Try to remember, and if you remember, then follow

Attempting to create a post about songs with the word "Moon" in the title has revealed a giant hole in my knowledge banks (details later in the post).

First, I wrote down all the "moon" songs I could think of on my own and made an alphabetic list. (Note. Song titles are normally enclosed in quotation marks, but I have decided to dispense with quotation marks in this post so as to avoid a plethora of, you guessed it, quotation marks.) Here's the list:

Allegheny Moon
Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah Moon
Blue Moon
By The Light Of The Silvery Moon
Carolina Moon
Fly Me To The Moon
Full Moon and Empty Arms
Moonlight Bay
Moonlight Becomes You
Moonlight In Vermont
Moonlight Serenade
Moon Over Miami
Moon River
Racing With The Moon
Shine On, Harvest Moon
The Man In The Moon Is A Lady
When The Moon Comes Over The Mountain

I thought of including When The Moon Hits Your Eye Like A Big Pizza Pie but I realized at once that that is the first line of a well-known song but it isn't the title. The title is That's Amore.

Then I realized that one of the songs I did include is also just the first line of a song and not its title:

Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars
In other words, hold my hand
In other words, darlng, kiss me

Fill my heart with song and let me sing forevermore
You are all I long for, all I worship and adore
In other words, please be true
In other words, I love you.

If you're extremely slow and haven't figured out the title of that song yet, let me just spill the beans (British, enlighten you) without further ado. The title of that song is (or was, originally) In Other Words.

So I was left with 16 titles of mostly what I would call "old standards". I was feeling pretty good about myself.

Then I decided to use a search engine to see what else I might find. Perhaps you've heard of it. It's called Google.

Gott in Himmel, Sacre Bleu, and other expressions of surprise, exasperation, and dismay. I was shocked. There were over 100 songs with the word "moon" in the title, many of them in the "classic rock" category. A few artists' names I recognized, like Pink Floyd and Cat Stevens (even though I know nothing about them except their names), but I have never heard of the vast majority of the artists or the song titles. I could not begin to tell you which artists are better known than others or if one song was more popular than another. I cannot bring myself to provide you with a link. You can look them up for yourself if you care to, and if you do, tell me which ones were so pooular that I ought to have been aware of them.

It is depressing, but I will soldier on.

I will console myself concerning my great ignorance in certain areas by telling you that two musical compositions that have no words at all have "moon" in their titles. They are Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven and Clair de Lune (which means moonlight in French) by Claude Debussy. Not only that, the song Full Moon and Empty Arms is based on a theme from Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

It takes all kinds, and I am one of them.

And so are you.

P,S. -- Today is the birthday of my cousin Philip, who died in 2016 at rhe age of 81. Had he lived, he would have turned 86 today.

P.P.S. - The title of this post is from a song that did not have the word "moon" in it from The Fantasticks.

I have moons, you have moons, all God's children have moons

...and lest there be any confusion concerning what I am talking about, I'm talking about the moon that orbits our Earth, the moon up in the sky.

I noticed in my reading that the moons in different months have different names, and that according to The Old Farmer's Almanac these names were mostly first used by Native Americans. It set me to wondering if other parts of the world use the same names we do here in Ye Olde United States of America. Read this post first, then tell me in the comments how your moons differ from mine.

The information in the rest of this post is from an article entitled "Traditional Full Moon Names" by Vigdis Hocken and Aparna Khera on a website called timeanddate.com.

Full Moons had given names in many ancient cultures. The Full Moon names we use today often reflect the changing seasons and nature, like Harvest Moon, Strawberry Moon, or Snow Moon.

Full Moon names have roots in nature.

In ancient times, it was common to track the changing seasons by following the lunar month rather than the solar year, which our modern calendar is based on.

