Aging John Cleese and Tom Jones

I saw a couple of entertainment stories today that touch on aging and raise me out of my wheelchair to shake my cane and cackle, "We all do it!" But when you're famous and more susceptible to having your personal business broadcast around the world, there might be some more slightly troubling aspects to it.

One story had to do with John Cleese having a younger girlfriend, in her 40s but claiming to be in her 20s, discussing their sex life and her thoughts on it. Some of her thoughts centered on his age, probably uncomfortable for him to hear about. They have broken up, maybe over stuff like this.

The other story I didn't look at, but saw the headline, was on Tom Jones letting his hair go gray, no longer coloring it. So he's getting old. Both John and Tom at in their late 60s, not exactly ancient, but maybe they feel like it, looking at the news.

As far as John Cleese goes, he's never had a sexy guy image over the years. So he really has nothing to fret about especially, at least you wouldn't think so. He's been a comedy genius, that's it, and he really ought to be far enough out of the public eye that no one should care if he's older. But if you're famous, and in the public eye at all (he's been in recent movies), and you're trying to date much younger women, some of this is likely to happen.

As for Tom Jones, he definitely did have a sexiest guy in the world image over the years. No one's ever thrown underwear at me, except my wife, saying, "Carry these upstairs!" Or mad in our room, "Can't you pick up your shorts?!" But Tom Jones had the undies and plenty of them, maybe with hotel keys sewn to the elastic, I don't know. So the fact that he's getting old -- up in Adam Chandler territory -- might be a big deal to him and the media. But he has no alternative, so why worry about it?

Tom Jones letting his hair go gray might be a great coping strategy. Don't deny it, you're old. Who isn't? It happens to all of us. Let the old image go, and make your image exactly what you are.

Jerry Springer

It's great to see Jerry Springer's still on. Someone mentioned it to me in the last month and I was glad to hear he was still going. Then today, while messing with the cables on my TV, trying to make the picture come in better, his show came on and I watched it. It's been probably five years since I saw this.

He has the same format and the same basic show going, which today was entertaining but not as good as it might have been. Just like I remember, it was the confessions of various cheating partners, then confrontations with the other woman and any other parties who might be relevant to the situation. A few times it descended into the (very necessary) scuffle. One ended up with two men shirtless but somehow both maintained the presence of their tie. So that was nicely formal.

The participants are the same old losers the show has long been known for, and their tawdry, two bit affairs, magnified on TV for that one hour, as if anyone really cares. We don't care, we just want to see you spill your lust or anger and fight.

Anyway, I approve, to a certain point. But it takes a lot to really titillate, and this was pretty mild. There may be every shape of romantic triangle and rectangle, but when you get down to it, it's pretty much all the same.

In other news, while I was working on the cables, it was right at the time that Maury's show was wrapping up. I was amazed not only to see IT was still there too, but that his theme hasn't changed in at least five years. He's still doing DNA paternity tests. Is that all he does? How do people stay interested in that forever? It has to be the build-up stories of course.

Illinois' Former Governor

Blagojevich is now out, the vote being 59-0 in the Illinois state senate to oust him. Pretty much unanimous.

I haven't followed it faithfully. But I watched a few minutes tonight when he was live on David Shuster's program, a cut to a press conference outside a house. He wasn't admitting much and still seemed defiant, even while realizing that he was out. But he vowed to fight for people, whatever that means. He's trying to portray himself as some kind of hero.

I personally wouldn't care about him that much, but it was unfortunate that he had to detract from Obama in the days after the election. I think that's enough to kick him out for.

It was interesting that they not only kicked him out but also voted to disqualify him from holding any public office in Illinois ever again. So that's a real vote of no confidence. Next time, keep your nose clean.

Peanut Butter Is The New Spinach

How come it seems like when it comes to recalls it's always one thing at a time? I wouldn't say you never hear of two things at once, but it seems like it. It's like nature attacks; it's either sharks or killer bees, never both.

Now we have killer peanut butter, or whatever, maybe peanut butter that makes people break out in a rash. Of course there's always a problem with peanuts, which I think started with Jimmy Carter, since I never heard of it before. You see it on labels that the ingredients in this package were processed in a plant that also processes peanuts. So beware or you might die.

