WA2K Radio is now on the air

and from Lionel, Try, and to all our listeners:

Thanks for the time that you've given me
The memories are all in my mind
And now that we've come to the end of our rainbow
There's something I must say out loud

You're once, twice, three times a lady
And I love you
Yes you're once, twice, three times a lady
And I love you
I love you

When we are together, the moments I cherished
With every beat of my heart
To touch you, to hold you, to feel you, to need you
There's nothing to keep us apart

You're once, twice, three times a lady
And I love you
Yes you're once, twice, three times a lady
And I love you
I love you

That Lionel Richie song was "our song" when mrs edgarblythe and I were dating.

Ah, edgar. This has been synchronicity day for me. I am so glad that I played it for you and your Mrs., Texas.

How about one from Olivia, then.


In the corner of the bar there stands a jukebox
With the best of country music, old and new
You can hear your five selections for a quarter
And somebody else's songs when yours are through

I got good Kentucky whiskey on the counter
And my friends around to help me ease the pain
'Til some button-pushing cowboy plays that love song
And here I am just missing you again

Please, Mr., please, don't play B-17
It was our song, it was his song, but it's over
Please, Mr., please, if you know what I mean
I don't ever wanna hear that song again

If I had a dime for every time I held you
Though you're far away, you've been so close to me
I could swear I'd be the richest girl in Nashville
Maybe even in the state of Tennessee

But I guess I'd better get myself together
'Cause when you left, you didn't leave too much behind
Just a note that said "I'm sorry" by your picture
And a song that's weighing heavy on my mind

Please, Mr., please, don't play B-17
It was our song, it was his song, but it's over
Please, Mr., please, if you know what I mean
I don't ever wanna hear that song again


The Best of Olivia Newton-John [1998]

Laughter In The Rain
Neil Sedaka

Strolling along country roads with my baby
It starts to rain, it begins to pour
Without an umbrella we're soaked to the skin
I feel a shiver run up my spine
I feel the warmth of her hand in mine

Ooooo, I hear laughter in the rain
Walking hand in hand with the one I love
Ooooo, how I love the rainy days
And the happy way I feel inside

After a while we run under a tree
I turn to her and she kisses me
There with the beat of the rain on the leaves
Softly she breathes and I close my eyes
Sharing our love under stormy skies

Ooooo, I hear laughter in the rain
Walking hand in hand with the one I love
Ooooo, how I love the rainy days
And the happy way I feel inside
I feel the warmth of her hand in mine

I feel the warmth of her hand in mine
Ooooo, I hear laughter in the rain
Walking hand in hand with the one I love
Ooooo, how I love the rainy days
And the happy way I feel inside
Ooooh, I hear laughter in the rain
Walking hand in hand with the one I love
Ooooo, how I love the rainy days
And the happy way I feel inside

Say goodnight, Letty.

"Goodnight, Letty."

Thank you for that goodnight song, edgar. <smile>

From Letty with love.

Charles Boyer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles Boyer (August 28, 1899 - August 26, 1978) was a French actor who starred in several classic Hollywood films.

Born in Figeac, Lot, Midi-Pyrénées, France, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in European and Hollywood movies during the 1920s and 1930s. He continued to make films over the next several decades. He eventually became an american citizen.

Charles Boyer is best known for his role in the 1944 film Gaslight in which he tried to convince Ingrid Bergman's character that she was going insane. Some years earlier, it was Boyer's role in Algiers (1938) that caused many to credit him with the never-heard line "Come with me to the casbah."

In 1948 Charles Boyer was made a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor. He continued to act until a few years before his death, his last major film role being that of the High Lama in a musical version of Lost Horizon (1973).

For his contribution to the motion picture and television industries, Charles Boyer has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6300 Hollywood Blvd.

Two days after his wife, British actress Pat Paterson, died from cancer, Charles Boyer committed suicide with an overdose of Seconal. He was interred in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California, United States alongside with his wife and son Michael Charles Boyer, who had committed suicide in 1965 at the age of 21.

