Kitty Carlisle September 3, 1910 - April 17, 2007

Catherine Conn aka Kitty Carlisle and Kitty Carlisle Hart was an actress of stage and screen and singer who frequented the game show circuit dressed to the nines when I was a boy.

She is best remembered as a regular panelist on the television game show To Tell the Truth from 1956 through 1978.

Among the other programs to be seen on the black and white televisions of that era were Password, Match Game, Missing Links, and What's My Line? and I saw most of these regularly in my pursuit of after hours entertainment at home.

She was typically upbeat, pleasant, witty, and urbane and had an easy smile — simply the perfect game show contestant who could garner interest in what she was all about while delving into the topic before her and the television camera.

She was on the New York State Council on the Arts for 20 years and luckily did not live to see her beloved New York City suffer at the hands of an elected libtard democrat governor and mayor as it has declined in this day.

She was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1991 and became inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1999.

Kitty Carlisle passed on April 17, 2007, from prolonged pneumonia secondary to congestive heart failure in her Upper East Side Manhattan apartment, with her son at her bedside.

She is interred at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York next to her late husband Moss Hart.
Rest in peace.
 

So when it came to the Bill and Ted's franchise, I wasn't so much the fan of Keanu Reeves. I'm afraid Point Break didn't do it for me either ...

But I wasn't even a fan of Swayze per se til later and Ghost.

Then there were a few tidbits which sparked my curiosity and interest. Johnny Mnemonic had me going with it's high tech spin and hilarious Ice Tea talking tech smack and then The Matrix franchise kept me going in that same technological kick ass genre as well.

The movie Speed really didn't float my boat ... but something about an endangered love interest rather sullied the experience for me ... not that the diversity of his work isn't impressive otherwise.

Constantine and his classic The Day the Earth Stood Still remake were both well within those 'bad is good" parameters I enjoy and the effects were really appropriate and I thought the preparatory touches to be thought provoking.

By the time he hit me with John Wick and those which followed I was well into that genre which was Keanu the warrior and I was really impressed with the over-the-top choreography and the multitude of weapons, mass destruction, and of course ... all the clothes, cars, and gold coins.

Baba yaga is pretty much the present status with me and I always have great respect for a scrapper. John Wick remains the scrapper extraordinare. Killa.

So here I am the ready and willing John Wick fan to the end.

Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor of Lebanese extraction born September 2, 1964. He also delves into authorship, writing comics, directing, and performing with a band. He was born in Beirut, Lebanon and raised in Toronto.

He's a great actor, holds varied and diverse interests, and is a kind and generous human being.

Today is his birthday. Happy birthday to you !
 

When I was a child there were two black ladies in my life:

Ethel Waters and Mahalia Jackson

This is largely due to the fact that as my mother's son I was pretty much steeped in the various religion she viewed as significant to her life, primarily baptist and methodist denominational and I would frequent Billy Graham crusades on the television and could encounter these ladies there singing their praises to the one true God as only they were able.
 

Ethel Waters October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977

Ethel Waters was an American singer and actress.

She began her career in the 1920s singing blues performed then migrated to jazz, swing, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts.

She recorded hits of the likes of "Dinah", "Stormy Weather", "Taking a Chance on Love", "Heat Wave", "Supper Time", "Am I Blue?", "Cabin in the Sky", "I'm Coming Virginia", with her version of "His Eye Is on the Sparrow". Waters was the second African American to be nominated for an Oscar.

She was the first African-American to both star on her own television show be nominated for a Primetime Emmy.

She suffered several personal tragedies in her life time incluing robbery and devastating health issues.

Ethel Waters died on September 1, 1977, aged 80, from cancer of the uterus, kidney failure, and other ailments, in Chatsworth, California. She is interred at Glendale, California in Forest Lawn Memorial Park.
 

Well guys and gals the end of August once again brings us National Trail Mix Day in the US ... and marks the existence of one of my all time favorite snacks.

My earliest encounter with trail mix was a stuff called 'gorp' which was supplied in empty bread bags while whitewater rafting down the Chatooga river with my best old ex-friends Ralph Elrod, Marion McFarland, and the late Ron Player.

Trail Mix is an admixture of dried fruit, nuts, various grains, and often times chocolate in different forms designed to be taken on hikes and other such excursions.

It's lightweight, easily stored, and highly nutritious with multiple nutritional pathways being accommodated in the concoction.

The origin of trail mix has been the subject of debate with the seventeenth century "european connection" appearing most relevant but I personally fail to see the sigificance ...

My only interest in trail mix is it's suitability as a healthy snack on excursions requiring physical exertion and time expenditure.
 

I was surprised when I attempted to sign back up for youtube premium how the idiots at gmail expect a telephone number ... "to ensure that it's really you".

The f*cktards at yahoo have a similar slant with both thinking you become their property if you want their services.

Needless to say, I have opted to do without youtube premium, gmail, or yahoo mail because I decline to be owned by some over stepping web concern that the world would do just as well without.

In the immortal words of James Baldwin ... "I am not your negro".

All too often the stupid overstep their authority with others. Some of these imposed upon individuals simply take it because they don't recognize alternatives.

However, in the final disposition it becomes abundantly clear just how deep contempt for a stupid irrelevant idiot may flow.

Sometimes the situation becomes terminal and fatal.

Other times it is simply endured until such time as an opening is determined whereby the oppressed may strike. This is often after an extended period of others walking on them.

Rest assured, like James Baldwin, there are those of us who don't take such action lying down and the uppence will certainly come at the earliest opportunity.

Walking on people is not ultimately good for friendships, careers, or service one wishes to render.

Maya Angelou would simply address the situation in poetry. Familiars of James Baldwin might burn down your house.
 

"But that’s the Democrats. Between surveillance, classifications, leaks, and puppet candidates, they never want the American people to know who’s actually calling the shots," he continued. "But with Donald Trump, you always know exactly who is in charge. Because the answer…is you. You’re in charge. Not lobbyists. Not special interests. Not warmongers, or China sympathizers, or globalization fanatics. With Donald Trump and Mike Pence in the White House, the boss is the American people."

Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell third night of the 2020 RNC

I enjoy eating a banana fairly often. Mom likes them as long as they are totally blemish free. Let them develop a single sugar spot and BOOM she wants to be rid of them. I try to explain to her that those spots are a function of the ripening process ... however she remains unimpressed.

A few years back I read of a threat to the bananas we have become used to in the grocery stores. Unfortunately, the situation has not improved at all, only worsened:

A tragedy looms on the horizon. The Cavendish banana, a popular cultivar developed in 1965 and mainstay of retail markets being exported worldwide is deep in the process of complete ruination by a fungal disease known as "Tropical Race 4".

This disease process began in Malaysia in 1990 and has spread to Southeast Asia, Australia, and Africa.

It is decimating the Cavendish banana culture to nothingness and soon these fruit will be unavailable anywhere as the affectation has resisted all attempts at control.

Today is National Banana Lovers Day, observed in the US by those of us who enjoy eating these tropical delights. There is no telling how much longer they will be available for us and the portends are indeed quite bleak.