When I was a kid in Mount Vernon, New York, I would hear about all these famous celebrity restaurants in Hollywood. Oh, how exciting must they be, I thought.
One that popped up as the place to be seen was Romanoff's in Beverly Hills. It was where you wanted to be and this color rendition makes it seem so.
Dinner last night: Had a big lunch so just some ice cream.
Here's a great and cool way to serve them. Lay out some parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Slice a couple of them and place them on the sheet. Set your oven for 375. Sprinkle some kosher salt and then drizzle some olive oil on them. The big secret here is also to sprinkle some brown sugar on top. It will help with caramelizing them. Place in the oven for about forty minutes.
While they're in the oven, lay out some slices of prosciutto and mozzarella on a plate. Take the tomatoes out and layer them on top. Drizzle with a little balsamic vinegar.
A perfect late summer meal.
Dinner last night: You're looking at it.
Yet another reminder that this was one of the best sitcoms ever to hit our TV sets.
Seasons later, Knots pulled this off again in a different way. When they wrote out the character of Laura Avery, essayed beautifully by Constance McCashin, they did it with an off-screen brain tumor. But, the real meat of the situation came through during a two episode wake and funeral with dialogue that was 80% improvised by the other cast members. The reactions were all spot-on and you felt as if cameras had been trained on funerals in your own family. It was amazing television and Knots never ever got credit for doing it.
No discussion of "Knots Landing" would be complete without mentioning one of the most layered characters ever created for television. That would be politician/corporate mogul Greg Sumner as played by William Devane. The portrayal is rich and diverse. The guy is evil. The guy is funny. The guy is totally likable despite a myriad of faults. Each week, I waited anxiously for Devane's scenes as he did things with this character that certainly were not on the written page.
Frequently, Knots also turned to music in order to tie some plot lines together. One holiday season, they did so to the strains of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," arguably the best ever rendition of the song and done magnificently by series star Michele Lee. Here's another segment where you are caught up on some plot points via a song on the radio.
Again, a creative device that advanced television drama to a higher value. And "Knots Landing" got no credit for it.
In its later years, "Knots Landing" was my NY office's ultimate water cooler show on Friday mornings. That's right, folks. There was no Netflix to binge on. You had to wait a whole seven days to see what would happen next.
Shocking.
Given how many people in my office participated in these discussions, it would be no surprise how excited my writing partner and I would be when series stars stopped in to our studios to do some satellite interviews. Donna Mills was beautiful and gracious and posed for a picture with us, which I can no longer find. Michele Lee went one better. During one of her interviews with a radio station, she put us on the air with her to talk about Knots.
Which, obviously, I can still do for days and days and days and days. A later variation on Knots would be "Desperate Housewives" and our friend Marc Cherry certainly did intimate the Knots brand well, right down to the inclusion of Nicollette Sheridan.
But it still wasn't like Thursday nights at 10PM. When my world stopped for an hour.
Thanks to David Jacobs. A life nicely played.
Dinner last night: Kung pao chicken, shrimp, and beef at Panda Inn.
Sixty years ago this month. I just saw it again on a big screen and the damn movie still works.
Ah, this is a musical memory from the summer 60 years ago. A number one hit by Kyu Sakamoto, who later died in a plane crash in 1985.
What is noteworthy about this song is that, despite it was in Japanese, my mother sang along whenever it played on the radio.
Except my mother couldn't speak Japanese.
Dinner last night: Fittingly today....hibachi rice.
But, first, I must make an announcement. For some reason, at this stage in my life with one bad knee and one bionic one, I have come to consider all the options offered to me as somebody with a ADA-approved blue placard. And, if there is one area that I have become active in, it's the empowerment of those people with limited mobility.
Trust me. I never thought I would become an activist for any cause. But I guess this is my lot in life moving forward.
So I have pushed the Los Angeles Dodgers about the lack of handrails in the field and loge levels, thereby making some longtime season ticket holders struggle down the stairs and aisle to their seats.
I have argued with the Hollywood Bowl where there is enough ADA parking for about forty cars. PS, the Bowl attendance capacity is over 15,000.
And, if you have had the gall to park in a handicapped spot without a blue placard, you have gotten a nasty note from me on your windshield.
But, now, I have a new cause celebre in this area and I have just noticed it in the last two months as I have visited several doctors' offices.
Why the fuck are chairs so low in their reception areas? I mean, 75 percent of the people going to these offices are probably 70 and older. With my bad knees, I have trouble getting up from these low chairs. How bad is it for others?
Oh, don't get me wrong. The reception areas all look nice. But every single one has chairs that are way too low and a struggle for some people. Take, for instance, the photo at the top which I copied from a website that featured "the best medical reception area chairs."
Whoa. That chair looks very similar to the one in my ortho surgeon's office. It may look comfy, but it's a deathtrap for some folks including moi.
One more thing I am adding to my list as an ADA activist.
Dinner last night: Grilled Taylor ham.
A few months ago, I was at the movies and one of the trailers featured the dreaded red screen, signifying that this trailer had strong language and scenes. What popped was this talking dog film called "Strays." It may have been offensive but, for three minutes, I was laughing my ass off. I immediately checked to see when it was going to open.
Oh, wow, I thought. I'm actually anticipating the release of a film. And looking forward to opening weekend, for Pete's sake.
Well, it opened. I went. And was sort of disappointed. Indeed, all the really funny stuff was in the trailer. While "Strays" was entertaining and a worthy time passer, I couldn't help but feel that I had been misled. Because along with the super raunchy three minutes you saw in the trailer, there was also another ninety minutes that actually was a semi-sweet tale about...gasp...friendship.
