Voices
I’m glad I didn’t watch the debate. Nothing changed on where the candidates stand on policy, the only thing I care about.
Three weeks into the NFL season and I haven’t watched a single youtube highlight. Years ago I stopped watching games — except the Super Bowl if there’s a party. I have, though, looked at the ugly box scores of the Jets and Giants, and I’m glad I’m no longer so into backing my favorite teams as to tune in no matter what. I shake my head whenever I recall how upset I would get about their failings, wasted energy that should have been devoted to trying to accomplish something myself.
I’m not watching baseball either, but here’s an amazing stat: The Twins have lost 17 consecutive playoff games. Seems impossible.
RIP Helen Reddy, 78, who had a great run in the entertainment world. Her USA record sales are estimated in excess of 10 million singles and 25 million albums. Her worldwide album sales tally is estimated in excess of $80 million U.S. dollars. Of course, she will be remembered most for I Am Woman, which in 1971 became an anthem for females, especially feminists, and garnered her a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance. It hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as did Delta Dawn in ’73 and Angie Baby in ‘74. Three other songs made the Top Ten, five more the Top 20. Three of her albums cracked the Top Ten. Born in Australia, she became an American citizen in 1974. At IMDb there are 13 titles listed under her name as Actress, and 44 as Soundtrack, where her songs were used in film and TV. She made numerous appearances on variety and talk shows. In 1973 she hosted an eponymous summer replacement variety show. She also hosted NBC’s late-night variety show The Midnight Special for a while. On stage she appeared in Shirley Valentine, Anything Goes, Call Me Madam, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Blood Brothers, the latter her Broadway debut. In 2002 she retired from show biz and moved back to Australia to work as a practicing hypnotherapist and motivational speaker. In 2006 she published The Woman I Am: A Memoir. Well done, Madam. Thank you.
Here’s a grim reminder that the world will always be plagued by monsters, headline from foxnews.com: “ISIS militants wreak havoc in Mozambique, killing more than 1,000 in insurgency.”
The last day of the quarter was a good one for the floating book shop. My thanks to the woman who bought two large tomes on the culinary arts, including The First Ladies Cookbook: Favorite Recipes of the Presidents (Washington through Nixon), and to the lovely young nurse to be, who purchased a huge book on her chosen field and also Managing Transitions: Making the Most of the Change by William Bridges, Lloyd James, et al.; and to Wolf, who chose a bunch of works in Russian, a drug guide for nurses, and a book on neaties living with sloppies; and to Ira, who took home the handsome Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary; and to the woman who did a swap of books in Russian; and to local porter Robert, who delivered two hardcover works of non-fiction, including The Life and Times of Francis the First, King of France by James Bacon, which, appropriately, the Frenchman bought.
My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts
Read Vic’s Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza
