Saturday 9: Wake Me Up

Saturday 9: Wake Me Up Before You Go Go (1984)

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

1) This song was inspired by a note WHAM! partner Andrew Ridgeley left for his parents. He accidentally wrote "go" twice. What was the last handwritten note you left for someone?

A. A phone number for my husband when someone called about hay.

2) Born Georgios Panayiotou, George Michael was the son of the Greek restauranteur in East London. When you think of Greek cuisine, what comes to mind?

A. Olives. I am not good with food questions, I don't know the difference between cultures as far as food goes. If it tastes good, I eat it, if it doesn't, I don't.

3) He was a terrible driver and admitted his license was suspended a number of times. Have you ever lost your license?

A. No. I did have to attend a driver's education seminar because I topped a hill and rear-ended a vehicle stopped on the other side. I bruised myself up pretty good.

4) WHAM! partner Andrew Ridgeley, on the other hand, is a talented driver who got to live his fantasy by racing Formula Three in Monaco. There are companies that sell racetrack driving experiences that allow you to spin around the track at dizzying speeds. Is this something you like to try?

A. My husband did that just this fall. We went to Pocono Race Track where he went around the track at about 140 mph or something. I watched.

5) In 1990, Frank Sinatra famously gave George Michael advice. Ol' Blue Eyes told the younger man to enjoy his fame, to remember all those lean nights traveling from gig to gig by bus and, now that he's successful, "loosen up and swing, man." Who last gave you advice? Did you take it?

A. My friend T. last gave me advice and yes, I took it, mostly because the advice was, "Anita, go take your medicine" and it was past time for me to do that anyway.

6) Mr. Michael's neighbors have reported since his passing that he seemed to live rather quietly, and that they usually saw him when he was out walking his three dogs. Tell us about the last time you spoke to one of your neighbors.

A. My neighbor called me about a week ago to give a report on her partner, who is 93 years old and in poor health. The neighbor herself is in her late 70s and had shown up on my doorstep before the holidays terrified her friend was going to die, and she had me write up an obituary and go through my photos to find a nice picture of her. I obliged. But so far the old gal is hanging in there. **UPDATE** At noon today I received a call from the neighbor that her friend had passed away. I am sad.

7) Fansites tell us that George Michael's favorite cereal was cornflakes. What breakfast cereals are currently in your kitchen?

A. Rice Krispies, Chex, and Cheerios.

8) In 1984, when "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" was popular, Murder, She Wrote premiered on CBS. Today it's still seen in reruns all over the world. Are you a fan?

A. I don't watch it now, but I didn't think it was a bad show on its initial run.

9) RANDOM QUESTION: What's your secret to a good night's sleep?

A. Drugs. I know that is not a lot of help. The other thing I do is count backwards from 10 and then when I hit one I open a door and go into my imaginary world, which is very calm and sedate.

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Saturday 9 posts 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. Fridays no longer hold the allure for me that they once did, now that I am semi-retired (or whatever you want to call it). When I worked the 8 to 5 routine, Fridays were the days I aimed for. Now Fridays are just another day. I am reminded of the time the Dowager on Downton Abby asked, "What is a weekend?" We can thank Henry Ford for shutting down his motorcar building operations on Saturday and Sunday for the weekend as we know it today.

2. Generally speaking, many women do not stop working for the weekend. When I worked full time, and even when freelancing, Saturday was housecleaning day, and Sunday was catch-up day. Actually I still do most of my housecleaning on Saturday. I think this has changed, though. Younger people seem to share household chores better than my generation.

3. How did I do it? Sometimes when I think back on all the things I did when I was younger - at one point I was working two jobs, attending college, and still fixing my husband his dinner - and realize that aging really does slow you down. If you're a young person, just wait. You'll feel it one day.

4. Injuries to the heart and soul are the most difficult to repair. A broken bone can mend and sometimes be stronger, but a broken heart and soul always has a hole. Not all such injuries come from the ones you love. Sometimes your community can betray you, too. This is especially true if you happen to love your community.

5. Just yesterday I was looking at the local newspaper and noting that my renewal date is coming up. I have subscribed to it for 34 years, and have read it for at least 44 years. I shouldn't even have to think about renewing, but this thought keeps coming to me: what difference does it make if I know what is going on or not? The people in charge are going to do whatever they want regardless.

6. Knowing I have become a cynic does not bring me relief. Instead it makes me sad that the years have jaded me and turned me a bit sour regarding the goodness of my fellow human beings.

7. Last night I stayed up until nearly midnight searching for something I thought I had lost. I was sitting on the bed, trying to think how I would tell my husband that I had misplaced this precious something, when I realized where it was. And yes, there it was.

8. Many people disagree with me but I try to love them anyway. It is hard.

9. Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country.

10. Open and shut, open and shut. That means something in the back of my head and it relates to the state of the day, but I cannot state what I am trying to say. My brains are scrambled like breakfast eggs this morning.

11. People need people, even introverts like me who prefer to be alone much of the time. Sometimes, though, a hug is the remedy, not a book. Though books are always good.

12. Quietly, I sift through the sordid news of the morning, reading and wincing, my heart pounding, my blood pressure rising, until I must put it aside and stop, simply for the sake of sanity.

13. Rather than come up with some kind of list, this is a random 13, because I am listless in more ways than one.


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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 482nd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Miscellaneous Questions

1. Who or what are you named after? A. Nobody, really.

2. Last time you cried? A. Close to Christmas.

3. Do you like your handwriting? A. No. It's so bad, I could be a doctor.

4. What is your favorite lunch meat? A. Honey ham.

5. Do you have kids? A. No.

6. Do you use sarcasm? A. What, do you think I am some sort of linguist?

7. Do you still have your tonsils? A. No.

8. Would you bungee jump? A. Not at this age. Maybe when I was younger.

9. What is your favorite kind of cereal? A. Rice Krispies.

10. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? A. Most of the time.

11. Do you think you're strong? A. Not physically, but mentally.

12. What is your favorite ice cream? A. I don't eat ice cream.

13. What is the first thing you notice about someone? A. Eyes and/or hair.

14. What do you do to relax? A. Write, read, play guitar, color.

15. What is the least favorite thing you like about yourself? A. I'm overweight.

16. What color pants are you wearing? A. Blue.

17. Last thing you ate? A. An oatmeal cookie.

18. What are you listening to right now? A. The hum of the heater, clocks ticking, my fingers on the keyboard.

19. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? A. Violet.

20. Favorite smell? A. Cookies baking.

21. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? A. My husband.

22. Favorite sport to watch on TV? A. Women's tennis.

23. Hair color? A. Brown with soft white (aka gray).

24. Eye color? A. Hazel.

25. Favorite food to eat? A. Chocolate.

26. Scary movies or happy? A. Happy.

27. Last movie you watched? A. The Fellowship of the Ring.

28. What color shirt are you wearing? A. Yellow.

29. Favorite holiday? A. Halloween.

30. Wine or beer? A. I don't drink.

Weekend Snow

Sunday Stealing: Shipwrecked!

Sunday Stealing: The Shipwreck Questions

You are shipwrecked with friends (your group can include real life or virtual life or both) think about it and pick some friends to truly enjoy your cruise +  and tell us why you assembled the group by just telling us . . .

(I chose my virtual life in Lord of the Rings Online, so . . . )

Who would throw the wildest parties, and why did you pick them? Gimli, because dwarves know how to drink with great gusto.

Who would always fall asleep on the couch, and why did you pick them? Pippin, because he is lazy and spends too much time smoking the long bottom leaf.

Who would enter to be in a talent show, and why did you pick them? Eowyn, because she has an inferiority complex, and would like to show up everyone, especially the guys.

Who would try to get out of doing their chores and why did you pick them? Merry, because, like Pippin, he has never done a day's work in life.

Who would accidentally set the kitchen on fire whilst cooking and why did you stupidly pick them? Smaug, the dragon in the Lonely Mountain, because, well, he has hot breath.

Who would try to domesticate an island pet and why did you pick them? Samwise Gamgee, because he loves the land and the animals. He was very fond of Bill the pony and was sad when he couldn't take him through the mines of Moria.

Who would make the other carry their bags on a shopping spree and why did you pick them? Merry would make Pippin carry his bags, because Merry always leads Pippin around, and Pippin follows. They've done that since they were wee lads. They may also be in line for the drinking question.

Who would throw the first person off the boat and why did you pick them? Aragorn would throw anyone who was bad off the boat, because he is the Elessar (or king) and has great knowledge.

Who would be the best caregiver when someone got sick and why did you pick them? Gandalf, because he is a wizard and a healer.

Who would try to force the another to play sports with them and why did you pick them? Boromir would teach the hobbits to play at swords, in order to show them how to defend themselves. He is a master swordsman from Gondor.

Who would have the best holiday ideas for your space on the island and why did you pick them? Arwen, the elf who wants to marry Aragorn. She would throw a lavish party in order to court her man.

