Classic Movie Trailer of the Month - July 2020

It is hard to believe that this movie is forty years old this month!  Yikes!!!

Dinner last night:  Chef's salad.

Hollywood Then and Now - July 2020

Back in the glory hey days of Hollywood, Chasen's was the restaurant to go to. Indeed, for years, the official Academy Awards party was held here.

Ronald and Nancy Reagan were regular patrons.   Elizabeth Taylor used to have their chili delivered to wherever she was working.    George Burns was there all the time.

As old Hollywood passed on, so did Chasen's.   Their doors were closed in 1995.  I never got to go there.

But you can still see the remnants of the restaurant as it still stands.   As a Bristol Farms supermarket.  

The old entrance has been cemented up.   You enter from the other side of the building.   And they have maintained a coffee shop in there.   The original booth where the Reagans romanced is still intact.

And I finally get to go inside.   You see, this Bristol Farms is the only place in Los Angeles where I can buy Taylor Pork Roll.

Dinner last night:  Grilled steak salad.

This Date in History - July 29

it's tough for me to ignore my favorite character from the Sopranos.  Here's to you, Tony "Paulie Walnuts" Sirico.

238:  THE PRAETORIAN GUARD STORM THE PALACE AND CAPTURE PUPIENUS AND BALBINUS.  THEY ARE DRAGGED THROUGH THE STREETS OF ROME AND EXECUTED.  ON THE SAME DAY, GORDIAN III, AGE 13, IS PROCLAIMED EMPEROR.

Talk about a nice bar mitzvah present.  Here's your present...Rome.

615:  PAKAL ASCENDS THE THRONE OF PALENQUE AT THE AGE OF 12.

What's with all these rulers with acne?

904:  SACK OF THESSALONICA - SARACEN RAIDERS UNDER LEO OF TRIPOLI SACK THESSALONIKI AFTER A SHORT SIEGE.

Leo of Tripoli must have had some defensive line.

1030:  BATTLE OF STIKLESTAD - KING OLAF II FIGHTS AND DIES TRYING TO REGAIN HIS NORWEGIAN THRONE FROM THE DANES.

Victor Borge would be proud.

1565:  THE WIDOWED MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, MARRIES HENRY STUART AT HOLYROOD PALACE IN SCOTLAND.

If you read this fast, you think it's the Hollywood Palace.

1793:  JOHN GRAVES SIMCOE DECIDES TO BUILD A FORT AND SETTLEMENT AT TORONTO.

Did Simcoe also have a shoe store?

1836:  INAUGURATION OF THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE IN PARIS.

Good.  Now they have something to put on postcards.

1848:  TIPPERARY REVOLT - IN IRELAND, AN UNSUCCESSFUL NATIONALIST REVOLT AGAINST BRITISH RULE IS PUT DOWN BY POLICE.

It's a long way to...

1864:  AMERICAN CIVIL WAR - CONFEDERATE SPY BELLE BOYD IS ARRESTED BY UNION TROOPS AND DETAINED AT THE OLD CAPITOL PRISON IN WASHINGTON, DC.

The Belle of the Jail.

1890:  PAINTER VINCENT VAN GOGH DIES.

Lust for Death.

1892:  ACTOR WILLIAM POWELL IS BORN.

The Thin Man.

1899:  THE FIRST HAGUE CONVENTION IS SIGNED.

Wait for the second one.  They'll have all the kinks worked out.

1905:  ACTRESS CLARA BOW IS BORN.

She was a hottie back in the day.

1905:  DIPLOMAT DAG HAMMARSKJOLD IS BORN.

Now there's a name that defies forgery.

1914:  THE CAPE COD CANAL OPENS.

Not exactly the one in Panama.

1914:  COMEDIAN PROFESSOR IRWIN COREY IS BORN.

He lived to 103.  That's 791 in dog years.

1921:  ADOLF HITLER BECOMES LEADER OF THE NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS PARTY.

Uh oh.

1933:  WRESTLER LOU ALBANO IS BORN.

He also was a cab driver in my hometown of Mount Vernon, NY and had his name painted on the side of the vehicle.

1942:  ACTOR TONY SIRICO IS BORN.

Seriously, he steals every scene he's in with the Sopranos.