And I love peanut butter. Not love love in the sense that I have it a lot. But when I eat it I love it. Like in oatmeal or on a sandwich occasionally. What can go wrong with peanut butter? Probably overheated or the oil sat on a shelf and spoiled.

Food companies, get it right! This is ridiculous.

Crazy Existence

People getting in trouble. How hard is it just to stay home, mind your own business, and remain free? This has been a day of "law enforcement" stuff for me, being in court with an acquaintance, being at the police department for some community business, and being at the jail, to hobnob and confer with the sheriff on related matters.

Court was interesting. It's kind of the nickel and dime level, at least when I was there. It's serious stuff some of the folks are charged with, but if they comply with a few terms they're dealt with in a fairly generous way. It could be worse, of course, with repeat offenses.

Being back at the jail -- I've visited before a time or two -- it reminds me, as though I needed reminding, how nice it is to be out and free. There they are, seen on the video screens especially, milling around in their orange uniform, watching TV, talking on the phone, and just sitting around. You'd think it wouldn't be that hard just to behave. But what's just a minor argument, say, between mates for us, might be a knife fight for them.

I reviewed the official crime statistics for the year, and there are crimes in practically every category. Homicides, I don't think there were any. But everything from sexual assault to vandalism to burglary, theft, you name it. Someone's out there making these crazy choices.

Just driving home at the end of this day, I'm scrupulously driving the speed limit, stopping at stop signs, the whole thing. I'd hate to be hauled back out there, this time as a guest! "Hey, didn't we just see you!"

I Restrained Myself

Yesterday the Deal of the Day at Amazon, for MP3s was The Animals' Greatest Hits, actually called The Best of the Animals. It's an old album, 1966, used to be MGM Records. It could be that the collection on Amazon was an expanded edition since I don't remember very many albums from 1966 that had 18 songs on one record.

It was only $1.99, which is a good deal by anyone's standards. And I restrained myself from buying it. Barely, but I did it. I feel like my credit card has enough charges on it this month and to relieve myself of the added pain, even if it's only $1.99, I decided ... bite the bullet, don't buy anything else. Now, whether I can manage that everyday, that's a different story. Who knows what they might have tomorrow? Maybe I shouldn't look.

I saw it today, some hip hop classic that I'm not interested in, the Phar Syde or something like that. It's also $1.99. I didn't even check it out, since I'm sure if I didn't buy the Animals I'm not likely to buy the Phar Syde!

Last week or maybe the week before one of the "deals" was a 99 cent-er by the Go-Go's, which I got. That's a great deal. But this week, I don't know if I would've bought it.

How To Stop Accumulating Books

One of the wikiHow "How to do it" things of the day was "How to Stop Accumulating Books."

This is a subject of great interest to me, since I'm about buried in books and compact discs (not literally). I have a bunch and keep accumulating more, especially CDs. But this is about books.

I read through it earlier this morning so I'll have to review it ...

OK, here's a sentence from it: "You're a book hoarder. How do you stop the insanity?"

Some of the steps include:

1. Cull your existing collection. - This has to do with giving your books to the library, to charity, or book lovers. That's a good idea. Except I don't suppose the library wants people's books, especially, since they want to order what they want. If I gave my books and then saw them sitting on their dime table the next day, that would be offensive. Philanthropists deserve better.

2. Sell your books. They suggest Amazon and Half.com. Of course there's eBay. But that's a lot of work, I mean a lot of work. Then you have dissatisfied customers. There's all the work of grading everything, describing it. I'd rather see it on the library's table, except for the potential money you could make.

Skip to 4. Make a rule that you will read X number of books before buying another one. Wow, if I had that kind of restraint I wouldn't be buried in books. Plus, that one is only really relevant when you're buying new books for $24.95 apiece. Then you want to read it through, or at least not buy as many. But when you get them at thrift stores for 50 cents or a book sale for a dime or a garage sale for a dime for the box, you don't always have the luxury of waiting till you've read X number of books. The time to get them is now.

Skip to 8. Use the library. Check out books there. Yeah, please. The library's selection is worse than my own, at least for topics that I'm interested in. They generalize, they have a lot of crap ... I mean a lot of crap. Of course the library where you live might be a huge library or a university library, in which case the crap/non-crap ratio is different.

