Where do I start? Since our last klatch, it was my turn to catch up on, shall we say, unpleasant flying experiences. There was the three-hour delay, which I wouldn’t have minded so much if we hadn’t been sent from terminal to terminal and gate to gate (six changes in all) while the airline tried to find a plane that […]
The other day, Karl and I were scrolling through the DVR recordings to find something we both wanted to watch. Naturally, he didn’t want to watch a Bette Davis or Elizabeth Taylor movie, and I wasn’t interested in anything he had recorded from the Military Channel. But I was a little surprised when I suggested West Side Story and he […]
It seemed like it was going to be a nice, relaxing Sunday. Karl and I had dinner with friends on Saturday night, and the contentious, vitriolic Dallas municipal election was over. Sunday was an at home time to be capped off with the Tony awards. And then it hit. Suddenly, the clouds opened delivering sheets of rain with straight-line winds […]
Sitting at my computer at this moment, my gaze wanders around the room to identify all the things that identify me as an anglophile. Queen Victoria has a mug and a bust, and there’s a smaller bust of her son, Edward VII. Behind me in the corner is a collection of figurines of Henry VIII and his six wives, plus […]
American ingenuity. American exceptionalism. But what about American precision? Does it even exist? Not when it comes to holidays, and seldom when it comes to language. While grade school children may be an exception, Valentine’s Day for adults is about lovers. Saturday Night Live did a funny bit earlier this year about how we have eroded this celebration of romance […]
Several years ago, I was excited to go to a party in California that was to be attended by Ben Mankiewicz. He is one of my nerdy hot crushes, doing for movies what Steve Kornacki does for politics and Chuck Rosenberg does for the law. After we met, I told Ben that I was pleased to have spelled his name […]
“. . . a wonderful dream, Papa.” See what those four words can do? “I had a dream” is the key to unlocking one’s inner Ethel Merman. Say those four words in my hearing, and I may spontaneously finish your thought in my Best Broadway Belting voice “a dream about you, baby.” And you’ll be lucky if I run out […]
For as long as I can remember, there have been rock bands. Beatles and Stones and Monkees, oh my. Some grew somewhat organically out of key associations—Jagger/Richards, Lennon/McCartney—that began when band members were in their teens. The Monkees’ origination, on the other hand, was totally synthetic and straight out of Hollywood. Usually, the bands boiled down to four guys—one on […]
Something just isn’t right. And by not right, I’m talking about something is rotten in the state of Denmark—except this isn’t Denmark, and I’m not Marcellus. It’s that same queasy feeling one gets from opening the door to the refrigerator and knowing something in there has gone bad. Take for example a dinner I had recently at one of Dallas’ […]
The experience of watching movies on television, by definition, is not the same as seeing one in a theater as it was originally intended to be seen. This is particularly true for epic movies like The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, and Lawrence of Arabia. Viewing Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor, on the big screen demonstrates just why this notorious film won four […]
