MUSE

 "When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me

Speaking words of wisdom, let it be"

Like Paul McCartney, I lost my mother early; mine when I was 13, his when he was 14.

The Mother Mary in the song "Let It Be" is a reference to his mother, not to the Virgin Mary.

But we all need some help from time to time getting through the dark days and nights, when, for example, a pandemic continues to threaten the lives of all of us yet misinformation or blind ignorance leads many of our fellow citizens to disregard scientific and medical advice.

Or when politics becomes ever more misguided and hostilities threaten the very democratic principles our nation has thrived on for so long.

Whom do you turn to?

I have a jolly little fellow who I've moved from atop a bookcase to a spot directly in front of me on my desk.

My little friend is there to remind me on a daily basis of my mantra which you see in my posts at least every Friday.

"Always Keep Laughing"

FOR THE FOODIES

 

TKSGVG RECAP

 Thanksgiving 2021 is now a thing of the past and it was a success in our house.

The Head Chef (aka SWMBO), I remind you, does not like turkey so we usually have roast pork tenderloin on this day.

This year she tried a new recipe and it was delicious.

Slow Cooker Pork Loin Roast with a Honey Butter Sauce.

It began with a spice rub that included some cayenne to give it a bit of a bite and then was cooked slowly in the sauce that included honey, garlic, red cider vinegar and a lot of butter.

Wow!

This photo doesn't really do justice to it because the sauce was spooned over the pork, there was gravy on the mashed potatoes and spicy stuffing and a white marmalade sauce on the sweet potato medallions.

And the asparagus spears aren't very artfully arranged.

Other than that I could have been a food stylist, right?

The BRD was here to help out, mashing potatoes while the Master attends to her sauces.

She even took on "clean-up" duty once we all had happy tummies.

Don't criticize me: I did the washing of dishes and pots and pans over two days of preparation.

Oh, and yes, there was pie!

The head chef re-created Her Mother's Pumpkin and the BRD brought a Pineapple "Dump" Pie.

All in all a most excellent meal.

But.

Judy says she's been doing this for over 70 years, she's tired, and frankly we just don't eat like this any more.

So she's done the last of these humongous holiday meals.

I said, "That's fine. I'll do Christmas."

Whereupon she ran, screaming, and locked herself in her room!

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 Fellow Americans, I hope your holiday feasting went well.

Ours was a success.

The BRD was our guest but she helped out a lot.

I'll have some photos tomorrow.

Let's see what the humorists have in store for today.

No, no, no, don't hate me.

Just always remember to keep laughing!

Now I know we're already into a four-day foo-fa-rah of a weekend but please heed my admonishment and make it a good one.

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

FINALLY

THE EVE

 Okay, Gentle Readers and Good Friends, the big day is nearly upon us.

Regardless if you're celebrating with a raft of family and/or friends or if you've toned it down to just yourselves or if you're not marking the day at all, the curator of Oddball wishes you all a happy experience.

And whether or not "the scent of football" (what was I thinking?) hovers around your Thursday happening, I hope it's a good day.

As Comical Carol reminded me yesterday, it's only one more way to launch ourselves on to Yet Another Holiday!

IT'S GETTING CLOSER

The skies here are overcast this morning.

There's a light sprinkling of rain out there.

The temperature is in the mid 50's

Feels like Thanksgiving weather for Arizona's Central Highlands.

The scent of football is in the air.

SWMBO is in the kitchen, prepping some dishes for The Big Feast.

Two days and counting.

Meanwhile, beware of astrologers!

SEASONAL DESSERT

 I like pie.

Apple, lemon, blueberry, cherry, chocolate, coconut cream.

Any of 'em.

But perhaps my favorite is the one that is prominent on many Thanksgiving dinner tables.

And I'm not talkin' about pecan pie, though I know many people prefer it.

And I'm not talkin' about sweet potato pie, though that is a great substitution for people whose tooth may not be as sweet as mine.

I'm talkin' about the king of Thanksgiving pies.

Pumpkin pie!

But not everyone likes it and I personally know of one person to whom the following pictures illustrate, for them, the *only* way to enjoy pumpkin pie.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 I got up a little after 11 o'clock last night to look for the vaunted Lunar Eclipse and couldn't see it out of any of our windows.

Then I was up again sometime after 4 o'clock this morning and saw what appeared, without my spectacles, to be a full moon shining brightly.

I guess my view of the astronomical event was . . . eclipsed.

Meantime in Washington, Kevin McCarthy was talking.

And talking.

And talking.

It seems like a good time for some laughter.

I hope you found some lightness in your attitudes from these feeble attempts at comedy.

Once more thanks to all of my contributors.

These weekly forays into frivolity would not be possible without you.

Now everyone listen up: enjoy yourselves greatly these next few days as we all brace for the big day of feasting, football and family feuds.

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

PLAN AHEAD

 Well, I hope you're ready.

The big Feasting Day of the year is only a week away now.

When I was a wee lad, there was always a huge bronzed bird placed on the table in front of my carving-knife-armed father.

In later years, Judy and I scaled it back to a turkey breast, both favoring white meat over dark.

And in many years of late, having learned that she doesn't really like turkey, our Thanksgiving meal has become a roast pork tenderloin.

The sides remain generally intact though.

Well, whatever way you do it, it's time to be getting prepared.

Good luck.

CROWS VS. RAVENS

 No, it's not another blog post about football or some other sport.

I know when to quit.

This is about a matter of controversy in the field of ornithology.

Now in case you've forgotten your high school studies, ornithology is defined as a branch of zoology dealing with the study of birds.

And today we are going to solve a long-standing argument about those big black birds.

Specifically, crows and ravens, and which is which.

I have long railed at people who call them all "crows", when frequently the bird they've spotted is a "raven".

My way of identifying the two is pretty simple.

Crows stick to the countryside while ravens are more social and come into town to raid your dumpsters and hang around your parking lots.

But today a friend has sent me a new method of differentiating between the two species and I hereby offer it to all of you.

I have chosen to keep my friend's identity private to prevent him from being shunned in public places.

A NEW WEEK

 How was your weekend?

Better than mine, I hope.

Yeah, it's football season, when one's favorite team gets sandbagged.

My mighty Arizona Cardinals were beaten, routed even, by a team that was a huge underdog.

But "my" ASU Sun Devils pulled out another great fourth quarter on Saturday to mark another victory in their pretty good season.

So I guess you could call it a draw.

But you didn't come here to hear about football.

I know that many, if not most of you don't even follow sports.

And that's fine.

Lessee, what else is new.

Oh I tried a new recipe the other day and cooked a Mushroom Stroganoff which came out pretty good.

SWMBO and I were discussing it and I said I'd been watching a cooking show on television and the lady made a Ground Beef Stroganoff and she included mushrooms and said every stroganoff had to have mushrooms.

I said I hadn't previously known that and said that my Mushroom Stroganoff was kind of strange, then, wasn't it?

Judy said she thought that when I was talking about making it for days ahead of time but she wasn't going to say anything and she thought it was delicious after the fact so . . what the hey?

I do kind of get a bit tense when I'm trying a new recipe but I think I've found just the thing to ease that and I'm offering to share it with you in case you have "a case of the nerves".

It's just in time too.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 If you're an extremely intelligent and discerning reading public, you may notice an anomaly.

The title of this blog is "The Friday Funnies".

Nothing odd about that.

It's the same title I use *every* Friday.

But there's something wrong here.

The dateline says "Thursday".

Now you may think your computer has gone completely nuts.

Or you may believe that *you* have gone the same direction.

Ah, fear not, Gentle Readers.

It's my problem, you see.

I'm putting this blog post together last night.

That is, Thursday night.

And I can't figure out how to change the date so you know what?

The hell with it!

You haven't gotten lost in time and space because I won't actually post this until today.

Er, that is, Friday.

Gadfrey!

(Surprise! Blogger DID change the dateline so you can now ignore all of the above. Sheesh!)

Oh, one other thing.

You will see no cartoons today because I've decided to clean out my Humor (Humour to some of you) File and make this an All Words Day.

I hope you'll find some humor/humour in them.

Are you eyes tired of all that reading?

Okay, you can relax now.

Well, not totally.

You still have one task ahead of you.

Work extremely hard to have an absolutely wonderful weekend, all right?

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

(Special guest appearance by Hemingway and Sunny, two of the three owners of my pal Tommy Terrific, sharing a box.)

NO SURPRISE

 As I wrote yesterday I didn't think yesterday's Abba-Kiss/abacus brain teaser would actually fool anyone.

And I was right!

Tommy Terrific gets the (imaginary) huge prize for posting the right answer in 7 minutes.

SEVEN MINUTES, ladies and gentlemen!

And he probably didn't see it right away so I'll just guess the answer came to him instantly.

As for William's mock grouchy comment, I'm thinkin' that 7th circle of hell may be getting pretty full with all those he condemns to it.

But like all of us he has his rights and his freedom to do what he wishes.

Which reminds me. Judy and I got our Covid Booster shots yesterday so once again we are protected.

But we're still wearing our masks in public.

(Is Halloween over?)

Well enough rambling on from me.

No brain teaser today, just something for you to think about.

And plan for, maybe.

Who's having a party?

SOLVED! (and another???)

 Okay, Gentle Readers, let the agonizing suspense come to an end.

I know you've all been on tenterhooks, wracking your brains trying to figure out Brain Teaser 3.

So let me solve it for you and give you a rest.

Geo. gets the honor of being the first to solve it, sort of, with his guess of "a pandemic mask for Singers."

But the grand prize (actually there ISN'T any grand prize) will go to Boots and Braids, who correctly identified it as "The Masked Singer"!

Congratulations, B&B!

And for those of you still in the dark, that's a Singer sewing machine wearing a surgical mask (I never knew you could get them in that lovely lilac shade) and it's a reference to a television show called "The Masked Singer"!

Don't feel bad if you've never seen it.

Neither have I.

But needless to say, this apparently fooled exactly no one and everybody got it in record time.

So as a reward, here's one more.

I've got a feeling I'll be revealing this one tomorrow to exactly no one.