Ancient Month Names

For millennia, people across Europe, as well as Native American tribes, named the months after features they associated with the seasons in the Northern Hemisphere, and many of these names are very similar or identical. Some Native names are often attributed to tribes who lived in a vast area stretching from New England to Lake Superior, and whose languages are related. They are sometimes called Algonquian or Algonkian peoples, but they are not to be confused with the Algonquin tribe who lives in Canada. However, other sources list completely different Native American Moon names.

January: Wolf Moon

The Full Moon in January is the Wolf Moon named after howling wolves, which may stem from the Anglo-Saxon lunar calendar. Other names: Moon After Yule, Old Moon, Ice Moon, and Snow Moon.

February: Snow Moon

The Snow Moon is the Full Moon in February, named after the snowy conditions. Some North American tribes named it the Hunger Moon due to the scarce food sources during mid-winter, while other names are Storm Moon and Chaste Moon, but the last name is more common for the March Full Moon.

March: Worm Moon

The last Full Moon of the winter season in March is the Worm Moon because of the earthworms that come out at the end of winter. It is also known as the Crow Moon, Crust Moon, Sap Moon, Sugar Moon, and Chaste Moon. The Old English/Anglo-Saxon name is Lenten Moon.

April: Pink Moon

The Full Moon in April is the Pink Moon, from the pink flowers – phlox – that bloom in the early spring. Other names for this Full Moon include Sprouting Grass Moon, Fish Moon, Hare Moon, and the Old English/Anglo-Saxon name is Egg Moon. It is also known as the Paschal Moon because it is used to calculate the date for Easter.

May: Flower Moon

The May Full Moon is known as Flower Moon to signify the flowers that bloom during this month. Other names for the Full Moon in May are Corn Planting Moon, and Milk Moon from Old English/Anglo-Saxon.

June: Strawberry Moon

June’s Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon as these little red berries ripen at this time. Other names are Hot Moon, Mead Moon, and Rose Moon.

July: Buck Moon

The Full Moon for the month of July is called Buck Moon to signify the new antlers that emerge on deer buck's foreheads around this time. This Full Moon is also known as Thunder Moon, Wort Moon, and Hay Moon from Old English/Anglo-Saxon.

August: Sturgeon Moon

The Full Moon for August is called Sturgeon Moon because of the large number of fish in the lakes where the Algonquin tribes fished. Other names for this Full Moon include Green Corn Moon, Barley Moon, Fruit Moon, and Grain Moon from Old English/Anglo-Saxon.

September / October: Harvest Moon

Technically, the Harvest Moon is the Full Moon closest to the September equinox around September 22. Most years it is in September, but around every three years, it is in October. The Harvest Moon is the only Full Moon name which is determined by the equinox rather than a month.

September: Corn Moon

The Full Moon in the month of September in the Old Farmer's Almanac is called Harvest Moon, which corresponds with the Old English/Anglo-Saxon name, while other names are Corn Moon or Full Corn Moon or Barley Moon.

October: Hunter's Moon

Every three years, the Hunter's Moon is also the Harvest Moon. Traditionally, people in the Northern Hemisphere spent the month of October preparing for the coming winter by hunting, slaughtering and preserving meats for use as food. This led to October’s Full Moon being called the Hunter’s Moon, Dying Grass Moon, and Blood Moon or Sanguine Moon. However, this should not be confused with a Total Lunar Eclipse – Blood Moon.

November: Beaver Moon

According to folklore, the Full Moon in November is named after beavers who become active while preparing for the winter. It is also known as Frosty Moon, and along with the December Full Moon some called it Oak Moon. Traditionally, if the Beaver Moon is the last Full Moon before the winter solstice, it is also called the Mourning Moon.

December: Cold Moon

December is the month when winter begins for most of the Northern Hemisphere, and the Full Moon is called the Cold Moon. The Old English/Anglo-Saxon name is the Moon Before Yule, while another name is Wolf Moon, however, this is more common for the January Full Moon.

Full Moons with No Name

Some years have 13 Full Moons, which makes at least one of them a Blue Moon, as it doesn't quite fit in with the traditional Full Moon naming system. However, this is not the only definition of a Blue Moon.

