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damn, every time i hear this song i love it more and more

Invisible Ink
Aimee Mann

There comes a time when you swim or sink
So I jumped in the drink
Cuz I couldn't make myself clear

Maybe I wrote in invisible ink
Oh I've tried to think
How I could have made it appear

But another illustration is wasted
Cuz the results are the same
I feel like a ghost who's trying to move your hands
over some ouija board in the hopes I can spell out my name

What some take for magic at first glance
Is just sleight of hand depending on what you believe
Something gets lost when you translate
It's hard to keep straight
Perspective is everything

And I know now which is which and what angle I oughta look at it from
I suppose I should be happy to be misread-
Better be that than some of the other things I have become

But nobody wants to hear this tale
The plot is clichéd, the jokes are stale
And baby we've all heard it all before
Oh I could get specific but
Nobody needs a catalog
With details of love I can't sell anymore

And aside from that, this chain of reaction,
baby, is losing a link
Though I'd hope you'd know what I tried to tell you
And if you don't I could draw you a picture in invisible ink

But nobody wants to hear this tale
The plot is clichéd, the jokes are stale
And baby we've all heard it all before
Oh I could get specific but
Nobody needs a catalog
With details of love I can't sell anymore

Great, dj, and keep that sign where everyone can see it.

You know dj, I like the lyrics to that song, Canada. Thanks!

Speaking of invisible, even us hippies has to eat sometimes or we may become invisible.

Later, party people.

i especially like these lines

I suppose I should be happy to be misread-
Better be that than some of the other things I have become

Compromised by surf and turf, Letty's contribution disappeared, listeners.

Yes, dj. ".....misread.....". That could be a real problem on our cyber radio, but I am amazed at how little it happens. Thanks to our European friends, we have learned about other languages, and more than just a nodding acquaintance. Our turtle man does really well, in that department, too.

Well, I am truly fat and full, tonight, so this will be my goodnight song:



If I were drowning in the sea
Would you dive right in and save me?
If I were falling like a star
Would you be right there to catch me?
If I were dreaming of your kiss
Would you look right through me?

On the street I'm waiting
In my heart it's raining

Your eyes are holding up the sky
Your eyes make me weak, I don't know why
Your eyes make me scared to tell the truth
I thought my heart was bullet-proof
Now I'm dancing on the roof
And everybody knows I'm into you

If my heart was sadder than a song
Would you still listen?
If my tears fell on you, one by one
Would you see them glisten?

On the street I'm waiting
In my heart it's raining

Your eyes are holding up the sky
Your eyes make me weak I don't know why
Your eyes make me scared to tell the truth
I thought my heart was bullet-proof
Now I'm just dancing on the roof

Every single thing you say makes me want to run away
Sometimes love's a rainy day but life goes on

Your eyes are holding up the sky
Your eyes make me weak, I don't know why
Your eyes make me scared to tell the truth
I thought my heart was bullet-proof
But I'm dancing on the roof
And everybody knows I'm into you

Thank you, all, for making this an easier day for me.

From Letty with love.

ahoy, yee sailors ! man the capstans !

(and when you've finished singing you may all turn into your bunks)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Bacchus and the Pirates
----------------------------
Half a hundred terrible pig-tails, pirates famous in song and story,
Hoisting the old black flag once more, in a palmy harbour of Caribee,
"Farewell" we waved to our brown-skinned lasses, and chorussing out to the billows of glory,
Billows a-glitter with rum and gold, we followed the sunset over the sea.

While earth goes round, let rum go round,
Our capstan song we sung:
Half a hundred broad-sheet pirates
When the world was young!

Sea-roads plated with pieces of eight that rolled to a heaven by rum made mellow,
Heaved and coloured our barque's black nose where the Lascar sang to a twinkling star,
And the tangled bow-sprit plunged and dipped its point in the west's wild red and yellow,
Till the curved white moon crept out astern like a naked knife from a blue cymar.

While earth goes round, let rum go round,
Our capstan song we sung:
Half a hundred terrible pirates
When the world was young!

Half a hundred tarry pig-tails, Teach, the chewer of glass, had taught us,
Taught us to balance the plank ye walk, your little plank-bridge to Kingdom Come:
Half a score had sailed with Flint, and a dozen or so the devil had brought us
Back from the pit where Blackbeard lay, in Beelzebub's bosom, a-screech for rum.

