Books I’m Reading

Am reading this.

Just finished reading this.

100th Anniversary of Musso and Frank Grill in Hollywood

I first stepped into Hollywood’s Musso and Frank Grill in the fall of 1992. I was the guest of my dear friend Shirley Wilson. She knew I loved vintage Hollywood and suggested we go there to get a real taste of a classy Hollywood restaurant. She was right. Musso and Frank sits on Hollywood Boulevard, virtually untouched through the years. In fact, one hundred of them, as today is the 100th anniversary of the opening of the restaurant.

Everyone who has been anyone has eaten at the Grill. It was a hangout for famous Hollywood writers for decades, as well as actors, directors, producers, and anyone else who had anything to do with Hollywood.

The author, at his favorite Hollywood restaurant in 2019.

One of my favorite memories of M&F is from the second or third time I went there. We sat on the bar side (rather than the usual dining room side). Our waiter came up to us and I said something about how I heard F. Scott Fitzgerald loved to come in and get drunk here. He smiled yes, and said “In fact, you’re sitting in his favorite booth!” I don’t care if he was lying; he was sweet to say it.



I’ve had a love affair with M&F for more than twenty years, eating there whenever I got the chance to be in town. I have such admiration for the restaurant and its history that I included it as a major set piece in two of my James Murray Mystery novels set in the 1930s: Sabotage at RKO Studio (The James Murray Mysteries Book 2) where James takes his new girlfriend for their first big night out after the opening of the movie "King Kong"; and in Abduction at Griffith Observatory: A James Murray Mystery (The James Murray Mysteries ) (Volume 3) where James’s world comes crashing down around him. It’s so neat knowing my characters could very possible have eaten at this wonderful restaurant!

The Taste of Things to Come

In January 2015, I had to have a heart defect repaired. I’ve written a lot about that week and the subsequent effects the surgery has had on my life. One of the most pronounced changes at the time, was how everything I put in my mouth tasted of copper: water, hamburgers, chips, cherry pie. You name it: copper. That lasted about six months and (very) slowly faded away.

Shortly after I regained my proper sense of taste, I was diagnosed with cancer and had to begin lifelong chemo treatments. After they started, I lost part of my sense of taste again. This time: sugar had no taste for me AT ALL. Cakes, pies, chocolates, anything sweet now tasted flat. It was both a good thing (not craving sweets has helped me lose weight) and a bad thing (when I want a piece of pie, I want it to taste like a piece of pie, dammit!).

Now, four years since chemo started, my taste buds are changing again. It’s hard to describe what’s going on this time, but I am not enjoying foods that have a lot of flavoring to them. An example: I used to love barbecue potato chips. Now, no. Something about them tastes wretched. I am starting to prefer plain chips (which I used to hate). I prefer eating a piece of chicken with no flavoring (salt, of course, is basically forbidden to me), or a piece of bread with nothing, a plain tortilla, etc. I’m kinda hoping this changes pretty soon. I don’t know of any change to my body or lifestyle that is causing it and this kind of food is already starting to get boring.

Books I’m Reading

Am reading this.

Just finished reading this.

Books I’m Reading

Am reading this.

Just finished reading this.

Books I’m Reading

Am reading this.

Just finished reading this.

That Time I Discovered Sharon Tate

I was ten years old in 1969, the year Sharon Tate and others were murdered. My parents always had on the evening news during dinner, so I remember vague references to the murder, the search, the trial, etc; but the details never really registered with me.

About ten years later, I discovered the 1967 film Valley of the Dolls starring, among others, Sharon Tate. Love that movie. I bought the novel and read it. Love the book.

A few years later, I got the non-fiction book Helter Skelter about the hunt for the killers of Tate and the others. I was about half way through the book when my mind clicked into place that the “Sharon Tate” mentioned in this book was the same as the “Sharon Tate” who starred in the movie.

From that point forward, it was pandemonium: I wanted to know everything I could about Tate, her life, her films, her death. It was such a tragedy that the woman who made such an impression in the movie had been killed.

I have to admit I’m still a little fixated on Tate. She may not have been the best actor in the world, but there was something electric about her on screen. At least we still have that.

Time Travel

In 2001 our house was broken into. They stole only a few things, but they got our VHS player (although kindly took out the cassette and left that behind). It was at that time we decided to step into the future and invest in a DVD player. We have watched only DVDs in the past eighteen years.

Over time, we began to notice that some of the movies we wanted to see were not available as DVDs – either they had never been issued as DVDs or had been and then dropped out of production.

Clearly this wouldn’t do. So, my intrepid husband went out and found a nice used VHS player for us. We’ve been picking up odd shows and movies on VHS at various places, including thrift stores, to watch programs that we can’t see elsewhere – DVD or streaming.

There are times when modern technology just isn’t good enough!

Books I’m Reading

Am reading this.

Just finished reading this.

Books I’m Reading

Am reading this.

Just finished reading this.