A Quote to Start Things Off

""I'd love to go to Santa Fe at some point, Emmett said, but for the time being, I need to go to New York. The panhandler stopped laughing and adopted a more serious expression. Well. that's life in a nutshell, aint it. Lovin' to go to one place and havin' to go to another. Amor Towles in the Lincoln Highway.

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Pictures of Memories I

Pictures of Memories I
Snow kidding! These "kids" now range from 17 to 23
Showing posts with label Blogging A to Z. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogging A to Z. Show all posts

Friday, March 10, 2023

Blog Tryouts Results Show

Blog Insider: An unsolicited and superfluous look inside the minutiae

I'm a big fan of blogroll (Don't know what blogroll click here to find out.) At present, I have 8 different blogrolls on my home page,  and we all know how painful that can be. The most recent one is called Blog Tryouts.  I just started it earlier this year.

Blog Tryouts is exactly what it sounds like. I chose 8 blogs that I was not currently linking anywhere else in my blog and placed them in their own section.  Some of these blogs like The Comics Curmudgeon and We Are That Family have been on my blogrolls before and I have decided to have another look at them.  Others like Chicken Spaghetti and Laws of Gravity are blogs I have recently discovered and placing them on a  blogroll for the first time. 

Since the beginning of the year, I have been enjoying going to these blogs on multiple occasions and have added 3 to some of my more permanent blogrolls.  

Laws of Gravity as I mentioned last month on my Januarying post is a blogger/substitute teacher and I have really enjoyed her tales from the front lines of education.  I have added her blog to my Education and Special Needs Blog blogroll.  Her most recent post is called Oblivious.


Rambling Ever on may well be my favorite of the blogs from blog tryouts. I feel like I have found kindred spirits in the group of writers who contribute to this blog.  They have a very good 5 part series called The Forgotten History of Christian Rock with 5 Spotify playlists to help you not forget.  I really enjoyed their recent post called I Love My Boring Church as our family has been on a church search for some time now and the post served as something of an oasis for me. I wasn't sure which blogroll to place Rambling Ever On, it could certainly go into my Bloggy Blogs category as they spray all to fields, but for now, anyway, I'm including them in the News, Faith, Opinion, and Insight Blogs section.

The Third Blog that earned a place on my blogroll team is Reflections On The Teche. I've seen this blog on several occasions through Poetry Friday.  This week's Poetry Friday is at  My Juicy Little Universe by the way.  Feel free to stop in. I really like the poetry at Reflections On The Teche. I've even signed up to take part in the kiddie-lit progressive poem she's spearheading in  April. One feature she does on her blog is This Photo Wants To Be a Poem. I particularly liked the submission called Sunrise Field. I have placed Reflections On The Teche in my Writing, Poetry, Publishing, and Book blogs section.  

I will keep all 8 blogs up in The Blog Tryouts section until the end of March.  In May I plan to link blogs that I discovered or rediscovered during April's A to Z challenge.  


Friday, April 1, 2022

A is for Awana, Allen, and Ample.

#AtoZChallenge 2022 Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter

                                                                

Good morning and welcome to another year of the A to Z Challenge.  This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB Sluggers in my life time, and A to Z Wordles.  For more information about these themes click here.  




I did not grow up attending the kind of churches that participate in the children's program Awana.  So, it was not until Amy and I started our own family that we participated as parents and volunteers.. Awana is a program that among other things promotes the memorization  of bible verses from children 2 -18.  They are in many ways similar to a youth scouting program and one of their biggest events is the Awana Grand Prix which is very similar to the Pine Box Derbiesthat  I participated in as a Cub Scout.    Awana is something that worked for out family for many years which I 0ne reason why I penned this limerick 8+ years ago.


                                                         Tell folks, tell friends, tell an iguana.

There's plenty of fun at Awana

                                                         We learn that God is King

                                                         We play games and we sing

                                                         But never Hakuna Matata

                                                         From My Facebook page 3/5/2014





Dick Allen (1942-2020) was my hero when I was a young White Sox fan. His 3 year tenure on the White Sox (1972-1974) is a big reason I became a White Sox fan. When you look at the list of the 10 best homerun hitters from 1964-1975, 7 of them are in the Hall of Fame. Only Dick Allen , Boog Powell and Frank Howard are not. Powell was a MVP winner and Frank Howard won the Rookie of the Year award. Allen had more homers than either of those men and won both awards. Allen hit 331 homers from 1964 -1975. 189 with the Phillies, 85 with the White Sox, 34 with the Cardinals and 23 with the Dodgers. Allen averaged 33 homers per every 162 games played.
Note: Correct letters in the correct places will be shown in bold. Correct letters in incorrect places will be shown in italics.


