When I was 16 I had a job as a pot washer and kitchen helper at Westminster prep school in my home town of Simsbury, Connecticut as mentioned in my previous post called "Lost in Translation".
While working there all of the kitchen workers used to eat the meal that would be served to the students right before we opened up to serve them. One of the kitchen workers was a pleasant heavy set lady named Jean. Another person was Al who did some maintenance work at the school.
We used to serve chicken a lot and even when we had something different like meatloaf or spaghetti; Al would often say "chicken ain't nothin' but a bird, chicken ain't nothin' but a bird".
I always thought that that was an Al original expression.
About 4 years ago I heard on the radio "chicken ain't nothing but a bird" as a song. I thought to myself "Huh, what do you know about that?"
Below for your listening pleasure is the recording " A Chicken Ain't Nothing But A Bird" as sung by Cab Calloway in 1935.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
NO EGGS
I remember back when I was two or three years old while living outside of Pittsburgh, PA that my Dad one day brought home a dozen fertilized eggs a little before Easter time. My Dad had built a small chicken coop in the back yard and had purchased some feed bags which were stored in this coop so that we could look forward to having some fresh eggs.. The eggs were incubated in the bath tub under a heat lamp.
After the little chicks hatched and were big enough to be kept outside they were moved into the chicken coop. It turned out that out of the twelve hatched eggs all twelve turned out to be roosters. These roosters were quite aggressive in nature and used to run around the back yard and a few of the neighborhood dogs used to chase them. When we would have a cookout in the back yard a couple of the roosters used to jump up on to the picnic table and start pecking away the the hamburgers and hamburger buns.
My Dad contacted one of the neighbors who said he would slaughter the roosters for him so that we could eat them. It turned out that the roosters kind of had the last laugh in a way because once these roosters were cooked they were tough and stringy from all the exercise they had from being chased by the dogs. Plus, for some reason we had no eggs.
After the little chicks hatched and were big enough to be kept outside they were moved into the chicken coop. It turned out that out of the twelve hatched eggs all twelve turned out to be roosters. These roosters were quite aggressive in nature and used to run around the back yard and a few of the neighborhood dogs used to chase them. When we would have a cookout in the back yard a couple of the roosters used to jump up on to the picnic table and start pecking away the the hamburgers and hamburger buns.
My Dad contacted one of the neighbors who said he would slaughter the roosters for him so that we could eat them. It turned out that the roosters kind of had the last laugh in a way because once these roosters were cooked they were tough and stringy from all the exercise they had from being chased by the dogs. Plus, for some reason we had no eggs.
YouTube - Red Peters- Ballad Of A Dog Named Stains
YouTube - Red Peters- Ballad Of A Dog Named Stains The classic sad tragic tale of Grandpa, grandson Bobby, and dog "Stains" sung live on the Howard Stern Show in 1998. Some people even find this song to be funny.
Monday, February 9, 2009
HILLARY IS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A few years ago I went down to vist my friend Jim Byrne in Olney,Maryland for a long weekend and also to see a college basketball tournament at the then called MCI Center. Olney is within commuting distance to Washington D.C. The Olney Chamber of Commerce motto is "Only in Olney".
Jim at that time liked to go on to his computer and join the AOL chat room discussions concerning Hillary Clinton. Jim wasn't really a big fan of Hillary Rodham-Clinton but he used to represent in the chat room that he was a big supporter of her collectivist ideology just to get a rise out of the other people in the chat room and read the anti-Hillary comments. It is said that a good attorney should be able to argue either side of a case and in this case although Jim wasn't an attorney he was commenting in the chat room the opposite way of his true beliefs.
Jim had to go somewhere on a brief errand while I was there and asked if I could take his place in the chat room and continue his line of pro-Hillary comments. I agreed to do this and had fun with this as I wasn't a fan of Hillary either although I played one on computer.
I would type in comments such as "We need Hillary to raise our kids"," Hillary is the best!!!!!!!!!"
"We are lost as a nation without Hillary", "Hillary knows what is best for us and our country","It takes a village and we need HILLARY to run this village". The responses were something like "You are so stupid and brainwashed", "How can any rational person believe the garbage that Hillary spews?" "Hillary would wreck this country" and so forth.
I would be lol,roflmao, etc... after hearing these responses and continue defending and praising Hillary.
Hillaryis the best!!!!!!!!!!!!! .................NOT
Jim at that time liked to go on to his computer and join the AOL chat room discussions concerning Hillary Clinton. Jim wasn't really a big fan of Hillary Rodham-Clinton but he used to represent in the chat room that he was a big supporter of her collectivist ideology just to get a rise out of the other people in the chat room and read the anti-Hillary comments. It is said that a good attorney should be able to argue either side of a case and in this case although Jim wasn't an attorney he was commenting in the chat room the opposite way of his true beliefs.
Jim had to go somewhere on a brief errand while I was there and asked if I could take his place in the chat room and continue his line of pro-Hillary comments. I agreed to do this and had fun with this as I wasn't a fan of Hillary either although I played one on computer.
I would type in comments such as "We need Hillary to raise our kids"," Hillary is the best!!!!!!!!!"
