A true test of friendship:

In times of crisis you definitely know who your true friends are.
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Not funny at all.

This cartoon originally caught my eye because of its deep blues, purples, red and orange colors. I sort of chuckled after I read it but soon realized this was not funny. Going to hell is not funny for anyone. It's permanent, eternal, painful, and anguishing. There's no escape. Anywhere without God is an unexplicably horrible place to be. "God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked". Hell is described as "The lake of fire". Imagine being thrown into a lava flow. In one parable a wicked man tells Moses: "I am in agony in this fire". I'm sure it breaks God's heart and I'm sure he weeps daily for those who have to be sent to hell for eternity. This above cartoon, and it's story line, is not funny at all.

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Are you going to scarborough fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Remember me to one who lives there. She once was a true love of mine.

I love mythology and folklore. This book was published in 1977.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

A classic example of someone's who's got it all wrong. I just love those crocs, they're so sweet.....

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Herbal Shampoos

In the 70's, hair care went green. Herbal shampoos were all the rage. Clairol Herbal Essence shampoo was a top seller. There was also a shampoo called Body On Tap, which was sold in the late 70's that had beer as one of it's ingredients. Then there was Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific, and also Faberge Organic Shampoo.
This is an actual advertisement page that ran in magazines like People, etc.

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Peter Benchley has passed away.

NEW YORK (Feb. 12) - Peter Benchley, whose novel "Jaws" made millions think twice about stepping into the water even as the author himself became an advocate for the conservation of sharks, has died at age 65, his widow said Sunday.

Wendy Benchley, married to the author for 41 years, said he died Saturday night at their home in Princeton, N.J. The cause of death, she said, was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive and fatal scarring of the lungs.

Benchley, the grandson of humorist Robert Benchley and son of author Nathaniel Benchley, was born in New York City in 1940. He attended the elite Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, then graduated from Harvard University in 1961. He worked at The Washington Post and Newsweek and spent two years as a speechwriter for President Johnson, writing some "difficult" speeches about the Vietnam War, Wendy Benchley said.

A 1974 article in People magazine described Benchley as "Tall, slender and movie-star handsome, with eyes like the deep blue sea." The author's interest in sharks was lifelong, beginning with childhood visits to Nantucket Island in Massachusetts and heightening in the mid-1960s when he read about a fisherman catching a 4,550-pound great white shark off Long Island, the setting for his novel.

Besides his wife, Peter Benchley is survived by three children and five grandchildren. A small family service will take place next week in Princeton, Wendy Benchley said.

The Partridge Family

From 1970 to 1974, The Partridge Family was a friday night television staple for hundreds of thousands of kids (mostly girls). This show took off like a rocket, and as far as the girls were concerned, David Cassidy was the ultimate. This show came on at 8:30, following The Brady Bunch. I watched both but of course my fave was The Brady Bunch (Laurie Partridge was no match for Marcia Brady. I mean, please.....).

There were 5 kids on The Partridge Family: Keith, Laurie, Danny, Chris, and Tracy. Chris and Tracy, it seems, were never the subject of any of the story lines, either it was Keith, Laurie, Danny, or some traveling hippie chick the family would pick up heading to one of their gigs. In fact, even the mother never seemed to have a story focused around her. My favorites of the show were Danny and Reuben Kinkade (Reuben was the family's manager). I must admit I LOVED THAT BUS!!!! The bus that the family drove around in was SO cool.

At the time, The Partridge Family was so much more popular than the Brady Bunch, both with critics and the general public. But since they've both gone off the air, The Brady Bunch has a MUCH bigger following than the P-Family ever will.

Puppy Love

I just had to post this photo. Nothing melts my heart like a playful puppy.
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Calvin and Hobbes

There wasn't much good in the 90's for me. It just wasn't my decade (let's just say I wouldn't want to go back). A bright spot, however, was Calvin and Hobbes. I was a voracious reader of this strip and it broke my heart when Bill Watterson quit. I'm sure there's a little Calvin in all of us.

