Love the Kevin sandwich, ( and that you used the plastic fork) I have often spoken with waittresses and asked for a " personality meal" after a brief discussion,
she picks it for me. Always fun and tasty. Never anything outside the bell curve of okay food though I wont eat anything with an eye in it
There used to be a deal for families of GM employees. You could get a newly made Buick from the factory in Lansing Mich. and 10 days to drop it off in LA or San Fran. That became spring break 1978. All adrenaline till passing out on the beach in Malibu. Wound up in the comedy store for a hot new comic Robin Williams doing fun things with Taylor Negron and pals.
Fun trip, my only time in LA
The savant pushing the baby carriage full of dolls at my fave bakery looks just like Williams in the Fisher King. I walked past recently going for my peanut butter cookie fix and he said, "Synergy", and "zoo lunch" Made me think what a different time it is these days. Later than we all think maybe.
Things like breath of duck eliminates thrush I feel are probably grounded in ancient fact of Bacteriophage therapy. Phage therapy is very specific viruses that kill specific bacteria. This was used a lot in the old Soviet Union. These phages are naturally occurring. Ducks work the flora in a water body for food and would be a good vector for collecting and moving various phages around
and passing then to people. The instances of " healing waters" in old lore make me think it may have simply been caused by specific bacteriphages. just my 2 cents. fab reading your writing, really made me think. Thank you
LA is infinitely entertaining. But I had exactly the opposite experience with a "psychic" chef at a Thai restaurant (in Honolulu, not LA). A trusted foodie friend told me about Opal Thai in Honolulu’s Chinatown. “They order everything for you,” she said, so I was prepared when the waitress handed the two of us one menu and seconds later it was snatched from our hands by the owner - a slippery looking guy in an aloha shirt and baggy trousers that covered his hard soled shoes. “I will take care of you,” he promised. The only thing we ordered off the menu was lemonade, which never did come. What did arrive, at interminable intervals, was a series of mystery platters that resembled Thai food – an appetizer that may have been a potato, a tar-like sauce with a wedge of iceberg lettuce for “wraps,” and the “Very Special” duck which was mostly skin and vegetables. Between servings, the owner materialized tableside, repeatedly saluting and shaking our hands, while his son refilled our tiny, metal water bowls. When the $60 bill came, the owner had seemingly vanished. As we left, I spotted him sitting at the counter eating a steak.
Haa. Here's another awful detail about eating out these days. I saw the total $60. and my early thought was " at least it wasnt over priced." In L.A., there are burritos that cost $30.
Thanks for capturing a few of the many strange aspects of living in LA, from the random bursts of joy to the just plain weird. I lived in New York for years and of course it could be crazy too, but the craziness always seemed to make a kind of sense. Anyway, really enjoyed this!
Forgot. I wrote skits at UCLA (Jewish sorority) with Charlotte Brown. She wrote for the other Bob Newhart show. (I have the DVDs of both and loved Bob, the show about comic books . . . I think.) Who's Andy? If you tell me, I'll stop annoying you and correcting your punctuation. Promise. I'm going to play the piano and decide if I can afford to pledge.
I adore this and you and I want the best for you--as do all of us who witnessed and recently read about your "tenure" as the best part of The Late, Late and Late stuff--and as I just posted on Bluesky, you should leave your soul, body, mind, and temperament to science. Job (the one in the Bible) has nothing on you in the ol' patience department.
Now, to try that patience, quotation marks (mostly) go inside periods and commas. And stop saying FOR free and go go back to the way it was said before we allowed children to manage the way adults talk.
I hope we can still be friends or at least I can maintain my current status as annoying online pen pal. (I have a lot of fountain pens. If you're in really good shape and expect to live to 100, I will give them to you--you know, for YOUR DIARY. (Do you love The Hudsucker Proxy?)
Bobbitz born in 1944, product of a mixed marriage. My father was Jewish and my mother was a fucking bitch. xo
“Obviously I read that message the minute we walked in, because I compulsively read everything posted on walls and in stores, checking for weird word uses or misspellings.” Yes.
LOVE the MJT. And now I want to test Kevin's psychic food powers.
Speaking of Reseda (as Tom Petty did)....
"It's a long day livin' in Reseda
There's a free-way runnin' through the yard
And I'm a bad boy, cause I don't even miss her
I'm a bad boy for breakin' her heart...."
Yes. More bad press for Reseda.
Thank you! This Tom Petty line automatically runs through my head at the mention of Reseda. Now I gotta go put on some Tom Petty.
Coping indeed...
Love the Kevin sandwich, ( and that you used the plastic fork) I have often spoken with waittresses and asked for a " personality meal" after a brief discussion,
she picks it for me. Always fun and tasty. Never anything outside the bell curve of okay food though I wont eat anything with an eye in it
There used to be a deal for families of GM employees. You could get a newly made Buick from the factory in Lansing Mich. and 10 days to drop it off in LA or San Fran. That became spring break 1978. All adrenaline till passing out on the beach in Malibu. Wound up in the comedy store for a hot new comic Robin Williams doing fun things with Taylor Negron and pals.
