Freeeeee Birrrrrrrd!

Our doorbell here at the Lazy 'C' Ranch has not worked for a while, which works for me. People going door-to-door selling steaks, siding, and political candidates push the button and sashay away broken-hearted because that push caused no noise to sound inside. I could replace it, but I find that a silent doorbell works just fine for me. Our friends know if we're home and they give their knuckles a workout to let us know they're there too.

By the way, shout out to the Amazon woman deliverer who was kind enough to carry a heavy box up onto the porch and inside the door to help Peggy out the other day. 

Anyway, this all leads to me saying that maybe you should always see who's knocking on your door. Especially if you work at a marine research facility in Florida.

Because, the other day at just such a facility, there came a knockin' at the back door, and someone went to see who was it, and lookie here:

This brown pelican was tapping at the door with its beak, patiently waiting to be a patient. It had not been a good day for him or her. Fishing line was wrapped around its right wing, a fishhook was stuck there as well, and a dozen cactus spines were stuck in its left foot.

This is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research facility, and Annsli Hilton, a University of Miami research associate who works there, figured someone had dropped the bird off for help. But no! That pelican needed help and knew just where to go to get it!

There's a basin a quarter mile away where lots of pelicans hang around, so this feathered friend walked that distance for help.

The business of this facility is the study of fish and sharks, but the staff brought its new friend right on inside. A biologist held the bird by its belly and its beak, so that others could have access to the injuries.

It only took about five minutes to fix him or her up (although the staff said it seemed like an hour) and then someone carried it back to that basin, where it stretched and flapped its wings for a bit, and then flew off to do whatever a happy pelican does on a nice September day.

And everyone who works there had a cool story to share over dinner! 

 

A maize maze

Corn was important to Dolly Parton's family down there in Sevierville, eastern Tennessee - her "Tennessee Mountain Home" that she sang of. It was one of the crops that helped her Dad put food on the table for his large family.

They were not rich, as you know, but Dolly had a little dolly as a girl. Her mother made a doll out of a corn cob and used the shuck to make the toy a little dress, and Dolly was as happy as could be with that simple dolly.

All that is why Dolly was always pleased that people took the making corn mazes at this time of the year, and now, I see that many communities are making Dolly-themed mazes. In fact, as of now, the total is 20!

This is one I just read about in South Carolina, down near Enoree, with a maze in Dolly's image that was actually planned long before God called her home. And - good to hear - a portion of the proceeds will go to Dolly's Imagination Library, which gives books to kids. What could be better?

The organizers say if you don't find your way out in an hour and a half, they will send the "corn cops" in to help you out!

Lose Some, Winsome

Even if you aren't into football, just as a human being, you have to be interested in the tragedy and triumph of a young man named Tyler Loop, whose job it is to kick footballs for the Baltimore Ravens football team. 

How fast things can turn! This past January, Loop missed what would have been a game-winning field goal against the dreaded Pittsburgh Steelers. The 26-24 loss gave the American Football Conference title to the Steelers, denying same to the Ravens.

It must have been an awful off-season for Loop. How many times do you think he played out that final kick in his mind? And lots of people were screaming for the Ravens to find another kicker.

But they didn't. And yesterday, in the third game of the new season, Loop came through against the Dallas Cowboys in a game played a Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Once again, it came down to the final play, and this time, Loop made the points, hitting a field goal from 56 yards out for a 34-31 Ravens win.

They're calling it the Redemption in Rio, and I'll be there is not a happier young man in the air as I write this and the Ravens fly home on happy wings.

The whole thing reminds me of the faces of comedy and tragedy that dramatists employ to show the range of how things can go on this mortal coil. You're not meant to lose every time, and it stings when you do.

You're not going to win every time either, but it sure takes away some of that sting when you do!

 

 

Sunday Rerun: Yeah Yeah Yeah

 

Above, the picture from the Beatles' "Abbey Road" album, showing the Fab Four in the picture that led to so much speculation.  You see, the license tag on the Volkswagen parked all crazy behind the band reads LMW 28IF, which played into the rampant speculation (sparked by a bored all-night disc jockey*) that Paul McCartney was dead, slain in a bloody car crash, and he WOULD have been 28 by now IF he had lived.

