News from me - November 29, 2001

LIKE SISYPHUS pushing that big, old rock up that big, old mountain for all eternity, Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy carted a piano up a long, long flight of stairs in their Oscar-winning short, The Music Box. As comedy imagery goes, it ranks right up there with the shots of Harold Lloyd hanging off the clock hands, Buster Keaton riding his newly-launched ship to the ocean's bottom, Charlie Chaplin dining on shoe in The Gold Rush, and a whole bunch o' Marx Brothers crammed into a teensy stateroom. The stairs Stan and Ollie climbed in that film — and also in an earlier silent called Hats Off — were and still are located at the intersection of Vendome and Del Monte Streets in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles. In the film, empty lots were visible on either side. Today, there are buildings there...but the stairs remain somehow recognizable. (Should you wish to visit them, here is a Mapquest link to the location.)

All of this is a way of mentioning that the great City of Los Angeles has finally gotten around to taking note of this vital landmark. A street sign has recently been erected on the premises, as proven by the above photo. And by the way, that photograph was taken by Harry Marnell, who operates a nice little Laurel & Hardy site at this address. If you can't visit the stairs, at least visit Harry's site. A lot of good stuff there...and not as much walking.

AFTER AN EXTENDED PERIOD where I stopped watching Politically Incorrect, I am back to nightly viewing. For a time, I felt it was too much about phony, tabloid-style controversies, and that too many of its guests were akin to the kind of talk radio host who says outrageous, extreme things not because he believes them but because they're good for the career. There is, alas, Big Money to be made in telling angry people that they're absolutely right and that their enemies are lying, evil scum. The only caveat is that you must never, never admit that the other side is even a teensy bit right or honorable about anything or that any accusation against them might possibly be untrue.

Some of those folks still get airtime on Bill Maher's nightly chatfest but they haven't interfered too much with — and have occasionally actually contributed to — some bold and important discussions of issues of actual importance. And every so often, someone says something extraordinary...like this statement from the Reverend Robert Schuller the other night:

Rev. Schuller: Thank you. First of all, you can find things in any holy book. I'm a Christian. I believe the Bible. I can find things in the Bible that I don't like, that I don't agree with, that I think are not — what do I do? I tell people who become Christians, the Bible is our holy book, but read the Bible the way you eat fish — carefully. [Light laughter] Don't choke on a bone. [Laughter] Pick the food that serves you well.

Have you ever heard a so-called "Man of God" say such a thing on television? I sure haven't. They all seem to demand blind respect of not so much The Bible as their particular, parochial interpretation of it, and I must admit I'd previously classed the Reverend Schuller as among the worst in that regard.

Like some of my friends, you may have stopped watching Politically Incorrect because you found Bill Maher to be a snide, arrogant presence. Based on a few personal contacts with the man, I'd say he's all that, plus I don't like his attitude towards women. But I also think he's a very smart guy and a skillful moderator who, most nights, runs a terrific and, lately, very relevant venue for stimulating conversation. So you might want to give him another try.

We're still waiting for The Game Show Network to rerun the two episodes of Press Your Luck in which an unemployed air conditioning mechanic named Michael Larsen figured out a way to beat the "wheel" for over $110,000. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen on TV. The latest out of GSN is that they have the episodes and will soon announce when they'll air. When I hear, I'll post it in this spot. Stay tuned.

ABOUT 34 people have now inadvertently sent me e-mail containing the W32.Badtrans.B@mm virus, some of them sending 5 or 10 infected, infectious messages. None of 'em got to me, and I can understand how anyone can accidentally contract a virus. (I got one myself, last year) But I suspect some of these time bombs were disseminated because their unwilling victims did not go to a rather small expense of time and money. You may be willing to run the risk of infection but most trojans are now written to not only contaminate you but to plunge into your address book and e-mail themselves to all your friends. So running a good virus protection program on your computer is a matter of simple courtesy to others.

No virus checker can catch them all. The one I got last year infected me before any of the anti-virus companies had heard of it. But most of the ones that make the rounds could be caught by McAfee VirusScan or Norton AntiVirus. If you won't do it for yourself, do it for your cyber-buddies. (I use McAfee ActiveShield, which is for folks with an "always-on" DSL or cable modem connection to the Internet.)

WE ESPECIALLY recommend taking a look at the Eric Boehlert piece. Also, here's a link to an interview with Gene Lyons, whose columns are often included in the above box, and whose reportage has offered some very different views of the Clinton years.

VERY FEW WRITERS live lives as interesting as those they write about. My friend Bill Woodfield, who passed away last week from a heart attack, was an exception. How many people have you met who took nude photos of Marilyn Monroe? Who interviewed Jack Ruby in his cell? Who put all his worldly experience to work as a writer-producer for, among other TV shows, Columbo and Mission: Impossible? He was a fine gentleman and a fine writer.

AND WE'RE ALSO mourning the passing of Sol Forman. I never met him but the restaurant he owned, Peter Luger's Steak House in Brooklyn, serves the best piece o' beef that ever entered my digestive system. Here's a link to the New York Times obit, which will tell you a little about the history of the place. (And here's a link to the website for this wonderful restaurant.)