May 2004 Archives

I often hear about people who retire and can't stand it. They miss work. They don't know what to do with their time once they don't have a job. I suspect there may be a correlation between this phenomenon and the way that they were raised. Like many kids today, perhaps these unhappy retirees depended on their parents to see that they were entertained during every waking moment. They didn't learn to entertain themselves.

I really think that I could handle retirement just fine. I grew up having to find creative ways to entertain myself and I did so spending little or no money.

Yep, if there was a job market for killing time, I'd be a pro. I'd be sought after!

(especially the oldies)

Some favorites:

Charade (Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn) Hitchcock 1963

Arsenic & Old Lace (Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Peter Lorre) Frank Capra 1944

Room For One More -aka - The Easy Way (Cary Grant, Betsy Drake) 1952

Houseboat (Cary Grant, Sophia Loren) 1958

An Affair To Remember (Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr) 1957

Father Goose (Cary Grant, Leslie Caron) 1960

The Bishop’s Wife (Cary Grant, Loretta Young, David Niven) 1947

North By Northwest - aka - In a Northwesterly Direction (Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason) Hitchcock 1959

Life With Father (William Powell, Irene Dunn, Elizabeth Taylor) 1947

The Thin Man (William Powell, Myrna Loy) 1934

Born Yesterday (Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, William Holden) 1950

Bells Are Ringing (Judy Holliday, Dean Martin, Jean Stapleton) 1960

Breakfast At Tiffany’s (Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard) 1961

Roman Holiday (Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Eddie Albert) 1953

How The West Was Won (MANY STARS include Carroll Baker, Lee J. Cobb, Henry Fonda, Karl Malden, Gregory Peck, George Peppard, Robert Preston, Debbie Reynolds, James Steward, John Wayne, Richard Widmark, Walter Brennan) 1962

It’s a Wonderful Life (James Stewart, Donna Reed) Frank Capra 1946

Harvey (James Stewart) 1950

Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation (James Stewart, Maureen O’Hara, Fabian) 1962

Rear Window (James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter) Hitchcock 1954

Bell, Book and Candle (James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Hermione Gringold, Ernie Kovacs) 1958

The Sound of Music (Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer) 1965

To Kill a Mockingbird (Gregory Peck, Robert Duvall) 1962

The Parent Trap (Hayley Mills, Brian Keith, Maureen O’Hara) 1961

Pollyanna (Hayley Mills, Karl Malden, Jane Wyman, Richard Egan, Adolphe Menjou, Agnes Moorehead) 1960

The Big Chill (Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly, JoBeth Williams) 1983

Max Dugan Returns ( Jason Robards, Marsha Mason, Matthew Broderick, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Dody Goodman) 1983

Murphy’s Romance (James Garner, Sally Field, Corey Haim) 1985
Field of Dreams (Kevin Kostner, Amy Madigan, Ray Liotta, James Earl Jones, Burt Lancaster) 1989

Message in a Bottle (Kevin Kostner, Robin Wright Penn, Paul Newman) 1999

Sleepless In Seattle (Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, Bill Pullman, Rosie O’Donnell) 1993

When Harry Met Sally (Meg Ryan, Billy Crystal, Carrie Fisher) 1989

And that's all I can think of right now. Have you seen this site? It's a wonderful resource: Internet Movie Database

This has been on my bulletin board for a couple of years now. I've yet to tire of it:

STRICT, UNBENDING RULES FOR DEALING WITH STRAY CATS

1.Stray cats will not be fed.

2. Stray cats will not be fed anything except dry cat food.

3. Stray cats will not be fed anything except dry cat food moistened with a
little milk.

4.Stray cats will not be fed anything except dry cat food moistened with
warm milk, yummy treats and leftover fish scraps.

5. Stray cats will not be encouraged to make this house their permanent
residence.

6 Stray cats will not be petted, played with or picked up and cuddled
unnecessarily.

7. Stray cats that are petted, played with, picked up and cuddled
will absolutely not be given a name.

8. Stray cats with or without a name will not be allowed inside the house at
any time.

9. Stray cats will not be allowed inside the house except at certain times.

10. Stray cats will not be allowed inside the house except on days ending in
"y."

11. Stray cats allowed inside will not be permitted to jump up on or sharpen
their claws on the furniture.

12. Stray cats will not be permitted to jump up on, or sharpen claws on the
really good furniture.

13. Stray cats may be permitted on furniture but must sharpen claws on new
159.99 sisal-rope cat-scratching post with three perches.

14. Stray cats will answer the call of nature outdoors in the dirt.

15. Stray cats will answer the call of nature in the three-piece,
high-impact plastic tray filled with Fresh n Sweet kitty litter.

