Love Was All Around

I saw a documentary on Mary Tyler Moore recently. It was culled from a larger special done on TV history and showed clips of Mary and her famous co-stars, like Dick Van Dyke and Betty White. The special was crisp in its presentation and showed no new ground being broken on its subject. But, it did stir in me the warm memory of our ongoing love affair with the Girl Next Door....... Mary Tyler Moore came on to the national consciousness in the Year Of 1961. JFK was newly installed in the White House and a sense of youth and the possibilities that youth send out was in the air. Of course, we all know that Mary played Laura Petrie on ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'', itself, a pioneering program about a comedy writer. What made the show pioneering for its time was the home front relationship between Van Dyke and Moore. Most sitcoms from a previous era had the housewife as a wacky sidekick, someone that was almost non-sexual and non-intelligent [Audrey Meadows ''Alice Kramden'' being the exception]. Mary Tyler Moore, with the crucial aid of show creator, Carl Reiner and show star, Dick Van Dyke, blossomed in the role of young Laura. She was the strong counterpart of her comedy writer husband, one of TV's first feminist, independent women. Mary was plucky in spirit, with a superb comedy talent unknown to even her when she got the part. As the series progressed, it became very clear that here was a force to reckon with, the Little Girl who ably played with the Big Boys. Mary showed ''great comic chops'', along with a vulnerability mixed with an sexual heat--- not an easy trick to portray. For five glorious seasons, Mary Tyler Moore was the MVP on the Van Dyke Show, a heartbeat which fueled the engine of a television classic....... Her career stalled after ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' went off the air in 1966. She made a series of bad movie choices--- including a movie with Elvis where she, as a nun, fell for the King. It wasn't until a reunion special with Dick Van Dyke, where she showed off again her charms that so endeared her to audiences, that CBS came calling with an offer to do her own show about a young woman moving to Minneapolis to work in a newsroom. The show, of course, was the legendary ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'', perhaps, the finest written, directed and acted comedy series in television history. Mary was smart. She learned from her Van Dyke years to surround herself with the best talent available. This sounds like no-brainer advice but many performers want vehicles in which only they shine, not the supporting cast around them. Mary, with her second husband, Grant Tinker, knew better. They hired class from the get go through their mutual production company, ''MTM Productions'' [I know you are seeing the little kitten meowing in your minds]. Tinker, a television genius and visionary himself, hired stellar people to bring the series to life. Edward Asner, Valerie Harper, Gavin Macleod, Georgia Engel were just some unknown names they hired. But, the real finds, the real boon to the success of the supporting cast, was journey actors Ted Knight and Betty White. Betty had been around a while but had never been used to her highest potential. Her role as man-hungry Sue Ann Nivens changed that. And, Ted Knight, as buffoonish anchorman Ted Baxter, royally brought forth comic gold. Mary was the center, the glue that held the show together. In addition to keeping the combination of vulnerability and sexiness that she had with Laura Petrie, Mary also brought forth a strong role model for single, career minded women to emulate. She became a hero for women everywhere. The show itself showed quality and originality and audacity [who can forget ''Chuckles The Clown'' dying?] throughout its seven year run. When the show ended in 1977------ still, to this day, the finest ending episode of any series---- Mary Tyler Moore was forever a National Icon, firmly cemented in our hearts........ Mary Tyler Moore segued again back into movies after her series. This time, though, she scored a triumph. It was 1980's ''Ordinary People'', directed by Robert Redford. This role of Beth was groundbreaking for Mary, in that, she played a cold, bitter woman who had lost a son to death and had another son who attempted suicide. It was all serious drama from Mary, not a shred of lovable behavior anywhere near this character. Mary excelled in this role, surprising the show business industry and her adoring public. She was nominated for an Oscar but lost to Sissy Spacek in ''Coal Miner's Daughter''. But, Mary, once again, showcased her versatility as an actress. An extraordinary performance........... Unlike her television roles, real life for Mary has been filled with heartbreak and tragedies. She came from an abusive home---- by certain accounts, Mary was abused by her father---- and got pregnant at a young age [17] and had a son, Richie, with her first husband, The marriage did not last long and Mary found herself a single mother of a baby before the Van Dyke Show and marrying Grant Tinker saved her.  