Part cartoon, part trailer. Totally wonderful from about 60 years ago.
Dinner last night: Ham and gruyere sandwich from Clementine's.
Musings from a Bi-coastal Existence
Part cartoon, part trailer. Totally wonderful from about 60 years ago.
Dinner last night: Ham and gruyere sandwich from Clementine's.
When you recuperate from knee surgery, you find yourself watching old game shows...just like I did when I was home from school in the fourth grade. The Buzzr network has a lot of good ones, but, for some bizarre reason, no vintage "Hollywood Squares." And this got me to remembering the brilliance of Paul Lynde.
Peter Marshall: Can you get 12 pounds of feathers out of a goose?
Paul Lynde: I got them in there, didn't I?
Peter Marshall: According to the old song, "At night, when you're asleep, into your tent I'll creep." Who am I?
Peter Marshall: In television, who lived in Doodyville?
Peter Marshall: According to research at USC, is it okay for your marriage to fantasize that your wife is Farrah Fawcett Majors?
Peter Marshall: You've gone from egg, to larvae, to pupae. What's next?
Peter Marshall: Who are Mark Trail, Steve Roper and Tank McNamara?
Peter Marshall: To Roy Rogers, what is Cowboy Heaven?
Peter Marshall: Paul, what is the primary problem that develops with men's zippers?
Peter Marshall: Is it possible to drink too much water?
Peter Marshall: True or false, Dan Rowan hasn't spoken to either his daughter or Peter Lawford since their marriage?
Peter Marshall: Mama Cass Ellott has an official royal title. What is it?
Peter Marshall: The state of New York is repainting something that will be 90 next may. What are they repainting?
Peter Marshall: During the 18th century it was common for a bride to sell something at her wedding reception to help pay for the cost of the wedding. What did she sell?
Peter Marshall: Is Billy Graham considered a good dresser?
Peter Marshall: Why was Daniel thrown to the den of lions?
Peter Marshall: You are leaving Hawaii by boat. Legend says that you'll return if you do something. Do what?
Peter Marshall: According to Mythology, if a Sphinx asked a man a question, and the man answered it incorrectly, what woud happen?
Peter Marshall: The newest best selling album by this top star is entitled "To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With". Who's the recording star?
Peter Marshall: Olivia De Havilland once sat on something in a movie that Roy Rogers says he grew to love. What is it?
Peter Marshall: Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire recently announced that after 30 years, they'regoing to do something together one more time. What?
Peter Marshall: Ann Landers recently wrote a book titled "How To Tell The Difference Between Love And..." what?
Peter Marshall: According to the song classic, "Things aren't always as bad as they seem if you..." do what?
Peter Marshall: Way up in the frozen north, what was Eric The Red's famous discovery?
Peter Marshall: Richard Burton wants one very much, but Liz is reported to be afraid to give him one. One what?
Peter Marshall: Does Mark Spitz believe swimming in the nude helps you go faster?
Peter Marshall: Eddie Fisher says that he hasn't had one in eight years, but he's looking. For what?
Peter Marshall: Howard Cosell's wife recently said in an interview that her husband tells her this at least five times a day. What does he say to her?
Peter Marshall: True or false, Paul...champagne glasses were designed to resemble Marie Antoinette's bosom?
Peter Marshall: According to Compton's Encyclopedia, when Columbus returned from his famous trip, he brought Queen Isabella six naked savages, some animals, some plants, and something valuable. What was it?
Peter Marshall: Julie Nixon Eisenhower recently told reporters "You don't know what a relief it is not to worry about having them around all the time!". What are "they?"
Peter Marshall: When is it a good idea tp put your pantyhose in the microwave oven for two minutes?
Peter Marshall: In the Bible, King David asked beautiful and wise Abigail to do something after her first husband died. What?
Peter Marshall: In the United States, what do we call the number one followed by 12 zeros?
The more things change...yeah, they stay the same.
One of my truly favorite TV shows was "The Wonder Years" set on Long Island in 1968. Meanwhile, they never ever got out of Burbank even if the exterior of the house looks so...well...Long Island.
And nothing has really changed with the exterior since they wrapped production approximately 30 years ago.Yep, Los Angeles is nothing but one big back lot.
Dinner last night: Hamburger.
You can always depend upon live TV.
I was basking in the afterglow of my first days in love with the New York Mets.
Despite my father who probably was hoping I would follow in his footsteps and pinstripes with the New York Yankees.
Those first months in Metdom were all consuming. I devoured anything and everything about the team. I figured that, to be a true Met fan, I first needed to memorize all the uniform numbers. Done.
