LENNY BRUCE b OCTOBER 13 1925

naturally, bruce appealed to me during my adolescence. he talked dirty. he was funny when he talked dirty. he had left-leaning(kind of)politics. i read "how to talk dirty & influence people" in high school. i memorized his monologues. i STILL live by his sage advice that if caught in flagrante delicto you deny it, even if they have pictures. deny it. his routine about aides trying to teach lyndon johnson how to say the word "negro" was classic & reminded me of bobo. i don't think bobo ever said that word correctly. he was much happier when we all moved on to "black" to reference african-americans.

who the hell could say where lenny would be today if he'd survived the cops & the government & himself, primarily, himself. i see the surviving greats from back then, dick gregory, mort sahl, etc, & they're not hitting it anymore. it could be that great comedy is a young man's game like rock & roll. he was as good as it gets when he was young though. he didn't deserve his shitty death but who the hell does?

PAUL SIMON b OCTOBER 13 1941

of course, philip was the die-hard simon fan. i was listening to simon & garfunkel before i met philip but philip made simon worship at tangible thing. i remember once when he & mike johnson had picked up some college girls out on p'beach & things were going well until johnson heard one of the girls say, "well...seals & croft are MY generation's simon & garfunkel." mike told me he knew immediately he'd be going home w/no pussy THAT night. forget the fact that five years doesn't constitute a generation, the girl was lucky to have survived the night after this absurd assertion.

unlike many of his contemporaries, simon had a mid-career renaissance. unfortunately, this fed into his gargantuan ego &, after his broadway show tanked, he became a bitter little troll, impossibly out of synch w/his initial musical gift(& it was NEVER genius)& predictably out of step w/the current musical scene. seeing him seethe & complain & disparage everyone on the sundance channel's iconoclast series while lorne michaels tries to suck up to him was simply disgusting & embarrassing.

still, he was damned good in his day. he wrote way more than a few great pop songs & he could sing too. i remember philip doing this song from simon's second solo album sitting in various motel stair-wells. philip felt this was the best place to hear himself sing. it must of worked because that boy could surely sing simon songs.

MONDAY NIGHT DINNER W/CAT IN A BAG

FRESH EGG PASTA W/SWEETBREADS,BACON,& GOLDEN CHANTERELLES

WEEKEND DINNER

MARIN SUN FARMS ROASTED LOIN OF MUTTON W/YORKSHIRE PUDDING, "BLASTED" BROCCOLI, & HEIRLOOM TOMATOES

THURSDAY NIGHT DINNER

DIANA KENNEDY'S CHORIZO Y PAPAS FILLED SOPES W/GREEN SALAD.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT DINNER

MARIN SUN FARM RACK OF GOAT CHOPS W/TIERRA VEGETABLES OAXACAN GREEN CORNMEAL POLENTA & AJI CHILI PEPPER W/QUESO OAXACAN. GREEN SALAD.
i had to instruct ann about gnawing on the bones to get the most out of the small morsels of deliciousness clinging to them. i usually cut the meat from the bones for her but these beautifully frenched chops were too perfect & aesthetically pleasing to do that. she's only started eating meat again after 10 or more years of vegetarianism. i thought the primal satisfaction of bone chewing would come back to her naturally. she'll be out hunting for our dinner soon enough.

the prognosticator's mea culpa

when i was seven or eight years old, i used to set the odds for the gulf coast mob's afl football gambling setup. a guy named eddie joseph called bobo every sunday night(right after all the games)to give him the odds for the next week. bobo printed the odd sheets that were distributed at various venues. he probably took the bets too but i can't say that for sure. amazingly, he was out of this by the time the feds finally busted the organization decades later. i suppose an organization that was relying on a kid for their odds wasn't seen as much of a threat back in the day.

there were two reasons i had this non-paying gig. first, it was the VERY early days of the american football league, years before the merger. hell, it was years before the first super-bowl between the leagues. no one watched the afl. nbc carried the games. cbs got the older, more respected league. at least, none of the bookies watched the afl. i did. i knew everything about jim nance & lance alworth & darryl lamonica & lenny dawson & don maynard. when bobo told eddie joseph this, they both asked my opinion about some upcoming games. folks were beginning to want to bet on the games & they didn't have a clue. hard core gamblers will bet if they're bowel movements will be soft or hard. betting on the afl was kind of like that.

my first week's tips were 100% on the money. eddie joseph was astonished. for that season, i ended up being right nearly 90% of the time. i made money for the mob. i'm surprised i didn't get a real job w/these guys. the real bookies took over calling the shots the next season. my day in the sun was over. ah, what could have been...

i mention all this because for the first time in years i made some sports picks earlier this year at the beginning of baseball season. baseball is pretty much the only sport i truly follow nowadays. that said, i'll also add that baseball is one of those games i've always thought impossible to call in terms of who'll win & who'll lose. too many games, too much human stuff(missed ref calls, crazy luck, injuries), too many variables to make a sensible call. nevertheless, i made the picks. it's time to pay the piper.

i can't say that eddie joseph would be impressed. of the six divisions, i got one right(the angels in the al west). i will say in my defense that i did have four of the other teams who did win their divisions listed as contenders(phillies, st louis, dodgers & boston)& several others who were in the running till the last week or so of the season(texas, giants, whitesox). i tanked on the mets & the cubbies & arizona but who could have seen how dismal those teams would be(injuries & chemistry did them in, for the most part)? i also didn't give the rockies, the braves, the twins, or the tigers a snowball's chance. i did make noises about what the yankees would do if their pitching came through(it did)etc etc. i said it at the time: cheap rationalizations & qualifications don't count in the end.

the season itself was fun. that it ended w/a one game do-or-die playoff between the twins & the tigers that went into extra innings & broke jim leyland's heart just one more time added to the excitement for the post-season. i'll say it now: i can't see how the yankees can fail to win another world series. the angel's small ball game may out fox them but i just don't see it. too much power & dominant pitching usually get you the wins. i think the cardinals will take the nl. they've got the pitching that i don't see in phillies. i think they're quicker too & have the better manager. if it's the cardinals & the yankees in the world series, i think it will be a great series but, as bobo spins in his grave, the yankees will take it.