'My Fat Dad' offers tasty memories, life lessons

‘My Fat Dad’ offers tasty memories, life lessons

Dawn Lerman grew up in my time frame, but in Chicago and New York, where her fat dad could visit Dr. Atkins and have him phone in dad’s lunch order at his club.
He was a successful ad exec making slogans we all know, such as  “Fly the Friendly Skies,” “Coke is It,” and “Leggo My Eggo.” He went up to 450 pounds and loved food. Her mother was happy to eat a can of tuna over the sink.

Lerman learned to cook from her grandmother, Beauty, who put love in every recipe. The book “My Fat Dad’ would have been great just hearing about Beauty, with recipes at the end of each chapter. But then readers get to head to New York city, where her new lunch buddies pull things like lobster salad out of their Partridge Family lunch boxes. Our young hero is exposed to gourmet and health food, while still hanging on to the Jewish recipes of her youth.

So Mom still likes frozen TV dinners while Lerman still likes shopping for the freshest ingredients for her carob cookie business. She loves to experiment with flavors and does not have the weight problem Dad has. He loses half his weight at a “ricer” fat farm, then struggles upon his return home.

This food journey book yields a delight on every page as we grow up with Dawn, and try some of her flavors, like the Italian Sunday Gravy story and recipe she got from a homeless angel.

I can’t stop talking about “My Fat Dad.”

‘Leading Ladies,’ The Farce is with them

Who doesn’t love a good door-slamming, mistaken identity, men-in-dresses kind of theatrical production.

Sean McBride, your favorite Port Arthur News movie critic, is directing “Leading Ladies” for Beaumont Community Players.

Saturday, Oct. 31 is the final showing if this funny show where two English actors pretend to be long-lost nieces to inherit a fortune. There’s a Shakespeare play-within-a-play and romantic get-togethers and breakups as well. You’re in for a good time. Roller skating Audrey, played by Kaasaundra Davis, just about steals the show, but every one of the cast has his or her or his-and-her moments.

Darraghcastillo@icloud.com