(Reworked from a 2012 post.)
When our daughter & son-in-law were first
married, they lived in one of three small houses that we bought for
rental. Bob, who worked in Bud’s office,
lived next door. Bob had found a box
containing a litter of puppies that someone had abandoned on the street. He gave one (“Fio”, short for “Fiorina”,
little flower in Italian)) to them & found other homes for the rest. Our son-in-law was complaining that almost
everything they owned once belonged to Bob.
He said, “We have Bob’s dishes, Bob’s sofa, Bob’s table…” & then he
looked at Fio & said, “Come here, Bob’s dog!”
Food looks beautiful & tempting in
advertisements, doesn’t it? Do you know
why you can never get yours to look that good?
I once took a photography class which was taught by a professional who
also shot ads. You probably know that
they use mashed potatoes instead of vanilla ice cream because ice cream can’t
stand up under all those hot lights. But
do you have any idea how they get roast turkeys to get so shiny & evenly
browned? With the new photography
techniques, I don’t know it they still do it this way or not, but at that time
they coated it with motor oil!
You Know You’ve Been Married a Long Time When
Dept: Before the days of Netflix or when you could find out anything on your
computer or Smart Phone, Bud & I had been wracking our brains for over a
month trying to remember who played the role of “Doc” in the movie “Mr.
Roberts”. No particular reason, it was
just frustrating not to be able to remember.
I could picture him, but could not come up with his name. Early one morning (about 3am) I woke up with a
flash of genius. I shook Bud awake &
said two words--“William Powell”--with no further explanation. He opened one eye, looked at me & said,
“You’re right!” & promptly rolled over & went back to sleep.
We were with our three kids & another couple
in Hawaii. Six of us (Bud & I, our 3
kids & Scott’s girlfriend) were enjoying the sand, the sun & the
ocean. Scott, not so much. The ocean was too wet, the sun too sunny
&, I guess, the sand was too sandy.
We decided to have a T-shirt made for him. After quite a lengthy discussion with the
clerk, who didn’t believe that was what we really wanted, the shirt was
made. It said, simply, “NATURE
SUCKS”. THAT, he liked!
In Hawaii, our daughter saw a T-shirt that she
liked in a window. It said, “YOUR NAME
HERE”. We went in & asked the clerk
for a red one in her size. He got an unprinted shirt & asked her name. She asked him why he wanted to know. He told her it was so he could put her name
on the shirt. She said she wanted the
shirt to say, “YOUR NAME HERE”. He said,
“I know! So what’s your name?” Back & forth. She finally asked him for a piece of paper
& wrote down just what she wanted it to say. After some time, the young clerk, who had
apparently taken this job so he could earn enough go to Cal Tech or MIT &
become a rocket scientist, made her the shirt.
She wore it for a long time. It
said exactly what she wanted. It looked
something like this:
__________________________________________