'Twas the Monday after Xmas...

Dec 29

Will, Glenn, Rita, Bill, Ben, Jim, Steve L, Jeanette, Edgar, Bob, Bobb, Barbara, Mary, Ray, Lynne, Andy

One of the best Mondays for several months: big turnout, lively conversation, everyone on good form in that unreal period between Christmas and New Year.
In Ian's absence we had the unusual and welcome sight of Bobb and Barbara back and center in the booth. Appropriately, Bobb was wearing a t-shirt reading 'Bobb. The man. The myth. The legend.'
As often happens, a contender for most fascinating conversation of the night came right at the end when most people had gone home. Bob and Ray started exchanging tales about their days working front of house in LA cinemas in the 1950s. It ranged from having Lee Marvin serving popcorn to Marlon Brando sitting in the second row because of his bad hearing, how to skim ticket money, the martinet but corrupt district managers who insisted on everything being spotless and couldn't stop interfering, even on their days off and how Ray got 50% added to his normal week's money for cleaning the cinema one night at union rates. I treasure the memory of the young Birchard and Campi in their tuxedos showing people to their seats (or not).
A news item got the other end of the table earlier on talking about exhuming bodies: Jim told of how Big Bopper, Jape Richardson, was removed from his coffin in Texas, whereupon his family put the old casket up for sale on eBay! As Jim said, they ought to fix it so when it's opened a voice says 'Oh Baby, you know what I like!'
This could start a trend. In fact, there already is one: exhumation is one of those taboos we love to break, on the slightest excuse. Abe Lincoln was disinterred so his extended jaw could be examined for a malformation, and the apparent Parkinson's Disease suggested by the blurring of his fingers in the long photo exposures that were required in his day.
Frustratingly, they never did get to exhume Hitler because his body was reportedly burned, giving rise to a good 20 or 30 years of rumours that he had escaped and was living in South America. And the biggie that everyone has (I think) resisted so far is Shakespeare. Let's face it, you couldn't really tell if he had written those plays just by examining his skeleton, but then some people think he didn't really exist at all.
The recession is of course a running theme, week by week. This week Lynne came in late after a visit to Target, grumbling that the lines were being held up by so many people cashing Christmas gift vouchers. Another problem diners have been encountering is more people paying with cash instead of plastic. This met nods around the table, as if credit cards were some drug that we need to be weaned off. Personally I just use mine as a payment card and pay it off every week, but I know that not everyone finds it that easy. At least half the Monday night diners use the folding stuff when Javier comes round with his little silver trays.
'This recession will bring us all back to earth, especially the amount they pay ball players,' said Jim.
'Don't get me started,' Rita agreed, a trifle bitterly I thought. Does she secretly own the Dodgers or the Lakers, that players' wages should bother her so? I think we should be told.
Ray joined us after his usual visit to Mijares, to say that they too are hurting financially.
'They got 20 waiters, 5 chefs, 5 doing the accounts, that's a lot of overhead,' Ray pointed out, 'and they're just not getting the business. They've been there 85 years and they own the freehold, but they're wondering whether they're going to have to sell.'
One of the plus sides of the recession is the Obama infrastructure program - not that there is one yet, but we're all hoping, and it could be just what we need to build a decent light rail network in LA. Mind you, every other sizeable city is saying the same, so resources could get a little stretched.
That led to a comparison of the ease of parking in cities around the world, mainly LA versus New York versus London versus Vienna - the worst, said Andy. And no one could argue with him on that one.
Bob nailed what he regarded as the myth that the freeways were a big conspiracy got up by the auto industry. He recalled: 'My father used to come home cursing the Red Cars for the congestion they caused, and it was that that created the political pressure for the freeways to be built. So dies another urban myth.
London's parking reminded me about London's weather - freezing now, with -13c to come in the next couple of weeks. So do we have global warming or not? Whatever the truth, Al Gore did pretty well to scoop the Nobel Peace Prize AND an Oscar on the strength of that light-weight film he made. Timing is all.

CAUGHT ON THE BREEZE
Geese don't like lawyers - smart birds
It was a farcical built for two
That's a clear case of bad pun disease
Heard of the hotfood Indians? They go ho ha hahaha ho ha ha when they eat jalapenos
My dad was born in a house with a dirt floor
Is she clean? She's fastidious!
He's ok, he just doesn't know it
Now which half of Mr Ed did he own?
I'm not allergic to anything, and then suddenly this happens
I'm open to anything, really
I'm just not a "reach out" sort of guy
I was going to run a 10k race in Pasadena and even before I started I was coughing
I got picked up by the cops for parking my car in a Beverly Hills street
Projectionists have no one to talk to all day, so they go a little nuts