1945:  THE BBC LIGHT PROGRAMME STATION IS LAUNCHED.

Fewer calories than the regular BBC.

1948:  AFTER A HIATUS OF 12 YEARS CAUSED BY WORLD WAR II, THE FIRST SUMMER OLYMPICS TO BE HELD SINCE 1936 OPEN IN LONDON.

That Hitler was such a buzzkill.

1958:  US PRESIDENT DWIGHT EISENHOWER SIGNS INTO LAW THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ACT, WHICH CREATES NASA.

Space.  The Next Frontier.

1959:  THE FIRST US CONGRESS ELECTIONS IN HAWAII AS A STATE OF THE UNION.

Vote 'em, Dan-o.

1967:  DURING THE FOURTH DAY OF CELEBRATING ITS 400TH ANNIVERSARY, THE CITY OF CARACAS, VENEZUELA IS SHAKEN BY AN EARTHQUAKE, LEAVING APPROXIMATELY 500 DEAD.

The perfect symmetry would have been 400 dead.

1974:  SINGER CASS ELLIOT DIES.

Should have had soup instead of a sandwich.

1976:  IN NEW YORK CITY, DAVID BERKOWITZ, AKA THE SON OF SAM, KILLS ONE AND WOUNDS ANOTHER IN THE FIRST OF HIS ATTACKS.

A dog told him to do it.  Seriously.

1979:  PRODUCER BILL TODMAN DIES.

He no longer has a secret.

1981:  ON TELEVISION, OVER 700 MILLION PEOPLE WATCH THE WEDDING OF PRINCE CHARLES AND LADY DIANA SPENCER IN LONDON.

She didn't mind the photographers that day.

1981:  URBAN PLANNER ROBERT MOSES DIES.

The real reason the Dodgers moved out of Brooklyn.

1982:  ACTOR HAROLD SAKATA DIES.

Oddjob!

1983:  ACTOR RAYMOND MASSEY DIES.

Paging Dr. Kildare.

1983:  ACTOR DAVID NIVEN DIES.

Separate Coffins.

1987:  BRITISH PRIME MINISTER MARGARET THATCHER AND PRESIDENT OF FRANCE FRANCOIS MITTERRAND SIGN THE AGREEMENT TO BUILD A TUNNEL UNDER THE ENGLISH CHANNEL.

I'd hate to get stuck down there.

1996:  THE CHILD PROTECTION PORTION OF THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT IS STRUCK DOWN BY A US FEDERAL COURT AS TOO BROAD.

Yeah?  Have you seen what kids are writing on the internet these days?

1998:  CHOREOGRAPHER JEROME ROBBINS DIES.

Sharks 0, Jets 0.

2005:  ASTRONOMERS ANNOUNCE THEIR DISCOVERY OF THE DWARF PLANET ERIS.

Eris tu?

Dinner last night:  Grilled hot dogs.

Len's Jukebox of the Month - July 2020

Remember when television shows had theme songs.   Yep, that's not the case anymore.   But, some TV openings were so damned good that they became hits on the radio.   Here's one that was a big deal.   Nelson Riddle and the "Theme From Route 66."

Dinner last night:  Leftover General Tso Chicken.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - July 27, 2020

A summer classic.   Back when summer was fun for both adults and dogs.

Dinner last night:  Grilled ribeye steak.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - Always Know The Score

In the pandemic year of 2020, my Dodger tote bag sits on a shelf in my closet. It goes to every game with me.   In there are pens, a Dodger cap, an old rally towel (in case my seat is dirty), and my binoculars.   

Oh, yeah.   And the most important object.   My score book.

If inanimate objects could have thoughts, I wonder what my score book must be thinking.

"Winter is long gone.   Why aren't you using me?   Have you found a better score book?"

No, I haven't.   Indeed, the last game recorded...the NLDS loss to the Nationals in Game 5...will still be the last game recorded when I hopefully open the book next spring.

I miss it.   I suppose I could keep score for a game on TV.   But that's not the same thing.   The calming influence of maintaining a score book at a baseball stadium is as wonderful as a new drug on the market.

In past seasons at Dodger Stadium, there would be at least one game where I feel a tap on my left shoulder.  It would be one of their roving camera guys, entrusted to running around the park and looking for things to put up on Diamond Vision.  

