Present & Past

RIP Matthew Perry, 54, details not yet announced. Born in Massachusetts, raised in Ottawa, he moved to L.A. at 15 and, upon graduating from high school, immediately began landing acting jobs. There are 57 titles under his name at IMDb, but that figure says so little. He was in 234 episodes alone of Friends, one of the most popular series of all-time. He did a lot more: plenty of single guest shots on primetime shows, 21 episodes of Boys Will Be Boys, 13 of Sydney, 13 of Home Free, 22 of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, 13 of Mr. Sunshine, 22 of Go On, 38 of the reboot of The Odd Couple. He received writing credit on the latter two. On the silver screen his biggest success was The Whole Nine Yards (2000). Here’s a quote attributed to him: “I learned to fall down early in life — I was like six — because I realized it was a way to make girls laugh.” Gone way too soon. Well done, Sir. Photo from Google Images:

I frequently come across the term “Cosplay.” I finally looked it up: “the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game.”

Here we go, sci-fi writers, from foxnews.com: “First humanoid robot factory in the US can crank out 10,000 robots a year.” Get crackin’.

From FN, the madness continues: “Women quit jiu-jitsu tournament after being forced to fight men.” Participation in basketball, soccer, tennis etc. is bad enough. This seems like it could lead to serious injury.

Halloween (1978) was released 45 years ago. Here’s some fun trivia, culled from an FN article by Lori A Bashian and other sources: The budget was $325,000. It grossed $70 million worldwide… Jamie Lee Curtis was given $200 to buy her wardrobe from JC Penney… Sheriff Leigh Brackett was named after the famous screenwriter who wrote Rio Bravo (1959), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), several others and a ton of short stories and novels. I just discovered she was female — duh, taken by cancer at 63 in 1978… Director/co-screenwriter John Carpenter named Dr. Sam Loomis after John Gavin’s character in Psycho (1960). He was having an affair with the doomed Marion Crane, played by Jamie Lee Curtis’ mom Janet Leigh.

The only option for the floating book shop on this drizzly day was the nearby viaduct. The result was predictable. My thanks to the gentleman who bought The Bartender’s Bible: 1001 Mixed Drinks and Everything You Need to Know to Set Up Your Bar by Gary Regan, which I’d expected to be purchased months ago. Better late than never.

My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE

FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts

Read Vic’s Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza