Monday Morning Video Laugh - September 28, 2026

 Blucher!

Dinner last night:  Sausage, peppers, and onions.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - The Blank Side of the Family Tree

 

Unfortunately, this Memory Drawer is empty.  And the fact that it prompts, of all things, some memories.

Confused?

A few years ago, I was watching the season finale of the TNT reboot of "Dallas."  And I noted the plot developments.

We learn that J.R. Ewing had a daughter.   And that John Ross Ewing, his son, is now aware that, somewhere in the world, he has a sister.

To find such close relatives at such a point in your life.  How unsettling, miraculous, and fun that can be simultaneously. 

I thought about it all.  Indeed, if you are regular visitors to this on-line nonsense, you've heard a lot of tales about my family as I grew up.  My paternal grandparents who owned the house that my parents and I lived in.  You've seen a lot of old photos of my family's holiday gatherings.  There have been no mysteries.  My life has been an open blog.

Alas, amidst all those Technicolor photos, you have seen very little evidence or information about the other side of the family.  My mom's.   Hence, the empty picture frame that adorns the top of today's entry.

There are no pictures because I never saw any.   I'm not sure if my mom even had photos of her parents.  If she did, they might have been stored way back in her own memory drawer.

I know this.   My mom and her older sister were born in New York City.  Depending upon how she felt on a given day, the actual year of birth would change by one or two.  Their parents were named John and Esther.  As the slim story goes, they both got sick with influenza about that time in our history when such an ailment was a fatal disease.  Allegedly, they died practically in succession.  One apparently got sick and then gave it to the other.  And out.  My mom was about ten.  Her sister was about twelve.

I know they both wound up in the Leake and Watts orphanage that I still believe exists in Yonkers, New York.  As a matter of fact, my mom had to contact them for some records when she was filing some official documents when she retired.  She was on their mailing list.  How long were she and my aunt there?  No clue. 

When the inquisitive me asked questions about any of this, my mom's standard response was sort of like a press representative for a politician.

"I have no information at this time."

Or something like that.

Do you have any photos? 

"No."

What did they do for a living?

"I was too young."

Were there any other relatives?

"I don't think so."

Hmmm.  I don't think so.

Back when I was a kid, there was a common resource when you wanted information from one parent.  You asked the other one.

Dad was no help.

"Your mother doesn't want to talk about any of that."

Okay, so that means he asked the question, too.

Opening the curtain on our lives even further, I can tell you that, in later years, both my mother and my aunt had...well...a love of beer.  I wouldn't say they were out-and-out alcoholics but there were frequent evenings with multiple buzzes going.  If we went to visit my aunt and her family out on Long Island, both women were fairly fuzzy within the first two hours. 

Hmmm.  What is behind that?

I never knew it.  And was only left to purely speculate.

Years later, I tried to broach the issue again coming at it from my status as a full-grown adult.  Not long before she passed away, my mom got the question again.

"It was complicated."

Today that's why people use Facebook to describe their relationship status.  Back then, it was my family's way of avoiding a question and/or an issue.

So, now you know why my mind was working overtime in the middle of the Dallas season finale.   John Ross has a sister. 

Are there any relatives I am missing?  Did John and Esther have brothers and sisters?   This would have given my mother and my aunt cousins.  Maybe it gives me second and third cousins removed.  A whole extended family.   I mean, my maternal grandparents weren't aliens from outer space who just showed up on Planet Earth.

I've used Ancestry.com and 23andMe to flesh things out.   If I spit in a cup, I connect with some cousins several times removed.  I learned that my mom's mother had a maiden name of Larson.  But the people I connected with were just as confused as I am

More stuff I will never know.

And likely never will.

Dinner last night:  Hot dog at the movies.

Classic Movie Trailer of the Month - September 2026

Hard to believe it came out 30 years ago this month.   And I forgot Rob Reiner was in it.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

Open For Business

 

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

Len's Recipe of the Month - September 2026

 

Actually there are numerous ones every month.  Because I am now addicted to making meals in an air fryer.   This is mine...called InstantPot...and you can tell it gets used a lot by the fingerprints on it.   Frankly, I would probably be the last person you would expect such an addiction from.

