Waitin' for the Weekend

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When We Were Young and Gay

Old pics of young men remind us: there are only so many summers, and so many springs. 

Enjoy what you have while you have it - and be grateful.

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Sunday Drive: I Got Rhythm

The amazing Peter Nero performs the Gershwin standard at lightning speed on the Ed Sullivan Show in November of 1965.

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Waitin' for the Weekend

Got spring fever yet?

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Cavalcade of Food: Green Onion Dip

Spring is here and Ralph is back!  He's behind the camera as Kevin shows how to make a tasty Green Onion Dip with cream cheese and lemon juice, using a vintage Sunbeam food processor.  Looks yummy - think I will see if I can get M.P. to try this recipe.

P.S. - In case you missed it, you can catch a glimpse of the elusive Ralph in the video I posted last week, beginning in the Diner Museum here.  I don't know these fellows personally, but they seem like great guys.

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Sunday Drive: Words

As performed by the Bee Gees on the Ed Sullivan Show in March of 1968, with Barry rockin' that Prince Charming smile.  Who could resist?

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Waitin' for the Weekend

You doing anything tonight?

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What We're Watching: The Wrecking Crew

It might be old news to the rest of the world, but we just discovered this 2008 documentary about the Los Angeles studio musicians who created the sounds we all loved in the 1960s.  As Dick Clark says in here, "They played for so many people in so many styles. . . .  They had the magic touch."  Though rarely credited for their work back then, this show honors their contributions to the "West Coast Sound" that was heard 'round the world on radio, records, TV themes, and movie soundtracks.  Fascinating.

An extra interview with delightful Carol Kaye, the only woman in the group, and a fabulous bassist:

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Sunday Drive: Age of Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In

Your Head Trucker remembers listening to this upbeat medley on the radio in the spring of 1969 - 55 years ago.  My God, where does the time go?

BTW, I saw them in concert in 1976.  They put on a great show.

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Waitin' for the Weekend

An old favorite:  David White, Playgirl, 1976.

See all of David here (NSFW).

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Cavalcade of Food # 428 - Walkthrough

In anticipation of a visit by a class of 2nd-graders, Kevin takes us on a walkthrough of the fabulous Cavalcade collection, including the typewriter section.  Ah, sweet memories of life B. C. (before computers)!

 

BTW, I agree with everything Kevin says at the start about cursive writing.

Bonus: From a few years ago, Kevin and Ralph cook up some yankee fried chicken on the back porch:

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Pilgrimage to Chimayo

My truckbuddy Frank had a post on his blog the other day on this shrine I'd never heard about.  Some people call it the "Lourdes of America."  I'm neither Catholic nor athletic, and the idea of a 40-mile hike uphill is rather uninspiring, to say the least. However, I can appreciate the spiritual impetus, and I'm sure many people do get a blessing of some kind thereby.  The impious may jeer and laugh at such simplicities; but there are many worse ways to spend a weekend.

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Easter 2024: Jesus Christ Is Risen Today

Christus Consolator, Carl Bloch, 1875

 

The Lessons Appointed for Use on

Easter Day

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Good Friday, 2024: He Was Despised

Cristo Crucificado, Velazquez, circa 1632,

 

 

The Lessons Appointed for use on 

Good Friday

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Palm Sunday, 2024: Ride On, Ride On in Majesty

Click to enlarge.

 

The Lessons Appointed for Use on the 

Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday

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Statement by the Princess of Wales

I can add nothing to the worldwide coverage of this poignant announcement other than my own prayers for the swift recovery of the Princess and also the King from their afflictions.  May God bless all the Royal Family as they continue to serve the people of Britain and the world.

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Waitin' for the Weekend

How do you feel, now that spring is here?

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Sermon: The Rainbow

An intriguing meditation on the meaning of the rainbow by Father Sean Mullen at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia:

The Great Litany that Fr. Sean refers to is found in the Book of Common Prayer here.  These powerful words are especially appropriate to pray in Lent--and moreover, I dare say, at this particular moment in the history of the world.

