Kitchen Switchin'

 I'm not one for home decorating tips, which makes it all the more interesting that by logarithms keep sending them to me online. To me, "throw rug" is a verbal command, not a noun, and any time I see a piece of furniture labeled as as "occasional" table, I have to ask what it is the rest of the time. And I get few answers.

But here we go! The other day I was informed that tile backsplashes are no longer cool and I should start digging the grout of mine to make room for what all the cool kids have on the way behind the sink and stove...mirrors! 

Yes, they said that people are breaking their necks to have mirrors replace those old tile backsplashes.

They submitted these pictures to make their point. Couple things. #1, if I'm boilin' grits in the kitchen, I don't want to look up and see my dumb face at that hour of the morning.  And B, I don't want to see the mirror image of a clock while I'm trying to get breakfast on the table. I couldn't tell if it's quarter to six or half past nine!

Here's another picture they sent, but I like our tile backsplash. It doesn't look back at me, and it doesn't try to make the kitchen look twice its size with smoky mirrors.  Home designers, come back to me when you find a way to make a backsplash out of a 41" TV monitor! Do that, and I will have you over for grits!

Tuesday rerun: Fact known by few

  This is a fact known by few! Do you know Rachel Scott, the marvelous ABC news reporter? She's on TV most every night and she works hard to help us understand what goes on in Washington, DC.

Years ago, she was brand new to national news and was covering one of those early presidential primaries in an ice-cold state. She mentioned on Instagram that she was freezing under her top coat and I mentioned that she ought to look into purchasing a down vest. Being a California native, she had no idea such a thing existed, but I don't think she's been that cold ever since then. Down is marvelous for keeping warm. Ask any goose!

The happy couple, Rachel with husband Elliott Smith!

But that's not the fact known by few, and you will be among the few soon. Rachel got married earlier this month, and I read the wedding story in the New York Times because I am a romantic at heart. The article talked about her lovely trousseau, which included no down garments, and all the fun she and her new husband and their friends and family had, and that crowd included singer Gene Chandler, who is her grandfather.

The happy grandpa

You cannot have listened to an oldies station for five minutes without hearing his big hit "Duke of Earl," a huge hit in 1961 that really sets the mood in a lot of movies about the good old days, and I wish they were back. Gene really did it up fancy back then! He would come out on stage with a top hat and fancy cane and cape, as any proper duke would.

I like knowing that Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty are brother and sister, and that Peter Graves and James Arness were brother and brother, and that Keisha Lance Bottoms, former mayor of Atlanta and advisor to President Biden, is the daughter of Major Lance, whose hit songs included "The Monkey Time" and "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um".

But being the granddaughter of a duke confers a certain status on Rachel, who is a  royally wonderful reporter and seems to be a very good person as well. Congratulations to her and her husband! 

Indigenous

  Indigenous Peoples' Day is a holiday celebrating and honoring Native American peoples by commemorating their histories and cultures.  After all, they were here first! It's time to recognize and pay them respect! Indigenous Peoples' Day is a holiday in Baltimore County and is observed today.

 Local government facilities, state motor vehicle branches, and public libraries across Baltimore County will close today, in observance of the federal Columbus Day  holiday. 

Baltimore County government offices, senior centers, and all branches of the Baltimore County Public Library will be closed for the holiday. Recreation and Parks indoor facilities will also be closed, except for activities operating under previously approved permits. There will be no CountyRide service today.

Sunday Rerun: C'est dommage

 A long time ago, at work, a computer guy showed me something he should not have...it was a printout of all the passwords of everyone who worked there.

He wanted me to see how many of the passwords were filthy. That was hardly surprising, given the general tone of the billingsgate in that workplace. We were told over and over to make sure that no one could guess our password, so as to make sure no one did a dirty deed in someone else's name, but I'm here to tell you, a good 60-70% of the signons were terms for favorite activities among the highly libidinous. I think they were easy to guess, but I never tried.

The other surprising thing was how many people thought that something like "BOBBYD" would be hard to guess, if your name was Bob and your last name started with a D (made-up example).  Or for the guy who hummed "Stairway To Heaven" to choose "LEDZEP."

I'm walking down memory lane as a way to get around to telling you that the French people are looking into the $multi-million ripoff at the Louvre, and they found that the most famous museum in all the world used "LOUVRE" as the password to their security system.