Who would need to clean out someone else's stuff to make room for their own and why did you pick them? Gollem would need to clear away everything he could find, because he is searching for The One Ring.

Who worries about how they will look when they’re older and why did you pick them? Lord Elrond does not worry about how he will look, but he does worry about how his daughter, Arwen, will look, because she has chosen a mortal life and will one day die, while he and the other elves live on in the undying lands.

Flashes everyone when they walk by after taking a shower alone and why did you pick them? Legolas Greenleaf, prince of the Woodland Realm, would gladly flash everyone after a shower, and I would be glad to look.

Who wakes you to asks weird questions in the middle of the night and why did you pick them? I would be the one asking the weird questions in the middle of the night. I already do that. Drives my husband nuts because my brain never goes out of gear.

Who will constantly ask you “what are you thinking about?” and why did you pick them? Gandalf would be asking me that constantly, because he is a curious sort of fellow who likes to know everything.

Which of your friends on this island might being too touchy-feely while you interact, why did you pick them? If I were lucky, Aragorn or Legalos might get a little touchy-feely. They are both beautiful.

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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: A New Day

Saturday 9: A New Day Has Come (2002)

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

Welcome to the first Saturday 9 of 2017!

1) This song is about a new day. Here we are celebrating a new year. What do you hope for in 2017?

A. I hope for better health, more tolerance from myself and by others, and a winning lottery ticket.

2) Ms. Dion has said this song was influenced by the events of 9/11, and how a new day dawned after tragedy. Looking back on 2016, did something happen that you're glad to leave behind and move away from?

A. Oy vey. There was this election that happened that crushed my soul. I would like to think I am leaving behind despair and moving toward hope of some kind.

3) In the video, Celine serenades us from billowy white clouds. Describe the sky where you are as you answer these 9 questions.

A. We have a sky as gray as a mermaid's eyes when she is angry with the sea. We are expecting light snow.

4) This video was shot in West Palm Beach, FL. When settlers arrived in the late 1870s, the town was called Lake Worth County. OK, your turn. Tell us something about your hometown.

A. The city nearest me, Roanoke, VA,  was originally called Big Lick. The town was established in 1852 and became chartered under state law in 1874. (The reason it was called Big Lick was because there was a large salt deposit near the Roanoke River, and wild animals came to the salt lick.) In 1882, the town changed its name to Roanoke, and it became a city two years later.

The area lay along The Great Wagon Road, which history buffs will know was the main route for settlement from Philadelphia into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and on into the Carolinas. The road branched near Big Lick, taking people toward Tennessee and to the west.

Roanoke was until this century a railroad town. At one time it was the headquarters for Norfolk & Western, which became Norfolk-Southern. The railroad executives have since moved much of the work out of the area, and the city is reinventing itself as some kind of medical/outdoor tourism hub. Apparently much of this reinvention is sponsored by the local alcoholic community, as we have numerous microbreweries and recently economic developers scored two large breweries that will be moving into the area in the next 18 months.

5) Celine Dion's native tongue is French. Dites-nous quelque chose en Français.

A. Um. Cheese?

6) Celine's mother, Therese, is known in her Quebec neighborhood as a terrific cook. Think about your own domestic talents. Where do you excel? (Food prep, house cleaning, laundry, scheduling, etc.)

A. I am good at laundry, I guess, if I have to pick something. Before I started having health problems I would have said I was a good general overall homemaker, though cooking is not a strong suit.

7) Growing up, Celine and her siblings often performed in her family's piano bar. Where did you most recently enjoy an adult beverage?

A. I think it was in 2012 near the time of my graduation from Hollins University, when I received my masters' degree, in my creative writing class.

8) In 2002, when this song was popular, Kmart was in the news because the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. What department store to you shop at most often?

A. Kmart is in the news this week because it closing two stores in Roanoke. How coincidental. I tend to shop at J C Penny more than anywhere else, unless you are counting Walmart. I don't consider Walmart a department store, personally. And frankly, the Kmarts here should close. I haven't spent money in either of them in years, and when I have stopped in, they were filthy and poorly stocked. However, they are the only place where my husband can find my Cheer Free laundry detergent, which he picks up on his way home from work on occasion. So that might be a problem since I can't seem to find it anywhere else.

9) Random question: It's time for a midnight snack and you have your choice of one of these three -- a slice of sausage pizza, a bagel with lox and cream cheese, or a piece of carrot cake. Which will you have? And what shall we bring you to drink?

A. I will have the carrot cake, and a glass of water. Mostly, though, I want the fine and most excellent company of my Saturday 9 friends, so that we may sit down and discuss the remains of the day.

