A Couple of Snaps, A Couple of Memories

I came across an article that purports to show us how each presidential candidate's tax plan would impact us. Unsurprisingly, my taxes would go down under Republican plans and up under Democratic plans. Of course, the income tax rate is only one part of any candidate's policies. Still, you might want to know.

Which reminds me, have you filed your tax return for this year yet? I have not. I am running really late. I only have two weeks left, though, so I need to get after it. The real effort is gathering all the numbers into a pile and sorting them. I hope to get some money back. I will probably use TurboTax Online, but I have not decided yet.

In the heart of March Madness, we come across a way to use that tracking mechanism to advance our own financial savvy. Yes, of course, I am talking about financialfour.org. Go review it now. See what you think is important to you financially.

The folks have their family reunion coming up in May. Since it is so early in the year, we will not be able to attend this time. Then, we have our own family reunion later in the year. It's like a reunion-fest all around us.

After a week of lying around and coughing, I am already feeling a little tired this morning. Whew, the day could seem very long. I'll need to build up my stamina gradually.

Here we are in the lobby of the Imperial Theater where we saw Les Miserables. Yes, it is a small and cramped as it looks.

Did I already share this 'Yellow ticket of Leave' with you. It is one of the props in the musical, and I will be giving it to GRAND #1 soon as part of her remembrance from our trip. It does have the French words granting Jean Valjean his freedom. We all assumed it was a fake piece of paper.

Billy the Kidder makes his return today.

And that'll have to do it for today. I am out of both time and energy. Have a good rest of your day.

I Should Buy Stock in Cough Drops

I am not much of a soda drinker, although I used to be. I grew up with Coke and Dr. Pepper, and I have always enjoyed A&W Root Beer. I remember going to the A&W Drive-In after ball practices, and R.A. events and such. Even now, seeing an A&W place on a road trip tempts me. However, I mostly drink water or flavored water nowadays. I did come across a list of soda flavors that have come and gone. Thinks like New Coke, Pepsi Clear, OK Cola, etc. Check out the list and see how many you recall.

Some things renamed by Twitter:

Here's a sign my Friends-fan Teacher Daughter would like.

How can you protect dark colors from fading in your daily laundry cycle? Not sure? Read this and you will know everything there is to know about keeping black things black, etc. Hint: one of the tips involves turning them inside out before washing.

Are you a morning person? I never was growing up. Now, I get up waaay too early, but I don't think it really makes me a morning person. Does it? What makes that true? I came across this article that talks about how one woman forced herself to become one.

Would you get up early for homemade Thin Mints like those Girl Scouts cookies? I found someone who claims they have a copycat version.

Don't eat them until you have finished your dinner, though. How about a Shrimp Lo Mein, even if you do not have a wok?

I do not have a Windows computer at home, and I do not know if I would work to make my own wallpaper, but I did like the photo use in this article.

A young man in Tennessee gave his mother a life-size cutout of himself before he left, thinking she could stand it in  corner and think of him occasionally. Instead, she posed it in a bunch of ways. Check them out in the article.

I do love me a good musical (Les Miz, anyone?). That does not mean that I could actually be a singer in one, except Only In My Mind.

I am feeling better. I do still have that persistent cough. I did not have a fever at all yesterday, so I know I can get back to the office soon. I have heard horror stories of others for which the cough held on for months. I hope I can beat that curve.

Better Late Than ... Something + One More Thing

It has been a few days since we heard of a new Oreo flavor. Well, that drought has ended. Introducing a nice, light flavor for Spring/Summer. Strawberry Shortcake Oreos are indeed coming soon. Do not confuse this with Strawberry Shortcake candy corn, though.

As I type this, we are watching Tyler Perry's The Passion that we recorded last weekend. We are enjoying it, although it helps to know some of these newer songs from artists Like Phillip Phillips, Train, Lifehouse, Tina Turner, Tears for Fears, Hoobastank. So, if you like some of those groups/songs, and like the Easter message, check it out.

Pretty soon after I posted yesterday's blog post, I decided I was not getting better fast enough and went to the doctor. Last week, before our trip, I went to get some medicine so I would enjoy NYC. Yesterday, I found out it has turned into some form of pneumonia. I don't know the specifics because I did not get a chest x-ray. The doc said doing so (she would have had to refer me to a specialist) would not change her treatment plan. The last two days, though, my cough is much worse, my chest and throat are hurting. I hope the medicines take effect quickly.

Today's 365 Stupidest Things calendar entry:
GOD IS GOOD! DR. HARGREAVES IS BETTER!
in a church bulletin regarding the pastor’s illness

Today's Bad Jokes calendar entry:
Son: When I grow up, I want to be a minister.
Mom: Why's that?
Son: Because I'll have to go to church anyway, and it's a lot harder to sit still and listen than it is to stand up and yell.

Daughter-in-Love's stepfather is still in the hospital following his stroke. It has affected his right side, so it must have been severe. Please continue to lift him and the whole family up in prayer. Her paternal grandfather is also in the hospital, but I do not know any details. Still, prayers are always welcome.

I've been saving this next article for a day when I am not finding anything else to share. It so happens that day has arrived. This article talks about why the contraction "y'all" is so useful, and so necessary. I feel validated.

Chalk Art:

Another defaced sign:

No Clarity of Vision today. My coughing is too intrusive. Hopefully, I will be in a creative mood by then. Sorry this is later than normal, but I did not want to leave you hanging. See you next week.