My starting word on March 1st for Wordle was ample.

A M P L E
With the P and the E in the correct place. I tried to think of words that would fit. The first thing that came to my mind was Rupee.

R U P E E

Much to my delight and surprise it was correct, I found out a week or so later that Rupee caused a little bit of an sensation on wordle with many people breaking their win streaks on this word for Indian currency. For me it was a rare 2 time solve, but a good way to start my a to z wordle openers.

Thus begins another April A to Z to see what other prople are posting click here.

Sunday, March 6, 2022

A to Z challenge 2022 Theme Reveal

 When I guest posted last month at the A to Z challenge blog I kinda did my theme reveal a little early.  


Just in case you missed it, I said that this year I will be posting limericks that I have written. Because it's the A to Z challenge,  the theme of each limerick will start with a different letter of the alphabet. It turns out that April is National Poetry Month so the timing works out well.  

Limerick, Ireland


Why limericks? It all started almost 9 years ago when I wanted to do something to commemorate my 50th year on the planet.  So on Facebook from the day I turned 49 until the day I turned 50, I tried to generate one limerick a day and post it there.  


Here is my limerick from  8 years ago, March 6th, 2014


                                                        Just allocated our tax refund

                                                        Most for debt and a little for fun

                                                        Now that I'm done taxing

                                                        It's time for relaxing

                                                        Watching Star Trek with daughter and son

For the a to z challenge I have chosen  9 of those Facebook limericks  and will post them on the appropriate  date for the appropriate letter. Many of those FB  limericks were about friends having birthdays or such things; don't expect to see any of those here.   In the month of March I plan to pen 8 more limericks, and if all goes well produce 9 final limericks in April on the day they drop.

This is where my announcement begins to resemble a late night infomercial, because besides the 26 limericks, you also are going to get 2 more wonderful A to Z products.  

As you may or may not know Leap of Dave is a conglomeration of 4 blogs I used to write simultaneously. First,  I changed my blog Home School Dad to Leap of Dave.  Then I discontinued.my blogs Dave Out Loud (a vlog), Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Blog and Random Acts of Roller and transferred them here.  In the past I have participated in the challenge from all 4 blogs.  This year while I will only be participating once, each post will contain 3 separate parts. 


After the limerick I will be featuring a baseball player who hit at least 100 career home runs in my life time.  In the past at Crazy Uncle Dave's I have done this same type of theme for Chicago White Sox Players and Chicago Cubs Players.  There will be some repeats of those players but mostly it will include players from all around the league.  To give it more variety I will have at least 5 players whose  main homer contributions were in the following periods:  1964-1975, 1976-1987, 1988-1999, 2000-2010, and 2011- 2021.

Nothing says Home Run more than the late "Hammering " Hank Aaron






So you get A to Z limericks. You get A to Z Sluggers ...


 But Wait, There's More!!!

Like many people over the past few months, I have been playing the game Wordle on line.  On March 1st my starting word began with the letter A.  Each day this month I am starting with the next letter in the alphabet.  On April 1st I will share the word that began with A and my subsequent guesses until I finally got the correct Wordle of that day.  

A sample Wordle



So to sum up:

L is for Limericks, Long Balls and Lengthy Wordle explanations.  

 


I am looking forward to sharing my love of poems, baseball and word games with you guys next month.  I hope you are all planning on participating this year by at least reading a number of other peoples' posts.  If you are thinking about participating in the challenge this year as a blogger, stop thinking about it, and do it! If you have your theme reveal ready, click here and enter it so we can all see what you're up to.

See you guys in April!




Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Tuesday 2-22-22 = Tuesday

Twosday: 2-22-22

Hello A to Z Bloggers.  The A to Z Blog had been maintaining a bit of radio silence since last year's doings, so I asked the team if I could write a guest post.  To my surprise and delight, they said yes. Before I get into full A to Z mode, let me tell you about myself.

