Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, after a relaxing day that included relaxing. I only got six hours of sleep because I wanted to take the first pill of my medication by nine – they have to be spaced out by five hours – and you have to take them with food. So, I had a couple of biscotti, as that was all I had. That was at nine-thirty. Today, I’ll get some English muffins and jam, which is a perfect bit of food for pill one. Then I had to film a little video for a David Cassidy thing – they’re renaming a street where he grew up as David Cassidy Way. I’d been invited to come to it but there was no way for that to happen, so they asked me to video something. I was nervous about doing it because of my eye being so weird, but I did the same set-up and lighting I used to do for the online Kritzerland shows and after about five tries I thought it was decent enough to send, which I did. Then I went to the mail place and picked up one small package and there was one letter for me. I came right home, even though I should have stopped and gotten the English muffins. The letter was so sweet – from an eighteen-year-old gal who loves 1970s culture and loves The Partridge Family. She sent me a small version of the photo of David and I from my first episode and asked me to sign it. She also included a photo of a painting she’d done of the cast on the famous bus – quite good it was, too. I signed the photo and included a little note with it. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched some YouTube videos, just to kill time until food at two, when food was coming from The Cheesecake Factory. Some guy had put together a compilation of his favorite mystery guests from What’s My Line. And watching those made me remember just what a great show that was. Our household never missed an episode back in the day. I thought the host, John Charles Daly, was smart and funny and urbane, and the regular panelists were the same – Arlene Francis, Dorothy Kilgallen, and especially Bennet Cerf. I just thought they were all the height of sophistication and wit and watching them again proves it. We have nothing like that today. Of course, the mystery guest who made me laugh out loud from the second he came on was – Jack Benny. I mean, I was howling. They showed two of his appearances. Lucille Ball had three and was hilarious in all of them. The most surprising, funny-wise, was Debbie Reynolds. Fred Allen was the weakest, but I’ve never understood his appeal anyway. Also brilliant were Rosalind Russell and Art Carney in several appearances. And who can ever forget Stopette and Geritol and Five-Day Deodorant Pads. Not I. Anyway, while I’ve enjoyed many game shows, What’s My Line will always be the gold standard for me. Oh, and the floating panelist that was my favorite was in the earlier shows – Steve Allen.
Then food arrived and it was really good – my farfalle with roasted garlic, chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, caramelized onions, and peas. VERY rich, so I don’t know if my subsequent tummy problems, which were very mild, was that or the pills – I’d been warned that the only side effect might be tummy cramping. Whichever it was wasn’t bad. Then I watched a few more videos on the Tube of You, then watched the first two episodes of a documentary about The Three Stooges, narrated and featuring the son of Moe Howard. It’s not brilliantly done, but it’s fun to watch. After that, I didn’t want to start the Billy Joel documentary, which I’m saving for this evening, but I’d saved a bunch of low-budget movies that I’d never heard of – bottom half of the bill stuff – and chose Crime Against Joe, starring John Bromfield and Julie London circa 1955. Directed by Lee “roll ‘em” Sholem, Mr. “Cut. Print. Over there.” I was trying like crazy to identify the locations – but couldn’t because – the movie was shot on location in Tucson. In fact, the drive-in restaurant, Duke’s, was very famous, and there was a huge brouhaha when it was torn down. Anyway, I always liked John Bromfield from Sheriff of Cochise, and Julie is quite fetching. And I’m halfway through its seventy minutes and finding it enjoyable. The screenplay is by Robert C. Dennis, who was a hugely prolific writer for radio and TV – he wrote thirty scripts of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and twenty-two for Perry Mason. He also wrote eighteen episodes of China Smith, four episodes of The Outer Limits, six episodes of The Untouchables, and pretty much wrote for every major TV series over the years – over five hundred episodes in total. And then it was time to write these here notes, and when they’re posted I’ll finish up Crime Against Joe.
Today, I think when I get up, I’ll just do a really quick Gelson’s run and get English movies and some cherry jam and come home and eat one, then take pill one. Then I have a lot of stuff to catch up on, I’ll do a run to the mail place if there’s anything to pick up, I’ll eat food around two, I have some telephonic calls to make, and then at some point I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same. Oh, and for those who do eBooks, Richard and Me is now available on Amazon for only $4.99. Just search the title and my name on the Kindle store.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, get up, do a quick Gelson’s run, have an English muffin so I can take pill one, catch up on a lot of stuff, do a run to the mail place if necessary, eat lunch, have some telephonic calls, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Your favorite game shows – and which was the very first game show you ever watched. For daytime, mine was probably Treasure Hunt with Jan Murray, which I watched way back in 1956. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, always happy to watch old episodes of What’s My Line.