Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica: They're baaaaack!

For those of you who missed the first episode of the third season of Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, here's a sampling of highlights.

Admiring the Napa Valley view:
Jessica: "Next best thing to Italy."
Nick: "Oui oui!"

Sampling "about a million different kinds of champagne" at the Domaine Chandon:
Jessica (to the woman pouring the wines): "Here's a tricky question. How did they make wine in Jesus days?"
Nick: "What the hell's wrong with you?"

Is it any wonder I love these two?
jessica simpson

Kennedy Auction update

Yay! Well, hopefully this will help lift me out of the sodden, grey funk I'm in. Here's hoping they'll allow photographs ...

I'm not done mourning Johnny

I thought that Jay Leno did a nice monologue on Johnny on his tribute show last night. He said he was trying to think of something that hadn’t been said about Johnny before, and then realized what a tribute that was: that there was nothing new to say about Johnny, every compliment had already been paid him. He also pointed out that many NBC shows don't last 30 days, (and rightly so, why is Committed still on?) making Carson's 30-year gig even more unbelievable. And, for most of the thirty years, he earned one fifth of the network's income.

It was great to see Bob Newhart and Don Rickles reminisce, and I was thrilled to see the clips of the Don Rickles-broken-cigarette-case incident, my personal favorite all time Carson moment. (Love the deer-in-headlights looks on the faces of the pages standing outside the doors of Rickles’ studio, red “closed set” lights blazing above, as they threw open the doors at Johnny’s approach, broken cigarette case in hand and cameras in tow. Who would dare do something like this today?)

Also watched Larry King interview Ed McMAhon last night which was made all the more painful by having Larry King present. [Sidebar: How on earth did Larry King get a job as an interviewer? He won’t shut up when people are talking! Ironically, he interrupted Ed McMahon with some insipid question when Ed was talking about what a great listener Carson was. He is the antithesis of what Johnny represented, i.e., always making the guest look good, because he can’t keep his mouth shut long enough to hear what his guests are saying. He’s like an impatient, spoiled child who wants more than anything to hear himself talk. He doesn’t seem to do very much preparation either, last night asking Doc Severinsen if he ever played the trumpet anymore. A slightly miffed Doc answered, “I’m on the road with my band about 46 weeks out of the year, Larry.” Read much, Larry?]

Finally, to all the 20-somethings that may be reading this, and are having trouble understanding what the big deal is, all I can do is echo something else Leno said, “You just had to be there.” If you weren’t, you missed it; nothing like it will ever come around again, so stop asking what the all the fuss is; you’re really annoying us.

Johnny carson

Note the cuff in Tyler's jeans

From Sunday
Originally uploaded by _Ingrid_.

Note the cuff in Tyler's jeans.

We decided to take the obligatory post-snow storm walk-about this morning. On the way out, he discovered that a few of his credit cards and his building ID were missing. Since he was wearing the same jeans as yesterday, and the cards weren't in the pockets, we started hunting around for them. They weren't on the floor by the bed, where he'd dropped everything from his pockets earlier in the day. They hadn't slid under the bed, either, and they weren't in the sofa cushions where we found the Visa card on Thursday (Note that he tends to lose things.) They weren't in the drawer; they weren't in his coat pocket, nor were they in the laundry basket.

We decided to go for the walk and look for them later, or call them in as missing.

Two hours later, after tramping and trudging through piles and drifts, often up to our knees, we're in the elevator. We're stomping our feet to loosen whatever snow is clinging to the bottoms of our pants, and as I bend over to assess the salt damage to my boots what do I see but the missing cards tucked neatly into the upturned cuff of his jeans!

Johnny Carson

johnny
Originally uploaded by _Ingrid_.

This photo was sent to me after I sent Johnny a birthday card one year. They used to say that he saw each and every card that was sent to him, and I guess that was the truth. It says, "To Ingrid Thanks Johnny Carson."
I stuck the photo in a frame and threw the frame in a box, and it moved around me over the years. I never had the nerve to hang it on the wall, too cheesy. How embarrassing to have sent a birthday card to Johnny Carson? The photo got wet sometime over the years, and had paint spilled on it. The back of the frame is so warped that I couldn't get it out of the frame just now without damaging it further, so I just scanned it as it is.

When I was 13 we moved at the beginning of the summer, and I was so lonely in those months before I started my new school that I watched TV almost constantly. It was a way to see the same people, and hear the same conversations, despite knowing that nothing would ever be the same for me again. Johnny Carson did more than keep me company that summer; through him, I could live somewhere familiar. Every night I could see him behind the desk, and imagine sitting on that couch, smoking and drinking from a mug. I came to understand every nuance in Johnny's facial expressions, and envied his relationship with Ed McMahon. I sat in my room with the door locked, sneaking cigarettes and leaning in toward the set, absorbing it, trying to remember what it was like to have friends.

I have so many memories of Johnny, of things that happened on the Tonight Show, that they feel like personal memories to me.
There was the time Don Rickles was a guest host and broke Johnny's cigarette case. Then, a few nights later, when Johnny discovered what had happened, he got up from behind the desk, and, cameras in tow, walked to the nearby studio where Rickles was shooting another of his ill-fated sitcoms, CPO Sharkey, and demanded an apology.
Then there was the time, as a child, watching the ball drop on New Year's Eve on Carson. My parents were out celebrating, and I sat in my pajamas on the couch, savoring every second and not wanting it to be over, as the orders were, "Johnny Carson, and then bed." Just after midnight came, there was an explosion of balloons and streamers. Doc and the band were playing Auld Lang Syne. Johnny leaned over to say something into Ed's ear and I SWEAR I read his lips, "Guy Lombaro eats shit."My brothers and sister never believed me, but I know what I saw.
There were all the times with the animals from the San Diego Zoo.
There was anytime he did Karnak the Magnificent.
There was anytime that Buddy Hackett was a guest.

I had the foresight to tape the last two episodes of the Tonight Show that he did, and I'll be watching them in the next few days, and reminding myself of how much I'll miss him.

To Johnny Thanks, Ingrid.