Quote from Boston Blackie:

"It's a nice picture, but make sure it doesn't have any negative developments."

Cosby trivia question

What is the old radio show to which Bill Cosby frequently referred and to which he listened as a child? The Green Hornet, of course.

I noticed that recent Citgo ads emphasize the fact that their stations are "locally owned." Obviously they are trying to get folks to ignore the fact that they are under the control of the Venezuelan government and Mr. Chavez.

Honest company recorded messages - We Just Do Not Care

Wouldn’t you love to hear companies be honest and have this message on their phone system?

“Hello. Your call is important to us, but not important enough to us to hire enough people to answer the phones. So just talk to our machine, or punch buttons endlessly – either way we know you will be very frustrated, but we frankly do not care enough to change our system, because that would inconvenience us, and we definitely would rather that you be inconvenienced than us."

Sometimes when we have nothing (absolutely) to do, we all need to get together and watch the “Road to” movies in chronological order. Ought to be interesting, and brain-frying. Can anyone stand that much corn at one time?

Barry Fitzgerald - one of the great ones

Barry Fitzgerald has to be among the all-time great character actors. If you have never seen him in a movie, you need to. A little dried-up Irishman. His most famous movie, of course, was Going My Way, for which he won an Oscar. But he also did several other excellent rolls, among which were:

The Quiet Man
The Stork Club
Welcome Stranger
Top O' The Morning

Can you name all the Marx Brothers?

Churchill's speechmaking

Winston Churchill was NOT a great speechmaker. Search for examples on Youtube. In fact, he was awful. However, he wrote his own speeches, and he was an absolute master of the English language. It was what he said that made his speeches memorable, not how he said it.

How can you have an "enemy combatant" if you have never declared war?

Holding a chicken

Why is it that when you hold a chicken, and move its body back and forth slowly, its head will stay stationary?

My new graduated-lens eyeglasses are working me to death!

The big secret to winning ballgame is to get them to stop the games when you are ahead.

In the sentence, "I can now rest easy," is the verb "rest" transitive or intransitive?

I need to give some thought to which sinful impulses cause frustration. It is an all-too-familiar emotion in human nature. We need to overcome it.

Unimpressed by rich people

I am hugely unimpressed with the vast majority of rich, famous and powerful people for the simple fact that almost all rich, famous and powerful people grossly neglect and abuse the truly important things in life. Therefore, why should they impress me?

No instant replay in baseball

Requested post: "I would like to request a post concerning instant replay in the majors - specifically the call by same for an expanded use thereof because of the missed calls in a couple of the recent games."

Umpiring is such an integral part of the game that eliminating it would change the whole nature of the sport. Arguing calls. Calls in question. Baseball fans argue for years over them. In my opinion, much more would be taken from the game than would be added to it by instituting and instant replay in baseball. Questioning calls is about half the fun of the game.

Pappy's Proverbs:

You don't have to see the animal to know that you are dealing with a weasel; all you have to see are the tracks.

Portland Hoffa

Portland Hoffa, who was married to comedian Fred Allen, remarried after his death, and became a rare example of a woman who observed two silver wedding anniversaries.

Freedom has a price

Freedom has a price. The police can operate very efficiently if citizens are willing to give up their civil rights so that the security forces have a totally free hand. You can be relatively secure – but you will not be free. America has the same choice. Do we give up our civil rights to make it easier for the government to protect us against terrorism? Freedom – or security. I choose freedom.

Living below our means

Young people (and old people) need to learn to live BELOW their means. We certainly need to live within our means, but what if our means get reduced? What then? Even if we have a Cadillac income, we need to have a Chevrolet lifestyle. That way, if our income is reduced to a Chevrolet level, we are all right - and not stuck with all those build-in payments for Cadillacs that we now cannot afford and cannot easily get rid of.

Come on, gridlock!

Here's hoping for gridlock in Washington. If neither party can act, then neither party can hurt us, which has pretty much been the status quo in recent years.

Respect for those in authority

There is a proper decorum toward "the powers that be" that must be observed. The congressman who shouted out during President Obama's speech definitely was out of line. Are we to bring the business of the country to a screeching halt because our congress degenerates into a shouting match? Was that the conduct of Joseph and Daniel, even toward absolute heathen monarchs who were grossly further from what we would consider good government than Mr. Obama ever thought about being? Have Republican presidents never been guilty of not telling the truth in speeches to Congress, and would Republicans defend a Democrat who shouted out in that manner during a similar speech by a Republican President? It was a travesty, and I was embarrassed for the country.

