Obesity has become a real problem in this country; we all know that. I’ve heard a lot of theories about why that is. Some of them make sense, but I have my own theory that I haven’t heard voiced elsewhere. I believe people began getting fatter in direct proportion to the length of commercial breaks on television. Think about it! We all have to do something to fill the one-third of airtime that is now devoted to advertisements. Makes sense to me.
I didn’t say anything about the passing of Robin Williams yesterday, because it was news to me when I was updating this page. I just didn’t know much. Plus, I knew there’d be a lot said by others, and I was right. There was a third reason, maybe. I didn’t want to make any comment that might be construed as negative at such a time. That comment would have been: I have always thought Robin Williams was best as a dramatic actor. Of course, that isn’t a negative thing to say, but with so many emphasizing his original and frenetic approach to comedy, I just didn’t see going into it. Also, let us remember Betty Bacall, who left us yesterday.
334 responses to “Back after This…”
I wore a LOT of spaghetti straps as a teenager, it was the age of Sandra Dee. I am racking brain as to what I wore for a bra? I guess we wore strapless bras, as no one went braless in the 50’s and early 60’s. Think Kennedy period for younger readers.
Ghost, I will see your Faulkner with Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes in the old Spanish, Castilian, in advanced Spanish literature and now I cannot ask for an iron in a foreign country to get the wrinkles out of my pants!
I did have a lab assistant working for me in college who spoke a version of old Spanish which mystified me and my prof. Boy said he learned it from his grandmother? When I did genealogy on my husband’s family I got answer 40 years later. The Spanish-Portuguese Islenos who kept speaking an archaic language when they came to Louisiana and hid in swamps. Hundreds of years later from when they left Spain originally.
So, Ghost, is the English and lit why you have fantastic and correct vocab and word usage? Which I admire.
Love, Jackie
I like Don Quixote in translation. I have never tried to read it in Spanish. In college we did read “100 Years of Solitude” in the original Spanish
One person’s tacky is another person’s sexy. 🙂 Good morning, Lily.
And yes, Jackie, since the “snakes” episode, Arlo will probably just be admiring the outside of Janis’s tops, rather trying to peek into them. For a while.
My vocabulary mostly comes from being a voracious reader all of my life. (Well, all of it so far.) I have found that writing improves my mental processes and organization. As my favorite English professor was wont to tell us, “Confused writing is a reflection of confused thinking.” (English study was sort of an unplanned minor, just because I enjoyed the classes.)
And yes, strapless bras were worn with spaghetti-strap tops back in the day, as I recall. Although I can recall some that had built-in bras. Don’t ask how I discovered that fact. 😉 And I’ve always found a shapely pair of shoulders to be just as sexy as a shapely pair of breasts. Well, almost.
Debbe 😉
The thing I remember vaguely about all my advanced Spanish classes was having to do all the discussion and tests in
Spanish as well, which was really challenging, it required being able to think in Spanish.
As Mike says, Mount Mulch in the back yard was a tribute to my inability to say even a basic answer in Spanish. The tree cutters for the power line company spoke only Spanish (or so they professed) and I asked them for a load of chopped mulch. I came back from a long trip to find a pile as high as our two story shop where they had dumped every tree they cut!
I do not say I am fluent in any language, not even English!
Love, Jackie
Ghost: I think an awful lot of things are tacky, from spaghetti straps to tube tops to low-cut jeans. But, then, I am an old prude, as I am often told. Short skirts are fine and let me show off my best features, but those horrible short shorts are cut so that the first thing anybody looks at isn’t the woman’s legs, but their crotch. I do it to, just in horror. Do they really think that looks good? I am quite sure they do. My friends don’t wear them, with one exception, but we all think she doesn’t have any taste, in clothes or men.
And on a brighter note, nobody here seems to read one of my very favorite webcomix, Mr. Boffo. So, here’s a link: http://www.mrboffo.com/ I laughed out loud today so hard that people were looking strangely at me.
Debbe, I didn’t know of the group Rush, but I’m sure that I would like them. I get a sore throat from all of the yelling if I listen to any other Rush. Another person has been killed in or just outside of Ferguson. In spite of having worked in law enforcement I reserve judgment until all of the facts are known. I can only say that the shooting of an unarmed fleeing felon is justified in certain circumstances and we don’t know enough yet.
I have always teased my maternal grandma about her love of ugly artificial flowers. I have nothing against artificial flowers, I have probably just as many (or more) as my grandma ever did. She had a massive collection of those old, plastic nasty poinsettias, daisies, and such. My new place has one of those black lamp-posts with the posts on either side. I ACTUALLY entertained the thought of a pair of those horrid, hanging fake geranium baskets. I’ve never been a fan of geraniums, they are only pretty for approximately thirty seconds before they start looking awful. I have turned into my grandma.
And I have yet to move the first box. Wanted to vacuum before bringing anything in, which is really hard to do with no power. Power company finally showed up late in the afternoon, just before the thunderstorms. 🙁 Honestly, I’m not too disappointed, my left knee is killing me. Lugging boxes down all those stairs does not sound too appealing right now.
In April, 1968, shortly after Janis hit New York for the first time, she told writer Nat Hentoff: I never seemed to be able to control my feelings, to keep them down my mother would try to get me to be like everybody else And I never would. But before getting into this band, it tore my life apart. When you feel that much, you have superhorrible downs. I was always victim to myself. Now though, I ve made feeling work for me Maybe I won t last as long as other singers, but I think you can destroy your now by worrying about tomorrow. If I hold back, I m no good