Saturday, January 02, 2010

Dick Van Dyke and the JFK assassination

happy new year and such. Opted for an eve in Northampton with friends instead of the planned eve in Greenfield with other friends. It was a nice change. Happy to have Br + Ka all to myself and David. I successfully bullied people once again into a late night game of marticelli. David and I won. Turns out we are a good famous persons game team.

Last night I downloaded new movies, etc into our roku list and after Husbear went to sleep indulged in the documentary made in the late '80s about the Kennedy coup d'etat and sitting alone watching two pieces out of the four got me totally spooked and freaked out. I adjusted my curtains and turned off lights to call less attention to the house and huddled under a blanket with Peretz. I was as scared as a stripper whore who shared a table with Lee and Jack high on phenmetrazine in one of those Dallas "dance clubs". Before I went to bed I had to break the mood by watching an episode of The Dick Van Dyke show.

I really love the DVD show. I always have loved Mary and Rose Marie is a study in alternative womanhood, circa 1961. Fascinating. Another fascinating coincidence is that this show was popular and in its heyday when Kennedy was assassinated! Of course the season I am watching is the first one. The humor is so old and outdated, I smile bemusedly. Even Dick's physical humor isn't as funny as it was back then, I think, and it isn't even as good as Donald O'Connor in Singing in the Rain but all is forgiven, especially when a dose of corn is needed to dispel the fear of my gov't and its evil trappings.

This morning I vacuumed up the pine needles after the ousting of xmas tree. I had named the tree but I forget the name now, unfortunately. After cleaning up as many bits of debris from my living room as possible with David's old shopvac, I rewarded myself by watching the second half of the documentary. I now want to revisit JFK and check out RUBY. I again followed up the viewing with a DVD episode or two. During the episode where Mary and Dick set up Rose Marie and Mary's Lab Technician cousin, well, first of all, Jamie Farr has his first appearance (awesome) and secondly I became interested in the side dish of the meatloaf meal which Mary is serving. It seems to be a poached something or other which they lift carefully from some serving dish unlike any I see these days.

I had the idea that someone could write a book with interesting illustrations (photos) of food served on popular tv shows and the book would feature interviews with prop people who talk about what the characters are supposed to be eating and what the "food" actually ended up consisting of (I'm sure different types of filler and whatnot.) I think that would be fascinating. Has anyone written such a book yet?

I was inspired enough by this white people food to make meatloaf for Husbear and myself tonight with a side dish of macaroni salad and another side dish of garlic'd broccoli-rabe. This vegetable was available and eaten in the early 60's and on Long Island, I know for a fact, but I bet not by the NYC writers and their wives in the whitest neighborhood of New Rochelle.

3 comments:

Nancy Cavillones said...

maybe you should write a thesis on the parallels between the JFK era and the DVD show.

ps new rochelle is in westchester, but it's the same difference, really.

No Stand In Will Do said...

whoops! i should have double checked the geography. My ex, who as a child in the 50s and 60s ate broccoli-rabe and brought broccoli-rabe sandwiches to school as a child (and was teased for having a "green sandwich") lived on Long Island so I was visualizing his Italian enclave being closer to the Dick Van Dyke neighborhood.

Nancy Cavillones said...

broccoli-rabe sandwiches? i would've teased him, too! rabe is yummy without bread!