Until the day that it's the day that I'm no more

A number of years ago, George Michael and Mary J. Blige did a remake of the Stevie Wonder song "As". It's still on my all time list. It's a rockin' blues/jazz fusion update of a great song.

You can see the video here on YouTube. It's incredibly hard to find in audio though. It was only released (from my understanding) on George Michael's european release of "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Best of George Michael"


The lyrics say it all. It's hard not to be reminded of things when it's written so eloquently and with such depth of feeling.


"As"
(George Michael feat. Mary J. Blige)

[GM]
As around the sun the earth knows she's revolving
And the rosebuds know to bloom in early May
Just as hate knows love's a cure
You can rest your mind assured
That I'll be lovin' you always

As now can't reveal the mystery of tomorrow
But in passing will grow older every day
Just as all is born is new
You know what I say is true
That I'll be lovin' you always

[All]
Until the rainbow burns the stars out of the sky
Until the ocean covers every mountain high
Until the day that eight times eight times eight is four
Until the day that it's the day that I'm no more

[MJB]
Did you know that true love asks for nothing
Her acceptance is the way we pay
Did you know that life has given love a guarantee
That last through forever
Another day

[GM] As today I know I'm living for tomorrow
Couldn't make me be the past but that I mustn't fear
[MJB] Now I know deep in my mind
The love of me I left behind
[GM] And I'll be loving you always

[1 - All]
Until the rainbow burns the stars out of the sky
Until the ocean covers every mountain high
Until the dolphins fly and parrots live at sea
Until we dream of life and life becomes a dream

Until the day is night and night becomes the day
Until the trees and seas just up and fly away
Until the day that eight times eight times eight is four
Until the day that it's the day that I'm no more

[GM] Did you know that true love asks for nothing
[MJB] (True love don't wanna pay)
[GM] Her acceptance is the way we pay
Did you know that life has given love a guarantee
To last through forever
[MJB] Another day

[GM] As around the sun the earth knows she's revolving
And the rosebuds know to bloom in early May
[MJB] Now I know deep in my mind
The love of me I left behind
[GM] That I'll be lovin' you always

[Repeat 1]

Always
Always

[Repeat 1]

My Dorm Mate's Mate

I don't usually talk about things that could come back and haunt me some day, but my friend Biscuit's recent post about her days in Mobile, AL reminded me of a story. A story from my freshman year in college in Mobile.

My best friend and fraternity brother (we'll call him Jay) and I shared a dorm room during the spring term. It was a blast. We had a great time. Here's a basic floorplan of the room. It wasn't big. The desks in the middle were back to back and had shelves that went up about 7 feet. We each had our little TV's mounted on the top shelves, and we'd kick back at night, each on his own bed and toss a football back and forth over the barrier while watching Late Night with David Letterman.

The only problem with this partnership - or rather "problems" with an "s" since there were two - were

1. Jay was an absolute slob. His clothes (dirty and clean... I couldn't tell which) where all over the floor on his side of the room. Which meant I had to walk through them to get out and in. Yuck.

2. Jay was having more sex than I was. Very frustrating for a me since my girlfriend was a 6 hour drive away.

One particular evening Jay and his girlfriend went to a party, and didn't tell me about it.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Jay, Steve, Lester and I were pledge brothers. We bonded. We made a pact that we would never go to an open party without at least telling the other three about it so they would have the option of joining.

Around 2:00 AM they came to the dorm room. They were SO drunk, that they woke me up even before they tried to unlock the door. They kept shushing each other and fumbling with the keys and giggling. Finally they got in the door, shuffled through the clothing bog toward the bed, ripped each other's clothes off and humped like wild boars for about 30 minutes. All the time whispering LOUDLY and giggling about not waking up ME. Arrgh.

Then Jay got up to go to the bathroom... and I had an idea. A very evil, dastardly, devious, and best of all naughty, idea...

...they were stinking drunk.

...the room was basically pitch black except for the glow of alarm clocks

...time to make a move and get some revenge

I got up. Shuffled through the clothing bog toward the bed and...

...

...

...

...and hopped in!

My luck was perfect, she was facing away toward the wall (see floorplan with Jay's bed). So I got a good spooning going. She reached back and... asked why I had put the shorts back on. Oh well... so she reached in and started working it out. It was all cuddly, comfy and warm... until someone started getting into bed behind me and almost got into a double spoon before figuring out something wasn't right.

He yelled, "Dude!"

I said, "What?"

She said, "Who?"

I said, "Me."

He said, "my name!!"

I said, "What?!"