About every 19 years, there is no Full Moon in February. This is one of several definitions of the term Black Moon. The other definitions refer to a New Moon which does not fit in with the equinoxes or solstices, similar to a Blue Moon.

Latin Names Took Over

When the Julian calendar was introduced in 45 BCE, Latin month names gradually became more common in Europe. However, the ancient Pagan names were not forgotten. Old High German month names were introduced by Charlemagne (Charles the Great) who ruled as King of the Franks and later Emperor of the Romans from 774 to 814. And Old English or pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon month names were collected by the English Monk Venerable Bede in 725.

Adopted as Full Moon Names

Today, many of these ancient month names have been adopted as names for the Full Moon of each month. A common explanation, published in the Old Farmer's Almanac, is that Colonial Americans adopted Native American names and incorporated them into the modern calendar. However, it seems that the Full Moon names we use today also have Anglo-Saxon and Germanic roots.

(End of article)

That's a lot to take in, so let's recap:

Here are the traditional Full Moon Names:

Wolf Moon – January
Snow Moon – February
Worm Moon – March
Pink Moon – April
Flower Moon – May
Strawberry Moon – June
Buck Moon – July
Sturgeon Moon – August
Harvest Moon – September or October
Full Corn Moon (Harvest) – September
Hunter's Moon (Harvest) – October
Beaver Moon – November
Cold Moon – December

Finally, I have figured out (wouldn't you know it?) that the reason every third year has 13 full moons is that, using generally accurate numbers, a year has 365.25 days and the moon's trip around the earth takes 29.5 days. So in every year (do the math, 365.25 divided by 29.5) there are 12.38 lunar orbits of the earth. Rounding off to 1/3, in one year there are 12 and 1/3 moons, in two years there are 24 and 2/3 moons, and in three years there are -- voila! -- 36 and 3/3 moons, or 37 full moons.

Finally, the definition of a Blue Moon that I am familiar with is a calendar month that contains two full moons, which is of course possible because the lunar orbit is 29.5 days and every month but one has either 30 or 31 days.

Finally, and I really mean it this time, let's all listen to Kate Smith sing, as only she could, "When the moon comes over the mountain, every beam brings a dream. dear, of you" (3:13).

Long livers on my personal radar

Although my mother died young at age 47 and my dad died at 60, Mrs. RWP and I have had some long livers in our family and among our friends. I have listed them below in descending order by age:

Clark H., our friend F.M.'s brother-in-law, was born on February 25, 1906, and died on November 13, 2008. He lived 102 years, 8 months, 18 days.

Audrey G., mother of my childhood friend John G., was born on February 20, 1905 and died on August 23, 2004. She lived 99 years, 6 months, 3 days.

Ruth C., mother of our friend Becky R., was born in 1917 and died on February 24, 2018. She lived 99 years and some months.

Our friend for more than 50 years, Len G., was born on February 2, 1923, and is still alive. He is 98 years, 20 days.

My fourth-grade teacher, Charlotte A., who taught me how to do long division, was born on November 25, 1897, and died on December 10, 1995. She lived 98 years, 15 days.

My mother's father, Nathan S., was born on March 21, 1875, and died on December 20, 1970. He lived 95 years, 8 months, 29 days.

Our friend F.M.'s sister, Mildred H. (she was married to Clark) was born on March 5, 1912 and died on October 1, 2007. She lived 95 years, 6 months, 30 days.

A friend from church, Rosemary L., was born on February 8, 1918. and died on January 19, 2013. She lived 94 years, 11 months, 11 days.

Dr. Torrey J., our pastor when we lived in Florida in the 1960s and 1970s, was born on March 15, 1909, and died on May 15, 2002. He lived 93 years, 2 months.

Our daughter-in-law's grandmother, Lillian W., was born on November 27, 1911 and died on December 10, 2004. She lived 93 years, 13 days.

