I've been "two-timing" this blog!
Yep, I admit it, I've been an absolute heel...

What the heck have I been doing? Oh my garsh, my posting frequency's down again, so here I am having to scramble on the weekend so I can keep this thing fresh and exciting. Well, fresh, anyway...at least a couple of nights this past week, I've been griping away on the Seattle Mariners' website...they've been blown out of the water by both the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees during this last road trip. Only today, the M's were AHEAD of the Yankees late into the game. And talk about finding new ways to lose...this time, ICHIRO, the gold-glove fielder, got turned around trying to catch a fly ball, and "thud" the ball unceremoniously hit the ground, and well, you know the rest...J.J. Putz, former ultra-feared closer, got TAKEN OUT 'cos he was ineffective. The upshot was that the Yankees came from behind to post a 6 to 5 victory over the Mariners...you know, the Mariners...the baseball team that 99 and forty-four one-hundredths percent of faithful baseball fans are now proceeding to disown. So why did the M's blow it late in the game? Well, because Jared Washburn actually pitched a pretty great game. So I guess the M's didn't wanna tarnish their image by ACTUALLY WINNING A GAME! The Yankees and Tigers, who've had a tuff season so far, looked like CHAMPS against the M's. And the M's? Chumps.

Typing in Morse Code: From time to time, I try to mention the other 'main thing' I do with this here computer, that of maintaining my "Miss Lee Morse" group site...you can find a little Yahoo-group clicker-button off to your left...I've posted a whole lot of stuff in there; souvenir pictures which illustrate her career; pictures of sheet music, with her picture on them (even on some songs she never sang!) as well as detailing the life and times of some of the other vintage songbirds who were popular around that time. I admire Miss Morse, in part, because she wrote a lot of her own songs, including this pretty little number, "Love Me"...which, in this YouTube video, is accompanied by a photo montage of her throughout her career...recorded c.1930...


Absolutely stunning is the variety of musical styles she took on. Though not really a blues singer, she could sing the blues with the best of 'em. Though not really a torch singer, "Love Me" showcases her three-octave voice gently caressing a ballad, and then off she'd go yodeling or scat-singing in some silly novelty song of the day. It really made my day this week when a copy of her 1920's hit, "Animal Crackers" arrived at my door. We all need silliness once in a while.

So, is it a scandal, or ain't it? "Scandal." That word shoulda tipped you off that this section was gonna be about politics. Hillary Clinton, remarking upon her turbulent battle with Obama over votes, said something about, "well in June, you know, there was the Bobby Kennedy Assassination", remarking that he hadn't won the Democratic Party's nomination until June '68, implying that Her Time Is Yet To Come. That is, she'd win the nomination then, not get blown away. And boyohboy, did the MSNBC talking heads get after her for saying that. Especially Keith Olberman, who I think is kinda cool. But then yesterday on the radio, a newscaster said that scandal is blowing over and that Obama himself was quoted as saying he "took Hillary at her word" for not meaning any harm to anyone. As Olberman pointed out, however, "assassination" is not a word one tosses around lightly in the midst of a campaign. Well, think about it...John F. Kennedy...Bobby Kennedy...Martin Luther King, Jr...and, yes, George Wallace. Also think if you will, about Kent State, which was assassination coming from the Other Side. Ugly times indeed.

And now you tell me a LAPTOP's too big? Remember back when desktop PC's finally became affordable, and wow, were people turned on by that. Almost everyone could get a desktop and connect to the World Wide Web. Later on, in coffeeshops and elsewhere, I began seeing people bring funny little laptops (like the one I'm using right now) along with them, and I thot, "I'll never get one of those", all the while amazed by the great screen resolution as I looked (surreptitiously) over laptop owners' shoulders. When my desktop Gave Up The Ghost last year, I got this here laptop. AND NOW I'M LIBERATED! I can take this little subversive box of cyber-transmission, find a wi-fi area somewhere, and off I can go! So I was shocked to see a recent TV commercial in which a young woman in a Wi-Fi cafe with laptop tries to get up and take her laptop somewhere else, and a cage drops down, imprisoning her and her laptop. Turns out the commercial says she's a PRISONER OF WI-FI. The solution? Buy some kind of little microgadget that does everything a laptop does, only it gets misplaced easier and is more prone to theft or getting flushed down a toilet. It's the Miniturization of America, folks. Thousands of songs on an Ipod the size of a business card. There's no use trying to get "hip", folks. What you buy today is outta style tomorrow. I've just seen a Circuit City ad that says the big-box store is marking down their LAPTOP prices by $180.00. Definition of "Sale": Dumping unsellable, outmoded items on the market. Except in Grocery Stores, where some things are put on sale, and prices are raised on some other items to make up the difference.

Will the "Sunday Drive" become a distant memory? It is a beautiful day out there today. I'm sure that over the ocean, not a cloud is in the sky, which can be a rare thing sometimes. So what am I doing INSIDE, typing this exercise in monotony on a Sunday Afternoon? Well, I went to the beach YESTERDAY, you see. Does this also have something to do with GAS RISING TO ABOVE FOUR-DOLLARS A GALLON? You bet your sweet BIPPY (or anything else) it does! So, I am RATIONING my driving. Thinking twice before going somewhere on a whim. Usually the term "Gas Giant" refers to big planets such as Jupiter or Saturn, which are nothing more than big balls of gas that grow denser the further in you go, where there's (reported to be) a "core" of Liquid Nitrogen. Not a great place for land developers. Well, "Gas Giant", in this case...refers to the Monolithic Oil Companies who are making not just 'profits', but 'RECORD' profits. That would, in turn, make the CEO's of fuel companies giant GASBAGS.


Perhaps Fred Flintstone was ahead of his time. Yabba-dabba-doo!!!

The only kind of pressure we can exert on the Gas Giants (and Gasbags) is Not To Use As Much. Of course, that'll probably mean more fuel for the war machine. Ya can't win.I've seen gas go above one dollar, then two, then three and have pretty much taken it in stride...but when I drove by Ye Olde Gas Place the other day and saw $4.05 (!!!) I couldn't shake the feeling of trepidation brewing in my gut (and gas tank). I remember filling up my TANK for that amount, long, long ago.
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There's no truth to the rumor that they're shoveling out Fort Knox, replacing them solid gold bars with gasoline. At least, not yet.