Category: overview

I read an obituary for a woman who thought it was okay to say vicious things if you were creative and funny. I was like that when I was a teenager, but I grew up. Cue the Rolling Stones: Don’t you think it’s sometimes wise not to grow up? What if …

I was in a meeting at work. The new boss shared something to make him seem human. [It was an act.] He told the group he had been born to a young unmarried mom. That was really touching. I was halfway out of my seat, ready to fire: I knew right away you were a son of a bitch, and now it turns out you’re a bastard too.

I didn’t say it. I got fired six weeks later anyway.

An advice columnist in a newspaper said it’s fine to watch TV during the day if you are doing chores. (She implied that it is a good way to strengthen a family.) Bad advice. Watching TV softens your brain. My evidence: This columnist believes in the whole truth–manifestly a terrible idea. I got along fine with my folks after I realized I didn’t have to offer information they didn’t want to know. They didn’t ask. I didn’t lie. There were sizeable parts of my life I didn’t mention. The worst results came from trying to act like the happy families on TV. My kids are smarter than I am–they figured out the many advantages of ‘need to know’ policies when they were young.

At work I rushed to tell the boss when something I’d done went bad–certainly didn’t want her to hear it from someone else. Otherwise the don’t-bother-with-the-whole-truth approach worked well at the office.

An editorial today from an expert made a hash of how to be a smart bettor. People who play slot machines rarely quit when they are ahead, says me, and the multimillion dollar jackpot games are so different from daily and scratch-off games that they shouldn’t be lumped together.

Avoid fried meats, which angry up the blood.

If your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts.

Keep your juices flowing by jangling gently as you move.

Go very light on the vices, such as carrying on in society. The social ramble ain’t restful.

Avoid running at all times.

Don’t look back. Something may be gaining.

I have loved Satchel Paige’s rules since I read his memoir, Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever, in sixth grade. I am writing a song about them—the chorus is Don’t look back, don’t look back, I ain’t just mansplaining, don’t look back, don’t back, something may be gaining. Also good is Satchel’s reference to jangling: Bob Dylan just said that in the jingle jangle morning he’d come following us.  

I never saw this coming. Mary Worth is the lead character in the long-running comic strip of that name. Mostly what goes on is she tells her friends how to live their lives. [MAD Magazine parodied the TV show Route 66 by comparing it to Mary Worth–people who never go to work so they can meddle full-time.] On Sundays the strip includes a boxed quotation about life. Mickey Hart, of course, is a drummer who was in the Grateful Dead for about 30 years. Nobody in the cartoon has EVER listened to the Grateful Dead. I think that’s funny.

The quotation in the funnies was “There’s nothing like music to relieve the soul and uplift it.” Harmless, I guess. I looked up last week’s. It was “Patience attracts happiness: It brings near that which is far.” I’ll keep an eye out for something memorable.

Hart’s article in Wiki makes me think “I Just Want to Bang on the Drum All Day” is his biography. Hart says that since he was 10 all he wanted to do was be a drummer. That reminds me I should post about my Grateful Dead records.

Old age is by nature more loquacious

Welcome to my little website. Material will come in four categories, mostly.

I am playing through the 700 or so LPs in my record collection. I will post some information on them, hoping to find someone who cares. Ultimately I want them to go to a good home. I will talk some about the history of music and the last 50 years. And I want to talk mix tapes. For example, I am saving songs about outmoded technology–phone operators, long-distance information, busy signals. There is so much.

I am trying to use up or wear out the stuff I own. T-shirts, ballpoint pens, coffee mugs: Too much stuff. I’ll rejoice when another AYSO coach shirt bites the dust, sharing that here.

I know many things, and lots of things on the innertubes are wrong. Gone are the days when I’d stay up late to correct people, but sometimes I will be provoked to straighten things out here. The day after Thanksgiving I saw multiple stories about how encouraging it was that folks went out in inflationary times to spend money. I have lived in times of inflation, so I can tell you that only a fool puts off buying something when prices are going up faster than what your savings account pays.

And black lyrics matter. There are many web sites that have the lyrics of popular songs. I believe that voice-to-text software produces the content (plus taking from other sites). The lyrics sung by black performers are frequently wrong. Fish Ain’t Bitin’ by Lamont Dozier has the best description of Richard Nixon’s anti-inflation programs (with Phase Two, I thought I was through/and Phase Four gonna take me out the back door). Yet the line that’s “trying to fight with no defense” gets turned into “trying to find with no defense,” whatever that would be. I will correct what I come across.