Dopey Member
Post by doctork on Nov 20, 2016 23:49:09 GMT -5
I decided to post this here because there hasn't been much advising around here lately. We probably need some advice.
A cruise event also prompted this choice. Howard and I were getting hamburgers one night up by the pool. This was necessary because there were so many things to do during the cruise that we did not feel we should waste 1 or 2 hours a night in The Dining Room, when we could be missing a movie, or an interview with Kim Novak or something.
So - Howard had gotten his burger and, feeling the need for Natural Mellowing Agents, he was loading up the burger and fries with Lots of Ketchup. A fellow passenger looked at his plate and said "You have too much ketchup!" He informed her that he is a member of The Ketchup Advisory Board, so he is morally obligated to use lots of ketchup in order to stay well-informed and give good advice. Besides, everybody knows there is no such thing as too much ketchup.
A couple nights later, Howard and I were doing the same thing - grabbing some burgers and fries between shows. We picked an out-of-the-way table, had a seat, then noticed we were seated next to Ben Mankiewicz (Ben is one of the TCM hosts) and his wife! We started chatting back and forth and it was so cool. Ben is casual and natural, very friendly and of course very knowledgeable about films. He was working on some notes for his upcoming interview with Jerry Lewis, so we were all trading ideas back and forth. We reminded Ben that he and Eddie Muller ("the tsar of noir") had promised that if we caught up with them later at the bar, we could ask them about the original ending for "Chinatown." They had been doing the preview discussion before the film started and it came out that about 20 people in the audience had never seen the movie, so they didn't want to do a spoiler. We all had to leavethe burger shack to go to the same place - Ben to do his interview with Jerry Lewis (after we helped him with his notes) and us to listen to that interview. Still, he did take the time to tell us the originally scripted ending of Chinatown.
Now that interview with Jerry Lewis was really something, or more accurately, Jerry Lewis is really something. He is 90 years old and has been in show biz for 85 years! And he is still very active, in fact he was not on the ship for sail away, he had to catch up with us later because he had two gigs to do before the cruise, while en route from Hollywood to the ship - St. Louis and Chicago. Same thing on the way home - he was doing a show in Florida, then one in Las Vegas. That man is tireless: he has done 61 telethons for muscular dystrophy and has raised $6.3 billion (that's with a B) for the cause. There was time for Q & A and someone asked him what his motivation was for this. Simple, he said - he doesn't like to see kids in pain and dying. He got pretty emotional and tearful at this point in the discussion. He had hoped to raise enough money to find a cure for MD, but there is not yet a cure. It almost seemed like he considered himself a failure because there is no cure yet, but this man has done so very much. When a cure is found, it will be largely because of all his efforts.
Jerry can't really walk any more; he has such bad arthritis that he needs to use a wheelchair to get around. He did almost all his own stunts for his movies, and you may recall that his comedy was quite physical so he sustained many injuries over the years. Inevitably, that leads to disabling traumatic arthritis. He is still sharp as a tack, and wittier than ever though. If you recall his old TV show from the 1950's, he had The Memory Quiz, where he asked the audience to remember 10 things, kind of like the 12 days of Christmas only much more complex. Our audience that night was able to recall up to the 4th thing. Jerry then finished the list of all 10 things, perfect order, every word perfect! A truly remarkable man, who has made a huge difference to Mankind.
I have completely filled my diary/travelogue book from the Alaska cruise this past summer. I was about 2/3 of the way through it with notes from the PHC cruise, and I completely filled it up with this latest one.
I will be writing some more cruise notes as time allows - from both cruises.
A cruise event also prompted this choice. Howard and I were getting hamburgers one night up by the pool. This was necessary because there were so many things to do during the cruise that we did not feel we should waste 1 or 2 hours a night in The Dining Room, when we could be missing a movie, or an interview with Kim Novak or something.
So - Howard had gotten his burger and, feeling the need for Natural Mellowing Agents, he was loading up the burger and fries with Lots of Ketchup. A fellow passenger looked at his plate and said "You have too much ketchup!" He informed her that he is a member of The Ketchup Advisory Board, so he is morally obligated to use lots of ketchup in order to stay well-informed and give good advice. Besides, everybody knows there is no such thing as too much ketchup.
A couple nights later, Howard and I were doing the same thing - grabbing some burgers and fries between shows. We picked an out-of-the-way table, had a seat, then noticed we were seated next to Ben Mankiewicz (Ben is one of the TCM hosts) and his wife! We started chatting back and forth and it was so cool. Ben is casual and natural, very friendly and of course very knowledgeable about films. He was working on some notes for his upcoming interview with Jerry Lewis, so we were all trading ideas back and forth. We reminded Ben that he and Eddie Muller ("the tsar of noir") had promised that if we caught up with them later at the bar, we could ask them about the original ending for "Chinatown." They had been doing the preview discussion before the film started and it came out that about 20 people in the audience had never seen the movie, so they didn't want to do a spoiler. We all had to leavethe burger shack to go to the same place - Ben to do his interview with Jerry Lewis (after we helped him with his notes) and us to listen to that interview. Still, he did take the time to tell us the originally scripted ending of Chinatown.
Now that interview with Jerry Lewis was really something, or more accurately, Jerry Lewis is really something. He is 90 years old and has been in show biz for 85 years! And he is still very active, in fact he was not on the ship for sail away, he had to catch up with us later because he had two gigs to do before the cruise, while en route from Hollywood to the ship - St. Louis and Chicago. Same thing on the way home - he was doing a show in Florida, then one in Las Vegas. That man is tireless: he has done 61 telethons for muscular dystrophy and has raised $6.3 billion (that's with a B) for the cause. There was time for Q & A and someone asked him what his motivation was for this. Simple, he said - he doesn't like to see kids in pain and dying. He got pretty emotional and tearful at this point in the discussion. He had hoped to raise enough money to find a cure for MD, but there is not yet a cure. It almost seemed like he considered himself a failure because there is no cure yet, but this man has done so very much. When a cure is found, it will be largely because of all his efforts.
Jerry can't really walk any more; he has such bad arthritis that he needs to use a wheelchair to get around. He did almost all his own stunts for his movies, and you may recall that his comedy was quite physical so he sustained many injuries over the years. Inevitably, that leads to disabling traumatic arthritis. He is still sharp as a tack, and wittier than ever though. If you recall his old TV show from the 1950's, he had The Memory Quiz, where he asked the audience to remember 10 things, kind of like the 12 days of Christmas only much more complex. Our audience that night was able to recall up to the 4th thing. Jerry then finished the list of all 10 things, perfect order, every word perfect! A truly remarkable man, who has made a huge difference to Mankind.
I have completely filled my diary/travelogue book from the Alaska cruise this past summer. I was about 2/3 of the way through it with notes from the PHC cruise, and I completely filled it up with this latest one.
I will be writing some more cruise notes as time allows - from both cruises.
