Sunday Stealing

5 Things I Have Never Done

1. I have never been atop the Empire State Building in New York City whilst in the arms of a big gorilla, who swatted at airplanes as they buzzed by.

2. I have never (in real life) taken a sword to an orc and then thrust hither and yon in order to protect myself as I battled my way to Gondor so that Frodo might take the ring into the heart of Mordor to destroy it.

3. I have never strapped myself into a rocket and blasted off into out space, off to seek out new life, and new civilizations, boldly going where no woman has ever gone before.

4. I have never stapled my hand to a board and then walked around with the blood dripping out of my body, all the while carrying the board around with me as if I were totally unconcerned with my new body part.

5. I have never picked up a picnic table and turned it over. Oh wait. I did do that once. Hmm. Let's try again. I have never leapt over a tall building in a single bound, while wrapping my spider web from my body onto another building so that I might then fly like a bat all around Gotham City in the hunt for bad guys.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

__________

I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.

Saturday 9: Locked Away

 

Saturday 9: Locked Away (2015)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) In this song, Adam Levine asks, "If I showed you my flaws, would you still love me the same?" Nobody is perfect. What little flaw do you have that you imagine makes you hard to live with?

A. I can be stubborn. I am also a perfectionist. I imagine neither of those is actually a virtue. I mean, how many stubborn perfectionists do you know, really?

2) Adam sings along with R. City, a hip-hop duo from Saint Thomas. The U.S. Virgin Islands are known for clean beaches, snorkeling and diving and palm trees. Does the idea of a sand-and-surf vacation appeal to you?

A. I am not much into the beach anymore. When I was younger, I didn't mind sand in my hoo-hoo, but now I'm too old for stuff like that. My skin is thin.

3) R. City are brothers Theron and Timothy Thomas. As kids they took both music and dance lessons. Would you rather sing or dance?

A. I would rather sing. Fa la la la la Do Re Me Fa So La Te Do!

4) When they were still in their teens, the Thomas brothers left the Virgin Islands to find success in the Miami music scene. Instead of working in a recording studio, they made ends meet with jobs in retail – Theron at Kroger Grocery and Timothy at Party City. What's the most recent thing you bought at the store? (Items delivered to your door don't count.) Did you pay by cash or card?

A. I bought a rotisserie chicken, and I used a credit card.

5) They eventually found success as deejays on the Miami party circuit, but it's not what they wanted to do. The Thomas brothers realized they wanted to make their own music, not play someone else's. So, after a few years they headed back to Saint Thomas, wiser and more focused. Did you ever reassess your career path?

A. I reassessed my career path many times. Sometimes the change was of my own making, sometimes it was forced upon me. Come to think of it, even though I consider myself retired, I'm still reassessing.

6) The inspiration for "Locked Away" is their parents. Their dad lost everything due to drugs, got clean, and worked long hours at menial jobs as he struggled to get back on his feet. Their mother stayed by his side through it all. After more than 40 years, they are still together today. What song reminds you of your parents?

A. Jackson, by Johnny Cash and his wife, Gwen (Congratulations) by Tommy Overstreet, or Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast, by Wayne Newton.

7) Adam Levine soloed on "Locked Away." He's better known as the lead singer of Maroon 5 and for 16 seasons (including this one) on The Voice. Do you watch The Voice?

A. We watch The Voice. This season has been particularly rough on us to watch because they are playing more current songs. I don't really know the songs and it makes it harder for me to judge the contestants when I'm not familiar with the music.

8) In 2015, when this song was popular, chef Gordon Ramsay's daughter Matilda, then just 14 years old, got her own cooking show in the UK. What were you up to when you were 14?

A. When I was 14 I was in high school, playing guitar in a Top 40 band at nightclubs on the weekends, and making straight As in my classes.

9) Random question: Do you pronounce "caramel" as two syllables or three ("car-mel" vs. "care-a-mel)?

A. I'm from the south. If we can stretch a word out, we gladly do so, so it's "care-a-mel," and bless your heart for asking.

_______________

I encourage you to visit the posts of other participants in Saturday 9 and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however. 

Autumn 2026

 

Thursday Thirteen

Today, I offer you a glimpse of my Facebook feed, along with personal commentary where warranted:

1. NBC News tells me that protestors hit former president Joe Biden with thrown objects while he was visiting a university in Dublin. People everywhere have lost their manners and their boundaries, haven't they?

2. A prepper advertisement. I see a lot of these, for some reason, even though I constantly X them out to try to make them go away. Apparently, prepping for the end times is really big business. I recently saw an ad for a "Library of Alexandra" which was a very large external hard drive one could hook into a phone to retrieve Wikipedia and other information they thought important to survival after the internet dies. (It did not require internet access.) Other prepper ads are for ready meals, solar batteries, all kinds of stuff.

