Friday, March 31, 2006

Quiz - Name that River

Name that River

Drag your cursor over the answer to reveal it.

1. Joins Lake Erie and Lake Ontario: Niagara

2. Runs past Louisville Ohio

3. Joins the Allegheny at Pittsburgh. Monongahela

4. With the San Joaquin, flows into San Francisco Bay: Sacramento

5. Forms the border between Texas and Mexico: Rio Grande

6. Carved the Grand Canyon: Colorado

7. Flows past Memphis: Mississippi

8. Lewis and Clark spent their FIRST winter on its banks: Missouri

9. Lewis and Clark spent their SECOND winter on its banks: Columbia

10. Laughably called a river. carries only urban run-off most of the year: Los Angeles River

11. Can be navigated by use of the Beauharnois Locks: St. Lawrence

12. Runs through Tulsa: Arkansas River

13  From Jim: Runs north to Hudson Bay: Red river MN

14  From Anita: Locale for film Deliverance:  Tennessee

15 From olddog: Home of the "Atlantic Salmon Pool" where the President's spring salmon used to come from: Penobscot

16. From Anita: River named from the French word for "flat":  Platte

17.  From Mary, Alphawoman: Runs NW and empties into the Ohio in Carrolton, KY.The Kentucky

Add your river questions to the comments and I will add them to the quiz. (don't forget to include the answers.)

Soon as I find my Atlas: World River Quiz

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

S is for Swanky

After the housekeepers left, I noticed my fresh towels.  One was the usual and semi-threadbare, but the other looked fluffy and full.  It had a large letter S woven into the nap.  Where had I seen that fancy S before?

Oh, yes, the trade mark of the Sheraton Hotel.  Somehow, a Sheraton, plush bathtowel has creeped into our old folks home. 

Now, I wish I knew which Sheraton it once belonged to.  I'd like to know what celebrity may have dried her, ah, face, where I dry mine.

Little mysteries like this make can make your day in an old folks home.

How soon we forget

There is a cranky old lady lives in this old folks home with me.  She hogs the laundry room, she moves my clothes out of the dryer before they are finished. She seems always to be there when I go to do my washing. 

She grumbles about everything, the service, the house keeping and especially the food.  She can't eat this or that, and she thinks there is a conspiracy against her because cinnamon rolls are made with cinnamon and she can't eat cinnamon.

In this same home with me is a hero from WWII.  She was a Wave, a woman serving in the navy, assigned to special unit in or near Washington D.C.  It was a secret outfit, and the Waves were isolated from other units. They billeted in special areas and, in those precomputer days, listened and transcribed thousands of Japanese radio transmissions.  Their assignment lasted for months, and they were told it was 'death' if their mission leaked out. 

At last the team, listening, transcribing, and analysing, broke the Japanese Navy Code, and because the Japanese did not know it, the U.S. Navy had information that saved thousands of American lives.  At the end of the war a high official gathered them and told them what they had done and they received a special citation.

And in case you haven't guessed, this war hero, and this cranky old lady, are the same person.

Thanks for the Memories - Continued

   More reflections on the song Thanks for the Memories, second entry below.  When the book comes out, this will be a part of that entry.

   I have always imagined a fellow singing this to his absent fickle minded sweetheart, but it would work just as well, if a sentimental lady were singing to a macho fellow who "loved her and then left her". 

   He (or she) sings of "burned toast and prunes".  What an image to have to remember as a romantic interlude.  what do you suppose happened?  They spent a beautiful night together and woke to find only toast and prunes for breakfast, and they burned the toast. Were they angry? No they we so in love that the laughed it off and made it part of their memory log.

   "Chuckles when the preacher said, 'for better or for worse.' " Whoa, they got married? But chuckling at the wedding vows? Maybe it was an interlude at a wedding chapel and they pretended to marry and could chuckle about their "I do's".  That would be a bittersweet memory for someone reflecting on how sweet it had been.

   It is a rueful torch song, but unlike the "blues", there are no regrets... or ostensibly so.  The singer certainly has plenty, and is so sorry it is over, What was wrong with the silly lover who chucked all this romance?  If we can still be sentimental about an empty purse at an important moment, it must have been love.

