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The Eye

If you stare at it long enough....

School Music

Some songs we sang they made us sing in music class when I was in school:

 Gaudeamus Igitur

Turkey in the Straw

On a Wonderful Day Like Today

The Erie Canal

The Instrument Song

Hernando's Hideaway 

On a Clear Day

Loch Lomond

Unfortunately, I can't come up with a video for this next one. I long ago decided that if I ever was in the audience of the Tonight Show and had the opportunity to play "Stump the Band," this is the song I'd sing:

My father slew a kangaroo,
He gave me the gristly part to chew,
Now wasn't that an awful thing to do,
To give me to chew, the gristly part of a kangaroo?

What songs do you remember singing in school?

The Town Where I Grew Up...

...has a very interesting history.

Musical Interlude

Trek Operetta

A Yiddishe Musical Interlude....

Listen to “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” by the Barry Sisters 
 

The Barry Sisters

Just Because

Not a picture of Jack

How can a year have passed by so quickly? It is once again time for the annual Link to Jack Day.  With no further ado:

LINK

Studying Moles

 

A convenient standard quantity is the mole - - the amount of the substance equal in grams to the sum of the atomic weights. (The word mole is a contraction of molecular weight.) one mole of a substance is equal to 6.0221415 × 10²³ atoms or molecules of the substance (depending on what it is), and finally, the number 6.0221415 × 10²³ is known as Avogadro’s number. 

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The basic SI unit of amount of substance: the amount that contains as many elementary entities as there are atoms in 0.012 kilogram of carbon-12 [German Mol, short for Molekül molecule]

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A small congenital growth on the human skin, usually slightly raised and dark and sometimes hairy, especially a pigmented nevus.

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Any of various small insectivorous mammals of the family Talpidae, usually living underground and having thickset bodies with light brown to dark gray silky fur, rudimentary eyes, tough muzzles, and strong forefeet for burrowing.

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A spy who operates from within an organization, especially a double agent operating against his or her own government from within its intelligence establishment.

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Any of various spicy sauces of Mexican origin, usually having a base of onion, chilies, nuts or seeds, and unsweetened chocolate and served with meat or poultry.

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Nyuck, Nyuck, Nyuck

Why I Love America

Because as a Jewish-American, it saved the lives of my great grandparents and grandparents who were born in Europe and who would have more than likely perished if they did not come here prior to WW2.  They knew they'd be giving their children and their children's children and all their descendents a better life.

Because I feel safe here.

Because of the US Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and National Guard.

Because opportunities exist that allow us to choose to do whatever we want to do with our lives.

Because of freedom of expression.

Because we can come and go as we please.

Because Americans believe in themselves and their capabilities.

Because America cares about the world, even as we sometimes find it necessary to put our own needs first. 

Because America is a melting pot of so many different cultures, mixing together the best of what the world has to offer and coming up with something distinctly new and different and so utterly...American.

Because America has made so many contributions to the world in terms of science, technology, medicine, agriculture, literature, and commerce.

Because of American inventions such as the steam engine, cars, assembly lines, airplanes, the telephone, antibiotics, vaccines,  and TV.

Because of its great roads, highways, transportation.

Because we were first to reach the moon.

Because we make great music, movies and pop culture.

Because of cowboys and the wild west.

Because of Mt. Rushmore, The Great Lakes, Yellowstone National Park, and the Grand Canyon.

Because America is physically beautiful and contains such a variety of landscapes.

Because New York is a city that never sleeps and has the best pastrami on rye with deli mustard in existence and Broadway and Radio City Music Hall and my childhood memories and the bravest fire department in the world, Chicago is so gorgeous at night, San Francisco is so gorgeous in the day, everyone talks funny in Boston and they once had a memorable tea party, Philly Cheesesteak and the Liberty Bell, San Diego's water, sailboats, parks, kites, terrific Mexican food and great weather, LA is Hollywoodland, Seattle's Pike's Market and Mt. Rainier, Phoenix has turquoise, silver and American Indian flavor, Washington DC has the White House, the Smithsonian museums, the Lincon and Jefferson Memorials, and history.

Because of Hawaii and Alaska - two extremes of beauty and climate.

Because if you drive down the GW Memorial Parkway on a sunny day, you can see speedboats and sailboats on the Potomac River, planes landing and taking off from National Airport, the Georgetown and Arlington skylines, the Kennedy Center, the Washington Monument, the Iwo Jima Memorial and more.

Because Americans are warm hearted and friendly.

Because of Oreo cookies, Hershey bars, hot chocolate with marshmallows, hamburgers, fast food, macaroni and cheese, meat loaf, Ritz crackers, Cheerios, Corn Flakes, Thanksgiving turkey, cranberry sauce, corn bread stuffing, pumpkin pie, clam chowder, apple pie, hot dogs, cup cakes, Campbells soup, chocolate chip cookies, Sarah lee, ice cream sundaes, pancakes, pizza, coke, s'mores, General Tso's chicken, sandwiches, steak and baked potato, barbecue, cole slaw, fried chicken, potato salad, TV dinners, potato chips, Doritos, salad bars, granola, health food and Pop Tarts.

