TWO SINGERS

It's always a pleasure to find a new young singer.  A splendid surprise yesterday was hearing Susie Arioli for the first time.  She's a Canadian singer based in Montreal and she has a great touch with jazz standards.  She's tough to find in the United States so enjoy.



The second find is a beautiful woman named Melody Gardot.  She wears dark glasses nearly all the time because of effects from a terrible accident in which she was struck by a vehicle while she was bicycling.  You can learn more about her by going here.

EMMA PEEL

For those of you (from yesterday's comments) who miss or may have missed Emma Peel from The Avengers, television program . .

In her fighting leathers

with her partner, John Steed

Unrequited romance always seemed in the air

And can one wonder why.

The initimable Diana Rigg, as Emma Peel.

By the way, at 74 she is still acting, most recently in The Game of Thrones on HBO.

THE ANSWER

The answer to yesterday's riddle is "animals."  Two horses, one man, one hog.




Oh, sure, a chorus of voices sang out.  "Fraud!"  And yes, you're right.  The correct answer, as nearly everyone knew, was "steed".

The first . . two steeds, or spirited horses.

The second . . British actor Patrick Macnee, who played Major The Honorable John Wickham Gascoyne Beresford Steed MC, OM, more popularly known as John Steed in the television series The Avengers.

And the third . . one I didn't know until yesterday . . the Honda Steed motorcycle.

So, my readers appear to be smarter than the old Catalyst.  Congratulations, all.



COMMONALITY?

What do these four have in common?

(The answer tomorrow!)

A STRATA

Sunday morning brunch dish.



My wife calls it a strata.  The recipe calls it a breakfast casserole.  Whatever.  Bread, eggs, sausage, cheese, green chiles.  It's a winner.

SATURDAY MORNING MUFFINS

First, credit where credit is due.  I swiped this recipe from Tess Kincaid, a blogger pal of mine near Columbus, Ohio.

They are banana blueberry muffins.



Fresh from the oven.

Mine didn't rise as much as the ones Tess made recently.  But I think that's because I'm at about a mile high elevation and I didn't make any adjustments to her recipe to accomodate that.  Still, they are delicious.

Thanks for the recipe, Tess.

A ROSE FOR LLORY

Years ago, I used to hang at the Spirit Room in Jerome, Arizona.  On one of my visits there the afternoon entertainment was provided by a band called Combo Deluxe.  The lead guitarist was Llory McDonald.  Along with her great instrumentality, she did a dead solid perfect Janis Joplin singing "Me and Bobby McGee."  Llory has been leading Combo Deluxe for a long time now.  I'm not sure where this was done but get a load of her guitar work.



Llory has played with Jerry Riopelle for years, especially at his New Year's Eve performances in Tempe, Arizona.  There is much more but you can read about it here.

Anyway, I was stunned to read in the morning paper that Llory has just been diagnosed with breast cancer.  I and many, many of her fans will be cheering her on in the coming duel.  We hope to hear her for many more years.

This one's for you, Llory.