Saturday 9

Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9  questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love to answer the questions, however, and here are today's questions! 

Saturday 9: 5-10-15-20 (1970)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) In this week's song, The Presidents sing about a long married, very happy couple. Who is the longest married couple you know? Who is the happiest? Are they the same couple?
My former roommate and her husband just celebrated their 60th anniversary.  Walt and I will be celebrating our 59th anniversary next month.

2) The lyrics ask repeatedly: "Aren't we happy?" Are you feeling happy today? Why or why not?
At the moment, not really.  Insomnia last night.  I'll feel better after my afternoon nap.

3) This happy couple enjoys watching children at play. Is there a park, playground or schoolyard near you?
All 3.  There are 3 grammar schools, a park and a playground all within walking distance.

4) This song reminds Crazy Sam of when she used to recite the multiplication tables. Think back to your school days. Was math one of your favorite subjects?
I hated math.  I still hate math.

5) The Presidents seems like a good name for a band formed in Washington DC. What would be an appropriate name for a band from your hometown?
My kids were in a band for 10 years.  They called it Lawsuit.  Perhaps a band specific to Davis could be called the Eggheads.

One of the egghead sculptures on campus

6) DC trivia: The street names are letters, but J was skipped. That's because in the 1700s, the way many wrote their alphabet, "J" looked like "I" and so "J" was passed over to avoid confusion. Tell us something we may not know about your hometown (or state).

~20 years ago, the city spent $40,000 to build a toad tunnel under a newly built overpass so that toads could get from one side to the other without getting run over by a car.  The father of the postmaster (where the toad tunnel was built) decided the toads needed their own town.  As far as I know, in 20 years no toad has been seen either in Toad Town or in the toad tunnel.

7) In 1970, when this song was on the Billboard chart, The Mary Tyler Moore Show premiered on CBS. The theme song said Mary could "turn the world on with her smile," yet in real life, MTM was self-conscious about her "wide mouth." Are you comfortable looking at photos of yourself?
probably more comfortable looking at photos than looking in the mirror.

8) Also in 1970, Dinah Shore became one of the first women to host her own national daytime talk show. Today, Kelly Clarkson, Drew Barrymore, Tamron Hall, Jennifer Hudson and Kelly Ripa all have their own shows, and The Talk and The View are both hosted by women. Who is your favorite talk show host?
I do enjoy Kelly Ripa.

9) Random question -- Would you rather have a job that has you on your feet all day, or one that has you parked in a chair?
Oh definitely in a chair.  I can't stand on my feet for more than a few minutes and have to sit down in my walker.

_____________________________________________________________________________

PHOTO OF  THE DAY

love this bird!

8615

15 years

 

I got this lovely letter from Compassion Int'l today Thank you, Beverly. Today we’re celebrating the day 15 years ago when you partnered with Compassion to sponsor Anjali. God is using you to make a difference, and we know time flies when you’re changing lives! Since joining the Compassion family, your words and prayers have given hope to the 34 children you've sponsored. You have come alongside the local church to show them they are known, loved and protected. You have demonstrated that God values every child.

Lilian   Beatriz   Luis Henrique

Through 15 Years of Sponsorship... 200+ letters have traveled between you and your children — words of hope that have spanned the globe   119 gifts have been given, celebrating birthdays and special occasions – each a reminder of your love   1,000s of smiles have come to the faces of the children who think of you and pray for you

What does that mean for your sponsored children? They are known by staff and volunteers who work tirelessly to meet their unique needs. They are in the care of a local church that shares the gospel of Jesus. They are loved by pastors, tutors, friends — and YOU!

The impact you’ve made so far is amazing, Beverly, and we’re so excited to see how God will use you next! So happy sponsor-versary — not only from us, but also from your fellow sponsors in this video, who recently celebrated their own sponsor-versaries. Watch as they share their powerful sponsorship stories!

_____________________________________________________________________________

PHOTO OF  THE DAY

love this bird!

