Sunday, January 30, 2005

Name That Car

I scooted around the parking lot of the old folks home where I live and amused myself by jotting down the names of the models of the cars there.

Priziti

Solara

Sonoma

Sonata

Corolla

Celebrity

Astro

Passiti

Prizm

Tiburon

Altima

Silverado

Accord

Big Ten

New Yorker

Give yourself a pat on the back if you can name any of the makes that go with them.

PS... LOL ... I didn't expect this to be a game.  I really didn't know the makes.  But folks made it into one.  Congratulations. Here are the answers from my daughter Kate...see comments below.

Priziti-Saab

Solara-Dodge

Sonoma-Hyndai SUV
Sonata-Hyndai

Corolla-EVERYBODY GOT IT...Toyota

Celebrity-Chevy

Astro-Chevy

Passiti-VW

Prizm-Geo

Tiburon-Plymouth

Altima-Plymouth

Silverado-Chevy

Accord-  MANY picked right...Honda...GREAT CAR btw

Big Ten-Packard

New Yorker-Chrylser
How'd I do?  LOL  Kate

Very good except the Big Ten was a chevy pick up.

Living Alone

I live alone.  I awoke this morning and heard someone breathing.  I listened to the slow steady inhale-exhale and I wondered who the heck was in my bedroom and why. Then I noticed the breathing was in sync with mine. 

I was listening to myself.

Friday, January 28, 2005

Johnny and David

Johnny Carson loved the silly metaphors:

Johnny: Boy is was hot today.  (Pause)

Audience: How... hot...was... it?

Johnny: (Mugs for the camera, obviously enjoying the audience participation) It was so hot that a dog was chasing a rabbit and they were both walking.

So now David Letterman, a great fan of Johnny, copies the format.

David:  Boy it was cold today (Pauses)

Audience:(Titters, knowing it is expected to participate, but may not..which is even funnier.)

David:  It was so cold that the squirrels in Central Park were lighting fires in trash cans to warm their nuts.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

 

How... Mad... Was... She...?

My mother once said, "I got so mad that I had to make a metaphor to express it.  Then I got so amused at the metaphor, that I forgot what I was mad about."

The metaphor:  I was mad enough to eat nails without taking their heads off.

Penny for your thoughts

One day in 1910 Bertha Relph opened her change purse onto the sewing table because that had the most light. She began sorting through the pennies. Most bore the familiar Indian Head design, but here and there were the bright new Lincoln Head cents.

She was pleased with the design for Lincoln was one of her favorite presidents. Taft, well, he’s all right and if women were allowed to vote she would consider him, but Lincoln was a president to be proud of.

Each time she found a Lincoln Head penny, she would turn it over and look carefully at the lower edge. She was searching for three small initials: VDB. She knew that in 1909 the San Francisco mint had coined 750,000 pennies with the initials of Victor D. Brenner, the designer of the coin, embossed on the back. 750,000 may sound like a lot of coins, but when the mint was issuing millions, the VDB was pretty rare.

She found only one of these special coins. She carefully wrapped it in tissue paper and put in a corner of her bureau drawer.

There it stayed until her youngest daughter, Ruth, had a son. She took the coin and passed it to her daughter saying, “Take this coin and save it for Charles until he is old enough to take care of it. It is rare and will be very valuable someday.”

I am Charles, and when I was a teen ager my mother passed the coin to me and told me that my grandmother had predicted its growing value and wished me to have it.

I have it still. My 1909 S VDB Lincoln cent is not out on display, but is locked safely away. Its value had passed the $1000 mark the last time I checked. Bertha must be pleased.

She might also be pleased if I pass it to one of my grandchildren and say, “Take care of this. It’s a gift to you from your great- great-grandmother.”

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

History of One Blogger

When I was in Junior High School, a friend published a four-page, mimeographed newspaper for his friends.  He called it the Sunmont Bee. The name Sunmont came from the top line of a calendar: Sun, Mon, T(ues). Circulation at one time reached a peak of 40 copies.  To fill space, I was permitted to write a column of junior high gossip.  You know, like, "JerryT. likes Amanda M.  At least he gives her his Hershey Bar at lunch every day.  But he doesn't know that she gives half to Nancy G.  Shh, don't tell him."

My friend, Bob Norris, now a professor emeritus of University of California, Santa Barbara, considered this kind of gossip to be drivel, and named the column Dribble.