I bought it on a whim...actually an Amazon Prime sale...several years, largely because I heard it's great to make French fries and chicken wings.   I was intrigued by the lack of oil needed.   I figured this is a healthy device.

Now, several years later, I still haven't made chicken wings in this thing.   But I have done a lot more.   Because all you have to do is Google "how to make _____ in an air fryer" and you get your answers.   Pretty much, everything gets done in 12 to 14 minutes.

I am continually shocked at what you can do with the right prep.   Ribeye steak?  Phenomenal.  Roasted vegetables?  Magnificent.  Korean chicken thighs?  Terrific.  A juicy hamburger.  Perfection.  Even my prized pan-roasted grape tomatoes now doesn't need the...well...pan.

Plus the number of frozen entrees that can get quickly cooked is amazing.  On the web, I have found a recipe that allows you to make an olive oil cake in this thing.  And clean-up is a breeze.  No different than washing a pot or a pan.

There's an Amazon Prime sales day coming.   Note to you.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

This Date in History - September 23

 

Happy birthday, Julio Iglesias.  See you down by the school yard.

1122:  POPE CALLIXTUS II AND HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR HENRY V AGREE TO THE CONCORDAT OF WORMS.

The mention of worms?   Never good.

1215:  EMPEROR KUBLAI KHAN IS BORN.

Great, great grandfather to Chaka.

1409:  BATTLE OF KHERLEN, THE SECOND SIGNIFICANT VICTORY OVER MING CHINA BY THE MONGOLS SINCE 1368.

I read all about it in a blog.  Kherlen Speaks.

1641:  THE MERCHANT ROYAL, CARRYING A TREASURE WORTH OVER A BILLION US DOLLARS, IS LOST AT SEA.

A billion dollars dumped overboard.  The 1641 version of affordable health care.

1642:  THE FIRST COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES OCCUR AT HARVARD.

In September?   They have some kinks to work out.

1779:  THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION - JOHN PAUL JONES ON BOARD THE USS BONHOMME RICHARD WINS THE BATTLE OF FLAMBOROUGH HEAD.

Way to go, JP.

1780:  THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION - BRITISH MAJOR JOHN ANDRE IS ARRESTED AS A SPY BY AMERICAN SOLDIERS EXPOSING BENEDICT ARNOLD'S CHANGE OF SIDES.

What???  Benedict Arnold is a turncoat???

1806:  LEWIS AND CLARK RETURN TO ST. LOUIS AFTER EXPLORING THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST OF THE US.

Just in time for playoff baseball.

1845:  THE KNICKERBOCKERS BASEBALL CLUB, THE FIRST BASEBALL TEAM TO PLAY UNDER THE MODERN RULES, IS FOUNDED.

Wait.   Isn't there another team they would be playing?  

1869:  TYPHOID MARY IS BORN.

Mary, Typhoid as printed in the phone book.

1889:  NINTENDO KOPPAI IS FOUNDED TO PRODUCE AND MARKET THE PLAYING CARD GAME OF HANAFUDA.

Yes, that Nintendo.

1897:  ACTOR WALTER PIDGEON IS BORN.

Mr. Miniver.

1909:  THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, A NOVEL, IS FIRST PUBLISHED.

Boy, will this have some residuals??!!

1920:  ACTOR MICKEY ROONEY IS BORN.

He probably kept the same height all his life.

1927:  SINGER MIGHTY JOE YOUNG IS BORN.

Not the ape.

1930:  SINGER RAY CHARLES IS BORN.

Georgia on his mind.

1943:  WORLD WAR II - THE NAZI PUPPET STATE IN THE ITALIAN SOCIAL REPUBLIC IS FOUNDED.

Why do I think these weren't exactly Muppets?

1943:  SINGER JULIO IGLESIAS IS BORN.

My mother loved his records.  But whose mother didn't?