8614

Substack

The interview with Bob Dunning was great fun.  You can stream it here:  

https://kdrt.org/audio/davis-music-connections-may-28-2024

I've been thinking about publishing Funny the World on Substack.  It would be a good way to find out how many people are reading, but I first have to figure out how to publish.  I wrote something and it comes in as a draft and I can't find a way to "publish" it.  I've written to Bob Dunning to ask him how to do it.  If I do publish on Substack, I'll continue publishing here too, but it would be easier to get people to read if it's on Substack.

Of course, if I actually publish on Substack, I'm going to have to become a better writer.  With essentially nothing to do all day, my entries are pretty boring.  It would have been great to get this blog on Substack 10 years ago, when I had interesting things to say.

It was so nice to hear that Jeri and Phil are back in Boston.  They were flying on Memorial Day, which is one of the busiest days in the airport.  But they made it home safely and now the family visits are over.

I spent a lot of time listening to the reports of the final comments made by the defense to the jury today.  It will very very interesting to see what sort of verdict they come back with.  Surely there is at least one of the 34 counts he is being charged with that they can find him guilty of.

_____________________________________________________________________________

PHOTO OF  THE DAY

Jeri and Phil are back in Boston

8613 

Yeah...sleeping!

 What a fantastic night I had.  I  struggled to stay awake while reading my new book "The Winter Garden" (excellent), but was falling asleep so went to the couch at 10, figuring I'd wake up around midnight.  It was 2:30 when I woke up and I posted my 1-second-a-day video, then tried to do Wordle, but couldn't make any sense of it, so went back to sleep.  I slept until 9:00.  Going back to sleep, I was thinking of Wordle, and got the word that helped me solve it in 3 steps (I usually solve it in 4).  I am very rested today!

Bob Dunning is here being interviewed by Ned and Clyde for their show on Tuesday.  I had a long talk with him and it's amazing what his "being fired" has done for him.  He is now writing on Substack, a web site where people can write journals or anything they want.  He has essentially taken over Substack.  In fact, so many people subscribed to his TheWaryOne that Substack contacted him to find out who he is.  They ended up taking him to lunch to chat about his column.  I asked him how much of the money people subscribe pay he gets and he said all of it, except a small amount to Substack.  In fact, so many people subscribed the first day that he received a check larger than he made in a year at the Enterprise!  Not only has it been a good deal for Bob,  but also for Substack, which is now getting new members.  One other Enterprise columnist has left the paper and put her column on Substack.  

The Enterprise has no idea what it has done to support Bob.  The paper itself is now going down to once or twice a week and will soon be mailed instead of delivered.  How many more people are going to cancel their subscriptions.

_____________________________________________________________________________

PHOTO OF  THE DAY

taking my afternoon nap

8612

Memorial Day

 This is reprinted (and edited) from 2011.  It's the story of my Uncle Roger Scott (Scotty):

By way of introduction, this is an uncle who had never really spoken to me before, but we found ourselves seated together at the far end of the family table at a dinner and he began telling me about his experiences in a prisoner of war camp in World War II.  It killed me that I had NOTHING to take notes with--no paper & pen, no recorder, not even a camera that would record video.  When we returned to my mother's RV after dinner, I raced into the thing, dug out my laptop and wrote as much as I could remember.  Here, unedited, is what I wrote...

I think I knew he was a P.O.W., but I had never known much about it and there we sat, the two of us, oblivious to the rest of the table, and Scotty talked on and on about his experiences in Germany in WW II.

He was shot down over Germany and spent 9 months in the camp.  I can't remember where he was at first (a name I couldn't pronounce and don't remember hearing before), but he was moved to Nuremberg and then marched 100 miles to (Musberg?).  On the march he befriended an older German sergeant, about 55 years old, who was in no shape for a 100 mile march.  The sergeant was trying to find a truck to hop aboard, and Scotty signaled to him to let him (Scotty) carry his (the sergeant's) pack, which he did.

After they got to Musberg, they were sitting around cooking C-rations when this sergeant and another officer walked by.  The sergeant shoved his hand in Scotty's pocket and walked on.  Scotty put his hand in and found an egg and 2 onions.  Nobody in the camp had even SEEN an egg, much less one, in literally months and he said "you wouldn't believe what I went through to cook that egg without anyone seeing me."  The next day on the march he ate the onions, though "we weren't supposed to eat vegetables because they put human manure on the fields, but I ate them anyway."

