The Muggy Days of August

 

As Lucy Ricardo would say,  "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"

If only she ran as fast as her mascara....

They caught him, but he sure doesn't want to catch anything himself.

"D'oh!!!!!!!!!!"

Oh, say, can you see?  Well, not so good through these metal bars.

The guy on this vintage T-shirt could be going to prison.

Oh, my God!!!  They arrested Michelle Obama when she was in college!!!!

I don't think you can arrest a corpse.

Anybody got an aspirin?

President of the Chamber of Commerce, South Chicago division.

Dinner last night:  Grilled cheese at Ipic Theater.

Hollywood Then and Now - July 2025

 It was the quintessential Hollywood restaurant.   The place to be seen.   Featuring on the menu Elizabeth Taylor's favorite chili.   

That would be Chasen's.

Like all nice things, you can't them forever.   Chasen's shut down in the mid 90s.   I never got to eat there.

But now I shop there.   It is a super market named Bristol Farms.

But there is still a little piece of the old inside.  Part of the dining area still exists if you put some coffee and a donut.

Dinner last night:  Pizza.

This Date in History - July 30

 

Happy birthday, Lisa Kudrow.  Where are Joey and Rachel taking you today?

762:  BAGHDAD IS FOUNDED BY CALIPH AL-MANSUR.

Lucky us.

1502: CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS LANDS AT GUANAJA OFF THE COAST OF HONDURAS DURING HIS FOURTH VOYAGE.

His fourth trip?  Wow, he's racking up the frequent explorer miles.

1619:  IN JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA, THE FIRST REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY IN THE AMERICAS, THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES, CONVENES FOR THE FIRST TIME.

Tape delay on C-Span.

1676:  NATHANIEL BACON ISSUES THE DECLARATION OF THE PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA.

Everything's better with Bacon.

1729:  FOUNDATION OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

Good.  Now the Mets have some place to play in October, 1969.

1864:  DURING THE US CIVIL WAR, UNION FORCES ATTEMPT TO BREAK CONFEDERATE LINES AT PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA BY EXPLODING A LARGE BOMB.

That large bomb just may have been Michael J. Fox's last sitcom.

1866:  NEW ORLEANS' DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT ORDERS POLICE TO RAID AN INTEGRATED REPUBLICAN PARTY.  

Note the words "integrated" and "Republican" are together.

1890:  BASEBALL STAR CASEY STENGEL IS BORN.

Amazin'!

1916:  ACTOR DICK WILSON IS BORN.

Mr. Whipple!

1918:  POET JOYCE KILMER DIES.

Like a tree, she is also planted.  Well, I thought it was a she.  Thanks to all who notified me of the correct gender.   Hey, you write this every Wednesday without a fact checker.

1932:  PREMIERE OF WALT DISNEY'S FLOWERS AND TREES, THE FIRST CARTOON SHORT TO USE TECHNICOLOR AND THE FIRST ACADEMY AWARD WINNING CARTOON SHORT.

Notice that there is no mouse involved.

1933:  ACTOR EDD BYRNES IS BORN.

Now over 80, I wonder if he still needs a comb.

1934:  BASEBALL COMMISSIONER BUD SELIG IS BORN.

A total wimp.

1941:  SINGER PAUL ANKA IS BORN.

A classic shithead.   Ask anybody out in Los Angeles.

1947:  ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER IS BORN.

This is before he said he would be back.

1956:  A JOINT RESOLUTION OF THE US CONGRESS IS SIGNED BY PRESIDENT EISENHOWER, AUTHORIZING IN GOD WE TRUST AS THE US NATIONAL MOTTO.

Yeah, that held up well.

1956:  ACTRESS DELTA BURKE IS BORN.

Suzanne Sugarbaker!

1963:  ACTRESS LISA KUDROW IS BORN.

As good as she was on Friends, she was even funnier as her twin on Mad About You.

1965:  PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON SIGNS THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT OF 1965 INTO LAW, ESTABLISHING MEDICARE AND MEDICAID.

And also Medidebt.

1971:  DAVID SCOTT AND JAMES IRWIN ON APOLLO 15 LAND ON THE MOON.

At this point, the moon missions were a complete yawn.

1974:  US PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON RELEASES SUBPOENAED WHITE HOUSE RECORDINGS AFTER BEING ORDERED TO DO SO BY THE SUPREME COURT.

Now advertising "final weeks."

1975:  JIMMY HOFFA DISAPPEARS FROM A MICHIGAN PARKING LOT.  HE WILL BE DECLARED LEGALLY DEAD ON THIS DATE IN 1982.

I wonder how many touchdowns were scored over him.

1990: GEORGE STEINBRENNER IS FORCED BY COMMISSIONER FAY VINCENT TO RESIGN AS PRINCIPAL PARTNER OF THE NEW YORK YANKEES AFTER HIRING SOME ONE TO DIG UP DIRT ON DAVE WINFIELD.

