The Daily News

The Once-in-a-While

Daily News

1 Would it impress you if I told you that I know that Gerald is the last image you see in the actual story of Finding Dory?

2 Didn't think so.

3 Does it impress you that I am writing this on yellow legal- pad paper, AND that I am using a children's book called Dear

Pope Francis by Pope Francis as a mini-desk?

4 Didn't think so.

5 I find the book has infallibility, at least in its role as a mini-desk.

6 I did find Dory but forgot I had. And even though my middle name is Francis, I find myself un-infallible. Retirement

allows this.

7 I'm writing this by hand because whenever I pull out my Apple MacBook Pro, the Beebeez pillage it and use it to surf the web.

8 I made an attempt at writing some of this idiocy on my iPhone, but Li'l Isla grabbed it and kept reaching Siri, and then clicking her off before she could talk.

9 For whatever reason, she reached the American Siri, who

annoys me. That should not have happened, her having reached the American Siri: shouldn't have happened.

10 My phone isn't set to her voice. She insulted me once, so I switched her out with this sweet British chick. She's really fun and quite friendly, in a Felicity Shagwell sorta way.

11 I make it a point not to anger any AI voice. I make it a point to say, "Thank you, Siri!" to her. She answers back with a perfect Engish accent (it there is such a thing) and says, "No, it is I who should be thanking you."

12 Yeah, baby!

13 Go British or go home.

14 Moving On, Part One: Dory. I just remembered. After the film played, I was delighted to see that they had about 80 hours of extra goodies. I loved watching a Disney director working with the cast. At one point, he told an actor to "get sloppy here!" Awesome direction.

15 I was never good at giving that sort of direction, except when I directed the Prodigal Son (Luke15: 11-32) scene in Godspell all those years ago. Jeremy, the actor who played the Prodigal Son, was to spend time showing the audience that he enjoyed "high living." I wished him to use the Stanislavski System. It seemed a perfect day for it, IMHO. I had him circle up cast members, get REALLY sloppy, put his arms around the partyers, and slur out this line: "You guys are my bast frands...(best friends)..." It turned into one of the best scenes I ever directed, and the cast enjoyed doing the scene, particularly that fateful Saturday rehearsal.

16 Godspell was like directing a Disney cartoon.

17 There's a lot more to the story, but I'd rather not throw it all out there. What a blast, and what a GREAT time that show was!

18 Moving On, Part Two: Sad to hear of the passing of TCM's Robert Osborne on Monday. A graduate in journalism from the University of Washington, Osborne began working as a contract actor at Desilu, and became great friends with Lucille Ball. He began his professional acting career playing the "smaller" roles, eventually getting a job in the very first episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, "The Clampetts Strike Oil," playing the part of a guy named Jeff Taylor. This was in 1962, and Osborne didn't think the part a good one. He turned it down because he didn't feel the show would be successful. He changed his focus to television commercials.

19 A bit later on, Lucille Ball pulled Osborne aside and suggested to him that he go into journalism. Osborne decided it probably wasn't a bad idea, knowing full well that Lucy had seen his acting.

20 I don't wish to go any deeper, except to say that Osborne had a successful career in writing, publishing several award-winning books on the Oscars. He worked on The Hollywood Reporter for years, moved through several more successes and wound up being the host of Turner Movie Channel, charming most of us with his incredible knowledge of film.

21 Here is a full Wiki article about the inimitable Robert Osborne:

Robert Osborne, 1932-2017

Robert Osborne Wiki

22 Moving On, Part the Thoid: I fully intend to review a few Grammarly things this fine day.

23 Looks like this little puppy began with NINE errors.

24 Allow me to look. Every time I look, a new error appears.

25 Item six got corrected by Grammarly. It originally read:

"I did find Dory, but forgot I had."

Grammarly told me I had an unnecessary comma before the word "but." I'll give it to 'em.

26 Item 9 told me my spacing was off, but when I corrected it, I was told again that it was off. Which is it? To be frank,
I refuse to deal with it. Blame Oxford. It's stylistic and more controversial than a Presidential election. Google Oxford comma, and you'll go into rants.

27 I DID leave out the article "the" somewhere around here, so Grammarly DOES find little edits like that. Busted.

27 Beebeez, bast, and frands, okay. Deliberate. Thoid. Deliberate. Comma after Desilu unnecessary. Too bad. I'm leaving it in. Sentence fragments. Deliberate. Grammarly seems inconsistent on that one. Who da heck knows?

28 I will give Grammarly a high score this week because it caught words that I deliberately misspelled for effect.

29 I'll quit while ahead.

30 Fun times, but time to cut this one short.

31 I gottago.