Evelyn J., wife of Dr. Torrey J., was born on October 1, 1909, and died on May 15, 2002. She lived 92 years, 7 months, 14 days. You may note that she died one day after her husband. They both died of natural causes..

My stepmother's brother's wife, Dorothy W., was born on January 4, 1929, and is still alive. She is 92 years, 1 month, 19 days old.

Another friend from church, Amalfi C., whom we have known for more than 40 years, was born January 23, 1930, and is still alive. She is 91 years, 1 month old.

My father's oldest brother's daughter, Peggy Brague P., was born on January 16, 1931, and is still alive. She is 90 years, 1 month, 6 days old.

My stepmother, Mildred F., was born on March 30, 1915, and died on November 27, 2004. She lived 89 years, 7 months, 28 days.

Leona M., our friend F.M.'s mother, was born on July 11, 1894, and died on January 21, 1984. She lived 89 years, 6 months, 10 days.

Lawanda W., who was married to another of my stepmother's brothers, was born on April 11 1930, and died on May 11, 2019. She lived 89 years, 1 month.

My mother's sister, Marion C., was born on January 29, 1899, and died on November 3, 1987. She lived 88 years, 9 months, 4 days.

My stepmother's brother, Russ W., the one who married Dorothy, was born December 15, 1921, and died on August 14, 2010. He lived 88 years, 7 months, 30 days. He was the last survivor among 10 siblings, and everyone in the family called him Junior because he was named after his father.

My wife's father, James C., was born on February 15, 1895, and died on August 28, 1983. He lived 88 years, 6 months, 13 days.

Our son-in-law's father, John S., was born on September 30, 1932, and is still alive. He is 88 years, 4 months, 22 days old.

Our pastor's mother, Rita R., was born on March 3, 1933, and died on February 2, 2021. She lived 87 years, 10 months, 29 days.

Another friend from church, Audrey L., whom we have known for over 45 years, was born on April 24, 1933, and is still alive. She is 87 years, 9 months, 29 days old.

Speaking of our friend F.M., he was born on October 1, 1932, and died on June 16, 2020. He lived 87 years, 9 months, 15 days. We knew him for 45 years.

A friend in Florida whom we have known for more than 50 years, Ruth C, was born on July 27, 1933, and is still alive. She is 87 years, 6 months, 25 days old.

I think that's everybody on my radar. I hope I haven't forgotten anybody. Anybody younger is not yet old enough to qualify for my list.

I don't know if learning about our family and friends bores you to tears, but I enjoyed putting this post together.

I used to say that I hoped to live as long as my grandfather, but I have changed my mind. I want to outlive Clark H.

Oh, one more thing. If any of you can think of a better way than "long livers" to describe these people, please let me know!

P.S. -- Today, February 22nd, is what used to be known as Washington's Birthday in the United States. Not the city. Not the state. George. It should be noted for the record that since he was born in 1732 and died in 1799, by no stretch of the imagination could he be considered a long liver.

plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

Last night's "Say whaaat?" moment on Jeopardy!: Even though the clue included the name "Bruce Catton" and the phrase "A Stillness At ___________", two of the contestants didn't buzz in at all. The third one guessed, "What is the O.K. Corral?" but I was yelling "What is Appomattox?"

On tonight's program (British, programme) there were only blank stares from all three contestants when someone besides me should have said, "Who is Samuel Barber?" The clue mentioned "Adagio For Strings" but also included a fact that was new to me, that his life partner (that's the term that was used) was Gian-Carlo Menotti.

I will remember that from now on.

Of what use is that particular piece of information? As far as I know, it is of no use whatever.

In the words of Joe Hamilton, Carol Burnett's husband:

I'm so glad we had this time together
Just to have a laugh or sing a song
Seems we just get started and before you know it
Comes the time we have to say, "So long".

Which reminds me, who said, "So long, and thanks for all the fish"? and it wasn't Douglas Adams.

