songbird's crazy world

Barry Manilow has been ill lately.  He had to cancel and reschedule all of his concert appearances.Another  artist showing his age.   I am a fanilow. Yes, I like Barry Manilow, and yes,  I've actually seen Barry Manilow perform live, once at Radio City, and then at his one-man show on Broadway. So today I am presenting some of my favorite Manilow songs. His first big hit, "Mandy", was actually a cover of a Scott English tune; English called the song "Brandy", but Manilow changed the name to avoid confusion with a song by The Looking Glass. And then there was "Could It Be Magic".  He'll often sing this one and "Mandy" as a medley. He paints quite a romantic picture: Then there was his "Very Strange Medley", songs he wrote or performed that you probably didn't know were his: Who writes the songs? Her name was Lola 

 I’m loving Gary Burghoff as Charlie Brown … We are baseball fans.  We root for the hapless New York Mets.   Fortunately we also root for the Long Island Ducks, who play in the independent Atlantic League. And so last night we ventured to the ballpark in Central Islip for our first Ducks game of the season. It was 54° at game time.  Jeans and jackets weather. Coffee during the 5th inning. The Ducks played the Lexington Legends.  And Trevor Bauer was the starting pitcher for the Ducks! To quote Wikipedia: “Trevor Andrew Bauer  (born January 17, 1991) is an American professional  baseball pitcher  for the  Long Island Ducks  of the  Atlantic League of Professional Baseball . He has previously played in  Major League Baseball  (MLB) for the  Arizona Diamondbacks ,  Cleveland Indians ,  Cincinnati Reds , and  Los Angeles Dodgers . Bauer has also played in  Nippon Professional Baseball  (NPB) for t...

Someone accepted my invitation to build a nest. My azaleas are in bloom Unfortunately so are the dandelions  My neighbor has a weird sense of humor Yes, that’s the skeleton they put up for Halloween. Saw this on Instagram Yes, the McMansions are under attack. And we still have lots of traffic in the sky. We went to Food Truck Friday … the one at the church, not the one at the VFW.  Yeah, there’s a story …the woman who organized the event at the church had a falling out with the pastor, so she organized a competing event less than half a mile away.   So we drove over to the church.  They had about a dozen food trucks, selling everything from Jamaican to Greek to Cuban to dessert items.  They also had a couple of flea market vendors selling jewelry and crafts. There was a bounce house for the kids, and two singers entertained the crowd.  We ordered our meal from the  Cousins Maine  lobster truck.  I had lobster bisque and shrimp tacos.  Dr...

  'll Get By Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love to  answer the questions, however, and here is today's questions! Saturday 9: I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You) – 1944 Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it  here . 1) "I'll Get By" was very popular song in the 1940s, and we're taking a look at the recording by Dick Haymes and Harry James because it got the most airplay. Can you think of another song that has been recorded by more than one artist? Many songs! Here’s one. 2) In this week's song, vocalist Dick Haymes sings that he won't complain about the rain. D...

 Did I mention that the friends we visited in Florida are cat people?   They’ve got two cats, and they know we love cats, so … On Sunday we visited the  Orlando Cat Cafe . You spend an hour interacting with the cats.  You can adopt a cat and take it home if you want. This is my buddy Mini. Drew found her first. Then I sat down and she crawled into my lap. The little boy next to me reminded me of my cats Daisy and Mr. Kitty. Drew found a few friends to play with, too. Mini was a good girl, I would have lived to take her home with me. Frankly, I would have taken them all if I could …

 It was raining when I left the office, but starting to clear when I got home. So I took a walk. The clouds were interesting. And I wasn’t alone.  I saw a Robin (my favorite bird), a dove, and a couple of rabbits.   The one in the grass had the biggest cottontail! #skywatchfriday