Her Line's a Chorus Line (Sometimes)

Jasmine Guy was the Mystery Guest on What's My Line Live on Stage on June 24. Until she was interviewed by J. Keith Van Straaten (who came dangerously close to being taken out by that kick in the photo above), I had no idea she was a dancer before being cast in "A Different World." I didn't watch "Fame" on television, so I missed her there.

She was a most delightful guest on the show. She did stump the panel, which had a bad night over all--they only got one guest's occupation. But it was a very funny show.

My husband, Len Wein, will be on the panel next Sunday, July 1.

Happy Birthday, Gloria Benson, Wherever You Are

Today is June 22 and it is Gloria Benson's birthday. She was my best friend--and competitor--when we were little kids, especially from kindergarten until fifth grade, after which they closed the smaller elementary school in town and merged us with the larger, newer one. (This is still kind of funny, since the entire town was only about 4,000 people.) She lived across the street and across a field from my house--about a block away--until my parents moved to another house across town. Again, no big deal for a place with 5 stop lights. Nothing was more than about 2 miles away in town. She moved away when we were early teens, and I lost track of her during college.

I've got what a friend once called "great birthday database." I rarely forget when a friend's birthday or anniversary is once I learn it, and I've discovered that people are thrilled to be remembered, even if they don't actually want to remember how old they are getting to be.

I have no idea of what happened to Gloria Benson after college, but, wherever she is, I wish her a very happy birthday.

Evan Almighty Promo?

Yesterday I waxed nostalgic about reading on the porch when it rained in the summer.

Today the news is all about the horrendous rain which fell less than 30 miles from my home town: 5-6" within a 4 square mile area within a very short time. Six people are missing, one body has been found, houses and cars were swept away, and the road is out in places because of an 8' wall of water rushing through.

When I hear the name "Cat Hollow," which my father told me was named for bob cats found in the area, I've got a pretty good idea of what the little streams in that part of the Catskills look like. That's not what the photographs show: swollen rivers and mud, mud, mud.

I don't remember flooding like this when I was a kid growing up, but this year and last year have been devastating to the county in which I was raised.

Nostalgia

Long, long ago in a Galaxy far, far away, I lived in a small town in upstate New York. Thank goodness it was in the past, because if there was a bright center to the Universe, my home town was its farthest outpost.

Setting aside George Lucas, or whoever wrote that for him, I used to say my home town was founded in 1785 and lost in 1786, much like Brigadoon. I do have great fondness for several things about it, even if I haven't been back for a visit in 13 years.

First and foremost is the Ogden Free Library, a wonderful slate building which was only a very large block (it included the elementary school and all playgrounds and sports fields) from my house. It was my refuge from many things and I would use any excuse to spend time there. I do not remember the name of the very patient librarian who managed to order books from other places to satisfy my curiosity and who let me read Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire when I was in grade school (there were age limits on sections of the library.) It was there I first met authors I would actually come to know and photograph, like L. Sprague de Camp and Andre Norton. It was there I managed to find the basis for the "Frodo Lives" button I saw Micky Dolenz wearing in a 16 Magazine photograph, thus changing my life forever. The Lord of the Rings is still my favorite book to re-read, and the copy that my college boyfriend gave me for Christmas is in beautiful shape for all of the times it has been read (not so much the box for the set, which has suffered from so much packing and unpacking over the years when I moved a lot.)

That brings me to the second thing I've begun to realize I miss: sitting on the porch reading during summer rain. We don't get much in the way of rain in the summer here in Los Angeles. But in New York, it was as likely to rain as to not rain in the summer and spending such a day with special books like The Lord of the Rings was definitely a plus. Our house had a front porch, a back porch and an upstairs porch. The last was my favorite hang-out, away from the traffic of the back-door, which was the one we actually always used for entering and leaving the house.

I know I'm feeling depressed when I give any long-term thought to moving back to my home town, because I wouldn't do well being that isolated from my friends and the life we live out here. But I do think about all of those large Victorian homes for sale for a fraction of what our tiny slab house is worth out here or of the farms with many acres we could afford to buy and have a place for Ace and any other horse or dog we might want to take in. Then I think about winter, snow, closed roads and the flood pictures I've seen on the Internet and good sense returns.

Maybe I can build a porch on the side of my house or a gazebo in the back by the pool to curl up in when it rains. Or maybe I should stick to curling up on the couch in front of a fire in the winter with a good book.

P.S. All eclairs should taste like the ones from the home-town bakery of my childhood. They don't.

What's His Line? A Great Steve Jobs Impression

We lost most of Father's Day waiting for the carpenter who never showed up, thus denying Len his Father's Day brunch. Finally, we realized we needed to head over to Hollywood to do a day-late birthday get together with J. Keith Van Straaten (who was filming a still-secret project on his birthday), make a drop off to my friend Karen, and then head over to the Acme Theatre for What's My Line Live on Stage.