1945:  ACTOR PAUL PETERSEN IS BORN.

I traded e-mails with him on a project about ten years ago.  Nice guy.

1947:  ACTRESS MARY KAY PLACE IS BORN.

I've always thought she was very underrated as an actress.

1949:  SINGER BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN IS BORN.

Yes, gang, I am not a fan.  Never saw him in person.   Never wanted to.

1952:  RICHARD NIXON MAKES HIS FAMOUS CHECKERS SPEECH.

King me.

1962:  THE LINCOLN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS OPENS IN NEW YORK CITY.

Funny because it still looks new.

1969:  THE CHICAGO EIGHT TRIAL OPENS IN CHICAGO.

The Chicago Nine were busy losing the NL East to the Mets at the same time.

1973:  JUAN PERON RETURNS TO POWER IN ARGENTINA.

Soon to be a musical in your town.

1974:  ACTOR CLIFF ARQUETTE DIES.

Charlie Weaver!

1981:  ACTOR CHIEF DAN GEORGE DIES.

I always get him mixed up with that other Indian who was crying about the garbage on the road.

1986:  JIM DESHAIES OF THE HOUSTON ASTROS SETS THE MAJOR LEAGUE RECORD BY STRIKING OUT THE FIRST EIGHT BATTERS OF THE GAME AGAINST THE LOS ANGELES DODGERS.

Two silhouettes....

1987:  DANCER/DIRECTOR BOB FOSSE DIES.

And all that jazz.

1988:  JOSE CANSECO OF THE OAKLAND ATHLETICS BECOMES THE FIRST MEMBER OF THE 40-40 CLUB.

Yeah, but I still remember him most for the ball hitting him in the head and then bouncing over the wall.

1998:  ACTRESS MARY FRANN DIES.

The TV wife of Bob Newhart that nobody remembers.

1999:  CELEBRATE BISEXUALITY DAY IS FIRST OBSERVED IN THE US.

I can't make up my mind which joke to use.

2002:  THE FIRST PUBLIC VERSION OF THE WEB BROWSER MOZILLA FIREFOX IS RELEASED.

The most recent version messed up my laptop.

Dinner last night:  Hamburger.

The Passage of Blog Time

 

When you've been doing a daily blog for nineteen years, you take some things for granted.  You naturally assume that everything is forever.

So I get an e-mail from the Blogger people who have housed this two decade nonsense.   They were alerting me that storage space is getting limited.  As a result, they need to open up some room in the etherworld.  That will necessitate the removal of some videos I have previously loaded.   

Many of you know that videos consume two days of every week with my Monday Video Laugh and assorted TV/Movie historical pastiches on Saturday.   Well, if you go back to the likes of 2014 or 2015 on Len Speaks, you will likely get this message.  How they are making the judgment of what stays and what goes is beyond my skill set.   

I mean, this is not devastating, right?  You weren't looking for a Classic Newsreel posted in 2009?

If you were, thanks for the continuous hits.

Dinner last night:  Leftover chicken.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - September 21, 2026

The super under-appreciated David Hyde Pierce.

Dinner last night:  Chicken tenders and roasted tomatoes.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - When Football Was Important To Me

 

Well, that's one long title.

The NFL football season started last Sunday and, frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn.  I started losing interest in pro football about two decades ago.  The players seemed to become more intense and increasingly cartoonish with their histrionics in the end zone and the manner in a tackle has to completely demolish the other guy.  Admittedly, American society has gotten much darker and sinister, which explains why football is now so revered in this country.

But my ambivalence wasn't always like this.  Back when I was a kid, I wandered from baseball to football as soon as the leaves started to become a crispy gold and brown.  I think this pleased my father who was a big fan. 

Now, in those days, pro football wasn't much of a sport you could watch on television.  Well, the road games of your favorite team were televised.  But blackout rules prevailed and any home games were not shown.  You had to listen to them on...gasp...the radio.  Or, if you lived in New York, you drove up to Connecticut and, provided you were close enough to the Hartford-New Haven TV market, you watched games there.  Some pulled up bar stools.  Others actually rented motel rooms to see their beloved Jets and Giants.  Hopefully, the sheets cooled off after a robust Saturday night.

