IS IT JUST I

Until I just typed that title, I never thought that Is It Just Me is grammatically incorrect. It should be as I typed it. I've said it a ton of times, but until now I didn't realize that it is grammatically incorrect to take the objective case after a linking verb. That is, the predicate nominative must be I.

Is it just me, or do songs from days passed bring up vivid images of where we were when? A long time good friend of mine posed the question on Facebook this week wondering how many of us had ever been in a parked car when the Ronettes song "Be My Baby" came on through the speakers. But I'm not talking necessarily about romantic times.

Whenever I hear "Venus in Blue Jeans" I think of playing basketball at a friend's house. When I hear "He's So Fine" I think of a bus ride out of town going to a basketball game. When I hear "What Becomes of the Lonely Hearted", I think of a good friend who knew the words and loved to sing/talk it. And when I think of one of my all-time favorites, Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves A Woman," I think of wishing I had a girl at the time so I could be that kind of guy.

When I think of the song from "A Chorus Line", "One" I don't think of the play which I've seen on Broadway and other places; I think of a tribute at Busch Stadium to one of my all-timers, Ozzie Smith. When I hear The Monkees "Daydream Believer" I recall a hard day at work with a friend. And when I hear any song by The Association, I think of that same friend and our Spring Break in Joliet, IL .

So rather than to take you down any more of my memory interstate (for I do have quite a memory-- no way is it a lane), I'll list some songs and see if they bring back a place, a person, a time. "Sunday Will Never Be the Same," Monday, Monday", "Ruby Tuesday", "Telestar", the first Beatle song you ever heard, and "Blue Hawaii". I couldn't leave the King out.

And the picture at the start of this entry, well that reminded me of the Song of '61--"Stanger on the Shore". Happy reminiscing. Remember that one? "Friday night it was late I walked you to the gate...and reminiscing."

NA, NA, NA,NA, HEY HEY HEY

to complete the rest...Good-bye.

Well, you'll just have to forgive my gloating, my exuberance at the results of the Republican Shellacking, as Mr. Obama called it.

Pleased? Definitely. Except for three losses--to Quinn in IL, to Reid, in Nevada, and to Frank in Mass. What? No complaint about Jerry Brown.

Well, what do you expect from the People's Republic of California? And they set such a fine example of budget management and fiscal responsibility. Not to mention morality.

And while I'm there, only one candidate did I hear or read about mention God. I read a lot and watched a lot--not junkie a lot, but quite a bit. A local losing candidate, a Democrat in MTV, Steve Langa said after his loss that God had bigger and better plans for him. Amen, Steve. And if you run again, you'll have my support though I can't vote for you unless you move.

What I heard was happiness from the winners, but also a lot of pride. I heard plans, but not a lot of turning to God for guidance. I heard a lot about "taking back this country", but nothing about returning to its foundations: religion. Even Ben Franklin, possibly an agnostic, talked on different occasions about the blessings of Our Maker.

Christians may not be the moral majority in America anymore. That is so sad. We have embraced other cultures in the name of tolerance, but rejected our own culture based on Judeo-Christian values and beliefs. We're becoming Europeanized all right. Where in some countries 67% are atheists or agnostics. Where beautiful centuries- old cathedrals are unoccupied.

This election didn't turn that around. For them I'm deeply saddened. When I taught high school students English ( if I say I taught English, then I'd be subject driven--believe me I wasn't) that cheer "na, na, na,na" was popular. I'm glad to say good-bye with a sarcastic wave of the hand to Pelosi and company. But I'm sure not ready to embrace the new regime until as we returned to basics in education, they as political leaders return to basics and prioritize: God, family, country, self. In that order. Then I'll really celebrate.

COUNTENANCE

Why do so many of them look like this? What is it about being an author that makes so many of them look derelictic?

This photo is of George Bernard Shaw. A highly respected writer though I never knew quite why. I've read him, I've taught him, but with not much

enthusiasm. From the looks of him, it appears he penned his work in that same vein.

I don't need to make a list of authors that look frumpy, frazzled, forlorn, and far out. Faulkner, ok, I said I wasn't going to list them. You can check some of them out if you can find an old gin kind of card game called Authors. I don't know if they even make the game any more, and it would be a whole lot simpler to Bing some writers. Maybe you need no convincing.

But what this entry was supposed to be about (I do that a lot; that is, I start with an idea, run a rabbit trail, change my mind, get another angle, or just change for change's sake) is why they look that way. Is it because they know? They know the heartaches of living. They've been able to see what the rest of us can't. They are such writeaholics that they cannot take time to be kempt. Kempt must be a word since unkempt is. They are such perfectionists that it takes so much time honing their crafts that they get that look, along with getting old. Or, they're just weird.

Take your pick. I have no answer as usual. But if you play that card game, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a keeper. Don't discard him, because he'll show up again and you can make a book (how apropos) with him and his weird name.

