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[Ben]

And if we click our buttocks we will move to Page 2!

[bk]

I'm up and awaiting Mr. Direct TV Man, although I fear there will be nothing for him to do, as I'm NOT letting him move the TV or anything else to get to the wiring behind.  When I've done that in the past something always gets pulled out from somewhere and I end up having to call Mr. Wiring Man to come back and it's just too annoying.

[Dan (the Man)]

Le Check de Media de Moi (n'est pas?)

CD Player (at home):  The new R.E.M. CD  Feh...

CD Player (at work):  Carole King Tapestry

DVD Player:  Bell Telephone Hour Cole Porter Tribute   -- Nothing truely outstanding here, but it's fun to watch these old BellTel studio taped hours(Bravo used to show them a few years back.)  Vivid, vivid color, slight echo to the sound, very wide open performance space (or it appears so with the fish-eye lens--I suspect the space was actually smaller than it looks.)  Shows like this are primarily audio/visual/nostalgic comfort foods for me.

VHS:  I taped a local channel's home town meeting after Wednesday night's debate because a friend was supposed to be a member of the attendees.  But he told me yesterday that he got sick and didn't go.  Aw, well...

[Ben]

DTM said:

"Aw, well...

so I'll finish

"Every day a little death, in the parlor in the bed..."

[MBarnum]

I am now deciding to leave work at 10am. Just call me DR Slacker.

[Jay]

I know tongue is not necessarily every Dear Reader's culinary delight, but over the past few weeks I've twice had tongue sandwiches at Factor's Deli, which happens to be close by the neighborhood of the young Benjamin Kritzer, and they were incredibly tasty and tender--probably the best tongue sandwiches I've ever had.

[Dan-in-Toronto]

DR Jay -

I like a tongue sandwich, too. So much so that a couple of years ago I picked up a pickled tongue at the kosher butcher's and simmered it in a large covered pot. Unfortunately the Dear Partner arrived home unexpectedly, lifted the lid off the pot and, for want of a better word, plotzed.

[Charles Pogue]

CD: Gene McDaniels: a CD reissue of two of his old albums, HUNDRED POUNDS OF CLAY and TOWER OF STRENGTH.  It does not include his two other big hits, CHIP CHIP, and the divine POINT OF NO RETURN, a favourite of BK's and a natural for the vocal stylings of Guy Haines.  

The CD is a bit all over the map, covering pop tunes, rock tunes, and even some quasi-gospel stuff like HE...Samplings: IT'S ALL IN THE GAME, ARE YOU SINCERE, PORTRAIT OF MY LOVE, RAINDROPS, LITTLE BIT OF SOAP...

You can actually see why McDaniels, despite his considerable talent, never became a big star...his choice of material (or the material chosen for him) beyond his four hits was rather neglible and the arrangements I don't think make the most of his voice.   I found this to be true also on a tape of his I have.  It contains the Big Four and then not much else.  This album is better simply because it does have some recognizable tunes that he performs nicely.  

Also he had trouble scoring in England because Hundred Pounds of Clay was censored for what were then considered objectionable lyrics and got no airplay on the BBC.  And it seems his other hits always got covered by some British artist like Frankie Vaughn whose cover version did better.  He did appear, however, in an Anglo-American 1962 rock movie, "It's Trad, Dad" ("Ring-A-Ding Rhythm" stateside) directed by no less than Richard Lester.  Also in the film: Chubby Checker, Gary "U.S." Bonds, and Del Shannon.

In the DVD.  SHINER, starring Michael Caine.  Nice movie, though as with so many British movies, the sound mix is just awful.  You turn the volume up and things still just sound mushy.  It's not the accents.  It's just they seem to keep all the music and ambient sound at the same damn level of the dialogue.  I've never understood this.

I think I might be up for Oedipus Rex translated by William Butler Yeats, directed by Tyrone Guthrie, and starring Douglas Campbell...all in Greek masks.

BOOKS on the nightstand:  THE OCTOBER HORSE, the last massive tome in Colleen McCullough's massive series of massive tomes in her First Man In Rome series...six volumes, each somewhere between 500-700-odd pages, detailing the reigns of Marius, Sulla, and Caesar.

A couple books for work purposes.

CALVIN & HOBBES...The Sunday Pages 1985-1995.  The funniest comic strip ever.  When it stopped, I pretty much stopped reading the newspaper comics.

