someone was wrong on the Internet

 
Willie Mays

        I once saw a cartoon where a wife calls down the stairs to her husband, "Aren't you coming up to bed?"

        And the husband answers, while typing away intently:  "In a minute.  Someone is wrong on the Internet."

I had to make a correction to something on the Internet - it wasn't in someone's "Comment," it was in a video telling the story of O.J. Simpson's life.

        And it was unusual, because it was about sports - that is a subject where I don't have very much knowledge - people would probably expect me to be the one making the mistake about sports, not the one correcting the mistake.

But the video narrator told about Willie Mays meeting with O.J. Simpson when O.J. was a teenager getting in trouble, being a juvenile delinquent - Mays counseled the future running back, telling him, You can have a career in sports, you have talent, don't get in trouble with the law.

        And the narrator, speaking with some U.K. accent - Welsh?  Scottish?  The north of England? - I don't know... said Willie Mays was a football player, a "center for the San Francisco 49ers."

                Even I know that's not right! LOL.

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        a reader comment under a Willie Mays biography video on You Tube:

----------------------- I saw Mays play a lot when I was a kid in the 60s at Candlestick  He was undoubtedly the greatest player I have ever seen, and I've seen many over the years.

The smartest, too.  He knew the strengths and weaknesses of every player like an encyclopedia.  He would position the outfielders from pitch to pitch, he knew how to steal the signs from the opposing team.

He ran the bases like a demon in a manner calculated to intimidate and disrupt the other team, and caused many defensive errors in the opposition.

I saw him make unbelievable throws from the deepest parts of the outfield and run down fly balls no one else could possibly have caught....greatest all-around player ever, bar none. -------------------------

        The part where "he knew the strengths and weaknesses of every player" reminds me of Lyndon Johnson (U.S. President 1963 - 1968) - he was described as knowing every member of the U.S Senate, their backgrounds, preferences, priorities, enthusiasms, temptations.... He learned to know them so that he could cajole their votes.

When Willie Mays wanted to speak to someone, instead of addressing them by name, he had a habit of going, "Say, hey!" - earning him the nickname of "the Say-hey kid."

       He appeared on an episode of Bewitched, which I caught in morning re-runs several times, in fourth or fifth grade.  Samantha says, "Say, hey! - Willie!" 

        The famous baseball player in the photograph below, is flanked by actors Agnes Moorehead ("Endora") and the always humorously sarcastic Paul Lynde ("Uncle Arthur").

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Kato

 On the night of her murder, Nicole Brown Simpson's dog alerted the neighborhood to something being wrong, by barking.  A couple of people who were out after dark finally joined the dog and followed him back to the location of two dead bodies.

The dog's name was Kato, named after Nicole and O.J.'s friend who was staying in the guest-house on their property, at their invitation.  The children named him.

        Once a few years ago when I was reading on the Internet about the case, I became concerned about what happened to the dog, an Akita.  (I had never heard of that dog breed, before the murder story was reported, in 1994.)

The Brown family (Nicole's parents) took in the dog.  He lived a long life, passing away in 2004.  The Browns keep the dog's ashes under the piano, because that is where Kato (the dog, not the house guest) liked to curl up and rest, and observe the family's activities.

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running through the city of New York

 

Manhattan   1979

When Harry Met Sally...   1989

When I saw the movie When Harry Met Sally... (directed by Rob Reiner), when it first came out in 1989, I picked up on a whole lot of Woody Allen influence, there.  That is part of the reason I loved it.

        The influence is all over the movie, all through it, woven in.  However, there are two scenes where they are just like scenes in Woody Allen's 1979 film Manhattan.

        And - nothing wrong with that.  It was great.

The first scene:  the main characters who are destined to be a couple are out and about in New York City, and they unexpectedly encounter a former lover.

In When Harry Met Sally, Sally and Harry are shopping and Harry's ex-wife and her new (either boyfriend or husband) walk up and speak to them.

In Manhattan, Isaac and Mary are out, and Mary's ex, played by Wally Shawn, comes up and speaks to her.

        The second scene that is the same, in the two movies, is the ending.

In Manhattan, Woody Allen's character, Isaac, realizes he's still in love with Tracy, and he tries calling her but the line is busy.  He decides to go and see her, and tries to get a cab, but traffic is too busy and he ends up just running across many blocks in the city to get to Tracy's apartment building.

        In When Harry Met Sally, Billy Crystal's character, Harry, realizes he's in love with Sally and must talk to her - he can't get a cab either because it's New Year's Eve and there are not enough taxis for the people who want one, so he ends up just running through a section of New York City to see Sally as soon as possible.

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famous and well known people

The attorney who will represent Nick Reiner is Alan Jackson - I notice when he speaks - in "public-speaking" mode, to an audience - he is similar to Princess Diana:  he says a phrase, then pauses, then says the next phrase. ... The whole thing is punctuated by pauses which are not really necessary.

But -- it's a speaking style.  

