Thursday Thirteen #325

 

In Memory of Jimmy Buffett. Yes, I was sad when I heard Jimmy Buffett died this past weekend. Not only because I enjoyed his music, but because we loved the same places: Chicago's Wrigley Field (where he performed multiple concerts and sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and The National Anthem) and Key West. If you watch the parade Conchs held in his honor Sunday, you'll see a Cub W flag. Warms my heart. He was one of us.

 

And so this week I celebrate him with a countdown of my 13 favorite Jimmy Buffett songs. Thank you, Jimmy. Putting this list together was fun, and fun is important.

 13. Mele Kalikimaka. Hawaiian for Merry Christmas. It makes me smile because my friend Kathleen loves to sing along with it. This was her late father's favorite Christmas record. Jimmy created happy memories. (And let's say a prayer for our fellow citizens in Maui.)

12. Barefoot Children. There's something magic about summer storms. I love that line, "The sound of the weather is Heaven's ragtime band." If my dad were here, he'd grumble and say I talk like someone without a yard who doesn't have to pick up the leaves and big branches after a storm. My late father was in no way a Parrothead.

11. Son of a Son of a Sailor. "Read dozens of books about heroes and crooks and I learned much from both of their styles." Love that because Jimmy the Beach Bum was also Jimmy the Author, Jimmy the Environmentalist, and Jimmy the Businessman. There were many facets to this Renaissance man.

10. Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude. "If we couldn't laugh we'd just all go insane." I am grateful that I find most things funny. To the extent that I am, indeed, sane, I credit my sense of humor.

9. Boat Drinks. "20º and the hockey game's on." Sometimes in the dead of winter -- on those days when 20º feels warm! -- it helps to order a tall drink in a funny glass filled with rum and coconut.

8. Grapefruit - Juicy Fruit. I love songs that sound happy but have melancholy lyrics. This one reminds me of when I was in a long-distance relationship. The agony of parting and knowing we wouldn't be together again for weeks. "It's so damn lonely when you're on a plane alone ..."

7. Wonderful Christmastime. I heard this the first time in the Margaritaville gift shop in Key West. I was far from home and my mom had recently died, but it was sunny and I had Sir Paul and Jimmy Buffett and my dear friend Henry so I could still have Christmas.

6. Pencil Thin Mustache. I adore the romance and honky tonk nostalgia, and movie geek in me loves the shout outs to Erroll Flynn, Boston Blackie and Andy Devine.

5. Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw? "I really do appreciate the fact that you're sitting here." What a great closing time pick up line! This song cracks me up, and it takes me back to a more innocent time when this was considered naughty.

4. Come Monday. Jimmy didn't do many straight up love songs, but this is a good one. It's so authentic and relatable. (It helps that I don't much care for Los Angeles and glitter rock and roll, either.)

3. Fins. This is how it felt when I was cute and partying at the bars. "Can't you feel them circling, honey? Can't you feel schooling around? You've got fins to the left, fins to the right, and you're the only bait in town." 

2. Margaritaville. Of course. But why do I love this one? Because it's more than a celebration of Key West life. It's the story of a man who has had his heart broken, which is a painful and confusing experience for all of us.

1. Cheeseburger in Paradise. Because it's freaking awesome. It just is. I love that when my nephew was a little boy he chose to perform this on his first karaoke night while on vacation. Blood will tell.

Please join us for THURSDAY THIRTEEN. Click here to play along, and to see other interesting compilations of 13 things.

WWW.WEDNESDAY

WWW. WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here. 

PS I can no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up.

1. What are you currently reading? The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created by Jane Leavy. This year I've been reading about people I've heard about all my life but really knew little about: Winston Churchill, Aristotle Onassis, Dwight Eisenhower ... Now, since I'm all baseball all the time right at the moment (the Cubs are on the verge of clinching a playoff berth), I'm turning to The Babe. All I really know about him is that he called his shot at my beloved Wrigley Field, he loved hot dogs and hookers, and he was the first baseball superstar and the game's greatest player ever.

A couple years ago I read Leavy's book about Mickey Mantle and found it both clear-eyed and affectionate, so I have high hopes for this one. After all, The Babe is still the gold standard, the player even Shohei Ohtani is measured against. It's time I learned who he really was. 

2. What did you recently finish reading? Murder at an Irish Wedding by Carlene O'Connor. Kilbane, the Irish village at the center of this series, is the site of a destination wedding. A famous fashion model, daughter of wealthy and prominent parents, is the bride. Not only is the village abuzz, a magazine photographer is snapping away for the Irish Enquirer. To complicate matters, someone gets dead. Our heroine, Kilbane resident and amateur sleuth Siobhan O'Sullivan, can't resist investigating.