This week's panel is shown sitting in the photograph above: Teresa Ganzel (the "Tea-Time" hostess for Johnny Carson), Jimmy Pardo, Annie Wood, and Andy Zax. Standing is this week's Mystery Guest, Fred Armisen from Saturday Night Live, and WML host J. Keith Van Straaten. The other guests were the announcer for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Los Angeles Kings, J. Keith's father who is a forest ranger in Colorado (it was Father's Day, after all), and a dance instructor who did a demonstration of "The Hustle." When guessing the "Dance Doctor's" line of work, Andy asked "If you do this on Saturday night, do you get feverish?" I just keep asking "do people still dance 'The Hustle'?")

For information about next Sunday's show, click here. My husband Len Wein will be a panelist on July 1 along with the hysterically funny Ms. Ganzel, so don't miss it.

Out of the Kitchen and into the Back Yard

My husband's birthday was last week, so I tried to come up with something different to celebrate. I had sent Len and my son off to a cooking lesson--actually, a knife-skills lesson--earlier this year and they both had a great time. Since Len enjoys cooking but isn't the most adventurous eater and would probably not sign up for a class on his own, it seemed like a good idea to hire someone to come to the house and lead a cooking lesson. To keep things manageable, I was only able to invite eight other people, so I hope our left-out friends aren't too offended.

I asked Tory Davis if she'd be willing to do the cooking lesson at my house. We met Tory at a party a few months back and I've been enjoying her food blog since then (it's linked in the list on the right side of the page.) Tory writes for Bon Appetite, teaches cooking classes, and works as a kitchen coach. She's wearing the red and pink apron in the pictures.

The theme we went with was "You Can Grill That?" since all men like to cook outdoors. She put together a great menu, which included grilling pizza, salad, fish tostadas, and dessert. In the third photo, you can see the pizzas being grilled on one side. After they were turned over, the chopped topping, consisting of tomatoes, basil, feta cheese, kalamata olives, oil, and a few other things, is laid over the top and the grill is closed just long enough to melt the cheese. It doesn't take very long to make pizza this way.

Two kinds of pizza dough were provided, courtesy of my friend Karen who is a recovering attorney planning to open a bakery. She brought the freshly rising dough on flat sheets from her house in South Cathay and it smelled wonderful. After we made the pizzas with the topping Tory directed us in preparing, Karen experimented with some other toppings, including oil with herbs and different kinds of cheeses from the appetizer platter Tory set out. That's Karen at the grill in the cap with Tory and Kathy the doctor's wife (in red) and our friend Darla in the background in the middle photograph.

I think all ten of us were amazed that the dough didn't just drip onto the burners, but it didn't. If I ever have an opportunity to do some Indian cooking (Len has a bad reaction to the spices in it, so it's not likely), this is clearly the way to make naan.

The party was a huge success. The guest list consisted of the friends who come over to watch the Amazing Race and other friends who are foodies and love to cook. I invited everyone to bring their own aprons, knives and cutting boards, and most of the guests did. Tory provided for those who didn't.

I didn't tell Len what was going on before hand, only that I had something planned for Saturday night. I sent him to the back of the house until everyone arrived, then I brought him out, everyone yelled happy birthday and we explained what was going on: that everyone would participate in making dinner. He said "cool," and was particularly thrilled when I presented him with a toque and bistro apron to wear. He loves hats and costumes. He's working on chopping skills with our friends Michael the lawyer and Michael the doctor/movie producer in the picture where Tory is in the background in the first photograph.

We had a very pleasant evening to do this outside and each course proceeded at a leisurely pace. Except that I had gotten up early to make sure that all of the outdoor furniture was cleaned up, the lawn was clear of dog debris, and we had all of the paper and plastic ware we needed to eat on, I didn't have to do any of the prep. Tory did the shopping and brought just about everything necessary to pull this off. She even cleaned up afterwards and didn't complain about the half-finished state of the kitchen. (The unfinished shelves provided handy temporary storage for items that needed to be close-by but not yet needed. Karen was thrilled to have a place for the dough to safely sit while rising.)

I hated to limit the number of friends I could invite, but the size of the group worked well together, and I didn't get in each others ways. The feedback from everyone has been just great. Everyone liked the concept and the execution. I'd be more than willing to do another evening like this at the house if everyone who wanted to do it paid for themselves--that is, once my kitchen is finished. It's like going to a cooking lesson at Sur La Table or Williams Sonoma without the parking hassles.

What's New on What's My Line?

Over the past three years, a group of people we know have put on a stage version of the old television series "What's My Line?" at the Acme Theatre in Hollywood. The latest run is scheduled for five weeks and started on Sunday night, up against the last episode of both "The Sopranos" and "The Tudors," as well as the second game of the NBA finals (I'm rooting for the Cavs, in case anyone cares.)

