RIP: DON KNOTTS & DENNIS WEAVER

Who both, oddly, played lawmen at one time or another.
Of course, the famous Barney Fife (and wasn't he an odd one),
but also Dennis Weaver as McCloud, the western sheriff in
New York City! And that was pretty odd, too.
So, two odd lawmen, off to the big hoosegow in the sky.

...(Nip it in the bud! You gotta nip it in the bud!)...

RIP: DARREN McGAVIN

On Saturday,2/25/06. Always enjoyed his performances. My favorite was
Kolchak:The Night Stalker back in the late 70s (I think). And of course
he was hilarious as the dad in A Christmas Story. Who hasn't
wanted a lady's leg lamp at one time or another...
And I'll have to check this out further, but I'm pretty sure I saw
him on Broadway in the 60s playing The King in The King & I. Update to this, he did the musical in July/August 1964 at the Lincoln Center, NYC, so that would have been it.

So another one bites the dust...
...mortality sneaking up on me...and you...

WHERE'S GEORGE?...LET ME TELL YOU WHERE

Just for those interested, the 4 farthest bills traveled on my George account:

10,274 miles to Shah Alam, Malaysia via Orlando Florida

7621 miles to Beijing, China via Odessa Florida

4290 miles to Isle Of Man, U.K.

3796 miles to Clear, Alaska

Pretty neat, and many,many places all over the U.S. also; but not yet ALL the different states.

85 or 5/60 or 6

 So why is it people have  only 2 speeds for driving their cars?

Have you ever noticed that when they drive on the

thruway/parkway/expressway/interstate that

they will easily drive 85 mph with 6 feet between cars,

but when they drive after being stopped at a red light (especially

making a turn) they will drive at 5 mph with 60 feet between

cars. What's up with that? Don't they realize there are other cars

that would probably like to go through the same light during the same

cycle? Doesn't it really piss you off to just miss the light

because the 3 cars in front of you apparently are sightseeing

instead of actually driving? But on the other hand, when everyone

is zipping down the thruway,etc. at 85 mph and you try to leave

more than 6 feet between you and the guy in front of you, it's apparently

an invitation to the guy in the next lane to squeeze on over. Doesn't

anybody ever wonder why there are multi-car pileups all the time.

Gee, maybe if we actually left some distance between cars then

everyone would actually have a chance to stop before hitting the car in front of you.

 

Hey, but at least we don't have to worry about rear ending that guy at the traffic light...

MORE BOOK L'ARNIN': FUZZY MATH 101

I'll tell you, this paper just keeps getting funnier and funnier...
The Ledger,2/18/06, and I quote (headline):

'RadioShack to Close 7,000 Stores'

Which is fine of itself, but then the article goes on to say
that they are closing up to 10% of their 7000 stores, which
would be a total of?...7000?...7,000,000?...or possibly only
700...DUH! The even dumber thing is, not only did they add the
extra zero, but they added the (,) in the right place, therefore
admitting that they meant to put in 3 zeros, not 2.

And who says math isn't something you can use for the rest of your life...
Wait a minute!!
Apparently it's not!!

LAST 6 BOOKS READ

1) Cuba Libre by Elmore Leonard: A switch for Elmore, a historically based novel. Still his same style of writing & colorful characters, but with a background of Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Interesting as usual, I really like this guy.

2) Grown Up All Wrong by Robert Christgau: Essays on musicians by a long-time music critic.
Some are album reviews, some concert, some general musician. Always learn something new reading these kinds of things.

3) M.Y.T.H. Inc In Action by Robert Asprin: I used to really enjoy this series, but after reading this one, I'm not really sure why.

4) Strange Highways by Dean Koontz: Collection of stories by the other modern master of horror. You may not like all the stories, but guaranteed you'll like most of them.

5) Journey To The Underground World by Lin Carter: Beginning of a series of E.R.Burroughs style novels. Quick and easy reading, if you like that sort of thing.

6) Eat The Rich by P.J. O`Rourke: Humorously serious (or seriously humorous) look at economics as it relates to places as diverse as Cuba, Russia, Tanzania, & Hong Kong. Not
only an interesting read, but you may learn something!

So a mostly good selection of books this time around. Interestingly, I'm reading a book now that
is about Cuba during the Spanish-American War, non-fiction, but ties in nicely with the Elmore Leonard novel above. And not actually planned, since they came from two different TBR piles.

Sometimes life's just like that...

VALENTINE'S DAY TRIVIA

Did You Know...

