Norman Lear’s sentiments  in Carl Reiner’s documentary on aging “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast,” -exactly! His credo is find your “hammock” and live in the “now.” As he sees it the transition of time in between the “ok it’s over, to what’s next, is when his productivity kicked in. At the end of a writing project, leading with humor and sending a message -he kept hundreds of people in his audience laughing. And I quote- Go Beat that- Happy 100 years yesterday Mr. Lear. 

HBO launched the documentary, catch it if you can. Mel Brooks is hysterical , Dick Van Dyke glides across the dance floor, Norman Lear is brilliant, Carl Reiner orator extraordinare. They were all Nonagenarians -Mr.Reiner RIP -Mr. Lear Happy “100” omg years. 

A big take away message is if you spend too much time working off disappointments and complications you will be one miserable soul. Excuses hold no water when they are used without discretion. Limiting your “woe is me’s” gives you more time to go for the gold. Give hugs, get attention where the tariff is reciprocal and strong. 

The future might be an assumption but when you “find yourself in times of trouble ,” find your version of Mother Mary and become the ambassador of your estate. One thing the long “livers”had in common, whether or not chopped “liver” and french fries were mainstay’s, is that they fell in love with lots of things. They attached passion to their activities. They honed hobbies and had specific collections. Please pass the salt and pepper shakers -collection strong. Cole Porter, hit it- “The night is young, the skies are clear-So if you want to go walking dear. It’s delightful, it’s de-lovely, it’s delirious.” Make it a good week-end. You have a head start!

Recognize opportunities
somethings only come around once.
Don’t bank on luck alone.

Greta Gerwig, who conceived and directed the buzzy live-action film released this month, told The New York Times that she hopes watching the movie will be a quasi-spiritual activity for its viewers. The feeling she wants to achieve, she said, is the same one she felt as a child when she was a guest at the Shabbat dinners of close family
friends who were observant Jews.
“I remember feeling the sense of, ‘Whatever your wins and losses were for the week, whatever you did or you didn’t do, when you come to this table, your
value has nothing to do with that.!’ Amen!

Nostalgia Needed Mid Summer.

A -my name is Alice and my husband’s name is Al, we come from Alabama and we sell Apples. As I open the cupboard on memories, bouncing a Spaulding as we sang the A my name is Alice rhyme, lifting our leg over the ball with each bounce, was an all time great walk around the corner and under a tree.

A primordial work out and creative singing lesson all in one.
My sister Bettie Ann and I grew up together and hung with the “girls on the block.” At lunchtime we stopped playing and walked home for our tuna sandwich or the treat of salami on rye, only made better with the delicious taste of deli mustard. After lunch we would stroll to the all purpose grocery store. I can vividly see the barrel of pickles prominently sitting next to the left of the front door. We would use part of our allowance to buy candy. Our first go to was a striped pixy stick, a straw filled with lik-m-aid. For those in the know it’s a tasty sugary/sour retrospective in time. The original version of Fun Dip. We would then mosey over to the red licorice and marshmallow peeps. At Halloween the chicks turned into orange faced pumpkins. Fast forward 60 years.

It‘s 6:00 A.M. time to put up the coffee, my turn to “make the donuts.” I woke up salivating for a piece of my past, inside that grocery store. Bettie Ann and I would bring our bag of goodies up to the counter. The familiar face of the man, (whose name we never knew) would take the pencil he harbored behind his ear and tally up our treats.
With our visual bounty in hand we would skip our way home and unveil the contents, perhaps trade a piece or two.
Our afternoons were often consumed through adventures with Dick and Jane, The Bobbsey Twins or figuring out if Nancy Drew was ever going to hook up with one of the Hardy Boys.
As we felt the heat of the oven cooking sweet potatoes we knew they would soon be sitting next to the very well done baby lamb chops and canned peas Sophie was making for dinner.

A welcomed pre-dinner activity was watching Patty Duke and her identical cousin navigate their way through high school. We often tried to distinguish between the subtleties in their looks. Hmmm! I long for those days of innocence when our doctor appointments took place as we sat upon the kitchen table. Say Ah! A Blood test was done through a prick in our finger. The local store that sold glass bottles of milk and farmer cheese made no room on the shelf for ammunition. Dwight D. Eisenhower was President.

Everybody in Grover’s Corners looked into the grocery store and the drugstore once a day in “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder. It is with older eyes and wiser hearts that we live our lives. So, just for today, don‘t skimp on passion, reach for the red licorice after a very sour pickle and make it a good Sunday!

Sing along- make it Simple to last your whole life long.

