I never think of Sandy Dennis that I don't remember her best part in "The Out of Towners" with Jack Lemmon when she says, "Oh, George! oh George!"

Anybody see "Judgement at Nuremburg" last night on TCM? What a powerful movie!

šjane›

holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat's mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in palm of right hand As cat opens mouth, pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.

2. Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat in left arm and repeat process.

3. Retrieve cat from bedroom, and throw soggy pill away.

4. Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat in left arm holding rear paws tightly with left hand. Force jaws open and push pill to back of mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of ten.

5. Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call

spouse from garden.

6. Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, hold front and

rear paws. Ignore low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill down side

of ruler and rub cat's throat vigorously.

7. Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from foil wrap. Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shattered Hummell figures from hearth and set to one side for gluing later.

8. Wrap cat in large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with cat's head just visible from below armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw, force cat's mouth open with pencil and blow down cat's throat through drinking

straw.

9. Check label to make sure pill is not harmful to humans, drink glass

of water to take taste away. Apply Band-Aid to spouse's forearm and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap.

10. Retrieve cat from neighbor's shed. Get another pill. Place cat in cupboard and close door onto neck to leave head showing. Force mouth open with dessert spoon. Flick pill down throat with elastic band.

11. Fetch screwdriver from garage and put door back on hinges. Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for date of last tetanus jab. Throw tee shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom.

12. Ring fire department to retrieve cat from tree across the road. Apologize to neighbor who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat.

Remove last pill from foil-wrap.

13. Tie cat's front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind tightly to leg of dining table. Find heavy duty pruning gloves in shed, force cat's mouth open with a small wrench. Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of fillet steak. Hold head vertically and pour 2 pints of water down throat to wash pill down.

14. Get spouse to drive you to emergency room, sit quietly while doctor

stitches fingers and forearm and removes pill remnants from right eye. Call furniture shop on way home to order new table.

15. Arrange for SPCA to collect cat and ring local pet shop to see if they have cute puppy for sale.

1. Wrap it in bacon.

Jerry Lewis made me laugh in spite of myself, because I saw something in him that was missing in me and perhaps in most of us - the freedom from being so fearful of how people judged us.


"We're just not going to California for the rest of our lives," Joan said in that tone that never beat around the bush and would certainly never beat around a giant redwood.


A joke is something someone else tells you, which is then passed on to someone else who hasn't heard it as yet. No one knows where those jokes come from. No one. They are as difficult to trace as the day the universe was born.......I hate jokes.


I think it's fairly well documented that our characters are shaped in those first four or five formative years of our life. I think mine was carved in granite in the first eight months.


To this day it's even hard for me to call a friend and ask for a favor. I have driven myself to a hospital rather than put someone out. I do not in any way look upon these traits as attributes or strengths.


Two reasonably intelligent people sitting alone in the theater scares me. Twenty-five million unseen viewers spread out across America is an abstraction and never fazed me. If you can't hear the tree in the forest falling, you can't hear someone in Indiana not laughing.

I forgot to ask about his age. In the very first part of Chap.1, he say that in 1957, he was 30yrs old. That makes him 63 today not in his late 60's which he had claimed earlier. Which is it? Will we ever know? Does it matter? I think not! His genius knows no age!

As I grew older I never doubted Danny's opinions or talent. But they were always HIS, and it soon became clear that his point of view was not necessarily mine………You need not be writers to be subjected to being sibling rivals. Brothers and sisters eventually resent each other, otherwise why would those Greeks have written all those tragedies? Eventually we went our separate ways, but not without hurt and pain.

Ella, I think the difference between the East and West of NYC has changed over the years. According to Helene Hanff's book, if you lived on the West side, it was more politically active, with marches, protests and hands-on politics. If you lived on the East Side and a politically volatile matter came up,"the clubs will hold a dignified debate and then send a telegram to the governor telling him that they are against such and such." To quote her:"The real difference between the East Side and the West Side is in the people. They not only think and behave differently from each other, they look different. Generall speaking, West siders look dowdy, scholarly and slightly down-at-heel, and the look has nothing with money. They are mostly scholars, intellectuals, dedicated professionals, all of whom regard shopping for clothes as a colassal waste of time. East Siders, on the other hand, look chic. Appearances are important to them." Since families need living space and and may move to the West Side to get it, and since singles want modern kitchens and may move to the East Side to get them, both Sides have a certain number of fish-out-water. But, in the 70's and 80's, what they had were the liberals on the West Side and the conservatives on the East Side.

