bierkergaard

"I have decided to start groaning every time I have to move my body a little bit," for those who have old eyes like me. Comic from the New Yorker, the wittiest compendium of comics in the world. The N.Y. articles will slay you with their depth and length....pondering and pounding...the comics however are pithy and witty. A refreshing breeze of funny than a full force gale of a storm of words. I would love to draw a comic but I can't draw. Not a good start. Lina commented the other day that I need a larger car for my 6'8" frame than a Honda Civic. It is not that I don't fit in the car. I do, like a glove. It is just getting the glove on and off. Accompanying my gymnastics and gyrations, I groan. I actually groan and groan a lot everywhere. The friction of old age. As I write, my knee aches, my neck has a crick in it. My busted pinky on my right hand, smashed on my older brother's skull over 30 years ago, curls still in traumatic damage. The right si...

Davy Jones came to fame playing the "Artful Dodger" in the musical Oliver on Broadway in 1963. Then, he became the "Paul McCartney" figure of the Monkees, a band created to tried to ride the crest of Beatlemania by getting other surfers on that wave. Not sure the surfing analogy works, maybe better with the Beach Boys genre groups. Like Jan and Dean... Quite interesting that Davy Jones was on the Ed Sullivan Show the same night the Beatles were. The Monkees' music was catchy. Basically Pop tunes with a certain sweetness. For some reason Archie, Jughead, Veronica, and Betty, come to mind. The high school world of the 1950's. I actually saw Davy Jones in person. It was at an Altoona, Pennsylvania, restaurant/bar several years ago. Davy was quietly sitting with some friends and the guy I had befriended--a man who worked for the Olive Garden as a trainer--kept shouting intermittently "Davy!" It was embarrassing and Davy would look over and nod. ...

Photo from here: http://www.virtourist.com/europe/malta/17.htm I am on Day 4 of my Lenten Fast from food between lunch and dinner. Since I have depleted the various sources of nuts through the most effective and efficient means I know--eating them--I have less temptation around. With my wife working for a candy company, not sure we can do the same with the various chocolate in the house. We have an endless supply. Maybe I need one of those automatic cat food dispensers that distributes a set amount of candy into my bowl. I have seen more actual fats cats in the last couple of years needing such a contraption. I wonder if Michelle Obama is concerned. Everyone and everything is fat in the USA. Prosperity kills. I figured giving up the snacking between meals would cut out a lot of calories as well as reminding me of where provisions come from. Continuous snacking becomes auto-pilot like with no reflection  just ingestion. Stopping consumption between  meals allows grati...

Taylor Swift is a remarkably talented musical prodigy. Be all appearances she is also humble and approachable. Not a Diva. Her new song Mean , with her playing the banjo, is a catchy pop song. Moreover, the message of defending those on the outs--particularly youth--is sweet and strong. That song give kids one thing they need more than anything...hope. She handled that Kanye West public dis' at the MTV Music Awards about as gracefully in real time as imaginable. Talk about a bully.   But, believe it or not, the song has a dark side and it is not just the negative antagonists. The lyrics themselves have an underlying message of some people just won't change. And that is true. Yet, only God knows if people will. Unless Taylor is omniscient, some things are better left up to God to project upon. I know that there are probably scores of Christian parents who have let this song be downloaded onto their childrens' mobile listening device thinking, "A great song with a g...