Here's some advice from the article:

If you are a person who likes to pen notes directly in a book, you might find it hard to find people who will buy or take a book that has been written in. Three things you can do: learn to make notes elsewhere so you can reference them without the book, jot things down on mini post-it notes and stick them in the pages, or just limit what books you write in and keep them. One thing you can do is scan the page and write your note on that and keep it in a file. Yes, there are laws against this, but only if you copy the entire book. Copying a page here and there isn't an issue especially if it is for personal use. There is nothing wrong with the practice of writing in a book so long as you understand that others will not want it afterward.

Very bad idea. If you're getting rid of the book, you don't really care if anyone wants it or not. For instance, if you're giving it to the library or to a book sale. Yes, if you're trying to sell it on Amazon you want it to be in as nice a condition as possible. But there's no way in this life or any life to come that I'm going to be copying pages of books and putting the copies in files and then getting rid of the book. If it's that important to you, keep the book.

Anyway, it's not really true that if you write in a book no one will want it afterward. I have lots of books that people have written in, and some of the margin notes are fun to read. I have a really old copy of some of Emerson's essays and I like seeing the things that the owner from 100 years ago circled and marked and made notes about. I have a book somewhere by Teilhard de Chardin, a cheap paperback, where someone had a strenuous knock down drag out debate with Teilhard that he never had to see. That's kind of fun.

Will I stop accumulating books? I think I've already slowed down in recent years. I'm pickier. But I do have lots of books that I don't really need or want, and when spring gets here, some of them will definitely be going somewhere. One good sign of a book you don't especially need is if it's in the basement in a box or plastic tote.

Get A Bank Account!

There's a commercial that I find very aggravating. It is for Wal-mart, their check cashing service for people who are apparently too stupid to have a bank account.

It features a couple. Both seem to have a job, because they talk about cashing their "checks." It seems they have discovered that Wal-mart only charges $3 to cash a check, meaning they get to keep more of their money and are able to save up to $200 a year. They use this hard earned savings to buy more of the things they want, including a laptop computer.

OK, the obvious question for this "money saving" couple would be ... why don't you get a bank account and not pay fees at all? And don't tell me there aren't any banks in the area. If there's a Wal-mart in the area, there's going to be banks too.

It's just plain stupidity.

Peeing On Poop

This is another dog post. I'm fascinated by the behavior of dogs. I don't understand it. But I suppose dogs have their own wiki page, if I'm ever curious enough to look it up. I like to observe it, though.

The whole thing of dogs going out and being interested in one another's butts, one another's poop and pee, is something that must be endless in its implications. We know dogs are territorial, and that territory has something to do with boundaries. So their bowel and eliminatory functions carry at least a double duty. What precisely, I don't know.

It's aggravating in many ways for me, being less removed (apparently) from the instincts. When it's cold out I just want the dog to pee or poop, not to make it a scavenger hunt for the biggest, boldest, brightest dog who's been in the neighborhood before. I believe in the doctrine of 'any old port in a storm,' but if I left it to the dog, usually, we'd be searching for just the perfect spot till we froze into statues and broke in half from the strong wind.

Yesterday, she was nosing around in the snow. So here we are, nosing, nosing, nosing. I'm glancing around trying to be patient. Nosing, nosing. Finally I yelled, "Come on!" Ooops, that slipped out, since any kind of impatience on my part threatens her ability to go at all. "Good girl."

Something I do, and I know this is socially the right thing to do, is to pick up the poop and take it home for proper disposal. Not everyone does, including neighbors who go by on Rascals, or others who don't have any excuse except that they're clods. So there's a lot of poop in the neighborhood, ranging from fresh and vital all the way to dessicated and rotting. In my walks, several times a day, I see it all.

These little piles aren't all bad news, though, because it gives my dog something to study in her never ending search for a decent place to go to the bathroom. Now, remember, I always clean up after my dog. But today she took a royal pee right on top of some other dog's royal poop, leaving a yellow circle on top of that nastiness. I'm thinking, if someone looks out their window right now, it will look like my dog did the poop and that I didn't clean it up. But they won't say anything to me, allowing me the chance for a realistic defense; they will simply share it among themselves and perhaps to friends.

Obama, Clinton, Biden

It's remarkable how far everything's come since the early days of the primaries and the pre-primary debates. We had three of the top officials in the present government competing against one another, and now they're on stage together, working in harmony.