[Jay]

On the whole, Miss Melissa Manchester's show last night at the Cinegrill was a disappointment.  Her voice is still in great shape, and it was a real pleasure to hear "Don't Cry Out Loud" sung as an introspective ballad (as opposed to the overt anthem Miss Manchester recorded and from which she no doubt has drawn great wealth.)  She alternated old material with new material from her new album and, truth be told, most of the new stuff all sounds the same:  a rather dated pastiche of Carol King/Carole Bayer Sager-type chick ballads.  (Sorry, but I can't think of any term more descriptive.)  Miss Manchester explained that she is making a comeback return now that her kids have grown.  But what outlet can her music possibly have?  They don't play this kind of music on the radio these days and they certainly don't feature artists like Miss Manchester on television anymore.  I wish her luck, but am concerned that she will be having a tough go of things.

And on the subject of lousy food, my dinner last night at the Cinegrill fell squarely into that category:  an oversalted, lukewarm shrimp bisque with some crabmeat on top as garnish and an oversalted piece of salmon steak swimming in some kind of oversalted cheesy sauce.  The Dear Father and Stepmother did a little better, each with some salad and half of what must have been the smallest chicken ever brought to market.

[Dan (the Man)]

DTM said:

"Aw, well...

so I'll finish

"Every day a little death, in the parlor in the bed..."

D'oh!  "Aw, well..." is typically a Krapp's Last Tape reference for me.

[Jay]

DR Jay -

I like a tongue sandwich, too. So much so that a couple of years ago I picked up a pickled tongue at the kosher butcher's and simmered it in a large covered pot. Unfortunately the Dear Partner arrived home unexpectedly, lifted the lid off the pot and, for want of a better word, plotzed.

Shades of Fatal Attraction.

Reminds me of the time (I must have been in college at the time and at home on school break) that the Dear Brother/Dear Reader Stuart came home, opened the refrigerator and discovered some live crustaceans I had bought for a special meal that night crawling around in there.  It took us quite a while to get him down from the ceiling.

[JMK]

Yes, I have been abysmally E&T lately, but with good reason (or at least I think so).  I am a year older (unfortunately no wiser) since I last posted, and with that age came the most amazingly protracted backache I have ever experienced.  Oy, oy, oy.  Only now, about a month and a half later, and with one chiropractic appointment under my neck (so to speak) and alot of self-chiropractic, do I feel myself returning to normal (or whatever passes for normal with me ).

Re:  The Oscar.  That has, of course, a delicious score by Percy Faith with what must be one of the most beautiful mid-60s ballads ever written, in that era when so many were: Maybe September.  Unfortunately, my contacts in the Faith-reissuing biz tell me a CD release of the soundtrack album probably won't happen due to the incalcitrance of Mr. Tony Bennett, who evidently has a separate deal on his vocals on the soundtrack recording.

Re:  CD/DVDs.  I am currently listening to the brilliant Brasilian pianist/composer Joao Donato.  Those of you who get your quasi-Brasilian fix with Astrud should listen to some of the real thing sometime.  Astrud is fine and well, mind you (though her stepdaughter Bebel is much preferable, IMHO), but there's so much more you could be enjoying--call me, I have a 10 foot tall collection of Brasilian CDs and can make recommendations, as DR MBarnum will attest.    In the DVD department, I'm watching the noir thriller Black Angel, with Miss June Vincent resolutely refusing to pronounce any "r"'s.

And finally for your mental delectation, I share with you two quotes I emailed to JR earlier today.  As you may guess, I get some very strange emails from Frances Farmer fans from all over the world, but this new guy really takes the cake (no mean feat).  First of all, he insists Frances lived in a downstairs apartment from him in the late 50s and early 60s in the Bronx (she was in Indy at the time) and thought she was his mother.  However, he's since moved on from that particular delusion and has sent me, as I told JR, these priceless communiques from beyond the Twilight Zone.  If you can figure out what the hell he's talking about, please let me know:

Priceless communique #1:
You might find this interesting I just became aware that young lady who
is the daughter of an old girl friend
who appears to resemble this woman I knew and also sort of looks like
Ms. Farmer, actually prettier, is my offspring as well.

However it is probably a subjected view point on my part.

You are making my story very exciting and i admit I am letting my
imagination run wild.

Priceless communique #2:
This it had all the right information just what I need to know this
makes the mystery
more fun and harder to guess the identity of the person. Of course I
don't know either
so it doesn't really matter who the woman was and the motive will be
the readers problem
I only have to put it to words.

Truer words was never spoke, as the grammatically incorrect pundits say.  

[Stuart]

Shades of Fatal Attraction.

Reminds me of the time (I must have been in college at the time and at home on school break) that the Dear Brother/Dear Reader Stuart came home, opened the refrigerator and discovered some crustaceans I had bought for a special meal that night crawling around in there.  It took us quite a while to get him down from the ceiling.