Roger Tory Peterson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roger Tory Peterson (August 28, 1908 - July 28, 1996), a naturalist, ornithologist, artist, and educator, is held to be one of the founding inspirations for the 20th century environmental movement. He was born in Jamestown, New York. In 1934 he published his seminal Guide to the Birds, the first modern field guide. The Guide to the Birds went through 5 editions. He edited or wrote many of the volumes in the Peterson Field Guide series on topics ranging from rocks and minerals to beetles to reptiles. He is known for the clear illustrations of his field guides and the clear delineation of relevant field marks. He also developed the Peterson Identification System.

Peterson received every major American award for natural science, ornithology, and conservation, as well as numerous honorary medals, diplomas, and citations, including the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom.

He co-wrote Wild America with James Fisher.

"In this century, no one has done more to promote an interest in living creatures than Roger Tory Peterson, the inventor of the modern field guide."

- Paul R. Ehrlich, ecologist.
Peterson died in 1996 at his home in Old Lyme, Connecticut

Donald O'Connor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Donald David Dixon Ronald O'Connor (August 28, 1925 - September 27, 2003) was a singer, dancer and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred with Francis the Talking Mule. He is still best known for his performance in the movie musical Singin' in the Rain, in which he performed the vaudeville-inspired comedy number "Make 'Em Laugh", Arthur Freed's reworking of Cole Porter's "Be a Clown" from The Pirate (1948).

O'Connor was born in Chicago, Illinois, into an Irish immigrant family of vaudeville entertainers. As a toddler, he and his sister were involved in a road accident, which resulted in her death. His father died of a heart attack only a few weeks later. Yet it was as a comedy actor and a song-and-dance man that he became famous. His boyish looks did not allow him to take a romantic lead, except when appearing with a bigger star such as Ethel Merman (in Call Me Madam) or Bing Crosby (with whom he appeared in his first film at the age of eleven). However, he did have a separate Hollywood career in the late 1930s, in which he played such incongruous roles as Beau Geste. During World War II, he was re-invented as a star of musical films.

When the heyday of the film musical was over, O'Connor returned to the stage, and had a short-lived television series during the late 1960s. After overcoming a drinking problem in the 1970s, he continued to make film and television appearances into the 1990s. O'Connor was still making public appearances well into 2003. One of the last known on camera interviews with Donald O'Connor was arranged by friend David Ruprecht and conducted by Steven F. Zambo. A small portion of this interview can be seen in the 2005 PBS special The Pioneers of Primetime.

O'Connor died from congestive heart failure at the age of 78. Among his last words, he is reported to have expressed thanks for the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement which he expected to win at some future date. He left behind his wife, Gloria, and four children.

Donald O'Connor is buried in the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Ben Gazzara
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ben Gazzara (born Biagio Anthony Gazzara on August 28, 1930, in New York City) is an American actor in television and motion pictures.

Born to Italian immigrants, Antonio Gazzara and Angela Consumano, Gazzara grew up on New York's tough Lower East Side. He found relief from his bleak surroundings by joining a theater company at a very young age. Years later, he said that the discovery of his love for acting saved him from a life of crime during his teenage years. Despite his obvious talent, he went to City College of New York to study electrical engineering. After two years, he gave it up, and after a short intermission joined the Actor's Studio.

In the 1950s, he starred in various Broadway productions, most notably Tennessee Williams' Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, directed by Elia Kazan. However, he lost out on the film role to Paul Newman. As a young actor, Gazzara joined other Actors Studio members in the 1957 film, The Strange One.

He has had a long and varied acting career, with spells as an accomplished director too (TV mostly). His most popular acting roles include Anatomy of a Murder (1959), A Rage to Live (1965), The Bridge at Remagen (1969), Capone (1975), Voyage of the Damned (1976), and High Velocity (1977). He also starred in a couple of television series, beginning with Arrest and Trial, which ran from 1963 until 1964 on ABC, and the more successful series Run for Your Life from 1965 to 1968 on NBC.

