We got good weather in August, good for a city guy with no lawn, and then a typhoon came to town and a torrent fell last Saturday during a star-studded concert in Central Park where my wife sent me a video of Barry Manilow on stage, whose facelift had destroyed his voice, singing his brains out as lightning flashed to the south which shut down the show, but now the rain has ended and the world feels like September with the smell of apples and possibility in the air and I feel young and indomitable, crossing the street in front of eight beefcakes on Harleys and I feel like saying, “Which one of you cream puffs wants to take on a retired radio announcer?”
What a wonderful memory of the Everly Brothers singing on your PHC program and how fortunate for you to have presented them. You must be happy that you had an opportunity to make such a moment happen. How fortunate for you, a writer of humorous tales, to be so lucky to make a vehicle of entertainment so endeared by so many. Destiny I would guess plus talent.
When I’m feeling that way I’m inclined to take on the lot of them all at once. I’m still a chipper 68 year old retired software engineer though. Maybe in ten years I’ll have to handle them one at a time.
My funeral song is Why Worry by Mark Knopfler, it is so simple and sweet. My husband's is I won't Back Down by Tom Petty......
We both love your writings and I usually read them to my husband, not that he's unable to read for himself, but he likes to close his eyes and imagine your voice.
You are inspired - one can tell. You can keep the Harleys, but you might lose the Armanis. The image of seersucker suits and red socks is not to be tampered with. Breathe deep - love you both - J.
Thanks the the reminder of the greatness of the Everlys. There’s just something about siblings singing together that elevates regular harmony to another level. And when you add in the talent these guys had, and it’s truly unique. The sound of them harmonizing still gives me goose bumps. You were fortunate to hang with them a bit.
Here in Southern Oregon we have smoke, not rain. We could use a lot of rain since we don’t have much water, either. Our smoke is from our own wildfires and also from California. We have gotten a lot of things we don’t need from California. We do not have Barry Manilow, since he does not sing country. Today some of our fine citizens are having a big gathering to decide what to do about all these durned mandates. They are more afraid of being told how to take care of themselves and told what to do than any old little disease — I do not share their views and have begun to avoid them as much as possible. If you’d have grown up in this little town instead of one in Minnesota, you’d be a whole different person and I doubt you’d have been the better for it.
My people were separatists, fundamentalists who stayed aloof from the crowd, so we survived pretty well no matter where we were. We were brought up judgemental and it's a lasting habit that I'm still trying to keep under control.
Thank you for this. Fall coming over us already, people who were such important pieces in this crazy puzzle of our lives are disappearing. Sharing melancholy, grace and the warmth of our common humanity is a welcome gift. So, yes---thank you, bless you , we're always together even as we drift seemingly alone. Why worry now.❤
I was touched by your Everly Brothers reminiscence and listened to this excerpt from PHC. Loved your harmony on "Long Time Gone." https://youtu.be/iVH9zj8GZfE
Calling Harley riders "Cream Puffs!" Now there's a statement that emphasizes the corporeal image of the speaker! If I, as a white-haired, going on eighty "Old Woman" with one hand on a cane, had gone up to the bunch of Harley riders I was joking with yesterday, and said precisely that (substitute "librarian" for "announcer"), they'd probably stare for ten seconds and then burst out in huge grins.
It's been my experience that the height and size of men makes a difference in their public postures. In my college days, there was a full professor - he was maybe five foot one inch tall, if he wore elevator shoes. His "publication record" was phenomenal - simply because he pirated the work of all his graduate students - published in his name without even a footnote disclosing their involvement. As Emily Dickinson would say, he felt the need "to tell his name the livelong day to an admiring bog." He seemed like a tiny cock, forever crowing.
On the other hand, I've found that exceptionally tall men are often very polite and deferential. I had the good luck to be on a movie set - "Forget Paris" - with Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). I had read that he was a quiet, contemplative sort of person. In real life, he was agreeable and cooperative on the movie set, without an ounce of conceit.
