"Another" Blood Moon

I was disappointed that we here in the U.S. were not able to see the amazing Blood Moon lunar eclipse two days ago.  I had to be satisfied with the amazing pictures taken elsewhere all over the globe...such as this:

So, imagine my surprise when I woke very early this morning and saw, what I choose to believe, is another version of the Blood Moon.  It was our same old moon ... still full but with a pinky-red aura surrounding it. Not easy to show in a photo (although it would have been a snap for AC or Marie) but here is what I got:  

HMMMMMMM … a message from the Big Guy?  We were the only part of the globe not privy to this amazing phenomenon.  Going it alone has many drawbacks ...

Before Johnny Carson there was ...

The Jack Paar Show. It was 1961 and my husband and children  and I were living in NY City. Television was coming in to it’s own by then and we loved to watch his show after the evening news. I can remember so clearly a night when I was watching alone and my husband was in the next room doing paperwork. As I recall Jack Paar was not hosting that night and there were no big name guests listed to be interviewed. 

Then the temporary host introduced the next guest, a singer with the strange name of Barbra Streisand. (I was sure that a cast member was responsible for the misspelling !)

It was her TV debut and he said she would be singing 'her interpretation of the old Tin Pan Alley standard Happy Days Are Here Again”. This seemed odd to me. I couldn’t see how her choice could possibly help her break in to the “big time”. Then Barbra walked on stage, the lights dimmed and the orchestra played very softly in the background as she started to sing.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She sang this normally upbeat song very, very slowly and each note was pure as a bell. I called to my husband and we listened, entranced, as she continued to sing and ended on a single note that seemed to go on forever. There was dead silence in the room and then the audience exploded … as did we, the two of us sitting alone in our apartment and clapping to beat the band.

I have never experienced another pop singer who impressed me as much as Barbra did that night. I was not at all surprised to read that her debut album “The Barbra Streisand Album”, released early in 1963 and including her rendition of “Happy Days” was voted Album of the Year and won three Grammy Awards.  

SIMPLE PLEASURES … 10/16/87

It was over 30 years ago that I saw this segment of the “Johnny Carson” show but I remember it like it was yesterday and it still makes me smile.

Myrtle Young, a potato chip inspector for Seyfert Foods in Fort Wayne, Indiana was Johnny's guest. While on the job she'd noticed that many of the defected chips reminded her of everyday images and she'd made a collection of them which she proudly and lovingly brought to his show.

It would have been a short and sweet few minutes on the Carson show except for the intensity and obvious love that Ms. Young had for her collection. She would pick up a chip from the ones spread out on Johnny's desk and describe her vision of it in glowing terms.

At one point, as the picture above shows, she turned to the audience, chip in hand, and was about to give them an explanation when she heard a loud crunch from Johnny. I will never forget the look of horror on her face as she whipped around to face Johnny … obviously thinking that he was devouring one of her beloved collection chips.  As she clutched her hand to her heart Johnny practically fell over himself assuring her that the chip he'd eaten was NOT part of her collection.  Strange as it seems in today's “sophisticated” tech era it was incredibly funny back then and his apologies and her obvious relief and forgiveness of his prank were heat warming.  

In 1999 TV Guide named it the funniest moment on TV.  I don't think I'd go that far but you can judge for yourself … like most everything nowadays it's on YouTube.

Reminds me of the old Country Western song …

...Putin “Got the Gold Mine … and WE got the Shaft !”

Thanks President Trump. 

Are all your dirty secrets safe now?

As a united world watched ...

The 17 day Thailand cave ordeal is finally over and all 12 boys and their soccer coach are alive and, once again, on dry land and recuperating.  WHOOPEE !

It would be so easy to label this a miracle but it took hours of research and a team of expert divers to make it happen, not to speak of the medical teams and the heroic British divers who found them in the first place.

The entire world seemed to unite as we watched the drama. Our emotions ran the gamut from sadness at their loss ... to hope when they were found … and finally to bliss as we watched it all come to a joyful conclusion. It was a wonderful thing to be part of and, for me, a much needed respite from this “new country” of ours that has become more and more isolated from our international friends.

Addendum:  I wrote this a day before the Nato summit and it pains me to see that Trump has, once again, shown his complete ignorance of diplomacy. Vladamir Putin must be ecstatic ! 

The upcoming Helsinki Summit …

Our self-declared deal-making President will be conducting a private one-on-one meeting with Vladamir Putin on July 16 while at the Helsinki Summit in Finland. Should this raise concerns ? He doesn't think so. 

At his most recent campaign rally on July 5^th Trump mocked the skeptics by saying: “You know, President Putin is K.G.B. and this and that but you know what? Putin's fine. He's fine. We're all fine. We're people. Will I be prepared? Totally prepared. I've been preparing for this stuff my whole life.”

Well, that may satisfy his core base but it's more than scary to me. Political cartoonist David Horsey hit the problem square on with his rendition of Putin playing Trump.

It is past time that we realize that Trump is never going to put our country ahead of his own insane desire to be like the dictators that he so admires. Putin is clever enough to give Trump something that he can claim as a victory but, being a secret meeting, we will never know what concessions Trump will lavish on Putin in his self absorbed quest to prove that he can “win the deal”. (Not to mention that Putin may very well have personal knowledge that Trump does not want known.)

No wonder that we and the nations that used to be our allies are dismayed and frightened. 

THEN … 1978

In 1978 my husband, our three children and I moved South from New York. Jobs were scarce in the area so I felt relieved to get one in the ER of our local hospital. It wasn’t my “dream” job but it was full time and provided us with much needed health insurance and it really opened my eyes.

The biggest surprise to me was that smoking was allowed in the ER. Overflowing ashtrays were everywhere and the medical personnel would be exhaling smoke as they entered a patient’s room.

In the early 80's Dr. Collins (who specializes in pulmonary diseases) started to complain. At first he was laughed at but he kept at it ruthlessly and the first things to go were the ash trays in the ER ! Then, little by little the powers-to-be started to rally behind him and by the mid 90’s the hospital became tobacco free inside and out.

THANK YOU,  DR. COLLINS ...                                                          

NOW … 2018

A few weeks ago a friend and I were having breakfast at Paneras and I saw Dr. Colliins seated at a large table with a bunch of men … many of them retired doctors. When he got up to fill his coffee cup he spied me and, to my chagrin and in his typical booming voice he called out “hey guys it's Ginnie from the ER”.

I turned all shades of red as they waved and smiled but then I realized this was really nice… a typical Dr. Collins production and a far cry from the old days in the ER when the most I would get from this crew would be a stat order for the results of a lab test.