Monday Madness

Otto offers up the questions at the Monday Madness Web site, so pick up a clean set for yourself and post a link to your answers over there as well as here so we can find you. The following questions are compliments of Elena......Thanks, Elena!! =) Hope everyone will have a wonderful week!

DVD's

1. Are you more likely to rent or buy DVD's (VHS's)? Why?

We're more likely to borrow, actually. My brother is a connoisseur, aficionado or just plain loony for movies. He is a Netflix member, has access to a T1 connection at work and has "disposable income" available for entertainment. We do buy some DVD's we don't think he will get and we also pick up old VHS tapes at garage sales. We also rent a dozen or so a year, too.
2. If you rent DVD's, do you bother viewing the 'Behind the Scenes' or watching the entire movie again with commentary on?

I do. My wife is of the opinion that it ruins the movie for her. Then again, it's tough enough to get her to stay awake through an entire movie, so rewatching one is out of the question.
3. Do you think these features warrant the extra cost for DVD? (After all, we were able to buy new release VHS for $9.99 prior to DVD).

The additional cost is a money grab on the part of the manufacturers and distributors. It is in recognition of the fact that a DVD is far closer to an archival device than tape ever was. Deterioration rates are much slower, hence there are next to no replacement purchases. Sometimes, the sheer volume of additional information can justify the additional cost (LOTR comes to mind as an example) but most of the time its the Man ripping you off...
4. What's your favorite DVD (or VHS) in:
*Drama - Philadelphia (Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington)
*Comedy - Currently, it's Runaway Bride, but just about anything Robin Williams does will change that. Shrek 1 & 2 are right up there in the pantheon, too.
*Action - The Lord of The Rings trilogy.
*Suspense/Thriller - Not my favorite category. If it has Morgan Freeman in it, I'll watch it. Ditto for Denzel Washington.
*Horror - My life is horror enough. While I like Laurell K. Hamilton's "Anita Blake - Vampire Hunter" series for fluff reading, I have yet to see a Hollywood or Indies vampire movie worth watching more than once. The rest of the genre leaves me uninterested.

There you have it for another week. See you on the flip side...

Sunday Brunch - Bookish Thoughts

"The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." -Mark Twain

1) Do you use bookmarks?

Sometimes, other times not.
2) What is your favorite book?

That's a toughie. There are way too many books to choose just one.
3) Who is your favorite author? Today, at this moment, it's

Robert Heinlein is my favorite SF author, John Updike general fiction, T. Alan Braughton is another and Annie Proulx.
4) What is the movie you feel is the most authentic version of a book? The Horse Whisperer

5) Is there a book you wish they would make into a movie and why? I'd like to see the entire Callahan's Cross-time Saloon series by Spider Robinson made into good movies. Sadly, Hollywood would FUBAR it - look what they did to "I, Robot."

If you want a set of these questions for your own, just take a trip over to The Sunday Brunch web site -- they'll fix you right up. And don't forget to post a link here and there to your entries. Thanks and have a great week.

Saturday Six -- #42

1. Who is the first celebrity you recall having a crush on?
I've answered this one before, it's Haley Mills ... although, Annette Funicello was also in the pantheon of screen goddesses occupying my dreams as a youngster.
2. What was your favorite amusement park ride when you were young?
Ferris Wheel.
3. If you could change your name (first or middle but the name you go by), would you, and if so, what would you change it to?

I did, at age 18, due to being one of 4 Williams or Wilburs in a training squad. There was already a "Bill" and he looked like the name. Wilbur wouldn't budge, so I became "Wil." Actually, I'd changed from "Billy" to "Bill" when I entered Lenape Jr. High School.

4. Go to http://kabalarians.com/ and take the "First Name Analysis" test. Do you agree with what the site comes up with?
Nope.
5. Other than Johnny Carson, which former talk show host's tape archives would you most like to visit, and why?
Dick Cavett - he was the most intelligent and erudite of anyone to try a late night talk show and his guests reflected his eclectic tastes. When he was on, I'd watch him over JC any day.
6. READER'S CHOICE QUESTION #44 from Jessie: If you were in good health, would you donate a kidney to a friend who's dying regardless of what your family's opinion are and if yes or no, why or why not?

