BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE–ANYTHING GOES

  
 I owe everything I have to boxing. I owe 
the milkman, the grocer, the newspaper boy…
  
    Art Aragon
  
 There ain’t nothing like being in a corner, 
and the trainer is whispering in your ear 
and another guy is putting in your mouthpiece. 
Five seconds to go, then boom! The bell. 
It’s more exciting than looking down a cliff.
  
 George Foreman, quoted in 
Newsweek (January 26, 1976) 

**

A 1949 JOKE BOOK PREDICTS THE FUTURE

They were examining an applicant for
a government position at one of the
more important air fields. They were
helping this fellow fill out the
application.They would ask the questions,
he would give the answers.
   Finally they said, "Do you belong to
any political party that plans to overthrow
the government?"
  Yessir."
 "What? ...did I understand you correctly?"
 You belong to a political party that plans
 to overthrow the government?"
"Yessir. I belong to a political party that 
plans to overthrow the government."
 "What party is that?"
 "The Republican Party."

from stop me if you've heard this one:
 the favorite stories of three favorite
funnymen - Lew Lehr, Cal Tinney, Roger
Bower (New York: Permabooks, 1949)    
   **
 
 
 
 In an interview, General Norman Schwarzkopf 
was asked if he thought there was room for 
forgiveness toward the people who have harbored 
and abetted the terrorists who perpetrated the 
9/11 attacks on America.
 His answer was classic Schwarzkopf.   
 The General said, "I believe that forgiving 
them is God's function... OUR job is to arrange 
the meeting." 
**
OF VIOLIN MUSIC & A STRIP-TEASER'S G-STRING

 G-string (n.)
 1878, geestring, "loincloth worn by an American 
Indian," originally the string that holds it up, 
etymology unknown. The spelling with G (1882) is 
perhaps from influence of violin string tuned to 
a G (in this sense G string is first recorded 1831), 
the lowest and heaviest of the violin strings. First 
used of women's attire 1936, with reference to 
strip-teasers.
 I AM the spirit of the silver "G":
 I am silvered sadness,
 I am moonlit gladness,
 I am that fine madness
 Of reverence half, and half of ecstasy
 
[from "Spirit of the 'G' String," Alfred L. 
Donaldson, in "Songs of My Violin," 1901]  
   
from The ON LINE ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY

FROM TWO GUEST CONTRIBUTORS

 
 
 POEM by Mac Bica


Love Betrayed
 
 Through life he rode
 with sword in hand
 his goal to free this evil land
 no dragon safe,
 no windmill spared
 he spoke of love
 when no one cared.
 
 Oh gentle knight your task is clear
 between the laugh, before the tear,
 to show mankind he can't conceal
 the truth of things that are not real.
 
 Beware sweet knight
 your greatest foe,
 who'll distort the love
 that you bestow
 with cross in hand
 he hides the sword,
 his deed is sanctioned
 by the lord.
 
 With speed and skill
 he struck the dove
 it is the will of god above
 and those below
 who love betrayed
 to end this foolish knight's charade.
 And we who ask so much of life,
 seek love replace its endless strife
 and we who dream of what could be
 are doomed to sleep eternally.
 
 Prepare my friends the knight's return,
 and pray we're not too blind to learn.
   
  
  
 
 *******
        


FROM MICHAEL HAINES

I recall going to the Roxy when the Duke Ellington 
band was there, and when the film ended and the 
orchestra rose out of the pit playing “Take the 
A Train," the top of my head blew off. From then 
on, any movie set in New York had me.

  Woody Allen. Apropos of Nothing. 


  
 Lives that connect to others are not misplaced; 
perhaps wandering.
 I had a similar experience to Woody Allen.   
At the age of 18 or 19 I was in a darkened 
fraternity  house, doing absolutely 
nothing and thinking I was mostly alone.  The top 
of my mind blew off when someone dropped the needle 
on a record of Ray Charles doing What'd I Say. I 
shouted "what is that?!"  I had never heard it, and 
someone said 
"it's Ray Charles."  
  I said "can't be, Ray Charles leads on a capella 
chorus that performs on the Perry Como show." 
   I became a lifelong fan.