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!