I have wrestled with this one a long time, Jessie, as it appeared my middle brother would need a kidney transplant. I'd finally reconciled myself to the notion that I would donate a kidney when he up and died suddenly in his sleep. So who knows? Another missed opportunity for growth... Bottom line, though, I would donate a kidney under the circumstances you describe. It is the gift of life and I have damn little to show for my occupation of space on the mortal coil. My karma needs the boost or I'll be back as an amoebae, for sure.

Be sure to leave a link over at Patrick's Place to your answers so he can see what kind of havoc he raised this week. (It's always good to know which demon you have to kill, after all.)

Unconcious Mutterings -- Week 104

Sunday, January 30, 2005

I say ... and you think ... ?

Don’t feel like retyping the words? Just copy and paste the following into your blog:

1. Coroner:: Medical Examiner; incompetent
2. Mystify:: Magic
3. Corroborate:: Co-author
4. Misinterpret:: Oops
5. Humorless:: coworkers
6. Calculus:: mathematics
7. Eye for an eye:: revenge
8. CPR:: dead
9. Stitched:: up
10. Facility:: Emergency Room

Please leave a comment here and over at the home of Unconcious Mutterings, LunaNiña.com. In honor of the beginning of the third year of U.M. Patricia is offering a $14 Amazon Gift Certificate, so be sure to leave a link to your entry at the mothership.

Weekend Assignment #45: Karaoke Time

John Scalzi puts you to the test once more, so limber up your windpipes, boys and girls, because this week's Weekend Assignment is getting musical:

Weekend Assignment #45: It's karaoke time. Pick a song to sing and explain why you chose it. Note that not everyone sings the song you expect them to sing: I remember being at a karaoke bar one time and watching a six-foot bald guy with a gravely voice and a tattoo on his neck sing Olivia Newton John's "Have You Never Been Mellow?" And it was brilliant. So by all means, reach for the stars here. This isn't American Idol.

Extra Credit: Recall the worst karaoke performance you ever heard (or, if you're brave, ever performed). You can change the names to protect the guilty if you like.

Dear John,

I've never been one for singing in public. I just haven't got the voice for it. Sadly, I have perfect pitch (hearing) but can't carry a tune or stay on key -- listening to myself sing is sheer agony these days.

Oddly enough, it wasn't always this way. Back when I was entering puberty it was the height of the folk music revival and I was a "Gut Bucket Bass" player in a jug band -- sort of a bluegrass band on moonshine. We sang covers of many of the traditional songs of the day. "Weary Traveler," "Where have all the flowers gone," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Other side of the mountain," "Mariah" -- they've all tumbled from my lips at one time or another, on stage, in front of live audiences. Such naiveté!

Flash forward about 30 years. No longer singing in public, I find myself at an AOL members party at a Karaoke bar. It'd been at least 7 years since I stopped drinking, so I can't blame the Devil and Jack Daniels. My turn came up and I regaled the crowd with "Mariah" ... flat. Off-key. Absolutely, excruciating for all listeners. I was booed from the stage in disgrace, it was so bad.

I've never been to another AOL party nor taken a turn at the microphone of a karaoke machine. Never again. Although, there's this tune by the Holy Modal Rounders named "Spring of '65" I might be tempted to try if I ever take up booze again...

Take good care of Kristin and Athena and behave yourself.  I'm loving "Old Man's War" and recommend it often to acquaintances. Here's hoping that produces a few sales, or forces the library to pick up a copy.

See you later, 'gator.

wil

Cold Toesies and other matters...

I recently had an email from a long-time personal friend in Vermont, relating how her eldest son, nearly an adult, had developed significant frostbite in all 10 toes as aresult of being a teenager, ie. wearing sneakers outdoors to wait for the school bus in the dead of winter.  In so much as this morning's temperature when I drove my sneaker-clad wife to work was -19ºF, I just had to twist my friend's tailfeathers. And what do you know, I don't need to make up a blog entry today. Enjoy...

