January 19, 2021

Just silly & stupid. So don’t read if you’re not in the mood!

I’m the eldest of 6 kids. My mom’s last pregnancy was twins – girl and boy. Geez!!!

About 15 years ago or so, the female twin started sending me hysterical birthday cards. Absolutely hysterical. Herare are some of my favorites:

Cover: Sketch of a snarky cat wearing a birthday hat. The cat is saying: “Don’t worry just because it’s your BIRTHDAY and I’m YOUNGER than you! Who cares? I guess what I’m trying to say is…”

Inside: “Nyah nyah nyah nyah  nyah.”

Cover: Snapshot, 2 women chatting over coffee. Once says “Where’s your birthday party at?” The other responds “Don’t end a sentence with a preposition.”

Inside: The 1st woman responds: “Where’s your birthday part at, bitch.” And the caption says :”Hope your birthday is a one big party.”

Cover: Sketch of a woman with big glasses, big earrings, high-heeled shoes. And she says, “I have just one word of advice as these birthdays keep pilin’ up on ya’, honey…”

Inside: “MOISTURIZE!!?

Cover: Sketch of a very grumpy cat with a birthday party hat on. “Happy Birthday. Or Whatever. Now make yourself useful and feed me.”

Inside: Just a handwritten note from my sister.

Cover: “Oooh, it’s your birthday.” (With a stack of pancakes + birthday calendar below.)

Inside: “Big deal. I’ve had plenty of birthdays.”

And a silly one from a silly friend:

Cover: Drawing of the Eiffel tower with a ribbon wrapped around it … and a little sign that says “Happy Birthday.” The the text: For your birthday, we bought you the Eiffel tower! Then, in your name, we donated it back to the French! They love you France now!

Inside: Vive You!

 

Okey dokey. No more playing! Get back to work!!!

Filed under: Just for fun

July 20, 2020

I couldn’t resist…my era…my music

Just for fun? Perhaps for beauty and remembrance and sadness and joy and….

INTRO to Majikat DVD…Earth Tour 1976… That’s Cat Stevens.

Ah the DVD intro…

Concorde is launched.

Students in Soweto, South Africa rise against Apartheid.

Cold war enters its 3rd decade…Bigger and better than ever.

Launch of jelly beans.

Jimmy Carter defeats Gerald Ford.

The internet? What? < 1,000 people enrolled

And Cat Stevens embraks on his Majikat tour….

Get the DVD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

18 months later…Cat quits the music business… And doesn’t perform again for some 30 years.

All the tapes were in files….Not to be seen until the release of Majikat in  2004.

I listen over and over and over to Majikat.

This is so marvelous. Cat Steven was so marvelous. And Yusuf Islam is with us again. Thank you and peace.

P.S. Have you ever heard Peace Train? Or how abour Fathers and Sons?

Filed under: Just for fun

July 1, 2020

Wandering thru my office shelves

…Where there are funny birthday cards.

Mostly from my sister whose name starts with an “A”. She’s one of the twins. Shit. Twins. My mom’s last pregnancy was twins. And I’m the eldest. Just plain wow!

Anyway, birthday card sister finds the coolest birthday cards….

A cat on the front. Top line: Happy Birthday or Whatever. Next line says: Now make yourself useful and feed me.

Pancakes with a birthday candle on the front. Top line: Ooh, it’s your birthday. Inside of the card says: Big deal. I’ve had plenty of birthdays.

Sketch of an older woman with glasses, skinny tights, and high heels. Text on the front: I have just one word of advice as these birthdays keep pilin’ up on ya’, honey… Inside says: Moisturize.

Another sister. (Remember, I’m the eldest of 6!!!) Another cat sketch on the front. Top ine says: Don’t worry just because it’s your BIRTHDAY and I’m YOUNGER than you! Who cares? I guess what I’m trying to say is… And inside the card says: Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah.

And one last card from that youngest… On the front: Legs of a mom and a dad. Little short girl with a cowboy hat, a purse, and a balloon. Top line: She didn’t really care what she got for her birthday… Bottom lin below all the feet: …As long as it was a unicorn names princess, with a speckled coat and a braided mane.

Filed under: Just for fun

June 1, 2020

Just some fun and curious stuff… A break from “it all”…….

Filed under: Just for fun, Stuff

April 13, 2020

Just stuff

Have you ever read Harlan Coben’s books? Oh my. Good. Well written. Mysterious. Scary sometimes. Fun, too.

Right now, I’m reading MISSING YOU. 

First item: Great comment and wow can I ever visualize this……”The office was done in early American Elitism. Rich gurgundy leather chairs with gold buttons sat atop a forest green Oriental carpet. Paintings of fox hunts…The expansive desk…A large antique globe…”

WOW!! “early American Elitism” decor. Soooooooo cool!!!