While earth goes round, let rum go round,
Our capstan song we sung:
Half a hundred piping pirates
When the world was young!

There was Captain Hook (of whom ye have heard--so called from his terrible cold steel twister,
His own right hand having gone to a shark with a taste for skippers on pirate-trips),
There was Silver himself, with his cruel crutch, and the blind man Pew, with a phiz like a blister,
Gouged and white and dreadfully dried in the reek of a thousand burning ships.

While earth goes round, let rum go round,
Our capstan song we sung:
Half a hundred cut-throat pirates
When the world was young!

With our silver buckles and French cocked hats and our skirted coats (they were growing greener,
But green and gold look well when spliced! We'd trimmed 'em up wi' some fine fresh lace)
Bravely over the seas we danced to the horn-pipe tune of a concertina,
Cutlasses jetting beneath our skirts and cambric handkerchiefs all in place.

While earth goes round, let rum go round,
Our capstan song we sung:
Half a hundred elegant pirates
When the world was young!

And our black prow grated, one golden noon, on the happiest isle of the Happy Islands,
An isle of Paradise, fair as a gem, on the sparkling breast of the wine-dark deep,
An isle of blossom and yellow sand, and enchanted vines on the purple highlands,
Wi' grapes like melons, nay clustering suns, a-sprawl over cliffs in their noonday sleep.

While earth goes round, let rum go round,
Our capstan song we sung:
Half a hundred dream-struck pirates
When the world was young!

And lo! on the soft warm edge of the sand, where the sea like wine in a golden noggin
Creamed, and the rainbow-bubbles clung to his flame-red hair, a white youth lay,
Sleeping; and now, as his drowsy grip relaxed, the cup that he squeezed his grog in
Slipped from his hand and its purple dregs were mixed with the flames and flakes of spray.

While earth goes round, let rum go round,
Our capstan song we sung:
Half a hundred diffident pirates
When the world was young!

And we suddenly saw (had we seen them before? They were colured like sand or the pelt on his shoulders)
His head was pillowed on two great leopards, whose breathing rose and sank with his own;
Now a pirate is bold, but the vision was rum and would call for rum in the best of beholders,
And it seemed we had seen Him before, in a dream, with that flame-red hair and that vine-leaf crown.

And the earth went round, and the rum went round,
And softlier now we sung:
Half a hundred awe-struck pirates
When the world was young!

Now Timothy Hook (of whom you have heard, with his talon of steel) our doughty skipper,
A man that, in youth being brought up pious, had many a book on his cabin-shelf,
Suddenly caught at a comrade's hand with the tearing claws of his cold steel flipper
And cried, "Great Thunder and Brimstone, boys, I've it at last! 'Tis Bacchus himself.

And the earth went round, and the rum went round,
And never a word we sung:
Half a hundred tottering pirates
When the world was young!

He flung his French cocked hat i' the foam (though its lace was the best of his wearing apparel):
We started at him--Bacchus! The sea reeled round like a wine-vat splashing with purple dreams,
And the sunset-skies were dashed with blood of the grape as the sun like a new-starved barrel
Flooded the tumbling West with wine and splattered the clouds with crimson gleams.

And the earth went round, and the rum went round,
And never a word we sung:
Half a hundred staggering pirates
When the world was young!

Down to the shop for a fishing-net our crafty Hook sent Silver leaping;
Back he came on his pounding crutch, for all the world like a kangaroo;
And we caught the net and up to the Sleeper on hands and knees we all went creeping,
Flung it across him and staked it down! 'Twas the best of our dreams and the dream come true.

And the earth went round, and the rum went round,
And never a word we sung:
Half a hundred jubilant pirates
When the world was young!

We had caught our god, and we got him aboard ere he woke (he was more than a little heavy);
Glittering, beautiful, flushed he lay in the lurching bows of the old black barque,
As the sunset died and the white moon dawned, and we saw on the island a star-bright bevy
Of naked Bacchanals stealing to watch through the whispering vines in the purple dark!

While earth goes round, let rum go round,
Our capstan song we sung:
Half a hundred innocent pirates
When the world was young!

