Old So What

  If you read my book, A Quick Read: Short-Short Stories , then you have at least an idea. These dramas are addictive!  Really, maybe I should get a life, but I look forward to the story line, the actors, the sets, the costumes, the smallest details which have all been included just for me! And everything is more than well done, it’s almost, yes, almost, perfect.   All of which show: care, expense-not-spared, sensitivity to the viewers, extraordinary imagination, above- and-beyond writing, acting and directing. It's nice to think that there are still creative, bodies of pure talent in this world, at least in Korea. These dramas end with a “Thank you” to “our” audience. I rest my case. P.S. The one flaw and the only reason for the almost perfect score instead of perfect, is that in order to grant the viewers’ wish for a happy ending, sometimes the endings don’t really make sense, as when the heroine swallows poison, gushes up blood, but ends up just fine! How...

but when you make yourself laugh, is when you know for sure you’re funny. 

  In the 1950s and early 1960s (in that time zone), CBS Television centered in New York City, had an extensive library of black-and-white films.  Probably the best library in the world.  I know because I’m sure that I viewed most of those movies myself. Then in the 60s, I think, the library was divided up, with parts of it sold off to other markets (meaning other television regions where the population can receive the same television/radio station offerings).   Something that I always found unfortunate because it dispersed a treasure trove of some of the greats in black-and-white.   These films played a role in the morals of my time, at least for me. Because between the opening and closing credits, we got to view film as a microcosm of civilized behavior as it should be.  In other words: good triumphed and was rewarded, and evil got its well-deserved punishment. That’s it, that was the consistent, enduring lesson. It was born in the studios of Hollywood...

  Apparently on my car, for example, if the steering wheel is not left in the straight position , when the ignition is turned off, the car may refuse to start.  The key will not even go all the way into the ignition which seems locked. To remedy this occurrence should it happen to you, just try to turn the steering wheel.   It may not appear to move but the attempt, the pushing back and forth on the wheel, will solve the problem; the key will go in and the car will start. I learned this on the phone from a very knowledgeable agent at AAA! Followed up by the confirmation of the head mechanic at my car dealership.

  IF aliens really wanted to get in touch with humanity, then they could just send us a text (or an email).  It doesn’t have to be all that complicated, does it?

  If somewhere along the way you’ve lost (through no fault of your own), the love of your life, then that should definitely be considered a mitigating circumstance to your faults.

  Wasn’t I lucky? Actually NO.   The polio shot itself and what I may have caught as a germ of polio caused me to contract the disease. That’s what the doctors thought.  I will never really know. Did the shot contain live polio?  Again, I will never know. Other children around this time, who had gotten the Salk Vaccine shots, contracted the disease, too. If it was because of the same reason. Well, guess along with me. Where I lucked out is that my doctor (a specialist) put me in the hospital, and in traction immediately.   I couldn’t even go home first to get anything such as books or clothes, or playthings. Because the Children’s wing was full up in the local hospital, they put me in the lounge, on an adult floor, with a public telephone booth, so I was usually not alone. Mostly it was boring and despite the booth, lonely.   I especially missed being around other children. (I was eleven.) Before I continue, perhaps I should explain that “tr...

  Taking out the garbage and recyclables! I am not kidding. I’s a big production.   It’s downright scary if you think about it. First, I pray that I won’t fall down. Next, I wait till there is enough light outside. Then, I put my cell phone and its carry purse around my neck, so should something actually occur I can call my cousin (to come and gather me off the pavement). Then, I set out slowly, aware of my surroundings. I use a lightweight walker for this that has a life of its own and tries to speed up at the end of my slightly slanted driveway. Sometimes this turns into a social event with people on the sidewalk, at the end of the driveway, with dog leashes, or children’s little hands in their hands. But usually not, unfortunately. I’m always glad when this is a fait accompli! Then, later, I have to strategize the trip back. It would almost be worth getting re-married so I would have a good solution to this.

  Chocolate milk enhances all food:    Savory, or sweet food, chocolate milk just makes it taste better.   Honestly, for most chocolate lovers I suspect:   We love Chocolate Milk. Invented by Sir Hans Sloane, an Anglo-Irish physician, naturalist and collector in the late 1600s. (His history is fascinating!)

  you have not been absent from the planet, or living on the very fringes of it, so, therefore you are acquainted with the actors (meaning actresses, too) that I’ve written about so far.  If this is of no interest to you, please let me know through this blog, I don’t wish to waste your time. However, if you do find this topic valuable, please let me know that, too. SO, since this may be my last entry on the subject, I feel free to add my favorite actor, and that’s saying a lot! People just adore this man. Johnny Depp One of the most gifted actors of our time. Go see the film, “Minamata,” starring and produced by Mr. Depp as the American photo-journalist, W. Eugene Smith.  Go see the film, “Minamata.”   It’s so much more than just a motion picture.

