LISTENING TO...

 The Lemon Pipers. Who? You heard me, The Lemon Pipers. They had one big hit single in 1967,  'Green Tambourine' which I actually still have somewhere. And back then, many lead singers

in bands had nothing else to do, so liked to 'play' the tambourine.

But anyway, bought this CD (Best Of...) at the Orange County Fairgrounds flea market last weekend, hey why not, it was only $1.67 as part of a 3/$5 table somebody had. (also bought a Joe Walsh album). So, I listened to the first couple of songs, and they were pretty much bubble-gum type pop, much like 'Green Tambourine' was. But then, it changed, and many of the following songs had a more psychedelic sound, and were quite interesting. So I'm glad I picked it up. Of course, you may never get a chance to, this CD was done over in England (an import for $1.67!!) But if you ever find a 20 track Best Of the Lemon Pipers (maybe at a flea market) go ahead and pick it up, you'll probably find something you like on this album.

 

REMEMBER WHEN?

 Condoms were sold behind the pharmacy counter...

And cold medications were on the shelves...?

 

It's a weird world we live in isn't it...

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

In 1827, New Orleans held their first Mardi Gras.

People born on this date;

1902: John Steinbeck, author

1932: Liz Taylor

1934: Ralph Nader

1940: Howard Hesseman - who will always be rmembered in the Elliott

house as 'Dr' Johnny Fever from WKRP In Cincinnati.

People who died on this date:

2003: Fred Rogers; "Hi, boys and girls - welcome to my neighborhood"

2002: Spike Milligan: Was a famous bandleader who's orchestra used non-instruments

alongside real instruments to bring humor to music.

1993: Lillian Gish, who was a movie star long,long,long ago - she died 8 months

short of her 100th birthday!!

1977: John Dickson Carr: Once famous writer of mystery and supernatural tales;

I used to read quite a bit of his stuff back in my teenage days. Really quite good,

but seemed to disappear from bookstores after the 70s.

 

OF TIES AND JEANS

 So I got out one of my groovy 70s ties today to wear to work. It's a running joke between me and Mike from Greensboro who always wears a tie, probably to bed too. So I gor this tie, a really gorgeous red/yellowgreen/blue orange paisley tie and wore it with this neat brown/yellow/tan shirt Phyllis bought me for my birthday. Pretty sharp, er, I mean groovy, if I do say so myself.

But that's not what this is about. It actually reminded me of the Gap store. You know, the overpriced mall store. Well, in the old days, they were known for inexpensive clothes, not overpriced ones. In fact, they were known for being `The home of the $5 jeans'. How about that!

 And even in 1974, $5 jeans was a pretty good deal. So, next time you go to the Gap, ask them:

"Hey,where's the $5 jeans!"

A COUPLE OF INTERESTING FACTS

1) The internet was born in the U.S.A; however: we pay 7 times what customer's pay in Korea; Japan's users surf 13 times faster.

2) When you consider per capita broadband (as opposed to dial-up) the U.S.A. ranks in 25th place behind Estonia.

 

Wherever that is. I'd download you a map, but it'd take too long!

 

MY GRANDSON...THE HAM

" ALL RIGHT, MR DeMILLE, I'M READY FOR MY CLOSEUP"

ON TURNING 88.5

Well, if I measured my years in metric years!
So today's the day, and oddly enough I don't find this age(actually the last 4-5)near as bad as I used to think. When I was a teenager, and even in my early 20s, it seemed that getting into ones 50s was going to be a terrible thing. And of course there's that part of me that's just happy I made it into my mid-50s!. There were a few times that now that I look back at them, I might not have. But those are stories for another day. Today I just find myself happy to be me, with a great family, including those who belong by marriage, and a really terrific grandson(even at <7 months).
Yes, my friends...life is good!

(No matter how much I bitch about things, that's the privilege of being a grouchy old man!)

I CAN'T DRIVE 88.5...

Kilometers, that is. I was driving behind someone from Quebec yesterday, and finally figured out why some Canadian drivers drive slower than the speed limit. All the speed signs in Canada are metric, so when you see a sign there, it will say, for example, 88km instead of 55mph for the speed limit. So of course, subconsciously, when Canadian drivers see our speed limit sign that says 55, they may be thinking km and slow down to 55km, which is about 34 miles per hour.
So next time you're behind a Canadian driver driving too slow, don't blame him, blame the metric system.
And if you really want to have fun, take your car to Canada, and when you see that sign that says 88, assume it's 88mph and haul ass!

