Tuesday, March 25, 2025

OH JOY FOR THAT HAPPY THOUGHT EH:((

Cloudy and cold with a few errant snowflakes in the air.  A short drive around a few country roads and home again for Pheebs and I.  Hey, nine months from today will be Christmas.  Oh joy for that happy thought eh:((  Woodsy and I slipped up to Goderich for a few things at Walmart, Zehr's Supermarket, and Food Basics.  It was a good shopping day for me because I didn't have to go into the stores.  I like it when that happens.  I remained in the car and caught up on my Kindle reading which I'm sorry to say I have been neglecting these past three months.

 ANOTHER FINE OLD BARN DYING A SLOW DEATH
Al's Music Box:)) Mocking Bird Hill is a song written in 3/4 time by Calle Jularbo, with lyrics by George Vaughn Horton. It is perhaps best known through recordings by Patti Page, Horton's own Pinetoppers, and the duo of Les Paul and Mary Ford in 1951, or by Donna Fargo's 1977 version, but many other artists have also recorded the song. The first recording of "Mockin' Bird Hill" by an established act was made by Les Paul and Mary Ford, on January 29, 1951.  Patti Page soon recorded the song herself, believing that record buyers assumed that the Paul/Ford single was her own new release. Page first learned of "Mockin' Bird Hill" while at Midway Airport: having just completed a Chicago nightclub engagement she was awaiting a flight to New York City to stopover before proceeding to Florida to open at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach the next evening. Page received a phone call at Midway from Mercury Records A&R man Art Talmadge. At his request Page skipped her scheduled flight to allow Talmadge to reach Midway with a portable turntable, to play Page the Paul/Ford single, which Talmadge suggested Page record once she reached New York City. Page was reluctant to make a recording without the participation of her regular conductor, Jack Rael, who awaited Page in Florida; however, Talmadge had already cleared Page's recording of "Mockin' Bird Hill" with Rael and had booked studio time and musicians for Page to make the recording. Page recalled: "They had a limo at the airport [in New York City], took me to Bob Fine's studio. I cut just that one song. I was very happy with it and couldn't wait for Jack to hear it. He said 'This is really very good.' He called Art, and Art said 'I'm glad you like it, Jack, because we've already shipped 200,000 records."  The Page recording, made on January 17, 1951, reached the Billboard pop music chart on February 24, 1951, lasting 22 weeks and peaking at number 2.  

GROANER'S CORNER:(( How Many Zen Buddhists Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb?

A: Three. One to change the lightbulb, one NOT to change the lightbulb, and one to neither change nor not change the lightbulb.

How Many Episcopalians Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb?
A: Eight. One to call the electrician, and seven to say how much they liked the old one better.

How Many Unitarians Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb?
A: The Unitarians wish to issue the following statement: "We choose not to make a statement either in favor of or against the need for a lightbulb; however if in your own journey you have found that lightbulbs work for you, that is fine. You are invited to write a poem or compose a modern dance about your personal relationship with your lightbulb, and present it next month at our annual lightbulb Sunday service, in which we will explore a number of lightbulb traditions, including incandescent, fluorescent, three-way, long-life and tinted, all of which are equally valid paths to luminescence."
How Many Pentecostals Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb?
A: Ten. One to change the bulb and nine to pray against the spirit of darkness.

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- Just saw a burglar kicking his own door in.  I asked: “What are you doing?”  He said: “Working from home.”

- Men don't care what's on TV. They only care what else is on TV.

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Our 15-year-old daughter, Melanie, had to write a report for school about World War II, specifically D-Day and the invasion of Normandy.  “Isn't there a movie about that?” she asked.  I told her there was, but I couldn't think of the name.  Then it came to her, “Oh, I remember! Isn't it something like ‘Finding Private Nemo'?”

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Monday, March 24, 2025

NO, NOT LOOKING TO BUY ANYTHING...JUST CURIOUS

Cloudy and cold with snow in the air.  A drive in and around Bayfield for Pheebs and I this morning.  I didn't take any photos today but I have a few from Sunday morning when I took a drive by myself because Pheebs didn't want to go.  Woodsy and I took a drive up to Kincardine along the shores of Lake Huron Sunday afternoon.  I had stumbled across an RV place south of Kincardine on the internet called Pierson Motors and RV.  No, not looking to buy anything, just curious to see what they had.