I think, if a tall, well built man of a certain age approached bikers and called them cream puffs, they'd look at each other. One of them would almost certainly ask "You're joking, right?" As for that "peacock professor," I could see him challenging the Harley gang in such a way, far more likely than a tall, obviously educated and successful fellow such as yourself!
MW doesn't invent words, writers do.
What a wonderful memory of the Everly Brothers singing on your PHC program and how fortunate for you to have presented them. You must be happy that you had an opportunity to make such a moment happen. How fortunate for you, a writer of humorous tales, to be so lucky to make a vehicle of entertainment so endeared by so many. Destiny I would guess plus talent.
“Which one of you cream puffs?”
When I’m feeling that way I’m inclined to take on the lot of them all at once. I’m still a chipper 68 year old retired software engineer though. Maybe in ten years I’ll have to handle them one at a time.
My funeral song is Why Worry by Mark Knopfler, it is so simple and sweet. My husband's is I won't Back Down by Tom Petty......
We both love your writings and I usually read them to my husband, not that he's unable to read for himself, but he likes to close his eyes and imagine your voice.
You are inspired - one can tell. You can keep the Harleys, but you might lose the Armanis. The image of seersucker suits and red socks is not to be tampered with. Breathe deep - love you both - J.
Thanks the the reminder of the greatness of the Everlys. There’s just something about siblings singing together that elevates regular harmony to another level. And when you add in the talent these guys had, and it’s truly unique. The sound of them harmonizing still gives me goose bumps. You were fortunate to hang with them a bit.
Here in Southern Oregon we have smoke, not rain. We could use a lot of rain since we don’t have much water, either. Our smoke is from our own wildfires and also from California. We have gotten a lot of things we don’t need from California. We do not have Barry Manilow, since he does not sing country. Today some of our fine citizens are having a big gathering to decide what to do about all these durned mandates. They are more afraid of being told how to take care of themselves and told what to do than any old little disease — I do not share their views and have begun to avoid them as much as possible. If you’d have grown up in this little town instead of one in Minnesota, you’d be a whole different person and I doubt you’d have been the better for it.
My people were separatists, fundamentalists who stayed aloof from the crowd, so we survived pretty well no matter where we were. We were brought up judgemental and it's a lasting habit that I'm still trying to keep under control.
Thank you for this. Fall coming over us already, people who were such important pieces in this crazy puzzle of our lives are disappearing. Sharing melancholy, grace and the warmth of our common humanity is a welcome gift. So, yes---thank you, bless you , we're always together even as we drift seemingly alone. Why worry now.❤
Thanks for the glorious video of the Everly Brothers. Perfection. Golden. Timeless.
I was touched by your Everly Brothers reminiscence and listened to this excerpt from PHC. Loved your harmony on "Long Time Gone." https://youtu.be/iVH9zj8GZfE
Calling Harley riders "Cream Puffs!" Now there's a statement that emphasizes the corporeal image of the speaker! If I, as a white-haired, going on eighty "Old Woman" with one hand on a cane, had gone up to the bunch of Harley riders I was joking with yesterday, and said precisely that (substitute "librarian" for "announcer"), they'd probably stare for ten seconds and then burst out in huge grins.
It's been my experience that the height and size of men makes a difference in their public postures. In my college days, there was a full professor - he was maybe five foot one inch tall, if he wore elevator shoes. His "publication record" was phenomenal - simply because he pirated the work of all his graduate students - published in his name without even a footnote disclosing their involvement. As Emily Dickinson would say, he felt the need "to tell his name the livelong day to an admiring bog." He seemed like a tiny cock, forever crowing.
On the other hand, I've found that exceptionally tall men are often very polite and deferential. I had the good luck to be on a movie set - "Forget Paris" - with Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). I had read that he was a quiet, contemplative sort of person. In real life, he was agreeable and cooperative on the movie set, without an ounce of conceit.
I think, if a tall, well built man of a certain age approached bikers and called them cream puffs, they'd look at each other. One of them would almost certainly ask "You're joking, right?" As for that "peacock professor," I could see him challenging the Harley gang in such a way, far more likely than a tall, obviously educated and successful fellow such as yourself!