Beautiful under the sailing moon, in the tangled net, with the leopards beside him,
Snared like a wild young red-lipped merman, wilful, petulant, flushed he lay;
While Silver and Hook in their big sea-boots, and their boat-cloaks guarded and gleefully eyed him,
Thinking what Bacchus might do for a seaman, like standing him drinks, as a man might say.

While earth goes round, let rum go round,
We sailed away and sung:
Half a hundred fanciful pirates
When the world was young!

All the grog that ever was heard of, gods, was it stowed in our sure possession?
O, the pictures that broached the skies and poured their colours across our dreams!
O, the thoughts that tapped the sunset, and rolled like a great torchlight procession
Down our throats in a glory of glories, a roaring splendour of golden streams!

And the earth went round, and the stars round,
And we hauled the sheets and sung:
Half a hundred infinite pirates
When the world was young!

Beautiful, white, at the break of day, He woke and, the net in a smoke dissolving,
He rose like a flame, with his yellow-eyed pards and his flame-red hair like a windy dawn,
And the crew kept back, respectful like, till the leopards advanced with their eyes revolving,
Then up the rigging went Silver and Hook, and the rest of us followed with case-knives drawn.

While earth goes round, let rum go round,
Our cross-tree song we sung:
Half a hundred terrified pirates
When the world was young!

And "Take me home to my happy Island!" he says. "Not I, " sings Hook, "by thunder;
We'll take you home to a happier isle, our palmy harbour of Caribee!"
"You won't!" says Bacchus, and quick as a dream the planks of the deck are just heaved asunder,
And a mighty Vine came straggling up that grew from the depths of the wine-dark sea.

And the sea went round, and the skies went round,
Our cross-tree song we sung:
Half a hundred horrified pirates
When the world was young!

We were anchored fast as an oak on land, and the branches clutched and the tendrils quickened,
And bound us writhing like snakes to the spars! Ay, we hacked with our knives at the boughs in vain,
And Bacchus laughed loud on the decks below, as ever the tough sprays tightened and thickened,
And the blazing hours went by, and we gaped with thirst and our ribs were racked with pain.

And the skies went round, and the sea swam round,
And we knew not what we sung:
Half a hundred lunatic pirates
When the world was young!

Bunch upon bunch of sunlike grapes, as we writhed and stuggled and raved and strangled,
Bunch upon bunch of gold and purple daubed its bloom on our baked black lips.
Clustering grapes, O, bigger than pumpkins, just out of reach they bobbed and dangled
Over the vine-entangled sails of that most dumbfounded of pirate ships!

And the sun went round, and the moon came round,
And mocked us where we hung:
Half a hundred maniac pirates
When the world was young!

Over the waters the white moon winked its bruised old eye at our bowery prison,
When suddenly we were aware of a light such as never a moon or a ship's lamp throws,
And a shallop of pearl, like a Nautilus shell, came shimmering up as by magic arisen,
With sails of silk and a glory around it that turned the sea to a rippling rose.

And our heads went round, and the stars went round,
At the song that cruiser sung:
Half a hundred goggle-eyed pirates
When the world was young!

Half a hundred rose-white Bacchanals hauled the ropes of that rosy cruiser!
Over the sea they came and laid their little white hands on the old black barque;
And Bacchus he ups and he steps aboard: "Hi, stop!" cries Hook, "you frantic old boozer!
Belay, below there, don't you go and leave poor pirates to die in the dark!"

And the moon went round, and the stars went round,
And they all pushed off and sung:
Half a hundred ribbonless Bacchanals
When the world was young!

Over the seas they went and Bacchus he stands, with his yellow-eyed leopards beside him,
High on the poop of rose and pearl, and kisses his hand to us, pleasant as pie!
While the Baccanals danced to their tambourines, and the vine-leaves flew, and Hook just eyed him
Once, as a man that was brought up pious, and scornfully hollers, Well, you ain't shy!"

For all around him, vine-leaf crowned,
The wild white Bacchanals flung!
Nor it wasn't a sight for respectable pirates
When the world was young!

All around that rainbow-Nautilus rippled the bloom of a thousand roses,
Nay, but the sparkle of fairy sea-nympths breasting a fairy-like sea of wine,
Swimming around it in murmuring thousands, with white arms tossing; till -- all that we know is
The light went out, and the night was dark, and the grapes had burst and their juice was -- brine!

