Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Pass the popcorn

 

Good evening, 919 Gang.

 

CARL LARSEN writes:

A first from Variety, the 100 best movies of all time.

https://variety.com/lists/best-movies-of-all-time/

 

          REBER: There are bound to be disagreements with this list. I’ve seen only 17 of these movies, probably fewer than most people. And I will gripe that my top three movies are nowhere on the list.

 

 

Jack J. Reber

P.O. Box 2239

Ramona, CA 92065-0938

United States

Monday, December 26, 2022

Moving up

 

          Good evening, 919 Gang. It’s a major embarrassment to realize I misspelled Tom Gable’s name last night. I’m sure he hasn’t changed his name since I first met him, more than 50 years ago. Major apologies, Tom.

 

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CARL LARSEN writes:

I wrote here a few days back that topics in the news flow in cycles. And so it continues on the Entertainment beat where …

The U-T has moved prolific arts and dining writer Pam Kragen to the job of arts editor, replacing Michael Rocha, who becomes the paper’s digital creative director.

… this comes days after longtime local freelance theater critic Pat Launer retired and after the passing earlier this month of Welton Jones.

… One of Welton’s “I didn’t know that about San Diego” pieces, from 1967, was revisited by the U-T Sunday.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/local-history/story/2022-12-25/from-the-archives-welton-files-circus-clowns-russian-ballerina-mystery

 

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SUZANNE MACK writes:

Thank you for the birthday shout out. The morning of my birthday (Dec. 24) I had to run to our local market for vegetables. I found what I needed, and as I passed the deli at Keil's I stopped to wish the woman who has worked there for years a Merry Christmas. I waited until the man she was helping finished his order.

He was about 5'' 10", wearing a Christmas sweater. I said Merry Christmas to the woman, and the man said, "do you two know each other?" We smiled and told him yes we did. He looked between the two of us and said,

"You two could be sisters!". Nice compliment because the woman in question is probably 55 as opposed to my 73.

As I checked out and headed to my car I had the feeling I had seen the man somewhere but couldn't place him. Half way home the name Dennis Hughes popped into my head. Is Dennis still living? If so it may have been him or he has a twin walking around San Carlos.

 

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CARL LARSEN writes.

          Ranking up there with the David Copley Season’s Greetings fiasco long ago on Page 1, in which part of his message to readers didn’t appear, was the correction in the Sunday Arts section on Christmas Day in which local minister Colby Martin apologizes for writing in a religion commentary Dec. 18 that Jesus was Palestinian, and not Jewish.

          Seeing the original article, a reader wrote in: “Your article calls Jesus a Palestinian and that is factually incorrect. Not only does this diminish the Palestinian people’s plight of today but it deprives the whole Jewish people of their history.”

 You’d be disappointed trying to pull up the minister’s lengthy apology online, however, which I couldn’t find.

          But there it is in the print edition on Page E-9, under the headline “Please consider my sentence last week an honest mistake.”

Writes Martin. “Let’s cut straight to the chase, shall we? Jesus was Jewish.”

 

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CARL LARSEN writes: I can’t remember a Ramona Sentinel story being picked up by the LA Times, but when you’ve got the biggest movie shoot in these parts since “Titanic,” that’s big news.

Jack, were you an extra in this production?

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-12-25/san-diego-county-livestock-locals-star-in-holiday-movie

 

          REBER: We welcome coyotes, turkeys, rabbits, roadrunners and such on our property, but when it come to domestic animals, my response is “Get off my lawn.” Mary’s response is to start loading the 12-gauge. The horses’ big feet leave indentations in our grass, and the goats love to eat in Mary’s gardens.

          Regina Elling did a fine job on the story, but I am surprised the Times lifted a story out of the Ramona Sentinel. In a day when newspapers were healthier, I suspect an editor would have said, “Hey I just read an interesting story about something in Ramona. Let’s get one of our people down there to do a story.”

 

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          REBER: The birthday parade continues. Happy Birthday, Dec. 27, Ken Williams.

 

Jack J. Reber

P.O. Box 2239

Ramona, CA 92065-0938

United States

 

Sunday, December 25, 2022

The birth of Grinch

 

          Good evening, 919 Gang.

 

          TIM GABLE writes:

Wonderful front-page tale by John Wilkens on creation of The Grinch. Includes background from long-time Ted Giesel friend, Judith Morgan (and 919 Gangster), co-author with Neil of “Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel,” a biography. PDF attached in case the link doesn’t work.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/lifestyle/people/story/2022-12-24/the-creation-of-the-grinch-65-anniversary

 

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ROY SCHNEIDER writes;

          Count me among those with some stuff in UCSD’s Special Collections Library. It has copies of both my books and a raw early manuscript. I didn’t donate them. The library asked for them. That was back in the day when I was being published in literary journals here and in Europe and giving readings around the country. And my books were drawing some very kind comments from the literati. Heady days.

 


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          REBER: Here is a bushel of Happy Birthday wishes for Nancy Cleeland on Dec. 25.

 

Jack J. Reber

P.O. Box 2239

Ramona, CA 92065-0938

United States