Dress Code
Hello World,
Happy Mother's Day weekend! In this area, they're predicting rain for the next couple of days, but for the sake of Mom's everywhere, we're hoping for good weather to get out there and enjoy it. Remember that Mom's deserve a break, so whether you're a Mom, or have a Mom, or just know a Mom, now is the time to do something special for them. Around here, the cats know better than to forget this special day, and I can always look forward to some nice treats. And not just dead birds and catnip mice, mind you, but real actual presents, because luckily for me, they send Bill out to do their shopping for them, and he has better taste than they do. So I'm looking forward to it, even though technically, I'm not what would be considered a Mom by the classic definition of the term.
One thing I'm not looking forward to, in spite of voluminous advertising to the contrary, is a pink RAZR cell phone, which apparently is all the rage nowadays, and everywhere you look, they are busy assuring us that this is just what Mom wants for Mother's Day. Don't you believe it! This is not to say that there may not be a gadget-oriented Mom here or there that craves one of these slim pink wonders, but you can take my word for it that for the most part, flowers or jewelry would be a safer bet for the average Mom that this high-tech novelty. And I realized today that I am obviously woefully out of touch in a different area, when I picked up a J.C. Penney sale catalog and discovered two entire pages full of long black sun-dresses (some with the same lattice-back effect as our friends at Willow Ridge) so this must be a new fashion sensation that has been embraced by the rest of humanity, which still makes no sense to me in spite of its popularity. But now that I've found it in two different places, it obviously can't be dismissed as a fluke, no matter how fluky it might seem to the rest of us.
This is as good a time as any to thank everyone for generously imparting the gems of their compendious archive of folk remedies and wonder cures for the common cold, after my recent bout with the nasty bug. It's good to know that there is this resource of collective wisdom to draw upon in the hour of need. Fortunately I was able to get back on my feet and return to my post, ever vigilant, at the hospital, and just in the nick of time, too. It seems that our errant co-worker, only lately returned to the fold, if not our bosoms, has once again "gone missing," this time for two weeks in Aruba, where her son is getting married. I don't know about the rest of you, but at this point, I wouldn't bet against a bridal party consisting of bridesmaids in long black sun-dresses with lattice backs, so I'm bracing myself for those pictures when she comes back. After all, it would be unseemly to break out in hysterics at the sight of the happy couple and their attendants.
I said to Bill that it's amazing how, one minute it seems like the ground is frozen, and the next time you look around, the weeds are three feet tall all over the yard. (And not to be an alarmist, but I already spotted a patch of alien mutant poison ivy growing over a wall at work outside of the Emergency Room.) We're being over-run with garlic mustard, false chrysanthemum and another invasive stalky weed, that have resisted all efforts to eradicate them, and left to their own devices, they will just keep on going, like Jack and the Beanstalk. The only thing you can do with them is mow them down while they're still tiny, because once they get a toe-hold, they turn so enormous overnight that the lawnmower quails at the sight of them. After that, it's a slow and arduous process to root them out by hand, made even more tedious by the sure knowledge that it's doing no good, since their runners are already busy at work underground starting even more new plants than the ones being uprooted. It's enough to make anyone check out their local Army-Navy supply store for defoliants like Agent Orange, and we all know how I worry when things like that start to make perfect sense to me.
Speaking of lawnmowers, we have two of them, both of which were given to us many years ago, by people who no longer needed them, since they had landscapers to do their yard work for them. Last week, Bill was complaining that the mower he was using sounded like it had a bearing that was going bad, which is the same thing that already happened to the other one. I said it was a shame that these machines get to be 50 years old or so, and suddenly they just fly to pieces on you, just like that.
It might have been while Bill was outdoors mowing, and I was feeding the birds, that we noticed we were being serenaded by a concert being held at the band-shell in a nearby park, and which was no challenge to hear, in spite of the distance, because it could only be described as the Dinosaurs of Rock Concert, and you could hear them for miles in every direction. For people who can't get enough 60's and 70's hard-hitting, straight-ahead rock and roll, these folks certainly pulled out all the stops and didn't disappoint their cheering fans. Anyone in the local area, unless they found another way to drown them out, was also treated to heart-pounding versions of Crossroads, All Right Now, Jumpin' Jack Flash, You Really Got Me, Gloria, Roadhouse Blues, Your Momma Don't Dance, School's Out, We Are the Champions, Summertime Blues, Whole Lotta Love, Hot Blooded and Magic Carpet Ride, among others. This was certainly not your grandfather's Sunday afternoon concert in the park series, that is, unless your grandfather is Eric Clapton or Mick Jagger. We don't know if this was an isolated occurrence, or will turn into a regular event, so it might be interesting times ahead in the neighborhood for music fans and foes alike.