Another tale was when one guy was going around with an empty can trying to collect a spoonful of powered milk from everyone in the camp.   The deal was that there was a guy who said he would masturbate in 3 minutes and if he was unsuccessful, he would contribute a whole can of powdered milk.  The whole camp gathered in the bathroom to watch and the guy did masturbate in 3 minutes...and then asked if anyone wanted to bet another spoon of milk for him to do it again (nobody did).

There was a German sergeant they called "Mr. Stoop" who had, it is reported, strangled 3 American POWs with his bare hands.   But Scotty ran into him one time and the guy gave Scotty a cigarette.  After the camp had been liberated by Patton's troops, they lined up all the German officers and paraded the POWs past them to indicate which were the ones who had done them wrong.   The sergeant who had given Scotty the egg, "I think was taken into another room and given a medal; everyone liked him," he said.  But Mr. Stoop was not to be found.  Later they found his body in one field and his head in another some 12 miles away.

They were liberated by Patton's troops, as I said.   Scotty said that this one day he and his friend decided to take a shower.  It was the day for officers to shower, but he and his buddy had not showered in something like 6 weeks, so lined up with the officers (I am not clear on whether they were without clothes or not--they must have been because Scotty said that you couldn't really tell the officers from the enlisted men--they had to argue to get the group in because there were 2 too many and the officers weren't going to give Scotty and his friend away).  Anyway, they had to cross a courtyard beneath a guard tower to get to the shower, and as they were making their way across the area, Patton's troops in tanks arrived and opened fire on the guards in the tower.  Scotty said, "if you've ever seen men trying to dig instant foxholes in concrete, this was it!"

After the liberation, Scotty's friend came across an English soldier who was roughing up a German housewife who hadn't really done anything, but who was German.  His friend tossed the Englishman over the bridge, 40 feet to the water below.

He said that he weighed 174 when he went into the service and 138 when he came out of the camp, but returned home on a troop ship on which the baker had just quit.  There was a sign up that there would be no bread unless someone volunteered to take on the job.  Scotty said he had worked as a baker when he was about 12, so he agreed to take on the job.  He was so good to the troops that he ended up with a key to all the store rooms, full run of all the ship's stores, and his own private stateroom.  And when he returned to Galt, he weighed 174.

I don't know if all this reads interesting in the telling, but the best part of it was that it was fascinating, and it was just Scotty and me talking and I think that it was the first conversation I have ever had with one of my uncles about anything.  I left the restaurant feeling as if I had discovered an uncle--and feeling that this was the best night of the whole trip.

NOTE FROM TODAY:  Scotty and I never had another conversation and he died a few years after this incident took place.  But I will treasure it always as a wonderful night.

After he died, my cousin Peach found a lot of things pertaining to his time as a POW, most special of which was this little book:

The cover is corrugated cardboard, as if it was cut from a box and the pages inside are like tissue paper--apparently it was toilet paper.  On the pages, he recorded the names and addresses of the guys in his unit (some had X's on them, and we wonder if those are the ones who died when the plane was shot down).  But he also recorded the forced march that they made shortly before they were liberated by the Americans.

This is the telegram his family received letting them know that he had been taken prisoner.

_______________________________________________________________

PHOTO OF THE DAY

A picture from Life Magazine, on his return

Sunday Stealing

 

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This feature originated and published on WTIT: The Blog. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves.

Stolen from SwapBot

1. Have you ever been stung or bitten by an animal?
I was stung by a bee once

2. Do you have a favorite bird? Do you feed the birds at your house or park?
I love cardinals, but we don't see them here.  I saw one once in Maryland.  We don't feed the birds in our yard, but we do feed the squirrels.

3. What is the last thing you said to somebody before replying to this email?
"I woke up 15 minutes ago."

4. How do you get yourself ready to sleep at night?
I wear my "Yes I'm Cold" shirt, which somehow makes me sleepy.

5. When was the last time you wrote a proper letter?
I write letters just about every day.  I wrote a letter yesterday and I'm in the process of finishing a letter today.