 History has given this guy a pass.  I still think he was a bad act.

1996:  ACTRESS CLAUDETTE COLBERT DIES.

It happened one last night.

1998:  BUFFALO BOB SMITH DIES.

Say goodbye, kids.

2003:  IN MEXICO, THE LAST "OLD STYLE" VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE IS MADE.

A German car.  Made in Mexico.  Enough said.

2007:  DIRECTOR INGMAR BERGMAN DIES.

Now that's really the guy with the dark hood.

2020:  PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE HERMAN CAIN DIES.

About a year before, I had a conversation with him over a urinal at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

2023:  ACTOR PAUL REUBENS DIES.

Some people called him Pee-Wee.

Dinner last night:  Hamburger.

Piano Man

 

What do you think I would have called this movie review?  "Accordion Guy?"

Truth be told, I suppose I am a pretty big Billy Joel fan.   If you grew up in the 70s and 80s in NY, he provided your life's anthem from teen age to young adult.   His lyrics were always so autobiographical.   But, at the same time, he was hitting all the same notes we were in life.

So, naturally, I had a built-in interested in this new HBO documentary, which runs over five hours across two installments.   Peppered with musical hits and video seemingly taken over the course of his whole life, the Billy Joel fan in you and me will be delighted.   

You get the whole unfiltered story.   His abandonment by his father at the age of 7.  His relationship with his mother who appears to have been bi-polar.   His four marriages.   His addiction to liquor.  His many varied and sundried moods.  It's all here.

As a good documentary would do, I learned a lot of facts I never knew.   I didn't realize how involved his first wife was in his career and how many of his song lyrics told the story of their relationship.   I also didn't realize how long he and Elton John toured together.   Heck, I saw one of their shows in the Meadowlands.

I also didn't realize he had virtually retired from performing until he was prompted to participate in a Hurricane Sandy benefit concert.   This got his adrenalin going again and resulted in the Madison Square Garden monthly residency which saw him stage 100 concerts there over ten years.

Yeah, this documentary was compelling and moving and educational.   And, despite the length, the two parts fly by.

Sing us a song, Piano Man.   Sing us a song tonight.

LEN'S RATING:  Four stars.

Dinner last night:   Leftover chili.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - July 28, 2025

Some people just need to stay on the shore. 

Dinner last night:  Fried chicken at CHX Sandwiches.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - It's Just The Humidity

 

It ain't the heat.  Well, you know how the saying goes.  Especially if you lived in NY.

It's summer.   Let's go down to the shore.

A lot of my friends today talk about their childhoods at the shore. Spending every day at the beach. Renting cabanas for the summer. Barbecuing on the sand at night as the sun went down and the ocean breezes kicked in.

Me? I lived in Mount Vernon, New York. With close proximity to the subway. If the train zoomed by you on the 233rd Street platform, the resulting wind was your summer refreshment for the day.

More specifically, we were landlocked. Getting to the beach was an ordeal. President Kennedy had pledged that, by the end of the 60s, Americans would be on the moon. He could have easily added that the goal was to get me to a beach more than twice any given summer.

Oh, don't get me wrong. We liked the beach. At least, my mother and I did. My father couldn't be bothered. I don't think he even owned a bathing suit. And, since he was the driver in the household and frequently working, we couldn't depend upon him for transportation to the shore. We were on our own.

And neither of the closest beaches were, well, close.

You had Glen Island Beach in New Rochelle. A neighboring city. The park there had a shoreline on an inlet from the Long Island Sound. Sea water twice removed. By the time it got to the Glen Island sand, there was barely a ripple. There were more waves in my mother's new permanent. When you dipped into the Glen Island waters, you might as well have been taking a bath in the tub at home.

Of course, to the south of our home, there was the Bronx where Orchard Beach beckoned to us. 

Or, as we often referred to it, "Horseshit Beach." Not only was the water there equally as tranquil, but it was incredibly dark. It could have easily been mistaken for a bottle of Guinness Ale. The folks on the sand were not much better. Oh, they seemed okay. It's just that most of them were speaking English as a twelfth language. We had traveled ten miles to the south, but we somehow landed on the shores of San Juan. If your ball landed on some stranger's blanket, you needed a United Nations interpreter to get it back.

As a beach resort, Orchard Beach was always our last resort.

Yeah, we preferred Glen Island Beach. But, the trick was how to get there.

Enter my mother's cache of girlfriends. A prerequisite for my non-driving mother was to know other women who could. With valid licenses and cars to boot. If it looked like it was going to be hot and humid for a few days, my mother immediately went to the Princess phone and commenced dialing. Usually, somebody got recruited with their kids and we were packing beach provisions in lickety-split fashion.

The only problem is that none of my mom's friends had children that were anything but...girls.

"We're going to the beach with Aunt Ronnie."