"I want to get a shot of you writing in your score book."

Okay, this is the same guy that shot me once the year before and another time the year before that.

"It's such a lost art that I want people to know about that."

Okay.  So Spielberg Junior would always hear my ground rules.  No facial shot. If you get part of my hand making a notation in the book, that's fine.  But that's as far as I go when it comes to being on a High-Def TV screen several stories high.

The last time this happened (you see it at the top of today's post), we got a bit coordinated with my 15 seconds of fame.  When the light went on the camera and my penmanship was illuminated for almost 50,000 to see, my friend took a snapshot of it to preserve the historical moment.  The camera dude thanked me.

"I wish more people scored games like you do."

Yeah, me, too.  

And I've been doing it since I was ten.

It was the very first time I walked into Shea Stadium, home of my beloved New York Mets.  There was a vendor at the entrance to our field box section.

"Scorecard, here, get ya scorecard."

I asked my father what that was.  After all, it was being sold at the ballpark so it must be important.  I needed to do all the things the other fans were doing.  

My dad plunked down his quarter...yes, a quarter...and I got a little free pencil as a bonus.  I was all set.

Of course, my father was no help when it came to what the hell I should be doing with the scorecard.  He had never done it.  But, luckily, there was a nifty page in the back that explained it all.

HOW TO SCORE.

Got it.  I quickly learned which players were which numbers and how to make notations for base hits, pop outs, walks, and strikeouts.  Years later, I dug out this scorecard and it was a fifth-grade graduate's mess.   Full of mistakes and cross outs.  There was no eraser on that little tiny pencil.  

Still, there must have been some sort of magic to it all because I never really stopped scoring a game.  Somehow, it ties me to the event and that moment in time like no other memory.  So, throughout my baseball life, I kept score.   In high school.   Through college.  Amidst good times and bad.  Decent Met teams and horrible ones.  There was one constant.

Me and a scorecard.

Eventually, I got a little more high-tech.  Instead of buying a scorecard for a quarter or two dollars or later ten dollars,  I invested in a scorebook that contained room for thirty or so games.   

I have no idea how I originally came across Gene Elston's Stati-Score Baseball Scorebook.   I know I've always had to buy it mail order, purchasing three or four at a time.  Elston is a longtime Houston Astros announcer.   He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame for broadcasting back in 2006.  He left us in 2015.  

The man had no idea how important his concoction has been to me.  

Starting back in the 80s and going to Met games when it was fashionable and relevant to do so, I exclusively used this score book.  I'd fill up thirty games, stash the book in the closet, and then start a new one.  This was a particularly ingenious invention at the time because it included a place to keep pitch 
counts.  This was at a time when nobody kept pitch counts.  These days, it's done for you on the scoreboard.  Back in our day, it was done by yours truly and my frequent Shea compatriot, the Bibster.

There we would sit in my Loge seats or his.  Pencils in hand.  Marking down balls and strikes diligently.   Each with our own score books.  It was baseball nerdism to the Nth degree.   We didn't care.   With our score books, we were clearly the smartest people in Shea Stadium, not counting, of course, Tim McCarver behind the Mets broadcast microphone.

And the score book went on the road.   For five summers, my college roommate and I would do a weekend in the friendly confines of Chicago's Wrigley Field when the Mets were there.   The book was on my lap.   One year, we were seated next to a couple of girls who were great to look at but horrible to keep up with when it came to downing Old Style Beer.  One of them was really impressed by my...score book.

"Hey, Stats, what did the last guy do at bat?"

I'd always have the answer.   The only problem was that she was unconscious in her seat two innings later.

During the 1988 playoffs, I was keeping pitch counts when the Mets were battling...gasp...the Dodgers in Game 4.  Dwight Gooden had a lead going into the ninth inning but, as I tallied up his balls and strikes, I was sure he had thrown way too many pitches to be effective much longer.  The closer was warming up in the bullpen.  

I circled the pitch count total at the top of the page.  And added the following notation.

TAKE HIM OUT!!!

Manager Davey Johnson didn't.  One meatball served to Dodger Mike Scioscia and the Mets were on their way to not playing in the World Series.

TAKE HIM OUT!!!

