The Terrible Catsafterme

Since today marks the 117th birthday of Stan Laurel, I thought it rather fitting that my posting for the day describes my recent visit with Stan’s daughter, the lovely Lois Laurel Hawes. After Bob had taken off for home to nurse his ailments, I took a short nap at the hotel and waited for Jimmy to pick me up. After stopping off for a quick bite to eat, we headed directly to Northridge to Lois’ place. This was my second visit with her since she had been to this location, the first being in October of ’05. This was one was much longer as we ended up staying for nearly five hours. Read the rest of this entry »

When I first met Darin Anderson, he reminded me of one of those guys from the fifties boys series fiction books, like one of the Hardy Boys maybe. He was straight-laced, lean, fit, and athletic – and he greatly enjoyed the outdoors: exploring, hiking, sporting, you name it. It was fitting that we first met at Camp Woodland Altars at the Eco Adventures camp the week of July 14-20, 1985. I, on the other hand, was un-athletic, chubby, and had the world’s most warped sense of humor. This somehow appealed to Darin who recalled recently that I had “a unique and off-kilter view of the world.” That was really all it took for me to latch on to someone – they had to understand and appreciate that. In the picture from 1985 above, I am trying to make an Ed Grimley face – just for the record. Read the rest of this entry »

Saturday, February 16 was the last full day of my California trip. I had been to Vegas, been to Palm Springs, met up with Lisa, met a monkey, met tons of celebrities, ate sushi, scouted Laurel and Hardy locations, been to the Hoover Dam, seen “The Tonight Show” live, visited Jack Hanlon, been to the Nixon Library, scouted some famous graves, toured the Disney Studios, been to the Magic Castle, seen Penn & Teller, seen (some of) “Love,” saw “Phantom,” been to Disneyland, visited Randy Skretvedt, spent money, shopped ’til I dropped, and ate like an out-of-control lumberjack…and now it had come down to this, the last day. Read the rest of this entry »