April 8th, 2021
“Добро утро (Dobro utro)”, or “Good Morning!” in Macedonian, a South Slavic language spoken mainly in the Republic of Macedonia. Everyone in our family has had at least one shot. I got to meet up with some friends I haven’t seen in over a year this week. It was great!
Last week made a request for every one who receives the UJT to send me an alternative point of contact. I got responses from some of you but not every one yet. A lot of us use FB or Snapchat or Twitter to ping one another but not all. I know every one is busy but please just send me the name, email and/or phone number of someone local who would know or could go check on your status if we loose touch. Please send your alternate POC in reply to this weeks UJT. I will respond with my alternative contact information. The purpose of this exercise to enable your friend (me) to check on you via alternative means ONLY if the normal contact methods for you fail. None of us are getting any younger and all of us want to spare our friends undue concern should we loose touch. This simple act will enable us to check on each other should the need arise. Please, I promise never to use or share this information with anyone and expect the same.
This week I learned some stuff:
• I am enjoying a new book by James Patterson. It is called.
“The Last Days of John Lennon”. It is actually a fairly complete anecdotal history of the band from 1957 on interspersed with Mark Chapman’s thoughts and feeling leading up to to his murder of John Lennon. I am about 1/2 way through it but already can highly recommend it.
• I tried cold smoking again. The cheese and eggs worked good again but I still haven’t gotten the salmon smoking right yet.
• This week has National Beer Day (yesterday, April 7th. Thanks FDR!) and National Siblings Day (April 10th). I would love to have a beer with my siblings!
• April 8th is the 98th day of 2021. Just 261 days till Christmas! Today in 1886, William Ewart Gladstone introduces the first Irish Home Rule Bill into the British House of Commons.; Today in 1906, Auguste Deter, the first person to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, dies; On this day in 1908, Harvard University votes to establish the Harvard Business School; Today in 1952, U.S. President Harry Truman calls for the seizure of all domestic steel mills in an attempt to prevent the 1952 steel strike; Today in 1958, A team of computer manufacturers, users, and university people led by Grace Hopper meets to discuss the creation of a new programming language that would be called COBOL; Today in 1964, the Gemini 1 test flight is conducted; At Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium, Hank Aaron hits his 715th career home run to surpass Babe Ruth’s 39-year-old record today in 1974; Today in 1975, Frank Robinson manages the Cleveland Indians in his first game as major league baseball’s first African American manager; Retired tennis great Arthur Ashe announces that he has AIDS, acquired from blood transfusions during one of his two heart surgeries today in 1992; Mary Pickford, Canadian-American actress, producer, screenwriter and co-founder of United Artists was born on this day in 1892; Today Betty Ford, American wife of Gerald Ford, 40th First Lady of the United States was born in 1918; Catfish Hunter, American baseball player was born today in 1946; Today in 1947, Steve Howe, English member of Yes, guitarist, songwriter, and producer, was born; Omar Bradley, American general passed away today in 1981; Laura Nyro, American singer-songwriter and pianist passed away today in 1997; Today in 2013, Margaret Thatcher, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom passed away; And finally, David Laventhol, American journalist and publisher passed away today in 1997.
Website Update:
This week we made the following changes:
• A new UJT Vocabulary Quiz!!! Yeah!! Interesting to me is that I found a word I have been misusing to varying degrees for over 40 years!
• Last week for the new Musical Trivia Quiz.
• We had a lot of ham left over from Easter Dinner so we have been recycling it this week and even had to freeze the bone for soup later.
• This week’s Home Page quote, comes from a very interesting guy, Joe E. Lewis, a rat pack era singer and comedian. Check out his Wiki page.
Writing, Ceramics, Stained Glass and Painting Update:
• I got stuck on my stained glass project again this week. Oh well!
• I didn’t attend watercolor classes this week via zoom. I hope we can go back to the classroom soon.
• Grandpa Stories is still not re-published.
Weird-Stuff-O-Meter:
• It felt so good to see my old friends this week. It was like drinking that first long drink of ice cold lemonade, or ice tea or beer after working hard in the yard or something. The sensation of having something you have missed fulfilled is one of life’s really special experiences.
• I lost my phone this week for almost a day. I used the Find My app but couldn’t find it as the battery was dead. If anyone finds it and recharges it ..they will see a message with a phone number they should call to return it. It also locked the phone and suspended Apple Pay. Of course, as soon as I realized I lost it when I wanted to make a phone call. I feel like an electronic invalid – still breathing but helpless to do much. By the way, it was under the couch
Music Update:
Once again, yours truly takes you on another meander through the dusty cobwebs of my music library.
This week’s UJT Radio Program:
• Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble — Lenny — This one is another volunteer from my brother Mike. This very cool instrumental was released in 1982 on the first Stevie Ray Vaughan album, “Texas Flood”
• John Eddie — If You Are Here When I Get Back — My friend Joe mentioned this cut when we got together for our first POWWOW in over a year. I think it was something that he and the lad played for me when I was visiting one time but I had forgotten it. It’s great tune from a good album, “Who the Hell is John Eddie?” released in 2003.
• Big Something — Our Song — Another one coming to me from from our POWWOW music chat. According to the geezers around the table these folks are from North Carolina and supposed to be an Allman Brothers tribute band. These folks put on their own festival each year called, “The Big What”. This cut from their, “Tumbleweed” album released in 2017 really isn’t very reminiscent of “The Bros” to me but very good none the less in a more alt rock genre sense. Check it out.
• Big Something – UFOs Are Real – This one is my friend Darrel’s favorite for good reason. It is just very very tight music. This is another cut from the same record.
• Greta Van Fleet — Your the One — This selection maybe too eclectic for some but there is something about this band that resonates in me. This one comes from their 2018 album called, “Anthem of the Peaceful Army ”. These boys are from Michigan and really seem like reincarnated Led Zeppelin. Not so much in this song but many others I sampled.
• The Greg Allman Band — I Am No Angel – I always smile when I listen to this song. I think Greg had one of the best blues voices in the business. For me this one is an anthem to rascals and all manner of bad boys with good hearts. Anyway, I hope you like it too. It’s the title cut to the band’s 1986 release.
That’s it… Do the best you can; Laugh every chance you get; And always remember … The best is yet to come! As always, thank you for being my friend!