9 extra floors

 

Another older-couple interview in When Harry Met Sally... - the husband and wife in this interview, telling their story of how they met, they overlap, and talk over each other - it's so funny, and typical....

**  husband:  We were both born in the same hospital...

wife:  In 1921...

husband:  Seven days apart!

wife:  In the same hospital.

husband:  We both grew up - one block away from each other...!

wife:  We lived in tenements -

husband:  ...On the Lower East Side...

wife:  On Delancey Street.

husband:  My family moved to the Bronx

wife:  He lived on Fordham Road...

husband:  Hers moved when she was eleven.

wife:  I lived on 183rd Street.

husband:  For six years, she worked - on the fifth floor, as a nurse...

wife:  I worked for a very prominent neurologist...

husband:  ...Where I had a practice, on the fourteenth floor, the very same building...

wife:  (in a hushed tone) - "We - never - met."

husband:  ...(same hushed tone) - Never (nev-ah) met.

wife:  Can you imagine that?

husband:  You know where we met?  In an elevator...

wife:  I was visiting ...

husband:  In the Ambassador Hotel in Chicago.

wife:  He was on the third floor, I was on the twelfth.

husband:  I rode up nine extra floors, just to keep talking to her. ...(!)

wife (in a tone of dreamy wonderment) - - - "Nine extra floors."

-30-

"but I never forgot her"

 

In the movie When Harry Met Sally... there are these brief little interview scenes where an older married couple are speaking to an interviewer.  You don't see the person doing the interview, only the couple.

** wife:  We fell in love in high school.

husband:  Yeah, we were high-school sweethearts.

wife:  But then after our junior year, his parents moved away.

husband:  But I never forgot her.

wife:  He never forgot me.

husband:  Naa-ah, her face was burned on my brain. - And - it was thirty-four years later, that I was walking down Broadway, and I saw her come out of Toffenetti's.  

wife:  We both looked at each other.  And it was just as though not a single day had gone by.

husband:  She was just as beautiful as she was at sixteen.

wife:

(she puts her hand affectionately on his arm) - He was just the same.  -- He looked exactly the same!

-30-

Woody Allen influence in When Harry Met Sally...

 

When I saw When Harry Met Sally... in 1989, when it came out, I noticed a lot of Woody Allen influence in the movie.

        If you're making a movie and you're going to be influenced, and inspired, by another filmmaker, it might as well be one of the best.  

There's the scene right before the end of the movie where Harry (played by Billy Crystal) runs across the streets of New York City, to get to the woman he has realized he loves.  It's similar to a scene at the end of Woody Allen's 1979 film Manhattan.

        There's a scene in a book-store - Sally and Marie are browsing, and Marie notices there's a guy looking at Sally; "Someone is staring at you in 'Personal Growth'" - it's Harry.    

    

        In Annie Hall, a book-store is a backdrop for the early part of Alvy and Annie's relationship.  They're shopping.  Alvy (played by Woody Allen) says, "I'm going to buy you this book on death and dying - instead of that cat book."

And then later, when Alvy and Annie are breaking up (while noting, "we can always come back together"...), they're going through their books and Annie says, "All the books about death and dying are yours.  All the poetry books are mine."

        Alvy:  "Well - you - put your name in all my books...."

In When Harry Met Sally, there's a scene where Marie and Jess are setting up house together and Harry (still in pain from his divorce) warns them, "put your name in your books right now, before they get mixed up, and you don't know whose is whose..."

-------------------------------------------------

        Also in When Harry Met Sally they discuss and reference the 1942 American film, Casablanca.  Casablanca is a major presence in the 1972 Woody Allen movie, Play It Again, Sam.

-30-

Mr. Zero

         In When Harry Met Sally... there's a scene where Harry and Jess are at a football game.  They have this conversation while participating in "The Wave" where they stand up with their hands up in the air and then sit down again, while the people in the next section stand up and then sit down.

Jess:  When did this happen?

Harry:  Friday.  Helen comes home from work and she says, 'I don't know if I want to be married anymore.'  Like it's the institution, you know, like it's nothing personal, just something she's been thinking about in a casual way.

I'm calm.  I say, 'Why don't we take some time to think about it,' you know, 'don't rush into anything.'

Jess:  Yeah.  Right.

Harry:  Next day, she says she's thought about it, and she wants a trial separation.  She just wants to try it, she says, but we can still date. ...

        Then she tells me that somebody in her office is going to South America and she can sublet his apartment.  I can't believe this.  And the doorbell rings.  'I can sublet his apartment.'  The words are still hanging in the air, you know, like a balloon attached to her mouth...