  

Monday, March 27, 2006

Saturday Six on Monday Morning

Patrick from Patrick's Place asks us to discuss these questions in our journals:

1. How confrontational are you in real life, and how does your real-life persona compare with your blogging persona? I no longer have to "set people straight" when they say something that is wrong  I let their errrors go.  And when they say hurtful politically incorrect things, I usually avoid the confrontation.... and I avoid the person too.

2. Other than the food itself, what makes your favorite restaurant your favorite? It's covenient location, it's fair prices, it's odor, and promptness.  I have crossed some nearby places off my list because of poor service.

3. You buy an iPod: what's the first tune you're likely to put on it? Night train, as many versions as I can find  Love that song.

4. Take
this quiz (if you haven't already!): What's the most important quality of your (ideal) significant other? Without the quiz I would say "accepting nature", accepting my foibles and those of others near us.

5. If you had to choose one or the other, which would you rather do: hear gossip or be the first to reveal some juicy piece of gossip? I hate to admit that I gossip, but I find myself doing it, and being shocked at my gossiping.

6. READER'S CHOICE QUESTION #85 from
Barb: If you had a magic feather (my Daddy Do carries several in his pocket) and this magic feather could make you unbelievably attractive OR unbelievably intelligent, which would you choose, and why? You can be too smart for your own good.  Also you can be too attractive for your own good too.  This would be a toss up between two poor situations. But I would rather be uncomfortably attractive than uncomfortably intelligent.

Thanks for the memories Bob Hope

Been working on a song book for the old folks to sing along with.  almost done.  One of the most complicated songs in the book, in fact taking a whole page, is Thanks for the Memories.

Bob Hope used it as a theme song, making up his own lyrics instead of using the complicated ones below.  The lyrics are sung by a lover who had a strange affair with his (her) sweetheart, which included a Hudson River cruise and a visit to Singapore among other delights. What a couple.  They toured Germany and Greece together. Wow.

Here is my transcription of the complicated lament, used without permission, until I hear from ASCAP.  (If you have time to spare, try charting the rhyme scheme....I dare you.)

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

Thanks for the memory - of candelight and wine

Castles on the Rhine - The Parthenon and

Moments on the Hudson River Line -

How Lovely it was

Thanks for the memory of many afternoons

Swingy Harlem tunes

And motor trips and burning lips

and burning toast and prunes

How Lovely it was

Many’s the time that we feasted

And many’s the time that we fasted

Oh, well, it was swell while it lasted.

We did have fun and no harm done.

And thanks for the memory of sunburns at the shore

Nights in Singapore.

You might have been a headache, but you never were a bore.

So thank you so much

Thanks for the memory of sentimental verse

Nothing in your purse and chuckles when the preacher said, “For better or for worse.”

How lovely it was

Thanks for the memory of lingerie with lace

Pilsner by the case And oh how I jumped when you trumped my ace How lovely it was

We said “Goodbye” with a highball -

Then I got high as a steeple, but we were intelligent people - no tears- no fuss Hurray for us

So thanks for the memory and strictly entre nous

Darling how are you? Awfully glad I met you

Cheerio and toodleoo - And thank you so much.

 

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Nice day to sit inside and dream

Saturday and a nice rainy one, for sitting inside and contemplating. Glad I did my shopping yesterday.

Sav-Mart is an interesting place to shop. I guess each store has its "gimmicks", and Sav-Mart's is that it has two prices for everything: "Regular Price" and "Sale" price.  (Since it is always on "sale" doesn't that make it the "regular" price?)

Then at check out you are given three totals: the regular total, the price you pay today, and the amount you have saved by shopping today, you lucky stiff.

Anyway, yesterday I paid these "sale" prices for a few familiar items.

One banana... sale price   30 cents

One huge grapefruit.. sale price... $1.50 (and worth it)

One normal grapefruit sale price     .99 (also worth it)

One small avocado sale price  .50  (bargain)

Altogether I bought about nineteen dollars worth of stuff, mostly containing vitamin C for cold fighting purposes.  By spending $19,  I "saved"  $ 5.12, or, as also printed on my receipt... 22%.

Hooray for the "gimmick" sales prices at Sav-Mart.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Quiz - song titles

Let's see if you can name these well known songs by reading the lyrics to their less-well known introductions. (As always, drag your cursor over the hidden lines to reveal them.)

1.

As the war clouds gather, far across the sea..