As for my house, my first foray into football fandom was for the Jets as I was again adopting the allegiance of the new kids in town.  I remember my dad always listening to the New York Giant games on WNEW AM Radio, but, just as he with baseball, he gravitated to my team as well.  Fathers make those kinds of sacrifices.  Plus I previously have written about the year I spent going to Jet games at Shea Stadium with my mom's boss and her boyfriend, who were season ticket holders.   So, I suppose that I was a major part of the Jet faithful.

But, almost as soon as I became a Jet fan, they won the Super Bowl and they got a little boring as a result.  Of course, at the time, nobody knew that they wouldn't get another shot at it for the next two centuries.  So, my love for a football team wasn't as deep as it was for the New York Mets.  I could be easily pulled away.

Back in the day, it was virtually impossible to get tickets to New York Giant football games.  Most of the patrons were season ticket holders since the 1800s and seat plans were often included in last wills and testaments.  There were 60,000 privileged people every Sunday who got to enter their then-home of Yankee Stadium.

The prospect of going to a New York Giant game was about as alien to me as a trip to the Moon.  And, hell, there were people going there back then.  So, you can imagine my surprise when, on one September Saturday, I got a call from my best friend at school, Danny.

"A guy my dad knows is offering us his two season tickets for tomorrow's Giant game."

Huh?

I never turned down any invitations to any sporting event at that age.  And, since my friends and I were already well versed in traveling to Shea and Yankee Stadium by ourselves, I didn't foresee any parental opposition.

Surprise.  My dad, who probably had never been to a Giant football game himself, was a bit defensive.  And probably a little bit envious.

"What do you want to go down there for?   A lot of nuts in that place."

Well, yeah.  So? 

"It's too damn crowded.  You'll get lost."

Well, maybe.  So?

"Lots of traffic down there.  The two of you will get clipped."

I doubt it.  So?

But, as most fathers always do, my dad caved in.  As long as he could orchestrate the whole day.  He'd drive me and Danny to the Jerome Avenue subway train which would let us off right in from of the stadium.   He'd listen to the game and then time our return home and wait for us at the train station. 

And so he did. 

Meanwhile, Danny and I walked into that stadium like kings on that Sunday.  We felt like we belonged to the most elite group in the world.  The seats sucked.  Actually, the view at the top of this blog was pretty much our POV.  But, we didn't care.  And we rooted for the home team because, heck, everybody around us had owned their season tickets the turn of the century.

Yes, we became Giant fans.  And, you can imagine our euphoria when Danny got the call one Saturday later about tickets to the very next game.  

As it turns out, because the season ticket owner was having some business issues, we got to go to four of the seven home games that year.  He let us know on Saturday and, when the call came, we were delirious.  It was great.   We started to be on a first-name basis with the folks around us.   And my father's transport service and our Sunday schedule became almost robotic.

These days, football teams can make the playoffs if they score more than three touchdowns all season.  But, back then, it was a more prestigious group that moved forward.  And the Giants had to win on the last home Sunday to go into the playoffs.   This was the game everybody in town was talking about.

Danny and I waited eagerly for the Saturday call.  That never came.

Now, I was desperate to see this damn game.  So, I really pushed the envelope with my father.   

I suggested we drive to Connecticut and find a motel or bar that was airing the game.

"What are you, some kind of nut??"

I listened on the radio.  The Giants lost.   They didn't make the playoffs.  

And, since there were never any tickets in any subsequent year, my Giant fan days were done.

Dinner last night:  Orange chicken from Panda Express.

Classic TV Theme of the Month - September 2026

 Wow!  This premiered sixty years ago this week.

Dinner last night:  The buffet at the Dodger Stadium season ticket holder party.

The School Photographer is Back!

 

Barack Obama, Second Grade.

Mad Magazine had to start some place.