Sorry to hear "it" has developed frostbite.  My sincere sympathies to him as the pain will be excruciating. And sympathies to you, too.  We've all known you were a horrible mother, more interested in herself than her children! How else can one explain allowing your first-born to stand for hours by the roadside, chatting up the other kids while wearing just a cotton t-shirt and jean jacket, jeans and, yes, sneakers, while all the other kids hang warm and dry in their Northface parkas, Mountain Pants and Sherpa boots? Shameful!! I can hear the biddies up at the store now...
 
Just kidding. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt AND bought the farm. No need to protest that I have it all wrong, I know you aren't to blame... it's your EX-HUSBAND's FAULT! Yep, that's the ticket. He's to blame and you oughta make him pay! LMAO... as if.
 
My wife recovered enough from her knee surgery to return to work on Wednesday. She is in a tremendous amount of pain with it, more than before the operation, but the orthopod says nothing much else can be done at this point save some pretty lethal injections, which she will try to get approval for from the Workman's Comp insurance company. Sadly, they may argue it is all because of a deteriorating joint from Osteoarthritis and refuse further coverage. We will see. Meanwhile, my brother starts a round of chemo next week to try to bring his bladder cancer into remission. Rather than describing it myself, here he is, in his own words:
 
Hi there,
 
I figured you'd want to know that I'm starting a 6 week course of immunotherapy: BCG or Bacillus of Calmette and Guerin, is an attenuated, live culture preparation of Mycobacterium bovis. It is approved for intravesical or percutaneous use. It is commonly used for bladder cancer patients and has the best results of all the intravesical chemotherapeutics. The freeze-dried BCG prep is delivered to the bladder by instillation through a foley catheter.
 
Translation: they fill up the bladder with a live Tuberculosis culture and have you lie on stomach, back, and sides app. 15 min each and then hold it for another hour.  Consider yourself a biohazard for 6+ hours afterwards.  After urinating, pour an equal amount of undiluted bleach in toilet and let it sit for 30 minutes, as well as disinfecting self.  The process is done in the doctor's office 1 a week for 6 weeks.
 
Side effects, in order of decreasing frequency: dysuria(burning with urination), urinary frequency, hematuria (blood in urine), cystitis(bladder infection), urgency, nocturia, cramps/pain, urinary incontinence, urinary debris, genital inflammation, UTI, urethritis, and several other all less than 1% of patients.  Other systemic symptoms include; flu-like symptoms, fever, malaise/fatigue, shaking chills and nausea vomiting.

Oh, what fun!

 That's all the news. I'm hanging in there, but I have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, I can see Hell from here and it is populated by a bunch of folks I just as soon not spend eternity with, or a weekend in Philadelphia, for that matter. Keep the greasy side down and watch your step - them banana peels is everywhere!
 
wil

Caged Saddam To Be Highlight Of Inaugural Ball

According to the News In Briefs in today's The Onion:

WASHINGTON, DC—Attendees at the Independence Ball, one of nine officially sanctioned galas celebrating President George W. Bush's second inauguration Thursday, will be treated to a viewing of a caged Saddam Hussein, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said Monday. "What better way to honor the president than with a physical symbol of his many first-term triumphs?" McClellan said as Hussein rattled the bars of a cage already suspended above the ballroom where the event will be held. "And I must compliment the planning committee. Outfitting Gitmo detainees with iron collars and forcing them to serve appetizers was an inspired stroke." Ball attendees will also be awarded door prizes, including a basket of nuts, 20 yards of cloth, and a barrel of crude oil.

Monday Madness - Favorites

Somehow, the constant snow, PT appointments and other domestic concerns put me in the position of letting the Monday Madness slip right by me. Oh well, just another sign of getting older, I guess.

It's now so cold that Willow the Wunderhund stops at the door and gives me this "Aw shucks, do we have to go out?" scowl before mincing onto the subzero porch, hopping off the steps and plopping her fanny in the snow - no wasting 10 minutes searching out her caches of cat poop and other "goodies." It's down to business and back in to lie beside the kerosene stove. She's definitely a heat-seeking missle when indoors.