>>God Bless America<<

2.

A western ranch is just a branch of Nowhere Junction to me

Gimmie the city were livin's pretty and gals wear finery.

East is east and west is west and the wrong one I have chose

Let's go where you'll keep on wearing

Rings and things, and >> buttons and bows <<

3.

There's a garden - what a garden -

Only happy faces bloom there

And there's never any room there

For the weary or the gloom there

Oh, there's music, and there's dancing

And a lot of sweet romancing

And when they play the >> Polka <<

Etc... >> Beer Barrel Polka <<

4.

Perfume in the air and rare flowers everywhere

And white shadows we would share at Wai-ki-ki

A sky full of stars and sof far away guitars

It seems to be, only a reverie

Night and you, and >> Blue Hawaii <<

5.

Something very strange and mystic happened to me oo oo

Something realistic and as weird as can be oo oo

Something that I feared somehow is now endeared to me

With a funny feeling and yet so true oo oo

Did a thing like this ever happen to you oo oo

Did you ever>> Ever see a dream walking> <<  Well, I did.

6.

Do you recall a year ago tonight?

We stood and watched the golden sun descending

When love had just begun -

Why did there have to be an ending.

Do you recall a year ago tonight?

I found my thrill -- >>On Blueberry Hill - On Blueberry Hill<<

When I found you,the moon stood still >> On blueberry Hill <<

7.

The mailman passes by and I just wonder why

He never stops to ring my front door bell

There's not a line from that dear old love of mine

No, not a word since last I heard "Farewell"

Chorus:  I'm gonna >> sit right down and write myself a letter <<

8.

Music helps me to remember

It helps remind me, of things behind me

Tho' I'm better off forgetting

I try in vain each time I hear that strain

Chorus:  It >> seems to me I;ve heard that song before <<

9

Chorus: Oh I have walked down this street before

But the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before

All at once am I, several stories high

Knowing I'm >> On the street where you live <<

10.

Every rolling stone gets to feel alone

When home sweet home is far away

I'm a rolling stone - who's been so alone -- until today

Chorus: >> Gonna take a sentimental Journey <<

Gonna set my heart at ease

>> Gonna make a sentimental journey <<

To renew old memories

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Movie review - Sixth Sense

Right now it is commercial time on the ABC broadcast of Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis.

It was panned by critics when it was in movie houses, BUT it seems pretty good.  Sort of spooky.  But... on comercial TV... it moves  so....slow....I....can't bear it.  I have to do something else while it is on... like write in my journal.  

More later.... maybe.  The kid is sneaking upstairs now...oooooh.

LATER...Film about eighty percent over... still moving incredibly slow. Viewer not let in on any of the mystery... where is this going... who cares.  I agree with critics....sort of a waste of time.  Final critique in about twenty minutes.

TEN MINUTES TO GO:  Right here at denoument...scene between kid and his mom.  She is crying...but I am not getting enough of the dialog to understand.  Kids are hard to understand for me at any time. Is it worth getting the DVD and playing it with captions?  Might help...but could I sit through this long, long movie again?  Don't think the simplistic ghost story is worth it.  Will be watching for your comments....

IT'S OVER.  The ending was as confusing as the narrative.  Was the whole thing a dying vision of the hero? And how did the vision resolve anything. 

Sorry, Bruce, I think I will stick with Mel Gibson for my dramas from now on. Cancel that order for the DVD.

POST SCRIPT..Sixth Sense as viewed the next morning.

Mavarin writes comments...:

Well, you're not supposed to figure out until the end that Bruce Willis is dead.
Well, not only that...didn't figure it out until middle of following night
Three scenarios.
one.  Willis dies, and as ghost meets kid (who actually sees ghosts) and gets him over fear of ghosts by telling him to listen to them. In whole thing Willis (Malcolm) is dead.
two Malcolm has a patient who thinks he sees ghosts, Malcolm gets him over his fears, then dies and goes and sees kid. the kid solves Malcolm's unfinished business with his wife.
three kid is psychotic (or autistic) and sees and hears visions, one of which is a ghost named Malcolm that cures him.
There are problems with all three scenarios. If Malcolm is a ghost, how can the kid's mother hear him?
Anyway not sure a movie is worth this kind of study.  Seems like you should be able to put the brain in neutral and let the movie flow in and out without filters.
Bruce, if you read blogs, make a comment and tell me how to interpret the plot.  Must have made sense to you, or you wouldn't have made it.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Twisting History

In the early years of the United States, they added a star AND a stripe to the flag for each new state.