Nancy Guthrie could be in there.

Yes, the guy behind the camera is a pedophile.

Future bimbo runway model.

Sally Struthers, Age 8.

Hey, kid, that smell just might be you.

If Howard Stern got a nose job.

Dinner last night:  Salisbury steak.

One Last 9/11 Story

 

And it's one I can't believe.  Or stomach.  

It's not a remembrance from 2001.   It was last week as related by a work colleague who has a kid in college.   I don't know if the class involved was history or journalism.  But the reference comes from whatever dumbbell stands in front of this class to lecture.

You see, this higher educator numbskull went on a soap box to talk about how the planes going into the WTC was an early form of AI.

I heard this and shook my head.   

Yeah, the buildings never crumbled to the ground.

Almost 3,000 lives didn't end on that day.

People who worked in Ground Zero didn't get life-ending cancer years later.

I can only hope this teacher was making a sick joke.  It would be hard to fathom that somebody actually believes this.  And shares it with a bunch of kids who weren't even born in 2001.

As I always say, academia rhymes with macadamia.   Fitting because they're both nuts.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

This Date in History - September 16

 

Happy birthday to Ed Begley Jr., who co-starred in one of my favorite TV shows of all time, "St. Elsewhere."

307:  EMPEROR SEVERUS II IS CAPTURED AND IMPRISONED AT TRES TABERNAE.  HE IS LATER EXECUTED.

That's a little severus, don't you think?

1400:  OWAIN GLYNDWR IS DECLARED PRINCE OF WALES BY HIS FOLLOWERS.

Give that last name a vowel, please.

1620:  PILGRIMS SET SAIL FROM ENGLAND ON THE MAYFLOWER.

Trying to beat the Thanksgiving traffic.

1776:  THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION - THE BATTLE OF HARLEM HEIGHTS IS FOUGHT.

I hope they don't damage the Apollo Theater.

1810:  WITH THE GRITO DE DOLORES, FATHER MIGUEL HIDALGO BEGINS MEXICO'S FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE FROM SPAIN.

Grito de Dolores?   Does that come with guacamole?

1880:  THE CORNELL DAILY SUN PRINTS ITS FIRST ISSUE IN ITHACA, NEW YORK.  THE SUN IS THE NATION'S OLDEST, CONTINUOUSLY-INDEPENDENT COLLEGE DAILY.

As if college students are truly independent.

1908:  THE GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION IS FOUNDED.

Recall.

1914:  TV DIRECTOR ALLEN FUNT IS BORN.

Smile.

1919:  THE AMERICAN LEGION IS INCORPORATED.

Just what do they do besides march in your local Memorial Day parade?

1920:  A BOMB IN A HORSE WAGON EXPLODES IN FRONT OF THE JP MORGAN BUILDING IN NEW YORK CITY AND KILLS 38 WHILE INJURING 400.

Not exactly an improvement - years later, terrorists use children instead of horses.

1924:  ACTRESS LAUREN BACALL IS BORN.

You just know she was a bitch.

1927:  ACTOR PETER FALK IS BORN.

Just one more question...

1934:  ACTOR GEORGE CHAKIRIS IS BORN.

Take the Sharks over the Jets with the points.

1943:  WORLD WAR II - THE ALLIED INVASION OF ITALY CONCLUDES WHEN HEINRICH VON VIETINGHOFF, COMMANDER OF THE GERMAN TENTH ARMY, ORDERS HIS TROOPS TO WITHDRAW FROM SALERNO.

Mr. Vietinghoff to you.

1945:  WORLD WAR II - THE SURRENDER OF THE JAPANESE TROOPS IN HONG KONG IS ACCEPTED.

Who knows a notary public, please?

1949:  ACTOR ED BEGLEY JR. IS BORN.

In his honor, take the bus today.

1955:  THE MILITARY COUP TO UNSEAT PRESIDENT JUAN PERON OF ARGENTINA IS LAUNCHED AT MIDNIGHT.

Don't cry for me, yada yada yada.

