Sunset, December 3, 2023

 

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

1. If someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to?

A. The Lord of the Rings (books and movies), Little Women (book), Fleetwood Mac, Melissa Etheridge and Sheryl Crow (music), Xena: Warrior Princess, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Star Trek: Voyager (TV).

2. Have you ever found a writer who thinks just like you? If so, who?

A. David Sedaris, maybe, except I'm not a homosexual man. Or homosexual, for that matter.

3. Do you care about your ethnicity?

A. No.

4. What musical artists have you most felt connected to over your lifetime?

A. Melissa Etheridge and Sheryl Crow, but I'm sure there are others, like Juice Newton, Karen Carpenter, Stevie Nicks, Joan Jett, Pat Benetar, etc.

5. Are you an artist?

A. I am not a drawing artist, but I am a fairly creative person.

6. Dog person or cat person?

A. Dog, except I'm allergic to both.

7. Inside or outdoors?

A. Inside, although I enjoy the outdoors. My sinuses don't, though.

8. Five most influential books over your lifetime.

A. 1984, Alas Babylon, The Lord of the Rings, The Children's Bible, Mrs. Osborne the Mop.

9. Would you rather be in Middle Earth, Narnia, Hogwarts, or somewhere else?

A. Where I am is just fine, although any of those places would be nice to visit.

10. List the top five things you spend the most time doing, in order.

A. Messing around on the computer (reading, writing, playing video games), cleaning house, cooking, grocery shopping, sleeping.

11. Have you ever felt like you had a “mind-meld” with someone?

A. No.

12. Could you live as a hermit?

A. Probably. I practically do anyway, since Covid.

13. Do you feel like your outside appearance is a fair representation of the “real you”?

A. I'm not sure anyone's outside appearance represents who they really are inside. It's certainly not a fair judgment.

14. Three songs that you connect with right now.

A. Rainy Days and Mondays, Vincent (Starry Starry Night), and Landslide.

15. Pick one of your favorite quotes.

A. "So after snow comes fire, and even dragons have their ending." - J.R.R. Tolkien

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.

Saturday 9: Rollin' Stone

Saturday 9: Rollin' Stone (1958)

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

 

1) The title comes from the proverb, "a rolling stone gathers no moss." What do you suppose that proverb is trying to teach us?

A. The proverb is trying to teach us not to be couch potatoes, but instead to constantly be "human doings" instead of "human beings."

 

2) The lyrics warn us not to be lazy stay-at-homes but to go out and learn about the world around us. Tell us about a place you haven't visited yet but would like to.

A. I would like to go Scotland. Or Ireland. Or New Zealand.

 

3) Karen and Cubby were Mouseketeers on the original Mickey Mouse Club, a TV show which ran from 1955 to 1959. Then, from 1962 to 1967, local TV stations reran it in syndication. In 1989, there was a Mickey Mouse Club reboot, which launched the careers of Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. So The Mickey Mouse Club has entertained generations of kids. What shows did you enjoy as a child?

A. I don't recall watching The Mickey Mouse Club. It was probably on a channel I could not get. I watched shows like Land of the Lost, Isis, Shazaam! H.R. Puffenstuff, etc., along with Saturday morning cartoons. In the afternoons I remember watching Dark Shadows followed by Batman.

4) Karen was Karen Pendleton, among the youngest of the original Mousketeers. Producers discovered her at a local dancing school. Have you ever taken dance lessons?

A. I have not. And it shows.

5) When The Mickey Mouse Club ended, Karen left show business. She went to public school, graduated, got married, and had a daughter. When she was in her 30s, she was involved in a car accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down. Still, she went back to college, earning first her Bachelor's and then Master's degrees in psychology. Have you considered continuing your education? What subject would you pursue?

A. I was 49 when I obtained my masters degree. I thought about getting a law degree but decided against it.

 

6) Cubby is Cubby O'Brien, a drum prodigy who began playing professionally when he was just 8 years old. After the Mickey Mouse Club he went on to The Lawerence Welk Show. As he entered his teens, he prioritized school over TV. He later returned to television as musician on The Carol Burnett Show. He also performed in concert behind The Carpenters. Do you have a favorite Carpenters song?

A. Rainy Days and Mondays.

 

7) In 1958, when kids were watching the original Mickey Mouse Club during the day, adults were watching Westerns. The most popular TV shows of that year included Gunsmoke, Wagon Train and The Rifleman. Have you ever fantasized about life as a cowboy/cowgirl?

