More you know what from you know where

What is a lob?
What is a Victrola?
What is acetylene?
What is truncate?
What is Romania?

If this is your first foray into The Wonderful World Of Rhymeswithplague, you do not know what all the regular readers know, that the "you know what" mentioned in this post's title are answers phrased in the form of questions to clues that no contestant could answer (but I could) and that the "you know where" is the American television quiz program Jeopardy! which may or may not be somewhat similar to a British programme (see what I did there?) called Pointless.

My own personal opinion (and what other kind would a person have?) after reading what the thoroughly unsubstantiated online encyclopedia Wikipedia says is that Pointless sounds more like a combination of College Bowl and Family Feud with a few more quirky rules thrown in for good measure.

Be that as it may, let us move forward with the post, progress being in the eye of the beholder.

Mrs. RWP (the lovely Ellie) and I didn't do anything special for Memorial Day. We considered driving out to the National Cemetery to see all the grave headstones decorated with American flags, but decided against it because of the likelihood of crowds. We try to avoid crowds. Our daughter and her husband just returned to northern Alabama from a short getaway to Santa Rosa Beach in the Florida panhandle, also referred to in some quarters (not ours) as rhe Redneck Riviera. Our older son and his wife will be heading to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, this weekend. Our younger son and his wife are both working hard at their respecective places of employment, keeping the wolf from the door, so to soeak, although coyotes are more prevalent than wolves hereabouts. We continue to sit at home, avoiding crowds. Occasionally we go to the grocery store or a doctor's appointment or a barber or a church service or a Burger King, but mostly we avoid crowds. Old age has turned into a humdrum existence.

In the first week of June, I am scheduled to receive the bi-monthly injections in both eyeballs (the big word is intravitreous) of a medication called Vabysmo for the treatment and hopefully stabilization of macular degeneration. In the first week of July, I am scheduled to have surgery to remove cataracts from my right eye, and a similar surgery a couple of weeks after that to remove cataracts from my left eye. It's going to be a busy summer.

I hope there won't be crowds,

I’m baaack

...and normalcy (shout-out to President Warren G. Harding, 1921-1923) has returned, more or less, to the blog. I fervently hope that life has slowed down to a dull roar for a while.

Last night I knew four answers on Jeopardy! that none of the contestants clicked in on. (Note. Although people often frown when someone ends a sentence with a preposition, your editor recommends that you smile when someone ends a sentence with two prepositions.)

The four answers, in the form of a question as the rules of Jeopardy! require, are:

1. What is Hawaii? The clue included the words 'sandwich' and 'islands'. Read your history books.

2. Who is Horatio Alger?

3. Who is Ignatius of Loyola? The clue said this man founded the Society of Jesus (the members of which, you may remember, are known as Jesuits, although that was not part of the clue).

4. I forget the fourth one.

Hey, I'm 83 and my memory isn't what it used to be.

I have no trouble remembering my name, age, address, date of birth, social security number, cell phone number, and so on, but I often can't remember what I had for dinner yesterday or other non-eartrh-shattering information.

Did I tell you that this past Sunday was our 61st wedding anniversary? Yup, on Sunday, May 19, 1963, at 3 p.m. in Orlando, Florida, Ellie and I said "I do" and she became Mrs. RHB. She didn't become Mrs. RWP until I started this blog in 2007.

I don't want to bore you further so I will close for now and hope to see you again when next I put fingers to keyboard.

I haven’t posted a thing for two weeks

...and it feels like forever. May has been a very busy month this year in our family, with birthdays (2), anniversaries (2), graduations (3 at two different universities), moves (3), holidays (2, although one won't occur for another week or so), visitors from out of state (2), new jobs starting (5 among the grandchildren and their spouses), family dinners (2 so far), doctor appointments (2), medical emergencies (2), and so forth. 'Round and 'round she goes, and where she stops nobody knows.

I'm not complaining, mind you. I love family outings and get-togethers, but it has been a whirlwind of activity lately. We saw our oldest great-grandson this past week and that was a joy. He is 10 months old and a happy, contented child. Another great-grandson is three months old now and still another one is arriving (different family) in August. Today we're going to a restaurant to celebrate, one day early, the 61st anniversary of our wedding. Life is good and time marches on.

Outside the family, the world seems to be falling apart and rapidly going to hell in a handbasket. I suppose it has been ever thus and people in every generation say it, but this time around it seems more possible than ever. Despite usurpers on every hand, the family really is the basic unit of society. Not the school, not the community, not the church, and certainly not the state, much as each would like to be. Please don't try to disabuse me of my notion. Them's my thoughts and I'm sticking to them.

Another post, admittedly short, is in the books. Maybe June will be less hectic than May and I'll have time to think instead of rushing around, but I am not encouraged at the prospects. After all, June has a reputation for busting out all over.

Couples in show biz (part 2)

Reader Emma Springfield in Iowa thought of two more couples in show biz:

60. Paul Hogan & Linda Kozlowski (his co-star in Crocodile Dundee)
61. Paul Simon & Carrie Fisher

so Australia has made it into the list (a shout-out here to Kylie Tai in the suburbs of Sydney).

Emma said in her comment that this list is contagious, and so it is. I thought of a few more couples in show biz, some of whom go back decades:

62. Bing Crosby & Dixie Lee
63. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Joan Crawford
64. Franchot Tone & Joan Crawford
65. Howard Duff & Ida Lupino
66. Jim & Marion Jordan (Fibber McGee & Molly on the radio)
67. Harrison Ford & Calista Flockhart
68. Dick Powell & Joan Blondell
69. Mike Todd & Joan Blondell
70. Gary Merrill & Bette Davis

and hare are two that I probably should have thought of first but they never occurred to me until just now:

71. Ronald Reagan & Jane Wyman
72. Ronald Reagan & Nancy Davis

In case you were wondering, it is perfectly normal to make lists of things. I say that with confidence because in the encyclopedia of Brague, normal is whatever I do and abnormal is what other people do.

