Chuck Berry

Mick Jagger on the death of Chuck Berry:

“I am so sad to hear of Chuck Berry’s passing. I want to thank him for all the inspirational music he gave to us. He lit up our teenage years, and blew life into our dreams of being musicians and performers. His lyrics shone above others & threw a strange light on the American dream. Chuck you were amazing & your music is engraved inside us forever.”

[Source: The Guardian]

Post-Nap

Will I ever feel good again?, I wonder.

"Not until you figure out a way to shave about twenty years from your life."

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

Italian Cards

"Wow, you lost, what, 90% of your cards on that shuffle?"

Heh, it's those slippery Italian cards. I suppose I should count them now. They kind of went everywhere.

"You seem to be using them more."

Well ... aside from the fact that they are nice cards, I am conducting an experiment for Spider.

"Oooh, sciency."

Kind of. I want to see if it makes a difference if the two decks are mixed up together, rather than ... dealt out sequentially.

"Can you break that down for we non-scientists?"

By 'sequentially', I mean, first deal out one deck and then move on to the second deck. You see, I am thinking this might give one an advantage by guaranteeing a spread in the cards, as one removes the possibility, for instance, of getting six or seven cards of one rank in the first dozen cards dealt out.

The rules, I think, are clear in that both decks should be mixed together, but at this point, I am willing to accept the cheat of sequential dealing.

First, I want to see if I can tell a difference. I am keeping track of my wins and losses, and I will see if I win more games out of ten either way. Maybe I will extend the experiment to games out of twenty, if I think I might get greater clarity on my question.

"LOL Okay, whatever gets you off. But what does this have to do with the Italian cards?"

Well, this will be the games in which the decks are dealt sequentially. Since the Italian decks come in dual-packs, with the backs of the decks being different, making it easier to separate them out after the games.

I am using the black-back Bicycle cards for the games in which the two decks will be mixed. It would be a pain to have to separate the two decks with these cards.

And, again, the Italian cards are very nice, and I am happy to find a use for them.

"How is the experiment going so far?"

Oh, it's a tie. I haven't won a game either way yet.

"LOL."

I've only played three games so far. But we'll see.

Old Age

Lorie is here.

"One of your father's friends."

Can you guess her age.

"Uh, sixties, early to middle."

She is actually older than Pop, by about half a hear. She is 76, if my math is correct, or give or take a year. It's kind of amazing, isn't it?

Not long ago, Pop gave me the impression that she was falling fast. It was after an injury. When she hurt her ankle badly. Aside from not bouncing back so quickly, I got the idea that it was really take a lot out of her. But it looks like she has actually bounced back, after all.

I kind of wonder if I could still be pretty much as able as I am today when I am in my middle 70s, if I am even alive then. And unless Pop is still hobbling about in his hundreds, I don't see how I can be. But, still, I wouldn't mind having the years, good years. Aside from bread & board considerations, it will be a wonder if my eyes can hold out. Sometimes, I swear, my vision isn't going to last through my 50s.

"I wonder, if you are alive in your 70s, is you will still be a Solitaire maniac."

LOL Actually, the game is kind of perfect for that age. The sad thing is that I am not doing something more ... vital and living now.

"Now, now, don't get all sulky!"

It just seems to me that I never got to have my youth: that magical time of making friends and making love. I can still find it hard to believe that I was able to fail so fully as this. It must be a record.

"Well, that's something!"

LOL

Rock and Roll

Roll over, Beethoven and tell Tchaikovsky the news.

"Chuck Berry?"

Yup. A number of pieces are out since his death. One gave out those lyrics as a demonstration of how he led the way to the revolution that overcame big band music and all that oldster stuff.

"I don't think of it as a coup. Mozart and that other stuff is still rocking, in their way. Chuck Berry and Elvis and those guys just brought something new and great into the world."

Yeah, but most of the kids won't listen to anything else.

"I don't know, especially when they get older - you cannot dance the Twist forever - I think they open up to that deeper stuff."

Some, maybe.

[Los Angeles Times]