Friday Hodgepodge

Friday, September 18, 2020

Four Things

1. Before the pandemic hit, it looked like Pumpkin, aided by the desire not to be seen sucking her thumb by her peers, was finally on the verge of quitting the habit.

Fortunately, school is back. But before then, I had started doing an irritating jingle (as in the video clip below) whenever I would catch her in the act.


In the process of singing, "Thumb-thumb-thumb-thumb! Thumb-thumb-thumb-thumb-THUMB!," I recalled my own parents part-cajoling my brother and me and part amusing themselves by singing "Eat, eat, eat, eat! Eat, eat, eat, eat!" at dinner time when they had trouble getting us to finish our meals.

It really irritated us then, but I smile every time I think of it, now.

2. I'll grant that Amazon is extremely convenient, but I'll raise you and say that it is sometimes a little too convenient for certain people who like to shop. (I'm thinking of you, Mrs. Van Horn!)

And so it was that, one evening, when my wife mooted the idea of ordering something to my daughter, I heard her exclaim, "Don't buy that! Dad doesn't like it when you buy from Amazon!"

3. On recounting a sliding board pile-up at recess one day, my son amused me with the following turn of phrase: "a big ball of human."

4. I recently mentioned my son's jealousy of his sister's "super power."

Apparently, it works both ways.


Since our school asks that parents take their children's temperatures before dropping them off, I decided to enlist the aid of Memory Boy each morning.

So... Which one of them makes sure I take their temperatures each morning?

Sniper Eyes, of course.

-- CAV

3 comments:

Snedcat said...

Yo, Gus, as you might have heard, Stanley Crouch has passed away. He was always an entertaining and interesting writer, and I especially enjoyed his writings on music, even when I disagreed with him. Wynton Marsalis penned a fine tribute to him here.

Gus Van Horn said...

Snedcat,

That is indeed sad news, and I'm with you on his writing. I learned via Power Line, which has a post about him.

Also, as i write this, news is breaking that Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died.

Gus

Snedcat said...

Yo, Gus, you write, "Also, as i write this, news is breaking that Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died."

And it's already a circus, though almost all of the performers in the spotlight seem to be midgets.

And about Crouch, "That is indeed sad news, and I'm with you on his writing."

Like I said, I didn't agree with him on all of his comments about music (for example, I remember him disliking funk; I disagree). He did seem to change his opinion at times though. The example I remember best (though it's been 20 years since I read it, so I don't remember it that well) was one statement about Miles Davis's best work; in a later essay, the best works had changed. One essay I think said it was his work with his quintet in the late 50s, like Workin', Steamin', Relaxin', and Cookin', while the other said it was his second quintet, with Ron Carter and Tony Williams as his percussion power source. It made me listen to them again pretty carefully to see which I myself liked better, and while I'm still not sure which I prefer, he was certainly right about Carter and Williams, who also appeared on one of my favorite jazz albums evah. Or maybe he praised the two combos for different things. Still, it's all good.