Man Robs Bank In Sterling Virginia In A Hillary Clinton Mask

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20026845-504083.html

More On Emil Van Horn Hollywood's Most Famous Motion Picture Gorilla

I have written two other posts about Emil Van Horn who I knew in New Orleans in 1965 and 1966. Click on the label Emil Van Horn below to read them.
  I found this just recently. This has the most information on Emil Van Horn I have ever run across.
http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/21567/t/BLONDE-VENUS-or-GORILLA-MY-DREAMS.html
    They say no one knows his birthdate or birthplace. I seem to remember him telling me he was Hungarian or at least if not that eastern European.
In the video below from Blond Venus Emil Van Horn claimed in a 1939 interview in the article above that it was him in this video. No one seems to be sure who it was.

A Strange Coincidence Happened This Morning At McDonald's- Long Distance Mental Telepathy?

There is a guy from Paraguay who we see every morning at McDonald's before he goes to work. But he only is in DC in good weather. From the 1st of November to the middle of March he has gone home to Paraguay. That way he misses all of the really bad weather in the DC area.
He left almost 2 months ago for Paraguay.

The person I was talking to this morning said to me, "I hope George(the guy from Paraguay)doesn't call this morning. I bet it is about 85 or 90 degrees where he is". It was about 30 degrees this morning in Arlington, Va. with high winds making it feel much colder.

Less than 5 minutes later I heard a cell phone ring. It was George calling from Paraguay. He called a guy named Harry.  They talked about the weather here in DC and in Paraguay where indeed it was 97 degrees.
What are the odds on something like that happening. We had not heard from him in almost 2 months.

Something like this happened to me once before. In 1970 when we were living on P Street N.W. near Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. I was playing with my 4 year old daughter. She had a Fisher Price toy telephone. One of my best friends had recently moved to Boston. I said to my daughter let's call Bill McKenzie in Boston. I picked up the toy telephone and dialed it and pretended to be talking to Bill in Boston. Not more than 15 minutes later the real telephone in our apartment rang. It was Bill McKenzie calling me from Boston. I was stunned. Just like the call yesterday from Paraguay. I guess these were examples of long distance mental telepathy.
  
Another time recently this same guy that mentioned George asked me to bring in a 1955 Washington-Lee High School Yearbook so he could look up some of his old friends. As he was slowly going through it he came to a senior picture of a guy named Ron. He asked me if that is the Ron that sometimes comes in McDonald's. I said that is him all right. We had not seen him in weeks.  A few minutes later Ron came through the door. We told him about seeing his picture. We have not seen him since. And that was a week ago.

Some Examples Of Charity Gone Awry, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished,Helping The Less Fortunate In A Land Of Plenty

 
I have written about Emil Van Horn elsewhere on this blog. He was "Hollywood's Most Famous Motion Picture Gorilla".   Check the list to the right of this to find what I have written about him before. He was down and out when I first met him in New Orleans in 1965. He was living with two or three other men in a small room in an old apartment building on Gov. Nicholls Street near Decatur Street. That was in the New Orleans French Quarter but it was a run down kind of place. They had one or two small rooms. Then the men disappeared. They may have been oil workers or maybe they shipped out on a merchant vessel.

Van Horn had no money so he became homeless. I had bought an old 1955 Studebaker and I wisely kept nothing in the car and the doors unlocked. I had discovered if you kept something in your car the vandals would break the windows to get in to steal whatever they could find. I figured I would let them look if they wanted to. I had nothing in that car but one pencil in the glove compartment.
  
Feeling sorry for Van Horn I told him he could sleep in the car. It went OK for awhile. But then one day I found a pee stained sheet on the back seat.  I told Van Horn he had to move out.  Where he went after that I do not know but he still continued to come by our apartment to visit during the day. I would let him sleep on the couch while I typed away.
  
One time I invited him to have the evening meal with us. I also invited two of our friends. They were polite but not much more. They were trying to join "society" in New Orleans and this was not what they had in mind.

When we moved to Washington D.C. we lived near Dupont Circle. Since the apartment did not have a washer and dryer I would take out clothes down the street to the laundramat. In the winter it was a place some homeless would sleep back by the dryers.

