ZOLPEDIN BLUES

I went to my doctor the other day-again. You never know what he's going to say, or do. This is my Dr.TV Doctor, the one who is not an actor, but plays one in real life. I always try to anticipate how the visit will go. First I organize my fears and expectations. Then, I check with my wife to see if she has anything to add. I was concerned that he might want to do my annual physical, even though I had one last year. I knew he would bug me about my cholesterol. My smarter, prettier half suggested I ask him for diabetes medication. So now I'm fully prepared. I got a pass on the physical. He poo-pooed (medical term) the diabetes medication and doubled my blood pressure medication. I'll meet his double and half it! The last time, he gave me a prescription for cholesterol drugs, even though I told him I didn't want it. I never filled it. This time, he gave me another one. I told him I would try it. Maybe I will. Lying to a doctor is not the same as lying to a regular person is it? I asked him about a sleep study. He said, "Do you wake up a lot during the night"? I said "Yes". He said, "That's all a sleep study will tell you and you already know that. I'm writing you a prescription for Zolpedin, that's a generic for Ambien". That's enough "he said-he said" stuff. So let's forget about the snoring, cessation of breathing, lack of oxygen thing. This will help you sleep through it. So now I take half a Zolpedin every night. Soon they'll have baby Zolpedin, so I don't have to half them. Now I sleep just fine. I don't dream or toss and turn. It's nice. But am I missing something? I usually have thoughts at night. And dreams, some weird, some frightening, some funny. Did I just give up 1/4 of my life? I feel like I'm sleeping through 30 per cent of my life. (Just wanted to see if you're paying attention or just skimming) Can you sleep through sleep? Is my life so bad that I should sleep through it? Should I be taking Zolpedaytime medication? Is it worth it? Yes! It's worth 3 bucks a month to sleep good every night!

Zolpedin Blues

I've been losing sleep at night
having bad dreams of you,
I'm walking like a zombie
and don't know what to do.
So I went to my physician
and here's what he said.
You can take yourself some Zolpedin
and sleep like the dead.

So now I've got the Zolpedin Blu-ues

My night are spent alone at the Zolpedin Hotel
I zone out with little pills and as far as I can tell
I'm losing 8 hours a day 'cause my brain has turned to gel
I can't think of you at all and I guess it's just as well
I've got the Zo-oh-wo-oh-wo-oh-wo-pe-deen Baluuuuues!

ZZZZZ--ZZZZZ--ZZZZZ--ZZZZZ-ZZZZZZZZZZZ!

W G O ?

If we had texting in the 60's, WGO would mean What's going on? If I may quote Marvin Gay, who was not. I don't know how many decades it's been since you've read a newspaper, so I thought I'd save you the trouble, and the 50 cents. This will be under the title:

NEWS YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD DO WITHOUT

This is my commentary on the Henry Nabor. Let me start by saying that this is Henry County's largest circulation newspaper, which means it is thrown in more yards than any other. This particular issue happened not to get wet. If you were to buy this paper, it would cost you 50 cents, which is why I'm not worried about getting sued. They'd have to sell a lot of papers to get enough money to sue me, unless they claimed indigence and received a court appointed lawyer. Which brings me to the headline article. Henry County is concerned, not the actual county, like the land and the trees and air space, but the people who run it, they, are concerned about the cost of providing public defenders to indigent members of society, like you and me. They, not the actual county, but the people who run the county, look out the window to see if the applicants show up in gasoline powered automobiles. If so, they qualify. If they show up on foot, then they should have been able to save up enough dough to hire a shadetree lawyer. The County, not the - you know, they have devised a more quantifiable artifice for ascertaining the true eligibility of the alleged indigent. They will visit the home of each individual. If the alleged indigent is not home they will assume the citizen is only half indigent and does not qualify for full assistance. Furthermore since all of the good attorneys are still counting their money from the O.J. trial, the only ones available are just semi-competent, so the semi-indigent should be able to afford them. It has been calculated that this new revelation is supposed to bag between $250,000 and $750,000 in savings for the public defenders budget. I love precision calculating. Like the auto mechanic who quotes, "This fan belt, excuse me serpentine belt installation will cost between $70 and $395". Guess which figure it will be closer to, before tax? I suppose they have to go to the Sistine Chapel for a serpentine belt. But one Henry County official, who shall remain nameless, and probably unreelectable, stated that the county would not likely see a drop in indigence. This may be the one actual fact in the article, since most indigence is government induced to begin with. Bytheway, whenever you see a government agency and the word "calculation" in the same sentence, you should always put a mis in front of it. That is, in front of calculation. The County, even though it is named Henry, is not gender specific, although the people who run it are reported to be. The new indigent accreditation program cost the county $74,000, which will come out of the public defender's budget. Go figure!! Wait! Not now. There's more...