1956: MAGICIAN DAVID COPPERFIELD IS BORN.

Presto.

1958:  BASEBALL STAR OREL HERSHISER IS BORN.

Great baseball announcer, but, boy, did I hate him back in 1988.

1959:  THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL PHOTOCOPIER, THE XEROX 914, IS INTRODUCED IN A LIVE TV DEMONSTRATION.

Somebody forgot to add paper.

1965:  ANIMATOR FRED QUIMBY DIES.

I created Gumby, damn it.

1966:  THE METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE OPENS AT LINCOLN CENTER IN NYC WITH THE WORLD PREMIERE OF SAMUEL BARBER'S "ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA."

What's the over/under that Tony Randall was in the audience that night?

1970:  KING HUSSEIN OF JORDAN DECLARES MILITARY RULE FOLLOWING THE HIJACKING OF FOUR CIVILIAN AIRLINES BY THE POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE.

Just in case you thought those dirtbags in 2001 were all that original.

1980:  SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES JOIN THE UNITED NATIONS.

I think I saw them perform in Greenwich Village.

1992:  THE TRIAL OF THE DEPOSED PANAMANIAN DICTATOR MANUEL NORIEGA ENDS IN THE US WITH A 40-YEAR SENTENCE FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING AND MONEY LAUNDERING.

Forty years too short.

2009:  SINGER MARY TRAVERS DIES.

Peter, Paul, and Nobody.

2013:  A GUNMAN KILLS TWELVE PEOPLE AT THE NAVY YARD IN WASHINGTON, DC.

Just so you realize that this kind of workplace violence will always exist.

2016:  PLAYWRIGHT EDWARD ALBEE DIES.

Who's afraid now?

2021:  ACTRESS JANE POWELL DIES.    

Seven Corpses for Seven Brothers.

2025:  ACTOR ROBERT REDFORD DIES.

Remembering the way he was.

Dinner last night:   Salad. 

One More 9/11 Documentary

 

With the 25th anniversary just past, there were a variety of new documentaries on the subject.  And replays of some old ones.   For me, the newest one might just be the best.   I was crying throughout, largely because "When America Took the Field" connected that horrific tragedy with a love of my life...baseball fandom.

Now there have been other films that covered how Major League Baseball helped our country heal in those first weeks after 9/11.  HBO did one that was very good about 15 years ago.  Indeed, some of the same children who were spotlighted by HBO have their lives updated in this new movie on the MLB Network.   But, indeed. the tone set by this new doc, executive produced by former baseball star Todd Zeile, would move emotionally impact the most casual of fans.

The usual tales are covered.   The kids who lost their dads and moms who are baseball fans.  The first game in NY after 9/11 when Mike Piazza hits a game winning homerun that just be the greatest moment of the sports ever.  Fan connections with the likes of Ken Griffey Jr. and Derek Jeter.  Community outreach by managers Joe Torre and Bobby Valentine who secretly arranged to have one dad's ashes scattered at Shea Stadium's home plate.

Believe me, this movie pulls at your heart strings as if it was a symphony violin. And, as I watched, memories washed over me.   It made me miss Shea Stadium.  It made me recall how strong my love was for the NY Mets during my childhood.  And it made me realize how baseball was the basis of so many of my longtime friends.  

And I thought about my own parents, gone due to illness and not because a building fell on them.  My dad introduced me to the game.  I myself introduced the game to my mother in her later years, largely because she loved both Dwight Gooden and Met announcer Tim McCarver.

This film has it all.   Memories of a grateful nation.  And mine.

LEN'S RATING:  Four stars.

Dinner last night:  Hamburger.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - September 14, 2026

 The super under-appreciated Don Knotts.

Dinner last night:  Ribeye steak and roasted cherry tomatoes.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - Like Yesterday

 

Certainly not 25 years.

We're several days after the annual remembrance of 9/11...the day that changed our nation forever.  In the circles I travel in, we still talk about it.  Just as we had 25 years earlier.  The memory touchstone for several generations.  As I was talking on the phone with someone on the East Coast last Friday, a steady ambulance siren could be heard in the background.   It bothered me.