One of the bums asked me for some money. I told him I would not give him any money but I would give him something to eat. I told him to follow me the one block to our apartment. When I opened the door Rachel saw him and said, "Joe, don't bring that bum up here!" I told her I was just going to give him something to eat. We walked up the stairs. I told him to wait in the living room and that I would go get him something to eat. I went back to the kitchen and made him a sandwich. When I came back to the living room with the sandwich he had his back to me and was facing the mantle. He had his had in a box on the mantle that contained some small amount of money. I asked him what he was doing. He turned around removed his hand from the box. I gave him the sandwich and told hin to leave.

  I have a friend who worked with his wife helping the homeless in Washington, D.C. They used to work for a charity or their church and they would go around and deliver meals to the homeless in D.C.
    They did this out of a van. Crowds would gather for the free meals. He is a big guy and part of his job was to try and maintain some kind of order among the crowd.  One time he saw a homeless guy eyeing him. Then a few minutes later he felt a prick. The guy had stabbed him with a needle. My friend had to go to the hospital and get checked out and take some shots and be tested for aids. Lucky for him it was not an infected needle. They no longer do this charity work.

I have a friend here named Sam who plays the ukulele. He is homeless and plays his ukulele and also pan handles down at the train station in D.C. Union station is a good place to pan handle even though someone stole his ukulele when he went to the bathroom even though he had asked someone to watch his stuff while he was gone.

   I was told he did right well the two days before Christmas panhandling outside Union Station. He got 180 dollars each day. $360.00 for two days is not bad. Some gave him 5 dollars some gave him ten dollars and even a few twenties. Churches took up collections and put them in envelopes. The little children would put their one dollars or so in also. Then someone would deliver the envelopes to Sam and hand them to him.
Sam has dirty clothes and long hair. He really looks the part. He also has a sad expression on his face. Very rarely does he look people in the eye. He keeps his head and eyes lowered. Sam is a very smart well educated person. He has worked before but now he lives on the street. He keeps his possessions in a storage unit. He pays for the storage unit each month but does not have an apartment or a room. The homeless in Arlington get food every day from local churches. They had a Christmas meal from 2pm to 4pm yesterday at a church here in Arlington. Sam was there I was told by someone this morning.

  Sam has been banned from several places where he would go to get warm. One of them is the library. They have a rule that you cannot sleep in the library. They warn the sleepers once and then ban them the next time they catch them sleeping.

I first saw Sam last year sleeping out in the cold in a bus shelter. He would sleep in his sleeping bag all night and then later come in the McDonald's and go sit quietly in a booth and go to sleep. They let him do this for a long time. I finally went over and struck up a conversation with him. I was surprised to find he was so well read and well educated.  And he has talent also. He is quite good on the ukulele and is a good singer as well.
  But the people that come in McDonald's finally complained that he smelled bad and he was told to leave and not come back. So he stayed outside in the cold.

  Last year there was also a woman who slept out there in the bus stop shelters. She finally drove Sam away because she would not stick to one shelter. She kept moving back and forth to the one across the street and leaving a big mess which Sam said attracted rats. So he left and now sleeps somewhere down near the Central Library. He takes to metro into Union Station each day and comes back in the evening.
   I went looking for him today down by the library but he was not there. I feel he must be down at Union Station doing his thing.

A-SPAN helps the homeless in Arlington, Va.
http://a-span.org/HBMP.html

Butter Cookies Used As Money in Prison Danish Butter Cookies Are The Best Kind

I had a friend who taught school in a prison in Florida. It was a prison for first time offenders. It is located in Sneads, Florida. This was back in the 1970s. Many of the inmates were young teenagers who came down into Florida from Georgia and broke some law and ended up in prison. They stole a car or something like that.

   I went down to visit him in 1974 with the idea of getting a job there teaching. We drove out to the prison from nearby Tallahassee,Florida where he lived. He commuted every day back and forth to the prison. Most of the guards lived on farms nearby Sneads,Fa. It was good income for them working at the prison.
Here is a link about that prison. I see it is for adult males now. But they still offer teaching to the inmates.
http://www.dc.state.fl.us/facilities/region1/102.html
   
I have found that the best butter cookies are the ones that are made in Denmark. I don't buy any other kind.
 
   My friend told me that butter cookies were used as money by the prisoners. Whatever they needed or wanted they could get by trading butter cookies for it.

