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.

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

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.

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.)

 

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.

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>>