  A long time ago, I had a niece with a car.   It was dark blue, a very nice model… But it got old as cars do. It could only run for a short period of time before it stopped dead. Now my niece had a trade in lined up with the car dealer.   Not wishing to miss this opportunity, she had the car towed to the hill just behind the car dealer, released the brake, and let gravity take its course. At this point only steering and the brake were required. Down the hill the blue car flew. The car dealer got in, and off the blue car zoomed for a very brief, but satisfying trip of a couple of feet to the show room. This was my niece with a face of an angel, and her brief criminal career.  

  It was not lost on me that I chose to start to write in earnest after my relatives, who were writers, were either in mental decline or dead. I obviously didn’t want any comparisons to turn up. There was one person about whom the following story revolved. About whom my entire world revolved at the time. It was my mother, of course. This particular story began on the morning of The Interview, an ordinary enough occasion for young girls in the 1950s who wished to enter Polite Society. As defined by people who considered themselves to be socially superior, thus allowing them to set standards of behavior for everyone else. I was 14 at the time, just slightly pretty, and exhibiting a beginning glimpse of attractiveness to come. We were late as usual. (I’m certain that when she was dying, my mother told God, “WAIT, I’m not ready yet!”) I never actually called her Mother, but rather, “Mommie” until like a slap across the face, she told me that I was too old to be calling...

  When you use a cane or a walker that you know what you’re doing.  I can tell you that you don’t from personal experience.  BUT there are videos out there (try YouTube) that can help. They can give you tips that will keep you from tripping all over yourself, as I almost did until I watched the demonstration.  Still, it is easy to trip.  So, take your time in this and everything you do.  After all, what's the rush?  You have all the time in your world.

  Have you heard of dead or dying malls? By the time you read this you’ll probably have to look up the word “mall” on-line, on-phone, on something. Malls, those places you used to go to buy things.  Some things you didn’t even know that you wanted. There was a feeling of anticipation, something good was about to happen.  Some discovery was about to be made. I never-ever get that feeling when I order on-line.   I get a feeling of dread knowing that I’ll get something messed up, some code number inverted.   (That’s why I wait for my youngest cousin to come over and ask her to do it for me.   She’s not full of dread.   She likes it! She’s a child of today. But I digress.) There’s no feeling of community when buying on-line. At least none that I can find. No bumping into people. No crowding, pushing, occasional sale-shoving, come to think of it… But now, at the time of writing this, there are tours on-line of dead, or dying malls.   If you e...

  There’s something about a monarchy that… America just doesn’t like. Oh, we ooh and aah about the beauty, precision, and discipline that the British military, for example, displays ceremonially. They are beyond compare, extraordinary, devoted. We’re impressed, maybe even fascinated but that’s as far it goes. What the British don’t see is the America spirit that can’t just go along because that’s the way it’s always been done.  Except for during war, Americans don’t like to just go along. We’re a feisty group. We still don’t want taxation without representation:  although now it comes from our own government. And all those other things that we didn’t want in 1776 at the founding of our nation, but now we have. For us we will always be a free and independent nation, that’s just the way we see it. 

  before we bought everything on-line (as we do now). On one of the most sweltering days of the year… My mom-in-law, my husband and I set out to buy a new car. It was not one of our better ideas. We went to a lot of new car dealers, and wore ourselves out. We were dripping with sweat and generally just frazzled. My husband sat in the front seat of what we hoped was our last stop. And, my mother-in-law and I climbed into the back seat. Suddenly the salesman blurted out, “I know just what you need.” And he reached from outside, down into the car… and turned on the radio.

  In our neighborhood there are a few houses that stand waiting for the owners to return.  Just waiting.  They’re not waiting to be taken over by squatters, ransacked, destroyed or hurt in any way.  They’re just waiting for the warmth of a human touch, their human; a light turned on, in the house, their light; and ownership that takes up where it left off. In our neighborhood, there are a few humans that stand waiting for the owners to return.   Just waiting.   A watchful eye is kept for our neighbors’ homes.

  Until you’re alone with no distractions, thinking your own thoughts…you will never know just who you are.  And if you don’t like that person…improve him(her).

  Stumbling Around The most terrifying thing is waking up and realizing that you forgot that you have someplace to go, or worse, realizing that you forgot you have no place to go. It was the first morning since it happened that I went out by myself. The first of November, and the temperature had turned an unnatural 77 degrees, with the sun glaring so that it seemed to have sucked up all the oxygen until the world fell breathlessly around me. Noises sped past my ears like ammunition and I started and jumped at the most innocent of sounds: an unseen neighbor yelling to someone else, a horn sounding at the intersection. Rather like an alcoholic with a hangover except that my disorientation was not due to liquor but more like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.   I started up the treeless hill toward the Suburban Trolley and waited on the right side of the tracks on a surprisingly clean brown-metal bench. The other side of the tracks had a sign on its bench: "Use the tracks ...