Biden never seemed to have much of a chance to do much toward getting the presidential nomination. It seemed like a waste of time really to have him competing at all. But he did. And even though he didn't win a thing, he still came out more or less on top.

Clinton and Obama were the big story, like a steel cage death match between the two. It was a great division in the Democratic party. Clinton was expected to win -- I thought she would -- I was on her side. But Obama never seemed to make mistakes, never seemed to do anything that would turn people away from him. Clinton was a lot more over the top, or the blogs made it seem that way. Every little thing she did was blown up as an example of the Clintons being racist and terrible in other ways. Which I thought was false.

Obama was a great guy. I saw him in one of his campaign stops and was very impressed.

In the debates, then, they were definitely at each other's throats and it was a nasty thing. So it's hard to believe that it's all come around as it has. There they are, one big happy family.

Obama's First Actual Day At Work

It was great seeing the photos of President Obama doing the business of a normal workday. I'm sure we'll get to that point where everyday is just another day. Like we did with Bush. We weren't thinking about him all the time, except with fear and loathing in our hearts. Eventually Obama will be able to do things without everyone (me) hearing about it.

I always think I'd like to keep track of everything. But whether it's boredom or the mere fact that I have a life to live and that doesn't include reading every news article, I know I'm going to quickly lose track. It's just nice to have a guy in there as president that I feel like I can trust enough to turn my back. Bush, never. But what can you do? No one cares what you think, especially.

I was very bummed out about John Roberts (a Republican appointee) screwing up the oath of office. It was a relief to hear that Obama retook the oath today sometime. Hopefully they made Roberts stand in an antechamber and run through the oath to a mirror about 50 times before they trusted him to go live. What a dolt. It's 35 words. You're the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. You can't manage to read 35 words in the sequence it's written out on the card? Good grief, how can we trust your opinions or anything else? I thought these Republican appointees (bozos) were supposed to be "strict constructionists!" How strict are you when you can't manage to read the actual text? So it was a relief to me to hear that Obama got it officially behind him, whether it was with John Roberts or whether they brought in someone who could actually read.

New Channel Pomposity

I am a big Keith Olbermann fan, so it's hard for me to say this guy needs to shut up once in a while. All through the inauguration he was either being unnecessarily pompous or unnecessarily silly. I found it hard to listen to him. I had to change channels several times; it was zapping my last nerve.

As for all the news about Senator Kennedy, it was important. But it should not have been belabored to the point of being a downer for the day and taking attention away from President Obama. I swear, some of the stuff Keith has to say about this -- and everything else -- he meanders through 100 words when three or four might do.

The same thing was going on in the parade, but this was where he was being unnecessarily silly, all the belly aching about how slow the car was going, whether Obama wanted to walk or not, blah blah blah. It made me wonder, wouldn't it just be more helpful if they shut up? (I would've watched on C-SPAN but my cable reception on C-SPAN is very grainy.) It was nice for a while over on CNN, when Obama was walking, that all the pompous CNN folks shut up for long enough for us to enjoy the scene without trivia and exalted interpretation.

As for the racial angle of what this day means, that was also overdone to the point of being nauseating. Poor John Lewis can't get within a mile of a microphone but someone is asking him to put it in context vis a vis Martin Luther King, Jr. He's very gracious and very good at doing it. After you've heard it a few times you have to think the news business is given to too much cliche.

Aurobindo On Dreams

There's a book that I got a number of years ago that I have so far been unable to read. I've worked on it, sometimes seriously, and then it sets on the shelf for a couple years, then I pick it up again and pick up where I left off.

It is called "The Life Divine" by Sri Aurobindo. It's a monster sized book, with over 1100 pages. And it is thick in more ways than one. Sri Aurobindo wrote beautifully, but he wrote with the most involved, convoluted prose I think I've ever seen. I would guess he learned his English from some upper crust British, being in India and all, and he has the longest, thickest sentences I can imagine.

I like him though. I first heard of him when I had an anthology of Indian philosophy, which I got at a bookstore for free because it had been rained on and was in a free box. I read his chapters and underlined a bunch of stuff that seemed very impressive. It was a joy to get this book, like in 2001, but it turned into a drudgery when I actually went to read it.

