Moon River Sunset

I have a lot of pleasant memories associated with Andy Williams and his music. We watched his TV show every week. Along with the music, I especially loved the “Cookie Bear” and his antics. And the Christmas shows were always a hit in my family.

I first heard “Moon River” sung by Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, and even thought Audrey was a wonderful actress, she sure couldn’t sing! For some reason, though, I was totally entranced by that little song. It’s been one of my favorites ever since. Of course, it helped that I totally loved the movie too, and had a giant crush on George Peppard! I don’t remember when I heard Andy Williams sing it, but from that point on, he was the ONLY one to sing it for me…

I had the 45 of Andy singing the theme from “The Godfather” and was impressed when he went falsetto at the end of the song to nail the high note. His vocal range was amazing. So many of his songs became favorites of mine, but only if he sang them.

Another favorite song was “May Each Day” that I first heard on a promo record given out by KFC. It had to have been in the 60’s. It was the size of a 45, but was played at 33 and had 3 songs on each side. I would listen to that record a LOT. I had to remember to switch my little record player to the right speed, though. I have no idea where that record is now. At some point, that was his ending song on his TV show, and my grandmother especially liked that one.

So, thanks, Andy. You were a bright light here, and always my Huckleberry Friend. Give the bear a cookie from me. And maybe give Audrey a few singing lessons….

September 2012 Book Report

The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks

Fascinating case histories of mental patients. I was amazed at just how badly things can go TOTALLY WRONG in one’s brain. For no reason. Kind of spooky.

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Calamity Town by Ellery Queen

I’ve always loved Ellery Queen mysteries. I started reading them probably in junior high. This one takes place in a sleepy little town in New England. Nothing much happens beyond local politics and the quirkiness of the citizens. UNTIL MURDER COMES TO TOWN…..

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Blockade Billy/Morality by Stephen King

I’m not a big fan of King’s books. This one was in the bargain bin at Walmart, and after reading the blurb on the back, it sounded like there wasn’t a lot of weird gore or mayhem in either of the novellas, so I got it.

OK, I’ll admit it: it was just the right size for an altered book. But I did read it first!   

The first one was a good little story about the early days of baseball. I enjoyed it. The end was bloody, but I expected that to a certain extent. At least it was “normal” bloody, not supernatural. Like that excuses what happened….

The second one, Morality, was downright disturbing. I would rather not have read that and have what happened in the story in my mind now. Very unpleasant.

I will enjoy turning this book into a piece of art. Give it a nicer role….

Treasure Isle

I loved the game shows of the 60’s. There were a ton of them and they ran in the middle of the day. Summer vacation always meant planting myself in front of the TV and watching game shows. 

One of my favorites was Treasure Isle with John Bartholomew Tucker. I loved how that name just rolled off the tongue of the announcer! The show took place outdoors in sunny Florida. I don’t remember all the aspects of the game, but it involved two couples (in those days they were married) competing for a fabulous prize. Like luggage or a freezer. There was a time element, so everything was done frantically and quickly. The couples would be in little boats and have to paddle a type of obstacle course to get puzzle pieces. They would end up on a little island with a board to put the puzzle pieces on and then figure out what the puzzle was. There was digging in the sand for treasure chests. Maybe the chest they dug up told what prize they got. 

The biggest thing I cared about was the puzzle. I could usually get the answer to the puzzle long before the couple would. I thought it would be a fun show to be on if all I had to do was the puzzle. At that time of my life, I didn’t envision ever getting married, let alone appear on TV in a swim suit! As for being out on the water in a little boat...unless that body of water was only 3 feet deep, fuhgeddaboudit! 

I did think it would be super neat to have a matched set of luggage, though…

My Blog, My Rules

After last week’s whiney blog, I got some good advice about making this blog whatever *I* want it to be. So that’s what I’m doing. I will still pretend that I have a vast army of readers just waiting each week for Friday to roll around, but will mainly write whatever I darn well please.

I enjoy reading other blogs about a variety of subjects. There are so many really good writers out there in cyberland. You can just about pick any subject you like and find several blogs to choose from. I have a tendency to poke around a bit, bookmark the site for later reference and MAYBE get back to it. I might Google something, find a specific entry from a blog about it and then go to the home page and get interested in the whole blog. (That’s how I got interested in YOUR blog, Kristi!)

Something else I like to do is hit the “next blog” button and see where it takes me. I liken it to a frog jumping from one lily pad to another. Sometimes I will find a really interesting blog only to find that it’s dead. No updates. Bummer! Sometimes the blog will be in a different language and I’ll hit the “translate” button, if there is one. That is usually a real hoot. The translate function makes the blogger sound like he/she can barely navigate the written language. I had a German friend who had a very entertaining blog, but when it was translated into English, it made her sound like a moron. She was fluent in English, so she could see how badly her blog was translated.

I decided to write about one particular blog I read on occasion and the next couple of blogs that I was lead to by the “next blog” button. I may (or may not) do this as a recurring theme.

http://scrappycat.blogspot.com/

I found Scrappy Cat by goggling mandalas. I was trying to find some simple patterns that I could print out for Lia to color. Plus, I’ve always loved mandalas. I’m not very good at drawing them, but I enjoy the symmetry. Which is weird, considering how much I REALLY love abstract art. Anyway, Scrappy Cat had a nice little mandala she had painted. Not really what I was looking for, but I went to the home page and found a delightful little blog. I especially enjoy the “form” of it. That’s not quite the word I’m going for, but it will do. And unlike me, she truly can draw. And she writes well. She does book reports too! Nice little blog.

And now the “frog jumps” from there:

http://mbourbaki.blogspot.com/

Miami Bourbaki. The original Bourbaki had to do with mathmatics. I guess this blogger is a math guy from Miami. At any rate, he’s WAY smarter than I am. Reading him makes my brain hurt. Also, I am not ashamed to say that YES, I AM A MEAT EATER!! But I won’t eat it in front of you if it offends you…just don’t try to make me feel guilty about eating meat!!!  (BTW, I did NOT bookmark this one)

The next blog was actually a dead one about logic. (gag) It had a new site, but it was no longer a blog. From there, it was just another series of blogs about math, philosophy and/or logic. (double and triple gag)

I’ve noticed that sometimes the frog jumps were linked by subject, which makes it strange that the original blog of Scrappy Cat led to them. Go figure. 

Next week:  WHO KNOWS WHAT I WILL COME UP WITH!!