I mean, sacre bleu! 

Not only that, but France’s National Cybersecurity Agency first was made aware of this foolish choice in 2014, when they reported “serious shortcomings” in the Paris museum’s security systems, such as two-decade old security computer software.

 “An attacker who manages to take control of it would be able to facilitate damage or even theft of artworks,” the agency said in 2014.

But here we are in 2025, and no one saw fit to do something about the situation.

French riot police stand near the Louvre Museum's glass pyramid 

And on October 19th, thieves entered the museum, stole the nation's crown jewels, and made good their escape within eight minutes.

If only the people in charge of guarding the jewels had known!

The Saturday Picture Show, October 10, 2026

Now I'm getting mixed signals.

I thought Dakota Johnson did a fine job on SNL the other night. She brought along a friend, who brought along a birthday cake.

A guy went to an Air B'n'b that said to bring your own ladle. No need to anymore!

I really didn't think they were still in business!

Here is Celine Dion, falling down at a concert in France. She was trying to do the duck walk. She is not Angus Young.

It's almost cranberry season, so don't get bogged down! Get yours early. 

You've heard of a dog in the manger. Here's a fox in the bushes.

Wherever this hotel is, I want to stay there someday so I can hear them call my name every time they answer the phone.

Yankees fans seem to feel that just because they show up wearing Yankee caps and Yankee jerseys, they are also Yankees. My advice: when you go to a game, sit there and watch the professionals play, and keep your hands to yourself.

 A long time ago, a friend of mine who happened to be a Baltimore City police officer told that I should look at the year and expiration month of a car stopped ahead of me at a light or whatever. She said I would be surprised at how many thought they could just drive around with expired tags and just get away with it. This picture was taken the other night in Baltimore City.

Classic Peanuts

 

Between the daily editions and the Sunday strips, Charles Schulz posted 17,897 original "Peanuts" comics over the years.  At the time this one appeared in our daily paper on October 4, 1969, I thought it was and always would be the best one ever, and nothing ever changed my mind about that. 

The words Charlie Brown said to himself sounded like every one of the good old country music songs that I loved since I was Charlie's age.  What I didn't know back in the pre-WWW days, was that Schulz was a big country fan, even naming the "boneless cat" Faron after his favorite male singer, Faron Young.

Just swap out the gender and this strip works for anyone who's ever been lost in love. I just hope that Charlie wound up with the little red-haired girl for real. 

The Ride

 Remember those Canadian wildfires this past summer? Let me tell you about Patricia Robinson and her story in the fires.

Ms Robinson is 90 and she had been traveling alone by plane one day from her home in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to see family in Kelowna, British Columbia. Her family had paid for her trip as a gift for her big birthday.

She didn't get far. Less than an hour into the flight, the pilot came on the intercom with the news that the airspace across Western Canada was closed because of the smoke from the fires, and the plane was turning back to Calgary.

Picking up her luggage, she chatted with two guys who were in the same stranded boat, if you will: disappointed fellow flyers Quinn Sedmak, 48, and Tanner Salewich, 45. At first, all of them were booked on later flights that same day, all of which were cancelled because of the smoke.

So....

Sedmak found a reasonable rental car, and Salewich said he was down for the drive. Then they invited Robinson to come along, and she was up for it.

“What kind of crazy 90-year-old would be getting in the car with two strangers?” Robinson said. This kind: the kind who said, “I really didn’t want to spend the night in Calgary or go back to Saskatoon,” said Robinson.

Then she texted her family to let them know she’d be driving to the family gathering with two strangers she met on the flight. 

“It didn’t even occur to me what they might think.”

That is my kind of person!

“I wasn’t concerned about it at all,” she said. “I just totally trusted them both. I had no qualms about it.”

Leaving the Calgary airport at dinnertime, Sedmak, who has driven this trip "countless times" took the wheel. Salewich sat shotgun to navigate and Ms Robinson got in the back, riding shotgun shadow and remembering drives along the same roads years before with her late husband.

 

Quinn Sedmak, Patricia Robinson and Tanner Salewich

They got her to her family after seven hours of stories and listening to comedy. “They were very kind and considerate and polite to me all the way,” Ms Robinson said. “It had to come from somewhere, so I’m giving their moms the credit.”

Yes, we're told to be careful and don't go off with strangers, but sometimes, I think you have to trust your fellow humans.