Today, though, I was looking at it again. It had the same effect on me, which was to make me immediately drowsy. But there was some good stuff on dreams. It's around page 438, in there, worth reading if you have a copy. He touches on what we usually think of dreams, how unsubstantial they are and how they're taken as a state of consciousness inferior to our normal waking consciousness. He explores why that might not be, and gets very flowery (in a scholarly way) in describing some of the aspects of this perhaps alternate consciousness.

He writes about it with interesting words like the subconscient, our subliminal selves, antechambers or substratums of the subconscious element, the inconscient, etc. But you pile up too many words like that, along with his very long sentences, and you're busy dreaming yourself.

Personal Scratching Post

The sound of cat noises, intensely engaged in tangling. That's be good, get Piazzolla to write them a tangle. It's just a thought

My own cats are getting old. And are almost out of the range for that kind of behavior. They were kittens one time, of course, small and tumbly and playful. I drank Coke back then and both would fit in a 12 pack box, easily.

Now they're big old cats, one bigger than the other, so they don't fit anymore. You couldn't fit one in.

My biggest cat is getting arthritic maybe, I don't do diagnoses for a living. He's definitely not doing what he used to do, which would be jumping up on the counter, tipping over the garbage can, etc. Their food is "up" to keep the dog out of it and he can't even jump up there any more -- maybe he physically could but he doubts his abilities. I give him a boost.

They used to do this whole thing of licking each other, then it became a hissing fight after about 20 seconds of that. Every time.

100th Episode of Desperate Housewives

I saw an ad for Desperate Housewives -- it's still on -- and they've arrived at their 100th episode!

I did not know that before. I quit watching it completely probably a year ago or so. Right about the time they had the supermarket shooting, after that sometime. It was getting, I don't know, too hacky, and I felt like I was wasting time just getting deeper and deeper in a bunch of unnecessarily complex twists and relations.

I did happen to read that they backed it up in time, going back five years, which, again, sounds like something unnecessarily complex and difficult. Just looking at the ad, though, it allows them to have the narrator who committed suicide back as an actual character. So that's kind of cool.

A hundred episodes is quite a few. And I'm surprised, because I didn't think they'd been doing that many episodes. You go back on some older series and they might have 23-30 episodes a year, but I seem to remember Desperate Housewives having four or five episodes, then repeating them for a month, then taking off the summer, etc. Which would give them about 30 episodes total. But I obviously would have had that wrong!

This is also the 100th "Pimp My Skivvies" post. And that's more impressive.

The Voice of My Dog

I am the voice of my dog, all except the barking, growling, and yipping in my sleep. Which I don't think I do. But I speak for her in other ways -- not power of attorney ways, but in reality I would have that power -- in ways expressive of her apparent (obvious) feelings, and also expressive of the larger truth that living beings no doubt have. (It's like birds flying in flocks without thought; something's speaking in them.)

The dog, being domesticated, doesn't say much on her own. So I do the speaking, speaking to her, then speaking for her.

"Everyone's laughing at you behind your back."

Then her response. "I'm not concerned about that. The problem is with them, or, if it's not true, with you for saying such a thing. I won't lose any sleep or my happiness, because I know that in a bullying situation, the bully is the one who is sad, conflicted, and troubled. I can maintain my calm, my respose, and let him worry about himself."

"So the bully seeks to hurt the bullee, but the bullee wins over the bully."

My Dog's Feet - Part 2

When we last met, my dog didn't do her business outside last night. So this morning of course there was some pee on the floor. She's self-trained in this and does the right thing, meaning when she has to go she does it on the kitchen or dining room floor, which are linoleum and not carpet. That's a big favor.

Today when it was 20 below zero I was thinking she wouldn't need to go out. Just do it on the floor. But she's so used to going out that she kept that thought going. After quite a bit of that, I took her out on the sidewalk, no booties, but it was way too cold and she came right back in without doing anything.

After a while I went for the baby socks we have, which have a bit of Velcro on them, got them on and took her out. She did her thing very well and we came hustling back to the warmth.

Then at 1 p.m., the same successful story. Then close to 5 p.m., I thought, how about put some plastic wrap around her feet, then the baby socks would go on better. And that turned out to be so (but not as easy as I was hoping). We were out a sufficient amount of time for her to do her thing well and not get too cold. So that's all the counts.

