FAME

When you've spent your working life as a broadcast journalist, as I did, you run into a lot of famous, or at least well-known people.

But my first brush with the famous started when I was a wee lad and was photographed with that mighty lumberjack of the north woods, Paul Bunyan.

I'm in the lower left of this photograph.

It was at a theme park in some part of northern Minnesota.

That brief meeting with a storybook hero may have led me on.

Later on, as a rock and roll disc jockey I conducted my first interview with a famous piano player and singer, Fats Domino.

Unfortunately the interview was done over the telephone and I didn't get a picture with him.

But I did get a photo of me greeting one of my personal heroes, the late NBC newscaster, Chet Huntley.

Later on, I met his broadcast partner, David Brinkley, but again no photo.

Barry Goldwater brought his presidential campaign to North Dakota in 1964 and I was nearby, peering over someone's shoulder.

The gentleman standing with Goldwater is Tom Kleppe, at the time a congressman from North Dakota who later served as administrator of the Small Business Administration and then Secretary of the Interior.

A couple of years later, the Democrats were descending on the state.

I was a news director welcoming Vice-President Hubert Humphrey into my t.v. station for an exclusive interview.

 And around that same time, I caught up with Senator Eugene McCarthy when he came to town.

In Phoenix, I would see Senator Goldwater fairly frequently, along with many other politicians.

But I also interviewed a local celebrity who made it big, Vincent Furnier.

You might not recognize him without his stage makeup, where he's more commonly known as Alice Cooper.

I also ran into another famous rock and roll singer when he was on tour in Seattle.

Well, Elvis Presley was long gone by then but this statue of him was in some shops in the Pike's Place Marketplace.

Speaking of "statuesque", John Wayne dropped by one of my homes for a visit one day.

Okay, to be honest, that's just a cardboard cutout but I actually did meet the real "Duke" on the patio of his home in Newport Beach, California some years before.

The subject matter we discussed was his plan to take a few Vietnamese refugees and give them a home on one of his Arizona ranches.

This was the same week I met a Vietnamese refugee, the former Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky and his lovely wife.

Speaking of Prime Ministers, while I never met him, I did pay a visit to a statue of my 15th cousin in the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill.

Back in the U.S. of A., retirement took me to my acting career.

As an un-credited extra.

In a movie called "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", I was briefly seen carrying a bag of groceries to the parking lot of a store behind the nearly unknown actor at the time: Johnny Depp.

Leonardo DiCaprio was also in that movie and received his first Academy Award nomination for his role.

Another extra role had me on screen for about a quarter of a second but the film "A Perfect World" got me a handshake from the director, Clint Eastwood, when my brief scene was over.

Ah, yes, it's been an interesting life.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

It has been one of those trying weeks here that reminds me that no matter how dark the clouds are, it pays to keep one's sense of humor.

Which says a lot about my cooking!

But I digress

to excess.

So now I express

my wish for success,

and hope to impress 

with more or with less,

these jokes I profess.

Let's hope the process

will curl your tress

and lacking finesse

will perhaps make you guess.

Behold!

So that's my treasure trove of humor for this week.

Take it as it is but have a remarkable weekend.

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . . oh, man. Technology! . . . )

BEGINNINGS

The state of Minnesota is popularly known as "The Land of 10,000 Lakes".

You can't go anywhere without finding another fishing spot.

One of them is a small lake in the northern part of the state known as Lake Itasca.

That's easier to remember than the Ojibwe name for it, which is Omashkoozoo-zaaga'igan.

What's notable about this lake is it is said to be the primary source of the Mississippi River, which then flows 2,340 miles (3,770 kilometers) before it empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

Now here's what Wikipedia says: 

The channel of the Mississippi as it emerges from the lake was bulldozed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, to create a more "pleasant experience" for visitors. The project included the draining of the surrounding swamp, the digging of a new channel, and the installation of a man-made rock rapids. The rocks are used by tourists for walking across the Mississippi River.

And sometime in the 1940's that's exactly what I did, helped along by my big brother. 