 

I admit I didn't like this one (Book #2) as much as I did the premier effort. The mystery itself just wasn't as tight this time around and Siobhan acts foolish more than once. But I was charmed nevertheless. Siobhan's young siblings are a delight and I learned a lot about how Irish lore has influenced our weddings here. For example, the period immediately after the wedding is called a honeymoon because the bridal couple supposed to spend a month drinking honeyed ale. 

 

3. What will read next? I don't know.

 

 

No Joy in Mudville

 

He was in the dugout tonight with his teammates and he continues his post-concussion rehab in the Yankee Stadium facilities but, with a month to go, the specialists just don't think Anthony Rizzo will be ready to take the field again before the season is over.

I know from my friend Henry that brain injuries require diligent aftercare. I am glad they are being careful with him now. Now. I am still beyond pissed that it took the Yankees medical staff two fucking months to diagnose this.

I don't know how much of my impotent rage is tied to Henry. But I am not okay with this. Not by the longest shot. 

Sunday Stealing

STORYWORTH

1. Did you ever have a commercial you really liked? I don't have diabetes but that happy woman makes me want to take "once daily Jardiance at each day's start." Really, I heard myself singing about "the little pill with the big story to tell" the other morning while I was feeding my cats.

2. How did you learn to ride a bicycle? My first big girl bike was a pink and white Schwinn. I wish I remembered more about learning to ride it because it was my dad who taught me, and I don't have lots of good dad memories.

    

3.How did you celebrate your 21st birthday? The other secretaries took me to Pago Pago, a nearby Tiki bar, for lunch. I ordered my first legal drink: a Singapore Sling. It makes me a little sad that I can no longer remember any of their names. 

We went to the Jackson location; they're all gone now.

4. What fascinated you as a child? The Beatles. They still do. They're the soundtrack of my life.

    

5. What was one of your favorite playground games? Freeze tag.

    

6. What things matter most to you in life? Every day I try to do good. That matters most to me. I find that when I concentrate on living my faith, other things fall into place.

    

7. If you had to go back in time and start a brand new career, what would it be? I enjoy using my writing skills for causes I believe in. I wish I had become a full-time writer for a not-for-profit.

    

8. What do people get wrong about you? Everybody thinks I'm tough. Maybe because I say "fuck" all the time. I'm more sensitive than most people realize.

    

9. Do you believe that people can change? Why or why not? Yes. I know I've changed. That's what the therapy is for.

    

10. What is some of the best advice your mother ever gave you? Whenever we went clothes shopping together she'd remind me, "If it has to be dry cleaned it's like it costs double."

    

11. If you could see into the future, what would you want to find out? How long it stretches before me.That's the thing about saving for retirement: you don't know how long retirement is going to last.

    

12. How has your life turned out differently than you imagined it would? In some ways.

    

13. What is the longest project you have ever worked on? Me! I'm still a work in progress.

    

14. What have been some of your favorite restaurants through the years? My favorites have been restaurants that serve breakfast all day. I love sitting alone in a booth with my book while eating eggs and wheat toast.

    

15. What is one of the best shows you've ever been to? Wings Over America, the first time I saw him.

   

    

Saturday 9

Saturday 9: Workin' for a Livin' (1982)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) Huey begins the song by telling us some workdays feel like they will never end. How was last week for you? Did it drag or did it fly by? I was rather busy last week and over the weekend so I appreciated the nice, even, predictable pace of this week.  

2) He sings that his car payment is due. Think about your personal finances. Do you pay most of your bills manually or do you more often take advantage of automated bill pay? My only automated bills are the ones that businesses/organizations insist be automated, like my health insurance premiums. The rest I prefer to pay manually. I'm kind of a control freak.

 

3) Huey Lewis achieved a perfect score on the math portion of the SAT. Did you take SATs and/or ACTs? Were your results anything to brag about? (If they were, go ahead and let us know!) I clearly remember taking one of them -- I believe it was the ACTs but I wouldn't swear to it in a court of law. It was a Saturday morning in the biology lab, which had the most godawful orange plastic chairs. I got bored during the math section because I understood less than nothing about the questions and chose my answers by doing a design with the dots. Since I was planning to go to community college, which had to take me because I lived in district, I didn't take any of it seriously. 

4) In his role as District Attorney for Essex County, MA, Huey's grandfather Hugh Cregg prosecuted high-profile murder cases. Do you enjoy watching or reading courtroom dramas? Very much. Especially the original Law & Order. 