Several years ago, when I was doing a charity stint on KABC's Dodger Talk, I got to meet the host and all-around good guy Josh Suchon.  He was writing a book on those 1988 Dodgers and, most particularly, from the perspective of being an Oakland Athletics fan.  Of course, the A's got pummeled by the Dodgers in the World Series.  I mentioned my score book and recalled the notation I made.  He wanted to see it for possible inclusion in the book.

The next time I was in NY, I went into the file cabinet where all these baseball records are kept.   The green score books spilled out onto the floor as I dug through them, looking for this one game.  Sure enough, the game was uncovered and the notation, not made in invisible ink, was there.  Josh ultimately didn't use it in the book.  But it allowed me, for the very first time, to revisit my baseball fandom and life.  I had never really revisited a book after it was retired.

I found it all.   Years and years and years of memories.  Some spectacular and others mundane.  But it was clearly the remnants of a life.  Solely and distinctly mine.

I now have a box full of these green score books in my LA apartment.  Whenever I go east for a Met game, my most current record keeper is packed along with my socks and my toiletries.  Two coasts of baseball serviced by one score book.

I'm thinking the Houston warehouse where they are housed is getting emptier with each order.  The last batch I got were a little brown around the edges.  Sadly, there's probably not a bottomless pit when it comes to Gene Elston's Stati-Score Baseball Scorebook. There might not be many people ordering them anymore.  Heck, I might be the last one.

But, I will keep on doing it.  A work colleague who saw my score book emblazoned on the big screen asked me to teach him how to score a game.

Gladly.

Because, after all, it is a lost art.  But, it's also...my art.

But, even so, for 2020, the art is unfortunately lost.   For a while.

Dinner last night:  General Tso's Chicken from Mandarette.

Classic TV Theme Song of the Month - July 2020

For years, every summer meant another rerunning of the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hours.   We may have to revisit as a retro treat this awful summer.

Dinner last night:  Still celebrating baseball...Hot Dogs.

Your COVID-19 Church Sign Collection

Dinner last night:  MLB Opening Night hot dogs.

Free At Last, Free At Last....

It won't be the same.   I won't be at Dodger Stadium.   But it is baseball and the healing powers of the sport just might be what the country needs right now.

We pray that the season, short for sure, does play out and that players and personnel get through it all with little COVID interjection.

Bring it on.   It's time for Dodger...heck....it's time for Everybody's Baseball.

Dinner last night:  Grilled bratwurst and salad.

This Date in History - July 22

July 22.  What is Alex Trebek's birthday?  Still with us.  God bless.

838:  THE BYZANTINE EMPEROR THEOPHILOS SUFFERS A HEAVY DEFEAT BY THE ABBASIDS.

Abbasid sounds like an antacid.

1099:  GODFREY OF BOUILLON IS ELECTED THE FIRST DEFENDER OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE OF THE KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM.

He's in the soup now.

1456:  JOHN HUNYADI, REGENT OF THE KINGDOM OF HUNGARY, DEFEATS MEHMET II OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.

I looked fast and thought that said Hyundai.

1499:  THE SWISS DECISIVELY DEFEAT THE IMPERIAL ARMY OF EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN I.

Now the Swiss stay out of everything.

1686:  ALBANY, NEW YORK IS FORMALLY CHARTERED AS A MUNICIPALITY.

Because the state needs a capital.

1793:  ALEXANDER MACKENZIE REACHES THE PACIFIC OCEAN BECOMING THE FIRST RECORDED HUMAN TO COMPLETE A TRANSCONTINENTAL CROSSING OF CANADA.

Smart to do this in the month of July.

1797:  DURING THE BATTLE OF SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, REAR-ADMIRAL NELSON IS WOUNDED IN THE ARM AND IT IS PARTIALLY AMPUTATED.

A little more serious than Tommy John surgery.

1812:  BATTLE OF SALAMANCA - BRITISH FORCES DEFEAT FRENCH TROOPS.  

Any loss suffered by France is okay by moi.

1864:  OUTSIDE ATLANTA, GEORGIA, CONFEDERATE GENERAL JOHN BELL HOOD LEADS AN UNSUCCESSFUL ATTACK ON UNION TROOPS.

Those cotton bolls are started to get rotten.

1908:  AUTHOR AMY VANDERBILT IS BORN.

The spoon goes on the right.

