THE BRD IN PV

The BRD (rear view).

She knows how to relax.

A week in Puerto Vallarta with this kind of sunset to look forward to . . . and at.

ANOTHER SIGN OF AUTUMN

Pyracantha berries, golden in the sun.

They are said to be mildly poisonous and can cause gut problems if you eat a lot of them raw.

The Great All-Knowing Google says they are only edible if you crush them and wash them under running water.

As for me I think I'll just enjoy their visual beauty.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Yes, it is nearing the end of the week and Spookin' Season is over.

We now enter the Regretful Season.

Don't know what that means?

Take a look.

Yup, here come the Foodies' Holidays.

So there you have it, Gentle Readers.

Might as well give in to it.

This weekend prepare for the big eating of "the holidays" by feasting well and always remember: KEEP LAUGHING!!!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

SO LONG, KATIE

Katie Lee has died.

The Arizona legend reportedly passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home in Jerome yesterday.

She was 98 years old and according to friends of hers, she was active right up until her death.

If you don't know of Katie, you really missed someone.

I met her and blogged about her a couple of times.

The first was here in a celebration of her 90th birthday.

The second time was here, only a few years ago when I had her sign a book for me that she had written.

She was a great lady with a stellar career and a strong attitude about the place in Northern Arizona called Lake Powell, coupled with a wont for salty language.

If she could have had her way, Glen Canyon Dam would have been blown up and the Colorado River allowed to run free as it once did.

Rest in peace, Katie.

Ahhhh, November

Today is the first day of November and Judy has just turned the furnace on for the first time in this house.

She said she needed to take the chill off and I can hear the device humming and feel the warm air coming through the vents.

What's next?

This?

Well I doubt it.

That's the house I grew up in, in far-off North Dakota, just about 50 miles south of Canada.

The snow on the ground and on the trees is real.

The snow falling is fake (fake news?) put there by a Google app.

But where I live now, in Arizona, it's unlikely I'll see snow this winter.

Oh it does snow here but it's usually gone in a day or two.

And from what I hear from the Weather Gods this is likely to be a warm winter in our part of the world.

Halloween is over once again.

We had 8 trick or treaters and we turned off the lights at 7:30.

My friend, Baseball Steve in Phoenix, reports they had 119 before turning off the lights at 8:00.

Trick or Treating is a big thing on Mount Vernon Street in nearby Prescott.

It's a street of old Victorian homes which are decorated wildly for the fun.

Trick or treaters come by the thousands for the treats, some reportedly from as far away as Phoenix!

Whiskey Row in Prescott also draws some wilder costumes on Halloween Night.

The BRD and her Beau Jack have been known to host Halloween parties on Whiskey Row.

She became a brunette for one such night.

(I have no idea who the she-male is standing next to her.)

She's been a big one for costume parties.

Once, many years ago, SWMBO and I went to one she gave in Phoenix.

Judy made the costumes.

And some years later, when we were living close to where we are now, she put on her best face to greet the little visitors who rang our bell.

I hope your Halloween was sufficiently spooky!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Do you know what today is?

It's Fri . . .

Uh, yeah, thanks for that.

But today.

Today is Fri . . .

O.K.  I give up.

Let's get on with the Fri . . . Funnies.

Aww, isn't that just the way of the world?

Well, Gentle Readers, it's time for my weekly admonishment: enjoy yourself on this last weekend before Halloween and always, always remember to keep laughing.

Here, kitty-kitty . . . 

TBT - TIME WITH FATS

The first celebrity interview I ever conducted was with the man who died Tuesday - Fats Domino.

It was in about 1961, I'd guess, and I was doing my "Bruce on the Loose" gig as a rock and roll disc jockey at KCJB radio in Minot, North Dakota.

I don't remember much of the details but apparently our radio station had brought Domino to do a show and there came an opportunity in the afternoon to interview him live on the air.

I normally worked the night shift, signing the station off the air at midnight, but on this day I was working in the afternoon, replacing the regular dj who filled that space.

Someone from higher up in the food chain suddenly came into the control room and told me to call such and such a number and talk to Fats Domino at his hotel room.

So I did it.

He was very nice and cooperative with a young radio announcer's inane questions.

All I can remember is listening back to the tape we made of the interview.

I would ask a question, he would answer it, I would intone a serious "I see", and he would sort of grunt, in a high-pitched tone, "un-huh."

I still recall thinking that entire interview consisted of "I see" and  "un-huh", over and over again.

For someone new to the business it wasn't my most shining hour.

I did get better over the many years in broadcasting, I think.

Rest in peace, Fats, and thanks.

LEMONS! CAKE!

SWMBO made a cake from a new recipe we just found recently.

It's a fragrant Lemon-Spice Visiting Cake, courtesy of Dorie Greenspan in the New York Times.

