AN ELDERLY ALFALFA

How nice to have cooler weather upon us again. 

 A DAISY PATCH ALONGSIDE A WHEAT FIELD

Al's Music Box:)) We'll Meet Again is a 1939 song by English singer Vera Lynn with music and lyrics composed and written by English songwriters Ross Parker and Hughie Charles. The song is one of the most famous of the Second World War era and resonated with servicemen going off to fight as well as their families and loved ones. The song was published by Michael Ross Limited, whose directors included Louis Carris, Ross Parker and Norman Keen. Keen, an English pianist, also collaborated with Parker and Hughie Charles on "We'll Meet Again" and many other songs published by the company, including "There'll Always Be an England" and "I'm In Love For The Last Time". The song's original recording featured Lynn accompanied by Arthur Young on Hammond Novachord (an early electronic keyboard), while a rerecording in 1953 featured a more lavish instrumentation and a chorus of British Armed Forces personnel.  The song gave its name to the 1943 musical film 'We'lll Meet Again', in which Lynn played the lead role. Lynn's 1953 recording is featured in the final scene of Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film Dr. Strangelove – with a bitter irony, as the song accompanies a nuclear holocaust that wipes out humanity. It was also used in the closing scenes of the 1986 BBC television serial The Singing Detective. British director John Schlesinger used the song in his 1979 World War II film Yanks, which is about British citizens and American soldiers during the military buildup in the UK as the Allies prepare for the Normandy landings.  During the Cold War, Lynn's recording was included in the package of music and programmes held in 20 underground radio stations of the BBC's Wartime Broadcasting Service (WTBS), designed to provide public information and morale-boosting broadcasts for 100 days after a nuclear attack.  The song reached number 29 on the U.S. charts. Lynn sang the song in London on the 60th anniversary of VE Day in 2005.

 I WONDER WHY IT IS THAT I WAKE UP MOST MORNINGS LOOKING LIKE AN ELDERLY ALFALFA  (LITTLE RASCALS)

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A man and his son were standing in line at the bank. In front of them was a very large woman. The boy tugged on his father's pant leg and said "My God dad, she's really fat".  "Be quiet and don't embarrass me" replied the father.  Then all of a sudden the woman's pager goes off and the boy furiously pulls at his father and says, "DADDY! WATCH OUT! SHE'S BACKING UP!"

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Tony was a pianist and was practicing late one night. There was a tap on the door, when he opened it his landlord was standing outside the door. He asked; you know there is a sick lady upstairs?"
Tony answered, I haven't heard that song. Can you please hum it a little?"

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- What do you get if you cross a centipede and a parrot?  A walkie-talkie.

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A man told his doctor that he wasn't able to do all the things around the house that he used to do.  When the exam was complete, he said, "Now, Doc, I can take it. Tell me in plain English what is wrong with me."
"Well, in plain English," the doctor said, "you're just lazy."  "Okay," said the man. "Now give me the medical term so I can tell my wife."

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A NICE WALK THIS MORNING

 A NICE WALK IN THE LINWOOD WILDLIFE AREA FOR PHEEBS AND I THIS MORNING

Al's Music Box:)) Don't Worry About Me is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Marty Robbins.  It was released in February 1961 as the third single from his compilation album 'More Greatest Hits'. The song was Robbins' seventh number-one on the country chart and stayed at number one for ten weeks. The single crossed over to the pop chart and was one of Marty Robbins' most successful crossover songs, peaking at number three on the Hot 100.  The track has an early example of guitar distortion. A faulty channel in the mixing desk at Nashville's Quonset Hut Studio unexpectedly transformed session musician Grady Martin's Danelectro six-string baritone guitar tone in the bridge section and brief reprise right at the end into an unusual distorted sound.  Although Martin did not like the sound, Robbins' producer left the guitar track as it was. The effect was eventually reverse-engineered and developed into the Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone, one of the first guitar pedals, produced by Gibson under the Maestro brand name.  In a 1968 report on sound effects in pop for Beat Instrumental, Crotus Pike believed the effect to be a result of the guitar being "played at a half speed", describing the resulting solo break as exhibiting "the tones of a rich, deep cello–a beautiful sound which no doubt attracted many buyers." 

