songbird's crazy world

We had some excitement here on Long Island Tuesday afternoon. A flyover! Blue Angels And Thunderbirds Salute New York Coronavirus Responders With Flyover Yes, the Navy Blue Angels and the Air Force Thunderbirds did a flyover, primarily over NYC, but the flight path also took them right over Drew's house! We could see them for all of 15 seconds, but it was beautiful. I had my phone in hand but didn't have time to take a photo or video.  But all the news organizations reported it.  Here is video from WNBC. I'd never seen the Blue Angels, but I have seen the Thunderbirds before. The Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach is an annual Memorial Day tradition.  It includes military and civilian aircraft, stunt planes, historic planes, even parachute  jumpers.  The Blue Angels were supposed to be this year's headliners, but sadly the show is another victim of the coronavirus. I saw the dress rehearsal for the 2017 show. The Thunderbirds were the headlin...

This is from our honeymoon in 1987. We sailed to the Bahamas on The Big Red Boat.  And the captain held a reception for all the honeymooners. Back then, before Disney had its own cruise line, Premier Cruises was the official cruise line of Walt Disney World.  The package included a three day cruise to the Bahamas (and Premier’s private island), a visit to the Kennedy Space Center, and four days at Disney. Back then, Disney had only two parks, Magic Kingdom and Epcot.  So four days gave you plenty of time to see everything.  And since we were there for July 4th weekend, we took advantage of the extended park hours and saw everything twice. We stayed at a hotel on International Drive near Wet ‘n’ Wild.  Didn’t see much of  the businesses there.  Universal hadn’t built a park yet.  But we did get a chance to spend a day at Seaworld. Fun trip..

Duchess says hello.

1. Expect the unexpected on From This Side of the Pond. Here's my x-ray question...when was the last time you felt like Superman? What's your superpower? Explain. Superpower?  What's that?  Though this virus has been testing me, and I have found wells of strength I didn't know I had. 2. Are you a fan of the 'superhero' type movies? If so what's your favorite? I am so looking forward to the next Wonder Woman movie, Gal Gadot is a great Wonder Woman.  I love the Avengers and the X-Men (yes, I got an X word in!).  Loved Aquaman . But my absolute favorite?  Christopher Reeve in Superman .   Here's the helicopter sequence, where Lois Lane first meets Superman.  I love the look on Clark Kent's face when he sees the 1970's style "phone booth".  Can't help but wonder what his Superman would think of our cell phone world. 3. Have you postponed or cancelled a trip to the dentist in recent weeks, and...

So Drew and I spent most of Sunday in front of the TV.  What else is there to do lately? Our usual Sunday routine is breakfast and Meet the Press.   Drew makes waffles or pancakes or whatever and we ingest politics as well as food. A little while later Drew said to me, “Your favorite movie is on.” Yes!   Casablanca was on.  Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Dooley Wilson, Paul Heinreid.  Classic lines like “Here’s looking at you, kid”, and “We’ll always have Paris” and “I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.”  And no, he never said “Play it again, Sam.” I first saw the movie in a high school film class, wrote my term paper on it, and have loved it ever since. Later in the day was my turn.  “Drew, your favorite movie is on.” Drew has a thing about The Music Man.   Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett, Hermione Gingold, Ron Howard and a score by Meredith Wilson.  So...

This week's theme is: ‘Angels’ in song titles or lyrics So let's repeat the song from the "fools" theme two weeks ago: And then there's Shelley Fabares: You want something more contemporary?  Maybe some Madonna: Juice Newton wants to  be an angel of the morning:  Neil Sedaka lives right next door to an angel And we'll end it with Alan O'Day:

Bad Education Anybody else catch the movie last night?  Very gripping drama. I thought Hugh Jackman was terrific!  He played Frank Tessone, a school administrator ... The movie is based on a real-life incident, a scandal that rocked Long Island  in 2004.  I remember the scandal, the local papers published all the gory details. What you have to understand .... there are numerous school districts on Long Island where the parents  have money and want their kids to go to Ivy League schools.   Very pushy parents who get upset if their 3rd grader isn’t accepted into the gifted program, who want their high school kids in AP and honors classes. Who compare their schools to other, similar districts and complain if another district is perceived as “better”. Trust me on this, I grew up in one of “those” districts, and raised my children in that district. Such districts include Great Neck, Syosset, Jericho, Manhasset, Half Hollow Hills, and Roslyn. The ...

All Right 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 memes, however, and here is today's meme! Saturday 9: All Right (1983)   Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it  here . 1) This song has an optimistic message about love: "It gets tough sometimes, but you can give it one more try ..." Do you tend to take an optimistic look at life? Yes, I do tend to be an optimist, even in trying times.  It has become very difficult of late, though. I will try to emulate this week's artist.  Here's a recent quote: “Unfortunately as a consequence of COVID-19 other proble...