Sometimes I get off on a tangent but if you will read to the end here, you will understand the journey. Charley Pride (86) died in Dec. 2020, of COVID related complications. He was the fourth of eleven children of poor sharecroppers. Yes, he was an American singer and guitarist, but before that he was a professional baseball player. In 1952, he pitched for the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro American League.  In 1953, while in the Negro leagues with the Louisville Clippers, two players, Pride and Jesse Mitchell, were traded to the Birmingham Black Barons for a team bus. Pride said, “Jesse and I may have the distinction of being the only players in history to be traded for a used motor vehicle.” In 1958, when he was discharged from the Army, he tried to return to baseball, but continued to be hindered by an injury to his throwing arm. Pride played three games for the Missoula Timberjacks of the Pioneer League (a farm club of the Cincinnati Reds) in 1960, and had tryouts with the California Angels (1961) and the New York Mets (1962) organizations, but was not picked up by either team. in 1960. He was recruited to pitch for the local semipro baseball team, the East Helena Smelterites in Montana. The team manager helped him get a job at the local lead smelter where they kept 18 jobs open specifically for baseball players, arranging their shifts so they could play as a team. Pride batted .444 his first year. Dang, he was good! The team manager noticed that he was also a great singer and musician, and so his long musical career began. In 1969 he and his family moved to Dallas. In 2008, Pride and his brother Mack “The Knife” Pride and 28 other living former Negro league players were “drafted” by each of the 30 Major League Baseball teams in a recognition of the on-field achievements and historical relevance of 30 mostly forgotten, Negro league stars. Pride was picked by the Texas Rangers, with whom he has had a long affiliation, and the Colorado Rockies took his brother Mack. Baseball player-turned-iconic country singer Charley Pride was also a part–owner of the Texas Rangers franchise. Last week, the Texas Rangers baseball team announced that their spring training field in Surprise, Arizona, had been renamed “Charley Pride Field“. There.

One of the hardest things in the world is keeping your mouth shut when you know something needs to be said.

A 5-foot-tall ceramic figurine($153) of Trump as Buddha, with a “peaceful expression on his face and both hands resting on his lap”, is being sold by a designer and furniture maker in China. The figurine is also available in a 14-foot version ($613). These are sold with the slogan, “make your company great again.” The description describes the figurine as, “Trump, who knows Buddhism better than anyone.” According to TheBuddhistCentre.com, Buddhism is described as a path of practice and spiritual development leading to insight into the true nature of reality. Buddhist practices like meditation are means of changing yourself in order to develop the qualities of awareness, kindness, and wisdom.

“Gardening gives me fun and health and knowledge. It gives me laughter and colour. It gives me pictures of almost incredible beauty.”John F. Kenyon

My Comcast payment was mailed on December 30th, postmarked on December 31st, and returned to my office with a familiar yellow sticker across the front of the envelope. RETURN TO SENDER. Attempted – Not Known – Unable to Forward. Good grief. It is a PO Box in Dallas. How could you lose a PO Box? I called Comcast and after 30 minutes finally got a real person. Jackie. She was kind and surprised me with, “Your account says you don’t owe anything so don’t worry about it.” Heavy sigh. Then, why did you send me a bill for $299.58? She transferred me to billing. Re-mail the check and it will be noted on your account. I re-mailed it. Then it about a week later, it was returned to my office again. I re-stamped and re-mailed it. Guess what I received at my office today, two-and-half months later. Yep, a boomerang bill.

RECENT BIRTHDAYS: Actor Judd Hirsch is 86. Bassist Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead is 81. Singer Mike Love of the Beach Boys is 80. Singer-keyboardist Sly Stone of Sly and the Family Stone is 78. Guitarist Howard Scott of War is 75. Model Fabio is 60. Game show host Chuck Woolery is 80. Actor Erik Estrada is 72. Singer Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel is 70. Guitarist Nancy Wilson of Heart is 67.Singer-songwriter John Sebastian of the Lovin’ Spoonful is 77. Percussionist Harold Brown of War is 75.

Actor Ursula Andress is 85. Dr. No, Casino Royale. Actor Patrick Duffy is 72. Actor Kurt Russell is 70. Actor Lesley-Anne Down is 67. Actor Gary Sinise is 66. Actor Rob Lowe is 57. Singer Clarence “Frogman” Henry is 84. I Don’t Know Why I Love You, but I Do. Singer Ruth Pointer of the Pointer Sisters is 75. Actor Hal Linden is 90.Barney Miller. Country singer Don Edwards is 82. Country singer-guitarist Ranger Doug of Riders in the Sky is 75. Actor William Hurt is 71. Drummer Carl Palmer is 71. Asia& Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Guitarist Jimmie Vaughan is 70. Fabulous Thunderbirds.

American broadcast journalist Roger Mudd, of Meet the Press and NBC Nightly News, died from complications of kidney failure at 93. American Hall of Fame boxer, and undisputed middleweight champion from 1980 – 1987, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, died of natural causes at 66. Actor Henry Darrow died of natural causes at 87. You would remember him from The High Chaparral. He was the first Hispanic actor to portray Zorro. In the 60’s TV, he was known as THE Latin heartthrob.