Season 6: My favorite cast

5) Huey no longer performs because he has an inner-ear disorder that prevents him from holding a vocal pitch. Of your five senses -- hearing, sight, smell, touch and taste -- which is the strongest? Well, I wear glasses and I always have closed captioning on when I watch movies, so we can eliminate hearing and sight. I'll go with smell. When I had covid, not being able to smell really creeped me out.

6) He is a fan of fly fishing. Did you do any fishing this summer? Nope. Which would make this summer like every other summer of recent memory.

Since this Monday is Labor Day, the holiday established to celebrate the American worker … 

7) Approx. 10% of Americans are self employed. Have you ever been your own boss? Yes. I was a freelance writer in 2003-04. I took my last job in 2004 for the insurance and 401(k).

8) According to Monster.com, 50% of workers have left a job to get away from a boss. Are you one of the 50%? Oh, yes. I've had bad bosses, but one genuine psycho. She told me that she believed in reincarnation and we clashed now because we were enemies in a past life. I guess I tried to run her over with my chariot or something. We'd better work this out now, she warned, or we'd be fighting one another for eternity. I could not get away from her fast enough after that.

9) Farmers feel the impact of extreme weather events. Have you ever had a job that required you to be outdoors most of the time? Nope.

BTW, this is my first Labor Day as a retiree. I admit it feels funny. Not unpleasant, of course, but weird.

Me and Roger

Just had my meet'n'greet with Roger, the new minister. I feel good about it.

Our lead minister left, and not by choice, back in 2021. There was a ton of drama attendant to it. Church employees felt misunderstood, overworked and underpaid. There was undoubtedly fiscal mismanagement (though it was inadvertent and not criminal). Some parishioners felt ignored. Others, on the other hand, considered him their spiritual leader, cared about him deeply, and were sad to see him go.

Our interim minister didn't stay in her lane. She tried to make changes when change wasn't what we needed. We needed placidity. 

So our congregation has been a mess for nearly two years.

I don't go to church for drama. I don't even go for community. I go to church because I want to feel closer to God. I want to put my faith on its feet and do good in the world. It's hard to do that when we're surrounded by upset and upheaval.

I liked what Roger had to say this evening. I appreciated how chill his manner was. He laid out his vision for the congregation. He was straightforward about the fiscal hole we're in but promised to keep the lines of communication open. I hope he will be motivating to me spiritually.

But I'll be grateful if I can just feel a sense of sanctuary within my church again. I think Roger will provide that.

Photo by Stephen Radford on Unsplash

August Happiness Challenge -- Day 31

My 2023 happiness icon

Today's Happiness: "Love you, Gal."

I ended up on the phone with Reg. The first time in more than 9 months. He stopped communicating with me directly and was just all-around pissy and self-centered. He was also furious that I didn't come to Key West for Christmas. I wanted to but I had been misled about Henry's hospitalization. Here's the post about that painful blow up.

Anyway, Henry called me tonight and impulsively handed the phone to Reg. He started chatting with me amiably, as though we talk all the time and nothing bad has happened. He ended with, "Love you, Gal."

I don't know how healthy any of this is. I don't know that I can honestly say I love him. But I am glad the big freeze between us has thawed. I do love Henry as much as ever, and knowing I can speak directly to Reg if something goes wrong comforts me. Peace is lovely.

 

Thursday Thirteen #324

Why I still have cable. Yes, I know this makes me a dying breed. 56% of households have cable, but that's down from 76% in 2015. Yes, I know it's expensive. But it's so easy!

There are so many streaming services available. Many of these services have different plans to choose from. Figuring out the best way to get my favorite channels seems like an awful lot of work. Thanks to Xfinity, I just say what I want to watch into that lovely voice remote and it appears.

Here are the 13 most popular streaming services. It's so overwhelming that I almost miss the days of 5 channels when I was a kid.

1. Netflix

2. Hulu

3. Amazon Prime (I pay for this one but to be honest, I got Prime for the free package delivery)

4. Disney+ 

5. Apple TV

6. Max (formerly HBO Max)*

7. YouTube TV

8. Peacock*

9. Paramount

10. Sling 

11. Fubo*

12. Tubi*

13. Pluto*

Please join us for THURSDAY THIRTEEN. Click here to play along, and to see other interesting compilations of 13 things.

