Murder, I Blog

I *love* Murder, She Wrote. I love everything about it.

I love Mrs. Jessica Fletcher and her busy-body ways.

I love Cabot Cove, Maine.

I love that supposedly both Jean Stapleton and Doris Day turned the role down until Angela Lansbury stepped in.

I love the cross-over episode where she and Magnum, P.I. solved a crime together.

I love the fact that she traveled the world for 12 years visiting nieces and nephews and former college roommates in far flung places, and each time a murder would take place.

I love all the sophisticated guest stars from the golden age of cinema, Broadway, and vaudeville, not to mention the up-and-comers. Everyone from Sonny Bono to George Clooney to Rue McClanahan to Mercedes McCambridge to Leslie Nielsen to Lynn Redgrave to heaps more - and not certainly least Miss Nina Foch.

One I watched recently even featured Maxwell Caulfield from Grease 2 putting on an Irish brogue as a stablehand - rather eerily similar to the time Humphrey Bogart put on an Irish brogue to play Bette Davis' stable hand in Dark Victory.

I love the exposition lines. "Jessica, we may have been roommates in college, but..." and "Jessica, you remember my fiance, the son of daddy's rival in the race-track business?"

I guess what I like about them is how cozy the mysteries are - kind of like the ones that Rita Mae Brown writes where her cat helps her solve crimes.

And the bestest part? Each ep opens with Miss Angela Lansbury intoning "Tonight, on Murder, She Wrote..." as we watch scenes from the episode we're about to watch, just so nothing takes you by surprise. How cozy and great is that?

Here, enjoy the opening credits, if you haven't in a while.

Zach, Jr.

It's official: I'm an Uncle, Family-Style.

Little Zachary John popped into the world last Thursday night, ten fingers and ten toes.

Why do babies come with hats?

I like this one here, with the newly-minted Grandparents.

And here's our first meeting.


I'm not sure why they named him after Zach, but little Puss Puss is looking forward to meeting his cousin.

Prop 8: Cha Cha Cha

Now, I dunno how much folks are paying attention, but there was this Proposition that went down wrong in California.

If you're not up on current events, here's a musical version of what happened. A few people have shared this with me, so maybe it's Old News now. Anyway, it's cute, and you can play spot-the-celeb. Kathy Najimy! Miss Jackie Washington! More! Cheers!

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

The Game of LIFE

Here's something really cool I just discovered.

Google is digitizing all of LIFE Magazine's photo archives - as of now they're apparently 20% of the way there. Most of the pictures have never been published. It's an amazing archive.

You can search the archives here, or when googling you can just type "source:life" after your keyword.

Here's my fun finds:

Doris Day in a pretty yellow top. With a poodle!

Ooh, my fave. Miss Shelley Winters with a book. So publishing! I printed this one out and tacked it to my bulletin board.

Hee hee. Here's Miss Charlotte Greenwood caught in the act of showing off her pisketti-legs.

And Miss Barbara Stanwyck, staring at a painting of herself which makes me think she was in a re-make of Picture Of Dorian Gray.

Happy searching! And please share anything cool that you find.

A Great Winters, Barr None

Now, I'm really good at accents and impressions, but hats off to Rosanne Barr for this impersonation of Miss Shelley Winters from the Actors Studio.



Thanks hulu. You complete me.

Le Couche Tard

So while David and I were in Montreal, we figured we'd just learn French the same way Madison the Mermaid learned English - from street signs and TV shows. How hard can it be if a fish did it, right?

Turns out it was a little harder than that. The best phrase we learned? "Winking Owl." We learned this from the sign for the All Night Bodega:

Now, if you use your knowledge of Pop Song French, you know that Voulez-vous coucher avec moi? means "Will you sleep with me?" And if you use your high school Spanish you know that tarde means late. What does that get you?

Yep, Winking Owl. And a phrase that's so much fun to say you just can't help yourself.

Couche-tard!

The Less I Seek My Source For Some Definitive

Once, I thought that David had abandoned me. I remember walking on the beach and seeing just one set of footprints in the sand.

"David," I said, "why did you forsake me?"

David replied: "it was then that I carried you."

Or, when he harmonized with me.

God Bless, Friends. And thank you too, Canada.