The Tarp Street Journal newsletter and holiday card were a little late out of the gate this year. I will blame it on YA novel writing. I spent about ten seconds on the photo idea--no time to order costumes or props--hey, how about just putting our heads on cartoon bodies?
I texted Samantha about the concept, and she texted back, "YES! We should TOTALLY do The Incredibles!"
And that was that.
I tried probably a dozen different photo-morphing apps before stumbling across a great one called PhotoLab.
But I digress from what should be my main point, which is how grateful I am to have such an incredible family, and how happy I am to be with them during this final holiday of this crazy year.
Here's one more link to the newsletter, if you somehow missed the one in the first line: www.TarpStreetJournal.com.
I was up late last night. Obsessively checking presidential vote tallies in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. As I did the previous night. Refreshing my browser every thirty seconds at 1 AM. When is the tranche of Pima County votes coming? My poor wife asleep next to me.
When I woke up this morning, Biden was ahead in Georgia. The day was sunny. I had time for a walk in the park.
By the time I checked Twitter again, near Central Park South, Biden was up in Pennsylvania. And I knew what it meant. Those of us who were up late refreshing our browsers over and over. We knew.
I try not to post about politics, because: (1) I'm not going to convince anybody, (2) nobody asked my opinion, and (3) I don't really want to know your opinion either.
But I will make a brief statement about human beings.
I believe in kindness, and fairness, and love, and respect. I don't care whether we share the same god, or the same holidays, or the same skin tone, or the same socioeconomic status, or the same anything. You do your thing. I do mine. We co-exist. We'll get along just fine.
There is, however, a basic threshold of human decency that I require of others. It's a relatively low bar--God knows we all have our flaws.
But it generally excludes people who are pathological liars, cheaters, narcissists, and, for lack of a better term, obnoxious blowhards. I avoid people like that. I don't support people like that.
I have a bit more tolerance for people who do. But, honestly? Not very much. If you're not Biff, but you're still one of the goons who stands behind him and laughs at his jokes and nods when he makes fun of others? You and I are not going to be close friends.
I am who I am. We all set our moral floors.
What I was thinking, all the way back home, was how green this park is. Still. In November.
That green November softball field, and the yellow and orange leaves, and that phenomenal tree in the middle of the Sheep Meadow, and the playgrounds just waking up with the very first toddlers and nannies of the day.
And I know what everyone is thinking, as I pass them, every jogger and dog walker, everyone here in this wonderful anarchist jurisdiction of bleeding-heart liberal elites.
We're all smiling inside, and thinking how great it is to live in this melting pot of a place. And feeling grateful for the return of that basic threshold of human decency, however tenuous.
During the Berlin Airlift following WWII, an American supply pilot dropped candy to kids in East Berlin.
Halloween 2020 on the Upper West Side was our own "candy drop" during tough times. Several of our townhouse neighbors went all-out with their decorations. Ours was one of the few apartment buildings welcoming trick-or-treaters this year. But lots of kids came by--we gave away ten big bags of candy.
Some of our visitors...
We even made the local news--sort of--that's my back and arm at 2:53!
Hurray for candy and kids, and Happy Halloween forever and always!
As always, we try to address the most pressing issues of our day: world hunger, global warming--and today, the location of Roddy McDowall's beach house.
To cut to the chase, 23560 Malibu Colony Road.
In 2011, several home movies shot by Roddy McDowall at his beach house in 1965 were uploaded to YouTube. They featured stars like Paul Newman, Natalie Wood, Rock Hudson, Judy Garland, and Julie Andrews.
But searching for the address of the beach house on Google always comes up empty.
So I viewed each of the videos to see if I could figure out where the house was.
First clue, of course, was Malibu. And it was directly on the sand.
Second clue was that several of the home movies included shots from the beach itself. Looking west, a continuation of houses along a curving sandy cove, eventually to a point of land jutting out to the south. No pier in sight, by the way. And no Point Dume in the background.
This narrowed the search to essentially two spots in Malibu where the land curves into a cove, and where there is no pier and no Point Dume.