INSIDE STORY: CELTIC FESTIVAL HELD IN STOCKBRIDGE!

This article caught my attention, firstly because the surrounding articles were even more boring and because of my total lack of interest in basketball, I wondered who they could get to play against the Celtics. And where would they play? Perhaps they could play in the horse arena? I heard that the proper ambiance was provided by the last event. A previous article reported that the state of the art horse arena does not meet standards for horse competition. I'm guessing that these thoroughbred equine species require more elegant accommodations. Now I am off the subject which was off the original subject. I discovered, much to my relief, that the Boston Celtics were not coming to Henry County. I discovered that these Celtics, no wait! I can't stand this! Is it Celtics, like "Seltics" or like "Keltics". It's important, to me because "Keltic" just runs through my ear like a jagged knife. O, thunderation! It is "Keltic"! Oh how I wish it were the basketball players (Seltics). All phobias aside, the Celtics are coming so that we can get in touch with our ancestors, the ones that preceded our nations founders in the old country by a few hundred years. The ones that go back 10,000 years. It is in question whether the very Earth is 10,000 years old, let alone our pre-historic European ancestors, who according to this article helped to shape and form western thought. My EYE! Yeah, I can just imagine some East Indian sitting on his camel, playing his lute and singing,
A cattle trail drunk and a hard road to travel,
That old Jack O' Diamonds is a hard card to play.
Get along, get along, get along little doggies,
Get along little doggies and be on your way.

Whoop-ee-ti-yi-o get along little doggies,
It's your misfortune and not of my own.
Whoop-ee-ti-yi-o get along little doggies,
You know that Wyoming will be your new home.

Some boys have bit this old cow trail for pleasure,
But that's where they get it most awfully wrong.
I wish I could tell you the troubles they give us,
As we go rolling these doggies along.

Whoop-ee-ti-yi-o get along little doggies,
It's your misfortune and not of my own.
Whoop-ee-ti-yi-o get along little doggies,
You know that Wyoming will be your new home.

This was written by Woodie Guthrie and was only sung by Hollywood cowboys as little Woodie had not entered this world until 1912, unless you use the carbon dating technique, which could run the clock back to 1595. At any rate, I am incapable of mentioning Woodie Guthrie without recounting the time when Bob Dylan as a young man, or whatever, came to his idol, Woodie Guthrie. He played a few of his songs for Woodie and Woodie's appraisal was this. Bob, you have a truly great voice, but you're going to have to work on those lyrics! If you didn't fall down laughing on that one, I'll assume you were already on the floor! Or, you're not that familiar with Bob Dylan. Anyway, a humorous story that has to be explained, is not humorous.

That's enough news for today.

NUTRITION: IS THERE A LOOPHOLE?

I guess you know about facebook. If not, for just 5 hours a day, I can solve your food, tv and floor-licking addictions. It's what we have come to know as AC, addiction consolidation. I promise, if you don't drastically cut back on your addiction of choice, you can come to my house and lick the floors, because I am seriously behind (on my floor licking).