I hate to see her out there suffering, prancing around in pain. So the baby socks are fine.

My Dog's Feet

It's too cold out -- 14 below or something -- for my dog to go to the bathroom. I've taken her out twice. Once without booties, because she hates them. Then her feet get so cold, she's at a loss what to do. So I pick her up and run her home.

Then after a while I decided to put the booties on. But then I get her outside in the cold and she refuses to budge. Just stands there and looks at me. Won't go pee.

Growl, that's me growling. So she'll have to go on the floor tonight. We can't stay out there forever.

Faking Your Own Death

I haven't looked at the details, but I saw a story about a guy wanted on financial fraud charges who apparently was trying to fake his death by parachuting out of a plane and letting the plane crash. That might actually be worth reading, because, if true, that's wild.

Recall, a lot of people thought Elvis had faked his death. But he would've turned up by now. So it would seem the actual fact was that he died. Whether others have faked this death, it's not a subject I associate with actual cases. Most of the ones who do it are probably just missing person cases who never turn up. Or, like one I heard of last year, they turn up because they are prominent in their new local circles; the case I'm thinking of, I believe the guy ran for mayor in a town, won, then others heard of him or investigated his history.

It would not be impossible, of course, to disappear, but it'd be hard to stay gone. Or hidden. I'm not about to do it ... for many reasons ... I'm not unhappy with my life ... I have family I want to stay in contact with ... and so forth. How, though, would you go about it? One way I would not do it is to fly up in a plane, parachute out, and let the plane crash! Was the idea that the plane would be on fire and burn up the body completely ... I mean completely?

The ideal way would not be to risk your plane crashing and killing people. You should just go away. Or move to another country. Or move to a big city and get a studio apartment, a trench coat, keep your head down, and do little else.

It actually sounds like a drag. What do you do about taxes, Social Security, a will, property, etc.?

Not Opinionated Today

I haven't got a lot on my mind, opinions to spout off about. I do see that Joe the Plumber is serving as a war correspondent in Israel for some organization. Nothing can go wrong there! There were a couple blurbs I saw about it, one of which being that he got into an argument with an Israeli reporter, over whether that reporter supports Israel's efforts in the latest mess. I forget the other one.

My opinions are being tamped down by tiredness perhaps. Or, when it comes to politics, I'm holding them in abeyance till we get rid of Bush. My opinions on Bush haven't changed, but they're kind of tedious to keep giving. I don't like the guy, never have. So there. I'm hoping for the best from Obama and think he's definitely a decent person. Finally, someone I vote for wins ... first time since Clinton, an eternity ago.

I have an opinion on Burris. I don't really have any great affection for him, nor do I have any hostility against him. I'm glad he's going to be seated as a senator -- all official now -- because I think they need to follow the law as it's written, not the way they wished it was. So that's good news no matter how he'll do as a senator.

I see there are a couple of other inauguration pray-ers tapped for the 20th. Of course we have Rick Warren, who got big headlines about it. But at Huff Post they have headlines for a couple more: Gene Robinson, the Episcopalian bishop, is giving an inauguration prayer. Also the Rev. Sharon Watkins has been chosen for a prayer at an inauguration prayer service. Looking at the article, she is the president of the Disciples of Christ organization. So Obama's going for the celebrities.

Comfort Food

I went to the grocery store to get a few things. I was a little bummed out because of a relative in the hospital and not getting out. My squirrelly little brain was telling me "citrus" would help. But I don't like the iffiness of fruit. You're eating it, it's got all those white bits, too much mush. If it was just pulp, OK, but rind, seeds, other crap, it's too much.

That means juice is best, even though nutritionists tell you it isn't. Juice is freebasing fruit. Still, they've got it domesticated, tidy, under control in that milk carton with a screw off lid.

I was consciously telling myself you don't need comfort food just because of this hospital setback. It's all psychological. I just about turned away once and forgot it, but the thing was too strong. Plus I wanted to get a few other items. I ended up with a carton of orange juice and a carton of grapefruit juice, plus everything else.

An old guy in a handicapped cart asked me to reach him a cantaloupe, because he was stocking up for the big winter storm. I just about walked away afterward, but asked him about the winter storm rumor, which apparently is true. It motivated me to buy more items than I would have otherwise. I gave him a pat on the shoulder, like Kramer, like we were old buddies, and told him, "See you later." As I walked away I was thinking it wouldn't be bad to be friends with that guy, follow him around helping him reach things. But by then he was on his way wherever and I was in the dog food aisle.

