I Love Used Book Stores

My favorite is “The Hole in the Wall”right here in Falls Church on Main Street.

It’s owned by one of the nicest ladies in this town.  Her name is…THE BOOKSTORE LADY.  (I’m pretty sure she has another more formal one, but after all the years I’ve known her, it’s too late now to ask what her name is.)

We were talking the other day and she commented on how I ought to consider writing a book about all of the famous people I interviewed on TV over the years. She suggested a possible title, “Famous Interviews I’ve had.”  Or something like that.

I thought about that for a few seconds and told her that I had a better idea in mind and it would be an even thicker book, “Famous Interviews I NEVER had.” 

Because I had many more near misses than home runs in the interview department.  And a lot of the

time it was my fault.  In the early 60’s former President Harry Truman would often visit Washington and when he did, he continued his habit of “walking” several blocks every morning, like he had always done during his days as President.

My friend Paul Niven of CBS had arranged with the ex President to walk along with him and be interviewed as he walked.

Paul invited me to come along.  Then, the day before the event, something else came up…something totally forgettable and insignificant and in my infinite poor judgement chose it over the walk with Harry Truman!

Then there was the story I’ve told before on this site when I turned down an interview with the WTOP switchboard operator’s ex husband………who later turned out to be Carlos Casteneda who TIME Magazine called  “THE MOST MYSTERIOUS MAN IN AMERICA.”

I came very close to interviewing JOHN F. KENNEDY.  I had gotten clearance for 5 minutes with him following one of his many press

conferences. We were to meet behind the stage of the State Department Auditorium following  the briefing, but as  luck would have it the news event went long, and my interview was scrapped.  However, I’ll always remember how different Kennedy looked in person as he answered the reporter’s questions that day.  His complexion was very ruddy and…his face was extremely puffy…and swollen. It was almost like his face didn't fit his body.  We all learned later it was the result of Addison’s disease, but to this day, I have no idea how the TV cameras failed to show this. Perhaps it was because of the “black and white” video images of that day.

Then, there was the time I almost interviewed Frank Sinatra. It was May 3, 1967. The famous “Muckracker"  Drew Pearson (who was proud to be called that) was President of the Washington “Big Brothers,” and to raise money for them had arranged for his friend Frank Sinatra to perform for free at the Shoreham Hotel. More that 14 hundred people paid $50 each for attending this testimonial affair.

I was one of them.

Pearson had become a fairly regular guest on a local morning TV show I was hosting at the time and he seemed to like me. I was fairly confident he was going to get Sinatra to say yes to an interview with me after his performance. Hubert Humphrey, the Vice President, was also a guest at the Sinatra Concert and mentioned that President Johnson had invited Drew to come by the White House after the show.

So, there went my interview with Sinatra.  Although, as it turned out, Frank would probably have wished to have stayed around the hotel and had  an interview with me……or …..ANYBODY……rather that to be at the White House that night.

Oliver Pilat, in his book, “Drew Pearson,” describes what happened:

“The three men (Pearson, Humphrey, and Sinatra) arrived at the Lincoln bedroom in the White House well after midnight.  Lady Bird was already under the covers in the big four poster Lincoln bed with its overhanging canopy. The President, bare above pajama bottoms, was lying on a table being pounded by a masseur.

After a quick glance, Johnson turned his head away from his visitors without saying anything.  Humprey’s light conversation with Lady Bird gradually evaporated.  The President finally threw a few words of greeting at Humphrey and Pearson, ignoring Sinatra, who had gone over to the famous mantelpiece, on which Pearson had reported in the column, Jacqueline Kennedy had carved a strange record of her husband’s tenancy.

Johnson jumped off the rubbing table, grabbed an old souvenir booklet about the White House dating back to the Kennedy administration and thrust it at Sinatra. “I don’t suppose you read, “ the President said, with an edge on his Texas drawl, “but this has lots of pictures.”  The pictures included Rat Pack members Eddie Fisher and Dean Martin.