In Van Nuys High School, I became first, assistant editor, and then co-editor of the school paper, The Mirror, and I had a general interest column, and I kept the name Dribble. I freely stole ideas from a column that my father had run in Beverly Hills in the 1920's. One item "We call ourselves we in this column because all great editors call themselves we, and we hope to be a great editor someday." I think he, in turn, stole that from E.B.White, who really was a great editor.

In my forties, I learned to fly.  Subsequently I bought an Ercoupe, a 1946 two-place, low-wing, single-engine monoplane  Ercoupe owners formed a club and printed a newsletter, Coupe Capers.  For while I was editor and wrote such things as:

Heard from the tower.

Me: Castle tower, this is Ercoupe one six Hotel.  Crossing the Jet Advisory area, landing at Merced.

Castle Tower: Roger, one six Hotel.  Watch out for jets.

(That was my advisory?)

Me:  Ah, sir, would you ask the jets to watch out for me, too?

And then many years later, I learned about blogging.  I started a journal and named it Dribble, after those column of long ago.

And in it I wrote such things as this.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

No Discipline

I scold myself for my lack of self-discipline.  It is 3 am and I am in bed, when I think of something I want to edit in my journal.  I get out of bed, fire up the old Hewlett-Packard, and start working on the Journal.  But, tomorrow is the day that I get to sit in with my harmonica on George Loscalzo, our piano player at the old folks home. I need my rest. 

That's not George in the picture there.  That is my son-in-law Roddy Jackson, and my grandson. They have played here too.

Monday, January 24, 2005

Photo scavenger hunt for your name

Krissy asks us to find a photo for each letter of our first name.  Will this count?>>

 

Chuck

Sunday, January 23, 2005

An Open Book

It is nice to have someone who can read me better than I can read myself.  I have been sitting at the computer this morning, falling asleep.  I shake my head and read on.  I remember that I had thought yesterday about taking a Sunday Drive today.  The major part of the country is blizzard locked, so taking advantage of California climate ought to be a good idea.  But, if one is tired?

I called my girl friend and asked if she would like to take a Sunday drive.  "If you want to," she said. "You don't sound like you want to go."

Hmm, she is right, I thought I wanted to go, but somehow, pleasant winter weather notwithstanding, I think I'd rather wait.  She suggested  "We can go another time."  Bless her heart.  She made it possible for me to read myself.

It is nice to have someone in tune with me, in sync. I am glad to be read.

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Saturday Six

Here's another on line game.  Patrick asks questions to answer in our journals.

1. Which of the following is your favorite store and why?  
A) Wal-Mart
B) Target
C) K Mart
D) Sears

Target.  I love to cruise through the aisles on the electric cart they provide.  The sell things that I didn't even know had been invented.  Electronic gadgets and such.

2. How far does your closest friend who's not in the same town as you live, and when was the last time you saw them in person?

Hundreds of miles.  I haven't seen her in a year and half.  But I keep in touch by long distance phone calls, about an hour everyday.  Had to get a special phone service to keep from going broke

3. Have you ever gone on a date with someone you met online?  Would you?

Yes, and it was charming.  She came to my town with her son, first, to check me out.  Then we went to Disneyworld and Cape Kennedy on one trip and to Williamsberg and Washington D.C. on another.  We took a cruise to Alaska that was fine. The romance was fine, but I didn't want to move fer away from my family so we drifted apart, but remain friends.

4. What is your favorite novel and what makes it stand out for you?

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.  Twain shows the evils of slavery and discrimination through his unsophisticated hero Huck.  Huck and Jim travel through adventures just fine as companions.  Jim has no trouble until Tom Sawyer shows up and messes up everybody's life.

5. You get snowed in at your home for three days.  You have power and telephone service, but no way to leave the house.  How will you amuse yourself?

Unless someone tells me I am snowed in, I might not even notice.  I would be working on my journal and reading journals of others, just like I do now.

6. A fellow journaler you consider a friend disappears from J-land.  Visitors leave comments in the journal but they get no response.  You send the journaler an E-mail to make sure everything is okay, and despite the fact that you see that it has been read, you get no reply.  What do you do?  

I'd write a long personal letter and send it U.S. Mail.  If he didn't answer I would forget it.  There are too many plausible reasons for his not writing for me to expect some dire reason.

Friday, January 21, 2005

Surprise for Kate

Dear Kate, I missed your birthday, so here's a surprise.  Your grandmother, your great-grandmother, and your great-great-grandmother.