Another part of the rumor was that The Beatles were dressed for a funeral. John Lennon is dressed in white, the color for mourning clothes in Eastern religions. Ringo Starr is in black, the Western funeral mufti.  George Harrison is in denim, the traditional cloth for mourners among people whose idea of a proper vacation was a week in Twitty City. And McCartney is barefoot, because in some cultures, they bury people without shoes. I am taking my fireproof Rockports with me.

Well, Paul's still around, at 77, and so is that white VW. I don't know if it's the exact car in the other picture up there, but Volkswagen took a picture of a white Beetle (!) at the same place on Abbey Road to plug their new assistive parking technology in an advertisement.

The real car belonged to someone who lived in the neighborhood and did not park so well, but they sold it in an auction in 1986, and now that car can be seen at the Autostadt Museum in Wolfsburg, Germany.


* That DJ was Russ Gibb, who took a call from someone in October, 1969. That person told him to spin "Revolution 9" on the Beatles’ White Album backwards.  The words “number nine, number nine” were said to come out sounding like “Turn me on, dead man.” Play the end of “Strawberry Fields Forever" backward and you hear John say, “I buried Paul.”

And the classic example of that puckish Beatles humor came when someone from their office called to tell Paul he was reported as dead, and the cheeky bassist replied, "Oh, I don’t agree with that.”

All this happened after The Beatles stopped covering Larry Williams ("Bad Boy", "Slow Down", and "Dizzy, Miss Lizzy") and Carl Perkins ("Honey Don't", "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" and "Matchbox") songs and began Taking Themselves Very Seriously ("I am he as you are he as you are me/ And we are all together" are actual lyrics in "I am The Walrus") which is always the part where I reach for the remote.

Did you know that if you take any Kanye West CD and hit yourself in the head with it, you will hear voices singing, "Some people will buy anything"?

The Saturday Picture Show, September 26, 2026

 

This is the gravesite of Frances Bavier, the actress who played Aunt Bee for so many great years on the Andy Griffith Show. Bee was great at everything around the house, so the one episode known as The Pickle Story (Season 2, episode 11) shows her one weakness in the kitchen: every time she tries to make homemade pickles, she gets what Barney calls "kerosene cucumbers." Fans have taken to leaving jars of pickles, homemade and otherwise, at the gravesite. I think Bee would be pleased if someone rounded up the jars now and then for the hungry among us.

Wasn't it great the other night, after the final Orioles home game, that First Baseman and Most Valuable Oriole Pete Alonso led them back on the field to doff their caps and thank the fans? No, it was not a great season, but just wait 'til next year!

Oh give me a home on the open range!

I might have to rethink my options for Halloween this year. I had my heart set on being a minion, but maybe ET suits me better...

Dig this getup for the Renaissance Fair! Maryland-themed all the way, and we DO have the coolest state flag of all!

1950 on Broadway in New York City. Right out of "Guys and Dolls" with the orange juice and 15-cent slices of pizza. 

For those of us on the city water system: the drought is forcing the city to start siphoning in some Susgquehanna River water into our spigots. So that's why, if your coffee starts tasting like Havre de Grace soon...

Baltimore City made a poor decision to sell old "battle tested" police car parts to souvenir collectors. Not wise. Someone will attach this door to their Explorer and go around playing Adam-12 one day....

Someone far smarter than I (and there are millions) will come up with the idea to sell a tin that's half Danish cookies and half sewing notions - buttons, threads, and what not. The best of both uses!

A chicken fulfilling his destiny of getting to the other side! Which is where Popeye is waiting to serve him.

Free advice costs nothing and it's worth the price

 I see that it's the fall of the year, and people have put away their bathing apparel and summer wardrobes. That's usually a sign that people are (gasp!) going to work, often for the first time ever!

So, as a man who went to work on many first days, may I share something I saw online? Someone's wise father typed up this list of hints, and I urge the newly-employed and future employees alike to check it out:

 Yes! For those bosses who think being on time is being late, be early! Make a lot of new friends, and this starts with a pleasant greeting first thing. Yes, the receptionist knows everything, and trust me, you will learn how true this question is: "Do you want to speak to the Man In Charge, or the Woman Who Knows What's Going On?"