Fluff And Mamie Eisenhower's Million Dollar Fudge And Ike's Golf Shoes That Punched Holes In The Wooden Floors In The White House

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/35/Mamie_Eisenhowers_Million_Dollar_Fudge43273.shtml
   Rachel's sister Ellen made some fudge recently that was the best I ever tasted. She said she used Fluff and the recipe was on the back. She said it was Mamie Eisenhower's recipe for fudge.
It was light and not too sweet. Delicious.
   There are several websites I found via Yahoo for Mamie Eisenhower's Million Dollar Fudge.
And Fluff has their own website also.
http://www.marshmallowfluff.com/pages/homepage.html
  But here it is. Don't be surprised if people tell you it is the best fudge they ever had.
http://www.bigoven.com/recipe/165203/Never-Fail-Fudge
  
When Ike was in the White House they had to tell him to stop walking around in his golf shoes. The spikes on the golf shoes were punching holes in the wooden floors in the White House.

Kirbyville Texas 1955

We lived in Kirbyville, Texas from 1952 to 1955. The above pictures of me were taken by Bob Stewart in the 25 acres behind our house sometime in the spring of 1955. I was almost 15 years old at the time.
   Kirbyville is famous for being the birthplace of the great singer and musician Ivory Joe Hunter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_Joe_Hunter

    When we lived there the band director was Karl Wadenpfuhl. He ran a tight ship. The band won awards every year. He used to inspect us and our instruments before every football game. I played trumpet. He would remove the mouthpiece and inspect it for cleanliness by holding it up to the light.
 His son Jay now plays french horn in the Boston Symphony.

   Here is an obiturary I found for Karl Wadenpfuhl,Sr.

"Karl H. Wadenpfuhl, Sr. of Kirbyville, Texas, passed from this life Sunday, June 13, 2010, at Harbor Hospice in Beaumont after a lengthy illness of almost three months. He was 88 years old. Karl was born November 26, 1921, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Jacob and Alma Klos Wadenpfuhl. He was raised in Jefferson Parish during the Depression with his brother Ray and sister Alma. After graduation from high school at age 15, he soon enrolled at Louisiana State University and became a member of the LSU ROTC Cadet Band. He received a Bachelor of Music Education degree as a trumpet player in 1942. During the war, Karl joined the U.S. Army Air Force serving as principal French horn in the Army air Force field bands at Keesler Field, Mississippi, Smyrna, Tennessee, and Blytheville, Arkansas, and then the junior high director in Orange, Texas. Karl met Lottie Starnes at LSU and they married in Jonesboro, Ark. in 1944. They were five days shy of their Sixty-Sixth Wedding Anniversary. In 1949, Karl and Lottie moved to Kirbyville, a small AA school, and organized the band program there. He earned his Masters Degree from Sam Houston State University in 1953. This was to become their home, and Karl taught there until 1964. The Award Winning Kirbyville high School Band exerted considerable influence on school bands throughout Texas during the 50's 60's and 70's, even though it was a very small AA school. The concert band consistently performed difficult literature; the marching drills were challenging and innovative and performed to challenging music. The community took great pride in their band. In 1964, Karl and family moved to Beaumont where he became Assistant director of Bands at Lamar University for six years. He received his Doctorate in Secondary Education in 1970 from McNeese University. During the fall of 1970, Karl and Lottie returned to the failing band program in Kirbyville and restored the program to its previous status, winning many awards. In 1978, Karl started a new business as owner/operator of East Texas Music in Groves, where he remained until 1987 when he sold the successful business. He and Lottie officially retired to busy themselves taking care of their three acre homestead in Kirbyville. Karl's service to music education was bountiful. He served on many state music committees for T.M.E.A., T.B.A. and N.B.A. He was much sought after as a judge and clinician. His professional affiliations include Kappa Kappa Psi, Phi Mu Alpha, Kappa Delta Phi, Phi Beta Mu, TMEA, TBA, and Lions Club International. In 1977, Karl and wife Lottie were named Outstanding Citizens for Service to Youth by the city of Kirbyville, a tribute to almost thirty years of service to that community. In 1997 he was induced into the Texas bandmasters Hall of Fame, a singular honor for a lifetime of work and achievement in music education. Karl was preceded in death by his parents, Jacob and Alma Wadenpfuhl of New Orleans, wife Lottie Jay of Kirbyville, sister, Alma Weber of Decatur, AL. He is survived by brother Ray and wife Mary of Beaumont, son Karl, Jr. and wife Patty of Bevil Oaks, son Jay and wife Michelle of Boston, MA, son Ken and wife Patt of Cleveland OH, daughter Kathy of Austin; grandson Kris Wadenpfuhl and wife Sheila of Spring, granddaughter Karen Cotton and husband Carey Cotton on Beaumont, grandson Jacob and wife Leanne of Cleveland, OH, granddaughters Jennifer and Hana Jun Wadenpfuhl of Cleveland, OH; great-grandchildren Koren and Kylen Wadenpfuhl of Kingwood, Dawson Droll of Spring, Karlee Cotton of Beaumont, and Poppy Anne Wadenpfuhl of Cleveland, OH., numerous nieces and nephews. Funeral Services will be 10:00 a.m. Friday, June 18, at First United Methodist Church in Kirbyville with Rev. Bart Reddoch officiating. Burial will be at Kirbyville Cemetery. Visitation."