Throwback Thursday, or Borne Back Ceaselessly Into The Past

Before I seriously attempt to do what I mentioned in the last post and stop looking backward forever (fat chance) or glorifying the past (probably not going to happen short of the grave), let us (us, forsooth) indulge ourselves (here's looking at you, kid) and adopt, for one day at least, one of Facebook's popular features, Throwback Thursday.

We shall do it, not with old photographs (although there are a couple over there in the sidebar) but with two articles for your reading pleasure or consternation (pick one, but not until you've read them) because it is important to stay busy (not to mention connected) during this pandemic, which government experts tell us on the one hand is winding down but which President Biden tells us on the other hand may last until Christmas. You may read one of them or both of them at your leisure, or neither of them. It's still a free country and the choice is up to you.

Where Did All The Saxophones Go?

The World's Most Misunderstood Novel

Any thoughts or comments? I mean besides that I should use fewer parenthesized asides.

Oops, I left someone out

...so let me remedy that right now. Michael Landon, who played Little Joe on Bonanza and Pa Ingalls on Little House On The Prairie, was not the actor's real name. He was born Eugene Maurice Orowitz in Queens, New York.

Speaking of Little House On The Prairie,, Melissa Gilbert, the little girl who played Laura Ingalls, has been married to three husbands: Bo Brinkman (about whom I know nothing), actor Bruce Boxleitner, and Timothy Busfield, the red-haired actor who played Eliot Weston on the television series thirtysomething and Kevin Costner's brother-in-law in Field Of Dreams. Busfield and Gilbert moved away from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and lived in a rural area near the small town of Howell, Michigan for several years. A couple of years ago, they moved to New York City, so they either are back in their right minds or have lost them completely, depending on your point of view.

Melissa Gilbert's younger half-sister, Sara Gilbert, played Darlene Connor on Roseanne.

Why do I know these things? I have no idea.

Last Night On Jeopardy! Department: The category was U.S. States. The clue mentioned that according to the song "This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land" the land stretches from this state to the New York Island. The defending champion said "What is the redwood forest?" but the last time I looked at the list the redwood forest was not a state. The song does include that phrase in a later line, "from the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters". Another contestant answered correctly, "What is California?"

Last Night On Jeopardy! Department, Example 2: The category was 1821. According to the clue, this king, whose coronation occurred in 1821, was the fourth British monarch to have this name. I knew immediarely that it was George IV since George III reigned from 1760 to 1820. Two of the contestants didn't buzz in at all and the third contestant's answer, obviously a guess, was Edward. I say obviously because Edward VI (two edwards after Edward IV) was the son of Henry VIII back in the sixteenth century.

The Athena-full-grown-from-the-forehead song that greeted me upon waking this morning was another oldie:

Dear, I thought I'd drop a line
The weather's cool, the folks are fine
I'm in bed each night at nine
P.S. I love you

Yesterday we had some rain
But all in all, I can't complain
Was it dusty on the train?
P.S. I love you

Write to the Browns just as soon as you're able
They came around to call
I burned a hole in the dining room table
And let me see, I guess that's all

Nothing else for me to say
And so I'll close, but by the way
Everybody's thinking of you
P.S. I love you

I have a distinct memory of watching Your Hit Parade on a Saturday night and hearing Gisele MacKenzie sing that song. The other singers on the show every week were Dorothy Collins, Snooky Lanson, and Russell Arms.

Tonight on Jeopardy! all three contestants tried but failed to say the title of Dylan Thomas's poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" correctly.

There is no rhyme or reason to this post that I can detect, but I am glad that I remembered to add Michael Landon into the mix.

I am going to make a sincere attempt to think less about trivia from the past and think more about the future instead. After all, as Criswell said at the beginning of the worst movie ever made, Plan 9 From Outer Space, "We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives."

Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Norma Jean, Norma Jean

That title is wrong, of course. The 1976 play and 1982 film were Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and the proper name referred to the actor James Dean, not the country-western singer and eventual seller of sausage Jimmy Dean. Any confusion all these years later is certainly understandable, except in people who actually saw the play or the film. They have no reason to be confused unless they are senile.

Because of the trivia factoid in the preceding post about American dancer Cyd Charisse's real name being Tula Finklea, I was reminded of Marilyn Monroe. Everybody knows, or should know by now, that Marilyn Monroe's real name was Norma Jean Baker. It follows as the night the day, therefore, or at least it does if you have a warped mind like mine, that as soon as you realize that the name Jimmy Dean rhymes with Norma Jean, you also realize that you have found the title for your next post, which is going to be about other people whose names were changed.

If it didn't follow as the night the day to you, your mind is obviously not as warped as mine.

Several years ago I created a similar post in which readers were invited to try to match the new names with the original names. I won't make you work so hard this time. I will simply (and very graciously, don't you think?) give you the information. It is entirely up to you, of course, what you do with it.

As I am getting on in years, younger readers may detect a certain generation gap.

Here goes:

Tony Bennett's real name? Anthony Dominick Benedetto.
Jack Benny's real name? Benny Lubelsky.
Tony Curtis's real name? Bernie Schwartz.
Tiny Tim's real name? Herbert Khaury.
Cary Grant's real name? Archibald Leach.
Michael Caine's real name? Maurice Micklewhite.
John Wayne's real name? Marion Morrison.
Engelbert Humperdinck's real name? Arnold George Dorsey.
Vanilla Ice's real name? Robert Matthew Van Winkle.
Roy Rogers's real name? Leonard Slye (and he may have been King of the Cowboys but he was from Ohio).
Marilyn Monroe's real name? (all together now, class) Norma Jean Baker.
Joan Crawford's real name? Lucille Fay LeSueur.
Vivian Leigh's real name? Vivian Mary Hartley.
Billie Holliday's real name? Eleanora Fagan.
Joan Rivers's real name? Joan Alexandra Molinsky. (Rivers was not her married name. Rosenberg was her married name.)
Barbara Stanwyck's real name? Ruby Katherine Stevens.
Gypsy Rose Lee's real name? Rose Louise Hovick.
Whoopi Goldberg's real name? Caryn Elaine Johnson.
Dinah Shore's real name? Frances Rose Shore.
Maya Angelou's real name? Marguerite Annie Johnson.
Dale Evans's (Queen of the Cowgirls, wife of Roy Rogers, and her horse's name was Buttermilk) real name? Frances Octavia Smith.
And last, but by no means least, Cyd Charisse's real name? (as we all should know by now) Tula Ellice Finklea.

As Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg in 1863, it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. A reader named Pat from Arkansas told us why in a comment on this blog back in 2008, and I quote:

"Trivia is good! It occupies the brain cells that otherwise would be taken up in contemplating current events!"

Given the state of current events nowadays, spending time with trivia is more important than ever. I'm just trying to do my part in achieving harmony in the world. Feel free to nominate me for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Happy birthday, Abe, plus other info

On this day in 1809, Abraham Lincolm was born. When I was young, the nation celebrated his birthday and also George Washington's on February 22nd. Sadly, we don't celebrate either birthday any more.

Emma Springfield blogged today about getting her first dose of COVID-19 vaccine (Moderna version) and being in and out of the vaccinating venue in 20 minutes.

Braggart.

Not to be outdone or one-upped or something equally horrible (I can't imagine what that could be), Mrs. RWP and I would like to announce at this time that we also received our first doses of COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer version) today. We arrived at the VV (see second paragraph) at 1100 hours (I love military jargon) and left, finally, at 1245 hours. But here's the kicker. Of that 1 hour, 45 minutes of our lives that we will never get back again, Mrs. RWP and I spent fully 1 hour, 30 minutes of that time waiting. The remainder of the time was spent filling out a form, actually getting the shot, and setting up the appointments for our second doses of the aforementioned vaccine on March 8th, which just happens to be the birthday of Beatrice of Castile, Queen of Portugal (1293); Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714); Hannah Van Buren, wife of U.S. President Martin Van Buren (1783); Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841); American dancer Cyd Charisse (1922); and British-Americam actress Lynn Redgrave (1943).

