Song of the Day: Paul Davis, “I Go Crazy”

The hirsute singer-songwriter Paul Davis had a half dozen Top 10 hits on the Adult Contemporary chart, but only one Top 10 on the Hot 100: “I Go Crazy,” which reached #7 and, strangely enough, didn’t reach the Top 10 on the AC chart (#25). For a while, it held the record for most weeks (40) on the Hot 100 chart. Casey Kasem said Davis presented it to his record company, begging to have Lou Rawls record it, believing Lou could make it a hit. When they saw how much faith had in the song, they cleaned up his demo and released it himself. I’d have loved to hear Chicago’s own Lou Rawls sing it, but Paul’s version is superb.

I Hope This Straightens Everything Out…

The Classic Editor

When I first started working with WordPress 8+ years ago, this was the only editor that was available. You could use it in WYSIWYG mode (“Visual”) or HTML (“Text”) mode. Despite all the noise that WordPress has made about “getting rid of the WordPress.com editor,” this isn’t going anywhere. See, the WordPress.com editor that goes away as of midnight (whatever that means: Eastern? Pacific? UTC?) is the one that looks like this:

The WordPress.com Editor

This is the “old” editor, the one that they tried to get us to abandon the Classic editor for starting in 2015. Here is its replacement, the block editor:

The block editor

Tomorrow, if you find the block editor where you don’t want it, it’s a simple matter to go to the upper-right hand corner of the screen where you’ll see the “three dots” (it looks like a colon with an extra dot), click on the three dots, which will give you a drop-down menu. Scroll to the bottom of the menu to where it says “Switch to Classic Editor,” and the Classic editor should appear.

I say should because there are a couple of different ways to get to things. if you’re accustomed to starting your session by typing in the URL http://wordpress.com, you come to a screen that looks like this first:

http://wordpress.com (yours will have your blogs etc.)

If you click on “Write blog post” on this screen, it’ll take you to the block editor. I don’t know what’s going to happen when you click on the three dots and go to the bottom. It might say “Switch to Classic Editor” or it might not. If it’s not there, close the window to go back to the screen above, scroll to the bottom of the left-hand column, and click “WP Admin.”

It’ll launch another window (or tab) with the Admin screen.

I think you know how to get around from here. If not, let me know.

Song Lyric Sunday/Song of the Day: Louis Prima, “One Mint Julep”

One of the things about Jim’s prompts that I think is good is that he’ll give you a whole range of prompts. Instead of giving us a prompt of “herbs and spices,” he’ll be more specific: “Cinnamon, Mint, Parsley, Pepper, Rosemary, Sage, Salt, Thyme.”

“One Mint Julep” was written by Rudy Toombs, who wrote a lot of R&B tunes. The Clovers sang it first and had a hit with it in 1952, but it was Ray Charles who turned it into an R&B classic. It’s been covered by many artists, both as a vocal and an instrumental. I’m going to use Louis Prima’s version, because I like it the best.

The lyrics, from SongLyrics.com:

One early morning
As I was walking
I met a woman
And started talking
Went in a tavern
To get a few nips
And all I had was
A mint julep
One mint julep
Was the cause of it all
I dont remember
Just how it started
But all i know is
We should have parted
I stole a kiss and
Then another
I didnt mean to
Take it for her
One mint julep
Was the cause of it all
Oh the nights were burning low
There in the tavern when through the swinging door
Up jumped a father he said I saw you when
You kissed my daughter got to wed her right now
Oh face the slaughter
I didnt know just
What I was doing
I had to marry

A mint julep
A mint julep
A mint julep
A mint julep
One mint julep
Was the cause of it all
Now listen I dont wanna bore you
With all my troubles but from now on I’ll be
Thinking double and I’ll buy her roses
And maybe maybe tulips
I got too much trouble from buying tulips
I dont remember
Just how it started
But all I know is
We should have parted
A mint julep
A mint julep
A mint julep
A mint julep
One mint julep
Yes one mint julep
Was the cause of it all!

You might remember this story about my grandfather in Louisville, Kentucky around Derby Day. The mint julep figures in the tradition of the Derby, as you might know, and in my story as well. Read the story, it’s a funny one.

That’s Song Lyric Sunday and Song of the Day for May 31, 2020.

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Spay, Spray, Splay? #socs

Sherman in a quiet moment. There weren’t many of them.

It’s a good idea to spay your cat, if it’s a female. The appropriate term for a male cat is “neuter,” and that’s also a good idea. Males who haven’t been neutered have a tendency to spray, and the odor is a little more powerful than skunk spray. We found that out the hard way. It cuts down aggressive behavior in males and it’s been my expeience (and I have a lot of experience) that a spayed or neutered cat has fewer health issues and lives longer.

I think the same holds true for dogs, but I have no experience with them.

Now, what am I going to do with splay? Drop the s and you get play. Which reminds me, I’ve been playing this new game that I downloaded called Connect The Pops! It’s quite enjoyable, never mind that there doesn’t seem to be a way to “win.” Your score just keeps going up and up. Right now I’m at about 6 billion, with no end in sight. Maybe it’s so much fun because you’re not actually playing for a win, you’re just playing. Kind of a “cat’s game,” like you have in tic-tac-toe (or Aughts and Crosses), where you play to a draw. One piece of advice: spend the $2 and get rid of the ads…

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is brought to you each week by Linda Hill and this station. And now a word from Johnson Wax about new Klean ‘n’ Shine. Cleans and shines almost everything in your house!