I received a friend invitation on facebook today. I wondered how she knew me, or how I knew her, or if I wanted to know her. I think it's the Ma Kettle flight attendant from my first airline flight. My previous flights did not include attendants, or airplanes. I was interested. So, I read on..as you may want to do. Ever notice how you keep reading on, even when you're not interested. Who knows, you might find something valuable in here..like grounds for a lawsuit. Reading on, I learned that we have (she thinks) something in common..NUTRITION. Those who know me, realize that nothing could be further from or less congruent with the truth! I am very concerned about nutrition - the way that some people are very concerned about snakes. If you don't recognize it, how can you avoid it? Why, they're putting vegetables in everything now. The root word for nutrition is the Latin word nut.
Nut-someone who is so ardently devoted to something that it resembles an addiction; a tennis nut, a beach nut, a environmental nut. Alternate definition from the NTD-New Twisted Dictionary: Nut-one who would seek democratic office, also one who would vote for a democrap The suffix of nutrition comes from the word trite:Lacking power to evoke interest through overuse or repetition. NTD trite-food that would not be eaten by starving dogs. These lovers of cardboard food, believe that if you follow the eating habits of the wild turtle, you may live from 100 to 150 years.I guess from 0 to 100, you're just waiting for the taste buds to kick in. What else can a turtle do? And how wild can a turtle really be? Never saw one with a six-pack and a boom box. That would be a boom-box turtle (thrown in for humor). Don't take everything you read here seriously! I have also been thrown out for humor a few times. Unless you believe in the fictional Ninja Turtles and the national health-nut care plan, turtles live an extremely sedate life. Perhaps if they ate some red meat and ice cream they could sit up and watch tv, like normal people. DAILY TURTLE HEADLINES: Two turtles tangle at Tim/Tom's Turtle Tavern over a stripper. The two torts head-butted for a couple hours, then fell asleep, while the tart-tort crawled back into her shell. No one was hurt. Imagine a whole race where everyone has an Eeyore complex. Do you ever see two turtles in the woods? The average turtle spends about 50 years of his life looking for another turtle. Not Mr. or Mrs. Right Turtle, just another turtle. If it happens to be the wrong sex, which takes three more years to determine, then you start all over again.
Do I want to order from the Healthy Choice menu? Does a turtle have wings? I like the diet menu at Silver Coral. I eat a balanced diet there from all four food groups - steak, ribs, ham and fried chicken. And I follow the "Carnivores Rules And Practices" for good health. I eat no piece of meat bigger than my hand. It hard to get all of those pieces on my plate, but I do it! They have a Carla Dean menu there. I love the Carla-Dean Shepherds Pie using soy bean and whole grain corn curd. They start with a layer of Irish potatos.(in honor of Dan Quale)smotherd with a stick of butter, put a 1/2 cup of crushed, not pureed soy bean in a bowl. On top of the potatos and butter add a pound of ground beef (already browned), add another layer of potatos, then butter. every time you add butter, add salt - it's a rule. 1/2 pound of bacon. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of corn curd over the soy beans in a bowl. add a layer of black-eyed peas and sliced tomatos and a handful of onions and top it off with another layer of Irish potatos and butter (salt). throw the soy bean and corn curd in the trash and serve! Wal-lah!!

Bottom line is, if you want to be my friend, think of something more interesting than nutrition.

see ya in the funny papers!

Things are not what they seem - or are they?