I was often the older guy but never the quiet older guy, but either way, go on. No, it's not a family. It's a workplace, and you have to be aware of whom to trust, and that may or may not be the person you are told to trust. Hold your gossip until you know for sure who is friends/married to/related to/sleeping with whom.

Yes, have a pen and a something to write on. A little stack of index cards will come in handy often! But don't be the goofus whose boss asks them to jot down something important, only to have to say, do you have a pen?

And by all means, respect yourself and your own time, too! This unpaid overtime "It's all for the good of the company" nonsense is nonsense. You deserve your lunch break and you deserve to go home when the day is done, and don't let them guilt trip you into hanging around til 7 to clear up that O'Hoolahan matter.

Rest in peace?

How many times have you seen this? A beloved celebrity dies, and the family problems come pouring out of the woodwork.

Late last year, right around Christmas time, the father of Tejano music star, the dearly beloved and sadly departed Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, died. His name was Abraham Quintanilla, Jr. He had been running the family business and Selena's estate since she was murdered in 1995. And then the curtain came up on the family drama. 

Selena's brother, A.B. Quintanilla, and her sister, Suzette Quintanilla, are going after each other in a legal battle over the family business (Q Productions) and Selena's personal estate.  

A.B. sued Suzette and the production company earlier this month, seeking a million dollars in damages and a complete financial accounting of the family money.

Suzette and her mother, Marcella, deny any mishandling of the money.

Remember, this family hung together and helped Selena become the queen that she was until she was murdered by a woman she trusted. Now, 31 years later, with the father gone, they're fighting over the money.

Sometimes it doesn't take decades for the fighting to begin. Dolly Parton has just been laid to rest, and her relatives are fighting already. 

Dolly's estate has filed suit against her nephew Bryan Seaver, the son of her sister Cassie. He was Dolly's head of security for more than 20 years, and he got bounced earlier this month. So now comes the family suit, claiming he threatened to ruin the wonderful name and legacy Dolly left behind. It also claims he made repeated violent threats toward her employees.

All of this brings up the age-old question of why people can't just let each live in peace. Dolly and Selena deserve better!

Deez nutcrackers

I am proud of another member of my family, one who can fly around and bury seeds and remember where they are buried!

There is this bird, see, a whole lot of them, sharing the name Clark's Nutcracker, and every fall, they round up as many as 98,000 pine seeds and bury them in about 5,000 little caches, 2 to 4 seeds per location.

Technically, they are passerine birds in the family Corvidae, native to the mountains of western North America. So they don't live around here, but they do send pretty pictures....

And then, they remember where they buried almost all of those seeds! They have a map in their tiny bird brains about where they left those snacks behind, meaning that no matter how cold and long the winter is, they remember their cache of seeds. Science knows that they use triangulation...measuring angles and distances between landscape features (rocks, big trees, fallen logs) to pinpoint the hiding places.

And get this! They intentionally over-cache, so there are seeds planted they will not need and will not return for, and a certain amount of those seeds will germinate and become new pine forests.

I mean, what could be better for nature than this? I am proud to be kin to these nutcrackers!

 

Look away!

 After Alabama finished off Florida State, 50-36 on Saturday, the eyes of the college football world turned to Oxford, Mississippi, in hopes that Ole Miss could send Louisiana State home empty-handed.

The score of that game did not mean that much to me, but I often look back on the days when Mississippi finally had to face up to their past and allow African American students to enroll in their university (which is and was for the people who live there, not a private institution.) The struggle for basic human decency and opportunity for all came to Ole Miss in the fall of 1962, when Air Force veteran James Meredith (eventually) enrolled as the school's first Black student. With support from the NAACP, Meredith had sought to transfer to the U of MS, and a federal court order was granted to make that happen.

(The sports teams at that fine institution of higher learning were, and are, called the Rebels. That should tell you something about how popular the Civil War was there.)