All my mother's girlfriends were aunts to me. And Aunt Ronnie had two girls---Susan and Nancy. Sweet? At that age, not.

But, there I was. An only child out with a couple of kids and I still had nobody to play with. To make matters worse, one of the other girls I was beach-teamed with was usually still young enough (and flat enough) to skip the traditional top of the bathing suit.

Can we go home yet?

Of course, we'd eat our packaged sandwiches for lunch and I would hate the taste of my favorite Taylor Ham sandwich when it was seasoned with mustard and sand. I'd sit there amidst four or five gabby women or girls and want the sun to bake me to death. And, naturally, lunch at the beach seemed like an eternity. Because...

"You have to wait an hour before you can go back in the water."

Why?

"You just wait."

Kill me now, please.

I'd sit on that blanket, drifting into a gossip-induced coma. Can you please make friends with somebody that has a boy for a kid? Please!!! I always wondered why my mom never suggested that I invite along one of my chums. Leo from up the block or maybe Russell from school. That would have solved everything.

If we were really desperate for a beach day and nobody was available with transportation, my mother would prevail upon our other in-house source for a ride to the shore. Grandpa. That would mean Horseshit Beach would be the day's destination as Grandpa knew the Bronx roads and little else. It was on one of those excursions that I realized Grandpa was at the end of his days. I've told the story here before.

We had gone to the Bronx Riviera and arranged for Grandpa to come and pick us up at an appointed afternoon time. For the ride home, there were two other passengers with me and Mom. One of her friends and her daughter, of course. Well, anyway, mucho chatter ensued and the car soon sounded like a chicken coop. It distracted Grandpa.

And, for some bizarre reason, he seemed to be a little unsure about the way home. And then he ran a stop sign.

And whacked a car coming the other direction.

I got knocked onto the floor of the back seat, but everybody was otherwise okay. And quiet for a change. Surprisingly, there was no damage to our car. And a medium-sized dent on the car we hit. But, the real trauma was etched on Grandpa's face. He was crestfallen. He had never been involved in an accident before. His demeanor showed the result of his epiphany. With his reflexes slowing down, he was encountering the inevitable.

His driving days were over.

As my family often did, we went into emergency lockdown mode. Grandpa whispered to me.

"Don't tell your grandmother."

Check.

My mother whispered to me.

"Don't tell your father."

Check again.

The secret didn't hold for long. Because my grandfather pretty much stopped driving anywhere after that.

And we never went to Horseshit Beach again.

After that, any beach days were over for good. Mom and most of her friends went back to work. And it would be years before I went to a beach again. By the end of high school and college, I broadened my shore line horizons to include Jones Beach on Long Island. And I would journey out there with my neighborhood buddy, Leo.

After all, he had the car.

Dinner last night:  Chili.

Classic Movie Trailer of the Month - July 2025

 A very odd trailer for this movie which opened...gasp...40 years ago this month.

Dinner last night:  Cheese and crackers.

The Doggone Days of Summer

 

More photos that were better off being undeveloped. Take, for instance, the one above. Er, the guy in the green gym shorts. What exactly is going on with him at this very moment?

She always gets into his head.

It might be me, but I always love a good nun-on-stilts act.

Yeeeesh! Does Eddie Bauer even carry pants with that length?

Something borrowed, something blue, something stinks, is it you?

Have we told lately that we have a pool? No, really, have we? Because we do. We have a pool. Really. A pool.

Why do I think that Dad doesn't necessarily stop with churros?

Dinner last night:   Chicken Bulgogi.

Yet Another Demise

 

That would be the daily newspaper.  Soon to be gone.  Forgotten.   And not on my front step every morning.

I think it was a TV moment with Ted Baxter who wanted to invent a newspaper that didn't have black ink that got on your fingers.   Unlike Ted, I like that daily feel of newsprint.  There was always a morning paper in my home.  Sometimes, my father would bring home the first edition at 830PM the night  before.   Years later when I would take the commuter train to work, I would pick up the NY Daily News at the stand in the Yonkers station.

Old habits didn't die when I moved to Los Angeles.   I got the LA Times delivered to my apartment and that happens till this very day.   This is despite the fact that the LA Times itself is a piece of liberal-slanted garbage.  As long as I could read sports columns about the Dodgers and do the Sudoku puzzle, I was a happy subscriber.

As readership fell or moved over to the digital version, the subscription price slowly went up.  As their staff got smaller, the deadline for stories got pushed up to five PM.  You get no night baseball game stories or corresponding box scores.  Probably much to their delight, the LA Times didn't announce the re-election of Trump until the Thursday after Election Day.  One friend of mine in the journalism world told me that the LA Times was now known as a "daily magazine."

Meanwhile, their subscription support staff on call is literally on the other side of the world and practicing extremely broken English.  As I found out when I had to call them.  You see, my subscription invoice had gotten increased 70 dollars!!!