 FOUR MILKWEED PLANTS MAKING THEIR WAY THROUGH A WHEAT FIELD

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A mother's dictionary::

Bottle feeding: An opportunity for Daddy to get up at 2 am too.

Defense: What you'd better have around the yard if you're going to let the children play outside.

Drooling: How teething babies wash their chins.

Dumbwaiter: One who asks if the kids would care to order dessert.

Family planning: The art of spacing your children the proper distance apart to keep you on the edge of financial disaster

Full name: What you call your child when you're mad at him.

Grandparents: The people who think your children are wonderful even though they're sure you're not raising them right.

Hearsay: What toddlers do when anyone mutters a dirty word.

Impregnable: A woman whose memory of labor is still vivid.

Independent: How we want our children to be as long as they do everything we say.

Look out: What it's too late for your child to do by the time you scream it.

Prenatal: When your life was still somewhat your own.

Prepared childbirth: A contradiction in terms.

Puddle: A small body of water that draws other small bodies wearing dry shoes into it.

Show off: A child who is more talented than yours.

Sterilize: What you do to your first baby's pacifier by boiling it and to your last baby's pacifier by blowing on it.

Storeroom: The distance required between the supermarket aisles so that children in shopping carts can't quite reach anything.

Top bunk: Where you should never put a child wearing Superman jammies.

Two-minute warning: When the baby's face turns red and she begins to make those familiar grunting noises.

Verbal: Able to whine in words

Whodunit: None of the kids that live in your house.

Whoops: An exclamation that translates roughly into 'get a sponge.'

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Wife: Whatcha doing?

Me: Nothing.

Wife: You did that yesterday.

Me: I wasn't finished.

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THREE BLUE OBJECTS MOVING FAST THROUGH THE NIGHT SKY

It was 10:25 when I slipped out the door last night, hopped into Subie, put the front windows down, slid the moonroof back, turned up my ambient music, and headed out into the countryside to do a little stargazing.  It's the same spot I always go and I wasn't there five minutes standing beside the car with my 7x50 binoculars when I saw something moving swiftly through the dark night sky.  I had spotted the flashing lights of an airplane overhead heading west and while looking at it (without binoculars) I saw a faint movement in the stars.  Figured it was a satellite so hoisted up my binoculars and locked onto it.  Remember me saying about a month ago of seeing a 'blue object' in the night sky??  Well, this one was blue as well and moving fast.  It doesn't appear blue to the naked eye but as soon as you get binoculars on it the color blue becomes very apparent compared to the white stars in the background.  It came into view from the northwest and was heading into the southeast.  I watched it for about 10 seconds and then realized it was on the same flight path and in the same area of the sky as the one I saw a month ago.  Then, about a minute later I saw a second 'blue' object traveling in the same direction as the first one and in the same area of the sky.  Upon seeing this second one I now had a clue as to what they might be.  About 30 seconds later I saw another one.  Same trajectory, same fast speed, and same blue color.  My guess is that they were 'Starlink' satellites.  There are over 6,000 of them orbiting the Earth now.  Anyway, it was really neat to see them and so nice to be out under a starry night sky again.  I would like to live in a house with a big glass dome for a roof and tip back in my recliner every night, stare at the heavens, and let my mind take me on wondrous travels through the stars to faraway stars, planets, and glowing Galaxies. 

