News and Notes: August 2026

So here are the lyrics to the love theme from CODE NAME: HILLARY (Your Love Is Like a Diamond In the Sky) which will will be warbled by none other than Ms. Rihanna who also stars in the movie along with Jake Gyllenhaal and Elijah Wood!

And here is a thumbnail recap of the plot:

The movie is called Code Name: Hillary and in it, Jake plays an international playboy and man of intrigue and gentleman thief (to name but a few) who has stolen zillions of dollars in jewels from various and sundry European museums.  In fact, the movie opens with a heart pounding scene of one of your (yes, you Jake) daring capers where you and your partner in crime, diminutive and legendary "second story man" Elijah Wood, escape (just barely) with some bejeweled tiaras (or whatever).  After nearly being caught you are forced to go your separate ways.  Oh, your character's name is Charlie Hillary and Elijah is Mischa Orlinski (he's Eastern European--don't worry Elijah, you will nail the accent!) I may be using these names interchangeably.  So Mischa goes to Switzerland to launder the jewels by putting them in a safe deposit box.  He has the account number tattooed (in you guys's secret code) in his armpit.  You lay low for a year or so.  We FADE TO BLACK and then we see the title card: ONE YEAR LATER.  Mischa is now casing a mark at a luxury base camp on Mt. Everest.  There is now a third character in the mix.  She is INTERPOLS number one target, being the most skilled and elusive GENTLELADY PLAYGIRL THIEF in the world.  She is known only by her code name: LADY X.  She will be played by Rihanna. Ms. Ri-Ri will also sing the movie's theme song: "Your Love is Like a Diamond in the Sky."*
So, in Act 2, Mischa meets his maker at bottom of an Everestian crevasse, possibly at the hands of Lady X.  Charlie and Lady X team up to retrieve Mischa's body from the mountain, or at least to get the code from his frozen armpit, in order to get the ill gotten gains in Switzerland.  There are of course all sorts of double-crosses and switch-backs and triple-crosses throughout Act 3 and a playful "will they/won't they/did they/should they/can they(?)" back and forth and up and down between Rihanna and Jake. 

I'm buying a ticket as we speak!!!
Now, as my brain is feverish with ideas, I can't post everything that's going on in there all at once; but I will try to concentrate on two ideas that are brewing right now.  Well, one is not a new idea: it's that freakin' Xmas movie story I need to finish from which I've kept been being distracted.  And the other is another in the ongoing saga of my collab with Tina Fey for Kroger brand Chicken Crackers and the further development of the product synergy and the marketing campaign:

Unfortunately, we won't be going forward with the consult of one Mr. J.D. Draperhamm as he has been placed on indeterminate leave as we've come to a little snafu regarding some of his past personal behavior...

Not to worry!  J.D. and a close, personal friend of his have golden-parachuted to a private South Seas getaway for some contemplative R & R and close-personal soul searching.  We know he will come back to us a new man!
In the meantime ladies and gentlemen we are happy to announce that we will be seeking the flag-pole salutes of one Mr. Lefty Swizzell of  Lefty Creative Resource Solutions, Inc. (formerly Swizzell, Merman, Manoogian and Reidy).  Let's meet Lefty now!

​CHRIS REIDY (CR):
Hello Mr. Swizzell, welcome to Christopherfreidy.com's blog-spot!  It's so exciting to be going forward with you!
LEFTY SWIZZELL (LS)
Where are we going?
CR
Into an exciting new world of Chicken Cracker advertising!
LS
News to me...
CR
Mr. Swizzell--
LS
It's "swi-zelle" like bell; rhymes with "smell."
CR
Oh, it's not "swizzle" like the stick?
LS
No, it's not; but look sweetheart, you say it any way you want.
CR
I like "Swizelle" rhymes with "hell"!
LS
Moving on...
CR 
You know, you look a bit like Mr. Cogswell from The Jetsons.  And also a little like Tina Belcher from Bob's Burgers and also quite a lot like Larry "Bud" Mellman!

​LS
I don't know who any of those people are honey.
CR
Maybe not.  But you do know your way around an ad jingle!
LS
I invented them.
CR
Okay, I'm gonna throw out a series of words at you and I want you to come up with an ad slogan or what have you, off the cuff.
LS
Lay 'em on me baby.
CR
Tina Fey for Kroger Chicken in a Bisquit crackers...and go!
LS
"It ain't your granny's Trisquit when Tina puts her chicken in your bisquit."

CR
Wow!  The legends are true!
LS
Well, I am the man who invented the Nudie Ball Point Pen, so...yeah...

CR
I wonder if Tina Fey would agree to pose for a Nudie Ball Point Pen for Kroger Chicken Biscuit Crackers!??!
LS
I'm sure someone out there would like to see her biscuit...maybe even her crackers...
CR
Okay, Lefty!  Let's confab TBD!
LS
I don't know what any of that means honey...

