NATIONAL ANTHEM

Okay, another sporting event on TV, another national anthem sung. It sounded, as usual, like a funeral dirge.

I suspect the singers are trying to sound dignified to give the Star Spangled Banner the importance it deserves, but people! There's no need to try to make it sound important. It is important.

Let's remember why it was written. The War of 1812, English ships raking Baltimore, Francis Scott Key watching breathlessly to see if the city would fall? And the elation when morning showed the American flag still flying? Key and his fellow American were happy! Ecstatic!

(Not to mention the tune came from a drinking song popular in England and America. And who in the world ever heard of a doleful drinking song?)

Come on, all you vocalists! Let's liven our national anthem up! We Americans deserve to be uplifted, not depressed. Our country deserves paeans, not laments. What do you say we try some new arrangements?

CLEANING OUT STUFF

We've been cleaning out Granny's house. Everyone knew she was a packrat but getting in all her stuff showed just how big a one she was.

She quilted for most of her life so cloth to make quilts was everywhere. In closets, in drawers, in the cedar chest, under cabinets...everywhere she could stow it, she did.

And books. In her later years she read a lot. There were bags and bags of books, shelves of books, books packed away in closets. This is besides the magazines she kept forever. National Geographic from before Granddad died along with his Field and Streams. Country music magazines of hers that were decades old. Oh, and stacks of cards given her on different occasions.

And the regular stuff. Dishes belonging to several sets from throughout the years, same with pots and pans and silverware. And clothes. Pottery and glasswear from Greece, fiftieth wedding anniversary porcelain, statuettes and doo dads given her by people she loved.

A life with its memories. It's hard to go through it.

DISAPPOINTING BOOKS

I bought a book by an author I used to really enjoy. The last couple of hers that I read were kind of disappointing, but this copy was on sale and I thought I'd try it.

I won't say who it is because she's a best-selling novelist who I'm sure is a very nice person.

I will say this book was as disappointing as the last two. The writing was verbose, the story was nil, and the characters were boring. I can't help but feel that if there had been an editor who wasn't overworked and/or overawed, s/he could have coaxed a much better novel out of the author.

I finished it but it was hard.

KINDLE vs PRINT BOOKS

I love my Kindle. I got it last Christmas and have downloaded hundreds of books to read already. It's easy to read, better than taking six books on vacation, and very handy when in the middle of the night you find you have nothing to read.

That doesn't mean I'm giving up print books. Especially when I can get a discounted one lower priced than the Kindle version. It happened recently. In Kroger, I saw a best-selling author I like. The book was a couple of years old but I seldom buy books when they first come out. Too expensive. So I checked my Kindle, found the Kindle edition was several dollars more than the remaindered price. Guess which one I bought? Yep, the print book.

My Kindle was out of juice today (my fault; I'd left it on and failed to charge it) so I picked up my 'new' book and started reading. One page read and click! At least I tried to click as if it were a Kindle. I laughed at myself, read a few more pages and once again, click!

Took me a few minutes to get back in the swing of having a 'real' book in my hands. Guess that shows how fast you can get used to an eReader.

SHOPPING FOR KEDS

So this eight-year-old and I were shopping and we run across a basket of Keds. You know. The old canvas tennis shoe type Keds. Classics. White. She almost swoons for wanting them so much. Of course, nice person I am, I tell her to see if a pair will fit her and we'll get them. Despite the price which, the store being a little boutique in a tourist town, is way more than it should be.

Alas, couldn't find her size. She was so disappointed.

Thank goodness for the internet. I ordered them, they came to her house, and she proudly wore them that same day with little socks like back in the fifties.

Who says kids today don't appreciate the old things?

BAPTIST PACKAGE STORE

If you're Baptist and offend easily, you may skip this blog.

We were riding home from Athens the other day, an hour and a half drive, when we came to a perfectly rural area with pastures, woods, trees and no houses. As we neared it, we did see a building, a newish store on a little rise kind of hidden back from the road. I realized it was a package store out in the middle of nowhere and said as much to my guy.

He said, "Yes, it's a Baptist package store."

Kind of a strange name so I looked to make sure that's what the sign said. All it said was Package Store.

"How do you know it's Baptist Package Store?"

"Because only Baptists need to buy their booze from places where no one can see them."

Took me a moment, but then I laughed with him, lapsed Baptist though I might be.

OLD TEACHERS

Visited my home town today and had lunch with a friend I first met in second grade. As we were finishing, our old home economics teacher came by. Turns out she has a cookbook out and presented me with one.

She was the person who single-handedly instilled me with confidence I could cook whatever I wanted. She kept preaching, "If you can read a recipe, you can cook it.) She made sure we learned what all the measurements were and what all the directions meant.

I went for years believing I could cook anything so long as I had a recipe. Inevitably, I found out I was mistaken, but by that time I'd logged in a lot of cooking hours!

Mrs. Jones, I salute you! Can't wait to try some of the recipes.