His most formidable appearances, however, were characters he created for his friend John Cassavetes in the 1970s. They collaborated for the first time on Cassavetes' film Husbands (1970) where he appeared alongside Peter Falk and Cassavetes himself. The collaboration of the two men achieved its peak in The Killing of a Chinese Bookie in which Gazzara took the leading role of the hapless strip joint owner, Cosmo Vitelli. In order to pay off a gambling debt to the mob, Vitelli agrees to kill a Chinese unknown to him. Against all odds, he succeeds in killing the man, but he gets severely wounded during his flight. But the gangsters turn against him, as they had not expected him to survive the assassination and Vitelli is forced to kill these men too. The plot itself hardly describes the true meaning of the movie, as John Cassavetes did everything to keep it from turning into an ordinary genre flick. Gazzara delivered a life-like portrayal of a simple man who found his happiness in running a third-rate strip bar, and who gets caught in something that is much too big for him. Sometimes he does not even seem to understand the whole meaning of it. The little emotional involvement that Gazzara's character shows during the events is played with stunning accuracy, with Gazzara's performance and Cassavetes' direction complementing each other. A year later Gazzara starred in yet another Cassavetes-directed movie, Opening Night, playing the role of stage director Manny Victor who struggles with the mentally unstable star of his show, played by Cassavetes' wife Gena Rowlands.

In the 1980s, he could be seen in a variety of different movies, such as They All Laughed (directed by Peter Bogdanovich) or Quicker Than the Eye (1989). He also appeared in the critically acclaimed AIDS-themed TV movie An Early Frost (1985), which also starred Gena Rowlands.

In the 1990's, he appeared in 38 films, among these many TV productions. In Hollywood movies he mostly appeared as a supporting actor, but worked with several renowned directors, such as the Coen Brothers (The Big Lebowski), Spike Lee (Summer of Sam), and John McTiernan (The Thomas Crown Affair).

Now in his seventies, Gazzara is still acting. In 2003, he appeared in the film Dogville, directed by Danish enfant terrible Lars von Trier, alongside Nicole Kidman.

Geez, Bob. That Tolstoy bio was another "War and Peace"! (I didn't read that whole thing, either.)

Daniel Stern
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Date of birth: August 28, 1957
Birth location: Bethseda, Maryland, USA
Notable role(s): Marvin Murchins in Home Alone 1, Home Alone 2
Phil Burquist in City Slickers, City Slickers II.

Daniel Stern (born August 28, 1957, in Bethesda, Maryland), is an American television and film actor.

Born in Bethesda, Maryland, Stern applied for a job as a lighting engineer for a Shakespeare Festival in Washington, D.C., but was hired as a walk-on. After taking acting lessons, Stern began his acting career on and off Broadway. In 1979, he made his movie debut as Cyril in Breaking Away. The following year he played a student who raised objections during Jill Clayburgh's proof of the snake lemma in the film It is My Turn. His breakthrough role as an actor came in Barry Levinson's Diner, another film role he is remembered for is the 1983 action film Blue Thunder as J.A.F.O., also known as Officer Richard Lymangood. He was the original choice to play Biff Tannen in the 1985 film, Back to the Future, but he turned the role down.

However, Stern is often more remembered for playing bumbling but lovable idiots, such as Phil from the City Slickers movies and Marv from the first two Home Alone movies. Many consider his role as Marv to a be break through for his career. He is also noted for providing the voice of the narrator on the TV series The Wonder Years, and the eponymous title character of the animated series of Scott Adams' comic strip, Dilbert.

Stern has also tried his hand at directing through several episodes of The Wonder Years and the movie Rookie of the Year.