1916:  IN SAN FRANCISCO, A BOMB EXPLODES ON MARKET STREET DURING A PREPAREDNESS DAY PARADE.

Well, at least, they were prepared.

1923:  POLITICIAN BOB DOLE IS BORN.

Tell me again why your hand is like that.

1923:  WRESTLER THE FABULOUS MOOLAH IS BORN.

My grandmother always thought she was a dirty girl.

1928:  ACTOR ORSON BEAN IS BORN.

To tell the truth.

1933:  WILEY POST BECOMES THE FIRST PERSON TO FLY SOLO AROUND THE WORLD IN SEVEN PLUS DAYS.

Will Rogers wants to go next time.

1934:  OUTSIDE CHICAGO'S BIOGRAPH THEATER, PUBLIC ENEMY #1 JOHN DILLINGER IS SHOT AND KILLED BY FBI AGENTS.

These days, Public Enemies are what we call politicians.

1937:  THE US SENATE VOTES DOWN PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT'S PROPOSAL TO ADD MORE JUSTICES TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE US.

Just what we need...more clowns in black robes.

1940:  TV HOST ALEX TREBEK IS BORN.

I'll take July Birthdays for 600, Alex.

1942:  THE US GOVERNMENT BEGINS COMPULSORY CIVILIAN GAS RATIONING DUE TO WWII.

Hopefully, this is a one-time-only event.   Yeah, right.

1942:  THE SYSTEMATIC DEPORTATION OF JEWS FROM THE WARSAW GHETTO BEGINS.

As if such a dastardly act could be systematic.

1947:  ACTOR/COMIC ALBERT BROOKS IS BORN.

Doesn't get as much credit for his genius as he should.

1951:  DEZIK AND GYPSY ARE THE FIRST DOGS TO MAKE A SUB-ORBITAL FLIGHT.  

As opposed to one of those Russian female cosmonauts who was also a dog.

1967:  POET CARL SANDBURG DIES.

Now that all my work has been read, it's time for me to be dead.

1976:  JAPAN COMPLETES ITS LAST REPARATION TO THE PHILLIPPINES FOR WAR CRIMES DURING WWII.

They should did take the slow payment plan.

1991:  JEFFREY DAHMER IS ARRESTED IN MILWAUKEE AFTER POLICE DISCOVER HUMAN REMAINS IN HIS APARTMENT.

Spleen?  What spleen?

1992:  NEAR MEDELLIN, COLOMBIAN DRUG LORD PABLO ESCOBAR ESCAPES FROM HIS LUXURY PRISON FEARING EXTRADITION TO THE US.

Luxury prison????

2008:  ACTRESS ESTELLE GETTY DIES.

Sheer brilliance on the Golden Girls.

2013:  ACTOR DENNIS FARINA DIES.

The actor, not the Little Rascal.

Dinner last night:  Grilled steak salad.

Len's Recipe of the Month - July 2020

The pandemic for me has been all about experimenting in the kitchen.  Hell, you can't go out to eat.  Why not?

And my latest culinary test comes from...as usual...my favorite chef Valerie Bertinelli.   It's her late mother's recipe for Chicken Cacciatore.   Or, as I called it when I was a kid...Chicken Catcher Joe Torre.

You had to be there.

Anyway, this dish is delicious and you can do it all in one Dutch oven.  Easy peasy clean-up.

First off, put a 1/2 cup of flour in a bowl.  Whisk in some Kosher salt and pepper.

Take four to six chicken thighs (bone-in, please) and coat them with the flour.

Heat some EVO in a Dutch oven.   When it is hot, layer in your thighs skin side down for openers.

While the chicken is browning, slice one onion, one red bell pepper, and about a 1.2 cup of Cremini mushrooms.  Mince four cloves of garlic as well.

Flip the chicken thighs and let them brown on the other side.   After five minutes, remove the thighs to a plate.

Add a little more EVO to the Dutch oven and then saute first the onion and garlic.   After three or so minutes, add the red bell pepper.   Then add the mushrooms.   Blend it all together.

Pour in one 1/2 cup of white wine so you can deglaze the pan.   Add a teaspoon of oregano and a teaspoon of rosemary.  Let this go for about five minutes.

Now add a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes with the accompanying juice.   It is time to return the chicken thighs back into the Dutch oven.

