Happy Valentine’s Day!

by Jimmy Johnson


How’s your Yiddish this Valentine’s Day? Actually, when I was an unremarkable boy growing up in a southeastern mill town, I had quite a little vocabulary of Yiddish—or German—words, although I didn’t know it. Klatch. Bagel. Kvetch. Schlemiel. This was, of course, because television production in those days originated almost exclusively in New York City, and those early productions owed much to Vaudeville and even used many of the actors and comedians from the Vaudeville circuit. They made the outside world seem like such an interesting place! Then, it all moved to Los Angeles, and it didn’t seem that way anymore.
I know I have been scarce of late, but I’m recovering from the dreaded “flu-like illness” which has plagued me for what seems like an eternity. Updating a Web site doesn’t exactly tax one’s physical limits, I know, but an instinct for self preservation seems to kick in that prioritizes sitting in front of the television and having someone deliver a steady flow of soothing warm beverages. It’s working! I am recovering, thank you.
Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"

116 responses to “Happy Valentine’s Day!”

  1. Laura from AR Avatar
    Laura from AR

    I went to music club this evening and listened to some very lovely music. The music teacher was a professor emeritus from Arkansas State. His students were youngsters in junior high and high school. They are so talented for ones so young. It was really enjoyable.

  2. emb Avatar

    Trucker: That’s politics. Peace,

  3. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    You never know what’s coming your way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p30KYDjnWbI

  4. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    I was not here because I was at work – some of us do.

    Jackie and others – if rehab is not near bring rehab home.
    With MIL we did exercises with elastic straps, soft weights, and a dowel.
    We also had a little platform to step up and down.
    The idea is to keep stretching. The therapist came once a week to record progress.

  5. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    Trucker:
    Like emb said “politics”.
    I am confused by the article – as I read it a retailer is miffed because Utah
    is objecting to the fact that the federal government is stealing Utah’s land?

  6. TruckerRon Avatar

    Old Bear:

    Some people seem to believe that Utahns can’t reliably manage public lands. Supposedly we’re wanting to sell everything off to greedy corporations and ruin the “pristine” lands that all the non-Utahns want to visit and vacation in. They simply don’t trust conservative Mormons to “do the right thing” in spite of all evidence to the contrary.

    Example: Back in 2013 when the National Parks were closed during a budget battle, Utah stepped up to the plate and not only reopened and ran them, the state did a better job than the feds had been doing both financially and in terms of customer service. BTW, the feds still owe Utah around $1.5 million for that.

  7. TruckerRon Avatar

    So, the fact that Utah is trying to get the president to find a way to reverse Obama’s national monument designation (or at least to shrink it down from 1.35 million acres) offends the critics who see all federal land in the West as their personal playgrounds. To put things in perspective, Bears Ears is larger than Connecticut and Delaware combined.

  8. TruckerRon Avatar

    Also, it’s 6 times the size of Yellowstone National Park.

  9. TruckerRon Avatar

    Scratch that last one; it’s past my bedtime. It’s about 1.5 times the size of Yellowstone.

  10. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    Yah Washington knows best – just like Moscow 50 years ago.
    The Towns are giving in to the Counties – the Counties to the States and the
    States to the Feds.
    As someone that studied it years ago stated – “For every Dollar sent to the
    Town you get Ninety Cents of direct benefit, for every $ sent to the State
    you get 50 Cents d/b, for every $ sent to the Fed.Gov you get 10 Cents d/b.”

  11. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    GM Debbe
    .
    “I wish everything was as easy as getting fat.”

  12. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    Train action in Maine 02/11/17 & snow

    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wiscasset-Waterville-and-Farmington-Railway-Museum/147279126870

    Click on the picture of the Turn Table then on the right arrow.

  13. TruckerRon Avatar

    There’s a table that lists the states and the amount of each that’s owned by the Feds at:

    https://ballotpedia.org/Federal_land_ownership_by_state

    If you click on the headings (such as Percentage of federal land), you can change the sort order to show which states have the most or least.

  14. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
    curmudgeonly ex-professor

    Neighbor with the knee replacement did get home as promised. I emailed to ask and to hope she was, at least, semi-comfortable. Her reply was that “comfortable” is not in her current vocabulary….

  15. emb Avatar

    Current TIP BlogSpot is different from yesterday’s. TIP comic is the same as Thur.

    http://thatispriceless.blogspot.com/

    Looks like it’s ok to discuss politics here. NB: I haven’t; I just named it.

    But, presumably, being a citizen lucky enough to have been born here [albeit in an ‘Eastern state’], I’ve as much right as anyone to talk politics here. Fear not; no current plans to join the fray.

    Peace,

  16. TruckerRon Avatar

    JJ gave us a Friday post! Check out Chez Arlo.