Mostly about my backyard chickens. (Boring, I know), but there are a lot of us out here. Mine are only kept as pampered pets. I could eat a neighbor's chicken, but not MINE. There may be a comment on current events only if I get riled up enough. And there will always be a cartoon or a joke to cheer us. I promise to try my very best to respond to comments. Now I have to figure out how this blogger thingy works....
Sisters Rosella, Ersi, and Mary Arvizu believed they could be the next Supremes — even before there were Supremes. They called themselves The Sisters. Mark Guerrero, son of Chicano music legend Lalo Guerrero, tells the story:
In the mid-1960s in East L.A., The Sisters were the
Eastside’s answer to Motown’s Supremes. Like The Supremes, they were
three well-dressed, classy, female vocalists who could sing extremely
well. The Sisters were actually formed several months before The
Supremes burst on the national scene. However, according to Ersi and
Rosella, although they liked and were influenced by The Supremes, they
were more influenced by other female vocal groups such as Martha &
the Vandelas and The Ronettes. The Sisters recorded three singles in
1965 for Bob Keane’s DelFi Records and were a fixture on the East L.A.
music circuit of the era. Ersi went on to sing with El Chicano on their
second album, “Revolution,” where she provided the lead vocal to their
classic recording of “Sabor a Mi.”
Japan
is a country well known for its fast and modern electric trains,
especially the Shinkansen, the world's first high-speed railway. But
there are a few lines with regular steam operations. The JNR (Japanese
National Railways) have given up steam operations in December 1975, and
from then SL (also the Japanese abbrevation for Steam Locomotive) have
been running on the Oigawa Railway. In the late 1980s, there was a boom
with several more SL coming into service. But although steam trains are
very popular among railfans in Japan, the sale from tickets alone is not
enough to cover their costs, and so [2C2] C 62 3 in Hokkaido was not
overhauled in 1995, now standing as a static display at Naebo Works in
Sapporo. The seven main routes with regular steam operations are all
normal railways (no museum railways with steam only as in Europe and
America), and they have added the SL to generate extra traffic along
their normally quite rural - although sometimes electrified - lines. Two
museums have small railways inside their premises, Meiji-Mura and
Umekoji, which are described below. All these lines have a gauge of 1067
mm (3'6"). Static SL can be seen quite often all over the country. There
are also very many small railways with narrow gauge (762 mm or less) in
Japan with steam locomotives, mostly operating as a circle line in
theme parks. One of them is the Narita Yume Bokujo Railway. More about
these railways below. Reservations: All trains listed here only have
reserved seats. Reservations can be made at JR travel centers or ticket
windows (midori no madoguchi) throughout the country (for Chichibu and
Mooka: at JR East only). Normally reservations can be made one month
before and I strongly recommend to reserve well in advance. Days of
operations: Only the Oigawa has a daily steam train. The other lines are
running normally at weekends and on public holidays between the middle
of March and the end of October or even November; Mooka is running
throughout the year. Many lines run more often or even daily during
Golden Week (29 April to 5 May) and the summer holiday season. If I know
the days of operation, I have given them here; however if there are no
dates given for one month, then it does not necessarly mean that there
are no steam trains running in that period. Older dates are not deleted
to show the pattern of operation.
Thank you for all your help! Lots of good sites to visit that I didn't even know existed!
Finally got the camera to download pictures to the laptop. BUT I still have to figure out how to get them to post on the blog - I'll work on that that this weekend. Will get to read all your blogs too and will reply to your comments on mine and read my mail. Sorry it's taking me so long to do everything. It's hard to get back into the swing of things again...... I'm a-trying!
My Toshiba laptop died, Kerplunk. A goner. Kind Hubby took me to the store to buy a new one. The old one ran on Windows 8 - the new HP is a Windows 10. It's horrible. Nothing is where it should be and there is too much useless, unwanted garbage on it. And I cannot download pics from my camera!
It's going to take me a while to figure it out....
