I have a whole bunch of these piled-up so let's try and get caught up. This one's from Neil Shurley…
I saw a scene-by-scene comparison on the web a while back (I'm pretty sure done by Jaime Weinman on his blog, Something Old, Something New) that demonstrated that Lerner seemed to have utilized the film Pygmalion for source material for the movie My Fair Lady rather than Shaw's original play. The example that sticks out in my mind is the scene in which Higgins pops marbles into Eliza's mouth. That scene was lifted from the 1932 movie and didn't appear in the original play, according to what I read at least…
It doesn't…and there are other parallels, including the whole matter of the ending. I think the Broadway play was based much more on the screenplay than the original Shaw play. I'm guessing that this is something Lerner was afraid to admit because there were potential legal complications there. The movie was produced by Gabriel Pascal, who had originally engaged Lerner and Loewe to adapt Pygmalion into a musical. They worked on it for a time, then gave up. After Pascal died, they took up the cause again but there were all sorts of complications with the Pascal estate, which was contested by a wide array of past women in his life, some of whom he'd even married.
I'm not sure exactly what could have happened but I don't think Lerner wanted certain parties to figure out how much he'd taken from the screenplay.
I heard from a couple of Chick-Fil-A employees who asked that I not use their names. One of them wrote…
I enjoyed your commentary on fast food today, and I can confirm for you that Chick-fil-A chickens all arrive frozen to us. We thaw them for two days in refrigeration and then prepare them for breading and frying. Because Chick-fil-A uses a pressure-cooker style fryer, the filets and other chicken products cook very quickly sealing the juices in which is part of what makes them so good.
I should also note for you that they fry in peanut oil (as noted on their menu) and the "healthy" option grilled chicken actually has more fat content than the fried chickens due to its marinade. That tidbit is buried in the nutritional information in their restaurants.
I suspect the difference between the Chick-Fil-A sandwich and the McDonald's knock-off is that the McDonald's chicken filet probably arrives breaded and frozen, and that it's fried the same way as the fries and not in a pressure cooker. It is, after all, only one item on a very large menu, whereas it's the signature item at Chick-Fil-A.
And someone else sent this link to a summary of the Chick-Fil-A political connections and writes…
I don't know if you would care, but founder Truett Cathy is a major contributor to right-wing Christian organizations like Focus on the Family and Campus Crusade for Christ.
I care but not enough that I'd skip patronizing Chick-Fil-A if there was one nearby to patronize. I tend to think boycotts rarely do more than make the boycotter feel like they're doing something. Once in a while, I feel uncomfy giving money to some business…like I stopped buying my gas at Exxon and Mobil after the Exxon Valdez oil spill and you can see how the loss of my business has decimated their income. There are also publishers whose books I won't purchase because I think the company has done unethical things.
I can't quite explain why some of these situations bother me and others don't. Maybe it's that sleazy ethics bother me more than just having political views with which I disagree.
That's all I have time for now. Posting here, by the way, should be light the next day or so as I have to spend many, many hours in a recording studio wearing my director hat. But I'll be back to you soon.