Sunday, December 31, 2006

Sunday Afternoon

Tonight, an estimated one million revelers are expected to cram into Times Square in New York to welcome in the new year. Another 100,000 are expected to fill the Vegas Strip in Nevada for much the same reason.

But let's talk about really crowded places. Let's talk about the Whole Foods Market near my house this afternoon. Compared to that place, Times Square and The Strip tonight are going to look like two big Rob Schneider Film Festivals. Pregnant women were filling their carts with baby food just in case they delivered before getting out of there.

Jeez, it was packed over there today. You may already know this because you may have been among the people cramming into that store. If you weren't, you were certainly a rare and wise exception. I'm guessing a good 80% of all the human beings alive on this planet today were in that Whole Foods Market around an hour ago, with the vast majority hurriedly repositioning themselves into whichever checkout line I wheeled my cart. As I finally approached someone who would ring up my purchases and take my money, I remembered one item I'd forgotten and would have to live without. If I'd gone back to get it, all the other groceries in my cart would have expired by the time I got out of there. That includes the box of salt.

Just as I cleared the door and caught a glimpse of parking lot, I ran into a friend of mine named Laurie Bakerman...a woman of extraordinary grace and talent. She is also, sadly, reckless with her own safety as she insisted on defying my warnings about going inside and attempting to shop.

She told me her husband Steve is a devout reader of this weblog. Steve...I wouldn't expect her home before Memorial Day. And not necessarily the next one or the one after.

• Posted at 3:15 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Juan Cole writes a pretty concise overview of what the removal of Saddam Hussein from power meant to Iraq and how his execution further changes things. This is a Salon link so if you ain't a member, you may have to sit through some advertising but it's worth it.

• Posted at 9:55 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

I can't believe this is on YouTube but it is. It's a clip of Bill Holly, who was a kids' TV host for about two years on Los Angeles television. The clip says 1966-1967 and I guess that's right, but I thought it was more like 1965-1966. He was on KHJ, Channel 9 and this footage is from a brief time when that station had somehow stolen the Popeye cartoon package away from a rival. (Before and after, Tom Hatten hosted the spinach-eating sailor's exploits on KTLA, Channel 5.)

The clip starts with some news footage about viewers picketing the station because they thought Holly's program had been cancelled when he was, in fact, just on vacation. This sounds to me like a publicity stunt that Holly and/or someone at KHJ arranged, rather than a real protest. The person who posted this material on YouTube says they can be seen in the clip and that they obtained it from Mr. Holly, which makes you wonder. Then there's a clip of Holly doing some magic...and I remember his shows generally being more entertaining than this. I also remember one period when his show turned into an exact carbon of the classic Soupy Sales format, complete with dog gloves and hurled shaving cream pies.

It's amazing that any film at all exists of Bill Holly. Most local TV stations did their programming live, well through the sixties and even when it became possible to record on videotape, they either didn't or they promptly erased and reused the tapes after broadcast. I wasn't a regular watcher of Mr. Holly's shows. He was on TV during the period when I thought I'd outgrown that kind of programming...but I caught him occasionally because KHJ was also running Laurel and Hardy films in the time slot that adjoined his, and I've never outgrown Laurel and Hardy, not even for a minute. Still, it's nice to see Bill Holly again. It's always nice to see any of those guys — Tom Hatten, Skipper Frank Herman, Engineer Bill Stulla, Sheriff John Rovick and all the rest who were such a part of so many childhoods in this town.

• Posted at 12:46 AM · LINK