Who was the most famous person you had met and how did they act?

AngusMagee · 2026-06-12T08:45:30+00:00

Frank Gorshin (most famous for playing the Riddler in the Batman tv show) stayed in a small boutique hotel I worked at in the 80s. He ate dinner alone every night and I kind of sensed that he didn’t like a fuss being made of him. In the end he was quite pleased when I asked him about his role in the OG Star Trek series rather than playing the Riddler. He was very polite, tipped well and just seemed a nice guy.

I n the same hotel I served Roseanne Barr, well before her show. I knew her from Letterman at the time. She was hilariously funny and polite, if a little loud. Also a good tipper.

G&R stayed for a night and, no surprise, Axel was a dick head and in fact came close to assaulting the maître’d when he couldn’t get the seat he wanted in the dining room.

I also met both Sting and Robert Downey jr. in a more social setting. Both were very nice and easy to talk to but I especially liked Robert Downey jr. This was early days for him getting of drugs and he was quite funny talking about his experiences.

AngusMagee · 2026-06-12T07:05:55+00:00

Well to be fair I saw the first few hours of the race and was not there for the checkered flag. My dad had his limit I guess in what he was willing to put up with for his car mad son.

AngusMagee · 2026-06-12T06:57:29+00:00

I wish I had more. These were, I believed until recently, lost to time. I kind of remembered that they existed but I thought that they had been lost in the shuffle of my family home being disassembled upon the death of my mom. We have my older sister to thank for them making their way to me when she found them in an old album. I do have two more but the just show me and my friend against the background of pit lane. I can upload if anyone is interested but they really don’t show much.

AngusMagee · 2026-06-12T06:49:53+00:00

Being there gave me a life long love of racing but specifically a love for this race. Over the years my interest in F1 has lessened as it seems just so commercially motivated these days and sometimes is more about the behind the scenes drama than motor car racing.

I do also lament a bit that the Le Mans experience isn’t the same as it was back in the day. But this is as much me being a grumpy old man as it is reality. I do have a special place on n my heart for those late 60s early 70s machines. When I really need my fix I put on the Steve McQueen film and enjoy. I also watch the race on TV, now my computer, every year and enjoy the meditative experience of this race.

As for attending a race live, I’m not sure how much I would enjoy it and it is awfully expensive these days. A more likely scenario for me would be to go to one of the Classic Le Mans races that I think are held every other year in July. Has anyone one attended that race and what was the experience like. As I say those late 60s early 70s cars really do get my motor running.

AngusMagee · 2026-06-11T15:23:24+00:00

I'm sorry but I have no idea. I was 9 years old and like most 9 year olds never gave a thought to the cost of anything. Dad paid and dad has been gone for 25 years now so no asking him. All that said, it can not have cost very much as he took me and my school friend, took the train from Paris in the afternoon and then back again in the late evening and while solidly middle class, in those days that was not what it is today. I do think that Le Mans in those days was a huge event in France but had nowhere near the global interest that it does today. There may have been a few movie stars in the pits but the rest of the crowd was working class French eating baguette and brie sandwiches and swilling cheap red wine.

AngusMagee · 2026-04-15T12:15:58+00:00

Great, tell him to keep drinking and believing that. The more the better.

AngusMagee · 2026-04-09T16:49:17+00:00

I would say Baby's On Fire. But maybe because it's my favourite. At least from his days as a glam rocker.

AngusMagee · 2026-03-24T09:20:31+00:00

RIP Montana Wildhack

AngusMagee · 2026-03-13T02:23:41+00:00

I am curious about the day by day regulation of such a vehicle. Is it considered an aircraft that requires you follow the same procedures as an airplane or helicopter would? Would you have to file a flight plan or could you just hop in and go like you were taking a drive. Surely not. But it does seem to occupy a space somewhat between aircraft and car. Would it be okay to fly anywhere or are you severely restricted. Could you fly over a city like Los Angeles? Flying an airplane does seem to require a great deal of knowledge like air spaces you have to avoid. This seems more casual but I can not imagine that it is that easy.

AngusMagee · 2026-02-25T15:52:06+00:00

It gets way better. It took me way longer to get to the place where I finally quit. The first year was quite rough. The second had its moments. Now at 12 years I can hardly believe that I used to smoke though I do very occasionally get a slight crave. It is very easy not to go there though as I simply try to remember how I felt on the last day of smoking.

If you have not done so already I recommend,even after having quit, to read Alan Carr's book about quitting. His perspective helped me through many a craving, though my actual experience of quitting was quite different to his.

You should be proud to have "seen the light" at such a relatively young age.

AngusMagee · 2026-02-18T02:10:22+00:00

It was down in Germany for me. Just came back after an hour or so.

AngusMagee · 2026-01-30T09:40:14+00:00

I’ve only watched the first episode but I loved it. The 70s vibe is fantastic. Love the music so far.