In San Antonio is the world’s first fully accessible water park for children as well as adults, with special needs. It allows everyone regardless of ability, a place to have fun. It is called Morgan’s Inspiration Island and is located on four acres right next to Morgan’s Wonderland, a 25-acre ultra-accessible theme park that opened in 2010. Both parks are named for Gordon & Maggie Hartman’s now adult daughter who has cognitive as well as physical challenges. Gordon, a very successful retired homebuilder, sold his business to establish a foundation to assist individuals with special needs in 2005. He assembled a group of stakeholders, individuals with special needs, caregivers, parents, nurses, therapists, and doctors, then armed with their knowledge, he hired architects, designers, and engineers – all people that had never built a water park. He said, “I didn’t want to be told how we were supposed to build it.” Morgan’s Inspiration Island now enjoys Harvey’s Hideaway Bay, a jungle-themed tree house with a large tipping bucket, River Boat Adventure complete with an animatronic hippo, alligators, and other animals. There is Rainbow Reef where guest sensitive to cold can enjoy a heated water splash pad with geysers. Calypso Cove is an interactive musical forest, Hang10 Harbor has squirting surfboards and palm trees, while Shipwreck Island is a pirate ship with water cannons and a double slide topped with a huge tipping bucket. For those in electric wheelchairs, four Pneu Chairs are available that only weigh about 120 pounds and only take 10 minutes to recharge. Hartman adds, “Morgan’s is designed for the person with the least amount of mobility, so they can do everything as independently as possible. If you can roll on it with a power chair, you can roll on it with a manual chair, and you can certainly walk there, too.” Morgan’s Inspiration Island was named on the 2018 “World’s Greatest Places” list by TIME Magazine. It reopened March 5^th after a yearlong shutdown for COVID.

“To get the best results you must talk to your vegetables.” Prince Charles 1948

Kelsey Grammar is back as radio psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane with a new version of the Frasier sitcom streaming on the service formerly known as CBS All Access. Dunkin’ Donuts has added avocado toast to their menu. Ocean’s Eleven costars George Clooney and Julia Roberts are teaming up for a new romantic comedy about a divorced couple who go to Bali to prevent their daughter from making the same mistake they did 25 years earlier. I am IN! It is called Ticket to Paradise.

Wisdom is a female albatross and is the oldest (banded) wild bird known to science at the age of, well, at least 70. She lives on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, home to the world’s largest albatross colony where millions of birds return each year to nest in the same place, and usually with the same partner. Biologists estimate she has had at least 30-36 chicks and is in fact, a new mom this year. Who says that women can’t have it all! The sad part of this story is 97 percent of dead albatross chicks found, have plastic in their stomachs because adult birds are able to regurgitate the plastic, they swallow thinking it is food, but chicks are unable to do so, so it fills up their stomachs. Recycle your plastic please.

Food: Chipotle has added Cilantro-Lime Cauliflower Rice to their menu. It is delicious. If I had to pick my final meal (just saying), I think it would be a salad bowl from Chipotle…with very little lettuce. They also have a new Quesadilla. If we could just get a Chipotle and a Schlotzsky’s in southern Brazoria County, I would be such a happy woman. Oh, and if they could be drive-thru, that would be even better.

Joe Biden has sent his family pooches back to the Biden family home in Delaware after Major (adopted in 2018) displayed “agitated behavior on multiple occasions, including jumping, barking, and ‘charging’ at staff and security,” at the White House. Well, let me tell you, when you adopt a dog you adopt all the good, and all the bad habits that they have collected during their time on this Earth. Teller, the downtown stray that became part of our family several months ago, just does not care for dogs that are short, stocky, and muscular. He loves every other dog, but he has pegged a couple of them when they came through the dog park gate, and shown a little aggression towards them, so unfortunately, we took away his visitation privileges for now unless he is on a leash. We assume that something happened to him before he came to live with us, because otherwise he is the sweetest, most loving, gentle animal you can imagine.  But for now, we just continue to expose him to as much as we can, without increasing stress, anxiety, or fear, showing him that it is a pretty nice world we live in. He will come around.

All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from  1970 – 2011, and on The Online Network (TOLN) for 5 months in 2013. It was created by Agnes Nixon, set in Pine Valley, a fictional suburb of Philadelphia, and designed to be a light-hearted soap that focused on social issues and young love. Even college students arranged their class schedules around the airing each day. The original series featured Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime television’s most popular characters. ABC has reached a deal to develop the departed soap opera into a primetime series titled Pine Valley, produced by former cast members Kelly Ripa, and husband Mark Consuelos. The couple played the characters Haley Vaughn and Mateo Santos, where just like in real life, their characters were married to each other on the show. The original series revolved around the town’s core families…Cortlandt, Martin, Chandler, Montgomery, Santos, Hubbard, and Kane families. The new series will follow a journalist new to Pine Valley, who is looking to get to the bottom of the town’s deadly history but gets caught in the middle of a feud between the town’s two prominent families, the Kane, and the Santos.

In 2007, researchers in China saw a wild giant panda rubbing itself with horse manure. The behavior was only observed in cold months. They found that they prefer fresh rather than days old manure. Fresh manure has compounds common in plants, where old manure does not. So, they treated hay with the BCP/BCPO plant compounds and gave it to six pandas at the Beijing Zoo. The pandas rubbed the treated hay on their bodies leading researchers to apply diluted BCP/BCPO to the paws of lab mice, then tested their tolerance to the cold. The mice didn’t even huddle together like the mice in the same study that had simply been given a saline solution. “Therefore, horse manure containing BCP/BCPO likely bestows the wild giant pandas with cold tolerance at low ambient temperatures,” the researchers wrote.

If each of our readers found something to sell, then called us for our very affordable $5 classified ad… you would be so happy to get something out of your house or office, whoever buys your stuff would be thrilled, and we would be ecstatic knowing that we did our part and made $5 in the process. It is a win-win no matter how you look at it. Please consider it, and most of all, thanks for reading us this week.

Lisa