Hi folks,

Hope things are well with you. Me? I've got 20/20 vision! You know, I see things 20 feet away as if it were 20 blocks. Or some times, not at all! Better yet, sometimes I see things that aren't even there, without medication. But I'm no fool! Big surprise. I don't speak everything I see. I have learned not to trust my eyes, or my brain. When I see something strange, I wait until I get a little closer before I speak, because that might not have been an elephant in the neighbors driveway. The other night, I was sitting at my usual place on the couch, where only I, normally sit. And sometimes eat - food. I was sitting there and looked down beside me and saw what appeared to be a small morsel of food. It looked like a bean or a piece of a pretzel or something. I had a decision to make. We make decisions all day long. Do I wear this shirt or that one? Do I watch Becker or My Name is Earl? Do I bomb Afghanistan or hoist a few with Rev. Wright? Here's the thing. (A)I could put this thing in the trash can, but that would be labor intensive. (B) I could give it to Rusty Bullet (my dog), but he was comfortably curled up with my wife. Something is wrong with that scenario. (3) I could just eat it. Now am I a 56 year old or a 56 week old? You judge. I assumed I had previously dropped this thing (5 hour rule) so it should be okay to eat. So, I put this unknown substance in my mouth. This was one of those situations where you don't have to wait to see if your choice was right. I decided this thing might have been some kind of pill. But first, I decided to clutch my throat and run past the trash can, where I could have deposited the thing, grab the nearest glass and drink tap water! It's like the time at Pizza Hut when I decided to to taste one of those things, that you sprinkle on food from a bottle on the table. I drank the whole pitcher of coke. I apologized and bought the Johnsons another pitcher. You're supposed to scrape microscopic slithers off these little things and stir them into a bath tub full of chili. You could serve this to the entire house of representatives. Without TUMS. Let's see how many vacate their seats! Needless to say, I won't be doing anything like that again. Not for a long time! Unless I become ????? What's that word for people who can't remember things?
I did learn my lesson. We were all put here for a reason. I think I was put here to learn not to do stupid things. The only reason I'm still here. is because I am still afflicted with chronic stupidity. God doesn't want stupid people in heaven. I'm kidding! Stop worrying. God loves stupid people. He must, or He wouldn't have made so many of them! (old but still funny) I like spray deodorant. That way the applicator doesn't have to touch your armpit, or anyone else's. Besides, that cool mist is refreshing! I've had this tall green can of Brut on my bathroom counter for a year or so now. It quit working shortly after I bought it. This made me sad. I figured the nozzle had become clogged. Makes sense. My dad abstains from using deodorant. I guess at that age, who cares what you smell like. He always said, "If something can make you stop sweating, what else is it doing to you. Your body is supposed to sweat". Well, the other day I decided to try this Brut deodorant one more time before throwing it away. I thought of aiming this into my mouth or some other crazy place, because I was 99.97% sure it wouldn't work. But not being totally stupid, I aimed it at the usual place. To my great surprise, it worked. Now, am I a genius or what? I'm guessing, what.

We've come to the medical news portion of my rag. Notice, I did not say medical advice. I AM NOT A DOCTOR! What you read here is for information only. Here's a simple home remedy. If you use an asthma inhaler or have COPD this might be helpful. Emphasis on MIGHT. If a COPD (COunty Police Department) car pulls you over, start inhaling frantically on your inhaler. Between breaths say INHALE -I'm glad you're here-INHALE- I need help-INHALE-I just dialed 911- INHALE-I can't believe you got here so quick! Here's what I learned about Inhalers. One called Symbicord actually contains Ford motor oil. I thought I was hearing things, but that's what the commercial says. It contains Fordmotoroil. I believe you could make your own. I have some Fordmotoroil which has aged nicely. It's dark and thick, like that fancy steak sauce. You could probably smother your steak with Fordmotoroil and it would act as a laxitive. Fordmotoroil can also be used to treat cedar siding. Now I'm not stupid and don't think me a fool. I know it doesn't have to be "Ford" motor oil! It could be Japanese motor oil. But there would be side effects. When you sneeze, it will sound like ah-ah-ah KAWA-sakee. Or ah-ah-ah toYota. Or the genteel ladies may sneeze like ah-ah Nissan! Dat-so? No, dey hadn't made Datsuns for years.

Don't you love new products. I think we may be giving our dogs a complex though, if they watch tv. Does your dog poop and then look back in disgust? No wonder! The commercials are pressuring your dog to be an optimal pooper. I'm not making this up! Someone is, but it's not me! You can control the color of their output by controlling their input. It's called designer poop. I once had a dog who ate crayons.You can imagine what that looked like, especially if she had swallowed hair also. It would make a nice colorful necklace! Oh, I just love your necklace!! Where ever did you get it! It's a Giovani original. He could make one for you if you like. The other doggie thing they are offering is a poop mat. You place the mat on the floor and your dog just loves to poop on it - more than any other place. If you have small children you should keep them separated because they are quick learners. If you could get your pooch to poop the color of your carpet, the stains would be minimized to the point where a spoonful of gasoline and a match would take care of it. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME unless you are a certified trained professional.