And the vines that bound our bodies round
Were plain wet ropes that clung,
Squeezing the light o' fifty pirates
When the world was young!

Over the seas in the pomp of dawn a king's ship came with her proud flag flying.
Cloud upon cloud we watched her tower with her belts and her crowded zones of sail;
And an A.B. perched in a white crow's nest, with a brass-rimmed spy-glass quietly spying,
As we swallowed the lumps in our choking throats and uttered our last faint feeble hail!

And our heads went round as the ship went round,
And we thought how coves had swung:
All for playing at broad-sheet pirates
When the world was young!

Half a hundred trembling corsairs, all cut loose, but a trifle giddy,
We lands on their trim white decks at last and the bo'sun he whistles us good hot grog,
And we tries to confess, but there wasn't a soul from the Admiral's self to the gold-laced middy
But says, "They're delirious still, poor chaps," and the Cap'n he enters the fact in his log,

That his boat's crew found us nearly drowned
In a barrel without a bung--
Half a hundred suffering sea-cooks
When the world was young!

So we sailed by Execution Dock, where the swinging pirates haughty and scornful
Rattled their chains, and on Margate beach we came like a school-treat safe to land;
And one of us took to religion at once; and the rest of the crew, tho' their hearts were mournful,
Capered about as Christy Minstrels, while Hook conducted the big brass band.

And the sun went round, and the moon went round,
And, O, 'twas a thought that stung!
There was none to believe we were broad-sheet pirates
When the world was young!

Ah, yet (if ye stand me a noggin of rum) shall the old Blue Dolphin echo the story!
We'll hoist the white cross-bones agin in our palmy harbour of Caribee!
We'll wave farewell to our brown-skinned lasses and, chorussing out to the billows of glory,
Billows a-glitter with rum and gold, we'll follow the sunset over the sea!

While earth goes round, let rum go round!
O, sing it as we sung!
Half a hundred terrible pirates
When the world was young!

Alfred Noyes

Don't make me post Barnacle Bill the Sailor!

lol

Good morning, WA2K fans and listeners. Well, it's another Monday, and for all you folks who must work for a living, I hope your week begins well.

hamburger, I really like Alfred Noyes, especially "The Highwayman", because of it's beautifully descriptive metaphors. Thanks for the sea shanty poem by him.

so, edgar left us with a wry smile, and our dj joined in with an echo done in style.

How about some Stevie Wonder, folks, to begin the day:



"My Cherie Amour"

La la la la la la, La la la la la la

My cherie amour, lovely as a summer day
My cherie amour, distant as the milky way
My cherie amour, pretty little one that I adore
You're the only girl my heart beats for
How I wish that you were mine

In a cafe or sometimes on a crowded street
I've been near you, but you never noticed me
My cherie amour, won't you tell me how could you ignore
That behind that little smile I wore
How I wish that you were mine

La la la la la la, La la la la la la
La la la la la la, La la la la la la

Maybe someday, you'll see my face amoung the crowd
Maybe someday, I'll share your little distant cloud
Oh, cherie amour, pretty little one that I adore
You're the only girl my heart beats for
How I wish that you were mine

La la la la la la, La la la la la la
La la la la la la, La la la la la la

And a la la la and good morning to all.

and a Happy Birthday to Sade.



SADE - Smooth Operator Lyrics
He's laughing with another girl
And playing with another heart
Placing high stakes, making hearts ache
He's loved in seven languages
Jewel box life diamond nights and ruby lights, high in the sky
Heaven help him, when he falls
Diamond life, lover boy
He move in space with minimum waste and maximum joy
City lights and business nights
When you require streetcar desire for higher heights

No place for beginners or sensitive hearts
When sentiment is left to chance
No place to be ending but somewhere to start

No need to ask
He's a smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator

Coast to coast, LA to Chicago, western male
Across the north and south, to Key Largo, love for sale

Face to face, each classic case
We shadow box and double cross
Yet need the chase

A license to love, insurance to hold
Melts all your memories and change into gold
His eyes are like angels but his heart is cold

No need to ask
He's a smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator

Coast to coast, LA to Chicago, western male
Across the north and south, to Key Largo, love for sale

Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator

Now, that's nice, Raggedy!