Otto has chosen a trip to the land of our favorites this week. You can get your own copy of this week's questions at the Monday Madness web site. Here's my faves, what are yours?

Name your favorite...

1. Family Game - Monopoly
2. Piece of Jewelry - Wedding Band (also the only jewelry I wear)
3. Winter Activity - Couch Potatoing, Plowing Snow
4. Hot Beverage - Coffee
5. Quote - I may not always be Right, but I'm never wrong.
6. Color on You - Navy Blue
7. Summer Activity - Sea Kayaking
8. Topping on Pancakes - Maple Syrup, preferably Vermont or Quebec in origin.
9. Musician - Yo Yo Ma
10. Author - Robert J. Heinlein


Have a great week. Look out for the crazies - they seem to all be out driving lately.

Unconcious Mutterings #102

Week 102

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Yoda:: Star Wars
   
2. Mensa:: Mentat
   
3. Pink:: Polka Dots
   
4. Text message:: Western Union
   
5. Galactic:: Milky Way
   
6. Chicks:: Bobby Sox
   
7. Quesadilla:: y Chorizo
   
8. Backpack:: hike
   
9. Socked:: in
   
10. Compromise:: defeat

Get your own list of words by stopping by La LunaNina's place.

Weekend Assignment #43

Weekend Assignment #43: Congratulations, you've become your own soverign state! Design a flag for the United States of You, using no more than three colors and one symbol (the symbol can be of any color). Explain your design choices. Don't worry about actually making the flag -- you can just tell us about it.

Extra credit: make a picture of the flag. Because, let's face it, that's time-intensive.


Dear John,

Long time, no write. Writer's Block on a colossal scale - not worth discussing. Back now, worse for wear but once again able to assume my place in harness to this madness we call life.

A big Hello! to Kris and Athena. I do hope they've kept you in line. I'll let you in on a little known fact - when depressed I not only can't write, I can't read, either. Imagine, I received a copy of Old Man's War for the holidays and only cracked it open yesterday!

Anyway, the flag of the US of Me would be equilateral vertical bars of Blue, Green and Red. The significance of the colors reflects the blue of the waters that sustain life, the verdant green of the hills and dales, and the red of the blood shed to sustain this land. An image of a Bald Eagle, arrows grasped in one talon, a spear in the other, faces outward as fair warning to all while an olive branch is held in its beak. Below is the logo "Don't Tread On Me."

Of course, I did toy with the idea of one porcupine mounting another with the logo "Proceed With Caution"...

Keep the greasy side down and look both ways before crossing the road.

Best Regards,

wil

I'll be seeing you, in all the familiar places...

Plow truck hits, kills Glenburn man in road
Friday, January 14, 2005 - Bangor Daily News

You'd think that after seventy years it would have sunk in..."look both ways before crossing the road." I'm sure his mother drilled it into him as a child. I'm sure he drilled the same lesson into his children and grandchildren.

Yet, yesterday a neighbor of mine, fixated on doing a good deed for the widow woman whose dooryard he'd just finished plowing out, crossed the road to a mailbox, gathered the mail, turned and stepped into the path of a 3/4 ton pickup truck with a snowplow mounted. The truck was doing less than the posted speed limit owing to poor road conditions. And Frank Leighton, 70, father and grandfather, became the new hood ornament for a GMC circa 6:30 Thursday morning. It's a hell of an ignominious end to an exemplary life. You'll be missed.

Saturday Six - Episode 40

It's that time again... after two months of an all-consuming purple funk, like a bad check, I'm back... not any better for the hiatus, but ready to shoulder the burden again and continue trudging towards the elusive goal. Without further ado, here's this week's Saturday Six. Blame the questions on Patrick - the sicko answers are my own.