Mississippi's Governor Ross Barnett openly defied the federal court order trying to keep Meredith registering. In fact, riots brought out on the campus on September 30, 1962, with segregationists fighting the federal marshalls sent by President John F. Kennedy. Two rioters died; hundreds more were injured. Faced with armed rebellion, Kennedy federalized the Mississippi National Guard and sent thousands of U.S. Army troops and federal marshals the campus. That worked, and Meredith enrolled for classes on October 1. He needed, and was given, round-the-clock federal protection just to be able to go to class and get an education. 

The amazing thing to me continues to be that such a basic right offered to all citizens had to be fought for at all, let alone with soldiers and deaths. I was in sixth grade and already an keen watcher of the nightly news with Douglas Edwards, who was to tell us just two weeks later about the Cuban Missile Crisis unfolding. Just to think, in that one month, we faced destruction from within and from without, and the strong hand of John F. Kennedy guided us to safe conclusions.

That's the sort of thing that should be considered honorable.

By the way - the backup quarterback on the undefeated Rebels football team that autumn was a guy who found his living in music, instead of football. Jim Weatherly wrote "Neither One Of Us," "Midnight Train To Georgia," and "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me," and also composed music for movies and television show. 

Jim Weatherly passed away in 2021. Long before that, African American students and athletes became vital parts of the University of Mississippi. It's just a shame that it took courts and deaths and so much time for it to happen. 

Tonight's the night!

 Do you remember the 21st night of September? As the song goes, "Love was changin' the minds of pretenders, While chasin' the clouds away..."

Tonight is the 21st night of September, and this song by pop-funk group Earth, Wind, and Fire urges you to remember the happy times in your days gone by, and not to dig too deeply into what the song is about. 

The chant of "Ba-de-ya" was written as a hook that anyone in the world could sing, no matter their usual language.

The song was released in November in 1978, so the month was not significant.

Matter of fact, the day - the 21st - didn't matter either. The songwriters say they tried any number of dates in the first line, and "the 21st" fit in best.

That's all. Listen, I come from the days when people took the lyrics to a song and spread them out on their desk like a buffet of words and then tried to say, "When they wrote about watching the roll on by, they were talking about tears rolling down the cheeks of someone who just had their heartbroken."

No. Sometimes the words are just the words. Listen to the song and try not to dance around the floor.

Sunday Rerun: Generous

 People from other countries often have difficulty comprehending the concept (there's that word again!) of volunteer fire companies. I guess it's a purely American idea, people doing something at considerable personal risk, inconvenience, and expense that one could say is the responsibility of the government to handle.

But since the days of Benjamin Franklin, who organized the first "fire brigade" in Philadelphian, people here have dropped - literally! - what they're doing and run to the fire house to go help someone or some someones in need.

Things like this don't happen for free, and that was the problem for a volunteer company in Calhoun, Missouri, where chief Mark Hardin gloomily scanned the balance sheet for his company and saw a bottom line of $169. 

169 bucks won't go far when you need new turnout gear and mobile equipment. They had not been able to afford either since the 1980s.

“It was pretty discouraging — we’d already been paying for stuff out of our own pockets to keep things going,” said Hardin. He retired as a firefighter in Arkansas and moved to Calhoun, winding up as chief of the company, serving a town of maybe 500. “I probably shouldn’t tell how much of our own money we’ve spent. My wife would divorce me," he said. 

On an annual stipend of $4800, his 28 volunteers were trying to keep two engines on the road and scrape by for fuel and other supplies. They are lucky in that they receive donations of hand-me-down gear and other necessities from other departments. Volunteer companies are like that. They'll as likely give a recently-replaced engine to a smaller company down the road as trade it in. It's all part of the giving-back ethos.

As Hardin was noodling his way out of the financial morass, along came a phone call from 91-year-old Sam Sloan, who lives two miles up the road from the fire house.

Hardin said: "I’d never met Sam, but he invited me to breakfast. He wanted to ask me a bunch of general questions about the fire department.”

They went to breakfast again the next week, and the third week, Sloan invited Chief Hardin to come up to his house, where he presented the company with a check for $500,000.

“I walked in the door and Sam said, ‘What do you think about this?’” Hardin said.

And what he thought about that was, that he had never seen that many zeroes in a check.