MY OBAMA CARTOON

And I may very well end up voting for him, in the absence of John Edwards, but in the interests of fairness, I couldn't resist. And you got to admit, it is funny!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

 To all of you folks out there. And remember, you've never been married too long to stop celebrating Valentine's Day. A card, flowers, a gift; show your honey she (or he) is still your honey after all these years. And here's the song that has turned into Phyllis and my favorite romantic song...

STILL THE ONE (Orleans)

We've been together since way back when
Sometimes I never want to see you again
But I want you to know, after all these years
You're still the one I want whisperin' in my ear

You're still the one I want to talk to in bed
Still the one that turns my head
We're still having fun, and you're still the one

I looked at your face every day
But I never saw it 'til I went away
When winter came, I just wanted to go
Deep in the desert, I longed for the snow

You're still the one that makes me laugh
Still the one that's my better half
We're still having fun, and you're still the one

You're still the one that makes me strong
Still the one I want to take along
We're still having fun, and you're still the one

Changing, our love is going gold
Even though we grow old, it grows new

You're still the one that I love to touch
Still the one and I can't get enough
We're still having fun, and you're still the one

You're still the one who can scratch my itch
Still the one and I wouldn't switch
We're still having fun, and you're still the one

You are still the one that makes me shout
Still the one that I dream about
We're still having fun, and you're still the one...

LAST 6 BOOKS READ

Well...here you go...and now fully illustrated!
























1) `Salem's Lot by Stephen King: Ah, yes, the vampire novel to end all vampire novels. And a really nice updated edition with some extra added related short stories. Of course, I'd read this back when it came out, but decided to read it again after reading the 'Gunslinger' series and finding the character Father Callahan as a character in some of the novels of the series. Well, everybody needs redemption. Glad I read it again, perhaps it is one of King's better straight horror novels. Read it again, or read it once...just read it!






















2) Scream Queen by Edo Van Belkom: Better than you might think, but not really great. Jacy gets a spot on the Gowan brothers' new reality show, taking place at a 'haunted house'. But wait, it's really haunted, and the haunts aren't real friendly. But I won't give the rest of it away, but you can guess the ending...or maybe you can't.






















3) 01-01-00 by R.J.Piniero: Cashing in on the Millennium scare, the author ties it into computer viruses & the Mayans. Susan Garnett, ex-computer hacker and now an F.B.I. employee, may be all that stands between us and the end of the world as we know it. (Is that necessarily a bad thing...?) Find out the real secret of the Mayans & why their civilization was so advanced in some aspects,eg:calendars & astronomy.






















4) Appleby Talks Again by Michael Innes: Actually interesting, this is one of those 1940s/50s books (this one published 1954) of mystery stories that are solved by the main character, sometimes before the actual story takes place. At least in this one the main character is actually a Scotland Yard official (Sir John Appleby), and many of the stories do actually contain a mystery worth solving. The cover story, don't remember the name, but well illustrated by the cover. Better than many of these type books.






















5) The Best Of Shadows by Charles L Grant,ed: Drawn from the book series of the same name, the editor's pick of 'the best'. Mostly dark fantasy, moody (not slasher) horror, stories by Stephen King, Tanith Lee, Steve Rasnic Tem, & the ubiquitous St Germain story by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. Bought it cheap, so I guess it was worth the money, but most of the stories no my cup of tea. I like my horror scarier than most of these were, atmospheric horror just isn't horrific.























6) Boy's Life by Robert McCammon: By the author of Usher's Passing, They Thirst, & Swan Song, all of which I read back in the day, came this book published in 1991 - whick for some reason I didn't. It may have had something to do with the cover; the boy riding the bike over the lake just rubbed me wrong for some reason. Anyway, I found this book in Mt Dora, where a BXer had left it on a bench. Well, being a BXer myself, that was pretty exciting, so I picked it up and read it. It starts out as a book about growing up in the early 60s, and ends up being a murder mystery with slight fantasy overtones. Actually enjoyable, certainly better than I expected when I passed it up way back when.

SURPRISINGLY ENJOYABLE

Last night on CMT - I never watch CMT - they had a program called Crossroads. Apparently it's a musical series where the have two artists singing together; but the artists are from different genres of music, one of them being country of some type. Well, last nights program was Alison Krauss, the fiddle/violin player/vocalist, and Robert Plant. Possibly one of the oddest combinations of musical styles I could possibly think of. However, it works, really, it does.