Speaking of music, it may seem impossible to believe, but we're actually coming up hard and fast on the one-year anniversary of the take-over of our local oldies station, WCBS-FM at 101.1 on the dial, by the new JACK format on June 5th of last year. For anyone who has their doubts on this, feel free to go back and look up my email about it from July 1, 2005. (Go ahead, I'll wait. Dum dee dum dah dah dee dum dah dah dum dee dum dum ... ) Anyway, I'm frankly surprised that they made it this long, and if I were a betting person, would have given them six months at the outside. I thought it was too radical and free-form for this market, and I also thought that the purists and hide-bound traditionalists would make them bring back CBS-FM for old time's sake, as a historical landmark, if nothing else. It also occurred to me that the powers-that-be behind the scenes had a plan to scare listeners with the JACK format, so that when they switched back to a station of a more popular style, people would be so grateful that they would listen to it in droves. But here they still are, and apparently still going strong in spite of the purists and nay-sayers, and anyone who is interested is welcome to visit their web site at www.ilikejack.com and find out what sorts of songs they play over the course of a four-hour period. Because I've been listening since the beginning, I notice some subtle changes, but for the most part, they have stayed the course, and stuck with what they want the station to be. They certainly don't lack for sponsors, so someone must feel that enough people are listening to justify paying for ad time with them. One thing I noticed them doing lately is what I call the "Short Attention Span" radio version of longer-form album tracks, such as Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter Group or My Sharona by the Knack, and just cut out the middle parts to make it all that much quicker. I thought that was so funny, as if they decided that hard-driving modern types can't be trusted to listen to a 5-minute song any longer than 3-1/2 minutes during their busy day of people to meet and places to go. I suppose they could be right, if they have their own panel of experts to make these important decisions, rather than us simple folks who are driving 30-year-old cars, listening to 40-year-old music in the band-shell and using 50-year-old lawnmowers.
Happy Mother's Day weekend! In this area, they're predicting rain for the next couple of days, but for the sake of Mom's everywhere, we're hoping for good weather to get out there and enjoy it. Remember that Mom's deserve a break, so whether you're a Mom, or have a Mom, or just know a Mom, now is the time to do something special for them. Around here, the cats know better than to forget this special day, and I can always look forward to some nice treats. And not just dead birds and catnip mice, mind you, but real actual presents, because luckily for me, they send Bill out to do their shopping for them, and he has better taste than they do. So I'm looking forward to it, even though technically, I'm not what would be considered a Mom by the classic definition of the term.
One thing I'm not looking forward to, in spite of voluminous advertising to the contrary, is a pink RAZR cell phone, which apparently is all the rage nowadays, and everywhere you look, they are busy assuring us that this is just what Mom wants for Mother's Day. Don't you believe it! This is not to say that there may not be a gadget-oriented Mom here or there that craves one of these slim pink wonders, but you can take my word for it that for the most part, flowers or jewelry would be a safer bet for the average Mom that this high-tech novelty. And I realized today that I am obviously woefully out of touch in a different area, when I picked up a J.C. Penney sale catalog and discovered two entire pages full of long black sun-dresses (some with the same lattice-back effect as our friends at Willow Ridge) so this must be a new fashion sensation that has been embraced by the rest of humanity, which still makes no sense to me in spite of its popularity. But now that I've found it in two different places, it obviously can't be dismissed as a fluke, no matter how fluky it might seem to the rest of us.
This is as good a time as any to thank everyone for generously imparting the gems of their compendious archive of folk remedies and wonder cures for the common cold, after my recent bout with the nasty bug. It's good to know that there is this resource of collective wisdom to draw upon in the hour of need. Fortunately I was able to get back on my feet and return to my post, ever vigilant, at the hospital, and just in the nick of time, too. It seems that our errant co-worker, only lately returned to the fold, if not our bosoms, has once again "gone missing," this time for two weeks in Aruba, where her son is getting married. I don't know about the rest of you, but at this point, I wouldn't bet against a bridal party consisting of bridesmaids in long black sun-dresses with lattice backs, so I'm bracing myself for those pictures when she comes back. After all, it would be unseemly to break out in hysterics at the sight of the happy couple and their attendants.