1. You achieve a high level of fame in your chosen career. Calls begin coming in for interviews...if you could only appear on one of the following shows, which would you select?
A) Today
B) Live! with Regis and Kelly
C) The Daily Show
D) Oprah
E) David Letterman
F) Jay Leno
G) Jerry Springer

Not much in the way of choice up there, Patrick. Make mine "A" - it is the most well respected of those listed.

2. You have the opportunity to briefly become another person in another body, then spend 48 hours alone with the real you. Would you do it?

Sure, although I imagine it'd be pretty boring.

3. You have the opportunity to briefly become another person in another body and live a normal life for 48 hours. Would you dare to spend two days as a member of the opposite gender?

Oh yeah, I've always wanted to know what it feels like to have multiple orgasms...

4. Compared to previous years, did you spend more or less money on Christmas gifts? How soon do you think you'll have all of the bills for Christmas paid off?

Already all paid as we spent cash or used debit cards, it was about the same as last year.

5. What is the first toy you remember playing with?

Wooden Blocks. Colored cubes with numbers and letters on the sides.

6. Have you ever downloaded a song or theme song for your cell phone? If so, which one amuses you most? If you haven't, but had to pick one, what would it be?

Nope, our cell doesn't accept downloads. I suppose something stupid would end up being the ring tones ... like "Who let the dogs out?"

Get your own copy of the questions by going to Patrick's Place each Saturday. And don't forget to post a link to your answers in his comments section.

Apology & Status Report

Hello all. I have been ensnared in a deep depression for the better part of a month, combined with nursing my wife, who is recouping from knee surgery. The NaNoWriMo project is stuck at Chapter 5 for the moment. It is now just a BlogNovel, having missed the deadline for completion and completeness by a wide margin. And so it goes.

Depression is an insidious disease. I experience several different kinds of depression. I have a cyclical depression which runs in a seven year cycle, as well as hints of bipolar proclivities which fortunately don't usually run to intolerable extremes. I also have been clawing past the post-surgical depression suffered by most open-heart surgery survivors for the last three years (while the less fortunate ones who fail to survive may suffer depression, I can't prove it, you know) ... then there's seasonal affective disorder. AKA S.A.D. (an acronym I loathe) which occurs every year about this time to me and will be with me until May or June. Add the stress of writing a novel and some other personal crap and voila! -- we have lift off.

So, I sincerely apologize to you for my silence. It is how I cope. I can say the worst has probably passed by and I will begin posting in a more frequent manner, although no where near as often as before. Things just aren't that interesting right now.

Get out there and finish up your holiday preparations. Spend the time with your family, loved ones, coworkers and cohorts. It's all good -- even the nightmare family holiday meals have their own charm if you're half in the bag. Happy Chanukah, a joyous Kwanzaa, a marvelous winter solstice, my Wiccan sisters, and Merry Christmas to the Christians. May the season bring you joy and peace. Forget not the young men and women in Afghanistan, Iraq, Korea, Kosovo and wherever else they have been posted by the megalomaniacal hawks of this and the previous administrations. For many, it is their first time away from home. It is very cold and lonely where most of them are serving this year -- they deserve your warmest thoughts and prayers, even if, like me, you believe they have been sent on a fool's errand.

Tuesday Tickler - Political Correctness

Two doctors opened an office in a small town, and put up a sign reading: "Dr. Smith and Dr. Jones, Psychiatry and Proctology."

The town council was not too happy with the sign, so the doctors changed it to: "Hysterias and Posteriors." This was not acceptable either, so in an effort to satisfy the council, they changed the sign to: "Schizoids and Hemorrhoids." No go.

Next they tried: "Catatonics and High Colonics". Thumbs down again. Then came: "Manic Depressives and Anal Retentives". Still not good. How about: "Minds and Behinds"? Unacceptable again. So they tried: "Lost Souls and Ass Holes." Still no go. Nor did "Analysis and Anal Cysts", "Nuts and Butts," "Freaks and Cheeks" or "Loons and Moons" work either.

Almost at their wit's end, the doctors finally came up with a business slogan they thought might be acceptable to the council: "Dr. Smith and Dr. Jones, Odds and Ends".