So, I've been in rehearsals for Cat On A Hot Tin Roof for the past month or so.  I'm playing "Big Daddy Pollitt."  Perhaps the signature role of the legendary Burl Ives:

I did this play about 17 years ago(!) and I played Brick.  I was in my early 40's then and at the time I thought I was perhaps a bit too old to be playing the character, who is supposed to be 27.  Now, I am much closer to the stated age of Big Daddy.  But I guess it's all in the mind.  For me, I suppose it's a "full circle" moment; but in more ways than you would imagine.
You see, my "Big Daddy," my actual father, Francis P. Reidy (who is now 90), was apparently a fan of Mr. Ives at some point in his youth.  He had several Burl Ives LPs in his legit mid-Century record collection:

Now, to get us all on the same page: you may recall the most famous reindeer of all: Rudolph.  Everyone on the planet, probably, has somehow seen his famous TV special.  Mr. Ives supplied the very distinctive voice of Sam the Snowman, the Narrator of that show; so millions, if not billions, know his voice:

Okay, this is weird...I just realized that one of my lines is about silver and gold, in this show.
Burl Ives has always reminded me of Fr. Braisley, a military chaplain who married my parents and in looking back, I think had more than just a spiritual interest in my father.

I never liked him much.  He too was a prolific cigar smoker(!)...
But, I mean, could you blame him?  Here's my dad:

And of course, this play has all kinds of interesting psycho-sexual dynamics.  Like, maybe Big Daddy is in the closet like his son probably is.  I'm not saying my dad was in the closet (or is in the closet); but I always thought he was a gay man trapped in a straight man's body.  I mean, he was into Burl Ives when he was in his 20s!  And come to think of it, Burl Ives himself always made my gaydar go off.  No, my dad liked the ladies.  And he was/is pretty macho.  But "macho" in quotation marks.  He seemed very aware of the dynamics of masculinity and at the same time never bought into it.  He got just as much of a kick out of a man checking him out as he did a lady.  Was he aware of Father B.'s, shall we say, admiration of his corporeal being and turned a blind eye?  Did he have no clue?  I mean, in retrospect, it seems glaringly obvious.  And I bring up these thoughts because William's play deals quite perceptibly with these ideas.  I mean, there's a point in this play when Big Daddy is explaining to Brick that he is well aware of the male demi-monde pick-up places when the Reverend wanders into the room:

BIG DADDY
What are you looking for Preacher?
REVEREND TOOKER
The men's lavatory...

Come on!  Wouldn't he just have said "the bathroom"?
In any event, if you happen to be in the Roanoke, Virginia area in late August, come see the show!

Here's a link for more information:
beartheatre.com/

IT'S OFFICIAL!  I'M A PHYSICIST!!!

Now, I don't want to toot my own horn too loudly...but I must admit that my groundbreaking work in the world of FIELD PROGRAMMBLE GATE ARRAYS is second to none; bar none!  I'm hoping to be on the Nobel shortlist soon!  Here's on of my FPGAs now!

I call this little fellah "Ray-Ray" and he's gonna nab me that sweet, sweet, Swedish guld!

But seriously folks...
No, I am not a physicist and I did not attend school in Oregon or any schools in Lowell, Massachusetts (although I do know someone who went there and was a cheerleader to boot).  I THINK THIS CLEARLY POINTS OUT THE DANGER OF LETTING A SERIES OF COMPUTER INTERFACES DETERMINE ANY PARTICULAR HUMAN'S IDENTITY.  I mean what if there is a Christopher F. Reidy out there somewhere who is up to no good?  Is perhaps an upper-echelon cat-burglar or serial defecator or out of control COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT HABITUEE and old HAL 9000 decides next week to hitch that Chris' information to my legit stats?  What am I supposed to do then?  What if someone is depending on me for the best FIELD PROGRAMMABLE GATE ARRAY in existence in order to reprogram some kind of doomsday device and I can't cough up the goods because I CAN'T COUGH UP THE GOODS!??!
Do you see what I mean?  I mean, it's kinda scary.
Know what else is kinda scary?  Playing a super-famous character in a super-famous play who has a super-duper amount of heretofore unrealized PAGES of dialogue.  Here I am as said character in said play:

I did this play once, backinaday, and I don't remember Big Daddy having all those words come out of his mouth.  It is nearly a forty-five minute monologue.  Or series of soliloquies...or a combining there of.  I played Brick last time and he kinda gets to just sit and listen (kinda)...but the cast in this is great and we're all there for each other (no divas, thank the muses!); so fingers crossed...
One last thought...
​ELLIS AND MURPHY - TOGETHER AT LAST!

So I've watched the pilot and I just gotta say, that after ten minutes, I was rooting for the killer.  Oh yes, I am firmly on Team Trawler and if I do watch further episodes I will pop a Teuscher chocolate and down it with a swig of Dom in merry celebration with each dispatch of disaffected douche-nozzles.
This show is asking me to believe that these ungodly rich, left to their own devices with their parent's credit cards; super-sophisticated little shits are packing (or having packed by the help) their own lunches which they are transporting to school in lunch boxes?  I nearly did an Asti-Spumanti spit-take when I saw that!

Does the school not have a cafeteria?  Even if it did, wouldn't these entitled little twat-waffles simply flout the rules and at least go to say Casa Vega for a lunch of Margs and nachos and a few rails of coke?  It's only a five-minute drive. I know I would've!
Will I do a more "in-depth" analysis of this?  I don't know...that would require some depth.
We'll see.
Ciao for now babies!
MWAH
Chrissy

CFR   8/18/26