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

I Could Make Those People Dance

I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a dancer. I am not necessarily of the two-left feet persuasion, as I do possess a bit of rhythm, but I don't know dance moves nor do I have much stamina.

So my dancing tends to be done alone, in the kitchen, or as I wander around picking up and attempting to clean the house.

Even in school, when they tried to teach us line dancing in the late 1970s and disco in the early 1980s, I was not the most coordinated of students.

Ah well. We can't be successful at everything.

What I could do, and occasionally still manage to do, was make words dance. Writing a good sentence is like watching professionals dance - and the dance depends upon the words.

Writing about a sad affair of the heart? There's your waltz for you.

Need to send some zing into your sentence, and add a little syntax? You might cha-cha a bit of Latin rhythm for that one.

Sentences can rhumba, samba, flatfoot, square dance, and perform ballet. They can go barefoot on a wooden floor or they can tap a dance on the stones of the town square.

So what, exactly, makes a sentence do the twist while another sentence rests limply, noodle-like, on the tarnished cookie sheet of your brain?

As with most things, a good sentence is good mainly in the eye of the beholder, but even so, some things hold true.

As a journalist, I dealt in facts. But no sentence is a good sentence if it only contains facts. My best first sentences for articles were the ones that bypassed the facts and went someplace else. How many times did I write a lazy beginning that was factual? Hundreds. "The Board of Supervisors met today and discussed the budget. " BORING!

What would be better? How about: "The ticking of the clock was the only audible sound as the Board of Supervisors today stared for long minutes at the unbalanced budget numbers that the county treasurer had placed before them."

Better, yes? Also long and something that, for the sack of brevity, could conceivably be axed in a news story. But in an article, or a longer piece, you bet that's a better beginning.

But what makes the second sentence better? It still has the facts - the supervisors met today and discussed the budget.

However, it also contains a bit of emotion. They "stared for long minutes" - indicating that the members did not like what they were seeing. It offers an image of the members, staring down at paper. It's logical in the scenario it projects. And it contains a promise of more to come. What happens next, after the members finish staring at these unbalanced numbers?

So a good sentence could be said to contain facts, emotion, and image. It is also logical, and perhaps it holds a promise.

Want a shorter example?

Engagement ring: for sale, never worn.

Oh my. What has happened here? It's just a sale notice, right? But what intrigue! Why was the ring not worn? Did the girl turn the boy down? Was he on his way to propose when he fell off a trolley?

Those six words create an emotional connection. Sentences need not be as wordy as my first example to say something important. They need merely say it in a logical and seductive way. The reader's imagination then takes over, and supplies the emotion, the image, and the promise.

How then, might I go about making better sentences? I want to make people dance with my writing. What must I do?

First, find the facts. Example: My feet fit in these shoes. That's elementary stuff - subject/verb agreement. In journalism, this is known as the 5 Ws: who, what, when, where, why. You need to place that information into the sentence in specific order. This little sentence has the who: (me), the what (shoes), but not necessarily the where, why, and when.

Try this sentence: On Friday, my feet fit in these shoes when I visited the orthotics doctor, but by Tuesday my ankle had swollen so much that I had to walk around in socks.

Lots going on there, eh? But you know all the 5Ws. Who: (me) What: (my shoes and feet), When: (on Friday through Tuesday), Where: (at the orthotics doctor), Why: (because I am having ankle problems.)

Sentences dance when they offer up images. Everyone has an imagination, and the writer must feed that. A good sentence allows someone to imagine the scene but does not over-explain. It also does not offer so little information that the imagination has nothing to grab.

The best way to make a sentence boogie is to use action verbs and concrete nouns. Then add in one or two of the five senses (sight, smell, touch, taste, sound). That can give you the phrasing necessary to make the sentence stand up on its toes.

Example: The howling dog chased its tail after the skunk sprayed it.

Phewie. There's an image for you. A stinking dog running around in circles.

You could get more precise in your language. The howling dachshund raced blindly in circles after the skunk sprayed it.

The thing about writing a sentence is it is almost never finished. I can piddle with a sentence for hours, trying to find the appropriate verb, the better noun, the more concrete adjective.

It becomes a marathon dance, then, one of those 1950s sock-hops where couples competed with numbers on their backs.

Sentences should evoke emotions. First, you, the writer, must know what emotion you wish to evoke. Fear? Is there a problem that must be solved? Is the person happy, prideful, sad?

If a person is sad, a good sentence does not say, "Joe was sad." A better sentence says, "Joe kicked at the rocks at his feet, his shoulders slumped, and his head down, as he trudged along the dirt road that lead to the school."