“Here’s something else,” Johnson said, even more offensively, handing Sinatra a presidential trinket for women visitors, a lipstick with the White House seal on it.   “It’s a conversation piece,” he said.  “It will make a big man of you with your women,”

Stiffening under the patter of insult, Sinatra turned and walked from the room without a word. 

Pearson and Humphrey followed after hurried farewells.

-Oliver Pilat  from his book DREW PEARSON







Classy Guy, that LBJ!

-Ed

Ain't Modern Science Wonderful!

No sooner had I posted how much I missed the wonderful smell of “burning leaves” in the fall than “voila”…I learn that there is a perfume called BURNING LEAVES.

Is modern science amazing…or what!

Now, it may be a stretch to call it modern science, but there’s a guy named Christopher (don’t call him Chris!) who for $100 bucks will sell you a bottle of that once aromatic feature of nature’s most colorful season of the year.

There are hundreds of aroma deprived fans who swear that Chris, I mean Christopher, is a genius and his perfumes smell like exactly what is written on the bottle!

His last name is Brosius, and his shop (I mean Gallery) is on a street next to New York’s East River.  The sign, just outside the door reads, CB. The official name of his company is CB I HATE PERFUME GALLERY.

He says he has a strong sensitivity to certain aromachemicals, like musk. “The aldehydes in Chanel No. 5 make me puke.” Maybe that how he came up with his company’s name.

You’ve probably guessed by now that Brosius marches to a different drummer but he IS a perfumer!  And, they say, a very good one.

In an article in INTELLIGENT LIFE, Jessica Gallucci writes,

Christopher started crafting perfumes as an assistant at Kiehl's in the late 1980s. He soon launched his own fragrance range, Demeter, which became popular at big-name American retailers such as Urban Outfitters and Sephora. In 2000, his Snow perfume won two Fragrance Foundation ("FiFi") awards. But a rift grew between Christopher and his backers, and the company was acquired by Freedom Marketing Group in 2002. The following year, 70 of Christopher's compositions for Demeter became the first perfumes ever to be featured in the Cooper Hewitt museum's triennial design exhibition.

Some of the intoxicating scents featured in the gallery are Inner Tube, Rubber Cement Wet Pavement, Roast Beef  and “In the Library."

But the scent that got my attention is the one Christopher calls either "Coppertone 1967 " or  "North Atlantic. "The base of the scent contains a bit of Wet Sand, Seashell, Driftwood and just a hint of Boardwalk." 

Now, I think with a little bit of “tweaking” we could help CB with that fragrance. Perhaps add just a whiff of "Evening in Paris" and we could name it, “Myrtle Beach 1953.”

-Ed

The Smell Test

  It's downright cold here in Virginia this morning.  But, thanks to daylight savings time, and the cloudless sky this first Tuesday of November is off to a very bright start.

But still, I have that nagging feeling...in fact I've had it every Autumn since 1970 that something is not right; something is missing.

And it is:  That intoxicating aroma of burning leaves!

A murdering low life named Ira Einhorn and a few others organized a brand new party for wanna be American Communists under the banner of Earth Day, to be held every year on Lenin's birthday.

Ira Einhorn

Unfortunately for Ira, he was unable to attend the subsequent celebrations since he was overseas running from the law. The police didn't discover that he had murdered his girl friend, Holly Maddux until 18 months later when they discovered her body in a trunk in Einhorn's closet.  It had been packed with Styrofoam, air freshners and newspapers.

...and he was bitching about the odor from burning leaves?

At any rate, Ira and his buddies proposed the ban on leaf burning because it was known to raise the Earth's albedo (reflectivity)...which "bounced" away the sun's rays...and kept the earth from "warming," In 1970 the Enviro Nuts had determined that the planet was being destroyed by Global Cooling!

Obviously, banning leaf burning worked. It caused the heating effect of the sun to increase enough that we averted a new ice age.