        Princess Diana worked with a speaking coach for a bit.  She wanted to improve her speech-making ability.  After working with the coach, she started using the pauses between phrases.

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        Listening to documentaries about the Nicole Brown Simpson / Ron Goldman murders, I think of Howard Cosell a couple of times.  A sports announcer, he would say, "The Juice is loose!" when O.J. Simpson would run, in football games during the 1960s and '70s.

He liked O.J.

        I wondered, 'Did Howard Cosell live long enough to know about the murders at South Bundy Drive?'

        Yes, Google says Cosell died in 1995, so he would have been aware.

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When people comment on the Rob Reiner murders, several people have said "At least his dad didn't live to see this."

        (His dad was Carl Reiner, comedy writer and creator of The Dick Van Dyke Show.  He lived to be 98 - was still writing books and typing away on Twitter....) 

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        In a podcast about the 1994 Simpson murders, a limo driver says he drove many "famous and well known people."

The word "famous" and the phrase "well known" mean the same thing, so it's redundant, but I'm not making fun of the guy for saying that.  Everyone can misspeak a little bit, sometimes - and "famous and well known people" is actually kind of a nice, slightly ironic phrase....

Carl Reiner

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remember these words

 American Manhunt:  O.J. Simpson is a documentary currently on Netflix.

Listening to it again - Mr. Simpson had a lot of lawyers.  Their photographs are down below on this post, and that's not even all of them.  There were more.

        In 1994 - 1995, during the investigation and trial of the Simpson case, I had not before heard of any of the Simpson defense lawyers except for F. Lee Bailey.  Somehow, I had heard his name - probably because he represented Patty Hearst.  And - I think maybe F. Lee Bailey was from Boston, and he was famous there, when I was in school there, so his name was just - around. ...

Robert Kardashian, we hear about later, because his ex-wife and grown-up children have a reality show.

Robert Shapiro - I remember that name from 1994 and 1995, I had never heard of him before, I wouldn't have reason to - and then watching this documentary on Netflix, they said after the verdict, Mr. Shapiro went on TV with Barbara Walters, in an interview, to say he disagreed with "playing the race card, and - dealing it from the bottom of the deck," and that was what the team of lawyers he was on, did.

        Like, what??  He was complaining about - who?  Himself?  

        That was a little bit surprising.

And Johnnie Cochran - he was famous for saying to the jury, after O.J. Simpson tried on the glove:  "Remember these words:  if it doesn't fit, you must acquit!"

F. Lee Bailey

Robert Shapiro; O.J. Simpson

Robert Kardashian

Johnnie Cochran

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unbeknownced

 Currently on Netflix, there's a very interesting documentary titled, American Manhunt:  O.J. Simpson.

        LAPD Detective Tom Lange says, when O.J. was supposed to come and turn himself in, he didn't show, and then - "Unbeknownced to us, he - took off."

That was the start of the infamous Bronco chase.

------------------------- [excerpt from online dictionary] - Unbeknownced originates from the obsolete word beknown (meaning "known") combined with the negative prefix un-.  It emerged in the 19th Century as a variant of the older unbeknown, adding an extra "-st" (like in whilst, amongst) which became dominant in American English, though often criticized as redundant or dialectal, appearing in literature from Dickens to E.B. White and now considered standard. -----------------------------

        There are things in the documentary that I remember from the time, and things I don't remember, or didn't know.

I never "followed" the story that closely.  But it was on TV so much, in different forms - interviews, new reports, reviews of the timeline, etc. - some knowledge or awareness of components of the case would just seep into your mind, whether you were seeking them or not.

My job at the time was working as a lobbyist for a statewide organization - during the legislative session at the state capital, during lunch in the cafeteria in the basement, I would hear lawyers discussing the O.J. case - I remember one conversation where the state's attorney general at the time said he had come to the conclusion when someone batters their wife, they are leading up to killing her.  

        Like - "escalating" behavior, as they term it.

        That attorney general was a nice person, and had so much knowledge, and on one or two occasions when I needed to ask him something, as I sat in his office, across the desk from him, he would tell me so much information that I was just pleased and honored - and a little overwhelmed (in a good way) - to receive so much enlightenment that I couldn't even get it all, but I did my best.

He was really very cool.  And filled with knowledge - that he was evidently pleased to share.

That was a nice experience.

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sleepless in Brentwood

 I think in a recent post here I listed Sleepless In Seattle as one of the movies Rob Reiner directed - I got that wrong.

Correction:  Nora Ephron directed Sleepless.

Rob Reiner appeared in it.

When Harry Met Sally... - directed by Rob Reiner and written by Nora Ephron.

Meg Ryan starred in both films.

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        The Rob Reiner murders just so remind me of the Nicole Brown Simpson / Ron Goldman murders in 1994.

They were killed in June 1994; O.J. Simpson was acquitted in October 1995.

        It's like - you forget about it, but then, years later, it's still in your brain.

Both of these double murders occurred in Brentwood, a Los Angeles, California, suburb.

Starbucks Coffee in Brentwood

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