But most important - I have lost ALL your blog titles I had kept them in a folder with names like, John, BW, CW, Barb, Rev Paul, Viki, Brig, Gorges, etc- like that and I have no idea where to find them under your real blog titles. Can you PLEASE send them to me so I can start commenting on them again. Please!!!!
I know I haven't been on much, but I do miss all of you and blogging. It's been a long road after the stroke to find out the right amount of meds that work for me. A lot of trial and error and lots of trips to the doctors and pharmacy. Poor Hubby! I think it's finally straightened out now and I can start getting back on my feet. 'Hope to be back to normal (for me, anyway) by next week.
Jimmy Boyd was born on January 9, 1939 in McComb, Mississippi, USA. He was an actor, known for Inherit the Wind (1960), Bachelor Father (1957) and Broadside (1964). He was married to Anne Forrey and Yvonne Craig. He died on March 7, 2009 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
His recording of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" was #1 on the
Billboard pop music chart for 2 weeks (27 December 1952 - 3 January
1953).
Recorded the Christmas novelty hit "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa
Claus" in 1952 when he was 13. Three weeks after the Yuletide
kiss-and-tell was released, the song was #1 on the Billboard charts. It
sold 2 million records in less than 10 weeks. Recorded at the urging of
Columbia record executive Mitch Miller,
the tune made "something of an overnight national musical figure" of
the vocalist, a "freckle-patch" who lived in Van Nuys, CA, Time magazine
reported in 1952. Even Boyd himself was surprised by the song's
success. "I like it personally," he told Time, "but I didn't think
anyone would buy it."
From a big musical family - Boyd's grandfather was known in Mississippi as Fiddler Bill.
He was born to a struggling farm family in the Depression. His family eventually moved to California.
His father started giving him guitar and harmonica lessons when he
was 4. A few years later, Jimmy was performing at barn dances.
A country-western band-leader, Texas Jim Lewis,
heard Jimmy sing and hired him for his Saturday-night radio show. Jimmy
won a radio talent show in Los Angeles and got the contract to record
"I Saw Mommy...".
He was an avid tennis player and enjoyed sailing. For years he lived in Marina del Rey on a sailboat he named "Unplugged".
He met first wife, actress Yvonne Craig, while making the Bing Crosby film High Time (1960). The marriage lasted only two years.
A fair-haired child actor who turned into an awkward,
freckle-faced young suitor on film and TV, often in goofy, bucolic
roles.
After winning a TV talent contest, Boyd appeared as a singer on
"The Frank Sinatra Show" and was signed to a recording contract with
Columbia. His first recording success was the country song "(The Angels
Are Lighting) God's Little Candles". He also appeared on Ed Sullivan's variety show several times.
Boyd's recording career, which lasted until 1967, included the song hits "Dennis the Menace," sung with Rosemary Clooney, and several duets with Frankie Laine, including "The Little Boy and the Old Man," "Poor Little Piggy Bank" and "Tell Me a Story".
Drafted into the Army in the early 1960's. He performed in a couple of USO shows in Vietnam.
Toured the U.S. in his own music and comedy show.
Born in a shack in McComb, Mississippi to Leslie and Winnie Boyd.
His father, Leslie, was a carpenter. His grandfather, a musician named
"Fiddler Bill," sired 21 children.
First performed as a singer at age 7 at a country-western dance with the Texas Jim Lewis troupe. The young boy went on to appear with Lewis' band on radio broadcasts.
Hubby and I get up very early every day. By 4 o'clock, we hadn't heard Charlie calling for his breakfast and that is very unusual. Turned the deck light on and could not believe what the temperature was:
-5 degrees!!!!!!
No weather statement said it was going to be that cold. The coop had plenty of hay packed in it, but no warm light. I was so worried about Charlie because the girls have been pulling his neck feathers out again. Wonderful hubby bundled up, went out to the barn in the dark and turned on the light for the coop. When Hubby looked in the window, Charlie and the girls were under the light trying to get warm already.
When it was time for their breakfast, I gave them an extra helping of warm oatmeal with raisins along with their regular feed. They ate all of it, too! None of them had any frostbite, thank goodness!