16. Stray cats will answer the call of nature in the hooded litter pan with
a three-panel privacy screen and plenty of head room.

17. Stray cats will sleep outside.

18. Stray cats will sleep in the garage.

19. Stray cats will sleep in the house.

20. Stray cats will sleep in a cardboard box lined with an old blanket.

21. Stray cats will sleep in the special Kitty-Komfort-Bed with
non-allergenic lambs wool pillow.

22.Stray cats will not be allowed to sleep in our bed.

23. Stray cats will not be allowed to sleep in our bed, except at the foot.

24. Stray cats will not be allowed to sleep in our bed under the covers.

~ author unknown ~

They're lazy. No good. A pitiful lot. You give 'em a job and you get shoddy, poor quality workmanship and you may have to make 'em do it over.

Who are they? They're can openers. Is there anyone who hasn't done battle with a can opener, be it electric or non-electric? I've been forced to fire many of them in my lifetime. Last year, I thought I'd found the exception to the rule but, in recent months, I've had to rebuild that "exceptional" opener on a daily basis.

Okay. What to do? Well, this is the age of the Internet. A wealth of information (and misinformation) is at our fingertips. A search of this subject taught me that there are some very aesthetically pleasing can openers out there. I found product comparison sites with opinions from people who own the can openers featured. I discounted the opinions of those who had only just purchased the product. Then, I found it. I almost overlooked it because it looks just like a regular old $5 model that you could buy anywhere and then regret the purchase within a month. Despite its ordinary appearance, this opener was given high praise from people that have had it for years and claim it's still going strong. And to further convince me that this one was worth a try, its packaging touts that it is the one that NASA trusts. That sounds like it might be worth the $13 I spent. Yep, I placed an order. Remind me to give you a review of it in a year or two.

At lunch last week, a co-worker was relating how difficult it is for her to convince her 5-year-old son to stay buckled-up while riding in the car. She often turns around to see that he's freed himself and is moving about the back seat. She's tried reason, punishment, and even fear tactics. Nothing seemed to have a lasting result. Although this is a serious issue, what follows is the lighter of the story...

Recently she was driving down the road and she glanced behind her to check on him, only to find that he wasn't there !.

She immediately called out his name.

Muffled reply: "What?".

"Where are you?"

Muffled reply: "I'm in the trunk."

The little guy had figured out that he could lay down the back seat and get into the trunk.

Air Disaster Database
This site has a database of air disasters, large and small. Some have links to online articles (and sometimes photos) about the crash and the investigative findings.

==================================================
The first thing I felt compelled to do when I found this database was to look up the crash of Pan Am Flight 759. Do any of you in Louisiana remember this disaster? I was at work, only a few miles from the site, when this crash took place. I remember noticing smoke coming down the street and wondering where it was coming from. I learned, shortly thereafter, of the horror that was occurring nearby. The site was only about two small suburban blocks from my in-law's house. In fact, their house sustained some minor damage from this accident, but none of my in-laws were injured. If you were around for this incident, one thing that may jar your memory is that while rescue workers were sifting through the debris to find remains, and hope was gone for finding survivors, a worker moved a large piece of smoking debris and rescued an infant, whose injuries were miraculously minor -- relatively speaking. Talk about a tear-jerker for those of us watching the news that day!!

The crash of Pan Am Flight 759, July 9, 1982 was the second worst accident in the history of American aviation at the time.

And a comforting article from 2002:
"Two decades after New Orleans crash, wind shear detection improved."

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Next, I had to look up some that are still fresh in all of our memories - the four plane crashes of 9-11-2001.

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So then, I got to thinking... that it might be interesting to look up the incidents of some of the famous that we've lost to plane crashes over the years. I started with Patsy Cline, but the flight that claimed her life on March 5, 1963 isn't listed in this database. Neither is the February 3, 1959 crash of the tour plane carrying Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) in a snow-covered cornfield near Mason City, Iowa. So then I figured that perhaps private planes aren't included. That theory went out the window when I found, listed, the October 20, 1977 plane crash that killed lead singer and song writer Ronnie VanZant, guitarist Steve Gaines, vocalist Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, all of the 70's rock band, Lynyrd Skynard. Not listed, either, is the plane crash of December 10, 1967 in Wisconsin that took the life of soul singer, Otis Redding.

The only conclusion I can draw is that the database, while very interesting and informative, is incomplete.

I'm sure that you are glad I shared my time-consuming and rather morbid research with you. But, now, I have to go... and get a life! :-)

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers.

Happy Anniversary to Patsy.

Love,
Robbie

PS - Today, past and present.