. Tony, Tony Bo-Bony

You were the Man everyone wanted to be around if “somebody broke our heart.” We would dress in our “blue velvet” garb and know if we were in a “ New York State of Mind.,” listening to you croon a tune- would help us “pick up the pieces.”

You certainly led “ The Good Life. Your certain something felt familiar to us not like a “stranger in paradise. “Because of you,” we knew “ body and soul,” “ the best was yet to come.”

So if we were going from “rags to riches “ one moment in time” we would get “pennies from heaven, “ if we were standing in the “the shadow of your smile.”

In pied piper fashion, never skimping on passion and “young at heart“ we believed “everyday would be the first day of spring, every heart would have a new song to sing- and we’d sing of the joy every morning would bring- “if you ruled the world.”

Tony, like Sinatra said you were the “Best of the Best.” We’d sacrifice anything come what might. For the sake of having you near.
“ Under our skin”-“Body and Soul.”

There were times – We got no kick from champagne – but we “got a kick out of you.”

In Duet style Lullaby’s on Broadway with Elton, Lady Gaga, Sting, K.D. Lang , Barbra with an A and Billy Joel you left no question in our minds that:

“oh the good life to be free and explore the unknown, like the heartaches when you learn you must face them alone. “For once in our life”-with “the very thought of you” we will put on a happy face and Never kiss the Good Life good bye. “

“Are you having any fun.
What y’gettin out of living?
Who cares for what you got.
If you’re not having any fun!
What a Life!

. A. e I. o. u.
A virtual who knew.
A little siri a lot of algorithms.
What is right or is it true?
Am I writing this, or is it coming from You?
I before E except after C.
Artificial sweetener not good for you.
Not good for me.

That was the week that was.
“And All the News that’s Fit to Print“
Appears on the masthead of our daily read.
Will creativity be abbreviated?
Or replaced by a digital degree?

We write some prose add a lyric or two.
Original thoughts add a concept we construe.
Will our world as we know it.
In the simple and true.
Be usurped by learning techniques wiser than me, bigger than you?

ChatGPT can create an AI text.
But our experiences we behold.
Recalling our adventures a computer code can’t unfold.

Keeping our erasers, our inkwells close by.
Our modus operandi holding our head towards the sky.
Our feelings are our treasures that can’t be taken away.
Regardless of the fact AI is here to stay.

Great American Playwright. Born on the 4th of July.
Reposting- after binging Neil Simon Movies.

Goodbye Eugene- hearing the news of your passing has given us the “Biloxi Blues.”

Whether we were “Barefoot in the Park, while “Lost in Yonkers” or hitching a ride home from “Brighton Beach” we waited to hear Jonathan Schwartz “Playing our Song,” on WQXR American Standard Radio. Marvin Hamlisch played Carole Bayer Sager’s lyrics to his music with his particular Zip-a-dee-doo-dah enthusiasm. We swayed along and knew all the words. Your collaborations with Mike Nicols and Gene Zaks prolifically chronicled our youth. Oh Neil, we got hooked when we read your name amongst the credits as we watched Sgt. Bilko, played with such guile on The Phil Silvers show. We waited to hear your interviews with Joan Hamburg on 77 WABC to learn what play was next to be “Broadway Bound.” Her interviews typically came at the end of her show after the bargain shopping and food segments. (Shout out to Shelly Fireman, my forever friend and his spin on delicious Italian fare.) Even if we left the house to spatzere around our favorite thrift shops we heard your familiar very New Yawkish sounding voice broadcasted live. The two of you had a repartee we so enjoyed, although we considered you quite the “Odd Couple.”

We marveled at the big city duplex apartments with sunken living rooms, and gilded cage appeal that set the stage for many of your playbooks. Was Willy’s (Walter Matthau) apartment at the beaux arts Ansonia really that big? We thought it could possibly the best pad ever to play hide and go seek. Did Jane Fonda actually run around “Barefoot in the Park” as she pleaded with Robert Redford to try again to save their marriage? We wanted to live in her apartment as soon as we moved to the Village. We knew we didn’t want to live uptown and become a “Prisoner on Second Avenue.” We weren’t sure you could top the episode when Felix Unger walked into Oscar Madison’s cluttered apartment to try to get back together with Gloria. You certainly did when you portrayed the classic “Northeast distributor of Guilt,” and had Molly Picon threaten to keep her head in the oven over the troubles with her bachelor sons.

Our take away quote of yours is “ if you can go through life without experiencing pain you probably haven’t been born yet.” RIP Neil Simon- we’re sure you’ll be filling them with laughter in Suite 203-04 during your “Chapter Two.”

Got Game ? Repost As Needed!