If only because I didn't know which dishes we were going to use.

Can be raw fish, can be cooked fish
Don't matter that I'm Jewish.
I'm squeamish unless it's dead fish.

[JMK]

Now that I see my new e-friend's messages in large print, and posted with his original "carriage returns", I think I get it:  he's obviously writing free-form verse a la Charles Bukowski.

[Stuart]

Now that I see my new e-friend's messages in large print, and posted with his original "carriage returns", I think I get it:  he's obviously writing free-form verse a la Charles Bukowski.

I think they are more like the rantings of Claude Hooper Bukowski.

[Ben]

DTM said:

"D'oh!  "Aw, well..." is typically a Krapp's Last Tape  reference for me."

Well, I must admit, that Aw is usually spelled, Ahh or Ah, but when I saw it I couldn't resist  

[Dan-in-Toronto]

DR JMK,

A year older as in birthday or in Jewish New Year? If the former - a happy belated one.

And good back-health vibes to you. May things go from a triple oy to a zero oy in no time.

[S. Woody White]

The true "baiting" was done by the questioner, Bob Schieffer, who asked whether the candidates thought homosexuality was something you're born, or the product of environment.

If it's environment, then, for much of prejudiced America, the Cheneys are "guilty" of raising their daughter in an environment that led her to lesbianism.  I think this is pretty ridiculous.  So does John Kerry, who said that if you talk to most homosexuals, they'll tell you they were born with certain feelings.

Mrs. Cheney keeps calling him a bad man, plainly, because she feels that she's done something wrong, raising a daughter the way she did.  She subscribes to the environment theory (unlike Kerry) and doesn't like being reminded of the results of how she raised Mary.

Oh, come now, Noel, it's just as plain that she feels that dragging her family into the campaign to be a below-the-belt blow.  There's no solid evidence that she's feeling guilty at all, only supposition.

The following news release from Log Cabin Republicans may be of interest:

*****
News Release
For Immediate Release
October 14, 2004   Printer Friendly
 
Contact: Christopher Barron
Log Cabin Republicans Public Affairs
(202) 347-5306 (O) or (202) 297-9807 (M)
press@logcabin.org

Log Cabin Republicans Statement on Senator Kerry's Comments Regarding Mary Cheney

Statement by Log Cabin Executive Director Patrick Guerriero

(Washington, DC)—"Senator Kerry could have made his point about gay and lesbian Americans without mentioning the Vice-President's daughter.

However, this shouldn't distract us from the fact that President Bush, Karl Rove and other Republicans have been using gay and lesbian families as a political wedge issue in this campaign.  

Log Cabin Republicans have a message for both campaigns.  For Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards, you do not need to talk about the Vice President's daughter in order to discuss your positions on gay and lesbian issues.  For President Bush and Karl Rove, you have a moral obligation to stop using gay and lesbian families as a political wedge issue.  Our country and our party deserve better."

###

Log Cabin Republicans is the nation's largest organization of Republicans who support fairness, freedom, and equality for gay and lesbian Americans.  Log Cabin has state and local chapters nationwide, a full-time Washington office, and a federal political action committee.  

*****

End quote.

[S. Woody White]

Last night, S. Woody wrote:

Quote from: Matt H. on Yesterday at 08:37:07pm
Tonight on WILL & GRACE, for only the third time in its seven year run, Will Truman, the gay lawyer character, kissed another man.
 
 

Is that good for Bush, or that good for Kerry?

-- this is not a question!


I'm glad it's not because I don't understand what you're driving at.

Sorry, but I'm not the one who made the post.

[elmore3003]

Well, on my way down to the Library, I checked out the newspapers and found the whole Cheney-Kerry brouhaha.  Now, I'm puzzled:  what did he do wrong by mentioning the gay daughter?  Edwards did the same thing.  It's not Kerry's fault that he brought up the hypocricy of the gay daughter of a man representing a governing party claiming (since the religious right has definite proof) that homosexuals are a sty in the eyes of God, that the sanctimony(!) of marriage is only for a man and woman, that an ignoble and inept conflict in Iraq is a war against terror, and that if you're not a Christian, like the Aryan, you'd better apply for honorary status.

I've got two brothers on their third marriage each, and I love them and most of my current and ex sisters-in-law but I'm damned if I see sanctimony anywhere in it.  The ability of a heterosexual couple to change partners like underwear seems so holy that I want to plotz!  Maybe we should establish rulings for married couples before they get health insurance, tax breaks, deductions for children, etc.  I'm so mad I could spit (a GOLDEN APPLE reference).

