Last to Know

Saturday 9

Your Mama Don't Dance (1972)

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

1) This song is about how the older generation often doesn't understand what the younger generation is up to. Do you keep up with trends?

A. I have never been trendy. I was nerdy before it was cool to be a nerd, and I'm still a nerd. Being a nerd may be trendy now, but it's an accident that I'm current. I am always last in on TV shows, last to know the latest gossip, and last to have a smartphone (I still don't have one).

2) This song was in the top 10 in 1972, which is also the year HBO was introduced. Do you have any premium cable channels?

A. Yes. We have HBO and Showtime. I like HBO for some of its series (Game of Thrones, Bill Maher) and Showtime has Masters of Sex, which I started watching last year and enjoyed. My husband is also a big movie watcher. We did have other premium channels but I tired of paying for them so we dropped them earlier this year.

3) Mother Winters taught Sam (the author of this meme) how to kill the lingering food smells in her microwave (take a bowl of water, add a few drops of vanilla extract, and heat it in the microwave). Do you have any useful household hints to pass along?

A. If you take a soda bottle, cut it so that you can turn the top upside down and create a funnel that sits in the soda bottle, you can use that to catch stink bugs. They can't climb back out because of the funnel. After you get a few, you can then dump them all at one time into the toilet and give it a flush. (The east coast is inundated with stink bugs. Thank you international shipping for bringing those pests to us.)

 
4) The French word for "mother" is "mère." What other French words do you know?

A. Bon jour. La petit. Mademoiselle. That's about it. I will note that my current physical therapist is from France and I enjoy her accent.
  
5) Flowers and plants are popular on Mother's Day. How is your yard or garden? Is it green and/or blooming?

A. My yard is green. My garden is still leftover from last fall as I have not been well enough to get out and work in it. So we have still have tomato stakes standing up there with dead tomato plants. It looks very sad and neglected. My roses are looking a little pathetic, too, as the canes froze in the terrible winter we had, and I was forced to cut them way back nearly to the root balls.

6) Mother's Day is a big holiday for card shops. So are birthdays, weddings, and St. Patrick's Day. Hallmark sells greetings for everything from "Congratulations on Your New Job" to "Happy Retirement." Who received the most recent card you bought?

A. Well, I have a Mother's Day card for my mother-in-law on the kitchen counter, which she will receive on the traditional day. But I think the last card I actually sent out was an Easter card to a friend. Or maybe it was a sympathy card. We're getting to that age where people are dropping like flies in a cloud of Raid.
 
7) Have you put away your winter clothes yet?

A. They have been shuffled to the back of the closet, which is how mine get put away, so yeah.

8) Mother Winters used to scold Sam for leaving her dirty dishes in the sink. Sam admits it: as a grown up, she's still a bit of a slob. Do lean toward "neat" or "messy?"

A. I prefer neat and scarce but have become semi-neat and cluttered. I really need to get rid of the clutter. I would be neater and cleaner if I felt better.

9) To celebrate Mother's Day, Sam is giving away candy bars. Would you prefer classic milk chocolate, dark chocolate or milk chocolate with almonds?

A. Dark chocolate, baby. Dark chocolate.