Monday, October 23, 2006
My Robert Young Story
If you visited earlier today [that would be yesterday now] I have to apologize for having basically broken my whole blog. I uploaded a .wav file, working towards enabling podcasts. I figured the best place would be a subdirectory that gets made by the date. What I had forgotten was that this is where comments for the Zen Image get put. I need to make the comment retriever smarter because it latched onto the .wav file and tried to display it as a comment. A VERY-VERY-VERY-LONG comment.
I just got back from the gym [OK that would have also happened yesterday]. I haven't been totally lazy, but I'm not putting in the over the top effort I put in last week. I started reading "The Kite Runner" while I did the stair machine today. I should be able to finish it before going to China next month. My wife recommended the book highly and the reading has been pretty engaging so far, far more than "Gravity's Rainbow" which I had expected to love based on glowing praise for it from a variety of sources. But I found I was slogging through the first 200 pages or so and have put it aside for now (it is a rather longish novel).
Jane Wyatt died Friday. I know Nian won't know who this person is at all, but she played the mother on "Father Knows Best" a 50's iconic TV show that premiered in 1954 (four years before I was born). Robert Young, who also starred in the 70's medical drama "Marcus Welby M.D", played the father. I don't know if Jim Anderson, Young's character, really did know best, or whether the title was intended to be ironic -- in 50's America it could have been either. Wyatt also played Spock's mother on the original Star Trek (I hadn't realized both characters were played by the same women till today). I don't have any personal stories involving Jane Wyatt, but in 1970 I saw Robert Young eating at the restaurant my father was the chef at, "The Gay Nineties" in Rock Island, Illinois. Evidently Robert Young's daughter lived in the Quad Cities and he made it a habit to eat at The Gay Nineties on most visits. So I guess this one celebrity endorsement of sorts would indicate my dad was a well-respected chef in the Quad Cities at the time and the Gay Nineties was a fine restaurant.
Anyway several people from our family were eating in the restaurant the same day at lunch before going on to attend a wedding and reception elsewhere. I came down with a terrible cramp in my side at the table and it was feared that I might have appendicitis. My dad pointed out that Dr. Welby was eating just a couple of tables over, he jokingly suggested we get him to operate on me. For whatever reasons the thought of going and talking to Robert Young terrified me, I'm not sure if I thought he might actually be persuaded to do the operation. I had no trouble going to the hospital soon after however, where it was diagnosed I was constipated. We went to the reception (I guess the pain must have subsided) and when we got home I had one more humiliation to endure as my mom and dad proceeded to give me an enema. I guess it could have been worse, maybe Robert Young could have given me the enema.
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1 Comments:
god! My poor Larry! :D
By , at October 23, 2006
