HED TK

TXT TK

What Would Happen If A UFO Landed In Times Square?

I wonder what would have happened if on New Year's Eve 2018, a UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) hovered over a crowded Times Square. Would the people have freaked out? Would the New York Police Department sharpshooters have shot at it? Would people have thought it was a terrorist attack? Would President Trump have said that it was a prank staged by the Democratic Party? Hmm.

A Good Idea Is A Good Idea Whether It's From A Liberal Or A Conservative

As soon as a person is identified as a conservative, progressives begin to react negatively as though only people in their political camp have ideas worthy of consideration and implementation.

As a liberal, I'm more open-minded about hearing people out, no matter what their political leanings are. A good idea is a good idea. Liberals or progressives don't have a monopoly on good ideas. The same holds true for people on the right.

HED TK

TXT TK

Note: Today is the 92nd birthday of one of my favorite movie actors, Sidney Poitier. Happy birthday, Mr. P. I hope you have many more!

HED TK

TXT TK

Amateur Sleuth Jaine Austen Is Perfect For TV And Movies

I've only seen Melissa McCarthy in movie trailers but I'm convinced she would be the perfect actress to play Jaine Austen, Laura Levine's hilarious amateur sleuth/freelance writer. Jaine Austen has appeared in several mystery novels along with her very independent cat, Prozac, and her campy gay next-door neighbor Lance.

Why this mystery series has not been turned into a television series or into feature films is itself a mystery.

I am a longtime fan of Laura Levine's, who was at one time a television comedy writer (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman ;The Jeffersons, to name two). For a long time I've felt that the reason she is writing books instead of television scripts is because of ageism in Hollywood. But her comedic talent hasn't diminished because her books never fail to make me laugh. And if Jaine Austen came to the big or small screen, I believe she would be an instant hit.

The Writers Who Influenced Poet Assotto Saint

My friend Assotto Saint (1957-1994), the Haitian-born poet, essayist, performance artist, and founder/publisher of Galiens Press, once told me that the three writers who influenced him the most were poets Pablo Neruda (of Chile) and Anne Sexton and playwright Ntozake Shange, who died last year at age 70.

Note: Happy Valentine's Day!

Inspiring Words From FDR

"With your help and your patience and your generous goodwill, we will do what we can to mend the torn fabric of our common life."--President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Poughkeepsie, New York, November 1932. (Quoted in Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair That Shaped a First Lady by Susan Quinn (Penguin Press, 2016), page 30.)

Can anyone imagine Donald Trump uttering those inspiring words? I can't.

Eating My Way Up Harlem's Eighth Avenue (Maybe)

I remember reading that Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer Prize-winning restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times, who died last year at age 57, ate in every restaurant along Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles and wrote a review of each restaurant. (Pico Boulevard is a very long street.)

I thought about doing something similar as an experiment here in New York, eating at and writing about every restaurant along Eighth Avenue (aka Frederick Douglass Boulevard) in Harlem, from 111th to 145th Streets.

If I decide to do it (and that's a big IF),it would be an enormous gastronomic feat involving details about each restaurant, the quality of the food and service, as well as some historical information about the ethnic and/or regional cuisine.

Not only would this project cause my waistline to take a hit but it would also take a big bite out of my wallet (concerning the latter, I would have to try to talk some publication into agreeing to underwrite my project, an iffy proposition because many newspapers and magazines have become cash-strapped lately.

Speaking of food, today is National Pizza Day. So pizza lovers, celebrate!

Photos Of Harlem's Mount Morris Baths After It Closed

I have color photos of the now-defunct Mount Morris Baths in Harlem that I took about three or four years after it closed in August 2003. There were five men staying there (two co-workers and three customers) in anticipation of the bathhouse reopening, which it never did. Their presence gave me access to the premises.

Unfortunately, I took the pictures with a single-use camera so the number of shots were limited. If I had had a phone camera, I could have taken hundreds of pictures, covering every nook and cranny of the place. But I'm glad I have what I have.

At some point I'd like to use these photos as part of a photo essay in commemoration of the only black gay bathhouse in Harlem. As far as I know, I'm the only person who took pictures of Mount Morris Baths after it went out of business. These pictures, I think, are of historical importance and documents what it looked like sans customers.

J.D. Salinger's Unpublished Work

I heard the following report regarding the unpublished work of the reclusive writer J.D. Salinger, author of the classic novel Catcher in the Rye, on New York's WCBS News Radio Eight-Eighty, that was broadcast on February 3, 2019.

CBS News's Gary Nunn reported that Salinger's son told him that "his father wrote reams of work no one has ever seen. J.D. Salinger, who died nine years ago," continued Nunn, "apparently never stopped writing. Next to every chair the writer had a notebook. According to Matt Salinger, his father teemed with ideas and thoughts, saying that he'd be driving in the car, pull over to jot some ideas ** and at times he would chuckle to himself."

"No indication when the unpublished work will be released, but, "concluded Nunn, "his son says all that his father wrote will be shared."

No doubt that is very good news to Salinger's legion of fans.


**This reminded me of the re-enacted scene in the 13-part public television poetry series, Voices & Visions, that showed William Carlos Williams, a pediatrician, pulling his car over to the side of the road while between house calls, removing a prescription pad from his black bag and, with fountain pen in hand, scribbling a poem.

Carol Channing Entered A Look-Alike Contest

Film critic Jeffrey Lyons, on WCBS News Radio Eight-Eighty in New York, told the story of the time Broadway star Carol Channing, who recently died at age 97, entered a drag queen Carol Channing look-alike contest and won third place.

Black History Month 2019

Today is the beginning of Black History Month. Celebrate it with pride and knowledge.