  At this season of the year between Christmas and New Year’s Day…I wasn’t feeling too hopeful being old, mostly alone, and fast going through the little retirement money I had left. I was making my (and my cat’s bed—we share, or really, she allows me to sleep in my own bed on whichever side of it she is not occupying at the moment). I was right in the middle of thinking that things were on a sure track to get worse…. When I heard a sound seldom heard in the house, uttered by a creature who didn’t like humanity very much or so I thought. (Somewhere before we met, she must have had an unpleasant experience with someone.) Then I put a name to the little creature, and a name to the sound. My cat was purring. A very hopeful sign, don’t you think?

  The dumbest cat is still smarter than anyone else in the room. A cat may not always know what you’re saying, but she’s willing to listen.

Unlike some people my age (in my 70’s), I do not like  going to the doctor.  I can think of better ways to socialize.

  When you live in a house with lots of people and pets, and you walk into a room that’s a total mess, you might ask the question: “What happened here?”   I was strolling through a cable channel video with no particular place to go. The subject was ghost or near-ghost towns, based on stories without happy endings. The town I zeroed in on was literally being swallowed up by its own vegetation. Sometimes a porch or a roof would stick out in protest. (You could look at a clump and think: Is there a “there” there under all that ugly, non-specific greenery?) Sometimes someone had seemed to sneak back into town to plant a few flowers or mow a lawn (showing that relatives of the original residents, or more than likely, other residents were still around), but you could see that this was a very sad place in a very sad situation, in the aftermath of some unhappy happenings.   Some place you don’t want to think about. Some place you don’t want to be.   A place you don’t e...

  Candidate Number One Yulie and I were friends. You could even say, best friends. She would cook hamburgers for us on Saturdays when her mother wasn’t home. They were really tasty and I think it may have been the only thing that Yulie knew how to cook. There used to be an expression:   Tall, Dark (meaning dark hair), and Handsome. Well, on Saturdays when her mother wasn’t home, this man would come by with his little boy, who I always found annoying. But that’s neither here nor there (another old expression). How he knew Yulie I’ve long forgotten.   I think he had started out as a friend of the family or of her mother’s. Anyway, he was short, dark of hair and, I thought, ugly. He looked as if he ought to go for a good scrub down and bathe in an astringent. He was married, but always kidded around, touching and flirting with Yulie, and to my dismay, she flirted right back. Yulie was, what we called in the 1950’s, well developed for her age. He treated her as...

  I do not enjoy being called by my first name by little children who don’t even reach my knee in height.  Who gave you permission to do this? It wasn’t me.

  Look around for pricing for cell phone service.   The rates can really vary.   I am now paying half of what I paid previously for better service.

There is nothing better for the soul,  than the quiet serenity  of watching snow fall. 

Sorry, but at my age I’ve heard every Christmas song about 2 million times. I can no longer listen to one of them without squirming.

Now showing on Netflix Starring and directed by Bradley Cooper with Carey Mulligan A movie is very much like a train. It leaves the station, and through dialog and other controls, (including the actors, the screenplay, sometimes the costumes and set design), winds itself along on the tracks of a story. With a successful film, the viewers of the movie also participate. They are right there with the director, cast and camera crew.  They are all in. But the “train” called “Maestro” leaves the station without the passengers. They are left still sitting alone on the waiting room benches. They are not taken along for the ride. This is a movie that wants to get your attention, and it does to a certain extent. Its method is a sharp, quick and innovative style. It wants to show you how different it is from other movies.  It wants to break through, to became a new genre.  Maybe it tries too hard.  It’s exhausting.  All the effort shows.  We don’t want to see “the lit...

I will admit up front that I love the melancholy sound of a Cello. It stirs the soul and takes the listener on a roller-coaster ride of emotions.  2CELLOS exemplifies the artistry, grace, and range of this timeless instrument. They cover songs from famous soundtracks to hard rock classics, while never altering their style or passion. They truly have a unique sound that can be appreciated by everyone.  My personal favorites are "Despacito," "Smells like teen spirit," "Seven Nation Army," and "My heart will go on." I now am the proud owner of their collection of cds, and stream their videos for added visual fun. My only regret is that I did not discover them until the week before they retired from touring. I will continue to support both the band and the individual artists. Do yourself a favor and give them a listen, you will not be disappointed.