If you thought that was a lot of trivia, here is a POTWWYCNPL (piece of trivia without which you could not possibly live):

Cyd Charisse's real name was Tula Finklea.

Old habits are hard to break

I continue to watch Jeopardy! five nights a week, and there continue to be times when no contestant knows the answer but I do.

Here is a partial list of correct answers I have found myself yelling at my television set in recent weeks, to no avail:

What is Cape Cod? (the clue included the words 'Massachusetts' and 'peninsula')
What is Cambodia?
Who is Valerie Harper?
What are the Caucusus?
What is Plantagenet?
What is Chancellor?
What is Jamestown?
What is Desire Under the Elms?
What is Song Of Myself?
What is the Stone Age?
What is Hadrian's Wall?
What is smelt?
Who is Joshua? (successor of Moses)
What is Ireland?
What is Seven Days In May?
What is laying on of hands?
What are mustangs?
Who is Ralph Waldo Emerson? (wrote "Concord Hymn" and "Self-Reliance")

This evening there were two more:

What is Lake Superior? (lake in which the Edmund Fitzgerald sank)
What is the Andrea Doria? (ship that sank in 1956 that was named for this Italian admiral)

Well, that's more than enough of that.

Here's something either truly trivial or truly fascinating. I became aware of it back in 1969 when I spent an entire month, the month of February, in Sweden. It's true. I flew out of Fort Lauderdale on February 1st and I flew back on March 1st -- and as the old joke goes, boy, were my arms tired.

It has to do with grandparents. Every language has words for one's grandmother and one's grandfather, I'm sure, but since every person has two grandmothers and two grandfathers it is necessary in English to add the adjective 'maternal' or 'paternal' to indicate which ones you mean. Not so in Sweden.

In Swedish, mother is 'mor' and father is 'far' and there are special words for all four of a person's grandparents. Your mother's parents are 'mormor' and 'morfar'. Your father's parents are 'farmor' and 'farfar'. I am not kidding.

If you know of another language that does this, please tell me in the comments.

Greek mythology tells us

...many things, not the least of which is that Athena sprang full-grown from the forehead of Zeus. I had a similar experience upon waking this morning. No sooner had I opened my eyes than the entire lyrics of a decades-old song called "I Love Paris" sprang out of my mind, which, when you think about the makeup of our physical bodies, is in my forehead:

I love Paris in the springtime
I love Paris in the fall
I love Paris in the winter, when it drizzles
I love Paris in the summer, when it sizzles
I love Paris every moment
Every moment of the year
I love Paris! Why, oh, why do I love Paris?
Because my love is here.

I have never been to Paris and my love is not now and never has been there. "I Love Paris" was followed almost immediately by another old song, as though someone somewhere was dropping quarters into a jukebox:

A foggy day in London town
It had me up, it had me down
I viewed the morning with alarm
The British Museum had lost its charm
How long, I wondered, could this thing last?
But the age of miracles hadn't passed
For suddenly I saw you there
And in foggy London town the sun was shining everywhere.

I have been to London only once, in March 1969, and it was not foggy.

I didn't tell you these things to impress you concerning my powers of recall. My memory is actually not so impressive. As a matter of fact, sometimes I can't remember things that are very important. What I remember, I remember. What I do not, I do not. What I know nothing at all about would fill libraries. Stadiums. Continents.

Let's move on.

What if the song "Gary, Indiana" that little Ronnie Howard sang in The Music Man were about another city? What if he had sung "Kansas City, Kansas" or "Charleston, West Virginia" or "Kodiak, Alaska" or "St. Cloud, Minnesota" or "Helena, Montana" or "Hannibal, Missouri" or "Waxahachie, Texas"?

