From February 12, 2022
The “Cone of Silence” bits from Get Smart were some of the funniest TV comedy ever. Edward Platt (the Chief) never failed to make me laugh; and of course you had Don Adams, too.
It made me laugh then, and it makes me laugh now. They worked up several dozen variations on this theme, every one of them hilarious. YouTube has a bunch of them, if you want to laugh yourself silly.
Get Smart ran from 1965 to 1970. That’s a lot of Cone of Silence gags!
My stars, how hearing this brings me back! Michael Row the Boat Ashore, sung by the Highwaymen–1960. Requested by TheWhiteRabbit.
How popular was this song? In the summer of 1960, after the Highwaymen’s appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, you heard it everywhere. The song is still here–but what happened to the Highwaymen?
Here’s a memory I’ve had buried for many years.
When I was a little boy, my parents took me to the American Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaurs.
We also saw the sharks in the Hall of Fishes; and I’m afraid I took those exhibits a bit too literally. I mean, what would happen if the glass broke and all the sharks got loose? I was afraid to take my bath that night. Had some rather too dramatic dreams that night, too. The mako shark followed me home.
I don’t remember how long it took me to get over that.
Special Note to Kristi Ann: Welcome back, Kristi Ann! I’m so pleased to see you here again.
When I was a little boy, my aunts visited Yellowstone Park and brought back all these cool slides and souvenirs. But there are other souvenirs you can get that you can’t bring back with you… and you’d better not try.
In this video we see dudes from the East taking their toddlers to see Mr. Bison up close and personal. A same-day newscast reported a tourist from New Jersey getting gored because he got up too close to a bison and annoyed it. A 1,000-pound animal is not safely cheesed off.
Really, now–how close do you want to get to a wild bison who’s trying to eat? They’re not hyper-aggressive animals, but they do want their space. In fact, they injure many more tourists than grizzly bears, mountain lions, or other tourists do. That’s because people insist on bugging them.
Leave your toddler safely in the car.
Two little posts today, that was my output. Well three, counting this one.
When I was a boy my absolute favorite comic book was Turok Son of Stone, the adventures of a couple of Native Americans in a lost world chock-full of dinosaurs, cave men, and everything else that made prehistoric life worth living. Dodging a pair of battling tyrannosaurs: it doesn’t get any better than that!
Anyway, I don’t have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow and I’m looking forward to catching up on the nooze.
Meanwhile, if you’ve encountered any nooze articles you think I ought to look into and write about, please let me know.
I don’t know which is better: to be in the church when everybody’s singing this hymn–Christ for the World We Sing–or to be outside on the sidewalk on a lush green Sunday in the spring, listening to it.
Both are awfully good.
I remember my mother singing this as she went about her housework… even has her mother did before her (I remember that, too): How Great Thou Art, sung here by Alan Jackson. (Oh, I miss them!)
It’s been years and years–50 at least–since I’ve heard this hymn, Living for Jesus. A Sunday school favorite, big-time. I woke up with it today. I can still hear Mrs. R, with her lovely reedy voice, singing this as she played the piano.
I’m amazed that I remember almost all the words. Thank you, Father.
As far back as I can remember, you heard this piece of music at Christmastime–even on TV. I’m not sure it has anything specifically to do with Christmas, but somehow they belong together.
Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by the New London Symphony Orchestra in 1961, Leopold Stokowski conducting… another one of those memories that lands me, 10 0r 11 years old, back in my mother’s sitting room with the snow coming down outside.
Oh, those are good memories.
This is it, folks–the last day of our Memory Lane Contest. If you’ve got a memory you’d like to share, post it here.
When I read Huckleberry Finn , ages and ages ago, I, too, wanted to travel down the river on a raft. And as luck would have it, all the materials were ready to hand: an informal dump site, discarded wooden pallets, old tires–and a stream.
On a blisteringly hot summer day, my friends and I assembled a raft, complete with an old tire at each corner to help float it. Hard work in all that heat! Took us almost all day. But we kept at it till we had a raft. And then we launched it.
Straight to the bottom. No waiting, glub-glub-glub–adios, raft. The old tires most emphatically did NOT float, they might as well have been four cinderblocks… *Sigh* Live and learn…
And now it’s time for your memories, folks. The winner gets a prize–although the memories themselves are a kind of prize, aren’t they?