I said to Bill that it's amazing how, one minute it seems like the ground is frozen, and the next time you look around, the weeds are three feet tall all over the yard. (And not to be an alarmist, but I already spotted a patch of alien mutant poison ivy growing over a wall at work outside of the Emergency Room.) We're being over-run with garlic mustard, false chrysanthemum and another invasive stalky weed, that have resisted all efforts to eradicate them, and left to their own devices, they will just keep on going, like Jack and the Beanstalk. The only thing you can do with them is mow them down while they're still tiny, because once they get a toe-hold, they turn so enormous overnight that the lawnmower quails at the sight of them. After that, it's a slow and arduous process to root them out by hand, made even more tedious by the sure knowledge that it's doing no good, since their runners are already busy at work underground starting even more new plants than the ones being uprooted. It's enough to make anyone check out their local Army-Navy supply store for defoliants like Agent Orange, and we all know how I worry when things like that start to make perfect sense to me.
Speaking of lawnmowers, we have two of them, both of which were given to us many years ago, by people who no longer needed them, since they had landscapers to do their yard work for them. Last week, Bill was complaining that the mower he was using sounded like it had a bearing that was going bad, which is the same thing that already happened to the other one. I said it was a shame that these machines get to be 50 years old or so, and suddenly they just fly to pieces on you, just like that.
It might have been while Bill was outdoors mowing, and I was feeding the birds, that we noticed we were being serenaded by a concert being held at the band-shell in a nearby park, and which was no challenge to hear, in spite of the distance, because it could only be described as the Dinosaurs of Rock Concert, and you could hear them for miles in every direction. For people who can't get enough 60's and 70's hard-hitting, straight-ahead rock and roll, these folks certainly pulled out all the stops and didn't disappoint their cheering fans. Anyone in the local area, unless they found another way to drown them out, was also treated to heart-pounding versions of Crossroads, All Right Now, Jumpin' Jack Flash, You Really Got Me, Gloria, Roadhouse Blues, Your Momma Don't Dance, School's Out, We Are the Champions, Summertime Blues, Whole Lotta Love, Hot Blooded and Magic Carpet Ride, among others. This was certainly not your grandfather's Sunday afternoon concert in the park series, that is, unless your grandfather is Eric Clapton or Mick Jagger. We don't know if this was an isolated occurrence, or will turn into a regular event, so it might be interesting times ahead in the neighborhood for music fans and foes alike.
Speaking of music, it may seem impossible to believe, but we're actually coming up hard and fast on the one-year anniversary of the take-over of our local oldies station, WCBS-FM at 101.1 on the dial, by the new JACK format on June 5th of last year. For anyone who has their doubts on this, feel free to go back and look up my email about it from July 1, 2005. (Go ahead, I'll wait. Dum dee dum dah dah dee dum dah dah dum dee dum dum ... ) Anyway, I'm frankly surprised that they made it this long, and if I were a betting person, would have given them six months at the outside. I thought it was too radical and free-form for this market, and I also thought that the purists and hide-bound traditionalists would make them bring back CBS-FM for old time's sake, as a historical landmark, if nothing else. It also occurred to me that the powers-that-be behind the scenes had a plan to scare listeners with the JACK format, so that when they switched back to a station of a more popular style, people would be so grateful that they would listen to it in droves. But here they still are, and apparently still going strong in spite of the purists and nay-sayers, and anyone who is interested is welcome to visit their web site at www.ilikejack.com and find out what sorts of songs they play over the course of a four-hour period. Because I've been listening since the beginning, I notice some subtle changes, but for the most part, they have stayed the course, and stuck with what they want the station to be. They certainly don't lack for sponsors, so someone must feel that enough people are listening to justify paying for ad time with them. One thing I noticed them doing lately is what I call the "Short Attention Span" radio version of longer-form album tracks, such as Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter Group or My Sharona by the Knack, and just cut out the middle parts to make it all that much quicker. I thought that was so funny, as if they decided that hard-driving modern types can't be trusted to listen to a 5-minute song any longer than 3-1/2 minutes during their busy day of people to meet and places to go. I suppose they could be right, if they have their own panel of experts to make these important decisions, rather than us simple folks who are driving 30-year-old cars, listening to 40-year-old music in the band-shell and using 50-year-old lawnmowers.
posted by El Tango Fandango @ 3:27 PM
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