Posted by Jose C. Simbulan @ 05/26/2003 10:30 AM PST

I've been up for several hours this morning already. I have no idea why, I just awoke at an early hour. So I've been spending my time roasting some beets in the toaster oven.

That may sound strange, but they roast perfectly well in the toaster oven, doused with a little olive oil and sprinkled with kosher salt, then wrapped in foil and roasted for ninety minutes or so at 400 degrees, a nice roasty temperature. I'm just leaving them to cool down, and then I'll rub the skins off easy as pie, or easy as pi if you're mathematically inclined, or angled. They'll make a nice salad later, tossed with a simple vinagrette and maybe some fresh herbs.

If I could go back in time to sup with an interesting group of people, I suppose it would be nice to go back for a dinner shared between Mr. Leonard Bernstein, Mr. Stephen Sondheim, Mr. Arthur Laurents, and Mr. Jerome Robbins, while they were conceiving West Side Story. For one thing, I'd enjoy hearing what they had to say to each other at that time, and learn how they got ideas from one another. But I'd also like to be a waiter at said table, to find out which of them was most likely to grab the check. (It's these little tid-bits that make history so intriguing.)

Posted by S. Woody White @ 05/26/2003 10:52 AM PST

Back in time and who to meet, something I have often thought about. Reducing the answer to one person is difficult. My mother lost contact with her father when she was young-not his fault. After my mother was married she tried to find him, but unfortunately he had died. He was a stage manager in England and had some interesting jobs, including touring with "The Miracle" starring Lady Diane Manners. I can't even find a photograph of my grandfather. I would like to know more about him and his life. I would also like to meet and trace my father's family from Vilna, finally meeting a famous rabbi I am supposedly related to. Unrelated to me, I always wanted to meet Abraham Lincoln who was my hero when I was a child.

Posted by Jane @ 05/26/2003 11:06 AM PST

Since the movie FUNNY LADY depicted Fanny Brice as a woman who spent a lot of time putting lemon and creams on her elbows I guess that she would have the nicest elbows to rub.

By the way, since Tony rules state that voters had to have seen all nominees in a given category to vote, does that mean a lot of voters who missed AMOUR will not be able to vote for Best Musical, Book, Score, Actor and Actress?

Posted by William E. Lurie @ 05/26/2003 11:34 AM PST

WEL: AMOUR was videotaped for the archives. I'm nearly positive that the Tony voters who missed it can go view it at the Performing Arts Library.

As for who I would like to go back in time and meet...well, I have always had a strange fascination with the Titanic disaster, and I would love to go back and meet each and every survivor of the sinking and hear their stories. According to the research I've been doing to for the show, there are only four living survivors--all of them women, which makes sense since very few men got off the boat. I would particularly like to speak with White Star Line owner, J. Bruce Ismay, and ask him what the hell he was thinking, telling the captain to take the boat to full speed.

This is going to sound awful, but, even though I know it was a horrific thing to experience and so many people lost their lives, I think it would be fascinating to go back and actually witness the hitting of the iceberg and the sinking (from a safe distance and without all the people involved, of course.) As an actor, its my job to be able to imagine myself in certain circumstances, but that is just one scenario that I don't think anyone can give full justice to in their minds. Its just so unimaginable that you'd have to witness it to really "get" what it was like.

Posted by Jason @ 05/26/2003 11:45 AM PST

I would like to have been in the rehearsal hall when Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins came up with "Rose's Turn" (was Ethel with them?) and then take them all out to sup.

Posted by George @ 05/26/2003 12:04 PM PST

My mother remembered Captain Smith as a very much loved great uncle. While doing our genealogy research, to my disappointment, we can only find he was an uncle by marriage.

Posted by Jane @ 05/26/2003 12:06 PM PST

Jane: Are you really related to Captain E.J. Smith or are you just pulling my leg? Blood relation or not, I think that's wonderful!

Posted by Jason @ 05/26/2003 12:10 PM PST

Happy Holiday, DRs...have to scurry, yes, scurry to Wally Mart to buy some pink hawthorne shrubs to plant in front of my house--the junipers have gotten so gnarly over the years, that they need to be hidden. I am an avid gardener, and with a 1/2-acre to putter in (I scurry AND putter), I'm in heaven...
It's about 100 degrees here, very nice, I love it...the pool is warming up nicely.
I think I would like to check out Casanova, just to see how he would react to a liberated woman.
Putty in my hands...

