It’s time once again for E.M. Kingston’s The Sunday Ramble. Her prompt is based upon a certain topic about which she asks five questions. We are invited to ramble on about that topic however we wish. Today’s topic is “Childhood Memories.”
I’m an old guy and my childhood memories are ancient history, but I will try as best I can to answer E.M.’s questions from my distant past.
1. What is your first good memory from your childhood?
I have this vague memory of hearing a recording my parents made of me singing “Rudolph the Red-Noses Reindeer” when I was about four years old. I remember thinking that the voice on the record didn’t sound like my voice. I also remember everyone laughing at me when they listened to the recording because, when I sang the last line, You’ll go down in history, I didn’t know what the word “history” was, so when I sang it, it came out, You’ll go down in his story.
2. Name 3 things that you loved when you were just a youngster?
The Good Humor ice cream truck every afternoon in the summer.
Snow days when school was canceled in the winter.
Comic books year round.
3. What did you dislike, or even hate, when you were growing up?
I can’t think of too many things I truly disliked or hated. I didn’t like spinach. I didn’t like most medicines, and I didn’t like Frank Morris because he was a bully.
4. If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would you tell them?
Don’t sweat the small stuff.
5. What kind of celebrations did you enjoy when you were little, and do you still like those celebrations now that you are grown?
Birthday parties. Today? Meh.
Bonus Question: What commercial did you always wait for to come on television as a child?
I used to love car commercials, especially at the annual model year changes. And, of course, toy commercials.
There’s an old saying that goes, “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.” That saying has been attributed to Mae West, an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol. But who said it, in my opinion, is not as important as what was said.
That saying may be applicable for verbal interactions, where you’re communicating face-to-face or orally. But as bloggers, we depend upon the written word. That said, often how you “say” it helps communicate what you have to say. You can use humor to enhance your message. You can also be sure to use proper grammar, punctuation, and usage to ensure that your readers aren’t distracted, causing your words to lose, if not their meaning, at least their impact. So, both what and how you say (write) it, are important.
Now Sadje has added a new dimension to this familiar question by throwing in who to the what and how. She asks…
When you use a quote, what’s more important: who said it or what they said?
Again, in the context of blogging, I usually search for interesting, relatable, and sometimes controversial quotes to use for my responses to Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday prompts. Some of the quotes I use are from “anonymous,” in which case, “who” I’m quoting is unknown. But my objective is to focus on what the person I’m quoting said. I don’t really care who I’m quoting as long as what words I’m quoting resonate.
So, to answer Sadje’s Sunday Poser question, when it comes to choosing quotes for my blog, more often than not, it’s what they said that is more important that who said it.
The idea behind Who Won the Week is to give you the opportunity to select who (or what) you think “won” this past week. Your selection can be anyone or anything — politicians, celebrities, athletes, authors, bloggers, your friends or family members, books, movies, TV shows, businesses, organizations, whatever.
This past week my Provocative Question prompt asked for your thoughts about Critical Race Theory (CRT) and White Replacement Theory (WRT). Today, in the Sunday Comics section of my local paper, this Doonsbury strip from Garry Trudeau caught my attention.
It tickled me and it also provided, in a humorous (and perhaps a bit biting) manner, how some white parents feel about Critical Race Theory. So this week’s winner of Who Won the Week is Garry Trudeau.
What about you? Who (or what) do you think won the week?
If you want to participate, write your own post designating who you think won the week and why you think they deserve your nod. Then link back to this post and tag you post with FWWTW.
As I was scanning the articles on my newsfeed today, I couldn’t rid myself of my sense of doom after reading the headlines of almost all of them. I moaned audibly and my wife asked me what was wrong.
“I read all this shitty news on the internet and it makes me almost cower in fear not only for my country, which was once an exemplar of freedom, democracy, and decency, but for the future of humanity itself,” I said.
“Oh you always make everything seem like a tempest in a teapot,” she said.
