February 2019
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Actually, I didn't go TO the awards ceremony. This is what I wore to watch the Oscars on TV. Well, that's not entirely true either. I forgot to watch the Oscars. But I did wear the outfit. My ensemble: plaid wool shirt by Woolrich; trousers by Lee (regular cut — "smoky quartz" color); white cotton…
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Among its other attractions. New Orleans (where I happen to be at this moment of writing) is a city blessed with street and avenue names that are both unusual, particular to the city, and glorious: Basin, Burgundy (accent on the gund), Calliope (three syllables), Desire, Dryades, Felicity, Frenchmen, Poydras, Prytania, Rampart, and of course Tchoupitoulas.…
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Approaching 80, I've been studying the Brooklyn Eagle for the date of my birth, March 11, 1939. "War and war's alarms" dominate the news, but nevertheless day-to-day life in Brooklyn was reassuringly perennial. Here's a highlight from the Around the Town column: "One of the features at the Montauk Club's 50th anniversary dinner tonight…
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Lenore Coffee, born in 1897, wrote 50 or more silent films and any number of studio productions in the 30s, 40s and 50s. Her most notable achievement at Warner Brothers was the Oscar-nominated screenplay for Four Daughters, co-written with Julius J. Epstein in 1938. Epstein, with his twin brother Philip and Howard Koch, wrote Casablanca.…
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This, young 'uns, is a picture of a washboard. It's an object that you might have happened upon in an antique store or a museum. The washboard — this one is made of metal, like the one I remember from my childhood, but they could be made of glass or even wood — sat…