Posted by KT @ 05/26/2003 12:13 PM PST

I missed the chat again!! Doggone it! I was at a friends house watching a very strange movie called ANGEL BABY which starred Salome Jens and George Hamilton. It was actually quite good! But strange!

Last day of vacation..arrgh! Back to work tomorrow. Have a million things to do today and no champagne in the cupboard :(

Posted by MBarnum @ 05/26/2003 12:17 PM PST

Just did some quick searches on my last name and it would seem that I have a few semi-important folks in my lineage. There's a Nobel Prize Winner, several military leaders in the Revolutionary War, WWII and the Civil War, a theatrical manager (there IS a theatrical heritage there somewhere), and one of Lewis and Clark's chief assistants. I'd like to do a real geneology, but I have no idea how to get started...

Posted by Jason @ 05/26/2003 12:23 PM PST

Jason, no kidding.

Posted by Jane @ 05/26/2003 12:23 PM PST

Going back in time, I can think (other than the aforementioned TITANIC Disaster) of going on waaaaaay back to Jerusalem for the Last Supper. . .Did He really look like Jeffrey Hunter, or was He more of a Willem Dafoe? Who catered the event? Was anything served other than bread and wine? These are burning questions. Well, while I'm time-hoping, I might as well go back to Moses' burning bush and the destruction of Sodom and Gommorah, right?

Posted by td @ 05/26/2003 12:28 PM PST

Jane: I think that's amazing. If you have any stories to share that your mother may have passed down to you, I'd love to hear them!

Here's a little bit more information on the theatrical manager that I mentioned earlier: He apparently was also a composer of minstrel music. He wrote the supposedly well-known Teddy Bear Rag or something like that.

Posted by Jason @ 05/26/2003 12:43 PM PST

Sorry, that's the Teddy Bear's Picnic.

Posted by Jason @ 05/26/2003 12:45 PM PST

Adam in the Garden of Eden

For a little while, Adam was the only human being in existence (imagine being the only person on an entire planet!). "The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be all alone." (Genesis 2:18)

What an experience this would be just before Eve's appearance.

Who knows it might have been:

Adam & Yves and Eve

Then we might have stayed in Eden

Posted by MDS @ 05/26/2003 12:58 PM PST

I would like to have had dinner at the White House on April 14, 1865 and have told the President during our sparkling dinner conversation that I thought that "Our American Cousin" was a boring melodrama and should see wait for the touring company of The Producers instead.

Posted by Michael Shayne @ 05/26/2003 01:04 PM PST

Jason, that was all I knew about Smith. It's amazing how little I do know about my family. Every time I find a bit more information I only double the number of questions. As for my stage manager grandfather, all I have are two letters he sent a great uncle. I located my mother's cousin she never knew existed. He said his father said my grandfather went to Hollywood with Lady Diana and never returned. If he did come to the States, I know he returned and is buried in a pauper's grave in England. I had hoped to find some mention of him regarding the theaters he worked at or the shows he toured with but didn't even have luck finding much info on those.

Posted by Jane @ 05/26/2003 01:05 PM PST

I wouldn't go back THAT far in time. Just to around 1935 or so and sit down with lyricist Lorenz Hart. Everything I've ever read about this man insists that he was so talented but so sad and tormented. I'd love to be able to sit with him, hear his view of the world and let him talk about his life to get a firmer grasp on his highs and lows.

Posted by Matt H. @ 05/26/2003 01:38 PM PST

For the last two years I've been fortunate enought to travel back in time on my own personal time machine - however, if I could go further back I would like to rub elbows with Cole, Noel, Irving, Al Jolson, Veronica Lake, Preston Sturges, James Thurber, Raymond Chandler, and the original time machine man himself, Mr. H.G. Wells.

Posted by bk @ 05/26/2003 01:49 PM PST

I would like to go back way and speak with the people/prophets upon whose life and words religions have been built. I would like to let them know how corrupted their ideals have become and that maybe the message could have been better delivered.
I would also like to go and see (not help!) how and for what reason the pryramids were built.