She said, "OMG!!!"

--and bounced away from me and hit her head on the wall. Not hard. Just enough to get her attention.

Then I scooted out, scuffled past Jay as he was both laughing and swearing at me. He wasn't sure whether to pat me on the back or punch me in the eye. She started laughing and saying "ouch" and swearing at me also. Did I mention they were both really really drunk?

I just snickered and got back in my own bed.

The next day I was up, showered, dressed, gone, and probably had lunch before they ever opened their eyes.

We got lots of good laughs about it for weeks afterward. Needless to say he never forgot to invite me to a party for the rest of the year, and he told me she was much more careful whenever he came back to bed to make sure it was him first. :-D

Good thing that first time he only had to drain the snake. What might have happened if he'd been gone more than 5 minutes??? :-o

.

Good for what ails ya'!

This post is especially for my friends living in cold climes! And also for anyone who has a sore throat, or just likes a hot drink with kick in front of a roaring fire. :-)

The "Hot Toddie"!

1 oz. honey

1/2 tbl spoon sugar

2 oz. blended whiskey

1 large lemon wedge

5 whole cloves

In an 8 oz coffee mug, insert lemon, cloves, sugar and whiskey. Stir in piping hot water. Drizzle in honey. Drink hot. Yum!

Variations:

• Hot tea instead of water is better. (but don't use green tea, it's too weak and tastes like crap). Liptons is fine, or a nice English Breakfast Tea is better.


• I prefer fresh squeezed lemon juice (1/2 lemon) over just a wedge dropped in.


• Blended whiskey is good because it is smooth. If you want your alcohol with bite, try it with non-blended.Since the drink originated in Scotland, Scotch whiskey is best. :-)


• Brandy is more subtle


• Spiced Rum (like a Captain Morgan) adds great flavor


• I like to add a cinamon straw which adds a sort of gingerbread style flavor. Very nice!

For those of you, like me, who like the sugar to fully blend try making some sugar syrup.

Sugar Syrup:

1 cup water

2 cups white sugar

bring one cup of water to a boil. Add two cups of white sugar, bringing again to a boil. When the sugar is completely dissolved, cool and store in a bottle in the fridge. It'll last nearly forever, and comes in handy whenever you need a shot of sweetness.

****

I have had Hot Toddies in, Germany, Austria, Finland, England, Italy, Mongolia (yes really), China, and the USA. By far the best ever was served to me in Vienna, Austria in a hotel whose name I have very sadly forgotten. It was around the Vienna Opera House area. Someday I'd like to go back there. What a beautiful city!

Olivia Newton-John live in Sydney 2006 - Magic

I know, I know. 3 months ago I said my next blog post would be about the Dow Jones. Well, sometimes I have to get down off my soapbox and let all the non-believers go back to the school of hard knocks and learn the hard way.

So, instead of that... this! Can you believe this woman is going to be 61 years old in September of 2009???!!! She was 58 in this video. Wow.

ONJ I love you! You have a beautiful amazing voice like an angel, and you are every bit as beautiful now as you were in the 70's and 80's when I was listening to you on the radio.

Keep fighting for breast cancer awareness, and please... keep singing!

WOW

Okay. So last time I said that this time I would post something about the Dow Jones. Well... nope. Not yet. Simply haven't had time to write it. It's still hovering back there in the dark and dusty recesses of my mind, but I've just been too consarned busy to get to it. But THIS!!! THIS is neat. THIS is awesome. THIS is something I absolutely had to share with you all because THIS... is the about the coolest piece of animation I've seen since Lupo the Butcher!

I've watched it so many times already. Not only is the animation pretty damn neat, the music is slick also. It starts off with a sort of bedspring piano beat-thing, then lays out a neat little rap-a-do on a radiator thingamabob, until moving on to a really cool drum bridge, and THEN we get a this really wild whirligig xylophone flower aperatus!... I'm hooked. It's really a pretty amazing arrangement.

Hope you enjoy it.

My favorite is the whirly flower-like xylophone thingy. What's yours?

Change Changed the Changing Changer

I haven't blogged in a while. Maybe I was saving my breath, or simply waiting until I felt like I had something necessary to say. Well, here I am, and this is long winded, but if you have some spare time, lets talk about ‘Change’ for a moment.

George Bush has been in office just over 7 1/2 years. The first six the economy was fine.

A little over one year ago in July 2007:

1. Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2. Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3. The unemployment rate was 4.5%.
4. The DOW JONES hit a record high --14,000 +
5. American's were buying new cars, taking cruises and vacations overseas… living large!
6. Everything was trending upward

But American's wanted 'CHANGE'!