I asked the incoherent slob on the other end to justify this increase.   Production costs, she said.  Bullshit, I said.   After a frustrating back and forth conversation with Senora Wences, we settled on a thirty dollar hike.  We'll see where we are in the fall.   

Friends tell me that I should simply relegate myself to the digital subscription which is cheaper.

But then...my fingers won't get dirty.

Dinner last night:  Fried chicken sandwich from CHX.

This Date in History - July 23

 

Happy birthday, Daniel Radcliffe.   It's a shame such a good actor will be known forever for those stupid Harry Potter movies.

1632:  THREE HUNDRED COLONISTS BOUND FOR NEW FRANCE DEPART FROM DIEPPE, FRANCE.

Which is apparently Old France.

1793:  KINGDOM OF PRUSSIA RE-CONQUERS MAINZ FROM FRANCE.

Old or New.  Not clear.

1829:  IN THE US, WILLIAM AUSTIN BURT PATENTS THE TYPOGRAPHER, A PRECURSOR TO THE TYPEWRITER.

What's a typewriter?

1833:  CORNERSTONES ARE LAID FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE KIRTLAND TEMPLE IN OHIO.

They must have been some sexy cornerstones.

1840:  THE PROVINCE OF CANADA IS CREATED.

Good, now hockey has some place to play.

1885:  GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT DIES.

I've got a tomb for you.

1894: ACTOR ARTHUR TREACHER IS BORN.

Fish and chips are half price today.

1903:  THE FORD MOTOR COMPANY SELLS ITS FIRST CAR.

Not interested until the radio is included as a standard option.

1918:  BASEBALL STAR PEE WEE REESE IS BORN.

I hope he got his nickname because of his height.

1926:  FOX FILM BUYS THE PATENTS FOR THE MOVIETONE SOUND SYSTEM.

Yeah, I know.  We ain't heard nothing yet.

1927:  THE FIRST STATION OF THE INDIAN BROADCASTING COMPANY GOES ON THE AIR.

First Indian sitcom:  The Honeymonsooners.

1929:  THE FASCIST GOVERNMENT IN ITALY BANS THE USE OF FOREIGN WORDS.

Unlike America where English is apparently banned.

1933:  ACTOR BURT CONVY IS BORN.

In the Banana Section.

1940:  RADIO HOST DON IMUS IS BORN.

Dirtbag.

1942:  DURING WORLD WAR II, THE GERMAN OFFENSIVES OF OPERATION EDELWEISS AND OPERATION BRAUNSCHWEIG BEGIN.

Edelweiss was more appealing when it was a song on Broadway.

1943:  THE RAYLEIGH BATH CHAIR MURDER OCCURS IN ENGLAND.

Now don't you want to know what that was all about?

1948:  DIRECTOR D.W. GRIFFITH DIES.

The Death of a Director.

1952:  GENERAL MUHAMMAD MAGUIB LEADS AN OVERTHROW OF KING FAROUK OF EGYPT.

Farouk Off.

1962:  TELSTAR RELAYS THE FIRST TRANS-ATLANTIC TELEVISION PROGRAM, FEATURING WALTER CRONKITE.  

And still there was nothing on.

1966:  ACTOR MONTGOMERY CLIFT DIES.

From here to eternity.  Trip complete.

1967:  ONE OF THE WORST RACE RIOTS IN US HISTORY BEGINS ON 12TH STREET IN DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

Main excuse for rioting:  "it was hot."

1968:  THE ONLY SUCCESSFUL HIJACKING OF AN EL AL AIRCRAFT TAKES PLACE WHEN A JETLINER IS COMMANDEERED BY THREE MEMBERS OF THE POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE.

This shit never ends.

1973:  MONICA LEWINSKY IS BORN.

Okay, Miss, it's past sixty days.  Please come and pick up your dry cleaning.

1982:  THE INTERNATIONAL WHALING COMMISSION DECIDES TO END COMMERCIAL WHALING BY 1985-86.

Okay, who's going to hire a guy with one leg?

1982:  ACTOR VIC MORROW DIES.

A head of his time.

1984:  VANESSA WILLIAMS BECOMES THE FIRST MISS AMERICA TO RESIGN AFTER NUDE PHOTOS OF HER APPEAR IN PENTHOUSE.

What?  Bess Myerson never got naked?

1986:  IN LONDON, ENGLAND, PRINCE ANDREW, DUKE OF YORK MARRIES SARAH FERGUSON.

In retrospect, I wish I had ten years in the office pool.

1989:  ACTOR DANIEL RADCLIFFE IS BORN.

Loved him on Broadway in "How to Succeed."

1992:  A VATICAN COMMISSION, LED BY JOSEPH RATZINGER, ESTABLISHES THAT LIMITING CERTAIN RIGHTS OF GAY PEOPLE AND NON-MARRIED COUPLES IS NOT EQUIVALENT TO DISCRIMINATION ON GROUNDS OF RACE OR GENDER.