The story is pretty simple and yes, please remember that you are watching talking dogs. Reggie (Will Ferrell) is a cute little mongrel with a nasty owner who goes to great lengths and distances to try and get rid of the dog that really belonged to his ex-girlfriend.
Reggie meets up with some other strays who have been equally disowned by masters. Bug, as voiced by Jamie Foxx, decides to help Reggie get revenge by....wait for this...biting his master's dick off.
What followed is a road-like buddy movie which is, while sporting colorful language, is nowhere near the raunchy fun I saw in the trailer. But they got me into the theater so the trailer I suppose was successful. But, once again, I have to say that I wanted more bad language and dirty jokes.
Still, "Strays" sports a lot more cleverness than that Barbie swill everybody is running to see. And "Strays" doesn't strive to do anything but entertain...also unlike that Barbie mess.
And, if you never saw the "Strays" trailer, you will probably be quite satisfied.
LEN'S RATING: Three stars.
Dinner last night: Salad.
Why I don't go to water parks...
But I digress.
I wasn't particularly worried about the oncoming storm. I mean, it's rain and wind. Come on. I'm from NY.
Now, when you live in New York, it is rare to get a hurricane that far up. Of course, the recent Sandy storm was horrific and lots of people are still dealing with that several years later. But, for the most part, you're safe from hurricanes in the Big Apple.
But I do remember two of them. One I think was named Donna and that one was noteworthy because it showed up on the very first day I ever went to school. Back in that day, you didn't have all that social media to drive up the angst several days before. Essentially, you heard a hurricane was coming and you dealt with it.Fifty years ago, this was getting set to premiere on NBC. And, given the annoying theme song, I'm surprised it lasted even one season.
Back then, a trip to the movies was a glorious night out. Now, not so much. People barely get to the kitchen to microwave a bag of popcorn. The community experience of enjoying a film is sadly gone. But, I'll look anyway. You know the monthly drill, folks. I'll sort through what now resembles a newspaper and give you my gut reaction to what's currently not being seen on our local screens.
Save for one which is doing big box office.
Barbie: And sucks. One of the worst movies I have ever seen. Don't buy into the hype.
Haunted Mansion: Disney repurposes everything. Now it's turning theme park rides into dopey movies.
Oppenheimer: Three hours long. And how did they make that long a movie about the producer of "I Love Lucy?" Oh, wait, I got that wrong.
Last Voyage of the Demeter: I never took the first voyage of the Demeter.
Meg 2 - The Trench: This is something large that eats things. Starring Lizzo?
Sound of Freedom: I hear good things about this child trafficking story. People on Fox News love it. So, don't tell me. It has a conservative POV?
Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning - Part 1: Reviewed here recently. Almost three hours of jaw dropping excitement. The same time you would spend on line at a Six Flags park.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Mutant Mayhem: Mutant Mayhem....otherwise known as Congress.
Shortcomings: An Asian rom com. Which means it's no better or worse than a regular rom com.
Talk to Me: I don't wanna.
Gran Turismo: A racing biopic. I am waving a yellow flag.
Jules: A reliable cast of Ben Kingsley, Harriet Sansom Harris, and Jane Curtin meet an alien. One from outer space, not Mexico.
Blue Beetle: Ringo the Smurf?
Theater Camp: This comedy about kids at a musical comedy camp had a cute trailer. Never a good sign.
Strays: I saw the trailer and thought the movie was foul and offensive. I also laughed my ass off so I'm going.
Dinner last night: Cold salad plate.
Since I was five years old, I've always been one to have a newspaper every single day. When I was a kid, my father used to bring home the Night Owl edition of the NY Daily News. It would hit newspapers the night before around 830PM. Oddly enough, I can remember the back page would feature the first couple of innings of that night's Mets game.
For me, the appeal of the daily newspaper was three fold. The movie reviews and listings are what I used to learn how to read. Then, of course, there were the comic strips. And the baseball box scores and stats.
All through my years of high school and college and working in Manhattan, I always had a newspaper. When I was a commuter, I'd have two each day for the train ride. The Daily News going to work and then the New York Post going home.
So, years and decades later living in Los Angeles, nothing has changed. I get the Los Angeles Times delivered every morning. Admittedly, it has become a far left journalistic nightmare. I've always said that we could have a devastating 7.5 earthquake and another story on a Trump indictment would knock the quake off the front page of the LA Times.
But still I get the paper. For the movies. For the baseball stories. For the comics. And no morning is complete without a Sudoku puzzle.
Of course, the paper over the years since COVID has gotten skinnier and skinnier. The Sunday magazine...or roto gravure...is gone. The Wednesday section devoted to food is history. But, nevertheless, I keep getting for all the reasons cited above.
Two weeks ago, I had a hankering to look up a baseball box score to see how ex-Dodger Trea Turner was doing. There was none. Gone also in the sports pages were today's schedule and probable pitchers. Over the next few days, I kept a lookout for this information. Despite the Dodgers playing at 6PM...usually plenty of time for a game story to be filed...there was no hint of a score. All the sports stories were feature-like.
I then realized the movie listings were also gone. There was no way to see where "Oppenheimer" was playing. The comics and Sudoku were there. But little else.
I asked my college roommate about this. He had a storied career working for several newspapers. He's now a college journalism professor. He would know.
Why no Dodger game story?
"It's because the press deadline is 5PM."
Huh?
"It's not considered a newspaper anymore. It's really a daily magazine."
Oh.
Admittedly, all the information I was looking for can be found on-line. But there was always something about that black ink rubbing off on your fingers.
No more.
Everything changes. Not always for the good. I looked through this morning's "magazine." Well, at least, Dagwood is still fighting with Mr. Dithers.
Dinner last night: Burger at Wood Ranch.