Earth Day, 1970

Those leaves are now packaged in plastic bags and driven by fossil fuel trucks to landfills where those who know say that they rot and generate heat and methane without liberating clean carbon dioxide that would have been used via photosynthesis to increase the forest and ground cover.

There are now some serious proposals suggesting that the government should begin injecting particulate matter into the atmosphere at great cost with the hope of increasing the "albedo."

Beam me up, Scotty.

 -Ed 

I Almost Forgot

National Sandwich Day!

I have absolutely no idea whose idea this was, but it was probably some writer who was totally out of ideas and looking for a "hook" to hang a story on.

 That describes ME today. However, I like to post something on this site because I'm afraid if I don't, the thousands of viewers who come here every day...will stop logging on.

 Did I say thousands?  Oh well,  there are worse things than a little literary creativity on a chilly November morning.

Anyway, continuing with the Sandwich stuff...supposedly, John Montague, the 4th Earl of Sandwich spent many long hours in London's gambling parlors.  In 1762 he realized that by putting meat between two pieces of bread...he wouldn't have to stop gambling for lunch. He could continue on his slothful ways and not have to stop for lunch.  Hence, the "sandwich" was born.

And , of course, Wonderbread wasn't far behind...and the world has never been the same.  All of this happened on November the 3rd.

Or not.

-Ed

More Forgettable Legends from Al Gore's Amazing Internet

• The Reuben: In 1925, Omaha, Neb. grocer Reuben Kulakofsky reportedly came up with the idea of the corned beef and sauerkraut sandwich to feed his fellow poker players. The dish eventually landed on the menu of a local hotel (although Reuben's Restaurant and Delicatessen in New York City claims the sandwich was its own invention).
• The chicken sandwich: In 1946, Atlanta restaurant owner Truett Cathy created an alternative to the hamburger when he placed a piece of boneless grilled chicken inside a bun and dubbed it the "Chick-fil-A." Now more than 70 years and 1,500 restaurants later, Chick-fil-A's slogan is, "We didn't invent the chicken. Just the chicken sandwich."
• The po' boy: New Orleans' version of the sub (or hoagie, depending on which part of the country you hail from) was supposedly invented by French Quarter restaurant owners Clovis and Bennie Martin in 1929. The "poor boys" were the city's striking streetcar conductors, who the Martin brothers fed for free with extra-large sandwiches on rectangular bread.
• The hamburger: Several different inventors have stepped into the spotlight to claim credit for this famous sandwich. One of these claims comes from the Menches brothers, who reportedly sold a ground beef sandwich at the 1885 Erie County Fair in Hamburg, N.Y. Another tale traces the origins of the burger to 15-year-old Charlie Nagreen of Seymour, Wis., who made it easier for his customers at the 1885 Outagamie County Fair to eat his meatballs by stuffing them between bread. The owners of Louis' Lunch in New Haven, Conn. aren't having any of these stories, though. They say the restaurant's founder, Louis Lassen, was actually the first to flip beef patties onto bread back in 1900.

Things You have NEVER HEARD

A Woman say:

Damnit, don’t stop for directions, I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out how to get there.

That was fun! When will all of your friends be over to watch football again? 

You’re so sexy when you’re hungover. 

I love it when you play golf on Sunday’s, I just wish you had time to play on Saturday too.

 No, No, I’ll take the car to have the oil changed. 

 I’d rather watch football and drink beer with you than go shopping. 

Things NOBODY ever said:

Tell me about your hernia operation again.

I love it when you chew with your mouth open!

Kanye West actually seems like a nice guy.

You look great with that spray tan.

Starbucks coffee isn't sufficiently burnt.

Things NO  Newspaper Ever Wrote

"There are a number of complaints about voting machines that when a citizen tries to vote for a Democrat, it actually registers as a vote for a REPUBLICAN."
(Think about that.)

Any mention of ANYONE ever arrested for voter fraud.

