On The Beach Blog | Off the record, on the QT in WHB, and very hush-hush…

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Finally figured out...

...where all the OtBB traffic came from two-three weeks ago: The New York Times of all sources!

Mike Hale, in taking a full "Arts Beat" blog note of l'affaire Subway and "Hawaii Five-O", poked around the Internet and found this site's discussion of the matter: More...

Monday, February 06, 2012

In witness to the lack of class...

...of New York Giants fans in the wake of their team's impressive performance in Super Bowl XLVI, we have this unsurprising incident.

"Standing at an elevator after the game with some other Patriots' wives and hangers-on, Gisele was videotaped – over the loud taunts of heckling New York Giants fans – saying 'I can't believe they More...

Sunday, February 05, 2012

...and gone!

And there is no joy in Beantown and environs as Eli "4Q" Manning led the New York Giants to yet another improb­able game-winning 88 yard drive in the waning minutes to defeat the mildly-favored New England Patriots, 21-17, their second such Super Bowl victory in the past four years.

I salute the team... empirical evidence suggests that the younger Manning brother is a great quarterback, and Tom Coughlin is a great coach.

And Giants fans will be relentlessly, insufferably smug beyond all reason.

The Big Day is here...

...and as the world awaits the kick-off to Super Bowl XLVI, while the New York Giants are 2½-3 point underdogs to the New England Patriots, you wouldn't know it to listen to the Big Blue faithful!

Yes, the Giants are on a roll, and until the Pats won against the Baltimore Ravens for the AFC Championship two weeks ago, they hadn't beaten a team with a winning record since Week 2 when they beat the 1-0 San Diego Chargers! More...

Friday, February 03, 2012

Ben Gazzara (1930-2012)

Biagio Anthony Gazzara

The New York City-born actor passed away this afternoon at Bellevue Hospital after a 12+ year battle with cancer, first oral and then pancreatic which ultimately killed him.

His motion picture, television and stage career spanned seven decades and he was involved in two productions which has yet to be released. More...

In recovery...

...or, this:

Country Heroes in the first stages of rebuilding

...out of this in just over three months of this.

Despite the dubious efforts of the insurance adjusters, who I hold in about the same esteem as pharmaceutical reps, progress is actually being made.

Thursday, February 02, 2012

February Village Board Meeting

A near record meeting for its brevity this evening, seated and dismissed in eleven (11!) minutes, including the presentation of a commendation to local gal "Lizzy" Duerschmidt memorializing her 31 years of postal service, all but two months of which were to the residents and businesses of Westhampton Beach.

But it is for her skill as a highly gifted artist and chronicler of the ever evolving 11978 Villagescape that Liz will best be remembered. More...

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Big Mistake by CBS...

...in hiring Jim Rome, who has brought new levels of obnoxion to sports broadcasting since he first hit the air in the early '90s.

And before anyone brings up the late Howard Cosell, Rome can't come close to Cosell's diction let alone carry his thesaurus. More...

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Out of the past...

...probably 29-30 years ago based on the primary visual clue, the fully-secured yellow life vest worn by the vessel's Master in the foreground.

The scurvey crew of the "Shamrock"

The photograph was taken aboard MB #6, rechristened "Shamrock" when my friend and attorney Don Noonan acquired it from Walter Kidde around 1981. More...

Monday, January 30, 2012

Take care how you use the term 'Expert'

...and whatever else you do, for the love of William Safire, do not ever try to use a modifier with the word "unique!"

Found this is my inbox just now, and it was like nails on a black board... or listening to Renee Graziano on "Mob Wives:" More...

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Happy 53rd Birthday, Marc...

...with the focus on Lawrence Taylor's letting down his hair last evening, OtBB almost let the occasion pass unobserved.

My memory was jogged an hour ago when our friend Jerry Steiner presented me with the latest copy of "Lifestyles Magazine," which very glossy bimonthly is rarely published without a photo or two of our local Rabbi.

The family was well-represented in the edition, however, with nine... count'em, 9!... photos of Marc's father, the venerable and distinguished-looking Rabbi Arthur Schneier.

An Excruciating Interview...

Lawrence Taylor

...with New York Giants Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor is the centerpiece of the current edition of cable Showtime's "Inside The NFL" which aired last evening.

(It will repeat nine more times on Showtime's various channels between 1:00 pm today and 8:00 am Sunday.) More...

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Is there anyone we know...

...who should be watching this one East of the Canal with great interest?

Southampton Village Supermarket Law Takes a Pummeling, May See Revisions

While developers Bob Gianos and Andrew Mendelson will be clocking this one like hawks, the Westhampton Beach Village Board needn't concern themselves since a formal application has yet to be received.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

And people call me a tough critic...

...of television shows, but I'm what my cousin Charlie calls "a pussycat" compared to The New York Times' Neil Genzlinger in his review of "All Star Dealers."

The new series debuting this evening at 8:00 pm on the Discovery Channel, has a local connection, but whether it's Westhampton or Westhampton Beach is unclear. More...

Monday, January 23, 2012

New 'playa' for the Eruv applicants

The East End Eruv Association seem to have suffered enough of the gum-flapping and foolish posturing of Marvin Tenzer and engaged the services of high profile Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf.

The principal of Sheinkopf Communications lists among his clients past and present Bill Clinton and Eliot Spitzer, and has been a registered lobbyist for numerous unions (Team­sters Local 237, various AFSCME chapters) plus corpor­ate entities like the New York Yankees, Verizon and More...

Amid the dross...

