Doc Gamble's review of McGee's attire

Your entire ensemble gives the effect of a Malayan head hunter turned loose in the men's locker room of a Bowery flop house.

Hard worker

Scattergood: Have you ever done any work?

Hip: Yes sir. Now and then.

Scattergood: What kind?

Hip: This and that.

Scattergood: Where?

Hip: Here and there.

Scattergood: Sounds like you need a vacation.

(from Scattergood Baines movie)

Super trapper

Given the number of skunks and possums we have had under our house over the years, we have become fairly adept at getting them in a live trap. Marshmallows smeared with peanut butter. Carry them down in the pasture (WAY down in the case of skunks) and finish the task. Then dump them on a brush pile (after an appropriate period of mourning in the case of skunks).

Starting to fit far too well

In one of the hymns that we sing is this line: "I am tired, I am weak, I am worn." That is beginning to fit my case far too well. Just flat worn out.

No sleep

My brother and I have been on somewhat short sleep rations while my father has been in the hospital. I never have functioned very well under those conditions. I would be curious what all effects are caused by lack of sleep. I remember the night before my oldest son was born that my relatives and I tried to do a 24-hour relay at the track at Arkansas Tech (we finally had to give it up). On the drive up Interstate 40 to Fort Smith I was so exhausted that I was seeing things running across the road.

I appreciate his curiosity

I do not know the name of the Ethiopian fellow who first had the bold idea of roasting coffee beans and making a brew of them, but I salute his efforts. His gastronomical adventuresomeness certainly made my mornings more pleasant.

A schedule-upsetter

When you have elderly parents ailing, it certainly throws off all schedules.

The Lone Wolf in Spanish

If you did not already know, you could have learned that south of the border his name was El Lobo Solitario from the movie The Lone Wolf in Mexico. It is actually a pretty good movie of that genre and stars Gerald Mohr, whom we know as Phillip Marlowe on the radio show.

Old age

Never has the poetry of the King James Bible been more evident than when Solomon called old age "the evil days." When life becomes a burden, it just ceases to be enjoyable any more. When living becomes waiting to die, then there is little joy in it.

Flange foot

Have you ever had a disease called flange foot? That is one of the ailments feigned by Sgt. Bilko on The Phil Silvers Show in order to get out of going on bivouac. I would love to know what its symptoms were supposed to have been.

Maurice Gosfield

Gosfield was a comic actor most remembered for his role as Private Duane Doberman on The Phil Silvers Show on television. He was perhaps one of the uglier actors ever to make his way onto the screen.

Here is how you spell it

You Jack Benny fans out there will remember Jack's girlfriend Gladys, who had the twangy Brooklyn accent. In one episode we learn how to spell her last name: Zybysko.

Anabaptists

"She was remembered even there among her former neighbors as a religious fanatic who had led her husband sternly and exultantly in the narrow path of enforced rectitude. When he was killed by a furnace explosion she declared it was the hand of God striking him down for some secret sin. Her associates were few: they were in the main members of a small congregation of East Side Anabaptists." (from The Greene Murder Case, by S. S. van Dine)

This is interesting, as I never heard of "Anabaptist" used as a specific denominational name in the United States. (It is a big country, and I could have missed it.) It was used that way in centuries past in Europe. However, more recently it has been used in a generic sense, such as "immersionist" might be attached to a certain group of people. The van Dine pseudonym was used by writer Willard Huntington Wright, who moved in artsy circles in the northeastern area of the United States, so it is possible that he was just guessing as he wrote the novel, without any direct knowledge of denominational usage.

Ever wonder about your headstone?

You have no control about what people will put over your grave. Maybe they will flatter you. Maybe they will tell the brutal truth. Thankfully, at that point, we will no care what is said; but it still would be nice to be remembered honestly in a positive manner, without undue exaggeration.

The difference between Mommy and Daddy

Daddy can get sick and no one notices (except for the fact that he is in the way and under foot). Mommy can get sick and everything comes to a screeching halt.

Lousy to feel lousy

Old men are very poor patients. I admit it. I hate to feel bad, and right now I feel bad. At least a cold. Hopefully not the flu. Bless my poor, patient wife's heart, she takes good care of me.

Why so few pipes?

I wonder why more young men do not smoke pipes as their tobacco source. Since those that age are generally wanting to look more mature than they are, and since pipes generally accomplish that, I would think it would be used more.

"Glorious black and white"

I did not originate the term, but I approve of it. I have watched so many old black and white movies, that color just does not look right any more.

Big Mouth Hall of Fame

If there were such a thing, actor and comedian Tim Moore, who played the Kingfish on the Amos 'n Andy TV show, would have been enshrined. His mouth was enormous.

Cycles of caring

When we are children we care only for ourselves, for the most part. Then we become adults and care for our offspring. Then we become old and to some extent quit caring.

Great fun for the special effects guys

In one episode of Emergency!, the paramedics and fire department have to rescue a man from a car that is jammed underneath a tanker tractor/trailer rig carrying an explosive liquid. I am sure they had great fun with that one.

No one could say it like he could

On the Amos N' Andy television show, the Kingfish's wife was Sapphire. And Tim Moore, the actor of played Kingfish, could utter "Sapphire" like no one else.

It describes me

"I am plodding with leaden feet in a veritable bog of ignorance." (from The Greene Murder Case, by S. S. Van Dine).

That describes my feelings exactly much of the time.

How good was Art Tatum?

The pianist Teddy Wilson observed, "Maybe this will explain Art Tatum. If you put a piano in a room, just a bare piano. Then you get all the finest jazz pianists in the world and let them play in the presence of Art Tatum. Then let Art Tatum play ... everyone there will sound like an amateur."

Dug in

"But you can't move the Mater, once she's got an idea in her head. Try it some time when you're looking for heavy exercise."

(from The Green Murder case, by S. S. Van Dine) It looks like matriarchs are the same the world over.

He really was from Arkansas

In one of the episodes of Season 2 of the television show Combat!, the character Doc (the medic) is asked where he is from. He replies that he is from Arkansas, which his accent definitely fits. As it turns out, the actor who played that role was Conlan Carter, who actually was born in Center Ridge, Arkansas, an unincorporated community in Conway County. However, he grew up in the bootheel area of Missouri.

When glamorous becomes ridiculous

Watching aging female stars try to appear to be years younger than they are, even when they are LONG past the age when it makes any sense at all, is very amusing. Maybe they should try to swap a little of that glamor for a little gracefulness.

Amazing wound recovery

One of the things that you lose in a television is time perspective. In the Combat! series, everything on the screen came from the time period from 6 June 1944 (D-Day) to 8 May 1945 (VE Day) - less than a year. And yet the main characters would sustain heavy gunshot wounds and be seen the next episode whole and ready to go. Not likely, but that is the advantage of television.

Kingfish the painter

Andy: Kingfish, are you sure you heard the man right? He said you're a artist?

Kingfish: Oh, no doubt about it, Andy. I'm even gonna be better than this fellow, Leonardo Kominsky.

(Amos n' Andy TV show)

Come on, crime!

"Alas, Sergeant, I've been immersed in the terra-cotta ornamentation of Renaissance facades, and other such trivialities, since I saw you last. But I'm happy to note that crime is picking up again. It's a deuced drab world  without a nice murky murder now and then, don't y' know."

(from The Greene Murder Case, by S. S. Van Dine) Philo Vance evidently shared Sherlock Holmes' opinion that life was not living without a crime to solve, and that the underworld almost owed him that much just to keep him entertained.