-Ed

 ( Warning:  In spite of the pre-election polls, keep in mind that the two political parties are not playing by the same rules.)

AH SO

Is it just me, or do you also remember the time and place you first enjoyed certain foods?

Waldorf Salad

I love Waldorf salad. Every time it's on this 78 year old's plate, my thoughts go back to that day I first tasted it in the Elizabeth school cafeteria.

My favorite sandwich is still ham salad on white toast which I first experienced in the Johnson Building's soda shop with my Dad when I was about 7 years old.  My food memories don't all date back to my childhood though.  The first time I tasted Vichyssoise

was in 1961 at a rather formal dinner in Washington and I remember thinking that the cook forgot to warm the soup. But fortunately I kept my mouth shut and by the time I had finished I figured that

must have been the way it was supposed to be since it tasted so good. Since then it's been my very favorite soup.

I opened a can of Chicken Chow Mein last night. It was delicious. My Daddy used to bring home cans of those from the A and P on 7th Street next to Stanleys Drug Store.   That was sometime in the '40's, shortly after WW2.  We were sure it was authentic Chinese food not just because of its name, Chun King, but because the can was just about always bent and beat up, obviously a result of the long long trip. In addition,Those clever Chinese sold cans of Chop Suey as well, which were almost as good.

They also came in bent cans.

I don't remember how old I was when I finally learned about Santa Claus, but I was in my middle 20's before I discovered that authentic Chinese cooks never heard of Chicken Chow mein or Chop Suey; and Chun King was only a name made up by Jeno Paulucci an American from Duluth, Minnesota whose phony concoctions in contrived travel weary cans were the beginning of his enormous fortune of over 150 million dollars.

Paulucci went on to found over 70 companies and become the first Chairman of the R.J. Reynolds Food Company.

I don't know if anyone every confronted him about those bent cans, but I kinda enjoyed being fooled.
 (He reverted to his old ways again later in his journey up the corporate ladder when an ammonia spill in a cooler stained the skins on 18 cases of bananas without damaging the fruit, Paulucci labeled them "exotic Argentine imports" -- and sold them at a premium of 4 cents a pound.

As the "Number One overall entrepreneur in the world," the son of Italian immigrants had his share of detractors as well as adoring fans. He was as tempestuous as he was generous and plainspoken, never forgeting his impoverished roots.

They say his temper was legendary.  He once gave a tongue lashing so severe to an employee that the

Jeno Paulucci

poor worker fainted, after which Paulucci revived him...and continued the tirade.

Then there was the a newspaper reporter who wrote something that so offended him that he couldn't wait for the postal service to deliver his fiery response  He was so irate in fact the ordered his pilot to fly the company plane 300 miles to where the reporter lived and deliver the letter in person. The 5 page missive was signed, "Cordially Yours."

On the other hand, he provided several million dollars of inducements to lure businesses to Duluth,  and is credited with an important role in bringing a civic center, airport terminal and sky way system there.

The story is told of the time he offered a particular company a sweetheart deal to purchase Chun King at only 40 million dollars, which was 23 million dollars less than it was actually worth at the time  -- until that company's legal beagles, replete with what Jeno called "their watch fobs and fancy degrees," managed to offend him.
"They were treating me like a peon, saying things to each other like, 'I'm Harvard '36' or 'I'm Yale '42,"   Paulucci who dropped out of Hibbing Junior College as a freshman for lack of money. finally told them,  "Well, I'm Hibbing High School '35, and you can take your $40 million and shove it.'"

Paulucci lived to be 93 years old, passing away only 4 days after his 86 year old wife of 64 years died in 2011.

  Those delicious cans of Chicken Chow Mein are still around and look very much the same.....except for the name; they are now called LA CHOY, which frankly sounds Chinese to me.  The food inside tastes the same as it did in the 1940's...but it's not nearly as much fun.

The cans are no longer bent, darn it.

 RIP Jeno.