Grandmother, Great-grandmother, and Great-great-grandmother

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Slam Books

The Q and A entry below reminded me that in Junior High School we used to circulate Slam Books.  Note books, like, say, a secretarial dictation book, used to be passed around.  Each page had question on it, much like the Q and A below.  Lines were numbered, and you answered the question on your numbered line. So it looked like this>>

Page one: Choose your line

1--Jerry

2--Jenny

3--Tom

4--Felice

5--Chuck

Etc,

Page two: what is your favorite food?

1--Fried Chicken

2--Big Mac, fries, chocolate shake,

3--Peppermint stick ice cream, toll house cookies

4--Liver and onions...just kidding...broccoli...still kidding

5--Mom's spaghetti

Etc.

Page three: Best friend's name

1--Karen

2--Tom

3--Jenny

4--Tom

5--Felice

Etc.

And so on for many "favorite" questions.  They were called slam books because in the later pages you posted a one line comment about the person named on the top of the page; thus

Page 31: What do you think about  Anna

1--Talks too much

2--Mascara? Oh, come on.

3--Great eyes

4--Giggles when she is near any boy

5--Goofy about Chad.  Digs Tom Hanks movies.  Lose some weight, Anna

Slam books were against school rules, but they circulated anyway. I think they caused lots of hurt feelings... but that was Junior High life. The what is your favorite this or that was fun, and you could compare all the answers with your own. You could see how you "fit in" .

The fun part was being creative.  You could compliment someone you "really liked", or you could pan someone you didn't. The hard part was reading what the gang thought about you.

Do they still exist... or do they live on now in our Journals?

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Clouded Crystal Ball

Once again my predictions have been wrong.  I predicted that the entry immediately below, Q and A, would be the least interesting that I have done.  BUT, in the four hours that it has been posted, it has drawn five positive comments. Go figure.

One response was from my daughter who posted her comments right after mine.  And she gave me permission to print hers too.

So here they are side by side.  You can see how far the fruit has fallen from the tree. For your enlightenment, Dad (blue) and Kate (orange), side by side.


 

1-WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING AT THE MOMENT?
Old Man's War by John Scalzi.  That is, I have it here, ready to read  SIDDARTHA, by Hermann Hesse...actually I just finished it and am without book right now.  I really enjoyed it tho...slow beginnings, but then about 1/2 way through I couldn't put it down.

 

2-WHAT IS PRINTED ON YOUR MOUSEPAD?
CIC Software.  I wonder who they are. 
A nice forest green color, solid.

3-WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BOARD GAME?
I play Wordscape online with my daughter daily.  Scrabble is taking a back seat to Wordscape for me too. 

4-WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MAGAZINE?
Whatever is left on the table of the lobby of the old folks home I live in. Right now...Watercolor Magic.  In fact, I'd better renew my subscription. 

5-WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SOUND?
"You have mail"  The Silence.  It was very interesting last night in fact...I awoke noticing it WAS silent for awhile...no dogs, no cars, no people, no snoring.  YES!!!

6-WHAT'S THE WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?
Being ignored GRIEF

7-WHAT'S THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF IN THE MORNING?

What part of me aches the most today?  I usually sit on the edge of the bed for about five minutes before I get going. Sometimes I go back to sleep sitting up.  Usually, "WHAT THE HECK DAY is this?"

8-HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOU PICK UP THE PHONE?
Four rings...I snatch it up just as the answering machine comes on.
.As few as possible, hate the sound.

10-WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN LIFE?
Family ~ Love   Family ~ Love

11-WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE FOODS?
Avocado,  Greek Olives,  Dip and Chip, Brussels sprouts

Uhhh, CHOCOLATE (s)  

12-DO YOU LIKE TO DRIVE FAST?

I'm eighty, I drive forty in the fast lane  YES, but I try to go with the flow of traffic anyway.

13-DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?
Well, no   Well, only if he's just eaten a meal...and the puffy, fluffy cat...do those count?

14-WOULD YOU CLASS STORMS AS COOL OR SCARY?
Cool...I love thunderstorms and rain...especially to watch the lightning light up the sky.  WAY COOL

15-WHAT TYPE WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
1930 Packard Straight-eight.. My family picked it up used from some rich dude who lost it during the depression.  It sat seven passengers easily.  During High School days we called it the "football ferry" and drove it loaded with a dozen kids to "away" games.  The first one I owned on my own was a 1938 Chevy that took be back and forth to UCLA during WWII.  You'll have to help me on this one...I THINK it was a '59 Chevy Biscane?  BLUE with the stick on the column.