One decade at a time

A decade is a pretty healthy chunk of a person's life today. Most of us will see less than ten of them. It was "just the other day," wasn't it, that we were worrying about Y2K? Oops, it was exactly ten years ago. That is almost 18% of my life.

Very nice article about Josh Jones, my son-in-law.

http://www.swtimes.com/articles/2009/08/31/news/news083109_01.txt

Have I mentioned how much I hate loud, obnoxious cell phone rings?

Jason Sacran at UAFS

I am pleased and proud to note that Jason Sacran, my son-in-law, has started his class as an Adjunct Instructor at UAFS.

Merv Griffin

I recommend the CD "Merv: It's Like A Dream," by Merv Griffin. His singing is past its prime, but there are some really nice arrangements, particularly of My Funny Valentine.

Fifty years ago this coming weekend (5th in August), Bro. John Isaacs and Bro. Logan Green were ordained as deacons at Reveille, along with Elder Garvin Green as elder.

One of the new UALR basketball players is from Brazil. His mother's name is Islandia. Unusual, and pretty, I thought. Don't know if the "s" is silent or not.

Rich Mountain Association. This was a wonderful meeting in every regard. The preaching was sound and edifying from start to finish. There were 45 visiting ministers, which is the most I have ever seen at an association. The weather was unusually mild for this time of year. Attendance was great; the large meeting house was completely full Friday night and Saturday morning. It will be remembered for a long time by all who were there.

In the Old School Hymnal, the hymn "Time, What An Empty Vapor 'Tis," is attributed to Abraham Lincoln, which appears to be inaccurate. Isaacs Watts is generally given credit for it, which would considerably outdate Lincoln. It is possible that the President had jotted the hymn down at some point and someone who saw it, but was not familiar with it, thought he had written it.

Almost everything worth preserving in life in these fast-changing days could be termed as "old-fashioned."

It is not improper to use a double negative. However, it is wrong to use a double negative when you are attempting to express a positive thought. I understand that in some other languages, multiple negatives serve to intensify the negative, but not in English. "He didn't do no wrong" means that he did do something wrong.

Does anyone read this (other than child #4)?

Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto #2 is to music what cheesecake is to food.

If at all possible, every man needs a "fall-back" skill, i.e., something that people will pay for that is distinct from his regular employment. When times get hard, as they are now, this is almost imperative.

The Rasmussen Matter

Perhaps the best-done of all the old radio shows that we have is The Rasmussen Matter on the Johnny Dollar program. It still makes my eyes get misty when I listen to it.

According to a young man who works for one of our suppliers who parents were Salvadoran by birth, half the citizenship of El Salvador lives in the United States.

Apology does not make it OK

You are a politician, and it is revealed that you have been committing adultery against your wife. So, you go on television, act contrite, apologize to everyone - and that is supposed to make everything all right? I'm sorry. Not to me.

St. Louis Cardinal moments

I was listening live when Lou Brock broke the single-season steals record, when Fernando Tatis his two grand slams in the same inning, and when Fernando Valenzuela pitched his no-hitter against the Cards. Lots of fun.

What is wrong with these expressions?

"Roger willco"
"Over and out"

What do The Runt, Jameison, Birmingham Brown and Goldie Locke have in common?

Our old movie collection

You kids realize that you will get to fight over all the old movies we have after we are dead and gone. That’s the good news. The bad news is that DVD’s will probably be obsolete by then so you won’t be able to play them anyway.

My costs vs. my earings

When I was in college at Westark, has was almost exactly 1/10 of the cost today. When I got my first job three years later, I was making more than 1/5 of what I am making today. In other words, the price of has has gone up more than twice as fast as my earnings.

Doing great things

When we are young, we often think in terms of accomplishing great things, and sometimes we are able to do just that. As we grow older, however, we frequently turn our attention just to accomplishing something; and if we can add up a number of “somethings” consistently, it will be significant.

I suspect that the underlying issue in the current health care crisis is that this earth is still under a curse. It is still by the sweat of our faces, and this is no Garden of Eden. We know how to heal much: but now we cannot afford to do it.

