As most of you are aware, for many years I’ve been sharing some of the brilliant web comics, xkcd, by Randall Munroe. In November of 2010, Megan, then his fiancée (now wife) received a diagnosis of stage 3 breast cancer.
During her eight months of treatment, Munroe posted several comics about her diagnosis and treatment. Here are a couple:
So this month is the ten-year anniversary of the diagnosis and he posted this, which I think is wonderful. I’m sure many of you can relate.
The way things are going on earth, some people may want to leave. It’s getting pretty crowded up on the ISS though with 5 spacecraft docked there today.
Normally I ignore advice from celebrities, but Samuel L. Jackson has some good advice for all of us on how to beat, or at least mitigate, the current pandemic. Pay attention!
Today is the birthday (in 1938) of Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot. I suppose his biggest hit was The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Punctuation
Defense Attorneys
Actually I’ve been to two of these places.
One sunny day in late January 2021 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he’d been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and said, “I would like to go in and meet with President Trump.” The Marine looked at the man and said, “Sir, Mr. Trump is no longer President and no longer resides here.” The old man said, “Okay”, and walked away. The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, “I would like to go in and meet with President Trump.” The Marine repeated, “Sir, as I told you yesterday, Mr. Trump is no longer President and no longer resides here.” The man thanked him and, again, just walked away. The third day, the old man approached the White House and spoke to the very same U.S. Marine, saying again, “I would like to go in and meet with President Trump.” The Marine, understandably irritated at this point, looked at the man and said, “Sir, this is the third day in a row you’ve been here asking to speak to Trump. I’ve told you each time that he’s no longer the President and no longer resides here. Don’t you get it?” The old man looked at the Marine and said, “Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it.” The Marine snapped to attention and said, “See you tomorrow, Sir!”
On this day in 1960, Patsy Cline recorded ‘I Fall to Pieces’ which would become a number one hit on the Country Charts. I’m not really a country fan but I love Patsy Cline.
Today is the birthday (15 November, 1932) of Petula Clark. Most of us on this side of the pond know her for her iconic 1964 hit ‘Downtown’. She was, however, a very successful performer before her first US hit.
She made her radio debut in 1942 and went on to a series of some 500 performances designed to entertain the troops. She also toured the UK with fellow child performer, Julie Andrews. She was considered a mascot by the British army and troops plastered her photos on tanks and such for good luck in battle.
In the late 50s and early 60s she became a star across Europe, recording hits in German, French, Spanish and Italian and had numerous number 1 hits both in the UK and across the channel. She also began composing film scores.
Her US debut came with the release of ‘Downtown’ in 1964. It went to number 1 on the charts in January of 1965. She also recorded the song in French and the song was a hit in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Australia, India and Rhodesia. Clark went on to record 15 consecutive top 40 hits in the US.
An interesting episode occurred in 1968 when she was invited by NBC to film her own special. While singing a duet with Harry Belafonte, she took hold of his arm, much to dismay of a representative of Chrysler corporation (the sponsor) who feared that the moment would incur racial backlash from southern viewers. He demanded that they re-film the song with the two standing well apart. Clark refused and destroyed all other takes of the song and delivered the show to NBC with the touch intact. The Chrysler rep was fired and the show aired on 6 April, 1968, four days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.
Enough of my blathering. Here’s Petula!
And this…
and this…
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