So, in 2006 they voted in a Democrat majority Congress and yes--we got 'CHANGE' all right.

In the PAST YEAR:

1. Consumer confidence has plummeted;
2. Gasoline pushed over $4 a gallon! (Thank God it’s coming down… at least until OPEC reduces production again)
3. Unemployment is up to 5.5% (a 10% increase);
4. American home equity dropped by $12 TRILLION DOLLARS, and prices are still dropping;
5. 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
6. As I write, THE DOW is looking like it will hit another low – 8,000

$2.5 TRILLION DOLLARS HAS EVAPORATED FROM OUR STOCKS, BONDS & MUTUAL FUND’S INVESTMENT PORTFOLIOS SINCE THE DEMOCRATS GAINED A MAJORITY IN CONGRESS.

Yes, in 2006 America voted for CHANGE, and we sure got it.

Remember, the President has influence, but not direct executive control over these issues, only Congress. Watch the videos in the links below, and you’ll see a surprise from one president talking about how the Democrats resisted even HIS efforts to reign in Freddie and Fannie!

And what has the Democrat majority Congress done in the last two years to CHANGE things for the better? Absolutely nothing.

Now the Democrat candidate for president claims he is going to really give us CHANGE along with a Democrat controlled congress. More on him in a minute, but just how much more of their kind of CHANGE can we stand?

Who’s a better choice for President when we’re talking about the economy? Obama? McCain? What about Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, where do they fit into all this? Let’s go back in time, and put back into perspective who it was that was pushing for reform and regulatory control over these out-of-control behemoths all the way back to 2004!!! …John McCain and the Republican party! Who was it that stopped them? Democrats.

Don’t believe me? Look here to see how in 2004 the Dem’s verbally trashed the regulator, in very abusive fashion… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs, and how Republicans were already calling for more and stricter regulations to prevent exactly what has happened now. And just wait until you get to the very end. Wait until you see who shows up at 8:15 and names the group responsible for our current Freddie/Fannie Sub-Prime Crisis which is now rocking the entire world’s markets.

If that video isn’t enough to show you the maliciousness with which the Democrats treated concerned regulators of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the group who warned about irregularities, and wanted to correct things before the crash that was coming (which has hit us now) then try this one… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usvG-s_Ssb0

I’m asking you all to PLEASE watch it. If you can make it all the way to 2:45 you’ll see that it’s actually true. Even if you don’t like the FOX (Fix) News Network, you can’t deny facts that are derived from a non-partisan source.

Did you watch it? Did you see that Barak Obama is actually the NUMBER 2 recipient of donations from Fannie and Freddie!!! That the failure of Lehman Bros. on Wall Street is directly attributable to Fannie and Freddie. The global financial crisis we are in right now is directly attributable to the Sub-Prime loan programs conceived and promoted by the Democrats at the begining of the Clinton administration, and not Bush administration policies.

If you need me to walk through the credit food-chain from Freddie/Fannie to the 1) major financial institutions, the 2) Democrat resistance and stonewalling of regulatory oversight, the 3) Republican distress that Sarbanes-Oxley wouldn't apply to Freddie/Fannie, and 4) how the Sub-Prime programs spread like cancer throughout our banking system as domestic and international investment companies and banks bought the loans from Freddie/Fannie, I can do that... but I think I just summed it up pretty neatly.

A lot of people don’t realize, ‘Sub-Prime’ loans are not loans below the Prime Interest Rate. No, they are loans to people with Sub-Prime credit scores. These were programs of high-risk, low-return mortgages for ‘under-served individuals’. Under-served, or is it Undeserved?

Okay, so I’m ranting again, but come on… how can anyone vote for Barak Obama when this kind of material is out there and verifiable. Even if you don’t like McCain/Palin, they are certainly better than what this information show’s about Obama and the Democrats in general. The same Democrats who blocked reform and are now blaming the Bush administration and McCain for the Fannie/Freddie disaster!!!

Well, I say, “Liar liar pants on fire!”


My next post is going to deal with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and it’s going all the way back to 1928… just letting you know ahead of time.

Anguished English

ONLY THE ENGLISH COULD HAVE INVENTED THIS LANGUAGE

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Then shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

**************

Let's face it - English is a crazy language... If a teacher can teach, and a preacher can preach - then if teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple, and English muffins weren't invented in England.

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work very slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend. If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? And if you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? We ship by truck but send cargo by ship. We have noses that run and feet that smell. We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway. And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm goes off by going on.
And, in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop?

.