RIP Harvey Korman

February 15, 1927 - May 29, 2008





Hedley Lamarr Pledge.


Not many could do the voodoo that he do so well.

Indiana Jones! I always knew some day you'd come walking back through my door.

I caught Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull early this evening. What fun! Just what you want in an adventure movie. Fantasy, action, suspense and the good guys come out on top. All I have to say about Karen Allen is after 30 years from Animal House to Crystal Skull is wow! Now I remember why I had a crush on her back in the day.

Here a photo from Animal House


Here is a still from Crystal Skull


Now I know this is a professionally taken photo made to make her look her best but you still have to have something to start with. Time has been very kind to Karen. So I am too old at 50 to have a crush again?

Memorial Day

As we approach Memorial Day people have been asking each other what are you doing this weekend? It is the unofficial start of summer, kids are ready to put the school books away and start swimming and playing baseball and other summer games. I tend to keep it a low key weekend. I'll spend one day with my son, eat a couple of hot dogs, watch the races on TV - both auto and horse.

But I also make sure I remember why the name of the day is Memorial. It is easier for me to remember all I have to do is look at the two Purple Hearts in a shadow box that were awarded to my uncle Maynard J. Rogg. Maynard served in US Army, 27th Infantry Division, 105th Infantry Regiment, Company G from some time before the attack on Pearl Harbor until he was killed in action June 18th, 1944 on the second day in the battle for Saipan. I have very few photos of Maynard but was lucky enough to find someone on the internet who also had a relative that served in the same Regiment and shared the photo above. Maynard is in the first row far right. According the caption Maynard was still a private, when he was killed he was a PFC so I'm guessing that the photo was taken in a camp in the US.

Maynard is buried in the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. I have not made it there yet but two co-worked who have gone to Hawaii were kind enough to visit Maynard's grave for me and take some photos.

The National WWII Memorial web page is worth checking out. You can search for people you know or add relatives that served in WWII. Feel free to type in Maynard's name to view an entry.

Enjoy the weekend, be safe and pause a moment to remember.

Interesting List of Books

My friend DeWitt in Atlanta just sent me this interesting list of books. I don't know anything about the web page but the list is interesting, severals book about and written by TR made the list.

Mother's Day observations

Happy Mother's Day to all. Since I have become a parent I tend to observe other parents with their children more. I observe to see if I can pick up a few pointers but most of the time I find myself shaking my head with amazement. Most of us turn to our own mother for help since children do not come with an owners manual. My mother departed this world in 1991 and my son was born in 1998 so that avenue was not open to me. So I tend to fall back on how she kept me out of trouble.

My apartment complex has a range of parents and ages of children. Just today as I was polishing and waxing my car-off topic I highly recommend Meguiar's car care products, they put a great shine on the car- in the parking lot of my apartment. I hear a small child's voice. I look up and see about a 4 year old girl outside my building playing with her scooter. She is outside and I see no adult. Then I hear another small voice and on the deck of a second floor apartment I see what appears to be her brother of about 18 months. The girl is outside playing in the parking area outside the buildings. Being it is Mother's Day most of the parking spots do not have cars in them as people are out paying homage to Mom. But this is the same parking area that I have spoken about in my March 17th post.

I continue to buff my car and the little girl walks around the corner of the building out of sight. Not 30 seconds later a car drives around the building in one direction. About a minute after that a motorcycle comes around the parking lot from the other direction. The girl is out of my sight and out of the woman's sight who now appears on the deck checking on our explorer. It is the last I see of the woman as she returns inside her apartment. Hopefully she found her child in the front of the apartment building.

Now when I was young I know my mother let me play in our yard while she was in the house. But that was 40 plus years ago (ouch). And I also know she gave the Duggan Bread man an ear full after he gave me a ride around the block without telling her I was in his truck. The world is a little different today. Plus this apartment complex has about 150 units spread out in about 10 buildings.

When I am with my son I never let him out of sight and he is 10. Maybe I'm paranoid but these days there are just to many people out there that just do not care about doing the right thing.

Character seems to be harder and harder to find these days, but it may be the most important thing there is. Humans have always been looking for character and been drawn to it. Here are some quotes worth thinking about.

The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out.
— Baron Thomas Babington Macauley, English historian and statesman (1800-1859)

Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.
— Theodore Roosevelt, American adventurer and 26th president (1858-1919)

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses and avoids.
— Aristotle, Greek philosopher (384-322 B.C.)

You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, novelist, playwright, scientist and philosopher (1749-1832)

So today on Mother's Day make sure to thank your mother, she was the first person to set you straight on what is right and what is wrong.

Bragging on the Family

Have to give a big shout out to my niece's fiance O'Brian on his place The Sierra Grille being voted
best Creative American Fare Restaurant by the readers of the Vally Advocate for 2008.

If you are in Northampton, MA check them out.

The Duke and Camelot, and North Carolina

Duke Ellington has been quoted "There are two kinds of music good and the other kind." I just watched Live from Lincoln Center's production of Camelot, and it falls into the good side of Duke's thinking. Many of you know the story of Camelot so I will not not bore you with that. Those of you that do not know the story shame on you. This was a rather good production and I would have loved to have been in Avery Fisher Hall this evening. I have been lucky enough to have been in said hall for several concerts and have always had a wonderful time.

Tonight's performance of Camelot was singular in the fact that the NY Philharmonic was on stage and the performers where right in front of the orchestra.

Christopher Lloyd (Pellinore) was great and Fran Drescher (Morgan le Fey) did not lose her Brooklyn ascent.

My only beef with the production is for what ever reason Mordred was dressed like he was one of the New York Dolls from the early 1970's complete with red lipstick, and high heel boots. I was waiting for David Johansen to come out on stage.


Camelot was I believe Robert Goulet's only Broadway show back in the original 1960 production. Sherry will correct me if I am wrong, but he built his whole career on that show.

As for North Carolina in the title I returned Tuesday the 6th from a short 5 day visit to my sister and brother-in-law's in North Carolina. I needed a little R&R and it was nice to stick my feet in the ocean again. There is something about going to the ocean that is very soothing, maybe because it is so vast it put us in our place.