Why do authors have such weird names? Maybe next time.

ALL ABOUT COLOR

When I remember high school and juco dances, and believe me, I don't remember many because I chose not to go to too many, at least my freshman and sophomore years, I think of the photograph experience. On Stinson Drive at the home of photographer Richard Clark.

He was the best. Along with Louie Paveledes. I went there one time and he did a great job, but I felt like such a traitor. For some reason, Richard Clark and dances went together. He was kind, patient, timely, and friendly. He always spoke and called me by name when he saw me out and about the town. Even when he didn't have a camera.

His house would be filled with dance-goers sitting around his living room waiting their turns. The girls would be putting on the final touches in bathrooms and other parts of his house where there were mirrors. The guys were hoping they wouldn't wilt too much. Not the girls: the guys themselves who weren't too comfortable in suits and tuxs and just wanted to get it over with.

What reminded about this teen ritual in a small southern Illinois community in the '60's was the color painted photo pictured. That's the way Mr. Clark did his. I don't know if we were that long ago that color prints were extremely expensive, but everybody got the painted ones for some reason. Either that or the traditional black and white, that to me looked more realistic anyhow.

Richard Clark's last pictures he made for us were for our wedding. Mostly black and white with one color painted one. He had to go to the church for that one. I'm not sure I would have been up to making that cross town drive that evening. He did his usual great job, even taking one of my favorites of my bride and me sitting in our car with the Just Married signs.

DON'T, PLEASE DON'T VOTE

If you support the policies of the guy on the right. I wish he were on the right. At least on the right road.

I understand, too, if you are Black and continue to support him. At least publicly. I know there's pride involved. Hey, I'm proud, too, that our country could elect a half Black, half White President. It means we have come a long way, baby.

It's just not this guy. But again, I understand the public support. But he is helping just whom? Socialists maybe, but that's all I see benefiting from policies that wreck us economically (and please don't point to the spending of Congress under GW Bush, because this Prez has far exceeded that of both Bushs and a host of other Presidents).

World wide opinion of our country, respect for our country, and cooperation with our country have gone south under Mr. Obama. How could it not the way he apologizes for us as a nation? His foreign policy of appeasement at times, attack at times but announcing when we are going to leave a country is preposterous.

If you agree, then please vote. If you agree with the current admin and Congress, then please stay home and tell your friends of that persuasion to also. Can the United Sates stand two more years of the status quo?

RAY BRADBURY AND ME

In one of Bradbury's episodic chapters in The Martian Chronicles, there's a character who looks like whatever person sees him as. Some saw him as a dead relative, some a former lover, even a policeman saw him as a killer who had gotten away. I'm starting to feel a little like that guy.

In the past month, I've had people tell me I look (or looked like) Beaver Cleaver, Tony Orlando, Billy Joel, and then on Thursday, a new one--Wolfman Jack. I was riding in a golf cart with my wife when the cart girl stopped to ask if we wanted something to eat or drink.

As I approached her the conversation went like this.

"Ohmygosh, you look like Wolfman Jack. I think it's the beard. I bet your wife has a fantasy about that."

"Wolfman Jack?"

"You even sound a little like him with your deep voice."

"And as far as my wife. That's not my wife. It's someone else's. You see, I have fantasies, too."

End of story. I told my wife about it when I returned to the cart. Like a lot of my humor, she didn't much care for it. She didn't seem to say much about The Wolfman comparison.

But then again, she knows I'm certainly not a Renaissance Man. But just maybe I am Universal Man.

ALL HALLOW'S
Heck yeah I like Halloween. Always have. And not calling it the Autumn Festival. We already have a holiday for that: it's called Thanksgiving. Another holiday I love.

But what's wrong with Halloween? I've heard non-Halloweeners cite its pagans beginnings. But those same antis also dislike Santa Claus. What about Saint Nihcolas' beginnings where he gave gifts to the poor? How can we accept one's genesis and not the other?

Do some get carried away with Halloween? Sure. Anything Satanic is terrible. Anything associated with loading apples with razor blades goes beyond cruel and sick. But for the majority, it's great fun to be a little spooked. To decorate a few trees with toilet paper and soap a few windows. Though I participated, I object because it somehow destroys the beauty of the season to see white toilet paper flying kite-like from the tops of branches thrown expertly by a deft hand.

Dressing up for one night is fun. What is the harm? Even small children like to put on their parents shoes and walk or fall around in them. What does it bother if they pretend? Don't we try to stifle that in many children anyway and try to rush them into adolescence. "Act your age." I'd love for some kid to say somewhere, "That's exactly what I'm doing."

So if you're able, enjoy Halloween. Imagine that a black cat is a witch. Believe in ghosts filing out of graveyards tonight. And yeah, clean up a little tp. But wait until tomorrow or you might just be sorry.