My name is Dave I'm a 57 year old Midwesterner, who's been  happily married to my best friend Amy for almost 24 years. a father of 3, an educator, an avid blogger someone who absolutely loves the A to Z Challenge

My first year in the challenge was 10 years ago.  It was the first and only year that I did not have a theme.  On Sunday April 1st I wrote this post about not fooling around.  Si  nce then I have participated in several of my blogs.  At least one year, I did 3 at the same time.  

That's probably a good enough introduction about me for now.  

I love a good palindrome.  A palindrome is anything that is the same backwards as forwards.

I am writing this on January 31st 2022 or 1/31/2022 or 1-31-22.  Tomorrow is 2-1-22 and Wednesday is 2-2-22, a palindrome.  Could you imagine an alarm clock next to a calendar at 2:22 showing 2-22-22? If that's not enough awesomeness for you, it's also groundhog day!

But wait there's more ...

There is another spectacular palindrome filled day coming later in February.   February 22nd 2022 otherwise known as 2-22-22 it's a twosday that falls on a Tuesday.

(If this isn't a place for a mind blown emoji I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS!!!!!!!)


So what does this have to do exactly with the A to Z challenge?  Well, let's put it this way:
If you guys are going to get back into the challenge  you probably need to do some forward thinking at the same time.  What will you write about?  Who will you invite to participate along with you? How will you make this the best A to Z year ever?

I may do more than one theme this year, but one of them is definitely going to be limericks.  8 years ago between my 49th and 50th birthday I wrote and posted a limerick a day on my Facebook page.  For the challenge, I will be recycling about 10 of those limericks, writing about 10 new limericks prior to the challenge, and creating approximately 10 more during the challenge, generally on the day of the entry.

Here is a palindrome based limerick I wrote for this post::

I have a dear friend named Jerome
Who sure loves a good palindrome
on 2-22-22
in a racecar he "flew"
both backwards and forwards towards home.

I am really hyped up about this year's challenge. I hope that many of you are getting ready for it as well.  I'd like to thank the team for letting me do this guest post. 

Shameless Plug:  Please check out my blog Leap of Dave, it was called Home School Dad for many years but since our home schooling days have been over for a few years now, I decided to at long last change the name and consolidate my other blogs into the flagship.  This means that you can see all of my a to z blog entries over the last 11 years in one place.




 

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Jeremy Hawkins Tribute

 



On January 3rd of 2001 Jeremy Hawkins passed away.  I did not know him but was very familiar with his work as an artist and blogger.  Hawkins was a force behind the scenes at the A to Z Challenge.  He provided the graphics for the site and for the challenge itself including designing the t-shirts.  I never bought a shirt before this year but am so glad that I did.  I wear it all the time and get lots of questions about it.



2016 was my big year for the a to z challenge.  I endeavored to do the challenge simultaneously on 3  of my blogs.  At my sports blog I did A to Z Cubs Home Run leaders and at my vlog I did a to z you tube videos and at whatever my flagship I did A to Z superheroes.  I don't believe I finished any of the challenges that year, (I came very close in some) so I didn't order a shirt that year or get one of these lovely mugs that Jeremy designed.  



2016 was also the last year that Jeremy participated in the challenge from his blog.  His theme was print advertising and I remember looking through it as it came out.  Click here to see his entries from that year.  The 2022 a to z Challenge and all subsequent endeavors will not be the same without Jeremy's contributions.  But as we reflect on Jeremy's input and for those who knew him his life, his impact will go on because of the work and memories he lefy behind.

Monday, May 10, 2021

The Best 82 I ever bowled



In April my blogging efforts are almost entirely spent on the A to Z challenge. This doesn't mean I don't have other content that I am pursuing.  I just don't usually have the time, inclination or energy to get into it.      On one of the last Friday's in March  Amy, myself  and the girls went bowling.  I wrote a draft of this the next day but all thing A to Z kept me from completing it until now.  

About 25 to 30 years ago I decided I would try to bowl in every state. When Amy and I got married, she embraced that and quite often when we were in a new state for the first time we  woud bowl  I'm not an especially good bowler, even though it used to be one of my favorite things to do . I used to bowl somewhere between 80 and 120 a game.  If I broke 100 I'd consider it a good game.  Over the last 10 years, 100 has become more of a rarity.  I have my own ball, but lately when we have bowled it's been at the spur of the moment, and I have not brought my ball.  My ball is probably a little too heavy for me now, but when I found out we were going bowling I decided to bring it.  