Other products. I get ads for Motor Meant. They make die-cast metal replicas of automobiles. I have a few. They are quite nice. They send ads that say things like, "Our customers keep asking, how can you sell these quality products for only $12.95"? But they never answer themselves. The way they can do this is they also send you some sort of free gift. Then they charge you shipping and handling on the product and the gift. So your total purchase price ends up at $95.12. Remember people, things are not always or even often what they seem. Because you are reading all of this, I know you're smarter than most people, or just very bored. I keep seeing Magic Jack on TV. I know it's a gimmick, so I checked it out. You know you can't get quality phone service for $19.95 a year. It's a voice over internet deal. Every time you make a phone call your personal files are sent to 40 million people including John Edwards. When you dial 911 you get Pizza Hut and they deliver a pizza to William Shatner. And the clincher is if I dial a 900 number, I get Rosie O'Dognal! At least that's what I heard.

Don't be sucked in by get poor quick schemes. It if sounds cheap, it is. It's cheap/expensive. Best advice is don't buy anything. Eat the food in your freezer and call me back in a month.

I wish everyone well! All for now.

Neanderthrill Man!

Hello my friends,
You are so special for many reasons. One of them is that you appreciate how young I am! You are never more close to someone than when you share the same boat. I never thought much about that saying 'We're all in the same boat" until now. I just realized that, hopefully, my friends, and I guess, really old people are the only ones who might think I'm still young, or at least, not old. I have been on a boat with some friends before. A really huge boat, with thousands of people. All kinds of people. People like me and people not like me. But, I am also in a figurative boat and the older I get, the smaller this boat becomes. So, welcome friends to my boat! It just hit me that most of the people in the world are younger than I (am). I suppose the "am" is assumed, but I'm used to being assumed, if that's anything like being ignored. Today, I reached the intersection of Chambers Rd and McCullough Rd (in my car). I realize that my readers in Nova-Scotia will not relate to this, but I'm not a'boat to lose sleep over it. Speaking of Nova Scotia, I guess you heard about the climate change conference in Copenhagen. It galls me that mankind is so self important that he thinks he can control the climate. He will find some way to put a big dial in the sky, so we can change the temperature. But what if North Korea wants it's own dial. How many people have access to the dial? Remember in the bible when they tried to build a tower to the sky and God said, "No, you're not installing a thermostat! And so He separated the peoples. Well mankind has pretty much managed to mess it all up again. He will spend billions on the study of the control of greenhouse gases. Do you know how many hamburgers McDonald's has sold. You'd think it would be the first thing you see on their website, but I couldn't even find it. Don't worry, it's on Wikipedia. They have sold over 100 billion hamburgers, but it took over 54 years to do it How long do you think it will take our present administration, whose leader is younger than I (am) to spend 100 billion dollars? Less than 54 months! It would be better spent on the control of chicken house gases. I don't know if chickens emit methane gas like cows, but seriously, with all of the economic concerns of today, we don't need to spend money on trying to control the weather. They show video footage of all of the poor and sick people who are suffering and starving in the heat, while they twiddle their thumbs and think of ways to spend money. They're all meeting in Copenhagen now to talk about this some more. Have they heard of teleconferencing? Why couldn't they meet in Bangladesh or Nubia or Griffin? Copenhagen is the perfect place. It's romantic with all of the castles and city waterways with gondolas and the arts. It's ironic that the city where "anything goes" is so picky about the environment, but I guess that's like the pot calling the kettle black. On second thought, let's send all of the politicians there and maybe they won't come back!
Wheww! That's somehow gets me back to my original point. I was waiting to turn left from Chambers to McCullough and the oncoming vehicle hesitated, after waiting for their right of way and I mistakenly thought they were being kind, and letting me make my turn. I eased forward and received a dirty look. I apologize, I thought you were just being kind. My mistake. Southern drivers are often kind and courteous. It must have been an out-of-towner. If you ever get a chance, watch "The Out of Towners", the old Jack Lemmon/Sandy Dennis version.
My 80 year old uncle had his DNA tested to discover our ancestry, which applies to me, since his parents were my grandparents. So I'm learning about my past, which they are dating back 150,000 years. Now, the bible tells me that man was created about 8000 years ago, so I will take this info with a block of salt. Supposedly my ancestors started in Egypt, traveled thru Libya, Tunisia, Greece, Turkey, Belarus, Denmark and ended up around Norway or maybe Copenhagen. They probably became Vikings or Volga Boat Men. Thus my love for music. the rowers would sing"Volga boat men, we're Volga boat men". Anyway, I don't believe in this stuff. It's like carbon dating. I don't believe in dating twins, but if I did, it would be one at a time. It's a non-issue now, as it was then. They expect me to believe they can tell the difference between something that is 19 million years old and something that is only 7 million years old. I don't even keep up with how old the things are in my fridgerator. If it's not green or furry, I eat it. So far, so good. So I found out I belong to a haplogroup. everyone does. Haplogroup H. Also Subclave Group H. Armed with this information I can bravely challenge the world, knowing that my ancestors survived everything the world could throw at them. Judging from all of the markers they left behind, I can assume they were Vikings, Explorers, Aristocrats, world travelers, or perhaps misfits, getting kicked out of every region they settled in. They say I have many thousands of ancestors so they must have been very free with their DNA. At any rate, the more we learn about our ancestors, the more we understand how bad we are, because people are just plain bad.

