Well, dear readers, we had us a real mystery here at haineshisway.com yesterday: The Curious Case of the Disappearing Avatars and Smileys by Erle Stanley Gardner. I’m not exactly sure when it happened, but at some point in the late afternoon I went to our handy-dandy discussion board and there was no ME there – my avatar was missing and in its place was a little box with a question mark. Now, I don’t know about you, but I just get a little ornery when I’m used to seeing ME and instead see a little box with a question mark. I checked my settings and everything was as it should be. Then I posted about it and noticed that many posts from you dear readers had little boxes with question marks. We ascertained that those were all supposed to be smileys. It was baffling and even annoying, not necessarily in that order. But it was already after hours for our web host, but since we’ve had several unseemly problems since they moved us, I took the bull by the horns, e-mailed everyone and then called the emergency hotline. This web host is amazing about addressing problems after hours and over the course of an hour they figured it out, they solved the mystery, although I have yet to be told what exactly the problem was, although, like Hercule Poirot, I have my suspicions. I think for both the avatar and the smileys there is some web path address and when we moved that changed on the server but not on the board. That would be my uneducated guess, but hopefully they’ll tell me today and hopefully we’ve had the last of the problems. I do know they told me to tell you dear readers that if you’re still getting occasional posting error messages you must clear your browser cache. Then everything should be fine. That is quite a different thing than just refreshing the page.
Prior to The Curious Case of the Disappearing Avatars and Smileys by Erle Stanley Gardner, I’d had a most interesting day. I only got about six hours of sleep – just too much going on in the old cranium. So, I was up by eight, answered e-mails, and the helper shipped a boatload of CDs. We actually got in three titles today – the one we shipped and two upcoming releases – we’ve never had that happen before and so when we announce those, we can ship immediately. Then I moseyed on over to the Wood of West for an early lunch with our very own Mr. Nick Redman. We were to meet at Jerry’s Deli, next to the Bruin Theater. I, of course, always think of that as the Hamburger Hamlet, which was one of their premiere locations for many years. I parked and walked a half block to Jerry’s Deli only to find that Jerry’s Deli wasn’t there. Closed. Gone. Nothing left but the building. I’d heard nothing about that. Happily there was a CPK right across the street from the Village theater so I called Nick and re-directed him to the new location.
I found out that Jerry’s Deli in Westwood gave up the ghost about two months ago. Nick and I had a fine early lunch – we laughed and laughed and just when we thought we could laugh no more, we laughed again. We dished the dirt, we ate the food (I had their “lite” option – shrimp scampi over ribbons of zucchini – really good and only 450 calories). Then Nick left and was replaced by a very nice lady, with whom I had a very interesting meeting. We shall see if it leads anywhere. One simply never knows. After that, I walked across the street to Stan’s Donuts – hadn’t been in years. I got their wonderful chocolate peanut butter donut thing, which is my favorite, and I got an apple fritter thing. I drove back to the Valley, picked up a couple of packages, and then finally came home.
I did a three-mile jog, planked, and did thirty-five sit-ups, then dealt with the late afternoon’s mystery events, after which I sat on my couch like so much fish and ate my wonderfully wonderful donuts and finished watching The Spy Who Came in from the Cold on Blu and Ray. It’s such a wonderful film, very 1966, beautifully shot in black-and-white, with great performances from everyone – Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Cyril Cusack, Sam Wanamaker, Oskar Werner, Peter van Eyck, and Michael Hordern. The score by Sol Kaplan is terrific, too. The transfer on the Criterion Blu and Ray has terrific contrast and sharpness, but is certainly not perfect. If this was taken from the camera negative I’d be very surprised – there are light white negative scratches and things that look more like what would be on an internegative. Still, it looks mostly very nice and the film itself is highly recommended by the likes of me.
And now for something completely different. Most of you have seen the Yiddish Sondheim video from What If, but I thought it would be fun to post the Kritzerland anniversary show version with Jane Noseworthy, Josh Finkel, Dan Callaway, Kay Cole, Jenna Lea Rosen, Sami Staitman and Sarah Staitman – with John Boswell at the piano thing.
Weren’t they good? What a fun show it was.
Today, I shall do some writing, I’ll finish trying to figure out a show order that is killing me due to too many damn ballads, I shall begin writing the commentary, I’ll start on some new liner notes, I’ll do a jog, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then I think I’m dining with the Darling Daughter later in the afternoon.
The rest of the week is meetings and meals and seeing things and the weekend I think I also have to see some things.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, write, finish the show order, hopefully pick up some packages and then dine with the Darling Daughter. Today’s topic of discussion: When you were growing up, what was your favorite ice cream flavor, your favorite thing to get from the ice cream truck, your favorite donut, and your favorite kind of pie and cake, say from the time you remember through ten years of age. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that The Curious Case of the Disappearing Avatars and Smileys by Erle Stanley Gardner has been solved. Here to make you drool just a little was how we LA kids got our favorite donuts – mine was the Helms chocolate donut – never been anything like them anywhere ever.