It warmed up to a whopping 19 in the afternoon. Should start to get warmer today.
I don't like to wear a hat, so this is what keeps me warm:
Brrrrr! This is how cold it was when I let the gang out yesterday morning:
Then it started to snow:
Snow squalls came through most of the morning and early afternoon:
The temp dropped some more:
It was just too cold - I had to put a 100 bulb in the coop to keep the chill off:
Wilma and Betty didn't know what to make of it. Charlie and Maude just turned around and faced the back wall.
They are all buttoned up for the night!
Made soup today - it was a good day for it!
At 8 PM (Thursday night) the temp is 5 degrees above zero. The wind in blowing hard and I don't even want to know what the wind chill is.'Hope the cold snap doesn't last too long.....
At the Lyon Universal Exhibition in 1894, the Michelin
brothers noticed an evocatively-shaped pile of tyres on their stand.
Édouard said to André, “Look, with arms it would make a man.” André
Michelin would remember this moment a few years later.
In 1898, when looking at an advertising sketch for a brasserie drawn by O’Galop,
André Michelin had an idea: why not replace the bearded giant raising
his beer mug with a man made of a pile of tyres and holding a cup filled
with nails and broken glass. The latin quotation from Horace, “Nunc est Bibendum” (now it is time to drink) declared by the character was also reused by Michelin.
O’Galop’s Michelin poster, 1898
“Cheers, the Michelin tyre drinks up obstacles!” This slogan had been
launched by André Michelin a few years previously to convince engineers
of the benefits of tyres.
An animated cartoon was made in the 1930s to show the Birth of Bibendum
No sooner was the Michelin Man born when he began to play a major
role for the company: it was he who presented the products and advised
and assisted motorists, becoming the brand’s worldwide ambassador.
In 1905, Michelin opened a sales office in London. The Michelin Man
changed into a knight to conquer this new territory, wearing a helmet
and carrying a shield. For his coat of arms, O’Galop drew his
accoutrements: the spectacles, the cup, a cigar, and the cross-section
of a tyre with a nail incapable of puncturing it. In the caption, a line
from Tennyson is adapted to promote his tyres, “My strength is as the strength of ten, because my rubber is pure.”
As early as 1907 the Michelin Man crossed the Atlantic and set up a
factory in Milltown, New Jersey. The advertising became more
educational: the Michelin Man was depicted as a giant accompanying and
advising travelers by explaining the advantages of his products.
From 1907 to 1915, the Agenzia dei Italia Pneumatici Michelin
published a monthly review sent to its customers by post. It copied the
fun but educational format of the “Michelin Mondays” in France.
Particular care was taken with the cover illustrations, which naturally
involved the Michelin Man. The Italians turned the character into even
more of a hero than he was in France. On this cover the Michelin Man is a
sort of diplomat idolized by women.
Michelin used a large number of artists who each brought their own
interpretation to the character. His shape was guided by the narrow
silhouette of the tyres, while his appearance and attitude reflected the
customer of the time, smoking a cigar and wearing spectacles, here in
1914.
Michelin, by René Vincent, 1914
In North Africa in 1922, Roger Broders showed the company’s mascot dressed as a Bedouin. Adopting local costume, the Michelin Man slipped on babouches and a djellaba.
From the 1930s onwards, Michelin made increasingly less use of
outside artists. As a result, images of the Michelin Man became more
standardized, although there were country-specific variants. Adapting to
the evolution of tyres, his rings became thicker and the character
dropped his wealthy image to move closer to a broader customer base.
The character’s sportive nature is often symbolized through this famous attitude of the racing Michelin Man.
In Germany, as in the Nordic countries, the Michelin Man dons a hat, boots and a scarf when the weather gets cold in winter.
In Japan, he was seen as a ladies’ man with his sumo-like proportions.
In 1998 his centenary was an opportunity for the company to give him a
new look: he appeared slimmer and more dynamic in the company’s brand
block.
In 2009, Michelin launched a $20M ad campaign handled by TBWA.
Today, 100+ years after his birth, Bibendum stills appears all over the world.