Al's Music Box:)) Blackbird is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album 'The Beatles' also known as the White Album. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon-McCartney and performed as a solo piece by McCartney. When discussing the song, McCartney said that the lyrics were inspired by hearing the call of a blackbird.  McCartney explained on 'Chaos and Creation' at Abbey Road that the guitar accompaniment for "Blackbird" was inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's Bouree in E minor, a well-known lute piece, often played on the classical guitar. As teenagers, he and George Harrison tried to learn Bourrée as a "show off" piece. The Bourrée is distinguished by melody and bass notes played simultaneously on the upper and lower strings. McCartney said that he adapted a segment of the Bourrée (reharmonised into the original's relative major key of G) as the opening of "Blackbird", and carried the musical idea throughout the song. The first three notes of the song, which then transitioned into the opening guitar riff, were inspired by Bach.  The first night his future wife Linda Eastman stayed at his home, McCartney played "Blackbird" for the fans camped outside his house.  Since composing "Blackbird" in 1968, McCartney has given various statements regarding both his inspiration for the song and its meaning. He has said that he was inspired by hearing the call of a blackbird one morning when the Beatles were studying Transcendental Meditation in Rishikesh, India, and also writing it in Scotland as a response to the Little Rock Nine incident and the overall Civil Rights movement, wanting to write a song dedicated to people who had been affected by discrimination.  In May 2002, following a show in Dallas Texas, McCartney discussed the song with KCRW DJ Chris Douridas, saying:  I had been doing some [poetry readings] in the last year or so because I've got a poetry book out called Blackbird Singing, and when I would read "Blackbird", I would always try and think of some explanation to tell the people … So, I was doing explanations, and I actually just remembered why I'd written "Blackbird", you know, that I'd been, I was in Scotland playing on my guitar, and I remembered this whole idea of "you were only waiting for this moment to arise" was about, you know, the black people's struggle in the southern states, and I was using the symbolism of a blackbird. It's not really about a blackbird whose wings are broken, you know, it's a bit more symbolic.  In 2018, McCartney further elaborated on the song's meaning, explaining that "blackbird" should be interpreted as "black girl", in the context of the civil rights troubles in the southern 1960s US.  His stepmother, Angie McCartney, has claimed that McCartney wrote it for her elderly mother, Edith Stopforth, who was staying at Jim McCartney's house while recovering from a long illness. Angie recalled that McCartney visited the house and sat at Edith's bedside, where Edith told him that she would listen to a bird singing at night.  Although McCartney has been consistent in the meaning, there are still varied interpretations – as a nature song, a message in support of the Black Power movement, or a love song. Writing in the 1990s, Ian MacDonald noted the theory that "Blackbird" was intended as "a metaphor for the black civil rights struggle", but pointed to the composition's romantic qualities, arguing that the early-morning bird song "translates … into a succinct metaphor for awakening on a deeper level". However, during an informal rehearsal at EMI Studios on 22 November 1968, before he and Donovan took part in a Mary Hopkin recording session, McCartney played "Blackbird", telling Donovan that he wrote it after having "read something in the paper about the riots" and that he meant the black "bird" to symbolize a black woman.  The song was recorded on 11 June 1968 at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London, with George Martin as the producer and Geoff Emerich as the audio engineer. It is a solo performance with McCartney playing a Martin D-28 acoustic guitar. The track includes recordings of a male common blackbird singing in the background.  Apart from the blackbird, only three sounds were recorded: McCartney's voice, his guitar, and a tapping that keeps time on the left channel. This tapping "has been incorrectly identified as a metronome in the past", according to engineer Geoff Emerick, who says it is actually the sound of Paul tapping his foot. McCartney also said the same in The Beatles' Anthology documentary. Emerick recalls [Paul's foot taps, presumably] as being mic'd up separately. Footage included in the bonus content on disc two of the 2009 remaster of the album shows McCartney tapping both his feet alternately while performing the song.  

GROANER'S CORNER:(( An amateur golfer goes into the pro shop and looks around frowning.  Finally, the pro asks him what he wants. "I can't find any green golf balls," the golfer complains.  The pro looks all over the shop, and through all the catalogs, and finally calls the manufacturers and determines that sure enough, there are no green golf balls.  As the golfer walks out the door in disgust, the pro asks him, "Before you go, could you tell me why you want green golf balls?"  "Well obviously, because they would be so much easier to find in the sand traps!"

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Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

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A pastor was opening his mail one morning and one envelope had only a single sheet of paper with a single word printed on it: “FOOL!” The following Sunday the priest announced, “I have known many people who have written letters and forgotten to sign their name. But this week I received a letter from someone who signed his name and had forgotten to write a letter.”

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COOLER WEATHER

Al's Music Box:)) Tainted Love by Soft Cell is a song composed by Ed Cobb, formerly of the American group the Four Preps, which was originally recorded by Gloria Jones in 1964.  In 1981 the song attained worldwide fame after being covered and reworked by British synth-pop duo 'Soft Cell'.  Buoyed by the then-dominant new wave sound of the time, 'Tainted Love' became a major hit in the US during the Second British Invasion, with the song spending a then-record-breaking 43 weeks on the US Billboard Hot 100.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( The businessman dragged himself home and barely made it to his chair before he dropped exhausted.  His sympathetic wife was right there with a tall cool drink and a comforting word. "My, you look tired," she said. "You must have had a hard day today.  What happened to make you so exhausted?"  "It was terrible," her husband said. "The computer broke down and all of us had to do our own thinking."

