kvetching up

In a collection of match books I was exploring last week, I found two things, neither of which would have been very interesting to me absent the internet and AI. First: Mementos can be invaluable. Imagine if you had find these just three years ago, you'd have no idea what these were from,  not any simple way to find out. Perhaps a day at Suzzalo Library in the archives may or may not have produced answers. I snapped a picture and not 5 seconds later, ChatGPT told me that these were from "No Time For Sergeants." tIt is the play which thrust Andy Griffith into the role as a PLO (Permanent Latrine Officer) and stardom. Moreover, it told me the theater is on Broadway and is now called the Neil Simon Theater. So, someone saved these as mementos and then later forgot about them. I likely would have tossed them away, but knowing their provenance makes me find them worth keeping. The second discovery found among the matchbooks was still close to its original shape, was yellowed a...

I have opted over these many years to build an insular world, one that extended only to immediate family, and in a more granular sense an interior space of only me--for all of us I suppose this is the case. Even when home, if not with my kids, much of my time has been spent in my head with music. As I am sure I have written about before, I suppose because of my mom's influence and the era I grew up in, singer songwriters have been everything. From Cole Porter to the Carter Family, Lucinda Williams to Led Zeppelin, Mary Black to Mazzy Star, and on and on, I have lived in my head their music and lyrics wrapped around my thoughts, and providing structure to my memories. Nancy Griffith died (of cancer) during the COVID epidemic, as did John Prine (he of COVID after a battle with cancer). I discovered both during the early years Jenny and I were together. Around that same time I discovered Kate Wolf's work at a boheme apartment Jenny was housesitting at right next to the Safeway I u...

Dear Abby, Dear Abby... Well I never thought That me and my girlfriend would ever get caught We were sitting in the back seat just shooting the breeze With her hair up in curlers and her pants to her knees Signed Just Married --from Dear Abby by John Prine I wrote to an advice column, Dear Wendy.  She, the columnist, responded.  https://dearwendy.com/my-terminally-ill-spouse-refuses-to-stop-cheating/   My spouse of 23 years was diagnosed with terminal cancer last August. In September, after starting chemo, she told me a coworker would shave her head. I said I wanted to do it, and she offered that, because he was bald, he would be best. She brought home an electric razor a few days later. When I saw it, I told her that this was a signal event and I could easily shave her head. I wanted every moment with her. She offered odd excuses. It got my antennae up. He shaved her head. I did something I had never done before: I went through her phone. I found she had been having a to...