According to legend, while Rome was burning Emperor Nero played the fiddle. But learning how to play the fiddle is time-consuming, expensive, and difficult.
With time on your hands, while the world burns during Covid-19(84) perhaps you would like to learn a few new dance moves in these 3 minute Youtube videos. Guaranteed to put a smile on your face, and it’s fun for the whole family.
Break the rules. Dance with your friends and The Fitness Marshall!
Mothers of all stripes:
We can’t miss a day without a reference to you know what, so here is a list of clever lockdown lingo. Thanks to a friend for sending it in.
https://www.heart.co.uk/news/coronavirus/hilarious-list-lockdown-lingo/
And only 5 minutes long.
Take a break from the usual list of time fillers like Sudoku, Crosswords and Puzzles, and try Anagrams.
There are dozens of anagrams for theforthrightone, including Frighten Her Tooth, and Ferret Thigh Hot On.
Try it yourself. Find out what your friends names really mean. Or pets. Or anything. Here is the link.
On a side street near where I grew up, there were two corner stores. One was a small grocery named Parrott’s and the other one was a tiny, run-down building owned by Pat and Lena. Both had candy sections, and on the way back to school after lunch, they were where I would spend my daily dime allowance.
Pat and Lena were really old so it was easier to steal candy from their shop. Parrott’s candy section was not self serve, but they tended to have a better variety.
These are some of the tooth rotting delicacies I remember buying:
Mojos; wax lips; bacon and hickory chips; Popeye cigarettes; jujubes; Lolas; Pixy Stix; Lik-M-Aid; Sweet tarts; Black Cat gum; Fruit Stripe gum; Koo-Koo bars; Minipop; those super chewy red coins; Buried Treasure; Chunky; Dubble Bubble; Tiny Size Chicklets; Fruitella; B-B-Bats; Lovehearts; Good and Plenty; Ludens cherry flavoured cough drops – all so delicious.
There was another store on a busier street that sold lemon chiffon ice cream cones which my friend and I were addicted to. Like other addicts with no source of income, we very carefully took money from the leather pouch her brother used for his paper route collection. For some reason I remember the day we spent $1.05 at that store, which was an insane amount of money to blow in the 1960’s.
It’s funny what we remember when we don’t have a lot to do.
I would sometimes fake being sick so I could stay home from public school and watch Concentration with Hugh Downs. Forget soap operas, I was addicted to game shows. Jeopardy with Art Fleming was my favourite, and it still is with Alex Trebek.
Since I’m in a reminiscing mood, and I am currently watching quite a lot of Netflix, I was thinking about TV shows from years gone by. I think I can still sing a lot of the theme songs.
Saturday morning was Clutch Cargo, Diver Dan, Felix the Cat (remember Vavoom), Johnny Quest, The Flintstones, and Top Cat. Then Sky King came on but that was boring. But not as boring as Agriculture USA.
It was a big deal to eat a kaiser with ham and lettuce for dinner in the living room on Friday night. I can’t remember what we watched. Maybe it was Bugs Bunny.
Did you watch any of these:
Secret Squirrel; Atom Ant; Cool McCool and Hurricane Harry; Underdog; Hazel; Make Room for Daddy; Bewitched; I Dream of Jeannie; The Rifleman; Combat with Vic Morrow; Mannix; Rocky and Bullwinkle; Huckleberry Hound; Fireball XL5; Beanie and Cecil; the cartoon show about a turtle with the line ‘Drizzle, drazzel, dradle, drone. Time for this one to come home.’; Ruff and Reddy; The Jetsons; Tom and Jerry; Mr. Jinks; Magilla Gorilla; Quick Draw McGraw; International Showtime with Don Ameche.
My Three Sons was not a favourite. I thought Ernie was a jerk. But Snagglepuss was fun with his catchphrases ‘Heavens to Murgatroyd’ and ‘Exit, stage left.’
And who was that dog who pointed to his mouth saying ‘Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah’ and wouldn’t move until he was given biscuits which made him float up on his back in ecstacy?
If you are young, and none of these ring a bell, look them up on YouTube and enjoy the golden age of television, brought to you by The Boomers.
Anything is better than talking about the ‘C’ word.
Even though I was never involved in any organized sports (I even failed gym in grade 9 because I refused to participate), there are sporting events I remember watching on TV that were quite thrilling.
Like Wide World of Sports – ‘The thrill of victory. The agony of defeat!’ Jim McKay was a fantastic host and our whole family was glued to the set whenever it was on. The opening sequence and theme music are etched in my brain forever.
In tennis, Bjorn Borg was exciting to watch. He was just the kind of guy I would have dated in high school – a long haired rebel.
The sound of the horns in the Olympic anthem always makes me feel fantastic. It is the soundtrack for overcoming obstacles. And the storehouse of emotions from watching the hundreds of Olympic events over the years. My dad would often cry watching them, especially if an underdog won a gold medal. Like when the Aboriginal Canadian athlete won the canoe racing event, and he raised an eagle feather salute from the podium. That really touched my dad.
But the piece de resistance for me is the ice dancing duo of Torvill and Dean and Bolero. I remember sitting watching it and being in a trance. It was so groundbreaking, so insanely creative, so original, so mesmerizing – truly a televised peak life experience.
Memories that set your heart on fire. That is real life.
Starecat.com has some pretty funny memes and random pictures:
https://starecat.com/corona-extra-beer-heineken-beer-with-face-mask-stay-over-there-coronavirus/
We can usually find something from our childhood memories to make us happy, even if some of it wasn’t all joy and roses.
Realizing I needed to exercise to burn up some of the cortisol from stress, I put on an unusual workout CD. (Yes, I still have a ghetto blaster).
It is Walt Disney’s Children’s Favourite Songs Volume 1. The smile never left my face as I listened to This Old Man (Knick-Knack, Patty-Whack); I’ve Been Working on the Railroad; Three Blind Mice; Oh, Susanna; Home on the Range; Mary Had a Little Lamb; Old MacDonald; The Hokey Pokey; She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain; Row, Row, Row Your Boat; Pop! Goes the Weasel; Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star; In the Good Old Summertime, and Take Me Out to the Ballgame.
It was so nice to remember songs I haven’t thought about in years, and to sing along with old-fashioned innocence!
Years ago, I said to my royal consort and brother that I wished there was some way to buy individual songs instead of albums which had a bunch of tunes I was not interested in. They both scoffed at my idea and said it could never happen because record companies would never be able to sort out the royalties. So in a way, I invented iTunes.
The problem with comedies is, even though they are funny, the scenes that make me laugh are few and far between. Kind of like having an album with only one great song. I wish there was a way to gather together the scenes from movies that make me laugh out loud. It wouldn’t be out of context because I’ve seen the movies. I could just relive the hilarious parts. These are some of the things that would be on my reel:
From Anger Management – the scene with clothing for cats.
From Dick and Jane – the scene where Jim Carrey pretends he’s a puppet.
From Keeping the Faith – the scene with the Karaoke salesman
From Tommy Boy – the scene with Chris Farley and the CEO
From Neighbours – when the neighbour asks “You gotta whore in there?”
This little exercise might be a bit of relief from the current madness – think about things that made you laugh. Look them up on YouTube and share them with others.
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