Oh well, let's chalk this one up to political commentary and close with this bit of timely advice: "Cruise while you can, for tomorrow the world runs on chicken poop".

Silent night!

All We Are Saying, Is Give Funny A Chance"

Here I am quoting, albeit, not verbatim, John Lennon. How strange!! But once again I'm trusting my precious readers to an untested source. Please walk into the mine field of comedy with Jerry Meinfield! Notice I didn't say "give it up for". It's kind of silly to give it up before you've read it.

My Very First Comedy Performance
by Jerry Meinfield

When I was first breaking into comedy...like it’s Fort Knox and you have to break into it. Imagine being so brazen as to break in to this place and try to steal everyone's laughter. When you first start out in comedy, you have to join a comedy union. At least that’s what “some guys” told me. Bytheway, never do what “some guys” tell you to do. They explained to me that it provided an exclusive double indemnity insurance policy. Like if I die twice, they pay off! More like the protection racket. So I said, that’s okay, because I practice “safe comedy”. They said I might try working on a routine that involved broken kneecaps, because comedy usually comes out of your experiences. So I decided a small policy couldn’t hurt, whereas no policy would be painful. And though funny, not worth it! These guys said I should start out playing the bars. A few drinks and they’ll laugh at anything! It helps if the audience is drinking too. Well, actually I was behind some local bars, like the Federal Pen. Bang Zoom! Right to the top!
They promised me a captive audience. Well, let me tell you, a captive audience does not a “captivated” audience make. Neither does an incarcerated one. I had heard that Al Capone had served some time here back in 1932 and the legend is very much alive. Some say his spirit still seems to lurk the dark and danky cells. I’ve been wanting to use that word - danky. Long and lanky, dark and danky, clear and clanky. Those phrases conjure up really, vivid images. Very imagerous! I asked the inn keepers, uh inn mates. Oh, maybe that’s why they looked at me strangely. I asked the striped people. There are two kinds of people. Those who correctly say striped and those who ignorantly say stripe-ped. If you're one of the ignorant ones, just add this to your list of things to ignore. Anyway, I asked the audience if they believed in re-incarnation. You remember, the whole Capone thing? A few said that they had indeed been reincarcerated for the same thing, three times! They totally missed the point, but since their point was sharper than mine, I allowed them to prevail.
Would you believe they almost closed the Federal Pen down in the 80’s? But about that time the Grant Park Zoo became Zoo Atlanta and with that backwards name they turned the whole zoo backwards. Used to be the animals were behind bars and you could walk right up and stare at them, and they, you. Now you walk past their private estate, which you pay for, and hope they might decide to come out and give you a look, but if not, tough bwana nuts. Well someone, probably one of the Candler’s, got to missing the old zoo and decided to save the prison. I thought it would make a great amusement park. It has a wonderful location. It could have a wax museum and a spook house, laundry cart roller coaster, escaped convict shooting galley etc. It’s just down the road from the zoo at the wrong end of Boulevard. The Grant Park district is now a very high dollar, renovated historical community.. My house on the other hand was novated about 8 years ago and it’s now ready for renovation. The Pen on Boulevard would be a perfect condo project. The ideal gated golf community, with beautiful green lawns. It would be Atlanta’s first Segre-gated community with more than 8 distinctly separate sections. There‘s The Play Pen, The Bull Pen. The Safety Pen, The Firing Pen, The Fountain Pen, The Straight Pen, Hair Pen, Bowling Pen you know for hair salon, daycare, ballfield, watering hole etc. It would house restaurants, an amphitheater, a world class fitness center. It has everything. It would be like the old Cabbage Town Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill just down the road - times fifty. Many people don’t know how the sport of softball originated from Cabbage Town. The mill opened in 1860 and recruited poor Irish/Scotts to live in the shotgun houses and work the mill. They soon found that dogs could not do this type of work, so they hired their masters. In 1865 a train derailed on a sharp curve, dumping a shipment of cabbages, so the residents grabbed the cabbages and began growing and cooking them which made the neighborhood reek with the smell of burning rubber. Kidding, it was the smell of boiled cabbage. The cabbage patch kids would sing:
Chorus: Boil that cabbage down,
Bake that hoecake brown.
The onliest song I ever did sing
Is "Boil That Cabbage Down."