In the overall scheme of things, it wouldn't make any difference at all except that Professor Howard Hill's encounter with Marian the librarian might have occurred somewhere else than right there in River City.

Please note that when you say "Waxahachie, Texas" the first syllable should not rhyme with "tax" and if it does you are saying it wrong. When you say "Waxahachie, Texas" the first syllable should rhyme with "hawks". I know this because I grew up in the town of Mansfield, just a few miles from Waxahachie. Let it further be noted that there is no 'T' in Waxahachie; it is not Waxahatchie. On second thought, maybe there should be a 'T' in Waxahachie because here's what a certain online encyclopedia that shall remain nameless has to say about the etymology of Waxahachie:

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Some sources state that the name means "cow" or "buffalo" in an unspecified Native American language. One possible Native American origin is the Alabama language, originally spoken in the area of Alabama around Waxahatchee Creek by the Alabama-Coushatta people, who had migrated by the 1850s to eastern Texas. In the Alabama language, waakasi hachi means "calf's tail" (the Alabama word waaka being a loan from Spanish vaca).

That there is a Waxahatchee Creek near present-day Shelby, Alabama, suggests that Waxahachie shares the same name etymology. Many place names in Texas and Oklahoma have their origins in the Southeastern United States, largely due to forced removal of various southeastern Indian tribes. The area in central Alabama that includes Waxahatchee Creek was for hundreds of years the home of the Upper Creek moiety of the Muscogee Creek Nation. Again, this would suggest a Muscogee Creek-language origin of Waxahachie. "Waxahachie", therefore, may be an anglicized pronunciation of the Muscogee compound word wakvhvce from the Muscogee words wakv (meaning "cow" derived from the Spanish vaca) and the Muscogee word hvcce (meaning "river" or "creek").

A second etymology that has been suggested for the name is insisted on by speakers of Wichita, the language of the tribe that used to live in the area, but now lives mostly around Anadarko, Oklahoma. Wichita people claim the name comes from their word waks'ahe:ts'i . It means "fat wildcat".

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I am suddenly reminded that 30 years ago I purchased some land that I still own here in northern Georgia at a place called Wauka Mountain and the locals told me at the time that Wauka meant "low-lying cow". Maybe that is connected to Waxahachine in some way.

As Mr. Spock used to say on Star Trek, "Fascinating!"

Perhaps you have never said "Waxahachie, Texas" and, with God being your Helper, you never will.

I have just one thing to say about that.

It takes all kinds.

I am sure of one thing. Just as the Bible tells us nothing at all about cable television, Greek mythology tells us nothing at all about Waxahachie, Texas or why it is called The Gingerbread City.

Fot that matter, it doesn't tell us why Smyrna, Georgia, is called The Jonquil City either, but that is a topic for another day.

If this post of mine doesn't make sense to you, why should today be any different?

P.S. -- Today is our oldest grandchild's 25th birthday. Greek mythology didn't tell me that either.

I'm still here, people

Since my last published post I wrote two more somewhat lengthy posts but discarded both of them.

I don't feel like being clever or infuriating (pick one) today.

On Groundhog Day (February 2nd), a friend I have known for 50 years observed his 98th birthday.

On the same day, our pastor's 88-year-old mother, whom everyone called 'Saint Rita', died from complications of the COVID-19 virus. The very next day, which was yesterday, February 3rd, was the birthday of her husband, to whom she had been married for 62 years. This is a different man from the one I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Four people whom we knew well have now died of COVID-19. Tom, Craig (both last spring), Carolyn in January, and now Rita this month.

Ob-la-dee, Ob-la-dah, sometimes life goes on and sometimes it suddenly stops.

RIP, Tom (69), Craig (55), Carolyn (79), and Rita (88).

You will be missed by the ones of us who knew you. You will be joined by all of us sooner than any of us would like to think.