Among my comfort food items, things I never buy, was a 100 pack of Lipton tea. I usually don't drink much tea, but we go in spurts. Today I was thinking, get the tea, get brand name, indulge. It's weird how they price tea. 48 teabags were one price and 100 teabags were around 20 cents more.

Rehabilitating A Hit Single

Hit singles have a history. Just like they chart in Billboard, you can chart their history. The first time you hear them, they're pleasant, notable. The next few times, they're great. The whole mid-range of experiencing them is one of comfort, solidity, identification. After they've hung around for a while, you've heard all there is to hear. Then they're fading and you'd like to kick them out the door.

After a couple years have passed, the hit single is distinctly an oldie, recalling that time two years ago, and making you feel nauseous. Or good, depending. Good, all except for the fact that it's moldy.

I feel that way definitely for sure about the song "Bad Day," by Daniel Powter. I don't believe we've heard from him since. I recently got the song on a compilation CD (Grammy nominees from that year), and have it on my Ipod. Shuffling today it came on, and I felt that nausea and yet also the desire to hear it through. It sounded like itself, of course, but it wasn't a very pleasant experience.

The poor song was everywhere, American Idol, the radio, grocery stores. Making him a lot of money. But now it's like hearing cries from a leper colony. You'd just as soon not be within earshot of it.

How to rehabilitate it, I don't know. Other songs lose their hit single qualities with the passing of time, somewhat. Like Beatles songs or The Rolling Stones. Probably because you generally have the albums as well, you've heard their singles in some context, not just that one song.

I think maybe "Bad Day," along with another big hit single, "Unwritten," may be relegated to the Do Not Play Under Any Circumstances pile. Great at the time, but nasty beyond belief now.

The Sedona Method

I never heard of the Sedona Method till today. I was at a thrift store looking at the books and saw this book, "The Sedona Method," and glanced to see what it was. It might have had to do with knitting, cooking, exercise, I didn't know.

But it is subtitled, "Your Key to Lasting Happiness, Success, Peace and Emotional Well-being." What we each want, really. The categories on the back cover, top, are Self-Help and Spirituality. So that's appealing.

It's by a guy named Hale Dwoskin, no one I've ever heard of. But it has Jack Canfield's name at the top, and it seems like Jack's name is on every third book I see. An exaggeration there. He's the Chicken Soup guy and apparently a Book Blurb Guy About Town. Debbie Ford has a blurb on the back ... I think she's an up and coming Book Blurb Person, too. You get some of these Book Blurb people on your book and you've got a hit.

I've only glanced through the book less than five minutes. But it looks like the Sedona Method has to do with releasing some of your hold on emotions and seeking the approval of people. I saw one little bit about holding on and letting go. I'm a holder, that's for sure. So maybe if I can, I'll try to give this book a chance.

Looking At People's Photos

I was at a funeral today and looking at the photo board that they always have now. I think this is something that is a fairly recent feature. I don't remember it at Grandma and Grandpa's funerals in the '70s. It's like salad bars. Someone thought of the obvious and next thing you knew everyone had one.

Looking at photos is an interesting experience. Even if you don't know the person whose photos they are. Of course in this case I knew her, but they would've been just as interesting otherwise.

What's interesting? You can peg the general era the photos were taken about every time. The formal class photo, an 8 x 10, soft color, the color nearly fake. Lots of greens and blues. Snapshots from the '30s and '40s. Still crisp, clear. 110 camera film from the '70s, the colors losing some of their realism, just about every time.

I also like the various poses. The fun poses that are almost cliche but are still entirely lacking in self-consciousness. At least they weren't going for a cliche look.

Elvis' Religious Albums

I've never paid much attention to Elvis Presley's religious albums before. And I'm a real Elvis fan.

I definitely have a real spiritual/religious side, but in general I tend to shy away from a lot of religious music. Whatever they're testifying to doesn't usually do much for me. Something about religious celebrities seems like a difficult contradiction to me. I do trust Elvis' spiritual experiences over the years, so that's not the problem. It just wasn't for me.