Add about 1/2 cup of sliced olives.   I used Kalamata.   I then added about one 1/4 cup of capers.  Put the lid on and let it simmer for another 30 to 45 minutes.

Serve and enjoy.

You're welcome.   And thank you again, Valerie.

Dinner last night: Had a a rehearsal so nothing really.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - July 20, 2020

As the caption says....Summer is supposed to be fun.

Dinner last night:  Pan seared ribeye steak and sauteed mushrooms.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - July 24

Major League Baseball finally returns at the end of this week and I will note that this new pandemic-infused opening day comes around the date of July 24.  There is symbolism aplenty to that day for me.

July 24 was the very first day that I walked into Shea Stadium as a full-fledged baseball fan.  Oh, I had already been to baseball games.   Once to Yankee Stadium when my father and his cousin took me to an afternoon contest on the season tickets their oil burner company owned.   Truth be told, I had a horrible ear ache and had more cotton in my ears than in the entire state of Mississippi.  Plus I had no clue what was going on.

But, about a year later, I got the German measles.   Home from school for the week, I turned the TV dial to WOR Channel 9 and found the Mets playing one of their first games in brand spanking new Shea Stadium.   The team was a hideous mess.   But there was something about this game and this sport...

Hmmm.

So I became a rabid viewer.   My dad had been a lifelong Yankee fan.   But when your ten-year-old son starts to like the other team in New York town, he decided that he better adapt so he could enjoy this fandom together.

Eventually, it was time for me to be three in person as opposed to lying on the carpet in front of the television.  As luck would have it, the man my dad carpooled to his Connecticut job with had an in.   His wife worked for Rambler, which was the official car of the New York Mets.   Being the official car of the New York Mets meant you had box seats behind the visitor's dugout.   

And that was where my very first appearance at Shea Stadium would take place.

The entire week prior I worked diligently to figure out who the starting pitcher would be.   Ah, Jack Fisher.   I wondered who the visiting team, the then-Milwaukee Braves, would have on the mound.   I was focused on the game.   I could not breathe all week.

Friday morning, I awoke to excitement in my head.   And tons of rain drops on my bedroom window.

Shit.

Or whatever exclamation a ten-year-old might make.

I knew that my dad would not venture out to Flushing in the rain.   But, luckily, his carpool pal and his son were going to fill out the stadium box.   As long as they were game, my father would have to be as well.

As of 6PM, the game had not been called.   So we started to make the drive to Shea Stadium.   I will never forget the sight from the Van Wyck Expressway as we approached the park.   Because of the ominous skies, it was darker than usual.  But the ring of lights atop Shea looked like a beautiful crown in the distance.   I have never seen a more glorious sight in my life.

Amazingly, as we parked our car in the Shea Stadium parking lake, the rain eased up and then stopped totally.   Everything was soaked except for my anticipation.  

I remember walking up the field level portal and then suddenly seeing the field.  How green!  And the scoreboard you see above.  How majestic.

The usher wiped off our seats with a towel or two and I leaned forward onto the top of the Braves dugout.   Everything and everybody was so close that I felt I could touch them.

The Braves' third base coach was a guy named Jo Jo White.  As only a ten-year-old could do this (even with his dad nearby), I must have been razzing the guy.  On his way back to the dugout between innings, he reached into his pocket and threw about ten little packages of Bazooka bubble gum on top of the dugout.  Here, that should keep the kid quiet.

Of course, in those days when I was taken to a special place, I was allowed to buy one souvenir.  For some reason I can't explain, I chose a badge that said "Let's Go Mets."  

I had to go to the Retro Sheet website to find out specifics of the game.   The Mets lost 8 t0 5.   There were almost 21,000 people there for a game that last 2 hours and 32 minutes.   Knowing my dad, we probably left in the eighth inning.

Thank goodness, I would be back.   Many, many, many times.

So I consider July 24 my baseball birthday.  And I have always tried to go to a game on that date.   Some were memorable.   I recall going to a game at Shea with my good college pal, the Bibster.  There was nothing meaningful about the game but it went extra innings and there was tons of strategy that we labored over.   It was a template of the sport and the game.  Bib and I took about it to this day.