16-WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ALCOHOLICDRINK?
Jim Beam Bourbon in Pepsi  Margarita, with Cuervo Gold, on the rocks, not blended.  WITH salt  BUT, they also create the WORST hangover!

17-DO YOU EAT THE STEMS OFF BROCCOLI?
Yes they are the best part.  The best part of the Artichoke is the stem also.  The short ones, and YES on the Artichoke!!!

18-IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR:

I could, but I don't. Why does anyone bother?

PURPLE HAZE

19-IS THE GLASS HALF EMPTY OR HALF FULL?

Full...I tend to see the positive in everything.

Full...I tend to see the positive in everything.

20-WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE? 

Big with Tom Hanks  Too many to count...used to be The Great Escape...but I LOVED Rainman, Good Morning Vietnam and Good Will Hunting

21-DO YOU TYPE WITH THE CORRECT FINGERS ON THE CORRECT KEYS?
I do....thanks to that typing class in High school. I tried typing with a pencil, but ... I do....thanks to that typing class in High school.

22-WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED?
Whatever it is, it is going to stay there.  I cannot get down on the floor to look any more. Nothing unless you count the cat or the airpump for the bed.

23-WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH?
I wait for the play offs or the super bowl.  I ignore basketball completely.  LOL, BASKETBALL is my favorite!

24-SAY AT LEAST ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU:
I snagged this off a journal!  Sonya sent me one once: She writes a fasicnating journal about her family and her job. That quizwas longer than this one.  Took two days to fill out.  It also had philsophical questions. I notice they are missing in this version, and it is just as well.

My Poppy is a very generous and loving father!

25-DO YOU PREFER HORROR MOVIES OR COMEDY FILMS?
Comedy  Comedy

28-WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE TIME OF DAY?

Mornings at the old folks home here.  Entertainment on Tuesdays.  A pianist plays for us and he lets me "sit in" with my harmonica.  We play cards after dinner for about an hour. Then everyone disappears into the rooms and hibernates.   Cuddle time, whenever it is.  But late afternoon is my most productive time usually.

29-WHAT'S YOUR BIGGEST PET PEEVE?
Grumpy old people who are peeved about everything.

People not keeping their word or not sharing the load with others.


30-IS THERE ANYONE YOU HAVEN'T FORGIVEN? 
Maybe a few  Pres. Bush, 1 & 2...tho that really ISN't true...unforgiveness only hurts ME. 

31-WHAT TYPE OF MILK DO YOU DRINK?
I have no idea.  It comes to me in a pitcher to put on my cereal.  Funny, I drink the milk from the cereal bowl when the cereal has been eaten, but I gag at the thought of milk from a glass. Can't drink any right now, but would be 2%, but rarely a glass full.

32-DO YOU MAKE YOUR BED IN THE MORNING?

Heck no.  That is why there is a bed room door.  Shut the door. If you make a bed in the morning, you have to unmake it in the evening..  DITTO (I wonder where I got that?)

33-HOW MANY TVs ARE IN YOUR HOUSEHOLD?
1
34-WHO PUTS THE GARBAGE OUT?

How nice to live in the old folks home.  You never have to deal with trash, dusting, vaccuuming, or garbage  My husband.  YAY

35. What is your favorite flower?
Roses.  We have a nice rose garden  This is a tough one...but I think I'll say azalea.  It is lovely to see, floats in a dish beautifully, and I LOVE to draw and paint them.  (Though I don't do it often).

36. Candy, jewelry, flowers as a present?
  Candy.  the recipient will usually share withyou 
Jewelry if it is expensive...flowers if the jewelry would not be expensive. ;-)  Candy is NOT a good present...oh wait, am I GIVING or RECEIVING?

37. Favorite color? 

Purple or Brown  Still teal (turquoise) or sage (light green)

 

That was fun, Dad...you can post it to your site if you want...I don't have a journal page to put it on.

Love, Kate

Saturday, January 15, 2005

Short Review of a Long Movie

I went to see The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio, Alex Baldwin, and Alan Alda Friday afternoon.  Man, what a movie.  DiCaprio makes a far better Howard Hughes than you would expect. 

Howard Hughes was a hero of mine.  He was a free spirit when it came to creating movies, and he produced them with zeal, and fought the censors and the critics to keep them intact the way he had made them. 