There were at least 3 different Saint Valentines; 2 in late 3rd Century AD - one in Rome & one in what is now Terni - who were both buried on the Via Flaminia in Rome, and the 3rd one from
North Africa. All 3 were martyred on Feb.14.

The first Valentine's days were in 14th century England; it was traditionally believed to be the day that birds paired off to mate. Lovers would exchange notes and call each other 'Valentine'.

The first mass-produced Valentine's cards in the U.S were made of embossed paper lace
shortly after 1847 in Massachusetts.

In ancient Rome, Feb.15 was Lupercalia, celebrating the god of fertility.

So now you know...

DICK CHENEY, MIGHTY HUNTER

Apparently shot a fellow hunter (not fatally)this weekend. The owner of the ranch where they
were hunting said that he was an excellent shot. So, apparently, the man that was shot must have looked very much like a quail, since that is what they were hunting. Did Cheney think
he was bagging a trophy size largest quail in the world??

Or was the victim a closet Democrat!!

'ROLLING STONE' PLANS CASINO IN VEGAS

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. So, in honor of the event, I've come up with some related names for the different casino games. See if you can match them up:

1. This Wheel's On Fire____ A. Slot Machines
2. Andrew 'Dice'Clay______ B. Omaha Poker
3. Def Leppard__________ C. Pai Gow
4. ZZ Top______________D. Roulette
5. Tenacious D__________ E. Texas Hold 'Em Poker
6. Bob Marley_________ _ F. Craps
7. Moby Grape___ ______ G. Blackjack
8. The Vapors__________ H. Caribbean Poker

So...some of them easy, maye some not so easy, eh? Drop me a line if you're stumped, or curious as to why a certain match was made, there's a logical reasoning behind them all...

A QUOTE FROM RONALD REAGAN,ILLUSTRATED

"Concentrated power has always been the enemy of Liberty"

REALLY STUPID COMMERCIAL

The new KFC ad...Mother says time for dinner, kids run out to the car; Mom says, "how silly, we're eating in" and pulls out a bucket of chicken from KFC. With all the fixings, and even a free pie! Like it's a big deal that they're eating KFC at home instead of at KFC!

Gee, Mom, how about some real fucking food!!!
If I gotta eat fried crap, I'd just as soon do it at the fast food joint,
not pretend that you actually made the food...

`WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN'

The song by Percy Sledge...perhaps one of the greatest love songs ever written, and just incredible as sung by Percy Sledge...
Yes, Phyl and I sat through 1 hour of other songs by Percy Sledge (that we'd never heard of), along with 2 cover songs, `Dock Of the Bay' by Otis Redding, who died after recording it, and it became a hit. The other cover was `Midnight Hour' by Wilson Pickett. Both fine covers. And finally, after sitting and patiently waiting, Percy sang `When A Man Loves A Woman', and it brought tears to my eyes. It never did, originally, but after almost 32 years of marriage, I finally got it. Cypress Gardens,2/05/06

LACK OF EDUMA...EDUCAMA...BOOK LEARNING

Two local tales to point up the poor state of our local education system.

1) Recently, after much roadwork, lane rebuilding, shifting, etc. a new road sign was
put up at a local intersection. Now, this is not just a standard street sign, but one of those really large signs used to give directions to different streets on one sign. Now, for all the world to see (but not necessarily notice) the road formerly known as Berkley Road is now known as
Berkly Road. In very large letters! Now, even assuming this sign was painted in a prison, did no-one check the spelling before sending it out? How about the men who received the sign? The men who installed it? Surely someone in City/County government must have driven by the sign, has no-one in authority noticed the fairly obvious error? Don't they care?
Or maybe they can't read either!

2) And this one is even better. A couple of days ago, the Lakeland Ledger printed a story on
the front page about the former California postal worker who killed 5 people, and then herself.
The headline read in part "FORMAL POSTAL WORKER KILLS 5...". Now I really tend to doubt
that the postal worker had to dress in a ball gown when she worked, or that she dressed formally to do the slayings. So therefore, I have to conclude that not only did someone set
this in type, but someone else proofread it, and no-one noticed a glaringly obvious spelling error. Someone had to have seen the newspapers coming off the printing press. And yet there it was for all to see in the morning paper!

The scary part is...when they read their morning paper...

How many people DIDN'T notice the error?

LISA MARIE PRESLEY

Happy 38th birthday to ya...
and speaking of L.M.P., here's an interesting
quote from her on the state of music radio...
"It's like Stepfordville right now."
(Goldmine Magazine,1/06/06)