And this is the guy who resigned as Pope, right?

1995:  COMET HALE-BOPP IS DISCOVERED.

Hale Bopp?  He had a big song in the 50s, I think.

2010:  JOURNALIST DANIEL SCHORR DIES.

Washed up on...

2011:  SINGER AMY WINEHOUSE DIES.

Because there was way too much wine available in that house.

2012:  ASTRONAUT SALLY RIDE DIES.

Roger and out.

Dinner last night:   Leftover General Tso's Chicken.

Did You Catch the License Plate On That Cape?

 

So, the Superman character is what?  A 150 or so years old.   It seems like every generation has one.  There were the Hollywood 2 reelers in the 30s and 40s.   You had the kitschy TV show in the 50s.   In the 70s, you had Superman and Lois Lane flying around on a date like it was some Hallmark movie.

And now you have Superman for this younger generation.   You know who they are?   Avoiding direct contact with people and living on social media, which has them all expecting the world to end tomorrow.  And that's the world doomsday problem that this new edition of Superman must deal with it.

As I read friends' comments on the movie via Facebook, I know the audience was aligning themselves on political sides.  Half of them were big fans of this film and they were all liberal voters.   This is likely due to the fact that the general premise  is that our government is evil.   And, oh, yeah, one villain is a metaphor for Trump.   The other side of viewers, largely conservative, are longing for the days of George Reeves and Christopher Reeve.

As for me, I liked it but didn't love it.   The perfect moderate response.   It is entertaining but stupid all at the same time.  The world is being challenged by Lex Luthor who looks suspiciously like Tom Cruise with a bald wig on.   The Daily Planet of Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry White (who is Black) are in the forefront of the coming war, despite the fact that most people stopped reading newspapers twenty years ago.

And there's the new generation's Superman.  Still good looking but with many flaws as you expect from the first "woke" super hero.   When we first meet him,  he just had gotten his ass kicked.   Oh, and he is not above using foul language. Superman is helped by his dog Crypto and no animals were harmed during this production because he was nothing but digitally produced.  To wit, I recommended none of the actors in the cast except for Lois Lane doing her best Mrs. Maisel impersonation.  And, naturally, it's set up at the end for the half dozen sequels still to come.

Now my side note is that I saw this film in a theater equipped with 4D.  Trust me.  That's not an apartment number.   Matched to the action on the screen, the audience is rocked and tossed and sprayed with water and cold air.  It was fun for a while, but ultimately the gimmick exhausted me.   It was something akin to what it would be like if I was an eighty-year-old Katharine Hepburn going to the movies.

Oh, well.  Such is life in current day Hollywood.

LEN'S RATING:  Three stars.   

Dinner last night:  General Tso's Chicken.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - July 21, 2025

 As if it's not hot enough...

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - Me and Maxine

 

Ah, here she is.  With the face only a baboon's mother would love.  With Trump in office again, Mad Maxine Waters is flapping those big Ubangi lips again.   She is a detestable human being who has skimmed millions of dollars off innocent tax payers for years.   Close to 90, I keep looking for your expiration date.   I guess Billy Joel's song is on the mark.  Only the good die young.

Luckily, I don't live in Maxine's "hood" district.  So, I should be thankful that her antics have nothing to do with me.  But...

That was not the case about 15 or so years ago.  A time when Ms. Cheeta got me and good.

It was back in the day when I was making a LA-to-NY trip every six weeks.   Now, despite the fact that I flew a lot and got rewarded a million plus miles, it wasn't always easy to upgrade to business or first class on American Airlines.

I was all set to travel out to NY on the 8AM flight.  The night before, I got one of those rare notifications.

"You have been upgraded to business class."

Sweet.  No need to buy some overpriced airport cookies or cupcakes for breakfast.   I could taste the omelet already.

Except...

I was seated comfortably in the terminal the next morning waiting to board.   And then I got called to the desk.

"Um, we are so sorry but somebody's party bumped your upgrade off the grid."

Okay, so it's somebody with millions of miles more than me.  But that was not the scenario in play.

About five minutes later, an entourage of 20 Black travelers showed up.  Their Pied Piper leading the parade?

You guessed it.

This group essentially took over business class.  The Queen herself grabbed the available seat in First Class...which is an oxymoron.

I always made it a practice to chat with the flight attendants.  Some even saw me multiple times.  So I asked about some intel of what happened.  It seems AA got a distress call the night before.  Maxine and her entire office was being flown last minute for an appearance on...wait for it...

The View.

Kill me now.  Naturally, Maxine and her fiefdom flew for free.   And somebody paid for it via their income taxes.  

As for me, I got bonused 10,000 miles.   Nevertheless, I suddenly realized I could hate this woman even more.

Dinner last night:  Burger at Nomad.

