CHEESEBURGERS & ALL MY CHILDREN

Last night Marti and I ordered gourmet bagel burgers and fries from AlloResto delivery service to eat in my room at the Clinic Of The Rich & Famous. With dinner we YouTubed several episodes of an All My Children story arc from 1983. That was the year we began following the daytime drama faithfully. Even after we moved to Paris 25 years ago, we implored family and friends to send us 8-episode tapes from the States! In the final years of the run (January 5, 1970, to September 23, 2011) I was able to download the show to my Paris laptop.

Seeing all these actors from the Go-Go-Champagne-And-Blow 1980s again brought back memories of a great week Marti and I spent together in New York City in that era. Marti was working the American Bar Association convention at the Sheraton on Seventh Avenue. I had the days to myself. I remember buying what became a favorite Chet Baker cassette to play in my coolass JVC boom box with pop-out "Walkman"-type portable player.

It was August 1986, so I took in a free concert in Roy Wilkins Park in St. Albans, Queens. Tommy James (of Tommy James & The Shondells) and Felix Cavaliere from the Rascals. You could do worse than to inject a little "Crimson and Clover" and "Groovin'" into your summer afternoon.

The hit of the week was to take Marti out to an obscure boîte in the Village (that I nicknamed "Nexus," after the Manhattan nightclub mentioned and shown frequently in All My Children). My bride asked whom we were going to see and I told her it was a surprise. She was bowled over when Candace Earley (Donna on AMC) took the stage to do her one-woman cabaret act! What's more, in the small audience there were other actors from the soap like Jean Leclerc (Jeremy) and celebrity fans, such as Larry "Bud" Mellman.

A super night on the town!