Here is another good obituary for Karl Wadenpfuhl.
http://www.kfdm.com/articles/local-38209-age-band.html

Karl Wadenphul taught me and many others the beauty of classical music. We had a great marching band also.  We marched in a 1955 Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans. It was on a Sunday afternoon Feb. 20, 1955.
After the parade we walked around the French Quarter.
Some of us tried to walk through The Court of Two Sisters but were told we could not as it was being set up for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. I always thought it was a scene for a movie. But never could find a movie that fit the time period.

This does: It was The Colgate Comedy Hour broadcast live Sunday Feb. 20, 1955.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0813665/


The two pictures below are of a handmade baseball card I made in 1955. My brother Bob took the picture and I cut up an Early Wynn baseball card and pasted in my picture.  I typed the information on the back. When I showed it to Allen Ebarb he was not amused since I had made up the little story of striking him out. It never happened. The statistics are those of Early Wynn who had a good year that year.

Macy's Product Placement On Soap Opera The Bold And The Beautiful Today

Christmas shopping invaded a soap opera today. In the middle of a segment on the soap opera The Bold And The Beautiful sponsored by Macy's they decided a commercial was not enough. There was a Macy's shopping bag sitting on the couch in the preceding scene. Then if that was not enough the character tells another character to shop online at macy's.com. Then to carry it even further they go to a laptop computer and bring up macy's.com.

   Now that is product placement. Then they wrote a letter to Santa to raise money for Make A Wish Foundation. It is part of the Believe campaign. For every letter to Santa that is taken to Macy's they will donate 1 dollar up to a million dollars to the Make A Wish Foundation. On line you can write a letter to Santa. They even have letters written by celebrities.

http://social.macys.com/believe2010/?LinkType=Homepage&cm_re=1.2.6-_-HOMEPAGE_INCLUDE_1-_-CATEGORY%20--%205125%20--%20:create%20your%20letter#/home

http://www.macys.com/

SUDDENLY Frank Sinatra From 1954 Movie Was Withdrawn From Distribution After JFK Assassination

http://dvp-potpourri.blogspot.com/2010/10/suddenly.html
Click on the above link to see the entire movie Suddenly.

Click and double click to enlarge to read the above.

There Was No Record In The Juvenile Court Probation Office In New Orleans Orleans Parish Of Lee Harvey Oswald In 1965

When I worked as a Juvenile Court Probation Officer in New Orleans in 1965 I checked the files and there was no file for Lee Harvey Oswald. Did this mean he had no record as a juvenile delinquent in New Orleans? Or did it mean the file(if there had been one) had been removed?
   I have never seen any information that he was ever sent to Juvenile Court in New Orleans.

New Theory On Why Oswald Shot JFK He Was Mad At The American Government FBI And Agent James P Hosty So He Took It Out On The Head Of The USA Government JFK

FBI Agent James Hosty

http://www.cdo.co.uk/jfk/wiki/index.php?title=James_Hosty
    This is somewhat far fetched but since no one else has come forward to discuss this as a possible motivation for Oswald shooting JFK I have decided to put it out there for consideration.
 