A. Can't say that I have, although I played with the Johnny West series of dolls when I was a child. I didn't want to be a cowgirl, though.

 

8) Also in 1958, Dwight Eisenhower became the first President to appear on color TV. Not many Americans saw him in color, though. It wasn't until 1972 that color TVs outsold black-and-white sets. Did you ever own a black-and-white TV?

A. I never owned a black-and-white TV but my grandparents did, I think.

 

9) Random question -- Did you pass your driver's license test on the first try?

A. Yes, I did.

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I encourage you to visit the posts of other participants in Saturday 9 and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however. 

Phone Company Update

Three trucks from the phone company rolled into my driveway around lunchtime yesterday. I thought I was under attack for a minute.

The three guys, good ol' boys, hopped out and one of them checked my phone from the box outside of my house. He made the phone call his cellphone and it hung right up.

"There's nothing wrong out here," he declared, as I stood in the doorway watching.

"Try it the other way. Call in from your cell phone and then try to hang up," I told him.

He tried that and lo, he couldn't hang up. Now he was perplexed. There was an immediate gathering of men to try to figure out this issue. 

Then they had to try again with different cell phones. Amazingly, they received the same result each time.

They discussed what the problem could be. This appeared to be an unusual issue that they'd not run into before. Was it something they called a card? Would switching a channel help?

I reminded them that it wasn't only my line. Since it looked like they were going to be there a while, I asked if they needed anything to drink. "Can I make you a sandwich?" I offered.

They all declined but thanked me. I would have made them sandwiches if they'd said yes.

They made phone calls back to home base, conferred for a long time, and two of the trucks left.

One of the fellows stood around by himself, and I went out to ask him about the possibility of my ever receiving fiber internet. I told him I wasn't holding my breath about getting it, but I was wondering if they'd have to dig up my sidewalk. He said they bored under stuff like that, so no.

That was a relief. I asked him when I could expect it, and he said, "They tell us it will all be in by the end of the 1st quarter, but, like you said, don't hold your breath."

I went back inside for a while. He later knocked on the door and told me nothing they'd tried had fixed the problem. They were sending it to "landline engineering," whatever that was.

Around 6 p.m., someone from the phone company called and asked me to hang up on him. I did. He called me back and said he was seeing unusual activity and would now work on it. 

When I last checked it just moments before writing this, the issue remained. I don't think it will be fixed until sometime next week.

At least I got somebody's attention.

Thursday Thirteen

These are the nonfiction books I have read this year, with the exception of the inclusion of #2, which was listed as a novel. I included it because it was about the Japanese internment camps in the US during World War II and while written as a novel, I had the feeling it was based more on family lore than fiction.

Some of these books I don't remember much about, so obviously they didn't stick with me. Those include The Power of Habit and The 60-Something Crisis. Either I wasn't paying attention or the messages in the books weren't new or impressive enough to warrant my attention.

The memoirs/autobiographies are all female, except for David Sedaris's books. The books by Carly Simon and Jennifer Grey were somewhat dismaying; Carly Simon's book in particular perhaps should not have been written. Our Little Secret is a biography of Melissa Etheridge by an adoring fan, and it ended in 1999, so there wasn't much new information there. My favorites were The First Lady of World War II, which was about Eleanor Roosevelt, and Back to the Prairie, by Melissa Gilbert, which surprised me with how good it was.

Anything by David Sedaris is good; I think I have now read most of his books.

1. Boys in Trees, by Carly Simon

2. When the Emperor Was Divine, by Julie Otsuka

3. Our Little Secret, by Joyce Luck

4. If You Ask Me, by Betty White

5. The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg

6. The First Lady of World War II, by Shannon McKenny Schmidt

7. Back to the Prairie, a Home Remade, by Melissa Gilbert

8. 1963, a Turning Point in Civil Rights, by Lawrence C. Campbell, Sr.

9. The 60-Something Crisis, by Barbara Pagano

10. Out of the Corner, by Jennifer Grey

11. Holidays on Ice, by David Sedaris

12. Theft by Finding, by David Sedaris

13. In Such Good Company, by Carol Burnette

Extra: Born with Teeth, by Kate Mulgrew

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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while, and this is my 836th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.