Approved.

Monday Madness - A day late, a dollar short

Otto's suffering a case of post-election blues. So, "This week we'll choose one or the other of the following... my answers are in red.

1. bar soap or shower gel
2. cd's or cassettes
3. television movies or documentaries
4. wall calendar or desk calendar
5. dsl, cable, or dial-up
6. summer or winter
7. city or country
8. camping or stay in a hotel
9. gold or silver
10. fiction or non-fiction books
11. mashed potatoes or baked potatoes
12. ranch, italian, or catalina dressing
13. solid or spray deodorant

Be sure to get your questions and post a link to your answers in the comments to Monday Madness

The Sunday Brunch - Sweet Thang

Each week, Erica plys us with various illicit drugs and sexual favours, all to the point of eliciting responses to her weekly meme, The Sunday Brunch. This week's a particularly sweet one. Sign up and get your own questions mailed to you each week. Or, you can wait until Monday mornings and retireve them from the Atlas Jelly Jar on Funk & Wagnall's porch where they have marinated for 24 hours in morning dew and tobacco juice. Your choice.

"A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men."
- Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

1) What is your favorite flavor of M&Ms? Red.
2) Is there a special edition of candy that you wish they would make a permanent item on the shelves? They finally did - Almond Kisses
3) What is your favorite flavor of Hershey’s Kisses? Almond
4) What is your favorite candy bar? Mars
5) Do you prefer milk chocolate, dark chocolate or white chocolate? Milk Chocolate, baby. Smooth...

Have a great week and thanks for playing!

Unconcious Mutterings - Week 93

I say ... and you think ... ?

Childhood:: trauma
Ransom:: demands
Melissa:: Etheridge
Trust me:: A Likely Story ... NOT!
Report:: card
Give up:: Surrender
Nightgown:: Pajamas
Smokes:: Marlboros
Cookies & cream:: ice cream
Gameshow:: Limbo

Want to get your own words? Sign up at Lunaniña.com. Also, post a link to your answers in the comments there. Have a good week -- don't take any wooden nickels - just get change for a couple of dimes.

Saturday Six - Episode 31

Each week, that demented troll of a television producer, Pattboy92, burdened with overwhelming stress and responsibility, lets fly with the flattus we call "The Saturday Six."

If you'd like to join the fun, it's quite simple: to play you can either answer the questions in a comment at Patrick's Place, or put the answers in an entry on your journal...but either way, leave a link at Patrick's Place to your journal so that everyone else can visit! (And if you're playing for the first time, please be sure to say so in the comment -- tell him "Wil sent you!"!) Enjoy!

1. Who is the last house guest you invited into your home and was it a pleasant visit?
A young couple returning to Maine from the West Coast - the wife is a friend of SWMBO. Their children (both under 2) are hellions and we are not set up to host children. I'd say we were all glad when they got their own place.
2. Other than to work or school, where was the last place you drove?
To vote.
3. In terms of emergency supplies, how many of the following do you have in your home? A) Candles B) Fresh batteries C) Containers of bottled water
All of the above, as well as food, kerosene for lamps and heat, gasoline for vehicles. I've been "iced in" for 10 days here before.
4. You're invited to a pot-luck dinner: what specialty do you offer to bring? (It has to be something you can cook yourself, not something you bring from a store!)
A Wheat Pilaf dish, dessert actually, that I learned to cook from a bedouin woman. I have since substituted raisins for dates and maple syrup for blackstrap to make it my own dish.
5. Which of the following do you feel is the most true based on your own life experiences:
A) It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
B) The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
C) To have a friend, you must first be a friend.
D) Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
E) Never judge a book by its cover.
F) The tree of knowledge bears the noblest fruit.

Choice "B" is a winner in my lexicon of experience, although "A" and "E" are also somewhat true.

6. READER'S CHOICE QUESTION #31 from Cherie: We have all watched movies and TV shows that have inspired us to want to do what the characters in the show are doing, (doctors, lawyers, politicians, fire fighters, etc). Has there ever been program that you watched that made you realize that the occupation of the characters was something you could NEVER become?