Because Americans are smart and sophisticated, yet down-to-earth.

Because there's never been a King or Queen of America except for maybe Elvis and Richard Simmons.

Because of sneakers, sweatshirts and blue jeans.

Because of baseball and football.

Because of grocery stores, Walmart, Target, Sears, Macys, Bloomingdales, FAO Schwartz, Toys R Us, Best Buy, Circuit City, Nordstroms, Lord and Taylor, Filenes, Marshalls, Borders, Barnes and Nobles, shopping malls and strip malls.

Because American free market Capitalism has been responsible for raising the level of economic wellbeing of more people than any other system in history.

Because of movie theaters and drive-in movies.

Because America is a place of hope and dreams.

Because America is a place of justice and mercy.

Because America is a place of lively debate and exchange of ideas.

Because America is tolerant and accepting of differences.

Because of Eleanor Roosevelt, FDR, Albert Einstein, John Glenn, Abraham Lincoln, JFK, Emma Lazarus, Martin Luther King, Clara Barton, Florence Nightingale, Ronald Reagan, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Betsy Ross, John Adams, Helen Keller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Harry Truman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Rosa Parks, Edgar Allen Poe, Buffalo Bill, Harry Houdini, Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers, Teddy Roosevelt, Alexander Graham Bell, Grandma Moses, George Washington Carver, Henry David Thoreau, Norman Rockwell, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Joe Louis, Frank Sinatra, George Gershwin, the Marx Brothers, George M. Cohan, Cole Porter, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Will Rogers, Irving Berlin, Babe Ruth, Horatio Alger, Patrick Henry, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Elvis Presley, Bob Hope, Ed Sullivan, Jerry Lewis, Walt Disney, Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Johnny Carson, the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, David Letterman, Jerry Seinfeld, Aaron Copeland, Dick Cavett, John Wayne, Cary Grant, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Dr. Suess, Steven Spielberg, John Williams, Margaret Mitchell, John Joseph Pershing, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, JD Salinger, Saul Bellow, Robert Frost, John Smith, Pocahontas, Jonas Salk, Arthur Godfrey, Liberace, George C. Marshall, George S. Patton, Walt Whitman, Mohammed Ali, Gary Cooper, Milton Berle, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Edith Wharton, Amelia Earhart, Lewis and Clark, Andrew Carnegie, Woody Allen, George Lucas, CSNY, Woody Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie, Bob Dylan, ok - ok - Bruce Springsteen, Earl Warren, Thurgood Marshall, Sally Ride, Robert Fulton, Eli Whitney, Samuel Morse, Robert Goddard, Bea Arthur, Carol O'Connor, Mary Tyler Moore, Dick Van Dyke, The Supremes, Pearl Buck, Eugene O'Neil, Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong, Linus Pauling, Henry Kissinger, Arthur Ashe, Billy Jean King, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Tiny Tim, Chaim Solomon, Abraham Loewen and Ю僱êrvØ¡.

Have I missed anything?

Vacation From Reality

Keep in Mind

  

She has teeth and can bite. 

Today's History Lesson

Just Because

New Olympic Sport?

Running in inappropriate shoes (includes video)

By the Way

The eye of the day is mine.

A Cool Recipe

Western Spaghetti

A Story With Every Word Beginning With "W"

Published sometime in the 19th century by an unknown author:

“Warm weather, Walter! Welcome warm weather! We were wishing winter would wane, weren’t we?” “We were well wearied with waiting,” whispered Waiter wearily. Wan, white, woe-begone was Walter; wayward, wilful, worn with weakness, wasted, waxing weaker whenever winter’s wild, withering winds were wailing. Wholly without waywardness was Winifred, Walter’s wise, womanly watcher, who, with winsome, wooing way, was well-beloved.

“We won’t wait, Walter; while weather’s warm we’ll wander where woodlands wave, won’t we?”

Walter’s wanton wretchedness wholly waned. “Why, Winnie, we’ll walk where we went when we were with Willie; we’ll weave wildflower wreaths, watch woodmen working; woodlice, worms wriggling; windmills whirling; watermills wheeling; we will win wild whortleberries, witness wheat winnowed.”

Wisbeach woods were wild with wildflowers; warm, westerly winds whispered where willows were waving; wood-pigeons, wrens, woodpeckers were warbling wild woodnotes. Where Wisbeach water-mill’s waters, which were wholly waveless, widened, were waterlilies, waxen white. Winifred wove wreaths with woodbine, whitehorn, wallflowers; whilst Walter whittled wooden wedges with willow wands.

Wholly without warning, wild wet winds woke within Wisbeach woods, whistling where Winifred wandered with Walter; weeping willows were wailing weirdly; waging war with wind-tossed waters. Winifred’s wary watchfulness waked.

Wemainder

Where the Sun Doesn't Shine

An open thread for people to discuss anything related to their colonoscopies.

(I realize that with this post, I relinquish all hope of presenting this as a serious blog.)

Lost Prada Glasses - Brooklyn, NY

An experiment in internet chivalry.

From the Granddaughter of Immigrants, With Love

Lionel Richie on Helium