Sloan told the chief that his cattle and seed businesses had been good for him, and he decided that when he sold his businesses and land that he was determined to make a contribution to the volunteers.

He and his wife Jan have a nice house and 60 acres to pass on to their one son someday, and for now the couple want to share their bounty with deserving people. He just says he has always admired volunteer firefighters.

“I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and I knew at this point in my life, I could help. It’s important to have a good fire department, especially with all the grass we have around here.”

Hardin thanked Sloan 20 times for the kind donation, then drove straight to the bank to increase the company's balance to $500,169.

Chief Hardin plans to get a new fire engine and some other equipment, plus new protective gear for all the members. 

And they bought a helmet for their new honorary chief Sloan to wear around.

The Saturday Picture Show, September 19, 2026

 

Autumn starts next week! I'm already dusting off my hoodies. Here's a preview from Lake Yamanaka in Japan! C'mon, you leaves! Change, doggone it!

There are so many things about which I know nothing. Up until today, I did not know that you could paint a picture of tangerines on newspaper.

This is inside an abadoned house somewhere, but I wanna tell you, with a little TLC, that chair could look great in someone's den! 

Why should old Marmaduke here have to sit with his business on the cold, cold ground when some other huckleberry hound will be glad to serve as his pillow?

I was telling someone the other day how I razzed my father for going to the Revco drugstore on Wednesdays to get his Skin Bracer aftershave on Senior Discount Day. Times have changed and now I'm all over the 10% off! 

I was never a big fan of Baseball Hall of Famer Robin Yount, but i have to say I like his taste in sportscoats!

I would never sign in under a gag name at the Doctor's Office, no sir. But if you ever heard the clerk at the pick-up window at Best & Co announcing an order was ready for "Colin O'Scopy," I might have known the prankster involved.

I think this is someone's dream, but what a great idea, with so many jerks zooming past stopped school buses. Just let the bus driver mark up the offending vehicles.

So, from here on in, Snooky won't be left out when you place the Girl Scout cookie orders. "Patch Pal" dog cookies are new for this year!

We Simpsons fans know Santa's Little Helper (Santos L. Halper to the credit card company). In the very first show, SLH was discarded by his owner, and it looks like life is imitating art. Someone please take him home!

A bit of a rough spell

 This picture happens to be from England, so it proves that the English are not the only ones who have a tough time with English.

The woman who posted it was all upset because she wanted balloons that spelled out H A P P Y   B I R T H D A Y for her son, but she feels that a mistake was made: "They left out the D in birthDay, but they gave me an extra A...."

Who wants to give her a hand before young Cholmondley's birthday is totally ruined? Anyone? Anyone?

Yan Canned Food

 This year, the New York Mets have an interesting relief pitcher named Jefry (correct spelling) Yan. He shows some promise, and got off to a good start this summer, but people are paying attention to him because of his exuberance when he strikes a guy out. He does this whole "jump up - jump down" thing that is supposed to convey his elation, but in sports, that is considered bad form, because it shows the other guy up, and he will be looking to hit the next pitch he sees halfway to Cooperstown.

BUT seeing that surname Yan made me think of someone we haven't seen for a while. His name is Martin Yan, a chef by trade, and when cooking shows were all over PBS in the era of mauve furniture and shoulder pads for men and women, his was one you saw every day..."Yan Can Cook." His schtick was teaching you how to whip up his home-gourmet food - hot and sour soup, egg rolls, stir fry, egg foo young, and of course, my favorite Chinese food dirty joke item, beef and broccoli.

I don't remember if you could send away for his recipes or what. This was before the internet, so there had to be a way to get the details down, unless you were good at shorthand. He made it look simple enough, not to mention tasty, and along the way, he would throw in jokes along with the bean sprouts and mushrooms.

And when he was finished making the Moo Goo, he would hold the dish up and proudly say his closing line: "Yan can cook and so can you!"

Hello, PBS? Put me on with my sure-fire simple chow recipes. We can call it "Eaty Gourmet"!