Once I had an old gray horse;
Rode him down to town.
'Fore I got my trading done,
The buzzards had him down.
(Chorus)
Wish I had a needle and thread,
As fine as I could sew.
I'd sew that girlie to my coat,
And down the road I'd go.
(Chorus)
Wisht I had a nickel,
Wisht I had a dime,
Wisht I had a pretty little girl
To love me all the time.
Google Smothers Brothers Boil that Cabbage down for an audio/video version.

Anyway, the neighborhood kids couldn’t afford sporting goods, so they started playing baseball with a cabbage and a broomstick bat, which later became known as softball. They eventually became the Atlanta Crackers, because a real slugger, like Max Baer (renowned southern boxer, also father of Max Baer Jr, aka Jethro Bodine) could hit the cabbage so hard it would crack. By the time the opponent could field the broken cabbage, the batter would be on third base. Thus the southern delicacy, Baer Battered Cabbage.

For now, it’s home to 957 of the baddest neighbors you’d ever want to meet. If I can make these guys laugh, perhaps I could play the Monastery next time. The first thing a comedian must do is consider his audience, what they go thru, what makes them laugh, what makes them not want to kill you? They’re just regular people who are going thru a tough time. I decided perhaps my comic hero, Bob Hope had set a good example with his USO shows, so I might try to emulate him. Hi guys, this is Jerry - love what you’ve done with the place - Mienfield. Thought I’d drop in and see what the attraction is for this castle. I requested a reservation, but the warden said it was booked from ten to twenty.. Said I’d have to wait for a vacancy. As luck has it there’s a vacancy at midnight unless the governor intervenes. I unplugged the phone so Mr. 4952613, please be sure to clear your stuff out by say, nine-thirtyish.. But you should see the cab service. I hitched a ride in an FBI cab. They slowed down to 50, opened the back door and let me out at the curb. They didn’t wait around for the tip. I guess they knew the door man would take it when I come in. I heard there weren’t any females here, so I brought a few. These are wholesome broads. Oh, I should have said these are some whole broads! No missing parts! Some are relocated, but everything’s still there. Yep, these are real put together ladies. You can ask their surgeons!. A couple of them can even take their own teeth out! The rest need help. These women can actually predict the future, which is what most people predict. I used to predict the past. It’s pretty handy being able to tell people what happened even after it happened. Only one lady didn’t like her husbands past and - I think that’s her in the fifth row with the daggers tattooed on her armpits. Anyway, for you guys that have 20 or 30 to go, these gals can show you how your wives will look when you get out! Makes you want to re-up doesn’t it? They brought you some pies and cakes. They promised not to put saws in the cakes, but I believe you could cut the bars with a pie crust.