Classic TV Theme Song of the Month - July 2025

 She didn't make the opening credits, but, trust me...this is the show that first gave us Goldie Hawn.

Dinner last night:  Jersey Mike's Italian sandwich.

What Is a Photo Disaster?

 Apparently this...

Talk about brown nosers.

"Spiderman: The High School Musical."

What happens when the neighborhood gang gets into Mrs. Jenkins' blackberry brandy.

Aren't there less violent ways to hunt for watermelon?"

Going over where ICE was last spotted.

Dinner last night:  Pork potstickers and ramen noodles.

Another Case of the Munchies

 

What have there been?   70 or 80 different films under the Jurassic movie franchise.   It seems like they release a new one every week.

Truth be told, I am a sucker for them.  Sure, none come close to the wonderful original from thirty or so years ago.   But they are good summer popcorn fare as you munch your treat while the lesser-known characters get munched themselves.

Every three or so films, they swap out the cast for newer players.  Now it's Scarlett Johansson leading the expedition into some jungle areas where you know, lurking behind a bush, is some dinosaur from yesteryear.   

While the cast can change, the plots don't.   Minor characters get eaten.   There is one who is the big villain.   They will last till the end but ultimately get eaten. There are always two kids in the cast.  They never get eaten but are often put through the wringer of terror.

All of the above is as reliable as a hot fudge sundae.   It doesn't tax the brain and isn't supposed to.   Yep, the Jurassic movies are all the same and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I was captivated by this one, even though it was as plausible as a Kamala Harris presidency.   

Enjoy.  With extra butter.

LEN'S RATING:  Three stars.

Dinner last night:  Pizza.

This Date in History - July 16

 

Happy birthday in Heaven to Bess Myerson.   Hope you still aren't hanging with Ed Koch up there.

622:  THE BEGINNING OF THE ISLAMIC CALENDAR.

Pick one up at your friendly neighborhood Islamic dry cleaner.

1661:  THE FIRST BANKNOTES IN EUROPE ARE ISSUED BY THE SWEDISH BANK STOCKHOLMS BANCO.

With a free toaster to the first 50 customers.

1769;  FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA FOUNDS CALIFORNIA'S FIRST MISSION, WHICH WILL LATER BECOME THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO.

Hence, the Padres.

1782:  FIRST PERFORMANCE OF WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART'S OPERA "DIE ENTFUHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL."

Try going up to the box office and asking for tickets to that.

1790:  THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA IS ESTABLISHED AS THE CAPITAL OF THE UNITED STATES.

Let the graft begin.

1849:  ANTONIO MARIA CLARET Y CLARA FOUNDED THE CONGREGATION OF THE MISSIONARY SONS OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY IN BARCELONA, SPAIN.

Sons?   It sounds like a convent to me.

1861:  AT THE ORDER OF PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN, UNION TROOPS BEGIN A 25 MILE MARCH INTO VIRGINIA FOR WHAT WILL BECOME THE FIRST BATTLE OF BULL RUN DURING THE CIVIL WAR.

Virginia in July can be hot and muggy.

1882:  MARY TODD LINCOLN DIES.

She was supposedly a bit of a nut.

1907:  ACTRESS BARBARA STANWYCK IS BORN.

So sexy on screen.  It's amazing she was a lesbian.

1907:  BUSINESSMAN ORVILLE REDENBACHER IS BORN.

Pop.

1909:  MOHAMMAD ALI SHAH QAJAR IS FORCED OUT AS SHAH OF PERSIA AND IS REPLACED BY HIS SON AHMAD SHAH QAJAR.

Was it something he said?

1911:  ACTRESS GINGER ROGERS IS BORN.

Let's face the music and dance.

1924:  TV PERSONALITY BESS MYERSON IS BORN.

How did that romance with Ed Koch work out for you?

1925:  SURGEON FRANK JOBE IS BORN.

One-half of Kerlan-Jobe.  Tommy John sends his thanks.

1931:  EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE I SIGNS THE FIRST CONSTITUTION OF ETHIOPIA.

Does Haile Selassie II sign the second?

1935:  THE WORLD'S FIRST PARKING METER IS INSTALLED IN OKLAHOMA CITY.

Crap, I thought I had a quarter.

1941:  JOE DIMAGGIO HITS SAFELY FOR THE 56TH CONSECUTIVE GAME, A STREAK THAT STILL STANDS AS A MLB RECORD.

A record that will stand forever.

1945:  THE MANHATTAN PROJECT - THE ATOMIC AGE BEGINS WHEN THE UNITED STATES SUCCESSFULY DETONATES A NUCLEAR WEAPON NEAR NEW MEXICO.

Watch out, Japan.  It's coming.

1951:  "THE CATCHER IN THE RYE" BY JD SALINGER IS PUBLISHED FOR THE FIRST TIME.

Book report due by Monday.

1956:  RINGLING BROS. AND BARNUM AND BAILEY CIRCUS CLOSES ITS VERY LAST "BIG TENT" IN PITTSBURGH.