What would the flag look like if they had continued that practice up to the present?

(PS:. ooops... my flag has 51 stripes and 46 stars.  However, I'll bet you don't know, without looking, how many rows of how many stars there actually are.

The answer is five rows of six and four rows of five, to make fifty. Drag your cursor over the blanks to see the answer.)

 

Monday, March 13, 2006

Random Note for Media Buyers

While letting the van idle to charge the battery, I let the radio scan the channels. 

From the parking lot in Merced, CA, I could hear 60 FM stations and 15 AM stations, at 10 AM.

On three of the AM stations I could hear Rush Limbaugh, and on two I  could hear his liberal rival, Al Franken.

Of course, maybe you didn't need to know any of this.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

For No Reason, except...

Except I was doodling with paint program, and this is what appeared.

PS thanks for kind comments below.  Here are former paint projects>>

Saturday, March 11, 2006

The Learning Curve -- Starbucks and T-Mobile

Where I am now: inching my way upward, painfully slow.

You are supposed to be able to open your lap-top computer, in Starbucks, and other "hot spots" provided by twenty-first century businesses, and have free immediate access to the internet. Exciting.

But leaning how to do that is a chore.  Since it is such a new idea, it is not set up nicely as a plug and play feature. No one seems to be able to tell you to do this...step one, step two, etc.

I find you have to subscribe to the service via T-mobile wireless.  Just contacting them has been my first chore.  Their web site gave me fits. You have to have a password.  You can get the password by entering your T-Mobile cell phone number on line, and they send you the password on your cell phone.  Then you put the password online and...well, I don't know and what.  Several tries brought only the message:  "Your password is            ."    Blank?  That was no help so I tried telephoning.

Finding their telephone number is difficult.  You'd think a big company with something to sell would be easy...but it isn't.  You get connected all right, to a recorded voice and choices of buttons to push...but none of the options seem to fit what you are after.

A trip to the Mall and the T-Mobile kiosk was no help either.  They had lots of phones to sell, but little help to offer.  They referred me back to Starbucks.

Back to the telephoe. After three hours on the telephone mostly waiting for the next available representative, I find that there is a $29.99 card that I plug into my lap top, that will enable me to connect to Starbucks free service for a year.

Well, that is something, anyway, and worth a try...where is it available in my city?  NOWHERE.  It IS available in Fresno, and hour's drive away.

And that is where I am on the learning curve, still very near the bottom.

Stay tuned.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Life of Other Worlds

Weekend Assignment #102: Do you honestly think there is life out there in the universe? And if so, what kind of life do you think it is?

Extra Credit:
Name your favorite (fictional) alien creature.

Oh, yes. Using Carl Sagan's logic: There are billions and billions of stars, so there must be billions and billions of planets, and some must be suitable for life. So logically life must have evolved, or is evolving, on some. 

It is certainly hard to tell what it would be like.  Just on our own planet we have so many different forms we can't count them all. They might be living boulders, intelligent slugs, or sentient vapors.

As for my favorite fictional alien creature I would have to consider ET, Uncle Martin, and Alf.  Alf would win.  He was amiable, unflappable.  He struggled to keep his alien urges in check.  After all, cats were a delicacy on Melmac where he came from.  It was almost all he could do to keep from swallowing the family pet

Dribblist Intimidated

(This is my fifth start on this entry.  Ho Hum.  Been booted four times, and failed to connect on some retries.  Had it all done once, lacking only the SAVE .. and blooey. Don't know if it my computer, or aol.  Are you having more than usual amount of trouble logging on, staying on, and accessing your blog?)

I took my scooter out day before yesterday in hopes of getting some pictures of the blooming almond trees.  I drove my scooter with one hand and held the camera with the other, and was not paying enough attenttion to my driving, and I tipped the blooming thing over.  I went sprawling on the black top and the camera flew too.

Scooters are squat and heavy, and I didn't even know you COULD tip one over.

Did this eighty one year old man jump up and remount his steed, as legend says one should?  Not exactly.  Two passers by came to my rescue.  One set the scooter up and tried to get me up, but it took two of them... they literally lifted me to my feet.  There were no broken hips, so I mounted the scooter and went in search of first-aid for my scraped elbow.

