Friday 5 for January 17: This week in the news

Friday 5 for January 17: This week in the news

The following questions come from the Friday 5 blog.

1. Has the death of a famous person (not connected to you personally) ever made you cry?

Anyone famous is far removed from me, so the answer to this is "NO".

2. Have you ever sent money as relief aid after a disaster?

I sent $40 many years ago as disaster aid after Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

3. How will the recent declaration affirming alcoholic beverages as cancer-causing affect your consumption?

It won't. I don't drink alcoholic beverages at all. Never did. Never will.

4. What is the most bizarre (or difficult to understand) movie you’ve seen?

For the longest time it was 2001: A Space Odyssey until I read the book.

5. How willing and able are you to separate art from artist when a musican, actor, writer, or other creator is discovered to have behaved very badly?

Yep. I am able to separate the recordings the artist made from the bad behavior that they display in the public record. This would include The Rolling Stones, The Who, Rod Stewart and many other music artists who have trashed people, hotel rooms or worst, taken drugs. Many such as Jim Morrison, Keith Moon, Janis Joplin and others have died from drug abuse. All bad behaviors, but none of it has prevented me from enjoying the musical recordings they produced.

Friday 5 for January 10: On (a different) deck

Friday 5 for January 10: On (a different) deck

Let's see if I can do a better job answering these in 2025. 

1. If everyone carried personal cards (instead of business cards), what would you put on the line just beneath your name, where job titles usually go?

Don't Spam Me.

2. What’s your favorite card game?

I'm not a card player. The one card game I play the most is Classic Solitaire, the kind that you find on almost every computer based platform. See graphic above.

3. How confidently and competently do you shuffle a deck of cards?

I don't drop them, unless it is 52 card pick-up.

4. To whom did you last send a non-holiday, non-birthday greeting card?

Sympathy card to the family of a friend that died a few years back.

5. When did you last jot something down on an index card?

It was less than a year ago, but I can't find the card and I don't remember what I wrote. I do have a small pack of blank 3 x 5 cards.

Questions from the usual source.

_______________________

Friday 5 for January 3: On deck

1. What book are you going to read next?

For Love of Country: Leave the Democrat Party Behind by Tulsi Gabbard. Bet you this one ruffles some feathers. 😀

2. What movie will you most likely see next?

I have a ton of movies saved to my to view lists at TUBI TV and Amazon Prime Video. Can't decide which one next, though Oppenheimer is on my most wanted to watch list for now.

3. What are you doing the day after tomorrow?

Since I am answering this on a Saturday, the day after tomorrow is Monday, so the thing I will be doing is going to work. 😀

4. This is going to be a great year, but what are you looking forward to next year?

Getting older and another step closer to my grave, if it doesn't happen this year.

5. What are you looking forward to opening once you’ve used up the current product?

Another SD memory card. Yippee.

Friday 5 for November 22: And the world laughs with you

Friday 5 for November 22: And the world laughs with you

The following questions come from the weekly Friday 5 blog.

1. Among people who are professionally funny, who most reliably makes you laugh?

For my entire life since I was a kid, The Three Stooges have provided me years of laughs with their slapstick comedy shorts. I still laugh at them today.

2. Which films have made you laugh most?

One of them is Splash with Tom Hanks, Darryl Hannah, John Candy and Eugene Levy. To me Levy stole the show with his Dr. Walter Kornbluth character... "Behold the Mermaid!"

I get more laughs out of funny TV shows, especially older ones.

Various episodes of the TV series Seinfeld. "The Parking Space" episode is one of my favorites of all time, followed by the one with The Soup Nazi.

Other comedy TV shows that I like include:

- The Addams Family

- Gilligan's Island

- Green Acres

- The Beverly Hillbillies

- Beavis & Butthead

- The Simpsons

- South Park

3. Whose comedy leaves you flat?

Most modern comics who I can't recall their names, I find lame or offensive.

4. When did you most recently laugh aloud at something you read?

The breakdown of electoral college votes for the recently completed presidential election the day after... 270+ votes ending up with 312 for Trump. MAGA! 

It was funny to read about all the goofy crybaby reactions from the liberal left losers. The videos were even more funny.

5. What are some of your favorite novelty songs?

Not in any order:

- The Three Stooges - Swingin' the Alphabet

- Jump in the Saddle Band - The Curly Shuffle

- Ogden & Edsel - Dead Puppies

- Barnes & Barnes - Fishheads

- Chuck Berry - My Ding A Ling

- Ray Stevens - The Streak; Ahab The Arab

- Napoleon the XIV - They're Coming To Take Me Away

- Elmo & Patsy - Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer

- Fred Schneider & the Superions - Fruitcake

- J. Geils Band - No Anchovies Please

- Maestro Ziikos - APT Donald Trump (new)

There are plenty others.

