Literary Pick (****)

 Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Marriage of the Century

-Sam Kashner, Nancy Schoenberger

Larry King

Broadcasting Legend Larry King Is Dead at 87

Larry King, the legendary broadcaster known for his frank and approachable interviews, has died at the age of 87, according to a statement from his company, Ora Media. King died the morning of January 23 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, after being hospitalized for COVID-19 earlier this January. Born Lawrence Zeiger in Brooklyn, New York in 1933, King began his decades-long career in broadcast media at a Miami radio station in the 1950s, where he covered news, sports, and DJ’d. In the late 1970s, King graduated from the Miami market to a nationally syndicated nighttime radio show, which eventually led to his flagship interview series, Larry King Live on CNN. From 1985 to 2010, King interviewed everyone from sitting presidents and world leaders to tabloid-buzzy celebrities and UFO-sighting believers. King won two Peabody Awards, for his work in both radio and television. Throughout his career, he also poked fun at his persona with appearances as himself on shows like The Simpsons, 30 Rock, and Gravity Falls.

After departing from CNN in 2010, King founded Ora TV and continued conducting high-profile interviews on his new series, Larry King Now. In 2013, he also began airing a weekly politics-based interview series, Politicking With Larry King, both of which King worked on until his death. King is survived by his sons Larry Jr., Chance, and Cannon.

-Vulture.com

Literary Pick (*****)

Debbie: My Life 

-Debbie Reynolds

Cloris Leachman

Cloris Leachman, Oscar Winner and Sitcom Star, Dies at 94

The film and TV mainstay—who played memorable roles in classics like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Young Frankenstein—had a career that spanned seven decades.

 Creative Until You Die, a series of Hollywood Reporter profiles of nonagenarians who were still creatively active. When asked if she ever thought of retiring, Leachman uttered a direct and defiant response: “Fuck you.”

Cloris Leachman, whose career spanned seven decades, has passed away at the age of 94, her longtime manager told Variety Wednesday. Her most celebrated role was Phyllis Lindstrom on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, for which she won two of her unprecedented eight Primetime Emmys. The imperious Phyllis was best summed up in one of Leachman’s Emmy-winning episodes, “The Lars Affair,” in which she considered the male bee: “Once the male bee . . . has serviced the queen, the male dies. All in all, not a bad system.”

As with the characters Lou Grant and Rhoda Morgenstern, Phyllis earned her own eponymous spin-off series that lasted two seasons.

But beyond Phyllis, Leachman is indelibly associated with numerous iconic series, classic episodes, and era-defining feature films. Most notably, she was little Timmy’s foster mother for a season of Lassie, she was the mother of a 6-year-old monster on “It’s a Good Life”—widely considered to be one of the 10 best Twilight Zone episodes—and she was Frau Blücher (insert horse whinny here) in Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein. In 1972, she earned an Academy Award for best supporting actress for her shattering portrayal of lonely high-school coach’s wife Ruth Popper in Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show. She reprised her character in Texasville, which was released in 1990.

Though she was in her twilight years, the sun never set on Leachman’s career. She began in the golden age of live television in the late 1940s, and in 2017 at the age of 91, she had a pivotal role in the buzzworthy supernatural Starz series American Gods, playing Zorya Vechernyaya, a sassy Old God out of Slavic mythology.

She never considered quitting acting. As Leachman shared in her 2009 memoir, Cloris, which she co-wrote with George Englund—to whom she was married from 1953 to 1979; they had five children—her mother offered her some simple advice when she landed her first play with a community theater group: “If you like it, just keep doing it.”

Leachman was born on April 30, 1926, in Des Moines, Iowa. In a 1972 Playgirl magazine interview, she declared, “I knew from the very beginning that I didn’t belong in Iowa.” She studied piano, loved movies, and at the age of 15, earned a summer radio scholarship to Northwestern University in Illinois. She would attend the university to study drama, becoming close friends with fellow actors Charlotte Rae and Paul Lynde in the process.

Leachman was crowned Miss Chicago in 1946, her senior year, and went on to compete in the annual Miss America pageant. She was ranked in the top 16. Then she moved to New York. Early successes included understudying Mary Martin as Nellie Forbush during the original run of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific. In 1949, she chose to leave the Broadway-bound production of William Inge’s Come Back, Little Sheba, in which she costarred as a boarder who destabilizes a middle-aged couple’s household, to costar opposite Katharine Hepburn in William Shakespeare’s As You Like It. “I don’t think I could be successful as a sex symbol,” she wrote in her memoir. “I was first and foremost an actress.”

Leachman studied with the Actors Studio alongside Martin Balsam, Burgess Meredith, Julie Harris, and Anne Jackson. “I learned a lot,” she noted, “but I also made enemies . . . because I refused to take the ‘Method’ seriously.” She also fended off an ardent Marlon Brando. “I didn’t want to be one of the multitude,” she recalled. Instead, she introduced Brando to Englund and the two became lifelong friends.