I shall not pass this way again, but I may drop in and add a P.S. if one is warranted.

--------------------------------------------------------

P.S. - The list continues in the comments and is up to #81 at this writing (3:40pm EDT, May 6, 2024)

Couples in show biz

...are more common than you might think. Here are some that come to mind:

1. Douglas Fairbanks Sr. & Mary Pickford
2. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. & Billie Burke
3. George Burns & Gracie Allen
4. Clark Gable & Carole Lombard
5. Jack Benny & Mary Livingston
6. Phil Harris & Alice Faye
7. Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall
8. Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn
9. Joe DiMaggio & Marilyn Monroe
10. Arthur Miller & Marilyn Monroe
11. Michael Wilding & Elizabeth Taylor
12. Mike Todd & Elizabeth Taylor
13. Eddie Fisher & Debbie Reynolds
14. Eddie Fisher & Elizabeth Taylor
15. Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor
16. Martin Landau & Barbara Bain
17. Mel Brooks & Anne Bancroft
18. Willam Holden & Stefanie Powers
19. Tom Hanks & Rita Wilson
20. Kurt Russell & Goldie Hawn
21. Gene Wilder & Gilda Radner
22. Roy Rogers & Dale Evans
23. Danny DeVito & Rhea Perlman
24. Ted Danson & Mary Steenburgen
25. Danny Kaye & Sylvia Fine
26. Allen Ludden & Betty White
27. Jack Klugman & Brett Somers
28. Brad Pitt & Jennifer Aniston
29. Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie
30. Bruce Boxleitner & Melissa Gilbert
31. Timothy Busfield & Melissa Gilbert
32. John Astin & Patty Duke
33. Moss Hart & Kitty Carlisle
34. Alfred Lunt & Lynn Fontaine
35. Tim McGraw & Faith Hill
36. Mickey Rooney & Ava Gardner
37. Artie Shaw & Ava Gardner
38. Frank Sinatra & Ava Gardner
39. Frank Sinatra & Mia Farrow
40. André Previn & Mia Farrow
41. Woody Allen & Mia Farrow
42. Vincent Minelli & Judy Garland
43. Sidney Luft & Judy Garland
44. Roberto Rosselni & Ingrid Bergman
45. Fred MacMurray & June Haver
46. Desi Arnaz & Lucille Ball
47. Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé
48. Robert Wagner & Natalie Wood
49. Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward
50. Les Paul & Mary Ford
51. John Lennon & Yoko Ono
52. Dick Powell & June Allyson
53. Harry James & Betty Grable
54. Orson Welles & Rita Hayworth
55. Dick Haymes & Rita Hayworth
56. Burt Reynolds & Judy Carne
57. Burt Reynolds & Dinah Shore
58. Burt Reynolds & Sally Field
59. Burt Reynolds & Loni Anderson

It occurs to me that most of the people in my list are Americans and I do apologize to my UK and Australian readers. Maybe you will be inspired to draw up your own list. Then again, maybe not.

I compiled the list in pretty short order, in just a few minutes actually. I probably left many people out. Most of the couples are (were) husband and wife but a few (numbers 8, 18, 20, 41, 57, and 58) were in long-term relationships without benefit of clergy, the currently popular term for which is "partners".

One couple, number 31, is (are?) unique in that although each person had a successful individual career in show business, each had left the industry before meeting and marrying one another. Timothy Busfield was in the television series thirtysomething and The West Wing as well as the motion picture Field Of Dreams. Melissa Gilbert portrayed the young Laura Ingalls for several years in Little House On The Prairie. For several years they lived on a farm in rural Michigan, as opposed to living on a farm in urban Michigan, I suppose.

One must be very careful and attentive to detail when writing a blogpost to keep from saying something dumb. Sometimes I am and sometimes, obviously, I am not.

In conclusion, happy Cinco de Mayo.

It’s Star Wars Day!

May the fourth be with you!

I know it's corny but I couldn't resist. Incidentally, Mrs. RWP (the lovely Ellie) and I recently discovered the Rescue 911 channel on Pluro TV and have been binge-watching episodes of it for hours every day. Well, I suppose that is the very definition of binge-watching, isn't it, to watch for hours and hours every day? Of course it is. The stories are riveting, and seeing and hearing Willam Shatner narrate them in the years after Star Trek and before Boston Legal is semi-interesting too. I can't remember whether Rescue 911 was before or after his T.J. Hooker series. I'm guessing after, based on nothing more than his age.

A little trip down television memory lane today, and I'll say it one more time just because I can:

May the fourth be with you!

Hold the fort! It just occurred to me that Willam Shatner was Captain James Kirk in the Star Trek television series and had nothing whatever to do with the Star Wars films. Dumb me.

Star Wars was Obi-wan Kenobi and Darth Vader and Luke Skywalkee and Princess Leia and Han Solo and all thise guys, not Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock and Uhura and Bones and Scotty and all those other guys. I repeat, dumb me.

I guess I boldly went where no man has gone before.

Beam me up, Scotty.

.

How’s that again?

Tonight on Wheel Of Fortune when host Pat Sajak was eliciting introductory remarks from each contestant at the beginning of the program, one woman said, and I'm not kidding, "Pat, I'm engaged to my wonderful fiancé [here she said his name]. We have a beautiful blended family of seven children, three boys and three girls."

Either the jury is still out on the seventh child or Mom should refrain from helping the children with their math homework.

I may be showing my age. There probably isn't such a thing as math homework any more.

That's all there is, there isn't any more.

Do you know who said that?