Friday 5 for October 25: I’ve got a bad feeling about this

 The following questions come from Scrivener's Friday 5 blog:

1. In your city, where might a visitor find a wretched hive of scum and villainy?

Hawaii State Capitol. 😀 Some of them should be at OCCC.

2. When did you most recently do something you didn’t think you could do?

Survive a heart attack in 2015. 

3. If a robot could do all but two of your regular menial chores, which two would you continue to do?

• Turn the lights on and off
• Cook most of my meals

4. Who best qualifies as a mentor in your life today?

The two people who mentored me have both died now.

5. How are you at chess?

I'm better at checkers and Stratego. Chess, I can play but my King would probably be checkmated in under five minutes.

I have a cautious good feeling that Trump will win. 

Friday 5 for October 11: CRIB

Friday 5 for October 11: CRIB

As usual the questions come from Scrivener's Friday 5 page. I am doing this one for October 11 instead of the current one for October 18.

Here are the questions and answers:

1. When did you last have fresh cut flowers in your home?

September 18, 2024. See photo above.

2. When did you last have a guest not related to you in your home?

Today, yesterday, last week, this month, last month, the past five years. Lisa is not related to me but she is a long-term guest here.

3. When did you last have a service or delivery person in your home?

I think that was on July 13. EMS.  😮 😧

4. When did you last have nobody at all (including you) overnight in your home?

May 2019. Went to a family reunion on the Big Island of Hawaii.

5. When did you last have an unexpected visitor at your front door?

Building management stopped by the yell at us about our windows being opened during window washing day last month. They were loud and rude. I had forgotten about that day as I was out running an errand that morning. I usually never forget about those days.

Friday 5 for October 4: How many roads must a person walk down?

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website!

1. What is the most grownup thing you did this week?

Completed the monthly newsletter for Assistance League of Hawaii. Got it emailed out on time - October 1.

2. What is the most adventurous thing you did this week?

Went to Diamond Head lookout early Wednesday morning, October 2 to take pictures of the partial solar eclipse.

3. What is the most foolhardy thing you did this week?

I did not do anything I consider foolhardy this week. I generally try to avoid that due to cost and/or embarrassment.

4. What is the most community-conscious thing you did this week?

Same as #1: Completed the monthly newsletter for Assistance League of Hawaii. Got it emailed out on time - October 1.

5. What is the the quietest thing you did this week?

I went to sleep early the other night.... around 9:00 pm.

Friday 5 for August 30: GOAT

 

Friday 5 for August 30: GOAT

Questions from Scrivener's weekly Friday 5 blog.

1. If you are forced to choose only one, what is the greatest single episode of a television series, ever?

"Severed Dreams", season 3 episode 10 of Babylon 5.

https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/714543/s03-e10-severed-dreams

Babylon 5 remains my favorite science fiction TV show of all time and here is a small reason why:

2. If you are forced to choose only one, what is the greatest opening line of a song, ever?

I first heard this song at the age of 10 in 1967. We got this old Brenda Lee album that was released in 1960 after my Uncle Robert died at a young age of 29. The album was seven years old by then, but when I played track 1 on side 2 of the record, my 10 year old self thought... oh my this song sounds naughty but I did not know why.

After a few nondescript seconds of hard to decipher whispers, the first three words spoken by Brenda Lee caught me and has remained with me ever since:

"Aha Honey, Alright...." I did not know what it exactly meant at the time, but I always associated the song with something naughty or sexy. After all it is about "Sweet' Nothins'" and Brenda Lee herself was only 14 when she recorded the record in 1959. Wow! Take a listen. It is one of my favorite early pop music tracks ever.

3. If you are forced to choose only one, what is the greatest movie kiss of all time?

That wet kiss in the original Spiderman movie from 2004 is quite memorable. Kirsten Dunst and Tobey Maguire, from the first movie series released from Sony and not from Disney's crazy franchise.

Otherwise most kissing scenes are not very memorable to me, though I have probably seen too many. I tend to gravitate toward sci-fi and action movies where kissing is not central to the story.

4. If you are forced to choose only one, what is the greatest building of all time?

I think for a building to be great, you must have gone to see it for yourself. That said I hardly ever traveled out of state in my life since it is so expensive. The last time I left was in the last century when I took that long trip on a Boeing 747... Gotta love those big 4 engine jets. 

That said, while I never went inside them, I did see the twin towers of the original World Trade Center back in 1974 when they were still being built. The one building I went inside to visit was the Empire State Building in NYC. I guess for me it is the greatest building that I have ever visited, but definitely not the greatest building of all time... I don't know... maybe that gigantic vehicle assembly building where they put together Apollo Saturn 5, the Space Shuttle and now Space X Falcon 9s and Super Heavys at Cape Canaveral Florida. 

5. If you are forced to choose only one, what is the greatest candy — not a candy bar — of all time?

M & Ms Plain or Peanut.

I also liked Horlicks Milk Chocolate tablets that came in a small jar with a red cover cap. They are no longer made.