The Clown Prince

Found this clip in doing research for a show i'm performing this weekend. George Formby's work has kept generations laughing since the 1930s. He writes the songs he sings, and has a delivery style reminiscent of Pee Wee with a banjo ukelele. Deservedly crowned the "Clown Prince of England".



my only regret is I couldn't find a clip of the Formby song I'm using - "Swimmin with the Women". Maybe our show video will be good enough to post...

Thanks for listening and contributing. For up-to-the-minute thoughts, come on over to twitter.com I'm @dimbulb52

Is It Just Me or Is It Getting Darker in Here?

We've passed the Summer Solstice this week. The sun has gone as high as it will go, and each day will travel in an arc closer and closer to the horizon. Days are getting shorter, and the sunrise and sunset will be at points further and further to the south until next December.

But, now, here is the question. Only one day into Summer can't you feel it already? Don't you look up at the way the sun casts a shadow, and say to yourself "Something is different". Don't you have brief intuitive glimpses at how precious and beautiful Summer is, and how fleeting?

Most people dismiss this, thinking to themselves "Probably never noticed it before, that's all!" But, no -- your body has a very precise internal clock. And it's mysteriously and wonderfully constantly updating itself using the overwhelming sensory information provided to the brain. Without your thinking about it, your body tracks a correlation between shadows and light, and time, and makes its long-range plans. And it knows - your body knows with certainty of its integrated role in the clockwork of the universe.

Here's an experiment - as you're going to bed tonight, just look at your bedside clock and tell yourself to get up just three minutes before the alarm goes off. Next morning, you'll wake up, and if you look at the clock, you'll find it's exactly three minutes before your alarm is set to sound -- and then you'll curse Excelsior for cheating you out of three minutes of sleep!

Thanks for listening and contributing. For up-to-the-minute thoughts, come on over to twitter.com I'm @dimbulb52

Pea Truck

It's the mid-1950s in Watertown, Wisconsin on a fragrant June morning. Marsha, my personal life instructor, is about to initiate me in yet another one of those mysteries of life that makes it so great to be us.

A certain part of the road – the asphalt is broken and there are pieces of broken pavement strewn around. We wait by the roadside. It's a fairly busy road - Center Street becomes Dodge County Highway M as it leaves Watertown. County M is a thoroughfare for trucks laden with produce heading from the all the farms and fields to the canning factory in nearby Clyman. And this time of year, there was only one type of produce going by – pea vines!

A truck appears in the distance. As it gets closer, we confirm – yes, it's a pea truck! We stand by the bump in the road, and wait for the truck. The truck is a huge wooden box, overloaded and heaped up over the top. The trucker proceeds slowly, knowing how overloaded his truck is. But he hits the inevitable bump, and about a half-bushel of pea-vines fall off and hit the pavement.

Swooping in like a flock of vultures, we grab armfuls of the peas and run! Stopping behind the house, we sat on the back porch examining our plunder. We'd just break open the pods and scrape them off with our teeth. It doesn't get any better than that! If they had pesticides in those days, they were not poisonous. These were the tastiest peas on earth.

When we later told our parents about it, the only comment was disappointment that we had not saved them any. This had been one of their own childhood rituals as well – passed along to the next generation.

written 06.23.10. excerpt from "45 rpm" Thanks for listening and contributing. For up-to-the-minute thoughts, come on over to twitter.com I'm @dimbulb52

The Day After the Tornado

Who decides how much confusion, obstruction, misery and misfortune to pass out to each individual on any given day? I think I got an extra portion today by mistake!

I woke up this morning at 6 am, a hot damp morning after the tornadoes last night that leveled six houses. Lots to do before work - I headed for the computer. A new payment from Ebay for an item that I haven't packaged yet - a set of 3D prints of Jesus. Jesus! You'd think I'd get a shipping break! But noooooo, even for 3DJC I must pay my karmic debt. It's an over-size package, and I don't have a box that size. So I have to hunt around the workshop, overturning everything, and when I finally got the pictures all bubba-wrapped and fit into the box, I noticed that the outside of the box is a bit moldy. I sprayed some Windex on it, which usually counteracts that sort of thing. But I didn't have a shop rag to wipe it off, and all the Windex soaks into the cardboard while i'm looking for the rag, making a large squishy spot on the box that the Postal Authorities will probably reject as a device of impending terror. It's WINDEX, for Chrissakes! I finally get the carton hung together with extra shipping tape, and i'll keep it in my mini-van all day while i'm at work, which will dry it out without melting it or having it stolen, if i'm lucky.