Fun trip, my only time in LA
The savant pushing the baby carriage full of dolls at my fave bakery looks just like Williams in the Fisher King. I walked past recently going for my peanut butter cookie fix and he said, "Synergy", and "zoo lunch" Made me think what a different time it is these days. Later than we all think maybe.
Things like breath of duck eliminates thrush I feel are probably grounded in ancient fact of Bacteriophage therapy. Phage therapy is very specific viruses that kill specific bacteria. This was used a lot in the old Soviet Union. These phages are naturally occurring. Ducks work the flora in a water body for food and would be a good vector for collecting and moving various phages around
and passing then to people. The instances of " healing waters" in old lore make me think it may have simply been caused by specific bacteriphages. just my 2 cents. fab reading your writing, really made me think. Thank you
You're not such a bad writer yourself.
Well done.
Thank you.
LA is infinitely entertaining. But I had exactly the opposite experience with a "psychic" chef at a Thai restaurant (in Honolulu, not LA). A trusted foodie friend told me about Opal Thai in Honolulu’s Chinatown. “They order everything for you,” she said, so I was prepared when the waitress handed the two of us one menu and seconds later it was snatched from our hands by the owner - a slippery looking guy in an aloha shirt and baggy trousers that covered his hard soled shoes. “I will take care of you,” he promised. The only thing we ordered off the menu was lemonade, which never did come. What did arrive, at interminable intervals, was a series of mystery platters that resembled Thai food – an appetizer that may have been a potato, a tar-like sauce with a wedge of iceberg lettuce for “wraps,” and the “Very Special” duck which was mostly skin and vegetables. Between servings, the owner materialized tableside, repeatedly saluting and shaking our hands, while his son refilled our tiny, metal water bowls. When the $60 bill came, the owner had seemingly vanished. As we left, I spotted him sitting at the counter eating a steak.
Haa. Here's another awful detail about eating out these days. I saw the total $60. and my early thought was " at least it wasnt over priced." In L.A., there are burritos that cost $30.
You have a point!!!
Your best ever. Merrill!!!!
Gee. Thanks EJC.
Another lyrics mention, from 90s poetry slam style fave Soul Coughing, in “Screenwriter’s Blues”:
Exits to freeways twisted like knots on the fingers
Jewels cleaving skin between breasts
Your Cadillac breathes four hundred horses over blue lines
You are going to Reseda to make love to a model from Ohio
Whose real name you don't know
This might be the most positive mention of Reseda I have ever seen. Reseda: Home of mysterious Ohio models! A whole new image!
WHOLLY RESEDA!!!! WHEN ONE IS BRED AND BORN IN THE B HILLS. WE WERE INSTRUCTED . NEVER VENTURE SOUTH OF WILSHIRE . WHERE IS RESEDA???????????????
I have just one question. What do you suppose constitutes “an extended period of time” to have a duck’s bill in a child’s mouth?
Thanks for capturing a few of the many strange aspects of living in LA, from the random bursts of joy to the just plain weird. I lived in New York for years and of course it could be crazy too, but the craziness always seemed to make a kind of sense. Anyway, really enjoyed this!
Thanks!! And yay!
Wonderful as always and so needed as a break from our hopeless post election state. I want to go to there, both of theres.
Forgot. I wrote skits at UCLA (Jewish sorority) with Charlotte Brown. She wrote for the other Bob Newhart show. (I have the DVDs of both and loved Bob, the show about comic books . . . I think.) Who's Andy? If you tell me, I'll stop annoying you and correcting your punctuation. Promise. I'm going to play the piano and decide if I can afford to pledge.
Andy is my husband. https://andyprieboy.com/home
I adore this and you and I want the best for you--as do all of us who witnessed and recently read about your "tenure" as the best part of The Late, Late and Late stuff--and as I just posted on Bluesky, you should leave your soul, body, mind, and temperament to science. Job (the one in the Bible) has nothing on you in the ol' patience department.
Now, to try that patience, quotation marks (mostly) go inside periods and commas. And stop saying FOR free and go go back to the way it was said before we allowed children to manage the way adults talk.
I hope we can still be friends or at least I can maintain my current status as annoying online pen pal. (I have a lot of fountain pens. If you're in really good shape and expect to live to 100, I will give them to you--you know, for YOUR DIARY. (Do you love The Hudsucker Proxy?)
Bobbitz born in 1944, product of a mixed marriage. My father was Jewish and my mother was a fucking bitch. xo
“Obviously I read that message the minute we walked in, because I compulsively read everything posted on walls and in stores, checking for weird word uses or misspellings.” Yes.
You make me miss L.A.
Where are you guys located? I mistakenly thought you were in L.A.