Well I’m afraid that’s about all the time I have left. I mean, if I don’t leave now, I’m really afraid that my time is up. You’ve been a real killer audience or, um, I mean it’s been nice getting to know you and I’ll write real soon.
Boy! Where are “some guys“ when you really need them??
Don’t laugh ’till you get outside the gates!

WHERE DOES FUNNY GO?

What happens when funny leaves town?
Does he forget about those he once entertained?
Does he abandon us all to sorrow and pain?
When laughter's on leave, it's replaced by a frown.
What happens to us when funny leaves town?

Why did funny leave?
Was I so poor of a host, indeed?
I never meant to neglect so kind a friend.
Or to take him for granted or cast to the wind.
Oh what did I do to drive him away?
I'll have funny back and make him at home
For funny should never be let out alone.

Melodramatic..a little. It's kind of like an enema. You just have to get it out so better things can come. Where does funny go, when it gets tired? To a funny farm? Here's the thing. I haven't felt funny in a l-o-o-ng time. Not sure why, but I think it might have to do with numbers. I've been playing Sudoku which is a game involving numbers. The ones in the front of the book are easy. The one's at the end are too hard. The ones in the middle are just right! Like Goldilocks and the Three Bores. I may get stuck on a hard Sudoku for a whole week, but I can finally understand it and figure it out! No, I take it back. You don't understand math. Math just is! You can know it, but there is little to understand. No compassion in math. No humor in math itself. You can interject some humor using math. Such as, "She has the most beautiful teeth"! Both of them! Wait, both is a word instead of a number. I guess it implies a number. I understand that odd numbers are funnier than even.

Anyway, I just finished a hard Sudoku. If I look hard enough and long enough and with enough different viewpoints, I can solve it. It proves I'm not stupid. I can do math and space and order if I concentrate enough. But I've had enough of enough! And enough enough is enough! I also play Spider Solitaire. My high score is 85. Not that big of a deal, but it's been my high score for months and months. I want to beat that score and then I'll quit. The spell will be broken. I can be funny again. I want to score at least 86, proving to myself that it will never again be worth that much of my time again to try for 87. I believe for those totally lacking mathematical, spacial and organizational skills, that number games are quite valuable and even therapeutic, but alas, I've had enough!

Thank you for being patient. Had to get this out of the way to make room for some other foolishness that is starting to drivel in. I hope you will give funny a place in your life and show gloom the door!

Speaking of things I have lost, besides funny, here's a list. I recently lost a large box of Cheerios. I'm OCD about garbage. I fold my garbage and put things inside of things. I had a large empty box on the kitchen counter that I was filling with other trash to conserve space. Being that this box was empty, I had bought a new identical one. Next day i have a bowl of Cheerios out of the new box and then proceed to throw it in the garbage, outside. Next day, when I want Cheerios, all I have is folded trash! Wouldn't it be nice if they put something in Cheerios that would actually cheer you up? Like dollar bills or a mind altering substance?
The worst thing I lost was my grandfathers Elgin pocket watch. Of all things I took it on a swimming trip with the bus ministry and it fell out of the hole in my cut-offs.
I lose sleep all of the time
I lost (sold) my 69 Camaro. It made sense at the time. Still does. it's one of those mature things you wish you didn't have to do. Did you know the word Camaro, is not even in spellcheck. What's the world coming to? Also spellcheck is not in spellcheck.
Lost my hair. I saw that one coming or should I say going. My mothers brothers were all bald. By the way, my uncle just did a DNA test, so I'm going to find out who's responsible. My ancestors were probably Monks. THAT'S why I'm so quiet! In those days, if you were bald they took you outside the city and put you in a commune, so all you could do was chant and pray.
I lost the Peachtree Road Race..11 times. I finally gave up
The worst thing I ever lost was my mom, but God has her, so it's ok. She was the best!


Love, laughter and smiles to you - Good night!

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