But, in her late twenties, she developed diabetes, a severe case where she needed daily doses of insulin to stay alive. In her mid-thirties, her sister overdosed and died, and, soon after that, her marriage to Tinker ended. Finally, in the most tragic event of her already tragedy filled life, her only son, Richie, accidently shot and killed himself with a rifle......... Such horrors would test the stamina of anyone but Mary trudged on, a smile on her face, with a deep, heavy heart. Her career in the 80's and 90's ebbed and flowed, with both successes and failures. She still maintained the enormous affection of the public. She found love again with her third and final husband, Richard Levine, a heart doctor many years her junior. And, she became a elder stateswoman of comedy, a vast influence to the many that followed in her trailblazing wake. After many years, where a fickle public goes in and out with the latest fashion and celebrity, she was still there for us. Our Mary......... I write this because I know she has been in ill health for sometime now. Perhaps, at death's door. The diabetes she battled for years has ravaged her, dwindling her to a shockingly thin state. By most accounts----including, her own---- she is losing her eyesight and can barely stand. At 78, she is a sad shell of herself. She is dying......... I find this very sad for several reasons. That she is suffering is the main one. But, I also have a personal sadness at her state. Mary Tyler Moore was my ''first love'' when I was a little boy. I had to be around 5 or 6 but I remember I liked looking at her. Of course, I was too young to know what that feeling meant. I just knew she made me feel good to watch her, all tight Capri slacks and all. Like millions of men, I fell for her. She was the wholesome ''All-American'' girl that you wanted to marry and settle down with. Contrast her with the other big female of the period in show business, Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn, as we know, was the big ''Sex Symbol'' of the time, a stalking animal of sexual heat. Now, every male likes that too. That is the short, torrid affair men fantasize about. However, as Marilyn Monroe sadly found out, there is no love in the heat of a sexually passionate moment, just lust. After all is done, you want the ''America's Sweetheart'' as your lifetime companion. Sex symbols come and go, as swift as a summer's light. But, the sweetheart goes on, an endless light of love.......... I wish Mary Tyler Moore, now approaching the end of her journey, a painless and easy passing. And, I want to thank her for brightening my life---- and, all of our lives. Mary will always be a welcome presence in our daily existence, long after she has passed on....... And, deep in my heart, dear Mary, you will always be my ''first love''........

A Non-Starry Night At Wrigley Field

In the jubilant aftermath of this Cubs team run for the pennant, we are seeing all sorts of glorious sights. Out on the streets around Wrigley Field, and, in the streets locally, there are banners waving, fans wearing the Cubs shirts, and endless optimism about this team and its chances. But, like any good thing, there is the backside. The dark cloud that hangs over the joy of winning. Yes, Cubs fans , we have a Jim Belushi and John Cusack sighting in the house....... Yes, now is the time for C-Level celebrities to claim their Cubs allegiance, now that they are winning. Strange, how I never saw them at the games when the Cubs were stinking up the National League these past seasons. But, when the winning starts, so, does the star fucking. I suppose this is the famous version of ''jumping on the bandwagon.'' To be fair, who wants to follow a losing team when you can be making bad movies in Tinselton? And, also being fair, Jim Belushi is a Cubs fan. As is Eddie Vetter. So, I will throw them a bone and say that they paid their dues. John Cusack has not. Many of us recall him famously switching sides in 2005 when the White Sox won it all. There he was, front and center, wearing his Sox garb and proclaiming to all that would listen that he was REALLY a Sox fan and dislikes the North Siders. I remember sports radio was alive with comments from both sides of town calling on Cusack's loyalty. How he was trying to jump start his stalled career [which is still stalled] by grabbing some free publicity of a team in the limelight. It was laughable, which mirrored his attempts at acting, to see him sputter himself into telling his yarns. In the years between 2005 and now, Cusack was MIA at the ballparks in town. But, he was spotted wearing Dodgers and Yankees shirts and hats. Well, they were good these last years. He must have not had a chance to buy Red Sox attire...... We get short-changed in this town with celebrities. In Los Angeles, they have the cream of the crop. Nicholson haunts the sidelines of Lakers games, grinning behind his shades, most likely stoned on ingredients both legal and illegal. Denzel is also there, along with the increasingly Vulcan looking Dyan Cannon. In New York, well, you get the rich and famous like Spike Lee and Billy Crystal. Don't ever attempt to top Crystal with Yankees information. The man, along with Bob