31: Call Your Grandma

Neglecting our loved ones, smart phones are making us dumber and meaner, a classic thriller, the Belushi baffle, my dad meeting Arnold Schwarzenegger, don't lie about air conditioning, seeing Judge Ito, some brutal and amazing fighters, the all around cool guy Kelly Pavlik, the tragedy of Arturo Gatti, the despicable but ferocious Edwin Valero, a Taxi Driver ripoff in Los Angeles, an unmissable documentary about movies and Los Angeles, the bad ass Burt Lancaster, and a quote or two. Stuff mentioned: Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans "Why Are More Americans Dying Alone?" (Los Angeles Times, March 24, 2024), Jonathan Haidt The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (2024), Misery (1990), This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Animal House (1978), The Blues Brothers (1980), Saturday Night Live (1975-present), Red Heat (1988), Twins (1988), Pumping Iron (1977), Tim Tszyu vs. Sebastian Fundora (2024), Kelly Pavlik vs. Jermaine Taylor (2007), George Foreman vs. Michael Moorer (1994), Arturo Gatti vs. Micky Ward I (2002), Arturo Gatti vs. Micky Ward II (2002), Arturo Gatti vs. Micky Ward III (2003), Red Nights (1988), Taxi Driver (1976), Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003), David Kipen (editor) Dear Los Angeles: The City in Diaries and Letters, 1542 to 2018 (2018), Sinclair Lewis Elmer Gantry (1926), Elmer Gantry (1960), Unwound "Lady Elect" (1996), and Atlantic City (1980).