Category Archives: Uncategorized

John Phillip Sousa – the March King – died 90 years ago Sunday March 6th in Reading Pennsylvania.  He was 77.  His prodigious output – 134 marches, 690 total recordings in an era spanning a time when placing a needle on a wax cylinder was considered an advance (1)  – included some songs about Michigan.Continue reading “Hail Sousa! Hail Elbel?”

Is that horse dead yet? (1) Reference Flam F. Mask mandates didn’t make much difference, anyway. Washington Post February 11, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/mask-mandates-didnt-make-much-of-a-difference-anyway/2022/02/11/57760db6-8b3b-11ec-838f-0cfdf69cce3c_story.html P.S. My sweetheart sent this pic to remind me there are indeed effective anti-viral masks

When I hinted to my wife I was thinking of publishing a 5th volume of Musings devoted to food, she asked “is explodey soup in there?”.  A legendary entry in our family’s food lore, I never had occasion to blog about it.  I explained it to my English teacher Mrs. Pharriss, but not every exchangeContinue reading “explodey!”

Today was the day to make kitchen sink soup.  Everyone has a recipe, and they’re all just loose suggestions.  Whatever is laying around neglected and unused is a candidate for the pot.  That savoy cabbage I bought for the colcannon I made for Imbolc was great, but what to do with the rest of it? Continue reading “kitchen sink”

Here in Michigan, our quaint local tradition for this time of year has been “delayed”. Because of the weather! Isn’t this exercise supposed to be all about weather? It inspired me to fire off an e-mail to my Vicksburg buds. So our own (Howell’s) Woody the Woodchuck was to venture out yesterday, survey the presenceContinue reading “don’t screw with my groundhog”

My love for posters, like many of my degenerate tendencies, started in college.  Every bookstore and headshop sold them – cheap – and what a way to cover up a blank boring wall.  Each was a form of self expression, as you could announce your musical likes, political tendencies, sexual attractions, or just general coolness,Continue reading “posters”

Some readers of this blog may have picked up by now my deathless devotion to that 70s band out of Ann Arbor, Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen.  Has any band had a wilder name?  And, I submit, no band was more fun.  In my life, I’ve never had more fun than what IContinue reading “CC&hLPA!”

A movement needs some good songs. We – all of us skeptical about what our betters are telling us to do about this little virus – are starting to get some. Check out the latest, out of Canada, where they have it way worse than we do, even with the “free health care”. Matt BevnerContinue reading “songs”

My wife and I have decided the masks are forever off.  Should anyone question us on our decision, our response will be “we’re just not doing that bullshit anymore”.  Sure, there might be some situations when donning a mask is a social grace, like entering the UPS store or teaching a class, when a fightContinue reading “Off with the masks!”

You think we Yanks do a New Year’s blow out, check out what the Scots do!  They’ve been celebrating Hogmanay this time of year since Mary Queen of Scots returned from Paris in 1561 (1).  The church forbid public celebrations of Christmas, as it was seen as an appropriated pagan tradition which discounted the sanctityContinue reading “Hogmanay!”