Happy 100th Birthday to the amazing Sammy Davis Jr.! There was really nothing that he could not do! He could play multiple instruments, he could dance, he could sing, he could act, he was an all around entertainer!
As a member of the Rat Pack, Sammy appeared on stage and in movies with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford. One of those movies was Ocean’s 11.
That’s right, the Rat Pack did the original version of Ocean’s 11. It was one of the first Rat Pack movies I ever watched. I loved it.
In the movie, a group of military buddies have a plan to rob the five major casinos in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve. Their plan to do so is reminiscent of an episode of Mission: Impossible. It is one of the best of the Rat Pack films.
The song “Eee O Eleven” is performed three times in the film. It is the film’s theme song. The title is a reference to the craps phrase “Yo-11,” a bet on the dice coming up eleven, used to avoid confusion with a roll of “7”. The song was written by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen and performed by Sammy.
You can hear it over the opening and end credits of the film, but Sammy also performs it in the movie itself.
If my memory serves me correct, our high school band played three concerts a year. The first was the Fall concert, usually in early November, which featured both Concert Band and Marching Band songs. The Spring Concert happened in mid-May, and usually featured some of the more “fun” songs. In between those, we had a holiday concert in December.
This concert featured both the Concert Band and the various high school choir groups. The band almost always opened the concert and would play every 5th or 6th song. I think the band may have played a total of 4 or 5 songs during the entire concert. My grandparents, who were at every band concert, disliked the Christmas concert. They didn’t like having to wait so long to hear the band play.
It wasn’t easy for us band kids to sit on the stage throughout the entire concert either. I want to say that the area of the stage that the band was on was darkened while the choirs sang. It didn’t stop some of the goofing off in the brass and percussion sections. I can recall the drummers dropping things more than one time while the choirs were singing. They would get the “evil eye” from our band director which basically said, “Cut it out!”
The concert always ended with Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah. It was the finale, in a way. Our choir director would invite any choir alumni up to the stage to join in and sing. It was a perfect way to end the concert. The stage was already packed with the band and all the choir people, but we always made room for the various alumni singers.
Looking back, the holiday concert my senior year was pretty special for me. I can’t recall if it was the entire trumpet section, but it was most of us for sure. We all got to go up on the roof of the auditorium a half hour before the concert and play Christmas carols. They were arranged in 4 part harmony and it sounded so cool. I was lucky enough to direct the players. I can only imagine how cool it must have been for folks walking into the concert and hearing us from the roof.
As a kid, I stumbled on a Boston Pops Christmas album. It had many of the songs that would play over the PA system as you walked through K-Mart or Hudson’s during the holiday season. The first song on the album was an almost 9 minute medley of Christmas songs by Leroy Anderson called A Christmas Festival.
The song remains one of my favorites to this day. I used to grab a stick and crank this up in my headphones and “conduct” the orchestra in my room. For the holiday concert my senior year, we actually got to play it, which made it even cooler for me. I was so familiar with it already, but playing it was challenging. It was a tough piece. There were plenty of time signature changes and key changes, and some high notes. We also played the “band” version of it, which was a little different from the “orchestra” version. It was such a neat piece to play. One of the things I did after the concert was grab a copy of the conductor’s score so I could watch it as I listened to the record from home.
Give it a listen:
After we graduated, there were a few times that some of the alumni band got together to play Christmas carols in the lobby prior to the school’s holiday concert. I miss those days and miss playing my horn.
I have a few holiday traditions that I keep up with every year. Many of those include Christmas movies or TV specials. Watching those certainly help get me in the spirit. It was on this day in history that two of my “must watch” shows first debuted.
It was 61 years ago – December 6, 1964 – that NBC presented the classic Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer for the first time.
In the story, we follow Rudolph from his birth right up to the historic night when he led Santa’s sleigh. It is the classic story of a misfit who is bullied and made fun of until he becomes the hero that saves the day. Sadly, there are people who refuse to take it for what it is and try to make it something that it isn’t.
Cancel culture doesn’t care for shows like this. They don’t understand the lesson that is learned from the story. It’s like Mr. Rogers once said, “Every one is special in their own way.”
I love this one for the many great supporting characters. Who doesn’t love Sam the Snowman or Yukon Cornelius?!
Not to mention Hermie and Bumbles.
The special has continued to be a staple for 61 years and I hope it remains that way for years to come.
Just 16 years years ago – December 6, 2009 – An adaption of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge was released to theaters.
There were quite a few people who really dissed on this version, but I truly enjoyed it. I think Carrey is fantastic as Scrooge (and a few other characters, too). This is just one of the many versions I watch each year. Every version/adaption takes some liberty with the story, which is why I still read it every year.
I remember seeing this one the first time and thinking that it got pretty dark in a few spots. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but now I can say that it only helps to make the transition of Scrooge more joyous.
There are also some things that animation can do that weren’t so easy to make happen in the early adaptions. For example, in the book it says that when Jacob Marley undoes his head wrap, his jaw literally drops to his lap. With today’s special effects, I’m sure they could do that, but those early films couldn’t. In this animated version, it really comes across as scary, just as the book intended.
This is one that I plan on watching over the weekend.
What’s your favorite version of A Christmas Carol? What is your favorite holiday special?
I read this blog from my blogger friend Amanda today. It hit home. I remember all the feelings and know some of my followers are in the same situation this Christmas. I had to share.
Please make time for the tradition’s. I put my Christmas tree up just like every year and it’s just with my mom. I lost my mom this year. Seeing every personalized ornament from her brought tears to my eyes. You know, at the time of receiving them every year it doesn’t seem so important and decorating […]
With December upon us, I’m thinking about Christmas. Specifically, Christmas Eve. We spent Christmas Eve at my Italian grandma’s every year. She was the one who would make us a huge tin of cookies (chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, sugar cookies, and more). She also introduced me to Pignolata (sometimes called Struffoli).
Grandma would always have pignolata out in pie tins covered with plastic wrap. Man, did we love this! Most Italian bakeries make it like it pictured above, but grandma didn’t. In all the years she made it for us, it never had the colored sprinkles on it.
Pignolata is a Sicilian treat and there are many different recipes for it online. I believe my brother has my grandma’s recipe somewhere. I’ve never attempted to make it myself, but may decide to do that one day.
Here is one recipe I found online which seems to be close to grandma’s.
Ingredients
All-purpose flour
Granulated sugar
Salt
Eggs: (large sized eggs)
Vegetable oil: (olive oil can also be used)
Milk: (1 tbsp.) for pignolata that is tender on the inside.
Vegetable oil: (avocado oil can be used) for frying
Honey
Colored candy sprinkles
(For grandma’s recipe – you’ll need chocolate chips, chopped walnuts and powdered sugar)
First, you want to place the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and add eggs; vegetable oil and milk. Use a fork to beat the eggs, oil and milk.
You then want to slowly incorporate the flour into the wet ingredients until a raggedy/rough dough is shaped. Then you want to transfer the dough to your counter and knead until a smooth dough ball is formed. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
After the dough has rested, divide it into 4 pieces. Roll into long ropes of about 1 cm thickness. Cut into 1 cm pieces. Leave the pieces as is or, if you prefer, roll into a ball.
Transfer the pieces onto a baking sheet without overlapping to prevent from sticking together.
Heat about 2 inches of vegetable oil on medium-high heat in a heavy bottomed pan or your fryer. (To test if the oil is hot, place a pignolata piece in the oil. If the oil immediately sizzles and bubbles around the pignolata you’re ready to fry!) Fry the pignolata in batches without overcrowding your pan for 1-2 minutes until light golden brown. Then transfer with a slotted spoon to a paper towel covered tray or plate to absorb any excess oil.
As the balls, heat the honey in a small sauce pan until it is runny (this only takes about a minute). Place pignolata balls in a bowl. Add honey and toss to coat all pieces.