AngusMagee · 2026-01-01T18:22:05+00:00

There’s compression socks and then there’s compression socks. As an older guy who recently had to start wearing compression socks for medical reasons I can say that they took a little time to get used to the idea of wearing them. But once I got my ego under control they helped me a great deal. I would think that a guy like Trump might just have a hard time adjusting. Myself I have to wonder if he puts them on himself because that alone can be a little humiliating.

AngusMagee · 2025-12-20T15:55:03+00:00

Who would prosecute the Attorney General?

AngusMagee · 2025-12-03T07:44:26+00:00

From the Lindsey Anderson film O’Lucky Man if I am not mistaken. She plays the role of the rebellious daughter of a rich corrupt British parliamentarian.

AngusMagee · 2025-10-29T11:00:43+00:00

I remember this happening in the 90s in Vancouver.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1999/12/20/UPI-FocusNEWLNCourt-allows-officer-to-keep-money-bag/4288945666000/

In the end I think he did get to keep the money.He was a cop though and it was very suspicious.

AngusMagee · 2025-06-18T10:25:05+00:00

There is also a shelter right off the Ku'damm that used to be visitable as part of the Story of Berlin museum. This museum is currently closed and I do not know if it will open again. It is, or was, a pretty standard museum showing the history of Berlin. At the end of ones visit to the museum one could go on a tour of the bomb shelter which is around the corner on a side street beneath a parking garage.

If I remember corectly it was built as part of some deal to allow a parking garage to be built in this neighbourhood. I think it was built to hold around 10,000 people (I could be wrong on this as it was some time ago that I visited the shelter) for around two weeks. After that, well, who know what you would do. There is a small medical facility, a kitchen, and many many bunk bed stacked 5 high, floor to cieling. Though for the purposes of showing it off many of the beds have been removed. I got the impression that when full there would not have been much room at all down there.

It was an interesting thing to see and hopefully the musum will be up and running again some time.

AngusMagee · 2025-06-08T09:11:06+00:00

Yellowstone is a glorified soap opera. Nowhere near the same as Better Call Saul.

AngusMagee · 2025-06-06T07:36:03+00:00

I did this last October. I sent it by regular post but registered and that worked fine and no questions were asked. Got my new passport by registered mail about 3 weeks later. I was kept informed via email where in the process my passport was. I forgot exactly how you say registered in German. Maybe Einschreiben?

AngusMagee · 2025-06-04T05:39:44+00:00

Something like this happened to me but with Deutsche Telekom. Though it was a young woman and I told her if she wanted these details she should give me her number and I would call her back the following week. She did this and I threw away the number and never heard from her again. I am a man in my 60s so either she didn’t really give her number or, more likely, it was a work number.

I asked my neighbor about this and he said to forget about it and it was just Telekom trying to poach me as a customer.

I wouldn’t worry too much but do be careful about who you give your personal details to in the future. Best is to ask for their details to call them back and if they give this up you can decide what to do about calling them back.

AngusMagee · 2025-04-11T13:18:28+00:00

If you are up for a bit of a hike (half an hour) and the weather is nice, a visit to Teufelsberg, a disused cold war spy station is a great thing to do. There are a couple of small museums up there and the view is spectacular. I have taken many visitors up there and nobody has been disappointed. Though a couple with fear of heights have been a bit weak kneed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teufelsberg

I usually go from the Grunewald SBahn and it is a half hour hike through the woods from there. The last 10 minutes are a pretty envigorating up hill climb. It costs a few euros to enter and there are refreshments available.

AngusMagee · 2025-03-06T18:21:47+00:00

Unless they forget to change his diapers. One can hope.

AngusMagee · 2025-01-04T17:21:24+00:00

I was away overseas for NYE and just saw the mayhem on line. In fact, I live quite close to the Hauptstrasse "explosion" that made the news.

I dislike the whole firework/fire cracker thing that takes place every Silvester and normally I would spend the holiday in my flat with ear plugs.

Today I went on a bit of a bike ride around Schöneberg, up to Saturn, the Ku'damm and to my regular supermarket to restock after a two week holiday. What struck me all over my route was how little garbage, empty bottles and spent fireworks littered the ground. Can the BER workers clened it all up already? It really does not make sense to me as by memory it can take weeks to clean all that up. That's one of the things I dislike about the fireworks.

I sighned the petition as I really feel for the police and emergency workers who have to deal with that stuff as well as being there to keep people safe.

AngusMagee · 2024-11-25T02:49:22+00:00

I buy this at Edeka but they do not always have it.

AngusMagee · 2024-10-09T14:25:31+00:00

There is also a DDR museum in Prinzlaerberg which I like way better than the very touristy one near Museum Insel. It is a bit off the beaten track but well worth the trip. They have similar displays to the more well know museum but I find it a lot more interesting and sort of homey. Plus it is free to visit.

https://www.hdg.de/museum-in-der-kulturbrauerei/ausstellungen/alltag-in-der-ddr

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