When we figured out that the perpetrator was Colonel Mustard who went after Mrs. Peacock with a Candlestick in the Conservatory we knew we were playing games hooked. Until then we had no “Clue.”

After several games we got that putting hotels on the Boardwalk Square in Monopoly was going to cost anyone who landed on it a couple of the orange and yellow monopoly shekles.

Ah! The days of sitting on the floor with our friends and playing Jacks, scraped hands aside, were so much a part of our “Wonder Years.” Back then getting up from the floor could be done with a quick sprint in the absence of holding onto something to level ourselves. You with me?

So many of the old adages are now living at our front door. Cliches that we never got, couldn’t internalize or just weren’t ready for have now come into play with regularity. Fortuitously, they serve as the bettor at our Mah-jongg table and the leather decorated card turner at our Canasta games.
We are more accepting of our differences and grateful. We are here to socialize and have fun. Medicinal indeed. We sit down and the magic occurs. First game out we adjust our seat, call on our strategy and throw the dice or deal the cards. We leave so much more to chance.

We flinch at the first interference in our game of Life–and in turn almost welcome it. A phone call from a friend’s daughter sharing the joy over their granddaughter’s ballet recital, is typical. An interruption because the dentist needed to move our appointment up a half an hour, or the bell ringing when the handyman comes to fix the window that is stuck, is how it goes. We pool our woes and share our joys. We take home the name of a good acupuncturist and flatter one another when they have a new haircut.

We are the lucky ones who have turned happenstance into “sheer” delight. One of our friends imparted her mother’s wisdom in choosing your table of play wisely. Yes, it is who you are sitting with. Shout out to Gloria’s Mom.

My parents had an activity with their weekly Canasta group called “Coffee and…” I am now getting that the “and” was so much more than chocolate bridge mix or babka. Yes mama, I’m counting sevens and aces, remembering to take the Talon and looking three cards back not to throw the deck. Nope not missing the joker to replace a 3 crack, not this time.

We love our “and.” When I was younger and had pieces of chicken, I would eat the wings last. I savored the best for then. I now sit down to our chicken lunch and go for the wings first. I rush thru my broccoli and cheddar omelette just to get back to mixing the tiles.

We know that one reason we enjoy our games so, is because they recapitulate our parents activity of continuity. Well here’s to so many more days of Mah-Jongg, Canasta “And.”

Time sprints…

It seems as if watermelon and new keds sneaker season lasted ad infinitum. Brand new blue loose leaf folders, colored tabs to divide social studies from algebra and colorful pencil holders already?

Do you remember new commercials for Fall tv shows advertised in July? Did Ginsburgs and Wechslers sport alpacas and madras blouses so early? Do the street lights go on so much earlier now than they did back then? Father Time, slow down dude, we need to take a breath and “relish” (hello Rutts) every last barbecued hot dog.

We wonder when self help books turned into “recalibrating the soul” GPS style. Zoom class your way out of persistent mishegas? Peloton, Pilates and “we”ll stretch you” stretch clinics now replace Jane Fonda, Richard Simmons and Jazzercise.

Lululemon and Sweaty Betty updated Danskin leotards and leg warmers. Hot rock massages, bikram yoga and acupressure lead the way to mojitos, Sweetgreens Guacamole Green Salad and red velvet cupcakes. Vic tanny vibration exercise machines and pink and white stripped girdles what?

I wonder where the days of climbing the monkey bars, wearing very tight white rubber bathing caps to ward off the chlorine effects when we swam at Westmount Country Club thru the 60’s and ring dings and Twinkie’s went?

If the line was busy you called your friend back on your pink princess phone to tell her about your new baby bead bracelet and circle and lady bug pins you got to match your new Jonathan Logan outfit and black patent leather Mary Jane shoes to wear to Temple for the holidays. Run on sentence counters- that was a whopper with french fries.

So let’s hold on tightly to July. Treadmill our carvel dipped ice cream cone calories off and cherish our yesteryear memories.

We know we are blessed to have had foundations where Sly had “hot fun in the summertime,” and when the sun beat down and burnt the tar up on the roof- we could go “Under the Boardwalk,” and be confident that the Lion would sleep tonight. Oh the way Glenn Miller played- ARCHIE. Monday, Monday.

-No Smoking Zone-
Every other block has a Smoke Shop- Do they even make matches anymore?

Lucky Strike strike me lucky. We pulled into a New-port- got up onto our Camel rode off toward Parliament turned onto Marlboro Plaza corner of Salem Square and ran into the Kent of Earl.
All the while hoping our Chesterfield coat would keep us warm and make us look Kool. We’ve come a long way baby- my has Virginia gotten Slim. Gratitude turns what we have into enough- Have a great week-end-