Once coated in the melted honey, place pignolata balls ina mound (Some people will shape them into a wreath) on a serving platter or dish (or pie tin, like my grandma). This is where the recipe says to top with colored candy sprinkles. My grandma used to put chocolate chips or chopped walnuts in (sometimes one or the other, sometimes both) and then sprinkled it with powdered sugar.
I will probably stop by the Italian bakery and grab some before Christmas. If you do make this, please let me know how it turned out and what you think of it.
After seeing this book come up as a recommendation on Goodreads, Facebook and Tik Tok, I finally had the chance to read Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.
I was on the fence as to whether or not I wanted to read it. I wasn’t sure I could get into the “sci-fi” of it. I kept seeing people saying how great it was and how it was the best book they had read all year, etc.. So when I saw it on the shelf at Goodwill for a buck, I figured I would pick it up.
It sat on my “To read” pile for a while before I began to read it, but I recently finished it. Before I give my thoughts, here is the Goodreads synopsis:
Jason Dessen is walking home through the chilly Chicago streets one night, looking forward to a quiet evening in front of the fireplace with his wife, Daniela, and their son, Charlie—when his reality shatters.
“Are you happy with your life?”
Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.
Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.
Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”
In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.
Is it this world or the other that’s the dream?
And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.
Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human–a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad book. It certainly held my interest and I wanted to see how it all wrapped up. At times, I felt the scientific jargon was a bit over my head. I found myself reading a paragraph twice a couple times to be sure I got what was being said.
Honestly, as much as everyone loved this book, I didn’t feel it lived up to the hype. I went into it expecting to really be blown away by the story. I wasn’t. I’m not saying it was a waste of time to read, I just expected more based on the reviews and suggestions. If I had gone with my gut and what I felt before seeing all the hype, I probably wouldn’t have read it.
If I had to compare it to something, I would say it is like comparing it to your favorite TV show. I love the Twilight Zone, but there are episodes that just didn’t live up to those classic ones. This would compare to the “not so good” episodes.
We had our first big snow over the weekend. It’s always fun to watch how a puppy who has never seen snow will react to it.
It was early, like 4am early, and Mabel made it clear that she had to go outside. As I opened the door, I could see that there were about 4-5 inches of snow on the ground. Mabel stood on the porch while I walked out onto the driveway calling her. She wasn’t sure what to do. She finally ventured down the step and stared at me.
She eventually did her business (on the driveway) and flew back up to the porch. All she wanted was to go inside.
As the day progressed, she would go outside and go further into the yard. It helped that the kids went outside with her.
It has now become a chore to get her to come back in the house! There has been more than one occasion when I’ve had to chase her around the yard. I’m sure that she finds it humorous to make me run around after her.
She has had no problem adjusting to her new home. She even loves taking rides in the car. She loves taking a trip up to the school to pick up Ella at the end of the day.
In the short time she has been with us, she has become one of the family. She is growing fast, too. It won’t be long before she is as big as me.
Sam Cooke recorded the song “You Send Me” in June of 1957. It was released in September of that year and would go all the way to #1. The song topped the charts for the first time on this day in 1957. Not bad for a debut single.
Cooke wrote “You Send Me” but gave the writing credit to his younger brother L.C. (who used the original family spelling “Cook”) because he did not want his own publisher to profit from the song. The B-side of the single was a cover of “Summertime.” That was supposed to be the A-side, but radio DJs favored You Send Me and played it instead.
The song almost didn’t get released. Songfacts.com says: Cooke was signed to Specialty Records, which was a gospel label. Cooke’s producer, Bumps Blackwell, brought this to Art Rupe, who owned the label. Rupe objected to the use of the choir on this track and was afraid it was too secular and would alienate the label’s gospel fans. He offered Cooke a release from his contract in exchange for outstanding royalties. The song was passed to the Keen label where it sold over 2 million copies.
Fun Fact: Aretha Franklin recorded a version of the song and it was the B-side to her hit “Think” in 1968.
The song was named as one of the 500 most important rock and roll songs by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1998, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Let’s give a listen to Sam’s only #1 song on the Hot 100:
It was on this day in 1956 that “The Girl Can’t Help It” starring Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell and Edmund O’Brien opened in theaters.
The movie was originally conceived as a way to build Mansfield’s celebrity, but it took on a life of its own and became a rallying point for young people, helping propel rock and roll into its unofficial “first Golden Age.” The unintended result has been called the “most potent” celebration of rock music ever captured on film. No doubt the cameos by Fats Domino, The Platters, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Julie London and Ray Anthony helped with that.
The film was based on “Do Re Mi”, a short story by Garson Kanin. After seeing the adapted screenplay, Kanin did not approve of the new take on his story and requested his name be removed from the credits. Subsequently, director Frank Tashlin came up with the new title, The Girl Can’t Help It.
FUN FACT: The film the heavily inspired young, pre-Beatle John Lennon to be a rocker. The impact was so significant that, 12 years later, the Beatles took a break from recording “Birthday” to watch the film premiere on British television (Lennon had seen it in theaters).
The Girl Can’t Help It is the title song to the film, and was written by Bobby Troup. Little Richard recorded it and it was released in 1956. Fats Domino was originally supposed to record the song for the film, but the sessions fell through. The song has been covered by The Everly Brothers, The Animals, Led Zeppelin, and many others.
In the US, the song peaked at No. 49 on the Billboard Top 100 singles chart and No. 7 on the R&B Best Sellers Chart.
Songfacts.com sums up the song in this way:
“The Girl Can’t Help It” is about a young woman so attractive that she unwittingly captures the attention of every guy she passes. In addition to her siren-like sex appeal, there’s a distinctly incendiary element to her superpowers. She turns bread to toast with a wink of an eye and makes “beefsteak become well done” with a smile. She can’t be held responsible for the potentially dangerous effects of her fiery presence. The poor girl just can’t help it.
The above photo, done by AI, probably has the look on my face correct. However, I actually fell INTO the house (and I’m not talking about inside).
On Friday, my wife ordered groceries online. She asked if I would run up to Meijer to get them. I knew the wagon was still in the back of the car, so I decided to take it out to make room for the groceries. I had my wallet and keys in one hand, the wagon in the other, and I went to put the wagon on the porch. Here is what I think happened.
As I started to step up onto the porch, the tip of my shoe must have hit the edge of the porch. The forward momentum caused me to begin to lose my balance. I could feel myself starting to fall and I had no way to stop it. As I fell forward, the wagon also caught on the porch, causing it to twist toward me. I’m sure that is how the handle ended up hitting me in the mouth and giving me a fat lip. As I tried to process that pain, I continued to fall forward. It was a millisecond after being hit in the face that I felt the top of my head slam into the side of the house.
The entire family was at the front of the house, so they never even heard me fall. I was seeing stars for a minute, but was able to get up. I picked up my wallet and everything that spilled out of it, picked up the keys and began to drive to Meijer. The more I drove, the more I began to hurt. My lip was swelling up pretty good and I had a headache. I didn’t think too much on it, until the guy loading my groceries said, “Looks like you took a nice hit to the head.”
I looked at it in the mirror and I had taken a slice or two of skin off the top. When I arrived home I had Sam look at it and she told me I should go to the ER, because it was a hit to the head. I took some Tylenol and said I would wait for a bit. My headache was bad, but there was no other sign of a concussion. Saturday I woke with a pretty nasty scrape.
On Wednesday, the kids got their early Christmas present. I went and picked up the puppy.
She is a St. Bernard and Poodle mix. So, I guess you call them a St. Berdoodle or a St. Benardadoodle. I’m not sure. The breeder was calling her Holly, which I liked because of the holiday season. However, the kids decided that she is Mabel.
She seems to be fitting right in …
I forgot how much I love going outside in the cold so that puppies can go potty! The adventure begins.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 