The A&J series that is running in newspapers this week about syncing wireless technology is based on true events, as was the lizard episode a few weeks back. You are right: I’ve not been leading a very exciting life of late. As for the lizard sequence, one commenter somewhere kept coming back day after day to snort (if one can snort online) derisively something like, “What’s the big deal? It’s just a harmless lizard.” I didn’t say anything then, but I would like to say on my—I mean Arlo’s—behalf that when a skink, a rather large and aerodynamic lizard, is running loose in one’s underwear, it becomes a matter not of fear but of urgency. Anyway, ponder Felix the French space cat. There seems to be some debate about whether the first French space cat was Felix or Felicette. If you’re truly interested, it’s an easy search. Sadly, a second French space cat was sent in suborbital space flight similar to Felix, or Felicette, but did not survive the recovery. Apparently, its name is unrecorded.
Far Out Cat
By Jimmy Johnson
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299 responses to “Far Out Cat”
comma after years, before who
Hello Village! Gotta share… just nailed the final negotiations for my “second” career. Start work Monday (!!!). My self-doubts say “I hope I can handle it!”. My faith says “God put you in the position; He will see you through.” So………… say a little prayer for me – please?
Galliglo
Prayers and hugs
You CAN handle it.
Found an interesting poem thru Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. It starts like this:
There is a moment after you move your eye away
when you forget where you are
because you’ve been living, it seems,
somewhere else, in the silence of the night sky.
You can read the whole thing at: http://thefloatinglibrary.com/2009/07/30/telescope-louise-gluck/
Yay, Gal! Nice to be able to offer hugs and prayers for a good reason for a change.
The best looking legs I’ve seen lately are attached to the young lady at my gym who is working on her exercise physiology degree. I can only imagine what they would look like if she were wearing four-inch heels. Which she probably never would, as she would know from her studies they aren’t particularly good for a woman’s feet and legs. Dang it.
Bear: “Take Five” is a classic, of course. And yes, I do listen to many other genres of music besides the Golden Oldies Debbe and I kick back and forth.
How much more do we have to hear about Tom Brady’s balls? If I were him, I’d just take the game suspensions and spend those Sundays in bed with is wife. Or even do that for him. 😉
OF due NOW-1652 CDT. emg
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html
Back when I was in Uncle Sam’s Navy, Old Bear, I liked to go into night clubs where there was dancing and ask the band to play Take Five. Watching the dancers try to get in sync with its 5/4 beat was worth whatever tip it cost.
Good on you, Gal!!!!
Sideburns: good one – sorry you couldn’t have gotten video!
OF due NOW-18:17 CDT, with a big crowd.
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html
And that one lasted over 4 mins, start to finish… We guys should take note.
Ruth Anne, your memory obviously rivals mine. This is Jimmy’s 10-31-2005 entry on the old A&J site…
“All along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, things are “gone.” As in, “What happened to Chappy’s Restaurant in Long Beach?” The answer, “Oh, it’s gone.”
“‘Gone’ is a crisp, appropriate word that everyone around here has used a lot lately, but it is somewhat imprecise. It conveys finality but little detail.
“Talking over the weekend, my friend John “Kiwi” McKellar and I decided degrees of goneness are needed. We settled on three:
“First-Degree Gone — Nothing remains but a clean slab or lot.
“Second-Degree Gone — Rubble remains but no distinguishable structure.
“Third-Degree Gone — A discernible but irreparable structure remains.*
“Lest you think we were just having fun at the expense of others less fortunate, John’s own home is third-degree gone. And by the way, Chappy’s Restaurant** is first-degree gone, as is almost everything fronting Mississippi Sound for 40 miles or so.”
*Not that it’s needed, but I can attest to the accuracy of their categorization.
**Chappy’s, along with Vrazel’s at Gulfport, were favorite places to wine and dine clients when I was on the Mississippi Gulf Coast on business. I may have taken a lady friend or two there, also.
We (well, mostly I) seem to be turning this into “Katrina Week(ish)”. I hope y’all don’t mind. It was a rather significant event, in my life and many, many others.
I will always remember Robin from GMA standing on an empty beach saying, “this is where my favorite Mexican restaurant USED to be.” It was ours too.
