Apr 05 2010
Fruitcake? Who actually eats fruitcake for holidays any more? I know this is a little out of season, but maybe Christmas will come early this year. Maybe someone you know has an ‘unbirthday party” coming up. Maybe you’ll change your mind and make it for yourself after reading the following recipe handed down through my wife’s family. I present it here for the enjoyment of our friends and family. Please remember to eat cake responsibly…
Apr 03 2010
This article was originally published on my other website at JustOneOpinion.com on March 28, 2010. I wanted to share this story of my family’s brief encounter with Mr. Culp back in 1968.
Actor Robert Culp died of a heart attack outside his home in Los Angeles last week.
Culp was best known for co-starring with Bill Cosby in the ground-breaking television series “I Spy” during the 1960s, Culp was 79 years old at the time of his passing on March 24.
“I Spy” was a groundbreaking first for TV, teaming Culp and Cosby as two buddies that traveled the world as spies – but posing as tournament tennis competitors. The first of many TV and movie interracial pairings, such as “Miami Vice” and many cops and robbers “buddy movies,” “I Spy” began during a period when racial equality was still just a dream and real racial and sexual diversity on TV was still at least fifteen years away. Black faces on TV were still very much a rarity in the mid to late 1960s.
In later years, Culp played presidents, cops, senators, devious businessmen, occasional villains, and more recently, a repeating role as Ray Romano’s father-in-law in the sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
“I Spy” came along when fictional secret agents were very popular on both big and small screens, riding on the success of the James Bond movies starring Sean Connery and TV’s “Secret Agent,” Patrick McGoohan. Culp and Cosby played their roles with humor and occasional horseplay, rather than the brutality and violence that were central to the themes of their competitors.
Apr 03 2010
March and April are months that, for me, seem to just blow by the calendar and disappear into the distant past. Here in Oregon the days are still pretty wet and windy, so it’s too early to go out and sit on the deck or to start using the BBQ. On the other hand, being this far north allows us to have some nice long days and sunny mornings.
Like most years, I’ll organize my files, toss out all of the old records that are over a year old, and file my tax extension. For the past couple of years, my wife Sharon and I have been living on our Social Security pensions, a small pension I have from AT&T, and our reserves left over from old 401K savings. So I doubt if there will be much in the way of taxes to pay, but we still have to file between now and October. It’s mostly just a pain in the butt.
A few months ago I received a rather intimidating official letter from the California State Franchise Tax Board. It says something along this line:
Jan 30 2010
After catching a little snowfall over Thanksgiving, December 2009 started out in a very pleasant way. That first weekend we took a short trip to the San Francisco Bay Area to visit family and to enjoy a long weekend away from home.
We visited Sharon’s father in Santa Rosa. At 93 years of age, he is feeling his age and requires a full time caretaker, but we were pleasantly surprised to see him getting around fairly well and quite conversant. We limited our visits to late morning and kept them short, but our time with him was quite enjoyable and allowed us to confirm the good care that he is getting.
The real highlight of our trip was the chance to see my grand daughter, Mia, dance in the “Nutcracker Ballet” at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium at the Marin County Civic Center. The Marin County office building and the auditorium were both designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and are excellent examples of his architectural genius.
On Saturday, December 5th, Mia filled one of the supporting roles, that of a Spanish dancer; both her beauty and talent showed during throughout her brief performance. We watched the show with her parents, Kim and Pete, her sister Kendall, and several of her family’s friends.
On Sunday, we returned to the auditorium and were joined by Mia’s grandmother, Julie, her cousin Shane, along with aunts Kristen and Kelly. We all watched Mia perform the lead role of Clara – which kept her on stage during about half of the entire performance. Again, I was amazed at her skill as a ballerina and her youthful, yet mature beauty.
I found it nearly impossible to keep from tearing up throughout both performances. To say that Mia exceeded our expectations in every way would be totally honest, and yet we should have known that with her dedication to her art along with the total and uncompromising support of her immediate family – that her performance would be exceptional.
OK. That was the fun part of December.
