"Just Fill In the Blanks"

       One of the least likely to be successful telemarketing campaigns: 

       A phone call came.  There was no sound, no voice              
                    for a number of seconds


       and then, "Just fill in the blanks."


       And that's all that was said.

"Waldorf Salad for Taurus Study"

       This title appeared among the voice memos on my iPhone, dated 10/2/18.  In looking back recently, I asked myself, "What the heck was this?"

       Oh.

       Periodically, I bring part of the repast we provide ourselves at Temple on noon Wednesdays.  I recorded the note while eating a Waldorf Salad at a restaurant, listed the ingredients I saw before me so I could put them together for such a salad.

       iPhone made no mistake as I dictated the title of the memo orally.  The pronunciation would have been no different from what I uttered, but what Apple chose to hear was quite different from what I was saying:  "Torah Study."

       "Taurus" being from Greek through Latin:  "Bull"

Who Says Birds Don't Have Home Addresses?

 I would have knocked, but I was afraid it might frighten them.

And who am I to upset a household?


But I heard them.





      

A Selfish Post?

 

 I told my daughter Elizabeth, who is standing by the poetry peddler bicycle (Elizabeth started and leads the community organization Urban Poetry Pollinators in Tucson) that the bottle, her hand, and the decorated red flag on the poetry mailbox make her look like a sylph.  In fact, you could call the photo a sylphie.

Coal Train and Coltrane, 2 Different Tracks

       In November, 2017, there was news about Canada wanting to carry coal they'd dug at home over U.S. soil to reach a port on our West Coast to ship to China.  This was the fastest and shortest route for them.  But it was encouraging fossil fuels, and environmentalists were disputing the use of such "coal trains."

       My head of a sudden knew that I had both coal train and Coltrane rattling around in there. Pronounce them exactly alike, and everyone would know exactly what or who you meant in either case!  But one was a much honored jazz saxophonist, and the other was . . . a coal train!

       Our tongues and minds don't blanch in the least at such tasks--they're proud multi-service organizations.


        

Sign-age

       Rough Roads 
                  Loose Gravel 
                            Uneven Lanes


 --three signs right next to each other at the side of the road in such a way as to not be applicable to anything within sight.

       But they certainly seemed to apply to my life, at times.

I MUSICI

       I pulled up to a red light behind a car with a license plate that caught my eye.  It said IMUSICI.  

       A vanity license plate that honored the great Italian classical music ensemble "I MUSICI" [eee-MOOZ-ih-chee]?  I've heard their wonderful recorded performances, notably Italian works such as Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons."

       The car ahead was worn, but the musical taste--excellent.  I fumbled for my cell to take a photo, but the light was changing; one last look instead to assure myself of what I saw.

        I realized then those first and last letters were really the number 1, "No. 1 music No. 1."  I was deflated, and I wasn't sure what the meaning was for the driver.

       But oh, well, good to see the great things honored even if only a passing figment!
       

A.O.Sea?

        Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of the newly elected Members of the House in Congress and is having an impact with her probing questions in committee and her "Green New Deal" proposal.   She's even already known by her initials only, A.O.C., maybe partly because her full name has a lot of letters and syllables to cover. 

      A side-light moment on my car radio--I heard it dialing by, I think, a comedy oriented talk show--referred to her as "A. O. C. of Cortez," which I thought was a funny play on those initials:  the "Sea of Cortez."  But where is that again on the map??  Oh, just about directly south of me down Mexico way;  I'd actually slept in soft sand and collected sand dollars there; it's also called the Gulf of California.

  

Excess Orange Juice Admonishment

       After grudgingly pouring Connie a refill for her already consumed 16 ounce glass of morning orange juice, I was moved to remark:

         "You've had enough orange juice for a ship-load of sailors
                               circumnavigating the globe!"