Jess:  Like a cartoon.

Harry:  Right.  So I go to the door, and there are moving men there.  Now I start to get suspicious.  I say, 'Helen, when did you call these movers?'  And she doesn't say anything.  So I ask the movers:  'When did this woman book you for this gig?'

        And they're just standing there.  Three huge guys, one of them wearing a T-shirt that says, 'Don't fuck with Mister Zero.'  

        So I said, 'Helen.  When did you make this arrangement?'  She says, 'A week ago.'  I said, 'You've known for a week, and you didn't tell me?'

        And she says, 'I didn't want to ruin your birthday.'

Jess:  You're saying Mr. Zero knew you were getting a divorce a week before you did?

Harry:  Mr. Zero knew.

Jess:  I can't believe this.

Harry:  I haven't told you the bad part, yet.

Jess:  What could be worse than Mr. Zero knowing?

Harry:  It's all a lie.  She's in love with somebody else.  Some tax attorney.  She moved in with him.

-30-

attractive

 

        Before the restaurant scene in When Harry Met Sally... where Sally, Harry, Jess, and Marie have supper, the movie shows Marie and Sally walking together, on the way to the restaurant, talking about the upcoming date.

Sally tells Marie if she and Harry get together, then we won't "drift apart," the way people always drift apart if one of them marries someone who doesn't know their friends.

        It cuts to Harry and Jess walking together toward the meeting place, and conversing.

Jess:  I don't know about this.

Harry:  It's just a dinner.

Jess:  I've finally gotten to a place in my life, where I'm comfortable with the fact that it's just me and my work.

(pause) - If she's so great, why aren't you taking her out?

Harry:  How many times do I have to tell ya, - we're just friends.

Jess:  So you're saying, she's not that attractive.

Harry:  No, I told you, she is attractive.

Jess: But, you also said she had a good personality.

Harry:  She has a good personality.

[Jess stops walking, and puts his hands up in despair.]

Harry:  What?

Jess:  When someone's not that attractive, they're always described as having a good personality.

Harry:  Look.  If you had asked me, 'What does she look like' and I said, 'She has a good personality' - that means she's not attractive.  But just because I happen to mention that she has a good personality, she could be either.  She could be attractive with a good personality, or not attractive with a good personality.

Jess:  So which one is she?

Harry:  Attractive.

Jess: (pointing a finger, for emphasis) - "But not beautiful, right?"

LOL.  It's so funny.  Suddenly, the more they talk and the more Jess gets wound up, no one is good enough for him - (and he, himself, is ok-looking, but he's no Richard Gere. ...)

-30-

a passing quotation

 

In When Harry Met Sally..., Marie says, "Restaurants are to people in the '80s what theater was to people in the '60s," and then adds, "I read that in a magazine."

        And Jess says, "I wrote that!"

Marie:  Get outta here!

Jess:  No - I did! - I wrote that.

Marie:  I've never quoted anything from a magazine in my life!  That's amazing!

(She glances at Harry and Sally) -

Don't you think that's amazing?  And you wrote it?!

---------------------------------------------------

        Harry and Sally brought their friends Jess (Harry's friend) and Marie (Sally's friend) together for this social occasion; they think maybe Marie and Harry will be interested in each other, and maybe Jess will like Sally and ask her out.

        But it works the other way - at first neither of the set-ups, Harry and Marie; nor Sally and Jess are taking any interest in each other.

Then Jess and Marie find common ground in this wild coincidence of her quoting his article - Jess says, with amazed satisfaction, "Nobody has ever quoted me back to me, before."

Now - Jess and Marie are "into each other."

-30-

...restaurants have become too important

 

In the movie When Harry Met Sally... there's a part where Harry and Sally invite their two friends out on a double date, hoping their friends will "hit it off".

        From the start, it isn't going too well.  They're out at a restaurant.  Time to order - 

Harry:  "So - what are we gonna order?"

Sally:  "Well, I'm going to start with the grilled radicchio."

Harry:  "Jess, Sally is a great orderer.  Not only does she always pick the best thing on the menu, but she orders it in a way that even the chef didn't know how good it could be!"

Jess:  "I think restaurants have become too important."

Marie:  "Oohh - I agree. - Restaurants are to people in the Eighties, what theater was to people in the Sixties."

(Her tone changes, a little - she downshifts) - "I read that in a magazine."

Jess (immensely startled) - "I wrote that!" 

-30-

if they asked me - I could write a book...

 The film When Harry Met Sally... has terrific music as part of the setting.

It isn't a musical.

