Two chuckles from the New Yorker

I am so proud, I am a cruciverbalist

I am very proud. My wife and I just learned we were designated for membership in a very nonexclusive club that has members world-wide.

We are now cruciverbalists and have been for many many years without us knowing it. One of the rules of the club is you have to learn how to spell the word. But once you do, just think how proud you will be.

Oh did I mention what a cruciverbalist is? It is a person who designs or someone who participates in the working of crossword puzzles.

What that's you say, puzzles and their workers are common as grass and almost as plentiful? Rubbish I say, save your neigh saying for someone else.

God, how we sometimes speak

More than once I have opened my big trap and trotted out some criticism about conjugation of a word. The one that really gets me is this: I SEE YOU, I SAW YOU, I HAVE SEEN YOU.

I had not heard it in a while, and then while listening to a podcast with two men expounding on a subject for one complete hour, man A opens his mouth and out comes the sentence, I seen Joe..... My God that's like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.

Now today a week later, I ran across this from a blog of a year ago. Someone else must have a sensitive spot for the mangling of the language. No, please don't start about elitism or some such cop out. It just sounds terrible and makes the talker seem less educated than he/she is. Don't get defensive, just change.

Julia Childs from Architectural Digest

I had just watched the movie JULIE AND JULIA a week or so back, when I ran into this from ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST. I half expected Julia to look like Meryl Streep who played her to a tee. (by the way where does that saying come from?) Take a look at the article with pictures.

Photographers Eye

A good example of 'the eye of the artist'. I love the contrasts of colors and shapes. See it and read about the shooter here.

After Life

From the podcast RADIO LAB, I found this show which is one hour long about life or more precise leaving life to that other or next world if there is a world. Take a listen.

Try to cut some of the fear of cancer down to size.

17 Years Later, Stage 4 Survivor Is Savoring a Life Well Lived Read this and believe.

Hazel, my wife and the victim of this damnable desease is a stage one. Compared to some, she is very lucky. She is doing well, but she will agree that the fear that accomplanies the realization is immoblizing. Read this and the accompanying sites and you will see that you don't all of the sudden live in a vaacum. It will help some. God bless you and good luck.

Buddy Morrow's NIGHT TRAIN

Buddy Morrow's NIGHT TRAIN. Enjoy.

The Unknown Citizen by W.H. Auden

Birth of the Glenn Miller Sound

From The Glenn Miller Story. I've read that the story is not factual, but I don't care. It is dramatic and puts you there when the Miller sound was created. It's amazing, he has been dead for over sixty years and copy cat groups still tour the land playing the music, the sound. I still like it.

Two by CLAUDE CORBIN:

The could-be theory

What's My Line

One of televisions longest running game shows that premiered when I was a teen-ager in 1950 can be seen on youtube. Take a look. It was just a game for games sake. Try to spoof the panel of celebrites. WHAT'S MY LINE ran for seventeen years with basically the same panel and a guest. Here you will see the premier and the last show and about sixty or seventy more. It is enjoyable and nostalgic.

What other bloggers are thinking and writing about. A woman who writes DOGWALK MUSINGS and lives in Idaho is thinking about Hillary.



Buyer's Remorse?

Stranger things have happened! With Obama's poll numbers continuing to slide, one might say that even Democrats are becoming disenchanted with the way his administration is conducting the business of the country. According to the L.A. Times he's barely holding his own against potential Republican opponents, whoever they might be. Heck, he only leads Ron Paul by one percentage point!

It's still early, though it seems troublesome that none of the Republicans seem to be gaining any sort of foothold. So Obama really doesn't have to worry, right? Wrong. Who is out polling every name mentioned? Hillary!

I've been debating with myself about the likelihood of Hillary challenging Obama. I think she just might. Where the Times suggests she's "free of political tussles", I don't agree. As Secretary of State she is steward of a weak foreign policy even if it's not her own. They are spot on, however, when they say she now has an "enhanced resume burnished on the world stage".

The one thing she needs to heed. Being true to the dictates of the administration when she strongly disagrees. If she disagrees. A recent example is the credibility lost by Colin Powell, another who could have been President, by buying into the Bush administration's stand on Iraq's owning weapons of mass destruction. He wasn't sure of the evidence but caved to administration pressures. Had he resigned I think he could have challenged Bush and perhaps won. I would suggest the same could be true for Hillary.

This is political theater that is fun to watch. If she steps down after the 2010 mid-terms I'd expect to see her run. You can expect all the denials that go with the territory. She would want to resign on her terms; have it her show; not Obama's.

I have a hunch she still has a burning desire to be the first woman President. I don't know if she'd be good or not. I think she'd have a very different Presidency than what we're living through now. I think she might right the ship of state to a less precarious angle.