-Ed

(My thanks to Al Gore's amazing internet for many of the details of  Mr. Paulucci's career.  Like many of us, he was a combination of "good" and "bad."   But in his case, perhaps more so.  In 1945  Paulucci got drunk and chased a man down the streets of Duluth, Minn. with two butcher knives. After spending a night in jail he decided to straighten up–and help others do the same. 
 Shortly afterward, he began staffing his companies with many people with troubles.  It's estimated that before he retired, he had hired over 10,000 of those folks.)

Laughable? Not Anymore

“Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs. You know that old theory, trickle-down economics. That has been tried, that has failed. It has failed rather spectacularly. "
-Hillary Clinton

That's the dumbest statement I've ever heard a serious candidate for President of the United States ever make!

Apparently, she is following the successful Democrat strategy of the current President, Barack Obama who famously proclaimed that,  "... If you've got a business...you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen,"

Writing for the American Thinker, C.M. Phillips calls this "Trickle down Ignorance."

And believe it not, this total nonsense resonates with the Democrat's base:  The IGNORANT, the DUMB and the STUPID.

Add to this the millions who aren't paying a damn bit of attention, plus the Democrat FRAUD vote, and you have the reason for my prediction that despite the overwhelming poll numbers predicting Republican takeover of the Senate in next week's election...the DEMOCRATS will prevail.

I sure hope I'm wrong.

-Ed

Broccoli Rights!

"You don't have a memory problem; You have a "retrieval" problem."

 

You nailed it, Doc!  Although it wasn't a doctor who told me that. It was a friend of mine who made that diagnosis based on the fact that he has the same problem.
I'm positive the words and thoughts are still up there in my brain somewhere tying their shoes or something...because they eventually show up.

It's possible (and I'm the first person to make this connection)... that this is caused by eating salads!

If you don't follow the news much, you may not be aware that plants know when they are being eaten, and don't like it worth a damm! (That's according to  the latest study, no doubt paid for by our Uncle Sucker,...who may eventually get around to doing some research on  the Ebola virus ...)


Now, it doesn't take a genius to make the connection that plants, being a lot more aware and smarter than we thought they were are going to look for revenge!  And what's more logical than clogging up a few of the highways leading from our brains to our mouth!  They're up there anyway, so why not?

Prove me wrong.

-Ed
 

and then he told me...

Talk about a book that makes “history come alive;” I've got one that I mentioned on this website before but other than that, and perhaps the 12 or 15 people who purchased it, nobody else ever read it. It's by a man named Sidney Morris Davis, who was a Yankee cavalryman in the Civil war whose first brush with death happened about a mile from my house in Falls Church, VA when a Confederate sharpshooter's bullet barely missed his head as he rode in formation along highway 29.

His description of the landscape pinpointed exactly where the spot was.

I drive past it almost everyday.

Sidney Davis' experiences were almost unbelievable. He learned, quite accidentally during a brief furlough from the War, that he had been an indentured servant to the farmer he and his father had been living and working with outside Pittsburgh.

At the same time, discovered that his alcoholic mother, whom he never knew, had sold him for $35.

Before his experience as a COMMON SOLDIER was over he had been held as a prisoner of war by the Confederates and upon release, tried to return to his Yankee Unit, which he discovered had been disbanded. Having no way to prove his incarceration by the Confederates, he spent 6 more months in a Union prison charged with desertion.

Oh, and Sidney Davis was my wife's Great Grandfather. There may be a few more “greats” in there, but who's counting.

I remember one of my teachers at Central told the class one day about the joy of reading a book by a great man. She said it's just like he's there in the room talking to you!

Davis called himself a common soldier, which is the name of his book.

Davis was no "great man" by anyone's standards, but as I read Davis' words, the voice I hear is anything but common!

He was captured by the Rebels during the battle of Gettysburg and thus began the long march South. At New Market, Virginia the prisoners were crowded on train cars for the long ride to Richmond and their eventual destination Belle Isle prison.