Trivia fact. While under contract to Warner Bros., George Raft turned down picture after picture as being "unimportant" and thus unworthy of his talents. Among his turned-down projects were such minor items as High Sierra and Casablanca.

Hmm. It turns out that everyone's new favorite Susan Boyle has a sewer mouth, just like the rest of the stars.

Fibber McGee and Molly

Fibber and Molly.
(One of the posters on the UALR board is a relative of Jim and Marian Jordan (Fibber and Molly McGee of radio fame). Here are some comments he sent to me about them.)

My mom tells me how they were just normal people. I haven't heard any old replays in about 30 years. Mom and I are going to sit down and listen to some tapes that she bought online.

I am glad that people still enjoy their shows. When Marian/Molly died our family didn't feel included and it was like they didn't have closure. Not to sound conspiracy but Grandma always said Jim acted suspicious. Not that he did anything wrong but they had a quick service and buried her out in California and "that was that" and never heard from him again.

There is a vast difference between showing respect and having respect. We are required to show respect to many people, but they will not have our respect unless they earn it.

Old cars in old movies

It is far from the only reason, but one thing I really enjoy about watching old movies is getting to see the old cars. Especially in the old detective movies.

Great quote from "Shenandoah," starring Jimmy Stewart:

Charlie Anderson: Do you like her?

Lt. Sam: Well, I just said I...

Charlie Anderson: No, no. You just said you loved her. There's some difference between lovin' and likin'. When I married Jennie's mother, I-I didn't love her - I liked her... I liked her a lot. I liked Martha for at least three years after we were married and then one day it just dawned on me I loved her. I still do... still do. You see, Sam, when you love a woman without likin' her, the night can be long and cold, and contempt comes up with the sun.

Who, in literature, was Dr. Grimesby Roylott?

What we do always affects more people than just ourselves, and we must always take that into consideration in our decisions.

I would like to see a lot less communicating via Facebook and a lot more communicating with God.

If you want to take a chance on a stock, you might try Ford right now. It appears that Chrysler will not survive, and that GM will be forced into bankruptcy and, if it does survive, will be vastly different than it is now. That would leave Ford as the only domestic automaker. It would be a risky purchase, but who knows?

We love our vowels

We of the South cherish our vowels. Those north of the Mason-Dixon are rude to vowels and give them short shrift.

If you get a chance to get recordings by Artur Rubenstein, get them. He was possibly the greatest classical pianist ever. One feature of his playing is that he did not POUND the keys as so many think they have to. His playing was refined and not overstated.

Phrrhic victory

The term Phrrhic victory refers to a victory that costs more than the victor can afford, such as a key player being injured in a sports win. It comes from the comment, "If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined," made by King Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose army suffered irreplaceable casualties in defeating the Romans at Heraclea in 280 BC and Asculum in 279 BC during the Pyrrhic War.

Lum Edwards - Air Raid Warden

On Lum and Abner, Lum just got himself appointed Air Raid Warden. The idea of Montgomery County, Arkansas having to have someone to watch for air raids is pretty funny in itself.

I love to listen the music of Franz Josef Haydn. It is clean, easy to listen to, and very relaxing.

If Presidents are allowed to make "signing statements" stating which portions of a bill they do not intend to enforce, what is the point of have a legislative or judicial branch? If Presidents legislate and interpret the laws, then they have grossly usurped the prerogatives of the other branches.

The shortest mailed letter on record.

"?"
The author inquiring as to the sales of Les Miserables.

"!"
The publisher's answer.

As Pam and I were leaving the house for New Hope yesterday morning, there were seven deer in Daddy's pasture by the lane. They stared at us for the longest time, then when I honked the horn, they loped away.

Do any of you remember when Papaw and I played "All of Me" as a duet?

REALLY beautiful music

Every once in a while you will hear a piece of music that is so beautiful it almost physically hurts to listen to it, strange as that seems.

Gilbert the Boy Trapper

Gilbert the Boy Trapper. In what old radio show is this book frequently mentioned? Lum and Abner, of course.

To what trip is Hope's and Crosby's trip on the Road to Morocco compared in their song?

McGoohan and Montalban

Dead: two of my favorite actors from my youth. Patrick McGoohan was Secret Agent, a well-done early series of that genre. Ricardo Montalban, a suave Latin American actor who was always mistaken for Fernando Lamas.

If about the best you can say about your job is that it beats being unemployed, that is not saying very much.