Tag Archives: Jack Benny

Only You

Sunday night. Went scarf hunting today. Went to Burlington Coat Factory. Sometimes you can find something good there, but not today. It was a mess an hour after it opened and no one really knew anything.

I asked for mens scarves and was told 2 locations, but could only find them in one and it was a poor selection. I’m not one for branding so that reduced the selection to almost zero. I did ask another salesperson and she said basically they probably had them but she didn’t know where since a lot of things were still in boxes.

I almost bought a tie and some undershirts, but there was no real line, just a mob of people going to the registers from all directions. I just put the things I was planning on buying on a table and walked out.

Wound up walking around Hoboken in the sun, smoking a Padron. Expected to run into someone, anyone but to no avail. I guess that they saw me first. Walked around.

Watched Jack Benny and Carole Lombard in To Be or Not To Be and it was just as good as the Mel Brooks Anne Bancroft version. In fact I think the same script was used. Odd to see Jack Benny as a Nazi saying Heil Hitler with a swastika armband on his arm. It was good and breezy and fairly fast paced. Carole Lombard was gorgeous, easy to see what Clark Gable saw in her.

I just checked and there was a TV movie in the 1970’s starring James Brolin and Jill Clayburgh as Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. I probably saw it when it was broadcast. ABC used to show made for TV movies on Friday nights which I used to watch since I had no where to go on Friday nights. Much like today.

I also remember watching Hey I’m Alive, a TV movie starring Ed Asner and Sally Struthers who played plane crash survivors trying to stay alive in the snowy Yukon by eating toothpaste.

And Home for the Holidays starring Sally Field who watches her father and sisters get murdered by their step mother over the Christmas holiday. That one scared me, I used to think that that would happen to my family. Or a scenario like the Clutter family from In Cold Blood which I saw at much too early an age.

Last night I watched the Too Tough to Die: The Tribute to Johnny Ramone. It was ok. Marky Ramone’s documentary is better as is End of the Century, the ‘official’ Ramones bio. Johnny was a taskmaster right winger. Johnny stole Joey’s girlfriend and the two of them didn’t speak for years even while sitting in the same van on tour. Joey wrote The KKK Took My Baby Away about Johnny and Joey’s ex-girlfriend.

I know some girls thought Johnny was cute, but Dee Dee was always the cuter one, as well as the most troubled, being a junkie and all. And dey awl had dat deep Queens way of talkin’ you know wud I mean?

Tommy speaks the best and now it’s just him and Marky. CJ and Richie Ramone really don’t make the list. Should they?

It was a live concert basically from Los Angeles. Bands like X, The Red Hot Chili Peppers (Anthony Kiedis really sounded like Johnny Ramone), The Dickies among others. Eddie Vedder was in it too. Ho hum. Said he was a good friend of Johnny’s. Might have paid for Johnny’s tombstone as well since a quote from Vedder was inscribed on it. X were great of course.

Rob Zombie was the MC so I guess it was all a big Los Angeles love fest. Left me somewhat whelmed.

Tonight is the season finale of True Blood. Who knows what will be revealed? I’m almost psyched. Perhaps I will be more so when it’s 9:00. Back to work tomorrow. 2.5 days of work. Yippie!

Deadbeat Club

Well it’s back to the grind. Last night Bill and I watched the Jack Benny dvd. A collection of 4 of his shows from 1954. I watched it on Sunday and I knew Bill would enjoy it so I saved it and watched it again. Bill took the day off as he was quite tired which made me fearful that he might be coming down with what I had but no he was just tired after the weekend and the change in weather.

It’s been getting quite cold. After Jack Benny we watched O & RM which Bill has been getting into more than me. I suppose I’ll keep watching it until things wind down after the election. I wrote that with difficulty. It’s not easy to type with your fingers crossed. I almost switched off RM and put Heroes on but since I was recording it, RM it was.

Heroes was good I thought. They’re getting rid of some superfluous characters which is fine by me. Bye Maya. Take your black tears of death with you. Hiro might be getting interesting again. Parkman, the cuddly clairvoyant bear cop is back, in love with Daphne the speedster who may or may not be double crossing the cuddly clairvoyant.

Oh and Peter lost most of his powers, but he still has that handsome power, and that Sylar. He’s fast becoming the most interesting character once again.

Couldn’t fall asleep until midnight, tried watching Letterman’s Top Ten but he just wouldn’t stop talking about Bill O’Fuckface which is almost as bad as seeing him so I finally fell asleep. Bill up before the sun and out the door.

I woke up to the Beatles singing Can’t Buy Me Love which was a nice way to start the day. I thought I would be running late again, but I wound up leaving early out of boredom.

Doesn’t seem like I’ll be seeing Casey non the bus anymore. We emailed each other and he’s working downtown now which is where I originally thought he was working but it turned out he was a couple of blocks away. Still trying to get his script to Martha G., just haven’t heard from her.

Work was good. Tom Chin learned his lesson. Greg Stevens came in, still a bit ill. He definitely seems to have what I had and doesn’t blame me for it. The day went by at a nice pace. I was relatively busy which helped.

This afternoon was a bit of a shock. Greg’s wife, Lorraine rents some office space from us, running a charitable organization out of her office. Around 3:30, one of her assistants called for me to call 911. It turns out that Lorraine was feeling faint and they were worried that she might have been having a heart attack.

She has scoliosis which sometimes affects her left arm, hence the cardiac fear. The paramedics came and checked her out and she agreed to go the hospital for some more tests. Greg had left the office and was at his acupuncturist and he was unavailable so I tried leaving a calm measured message regarding his wife’s health. That was all I could do, it was time for me to go home.

Now it’s 9:00, I just got off the phone with my dear friend Billie in DC. I hadn’t heard from him in a while so I was worried. He’s fine, once again letting me know that’s there was nothing to be worried about. I told him that Bill and I will try giving him a call on Saturday from the B-52’s show.