Today, with band-aid still on my elbow, I ventured to the nearby mall.  I scootered very cautiously, and I was pretty jittery. You can be sure I kept both hands on the tiller. 

We had a nice party today.  My tablemate Jim is 87 years old today, and he decided to treat everybody, residents and staff, to store bought pizza, ice cream cake, and Pepsi Cola. There were balloons and candles and we sang happy birthday.  I would like to give a party like that when my birthday comes.

With any luck, I will get this posted before I get booted again. I didn't, and I have no confidence in this attempt...the next morning.

Sunday, March 5, 2006

Trouble with Going to Bed Early

... like 9:30 PM, is that you are ready to get up at 1:00 AM.

   That is not so bad, you can read journals for an hour or two, then make a new entry in your own, then turn in again. 

   Good night.

   2:05 AM

Saturday, March 4, 2006

Experiment One -- Not a failure --

   -- Just one more thing that does not work.  You learn from every experiment.  You learn what works, or sometimes, what does NOT.

   From the old folks home, four of us walked to Starbucks, I carried my laptop along, to see how to file a journal entry from the coffee shop.  I ordered latte and asked how to connect to internet from there. 

   "You have to be signed on with T-Mobile."  I am not, but I ought to be able to get as far as the "enter your PIN". 

   So I turned it on, but could not see the screen.  By squinting I could tell that I had excellent signal strength, but could not read anything else on the screen.  I moved to a darker corner, and one of my companions shaded the screen while I struggled. 

   My problem?  I could not find the control to make the screen brighter.  Stumped by a simple problem like that.  I closed it up and brought it home. 

   Where am I on the learning curve?  At the very bottom.... how to make the screen brighter.  Actually I have learned two things. (1) You have to subscribe to T-mobile, and (2) you have to be able to make the screen bright.

   Still to come, someday, an entry, right from Starbucks.

Thursday, March 2, 2006

Weekend Assignment #101 -- Your Hidden Talent

Name a hidden talent you have, or wish you had. 

I wish I could play the harmonica. Lord knows, I try.  I took eight lessons at the senior center in Blue Springs, Missouri, about 1995. At that time I could play one song, Oh Susannah. On my one harmonica. 

I learned to play a scale: do, re, me, fa, sol, la, ti, do, in the key of C.  Encouraged I added another harmonica in the key of G.  A scale in G sounded just like a scale in C, only a little higher. I learned another song or two. Home Sweet Home was one.

One by one I added to my collection of harmonicas.  My cousin Paul gave me my first Chromatic harmonica.  You know, with a gear shift to play another key...like adding the black keys on the piano... the half notes.

Then I had a revelation: blow on a harminica and you get a chord.  the major chord that the harmonica is made for.  Draw, inhale, on the upper end and you get a different chord... the second chord of most songs... and draw on the lower end and you get a still different chord, the third chord of most songs and tunes.

Most songs use those three major chords.  Now, as if by magic, by blowing and drawing I could play along with other musicians.  I began to "sit in" with the musical groups that came to play at the old folks home.  I got a set of twelve harmonicas, one in each musical key.  Now I could accompany them whatever they played if they but told me the key they were playing in.

I still cannot solo, I can't carry a tune, but I can play along hitting the right chords from time to time and make an accompanyment that amuses me, at any rate. 

From time to time I get on e-bay and buy more harmonicas... and my collection now numbers sixty or more.  In fact I buy low cost harmonicas by the dozen to give away to people who are interesting in trying to learn as I did... a note at a time in the key of C.

That's my hidden talent.

 

My Own Version of AOL Newsquiz

If you have been reading Dribble for a while, you might be able to answer some of these questions.  As always, run your cursor over the answer space to reveal it.

1. Dribblist Chuck Ferris is in which decade of his life? Thirties, fifties, seventies, eighties? Eighties, He is 81.

2. Which of these modes of transportation has Chuck never operated? His own airplane, An electric scooter, a powerboat, A van, A crew racing shell, Stilts, A unicycle? A pogo stick? He kept falling off the unicycle and the pogo stick. He has operated all the others.

3. Which of these pictures does not show a person named Ferris?

They all do.