I wasn't a supporter of Hillary, but in a sentimental sort of way, I'd rather like to see her achieve her goal. Especially if Sarah Palin were to be her opponent. Hillary had worked her entire life toward getting Bill to the Presidency. By the time that was achieved the political climate in the country had changed to the point a woman could, too, be a viable candidate and she set for herself a new goal.

I think she's earned at least another chance at it. Unlike Sarah Palin who was plucked from obscurity for reasons that have always eluded me; who's strength is the ability to deliver stinging one liners. No. The first woman to reach that height, if it's to be in my life time, should be Hillary. No one else has come close to climbing that mountain!

Are immigrants still welcome?

Are we still the land of the free? Do we still feel the same about the huddled masses yearning to be free?

I know I think of immigrants differently than perhaps the majority now, and I probably always will. There remains those of us born in the last years of the Great Depression who until we die off will not change our thinking. When we hear the term immigrants we (I) think of my grandparents who were immigrants. They were good people who contributed to the building of this country in many ways. Speech is over.

Secret decoder ring

I was going to write a short post about serials to accompany this current comic strip, but Don Potter says it just great.

I grew up listening to lots of radio shows, as did most pre-boomers. Around dinnertime there was "Captain Midnight" and "Jack Armstrong the all-American Boy," plus many other adventure series throughout the early evening. Around eight o'clock the comedies like "Fibber Magee & Molly" and "The Life of Reilly" came on. At nine were the dramas such as the "Lux Radio Theater." And, there were scary programs too; every time I hear a squeaking door today, I think of the opening of "Inter Sanctum."

The only time I didn't like radio was when I was sick and couldn't go to school; those syrupy soap operas were the only things on during the weekdays. Saturday mornings had lots of great programs, which I listened to until it was time to go see the double feature matinee at the local movie house. Sunday afternoons and evenings were also a good times for radio.

There were programs the family listened to, but the ones I enjoyed most were the ones I heard in my room on the old Crosley radio. It sat on the nightstand next to my bed and looked like a toaster with knobs compared to the big, wood grained Philco console downstairs. With no distractions, these programs played vividly in the theatre of my mind. Yes, I actually could use my imagination to envision situations that were bigger than life, travel to places at the other end of the earth, and experience encounters so real that the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up.

The escape was thrilling, but there was a price to pay. To be the first kid on my block to have a secret decoder or the Lone Ranger's silver bullet ring with a hidden message compartment, I had to send fifty cents and two or more box tops from the cereal brands sponsoring the shows to a special Post Office Box, and then wait. I worked off the money doing chores around the house, but the family ate stale Cheerios and Wheaties for a long time - far longer than it took to get my magical toy from some distant location like Battle Creek, Michigan.

I can't say whether life was better back then, but it sure was simpler. There were good guys and bad guys, and the difference was apparent. Something was sad or it was not. A joke made you laugh or it wasn't funny. No, I don't want to return to the past, but I'm glad I had the experience of growing up when radio was in its prime.

Don Potter, a Philadelphia native, was born in 1936 and is a 50 year veteran of the advertising agency business. Now living in Los Angeles, he has written two novels in retirement, frequently writes on marketing issues, and has a blog dedicated to pre-boomers (those born between 1930 and 1945).

The old man observes: "Cold blooded retort young lady."

An Old Man's Observations

why do we like corny jokes?

Why do we like corny jokes? I admit I do. Is it because they are usually clean jokes or perhaps because they appeal to the lack of sophistication that resides right under our public persona? They’re usually brief, but then again not always. Maybe it’s because simple is best. A psychiatrist could write a paper on it I suppose. A medical doctor would tell you it’s good for your health to laugh. As they say in the vernacular of the day, Whatever. Just for an experiment let’s read a couple cornies. This is just an experiment remember so if you laugh it will help medical and psychiatry science.



A turtle was walking down an alley in New York when he was mugged by a gang of snails. A police detective came to investigate and asked the turtle if he could explain what happened. The turtle looked at the detective with a confused look on his face and replied "I don't know, it all happened so fast."

Hazel's Feelings

Hazel's Feelings

February 22 was my first radiation treatment appointment. I've never been so scared in all my life. I wanted to bolt out the door, run home, get into my chair, cover up, and never leave the house again. Obviously I did not run away. As my radiation oncologist had promised, the treatments were painless---I survived.

Monday April 12 was my 36th and final treatment. My support person, AKA my loving husband Jim and I had been going there for seven weeks and one day, so I entered with a happy heart knowing that it would finally be over.

Imagine my surprise when the final treatment was over, 'the stiff upper lip' collapsed and upon leaving the building-I burst into tears! Instead of being elated I was depressed the rest of the day and part of Tuesday. Fortunately those 'blues' have gone and 'happy' has returned.

I think it was the stress of coping with a nightmare from Christmas Eve until April 12 was finally set free.

I'M IN A FORTIES KIND OF MOOD TODAY.