My husband was a guest during the earliest run of shows. No one guessed him, but lots of people in the audience knew who he was. Afterwards, one of the audience members came up to tell him what a big fan he was and invited him (and me) out for drinks. That was Drew Carey (again, go Cleveland!) Len was then invited to be on the panel. And again, and again. He usually gets one slot a month when the show is in production and he's very good at it.

After we'd been in attendance for a while, the host and producer realized that I was taking extremely good photographs of the show and the post show groups (well, duh.) They finally asked me to be an official photographer, instead of just taking photos for fun. I wish it paid, but it doesn't. Fortunately pixels are cheaper per frame than film is to process, that is, once you pay for the camera, computer, software, and so forth. This year I've made a huge investment in a MacBookPro and Adobe software and now I've got to upgrade to CS3. I'm getting quite good at Lightroom.

Anyway, even though Len was out of town being a guest at the Superman festival in Metropolis, Illinois, I had to go to the show on Sunday night. This involved avoiding the lingering traffic from the Gay Pride festivities and skirting the traffic jam at the exit off the 101 for the Hollywood Bowl. It was easier than trying to get to the theatre on a Wednesday night, which is when the show used to run.

As always, the host was J. Keith Van Straaten. This week's panel was Beth Littleford (formerly of "The Daily Show"), Eric Mullegan of "Bones," Elaine Hendrix (the mean mom-to-be in the Lindsay Lohan version of "Parent Trap"), and Gary Anthony Williams of "Boston Legal" and "Boondocks." The mystery guest was Sharon Lawrence of "NYPD Blue" and Broadway fame. You can see them all in the photograph at the top of this entry.

Lights! Camera! Fire Alarm!

Dick Van Dyke stepped out of a golf cart in front of me this morning when I strolled back from the Freudian Sip to my office.

Pierce College is often used for filming television episodes, motion pictures, and commercials. This time it is "Murder 101: If Wishes Were Horses," starring the afore mentioned Mr. Van Dyke and Barry Van Dyke. According to IMDB, it will air in August.

A couple of years ago, hackles were raised when Playboy filmed something here. Girls wearing bikinis played baseball. The reaction of the then president to the uproar was to call it "easy money." That hit the wire services and it was all over the country in hours. Obviously, a slow news day.

One evening, the Arabian Prince stopped short in his tracks as a missile ran up and down a wire track supported by a crane. That was something not seen in the natural world for 45 million years. It was for the season ender of "24" a few years back. Pierce also served as Camp David for the same show.

"The Pretender" did a lot of location work here, says my friend Lorien who was a second AD on the show. "Toys," the debacle with Robin Williams, was shot here as well. I've seen the wannabee Foster Farms chickens ads that were shot along El Rancho Road. A pilot for a show about horses was partially filmed here at a riding class I was taking. With 400+ acres and buildings which range from mid-century to brand new, it's a fine place to shoot in L.A.

Of course, the call I took from their production head this morning wasn't a happy one. We're busy trying to get our fire alarms tested during the few days between sessions and they were making noise where the crew was filming. Could we put it off or move it? No. We can't. It's not like it was going on continuously. I didn't hear a one as I walked across campus or talked to the head of the English Department. They definitely could shoot around it.

I wonder how long they'll be here. With a TV movie, it shouldn't be too many days.

This Old House, Part 8

This photograph of the kitchen gives a better idea of how much stuff is crammed in everywhere. There's a lot of wasted space that collects dust and cobwebs that putting in a few doors would help.

In an ideal scheme of things, we'd move the wall that's on the left about 10 feet out into my garden. The carpenter has suggested moving our refrigerator (that chrome thing on the left) to the place where the cabinet is on the back wall, next to the built-in oven. The entire wall of cabinets would have to be reconfigured, but that's o.k. There is a very narrow area between the sink and the refrigerator, so moving the refrigerator would be really nice.

Currently, a lot of interior space in the back upper cabinets is lost to a lint vent from my dryer and I just found a lint vent that goes out to the roof tucked up in a hall closet that used to hold our heater. (When we switched to central air, that all went up on the roof.)

You can see the microwave sitting on the dryer and the water dispenser. I'd like to move the microwave to a space above the wall oven and get rid of the water dispenser. Now that we've got a filtered water dispenser in the refrigerator, that's an expense in space we no longer need.

Oh, yes. We've already gotten rid of the terrible track lighting you see here. The new fan and light unit on the counter has been installed over the dining room table on the other side of the wall on the right.

This Old House, Part 7

Here's a better look at the useless corner of the kitchen. Underneath all of that clutter is a utility sink, a washer, a dryer, and a microwave oven. That bit of blank wall backs a closet which is accessed from the hallway to the bedrooms, across from the putative dining room which is my home office. If it was deep enough, we could consider putting the washer and dryer behind doors opening on that hallway. I'm not sure Len would go for that. It makes a great deal of sense, though.

On the upper left, you can see the containers we use for storing little used items. Better we should go through them and just get rid of stuff.