Scratch Crib

Bob's depiction of his VW van, a prototype in the film "Cars" (Courtesy of Bob Waldmire)

ROCHESTER, ILL.--- Somewhere along the way in the mid-1990s I detoured from a Spring Training trip to visit deep gypsy Bob Waldmire at his Old Route 66 Visitor Center & Preservation Foundation in Hackberry, Az, just west of Flagstaff. Waldmire had purchased the Old Hackberry General Store (circa 1930) with money generated from his family's Cardinal Hill Farm in Rochester, Ill.
That was the first time Bob gave me his recipe for vegetarian chili.
I visited Bob earlier this week. He is dying from cancer. He is spending his final days in his converted 1966 Chevy bus/home on his family farm south of Springfield.
In the 1990s Bob concocted an Old Route 66 Chili Mix (cumin, Mexican chilies, onion, garlic, hot peppers, oregano, curry, coreander, paprika, salt, pepper, sugar and other spices). Variety is the spice of life.
Here's the hottest tip in the blogosphere:

It Ain't Me. Babe. (Photo courtesy of Doubleday Books)

Musician-band leader Paul Shaffer answered almost all of my questions during a recent hour-long interview to promote his memoir "We'll Be Here For The Rest of Our Lives (A Swingin' Showbiz Saga)" [Flying Dolphin/Doubleday, $26] with one exception.

I inquired how many songs he knows.
Twice.

"I know a lot of standards from my parent's generation because they had music playing in the house all the time," said Shaffer, who turns 60 on Nov. 28. "As far as rock n' roll goes, I have an intimate knowledge of 1962 through 1974. Then it stops. But within that narrow area, I know a lot."
As a hard core "Late Show with David Letterman" fan I'm always amazed at how quick Shaffer picks up a musical cue......

Soupy sends a pie to fellow funnyman Pat Cooper during Soup's 75th birthday party at the Friar's Club in New York.

Slapstick comedian Soupy Sales has died.
His former manager reported that Sales died of multiple health problems Thursday night in a New York City hospice. Sales was 83.
Another bit of my childhood has been chipped away. I had to revisit this 1997 piece I did with the Soupman when he came Merrillville, Ind. to open for Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons at the Star Plaza Theater.
Hope you chuckle at the cornball jokes. I apologize for my puns.

Life has been a bowl of cheeries for Soupy Sales.

Stop it.

The gags are going to fly like pies in the sky. I asked Soupy what people can expect when the 70-year-old pop culture icon opens for Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

"Jokes," he answered in a call from his Manhattan home. "A woman goes to the doctor, the doctor says, `What's your problem? The woman says, `My water just broke, what should I do? The doctor says, `Get off my rug.' "

Ba-da-boom.

"What do you call a woman who knows where her husband is all the time? A widow."
Let's hang on. The soup's on........

Newspapers---when will the bubble burst?

My colleagues wanted me to ask filmmaker Micheal Moore about his "good riddance" to American newspapers in a September press conference at the Toronto Film Festival. Moore told the gathering that elsewhere in the world newspapers are supported first by readers and then by advertising. He argued that in the U.S. greed for advertising and profit margin supersedes quality journalism and grass root writers like Joseph Mitchell (my favorite).
Newspaper staffs are cut, news holes shrink.
Many forget that Moore, 55, began his career in print in Flint (Mich.) as the founder of the Flint Voice, an alternative newspaper. In 1986 he moved to San Francisco for a brief period to become editor at Mother Jones magazine........

FLINT, Mich.----The GM Flint Assembly plant opened in 1947, when Hal Newhouser won 17 games for the Detroit Tigers and modern homes were being built in Flint's sprawling neighborhoods.
Over the years Flint plant workers have made station wagons, pick up trucks and Chevelles. The Corvette was born in June, 1953 at Chevrolet Plant Number 35, a since-razed facility across the street from the plant. [Sticker price just over $3,000.]

Little Red Corvette - Prince
Today heavy duty crew cabs and and regular cab trucks roll off the line in Flint, 50 miles north of Detroit. In 1975 the plant employed 7,500 people. Today there are less than 1,500 employees (150 management).
General Motors was born in Flint in 1908.
The Flint truck plant is Genesee County's only remaining assembly plant.
Plant tours are open to the public. One of the tour guidelines is to look at workers in the eye, especially those who drive scooters and bicycles (in a time sensitive maneuver skilled trade workers ride bikes to fix a glitch on the line) around the 159-acre facility.
They have the right of way.
In those worker's eyes I saw some hope. Apprehension for sure. Pride. Maybe despair, or perhaps they were just Detroit Lions fans. These eyes sparkled like string lights on an empty patio.............

A man with an open mind.

4:45 p.m. Aug. 18

I visited Jim Dickinson on a confederate gray Sunday morning during the winter of 2002. He invited me into the pack-ratted front area of his trailer on a forgotten plot of land in North Mississippi.
A trailer. Perfect.
Mr. Dickinson was always going somewhere.
Our two-hour conversation included Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, Bob Dylan, Memphis wrestler Jerry Lawler (a faded photo of the wrestler hung above Mr. Dickinson's sofa), Oxford writer-fireman Larry Brown and Chicago ragtime player Two Ton Baker.
Mr. Dickinson played piano on the beautiful soundtrack of "Paris, Texas," produced the Replacements and the watershed reggae album "Toots in Memphis." Dickinson also brought the Rolling Stones to Muscle Shoals (Ala.) Studio where they recorded "Wild Horses." He played piano on Dylan's 1997 Grammy winner "Time Out of Mind."
Mr. Dickinson died early Aug. 15 in his sleep. He was on the mend from heart surgery at Methodist Extended Care Hospital. He was 67. Listen to "When You Wish Upon a Star," which he released earlier this year:
He still has places to see..........