6. What is the worst injury you have ever sustained?
I fell off my bike (over the top of the handlebars) and dislocated my shoulder.

7. If you could choose your career based strictly on what you think would be fun instead of your qualifications/salary/etc., what would it be?
I'd love to work with orphan elephants in Kenya.  But I'd have to be 50 or more years younger and move to Kenya to do it.

8. You can live on another planet, which one and why?
The planet they visit on the Star Trek episode, "Shore Leave."

9. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Toasted almond

10. What do you think of tattoos? Do you have any?
I'm not a big fan.  I've seen some beautiful ones (like one of the current contestants on Survivor), but they are not for me.  I do not have a tattoo.

11. Are you very active or do you prefer to just relax in your free time?
Definitely relax

12. If you could bring back one TV show that was cancelled, which one would you bring back?
It would be interesting to see West Wing in this day and age.  But generally speaking shows end when it's time and to bring them back is not a good idea.

13. Do you prefer to watch movies in the theater or in the comfort of your own home?
Well, I do love watching movies in the theater, but we never go, so I'm happy seeing them in my own home.

14. If you opened a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?
If I opened a restaurant, it would have to be a pastry restaurant...and I'd weight 400 lbs.

15. If money were no object what would you do for your next birthday?
Have the whole family, and all the Pinata people get together at Fenton's creamery and all have huge ice cream dishes. 

_____________________________________________________________________________

PHOTO OF  THE DAY

8611   

  

Saturday 9

 

Saturday 9: God Bless America

Unfamiliar with Deanna Durbin's rendition of week's tune? Hear it here.

Memorial Day is the federal holiday designated to honor American service people who died in battle. 

This week's Saturday 9 is from the archives.

1) Memorial Day was introduced after the Civil War. Originally called Decoration Day, this is when memorials, as well as the graves of veterans, are to be decorated with flags and flowers on this day to show our appreciation. Is there a war memorial in your neighborhood?
Not sure.  There might be at the cemetery.

2) Andrew Johnson, our 17th President, was in office the first time Memorial/Decoration Day was celebrated. Have you ever met one of our Presidents?
No.  I did shake hands with Tipper Gore, though.

3) According to the AAA, more than 30 million Americans will hit the road this weekend and drive more than 50 miles. Will you be traveling far from home this weekend?
I probably won't even go out of the house this weekend!

4) Memorial Day kicks off the summer season. What's your favorite picnic food?
It was always my father's potato salad.  How I miss it!  I have yet to find anything anywhere near as good as what he made.

5) As you answer these questions, is there an air conditioner or fan on?
No.  (I am writing this at 1 a.m.)

6) Though she's belting out one of America's best loved patriotic songs, Deanna Durbin was born in Canada. Is there anyone in your family or circle of friends who wasn't born in the USA?
I don't think there is anybody in my family who wasn't born in the USA, but we have had many, many people from other countries who have become friends.

7) No longer a household name, Ms. Durbin was once one of the biggest stars in the country. One of her most popular films was 1937's One Hundred Men and a Girl, which was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Recommend a movie that you really like, but don't think many Saturday 9ers have seen.
The Frisco Kid, a 1979 Harrison Ford, Gene Wilder movie.

8) Back in 1938, Deanna Durbin had her handprints cemented in front of the TCL Chinese Theater on Hollywood Blvd. Have you ever visited that Los Angeles tourist attraction?
Yes.  I had to find Judy Garland's prints.

9) Random question: What food did you hate as a child, but enjoy now?
Mushrooms.  I don't know how I hated them.  I love them now.

_____________________________________________________________________________

PHOTO OF  THE DAY

8610

Lots of stuff

 For Implace ... sadly, I cannot respond to comments on this blog -- I don't know why.  But I wanted to let you know I got the new Harlan Coben and read it in a day and a half.  I loved it!