For many years I believed Oswald acted alone since I never saw any hard evidence to prove otherwise. And there was hard evidence to prove that he did do it.
   The question remains why? What was his motivation? If he did it why did he do it? That has never been explained.
    There are so many theories out there about the CIA,The Mafia,and many others but no hard proof that I have seen. It is true that I also believe that it could have been a Mafia conspiricy hatched by Carlos Marcello,Sam Giancana,and Santos Trafficante. Marcello had been heard to ask ,"Who will take this stone from my shoe?" And, "Cut off the head and the tail will die."  He had  strong reason to hate Bobby Kennedy and JFK.

Oswald's mother's friends included Clem Sehrt and Raoul Sere, attorneys with links to Carlos Marcello, the Mafia boss. She was also friendly with Sam Termine, who had worked for Marcello and was a close friend of Oswald's uncle Charles "Dutz" Murret. Murret was married to Marguerite's sister Lillian and had a great deal of contact with Oswald. Murret was also connected to Marcello.
   So maybe Oswald did have help and it came from Carlos Marcello,Sam Giancana,and Carlos Trafficante and some hired hitman or hitmen.

   But for the purposes of this theory I will leave them out of it and just consider Lee Harvery Oswald acted alone. And that his motivation was hatred of the US Government and JFK for their policy and actions toward Castro and Cuba and also the FBI and James P. Hosty for bothering his wife without him(Oswald)being present.
Hosty had also called the Texas Book Depository to confirm Oswald worked there. This was before the assassination. He tried to get Oswald's home address from them but they only had the Ruth Paine address in Irving, Texas. It is possible that someone in the Personnel Dept. would have mentioned this phone call to Oswald and asked for his current address. That would surely have upset Oswald even more.

James Hosty had been twice to Irving,Texas to Ruth Paine's house to interview Oswald. Neither time was he home. Still those visits had upset Oswald to the point he took a note to the Dallas FBI office and left it for Hosty. This is the note that was destroyed after the assassination by Hosty at the direction of his boss.
The link below is to Hosty's testimony before the Warren Commission. No mention of the destroyed note is to be found in this testimony.
http://www.jmasland.com/wctestimony/fbi/hosty.htm

Also even though Oswald had never met James Hosty before the assassination Oswald became very upset when he was questioned by Hosty after the assassination. That was at Dallas Police Headquarters.
  It could be that Oswald had been planning to kill some government official for some time. And that he became more agitated by Hosty's increasing interest in him and Marina. Then when Kennedy came to Dallas and the motorcade route was published in the newspaper he decided to act. Alone.
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/route.htm
The above link proves the parade route was well publicized in the Dallas newspapers. And was not changed at the last minute.
Oswald would have read what the parade route was going to be giving him plenty of advance notice and time to arrange to bring his rifle to work on the morning of Nov. 22,1963.

Here is some more interesting information.
http://hnn.us/articles/20369.html

And more on Lee Harvey Oswald.
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/oswald.htm

Lee Harvey Oswald's Motives.
http://www.hnn.us/articles/23430.html
The following paragraph is taken from the link above.
"In the month before the assassination Oswald may have entered into his revolutionary fantasies whilst watching television. A Secret Service interview with Marina was first recognised by Jean Davison as a telling indication of Oswald's state of mind. Marina told agents that on Friday, October 18th. Oswald had watched two movies on television and he had been “greatly excited”. The first movie was Suddenly, in which Frank Sinatra played an ex-soldier who planned to shoot an American president. Sinatra’s character was to shoot the president with a high-powered rifle from the window of a house overlooking a railway station. The second movie, We Were Strangers, was based on the overthrow of Cuba’s Machado regime in 1933.John Garfield had played an American who had gone to Cuba to help a group of rebels assassinate the Cuba leader. Oswald’s reactions to these movies made a strong impression on his wife, according to the Secret Service report."

History Of WWVA Radio Station In Wheeling West Virginia And Something On WWVA Jamboree And The Truckers Expo

http://jeff560.tripod.com/wwva.html
  The above link is a good history of the radio station WWVA in Wheeling West Virginia.

    In September 1974 I went with Bill Garrison over to Wheeling, West Virginia to go to the WWVA Jamboree and Truckers Expo. He was going to write something about it for Rolling Stone Magazine but they decided not to use it.

Meanwhile we had a really fun trip. We got to go to the big country show at The Capitol Music Hall in downtown Wheeling shown in the photo above.