But recently I've been listening to a little more of it. I got a decent two CD set by Mahalia Jackson and enjoyed some of the spirituals on there. So I'm looking at CDs, and I know these titles, "His Hand In Mine" and "How Great Thou Art," are original albums, now re-released in 2008, and I think Why Not? You love Elvis, why wouldn't you love to hear these (I have heard some of them before, just not much)?

And sure enough, I do love them. They're great. Elvis puts a lot of feeling and intensity into the songs. The first album was recorded, at least for the most part, at one all night session. I read about that session in the notes to the Complete '60s Masters, and he did some inspired work that night. So that's enjoyable. The second album was 1967, I believe, and he sounds in excellent form then too. After those two, I decided, why not get the other one too, "He Touched Me," from the early '70s. If you're going to have something you may as well have it all!

So now, if there's any others ... I don't know about them.

Little Cards

I've been writing up some conclusions in the morning on my various spiritual wanderings. Today I thought it'd be a good idea to put some of it on a card, abbreviated in abbreviations that only I could understanding, but ... no cards.

This is something that might be worth recommending. Get some little cards, about the size of business cards (which I haven't done yet) and come up with some kind of system. Then carry it around and remind yourself of your conclusions.

I know for me, I tend to forget the good feelings and good conclusions -- which is a good word -- but today I referred to it on a little sheet of paper, not quite as good as a card would be.

It was a handy sheet of paper too, because someone called, I needed a piece of paper to write down a note to myself and used the back of it! Except the pen wasn't working too great.

Dem Franchize Boyz

Remember the song, "Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It"?

I'm listening to it on my Ipod. I remember hearing it on the radio a couple years ago, with all the little cleaned up edits on it. It must be filthy in its original form, because all the little blank spots are so many it's all you notice.

It's a catchy tune. Seems like they could've simply recorded a clean version rather than having to blank this one out so many times. It's annoying.

The Downside and Upside of the Job

We were reading the local police page today with much interest, because there seemed to be a lot more crime over the holidays. One guy was listed in there three times, two times of intoxication if I recall and problems associated with it, and also his car hit a post, driver unknown. Another guy was listed a couple times.

There were two incidences that involved arrestees resisting arrest, spitting or attempting to spit at the police, and trying to kick out the window of a police car. Two!

It makes me think the police have a harder job than it looks like. But a good job. Because if it weren't for criminals like these guys, they wouldn't have a job. So much. So look on the bright side. The same guy who spits on you today is signing your paycheck tomorrow.

Tarot Cards

I caught a glimpse of All My Children yesterday. I usually watch the first 10-15 minutes while eating, then that's it.

But I came downstairs toward the end and Opal was doing something with tarot cards. She's the resident psychic. She's always been that on the show, and her predictions tend to come true. It's easy to do when it's scripted.

The whole thing with the cards and Opal is that they're very predictive. She can turn up the Devil or Death card and it's disaster, blah blah blah. Give me a break.

Where to go with this. I don't think so.

Down The List

Right down the list, what's it got to be?

I was watching Jimi Hendrix play the guitar, on the complete Woodstock performances DVD. He's playing automatically, not even thinking about it. The way he's mashing at the strings, I'd think it'd be nothing but distortion and muffled mistakes. That's the difference between knowing what you're doing and not.

Shelagh McDonald

Here's something I keep wondering about: What else is there out there I've never heard of that's suddenly going to appear one day as something that's always been there?

I got a CD by Shelagh McDonald at a thrift shop yesterday (12-31). I saw it. It looked like something, since it said it included rare, unissued recordings. They don't usually put that on the front of a CD by a local artist putting out her own CD to sell at the local bookstore. So I'm thinking, hmm, who could this be?

I glanced at the liner notes and it talked about Shelagh's disappearance, the mystery, etc., and I'm wondering how I never heard about any of this.

The CD, called "Album," was only a dollar, so naturally I got it. There's some pretty things on there. I haven't heard the whole thing. I came home and read up on her on the internet. And the mystery as to what happened to her has since been resolved. That's good.

But I see she has two albums. The other one is called "Stargazer," and is apparently more rare. Amazon dealers have "Album" for a few bucks, but "Stargazer" is in the $69-$89 range, thereabouts.

If you're out there -- and semi-famous -- and I haven't heard of you yet -- just relax, I'll get around to you sooner or later.