It Might As Well Be Spring
“Spring has sprung,” said Ogden Nash. Or was it E.E. Cummings? It has been attributed to both, so it was probably neither.
But sprung it did, at exactly 10:46 a.m. ET today, if you keep track of such things. I don’t know why you would, but we all need our hobbies.
I dread the warm weather months, so the first day of spring for me has always been the start of a countdown to Labor Day. A countdown that includes keeping track of when the days get shorter (yes, I actually get excited when we start to lose a minute a day because that means the fall is getting closer and closer). But this year I’ve decided to lean into spring. After several storms that buried us in snow and many days of bitter cold temperatures, I got sick of the winter faster than I do most years. So this year is my year of making a promise to myself to simply enjoy the spring and summer.
And that starts today. Bring on the warmer temperatures and the rain and wind that seem to come out of nowhere and make using an umbrella pointless. I’m ready for it.
Hooray For Hollywood
CBS Sunday Morning had a great feature on how musician John Mayer and director McG got together and saved the famed Charlie Chaplin Studios.
Uploaded to YouTube by CBS Sunday Morning
The show actually had two great stories about saving Hollywood this week. The other was about the history (and future) of the town itself.
Call a Boomer
Are you a younger person, maybe Gen Z or Gen Alpha, and you need some life advice? Maybe you should call a boomer!
Ken, I’ll Take “Are You Kidding Me? For $800
Okay, I know this is the second week in a row I’ve mentioned a wrong question on Jeopardy!, but I’m taking this one personally.
The answer: “Norman Rockwell’s painting of Norman Rockwell painting himself graced the cover of this magazine on February 13, 1960.”
One contestant said Time and another said Life. The third contestant didn’t have an answer at all.
Headline of the Week
“People Keep Annoying Me While I’m Shopping”
RIP Len Deighton, Paul Ehrlich, Matt Clark, Ernie Anastos, Judy Pace, and John Bengtson
Len Deighton wrote such classic spy novels as The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin, Billion Dollar Brain, and Berlin Game. He died Sunday at the age of 97.
Paul Ehrlich wrote the controversial book The Population Bomb, which predicted worldwide famine and environmental chaos. He died last week at the age of 93.
Matt Clark appeared in such films as Brubaker, Jeremiah Johnson, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, as well as TV shows like The Jeff Foxworthy Show, Bonanza, and Magnum, P.I. He died Sunday at the age of 89.
Ernie Anastos was a popular anchor for WABC, WNYW, and WCBS. He died last week at the age of 82.
Judy Pace played Gale Sayers’s wife in the classic TV movie Brian’s Song. She also appeared in Cotton Comes to Harlem and Frogs and the TV drama Peyton Place. She died last week at the age of 83.
John Bengtson was a silent film researcher, historian, and author. He died in January at the age of 68.
This Week in History
FBI Launches “Ten Most Wanted” List (March 14, 1950)
The very first person on the list was Thomas J. Holden, part of the Holden-Keating Gang, responsible for several bank robberies in the 1920s and ’30s.
The Scarlet Letter Published (March 16, 1850)
And yes, author Nathaniel Hawthorne did write for the Post. At least we think he did.
This Month in Saturday Evening Post History: “Freedom of Speech” by Norman Rockwell (March/April 2015)
This painting originally appeared in the February 20, 1943, issue of the Post, as part of the Four Freedoms series. I’m including the 2015 cover here to help out anyone who might be asked about it on a future episode of Jeopardy!
Sunday Is We Love Broccoli Day
Who is this “we” this food holiday seems to be addressing?
Don’t get me wrong; I love broccoli. I was one of those kids that actually liked broccoli and spinach and green beans. But I know some people who would rather eat green-colored styrofoam than this tiny bit of shrubbery.
But for the broccoli lovers, here are recipes for Broccoli Rubble Farro Salad and Baked Potatoes with Crispy Broccoli and Bacon, both from Smitten Kitchen. Cookin’ the Market has a Roman Style Broccoli Sauté, Iowa Girl Eats has this Easy Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry, and The Pioneer Woman has a Broccoli Rice Casserole.
Dessert? Trimazing has this Chocolate Broccoli Cake.
Next Week’s Holidays and Events
Rosie the Riveter Day (March 21)
As Young As You Feel Day (March 22)
I feel like I’m 60 (I’m 60).
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Comments
Out here, it’s been a humid, ugly “spring” since early January, and hot August temps the past 2 weeks. I KNOW it’s been a blizzard blitzkrieg in many states! Most people are unhappy with their weather at any given time it seems.
The ‘Hollywood’ feature here on The Charlie Chaplin Studios may be the ONLY positive thing about it. Didn’t watch the Oscars of course, but was intently interested in the YT videos this past week on how terrible they were. The garbage people in the audience (they’re not stars) left garbage all over the rows of floors. When the whole thing collapses, the people I’ll feel bad for are the ‘worker bee’ employees just trying to make a living.
Bob, I wish you could have enclosed the ‘Jeopardy’ question clip. I have to give the contestant that answered LIFE at least some credit. It was the other large size, weekly general interest magazine at that time. For not knowing, TIME was a good guess, I guess, rather than admitting they didn’t know. LOOK would have been a better answer as Rockwell did work for them in the ’60s. Of course now it’s quite obscure too, so never mind.
Call a Boomer. What a sweet, degrading, wonderful/sad gimmick that is. I keep getting videos on ‘Generation Jones’ for those born between 1954-’64; ‘whose childhoods were in the ’70s’. Using the 4 oldest ‘Brady Bunch’ kids who were mainly born between ’54-’58, they’d already lived a big part of that in the ’60s, when the show premiered in Sept. 1969.
Grades 9-12 that were both pre and post-Watergate. An island of time unattached to the older group or Gen X, adrift in the sea of OPEC, inflation, stagflation, and diminishing ($$) returns. The gifts that have kept on giving ever since.