The wounds are still fresh even now.

I am heartened to see friends still take to social media and commemorate it all anew.   There was one friend's post, however, that essentially took task to George Bush one more time for being the sole reason why 9/11 happened.  Seriously?  No X post was more inappropriate than that one.  Trust me, our foreign relations over the past several decades has suffered and there is plenty of blame to go around on both sides of the aisle, including the ones currently in charge.

But I digress...

That post reminded me of the toxic bi-polarity we reside in these days.   But, it wasn't in 2001.   We were one.   Our nation had come together.  It sadly didn't last for long.   But it was possible for the States of America to be...well...United.

I've written before about my world on that day.  The transplanted New Yorker watching the dust clouds from 3000 miles away and longing to be there for the comfort and hugs of my friends there.  Driving the empty streets of Los Angeles.   Seeing soldiers standing in front of the Federal Building in Westwood with rifles pointed to the air.  My writing partner and I finding the only place open to eat was Nate and Al's in Beverly Hills.   Seated in the booth next to us was Rodney Dangerfield, dressed in pajamas and bedhead.

It all stays with me and as well it should.

But, this year, I recall an earlier part of the day.   Driving home after a truncated workday, I saw those aforementioned soldiers.  Ready to fight whoever and wherever.   It was chilling.   I had a sensation come over me.

I called my pastor and left her a voice mail.   Since I was the church treasurer at the time, I had a complete set of keys to the building (pictured above).   I told her that I was going over to the church to open the doors.   I had this feeling people would seek it out.

I opened the front doors wide.  I took the American Flag and hung it outside.   I didn't care if anybody stole stuff.   It was more important for that place to be available.

I went back later in the day.   My thought process had been correct.  Inside there were four or five folks.   All sitting quietly.  Staring at the altar.  Or with heads bowed solemnly.

Looking for answers to unanswerable questions.  

I was moved by the silence as I stood quietly in the background.  My small act of simply turning a key in a church door had perhaps touched some or many.  

In our own congregation the following Sunday, we had our own catharsis.  Our pastor closed the service by having us all stand in the aisle with our hands joined together.   We sang "God Bless America."

And cried.   Every single one of us.

These days, religion get knocked around.  Thanks to over-politicizing some beliefs or issues, you're almost ashamed to practice what you hear preached.   Now there are more and more people who proclaim that they're "spiritual, not religious."   I think that's code for "I'm sleeping in until the Broncos kick off."

Yet, a quarter century ago, it was a touchstone for folks looking for comfort, solace, and the belief that there is meaning to this world.  

More importantly, my church and your church or house of worship can be that conduit for us to get through days like 9/11.   A reminder that communities can thrive.   And make a difference.

Dinner last night:   Lasagna from my freezer.

Classic Newsreel of the Month - September 2026

 Back in the day, this was clockwork every September.

Dinner last night:  Korean pork.

No Words Today As Always

 

25 Years Ago Tonight.

 All is quiet.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

This Date in History - September 9

 

Happy birthday to Angela Cartwright.  Boy, did I have a crush on her during those "Lost In Space" days.

9:  ARMINIUS' ALLIANCE OF SIX GERMANIC TRIBES AMBUSHES AND ANNIHILATES THREE ROMAN LEGIONS OF PUBLIUS QUINCTILIUS VARUS IN THE BATTLE OF THE TEUTOBURG FOREST.

The only thing I care about here is the fact that this was the last single digit year we ever had.

337:  CONSTANTINE II, CONSTANTIUS II, AND CONSTANS SUCCEED THEIR FATHER CONSTANTINE I AS CO-EMPERORS.

Naming your kids all the same thing?  Tacky.

1087:  WILLIAM RUFUS BECOMES KING OF ENGLAND, TAKING THE TITLE OF WILLIAM II.

Clever.  How did he ever come up with that?