Well, there's our Raggedy, folks. Thanks, PA, for the celeb and song.

Good afternoon, Francis. I am quite certain that's a song with which you French can identify. <smile> Are you becoming westernized?

Motorhead Lyrics
Song: Love for Sale Lyrics

Looking good, stepping out, looking for romance
Crazy arms, crazy legs, save me the last dance
Hold me tight, make me warm, give me shelter
Treat me right, in from the storm, helter skelter
You know the way, the game is tough
Need some motivation, to help you get it up

Cause it's only, love for sale,
Heart of gold and hard as nails
I can't believe it's legal,
To send it through the mail
Only love for sale

Call me up, call me back, call me what you want to
Shoot your shot, shoot the moon, nothing that you can't do
All for me, one for all, shoulder to shoulder
Here and gone, sure like to ball, rock n' roller
You know the way, stuff goes around,
You need a half nelson, to help you get it down

Cause it's only, love for sale,
Heart of gold and hard as nails
I can't believe it's legal,
To send it through the mail
Only love for sale

Rip it up, rip it out, Shake your money maker
Feels so good, in and out, real earth shaker
Get up close, stroke your bones, get a grip babe
Take a trip, take me home, feel the earth shift babe
You know the way, so get it right
You don't need an airplane, to get you through the night

Cause it's only, love for sale,
Heart of gold and hard as nails
I can't believe it's legal,
To send it through the mail
Only love for sale

Was that really you, Letty?

You were a looker, and no mistake.

Well, my goodness. There's our McTag with a question. Of course, Brit. You don't think that I would lie about looks, do You? <smile>

Want to request a song, Manchester?

Well, while we await McTag's request, listeners, let's do some bad etymology:

Comments: BAD ETYMOLOGY.
"Bizarre" does come from the Basque. where it means not "strange", but "brave, hardened" (probably from bizar, "beard".) The word was taken into Italian through the French bizarre, where it changed its meaning - probably due to the extravagance of the Gascon soldiers from whom the term was borrowed.

Frank Zamboni
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Frank Joseph Zamboni, Jr. (January 16, 1901 - July 27, 1988) was a U.S. inventor whose most famous invention was the Zamboni machine for resurfacing ice rinks.

He was born in Eureka, Utah to Italian immigrants. His parents soon bought a farm near Pocatello, Idaho, where he grew up. In 1920, he moved with his parents to the harbor district of Los Angeles, where his older brother George was operating an auto repair business. After attending a trade school in Chicago, he and his younger brother Lawrence opened an electrical supply business in 1922 in the Los Angeles suburb of Hynes (now part of Paramount). The following year, he married, and eventually had three children. In 1927, he and Lawrence added an ice-making plant and entered the block ice business. They sold their block ice business in 1939, seeing little future in that business with the recent advent of electrically operated refrigeration units. However, they kept their refrigeration equipment because they planned to open an ice rink nearby.

In 1940, the brothers, along with a cousin, opened the Iceland rink, which proved very popular, in no small part because Frank had devised a way to eliminate rippling caused by the pipes that were laid down to keep the rink frozen. (The rink still operates, and is still owned by the Zamboni family.) He obtained a patent for that innovation in 1946. Then, in 1948, he invented a machine that transformed the job of resurfacing an ice rink from a three-man, 90-minute task to a one-man, 10-minute job. In 1949, he applied for a patent, and set up Frank J. Zamboni & Co. in Paramount to build and sell the machines. He obtained his patent in 1953. Demand for the machine proved great enough that his company added a second plant in Brantford, Ontario and a branch office in Switzerland.

In the 1970s, he invented machines to remove water from outdoor artificial turf surfaces, remove paint stripes from the same surfaces, and roll up and lay down artificial turf in domed stadiums. His final invention, in 1983, was an automatic edger to remove ice buildup from the edges of rinks.

He died of lung cancer in 1988, about two months after his wife's death. The Zamboni company, which has sold over 7000 of its signature machines in its history, is still owned and operated by the Zamboni family, currently by Frank's son and grandson.