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Sunday Drive: Danny Boy

As performed by the great Tom Jones on the Ed Sullivan Show, April 21, 1968:

 

BONUS: Where, when, and how this beloved song originated:

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Waitin' for the Weekend

You have the right to bare arms . . .

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Flashback: Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, 1968

OMG, that voice.  I haven't heard these songs in years, but Gary's deep velvet tremolo still does things to me.  Wow. 

FYI, there was no lip-syncing on the Sullivan show; all vocals had to be performed live.  Imagine that.

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Sunday Drive: Sugar, Sugar

Your Head Trucker couldn't get enough of this bouncy tune when it came out in the fall of 1969.  I got the 45 as soon as I could, and played it over and over and over again, dancing around the house.

My dancing days are long past, but the song still makes me smile.  And I'm loving this brilliant little collage with classic dancers from the golden age of the movies.  Enjoy.

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Waitin' for the Weekend

Pickings were slim in the man groves this week, and I was afraid I wouldn't have anything to offer.  But M.P. threatened to put the kitchen on lockdown if I didn't post this hairless hunk, so here he is.

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Wah-Watusi!

Booklet of dance instructions, early 1960s.

Lately it's been hard to get my mind and body in gear.  Perhaps it's just hibernation time.  There's nothing wrong beyond the usual creaks and rumbles of old age.  Guess I'm just in a blah mood.

The state of the world being what it is, I've tried today to think of something I could blog that might give me a lift - maybe it will help somebody else, too.  So here goes.

I'm sure many of my truckbuddies remember the Watusi song and the dance of the same name - or do you?  Alas, by the time I started going to high-school dances, say about 1968 or so, all the cutely named dances popular in the early sixties had degenerated into miscellaneous twitches, jerks, and shuffles.  There were no steps to learn - you just stood there and wiggled as you pleased, more or less in time with the music.  A couple of years later, the Cool Kids in their puritan zeal declared that dancing was "not relevant" - and so there were no more dances, in high school or college.  They didn't return until the rise of disco, about 1976.

But I digress.  Just what was the Watusi?  I've tried to look this up before, and apparently nobody really knows.  I've seen comments from dance teachers on YouTube who say they can't find any actual steps to that dance.  Well, here are some historical videos that might give a clue.  See what you think - and I think you will smile.

1.  The lovely Lennon Sisters on the Lawrence Welk Show:

 

2. Wednesday and Lurch from The Addams Family:

3.  The KCTU Dancers from Wichita, Kansas, in 2014, having big fun with something that may or may not be historically correct:

4.  Luci Johnson and Steve McQueen certainly ought to have known what they were doing in Beverly Hills in the summer of '64, so perhaps this is the definitive performance:

5.  On the other hand, how can you get more authentic than these chaps?  From the 1959 film Watusi, I think:

Vote for your favorite version in the comments section.

 

P. S. -- Actually, there is documentation for how to dance the Watusi.  See it and try it after the jump.  And let me know how that works out for you.

Waitin' for the Weekend

Need a good lineman? 

To see the pole, click here.  (NSFW)

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Sunday Drive: Candida/Knock Three Times

My truckbuddies of a certain age will certainly remember these lighthearted tunes by Tony Orlando and Dawn from 1970, a very pleasant way to begin a warm and sunny, spring-like morning here in Texas. I always thought Tony was sexy, especially after he grew his hair and stache out. Major woof!

 

But what I really wanted share with you all is this clip I ran across yesterday of Tony performing a farewell concert in Las Vegas just last month - he will be 80 years old in a few weeks, and yet he is still rocking the crowds as he did half a century ago. I saw him and Dawn in concert back in 1976, and it was a fantastic show. Tony is a master showman, a true entertainer, who puts his heart and soul into everything he does on stage. But judge for yourself:

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Waitin' for the Weekend

An old favorite:  Bruno.

See much more of Bruno here.  (NSFW)

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Sunday Drive: When the Lilac Blooms Again

A beautiful arrangement of a captivating tune, which I just recently heard for the first time.