"I do not think I shall forget that ride to Richmond during my existence in this life. The train

moved, as far as I can judge, at the rate of about 10 miles per hour.  The sun was fairly blazing in a cloudless sky. For the first few miles the novelty of the ride stirred up our spirits; but the journey soon became a monotonous one, and the utter impossibility of one's resting oneself when tired of standing added to one's agony.

Stoppages were so frequent that the expressed doubt as to our reaching Richmond before the month was ended seemed not to be so extravagant after all.

The men began to suffer from want of water, and , although we ran along the mountain side and saw the clear crystal streams come dashing down almost within reach of our hands, we could not quench our consuming thirst.  The harvesters were busy in the meadows; the farm houses in the distance reminded me of the contented days of "auld lang syne," the cattle in the fields raised their heads to look at the supremely bunches of flies, and as I looked on in my despairing soul, it seemed as if we were to be forever isolated from all this happy world.

The ride from Gordonsville to Richmond was devoid of interest. I remember that it grew dark soon after we left the former town, and that there seemed to be an endless monotony of pine forests and lonely fields.

But few words were spoken that night. I managed to secure a seat on the end of a car beside one of the guards...a tall, lean, lank man, forty-five or fifty years of age, with long reddish hair and whiskers...and as comfortable as circumstances would permit. 

About midnight I felt the guard lean heavily upon me, and from his hand slipped the dreaded musket.  As it fell I seized it, and thus prevented its loss. The man was sound asleep.

My first impulse, now that I had an enemy in my power, was to push him off suddenly between the cars, and have him crushed to death; but it occurred to me that such an act would simply constitute a cowardly murder; then the vision of a family in tears rose vividly before me.

I awakened him, gave him his gun, and cautioned him playfully as to his duty as a soldier.

He seemed very grateful, and said he was completely worn out from fatigue.  For a few moments he sat up, and then settled back again...sound asleep, and I once more caught the gun as it fell.

I allowed him to sleep until we reached Richmond, just before dawn, when I aroused him."

Common Soldier?

No way!  But he sure got the "uncommon war" part right!

-Ed

What's this young generation coming to!

 (This was written for my high school class of 1954 -Ed)


That's not really a question. It's a statement; and it's probably been made by every adult generation since mankind crawled out of the caves.

I think it's mandatory; it's in our genes, much like the "Flight or Fight Syndrome."  When a person reaches a certain age, the words just automatically blurt out one day, much like grey hair and wrinkles.

It was even said about US!  OUR generation!

 But then, there were some of us including me who were actually "wild."  I confess! I was one of those "going to Hell in a hand basket" boys who....occasionally "talked in class," smoked a cigarette or two, drove over the speed limit sometimes, "scratched off" in front of my girlfriend's house, sported a "duck tail" haircut and pegged pants, and even "sassed my elders" once or twice! 

 

































Then, a strange thing happened; we grew up.

That will happen with this generation too.

Eventually.

 It should.

I think.

Good Lord, I HOPE so!
-Ed

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day

It used to be called Columbus Day, but Seattle, Washington has officially  renamed it Indigenous Peoples Day.

Soon, I predict our brilliant government "leaders" will make it official nationwide.

We're doomed.  Insanity rules.

This is just a small thing, but it's the latest example of  the real anti common sense bizarre behavior that has become so prevalent in our culture. How in the world did we, as a people become so stupid?

Is it the schools?  TV?  College?  Boredom? Permissiveness?

What the Hell has turned the once greatest (and smartest) nation on earth into a collective babbling idiot?

The only answer that makes sense to me is:

It's the DOPE, stupid.

People in their right minds don't act like this.

Prove me wrong.

PS...Just because Ebola and every other incurable disease imaginable is beginning to spread like wildfire into this country...if you think our leaders will do something as logical as closing down airline flights from Western Africa or securing our southern border, you are going to be very disappointed...and in fact may get yourself put on a list for "re-education camp."

-Ed