Zamboni is a registered trademark of Frank J. Zamboni & Co. Inc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zamboni

Ethel Merman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Ethel Merman (January 16, 1908 - February 15, 1984) was a star of stage and film musicals, well known for her powerful voice and vocal range.

She was born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann, in Astoria, Queens, New York, of a German Lutheran father and Scottish Presbyterian mother, although many people long assumed she was Jewish because of her pre-stage last name (which is common among non-Jewish Germans as well, particularly when there are two "n"s at the end of the name) along with the fact that she was from New York, New York. She was baptized Episcopalian. She used to stand outside the Famous Players-Lasky Studios and wait to see her favorite Broadway star, Alice Brady. Ethel loved to sing songs like "By the Light of the Silv'ry Moon" and "Alexander's Ragtime Band" while her adoring father accompanied her on the piano.

Merman was married and divorced four times:

* Bill Smith, theatrical agent.
* Robert Levitt, newspaper executive. The couple had two children; divorced in 1952
* Robert Six, airline executive, 1953-1960.
* Ernest Borgnine, actor, 1964. They announced the impending nuptials at P.J. Clarke's, a legendary night spot in New York, but Merman filed for divorce after just 32 days.

She was known for her powerful, belting alto voice, precise enunciation, and accurate pitch. Because stage singers performed without microphones when she began singing professionally, she had great advantages in show business, despite the fact that she never received any singing lessons. In fact, Broadway lore holds that George Gershwin warned her to never take a lesson after seeing her opening reviews for Girl Crazy.

She began singing while working as a secretary. She eventually became a full time vaudeville performer, and played the pinnacle of vaudeville, the Palace Theatre in New York City. She had already been engaged for Girl Crazy, a musical with songs by George and Ira Gershwin, which also starred a very young Ginger Rogers (19 years old) in 1930. Her rendition of "I Got Rhythm" in the show was popular, and by the late 1930s she had become the first lady of the Broadway musical stage. Many consider her the leading Broadway musical performer of the twentieth century with her signature song being "There's No Business Like Show Business".

Merman starred in five Cole Porter musicals, among them "Anything Goes" in 1934 where she introduced "I Get a Kick Out of You", "Blow Gabriel Blow", and the title song. Her next musical with Porter was Red, Hot and Blue in which she co-starred with Bob Hope and Jimmy Durante and introduced "It's Delovely" and "Down in the Depths." In 1939's DuBarry Was A Lady, Porter provided Merman with a "can you top this" duet with Bert Lahr, "Friendship". Like "You're the Top" in "Anything Goes", this kind of duet became one of her signatures. Porter's lyrics also helped showcase her comic talents in duets in Panama Hattie ("Let's Be Buddies", "I've Still Got My Health"), and Something for the Boys, ("By the Mississinewah", "Hey Good Lookin'").

Irving Berlin supplied Merman with equally memorable duets, including "Anything You Can Do" with Ray Middleton in Annie Get Your Gun and "You're Just in Love" with Russell Nype in Call Me Madam.

Merman won the 1951 Tony Award for Best Actress for her performance as Sally Adams in Call Me Madam.

Perhaps Merman's most revered performance was in Gypsy as Gypsy Rose Lee's mother Rose. Merman introduced Everything's Coming Up Roses, Some People, and ended the show with the wrenching Rose's Turn, gaining standing ovations for her work. She did not get the role in the movie version, however, which went to movie actress Rosalind Russell, and an infuriated Merman was quoted as saying: "I know her sort, I can't say...but it rhymes with 'witch' and you'll find her sort in a kennel". [Since this is a line from the film "The Women", in which Russell appeared, the story may be apocryphal-Ed.] She also insulted Russell's husband, Freddie Brisson, by calling him the "Lizard of Roz".

Ironically, Merman lost the Tony Award to Mary Martin, who was playing Maria in The Sound of Music. "How can you beat a nun?", mused Merman. The competitiveness notwithstanding, Merman and Martin were friends off stage and starred in two musical specials on television (unfortunately the two shared something else in common -- they would both die of cancer-related illnesses at the age of 76).

Merman retired from Broadway in 1970 when she appeared as the last Dolly Levi in Hello Dolly, a show initially written for her. No longer willing to "take the veil" as she described being in a Broadway role, Merman preferred to act in television specials and movies. Despite having a reputation for a salty tongue, and having introduced ribald Cole Porter lyrics, Merman was known to dislike theatre fare in the 1970s like "Oh Calcutta" for being lewd.