In other words, a good sentence doesn't tell the emotion. It shows it.

Lastly, a good sentence offers a promise. It may simply be the promise of more things to come, but still, it keeps the reader engaged. In the example above, the sentence promises to explain, at some point, why Joe is unhappy.

And finally, a great sentence takes much practice. None of the sentences I wrote above are truly great sentences. But I rewrote every one of them at some point. Maybe I only changed a word or two, but it didn't come flying out of me whole.

Even though I've been writing and publishing for 30 years, I still practice.

If you want to read 10 truly great sentences, check out this list from The American Scholar.

If you want to know why these 10 truly great sentences make one take a spin to Waltzing Matilda, check out Poynter's analysis here.

Dance on.

Thursday Thirteen

Here are 13 messes that I need to clean up sometime this year:

The closet from hell.

1. The closet in my office, which is stacked full of unused notebooks, 3.5 floppy computer disks, video games, and other assorted ancient technology.

2. The "beauty box" of crap on my beside table, which holds things like hand cream, lip balm, Ben Gay, and other things one might need for a good night's rest.

Bathroom stuff box

3. The "bathroom stuff" box that sits on the bathroom counter because it's stuff we use every day, or did - some of it we stopped using but it is still in the box. You know what I mean - the stuff like Preparation H or face cream or something.

4. My briefcases. I have numerous briefcases and book bags, most of which have something in them. I need to go through all of them, keep what I want, and hand the rest over to someone else who can make use of them.

5. The drawer in my office desk, which holds ink pens that probably date back to 1993, assorted staples, 3x5 cards, paper clips, Sharpies, pencils, sticky note pads, scratch pads, and other smaller items one might want within reach.

My pile of unread books. Still in their bags!

6. My bookcases in my office, which hold more books that are unread than read these days, because I went through the "books I've read" part and sent a bunch to the library, only to fill the slots with more books that I have yet to read. I really had hoped Kindles (of which I now have 3) would cure this problem but alas, books grow by leaps and bounds seemingly all by themselves.

7. The warranty drawer. We have a filing cabinet drawer stuffed full of warranty papers for practically everything we've ever bought. Many of the items are no longer surviving, have blown a fuse or busted a gut or whatever, and so sent to that merry trash bin in the sky. The papers still survive, though. I strongly suspect that for the most part, they can all be sent to the recycling bin, but one must look to be sure.

The warranty drawer. Note the 1991 truck, which we have
not owned for 20 years, and the other files which begin
with "19.."  - yes, they are at least 17 years old.

8. My journals. Alas, I have boxes of journals and I need to throw them away. However, I want to look through them first. Most, I suspect, are the "woe is me" kind that one tends to have when things are not going well, but there may be a gem or two in there someplace. I think too it might be interesting to make a timeline of where I was and what I was doing in given years, using the journals, before I burn them. And they will be burned.

9. The attic. I haven't been in the attic in years but I know that we still have tax records from the year we married up there. Since that was 33 years ago, well, understandably there is a paper problem somewhere.

Under the bathroom sink.

10. The bathroom vanity (or under the bathroom sink). I clear this out periodically but since we apparently never put anything back from whence it came, stuff piles up and then I end up with three shampoos and no conditioner. Once that becomes an issue, it is time to go through that thing again and see what the problem is.

11. My makeup drawer. I still have, truthfully, eye liner color that my mother gave me when I was teenager. I still use it because I can't find anything else like it! But I also have mostly empty containers of face powder, blush, and eye shadow. Time for a lot of that to find its way into the trash can.

12. The tax box. I really, really dislike keeping up with our accounting, particularly since we run several businesses, but it must be done, and should be done more regularly than I do it. So if I have one "resolution" for this new year, it is to keep on top of this. That is, if I can get 2016 out of the way. Egads, what a nightmare.

13. And last, but not least, my clothes dresser could use a going-through. I have three drawers that I never open, and whatever is in there needs to simply be tossed so I can regain the space. Let's face it, if I haven't worn panty hose in five years, I am not going to wear panty hose again ever.

My dresser. Note the three drawers I marked as "not opened."

So there you go. Not resolutions, but stuff that needs to be cleared away at some point. Feng shui and all of that.

Wish me luck!


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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 481st time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

The Crack of Dawn

Happy Birthday to My Niece

My niece turns 15 this month! She is a beauty queen, cheerleader, star pupil, and all-around American girl. Here are a few photos of her. (Some I swiped from her FB page. Others I took.)