I did not start well.  I ended getting1 pin down in the first frame. two more in the second frame and then 2 straight gutter balls in the third frame.

At this same point all of my family members were bowling better than me, and my wife was suggesting that I switch to a lighter ball.  I decided that better or worse I would stick with my ball.  I knew though, that something needed to be done and on the next frame I decided to go with the Fred Flintstone approach.


  

  I generally do this novelty move once each time I bowl and always have fun with it and also a bit of success.  I have bowled many a strike with the "twinkletoes" approach. However, this was not the case on this occasion.  I guttered to the left, mustered what was left of my pride and attempted the maneuver again only to gutter to the right. 

3 pins in 4 frames, quite the auspicious start,  So, when in the 5th frame when I got 7 pins down on the first roll it more than doubled my previous score even though I guttered the 2nd ball.

. In the 6th frame, faced with the prospect of my lowest score ever, things began to get a little better.  I changed my approach and instead of bowling in stride I stopped at the line and then sent the ball down the lane.   I got a strike and followed that up with a spare in the 7th or 8th.  I knocked down pins in all of my first rolls during the 2nd half of the game.  As I started the 10th frame.  I had gained 59 points since the Flintstone debacle in the 4th frame,  I was the last to bowl in our party and I had already caught up with my daughters and was just a few pins behind Amy.  (Nobody was especially bowling well, but we were all enjoying our selves)

I was able to get a spare in the 10th frame and followed it up with a strike to end the game.  It was a definite tale of two halves. I had a score of 10 entering the 6th frame and bowled 72  (88% of my  total score)  in the latter half to finish with a normally measly 82.  But as I said in the title it was the best 82 I ever bowled.  


I'm glad I got  the ball rolling on post A to Z blogging.  I may still have a little more A to Z aftermath in the near future, but it's good to be back to abnormal.  

Monday, May 3, 2021

1921 A Musical Review: A to Z Reflection Post

Reflections 2021 #atozchallenge

1921 seems like a long time ago.  And in a way, it was.  Spending the month looking back at it through the lens of people who were alive then has given me the perspective that 1921 is still visible in our rear view mirror.  

Every morning on my way to work I listen to music from one or two artists and every few weeks I change up those artists.  Consequently, I have heard Billy Joel's. We Didn't Start the Fire many times in the past few weeks.  This was at the same time I was participating in the A to Z challenge and I was surprised as to how many people mentioned in the song, I had featured in my 1921 theme.  I have included the lyrics below wit links to all the people mentioned by both Joel and myself.  I have also placed in bold anyone in the song who was alive in 1921 but not mentioned in my posts.
Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe
Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I", and "The Catcher in the Rye"
Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana, goodbye
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it
Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock"
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it
Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather homicide, children of thalidomide
Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, space monkey, mafia
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
U2, Syngman Rhee, Payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it
Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion
"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
JFK – blown away, what else do I have to say?
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it
Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan
"Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shore, China's under martial law
Rock and roller, cola wars, I can't take it anymore
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on

 I knew I was going to mention more than 26 people alive in 1921. That being said, I was very surprised when I tabulated that I had mentioned 69 people and 1 stuffed bear that were around  in 1921.  

At the first mention of each these people, I always included how many years they had lived before 1921 and after 1921.  On average these people lived 30 years before 1921 and 48 years after.  This means my average subject was born in 1891 and died in1969. In 1891 there were 44 states in the U.S. 

During the challenge I tried to include material from my other blogs, both new material and previously published material on the people I was profiling.  I also tried when possible to include people living in 1921 who were still alive in 2021.  I started with Al Jaffee on my first post, Prince Phillip passed away during the challenge before I got to Q for Queen's Consort.  I discovered today that I had already included someone years ago in the A to Z challenge who is currently living.  In 2015 I participated in the A to Z challenge from, Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Blog and my theme was White Sox Home Run Hitters.  For E I wrote about Eddie Robinson. At the time Eddie was 94 years old and the 21st oldest living major leaguer.  Since then, Eddie has become the oldest living major leaguer.  He was born December 15, 1920.  That means I began the A to Z challenge with someone from 1921 who is still alive and I get to end the challenge the same way.  