*Included in my cable package

August Happiness Challenge -- Day 30

My 2023 happiness icon

Today's Happiness: Back to school

Today when I was running errands I happened past the junior high. Some students were tending their "habitat" (i.e. garden). The sky was blue, the weather was lovely, and they seemed so earnest out there among the sunflowers and whatever else they've got. I enjoyed seeing them.

WWW.WEDNESDAY

 

WWW. WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here. 

PS I can no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up.

1. What are you currently reading? Murder at an Irish Wedding by Carlene O'Connor. I'm back to Kilbane, the Irish village at the center of this series. A fashion model has chosen this picturesque, secluded spot for her wedding. Our heroine, Siobhan O'Sullivan, is very involved: First, because her family business is catering the affair; second, she's attending because her fella is in the wedding party. Naturally, when someone gets dead, she can't help but investigate.

 

The characters are warm and witty and this book aspires to be no more than entertaining, which is nice after I endured the following.

2. What did you recently finish reading?  Jackie: Public, Private, Secret by J. Randy Taraborrelli. What a hot, steaming pile of crap this was. I have no one to blame but myself. I know J. Randy Taraborrelli writes breathless hagiographies and I know he recreates scenes and dialog he can't possibly substantiate, yet I picked it up anyway. So shame on me.

 

It's the disinformation in this book that made me want to scream. For example, Jackie's kid sister, Lee, is portrayed as receiving treatment for anorexia in the 1950s and again 1970s. I recently read a biography of Karen Carpenter that revealed how woefully ignorant doctors and mental health professionals were of the disease in early 1980s. Karen Carpenter was a celebrity and a multi-million dollar property who had medical teams in New York and Los Angeles working on her case, but I'm supposed to believe that somehow a socialite managed to be diagnosed and treated for this misunderstood disease decades earlier? Bullshit.

Similarly, I always knew former Senator John Kerry once dated Jackie's youngest sister, Janet Auchincloss. It was when they were both at college, and he has always been self-deprecating about how little he meant to her. This book not only has him snatching Janet's virginity but also involved with the extended Kennedy family during -- wait for it -- THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS! Yeah, J. Randy, that happened.

 

This book is 500 pages long and I bet I could come up with 100 ridiculous passages. Do not read this book. It is worse than a waste of time.

 

3. What will read next? I don't know.

 

 

August Happiness Challenge -- Day 29

My 2023 happiness icon

Today's Happiness: "Hey, Chicago, what do you say? The Cubs are gonna win today."

My guys stopped the Brewers winning streak at 9 and tonight it looks like there will be playoff baseball here in Chicago this season. Go, Cubs, Go!

 

August Happiness Challenge -- Day 28

My 2023 happiness icon

Today's Happiness: Supporting small business.

There's a little independenly owned pharmacy on the other side of town.  The big chains around here -- Walgreens and CVS -- don't compound medications for pets so in 2021, when Reynaldo needed a special cream to treat his thyroid, I ended up here. They always provided reliable service and free delivery and even occasionally included a toy for my Rey-Rey. How could I not love them?

Unfortunately, insurance wouldn't allow me to use them for my own meds. My prescription plan insisted on a specific mail-order pharmacy for medications I took regularly and "preferred" Walgreens for prescriptions that needed to be filled immediately.

But with Medicare I was able to choose my own prescription plan and found one that let me use this little pharmacy. Monday I refilled my epipen and it was delivered, for free, natch. I was happy to repay their service with my business.

Noir City Chicago, 2023

Oh, how happy I was Sunday! I was among my people -- the classic movie faithful -- inside a venerable old movie palace -- Chicago's Music Box Theater (built in 1929) watching murder and mayhem at the Noir City Film Festival.

It was great to see members of my own little movie group in person (hugs all around, and I was happy to field questions about my Connie cat and why I wasn't wearing my usual: a Cubs t-shirt). Then we saw two not-often shown films from 1948 -- The Velvet Touch and The Big Clock. How exciting to see Theater #2 filled with Chicagoans enthusiastic about b&w films celebrating their 75th anniversay.

Two of my favorite things: Eddie & the curtain at The Music Box.

Best of all, I got to meet Eddie. SQUEE! Eddie Muller, TCM's Czar of Noir, spearheads the restoration of these classic dramas. And he's my TV boyfriend. I have a massive crush on him. I got Betty from movie group to take our picture together (she's a shameless star collector and I needed her to give me courage) and afterward, Eddie and I talked ... and talked ... about TCM and the corporate takeover. He was cautiously optimistic and I was beyond delighted to hear that. Even better, I was the one who cut the conversation short because there were other fans waiting to talk to him. Eddie thought I was smart and interesting! (Eddie liked me! Eddie liked me!)