+ + + + +

"As Far as the East Is from the West":  a brilliant Ash Wednesday meditation by Father Sean Mullen at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Philadelphia.

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Waitin' for the Weekend

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Good Eatin': Tomato Gravy

M.P. made us a lovely Mardi Gras dinner on Tuesday evening, including roast Cornish hens, pan gravy, fried potatoes, brussels sprouts, schoolhouse rolls, and a luscious King's Cake for dessert.  But as he was feeling poorly and had a bad toothache to boot, he wasn't able to enjoy it much.  He's still under the weather, and has mostly stayed in bed since.  I'd do anything I could for him, but he's the don't-talk-to-me type when he's sick, so I leave him alone.  When he's recovered, I'll get him to send me the food pics from his phone and I'll post them here.

Meanwhile, for want of anything better to do, your Head Trucker has been browsing through Google Books and YouTube for old-time recipes - and I came across these videos about making tomato gravy, a very Southern thing.  But for some strange reason, nobody in my family ever made it, so I never learned how.  

In case you are wondering too, here are three Alabama ladies who all cook very much as my mama and grandma did, and they will set you right on this subject.  Now hush up and listen, you might learn something.  First, you make a roux . . .

Mama Sue is making breakfast for supper, always a good idea: 

Miss Earline is making this video to teach her grandson in college how to feed himself: 

 

Miss Brenda makes a ton of gravy for a family dinner:

 

You'll notice they all make it the same simple way, with minor differences.  Try the one that you think is best.  The Alabama Farmers Federation gives a printable recipe here, if you want it.  It calls for chicken broth, but as you can see in these videos, plain water works just fine.

* * * * *

Bonus:  How to Make a Roux.  It's just real simple, boys.  Use equal parts fat + flour, and don't burn it!

N. B. -- for the fat, you can use butter, margarine, olive oil, corn oil, canola oil, any cooking oil; or bacon grease for delicious flavor; or any kind of pork or ham grease, ditto.  Use any kind of white flour you have.  Stir together over a hot flame until it's the color you want, then turn off the flame or remove from fire and quickly add your liquid - which can be water, milk, half of each, or half cream and milk, or stock or bouillon, or just a pile of veggies, anything to stop the cooking of the flour.  Don't burn it!  

If you do, throw it out and start over; never serve burnt gravy.  But I'll let you fellas in on the Pork Boys' secret (come closer, I'll whisper in your ear):  in an emergency, stir a heaping helping of peanut butter into the hot gravy, which works miraculously and leaves no peanut taste.

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Sunday Drive: My Funny Valentine

Ella sings the Rodgers and Hart classic.  A favorite of the Pork Boys.

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Waitin' for the Weekend

Hot buns on a cold morning are a welcome treat.

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Colonial Cookery

M.P. is taking a little holiday from cooking this week, so the other night he asked me to come up with something for our dinner.  I was glad to oblige, and after a few seconds' thought, grabbed a couple of frozen chicken legs and dropped them in the crockpot, then poured about half a small bottle of BBQ sauce over them.  

Six hours later, without further attention, they were super tender and delicious, meat falling off the bones, no fuss or muss required.  To round out the meal, I heated up a can of collard greens on the stove, also a can of candied yams, and made some Jiffy Mix cornbread muffins (just add an egg and a splash of milk).  None of this required any culinary skill, of course, but M.P. gobbled it down like there was no tomorrow.  I'm always glad when I can fix him something he enjoys, when he is always cooking up wonderful things for me.

It occurs to me that the crockpot is the modern-day equivalent of the Dutch oven, which has been a very handy piece of cookware for centuries. So here is a playlist of Dutch oven recipes from John Townsend, the go-to 18th century expert, who really knows what he is doing when it comes to colonial-era cookery.  Enjoy - and thank your lucky stars we don't have to cook over an open fire anymore!

P.S. - we do have a 5-quart cast iron Dutch oven for large recipes; but many times we prefer to use the smaller 3-quart chicken fryer, so called.  I call it a deep skillet.  Very handy for all sorts of things, and it has a convenient handle, unlike the Dutch oven.