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A SHEEPS KIND OF DAY

Al's Music Box:)) Marrakesh Express is a song written by Graham Nash and performed by the band Crosby, Stills and Nash. (CSN). It was first released in May 1969 on the self-titled album, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and released on a 45-RPM single in July of the same year, with another CSN song, "Helplessly Hoping", as its backing side.  "Marrakesh Express" was written during Nash's final years as a member of the English rock band the Hollies, of which he was a member from its formation in 1962 till 1968. The band rejected the song as not commercial enough, but it found a home with Nash's new band Crosby, Stills, and Nash.    Nash recalled his inspiration for the song occurring during a Moroccan vacation he took in 1966. On the trip, Nash traveled by train from Casablanca to Marrakesh. He began the journey in First Class, surrounded by people he found to be uninteresting—as he described it, they were all "ladies with blue hair." He decided the compartment was "completely boring," so left his seat to explore the other train carriages, and was fascinated by what he saw.  The song mentions "ducks and pigs and chickens," which he saw on the train, and recalled the ride by commenting: "It's literally the song as it is—what happened to me.  The instrumentation of the song seeks to embody Nash's lyrics through an Eastern vibe and a "buoyant" flow carried by Jim Gordon's drumming, to resemble a train ride. Stephen Stills was responsible for much of the creative musicianship, adding a distinctive, unique-sounding riff played on two overdubbed electric guitars.  He also added Hammond B3 organ, piano and bass. The song was rounded out by Nash's acoustic guitar, and the group's trademark three-part vocal harmony on the choruses.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( If Noah Built an Ark in 2024...........

And lo, in the year 2011, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in the United States, and said:
"Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated, and I see the end of all flesh before me."
"Build another Ark and save two of every living thing along with a few good humans."
He gave Noah the blueprints, saying, "You have 6 months to build the ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights."
Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard, but there was no ark.
"Noah! I'm about to start the rain! Where is the ark?"
"Forgive me, Lord," begged Noah, "but things have changed."
"I needed a building permit."
"I've been arguing with the inspector about the need for a sprinkler system."
"My neighbors claim that I've violated the neighborhood zoning laws by building the ark in my yard and exceeding the height limitations. We had to go to the Development Appeal Board for a decision."
"Then the Department of Transportation demanded a bond be posted for the future costs of moving power lines and other overhead obstructions, to clear the passage for the ark's move to the sea. I told them that the sea would be coming to us, but they would hear nothing of it."
"Getting the wood was another problem. There's a ban on cutting local trees in order to save the spotted owl."
"I tried to convince the environmentalists that I needed the wood to save the owls, but no go!"
"When I started gathering the animals, an animal rights group sued me. They insisted that I was confining wild animals against their will. They argued the accommodations were too restrictive, and it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space."
"Then the EPA ruled that I couldn't build the ark until they'd conducted an environmental impact study on your proposed flood."
"I'm still trying to resolve a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on how many minorities I'm supposed to hire for my building crew."
"Immigration and Naturalization are checking the green-card status of most of the people who want to work."
"The trades unions say I can't use my sons. They insist I have to hire only Union workers with ark-building experience.
"To make matters worse, the IRS seized all my assets, claiming I'm trying to leave the country illegally with endangered species."
"So, forgive me, Lord, but it would take at least 10 years for me to finish this Ark."
Suddenly, the skies cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow stretched across the sky.
Noah looked up in wonder and asked, "You mean you're not going to destroy the world?"
"No," said the Lord. "The government beat me to it."