A NICE LOOKING SUNDAY MORNING BUT COLD

 THESE TWO HORSES STILL HAVE THEIR WARM WINTER BLANKETS ON
 SKIFFS OF SNOW IN A WINTER WHEAT FIELD
 'SHEESH, I DON'T KNOW WHY SHE HAS TO SPEND SO MUCH TIME PREENING HERSELF!!'
'WHAT DID YOU SAY MELVIN'??.......  'NOTHING DEAR'
 SEEN IN KINCARDINE ALONG THE SHORES OF LAKE HURON
Al's Music Box:)) Here, There And Everywhere is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1966 album Revolver. A love ballad, it was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon-McCartney.  McCartney includes it among his personal favorites of the songs he has written.  In 2000, Mojo ranked it 4th in the magazine's list of the greatest songs of all time.  McCartney began writing "Here, There and Everywhere" at Lennon's house in Weybridge, in early June, while waiting for Lennon to wake up. McCartney recalled: "I sat out by the pool on one of the sun chairs with my guitar and started strumming in E. And soon I had a few chords, and I think by the time he'd woken up, I had pretty much written the song, so we took it indoors and finished it up."  When discussing his song "Here, There and Everywhere", McCartney has often cited the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows", his favorite pop song of all time, as a source of inspiration.  In 1990, McCartney told Beach Boys biographer David Leaf it was "just the introduction that's influenced [by the Beach Boys]", referring to the harmonies he and Lennon devised for the opening lines of "Here, There and Everywhere". McCartney added that, with this style of introduction, they wanted to capture the "old-fashioned" idea of a preamble to the song. The Beatles recorded "Here, There and Everywhere" towards the end of the sessions for their 1966 album Revolver. The band worked on the song at Abbey Road Studios over three session dates – on 14, 16 and 17 June.  Before carrying out overdubs, they taped 13 takes before achieving a satisfactory basic track.  The recording is noted for its layered backing vocals, which McCartney, Lennon and George Harrison spent much of the three days attempting to perfect. McCartney mentioned in the 1989 radio series McCartney on McCartney that the vocals were meant to have a Beach Boys sound; he has also said that he was trying to sing it in the style of Marianne Faithfull.  McCartney's lead vocal on the recording is multi-tracked.  In his book Revolution in the Head, Ian MacDonald also comments on Harrison's lead guitar part being given a mandolin-like tone via a Leslie speaker effect, before it adopts a "horn-like timbre" for the song's ending.  "Here, There and Everywhere" was released in August 1966 as the fifth track on Revolver, sequenced between Harrison's Indian-styled "Love You To", and the children's song "Yellow Submarine".  Writing of its positioning in the running order, music critic Tim Riley says that "Here, There and Everywhere" "domesticates" the "eroticisms" of "Love You To", and he praises the composition as "the most perfect song" that McCartney had written up to that point.  In his review for AllMusic, Richie Unterberger describes "Here, There and Everywhere" as one of its author's "outstanding contributions" to the genre of "love ballads", and a song with "the sound of an instant standard". Unterberger comments on the recording: "The delicacy of the execution is exquisite, the sensual imagery more explicit, the sense of desire and fulfillment tangible."  Less impressed, Ian MacDonald admired the "ingenuity of the music", but concluded that "for all its soft-focus charm, the song's overall effect is chintzy and rather cloying." In his chapter on Revolver in the book The Album, James Perone describes "Here, There and Everywhere" as a "mid 1960s love ballad that could find its way into the set list for bands at a senior prom" and a track that to some listeners appears "syrupy and mushy". Ch ris Coplan of Consequence of Sound pairs it with "Got to Get You into My Life" as songs that are "seemingly out of place" on Revolver amid the overtly psychedelic and experimental music that typifies the album.  In his authorised biography, Many Years from Now, McCartney names "Here, There and Everywhere" as one of his personal favourites. Beatles producer George Martin also highlighted it among his favourite McCartney songs. Lennon reportedly told McCartney that "Here, There and Everywhere" was "the best tune" on Revolver. In a 1980 interview for Playboy magazine, Lennon described it as "one of my favourite songs of the Beatles".  In 2000, Mojo placed "Here, There and Everywhere" at number 4 on its list of the greatest songs of all time.  In April 2004, Rolling Stone ranked it 25th out of the "100 Greatest Beatles Songs".  Art Garfunkel described the song as "intoxicating": "If music can be defined as that which perfumes the atmosphere, then ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ does it like no other single I’ve ever heard. It’s supreme."

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A well-worn one-dollar bill and a similarly distressed twenty dollar bill arrived at a Federal Reserve Bank to be retired. As they moved along the conveyor belt to be burned, they struck up a conversation.  The twenty dollar bill reminisced about its travels all over the county. "I've had a pretty good life," the twenty proclaimed. "Why I've been to Las Vegas and Atlantic City, the finest restaurants in New York, performances on Broadway, and even a cruise to the Caribbean.""Wow!" said the one dollar bill. "You've really had an exciting life!"  "So tell me," says the twenty, "where have you been throughout your lifetime?"  The one dollar bill replies, "Oh, I've been to the Methodist Church, the Baptist Church, the Lutheran Church ..."  The twenty dollar bill interrupts, "What's a church?"

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- Who is the coolest doctor in the hospital?
The hip consultant.

- She said she was approaching forty, and I couldn't help wondering from what direction.

- An optimist stays up to see the New Year in. A pessimist waits to make sure the old one leaves.

- How does one train hear another train coming?  With its engineers.

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It was my wedding day, and no one was happier than my 78-year-old mother.
But as she approached the church doors, an usher asked, “Which side are you on?”
“Oh, no,” she said. “Are they fighting already?”

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 SO MANY MORNING WALKS SO MANY MEMORIES

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