MAD Magazine Memories My Mind Mustily Maintains

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Today February 15, 2026 is my cousin Sammy's 84th Birthday

It's also my neighbor Darnell Moore's Birthday as well! 

Today is also the day I happened on TVintage.com where the have all 550 issues of MAD Magazine (minus the specials) digitally stored.

 

 

 

 

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Five Years

From my Facebook feed for today:

On this February morning, the fifth anniversary of my sister’s passing, I just wanted to again remember her.
This studio portrait was from her high school days and senior year at Polytechnic in San Francisco.
The summer of love.
With love,
Richard
Pictured: Angelica Ingrid Alma Staley.

Angelica Ingrid Alma Staley nee Sanchez (1967)

This second image below dates to when, I don’t know. Steve Staley, her future husband, is the photographer however. During their courtship and throughout their marriage, he and my sister would often go on random photo outings to wherever - the location too, escapes me. Steve, a camera buff, loved photographing Angie every chance he could. I wonder if they were still just dating or already newlyweds, when this picture was snapped.

Angie, in the role of a photo subject, posing for Steve, someplace somewhere.

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The Roosevelt

[NOTE: Due to the news of the untimely passing of one of my favorite comediennes, Catherine O'Hara, four days after I posted this fourth post for the month of January (2026-01-26) I have moved this minor entry to the top of February instead.]




From a 2026-01-26 reply to post from my ‘San Francisco Remembered' Facebook group.

i

My very first memory, or possibly my second,* was there.

It was the Roosevelt then, and I recalled watching a clip from George Melies' 'A Trip to the Moon' followed a little later by Cantinflas' Passeportout. He was madly scrambling to catch a hot air balloon just in the nick of time. 

Both scenes were from the Michael Todd 1956 extravaganza, 'Around the World in Eighty Days'. 

I was two.

;-)

*The other memory competing for first place is the time an old, unused stove fell over and swallowed me whole!

This overview of the theater’s history by Tom Mayer is from Cinema Treasures:

This Mission district neighborhood theatre opened as the Roosevelt Theatre on September 22, 1926 with Norma Talmadge in “Kiki”. It had 1,006-seats and was designed by the architrectural furm Reid Brothers. In 1946 it was remodeled to the plans of architect Otto A. Deichmann. It retained the Roosevelt name until at least 1957. By 1971 it had been renamed Teatro York screening Spanish language movies. In later years the theatre was known as the York Theatre which was programed as a repertory movie theatre in the 1980’s.

The York Theatre closed as a movie house in 1993.

In the fall of 2001, the theatre was restored and reopened as Brava Women’s Theater Arts.

The theatre has retained its screen for movies but is now primarily a performing arts center.

Contributed by Tom Mayer

1951 look at the theatre from the San Francisco Assessor's Office

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Catherine O'Hara (1954 - 2026) [This post just requires tags.]

     It is with sadness I woke up today, only to learn of our having lost Catherine O'Hara, one of my favorite comediennes since I first learned of SCTV back in 1979. 

     She will join the ranks of her fellow Second City and SCTV alumni who have gone on ahead of her: John Belushi, Gilda Radner, John Candy, Harold Ramis, Tony Rosato, Robin Duke, and Joe Flaherty

 

     Here's what I posted on my Facebook today:

    "Just learned the sad news of comedienne Catherine O'Hara's passing, here seen in the foreground, downstage of fellow actress Andrea Martin, in one of my favorite SCTV skits, the infamous parody of Ingmar Bergman, titled 'Whispers of the Wolf'

 

 

Post script: Today, I no longer laugh..."

 

     Later in the day, I able to locate the aforementioned skit on YouTube. Hopefully, copyright won't impede its upload to this post. Otherwise I might have to see if I can re-upload it to my YouTube account and link to it there. Here goes. 

 

 

 

 

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Iced. [This post just requires tags.]

In less than a month.

 

 

Keith Porter Jr

Keith Porter Jr. Murdered by an off duty ICE officer just minutes prior to the New Year, December 31st, 2025

 

Rene Nicole Good

Rene Nicole Good. Murdered at point blank range in her SUV, January 7th, 2026

 

 Alex Jeffrey Pretti

Alex Jeffrey Pretti. Pinned to the ground and shot in the back some dozen or more times. 

These are the current deaths to say nothing of the more that have already died at ICE's hand.

 

A Year and Ten Days Out [This post just requires tags.]

    Nothing special. 

    I just happened to notice the calendar date my sister spontaneously had the front yard trees once again addressed: a year and ten days after last January’s task. (See: January 5th, 2025’s post).

Opportunistic

"Live Long and Just for Good Measure..."* [This post just requires tags.]

Happy New Year!

 

;-)

 

 

*This post was created, on the spot, as a good-natured response to Jörg's first comment to Mano Singham's 'Hope for the New Year' post on Freethought Blogs. [On a side note: I am going to try once again for four posts a month. Hopefully, I will end 2026 with a totality of forty eight blog posts; not forty four (2024) or fifty (2025), but a symmetrical forty eight!]

 Oh and as to my hopes for the new year… Typically, under Trump's despotism, we illegally invaded Venezuela less than twenty four hours into it. Hell, even before the new year struck, an off-duty ICE officer would murder Keith Porter, while another ICE officer, Jonathan Ross, would kill at point blank range, Renee Nicole Good eight days later!