....Anybody....








....who could work a wheelchair like her.  
     Sure do miss her drama.

I woke up late this morning and got the shocking but not surprising news that Elizabeth Taylor was dead.  I immediately went around to all my blog buddies to see what was posted; read the reactions.  Many beautiful, sad, funny things were said, and the general consensus seems to be that she will be greatly missed. I was not inclined to do my own post at first, but it turns out there is something that I would like to say.

I will not miss Elizabeth Taylor.  Put down that dvd of "X, Y and Zee" that you've got aimed at my head for a second and let me explain.  When someone that I've known, publicly or personally,  has died I get the feeling that I will miss them generally when their potential was clipped.  When there was more that they could have expressed. But Miss Taylor lived a blockbuster, Cinemascopic, Stereophonic, balls-out, no-stone-unturned, great big fat (sometimes literally) life.

Unlike most celebrities of her era, she never went through an "item in the columns" period.  From her pre-pubescence she was headlines all the way.  She has run the gamut of appearing in lousy pictures to great ones.  She has given everything from walk through performances to shuddering, shattering clinics in the art of motion picture acting.  She somehow managed, at various times, to become the toast of Hollywood, New York, Washington DC, London and Paris.  She's been the Queen of the Nile for chrissakes!

Many years ago she became legendary for her selfishness and for her compulsive acquisition of enough fine jewelery to open a very well appointed shop.  With a stockroom in back.  In more recent years she became just as legendary for her giving, both of time and money. 

Also headlined, of course, were the zany hijinks and madcap merriment of her romantic life.  She was a gal who believed in the 'now' of love.  She understood that there is nothing remotely logical about love and to try to bring logic and appropriateness to it was a futile exercise, and she lived accordingly.

It's also important for me to remember:  She Wasn't Like The Rest Of Us.  I'll never forget a piece of a Vanity Fair article on her many years ago.  It was sometime after the forming of AMFAR.  She was probably in her early sixties at this point. She was to attend a meeting with the Board of Directors of her Foundation that was being held at the downtown Bank of America building.  Afterwords, some of them were going someplace locally for lunch.  Her driver deposited her at the elevators in the parking garage and up she went to the penthouse boardroom.  After the meeting, it was decided that since the restaurant was a few doors away, they would walk to it.  This meant leaving the building by going through the bank lobby.  All these 'suits' and Elizabeth were walking through the bank when suddenly the guys became aware that she was not in their group any more.  They looked back and there she was, standing alone in the middle of the enormous bank, a look of wonder on her face.  They rushed back to her and asked if everything was alright.  More to herself then to them she muttered, "So this is what a bank looks like"!

In more recent years, she quieted down.  No more movie product - headlines few and far between.  She became a maternal homebody in the very same house that she had lived in for many of the spectacle years.  The house that has seen it all.  I find myself thankful that she got to add quietness and mundane to her repertoire of experiences.

In the end, if there's one line of dialog from her career to sums her up it would be from 'V-Woolf':  "I am the Earth Mother".  The earth is a vast and beautiful and horrifying and kind thing.  I will remember Elizabeth Taylor.  I will celebrate her.  But I will not miss her.  She did everything she came here to do.  She was complete.

Thanks for asking, Jason.

In the scene above, two things are unmistakably clear:  1)  Entrances are more effective when they are exactly 8 minutes and 50 seconds in duaration and have thousands of actual (non CGI) humans looking on, (I have always imagined her going through a sort of stripped down version of this entrance every time she walks into her living room) and  2)  Taylor, as Cleopatra, appears so regal, serene and bemused because she just scarfed down a bowl of Chasen's chili before the shot.

The old Hollywood legend is that Elizabeth was so fond of the chili made from Dave Chasen's secret recipe that she was having it dry-ice-packed and shipped to her in Rome during the filming of "Cleopatra".  It is a legend that I no longer doubt.  A dear friend of mine was once employed at Taylor's house in the early '80s.  Recently we were talking about glorious Hollywood landmarks that no longer exist and I asked him if he had ever been to Chasen's.  "Yes, but only in the kitchen when I would go pick up chili for Elizabeth." was his reply

As this upcoming weekend is Super Bowl Sunday, there will be lots of chili pots simmering and with good reason.  It is a time honored traditional dish here in the US with as many different variations in ingredients and preparations as there are cooks to make them.  Even if you have no interest in Football (Go Saints!) and don't intend to watch the funny commercials game, there's no reason not to fire up the chili pot!  It's wintertime, and chili is comforting. 

So it's with that in mind that I am bringing to you, at great expense (google):

Dave Chasen's Chili Recipe

1 cup dry pinto beans

Water

5 cups canned tomatoes

1 pound green bell peppers, seeded and coarsely chopped

1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 1/2 pounds onions, coarsely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 cup minced parsley

1/2 cup butter

2 1/2 pounds ground beef

1 pound ground lean pork

1/3 cup chili powder

2 tablespoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin


Rinse beans and place in a bowl with enough water to cover by 2 inches. Soak overnight.
Pour beans and soaking water into a large kettle, cover and simmer until tender, 1 to 2 hours. Add tomatoes and simmer 5 minutes longer.
While beans are cooking, saute green peppers in oil in a large skillet 5 minutes. Add onions and cook and stir until tender. Add garlic and parsley.
In another skillet, melt butter. Add beef and pork and saute about 15 minutes. Add meat to onion mixture; stir in chili powder and simmer 10 minutes. Add meat mixture to beans and season with salt, pepper and cumin.
Simmer chili, covered, 1 hour. Remove cover and continue cooking 30 minutes, stirring now and then and adding water to keep it moistened if needed. Skim fat. Serve chili in deep bowls. Makes about 4 quarts.

Now before we leave the Chasen's topic entirely, if you heard a loud thud recently it was me fainting upon opening an email from my friend Judy.  It seems that she and her girlfriend are moving to a smaller place, and as a result had to sell one of their favorite possesions:  Chasen's booth no. 22; the Burt Lancaster banquette!  After entertaining offers, it has sold.