Have a Retro Christmas

The good old days. Images collected from around the internets.

 

 

With age comes...

 

Recent reading: "We Did OK, Kid"

 

We Did OK, Kid: A Memoir

by Anthony Hopkins

 

This is a wonderful memoir of Sir Anthony Hopkins's life and times, as well as his career as an Oscar-winning actor. He was an only child whose parents despaired of what his future held as he was a middling, disinterested student and didn't seem to have any particular talent or ambition. In fact, at one point he announced he wanted to be a hobo when he grew up. But love of film, literature, poetry, and an innate gift for reading material out loud eventually led him to the theatre.

 

We Did OK, Kid takes us through Hopkins's childhood in Wales, into his acting career in film, television and theatre, and how he honed his skills to become one of the greatest actors of his generation. We see his early exposure to legendary actors like Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier and how they molded him. On the personal side Hopkins doesn't shy away from the disasters that his first two marriages devolved into and of course there's his battle with alcohol (he's been sober for decades and often speaks eloquently on the subject on social media).

 

Hopkins also spends time explaining how he crafted what is probably his most famous performance, Dr. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. It says a lot about his preparation that even during the table read he managed to frighten co-star Jodie Foster. It's a fascinating behind the scenes look at what is considered by many to be the embodiment of one of the greatest villains in film history.

 

Hopkins managed to eventually settle into a happy third marriage in 2003. His only child is a daughter named Abigail from his first marriage. When he left that unhappy union, he walked away completely feeling it was best for everyone involved, resulting in estrangement from Abigail and he admits that he wishes he could have had a better relationship with her. But of all the ups and downs Hopkins has experienced over his long life (he'll be 88 on New Year's Eve) he seems to have made his peace with it all and now appears to live a happy, examined life with regrets accepted and dealt with.

 

I cannot recommend this memoir highly enough. I expected Hopkins to be fascinating based on what I'd seen of him on film and social media, and We Did OK, Kid didn't disappoint. 

 

Recent reading: "The Comfort Crisis"

The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self

by Michael Easter

 

 

This book was used for my current English 2 class (critical thinking and writing) and we've spent the semester having to spot fallacies, strengths, and weaknesses in Michael Easter's thesis that modern conveniences and technology have made us weak, mentally, physically, and emotionally. A resident of Las Vegas, it seems that Easter's focus is Western society and while I agree overall with his point, I had a few issues with how they were presented.

 

The main issue I had didn't have anything to do with an actual fallacy or factual issues (so I struggled with those assignments) as I did with the extreme (and therefore unrelatable to the average reader) experiences he cited. I totally agree with him that we were fitter and sharper when life was harder and took more effort (or any actual effort). But Easter uses a month-long trip to the Alaska wilderness, where he learns to survive in a harsh environment in the same manner as people did before there were any modern conveniences. He lives and sleeps in a tent, learns to track caribou, and eventually hunts one down to provide by that time in the trek very welcome substantial food.

 

Easter seems to have unlimited resources to travel to meet with experts. As a writer for Men's Health, I assume that they paid for a lot of his travel expenses. Sending him to Austin, Texas, to meet with a fitness coach he'd already interviewed online didn't seem like too much of a stretch. But at one point, Easter embarks on a trip to Bhutan to see how they live a more enlightened life. He describes the trip as "four flights across 48 hours, 14 time zones, and 9.465 miles" and while the chapter is fascinating, the more Easter and others he interviews who have similar extreme experiences, the less and less relatable it becomes as he fails to offer practical examples to his readers of how to improve the effect of modern conveniences in their everyday lives.

I do recommend this book if you are interested in some pretty fascinating stories that give you the opportunity to live vicariously through people who have the ability to manage experiences that most of us would never have the opportunity to experience. In a way, The Comfort Crisis isn't just a book to help you shed your dependency on modern tech, but also a vicarious travelogue.

 

Taxed to death

So nice of PetSmart to break out all the taxes we pay here in Los Angeles. Keep in mind, all I bought was cat food.

 

 

Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. California taxes are out of control. Being in L.A. just compounds it. One can only hope we get new, competent leadership at some point.

 

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

A gorgeous December day on the channel!

 

 

The last pirate standing at the pirate house. There used to be multiple pirates (including one on a rope rappelling down the house) and a cannon. Now there's just one lonely pirate remaining. Looks like the captain is going to go down with his ship.

