LA Style, Mr. Whipple and Caption Contest

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.


‘Tis the Season, LA Style

Happy Hanukah, y’all! The festival begins before my next blog. The weather is feeling more like the holiday season. My favorite weather quote this week was from the Malibu Fire Battalion Chief. ‘we’ve moved out the fire brigades and moved in the swift water rescue teams.’ It’s December in LA once more. For Jon and I, it’s been nice to have gray skies and even pouring rain. I’ve been wearing my winter coat more than since I received it last Christmas. It’s a great change of pace, and I hope it holds up. There is nothing stranger than shopping for a Christmas tree in 80 degree weather.

Procurement – LA Style

I got a call this week from our friend and medical consultant Lucy Doty. She need a connection for hospital bassinets in Vancouver, BC for a commercial shoot occurring on Wednesday. I gave her a number to a set dresser up there whom, I was sure, knew where to get one or knew someone else who knew. I didn’t think much of it until a co-worker heard me talking about it later that day. “You KNEW someone who had that?” I guess I take it for granted. That kind of call happens a lot. And in the time we’ve been making films or trying to make films, we’ve searched for a coffin, a free-standing elevator and a automotronic cow, and we found them all. They were all too expensive for the film, but you keep the contacts. And those contacts always have contacts. Right now, I am having trouble finding an old-fashioned wooden rain barrel without renting a whole western set. It’s been a bigger problem than I thought, but I’ve got people working on it. However, I'm always open for suggestions. I've also been trying to find a laundramat for a location in LA that will be free or close to free, if anyone has ideas.

Ode to Mr. Whipple

Veteran character actor, Dick Wilson, died recently. He is best known as Mr. Whipple , spokes-character for Charmin bathroom tissue. In tribute to the actor and the man, my friend Craig told a little known story of heroism from this TV icon. Sometime in the mid '90s, Craig was walking along the beach in Pacific Palisades when he heard a woman screaming that she was being stabbed. Craig ran up a flight of steps to a house that didn’t have security gates for help. He knew he had to act fast, but froze in his tracks. ‘There was a woman screaming, and I’m staring at Mr. Whipple with my mouth hanging open. I mean, it was Mr. Whipple. I tell hip to call 911 and to give me a flashlight and a bat. He said, ‘I’ll give you the flashlight, but I can’t give you a bat. Meanwhile, a surfer- kid is behind him, I assume it was a grandson, mouthing that he’ll get me a bat. When Whipple went for the flashlight, the kid ran to a beat up van and pulled out the bat. I hid that from Whipple when he gave me the flashlight.’ Craig then rushed down the steps to a guy out of the bushes by putting the light on him and the woman and pretending to be a cop. The woman was bleeding and naked and wanted to hug Craig, but he made her stay in the bushes. During that encounter, the man made a move at Craig, making use of the bat necessary. The cops were coming by then, so Craig marched the guy up the steps where they were both taken into custody. Craig was released when Mr. Whipple and the woman verified his story. The last thing Whipple said was ‘Where did you get that bat?’ The surfer kid was behind him giving Craig the thumbs up. Though a nice tribute to Mr. Whipple, it is not the strangest thing Craig has found on the beach. In fact, we chose him as the hiker who finds a body in Demon Under Glass because he’s found bodies or pieces of a body in one instance while hiking before.

Writing Updates

My various writings are moving along. It seems we have to do some development on both film and some TV stuff. Its re-writing existing material for new representation. That’s going to be time consuming, but we will have time off toward the end of the month. I plan to clear out a lot of old business then. And I plan some surprise postings for my long time fans. After that, I will – hopefully – have more time for my fiction.

Caption Contest

The best response this week was: "I saw this same act last year. Funny thing is, he had a female assistant then. I wonder what happened to her?"

New contest next week.