I tried to commit to memory their batting averages. Done. But, wait. I soon discovered that the numbers changed every day. Oops. Well, a new baseball fan was bound to make a mistake or two.
I even tried to impress my dad with my baseball knowledge.
"Mickey Mantle wears number 7," I announced to him with pride.
Dad was starting to smart a little less about my baseball devotion. It wasn't long before he made the ultimate parental sacrifice.
He started to pay attention to the Mets. I guess that he figured if his son was this rabid, he might as well get involved as well. And, in short order, he got sucked in as badly as I did. I don't remember if there was a formal ceremony, but my father became a Met fan. He joined me on weekends in front of the TV. Games immediately popped on the radio as soon as we got into the car.
On a very hot Father's Day, my family made their usual holiday visitation to see all the dead relatives at Ferncliff Cemetery. Alongside the street where "Uncle Fritz" was buried, everybody hopped out of our car to do the necessary grave trimming. Grandma bounded out with hedgeclippers in hand. But my dad and I sat in the car, glued to the Met game on the radio. This was no ordinary contest. My father explained.
"This is history happening. The guy has a perfect game in the ninth inning."
I was a baseball fan, but I still didn't the complete significance.
"But the Mets are losing."
Minutes later, we listened to Phillies pitcher Jim Bunning strike out Met John Stephenson for the final out in this masterpiece. I didn't understand why this was such a big deal, but Dad did. That was good enough for me. Outside, Grandma continued to pull weeds out of "Uncle Fritz" and called out to my grandfather for assistance.
"Pop, get the shears!"
With summer upon us, my lobbying began in earnest. Since Dad was now on board with the Shea Faithful, it was time to complete the circle.
I wanted to go to a game at my other church. Shea Stadium.
For one of the only times in our lives together, Dad didn't use his usual response to our going any place.
"It's too far."
"There's too much traffic."
"It's too hot/too cold."
I guess he really wanted to go, too. None of those old standards seemingly applied. And he had a direct connection to some nifty seats. The guy he carpooled to work with had a wife who worked for Rambler, then the "Official Car of the New York Mets." Her dealership had a season box right behind the visiting dugout. She got four seats for a July Friday night. Her husband and her son. My father and his son.
Me.
I counted the days, the hours, the minutes, and the seconds. I started to plan out the Met rotation to see who would be pitching on this hallowed night. It would be Jack Fisher, wearing my favorite baseball number to this day. #22. This date would cement the love affair for all time. The Mets. Me. Together in the same place. I could reach out and touch them. Well, sort of.
This would be the best day of my life.
I could barely sleep the night before. Full of awe and wonder?
Nope, it was the rain pelting my bedroom window.
How could this be happening? God, why have you foresaken me? I mean, I went to Sunday School every week. I said my prayers every night. Rain??? Doesn't everybody in the universe know that I'm supposed to go to Shea Stadium tonight? And I dreaded the inevitable. This was totally playing into my father's back-up excuse for the usual trilogy of reasons why not to do something.
"It's too wet."
Uh oh.
My father had already taken the night off from work. His friend still wanted to go. The game was still on. Downpour or no downpour, we popped into the car around 6PM for the trip to Flushing.
I can still remember traversing the Bronx Whitestone Bridge with the sparkling lights of Shea piercing the raindrops on our windshield. This is where I was going. I had a ticket. Nothing could stop me now.
Thunderclap.
Lightning bolt.
Perhaps my first utterance of a curse word.
"Shit."
Not audible enough to be slapped across the kisser.
When we arrived at the blue and orange aluminum paneled palace, the grounds were a soggy mess. One puddle after another. We huddled under an umbrella. The game would be delayed but only a little. I stared with amazement at everything I saw as I entered Shea for the first time.
"Scorecard, scorecard here."
I wanted one. I would learn how to score that summer.
The souvenir stands. The amalgamated smell of hot dogs, pretzels, popcorn, and spilled beer. Like no other aroma. The escalators that raise up to the heavens. Well, in my case, the field level behind the third base dugout.
Billy Crystal has made a career talking about his first visual memory of Yankee Stadium. Walking up the ramp of darkness and suddenly emerging in the sun-kissed stands and the field with the brightness shade of green that God ever created.
Unfortunately, it was a little different for me that evening at Shea. Coming out of the tunnel onto the field level stands, I saw more darkness. And rain. And a soaked canvas covering the playing area. Indeed, having seen the Mets in nothing but Zenith black and white hues, the colors at that moment were almost the same. Muted, dull, and unimpressive.
It would grow on me in a matter of minutes.