Next item. Same book: The book is very good. But kinda spooky. And curious. And I keep trying to figure out the stuff and I’m agitated. I’m so distracted by “who did it…” I’m actually thinking of going to the end to find out. Then going back and finishing the book in it’s normal progression.

When I explained this to my dear friend Doris, her answer was very very very insightful and enormously helpful. In essence Doris said: “Sometimes it’s best to read the end and then go back and read through in the orderly intended way. Because now you can realize how great the author was. How carefully written…such masterly writing…and stuff.”

I haven’t decided yet, if I’m going to the end first.

Filed under: Just for fun

April 6, 2020

The fun times at home

What are you doing that’s fun…restricted in your own place away from all the others and scared sometimes?

Some of my favorite movies ever……..

The Princess Bride. One of the bestest ever. For adults not just kids. Both Tom and I love love love love this movie.

The Big Chill.  Another bestest one. A Lawrence Kasdan film. And Kasdan’s next film included Kevin Costner, who was cut from The Big Chill.

That next Kasdan film…which included Kevin Costner?? Silverado!! Another one of the Tom/Sim One favorite films.

Have you ever seen the original Magnificent Seven? Yul Brynner.

Yes… I like cowboy movies. Really like them. Watched cowboy movies with my dad. And WWII, too.

So that’s a few movies. More next time.


.

 

Filed under: Just for fun

January 27, 2020

Just thoughts wandering

Listening to music. Picking and choosing. Scrolling and re-discovering…

How I loved Newsroom with Jeff Daniels. Check out this youtube video – getting to Memphis.

Do you know this beautiful song? Same Love, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.

The Weary Kind . Sung by Ryan Bingham. From that wonderful movie with Jeff Bridges.

If only we would choose to rise up… Through troubles and pain. When I first heard it…this was for justice… hope for justice…all the fights…

This Time… Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Surely pretty much “everyone” knows American Pie. But have you seen the marvelous lipdub from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Ah Michigan…where I grew up.

And of course, Leonard and everyone’s versions of Hallelujah. And k.d. Lang’s version at the Olympics.

Sometimes just listening to music helps…right?

 

 

Filed under: Just for fun

January 13, 2020

“Notes of the Notables”

Really great Wall Street Journal article … October 26-27, 2019 … “Notes of the Notables,” by Erika Berlin and Matthew Kitchen.

So who are the notables? Johnny Cash. Thelonious Monk. Nora Ephron. Charles Dickens. Grace Jones. Charles Darwin. Marilyn Monroe. James Naismith. Benjamin Branklin. George Lucas.

Nora Ephron wrote a list about what she’d miss after she died. That’s pretty damn cool, I think. Check the article to find out what she’d miss the most.

What was George Lucas’ list about? Alternative titles for his film “American Graffiti.” Wow are some of them ever really weird!!!!

Thelonious Monk wrote 25 handwritten tips for his bandmates. “You’ve got to dig it to dig it, you dig?”

ENJOY!!

 

Filed under: Just for fun

January 7, 2020

Vacation memories…

Memories from vacation…

Well, actually, written while on vacation…to then become a memory.

Watching The West Wing. 7 seasons. Not sure that I’ll finish all 7 this vacation.

The most wonderful show. Enviable governing… Good politics…

A trip down memory lane…Loving the show. Wishing this was real. I remember talking with colleagues about what happened in an episode…only we were talking like it was real. We recognized that and then we started chuckling.

Shit…This wasn’t real!!!

 

Filed under: Just for fun

December 22, 2019

More just for fun

Movies or books or music and…

Billy Elliott (the movie) and Billy Elliott (the musical)

Strictly Ballroom (So much fun…Culture clash…Ballroom dancing…Some comic comedy…)

American President … Always one of my favorites

Silverado…The Big Chill…Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid…

Rocketman…Bohemian Rhapsody…

= = = = = = = = = = =

Movies or books or music and…

How I love science fiction fantasy…Guy Gavriel Kay… Jennifer Roberson…

And, of course, the great sci fi masters like Game of Thrones and Anne McCaffrey and…

= = = = = = = = = = = =

Movies or books or music and…

Classic rock and jazz and folk and movie music and classical…

Dire Straits. Beatles. Pink Floyd.. Rolling Stones… I want to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame again!!!!!

Django Reinhardt. Edith Piaf. Sydney Bechet. Muddy Waters. John Coltrane. Louis Armstrong, Ella, and…

Tchaikowsky. Beethoven. Copland. And so many more…….

 

Filed under: Just for fun

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