Posted by Tom from Oz @ 05/26/2003 02:48 PM PST

Jason: "If you go out in the woods today you'd better not go alone ... today's the day the Teddy Bears have their Picnic"

I'll send you a copy of the song if you like.

Posted by Tom from Oz @ 05/26/2003 03:59 PM PST

Tom: That'd be great! Thanks!

Posted by Jason @ 05/26/2003 04:01 PM PST

Tom: Nevermind. I found it on the internet...but thanks for the offer!!

Posted by Jason @ 05/26/2003 04:23 PM PST

One of the finest uses of "The Teddy Bears' Picnic" is in the Peter Greenaway film A ZED AND TWO NAUGHTS. . .

Posted by td @ 05/26/2003 04:42 PM PST

Also used in the amazing Dennis Potter Tv series "The Singing Detective". Great day for a picnic. We have an annual Teddy Bears' Picnic which is a fun fund raising day for a children's charity.
At one school where I was teaching I introduced such a day as the mid school day of the academic year. It was for the teaching staff. Morning teas was of course teddy bear shaped biscuits and small honey bear sweets (candies?) Biscuit maker T B Guest introduced Guest's Teddy Bear Biscuits to the market in the 1940's. They are still very popular and very good for dunking. The Chocolate coated variety is wonderful.
I live in the same village as did the late T B Guest. His first name was the same too. A few of the older residents here knew him well and as a consequence call me "Tommy" as they did him. It's kind of cute.

Posted by Tom from Oz @ 05/26/2003 05:18 PM PST

I'm watching "The Pianist." I can only say that 45 minutes into the film, and its already breaking my heart.

Perhaps the people I should want to go back and speak with are the leaders of our country in the years prior to our involvement in the War to find out exactly what took us so long to get in there and help those poor people.

Posted by Jason @ 05/26/2003 05:24 PM PST

...and in an opposing vein, my wife, son and I just got back from seeing "A Mighty Wind". What a spoof! It nails many of the personalities on the head (at least from articles I've read and some people I've spoken with who would know). And the pseudo folk songs C Guest wrote for the film truly mimic the style. Not a film for everyone, but a fun couple of hours.

BK - got and update from Grant and will provide copies to Jason on Thursday. We'll try to find some time together prior to Sun/Mon. Let me know if there's anything specific you want us to do in advance.

Jason - call me tomorrow.

And to all a good night.

Posted by Phil @ 05/26/2003 06:08 PM PST

DR Jose -- I enjoyed your "time visit" choices, and just thought I'd mention to you that a very dear friend of mine, Mr. Bob Hebble, studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. Bob is a wonderful composer and arranger of transcriptions for the organ....he has an extremely rich and lush sense of harmonies and inner line movement. Unfortunately, many reports that I have heard from Boulanger students have said that she basically taught through tyranny and intimidation. And by the way, make your roomate clean up his own party mess...you ain't no doormat to no one toots!!

DR KT -- Your gardening sounds fun...in what part of the country do you live? DR Kerry and I are in Phoenix, and we are very lucky to have found a nice old 1948 ranch-style house on an acre and a quarter lot, right in the north-central part of the city. The back yard is like a park, as far as room!

DR TD -- about your "time visit" to the last supper, I have to quote the great Robert Morley..."..if they served anything more interesting than matzoh with cream cheese, we might give it a 2 page spread!" It was so much fun years ago to be on a cruise ship with Morley and his wife, and to end up invited to a couple of their cocktail parties. He was no different in person than his screen personna.....very funny man.

DR Jason -- I hope you are having a nice relaxed day and doing something fun this evening. I have played "Teddy Bear's Picnic" a million times over the years, and now it is neat to find out that the writer is related to you. Congratulations!

Posted by MusicGuy @ 05/26/2003 06:33 PM PST

I hope you will forgive the intrusion of a newcomer, but I only recently stumbled upon this website by accident, while trying to locate an address for Mr. Jerry Herman. I have been doing my best to go through the archives and read all of Bruce’s postings, as well as the responses from all of you, before attempting to put in my two cents worth (the check’s in the mail). As a result, I feel like I know you all a little, which is more than I can say about any of my neighbors in this building that I have lived for two years. What a wonderful mix of topics you all explore: life in New York, Broadway, theater, television, movies, food, language. In other words, you cover everything that life holds dear. Anyway, feel free to tell me to butt out, if I am intruding on a private party.

