QUARANTINE BLOG # 119

July 27, 2020

I have decided to be a curmudgeon for the opening of today’s blog.  Actually, I decided it on Saturday when I started writing it.  I had fun with this, hope you do, too.

Because this is Monday’s blog, I asked Google to find songs about Monday that would express my current mood (actually, Saturday’s mood).  And one of the songs Larry Page’s and Sergey Brin’s search engine came up with was a 1968 single by the “Mamas and the Papas” which only got to # 81 on the Billboard chart (maybe one of their worst releases).  But it’s not about Monday, not one single mention of the day named for Máni, the Norse personification of the moon.  Regardless, I include a link because I can think of at least one blog reader who would take it to # 1 on all the charts.  The song is For the Love of Ivy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-2q5c_9jAg

Google did recommend two appropriate selections.  First was “Monday, Monday,” but none of the listings were by the Mamas and the Papas who released it first.  It gave cover versions by Fleetwood Mac, Matthew Sweet, and Mrs. Miller (google that one yourself – oh my goodness!), but it took a separate search to get the original (there have been at least 20 covers) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h81Ojd3d2rY

But whenever Monday comes – but whenever Monday comes
You can find me crying all of the time.
Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day;
Monday, Monday, it just turns out that way.
Oh, Monday, Monday, won’t go away;
Monday, Monday, it’s here to stay.
Oh Monday, Monday
Oh Monday, Monday

And there’s “Rainy Days and Mondays” by the Carpenters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjFoQxjgbrs

Talkin’ to myself and feelin’ old
Sometimes I’d like to quit
Nothin’ ever seems to fit
Hangin’ around
Nothin’ to do but frown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down

Well, after that long introduction, what was it that made me so grumpy on Saturday that I wanted to share it with you on Monday?

Two things: Charmin Bath Tissue and Windows.

You have to have been born before Richard Nixon won the presidency for the first time, or have been browsing old commercials on YouTube, to remember Mr. Whipple and Charmin Bath Tissue.  Promoting its softness, Mr. Whipple would stop customers squeezing the packages with the warning, “Please don’t squeeze the Charmin.”  Here is an early version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUGroVDEVfQ

Well, you wouldn’t want to squeeze it today, or at least the stuff that’s come out since toilet paper hoarding stopped.

Be careful! That looks awfully like you know what!

My bride found it a week or so ago, and after we opened the last of the supply which was  stocked in, back before the quarantine, when we were expecting visitors from north of here, we opened the new supply.  I am glad we have TP.  What we have is better than tree leaves or bark, but not by much.  I think that to get new supplies out to the stores, they changed the formula.  Proctor & Gamble, you can do better!

The second thing that got me into grouchy pants was my computer – specifically the latest Windows update (I know I’ll hear from one of those aforementioned north-living would-be visitors who is a devotee of Apple and Mac).

I have my computer set to look for updates early Saturday mornings while I am still asleep, so that it will be restarted and ready to go when I sit down at the keyboard.  Imagine my surprise when I moved the mouse to wake up the machine and all I saw on the desktop was my icons and a black background.  Where was the Christmas picture, taken last year, that has the whole family sitting close to the Christmas tree, waiting to plunge into an over-abundance of presents?  Windows decided all that mattered was that black background.

“Oh no you don’t!” says I, and right clicked on the black abyss knowing an option would come up to personalize my desktop.  It did, but in a new fashion – I did tell you this was an update – and I had to hunt for the option to put a picture over the BB.  Well, I persevered, and the family is back.

Windows wasn’t through changing things (Reminds me of a scene from Star Trek: The Motion Picture with Doctor McCoy complaining about the new sickbay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c_8FgzqZpU).  I have/had/have my computer set to open files the way I wanted.  To open a photograph I use the old fashioned Windows Photo Viewer.  It’s faster than the new app, but no, the update changed it and I had to undo the change.  And I open audio and video files with VLC media player, an incredible app I’ve been using for years, and it does more than just play songs and movies (but that’s a story for another time).  The update had changed that  too, but my computer is now back in its proper configuration.

And that’s why I was looking for songs about Monday!

👉  Two more pieces, both from our “Good News Department.”  First, we have a budding artist in the family, Matt’s and Carey’s daughter, Emma.  Here are two water colors – the colors flow, they blend, they enhance:

But she’ll never make any money on her paintings, because her palm trees look like palm trees.  To be famous they have to look like something else, a la Pablo Picasso in this painting “The Kitchen.”

There is always hope the art world will recover.  Don’t stop!  Keep painting, Emma!

👉  Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) was a genius: an intellectual, a linguist who spoke no less than seven languages fluently, a great pianist, composer, and prime minister of Poland in 1919.

A fascinating story is told about Paderewski organizing a meeting to raise money for the Polish Relief Fund.  The event took place during World War II (some say the story is made up, some say it really happened – I’m not sure it matters which opinion is true).

Before the great musician could seat himself at the grand piano, a small boy crept on stage and began to play “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”  Paderewski walked on stage, sat beside the boy and whispered, “Don’t stop.  Keep playing,” as he filled in the bass part with his left hand.  The duo accomplished what the soloist could not, a mesmerizing performance with the help of the master pianist.

All of us play wrong notes no matter how hard we concentrate.  Our hands grow tired.  Our minds get distracted.  Our hearts become discouraged.  But in spite of our inexperience, our ignorance, and our weakness, Jesus Christ places His sovereign fingers beside ours and whispers, “Don’t stop.  Keep playing.”

-30-