Travel Day 2

Homeward Bound

"You should take me with you next time."

Today is the return leg of my trip to Pennsylvania to visit my best friend Skip. Seems like it's too soon to go...

As much fun as it has been, of course I will be happy to be back home later this evening, in more familiar surroundings. It will be good to peek out my window,
for instance, and see the lovely
Rose Red parked in her customary spot just off my patio.

It won't be long before things are back to normal. I'll know I'm home when I step on my first hairball on the way to the kitchen...

"I'm ready for home, too. Pennsylvania ants aren't as tangy as Iowa ants."

Maybe we'd travel more if you weren't such a fussy eater...

World Teachers' Day

If I were still an active classroom teacher
I have no doubt there would be some Haribo Gold-Bears or a small bag of Reese's Pieces
in my mailbox this morning. Some years
I was lucky enough
to get a Hershey bar.


All kidding aside, my respect for and love of those who dedicate their lives to helping children learn is boundless and unconditional. I am proud to have been one of their number for 30 years.

In honor of World Teachers' Day, a bit of thanks and support to any teachers in your life would be most welcome...

When Good English Teachers Go Bad

From the indispensable comic strip Non Sequitur, by Wiley Miller, which you should read every day, as I do (even though Wiley is a squishy liberal).

Until Next Time...

It is not unusual for musical artists to release compilation albums during intervals when they don't have any new material ready for release. The "greatest hits" format is quite popular, and generally sells well if the artist has much of a following. It is quite unusual for such an album to make it to the pinnacle, however.

By the summer of 1974 The Beach Boys had released three such compilations already, even though their recording career was just a little over a decade old. Two of those releases, 1966's Best of the Beach Boys and 1967's Best of the Beach Boys, Vol. 2, wound up receiving two RIAA platinum certifications each. Even so, no one had any idea what was in store when the band released its fourth compilation, Endless Summer.

On October 5, 1974 Endless Summer hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart, the second
(and last) No. 1 album in the group's career despite their commercial, cultural, and artistic success, and their first in over a decade. It received three platinum certifications from RIAA, and was one of those albums everyone
I knew owned.

It spent a total of 155 weeks on the Billboard 200, a truly impressive feat for a record that contained no new material.

As these compilations typically do, the double-album included the group's biggest hits, including the No. 1s "I Get Around" and "Help Me, Rhonda." For some reason their third No. 1, "Good Vibrations," was not included on the original album release. (It was included on the 1987 CD release.)

Today's first send-off is the original 1963 monaural version of "Be True To Your School," in honor of World Teachers' Day. I used an excerpt from this song as part of the opening of the very first play production I ever directed back in 1995. Enjoy...

Today's second send-off is the original 1964 version of "I Get Around," included here because Skip sang it for me last night, and because for this trip at least I actually did "get around," however reluctantly. This monaural version is the same one that was included on Endless Summer. Enjoy...