August Happiness Challenge -- Day 27

My 2023 happiness icon

Today's Happiness: Elaine was annoyed with me.

After spending the day together at the Noir City Chicago film festival, Elaine offered to drive Will and me home. It saved me more than $20 and the time I'd have to wait for the next train,* and I was grateful. 

Will and I were yammering rather enthusiastically about the movies. She was quiet, and when she did talk she was snappish with me. Me, not Will.

Was I talking too loud or too fast (I learned the latter especially annoys my Cousin Rosemary)? Did she feel excluded? Was she just fucking sick of me? After all, we also saw each other on Thursday.

I don't care. I was delighted.

Elaine is human, after all! This was the first time she's ever been short with me, and I loved it because she gets on my nerves after prolonged exposure. Nothing serious. She's a lovely woman and a good friend. But she can bug me, and until Sunday night I never saw any evidence that I could bug her. So until Sunday night, I felt a little bitchy.

I love this evening of the playing field. In classic movie terms, Sunday night was proof no woman is ever all Melanie Hamilton or all Scarlett O'Hara.

*Now that I'm a retired lady on a fixed income, I no longer just reflexively summon an Uber. I'm back to my twenty-something self, always carrying a book in my oversized purse to amuse me while waiting for the next bus or train.

August Happiness Challenge -- Day 26

My 2023 happiness icon

Today's Happiness: My bootheels were wandering.

I strolled the mile to a new-to-me restaurant for lunch with my friend Nancy and her husband Paul. I saw a part of town I just never visit otherwise. That's one thing I like about retirement. I take things slower and notice more.

Lunch was delicious but unwise. I had a nice big breakfast -- eggs, bacon and pancakes with powdered sugar and syrup. Then, since it was right up the street, we went to Paul's favorite ice cream shop. That was simply too much sugar for my gut and it rebelled.

But that's a minor quibble. It was a lovely day. I like being with Nancy and Paul. They're happily married, smart, funny ... and they like me! YAY!

 

Saturday 9

Saturday 9: My Sharona (1979)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

 

1) The Knack's lead singer Doug Fieger wrote this song for his girlfriend, Sharona Alperin. That's Sharona on the record sleeve shown here. Who took the most recent photo of you? One of the other guests at the birthday party I attended a couple weeks ago.

2) Today Sharona Alperin is a realtor in Southern California. (The photo on her website is more demure than the recored sleeve.) She specializes in high-end properties. Have you ever attended an open house, not because you were interested in purchasing the property but because you were curious about the inside? Yes. I didn't realize this was a thing until I visited a coworker who had moved to the Dallas area. He and his wife did this every weekend and invited me to go along. I thought it was a little weird. I mean, I had no intention of moving to Dallas and even if I did, the luxury abode of my dreams would be a high rise with a nice view of the city, not the sprawling suburban behemoths we toured. But when it Rome (or Texas) ...

3) Doug Fieger's brother is Geoffrey Fieger, a prominent attorney in Detroit. Have you ever consulted a lawyer? Yes, regarding my mother's final affairs and my own will.

 

4) The Knack's record producer was Jimmy Miller, who also worked with The Rolling Stones. What's your favorite Rolling Stones song? I'm not a big Rolling Stones fan, but I love this very short (barely 2 mins.) song from the album Tattoo You. Every once in a while you just gotta say what the hell and hang fire.

5) In 1994, more than a decade after its initial release, "My Sharona" became popular with a new audience because it was included on the soundtrack of the movie Reality Bites. What's the most recent movie you watched? The Best of Everything. It's a melodrama from the late 1950s about three girls who come to New York in search of adventure and love. It's soapy and absurdly dated and I love it. 

From an early scene of The Best of Everything. Love Caroline's gloves.

6) President George W. Bush said he loved listening to "My Sharona" on his headphones while riding his bike. Do you often have music on when you exercise? Well, they play music in the yoga studio. I don't like it -- it sounds like wind-chimey spa music -- but it's on and maybe it does relax me.

 

7) In 1979, when this song was popular, the CBS TV show Alice was a hit. It was about a widowed mom who made ends meet working in a diner. Have you ever worked at a restaurant? Nope.

 

8) Also in 1979, the Voyager spacecraft sent back photos of Jupiter and its rings. Without looking it up, can you name all the planets in our solar system? Mercury, Earth, Saturn, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Pluto (or not). How did I do?

9) Random question: If you could erase your most painful day from your memory, would you do it? No. I certainly don't want to relive it, and I'm glad I got past it, but it helped me make me who I am.