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Sunday Drive: Vivaldi, Winter

As performed by the great Itzhak Perlman:

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Waitin' for the Weekend

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Cracking Cuneiform

If you've ever thought wistfully that one day you might have a go at learning to read ancient cuneiform, but never quite got around to it, here is your chance.  Dr. Irving Finkel, a wonderfully bearded, very amusing curator in the Middle East Department at the British Museum, will give you a running start at it right here:

Bonus:  Now that you can read cuneiform, Dr. Finkel shows you how to write it:

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Sunday Drive: Early Morning Rain

I did not know till recently that this classic Peter, Paul and Mary tune was written by Gordon Lightfoot.

We had several gloomy, overcast days in a row this week, punctuated by downpours. But this morning it's bright and sunny outside, though just above freezing.

Bonus:  "The Amplitude of Love," a different kind of Christmas sermon, by the Rev. Sean Mullen at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia.

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Waitin' for the Weekend

Need a lift?

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In Memoriam: Charles Osgood, 1933-2024

Your Head Trucker has fond memories of veteran CBS newsman Charles Osgood, who died at his home in New Jersey yesterday, age 91.  He was a thorough professional who delivered the news along with a little something extra - warmhearted humor.  And often a charming poem, a rare thing to hear on a news program, as his trademark bow ties were rare to see.

 

Osgood will, of course, long be remembered for his brilliant contribution to American speech as the man who popularized the acronym POSSLQ: Persons of the Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters. Or at least, I had never heard of it until he broadcast a poem about it way back when:

 

And yet, Osgood had deep thoughts to share, too - and here is a most appropriate example:

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Bishop Gene Robinson: "God called me out of the closet"

I had wondered whatever happened to Bp. Gene - CBS Sunday Morning ran an update on his life and faith yesterday:

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Waitin' for the Weekend

The eyes have it.

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The Marble Map of Rome

Last week, a fascinating new archaeological park opened in Rome, displaying the surviving fragments of the Forma Urbis Romae, a giant map (60 by 43 feet) of the city created around A.D. 200 by order of Emperor Septimius Severus.  No, the Dark Arts had nothing to do with it; it was a bureaucratic production of the city property records office, or so it seems.  Read more about it here or just watch the video below.

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Sunday Drive: Toys and Soldiers

Click to enlarge.

It's a terribly cold morning in Texas - temperature outside is 12 degrees F. and the wind chill is -3.  BRRR!!  The temp inside is pretty low too, despite the furnace and an electric fireplace running full blast.  I think I'll just spend the day in bed under my nice warm covers.

But if you have to be up and about, here's a happy medley to get you moving,  I don't know this iorganist, but he does a fabulous job with these two classic pieces on an Allen concert organ.  (Allen is a Big Name in electronic organs - they make all kinds, from small to ginormous.)  My favorite is the second selection, which always makes me smile.  Enjoy.

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Waitin' for the Weekend

Got wood?

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The Pork Boys Do the Holidays

As usual, the Pork Boys enjoyed a raft of delicious meals for Christmas, New Year's, and Epiphany, all made from scratch by M.P., resident chef extraordinaire.

Unfortunately, your Head Trucker has gotten pretty lax in the picture-taking department, so we don't have a comprehensive set of pics.  I'm posting these here mainly just for our own future reference.

M.P. knocks himself out cooking these holiday meals, but now he is pooped and swears he won't cook another thing the rest of this month.  But he always comes up with some new culinary idea before February arrives.  I wish all my truckbuddies, and everyone in the world, could enjoy such delightful repasts.

Yule Dinner for M.P.'s kids and grandkids:

M.P. made a beautiful charcuterie platter with meats, cheeses, nuts, olives, and dried fruit.

M.P.'s clever rearrangement of the front room makes it possible now to seat 14 without crowding at the holidays.

Sunday Drive: I Can See Clearly Now

The great Anne Murray starts us off in the new year with an upbeat groove from her 1999 album What a Wonderful World:

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Waitin' for the Weekend

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