Believe me, I was quite surprised, and almost didn't watch it, except my wife wanted to see Robert Plant. Well, once the show started, it was almost impossible to tear myself away! The two voices blended so well, not only on the country-style songs, but even on the two Zep songs they did; When the Levee Breaks & Black Dog. The drummer, in a style not at all reminiscent of John Bonham, still managed to have a Bonham-like sound to his drums, which were not set up as rock drums, but had some odd-looking appurtenances on them (eg. a sideways drum). And the lead guitar player was quite phenomenal too. All in all, a surprisingly enjoyable show. It would have been interesting to hear a version of Battle Of Evermore, which was the only Zeppelin song to have a guest singer on it (the late, great Sandy Denny); the way Plant's & Krauss's voices blended on the other songs would have made this song in particular an interesting addition to the set. I'm not sure if I would buy the album Raising Sand, but I would definitely buy an album of this show, and quite possibly a DVD release also.

So remember, when it comes to music, never say never, even if you say never again afterwards..

DEEP FRIED TWINKIES

If I'm going to die, kill me with deep fried Twinkies! Oh, yeah, arguably one of the greatest artery-clogging food products of the 21st Century. Went to the FL State Fair Saturday, and after seeing them advertised for the last few years, finally broke down and tried one. Then I went back and had another! Imagine if you will: A Twinkie, dipped in strawberry(or one of 5 other flavors) flavored batter, then deep fried and sprinkled with confectioner's sugar. The strawberry in the batter soaks partway into the spongy part of the Twinkie, and the creme gets soft and semi-liquid. Oh, heaven...

And next time my wife calls me (affectionately,as she does)Twinkie I'll have to tell her...

That's Strawberry Twinkie to you, my dear...

MORE STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES

So there was this big fire near downtown yesterday; I happened to be up by the mall, and heard the fire engines tearing by. Later I saw on the news about the fire, which was quite nasty looking.
Now for the stupid people:
1) One of the places that burned was an art gallery where the owner stored his large collection of
original paintings by a fairly well-known Florida artist. Of course, the pictures weren't insured!
2) The other place that burned was an Army Surplus store, with apparently live ammunition stored there, since the Fire Dept. mentioned stray bullets exploding. Of course, hundreds of people had to go down and stand around to watch the fire. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, but really, do you think going somewhere where things are exploding is a wise choice of entertainment?

MOVIES...AND MORE

Here's an interesting factoid for you: Forty years ago the following five films were up for Best Picture at the Academy Awards:
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner,
The Graduate,
In the Heat of the Night,
Bonnie and Clyde,
Doctor Doolittle.
And I saw 4 out of 5 of them, never saw Guess Who's...
They were all good, with the possible exception of Dr Doolittle, which at
least was interesting, and nothing at all like the remake, being as it followed
along the book much closer (except for the singing, of course).
Heat & Graduate were good also, "They call me Mr Tibbs' & "Plastics", what great movie lines.
But my big favorite from around then was Bonnie & Clyde, what a great 60s movie; rebellion and freedom from 'the man', that's what it was about to us growing up then; it was just incidentally a gangster flick. And what a death scene, must have been a zillion bullets.
And, while we're on the subject, I've seen the actual car - it used to be at the now defunct Museum Of American Tragedy in St Augustine,FL. Lots of holes, that much I remember. I may even have a picture of it, I'll post it sometime if I can find it.

A WINTER'S TALE

Talking to my Mom on the phone the other day; it had snowed out in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island (which doesn't happen a lot, it's the warmest spot in Canada) and hadn't warmed up enough for it to melt yet. So Mom says to me: "Remember the year we put the snow chains on the car?" Well, I do, now that she reminded me. (place squiggly flashback lines here)
My Dad used to work in NYC, and commute in from Wilton every day. No longer being able to drive due to his poor vision, my Mom used to drive him to the train station and bring him home. This one day in early winter, hadn't really snowed yet, we had a sudden snowstorm, not a real lot of snow, but enough to use snow chains on the tires. Remember snow chains? Well, in the days before snow tires, you had regular tires on the car, and when it was winter, you wrapped the tires with these chain thingies that would grip the snow. So, it snowed that day, and Mom realized there were no chains on the tires, and being that Wilton was quite hilly, you couldn't drive around without them. So, enlisting my help, and finding the how-to info in an encyclopedia, my Mom and I put the chains on the tires. Off she went to get Dad at the station.
Well, we must have done a good job, the chains didn't fall off until she was home again, when 2 of them fell off halfway up the driveway!

MAKING POOR CHOICES

So this lady gets pulled over for running a red light in St Augustine,FL.
Well, not only was she 'under the influence', but she had a 16 month old
in the back seat. But not strapped into a carseat, as the law requires.
No, apparently the important item that required the use of the seat belt was...
...A CASE OF BEER!

