Karen Ocamb is now a leading LGBTQ journalist in LA, but decades ago she was a cranky teenager on the East Coast, who was very gently reproved by Paul Newman over some freshly caught fish. When Newman died, Ocamb filed a loving commentary on her two encounters with the star.

Then, since Newman won the Academy's Jean Hersholt award at the Oscars in 1994, another distinguished journalist, Hollywood historian Alex Ben Block, goes to the Hollywood Walk of Fame to tell us who Jean Hersholt was and why he's beloved in the Industry.

Both of these pieces originally aired in October of 2008.

Support for this podcast comes from Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live; and bythe Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.

I start this week's podcast with a piece of audio I was instructed never to play again. Ever. It's Tom Jones adapting his mega-hit "She's a Lady," so it goes "He's a Rabe, whoah whoah whoah he's a Rabe..."

The person who told me not ever to run it again was Rico Gagliano, who was just jealous. I mean, the best he could ever get is Gerardo.

We originally aired this interview on KPCC in December of 2008, when Sir Tom released the album, "24 Hours."

Support for this podcast comes from Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live; and bythe Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.

Peter Mac's Judy Garland tribute show ... Lisa See's "Shanghair Girls" and "Dreams of Joy" ... Acting v Bullying ... Good Magazine ... Forget Carmen San Diego; who the hell is Moomat Ahiko? ...

Off-Ramp welcomes Lunar New Year in Chinatown ... 3 Places with Linda Vallejo, PST artist ... Spirited Away with My Neighbor Totoro - a Ghibli celebration ... Bradley Whitford on "Art" and that show he did ... have your New Year's resolutions gone out the window?

Clayton and Ellen Kershaw, the real (nice) deal ... Korean American filmmaker Andrew Ahn uses Sundance film to come out to folks ... Ted Soqui's Occupy LA photos ... Downey woman tells harrowing Costa Concordia story ...

Troy Isaac, homeless advocate ... OCMA's PST entry: SoCal's conceptual art hotbed ... EatLA and the death of restaurants ... Coachella expands to two weekends ...

Largest Vivian Maier photography show in LA ... Chris Butler uses film ... speech analysis computer can (usually) tell if you're drunk ...

Walking Out of History, John Rabe's NPR documentary about Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition

New and old takes on Dickens' classic "A Christmas Carol"

Judge James Reese fights for literacy ... all-star Night Before Christmas, an Off-Ramp holiday tradition ... A Christmas Story: Dylan Brody and Dylan Thomas ... EatLA eats a lot of sandwiches ...