It uses ground cardamom, ground ginger and lemons, among other things.

The baker didn't have any ground cardamom but she did have some whole that she ground up with a mortar and pestle.

In the end she said I hope we don't like this because it's a pain in the rear to make.

We loved it.

Maybe I'll have to buy some ground cardamom.

COMPETITION

Apparently it's my own fault.

I allowed it to happen.

I kind of wish I hadn't.

It's about my window directly in front of me looking out onto the bird bath.

You see, our cats don't get to go outside.

Oh, Blackwell will violate that rule if he gets a chance to sneak past us.

We call him our escape cat.

But he has a fascination with the great outdoors and can spend long periods of time at a window.

And then there's the single-minded love he seems to have for me.

At least that's what SWMBO believes.

He does follow me around the place, seeking a lap whenever I sit down.

So he began jumping up with a quick stop on the edge of my desk to sit in the window in front of my computer screen.

He stays there as long as I am tap-tap-tapping away on my keyboard.

I had to call his name to get him to turn around for the photo above.

He gazes at the yard, chitters at some of the birds though not all of them, and maybe dozes in the sun.

Well the desk I work at is quite small and he occasionally uses my arm as a launching pad.

This morning I got tired of his presence and chased him away.

But he was lurking, preparing to jump up again.

So I needed something to block his path.

And I found it.

The Guard Panda!

Blackwell sulked off to his spot on SWMBO's bed.

At least for the time being.

P.S.  He missed a great show when three, count 'em, three fat doves all arrived at the bird bath at the same time.

I'll bet his mouth would still be watering.

REALLY?

Spotted on a short walk near my house.

What, one wonders, IS a sanitary sewer?

I wouldn't think any sewer is really sanitary.

Maybe those big ones in the movie "The Third Man" which starred Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles among others.

Welles played a mysterious post-World War Two crook (Harry Lime) in Vienna and sneaked around the city using the big underground sewers.

But I digress.

Checking with the All-Knowing Google I learn that a sanitary sewer is a system of underground pipes that takes kitchen and bathroom waste from homes and businesses to a wastewater treatment plant where it is filtered, treated and released.

Apparently it is so-named to distinguish it from a storm sewer, which carries rainfall and other drainage.

So there you are.

Now you (and I) know probably all we ever wanted to know about sewer systems.

And now, to lighten the mood a bit, here's the theme music from that movie, played on the zither by Anton Karas.

Some other time I'll explain what a zither is.

ON THE RIVER

Today brings us another thrilling episode in the Exciting and Fabulous Adventures of the BRD (Beautiful Rich Daughter).

This time it's kayaking on the Verde River in Central Arizona.

Yes the BRD (center above) and a gang of her pals actually did get those watercraft into the water.

It was all to mark a birthday of one of her cohorts, the indefatigable Susie.

The BRD said it was a five mile excursion marked by a high wind.

That was NOT evident in the pictures I saw.

It looks pretty placid to me.

Of course, maybe the hurricane force winds and rushing rapids prevented the photographer from taking pictures during those rough times.

The BRD said if she hadn't been working out prior to the tour she might not have been able to get back and would have died on a sandbar . . . not the kind of bar she would like to die at.

So paddle fiercely, Gayle, show us your best stuff!

TOM MIX COUNTRY

Tom Mix, a cowboy movie star in the early third of the 20th Century, has quite a history with the area where I live in Arizona.

But let me tell you a little of Mr. Mix's history.

He was born in Pennsylvania, enlisted in the army during the Spanish-American War but never went overseas and was declared AWOL after failing to return from a furlough, during which he married his first of five wives.

He went to Oklahoma and kicked around as a bartender and other odd jobs before finding employment with a huge ranch that had its own touring Wild West show.

Mix performed as a horseman and expert shot and won rodeo competitions in (surprise!) Prescott, Arizona, just beyond Glassford Hill from where I live.

Mix launched his movie career in 1909 and appeared in nearly 300 movies in his lifetime, all except nine silent films.

In his off-screen appearances, Mix was a dapper dresser, usually seen wearing a huge white ten gallon hat.

Mix bought a ranch in Prescott and competed frequently in what is known locally as "the world's oldest rodeo", winning a bull riding competition when he was 40 years old.

A number of his films were shot in the Prescott area.

It is said that along with the ladies, Tom Mix was fond of drink and that may have led to his demise.

After spending time visiting a friend in Tucson, Mix was speeding north toward Phoenix in his 1937 Cord automobile.

He was unable to stop when he encountered a barricade where a bridge had been washed out by a flash flood and when his car flipped over, a suitcase full of money and jewelry struck and killed him.

There's a plaque and monument at the site.

He was 60 years old.

The area where his ranch was is now part of a planned community where the BRD's Beau Jack lived for many years.

(Much of the history in this post is courtesy of Wikipedia.)