[Dan-in-Toronto]

DR SWW,

What does Log Cabin feel about Mary Cheney being her father's campaign manager? Regardless of her father's personal position on gay marriage, I don't understand how she can assume that role.

[Jane]

DRLura I must be missing something because I didn’t know you had lost your travel privileges.  Are you going someplace?
If you gave up meat and became anemic you weren’t eating properly.  I suggest eating fish instead of red meat.

François I’m looking forward to the details and photos from Tom.  I can’t believe their sitter called to mention the dogs were lost unless Tom might have suggested where to find them.  Thank goodness the story has a happy ending.

We finally watched the debate last night-and Kerry’s comment on Cheney’s daughter seemed inappropriate and stupid to us.  The more I watch Kerry the more I dislike him which makes me very sad.   Most of the time I think he makes Bush look good, which makes me feel even worse.

Jose the theater sounds lovely.

I only enjoy breakfast at Jerry’s, soft boiled egg and a toasted egg bagel.  For lunch or dinner I love Nate 'n Al's  in Beverly Hills.  I can’t recall if I have ever eaten at Art’s.  How long has it been there?

[elmore3003]

I've also heard from a friend in Toledo that there's been a Watergate-type break-in at the Democratic headquarters:  all hockable items were safe, they stole the computers with data banks and election protection strategies and info on the 200+ attorneys trying to keep the election clean.  Is Toledo going to be this year's Florida in the election?

[elmore3003]

DR SWW,

What does Log Cabin feel about Mary Cheney being her father's campaign manager? Regardless of her father's position on gay marriage, I don't understand how she can assume that role.

It's like asking the Rabbi of Warsaw to help elect Adolph Hitler, doncha think?

[S. Woody White]

Media report:

DVDs:

On top of Aladdin and the trove of horror films we picked up from WalMart, which I reported on earlier this week, a trove has arrived from A&E (finally!), including all the Diana Rigg Avengers episodes, the filmed stage production of Nicholas Nickleby with Roger Rees, and Victory At Sea.  This should keep me occupied for a while.

Plus a two-pack we picked up yesterday, Kiss Me Kate and High Society.

CAR CD PLAYER:

We didn't play anything while travelling yesterday.  On our trip northward, der Brucer wanted to talk politics (local, not national; we're still figuring out this new home of ours, which is very topsy-turvy at times), and on the trip back we had the news on the radio most of the way.  It was very foggy during last night's drive, as well, Legend of Sleepy Hollow weather, which was interesting.

FURTHERMORE:

Along with the new electric keyboard/synthesizer that der B bought for himself (which will no doubt bring music to our ears once he gets the rust out of his fingers), he also bought himself a new computer.  The old one he's been using has just about clanked it's last clank.  Hopefully, this will mean he will start posting again soon.

[Jane]

I know tongue is not necessarily every Dear Reader's culinary delight, but over the past few weeks I've twice had tongue sandwiches at Factor's Deli, which happens to be close by the neighborhood of the young Benjamin Kritzer, and they were incredibly tasty and tender--probably the best tongue sandwiches I've ever had.

At Factor’s I have an egg salad sandwich on challa.  It is close to my mother in-laws place and down the street from a great florist, Sunny Alexander’s.  

[Dan-in-Toronto]

Something that struck me as odd in the last debate, and about which I've seen no comment in either the U.S. or the Canadian press: In debate #2, on the subject of Canadian pharmaceuticals purchased by U.S. residents, Bush stressed that the issue was purely one of safety. Yet in debate #3 Bush said that they were hoping to make up the flu-vaccine shortfall through Canadian suppliers.

[S. Woody White]

DR SWW,

What does Log Cabin feel about Mary Cheney being her father's campaign manager? Regardless of her father's personal position on gay marriage, I don't understand how she can assume that role.

Log Cabin has not taken any position on her participation in her father's campaign.  Frankly, I don't see any reason why the organization should.

I do know that she and her father are very close, and always have been.

[Jane]

JMK GOOD BACK VIBES! Ouch.  Sorry you have been having such a difficult time.  Happy belated birthday.

[Jane]

This morning we took Bogie to a third vet.  Three’s the charm because we are finally satisfied we have one that knows more than Keith, after all the research he has done, plus she commented on everything he does know.   She is running more blood and urine work than we had anticipated, even sending it to a special lab in the Midwest.  He is doing fine at the moment and we want to keep it that way.  Not much we can do for Echo, but there is lots that can be done for Bogie.