I’d reverse the degrees of “gone” to align with medical designations, such as sunburns.
Thanks, Ghost! A good memory is a useful thing for a librarian – it helps you know where to start looking for an answer.
The old A&J site was one of the places I went the day Katrina hit. I was at work but we were all following the news. Of course I was concerned about Jimmy but I also remembered that he had posted some interesting links during a previous storm.
Thanks to him, I found a link to the Biloxi newspaper. One of the articles referred to damage at Lyman Elementary in Gulfport. I was at Lyman High in Longwood, Florida. When I mentioned what I had found to a couple of teachers and a PTA mom who happened by, their immediate response was “Oh, we have to do something!”
And we did do a variety of projects over the next year for “little Lyman”, including collecting socks and toys and sending dozens of cookies baked by our food prep class. An interesting twist – a girl who had arrived at our school after the project began and didn’t know what it was about was helping to pack some boxes of goodies; when we told her where they were going, she told us that she had started kindergarten there.
It was a Cuco’s restaurant. I wonder if anyone ever found their popcorn machine. I also wonder about the slots from Casino Magic, etc. Are they buried out there in the sand somewhere?
Blessings on you, Gal! Show ’em how it’s supposed to be done….
Only one good thing – that I know of – resulted from Katrina: In JJ’s charity auction, I got to buy the famed “sunsets” original as well as the “bathtub” one. ‘Twas two birds with one stone, so to speak: I got some enjoyable art and those in need received some shekels.
Being from Louisiana and New Orleans for a lot of years, hurricanes and tornadoes took away a lot. Including lives, not just property. Lives were lost by volunteers and people trying to help others, not just people who stayed for a “hurricane party.” Katrina was no different, just larger scale but I remember Camille, the original Gulf Coast hurricane of my generation that devastated the coast for so long until the casinos came in and stimulated the economy.
Am back from first toe operation and deadening meds are wearing off. After he found out I was around for more than a week or so he decided to do only one toe, wait two weeks and make sure this one heals and doesn’t fall off, then do the other one. He says there are only two orthopedic surgeons he refers to in Tulsa and my female Air Force reservist is the primary one. He highly recommended her, which is good as I have been going for quite some time and I think so too! So, after toes, knees are next.
On a totally differing note, our noble leader Jimmy is recommending an educational Cuba visit over on Facebook which sounds interesting and something I wanted to do anyway, what with not having been there since I was 14 years old. Anyone else notice besides me? I remember the visit A and J made to Cuba in the strip some years ago.
Anyone want to go on an A and J Cuba Libre tour? Love, Jackie
Thank you, everyone for the best wishes and hugs!
Cxp: funny you should say that… While I was trying to make the decision, the thought occured to me, perhaps I am being given opportunity to make a difference. This position is with a mental health agency. Can I assure that the funds available be used in the most efficient manner? There IS a role for “bean counters”!
Dear Galliglo, I’m so happy for you! This will turn out very well, surely.
Dear Jackie, good that the surgery went well. Did you have someone to drive you there and back? I hope so. No, I didn’t see what Jimmy posted — there was so much spam and worthless stuff on Facebook this morning, I left and went to more interesting sites, like this one. But I will try again. Mindy from Indy has posted some cute pix of her cat. She hasn’t found a new job yet — I am just guessing.
Thank you for that, Ruth Anne. One the few (if not the only) good things I saw result from Katrina was the outpouring of concern, support and aid provided to the afflicted areas by residents of all other parts of the country.
Coincidentally, I am right now working on a letter of appreciation to send to the Superintendent of the Indiana State Police. A few days after Katrina blew through our town, when the power was still out in this entire area, I passed through a major intersection and saw three ISP troopers standing in the stifling heat and providing traffic control. That’s just one example of the many things I saw following Katrina that still fill me with gratitude.
In those days, at least for a while, we seemed to truly be one country, united. Even if some of y’all did talk kind of funny. 🙂
Agreed, Ghost, it did seem to unify us. I know Oklahoma responded with great concern, we have been the object of much help with our own tragedies. We seem to respond to others as well. Love, Jackie
Debbe 😉 American Graffiti Clue #5. Do you remember slow dances? I do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FygIKsnkCw