She was predeceased by one of her 2 children, her daughter, Ethel (known as "Ethel, Jr,").

After Merman was diagnosed with brain cancer in 1983, she collapsed and died several weeks following the surgery at the age of 76 in 1984; she had been planning to go to Los Angeles to appear at the Oscars that year.

On February 20, 1984, Ethel's son, Robert Levitt Jr. held his mothers ashes as he rode down Broadway. He passed the Imperial, the Broadway and the Majestic theatres where Ethel had performed all her life. Then, a minute before curtain up, all the marquees dimmed their lights in rememberence to the greatest star, Ms. Merman.

Merman co-wrote two volumes of memoirs, "Who Could Ask for Anything More" in 1952 and an additional volume in 1979.

You're The Top :: Ethel Merman

[RENO]
Billy, where's the old Crocker confidence? You
Think he's got one tiny fraction of your brains,
your looks, your...your...
At words poetic, I'm so pathetic
That I always have found it best,
Instead of getting 'em off my chest,
To let 'em rest unexpressed,
I hate parading my serenading
As I'll probably miss a bar,
But if this ditty is not so pretty
But least it'll tell you
How great you are.

You're the top!
You're the Colosseum.
You're the top!
You're the Louvre Museum.
You're a melody from a symphony by Strauss
You're a Bendel bonnet,
A Shakespeare's sonnet,
You're Mickey Mouse.
You're the Nile,
You're the Tower of Pisa,
You're the smile on the Mona Lisa
I'm a worthless check, a total wreck, a flop,
But if, baby, I'm the bottom you're the top!

[BILLY]
Your words poetic are not pathetic.
On the other hand, babe, you shine,
And I can feel after every line
A thrill divine
Down my spine.
Now gifted humans like Vincent Youmans
Might think that your song is bad,
But I got a notion
I'll second the motion
And this is what I'm going to add;

You're the top!
You're Mahatma Gandhi.
You're the top!
You're Napoleon Brandy.
You're the purple light
Of a summer night in Spain,
You're the National Gallery
You're Garbo's salary,
You're cellophane.
You're sublime,
You're turkey dinner,
You're the time, the time of a Derby winner
I'm a toy balloon that is fated soon to pop
But if, baby, I'm the bottom,
You're the top!

[RENO]
You're the top!
You're an arrow collar
You're the top!
You're a Coolidge dollar,
You're the nimble tread
Of the feet of Fred Astaire,
You're an O'Neill drama,

[BILLY]
You're Whistler's mama,

[RENO]
You're camembert.

[BILLY]
You're a rose,
You're Inferno's Dante,

[RENO]
You're the nose
On the great Durante.
I'm just in a way,
As the French would say, "de trop".
But if, baby, I'm the bottom,
You're the top!

[BILLY]
You're the top!
You're a dance in Bali.
You're the top!
You're a hot tamale.
You're an angel, you,
Simply too, too, too diveen,
You're a Boticcelli,

[RENO]
You're Keats,

[BILLY]
You're Shelly,

[RENO]
You're Ovaltine.

[BILLY]
You're a boom,
You're the dam at Boulder,
You're the moon,
Over Mae West's shoulder,
I'm the nominee of the G.O.P.

[RENO]
Or GOP!

[BILLY]
But if, baby, I'm the bottom,
You're the top!

[RENO]
You're the top!
You're a Waldorf salad.
You're the top!
You're a Berlin ballad.
You're the boats that glide
On the sleepy Zuider Zee,
You're an old Dutch master,

[BILLY]
You're Lady Astor,

[RENO]
You're broccoli.

[BILLY]
You're romance,
You're the steppes of Russia,
You're the pants on a Roxy usher,
I'm a broken doll, a fol-de-rol, a blop,

[BOTH]
But if, baby, I'm the bottom,
You're the top!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Merman

Katy Jurado
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Born
16 January 1924;
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Died
5 July 2002;
Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico

Katy Jurado (January 16, 1924 - July 5, 2002) was a Mexican actress.