    First we went over across the river to the large expo hall where 18 wheel trucks were on display. Detroit Diesel Allison was exhibiting its engines and giving away free 45rpm records of Dave Dudley singing a special song made just for them about Detroit Diesel Allison engines. Of course many other trucking companies were there showing off their trucks and supplies.
Here is a mention in Billboard of that 45rpm promo for Detroit Diesel Allison by Dave Dudley.
http://books.google.com/books?id=QwkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT36&dq=dave+dudley+detroit+diesel+allison&hl=en&ei=7VMCTd_hAYSClAeO1KHTCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=dave%20dudley%20detroit%20diesel%20allison&f=false

   Buck Owens flew into Wheeling for a big show at the race track. Susan Raye was his featured female singer. Buck flew in on a private jet and played the concert and flew back out on his private jet.
  I was much impressed with Susan Raye. I had never heard of her and she was really good.



Buck did a press conference before his big show. Someone asked him how the death of Don Rich affected him and his band. I dont remember his answer. I could tell though it was something Buck Owens did not want to talk about. Don had died in an motocycle accident in July 1974.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Rich

   Then we went back that night for the big country music show at the Capitol Theater. Dave Dudley was the featured performer that night. Bill interviewed Dave in his dressing room. Dave and hurt his foot somehow and was limping. He had a nice looking blond woman with him. Dave told us how he played pro baseball and then became a DJ and finally a country music performer himself.
Here is a good link on Dave Dudley.
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/02/profiles_in_tru.html
Dave was a nice friendly man who really seemed to be enjoying himself. He arrived as I recall with the good looking blond in a big white Cadillac.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Dudley

Susan Raye Precious Memories

This song was featured in a film called, 'Hardcore' with George C. Scott in 1979.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079271/

Jerry Lee Lewis Middle Age Crazy 1977

  The picture above shows Jerry Lee Lewis after he was arrested in Memphis after trying to climb the fence and break into Graceland to see Elvis Presley.

Jerry Lee is still alive and still rocking. He was in the Betty Ford clinic once and they kicked him out because he would not work or do chores. A guy who worked for Jerry Lee told them "Jerry Lee doesn't have to do anything but rock and roll."

  Click to enlarge the above which is an advertisment for Gus Stevens nightclub in Biloxi,Mississippi from around 1968.

In 1968 a friend of mine was playing at Gus Stevens nightclub in Biloxi, Mississippi. He was George Cummings who a year or two later founded the band Dr. Hook And The Medicine Show.
Jerry Lee Lewis came into the club after hours and the juke box was  playing some Beatles songs. Jerry Lee said, "Turn that(expletive deleted)off". George told Jerry Lee "Man let them have their day. You have already had yours". Jerry Lee then took umbrage at that statement and invited George out in the parking lot to fight.
Dick Van Dyke's brother Jerry Van Dyke happened to be present and he broke up the argument and cooled off the situation and kept the two from going to fist city.

Elizabeth Taylor Sat Right In Front Of Me At Tennessee Williams Clothes For A Summer Hotel 1980 At The Kennedy Center In Washington D.C.

Elizabeth Taylor was not in this play but she was in the opening night audience at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

In March of 1980 my wife Rachel gave me a ticket to go see Clothes For A Summer Hotel by Tennessee Williams at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. where it was having a tryout before going on to open in New York.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothes_for_a_summer_hotel

It was opening night and my seat in the third or fourth row was directly behind Elizabeth Taylor and Senator John Warner. Before the lights went down I sat staring at Elizabeth Taylor's ears and the largest diamond earings I had ever seen or have ever seen. Several gay young men ran down the aisle before the play started to say hello to her.

  I enjoyed the play very much and since I knew the story of Scott and Zelda very well I had no trouble following all the action. It was sort of a memory play about their life and included an actor playing a young Ernest Hemingway who was very good I thought.

    At intermission between acts I went out in the foyer to smoke my pipe.

 There was a drink cart sitting out in the foyer for those that wanted some liquid refresment. I did not get anything to drink. I just stood there smoking my pipe and watching the people come and go.
  
I heard some bell ring or some notice that the next act was about to begin. By this time I was the only person still standing outside. The hall was empty except for the drink cart. As I was about to start in a man came running out to get a drink. It was Tennessee Williams. I looked at him and he glanced at me. I did not say anything to him because he looked very worried and very hurried. He got his drink and ran back inside. I went back to my seat.