“That’s because, unlike you, who tries to escape reality,” I said, “I read the news and I get involved in what’s going on in the world.”
“You’re such an old fart,” she said. “What you need to do is learn to grin and bear it. Besides, you’ll be dead in a few years and then you won’t have to fret about the state of the world anymore. So you might as well lighten up.”
Written for these daily prompts: Word of the Day Challenge (scan), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (internet), The Daily Spur (cower), Your Daily Word Prompt (exemplar), Ragtag Daily Prompt (tempest), Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge (escape), and My Vivid Blog (involved).
For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme, Jim Adams is once again going with a suggestion from Paula of Light Motifs II. The theme is songs that mention Money, Gold, Silver, or Rich. I have selected the song “Rich Girl” from Daryl Hall & John Oates.
“Rich Girl” debuted on the Billboard Top 40 on February 5, 1977, at number 38 and it was the first of Hall & Oates six number-one singles on the Billboard Top 100. The single originally appeared on the 1976 album Bigger Than Both of Us and propelled the duo to superstardom.
The song’s lyrics were about a spoiled girl who could rely on her parents’ money to do whatever she wanted. The song was rumored to have been about the then-scandalous newspaper heiress Patty Hearst. But the character in the song was actually based upon the spoiled heir to a fast food fortune who had dated Sara Allen, Daryl Hall’s longtime girlfriend. Her stories of him inspired Hall to write the song, but he had to change the main character to a girl, since he was the one who would be singing it.
Hall later revealed in an interview that the guy he wrote this song about was Victor Walker. Victor’s father owned The Walker Bros. Original Pancake House chain and also owned 15 KFC franchises. When I lived in the Chicago suburb of Northbrook back in the early 80s, The Walker Bros. Original Pancake House in Highland Park was one of my favorite places to go for Sunday breakfast with my family.
Anyway, Hall said Walker came to their apartment acting very strange, and Daryl realized that he could get away with it, since his father would pay to make his problems go away.
Hall was shocked when he found out that the infamous serial killer, David “Son Of Sam” Berkowitz, claimed to have been inspired to murder by this song. But that was unlikely, since the song was released after Berkowitz started his killing spree. Still, it was very disturbing for Hall and Oates to have their song associated with Berkowitz, and they made reference to this in their 1980 song “Diddy Doo Wop (I Hear the Voices)” from their Voices album in the lyrics: “Charlie liked The Beatles, Sam he liked Rich Girl.”
Here are the lyrics to “Rich Girl.”
You're a rich girl, and you've gone too far Cause you know it don't matter anyway You can rely on the old man's money You can rely on the old man's money It's a bitch girl, but it's gone too far Cause you know it don't matter anyway Say money, money won't get you too far, get you too far
And don't you know, don't you know That it's wrong to take what he's giving you So far gone on your own But you can get along if you try to be strong But you'll never be strong cause
You're a rich girl (rich girl), and you've gone too far Cause you know it don't matter anyway (rich girl) You can rely on the old man's money You can rely on the old man's money It's a bitch girl (rich girl) and it's gone too far Cause you know it don't matter anyway (rich girl) Say money, money won't get you too far, get you too far
High and dry, out of the rain It's so easy to hurt others when you can't feel pain And don't you know that a love can't grow Cause there's too much to give Cause you'd rather live for the thrill of it all, oh
You're a rich girl (rich girl), and you've gone too far Cause you know it don't matter anyway (rich girl) You can rely on the old man's money You can rely on the old man's money It's a bitch girl (rich girl), and it's gone too far Cause you know it don't matter anyway (rich girl) Say money, but it won't get you too far Say money, but it won't get you too far Say money, but it won't get you too far, get you too far
And you say you can rely on the old man's money You can rely on the old man's money You're a rich girl (rich girl), a rich girl Oh, you're a rich, bitch girl (rich girl) yeah Say money, but it won't get you too far Oh, give it to me baby....
This, That, and the Other 