Another Monday

Uncle Ken and I must have read the same funny papers since we both remembered the comic There Oughta Be a Law!  As soon as I read the post by Mr. Beagles I did an image search and found a nice example and was going to post it, despite the late hour.  I decided to wait and see if Uncle Ken had anything to say, and sure enough, he did.  I'm glad I waited and didn't end up stealing his thunder. And as a bonus for Uncle Ken, I found the original handwritten lyrics to Rocket Man by Bernie Taupin.  It's interesting how Elton John tweaked the words to fit his music; compare and contrast!

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As long as I was digging into the lyrics of Bernie Taupin, I wound up on YouTube
viewing the many live performances of Elton John over the decades.  He's been singing Rocket Man since the early 70s and you can tell he loves performing for a crowd.  The guy's a consummate entertainer and his costumes are beyond outrageous.  Check out his live versions of Bennie and the Jets; they're my favorites.

Watching those videos I couldn't help but think that Elton John is the Baby Boomer version of that son of West Allis, Wisconsin, Liberace.  And talk about flamboyant costumes, Yikes!  I remember when he had his TV show for a while and how my mother used to love to watch him, but I thought there was something strange about him but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.  But I was a kid and completely unaware of the variations of adult behavior, and what was considered "normal."  One of my mother's country cousins used to describe fellows such as Liberace as being artistic, which is as fine a euphemism as any.

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Have either of you guys gotten your census forms yet?  I got mine last week and now you answer the questions online; they'll send you a paper questionnaire if you don't have internet access, I guess.  I got a Nielsen TV survey, too.  They include a dollar bill, and if you return the form they send you a fiver.  Easy money!

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No sense in yapping about the state of the world, is there?  I think we just have to hold on and ride this thing out; we don't have a whole lot of control over what's happening but the effectiveness of our federal government is a tragedy.

There's been a new phrase making the rounds the past few months by a writer of post-apocalyptical novels, G. Michael Hopf.  He wrote: “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men.  And, weak men create hard times.”

Makes sense to me.