Possibility #1 would've been on Malibu Road just east of Corral State Beach. However, (1) the video clearly shows houses stretching all the way around the cove, and there are few houses along Corral Beach; (2) Roddy's house opens directly onto the beach at sand level, while the houses on Malibu Road tend to be up on stilts; (3) one of Roddy's videos shows the road in front of the house; it is flat on the land side, unlike the hillier Malibu Road.
Which leaves possibility #2: Malibu Colony, also known in the old days as Malibu Movie Star Colony. The houses in the distance extend all the way along the cove. The houses are close to the sand. And the land to the north is flat.
So Roddy's house was likely located somewhere along Malibu Colony Road. But where?
The big clue was from a video featuring Julie Andrews and her daughter.
Roddy followed them as they left his house--out onto the street. Looking into the distance, you can't see the end of the road--so it is a ways off.
Julie and her daughter get into their car, which is presumably facing east. She starts the car, then backs up, turns around, and heads west.
That means the only exit was to the west. Which means they were to the east of the main road into the colony.
The best clue comes in the final seconds of the video--a car turning from the main road--the only intersection in the colony!
So Roddy's beach house was likely one of the first three houses east of that road--since replaced with larger houses.
Looking at the Google map, one can clearly see the brown house that Julie walked in front of on the north side of the street, the white picket fence next to it (which now appears to be brick), and the white garage and short driveway in which she turned around (which look exactly the same).
And now that we know we're close, note the two-story house with the dormer windows a couple houses to the east of the red circle. It looks like it has been there a long time.
Sure enough, now that we're looking for it, we can see it in the background of a few of the 1965 home movies.
In fact, it's the third house down from Roddy's. Which means Roddy's house was the one in the middle of the red circle--23560.
Here's a comparison of photos from Roddy's house in 1965 and from the Zillow listing for the current house:
Note that either rocks have been brought in to prevent beach erosion, or they were completely covered by sand in 1965. In any case, there's a lot less beach now, and a lot more steps to get to it.
1. When we went to pick up the rental car, the Hertz agent said, "Is a Mustang convertible okay?" 2. I talked the cop out of a ticket for entering a parking lot through the exit. 3. After I avoided the ticket, instead of being upset, Jo called me a rebel. 4. We went on the same 4-hour hike we went on three years ago for one of our first dates.
5. On the way home, Jo turned on Sirius radio, saw the Elvis station, and said, "Oh, how about this?" 6. On the West Side Highway, around the 95th Street exit, where it says "Bump Ahead," I accelerated and hit it full-speed, and instead of being upset, Jo said, "Weeee!" 7. BBQ takeout.
Thank you, Jo, for accepting me as I am and being a great wife.
The timing isn't ideal. We're still smack in the middle of a pandemic, with most book stores still closed. (We held a "virtual launch party" via Zoom.) It's a weird year. You may have noticed.
But I'm very proud of it it. It's got a cute storyline, clever rhymes, and great illustrations. And real bite marks in the cover.
Frances Gilbert, the editor, is terrific (an under-appreciated role). And it has a major publisher--Doubleday, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
I'm biased, but I think it should be a Best Seller. Never say never.
While I was checking its first-week sales on Amazon, I noticed two new books on my author page.
My Seuss books!
I wrote two "Step Into Reading" books featuring Dr. Seuss's Lorax. They're coming out in January 2021. I'm giddy about writing in the voice of the Lorax (which is obviously the voice of Dr. Seuss, my favorite author).
And while I was there I saw the cover of my NEXT Dr. Seuss book:
It's a rhyming nonfiction book for a series called "The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library." I had seen the series at the book store and did some research online, and decided to write a manuscript for them and submit it and see what happens. I picked volcanoes because it seemed like an obvious missing topic in the series.
Is there anything cooler than writing in the voice of the Lorax? Writing in the voice of the Cat in the Hat. It comes out in March 2021.
There. One post. Four books. Efficiency.
Time to kiss my beautiful wife goodnight and go to bed.