"Never say never" is a pithy nugget of wisdom. Fred Sanford turned me off to being a junk man, though.


Have a great weekend, folks. I'm going on a "Postal Turkey Shoot" with my friend Alphonse "Little Ricky" Genoviese. That's where we go down to the Post Office and shoot any turkey who refuses to get out of Little Ricky's way. Having friends in the Mafia is a trip, let me tell you...

THE TEST

Took THE TEST. Got the results. Fits me to a "T" -- wanna make something outta it?

I AM 83% ASSHOLE/BITCH!

I am one of those people that love to hear the sound of their voice. That and my lousy attitude make for a mixture as toxic as next-day-mexican-dinner-ass-drip.
Take the ASSHOLE/BITCH test at Fuali.com

Thanks to sanantoniotexas at You Think You Know, But You Have No Idea.. and st0rmwhispers at Storms Whisper and Oceans Scream for the original linkage.

Weekend Assignment 33 - Sing, Song, Sunk

Each week, AOL's "Blogfather", John M Scalzi, celebrated author of the "Book of the Dumb" (Volumes 1 & 2), "Old Man's War" and several others, leaves the AOL Journal community a meme for the weekend on the front doorstep.

Wait, it's the cat who leaves a mole on the front doorstep.

John leaves a meme for your consideration and entertainment on his AOL Journal each week about this time. This week, it's about music. Sort of. Leave a link to your answer in the comments over at By The Way.

Weekend Assignment #33: You can have any person, past or present, sing any song for you that you want. What is the song, and who is singing it for you?

Extra credit: Name a singer you wish you could sing like, but can't. So that means even those of you with excellent voices have to pick someone you can't sing like.


Dear John,

Hope this finds you all in good health, or at least better and recuperating. And I hope you are having much more success finishing that Rough Guide than I have been having with my NaNoWriMo, tentatively titled Four Horsemen. Enough of writing and health issues. Let's get down to the really important stuff: wine, women and song. I'll bring the booze and the music (your taste in music is highly suspect) and you bring the women. Fair enough?

So, assuming enough cups of grog and attention from the gals, we are confronted with choosing a song and a singer to perform it. This is going to be tough. But given my druthers (and those were the terms specified), I would have to choose my former college roommate as the singer, Peter Havas. As a young man in France, he recorded a couple of singles and an album that was well received there, but did nothing here. Sadly, the US had moved to bubble gum and schlock rock in the mid-60's; there was no future here for a balladeer, raconteur and folk singer. I lost touch with Peter shortly after we split as roomies. I have heard that he has retired to France after running a successful Jaguar dealership in Southern Maine for many years. He has married a luscious French Attorney and he is attempting, with some success, to make a retirement living as a writer of children's stories. Peter had a clarion tone to his voice, excellent phrasing and a wicked good sense of humor he allowed to spill over into his performing. His rendition of Gordon Lightfoot's "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" and later, "The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald" won high praise from Gordon himself. I so wish I had a tape from those days. So my choice, for very personal and nostalgic reasons, would be to listen to Peter Havas performing the "Canadian Railroad Trilogy." It brings tears to my eyes, just to remember it now, some 32 years later.

Now, understand that I once upon a time had an acceptable singing voice. Too many years of cigarettes, whiskey and bad choices, coupled with the damage done by surgeries and extended intubations, have rendered me little more than a humming accompanist. That is, if I can find and hold the key, stay on tune and remember the harmony or counterpoint to the song in question. So I admire singers and hold good ones in high esteem. If I could have anyone's voice, though, it would have to be Placido Domingo's. Imagine being able to do "Danny Boy" at the pub on sing-along night with that voice ... I'd have them crying in their bitters, I would.

So much for fantasies of singing and music. Time to get back to the grindstone, sharpen my mind and put some more words down. Snow is due tomorrow, so time to hunker down and get serious. Here's hoping your week goes well. Kisses all around for the gals and a hearty slap on the back for you, too, me boyo.

Grins and giggles,

Wil