MEN

Men Are Just Happier People-What do you expect from such simple creatures? Your last name stays put. The garage is all yours. Wedding plans take care of themselves. Chocolate is just another snack. You can be President. You can never be pregnant. You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. You can wear NO shirt to a water park. Car mechanics tell you the truth. The world is your urinal. You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky. You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt. Same work, more pay. Wrinkles add character. Wedding dress $5000. Tux rental-$100. People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them. The occasional well-rendered belch is practically expected. New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet. One mood all the time.


Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat. You know stuff about tanks. A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase. You can open all your own jars. You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness. If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.

Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack. Three pairs of shoes are more than enough. You almost never have strap problems in public. You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes. Everything on your face stays its original color. The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades. You only have to shave your face and neck.

You can play with toys all your life. Your belly usually hides your big hips. One wallet and one pair of shoes ---one color for all seasons. You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look. You can "do" your nails with a pocket knife. You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.

You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.

No wonder men are happier.

Hi Eva:

Don't blame you a bit--neither did I. I only included it for those idle few who have to have the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Yes, we know they're out there.

Bob

Good late morning, WA2K listeners and contributors. Yes, hawkman, it's a man's world. <smile>Thanks for the bio's, Bob

Welcome back, Eva. Don't you know by now that the hawk is our resident postman? Nothing keeps him from his appointed task, not even Venus. <smile>

Actually, folks, I was surprised that Charles Boyer and his son both committed suicide. Also, Tolstoy's bio reminded me of Anton Chekhov and his wonderful short story, "A Slander." More about that later.

an excerpt from "A Slander":


"You scoundrel!" he addressed him. "Why have you covered me with mud before all the town? Why did you set this slander going about me?"

"What slander? What are you talking about?"

"Who was it gossiped of my kissing Marfa? Wasn't it you? Tell me that. Wasn't it you, you brigand?"

Vankin blinked and twitched in every fiber of his battered countenance, raised his eyes to the icon and articulated, "God blast me! Strike me blind and lay me out, if I said a single word about you! May I be left without house and home, may I be stricken with worse than cholera!"

Vankin's sincerity did not admit of doubt. It was evidently not he who was the author of the slander.

"But who, then, who?" Ahineev wondered, going over all his acquaintances in his mind and beating himself on the breast. "Who, then?"

Of course, folks, we know who. It was Ahineev himself. We are our own worst enemy, and I have never forgotten that, even to this day.

later on, a poem celebrating women writers. Sometimes it's a woman's world, Bob

Good afternoon.





Going now to ponder just how easy men have it.

Good afternoon, Raggedy. Once again a fine quartet of celebs. Hey, Someone ought to start a band by the name of Ben, Shania, Charles, and Donald. Reckon it would sell, folks? Thanks again, PA, and just to give you something else to ponder:

An excerpt from another celebration:

The shining hat with tawdry ribbands bound,
The lofty may-pole and the well-swept ground,
Where valiant combats speak the thirst of Fame,
And the loud shout proclaims the victor's name.

O VANITY, thy potent reign
Spreads its influence o'er the plain-
For thee, the blushing maids prepare
Garlands wove with nicest care,
For thee, they dress their festive bow'rs
With waving wreaths of scented flow'rs,
Where the bold Youth that wins the prize
Reads his best Victory in his Sweetheart's Eyes.

Such is thy pow'r-thy mandate rules
Above the laws of Pedant Schools;
REASON, in vain contends with Thee,
TRIUMPHANT, DEATHLESS VANITY!
E'en now, I feel thy vivid sparks infuse
A warmth that guides my hand, and bids me court the MUSE.



Mrs. M. Robinson, Pembroke-Hall, Cambridge

This has been one of those days, folks. Still trying to get my paper work sorted out, but I want to add that the poem that I just read earlier, had to do with the celebration of women writers, and was an antithesis to Bob's men joke.

I have also called an exterminator to see if we can't get rid of the bugs in our studio.