Category Archives: The Beverly Hills Hotel
Once Around the Block on a Summer Night
Comedy keeps me awake nights, and sometimes a walk around the neighborhood behind a slow-moving hound is just the thing. The hound’s prominent nose reminds me of that of Jake, a coworker and friend who was the night baker at … Continue reading
Filed under popular culture, Shop til you stop, The Beverly Hills Hotel
Case Study: an analysis of Eliot Spitzer jokes as told on late-night talk show monologues
Most every joke ever told is built on the element of surprise. The punchline takes an abrupt turn off the path you thought you were traveling down, just as this sentence would if it inexplicably ended in the word “fratenstat.” … Continue reading
“Man is by nature a political animal.” – Aristotle
Thanks for that, Ari. Now come on in out of the weather and give me your coat. Have a seat over here next to Les, here, why don’t you. Mix you a vodka martini? Les was just talking politics with … Continue reading
Filed under Imagine, Philosophy, The Beverly Hills Hotel
The funniest thing I ever saw
happened in 1984 on the patio of the Inn of the Seventh Ray restaurant in Topanga Canyon, California. If California is the earthy-crunchiest state in the union, Topanga in the early 80s was the earthy-crunchiest town in California. Delirious hippies … Continue reading
Filed under The Beverly Hills Hotel
I carried Jackie Gleason.
In the early 1980′s I was the house detective at The Beverly Hills Hotel. It was a good job for a writer who was just there to pay his rent, because the place was essentially a criminal-free zone – though … Continue reading
Filed under The Beverly Hills Hotel
