Saturday, December 31, 2016

At the Hop

The Sisters!




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.”





Friday, December 30, 2016

Friday Night Steam

We're off to Japan tonight!
 Sit back and enjoy some amazing scenery!








Source: Bangla Natok HD


Today's funny :o)






:o)




Thank you!



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!







:o)

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

I need your help!!!

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.

Thank you, dear readers!

Chickenmom  xoxox

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Merry Christmas!





Wishing all my fellow bloggers and loyal readers peace and love on this beautiful Christmas day.
 May you feel the joy in your home that you always bring to me!

Merry Christmas!


Chickenmom, Hubby, Charlie, Maude, Wilma and Betty


:o)




Saturday, December 24, 2016

As you snuggle down for the night......


                                       ..... it just wouldn't be Christmas without this classic from our childhood!



Enjoy!





At the Hop!

Jimmy Boyd!



Us old-timers sure do remember this one!!



Biography


Date of Birth 9 January 1939McComb, Mississippi, USA
Date of Death 7 March 2009Santa Monica, California, USA  (cancer)

Mini Bio (1)

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.


Spouse (2)

Anne Forrey (16 February 1980 - 1982) (divorced) (1 child)
Yvonne Craig (15 August 1960 - 1962) (divorced)

Trivia (17)

A classmate, Molly Bee, who also recorded the hit song "I saw Mommie Kissing Santa Claus," died on 7 February 2009.
Son with Anne Forrey, Devon Boyd.
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.
From 1958 to 1961, he portrayed the recurring role of Howard, Noreen Corcoran's goofy-voiced high school boyfriend on Bachelor Father (1957). He also played the teenage nephew of Betty White on Date with the Angels (1957).



:o)





Friday, December 23, 2016

Friday Night Steam

This is how they get 'em back on track!



Lots and lots of hard work!

:o)

Today's funny :o)








Quiet in Coopville....


A pretty sunrise:




 Went up to 50 degrees yesterday... but it didn't last :o(



 He was pecking on the glass looking for treats!




 The girls pulled a lot of his neck feathers out again:


 Their decorations - they thought it was something to eat!


 Still have plenty of snow around:


 Supposed to rain Saturday - it will wash away and bring MUD!


:o)





Wednesday, December 21, 2016

O, Christmas tree....

Different ones, for sure!








 But this is ALWAYS the best one:
 


:o)

Today's funny :o)

H/T to Donna!  :o)






:o)





Damn - it was COLD!!!!!!

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:


:o)



Monday, December 19, 2016

And you always thought it was elves...



.... that made all those toys....





:o)







Today's funny :o)







:o)







Wacky, wacky weather!

Saturday was like a blizzard:



 Charlie, out in the snow, going frantic looking for his girls (they were in the poopie bin)





Hubby cleaning snow off the pen's roof:
 

 Sunday woke up to FOG:



 Some berry branches in the snow:



 Critter prints - went right up to and circled the pen:



 In the driveway looking up towards the coop:


 These pine needles were encrusted with ice - pic didn't come out too well, though:


 More fog:



 It just kept rolling and rolling along:





It really got thick. The geese disappeared in it:




Then it got REALLY windy and blew the fog away:




Then the power went out for about four and a half hours.
Thank gawd for generators!

:o)



Sunday, December 18, 2016

Friday, December 16, 2016

Friday Night Steam




The true story of the magnificent 4501. Grab a cuppa, sit back and enjoy!








Today's funny :o)







:o)




It's COLD!!!

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.....



Wednesday, December 14, 2016

The Michelin Man



The birth of the Michelin Man

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.

Nunc est Bibendum poster, by O'Galop 
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.”

Michelin Man Bibendum, 1905

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.

Michelin Milltown poster
Michelin Milltown poster

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 Man Bibendum, 1912

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 Man Bibendum, 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.


Michelin Man Bibendum Africa

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.

Confort Bibendum poster

The character’s sportive nature is often symbolized through this famous attitude of the racing Michelin Man.
Michelin Man running
Michelin Man patch

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.
Michelin Man Bibendum, 1998
In 2009, Michelin launched a $20M ad campaign handled by TBWA.
Today, 100+ years after his birth, Bibendum stills appears all over the world.