Free For All

Happy Birthday, Marty!

I'm very sorry the loss of your mother, Joe. Wow, what a long and interesting life! How amazing to have witnessed the changes in the world and our culture since 1908. Not to mention technology! I looked up 1908 and found some interesting things- William Howard Taft was elected president after Theodore Roosevelt declined a third term. Of course, the Cubs won their second consecutive (and last, for a long time ) World Series. Births that year included Lionel Hampton, Stephane Grappelli, Olivier Messiaen, Tex Avery, Mel Blanc, Louis L'Amour, Buddy Ebsen and Oskar Schindler. What a blessing to have had her around all this time. Again, my condolences to you and your family.

Very entertaining game so far between Texas Tech & Michigan State, two teams with lots of recent problems EDIT: Nice win for Texas Tech. I'm not sure what to make of the situation w/the coach. So far I've heard conflicting versions of the story.

Fellow Dick van Dyke fans--Amazon's currently selling the DVD sets for $19.99 a season. I bit on Seasons 1 & 2 a few days ago, and just ordered season 4 (threw an Art Farmer Cd in as well to get free shipping). Wondering how I might be able to finangle/justify Season 5 whiled I'm at it... The DvD Show sets seem to come with a decent amount of extras as well. Season 1 includes the 1960 pilot, carrying the different title Head of the Family and with a very different cast, most prominently Carl Reiner himself playing Rob Petrie. There's a mini-doc about the pilot as well, but I haven't watched it yet. Thanks for the heads up! I opted to get the complete series, it was cheaper (74 bucks) than buying each of the five seasons separately. Nice looking set, lots of extras.

Gene Ammons was a frequent listening choice on my holiday road trip. So much swinging soulful music.

Glad the 'Noles were able to win the last one for Bowden. They actually looked pretty good today, maybe a new era on the horizon?

.....and when I returned the next year it was still there! But someone had made a lamp out of it.

I've got a gig tonight and it should be fairly painless, just playing jazz tunes at a local club. There have been some wild ones in the past though, people seem to treat NYE like Fat Tuesday, the last opportunity for debauchery before the holidays end. I once got food poisoning and yakked on the bandstand during a New Year's gig. Very embarrassing......I did manage to catch it in my bucket mute, though (the mute was immediately retired). I shouldn't have had that last wafer-thin mint...... Surely there are some good stories giving all the working musicians here....or perhaps some (musicians or not) have experienced New Year's oddities?

Yeah, they're bailing from UF now that the coach is iffy. They were looking for Bowden to see if he wants the gig.

Just had to chase the gators away.

Anticipating potential lame coffee on my Christmas trip, I bought a ceramic filter holder (it uses the same #6 filters as the Melitta). It fits perfectly on top of my insulated carafe so the coffee goes right into the carafe. I took these with me and they worked great, rave reviews on the coffee from all. I like the ceramic cone better than the plastic Melitta cone. It's also much faster than the Chemex w/o sacrificing flavor. About 20 bucks from Amazon.

It was. But I finally got to use the heated seats (useless in FL). They are awesome! That Forester was great on the trip. Home now.

So far just fine, dry roads and sunny skies. Should be home by suppertime tomorrow. Low temps in Tallahassee this weekend though!

Thanks for the kind words, Chuck. Great to see you and Ann again. Well, I made it as far as Nashville today. You make it home yet?

Interesting day of football today!

My friend Brent Sandy and I are going to be on Craig Kessler's jazz radio show tomorrow from 2 to 6 PM (central time). We're going to share and discuss favorite "desert island" sides from our listening history. It was hard to narrow it down to just a few! It will be online on KCCK.org.

Chargers/Titans might be a good game.

I like to use velcro. But flannel is nice too.

Great to see you back here, Randy! Your sense of humor has been missed. Hope your recovery is swift and complete.

It's like a Bizarro Long Island Tea. Gaack!

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S .....to all my wonderful Organissimo friends! Have a great holiday and new year! Keep on swingin' baby! -Paul

Yup, my dad had STACKS of those.

I wish I could. I don't have any of his train stuff, and the reason is a long & sad story.

I've got most of it already too, but I also find it a little comforting to see these sets still being released. Like things aren't quite dead yet.

My dad was a big time model railroader. He was into the O gauge size, and the whole basement was a continual layout-in-progress which he never really completed. I had a Lionel train set- I remember the little tablets that you put in the engine stack to create smoke and the smell of the rheostat as it got warm. Also the little animated mechanical people and crossing guards. I would spend hours looking at the accessory catalogs. I got way into building scenery and using an airbrush. I was also into slot cars- I had a Strombecker 1/32 set that I loved. We (me, my dad & an occasional train buddy or two) used to travel to various locations to watch trains go by, and my dad would take super 8 movies. I remember feeling the excitement as the train would approach and the loud rumbling sound of serious power. We stopped at Horseshoe Curve (eastern PA) on a vacation once, that was a pretty spectacular view. When possible we would take trips on the train- I remember how cool it was to eat in the dining car. The waiters never spilled despite the unpredictable movement of the car. For some reason pancakes always tasted better in the dining car. I also remember sitting in the observation car. Wow, I haven't thought about this for a long time. Really vivid memories.