten Parkway in Mount Vernon, New York.  She probably was shoving pens into manila envelopes.  We certainly were never in need of ink in my house.  We soon discovered there was another perk residing at the Union Pen Company.  My mom shared it one Friday in September.

"My boss, Fran, is a season ticket holder for the Jets."

I was unimpressed.  Good for her.

Mom leaned over to whisper.  This meant the next piece of information was a little juicy, maybe even salacious.

"She goes with her boyfriend.  I think they live together."

The last part of the sentence trailed off.  This must really be racy.  I didn't really care.  Or understand.

"They have three tickets and offered to take you."

I love Fran.  Whoever the hell she is.

I'm unaware of the back room machinations that led to this momentous revelation and offer.  Usually on the incredibly shy side when it came to meeting new people, I was suddenly dying to meet Fran, her man friend, and anybody else living in that cozy love nest of hers.  They had Jet tickets.  And one for me!

I assumed my parents were totally comfortable with this arrangement.  Fran must have been thoroughly vetted.  It's not like they were handing over their son to the first stranger who pulled up his sedan to our front door.  Nobody really discussed this topic in those days, but I'm sure Mom and Dad were pretty sure neither or her boyfriend were child predators on loan from the Grove Street playground.

On Sunday, they pulled their Cadillac into our driveway and I was good to go.  As I bounded downstairs through Grandma's part of the house, I caught her spying through the curtains.

"Who the hell are they?"

My ticket to a Jet game, lady!  See ya later!

I was sky high.

Fran and her boyfriend were very friendly.  I don't remember his name for some reason.  Nevertheless,  I have vivid memories of both of them.  They were, for lack of a better description, grizzled.  Raspy voices likely due to the cigarettes that they had lit.  If I had to predict their Saturday night activity, it might be bowling.  Or adorning a bar rail at the local tavern.  Regardless, I was in seventh heaven.  And they were delighted to have me along.

As we pulled away from the house and started to motor down Baychester Avenue in the Bronx, I was floored by the next thing Fran and her beau did. 

She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. 

While driving!

Then Fran slid over closer to the driver.  She slipped his idle arm around her and they cuddled/drove all the way to Shea Stadium.

Huh?

What is this?   Something I'd never seen before.  Not from my usual spot in the back seat watching my parents in the front seat.  And these two were not just my folks' age.  They were probably even older! 

So, going to a Jets football game for the very first time, I was also going to be experiencing something that I really had only witnessed on television via Lucy and Ricky Ricardo or Rob and Laura Petrie.

Open displays of affection.

Fran and the guy held hands as we walked through the parking lot.  They had their arms around each other as we rode the escalator up to their Mezzanine seats on the 30-yard-line.  Whenever the Jets scored, they kissed.

Suddenly, the game was a side attraction to what I was watching as the main event.  I was captivated.

So much that I was even more eager when, two weeks later, I got the same invitation via my mother.  Fran had so much fun that they wanted me to go again. 

Of course, I said nothing to my parents about the added attraction...and education I was receiving.   How would I describe it anyway?

As it turned out, I was invited to five of the Jets home games that year.   I was starting to feel like I belonged there as a season ticket holder.  I saw the same people there every game.  Some even remembered my name.  And, every week, the interplay between Fran and her guy never wavered.  As a matter of fact, it seemed to escalate with the Jets' success that year.

The last home game of the year brought, however, an interesting sidebar to the whole Fran-boyfriend sexcapades.  One that was equally as mystifying to me. 

And a little unsettling.

I was being my usual crazy 11-year-old self.  Rooting wildly for a big yardage gain by the Jets.  The guy seated in front of us turned to smile as I cheered.   He turned to Fran.

"Your son is quite a fan."

Her response threw me for a loop.  She put her arm around my shoulders.

"Yes, he is."

I've always wondered about that.  Was it too complicated for her to explain to a complete stranger who I really was?  The kid of some woman who worked for her in a pen factory.  Maybe.

Or perhaps she liked, for a moment, the whole notion.  Maybe completing the ideal picture in her mind.  A loving man.  A football-crazy son. 

The American family.

I never told that story to my mother either.

One football season later, I noticed there were no more Jet tickets.  Mom told me Fran had left the company. 

And ditched her boyfriend.

Hmmmm.  Maybe there is an amazing consistency when two people sit on opposite ends of the front seat of a Buick.  Not saying much and perhaps connecting even less.

I know that, for the rest of my childhood, I paid a lot more attention to my folks from my spot in the back seat of a LeSabre.

Dinner last night:  Sausage and pepper pizza from Maria's.