Covfefe Break

Ah, for the days when we went to high school to learn enough things to go to college or get a job. Not any more, apparently. And this story brings me to another of the peevelets that keep me up during my nap, namely: why can't people have their coffee and their breakfast before they leave the house? 

Dateline, BEAVER FALLS, New York, where a high school student ran afoul of a new policy on the first day of class at Beaver River Central School because she strolled into her first-period class with a cup of java in her hand.

Julie Kaputa, a senior at Beaver River (!) told WWNY News, “I walked in, I had my coffee with me. I got to my first-period class and my teacher said, ‘I’m either going to need you to dump that out or consume it on the spot or go down to the office.’”

Apparently, none of those options met with her approval, so she was given an in-school suspension for violating the school's outside food and drink rule, which was a new addition to the school's code of conduct.

I remember toting a brown bag lunch (roast beef sammy, some sort of heavily salted snack chips, and a Tastykake pie or cake) for years...for lunch. It never dawned on me that school was a place for a kaffeeklatsch.

And so the undercaffeinated young lady's mother got into it with the school, and doesn't believe the "code is valid" and the superintendent agreed and feels the August meeting at which the new code was promulgated was not sufficiently publicized and he's sorry and Julie is glad it's all worked out and through all of this, I see no mention of whether Julie went back to class or anything, and now I know why I grumble that high school students should be able to identify the Battle of Hastings and the Pythagorean theory and the difference between the words "versus" and "verse."

But first things first! Coffee for everyone, and then we'll look at your hypotenuse.

His name is...

I haven't heard this lately, but people used to say, "Now that everyone knows about the trouble I'm in, I guess my name is mud!" when their reputation was besmirched. 

I guess today's cool people say, "My reputation has been besmirched!" It's shorter, and quite to the point.

But there was really a man whose name was mud, and here is his story. You remember reading that John Wilkes Booth killed President Abraham Lincoln with his derringer pistol at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. in April, 1865, just as the Civil War was ending. Booth was a Confederacy fan.

The assassin made his getaway on horseback with a broken leg, by which I should make clear, Booth had the busted leg. The horse went on to win the fifth race at Laurel the next afternoon, after dropping Booth off at the Charles County home of Dr. Samuel Mudd.

Mudd's descendants, including Roger Mudd, the newsman on CBS, fought for years to clear Dr Sam's name, because it was he who set the fracture for Booth and allowed him to hide out in Waldorf, MD. 

Booth took it on the lam and made it as far as a farm in Port Royal, Virginia, before being killed by a Union Army Sergeant, one Boston Corbett, whose troops had set fire to the barn in an effort to flush Booth out.

As the investigation went on, it was determined that Mudd had known Booth and had indeed offered help with the assassination of Lincoln, although it was never proven that he knew what was cooking that particular night. Nonetheless, he was tried by a military commission and convicted of conspiracy, and sent to the military prison on Fort Jefferson, a remote island 70 miles west of Key West.

Dr Mudd

Two years later, an outbreak of yellow fever swept through the prison camp. One of the first to die was the prison doctor. Mudd rose to the challenge, using his medical skills to treat the afflicted and contain the epidemic. Responding to a petition signed by soldiers and officers at the fort, President Andrew Johnson granted Mudd a full and unconditional pardon, and Mudd returned to Charles County, still a convicted, but pardoned, man.

So, that explains that name thing. We still don't understand why people thought it was all right to own slaves, though.

 

 

Out with a bang

Here is news from Willemstad, Curaçao. It's an island in the southern Caribbean Sea with a temperate climate (82°-88° year-round) and a location out of the standard hurricane path. It belongs to the Kingdom of the Netherlands as an autonomous, self-governing constituent country. 

Speaking of which, a guy Baltimore remembers fondly for his skills at playing second base for the Orioles, Jonathan Schoop, got himself in Dutch down there. It's his home country, but last January, he was arrested after an investigation at his home turned up firearms, ammunition, cartridge casings and knives. He was locked up for a month at the time, and after his trial, he was sentenced on Friday to 30 months in prison with six months suspended.

And this is actually a lighter sentence than he might have received had the judge followed the prosecution's request for four years with eight months suspended. He also missed playing for the Kingdom of the Netherlands team in the World Baseball Classic in March, although his major league career in the US ended in 2023 with his release by the Detroit Tigers.