On July 24, 2020, the Dodgers will be playing the Giants at home.  In a non-COVID world, I would be there.   TV will have to suffice.   And, oh, yeah, the Mets will be opening their shortened season at Citi Field.   I will be glancing at that, too.   Because, in the parking lot of Citi Field, there is hallowed ground where Shea Stadium once stood.   

That's where my baseball fandom was born.

Dinner last night:  Chicken schnitzel at Jar.

Classic Newsreel of the Month - July 2020

Big news back in July....seventy years ago.

Dinner last night:  Barbecued ribs from Holy Cow.

Your Weekend Movie Guide for July 2020

And we still don't have any new movies being released yet.   Well, at least, not in major theaters.   So I am reduced to a gimmick I tried two months ago.   Doing a flashback to my Weekend Movie Guide from July 2010.   Just how many of these films do you remember?

But first...the preamble.

Does anybody today even know what Cinerama was back in the 50s?
These were movie outings that were true entertainment experiences. Today? They layer on 50 million dollars worth of video game graphics and ten dollars worth of script. Voila! You have a movie. Well, not really.

Here's my monthly service to you. I'll scope out the ads in the LA Times and tell you what I think you should see or avoid. With emphasis on the latter.

Despicable Me: This is either some dreary cartoon or Nancy Pelosi's memoirs.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice: If you go in expecting a revisit on Mickey Mouse in Fantasia, forget it. This is just another CGI-laden mess from Disney, who stopped knowing how to make decent live action features when Fred MacMurray died.

Grown Ups: Adam Sandler, David Spade, and Kevin James are in it, which means the title must be ironic. Sandler also wrote the script, which might actually make this garbage smell even more.

The Last Airbender: Was there a first Airbender? Refresh me please.

Knight and Day: Tom Cruise is back in a movie. And nobody bothered to sound one of those alarms like they do when a tsunami is coming?

Toy Story 3: The best movie of the summer that does not feature Joan Rivers.

Joan Rivers - A Piece of Work: The best movie of the summer that does feature Joan Rivers.

Ramona and Beezus: When I saw the ad for this, I was shocked. I remember these characters from books that I read when I was in the fourth grade! It took that long for them to make a movie with them. That would be the slowest moving development deal ever. The author of these books is Beverly Cleary and she's still alive at 94.

Salt: Angelina Jolie in some tired action yarn. Definitely limit your intake.

The Karate Kid: The needless remake is still hanging around and I doubt it's gotten any better since my Weekend Movie Guide for June 2010.

Mademoiselle Chambon: A romance between a married man and his son's teacher. Suddenly, the mental image in my head is my father kissing Mrs. Acunto from French class. Somebody please slap me now. And, yes, by the way, folks, that really was her name.

Inception: The media hype has begun. I've heard this is the greatest thing ever filmed. I saw the previews during the All Star Game and it looks dreadful, especially with those awful video-game-like slo-mo explosions. I felt for those good reviews once before. When Inception's director came out with that vastly overrated and just plain terrible "Dark Knight."

Predators: It's probably a sci-fi movie, but it's also a great name for a documentary about anybody in Congress who voted for Obama Care.

The Girl Who Played with Fire: Probably burned.

The Twilight Saga - Eclipse: I want some kudos. I've yet to see a single frame of anything involving this nonsense.

Get Him to the Greek: Here's your first opportunity to avoid that asshole Jonah Hill.

Cyrus: And here's your second opportunity to avoid that asshole Jonah Hill.

I Am Love: Hardly. Have you ever read this blog on a Wednesday?

Kings of the Evening: During the Depression, a Black guy returns home after spending years on a brutal chain gang in prison. I'll wait for the prequel.

Farewell: The true story of a KGB colonel who helped to hasten the end of the Cold War. I looked at the cast list and buried way down is David Soul from "Starsky and Hutch." I mention that only because I have nothing else to say about this movie.

The Kids Are All Right: But the adults? Maybe not so much. Annette Bening and Julianne Moore are a lesbian couple raising two teenagers. Mother and Mother Knows Best. Major, major Oscar buzz. And not a single special effect. Friends who have seen it are in love with this movie.

Winter's Bone: There is also major Oscar buzz for this, but I know nothing about it. And I don't even have a joke about it.

Dinner last night:  Prime rib French dip sandwich at HT Grill.