Yes, apparently this lady looked at her beer, looked at the child, looked at the beer,
and made her choice of what was more important to her.
Now as you all know, I am a beer lover myself, but I would have strapped in the child...

...and used the front seat belt for the beer!!

YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE

Apparently that's the choice you get. A Dutch study shows that you don't
save money by being thinner and not smoking...
...apparently the money you save is offset by living longer and
having to pay for all the extra care when you get older.

And trust me...getting senile is really not worth living for...

RIP:MAHARISHI MAHESH YOGI

 At the ripe old age of 91. Though thinking back when he first became

well-known to the Western world, he seemed to be pretty damn old even back then. Best known for his teaching the Beatles, of whom only George carried on; he was, along with musician Ravi Shankar, one of the first Hindus to bring Indian culture to us in the West.

 So, rest in peace, Ravi, at least until you get reincarnated, and

enjoy your reunion with George Harrison until you are.

VOTERS WHUT AIN'T SMARTIFIED

'(CNN) -- Republican Mike Huckabee scored the first Super Tuesday victory, winning all 18 delegates at stake in West Virginia -- partially with the help of Sen. John McCain's backers.'

 

Apparently, there's something about a 6,000 year old planet that appeals to people in West Virginia - home of the Hatfield-McCoy feud. Wonder if that's what they were feuding about? And what the hell were the McCain people thinking...oh, that's right...they're from West Virginia too...

 

LOLITA WHO?

 LONDON (Reuters) - A chain of retail stores in Britain has withdrawn the sale of beds named Lolita and designed for six-year-old girls after furious parents pointed out that the name was synonymous with sexually active pre-teens.

Woolworths said staff who administer the web site selling the beds were not aware of the connection.

In "Lolita," a 1955 novel by Vladimir Nabokov, the narrator becomes sexually involved with his 12-year-old stepdaughter -- but Woolworths staff had not heard of the classic novel or two subsequent films based on it.

Hence they saw nothing wrong with advertising the Lolita Midsleeper Combi, a whitewashed wooden bed with pull-out desk and cupboard intended for girls aged about six until a concerned mother raised the alarm on a parenting website.

 

Just goes to show what a modern education will do for you...

CITY

Such a great word, some places use it twice! For example, in this area, there's
a place called Haines City. Now, you would assume it's a city, because it's
called Haines City, right? But actually, no. If you get a business call from these
folks, they tell you they're calling from 'The City Of Haines City'. Seems
rather redundant to me, but apparently they all do it. Now Haines City is
fairly large, at least in area, but I've driven through some of these 'Citys'
that are pretty rinkydink.
Don't you think they should legally call theselves,eg:The Town of Rinkydink City?
I mean, really, shouldn't there be a 'Truth In Naming Act', there's a law for pretty
much everything else in the world, why not that? Wouldn't you hate to be lost
somewhere and see a City listed on the map, and when you got there find out there's no
hotel, gas station, or anything other than a rundown McDonald's?
Hey, let's call a spade a spade, not a steam shovel...

BILLION...YES, THAT'S BILLION

The numbers are out, and EXXON-MOBIL made $40.6 Billion in profit for 2007!
That's 40,600,000,000, that's a lot of damn zeroes, isn't it. In fact, that's
downright obscene, while we're paying $3.00 and up for a gallon of gas. Why isn't
the government doing something about this? There used to be anti-trust laws that
read something like this:
1) Prohibiting agreements or practices that restrict free trading and competition between business entities. This includes in particular the repression of cartels.
2) Banning abusive behaviour by a firm dominating a market, or anti-competitive practices that tend to lead to such a dominant position. Practices controlled in this way may include predatory pricing, tying, price gouging, refusal to deal and many others.
3) Supervising the mergers and acquisitions of large corporations, including some joint ventures. Transactions that are considered to threaten the competitive process can be prohibited altogether, or approved subject to "remedies" such as an obligation to divest part of the merged business or to offer licences or access to facilities to enable other businesses to continue competing.
And, strangely enough, Standard Oil was broken up way back when and became Mobil & Esso;
of course Esso later became EXXON, and now they're EXXON-MOBIL and
making a record $40,600,000,000 which is the largest profit ever made by a
corporation. Who's on second - why EXXON-MOBIL who made $39,500,000,000 in 2006.
So, nexrt time someone talks about obscenity, mention that kind of money and
tell `em: No, this is what's really obscene:$40,600,000,000

FLIES

You know, they claim you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.
On the other hand, you can swat more flies with a flyswatter than you can with honey.
Why would you want to catch flies anyway...