Yet Another Journal

Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans,
cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of.


 Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net

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» Thursday, August 14, 2003
First the important news: Bandit is apparently feeling better. He was perky when I got home and even tried to attack the Kleenex box last night. :-) His droppings have solidified again (if you wonder why bird owners talk so much about this subject, the state of a bird's "leavings" tell you a lot about his health).

And now: Thursday Threesome

Onesome- Sound loves: What’s your favourite song? Is there a history behind it or do you just like it because it’s great?

"The Impossible Dream." It's just a beautiful song and indicates the type of courage that I would like to have--but sadly don't. Not to mention Richard Kiley is singing it. PBS had a special way, way back in the early 1980s called "Verse Person Singular." One hour of Richard Kiley reading poetry. Oh, how I wish I could have afforded to keep that videotape (but they were $25 each back then and I only used them for time shifting).

Twosome- To revel: What’s your idea of the perfect party tunes? Some jazz to keep things jumpin’? Rock to keep everyone dancing? Or a mix of everything to make everyone happy?

Preferably not loud. I go to parties to talk to my friends, not dance or have my ears blasted out. I like Big Band and New Age best, but almost anything--no rap!--is okay as long as the volume is low enough so I don't have to shout to the person next to me.

Threesome- In a summer night: It’s a mellow summer night, you’re on your own and you’re ready to load the CD player. What’s on your playlist? Remember, there's no one around to say "Ewww, gross!" *grin*

Rupert Holmes. "Oh, you mean that guy who wrote 'The Pina Colada Song'?" No, I mean "that guy" who's written many songs, some for Barbra Streisand, who won two Tony Awards for his Broadway musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood, who also has several more drama and Edgar Awards for Drood and Accomplice and Solitary Confinement, who has a Tony-nominated one-man show starring Frank Gorshin, Say Goodnight Gracie just finishing up a respectable run on Broadway and going on the road, who just has had his first novel, Where the Truth Lies, published, and is working on another, who wrote one of the finest comedy/drama television series ever created, Remember WENN, and, along with all that, is one of the sweetest, nicest, kindest, funniest, and most generous men who ever lived.

THAT Rupert Holmes. :-) (Oh, yeah, and he also wrote "Escape," a.k.a. "The Piña Colada Song.")

Plus their

Topic of the Week

We all have cell phones, most of us do... what is the ring on your phone set to? Something simple? Funny? Downloaded the new Tones from your phone provider site? What makes your phone unique about you?

If you could change something about your phone, or you don't have one - what would you want?

Tones? Downloaded? LOL. Our cell phones will be six years old in December. We got them simply because AirTouch (now Verizon) had an el-cheapo offer and I was at that time driving a 12-year-old Honda Accord that broke down to the tune of $500-$700 every six months, usually smack in the middle of my morning commute. Thank God this was then on surface streets. I actually drove home through the freeway once, although I didn't know it at the time, with my camshaft cracking apart (thank God it broke down the next day instead). So we got the phones mainly so I wouldn't have to cadge phone calls at strange places.

We almost never have them on, unless prearranged, and they don't send pictures, e-mail, texts, or even have ring tones. There's a quickdial programming you can use, but I never sat down long enough with the instruction book to even do that. I don't get this whole cellphone thing anyway. Yah, I've seen the Sprint commercials--and I will admit that every so often one of us sees something so clever or funny while the other isn't there that it would be nice to point the phone at it and send the picture or save it. I'm always mourning one way or the other that I've forgotten my camera.

But the thought of gabbling on the phone all the time is puzzling. Why? Does this hark back to the days of the old housewife joke that all she did was talk on the phone all day, tying up the party line? (There's an entire Our Miss Brooks radio show written around this habit.) I'd say the majority of people I do see gabbing on the phone in all situations--cars, store aisles, parking lots, waiting rooms, restaurants, even museums--are women, but it's a very small majority; men seem to be almost equally enchanted by this electronic leech.

As an electronic distraction, I much prefer my PDA, which I can type on, leave memos and set alarms, read e-books.

And I'm not using it while hurtling down the freeway at 75 m.p.h. either.