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Rumplestiltskin

This was my favorite fairy tale as a child, even though my first grade teacher played the story record in class and Rumplestiltskin's voice sounded so evil I had nightmares for weeks. I was deathly afraid he would just 'show up' in my room like in the story. If you don't know the tale, here's a link: http://www.ifyoulovetoread.com/book/chtwo_storiesfullrump.htm

Ghost Stories

I loved ghost stories as a kid. Problem is I would get so scared that the dark terrified me. I was my own worst enemy......

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Afraid of the dark.

Nothing struck fear into my heart when I was 4, than when mom would say "Bedtime!". We lived in a 2-storey Cape house, but when I had to go upstairs to bed, the stairway seemed to have 50 steps (and it was alway SO dark at the top). Each night I was positive that THAT night would be THE night something grabbed me from around the corner once I got to the top, and I'd be devoured before my parents heard my cries for help. Alot of times my pillow would fall off my bed and I was deathly afraid to reach down and pick it up. The fears I have now, such as "Will I be able to make my mortgage payment?", or "Will I have enough money to cover the utility bills this month?", are nothing in comparison to the fears that a 4-year old boy has about what might be waiting under the bed, or in the closet, or in the hallway, etc.

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I hear laughter in the rain, walking hand in hand with the one I love. Oh, how I love the rainy days and the happy way I feel inside.

Neil Sedaka

I don't think this is what Lewis Carroll had in mind, but who's to say?

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall,
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call.
Call AliceWhen she was just small.

When the men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low.
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know.

Following Directions

One of my biggest faults is that I just don't seem to be able to follow directions. Either I don't listen or I just don't ask. It's complicated my life more than once.

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Following Directions part 2

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Suzanne

Suzanne takes you down to a place by the river. You can hear the boats go by, you can spend the night beside her. And you know that she's half-crazy, that's why you want to be there. And she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China. And just when you want to tell her that you have no love to give her, she gets you on her wave-length and lets the river answer that you've always been her lover.

Leonard Cohen

Rainy days

I liked rainy days as a kid. Back then we didn't have video games. We also didn't have cable (cable didn't exist back then), only channels 2 (PBS), 4(NBC), 5(ABC), 6(CBS), 7(CBS), 10(NBC), 12(ABC), 38(I FORGET) and 56(WLVI - a local Boston channel), and of course no remote also. But I would play inside in my toy room and sometimes mom and I would play board games. Play-Do was great on rainy days. I also liked to read and color in my coloring books.

Rainy days were the only days I was allowed to be in the house. If the sun was out, you were expected to be outside, no exceptions. I can recall one time I sneaked inside on a sunny day to watch TV and my parents saying: "What are you doing in here??? Get outside!"

Nobody spent time indoors if the weather wasn't bad, kids always played outside. You don't see that anymore. It's kind of sad.

Dashikis

In the late 70's, dashikis were the 'in' thing to wear following the airing of Roots. African Americans wore them to celebrate their heritage, and white people wore them just because they were very groovy shirts. I never had one, mind you, nor did any of my family. Although I may purchase one through ebay soon, if only I knew if I could pull this look off or not.......

Rows and floes of angel hair, and ice cream castles in the air, and feather canyons ev’rywhere, I’ve looked at clouds that way. But now they only block the sun, they rain and snow on ev’ryone. So many things I would have done but clouds got in my way.

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down, and still somehow it’s cloud illusions I recall. I really don’t know clouds at all.

Joni Mitchell

Kliban's Cats

The art of B. Kliban really took off in the mid-7o's. I have no idea what the B. stands for. I don't know his full name (I definitely need to do more research, but wanted to post him while I was thinking of it). I think he's still creating today.

The cat with red sneakers was a popular image. You would see it on coffee mugs and tee-shirts. I think the top picture of the cat in sneakers is a 70's image, while the 3 pictures below are more recent.

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Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day record

I had this circa '73/'74. I listened to it so much I practically wore it out. It also came with an illustrated book to follow with the record. I think it's still up in mom's attic somewhere, but several of the story book pages are missing, so most of the story is a blank. I also had Snow-White and Little Black Sambo but those 2 didn't come with an illustrated book to follow along with. I liked the Sambo story because I liked butter and in the end the tigers turned into butter (who writes these things, anyway??!!??).

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