March 2011
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When I was a child, haircuts were perpetrated at Joe's Barber Shop on Coney Island Avenue. It was a pleasant place: there were wall-to-wall mirrors on either side of Joe Montuori's shop, and a boy sitting in the chair could lose himself in the series of infinitely-regressing images. Joe always had a friend or two…
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Sardines, by the tinful. Herrings, canned, either in wine sauce or in tomato sauce. Whitefish. Lima beans which came into the house dried but which were soaked to plump up, then boiled and mashed (but not for me, if I could possibly avoid them). Potatoes in any form, but usually mashed and buttered. No chicken or lamb chops, but…
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I was informed that the granddaughter had become interested in Egyptian mythology, so I decided to buy her a book on the topic. It's hard to know what to put in the hands of a young lady whose reading level is astonishing but who is just eight years old. I visited the "young adult" quarters…
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"'I know what's to be the end of it, as far as I am concerned' replies Mrs. Pipchin, 'and that's enough for me. I'm going to take myself off in a jiffy." 'In a which, Mrs Pipchin,' says Mrs. Chick. 'In a jiffy,' retorts Mrs. Pipchin, sharply." More on Charles Dickens and vehicle amusement here. …
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In the old days, when I'd whip up a big batch of spaghetti sauce, I'd add a pound or so of ground beef and a generous portion of hot Italian sausage. But that was B. C. (before cholesterol). Nowadays, it's all vegetarian. Not nearly as tasty, but acceptable — and appropriate, in its blandness, to…
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Thank you, thank you. (Applause) You're a terrific audience. (Applause). Hey, did you see what's going on in basketball. A Brigham Young player was thrown off the team for having pre-marital sex. (Audience groans). No kidding. Doesn't look good for BYU. They got rid of the only kid on the team who could score. (Laughter) …
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I have a favorite moment in Diner (1982), the first of Barry Levinson's quartet of Baltimore movies, and it's not the scene in which I made my silver-screen debut. It's when two of the working-class guys who hang out at the Fells Point hamburger joint find themselves taking a drive in the Maryland countryside. They…
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In Mervyn LeRoy's Random Harvest (1942), amnesia is not merely a plot gimmick. The amnesia of Charles Rainier, a shell-shocked World War I veteran, is the principal subject of the film. Rainier (Ronald Colman) begins in Condition A (amnesiac but solid citizen and loving husband) but is hit by a cab in Liverpool and transitions…