So, I get back to the computer, and print up the shipping label - and I find that I've over-done it a bit on the multi-item shipping break I gave the customer. And now, instead of making 20 dollars, I'm only making five on the whole works. Why does it cost so much to ship to Seattle? And then I ran out of shipping tape when trying to attach the label - another trip downstairs to get another roll of tape.

Time for a quick check on other ongoing projects. At least the roof repairs are holding after all that rain last night. However, a stairway carpet I had shampooed last Sunday was still wet, due to our excessive humidity this week, and I had to speed that up a bit. Next project -- to hunt up my box fan, last used last Winter in some remote corner plumbing fixture. I found it in the janitor's closet. Of course, the cord's not long enough! Now we're looking for an extension cord, Got one! Too easy. The whole 3-prong vs 2-prong vs odd-shaped prong thing comes down on me at once, and I'm lost in adapters and extension cords that don't fit with one another or the wall socket. Finally got the fan turning, and it's time to gulp a half-warm coffee and bolt out the door for work.

By then, my wife's up. "Why are you sweating? How come your shirt is all wet?" Probably because I have 25 miles on the odometer already and haven't left home!


Thanks for listening and contributing. For up-to-the-minute thoughts, come on over to twitter.com I'm @dimbulb52

In Summertime

if you don't see a video here click on this

Here's an anthem to get your first day of summer off to a proper start. What says "Summertime" more than Roger Miller dressed as Rex Harrison singing "In Summertime" with a chorus of singing watermelons? (are they Muppets?) Happy First Day of Summer. And for all of you who hate the heat remember this: the days are getting shorter, now!


Thanks for listening and contributing. For up-to-the-minute thoughts, come on over to twitter.com I'm @dimbulb52

Mall Show

Southridge Mall is a large prestigious suburban shopping center in Greendale, an adjoining Milwaukee suburb. My wife worked on the modeling staff of some of the stores there. When the mall installed their new stage in the center of the mall, a group of stores decided to "take it to the street" and put on a fashion show. A relatively large stage area was centered in the main atrium of the mall, visible from the audience seating area, and also over the balcony of the courtyard area - a spacious urban environment to show the newest fashions of the mall vendors.

(that's Joyce, front left) The day of the show arrived. It was a glamorous show, of course, well-attended by the enthusiastic mall patrons. The stage backdrop doubled as a backstage changing area for the models, and though somewhat crowded at times, they kept the outfits coming out, right on schedule with the commentary - these were professionals - masters of the quick change.
During the show, one of the models discovered something about the stage set. Something that the audience had already discovered. The backstage changing area was a series of room dividers decorated with fans, arranged into a protective corral. Nobody could see into the area where the models were frantically changing outfits - sometimes complete outfits, if you get the drift. ;> Nobody, that is, except for the people standing in the upper walkway - because the stage managers had not thought to put a ceiling on the changing area. So, that day, some people saw a fashion show, and some saw a delightful uncensored reality show! Hellooooo ladies!

Thanks for listening and contributing. For up-to-the-minute thoughts, come on over to twitter.com I'm @dimbulb52

The Needs of Others

Different people have different needs. And our culture is desensitizing us to the fulfillment of needs.

For instance, I've learned from watching television that when a policeman shares his needs, such as "I need you to get out of the car and put your hands on your head" - that is a very real need, and if one didn't meet that need, one would be foolish indeed. Oh, some try to avoid the needs of policemen, they say to themselves "Perhaps a quick hop over the fence of this trailer park would help that angry policeman get over his needs". But, no, the needs of the policeman must be met.

The needs of bureaucrats are sometimes important, because an encounter with a bureaucrat has become an exchange of needs. "I need you to fill out this form" usually means that you should fill out the form, if you would like to proceed with whatever it was that brought you there. Although it's kind of pathetic, a bureaucrat will not let your life take your intended direction until the needs of the bureaucracy are met. Because, you yourself have come to the bureaucrat for fulfillment of a need of your own, and your needs always come second. If one didn't know better, one would think that the bureaucrat's "needs" are just a euphemistic way of saying "You Vill Do Vat Ve Hef ORDERED!"

And then we have people phoning in their needs to us. "I need to speak to the Ownah!" Well, now, there's a misplaced need! The one expressing this sort of need does not even realize what the true need is. Gently, one must offer them guidance. "No, a chat with the Ownah is not what you need. What you really and truly need is a career change. "

There are people in need, truly in need. But if meeting the needs of others is your goal, you NEED to seek out the needy, because they do not exploit your willingness to meet their needs.

Thanks for listening and contributing. For up-to-the-minute thoughts, come on over to twitter.com I'm @dimbulb52