In short, when the Tribune hired and syndicated you, that made you their new advice columnist, period. You are no more “the new Ann Landers” than Carolyn Hax, Dan Savage or any of the dozens of advice columnists who were bought by newspapers to fill the space previously occupied by my mother.
By law, the only person who would have been able to become “the new Ann Landers” was me. And that was nothing I chose to do. You see, dear, even I knew that there could only be one Ann Landers.
Sure. Whatevs.
That’s why Dear Margo®’s column always finishes off with Dear Margo is written by Margo Howard, Ann Landers’ daughter.
Not that Margo Howard would ever even consider trying to be the new Ann Landers.
We saw Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point, Blink, and — most recently — Outliers and also staff writer for The New Yorker) last night at the City Arts & Lectures series at Herbst Theatre (“in conversation” with Kevin Berger, Salon) with tickets my brother gave his nibs for Christmas.
What a funny, bright guy Gladwell is. Sharp. Verbal. Quick.
I really don’t care if you think he dumbs down science or puts his own spin on things. I think he’d be a great guy to hang out with at a coffee shop and discuss the world and what he was working on.
I’ll be looking for his writing in The New Yorker even more than I was before.
Bits from last night.
KB: You start Outliers talking about hockey players (and why successful professional hockey players are usually born in January, February, and March). Why?
MG: Well, because I’m Canadian.
Jeb Bush quote about the struggles he had to reach where he is today, which MG characterized as an “heroic struggle against advantage.”
MG talked about the Beatles and how they became the best band evah. He mentioned that most people don’t consider the fact that for years before they came to America and were discovered, they’d been the house band at a Hamburg strip club where they played eight hours a day for six days a week. Live. On stage. They were playing live (and getting better and better) for thousands of hours before they “made it.”
“We have chosen to overlook the extraordinary discipline they devoted to their vocation.”
We say, oh, they’re talented. Or oh, they’re lucky. They were neither. They played over a thousand live gigs before they “made it.”
The talk was very interesting. Interesting enough that I’m Googling (Hi, Sergey! Hi, Larry!) as I speak. How many other videos are there out there of Gladwell doing his schtick.
He closed with a discussion of his mother, a brown Jamaican (as he called her), mixed race, and the advantages she had, and her parents, and her parents parents going back that made her what she is today.
His point is that just because you live here and are successful and don’t worry where your next meal is coming from or where the fresh water is or the fuel you need to cook … this all isn’t due to the fact you worked so hard and sacrificed and were lucky but is more due to the fact that you were born into circumstances that put you where you are today.
Don’t forget that.
Don’t forget that those in less fortunate circumstances weren’t born to your parents.
Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio married at San Francisco’s City Hall and returned to North Beach for wedding photographs on the steps of Sts. Peter & Paul Church.
They could not be married in the church because DiMaggio was considered still married by the Roman Catholic church, which did not recognize his civil divorce from his first wife.
The DiMaggio-Monroe marriage lasted nine months.
Today you can see a photo of DiMaggio and first wife Dorothy Arnold displayed inside the church, but there can be seen no hide nor hair, no mention of the civil divorce nor of Monroe.
Peter Falk … described McGoohan as “the most underrated, under-appreciated talent on the face of the globe. I have never played a scene with another actor who commanded my attention the way Pat did.”
I grew up on Secret Agent. I moved on to The Prisoner. I enjoyed watching McGoohan in his handsome-boy secret agent younger days and his villainous older days.
Talented guy. I’m glad he got his accolades while he was around to hear them.
RIP, Miss Eartha. You gave a ton of pleasure to a zillion folks. Here’s hoping you wind up with the folks you would want to spend the rest of eternity with.
I have a framed John Byrne Cooke photograph of Mimi Fariña on the wall to the right of the front door. She’s standing at the top of the hill, at Union and Montgomery, goofing off with Debbie Green. I like the picture because it shows the waterfront behind them as it was back when the picture was taken, in 1966, and because it shows Mimi Fariña full of life.
It took me years after I first stumbled on the image on the Web to decide that his price was worth it and to contact Cooke and arrange to swop him $$$ for a print.
I’m still glad I did.
Depending on my mood, the photograph makes me smile, or tear up.
Same with DIAMONDS AND RUST.
The YouTube video is from 1975. Has it really been that long?
I guess it has.
yes I loved you dearly and if you’re offering me diamonds and rust I’ve already paid
Item: a sheet of paper with the header, THE DUNLAP QUESTION, with typed questions and scribbled answers from F Scott Fitzgerald. (est: $8-$12K)
The basic question is followed by questions that refine the basic question and answer.
You make a quick survey of your whole life, remembering all your pains and all your pleasures, the humiliations and triumphs, the regrets and satisfactions, the miseries and the happiness. Then suppose you are compelled to make the following decision, with no alternative?
1. Live through your whole life again, just exactly as before, with no opportunity to better it by your present experience, or