Prolific would be one word to describe Leachman. IMDb lists 275 television and movie acting credits for her, beginning with the 1947 feature film Carnegie Hall. Among her most memorable are Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, in which she appears as Agnes, a prostitute briefly engaged with Paul Newman’s Butch, the Emmy-nominated made-for-TV movie The Migrants, in which she played the matriarch opposite Sissy Spacek and Ron Howard, and Jonathan Demme’s drive-in cult classic Crazy Mama.

Leachman played a lot of mamas, but never generically. “I’ve fought all my life against clichés,” she proclaimed in her Oscar acceptance speech. She was at various points mother to, among others, Shirley Temple (Shirley Temple Storybook); Meryl Streep (Music of the Heart); Diane Keaton, Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow (Hanging Up); Téa Leoni (Spanglish); and Ellen DeGeneres (The Ellen Show). She was housemother to the girls of Eastland School for two seasons on The Facts of Life, succeeding Charlotte Rae when she left that series.

She has also played grandmothers and great-great-grandmothers who were less likely to kiss boo-boos and more prone to stab their grandsons with a knitting needle (as in her Emmy-winning turn on Malcom in the Middle) or wander around topless (on Raising Hope).

Fearless would be another Leachman signifier. “If it’s funny,” she told Newsday in 2011, “I’ll do anything.”

She put this to the ultimate test in 2008 when, at 82, she became the oldest contestant ever on the reality series, Dancing with the Stars. She was eliminated in week six, but was all attitude when she joked to the judges, “I’m not leaving.”

Leachman described hers as a life with “some real bang and smash in it.” She had affairs with Gene Hackman, Andy Williams, and Bobby Darin, and never lost her ribald muse. In 2017, PETA honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award. One of those who paid tribute was her American Gods director Bryan Fuller, who recalled the on-set celebration when she turned 90. “She blew out her candles and said, ‘Fuck me—I’m 90,’” he said. “And then she said, ‘Seriously—somebody get in here and fuck me! I want you to line up the crew outside of my trailer and get them in here!’”

-Vanity Fair

President Joe Biden's Inauguration

Joe Biden was sworn in as the United States' 46th president on Wednesday, and he pledged to be a president for all Americans — even those who did not support his campaign.

"Today, on this January day, my whole soul is in this: bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation," he said in his inaugural address.

Biden spoke shortly after Kamala Harris made history by becoming the country's first female, first Black and first South Asian vice president. He said this Inauguration Day was a triumph for democracy.

"The will of the people has been heard, and the will of the people has been heeded," Biden said. "We've learned again that democracy is precious. Democracy is fragile. And at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed."

This was a scaled-down inauguration unlike any we've ever seen.

The celebrations were cut back because of the coronavirus pandemic, and Biden's inaugural committee — trying to keep crowds to a minimum — urged Americans not to travel to Washington, DC. The National Mall was also closed to the general public because of security concerns related to the January 6 storming of the US Capitol.

-CNN

Literary Pick (****)

 The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit

-Michael Finkel

 

 

 

Arlignton Library

Arlington Library

 203 Arlington Ave. at, Warwick St, Brooklyn, NY 11207

The Arlington Library was built in 1906 with funds donated by Andrew Carnegie. Apparently Penn Fulton Hall was a building which served many purposes, and at least part of the building was used for the library until this was built. The original name was the East Branch Public Library, and this name can still be seen carved across the top of the library. A review of development maps shows there were no permanent structures on this site prior to construction. In 1893 it was zoned for 8 residential lots but the land was eventually bought and rezoned as one lot for the library. Renovations were done in 1950 and 1986. 

The East New York Project

 

Literary Pick (***)

 Men Without Women

-Haruki Murakami

I Like Killing Flies (2004 Documentary)

 

Literary Pick (***)

 Pablo Escobar: My Father

-Juan Pablo Escobar

 

Days of our Lives Opening Theme

 

Literary Pick (***)

 Sea Glass

-Anita Shreve

 

Casey at the Bat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-by Ernest Lawrence Thayer

The Outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play.
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, if only Casey could get but a whack at that -
We'd put up even money, now, with Casey at the bat.

But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake,
And the former was a lulu and the latter was a cake;
So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat,
For there seemed but little chance of Casey's getting to the bat.

But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,
And Blake, the much despis-ed, tore the cover off the ball;
And when the dust had lifted, and the men saw what had occurred,
There was Johnnie safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third.

Then from 5,000 throats and more there rose a lusty yell;
It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
It knocked upon the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,
For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat.

There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place;
There was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile on Casey's face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Casey at the bat.

Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;
Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.
Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
Defiance gleamed in Casey's eye, a sneer curled Casey's lip.

And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped-
"That ain't my style," said Casey. "Strike one," the umpire said.

From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar,
Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore.
"Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted someone on the stand;
And its likely they'd a-killed him had not Casey raised his hand.

With a smile of Christian charity great Casey's visage shone;
He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;
He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the spheroid flew;
But Casey still ignored it, and the umpire said, "Strike two."

"Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered fraud;
But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
And they knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again.

The sneer is gone from Casey's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate;
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville - mighty Casey has struck out.

Literary Pick (***)

 Descent 

-Tim Johnston 

 

Get Smart Theme Song