A Tale of “A Charmed Life”
In the mid 1950s, a jazz vocal quartet formed at San Francisco State College. They called themselves The Axidentals, gigged around the west coast, and recorded a couple of LPs. …
Baking Powder War
Very early on, my mother told me that she always adds a tiny pinch of sugar to her biscuit dough. She explained that the sugar helps mask baking powder’s bitterness, …
Tweedle-O-Twill
Gene Autry and Fred Rose penned “Tweedle-O-Twill.” Autry sang it in his “Home in Wyomin’” film (1942). A decade or so later, the amazing western/ranch/swing/cowboy string band The Whippoorwills played …
Smiles from Smiley
Suddenly I am a Smiley Burnette fan. My sister-in-law triggered this with her gift of a “50 Classic Musicals” set of DVDs. It’s twelve discs with fifty public domain movies: …
Pandora Plus Stopped My Music
For over a decade I enjoyed Pandora in its basic free mode. Unlike the old days of music over the air, I got to design my own stations. That was …
Pokka for the Pocket
There are two ways to describe Pokka Pens. They are either superior pens that happen to be pocketable or pocketable pens that are superior writing instruments. I intend never to …
Aim High
Pretty much every morning I play three tablet-based games: one round each of backgammon, cribbage, and a version of the classic Mille Bornes card game called Safe Trip or Not. …
The Rainbow and Our Park Gate
In Tucson Mountain Park this complete rainbow showed up one day in August 2019. This special view is looking east into the park from our Arizona back yard. …
Cartoons Don’t Count
Each week I snag a bunch of cartoons from the latest issue of the New Yorker and email them to friends and family. I have had some ethical concerns about …
The Peace Bridge Cocktail
The Peace Bridge was the first cocktail recipe I invented. I named it in honor of the bridge between Buffalo, NY and Fort Erie, Ontario. At the time, I lived …