3. A Cardinal News story about a case in my county that a man has filed claiming Freedom of Information Act violations made by the Board of Supervisors in June 2025 should stop an incoming data center. The pleading states that in approving the performance agreement, the supervisors did not inform the public prior to voting what, exactly, it was they were voting on. A judge in a hearing on Tuesday denied the county's request for dismissal, and the case moves forward, with another hearing next week.

4. Lots of Veterans Day posts (I'm doing this on Wednesday, November 11, Veterans Day). This is the day to thank the folks who served in the armed forces in some capacity. My father served, as did several uncles and my father's father.

5. A post from Hollins University, my alma mater, about National First-Generation College Celebration Day. More than 46% of all active Hollins undergraduate students are first-generation students. I was the first person in my family to obtain a college degree, so I guess I was a first-generation student, too, only nobody made a big deal out of it.

6. A notice about the 7th Annual Tinsel Trail. This is a "trail" of decorated Christmas trees in the county seat. I have visited it every year. I'm not sure where they will put the trees this year since the courthouse area is under construction.

7. A post from The Atlantic stating that publishers have every right to challenge businesses that exploit their work—but the Wayback Machine has become collateral damage, the Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle argues. The Wayback Machine collects and saves websites and other pages so that they aren't lost. I have used it a few times, but I also do not find it particularly helpful.

8. A post from Emilio Piano, a piano player who apparently plays piano in open spaces and sometimes brings in other musicians. He seems especially drawn to younger musicians and encourages them. I like to hear him play and his videos are well done.

9. A post from Roanoke Growth and Development about a proposal for 100 more apartment dwellings off Orange Avenue in the city. I have been perplexed by the number of apartment units going up in the area. When I was growing up, the goal was to own a home. Oh, the things I have learned from being a homeowner! I can fix faucets, repair parts of a dishwasher, jiggle a light socket back to life (not recommended), and replace the hot water heater element if I have to. Now that I'm older, I prefer to hire someone to do these things, but in my younger days I managed many things. Do many of the younger folks not want to deal with leaking faucets or mowing the yard?

10. A map of states where one can legally own an otter. This is not information I knew I needed to know.

11. A post about a food drive by the Lawrence Companies, located in my county. They're looking for 2000 pounds of donations, which they will match. Approximately 1 in 10 people in Botetourt County don’t always know where their next meal is coming from. Pick up an extra can of beans and take it to their location on US 11.

12. A NOVA/PBS video that shows two birds figuring out how to reach a peanut. The results of this experiment open up questions about what intelligence looks like in the animal kingdom. I've known for years that animals are smarter than we give them credit for. Watching them out of the window all the time shows me that they are very curious, very creative, and intelligent creatures.

13. First Alert weather from WDBJ 7. It might be cold this weekend. I can't imagine why, since it's November. We've yet to turn the heat on, it's been so warm.

 _________________

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while, and this is my 984th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

The Fincastle Herald Turns 160 Years Old

A while back, Ed McCoy, the former editor of The Fincastle Herald and the editor I worked with for nearly 30 years, gave a chat about the longevity of the newspaper.

The paper was founded in 1866. This year it turns 160 years old. It is the longest continuously running business in Botetourt County.

Ed started there in 1984, and that was also the year my byline first appeared. From then on, I wrote for the newspaper constantly, sometimes as a staff writer, sometimes as a columnist, sometimes as a freelancer, sometimes as a contributing writer. My time lasted from that very first article - Making Shiloh Apple Butter - until about 2014, when the finances of the newspaper and my physical health forced me to step back. Even then, I still managed to get a few articles in the paper here and there up until about 2020.

Ed is the third-longest serving editor of the newspaper in all of its history. He retired in 2019 and occasionally gives talks about local history, but mostly he now goes out and hunts birds with his bird dogs.

We are the old guard who followed stories until they were over, who kept notecards with dates on them so we could follow up on court cases, the ones who used shoe leather and not keyboards to find the articles we thought would be of the most benefit to the community.

I ultimately ended up with the government beat, and I loved it. I'm glad I'm not doing it now, but at the time, there wasn't a story I wrote that I didn't enjoy. Some made me mad, some made me sad, some made me laugh, but the stories always kept me busy and fully engaged. What more could you ask for from a job, really?

Ed's presentation went into a lot of detail about the history of the paper. I took photos of some of his slideshow. I'll let those slides speak for themselves, for the most part.

That's Ed McCoy on the right, getting ready to give his lecture.

I spent a portion of my career writing for The New Castle Record. Ed was the managing editor
then, and I had other editors who worked under him. He had the last say, though.

Always good to be reminded of the First Amendment.

This is Ed McCoy in 1984, when he became the paper's editor.