When the play ended he stood up and acknowledged the applause when they asked for him to stand up.
   I thought it was a good play but when it went to New York it closed after 14 performances. See above wikipedia entry about the play for details.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_williams

    Back in the late summer of 1972 I had met Tennessee Williams briefly on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. It was in August. A very hot day. There had just been one of those frequent rain storms that come and go in late summer in New Orleans. I had sought shelter under the Cabildo across from Jackson Square just a few minutes earlier. After the rain stopped I wandered over to Bourbon Street. I was standing on Bourbon Street watching the people when I was surprised to see Tennessee Williams coming down the street. He was not alone. There were three people with him. I crossed the street and called out to him. Even though they were in a hurry(it was near noon and I feel sure they were on the way to Galatoires his favorite restaurant) he kindly stopped and spoke with me for a minute or two. The people with him did not seem to like this but he did. He held my hand between his two hands much like a grandmother or mother would.
   Then they took off. I had finally met one of my most favorite authors.

  But eight years later I did not bother speaking to him since it was clear he was worried about his new play.
  And as it turned out he was right. He had much reason to worry about Clothes For A Summer Hotel. It was the last play he opened on Broadway. After that it was off Broadway for him. The critics had it in for him and that was all there was to it.

The Legend Of Suicide Bridge Near Cambridge, Maryland

http://www.suicidebridge.com/legend.html
   
There is also a Suicide Bridge Restaurant. It is near Cambridge, Maryland but it is off the beaten track. It is a hangout for locals on  that part of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Not many(if any) tourists at all. You have to drive out of your way to find this place. Someone told me about it. He ate there. It is not inexpensive. And from reviews I have read on line some people did not like the restaurant but others did.
http://suicidebridge.com/
Directions:
http://www.suicidebridge.com/directions.html

A Christmas High School Assembly From 1982

  For some reason I find this high school assembly Christmas show very entertaining. Maybe because it is from 1982 and seems so long ago.

Does Santa Claus Ever Get A Speeding Ticket? He Almost Did This Morning In Arlington, Virginia

Sandra Bullock as a cheerleader at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington,Virginia in 1982.

http://www.apsva.us/washingtonlee/site/default.asp
I went to the annual Washington and Lee High School Christmas Bazaar this morning early to watch them set up. I have been going to this event for many years.
   As I was leaving the guy who is going to play Santa Claus came rushing in wearing his Santa Claus suit but not his beard or Santa hat. He had a coffee cup in his left hand. He said, "I almost got a speeding ticket. But they let me go." The police laughed and said , "Where is your sleigh?"

    This is the high school here in Arlington,Va. that Sandra Bullock graduated from in 1982. She was President of the German club. At the annual Christmas bazaar different clubs at the school serve ethnic foods. The German club makes and sells German pancakes. If you were there in 1982 you could have gotten some German pancakes and apple sauce from Sandra Bullock. Everyone called her "Sandy" back then.

Woody Guthrie Once Stayed in Arlington, Virginia With Alan Lomax And Pete Seeger In March,April, And May Of 1940

Alan Lomax is shown in the picture above.
Many thanks to the person below who tells the story of Alan Lomax,Woody,Nick Ray, and Pete Seeger in Arlington, Virginia in 1940 at 1811 N. Oak Street. I have been looking for this address for a long time and this is the first time I ever found it. Woody Guthrie stayed with Alan Lomax in March, April, and May of 1940 at 1811 N. Oak Street, Arlington, Virginia.  The house is long gone and replaced long ago by office buildings.
http://ourredneckpast.blogspot.com/2010/10/arlingtons-critical-role-in-american.html

Bayou Bakery Has Their Website Up Now! You Can Get Real Beignets At Bayou Bakery And Lots More Authenic New Orleans Food And Coffee

Click on the link below to see their new website.
http://www.bayoubakeryva.com/
Click on the label Bayou Bakery below to see my other posts about this fine new restaurant in Arlington, Virginia. I tried the pralines recently and they are as good as any I ever had in New Orleans.
Down South we say praw-leens. Up North they say pray-leens.  Either way they are good. These are made with plenty of good spiced pecans. Another word that has two pronunciations. Down South we say pe-cahns.
Up North they say pe-cans.