A Little of This and That

Frangela was (were?) remarking how even in 1930’s Germany they didn’t know that it was 1930’s Germany with despots running for office.  Hitler ran on a more progressive platform and likewise was offering the blue collar workers all sorts of things before he outlawed labor unions.  How far will Trump take us down this slippery slope?   I’d feel better with a democratic candidate leading by more than two points.   Part of the reality with Trump is the shock value of the many numerous events with Trump where you have to sit back and let the cold reality of the totality of Trumps statements to hit you. 

It used to be a valid statement that those fallen in battle gave our lives for us to celebrate our liberties.  It was true after the revolutionary war and arguably true after the Civil War or we might not have a nation.  World Wars I and II and Korea and Viet Nam are arguably wars to preserve our liberty even if it invokes the domino theory.  However I fail to see how veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan can claim that.  These clearly appear wars of capritious choice and the only people’s liberty affected was taking the lives of a lot of foreigners.  Compared to what went on in Iraq, Viet Nam seems downright noble.

I called Mom after the snack break and I ran through a list of all the issues around here and once again resolved to get my name on the office list to see the eye doctor next time he’s here.  Mom finally had her hearing test and got the results.  She’s lost 30% of the hearing in one ear and half of her hearing in the other ear.  That’s worse than I ever imagined and I can only guess how bad Dad’s hearing loss was.  She just says sometimes she has trouble hearing the conversation at the table.  Teresa is getting worse with her memory like “every day is a new day” as Judy (the one around here) puts it.  I just needed to reassure myself that Mom’s memory isn’t getting any worse.  She says the only way to definitely know if a person has alzheimer’s is after their dead.  I mentioned some condition football players had that the only way to find out for sure is examine their brains after they’re dead.  We did not talk about Tim or Paul and I didn’t ask.  I suggested that doctors try her on a different sleeping medication every two weeks or so and find the pill that works the best and has the least side effects.

 Then it was “Breakfast with the Beatles” and the one album we never heard from besides MMT was “Yellow Submarine” and then they played “Only a Northern Song” and then I turned off the radio and went and waited for lunch early.  I went out for two cups of iced tea in the courtyard.  For lunch we had potatoes and vegetables in a fairly thin broth.  We had a crab salad and crackers.  I also had the supplement of a half double decker peanut butter and jelly sandwich from Paul and potato chips from Judy.  Then I got seconds on the crab salad, which was good.  I had Leo Le Port on and he talked about “blue tooth” which I gleaned was somehow signal running through the house current.  I didn’t know that, if it’s even true.  So it isn’t over the air signals.  He said something about domestic cell phones cut off the FM radio service that’s available throughout the rest of the world.  Leo says this Frontier company has the right to cut off all phone service in a given area, which sounds really strange. 

Rhapsody in Black featured May of 1954.  One thing I noticed was that a lot of the tracks didn’t have good sound quality.  I would remind my readers that if I didn’t personally hear the song, even if it was announced, then I don’t include it.   They played “Work with me Annie” by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters.  They played “She-boom” and also “Lovey Dovey” by the Clovers.  I grew up on the remake version of 1960.  "I Smell a Rat" was done in the Big Mama Thornton style.  They played “Gee, how I love that girl” by the Crows, which they tell us was recorded in 1952.  They played “Don’t; Stop” which is a parody of “Sixty Minute Man” with lover Dan not so lucky this time.   They played “Trying to Get to You” the original of the song Elvis later made famous.   They played “Good Night, Sweet Heart, Good Night” by the Spaniels, and “Such a Night” with Clyde Mc Phatter.  That's another song Elvis did.  Then they played “Little School Girl” by early Fats Domino, and “I Just Wan to Make Love to You” the original Muddy Waters version.   Then they jumped up a few years and played “Let’s Stick Together” by Wilbert Harrison, which is the song Canned Heat made changing the lyrics to “Let’s Work Together”.