As for today’s topic, it is interesting that Jason should mention the Titanic, because that was the first thing I thought of when I read the topic. I have always been fascinated with the Titanic, and have read just about everything ever written about it. I even went out to the site of the disaster, back in ’96, when RMS Titanic, Inc. was first attempting to raise the section of the hull. We had a wonderful variety of passengers onboard, including Mr. Buzz Aldren, Ms. Loni Anderson, and one of the last remaining survivors, Mrs. Eleanor Johnson Schuman, who has since passed away. I even flew to New York, several years ago, strictly to see the first preview of "Titanic,The Musical." That night, the preview was full of technical glitches, about a half dozen extra songs, and some God-awful epilogue involving Robert Ballard. But, I knew even then that it was one fantastic show.

Anyway, as much as I would have loved to sit down and shared a jug with Mrs. J.J. Brown (Molly) on that fateful night at sea, I would choose instead, to beam myself onboard the ship, Californian, sitting a few short miles from the Titanic when it hit the iceberg. If nothing else, I would have awakened the ship’s Morse operator, gotten him to turn the spark back on to find out why a ship was firing distress signals in the middle of an empty ocean, and possibly gotten the Captain to save a few hundred additional souls from drowning.

Also interesting that Micheal should mention Lincoln, since the Titanic hit the iceberg on the anniversary of the night Lincoln was shot, and sank on the anniversary of his death.

Whew, sorry I rambled on so. Please, forgive me. I think you are all terrific.

Posted by TCB @ 05/26/2003 06:35 PM PST

As for my own "Time travel dinner"......there are so many wonderful possibilities, but I think it would have been great fun to be at a small relaxed dinner, just made up of close friends, with Noel Coward. I admired the talent greatly, and also the performer, but I would have loved to hear his personal take on people and situations throughout his life.

Posted by MusicGuy @ 05/26/2003 06:36 PM PST

Dear Reader TCB -- Welcome! I too am a baby around here, and you couldn't find a more interesting and varied bunch of folks anywhere....albeit, there is a shared interest in the theatre, music, musical theatre, careers, some good old fashioned gossip, etc. By the way DR is shorthand for dear reader, not doctor :)

So, as a number of us are fond of saying, "inquiring minds want to know." Give us the skinny, the scoop, the whole enchilada about TCB? Where do you live, what do you do, hobbies, age, do you cook, do you garden, do you eat pheasant under glass,...all these important earth shaking things.

This is a fascinating group here...there are gardeners, actors, housewives, musicians, record producers, teachers, dancers, etc... In fact the esteemed Mr. Bruce Kimmel has been almost all of those, just by himself !

Anyway, welcome TCB, and post away......we is waitin' for answers, info, and details.

Posted by MusicGuy @ 05/26/2003 06:45 PM PST

Welcome, TCB. Its good to have you with us!

Posted by Jason @ 05/26/2003 06:50 PM PST

Jason, a good place to learn about ancestral research is at the following link. http://ancestry.com/library/archive.asp

Posted by Jane @ 05/26/2003 07:05 PM PST

Welcome to our merry, and
most assuredly wacky, troupe,
Dear Reader TCB. We always
like to see newcomers around
here, and we hope you will
become a regular!

Posted by Jed @ 05/26/2003 07:11 PM PST

Welcome to the Cookie Jar, TCB. Do
tell us more about yourself.

It is funny that several of you
mentioned Noel Coward. I
sometimes think that I should have
lived in the twenties and thirties. I
fancy myself the lover, muse, and
star for both Noel Coward and Cole
Porter. Imagine, being the first to
sing those wonderful songs and
speak tohose wonderful words!
Maybe I could have been the first
Victor in Private Lives-and
afterwards go home with the first
Elyot! (Coward himself was the first
Elyot.) Then I could have spent the
other half of my year in New York,
and been the one for whom Cole
really wrote "My Heart Belongs to
Daddy"! That would have been our
great life. Alas, I am stuck in this age,
which has many things that age did
not...but has lost a few that it had.