* * * * *

I have this characteristic that has followed me most of my life.  When I find something I like, I end up getting lots of  things like that.  Look at  the Photo of the Day to see how many boxes of stickers I have (and that's not all of them...some are in drawers).  There are also two shoe boxes of postcards, more than I will ever send in my life.  I don't have a clue how many rolls of washi tape I have, but lots.

But it's more than stuff like stickers and postcards and washi tape.  I loved being a mother--so we had five children.  When we had such a good time with our first foreign guest, Eduardo, I took over arranging for families to have visitors and in our house we had 70 foreigners from 14 different countries over 10 years.

I enjoyed sponsoring my first Compassion child, a girl in India, so sponsored a boy in Brasil...and at one point was sponsoring 28 different Compassion kids.  Now I have 22, some I pay for, others I just write to.

When Peggy was here, we listened to a lot of John Denver music as we were driving around the state.  She liked John Denver and I had a CD of his that we played in the car. I enjoyed the music so much I started buying Denver CDs and now have most of the CDs he recorded.  I also have almost every book ever written about Judy Garland and every album she ever made.

At one point I got interested in rubber stamps and bought lots of them, most of which I have never used because I don't really know what to do with them.  I have thousands of photographs--more now that they are digital, but thousands of hold in your hand photos from when I was 10 years old and got my first camera.

We adopted a dog from the SPCA and agreed to foster a dog.  Suddenly for the next five years, we had about 100 foster dogs in and out of our house, and adopted 3 of them.

With writing, I have pen pals, now over 50 of them.  With some I exchange letters frequently, others less frequently.  Most people have a few pen pals.  I just get more and more.

I don't know what you call this condition, but I realized the other day, when I thought back on my life, that my life is filled with lots of whatever I'm interested, whether people or "things."

_____________________________________________________________________________

PHOTO OF  THE DAY

Stickers in plastic boxes, postcards in shoe boxes
(2 of them...only 1 shows here)

8609

A big day

 

Yesterday was such a quiet day.  Jeri, Phil and Walt went to Oakland to see the A's baseball game.  They left around noon for a 6 p.m. game, but they wanted to stop for lunch.  

There was a group that went, some 14 in all, giving Jeri a chance to visit with so many of her friends. I imagine that they all had a wonderful day, especially since the A's won.

It was a quiet day for me, sitting at home answering letters and then, since everybody else was at the baseball game, Ned cooked hot dogs for himself, Marta and me for dinner.  I went to sleep about 10 and missed the guys getting home from the game 15 minutes later.

Today was not a quiet day.  This was the day Jeri and I were going to have our "girls lunch," which we do every time she comes to town.  I also wanted to do some shopping.  Jeri said we should go to Fenton's for lunch.  I wrote to Char, "Jeri is taking me to Fenton's for lunch" and she texted back "Cool."  I was thinking about how long it had been since she had joined us for lunch at Fenton's and wondered when we would be able to do a Fenton's lunch again.  

When we got in the car, I suggested to Jeri that we do lunch first since it would be too crowded in downtown Davis at noontime to find a place to park and that sounded like a good idea to her.  We drove to Fenton's and when we got there, guess what....

It was a total surprise.  Char and all 3 of her daughters.  It had been Ned's idea and they decided they weren't even going to tell Walt because then he'd want to come and this was to be a girls lunch.  What a wonderful lunch.  As usual, Char and I had our crab salad sandwiches and milk shakes.  The girls had such a good time chatting. Later Char sent a message saying that she loved how the four girls relate.  They have known each other pretty much since birth and grew up in their early years like sisters.  They have traveled different paths, but the connection remains strong.  

When lunch was over, Jeri and I drove back to downtown Davis to the UCD store, where I wanted to look at what they had left of their egghead stuff, which they were selling for the 30th anniversary of  Robert Arneson's eggheads on campus.  We parked a block and a half away from the store and I had to walk a block and a half, which I don't think I've done in years (my legs will be sore tomorrow).  They didn't have everything I hoped to find, but I ended up buying myself a shirt.  I do love the eggheads!

     

They didn't have the postcards I hoped to buy, but I was happy with the shirt.  After we left the store, we went to the coffee shop next door and had a nice coffee.