1488:  ANNE BECOMES SOVEREIGN DUCHESS OF BRITTANY, BECOMING A CENTRAL FIGURE IN THE STRUGGLE FOR INFLUENCE THAT LEADS TO THE UNION OF BRITTANY AND FRANCE.

I see London, I see France, I see Brittany's underpants.

1543:  MARY STUART, AT NINE MONTHS OLD, IS CROWNED "QUEEN OF SCOTS."  

Well, don't expect her to do much yet.

1776:  THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS OFFICIALLY NAMES ITS NEW UNION THE UNITED STATES.

Back when we really were united.

1791:  WASHINGTON DC, THE CAPITAL OF THE US, IS NAMED AFTER PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON.

I guess they never bothered to change it under Obama.

1850:  CALIFORNIA IS ADMITTED AS THE THIRTY-FIRST US STATE.

Mexico became the thirty-third.

1850:  THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 TRANSFERS A THIRD OF TEXAS' CLAIMED TERRITORY (NOW PARTS OF COLORADO, KANSAS, NEW MEXICO, OKLAHOMA, AND WYOMING) TO FEDERAL CONTROL IN RETURN FOR THE US GOVERNMENT ASSUMING 10 MILLION DOLLARS OF TEXAS'S PRE-ANNEXATION DEBT.

And, in 2015, they still want to be their own country.

1890:  KFC FOUNDER COLONEL SANDERS IS BORN.

From which side of the rat do you get dark meat?

1914:  DURING WORLD WAR I, THE CREATION OF THE CANADIAN AUTOMOBILE MACHINE GUN BRIGADE AS PART OF THE BRITISH ARMY.

Later to be sold to Elliot Ness and the Untouchables.

1926:  THE NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY IS FORMED.

Bum bum bum.

1932:  ACTRESS SYLVIA MILES IS BORN.

She looked old when she was young.

1940:  GEORGE STIBITZ PIONEERS THE FIRST REMOTE OPERATION OF A COMPUTER.

Where's the control-alt-delete function?

1941:  SINGER OTIS REDDING IS BORN.

Sittin' on the dock...oh, never mind.

1942:  DURING WORLD WAR II, A JAPANESE FLOATPLANE DROPS INCENDIARY BOMBS ON OREGON.

Oregon???  How did they get that far?

1947:  FIRST CASE OF  A COMPUTER BUG BEING FOUND - A MOTH LODGES IN A RELAY OF A HARVARD MARK II COMPUTER AT HARVARD.

So the first computer bug was really a bug.

1952:  ACTRESS ANGELA CARTWRIGHT IS BORN.

National holiday in my house.

1956:  ELVIS PRESLEY APPEARS ON THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW FOR THE FIRST TIME.

From the waist up.

1965:  THE US DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT OPENS.

Yeah, a fat lot of good they've done.

1971:  THE FOUR-DAY ATTICA PRISON RIOT BEGINS, EVENTUALLY RESULTING IN 39 DEAD, MOST KILLED BY STATE TROOPERS RETAKING THE PRISON.

1975:  ACTOR JOHN MCGIVER DIES.

A fellow Fordham graduate.

1993:  THE PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZES ISRAEL AS A STATE.

Sure they do.

1997:  BASEBALL STAR RICHIE ASHBURN DIES.

An original Met.

1999:  ACTRESS RUTH ROMAN DIES.

If I'm not mistaken, she was a survivor of the Andrea Dorea shipwreck.

2009:  THE DUBAI METRO, THE FIRST URBAN TRAIN NETWORK IN THE ARABIAN PENINSULA, IS CEREMONIALLY INAUGURATED.

Now there's a train I will never ever be on.

2012:  A WAVE OF ATTACKS KILL MORE THAN 100 PEOPLE AND INJURE 350 OTHERS ACROSS IRAQ.

What kind of attacks?  Terrorist?  Gall bladder?  More info please.

2024:  ACTOR JAMES EARL JONES DIES.

I wonder if the helmet fit into the coffin.

Dinner last night:   Grilled beef sausage.