Born María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García in Guadalajara, Jalisco, she started her career in Hollywood and moved back to continue filming in Mexico.

Her role in the Mexican movie Nosotros Los Pobres opposite the well-known Mexican actor Pedro Infante brought her fame. She subsequently appeared in many Hollywood movies including The Bullfighter and the Lady, High Noon (for which she received an Academy Award nomination), Arrowhead, Broken Lance, The Racers, Trial, Trapeze, The Badlanders, One Eyed Jacks, Barabbas, Stay Away, Joe (opposite Elvis Presley), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, The Children of Sanchez, and Under the Volcano. Her last film performance was in the Mexican film Un Secreto de Esperanza.

Jurado was married twice, first to Mexican actor Victor Velazquez with whom she had two children and secondly to actor Ernest Borgnine 1959-1963.

She died of kidney failure and pulmonary disease in 2002, at the age of 78 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katy_Jurado

Dian Fossey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Dian Fossey (January 16, 1932 - December 26, 1985) was an American ethologist interested in gorillas, completing an extended study of several gorilla groups, observing them daily for years in the mountain forests of Rwanda. Initially encouraged to work there by famous paleontologist Louis Leakey, her work is somewhat similar to Jane Goodall's with chimpanzees.

She was born in Fairfax, California, but grew up in San Francisco, California, where she attended Lowell High School. She earned her bachelor's degree in occupational therapy from San Jose State College (currently known as San Jose State University) in 1954. She moved to Kentucky to work at a hospital, and at the invitation of a romantic beau, she began thinking about visiting Africa in 1957.

In 1963, she finally had secured the financing for her trip. While in Africa, she met Dr. Leakey and saw her first mountain gorilla. She created the Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda in 1967. She then attended the University of Cambridge, where she received a Ph.D. in zoology in 1974.

She was found murdered at the age of 53 in the Rwandan province of Ruhengeri in 1985. Current evidence suggests that her murder was masterminded by Protais Zigiranyirazo, former Governor of Ruhengeri, who is also known for his creation of the death squads that resulted in the deaths of over 800,000 Rwandans in 1994.

Her book "Gorillas in the Mist" is both a description of her scientific research and an insightful memoir of how Dian came to study gorillas in Africa. Portions of her life story were later adapted as a film Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey starring Sigourney Weaver as Fossey. The written work covers her scientific career in much greater detail, and omits some material on her personal life, such as her affair with photographer Bob Campbell that was a major subplot of the movie. Farley Mowat's "Woman in the Mists" was the first booklength biography of Dian Fossey, and serves as a useful counterweight to the dramatizations of the movie and the focus on gorillas in her own work.

A new book published in 2005 by National Geographic in the USA and Palazzo Editions in the UK as "No One Loved Gorillas More" by Camilla de la Bedoyere, features for the first time Dian's story told through her letters she wrote to her family and friends. The book is published to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of her death, and includes many previously unpublished photographs by Bob Campbell.

More recently, the Kentucky Opera Visions Program, in Louisville, has written an opera about Dian Fossey. The opera will premiere in the spring of 2006.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dian_Fossey

THE YEAR 1906
This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine...
The year is 1906.
One hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes!

Here are some of the U.S. Statistics for the Year 1906:

The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.

Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.

There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California.

With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!

The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents per hour.

The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year.

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2,000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at home.

Ninety percent of all U.S. doctors had no college education.
Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard."

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

Five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:

1. Pneumonia and influenza

2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea

4. Heart disease

5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars.

Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea had not been invented yet.

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Two out of every 10 U.S. adults could not read or write.

Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores.
Back then the pharmacist said, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."

Eighteen percent of households in the U.S. had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.

There were about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.

So, to think I forwarded this from someone else without typing it myself, and sent it to you in a matter of seconds!

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years.

It's staggering!



HAPPY NEW YEAR!
2006

Well, Bob, I see that you have overcome your problems. Good to see you here again, Boston.

Those were amazing statistics for America, hawkman. Hmmm. I do wonder what we have traded for a longer life.

I was particularly interested in Diane Fossey, buddy, but there are those who say that she was equally as bad in her devotion to the mountain gorilla, as those who would strive to eliminate that awesome beast.

Speaking of the gorilla, folks. Anyone remember Sultan? <smile>