Ever since they're held in arenas.   And the elephants do their business on city streets outside.

1969:  APOLLO 11, THE FIRST MISSION TO LAND ASTRONAUTS ON THE MOON, IS LAUNCHED.

And Neil Armstrong starts thinking about what to say.

1973:  WATERGATE SCANDAL - FORMER WHITE HOUSE AIDE ALEXANDER BUTTERFIELD INFORMS THE US SENATE THAT PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON HAD SECRETLY RECORDED CONVERSATIONS.

What tape recorder?

1979:  IRAQI PRESIDENT AHMED HASSAN AL-BAKR RESIGNS AND IS REPLACED BY SADDAM HUSSEIN.

Uh oh.

1981:  SONGWRITER HARRY CHAPIN DIES IN AN AUTO ACCIDENT ON LONG ISLAND.

Should have taken the taxi.

1999:  JOHN F. KENNEDY JR, PILOTING A SMALL PLANE, CRASHES IN THE OCEAN NEAR MARTHA'S VINEYARD.  THE CRASH ALSO KILLS HIS WIFE AND SISTER-IN-LAW.

He barely passed the bar.  What makes anybody think he could fly a plane?

2008:  SINGER JO STAFFORD DIES.

Her stuff was played on the record player over and over and over when I was a kid.

2012:  DIRECTOR WILLIAM ASHER DIES.

He directed "I Love Lucy" and was married to Elizabeth Montgomery, so I guess life was good.

Dinner last night:  Salad.

Keep On Truckin'

 

Go figure.

Gourmet food trucks have been a thing for about 15 years, but I only recently frequented one.   

Not only did I live to tell the story, but I wanted to keep it continuing.   CHX Sandwiches offers some of the best food I ever had.

Somehow I got connected to this food truck run by a 20-year-old kid who trained at the Michelin-rated restaurant Kali in Hollywood.    Specializing in fried chicken dishes, the truck listed on the menu a Korean fried chicken sando which called to me.   After all, one of the best meals I have had this year was a Korean on in, of all places, Glendale, Arizona.   When I saw that CHX delivered, I ordered one.

OMG!   This was the most phenomenal sandwich I have had in years.   For sides, I included a spicy cucumber salad and some Korean cole slaw.

OMG!

I frantically did a Google search to get on this truck's schedule of appearances. Luckily, one of this kid's regular stops is ten minutes away.   Two days ago, I craved it all over again.  They were out of the sides so I settled for some French fries.

OMG!!!

Crispy and salted to perfection.   Fast food fries are never this good.

Again, I have yet to go to the truck myself, but I plan to do because I want to meet this boy wonder of the kitchen.   From my looks on his social media, I am not alone as a fan.   I see such followers as Helen Hunt and Peri Gilpin.

And me!   So far, I'm batting 1.000 when it comes to food trucks.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - July 14, 2025

 Everybody in the pool...whether you like it or not.

Dinner last night:  Ribeye steak and sauteed mushrooms.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - Mayberry and Me

 

Here comes an odd admission.

I used to have a crush on Ronny Howard.

Oh, not in a sexual way, since I was not even in double digits of age at the time. But, I really wanted to be his friend. Well, maybe Opie Taylor's friend. So, I could live in Mayberry, hang out with the kid, and do everything you can do on a summer's day in your average American small town.

With Andy, Barney, Floyd, Gomer, Goober, Helen, Thelma Lou, Aunt Bee, and Otis.

My weekly desire to be a part of this world resulted in a fairly regular battle with the Warden of Bedtime, namely my mother. You see, for a while, "The Andy Griffith Show" aired on Monday nights at 930PM. The problem was that, in those formative Wonder years, my bedtime on school nights was 830PM. After much negotiation, my mother added an amendment to the Parental Constitution and extended my bedtime on Monday night to 10PM. Sweet. Of course, there was the fine print disclaimer that often now follows most TV ads for pharmaceuticals. I could stay up to watch Andy provided I had gotten to bed at the regular time on Sunday night.

It didn't take me long to figure out that I had been snookered on this one. Because, indeed, we were always visiting some relative on Sunday and usually never got home until 9PM or later. The biggest fly in the household ointment was if we had traveled to visit my aunt and uncle in Deer Park, Long Island. Over an hour away. This is not the way you learn to love your relatives. If we had gone out to Suffolk County, I would be relentless in my behavior. Starting around 5PM, I would start the patented whine.

"Can we go soon?"

"Can we go home now?"

"I'm tired."

It became a race to get home so I could hit the hay by 830PM. After a while, my bedtime on Monday was permanently unrestricted. Perhaps they were tired of hearing me bitch, moan, and groan at some family gathering. And I didn't really lose that much sleep since I always managed to catch up on the ZZZZs in class the next day. It also helped that CBS eventually bumped Andy up to 9PM.