The Mike Nichols quote of "Stop trying to fix what you have. Throw it out of your mind. It doesn't exist anymore. Now go back and write it." impressed me when I thought it through. So different from the rewriting of a book.

Ella, sibling rivalry exists in all our families. My brother and I just hated each other at times. Even in an episode in our 40's when our mother decided to give the family grandfather clock to him instead of me. Don't ask why, I can't explain it. With my sister, Mary, and my other brother, we had none as they were more like my kids, being so much younger than we were.

Here Simon has 8 years separating him and his brother and he still has that rivalry. Probably because they were both writers. Do you think that Danny Simon recognized the talent that Neil Simon had even when Neil was only 15? He told him he would be a great writer!

What I noticed when I ordered another copy of Helene Hanff's book is that you have to know when it was published as there were two releases, one in 1976 and another in 1988. I have the 1988 copy and also have ordered another one for Mary and my brother, which is HB and has photos. I am anxious to receive it, to see what's in the picture section. You can peruse it, if you want, on our drive up to Jeryn's next week. If its here by then.

Since the theater is such a unique business, one must view it in a light far different than most entertainment industries. A film opens in anywhere from 400 to 1500 theaters on single day. That film will have anywhere from 3-5 screenings a day in each theater. One single TV show can be viewed by millions on any given night. And while a newly published book, granted, is read by only one person in one chair, there may be 300,000 people sitting in 300,000 chairs all over the country reading that book that day………. Lo, the poor theater. A play opens in one theater, is viewed by not more than 1200 people and reviewed by, let's say, 30 critics, only about 5-6 have some real clout. If those 5-6 critics look unfavorably on your work…………

From the first moment I met her in 1952.......I was taken not only by the intense beauty of her face, the lissomeness and athleticism of her body, but by the unpredictability of her nature, the open abundant smile that gave a glimpse into her joyful, sunny, and warm disposition, and then suddenly that stern look that could cross her face as quickly as a summer squall, giving a hint into a darker and angrier side. There was in her a complexity and intelligence I had never met in a woman before.

The other two quotes that I thought were good are: from chap 7, "You don't change, but what happens is that other people's perspective of you changes. The feeling of happiness you feel inside doesn't compare to the enormous degree of elation they assume is happening to you." And, again from Chap 7, "The truth is, unforunately, that success breeds jealousy and jealousy breeds contrempt." I am more interested in how, as a writer, he progressed and improved his writing and therefore, his plays. Although I don't see how he could improve "Barefoot in the Park" or "The Odd Couple". I don't recall seeing "Star Spangled Girl" and never heard of "After the Fox".

The visuals were terrific of the Chips episode. Again, in Chap 7! Propping up his leg so he could potty, massaging his leg into health, the dog awaiting his arrival and the ensuing massage, and looking accusatory if he was late. Our animals have a way of speaking to us, don't they? I am past Chap 11 but don't have much to comment on before that.

I didn't know that Mike Nichols was an immigrant and l like the way NS credits him with making him smart! Mentioning that his IQ went up 40 points everytime he spoke with Nichols. But, as he mentions, John Steinbeck's comment remains true. You can still only eat two eggs a day! Everything changes with success but nothing changes.

In New York when it's 16 degrees in the winter, it's 78 in Los Angeles. And in New York, when it's 102 in the summer, it's 78 in Los Angeles. However, in New York there are 4 million interesting people and only 78 in Los Angeles.

I like cities that are laid out in grids, cities like New York and Paris. They have a center which extends out to all points of the city. Los Angeles is laid out like laundry strewn about on a windy desert, which, when giving directions, makes about as much sense as saying, 'Go left at the blue denim shirt, then make a right at the tan sock which turns into a gray sock and then when you get to the white pajama top, make a sharp right at the Calvin Klein undershirt, unless it's blown away."