The last time my wife surprised me with a book she found at our local St. Vinnie’s, we both had a few moments of head scratching trying to remember if I had already read it. Published in 1994 by HarperCollins, Star Trek Movie Memories by William Shatner (with Chris Kreski) certainly seemed familiar. The […]
In one of the earlier segments of The Simpsons Tree House of Horrors, they do an extremely funny lampooning of The Shining (the Jack Nicholson version, only here called The Shinning). After Marge discovers Homer’s writing consists of nothing more sinister than, “Feeling fine,” she expresses cautious optimism about the situation. A sudden flash […]
We begin our look at November with Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. Venus continues to dominate the SW sky at dusk. With the period of twilight lengthening throughout the fall, Venus will appear 3 degrees higher by the end of the month with a setting time that will average about 2.6 hours after sunset. Viewed […]
The crew at the West Coast Bureau sent me a copy of one of William L. Sullivan’s numerous books about hiking the great Oregonian out-of-doors. To best describe Sullivan’s passion for the topic of hiking in the wilderness, let me offer the following summary from the back cover of his 1988 opus Listening for […]
On his fifteenth birthday, March 1, 1959, Roger Daltrey was sent home from school and told to never return. The headmaster, Mr. Kibblewhite, gave him a parting shot he would never forget: “You’ll never make anything of your life, Daltrey.” Roger could only think to himself, “Thanks a lot, Mr. Kibblewhite,” as he headed home […]
If the statute of limitations for trespassing is six years (and yes, I looked it up for the sake of accuracy), it is probably okay for me to tell this story nearly fifty years after the fact. Sticking with first names will suffice to tell the following tale so nobody will be put on […]
Model Rocketry became our hobby when my brother and I witnessed one of our Norway Avenue neighbors launch a Centuri brand model rocket in the field across from our house. We dove in feet first and spent five years poking holes in the sky before Ron graduated from college and left for a year […]
At the end of Part 1, we found Steve Martin winding down a three year job at Knott’s Berry Farm where he performed in melodramas with a small troupe at the Bird Cage Theatre. He also worked on his magic/comedy act during the olio intermission segments. In his book, Steve Martin – Born Standing […]
From the Vaults: That Wild and Crazy Guy Elvis hit the nail on the head back in 1971. He told Steve Martin, “Son, you have an ob-leek sense of humor.” Oblique can be added to the long list of words used to describe Martin but the one at the top would undoubtedly have to […]
While researching information about Woodstock, I hit upon a video of the Jefferson Airplane performing their song Volunteers. Like any good earworm chorus, the ‘Volunteers of America’ got stuck in my head. One thing led to another and the constant recycling of the lyric started touching off random memories connected with the word ‘volunteer’. […]