Squirrel

 

The Case of the Three Billy Goats Gruff

 

Made with AI

Friday, I received an unexpected email from Ken in Connecticut, a man I do not know. He'd stumbled across a blog post I'd written in 2012 about childhood songs. In it, I had talked about a version of the story song of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. I couldn't find it online, but I vividly remembered it.

Ken wrote: "I have searched several times online for the specific version of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" record I had when I was a kid around 1968 or 1970. . . .  I just have to ask if you may have ever found it anywhere, because I'd really love to somehow obtain a copy of this recording."

I hadn't found a copy and wrote and told Ken so. I then did a quick search and came up empty. Ken thanked me and I thought that was the end of it, but darn it, I used to be an investigative reporter, so I kept looking.

The clue to finding the missing song was actually in the comments section of the 2012 blog post. Someone mentioned they thought it was on Teddy Bear's Picnic on YouTube. I couldn't find it there, but a search eventually brought it up on Spotify.

I didn't have a Spotify account before, but I have one now.

This version is dated 1978, so I am guessing it is a re-release. I believe what I had was a 45 record from about 1970. The song is currently on an album called Teddy Bear's Picnic and Other Animal Favorites by Mr. Pickwick Players.

The version of Three Billy Goats Gruff is definitely the one I remember from my earlier childhood.

I listened to the song to be sure it was the right one, then copied the link to send to the mysterious Ken. I also sent along a copy of the voice memo I'd made so he wouldn't have to navigate Spotify if he didn't already have an account.

He was delighted. He wrote, "I cannot believe my ears! I’ve been looking for this for years and wow, you found it! You get the investigative reporter of the year award! You were able to do what AI couldn’t accomplish! I am forwarding this to my brothers right now, and they will be blown away, too. So glad I found your blog online! Have an awesome day and thank you again."

He also noted that he'd read on my blog that my husband was a firefighter, and that he too was a retired firefighter in his northern state. That made me so happy, that I helped out another member of the brotherhood. Firefighters are such good people.

And now, for posterity, and because Ken and I can't be the only people who remember this song, I am going to cross my fingers and do a little copyright infringement and put the words to the song up.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Mr. Pickwick Players

This is the story of three Billy Goats Gruff
And a giant who owned a bridge.
One was named Cream Puff, and one was called Taffy,
And the tiniest goat was called Midge.

There were three Billy Goats living in the meadow.
One was big, one was small, and one was in between.
And a great big bridge on the edge of the meadow
Was owned by a giant who was big and strong and mean.

When the three Billy Goats went to leave the meadow,
They would hop, they would clop, to get the sweet green grass,
Since it grew in a patch down the road from the meadow.

They walked to the bridge, and the first to cross was Midge.

"Don't you cross my bridge or I'll eat you!"
Said the giant with a terrible roar.

"Please don't eat me, sir, 'cause I'm tiny,
And my brother's right behind,
And he weighs a great deal more."

So the giant let him pass, and he sang this song:
"I'll just wait here till Taffy comes along."

AND HERE HE IS NOW!

"Don't you cross my bridge or I'll eat you!"
Said the giant with a terrible roar.

"Please don't eat me, sir, 'cause I'm tiny,
And my brother's right behind,
And he weighs a great deal more."

So the giant let him pass, and he sang this song:
"I'll just wait here till Cream Puff comes along."

AND HERE HE IS NOW!

"Don't you cross my bridge or I'll eat you!"
Said the giant with a terrible roar.

"Go ahead and try, 'cause I'm just too big for you!"

And when Cream Puff hit the giant,
He was gone forevermore.

Now the three Billy Goats slipped down in the meadow.
One is big, one is small, and one is in between.
They eat all the grass down the road in the meadow,
And they never worry when they have to cross the bridge,
'Cause the big bad giant is never seen.

Sunday Stealing

 

Meaningful Questions 

1. If you could go back to any age, which would you choose and why?

A. I would go back to my 40s, because by then I'd found my writing voice, I was very much into my work as a news writer, and things were going fairly well in life. I'd not yet had my gallbladder surgery that left me in chronic pain and my health was, if not great, decent.

2. If you could snap your fingers and change any single aspect of your life today, what would you change?

A. I would be healthier. No achy joints, no chronic pain, no weight issues, no high cholesterol.

3. Define a "good" or "successful" life.

A. I think a "good" or "successful" life is a life that one has built around particular interests and people who one loves and wants to be around. I have never thought of success as being something that only money can bring. People can be successful parents and still be poor and have a happy life.

4. What's the best compliment you've ever received?

A. I think it was a while back when my former editor told me, "When you were going after a story, you were fearless." I've had other compliments - people often tell me I have nice skin, for example - but that compliment from my editor has stuck with me.