Posted by Hapgood @ 05/26/2003 07:42 PM PST

Welcome TCB, and we all hope you'll join our merry troupe here at haineshisway.com.

Posted by bk @ 05/26/2003 08:21 PM PST

Dear Hapgood -- What a sweet and touching sentiment you expressed, about both Noel Coward and Cole Porter. It was touching because I can tell that you really meant it, and it showed a nice side of you. They would probably have been lucky to know you!

Play nice, eat your vegetables, and grow up to be a mensch! G'night.

Posted by MusicGuy @ 05/26/2003 08:43 PM PST

I'm here now. Not truant. Not errant. I had to work today. No holidays for me. :>(

We've vollied this dinner question around before, and I always find it intriguing. Unfortuantely my mind draws a blank at the moment.

I, too, was fascinated by the Titanic as wee sprig of a twig of a lad. I was drawn to it for some unexplainable reason. I had seen the movie with Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb, and then I saw "Unsinkable Molly Brown." Maybe I was on the Titanic in another life, or maybe I was piece of ice floating around the Atlantic, but there was something about it all that made me want to knowmore. and maybe I'm crazy. There was also a song sung in bars about the Titanic that I remember hearing as an even younger sprig of a twig (How did I hear songs sung in bars? Don't ask).

When I read "Night to Remember." I cried and very dutifully read all the names of those who perished. I didn't know from the Titanic Society or anything. Now, they've become like Trekkies almost.
I later met Robert Ballard and heard him lecture. After so many attempts at people finding the ship over the years, it was incredible that they finally did. (I didn't know they originally had an epilogue to the more recent "Titanic.") I was terribly impressed with the movie and saw it on huge screen at the only theatre in town with a huge screen. It was torn down shortly thereafter.

Interestingly enough, it was a relatively small group of students and scholarly types who attended Robert Ballard's lecture (right after he and the crew had done their National Geographic thing).
A few years later, Robert Ballard made another appearance at the height of the film's popularity. The group was filled with little Lolitas wanting to know what Leonardo DiCapprio was really like. God help us all.

Posted by Kerry @ 05/26/2003 09:17 PM PST

And welcome TCB. We want to hear all your opinions and jokes and favorite songs and all that as we journey through Hainsie and Kimmlet land together (not to be confused with the eagerly awaited Kritzerland.)

Posted by Kerry @ 05/26/2003 09:19 PM PST

An Oz welcome to TCB.

Have just returned from a funeral. Good to lighten up with a dose of HHW. Friends indeed.

Posted by Tom from Oz @ 05/27/2003 12:10 AM PST

Hi DR MusicGuy...I live in Las Vegas, NV--have since 1972, formerly from NYC.

Posted by KT @ 05/27/2003 01:51 AM PST

What lovely posts. Welcome TCB.

Hmmmm....back into the time machine. Nothing earth-shattering or anything like that. BUT, I think I would like to have been at that gathering in October, 1942 (either at Deanna Durbin's house OR her sister's house), and either encouraged Frances Farmer not to have that extra drink OR volunteered to drive her home. She could have avoided the arrest that led to her probation that in turn on January 14, 1943, led to her jail sentence and eventually being declared insane.

Posted by Jrand52 @ 05/27/2003 03:24 AM PST

Well, I am officially back, from both vacation and my long weekend on Long Island.

Welcome, TCB. Good to have you aboard.

Hmm, time machine. It's like my song list. It might change daily but I would LOVE to go back and hob nob with Mr. Coward and the Lunts, both in London and New York. I would think knowing Mr. Irving Thalberg and Miss Norma Shearer would be quite the event. Spending time with Miss Eva Le Gallienne at her Civic Theatre would be exciting. So many people to choose from. It's too much to think about as I plunge back into the workaday world. I need another vacation! Oh, well, July 4th is just a little more than a month away.

Posted by Ben @ 05/27/2003 05:37 AM PST

Epiphanies are easy when you have had a few drinks. Following up with those epiphanies later, when sober, is the hard part. Sh...aw, ferget it.

Posted by Yu dunwanna know @ 05/27/2003 07:15 AM PST