Even Kermit is leaving Hollywood

For years the entertainment industry has been fleeing Hollywood. Vancouver, Toronto, North Carolina, New Mexico and Georgia are just a few of the places that have benefited from this exodus, mainly due to the vastly lower cost of doing business outside of California.

 

And now Kermit the Frog is departing Tinseltown. The Kermit-as-Little-Tramp statue that has graced the main gate of The Jim Henson Company on La Brea for so long has been gifted by Henson's family to The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. 

 

The lot, originally Charlie Chaplin Studios and later A&M Records, was sold last year so that may be the reason for this move, although if I bought the place I would have tried to include Kermit's statue as part of the deal. 

 

I think the gate is going to look sadly naked without it as another part of Hollywood history moves on. I haven't been to that part of town in ages, but I may need to drive by so Kermit's nod to the lot's founder can make me smile one last time.

 

Farewell!!! (*sniffles*)

 

UPDATE 1/2/26: Looks like there is some good news - John Mayer and McG, who bought the Henson lot, have renamed it for Chaplin and intend to preserve its history. Note: If you want to read the entire article linked in that post, you'll need a subscription to the L.A. Times.

 

November Words of Wisdom

Traditions are answers that have been discovered to enduring questions. 

--Roger Scruton

 

Women need solitude in order to find again the true essence of themselves. 

--Anne Morrow Lindbergh

 

To the degree you approach the truth, your solitude will increase...Keep going. Don't be afraid. --Michel Houellebecq

 

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. --Albert Camus 

 

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. --William Wordsworth 

 

Is politics nothing other than the art of deliberately lying? --Voltaire

 

How quickly we turn from damsel to dragon when we decide we've had enough of their shit. --Ann Marie Eleazer 

 

 

 

The morning fog

After the Wednesday/Thursday heatwave, we're back to our regularly scheduled late November weather.

 

I was hearing this song in my head until the fog burned off an hour later.

 

Ooooh, swirly!

I like trying non-traditional desserts for the holidays. I mean, there's absolutely nothing wrong with pumpkin pie, it's always welcome, but this Thanksgiving I went with pumpkin cake. And because I love Bundts...

 

 

Snagged recipe from here. Also, if you use a bundt instead of the pan in the recipe, it needs a lot longer than 30 minutes in the oven. More like 50-ish. Use the toothpick test to determine doneness. The result: well-baked on the outside, incredibly moist on the inside. And remember, dusting with powdered sugar makes everything prettier!

 

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Hope it's a fun one!!!

 

 

Recent reading: Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

AHMM and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine have been running late, and so have I in reading them.

Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine 

(September/October 2025)

 

Favorites from this issue: 

• "High in That Ivory Tower" by Joseph S. Walker: A jaded English professor tries to blackmail a filthy rich student, with unexpected results when the young man's father shows up to confront him. Bonus points for the shoutout to "The Cask of Amontillado" during the shock ending.
• "The Promise" by Ken Brosky: A PI looking for a missing crime witness has to drag his teenage daughter along for the job and is pleasantly surprised when she shows unexpected aptitude and enthusiasm.
• "Julius Katz Draws a Straight Flush" by Dave Zeltserman: Imaginative story about a PI and his AI assistant, who not only assists but authors tales of their legendary exploits, and how they brilliantly solve the seemingly innocuous case of a dead waiter. 4/30/26: This just won the Edgar Award for Best Short Story of 2025.
• "Tell Me a Story, Grampa" by Loren D. Estleman: The story Grampa tells young Randy is about an old, unsolved bank robbery that has become legend in their small town, with a very unexpected twist at the end that reveals the robber that everyone thought got away.
• "Murder in F-Sharp" by Stephen Ross: A teenage music student discovers the identity of the murderer of a teacher at his school, then uses this knowledge to ruthlessly manipulate two adults in his life - his father and his piano teacher. Another great, unexpected twist at the end.
• "The Selwyn Arms" by Marcelle Dube: A formerly homeless young woman investigates the murder of a kind neighbor after realizing local police are going to write it off as an accidental overdose or suicide. Probably my favorite of all the stories and I would love to see more of unlikely heroine Ethel Brownlee, especially with the unexpected news she receives at the end of the story. Plus, I'm a sucker for vintage buildings like the Selwyn.

 Next up, EQMM.