I really enjoyed participating in the challenge again this year.  I have my theme all set for next year but first I'm going back to the simpler non a to z blogging lifestyle.  I am looking forward to the a to z road trip after a little rest.  Working for a century can do that to you.  

Friday, April 30, 2021

Z is for Zero,

#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter Z


                                                                                
                                                                                Zero Mostel
 
                                                                                Years lived before 1921: Six
                                                                                Years lived after 1921: Fifty Six

When I think of Zero Mostel, I think of Tevye from Fiddler On The Roof. I never saw him on Broadway and he was not in the motion picture version.  However I listened to the Broadway album many times as a kid and now own it on c.d.  He put his stamp on that role more than any other actor ever had.  

 Born Samuel Joel Mostel, he received the moniker Zero when performing  in the New York night club, cafe society because "he was a guy starting with nothing.  

Besides being a night club comic, he worked on the stage, in movies, and on television.  This career was derailed somewhat in the 40's and 50's as he was blacklisted in Hollywood before there even was a blacklist.  In 1952 he was officially blacklisted by the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and called to testify in front of HUAC in 1955.  His testimony is very reminiscent of Jim Carey's character's testimony in The Majestic.  One highlight is when he refers to his former employer 20th Century Fox as 19th Century Fox because of (in his opinion) their antiquated views.

By reading this it is pretty easy to infer that Zero Mostel was a little odd.  So it didn't surprise me that his 3 Tony awards were in odd years.  In 1961 He won best actor in a play for Rhinoceros.  In 1963 he won his first Best Actor in a Musical Tony for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Forum, and In 1965 he won his secon Best Actor in a Musical Tony for his career defining role in Fiddle on the Roof.  

Speaking of Broadway, Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder starred together in Mel Brook's movie The Producers which years later became a Broadway smash.  Mostel and Wilder reunited in the famous Electric Company segment Letter Man with Wilder voicing the title hero and Mostel in the role of the evil Spellbinder.  

Mostel also appeared on Sesame Street and the Muppet Show.  He is the only guest star on The Muppet Show who passed away before their episode could be aired.  Mostel is one of at least 3 of my a to z profiles who hosted The Muppet Show, the other two are Peter Ustinov and Ethel Merman.  Now that the A to Z challenge is over, I may watch all 3 of those episodes on the Disney Plus App with the extra time coming my way. 

So that's it 1921 A to Z has come to an end.  I wonder what anybody might say about it 100 years from now.

A To  Z Extra

Some of my Faavorite Electric Company Segments  at Dave Out Loud. This of course includes Mostel as the Spellbinder. 



   After you've looked at the additional content on my other blogs head back to The A to Z challenge and  continue exploring.  








Thursday, April 29, 2021

Doctor Knows Best

#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter Y
                                                            Robert Young
                                                            Years lived before 1921:Fourteen 
                                                            Years lived after 1921: Seventy-Seven




When I first encountered Robert Young he was playing  The titular role of Marcus Welby on primetime and Jim Anderson on Father Knows Best in reruns.  Back then there was very little I knew about him.

I did not know he had originated the Father Know's Best Role on radio in the 1940's before reprising it on T.V.  I did not know he had played opposite John Gielgud and Peter Lorre in Alfred Hitchcock's Secret Agent.  I did not know he was in one of my wife's favorite movies, The Enchanted Cottage. (To be fair at this point, I was a kid and did not have a wife.)

Discovering these facets of Young has been a delight.  He has quite a filmography and I hope to continue to make future discoveries of his stage,  film, radio and television career  that spanned nearly sixty years.

For more a to z challenge click here.  

 

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

X= X eX WhitesoX

#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter X

 

X is a very versatile letter.  It also sidelines as a Roman Numeral.  So for todays installment I give you 10 White Sox Players from the 1919 World Series. The owner of the White Sox was Charles Comiskey and his nick name was the Old Roman.  So if you're the kind who needs the X justified, I believe I just did.

In 1919 several White Sox players conspired to throw the World Series.  In 1921 These players were acquitted in a Chicago court room of any wrong doing.  However Judge Kennesaw "Mountain" Landis imposed a lifetime ban on 8 of the players.  Infamously referred to as the Black Sox or the 8 Men Out.


