Saturday 9

(Link in meme-roll)
Fool on the Hill (1967)
Unfamiliar with today's song? We can't help you. The YouTube copyright police have removed the Beatles' version. [But I found a tribute video with the original song here today. Who knows if it'll still be available later.]

1) Friday was April Fool's Day. Did you pull any pranks? Did anyone put anything over on you?

I shared a post on Facebook about football that was a prank--and 'got' Beast with it, and I think a church friend who didn't bother to click through--but otherwise I did my usual play-it-cool-and-stay-out-of-the-crossfire. I'm not a huge fan of pranks.

2) The practice of playing tricks on one another on April 1 dates back at least to the 14th century and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales includes a mention of it. Geoffrey Chaucer has been called England's greatest poet. Quote a bit of poetry for us. (It doesn't have to be English, or great.)

This one's for my Dad:

A wonderful bird is a pelican.
His beak can hold more than his belican.
He keeps fish for the week
Inside of his beak,
But I don't know how the helican. (Dixon Lanier Merritt)

It was, invariably, quoted with punctuation from Mom: "[DAD'S FIRST NAME!]"

3) Beatle Paul is a huge Elvis fan and is happy to own the bass that was played on Elvis' 1954 recording of "That's All Right, Mama." Tell us about one of your prized possessions.

Since all of our kitchen cupboards had to be emptied yesterday* and the contents are mostly still sitting in the dining room patiently waiting for re-stowage....I'll go with my Sunbeam stand mixer. I grew up with my mom's 1950s-era version and when we got married young and poor I bought a cheap lightweight mixer for kitchen tasks. What a cheap piece of crap: plastic, impossible for mashing potatoes, and just junk. So somewhere along the line when we had money to blow, Beast bought me a Sunbeam for Christmas. And it was a very good gift--still works beautifully and is heavy enough to take care of just about anything, even bread dough (I have bread hook attachments).

4) In contrast to his easygoing persona, Sir Paul has been described by former band mate Ringo Starr as strong willed and "determined to get his own way." Do you consider yourself strong willed and determined? Or are you more easy going?

Yes. I'm mostly very easygoing, but I have a temper and a tendency to lose it over the most ridiculous stuff. And I do like to get my own way, in true Youngest Child fashion; my choice of profession didn't help either as I also like to be "right" about answers.

5) The Beatles once bought a Greek island, planning to live and record there, but sold it after a few months because it started to seem like a bad, expensive idea. Tell us about a purchase that gave you buyer's remorse.

We once had a Plymouth Voyager. From the standpoint of having room to cart Sparky's baby equipment around on vacation, it was great. Otherwise...man, I really hated that car....!

6) Legend has it that the Beatles officially broke up in Disney World. John Lennon was staying at Disney's Polynesian Village Resort when he received and signed the court papers that dissolved the group. Have you ever conducted business while on vacation?

Huh. Of course. In this day of smart phones and 24-hour internet email checking? Beast actually has a job for which he's "on call" whenever customers need him, so he's always doing stuff on vacations. This upcoming vacation will be interesting in that we are limited to one device to check all our accounts, which means sharing, which means potential problems. So I've pretty much decided I'm going dark for the duration. Hurrah.

7) George Harrison loved puttering around in the garden and dedicated his autobiography to "gardeners everywhere." Do you have a green thumb?

I do not. I have, somehow, managed to keep a lovely little cactus-y thing and its offshoots (all gifts) alive for about 5 years now. And some other really easy plants are still alive through no 'fault' of my own. I have killed more houseplants in my lifetime than anyone I know.

8) Ringo regrets not having saved more Beatles memorabilia, which he realizes now would be worth a fortune. Are you a pack rat?

We have a great deal of shit in storage in this house. (She says, looking at the dining room and all the collected crap sitting there. Why do we need four (FOUR!) different sets of wine-glasses??). I will be winnowing while putting things away.)

9) Random question: Which do you prefer, Girl Scout cookies or Boy Scout popcorn?

Nothing against popcorn, but cookies FTW!!

*We had new countertops installed so all the lower cupboards needed to be cleared for access and so things didn't get broken. I posted the before photo on Facebook about how the old counters were going away hurrah hurray, and got immediately guilt-tripped by two nieces to the effect that our old stuff is better than their current counters. Gotta love family.

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