October 4, 2026 – Keith Robertson

“Happy Birthday to Kara”

Diana had a typical Monday – pickling and working out with Sandi. I had some quiet time learning a new piano song and starting a couple of new books.

I watched a TV show set in the 80s in the evening and was transported right back to high school by the music – Ultravox, Visage and Kim Carnes.

I had the closed captions on and was shocked to realize that I had a lyric to “Bette David Eyes” completely wrong in an entertaining way. I always heard it as “All the boys, they think she’s a spaz,” but the correct one is “All the boys, they think she’s a spy.” The things you figure out 45 years later!

Having started down the rabbit hole, here’s a wonderful live version from the Crash Test Dummies (another blast from long ago,) albeit with an incorrect spelling of her first name.

Here’s the original 1975 version, written by Jackie DeShannon after watching the 1942 film, “Now, Voyager”, starring Bette Davis. What a different feel this version has.

Ok, I’m back above ground again – back to the regular blog flow.

The morning weather on Tuesday was conducive to a walk and so I took my newspaper down to French Truck coffee and had a relaxing time reading and watching the Magazine Street characters come and go.

Returning home, it still wasn’t unbearably hot yet, and so I gave the red brick steps and front area a second “Wet it and forget it” treatment. I think I’m still going to have to do a bit of pressure washing to finish things off next week, after the end of week rainstorms pass.

Getting in the home maintenance swing, I got out the drain snake and cleaned out the bedroom shower and sink drains – all seems good now.

Just as that equipment was returned to the three car garage (small storage shed in the backyard), the termite guy showed up for our annual inspection. They tell me that the treatment we received in 2023 should last ten years, and he didn’t see any evidence of anything concerning.

Diana did have a medal to show for her efforts on returning from pickleball. Third place with a new partner to finish out the Tuesday series:

The early arrival of Curtis the termite dude meant that we now had a free slot in the afternoon to get our COVID and Flu shots. Diana did not find those shots pain free. She went first and was quite disturbed to see the needle length as I got mine. Of course I pretended that I hadn’t felt a thing.

I think it was on Tuesday when I heard, “I will tell you that this cinnamon roll was exceptional!” This was Diana talking about the treat from Bywater Bakery that she had just finished. “Why would you say that?” “It was super moist, had tons of cinnamon, and amazing icing.” Those are not my thing – too sweet – so I can’t comment.

How did we do at trivia on Tuesday evening? Well…both Bill and I were present, and we added Nic and Aidan to the mix – so we should have had no trouble. That was not the case – going into the final question we were in 4th (last) place. It was critical that we answer correctly and looked like we should bet the maximum 20 points.

The challenge was to put these four “parade” items in chronological order from earliest to most recent:

Parade magazine first published
Easter Parade, starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire released
First Macy’s Thanksgiving parade
Don’t Rain on My Parade from Funny Girl released

Scribe Kenny did a great job of facilitating our “discussion” about whether Parade magazine or Macy’s parade came first – we were confident about the other two. Our final answer, with a 20 point wager:

First Macy’s Thanksgiving parade (1924)
Parade magazine first published (1941)
Easter Parade starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire released (1948)
Don’t Rain on My Parade from Funny Girl released (1968)

We were correct and leapfrogged from last place to first by a good margin. To be fair, those were tough for the younger teams.

Diana was busy making throws for Shainey’s Cleo Mardi Gras ride – 24 repurposed necklaces while I was gone at trivia. Impressive!

I should mention one stellar question from Bill. It was a question about advertising many years ago – “What had the slogan, Nooks and Crannies?” Bill piped right up with Thomas’ English muffins. Nobody else at the table had ever heard of it, leaving Bill incredulous. He was the only person in the building that knew this. I’d never heard of it and then it shows up on TV right afterwards.

Nic had a great contribution also – Mel Blanc as the voice of Bugs Bunny.

Diana started Wednesday with yoga (outside, maybe for one of the last times this year.)

Colleen came by with a couple of her daughter, Isabel’s, friends from the Netherlands. They were in town for some kind of water conference and Colleen was showing them around. They had seen her brother, Hugh’s, house across the street and stopped to say hello to us. I was telling them that I spend a lot of time in Amersfoort when we had a data center there. Colleen thought I was messing around as Hugh had just told them about a 3D printing business that he had there.