Two of these players, Shoeless Joe Jackson and George Daniel "Buck" Weaver maintained their innocence for the rest of their lives.  Two players from the 1919 World Series who were not removed from baseball, Ray Schalk and Eddie Collins (who both served as player/managers for the White Sox)   would eventually be elected into the Hall of Fame. 

                                                                Dirty Sox

Fred McMullin (Utility Infielder)Years Lived before 1921: Thirty
                                                      Years lived after 1921:Fifty Two



Eddie Cicotte (Pitcher) Years lived before 1921: Thirty Seven
                                      Years lived after 1921: Forty Eight


Lefty Williams (Pitcher) Years lived before 1921: Twenty Eight
                                         Years lived after 1921: Thirty Eight

Happy Felsch (Center Fielder ) Years lived before 1921: Thirty
                                                   Years lived after 1921: Forty Three

Chick Gandil  (First Baseman) Years lived before 1921: Thirty Three
                                                  Years lived after 1921: Forty Nine


Swede Risberg (Shortstop) Years lived before 1921: Thirty Eight
                                            Years lived after 1921:Fifty Four

Clean Sox

Eddie Collins (Second Baseman) Years lived before 1921: Thirty Four
                                                       Years lived after 1921: Thirty

Ray Schalk (Catcher) Years lived before 1921: Twenty Nine
                                    Years lived after 1921: Forty Nine

Questionable Sox

Shoeless Joe Jackson (Outfielder) Years lived before 1921: Thirty Four
                                                       Years lived after 1921: Thirty

Buck Weaver (Third Baseman) Years lived before 1921: Thirty One
                                                   Years lived after 1921: Thirty Five

For more a to z challenge click here.  











Why Sidewalks should have Spell Check.


 This is part of Wordless Wednesday.  I'll Be back a little later today for my 1921 X in this years A to Z Challenge.  Click here to see whose lives we've already looked at this April.

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

W is for Waltons

#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter W'

The Walton's is a 1970's CBS program about a family  of 7 children their parents and paternal grandparents living in rural Virginia during the depression. Earl Hamner who wrote and narrated the show  and was the person that the character Johm Boy Walton was based on was born in 1923 so would not qualify for this list.  However the actors who portrayed the grandparents Will Geer, and Ellen Corby were alive in 1921 .  


Ellen Corby

Years lived before 1921: Ten 
Years lived after 1921: Seventy-eight


Will Geer
Years lived before 1921: Nineteen
Years lived after 1921: Fifty-seven

Fun fact: Both Geer and Corby were involved in two iconic Christmas programs.  Geer was in the season 2 Christmas episode of 8 is enough where he plays a man who steals all the Bradford's Christmas gifts and tries to pass himself off as Santa Claus co Nicolas.  In It's a Wonderful Life Corby character  is kissed by Jimmy Stewart after only asking for $7.50 during the run on the Building & Loan.  They both were veteran character actors but their portrayal of Zeke and Esther Walton stands out as the role of their lifetimes.  

For more a to z challenge click here.  

Monday, April 26, 2021

V is for Venn

#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter V




                                                            John Venn
                                                            Years lived before 1921: Eighty-seven
                                                            Years lived after 1921:two

John Venn was a mathematician, logician and philosopher who is best remembered for his Venn diagram. V can be a difficult letter to fill some years but this year was an exception.  I did not want to leave out  former White Sox owner, Bill Veeck nor  actor Abe Vigoda from the challenge, so I created this Venn diagram that shows what they have in common and what is different about them.


 


                                                        Bill Veeck

                                                        Years lived before 1921: Seven
                                                        Years lived after 1921: Sixty-five


                                                    Abe Vigoda
                                                    Years lived before 1921:Zero
                                                    Years lived after 1921:Ninety Five

Well, It's Venn fun bit it's time to run.  For more a to z challenge click here.

Saturday, April 24, 2021

Peter Ustinov on Disney Plus

#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter U

Peter Ustinov
Years lived before 1921:Zero.
Years lived after 1921:Eighty-three

Peter Ustinov's acting career extend over 60 years between his first and final movie appearance.  He received two Oscars for best supporting actor in the 1960's.  Today I'd like to focus instead on what we can see of Mr. Ustinov's career on the Disney Plus app.  He stars in the 1968 film Blackbeard's Ghost as Blackbeard the pirate.  He costars in the 1976 Disney film The Treasure of Matecumbe as Dr. Ewing T. Snodgrass. He also appears in one of my favorite Disney cartoons and twice with the Muppets.







                                                                        
Ustinov provided the voice for Prince John
Robin Hood 1973





Ustinov and Fozzie The Bear tell a joke
S1 E 12 The Muppet Show









Peter and Miss Piggy
Great Muppet Caper 1981

The episode of the Muppet Show that features Ustinov is definitely worth watching.  Ustinov plays a number of diverse characters and does very many different accents even doing a pretty good Kermit impression at the end of the show.  Kermit also sings "It's not easy being green" in this episode which was his signature song before the Rainbow Connection from The Muppet movie.

For more A to Z challenge click here.


Friday, April 23, 2021

T is for Thomas and Tesla

#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter T


Nikola Tesla
Years lived before 1921: Sixty-five
Years Lived after 1921:Twenty-two


Thomas Alva Edison
Years lived before 1921: Seventy-four
Years lived after 1921: Ten

When I decided on people who were living in 1921 as my topic for this year's A to Z challenge, I set a few criteria on deciding exactly who those people would be.  The first of those was that I wasn't going to write about anyone if I was not familiar with them before deciding on the theme.  If you google born in 1921 or died in 1921 or even married in 1921 you come into contact with "famous" people that you have oxymorincally never heard of or only have the vaguest inclination of. I was going to do my best to steer clear of such folks.  Another criterion was to double up and triple up when plausible to feature as many people as I could.

With the letter T those two criteria became some what juxtapostionally opposed. I of course have heard of Thomas Edison and know quite a bit about him.  He's even appeared in this blog a number of times. I have heard of Nikola Tesla but besides Charlotte Nevins Purcell, who my daughter wrote about last week, Tesla is probably the person I know least about.  

Instead of just regurgitating Wikipedia, I think I will instead make a promise to you, the reading public. In order to juggle my 2 jobs, my other myriad responsibilities, and the a to z challenge, I have pretty much given up recreational reading in the month of April.  When the challenge comes to an end, I will find and read a  biography on Tesla. There is also  a movie I have been meaning to see called The Current War which is a period piece featuring Edison, Tesla and George Westinghouse. My promise is after reading a book and seeing the film, I'll write a more informed post on Edison and Tesla.

I think it's a pretty bright idea.  For more of the a to z challenge click here.  





Thursday, April 22, 2021

S is for Stewart

  #AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter S

                                                                Jimmy Stewart
                                                                Years lived before 1921: Thirteen
                                                                Years lived after 1932:Seventy-Six

Jimmy Stewart is probably my favorite actor.  This should not be too surprising as It's A Wonderful Life is my favorite film. Stewart played many original characters in his films but was also in a great deal of bio-pics.  Today we are going to look at 3 of those films as all of the titular subjects were also alive in 1921.

Film 1: The Stratton Story (1949)


                                                                Years lived before 1921: Seven
                                                                Years lived after 1921: Sixty-one

Monty Stratton was a pitcher with the the Chicago White Sox in the 1930's. He lost a leg due to a hunting accident.  He learned to pitch while using his prosthetic leg and had a comeback in the minor leagues but never did get back to the big leagues.   

Film 2: The Glenn Miller Story (1954)

                                                               


                                                               


                                                                            Glenn Miller
                                                               
                                                                Years lived before 1921: Seventeen
                                                                Years lives after 1921: Twenty-three

Glenn Miller was a big band musician and bandleader in the swing era of the 1930's and 1940's before his aircraft disappeared over the English Channel in late 1944.

Fun Fact: June Allyson portrayed both the wife of Glenn Miller in this picture and Monty Stratton in the Stratton story.  She played Stewart's wife in 3 different films.

Film 3: Spirit of St. Louis (1957)




                                                                            Charles Lindbergh 

                                                                            Years Lived Before 1921:19
                                                                            Years lived after 1921: 53

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh made the first solo nonstop flight from New York to Paris in an airplane built for that purpose called the Spirit of St. Louis.  The film tells the story of this event.

A To Z Easter Eggs


 A to Z Archives: S is for Stewart at HSD. We go back 6 years ago today when I wrote about Mr. Stewart in my 2nd go round of the a to z challenge.  For more of the 2021 rendition of the challenge click here.






A to Z 2023 Road Trip

#AtoZChallenge 2023 RoadTrip