I must say that I looked a bit nonplussed by the whole experience.

But at least I can say that once upon a time I walked across the Mississippi River.

And not on no blamed bridge either.

WHOA!

40 years ago.

In Salzburg, Austria.

What was it I said?

DO YOU SEE THE LIGHT?

 

Actually, I do.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

So another week of epic, general confusion is drawing to a close.

On a happy note, our weather has taken a turn for the better.

Better, that is to say, if you like daytime highs in the low 80's or high 70's.

The air conditioning is nearly turned off for the year but it's still warm enough to mostly avoid turning on the furnace.

As we watch our electric bill sink like the setting sun, happiness abounds in the hearts of we'uns.

Speaking of happiness, it's time to spread some to you, my faithful readers.

So here goes.

Oh, stop groaning, you know when you come here you have to put up with some pun-ishment.

And besides, you can take the best (worst) ones with you and inflict them on your friends while they're trying to have a nice weekend.

Whether you do that or not be sure YOU do all YOU can to have a stupendous weekend.

And never forget to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . . uh, by the way, that guy yesterday was "stirring" his drink, not shaking it.  Just sayin' . . . )

STILL BLAZING AWAY

As I have reminded you before this is October.

It's the month of spooks and goblins and it seems the month when the spring and summer flowers die off.

At last that's what I've always thought.

Now I DID grow up in North Dakota which has a decidedly different climate than Arizona, which I now call home.

So perhaps now in my second childhood, I'm recalling memories from my "first" childhood.

At any rate, the flowers potted on our patio have been blooming like crazy recently.

Here's the proof:

That last one is a coleus plant with a rather bedraggled chive plant above and behind it.

I think the coleus growth is/are leaves, rather than flowers and it seems to thrive year-around, though I think SWMBO brings it inside when the weather turns frosty.

Speaking of whom, I suppose I could get answers to all of my horticultural questions by simply asking her.

But that's too easy.

So I'll leave it to you, Gentle Readers, to relieve me of the burden of my quest.

I should add that I'm not complaining.

I enjoy the colorful display on our patio and wish they'd bloom all  the year around.

Um . . . they won't, will they?

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

A mysterious couple, photographed during cocktail hour (note the cocked pinky) yesterday at an undisclosed location.

Are they perhaps previewing their Halloween look?  (note the color of the man's shirt.)

Or are they perhaps in the Witness Protection Program?

Only The Shadow knows.

And he ain't tellin'.

TURNING OVER A LEAF

Does it sometimes seem to you like your life is on R for Race?

Time seems to be rushing along much faster than, oh, say, 75 or 80 years ago.

They say the older we get the faster it seems to go by.

Like, just the other day it was July!

Or was it June?

That's another thing that seems to be changing - my memory.

Just the other day (it seems) I could remember the names of all the players on my favorite baseball team, along with their uniform numbers and batting averages.

Now . . .

Hmmm, what was I saying?

I'll think of it in a minute, or probably about two o'clock tomorrow morning when I'm trying to get back to sleep.

Actually, I can't remember what I was going to write about in this diary, er, blog when I started.

So I guess I'll just leave you to whatever you were doing before I interrupted.

Enjoy September!

FAMILY TIES

Seems to me like not only art but good cooking runs through this family.

The BAD (Beautiful Artistic Daughter, aka Gayle) discovered yesterday she had a plethora of blueberries in her abode and got busy making the place smell good.

Nothing smells better than a fresh blueberry pie, hot from the oven.

When I talked to her it was still too hot to try but I'd venture to say it got sampled mightily a little later.

And probably for breakfast this morning too!

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

So, are you in the holiday spirit?

Remember what's coming:

Halloween!

And Thanksgiving!

And Christmas!

And New Years!

And the Super Bowl!

Oh, I forgot about the World Series!

And before you get over that, there's Valentine's Day!

And St. Patrick's Day!

Shall I stop?

O.K. but just remember - next April it's my birthday again!

Had enough?

Okay, then, rev up your engines and plan to have a vastly wonderful weekend.

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . . aw, the injustice . . . )