But good songs from "the American Songbook" help to create the atmosphere.

-- The song "It Had To Be You" is in the movie several times - sometimes instrumental, and at least once sung by Harry Connick, Jr.

        It had to be you, wonderful you - it had to be you!

That song was also in the Woody Allen movie, Annie Hall.

When I went to Boston University (sometimes called "B.U.") in a building where some of my classes were, in the ladies' restroom, written on the wall was:  "It had to B.U."

Also in When Harry Met Sally..., 

If they asked me - I could write a book

About the way you walk, and whisper and look -

I could write the preface on how we met,

So the world would never forget...

and

(Louis Armstrong singing)

You say neether, I say nih-ther,*

You say either, and I say ih-ther - 

Eether, ihther, neither, nigh-ther - 

Let's call the whole thing off, yes...

-----------------------------------------------

*(I spelled the lyrics of the song phonetically, the way they pronounce them, so that you know how it sounds....)

 

Louis Armstrong

Harry Connick, Jr.

-30-

"it had to be you"

 Contemplating the recent horrific death of Rob Reiner, I finally turned off videos and podcasts talking about his son Nick, and the possible defenses and strategies his lawyer or lawyers may use, and started just streaming When Harry Met Sally... over and over several times, back-to-back.

        It's a uniquely excellent film.

        It is a gift that director Rob Reiner left for us.

            It's still here to enjoy, even though he is gone.

-30-

a good egg

 On the back of Carl Reiner's memoir, My Anecdotal Life, there are recommendations.  The one from Johnny Carson says,

"After reading this book, you'll know why Carl Reiner was one of my all-time favorite guests on 'The Tonight Show.'  He's bright, a brilliant storyteller, self-effacing, and funny as hell.  Besides, he is, as we say in the Midwest, a good egg (the gentile counterpart of mensch).

-30-

"guys like us, we had it made..."

 

cast of All In The Family (first season) - Jean Stapleton, Carroll O'Connor, Sally Struthers, Rob Reiner, Mike Evans

        Recently it was reported that Rob Reiner's son, Nick Reiner, has Alan Jackson as his defense lawyer.

        Today Mr. Jackson withdrew from the case.

        Someone with a podcast just said, "People say Alan Jackson is a legend."

It said last week Mr. Jackson charges $2,000 per hour.

What I noticed was, in one video where Mr. Jackson was speaking, he said, "Me and my team have been working on this..."

"Me and my team" - ??

        OK, would you say, "Me has been working on this" - ?

        Then another video played where Alan Jackson was speaking on microphones to press, and that time he said, "My team and I..." were working on it, or whatever....

"My team and I" is the correct grammar.

But - how is it that any lawyer, anywhere, doesn't use correct grammar - let alone, the highest-priced lawyer on the planet not using good grammar...?

I don't understand that.

It's befuddling.

-30-

"everything I want to work for, as your president...."

 In my last post here, I mentioned Lyndon Baines Johnson, who was President of the United States from 1963 (after the murder of President John Kennedy) through 1968.  

        I thought later, that maybe I made it sound like Lyndon Johnson had a 5-year political career, as President of the U.S., from 1963 to 1968.

That isn't correct - to be specific, Johnson had a much longer political career than that - he devoted his whole life to public service.  (And - come to find out, he only lived to be 64 years old.)

He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1937 to 1949.  And he was a U.S. Senator from 1949 to 1961.

In 1961 he became Vice President of the United States of America, when John Kennedy got elected President, and he had Lyndon as his Vice Presidential candidate.

In 1963, Lyndon Johnson became President of the United States when President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

Johnson's accomplishments included:

*  (during his time as a Congressman, in the late 1930s) establishing the REA (Rural Electrification Association) - which provided electricity for people who lived out in the country, and could not get electricity from the private companies, who considered serving them as not profitable enough

*  signing the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965) as President

 ------------------------------------------------

        Before he got involved in politics, Lyndon Johnson was a schoolteacher for a couple of years, in a little town in Texas:  Cotulla.  A few years ago, I was reading a book about Johnson's life and I read the school-teaching part, and I talked to a man who worked in Refrigeration at the company where I work - he was from Texas, and spoke Spanish and English, and when I shared with him the part about Johnson teaching in Cotulla, he said he was from Cotulla.

We talked about that a couple of times, before he retired.

Lyndon Johnson; John Kennedy

-30-

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.

-----------------------------------------------

        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").

-30-

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.

-30-

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.

-30-

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.

---------------------------------------------------

        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.

-----------------------------------------------

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....) 

--------------------------------------

-----------------------------

        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

-30-