I can understand the dilemma of the house GOP. Hard to choose as a leader someone who has recently distinguished himself as a suck-up, who has already traded away the instruments of leadership thereby stripping the job of the power to do the job. Yeah. Dilemma.

All his varied but rigorously focused decisions added up to full and constant focus on his life with Julie. Nothing was allowed to get in the way of their love, celebrated day in and day out - that was the deal, honest. And it was gorgeous to see. Bless them.

But here's the thing. Julie, of course, continued to work but Dave never went back, never gave it a thought. He'd do favors for free. helped me, just like the old days, bring some movies to the finish line, not as a job, but as friends hanging out, closing the door on the system.

So he retired at a really young age, He loved and married Julie Kavner and then they lived their lives deliciously; seasons split between the Pacific and .Atlantic Oceans and a lake in Michigan. He was a great and cool father to Samantha and Abby, granddad to their kids. more.

Early in Taxi he made a decision that no one else in my knowledge ever made - even as the show was being celebrated that first season Dave said goodbye. It was a jolt to me, I couldn't understand it. He did love the work but nowhere near how he loved the notion of a free life .

David Davis was given peace on Friday. He was the first person in television to encourage me. He did the same. for countless other writers he mentored during his life,.He was beautifully talented, a key producer/writer of Mary Tyler Moore, Taxi, and his own Bob Newheart show.

But still he fluttered pulses when he said,."good morning," and he glittered when he walked.

He was a gentleman from sole to crown,.Clean favored and imperially slim. He was a gentleman from sole to crown,.Clean favored and imperially slim. and he was always quietly arrayed,.And he was always human when he talked. (more).

Bill Hurt, in a singular way, was, at his core, loveable. Some secret sauce of strength and vulnerability. There's a poem, Richard Cory (tragic ending excluded) which summons thoughts of Bill. Whenever Richard Cory went down town,.We people on the pavement looked at him: .(more).

In this place where novelists frequently got disturbingly compromised --seriously so - where it left a scar - Joan was in no danger. Her soul was her shield. Her art stood strong and healthy at her side back then and until very near her end.

In this place where novelists frequently walked away disturbingly compromised, seriously so, where it left a scar, Joan was in no danger. Her soul was her shield. Her art stood strong and healthy at her side back then and until very near her end.

. John, with great good enthusiasm, railed against the Hollywood power grid. Joan seemed to always get the joke of it all. I think she was pretty bullet proof when it came to Hollywood's spirit breaking dangers.

as she formed the words I tried to commit to memory as she spoke them. This in contrast to her husband, John Gregory Dunne, with his big voice and trigger laugh. Hollywood a favorite subject at those dinners -dish. They were active screen writers then, prominent script doctors.

This resulted in my spending several tongue tied evenings with them, hardly talking, trying to take in everything. Joan Didion was the exception to the rule of the danger of getting to know people you've loved from afar. She was perfectly her. So small, her voice so soft.

When I first came to L.A. in the late 60s I was as callow as Los Angeles was everything but. There was one touch of sophistication. I had read Joan Didion with wonder. A new friend of mine, in Malibu ( then a remote community) turned out also to be a friend of the Didions.

via @NYTimes

An errant jab of my pointer finger has plunged me into the possible beginning of a Stephen King tale. I mistakingly hit -.“SEND ALL UNSENT MAIL” .Nothing to do but await the consequences. “Better sleep on it” now out the window. Gulp!.

Let me tell you about Ed Asner. he was exactly the man you imagined - as open hearted a good guy as I've ever known. He simply loved people. Bless his gorgeous soul.

I have shocked myself with this perfectly healthy attitude toward this Clippers season. Just pure pride in their guts and character and how far they went without three starters. They took the grit crown, while the Suns were lucky to face 3 opponents with their stars sidelined.

On to Phoenix.