Maybe it was the fact that Helen and I were sitting right next to the bandstand at Mullis, but the best thing that got to me was how Tom’s local band could have such a tremendous big band sound. When they wound up the evening with Cab Calloway’s music, I could have sworn I was in the Cotton Club listening to the crowd echoing to Cab’s leads, sung by Jimmy (hidee) Moe.
The store has attracted 12 bids on the internet auction site Public Surplus. The current high bid, by someone using the bidding name “Altruism,” is $2,650. Bids are expected to rise significantly between now and April 20, when the auction ends, according to Liquor Control Board spokesman Brian Smith.
My mother, Ann, would be shocked to know how few people go to the polls (even if they only have to vote by mail). But worse, she would shudder to hear how easy it is to buy an election under the present “donation” laws, whereby the Supreme Court ruled that there is no reason to limit the money that unions and corporations can spend on their candidate.
Eureka! I remembered something that happened during the Great Depression.
Senator George W. Norris, a great legislator during the New Deal years, had long felt there was no need to have two legislative bodies in government.
I hated to go to the Lions Club that day but I did my duty, stopped at the bank ATM and started to the Legion Hall. Suddenly, my one good eye started to flash on and off.
Tuesday, Jan. 12, the San Juan Lions Club hosted San Juan Island School District Superintendent Walt Wegener and school board member Brent Snow to present their views on the M&O Levy coming up for vote on Feb. 9. Snow, who is manager of Roche Harbor when he is not devoting time to family and all sorts of community causes, kicked off what he called the “pony and dog show.” He was most persuasive.
A perceived one-size-fits-all approach to land use regulations in San Juan County is meeting stiff resistance from two growing groups in the islands — the Common Sense Alliance, headed by Planning Commissioner Mike Carlson, and the Citizens Alliance for Property Rights, directed by Frank Penwell.
What a wonderful job Director Helen Machin-Smith has done with Island Stage Left presentations through the years. “Rabbit Hole,” the winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize and five Tony awards, now being performed to perfection by a cast of five actors — three of them professional — is solid proof of that accolade.
Thanks to director Andrew V. McLaglen, a marvelous array of local talent and the great theater our community has generously established, we now have a boffo performance of a play by the most successful playwright in American theatrical history, Neil Simon. I kid you not: Our local performance of “The Odd Couple” excels the show I saw on the stage when it won all those Tonys, the great movie starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, the long-running TV comedy series, and, of course, the ABC cartoon series. Theater, anywhere, anytime, doesn’t get any better than this.
We’re doing this for EVERYBODY’S GRANDCHILDREN, not just ours. The more we can find out about what is good for us and all creatures large and small, the better off we’ll be.
Newspapers, schools, government … all are among the many institutions who are chided if they don’t fly the flag on Flag Day. We used to fly it at The Journal when our offices were on Guard Street, before moving to Mullis Street a few years ago. Only trouble, we were on the first floor and we lost a few flags.
I was a bit ambivalent about watching a show about Patsy Cline, not being a strong country-western fan, although I remembered listening to a few of her songs back in the ’50s. I am now here to tell you that even if you never heard of her before, you will become an instant Patsy Cline fan if you attend director Merritt Olsen’s production at San Juan Community Theatre.
Everywhere this old dinosaur goes these days, he’s confronted with condolences about the death of the newspaper business, the “fact” that the Internet is taking over, that you have to know texting and tweeting and Blackberry lingo to keep up with modern times. Well, as I did when radio was going to be our downfall, and then television, I feel sure, as my mother used to say, “This too shall pass” (TTSP to you tweetybirds). Why, just last Saturday night, I had a great example.