Now, you have to figure he knew the gun laws were strict in Curaçao, having grown up there. Why he felt the next to have an artillery handy is something he can ponder for the next 24 months.

I salute the island nation for taking steps to keep guns out. You're probably less likely to get shot to death in a place like that. Yes, the US homicide-by-gun rate is decreasing, probably because people can't afford the gas to go out and buy bullets, but it's still unacceptable to have people strutting around in any nation carrying weapons of mass destruction.

Let's contact old #6 in a couple of years and see how he feels about the proliferation of guns.

 

Sunday Rerun: Here Come The Renters

 Two of my favorite Beatles, John Lennon and George Harrison, have gone on to their rewards, leaving my third favorite, Ringo Starr, and that guy with the eyebrows, Paul, I think is his name.

And as we all know, all four of the Fab Four came from working class backgrounds in Merrie Olde England. George came from such a family: his father, Harold, was a school bus driver; his mom, Louise, kept the home, raised four kids, and taught ballroom dance.

And I would think that a real Beatles fan would jump at the chance to do an Airbnb thing, and rent that house where George lived from ages 6 to 18, right?  Here's the story...

The home where The Beatles rehearsed many times is at 25 Upton Green in Speke, which is a southeast suburb of Liverpool, England.  It's what the British call a terrace house, and we call a rowhouse or a townhouse. George and his three siblings and their parents moved in in 1949, moving out in 1962 just as Beatlemania swept England and headed for our shores.

Another family bought the house from the Harrisons; they stayed for 50-some years, moving out in 2014. At that point, the new owners turned it into a rental for a while until 2021, when it went up for auction. A Beatle fan from New Hampshire, Ken Lambert, bought it then for £171,000, (about $223,000), having seen the listing from Omega Auctions calling the house a “truly unique opportunity to own the property where George spent his formative years and that played an important part in helping The Beatles flourish.”

Lambert, with help of a Liverpudlian local, has been ever since working on the place, getting it ready for company.  He found furniture and wall treatments appropriate to the time of the fifties and early sixties, and posted photos and added furniture for the right feel. He studied old photographs and found period-appropriate furniture and wallpaper to help transport guests back in time. Of course, he brought in a record player and a stack of Beatles albums.  

“I wanted to do it for myself, to play the guitar and play the Beatles in the room the Beatles played guitar,” Lambert tells the Herald. “That really is a cool thing for people to experience.”

While the childhood homes of Paul McCartney (THAT'S his name!) and John Lennon are maintained for preservation by the National Trust, a European conservation organization, Harrison’s house has not been given that treatment. I don't know why. But Mr Lambert is doing his part, opening the place for rental by fans on a pilgrimage.

And you can rent it for less than the price of a top beach resort! The erstwhile  Harrison home is available for short-term rentals on Airbnb (£200, or $260, per night). 

If you go, please share lots of pictures, and send me a postcard!

The Saturday Picture Show, September 12, 2026

 

This orange will give your morning a smile and he hasn't even been turned into juice yet!

Compact Cars Only? Sure, and this is my compact little Rolls Royce Phantom.

I'll have half a dozen figs, hold the Newton.

He's a baby, sure, but he's still a rattlesnake and will grow to be a bigger one!

This is in Hanoi, North Viet Nam, where the train comes right through the shopping district.

The remote will never get lost again if you chain it to a couple of pounds of marble.

How cool would it be to have a national leader as cool as Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister seen here having lunch with Bryan Adams in Ontario?

If you don't own a cat, the first two things you will learn about them when you get one are A) they sit where they wish to sit and 2) no box is "too small."

I cannot explain this one, except to guess that the angry man is also the photographer. Why was he angry and how did he channel that anger? Those are two questions I might assign to a Creative Writing seminar, were I teaching one.

Burt Reynolds had a fine sense of humor, if you like pranks like the time he grew tired of the National Enquirer printing half-truths and untruths about him, so he rented a helicopter and flew over their headquarters in Florida for the purpose of dumping several buckets of meadow muffins, cow patties, and cattle dung on them.