We got home around  4, having been gone about 5 hours.  I hadn't had my nap, but no time for a nap because we were going to Ned's friend Greg's house for dinner (Ned & Jeri's friend...and our friend).  We got there around 5:30 and sat outside enjoying hors d'oeuvres before dinner.

Then Greg's wife and others got dinner on the table for all eleven of us.

It was a delicious dinner, topped off with cherry pie for dessert.  We stayed until it was starting to get cool and then we headed on home.  I would have gone to sleep at 9:30, but I wanted to get this written.  It's now 10:30 and I'm headed to sleep.  This was the busiest day I have in....years.

Jeri and Phil will be here tomorrow, but are taking the train tomorrow night to head up to Oregon to spend a few days with Phil's mother.  Things will be very quiet next week, but it's been so nice having this brief chance for a visit.

_____________________________________________________________________________

PHOTO OF  THE DAY

Ned and Greg

8608

The Big Race

For some reason I can no longer comment on my own entries, so I was not able to respond to the people who commented that they still read this journal every day, but thank you all of you!

--------------

San Francisco recently held its annual Bay to Breakers race.  This is a 12K race, from one side of San Francisco to the other, from the Embarcadero to the Ocean Beach.  It has been run every year since 1912 (except possibly the COVID year).

Some start the race very young.

People come in all sorts of costumes

Some don't bother wearing anything at all.

I've never participated.  I've never watched, except for on the news at night, but I'm always tickled at the news reports and hearing the weird things that happen.

Monk had an episode featuring the Bay the Breakers.  Someone was murdered by a guy who supposedly ran the whole race and couldn't possibly have killed her.  All the runners have some sort of counter to wear during the race (not sure where the nude guys wear theirs) so that at the end of the race they can check the computer and make sure the runner actually ran the race.  According to the counter, the killer had run the race and in a good time, too.

Monk finally figured out that he had parked his car near the race, and attached his counter to the back of the TV truck he was following that was covering the most famous runner, so he could leave the race, drive to his girlfriend's apartment, kill her and return to the race.

(Logic makes me think that if he was driving from the race and back again, with parking what it is in the city, would he be able to find a parking place at either his girlfriend's or near the race itself?).  But Monk was able to prove what he'd done and another crime was solved.

I love that San Francisco has such a weird event like the Bay to Breakers.

_____________________________________________________________________________

PHOTO OF  THE DAY

The finish line

8607 

Family Reunion

It's so nice having Jeri and Phil here for a few days.  They spent 4 days in Santa Barbara, visiting with Tom's family and are here for 4 days and then will take the train up to Eugene (Oregon) where Phil's family live.

They are spending the nights with their friend Jessica, who has a guest room they can use (which we don't).  I made banana bread the night before and they came over for breakfast, which Ned made.  We had such a good time sitting around and chatting.  I got to learn more about the granddaughters from Jeri, since I almost never hear news from them directly.  Brianna drove them to the train station.  She has also just started her first job.

When breakfast was over, Ned and Phil went out to the hall where Ned works to check the mouse traps.  Jeri got in touch with Gonz, her high school music teacher, with whom she has remained friends all these years.  He was home and so she went to his house for a visit which was great for me because it gave me a chance to have my afternoon nap.

In the afternoon, Phil and Ned worked on music (Phil plays the guitar, as does Ned) while Jeri and I worked on the puzzle I'm currently doing.

And we stopped to watch a bit of TV.

Ned had turned on an old Laugh In and Jeri didn't really remember much about Tiny Tim.  I'd forgotten about him!  I found a video on YouTube of his wedding on The Tonight Show.   I don't think Jeri really believed it!  In this day and age, a character like Tiny Tim doesn't seem as popular as he was at the time.

In the late afternoon, the weather being perfect, we sat outside in the carport with our drinks.  I had water, the others had locally made beer (made at Sudwerks, where we went for the Adrian West concert).