We made an afternoon visit to the skeleton house (State and St Charles) mid afternoon. Dolly Parton was a big new feature to the other hundreds of skeletons and punny names:

Shainey, Bill, Robin and Aidan joined us to review the bony display. We migrated from there to Happy Hour at Chais Delachaise. The usual half price treats- sliders, mussels, and frites were ordered up to match the half price wines. Nic joined and a very good time was had by all:

Dee and Colleen both had birthdays on Thursday, Dee with a special milestone:

I watched a new movie, “The Last First, Winter K2” on Friday. This is about an attempt to be the first climbers to summit K2 in winter. It’s the last of the 14 mountains over 8,000 feet that hasn’t been climbed in winter. Egos and politics enter the fray and things don’t end well for everyone.

We took Kara for a belated birthday celebration at the Bouligny Tavern on Saturday night (it’s one of her favourites.)

The crab claws, hush puppies and meat and cheese plate were all quite yummy.

Kara opened her gifts, based around the “London Calling” candle that I found in the Marquee monster art show in Asheville.

The girls joined up with Laura and Libby and enjoyed some of the “Art for Art’s sake” event on Magazine Street.

This song is in my head whenever I hear that event advertised.

Entertainingly, they ended up at the Bulldog bar – the place where we go after a big trivia win. I think the girls must have been missing their husbands – all in Bay St. Louis except me, lovingly staying home to make sure Diana survived all the rain and flooding forecast for the weekend.

My first book this week was “Good People” by Patmeena Sabit . The approach is quite unique – each chapter giving an opinion on happenings from the perspective of family members, teachers, the principal, investigators, and friends. I was starting to doubt the accuracy of these reviews until I reached around page 100 and everything started to come together and the excitement grew.

“A thrilling tour de force of a novel. I’ll be recommending this book to everyone.”—ANN PATCHETT

“ONE OF THE NEW YORKER’S BEST BOOKS OF 2026 SO FAR • LONGLISTED FOR THE GILLER PRIZE”

Here’s an online summary:

“The Sharaf family is the picture of success. Prosperous, rich, happy. They came to this country as refugees with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. And now, after years of hard work, they live in the most exclusive neighborhood, their growing family attending the most prestigious schools. Zorah, the eldest daughter, is the apple of her father’s eye.

When an unthinkable tragedy strikes, everyone is left reeling. There is talk that behind closed doors the Sharafs’ happy household was anything but. Did the Sharaf family achieve the American dream? Or was the image of the model immigrant family just a façade?

Like a literary game of ping-pong, Good People compels the reader to reconsider what might have happened even on the previous page. It’s a riveting, provocative story of family—sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, and the communities that claim us as family in difficult times.”

I started “This is Happiness” by Niall Williams when I thought I might abandon “Good People.” This is set in a small Irish town and I really enjoyed the descriptions that seemed typically Irish and not something you typically come across.

Here’s an online summary:

“Change is coming to Faha, a small Irish parish that hasn’t changed in a thousand years.

For one thing, the rain is stopping. Nobody remembers when it started; rain on the western seaboard is a condition of living. But now – just as Father Coffey proclaims the coming of the electricity – the rain clouds are lifting. Seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe is idling in the unexpected sunshine when Christy makes his first entrance into Faha, bringing secrets he needs to atone for. Though he can’t explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed.

As the people of Faha anticipate the endlessly procrastinated advent of the electricity, and Noel navigates his own coming-of-age and his fallings in and out of love, Christy’s past gradually comes to light, casting a new glow on a small world.

Harking back to a simpler time, This Is Happiness is a tender portrait of a community – its idiosyncrasies and traditions, its paradoxes and kindnesses, its failures and triumphs – and a coming-of-age tale like no other. Luminous and lyrical, yet anchored by roots running deep into the earthy and everyday, it is about the power of stories: their invisible currents that run through all we do, writing and rewriting us, and the transforming light that they throw onto our world.”

I also started the Sylvester Stallone autobiography “The Steps.” This is off to a good start but I haven’t read much yet. Suffice it to say he did not have an easy start to his career.

I watched a show where Lady Gaga picked the ten (or more, I think ultimately fifteen) songs that had shaped her career. This one was an interesting choice:

I thought the show was really well done. It’s a Rolling Stone interview series that you can find on YouTube.

This song has one of the more impassioned vocals that I’ve heard:

This is a great live recording of LaFave’s cover of the 1966 original by the baroque pop band, The Left Banke.

Back to the high school music rabbit hole, finishing up like I started on Monday, this one by a different Kim was in heavy rotation when I was listening to those other three:

Interestingly the lyrics were written by her father, with music composed by her brother on a Wasp synthesizer. If you are so inclined, here’s some super geeky information about that synth from the 70s: