One of a very few entertainers (Louis Armstrong is another), the sound of whose voice always brings a smile to my face: The mysterious Leon Redbone died on May 30, 2019. He was 69 years old.
Month: May 2019
Gentlemen, Start Your Bloomin’ Engines!
Well, here we are just a few days from the start of this year’s Indianapolis 500, and the delivery of the famous exhortation to begin. From 1977 to 2017, the phrase was amended to include “Ladies” as well, if there was one or more competing. Such a rational response in this day and age that… Continue reading Gentlemen, Start Your Bloomin’ Engines!
Friday Food and Drink Post: Currying Favor
I love a nice bowl of curry! Unfortunately, I get the same reaction to those words in my married-into family as I get when I exclaim “I love a nice piece of fruitcake!” So to indulge myself, it’s necessary to either go out with friends who share similar tastes, or to hook up, one way or another, with… Continue reading Friday Food and Drink Post: Currying Favor
Ludens Locutus
“Ludens Locutus” (or something similar, correct me if you like, it’s been a while), can be loosely translated into having “spoken a joke,” and it’s a common enough trope these days that I think it needs to be called out as some sort of flourish, rhetorical at best, cowardly at worst. The latest person to jump… Continue reading Ludens Locutus
May 13, 1940: The Day the English Language Was Mobilized and Sent Into Battle
Seventy-nine years ago, on Monday, May 13, 1940, a man who had been the Prime Minister of England for just three days, and who’d only ascended to the position as the candidate of last resort after internecine squabbling within his own party, and only with the reluctant support of his King, made his maiden speech… Continue reading May 13, 1940: The Day the English Language Was Mobilized and Sent Into Battle
Friday Food and Drink Post: All in the Family
Perhaps it’s the sight of Harry and Meghan with their bundle of joy that’s got me thinking about a long-gone and long-running television program, or perhaps I’ve reached that stage in my life where I enjoy reliving my youth, I don’t know. I did see that his parents have eschewed any sort of title for… Continue reading Friday Food and Drink Post: All in the Family
Occasional Quote of the Day: On the Eternal Verities and Squaring the Circle
Our society is changing so rapidly that none of us can know what it is or where it is going. All of us who are mature feel that there are historic principles of behavior and morality, of things that we all believe in that are being lost, not because young people couldn’t believe in them,… Continue reading Occasional Quote of the Day: On the Eternal Verities and Squaring the Circle
Ab-so-bloomin-lutely Loverly
Audrey Kathleen Ruston was born 90 years ago, on May 4, 1929 in Brussels, Belgium, the daughter of a member of minor Dutch nobility and a peripatetic English financier father who later changed his name to the double-barrelled “Hepburn-Ruston” to show his connection (probably imagined) to one of the husbands of Mary, Queen of Scots.… Continue reading Ab-so-bloomin-lutely Loverly
Friday Food and Drink Post: Dutch Treat?
When it comes to chocolate, I’ve always been a Cadbury girl. At my childhood UK home, the cows in the field below our garden used to send their milk off to the Cadbury factory at Bournville near Birmingham, and whenever I took a bite of the lovely stuff, I used to wonder if any of… Continue reading Friday Food and Drink Post: Dutch Treat?
My Dogs Love Adele–Who Knew? Certainly Not I
So, today was the day. It was 80 degrees here in my little corner of SW Pennsylvania. Rain, starting tomorrow, and as far as the eye can see. Today. Do or die. Bathe or bust. Let me explain: The two Great Pyrenees, Levi and Xena, are on the same sort of bath schedule as Queen… Continue reading My Dogs Love Adele–Who Knew? Certainly Not I