The Egg Salad Sandwich

Hello, Friday, not that I'm excited.  Monday there will be a little excitement in my words; I'm off.

When I checked my sales yesterday, I was already past my goal.  One of my customers is putting hardwood throughout their upstairs.  Smart move.  I always tell people, if you have hardwood, hold onto it.  Think of it as an asset.  And contrary to what some may think, older hardwood is more valuable then younger hardwood, as long as it ages well.

We have veggie plants at the store.  I didn't get a chance to peruse them yesterday.  Since I'm off Monday I'll give them a gander Sunday before I leave for the day.

And some might consider this blasphemy, but I've bought myself a bread maker.  A Cuisinart.  There are those who find therapeutic value in kneading.  And I find nothing wrong with kneading.  I just think I'd like to knead a little less.

I am aiming to get a little  run / jog in this morning.  What will I watch?  Dunno.  Definitely something less crash inducing.

As I was eating an egg salad sandwich for breakfast (your stomach doesn't know what time it is), I realized that the next book, The Body in Repose, will be more atmospheric.  You might want to think of it as Eli and Max meet Kolchak.  I was going to show a clip of that TV series but realized it might imply supernatural shenanigans.  There aren't any.  So instead I thought I add this clip.  As people are getting vaccinated, things are beginning to open up.  This if from the Broadway version of "Frozen," performed in Sydney on March 29.  Sometimes we could all use a little Disney.

As for politics, I find it quite amusing to watch Republicans shit their pants, and they're doing that quite frequently, almost daily.  They're beginning to realize the real problem with have Loser #45 as president, every day Biden is feeding him and his lackeys cesspool salad.  As a result, they're growing more and more extreme.  Looks like someone has finally let the Cracker Jack Crazies out of the box.

 

Gold Standard

A few days ago I was slightly chastised for getting two song titles wrong in a piece I'd written about musical artists who have failed to create a standard.  Aw, well, that's life, I'm not perfect.  Rather the mute, or nullify my point, my error did more to emphasize the fact that the songs are... forgettable.  It's a bit embarrassing about the Elton John song, since I've seen him in concert 4 times and he's played that one song each time.  However, we do forget.  This is what time does.  We either forget it or remember it.  This is how standards are created.  For those who don't know what a standard is, Webster defines it as "a musical piece of sufficiently enduring popularity to be made part of a permanent repertoire."  

Anyway, since I get to talk to quite a number of people every day, I decided to do a little survey.  From a list of several artists (Prince, Elton John, Madonna, Billy Joel, and Bon Jovi), I asked 72 people which song they remembered the most. Seventeen people said they couldn't think of a single song. Bad news for Billy Joel - he didn't get any votes.  Prince got 2 for "Little Red Corvette."  Bon Jovi got 8 for "Living on a Prayer." (?)  Madonna got 14 votes for 3 different songs, "Like a Virgin," was her number one vote getter with 7.  Elton John got the most votes with 48, however that's misleading.  Nine people voted for "The Circle of Life," but 35 more just voted for "The Lion King," which is a movie.  That's right, if you just count song titles, Madonna beats Elton John by one.  Does that mean one of her songs is going to be a standard?  Of course, the answer is no. I suspect having your song attached to a hit movie, and a Disney movie to be more precise, increases the probability.

In fact, thinking back on all the popular music written, there probably is only one true standard and that was song by a teenage girl a long time ago in a little movie called "The Wizard of Oz."

So, I'm wondering if anything out there can ever even compete with this?  Or did Judy Garland set the all time gold standard?    I suspect we'll have to wait 75 years and see how well that song from Frozen does.