...of a 2011-2012 networks TV season which which has already seen the cancellation of "Charlie’s Angels," "The Playboy Club," "Man Up!" and "Allen Gregory," NBC telecast the final two episodes of "Prime Suspect" last evening in a slot against the nail-biting end of the Giants-49ers game.

Clearly this was done because the suits at 30 Rock would only risk something they'd already deemed moribund against Fox's telecast of the NFC Championship More...

Sunday, January 22, 2012

White Light and Warm Thoughts...

...to our friend Susan Johnson O'Rourke who was stricken on the New London Ferry en route to Vermont on Saturday.

Susan has served as Secretary to the Westhampton Beach Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning Board for the past several years.

'JoePa' passes from under a shadow

Amid hours of conflicting reports of his condition following a two month battle with lung cancer, legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno has succumbed.

The encomia will be widespread for the rest of this week, and most will cough discreetly and avoid focusing on the sexual abuse matter one of his long-time coaches involved him in, but I will remember the bons mots he delivered during the final days of the Nixon Administration. More...

Saturday, January 21, 2012

I'm not a 'Told you so!' kinda guy...

No Knicks

...but O for the love of Red Holzman, it's become impossible to watch the New York Knicks brand of professional basketball this season!

After more than a decade of ineptitude both in the front office and on the court, the Knicks began showing signs of turning it around when they signed free agent Power Forward Amar'e Stoudemire before the start of last season, and dropped him into a roster full of prom­ising young players. More...

Friday, January 20, 2012

It's not 'Are you there, Chelsea?...'

...but why are you there at all, on network NBC in "Prime Time" Wednesdays?

Jeanne and I enjoy the late night "Chelsea Lately," cablecast on E!, from which I timeshift the 2:00 am edition.

(My wife loves anything with "rude humor," and of neces­sity I contrive to sit next to someone else when we go to a comedy club, 'cause she does carry on!) More...

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

January Trustee's Work Session

Sparsely attended mid-month meeting... the usual media types, and concerned residents (my fellow Ethics Commit­tee member Carol Matthews) and of course ex-Trustee Joan Levan with her psychic knitting needles.

Village Clerk Rebecca Molinaro reported that reinburse­ments of approximately $48,000 have been received from FEMA toward the just over $55,000 expense incurred due to "Hurricane Irene" at the end of last August. More...

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

I was incredulous...

Updated 01/17/2012 – 01:16 pm

...when I watched last evening's edition of "Hawaii Five-0" as CBS turned the clock back more than 50 years.

(Yeah, I know I said I'd given up on the series last Fall, but for want of other boob tubery, I tuned in.)

Most people today won't recall the time when advertising agencies owned and produced the shows that More...

Monday, January 16, 2012

'Californication' Season 5 – why?

I've followed the cable Showtime series "Californication" since it debuted August 13, 2007.

Californication

Lead character Hank Moody, an alcoholic priapic writer, is played by "The X-Files" alum David Duchovny as if it were his second skin, and was endlessly fascinating to watch. More...

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Fox sux!

Those "screen-crowding distractions of huge robotic figures" on the Fox NFL telecasts was discussed here six weeks ago.

Just now the network hit a new low with those moronic animations when they began the 4:30 pm Giants-Packers game with their introductory graphics followed by ten seconds of the damn'd robots.

Then we had the briefest glimpse of a B1 Lancer bomber just after its over-flight of Lambeau Field for the end of the National Anthem.

Fox, you still have fatheads in your control booth!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Patch pooches Trustee IDs

...as in really screws the pooch with:

Video: Polar Bear Plunge In Westhampton Beach

...with the lead:

"Westhampton Beach Trustee Sue Farrell led More...

My kinda guys!

From the online edition of The Wall Street Journal:

"Earlier this year, 23% of 680,000 doctors surveyed by market research firm SK&A said they refused to even see drug reps."

It would be extremely useful to know how many of those ±156,400 principled physicians are in the 119xx, or even 117xx, Zip Code that I might look into using them.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Ralph S. Bell (1915-1998)

It was, as the old Harold Tucker Webster1 newspaper cartoon panel used to say, "The thrill that comes one in a lifetime."

Old radio

When I was laid up in an Army post hospital for a time in the late '40s, my regular companion was a little red Montgomery Ward radio... AM only, of course... on which I listened to whatever was available. More...

Monday, January 09, 2012

It's hard to imagine...

...a less exciting BCS title game than the one just completed between Alabama and LSU, won by the Crimson Tide, 21-0!

The previously undefeated Tigers, who had handed 'Bama its sole loss, 9-6 in overtime, on November 5th, were out-coached and out-played from the opening kick-off. More...

Damn'dest Thing!

...and I have no idea what to make of it, with "it" being the Google Alert for "Westhampton Beach" which arrived this morning.

I'm not familiar with Sweet Andy’s Cookies, but I recall that Andy Terry had made an application for a bakery there, so my best guess is that "136 Riverhead Road" is the site of the former Mexican Hut. More...

Thursday, January 05, 2012

January Village Board Meeting

For unexplained reasons, the first meeting of 2012 started late and ended at 7:44 pm, so wasn't all that long consid­ering that the Holiday Lighting Contest Award-winners were to receive their plaques and monetary prizes.

It was over even faster since only one of the recipients showed up, my neighbor at 220 Main Street, and at the end of the evening, there were plaques and envelopes upclaimed at the front of the room. More...

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Okay, now I'm ready to...

Lawrence in "Winter's Bone"

...make my case for who really should have won the 2010 Oscar for "Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role" last February, and why.

I've never made any secret of the "who" part: Jennifer Lawrence, so sublime in "Winter's Bone" as the 17-year-old Ozark Mountains woman, quietly and desperately struggling to keep what's left of her immediate family together! More...