5. What's the most valuable thing your parents taught you?

A. This is a bit of a loaded question for me, because the thing my parents taught me was to not be like them. I don't think that was what they meant to teach me, but it was the lesson that I learned. Alas, genetics being what they are, I do have traits that echo those of my parents, some for good, some for ill. I try to do the best I can with who I am, and I know I disappoint many people, including myself, but I am always attempting to do the right thing and do my best.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

__________

I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.

Saturday 9: One Less Set of Footsteps

Saturday 9: One Less Set of Footsteps (1973)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) Jim Croce sings that "tomorrow is a dream away." What are you dreaming about today?

A. I am dreaming of a genie with light brown hair. No, not really. I'm not dreaming of much of anything at the moment. I seem to be pursuing something I'm not sure of across my dreams.

2) He promises that his lover will soon hear one less voice a-talking. Who is the most recent person you spoke to? (Texts, e-mails and IMs don't count.)

A. My husband would be the most recent person I spoke to, of course. Outside of him, my friend Teresa and I had a phone conversation.

3) He admits that he and his lover have run out of things to say to one another anyway. Let's turn that around: Is there someone in your life with whom the conversation always flows freely?

A. My friend Teresa and I can talk about many topics when we are on the phone. We talk about our lives, our families, our hopes, desires, wants, needs.

4) He mentions the jeans hanging upon her door. Do you often wear blue jeans?

A. As long as I can have you hear with me, I'll always be forever in blue jeans, babe! I almost always wear blue jeans, except they're not Wranglers or anything like that. They're the kind with Spanx in them, so large people can wear them without suffocating.

5) As a high school student, Jim Croce was not especially interested in music. During those years he concentrated on foreign languages, especially German. Say something to us in German.

A. Verklempt. Sorry, that's all I have.

6) His focus changed when he got to college. That's when he joined a choral group that was chosen for a foreign exchange tour of Africa and the Middle East. When did you first travel far from home? Where did you go?

A. My parents used to vacation most years in South Carolina at Myrtle Beach. When I was 14, I went with my parents to New York. When I was 16, I went with a high school group to Spain and France.

7) In 1973, when this song was popular, Norman Mailer was atop the best seller lists with his controversial biography of Marilyn Monroe. When you curl up with a book, is it more likely to be fiction or non-fiction?

A. This year, I have been reading mostly fiction that I don't have to think about, but I read a little bit of everything. My current book is a nonfiction book.

8) Home calculators were innovative in 1973. You could choose a large desktop calculator that featured big keys and plugs into the wall, or a hand-held, battery-operated model. Today every cellphone and laptop has a calculator built in, so do you ever still reach for a stand-alone calculator?

A. I have a stand-alone calculator by my desk, so yes. I know I have a calculator in my phone, but I never use it.

9) Random question: Here's $100. What will you spend it on?

A. I will donate it to the local food bank.

_______________

I encourage you to visit the posts of other participants in Saturday 9 and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however. 

Thursday Thirteen

 

1. We have a little rain this morning, after 24 days of no rain at all.

2. Before that, we had about 4.5 inches over a weekend, the most rain we'd had at one time in about a year.

3. Today is the 51st anniversary of the Flood of 1985, an historic event for the Roanoke Valley. The flooding was caused by Hurricane Juan.

4. The Roanoke River rose 18.57 ft (5.66 m) in ten hours to a peak of 23.35 ft (7.12 m). It was considered a 1 in 200-year event.

5. My husband, then a firefighter for two years, was among the rescuers who pulled people from the rapidly rising waters. He remembers that they used the ladder truck in ways ladder trucks aren't supposed to be used, laying them out as flat as they could so firefighters could use them to reach people.

6. Roanoke sustained $225 million in damage, with 3,100 damaged homes and businesses. Throughout Virginia, damage was estimated at $753 million, making it the state's costliest flood at the time, and there were 22 deaths.

7. All of this is to say that we sorely need rain; we've been in a drought for a very long time now. But we don't need that much rain at once. We need nice showers over a prolonged period.

8. The weather is what one writes about when the words don't want to come, I guess. It is fall, though, and I can look out my window at the changing leaves. The colors have been good in some places, not so much in others. Lots of yellows and browns.

9. I'm not sure what kind of effect drought has on the leaves. I do know that a hackberry tree that has been in the back yard for 40 years dropped berries for the first time ever. From what I read, that was because of the drought and stress on the tree from lack of water.

10. I should probably become a tree identifier because I don't even know what we have in the backyard, apparently. An ash tree that I thought was a locust died some years ago.

11. I never was much for identifying trees and birds and such. Now, though, I think maybe that is something I should work on.

12. Surely, somewhere there is a certificate for Master Tree Identifier. There are such certificates for many things.

13. Or I could do like some politicians and other folks, and just make up my own credentials!

_________________

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while, and this is my 983rd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.