Ned cooked dinner and called us in at 6.  We had a great time chatting about their plans for tomorrow, which is to go to the A's game in Oakland (Ned and I won't be going).  Our car starter has been having problems and Walt couldn't get it to start for 15 minutes when he was at the store yesterday, so they are going to take Ned's car

Then after dinner, Ned and Phil did more music, while Walt, Jeri and I watched Jeopardy before Jeri and Phil headed off back to Jessica's for the night.

It was a quiet day, but just so nice having them here.

_____________________________________________________________________________

PHOTO OF  THE DAY

8606 

Adrian's concert

 Adrian West gave a concert at Sudwerks, sponsored by KDRT (Ned's radio station).  What a fun evening it was!  We had delicious mushroom burgers.

Ned introduced the band.

I love watching Adrian play his electric violin.

There were a lot of friends there and it was fun to see them.  Ned's radio co-host, Clyde was there.

These days whenever I do anything out of the house, I seem to come home exhausted...and I did.  I collapsed in the recliner and fell asleep, waking up a couple of hours later to stagger to the couch to "go to sleep."  

I've decided I've been playing Wordle too long.  As usual, I tried to work it at midnight before I went to the couch, but couldn't solve it, so I finally gave up and went to sleep.  When I woke up a few hours later, I had the answer in my head...and it was right!

_____________________________________________________________________________

PHOTO OF  THE DAY

8605

Sunday Stealing

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This feature originated and published on WTIT: The Blog. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves.

Stolen from SwapBot

1. What inspires you the most?
People who make a difference in the world inspire me.  Like Jane Goodall.  Like the people who work with children in Compassion, Int'l.  Like Jose'Andres, who cooks for people in war countries.

2. How do you think the world will change in 20 years?
It completely depends on who is going to win the presidential election in November.

3. Cats or dogs and why?
I wanted dogs all through my childhood and could never have one.  I briefly had a cat, who ran away.  Walt and I got our first dog in 1967 and have had at least one dog in the house ever since, often two and when I was sponsoring dogs for the SPCA we had many more.  Dogs have a more predictable personality and are more interested in people than cats.

4. What is the funniest memory from your childhood?
I answered this recently.  I remember the day my mother brought a Peanuts cartoon in to show me and the two of us laughed so hard we couldn't stop.  Not sure that's the funniest memory, but it's definitely a funny memory.

5. Where do you not mind waiting?
As long as I have my cell phone (i.e., Kindle app) with me, I don't mind waiting anywhere.  In fact, sometimes I'd rather wait than be called right away.

6. What was the best thing before sliced bread?
The wheel?  The toilet?

7. What product would you stockpile if you found out they weren’t going to sell it anymore?
Best Foods mayonnaise.

8. What do you get every time you go grocery shopping?
Walt buys bananas and mandarin oranges every other day.

9. What do people do too much of today?
Use their phones when they are with people in real life.  (I hate going to a restaurant and seeing everybody using their phones instead of talking with each other)

10. Are you a GoodWill, or any second hand store customer?
No,

11. How do you feel about the death penalty?
I'm strongly against it, for many reasons.  For one reason, many times we find out we have executed an innocent person.  Also, it is cheaper to keep a person in prison indefinitely because of all the legal fees paid for someone trying to escape the death penalty.  And, if you execute someone, their pain only lasts briefly, whereas if you keep them in prison without possibility of parole, they suffer for many years.

12. Are there brands of certain items that you will ONLY buy that brand? I.e., paper towels, ketchup etc
We only buy Best Foods (Hellmans) mayonnaise, Skippy peanut butter, and Peet's French Roast coffee

13. What are some things that you will buy the Store brand, and find the quality to be great?
Since Ned does all my shopping these days I haven't been in a store in literally years and don't remember what I used to buy.

14. What is a Name brand item that really disappointed you recently?
When we decided to see Unfrosted, the story of the making of Pop Tarts, I had Ned buy a box of Pop Tarts for us to eat while watching the movie.  Oh lord how terrible they tasted!  (and how terrible the movie was!)

15. Do you wear glasses or contacts?  
I've never worn contacts.  I've worn glasses since I was 10.  I wouldn't know what I look like without glasses.

_____________________________________________________________________________

PHOTO OF  THE DAY

8604