Looming up in front of me was the gigantic scoreboard, which is spotlighted in the original artist rendering that tops today's entry. To me, at my tender age, it was nothing short of magical. Colors danced around the white backdrop. It had baseball scores from all around the country. I looked at the Met lineup and immediately recited to all who would listen those players we would be privileged to see that night.
"Number 10, second base, Rod Kanehl. Number 42, centerfield, Larry Elliot. Number 23, right field, Joe Christopher. Number 2, in left field, George Altman. Number 25, at first base, Frank Thomas. Number 12, catching, Jesse Gonder. Number 1, at third base, Charlie Smith. Number 11, playing shortstop, Roy McMillan. Number 22, and pitching, Jack Fisher."
With a less squeaky and even less juvenile voice, I could have replaced the public address announcer.
Around the third inning, little obnoxious Me decided to use my proximity to the Milwaukee Braves dugout and give them a child's version of Hell. No epithets. Just some good natured booing. At one point, their third base coach, Jo Jo White, was amused by me. As he headed back to the dugout, he stuck his hand in his pocket. And pulled out a handful of Bazooka Bubble Gum pieces. He tossed them into a rain puddle on the dugout roof. I grabbed them quickly.
The comic strips were soaked and not legible. The gum, however, was delicious. And I suddenly didn't hate the Milwaukee Braves so much.
Truth be told, other than the sense of shock and awe, I remember little about the game itself. Retrosheet tells me the Mets lost, 8-5, in front of a crowd that numbered 20,646.
As far as I was concerned, it was me, my dad, and 20,644 other people.
This game was my first. It would not be my last.
To be continued.
Dinner last night: Beef with broccoli.
This was lost on me back in the day. We only had a Black and White.
Is it National Nurse Day? Well, it should be. Because I have a story.
So far, 2024 has been a crapper of a year for me. Some reasons I will explain here eventually. Others maybe not until the legal events associated are in my rear view mirror. But here's one I would like to share.
About ten days ago, I started with a bizarr-o ailment. I would lie my head down in bed and proceed to start coughing incessantly. A dry hack and a resulting wheeze that sounded like little people were living in my throat. Lift my head up. It would go away. Put my head down and it would keep me up all night.
Now, I have a very close childhood friend who had a long and successful career as a hospital nurse. I was on the phone with her and she could hear it in my voice.
"Go get that checked out, please."
I promised I would.
"Call the doctor today."
Um. Okay.
Now my internist in LA in a cooperative practice with about five other doctors is terrific. When I call with an issue, I discuss it first with his wonderful assistant and she has him call me by the end of the day. But this time, my guy was out for two days at a conference. I told her that it could wait till next week.
She had the same kind of reluctance to wait.
"I hear it in your voice. You need to come in today."
Um. Okay. Again.
So they squeezed me in. Now I was going to be examined by a new member of my doctor's practice---a nurse-practitioner. She was hired to do just what she was doing...filling in for a doctor as needed.
She did a thorough walk-through and exam of yours truly.
"We need to get you a chest x-ray."
On Monday?
"No, today. We have a machine down the hall."
I have always liked my doctor's service. But today more than ever.
The nurse-practitioner went and go one of the other practice doctors to talk me through the x-ray and possible causes. They're not quite sure of the definitive diagnosis but I am loaded up with an inhaler and a short term steroid.
As I was leaving, the doctor's assistant called to me.
"That's why we had you come in today."
The nurse threw in her two cents.
"Because you never know."
When it comes to nurses, I do know. They are a super important part of our American medical canvas.
Dinner last night: Chicken salad plate.
When it was on its game, there was nothing better than Murphy Brown.
Seventy nine years ago this month....
You never know where I will wind up with my idle TV hours. Usually revisiting something I watched in the past.
Here, the past equals 100 or so years ago. Then, I was just hitting puberty and this series about the inner workings of an old fashioned Hollywood movie studio featured three starlets who...well...see the previous mention of puberty.
Truth be told, "Bracken's World" was one of my favorite TV shows to date and I loved everything about it. It made me want to go into film and TV production. Sadly. it lasted just a year-and-a-half and 41 episodes. The studio head John Bracken went from being a disembodied voice on the phone to a real person body played by Leslie Nielsen. It should have lasted longer and may have had they incorporated a soap-like plot.
Naturally, this is one that rarely gets rerun. But, in 2024, everything has an infinite shelf life. Thanks to some crafty You Tuber, the whole series is up and I am scrolling through one-by-one.
And remembering what it was like to be 12.
Dinner last night: Leftover lasagna from my freezer.