"We are lost as a nation without Hillary", "Hillary knows what is best for us and our country","It takes a village and we need HILLARY to run this village". The responses were something like "You are so stupid and brainwashed", "How can any rational person believe the garbage that Hillary spews?" "Hillary would wreck this country" and so forth.
I would be lol,roflmao, etc... after hearing these responses and continue defending and praising Hillary.
Hillaryis the best!!!!!!!!!!!!! .................NOT
MY SUMMER NEIGHBORS
Back in the summer of 1993 I had some interesting neighbors rent the house next to me in Dennis Port on Cape Cod. Two figure skaters rented this house; Paul Wylie and Nancy Kerrigan.
After they moved in one afternoon I was speaking with Paul and I mentioned that I had heard of and followed his skating career in the past. I hadn't heard of Nancy Kerrigan when they moved in but Paul mentioned that she was rated the third best skater in the world. Both Paul and Nancy were training for the 1994 Olympics at the nearby Tony Kent Area in South Dennis under their coaches Evy and Mary Scotvold.
I used to see Paul and Nancy come and go in their red and white Hondas with Olympic plates. I would also run into Nancy at the local video store and other places around town. Quite often I would see TV camera vans parked at their house.
One afternoon that summer my parents arrived from Connecticut to visit me. I went out to greet my parents and noticed that it looked like Nancy's parents had come to visit her at the same time. We were about 20 feet away from Nancy and her parents but her parents particularly Nancy's mom wouldn't look over to where my parents and I were in my yard. Later
I found out why Mrs. Kerrigan didn't even glance over at my parents and me. While watching the Olympics in January of 1994 there was a segment on Nancy's mother Brenda and how she is legally blind and how she would have to get about 1 to 2 inches from the television screen to watch her daughter perform. So, as radio announcer Paul Harvey would say "that is the rest of the story".
Later of course Nancy Kerrigan became a household name when the Tonya Harding gang whacked her in the knee. "Why ? Why?" did that happen? I don't know.
Nancy ended up finishing 2nd to Oksana Baul at that Olympics by 0.01 of a point. Oksana trained in Simsbury,Connecticut which is where I went to High School.
After they moved in one afternoon I was speaking with Paul and I mentioned that I had heard of and followed his skating career in the past. I hadn't heard of Nancy Kerrigan when they moved in but Paul mentioned that she was rated the third best skater in the world. Both Paul and Nancy were training for the 1994 Olympics at the nearby Tony Kent Area in South Dennis under their coaches Evy and Mary Scotvold.
I used to see Paul and Nancy come and go in their red and white Hondas with Olympic plates. I would also run into Nancy at the local video store and other places around town. Quite often I would see TV camera vans parked at their house.
One afternoon that summer my parents arrived from Connecticut to visit me. I went out to greet my parents and noticed that it looked like Nancy's parents had come to visit her at the same time. We were about 20 feet away from Nancy and her parents but her parents particularly Nancy's mom wouldn't look over to where my parents and I were in my yard. Later
I found out why Mrs. Kerrigan didn't even glance over at my parents and me. While watching the Olympics in January of 1994 there was a segment on Nancy's mother Brenda and how she is legally blind and how she would have to get about 1 to 2 inches from the television screen to watch her daughter perform. So, as radio announcer Paul Harvey would say "that is the rest of the story".
Later of course Nancy Kerrigan became a household name when the Tonya Harding gang whacked her in the knee. "Why ? Why?" did that happen? I don't know.
Nancy ended up finishing 2nd to Oksana Baul at that Olympics by 0.01 of a point. Oksana trained in Simsbury,Connecticut which is where I went to High School.
"SWEET CAROLINE"
In the fall of 1972 as a new freshman college student at Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio I lived in suite 301 of Parsons Hall. Chris Grover was my roommate. In November of that year I developed a touch of bronchitis,pharyngitis, and a little bit of laryngitis.
Chris was a fan of the singer Neil Diamond and used to play some Neil Diamond records in the room on a small record player. One of the songs was a live recorded version of "Sweet Caroline".
In this live song Neil starts to sing with a really deep and low voice. My normal voice can't be considered to be on the deep and low range; however with my "itis" conditions mentioned above I was able to sing at the same deep level as Neil Diamond!
I saw Neil Diamond last night on the 51st annual Emmy awards on the CBS network and seeing him again after over 35 years brought back this recollection. He's had quite a long career.
I was a fan of "Deep Purple" back then with their classic hit "Smoke on the Water". DA DA DA
DA DA DADA DA DA DA DAADAA.
Chris was a fan of the singer Neil Diamond and used to play some Neil Diamond records in the room on a small record player. One of the songs was a live recorded version of "Sweet Caroline".
In this live song Neil starts to sing with a really deep and low voice. My normal voice can't be considered to be on the deep and low range; however with my "itis" conditions mentioned above I was able to sing at the same deep level as Neil Diamond!
I saw Neil Diamond last night on the 51st annual Emmy awards on the CBS network and seeing him again after over 35 years brought back this recollection. He's had quite a long career.
I was a fan of "Deep Purple" back then with their classic hit "Smoke on the Water". DA DA DA
DA DA DADA DA DA DA DAADAA.
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