He attacked flying with the same gung ho.  For a time he was the fastest man on the planet.  He built the largest airplane that has ever flown to this day, and he built it out of non-strategic materials, wood and glue. 

He was rewarded by being attacked by the government and rival airlines.  Finally he became a complete recluse and spent the rest of his life in seclusion. 

The movie runs nearly three hours which was well spent by this Hughes fan.

Flags

Our weekly assignment was to create a new country, suitable to ourselves, and then to design a flag to fly within it.  Citizens in my new country held an election to choose a flag.  Here is what they considered.

             

The citizens of my new country decided that the watchful eye of our benevelolent dictator, me, was a bit over-bearing, and rejected it.

     

They reasoned that since our new country was "clothing optional", that cupid would be a suitable icon.

          

Under my urging, the voters finally selected my astrological sign as best representing strength, independence and boldness.  They named the new country Leone.  There is another Leone but that doesn't matter.  Imitation is the purest form of flattery.

Sunday, January 9, 2005

Swimming Upstream

Got an idea for an entry to be called Swimming Upstream.  Will work on it, but will take a while.  Drop back, say tomorrow.  Got the idea from Groovynoodles who misses Christmas music which is not playing in January.  The rest of us were sick of it by New Years Eve.

Also she told her daughter in a recent entry: Me:  "Ya know, when I first found out you were a girl, I was so excited!  I thought when you got a little bit older we could go get tattoos or piercings or something.  You're no fun."

Furthermore, her daughter has a science teacher that is so bad that it should be to her credit to get a bad grade.  That is opposite of normal. Gothdaughter is swimming upstream too.

And I, I actually like broccoli.  The rest of the world either tolerates broccoli or spits it out. And those little hated cabbages, Brussels Sprouts, I love.  I eat some raw on the way home from the market, and have been known to make a whole dinner of them only.  I am swimming upstream too.

And my tablemate in the old folks home, Wilma, longs for the days of speakeasys when one had to say "Joe Sent me" at the door to get in.  That is swimming upstream-   longing for a club where you have to know somebody to get inl  Most of us would rebel at that.Wilma was told in college that "We don't want women in the Journalism department here.  We will flunk you out."  She graduated in spite of that.  Also Wilma, who was born in California, hates the uniquely California product: avocados.  Ironic isn't it?

Or take the case of Alice Cheng, who is a brilliant brain trapped in a teenagers body. Isn’t that challenging enough? Now, add that the body is a girls’ in this male oriented society, is overweight in diet conscious America, is Asian in minority-wary population, and is completely urban in temperament in provincial Oregon, (Where’s Oregon?) and you can see what tides she has to swim against.

Cherie LIKES loading the dishwasher.

Donna likes steamed cabbage and broccoli with garlic butter. That is not exactly the conventional view of a tasty dish. Donnaadds that she eats cookie dough, but ignores the actual cookies.

Penguine came home and found her cats had ignored the food in their dish and torn open the cat food bag, and were lined up to steal food and scatter it on the kitchen floor. Conventional wisdom would cause the cats to be exiled to the back yard at least, but Penguine was amused.

Swimming upstream notions will be those notions that we individuals have that are opposite of the popular view.  I will be searching your journals to see how you are bucking the current. Are you making headway, or are you going down for the third time.

Hey, it will be fun.  Join me here soon.

Friday, January 7, 2005

Griff meets snow Assignment 42

When my constant companion, Griff, an eight year old Golden Retreiver, and I moved from California to Missouri, he had never seen snow.  One morning an unseasonally early storm dumped massive amounts of snow overnight.  As soon as the streets were cleared I took Griff for his usual ride to the park for a walk.

When we arrived at his favorite spot, the park was, from his point of view, gone!  I hadn't known that a dog's face could show expressions such as bewilderment, but his did. 

Cautiously he dismounted from the van and stepped gingerly into the cold stuff.  In a matter of seconds he changed from bewilderment to sheer joy.

He rolled on the ground and made strange shaped snow angels. He ran down a slope, kicking snow in front of him, and then chased the snowslide he started.  He ran to the "squirrel tree" and looked for squirrels to chase, but they were busy hibernating.

We had many delightful snow adventures that winter, but that was the most fun.

Extra credit:  The "first dog" Barney has his own website.  They were playing Sleigh ride and that reminded me to make this entry about Winter.  Other Winter favorites are Winter Wonderland and Baby It's Cold Outside.