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

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.

  

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.

 

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.