Unlike some of the other sitcoms I liked as a kid, "The Andy Griffith Show" was quieter and softer in its approach to humor. It was simple. It was homespun. It was virtually devoid of any of the usual complications offered by life. Even the romance was sweeter. When you would see Andy in a loving moment with girlfriend Helen Crump, there was usually nothing more than hand holding or a peck on the cheek. I do, however, recall one episode where Andy was reunited with an old high school flame. At the end of the show, Andy gave her a dead-on, right on the mouth, probably a little tongue kiss. It was jarring and now widely regarded by devout fans as one of the worst episodes in the entire series.

This wasn't Andy to us.

Andy Griffith was also a very wise actor. In the first year, Sheriff Andy Taylor comes off as a country bumpkin with lots of "gollee" and "shucks." He knew that, ultimately, this would sink the show. So, he eased his portrayal into more of a straight man and he let all the wonderfully drawn supporting actors get all the laughs. It made for a much richer series. And one that I liked a great deal. This was back in the day when the stars stayed in character to shill for their sponsors. Here's Andy teaching Barney all about the benefits of Grape Nuts Cereal. 

I understand that Andy himself used to come to my apartment building frequently to visit the ailing Don Knotts, who died just one month before we moved in. I wished that I would have run into him in the elevator while I was getting the mail. I could have shared with him my fervent love of this series.

I could also have asked what time he made Opie go to bed on Monday nights.

Andy Griffith, as you used to end your show every week...

"We appreciate it and good night."

Dinner last night:   Crispy orange chicken at Wokcano.

Classic Newsreel of the Month - July 2025

The big news...70 years ago. 

Dinner last night:  Korean fried chicken sandwich from CHX Sandwiches.

Len's Jukebox of the Month - July 2025

 And who else?   Let's all remember the late Brian Wilson.

Dinner last night:  Swedish meatballs.

Moron of the Month - June 2025

 

This one pains me to write it.   The identity of this month's moron will remain incognito because it's somebody I know.   I doubt she reads this blog these days. And, yes, while she is guilty of some truly moronic behavior, I still worry about her long term mental health.

There is clearly something wrong with...well, let's call her...Marisol.

Marisol was a work colleague in the media world back in my NY days.   Pleasant to be on the same team with.   Great sense of humor.  We made fun of the same people.   I only remember one boyfriend in her midst, but I never viewed her as anything but a work mate.

I left the company and ultimately the East Coast.  I heard she gravitated to another media firm.   At one point, I ran into a mutual friend and I inquired about Marisol.  The woman waved her off.

"She's gotten so weird."

This is not something I could confirm from the annual Christmas card we traded.

Through one of the Christmas salutations, I learned she had made some major career switch ditching the media.   Good for her.    But, ultimately I heard she wound up as...I will be nice...a wellness coach.   

But, my thought was...if she's happy...knock 'em dead.

I first started to notice the problems in her social media posts about a year ago.  She started to post a lot of Tik Toks from the extreme left.   You know the ones I mean.   From these hackneyed pundits who take 10% of truth and spin it into a 100% fact...or so they think.  There are videos from both sides of the addled aisle.   But the left ones are always the most visceral.   And insulting if you don't agree with her.  I personally took great offense to her thrashing of the Dodgers for "bowing down to Trump" when they visited the White House.   Had Marisol done a soupcon of homework, she would have realized their visit was an edict from the MLB commissioner.   But, Marisol doesn't have time for a lot of facts.

I watched initially with amusement, but the hatred on her side became more hostile and venomous.  She started to cut ties gleefully with any one who slightly disagreed with her.   I'm still attached largely because I keep my many diverse political views hidden.   But if I didn't, Marisol would have offed me months ago.

When Trump won last November, Marisol went over the cliff.   The first few days post-election prompted almost hourly videos from the bed she seemingly couldn't get out of.  I noticed also that, almost immediately, a fairly attractive woman started to look like an old lady.   

But, like Lazarus, she eventually rose from the dead.  She devoted her every waking moment to destroying the current Presidential administration.   The postings got wilder and featured more fiction.  She moved to more right wing platforms, saying that Instagram and X were the work of the devil.  At one point, she devoted her social media posts to figuring out how she could move to Canada.  And she cut out more and more people.

She devotes time now to going to protests every week.   Because, as she continues to point out, we live now in a fascist country where there is no freedom.

Here's where Marisol earns the moronic ribbon.   One thing I noticed even up to last year was Marisol never denied herself to vacation...alone...all over the place. Last year, in this "freedom-less"nation, Marisol enjoyed a few weeks on international vacations.   Not a bad reward for watching a so-called dying democracy.

And chances are that Marisol will travel again...Trump be damned.   But count on her being alone because that's where it is headed.

As stupid as she is acting, I truly hope somebody gets her the mental health she needs.

Dinner last night:  Leftover SPO.