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I FINISHED 'THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA'

I finished my latest book by author TJ Klune entitled The House In The Cerulean Sea.  I decided on this book after stumbling across another book a few months earlier called, Under The Whispering Door by the same author.  TJ Klune writes with mystery, magic, mayhem, reality, and myth.  He's definitely off-center and enjoyably so.  However, not everyone's cup of tea I suspect. In this second TJ Klune book I found myself stumbling with the story and it took me a bit to warm up to it but once I did, and just like the main character Linus Baker himself, I was soon drawn into the depths of this shadowy story by its rather bizarre and seemingly impossible characters.  Lucy (who thinks his father is the Devil) Tahlia (a Gnome) Sal, (who transforms into a Pomeranian when threatened) Chauncey (nobody knows what he is) Phee (a forest Sprite) Zoe, also a Forest Sprite, Theodore, a Wyvern, and Arthur Parnassus himself who is a man of mystery and many hidden secrets.....and something else.  It's a thought-provoking read as long as you have an open mind and a great imagination.  I, thankfully have both which make Klune's books work for me.  Underneath, the book does carry a heavy meaning, and there are lessons to be learned for those of you who can accept them.  TJ Klune's sequel to this book is entitled, Somewhere Beyond The Sea and will be available online September 10th.  I'm looking forward to what I suspect will be the continuing wild and whimsical tales of thought-provoking truer-than-life myth, rather bizarre magical realities, continuing fantasies, and Klunes own way of looking at our society through his own colorful characters.

Al's Music Box:)) In My Room is a song written by Brian Wilson and Gary Usher for the Beach Boys. It was released on their 1963 album Surfer Girl. It was also released as the B-side of the "Be True to Your School" single. The single peaked at number 23 in the U.S. (the A-side peaked at number 6, for a two-sided top-40) and was eventually inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. "In My Room" was ranked number 212 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  Gary Usher explained that  "In My Room" found us taking our craft a little more seriously. Brian and I came back to the house one night after playing 'over-the-line' (a baseball game). I played bass and Brian was on organ. The song was written in an hour ... Brian's melody all the way. The sensitivity ... the concept meant a lot to him. When we finished, it was late, after our midnight curfew. In fact, Murry [the Wilson brothers' father] came in a couple of times and wanted me to leave. Anyway, we got Audree [the Wilson brothers' mother], who was putting her hair up before bed, and we played it for her. She said, "That's the most beautiful song you've ever written." Murry said, "Not bad, Usher, not bad," which was the nicest thing he ever said to me.  Gary Usher (who co-wrote the song with Brian Wilson) further describes that "Brian was always saying that his room was his whole world." Brian seconds this opinion: "I had a room, and I thought of it as my kingdom. And I wrote that song, very definitely, that you're not afraid when you're in your room. It's absolutely true."  In 1990, Brian wrote, I also enjoyed producing "In My Room". There is a story behind this song. When Dennis, Carl and I lived in Hawthorne as kids, we all slept in the same room. One night I sang the song "Ivory Tower" to them and they liked it. Then a couple of weeks later, I proceeded to teach them both how to sing the harmony parts to it. It took them a little while, but they finally learned it. We then sang this song night after night. It brought peace to us. When we recorded "In My Room", there was just Dennis, Carl and me on the first verse ... and we sounded just like we did in our bedroom all those nights. This story has more meaning than ever since Dennis' death.

GROANER'S CORNER:((  You might be a redneck if......

- You need one more hole punched in your card to get a freebie at the House of Tattoos.
- You need an estimate from your barber before you get a haircut.
- The biggest fashion risk you take is which pair of scruffy overalls you'll wear to the 4-H Fair.
- You have flowers planted in a bathroom appliance in your front yard.
- Your wife weighs more than your refrigerator.
-You move your refrigerator and the grass underneath it has turned yellow.
- You mow your lawn and find a car dating back to the late forties.
- You can spit sideways without unclenching your teeth.
- Going to the bathroom in the middle of the night involves putting on shoes and a jacket, grabbing a flashlight, your shotgun, and box of shells.

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- It's scary when you start making the same noises as your coffee maker.

- My memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.

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A guy had been feeling down for so long that he finally decided to seek the aid of a psychiatrist.  He went there, lay on the couch, spilled his guts, then waited for the profound wisdom of the psychiatrist to make him feel better.  The psychiatrist asked him a few questions, took some notes then sat thinking in silence for a few minutes with a puzzled look on his face.  Suddenly, he looked up with an expression of delight and said, "Um, I think your problem is low self-esteem. It is very common among losers."

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