Costas, is not afraid to whip out the Mickey Mantle stories at the drop of a hat. I believe that if you tell a story about the Yankees, you must pay a royalty to both Crystal and Costas, for they hold the rights to Yankees memories......... In Chicago, we get Ronnie ''Woo Woo'', some inbred, afterbirth streetperson, who walks around saying ''Cubs! Woo! Cubs! Woo!'' And, some nobody from a radio station or far suburban school who sings the 7th Inning stretch. Who are these people? You might as well have the cadaver of Ernie Banks up there or the guy who served me my breakfast from McDonalds today [''Number 12'' Egg bagel with cheese and bacon with a hash brown and coffee! Very tasty!].........We do hold an ace, though, here in Cub land. His name is Bill Murray. Bill is, from head-to-toe, a die-hard Cubs supporter. It goes back to when he grew up in Wilmette. Bill has been at Wrigley for ages, haunting the Friendly Confines in a charming manner. At times, he will mosey up to the broadcast booth and comic genius will come roaring out. But, for the most part, he stays quiet, never calling attention to himself. Bill seems to know his place, which is out of the way of the players. He doesn't go about looking for the cameras and he doesn't play Cub groupie. He goes to games and does what we all do: sitting quietly, having some hot dogs and suds to drink, and shouting his lungs out when things go good. When he is in the mood, he will go along with the Cubs organization's constant request to be ''Bill Murray'' for them. but, on his terms. You gotta admire Bill. He is secure in his fame and, most importantly, his self-confidence, to not seek public approval like a Cusack and Jim Belushi........ We do have other famous folk who are Cub fans: Jimmy Buffet, Lee Trevino, Dennis Franz and William Peterson and Gary Sinise [all three did the play about the Cubs, ''Bleacher Bums'' back when they were unknowns] Billy Corgan, Vince Vaughn.........The real stars, apart from the ballplayers, has to be the fans. No other organization in sports history has tested the patience of their fans like the Chicago Cubs. and, the club has been rewarded with a fan base that is unrivaled anyway. Instead of some half-assed celebrity singing the 7th Inning stretch, I would like to see one of the faithful, one of ''us'', who has been mired in the trenches with this team, year after year, decade after decade, lifetime after lifetime. I'm not saying we would have the golden vocal tones to bring about a perfect rendition. But, we would have the right feeling, the feeling of passion for our Boys Of Summer. The passion and the loyalty in our real fans far outshines a Hollywood yokel celebrity trying to grab some personal gratification....... Unless, Bill Murray wants to sing. He can take my place at the microphone........

My Kinda Of Pope

I really dig Pope Francis. He seems like the kind of guy that you would want running that travesty called The Vatican. Francis---- or, Frankie, to us friends------ is progressive in his modern thinking. Well, almost. He still believes that priests cannot be married and enjoy a normal life of a loveless marriage with two people stuck together. And, he still preaches the fallacy that any Pope has God's ear. But, on the whole, he is modern. He sees the world and its issues with a clear, concise head....... Which is refreshing because he is stuck in an institution known as the Catholic Church. The teachings of the Church, as I know so well because I was raised a Catholic, is founded on the simple concept of fear and guilt as an emotional tag team. We must fear God, fear the Church, fear your parents, fear basically everything they can say. And, if you don't feel the fear, then, guilt is your sin. Say, for example, you have the impure thought of sexual congress with another human being. That is wrong, you see, because sex is only to be used for procreation. Or, if a altar boy is handy. But, you must have guilt also if things are going well for you. The Church preaches that for all that is going right for you, it is unworthy because there is too much suffering in the world and it is partly your fault. I know. I'm sorry for my selfishness for enjoying all of the riches that were laid upon me. I really should give away my millions and go live with the lepers in their colonies. I feel guilt for my sins of living my life the way it was handed to me. And, I certainly fear retribution from God!!!!........ My hope is that Pope Francis is such a realist that he will bring the Church out of the Dark Ages of thinking. It is a tall order. The first thing he needs is to be completely revolutionary and state the hilarious false lunacy that the Bible is. It always astounds me that normal thinking people still buy all of the fiction that comes from this book. I'm not talking about the messages of human unity and love that are stated. No, I'm talking about the incredible tales of sorcery and downright lies that are taken as the gospel. My favorite parts of the Bible are the stories of the stories of Moses and Noah. Take Noah: we all know about him and his Ark. How, at the tender age of 600, with the help of his 100 year old sons, [ who needs Viagra!] Noah Jr, Skitch, and Fredo, he assembled three million animals on Earth---- conveniently in a five mile region of his undertaking----- and slid them all nice and tidy inside the Ark. The Ark,----- the first Man Cave----- boasted enough room to house two of every kind of animal to save them from, I guess, extinction. However, the Ark did also boast a fine sound system for Noah to blast some tunes. Although it isn't stated as such, I hear Noah loved the Supremes and had the hots for Diana Ross. A bumper pool table and DirecTV completed the layout, along with many DVD'S of Marilyn Chambers.........Moses was even more of a man. Hey, you think he ain't great shakes, do ya? Well, you try walking in the desert for 40 years without bottles of Evian water!!! I have a hard enough time getting up to take a piss at 3am!!!! Yes, Moses walked the desert and then, at some point, he sat upon a mountain and God spoke to him. God, played by the voice of Morgan Freeman, gave Mo Ten Rules to which a human must live by. A few were no brainers, like not killing and honoring thy parents and not stealing [unless, it was free cable]. Some were harder to swallow, like, blasphemy and coveting thy neighbors wife. Actually, this last one is not so difficult for me because my neighbor's wife looks like Moses in a babushka. But, my favorite part in the Moses story is his parting of the Red Sea. Now, this is some trick!!! All without CGI!!! Moses parted the Red Sea, let his friends cross under it [imagine the mud on the sandals!] and when they were safely over to the other side, let the water settle back, trapping the Egyptians---- led by Yul Brynner---- and murdering thousands of people. And, lets not forget later on the killing of the eldest males by God in support of Moses. I guess the ends justified the means in this mass murder......... But, I do not mean to turn this into a bashing of the Bible. I won't mention Jonah living in the whale for three days or, God turning Lott's wife into a pillar of salt. Pope Francis did not invent these fictions. However, he does abide by the law of the Bible and blindly proclaims the gospel inside of it. I have a problem with this. Besides the fantasy involved, the Bible also has endless amounts of violence---- horrible, sadistic violence inflicted by ''Higher Powers''---- in the ongoing crusade of every organized religion to prove that ''MY GOD IS BETTER THAN YOUR GOD!!!'' If Pope Francis throws out most of the teachings of the Bible and only retains the message of love and healing and accepting of all of our fellow humans----- no matter what they look like----- that is invoked in the tone of the narrative, then, I will fully believe that here is a man of action, a man who is plowing the ground of humanity and all of its faults and casting aside the deep prejudices and barriers that make up the book itself. Since most people are lemmings that will drift to the sea if you do not stop them, the Pope has a potentially strong opportunity to correct the ills of the past.......... He must allow more diversity and understanding. He must believe that his beliefs that he was raised on are no longer the beliefs of the world today. He must sweep away the horror of his Church and all of its underhanded dealings, starting with the horrendous pedophilia scandals that we know existed [and, sadly, still do exist]. He must hold those bastards accountable for their actions and crimes. And, those monsters must be punished in this life [God will take care of them in the next life, I'm certain] without the sordid protection that has been the Catholic Church MO for years. The past of the Old World must be buried forever. And, a New World Order must be embraced. The Pope must open the Church to a more modern role for women. The Catholic Church in the past has viewed women as little more than the street mutt, to blindly follow the man. The Church must concede what we have all known: that men and women are equal and must be treated as such. And, the Pope must embrace the gay lifestyle, for they too are the children of God. The Pope must address this long-held prejudice against gay people, explaining that the next time the haters are scrawling through the cherished Bible, pay strict and close attention to the parts of compassion and loving your fellow man [and women]. If we are God's love, then we are ALL God's love......... I am realistic enough to know that many of these changes I am addressing will never see the light of day. It would be nice, but, I am not fooling myself. Still, I do have the optimism that Pope Francis will do good things. He has made the first steps correctly, bringing up climate change, for example. I want this Pope to do well, since, millions still do blindly follow him instead of finding the inner strength and wisdom to lead their lives on their own free will. Maybe, his message of modern life will rub off on them and people will not need the dogma of religion to guide them and instead, find that they already know the answers on what to do to lead a successful life: Peace of Earth. Good will towards Man [ And, woman. See, I told you that they still view women negatively]........