A mid-June Week That Was

Here’s fashion model Mary Louise Weller for Arrid Extra Dry. Arrid helps stop wet spots that soak through clothes…

It has been hot this week, with temperatures already in the 90’s (more than 30 degrees centigrade) during the day and still over 80 degrees at night. Definitely a test for your Arrid Extra Dry. No rain or thunderstorms in the forecast, but t-storms have a tendency to “pop up” without warning this time of year, so we might get some relief.

Kind of a quiet week in real life. I had physical therapy twice this past week. I get this coming week off because my therapist and her family are on vacation; my next appointment is a week from Tuesday and my appointment to be fitted for the compression sleeves is the next day. The calm before the storm, or so it seems.

The Question of the Month was about places I haven’t been that I’d like to go. I’m actually cool with not needing to go more than a few miles from home anymore. A J said the one place she’d like to go was the Galapagos Islands, exccept it would be like The Odyssey getting there. I pointed out that after all was said and done, they still wouldn’t let her ride the tortoises.

Monday’s Music Moves Me was all about opposites, and I chose the pair “hard” and “soft.” Two of you came up with another pair: Kip suggested “Come Softly To Me” by The Fleetwoods, and Arlee suggested “Hard Rock Town” by Murray McLauchlan.

Thanks, guys!

Everyone seemed to like Two for Tuesday, which featured Three Dog Night. They weren’t known for writing their own songs, but did a fantastic job interpreting the work of others, including Hoyt Axton, which Lynn remembered well. They had three #1’s, the two songs I featured (“Mama Told Me Not To Come” by Randy Newman and “Black and White” by David Arkin and Earl Robinson) and “Joy To The World” by the aforementioned Mr. Axton. Liam said his favorite was “Shambala” by Daniel Moore, and I think someone on Facebook said their favorite was Paul Williams’ “Out In The Country,” which I almost included because it’s one of my favorites. Everyone has a favorite Three Dog Night song, it seems. Not hard to imagine, because they were on the charts continuously through most of the first half of the Seventies.

I announced the winner of my Battle of the Bands on Wednesday: by a wide margin, you said The Ghost Notes did a better job than Angelo Debarre (incorrectly called Bireli Lagrene) on the Gypsy jazz hit, “Swing Gitan.” Y’all just liked the slightly slower tempo of the group from Greece. I already have my next Battle queued up for this coming Wednesday, and I hope you like it.

I featured a somewhat vulgar quote from Dennis Miller on One-Liner Wednesday. Yes, I’m sick of this election already; if it were held tomorrow we could all breathe a sigh of relief, regardless of the winner. Dale gave us the quote “I think, therefore I am not a politician,” paraphrasing René Descartes to great effect.

The prompt for Writer’s Workshop was “the least healthy foods you eat,” so I wrote about the various dishes we classify under the heading “glop.” Fabulous Auntie Jill expressed her concern for us on Facebook; really, it’s not as bad as all that. Jill’s brother Uncle Jack said his favorite food that’s not really good for him is Hormel Chili, eaten with saltines and enough Tabasco sauce to make the chili almost impossible to eat. Morgan shared a recipe for “golden meatballs” that could qualify as glop, and it actually sounds pretty good, so thank you, Morgan. Mary read it and reminded me she had bought a can of peas to include in our next batch, which will be the ground turkey and Broccoli and Cheese Rice-A-Roni variety. We’ll have to add the peas last, or they’ll turn into green mush.

The Friday Five was songs you chose that had the word “dream” in the title, and I have to applaud you; you did an excellent job. There are more songs with “dream” in the title than just about anything (with the possible exception of “love”), so we didn’t get all of them. Joey gave me an idea for this week’s fivesome. Thanks, Joey!

Finally, Linda chose the letter combination “mb” as the prompt for yesterday’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday, and I used that combination to come up with “mumbo jumbo.” Eventually I got around to talking about two famous residents of Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes (a/k/a “the projects”), Mister T and the late Kirby Puckett. The Robert Taylor Homes have since been razed and replaced with a neighborhood called Legends South, primarily mixed-income residences.

So that’s it for The Week That Was for this week. More fun and games this week!