I almost forgot. Here is a video of some famous people talking about a new initiative in Tempe, AZ.

More of The Kind of Stuff I Often Share, Plus an Irish Island

Alright, you families with young children, I may know of a place where you can get your kids in a school with an almost 1:1 ratio of teachers to students. How does that sound? Alright, you people who are concerned about a Trump presidency, I may know of a place where you can escape the US political rhetoric. The one minor drawback is that it is in Ireland. No, wait, the other part of that drawback is that it is an island 9 miles off the coast. Check out more about Inishturk Island and its current 58 residents here. And check out a couple of photos below.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that George Martin died. I came across an article sharing some details about how he helped shape many of The Beatles' songs. Here are a couple of others mentioned in the story.

‘Yesterday’

Mr. McCartney first played Mr. Martin his classic torch song during the group’s Paris residency in January 1964, so the producer had plenty of time to mull how to handle it. The group may have considered it, at first, as simply a ballad that would get the full-band treatment. But when Mr. McCartney decided to record it, during the “Help!” sessions in 1965, Mr. Martin proposed that Mr. McCartney accompany himself on an acoustic guitar, with a string quartet taking the place of the other Beatles. Mr. McCartney had his doubts: In his view, string arrangements on rock records were suspect. But Mr. Martin played him some recordings and sat him down at the piano to show him what could be done. In the end, Mr. McCartney was convinced, and Mr. Martin — typically open to the group’s ideas — worked out his quartet arrangement with Mr. McCartney present. Mr. Martin has said, in fact, that one of the arrangement’s highlights — the descending cello line, after the lyric “I’m not half the man I used to be” — was Mr. McCartney’s idea.

‘Strawberry Fields Forever’

“Strawberry Fields Forever,” the first song recorded for the sessions that produced the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album, had as difficult a birth as any song the Beatles and Mr. Martin created. Lennon wrote this psychedelic dreamscape while filming “How I Won the War” in Almería, Spain, and recorded demos of all kinds — on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, with and without keyboard overdubs — before taking it to Abbey Road on Nov. 24, 1966. That night, the Beatles recorded a simple, short version with harmony vocals and a Mellotron approximation of a slide guitar, but they junked it two days later and started again, recording a tougher, tighter version with Mr. McCartney playing a fluty Mellotron introduction.

Lennon didn’t like that one either, and asked Mr. Martin to write an orchestral score. Mr. Martin responded with a hard-driven chamber score for brass and cellos. He sped the piece up, and moved the song to a higher key so that he could use the vibrant sound of the cello’s lowest open string. On Dec. 8, the band and its symphonic friends recorded this third version, which also boasted a raucous timpani part, played by Mr. McCartney, and an Indian zither, played by George Harrison.

Lennon liked it, briefly, and then he didn’t. He told Mr. Martin that he enjoyed both the band’s version and the chamber version, and envisioned a combination. Mr. Martin protested that the two were in different keys and at different tempos, but Lennon knew the extent of his producer’s magic, and said, “You can do it, George.” As it turned out, the key and tempo changes worked to Mr. Martin’s advantage: by slowing down the orchestral version and speeding up the band take, he found common ground without making either sound too unnatural. If you listen closely, you can spot his splice exactly one minute into the song.

‘A Day in the Life’

The song that closes “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” and is, for many listeners, the most astonishing track on an astonishing album, actually began as a pair of unrelated songs: The melancholy outer verses were Lennon’s, the brighter central section was Mr. McCartney’s. What transformed these fragments into a cohesive whole is a touch of avant-garde string scoring by Mr. Martin. By the time the Beatles set to work on the track, on Jan. 19, 1967, they and Mr. Martin had mapped out its structure. Two of Lennon’s verses would open the song, followed by Mr. McCartney’s verse, which would lead back to final thoughts from Lennon. Between the two composers’ sections, though, the band would vamp for 24 bars, and there would be another long vamp after the closing verse. How these would be filled — well, Mr. Martin would figure that out later.

For several weeks, the group tweaked the main parts of the song, polishing the vocals, drums and bass, adding extra percussion parts, and trying to imagine what should occupy those long vamped sections. Mr. McCartney thought an orchestral section would be good, but left the question of what that should entail to his producer. Mr. Martin’s solution was to take a page out of the playbooks of classical composers like John Cage and Krzysztof Penderecki, who at the time were creating works in which chance played a role. Mr. Martin hired 40 symphonic musicians for a session on Feb. 10, and when they turned up, they found on their stands a 24-bar score that had the lowest notes on their instruments in the first bar, and an E major chord in the last. Between them, the musicians were instructed to slide slowly from their lowest to highest notes, taking care not to move at the same pace as the musicians around them.

The sound was magnificently chaotic, and it became more so once Mr. Martin combined the four takes he recorded (some with Mr. McCartney on the podium, some conducted by Mr. Martin himself). It was a brilliant solution: as Lennon’s voice faded into the echoic distance, the orchestra began its buildup, ending sharply on the chord that begins Mr. McCartney’s section.

A couple more ideas on renaming things from Twitter users.

I was very young when the first wipers started to appear on cars in 1902. Early car companies felt that windshield wipers felt that 'the wipers had no practical value, would be distracting to drivers and were worth nothing monetarily.' They became standard issue in 1913. Read more about those early days here.

Chalk Art time again.

A clever defaced sign....

Check out these t-shirts and then we'll talk.

OK, what did you think? Do you want to buy one, like, yesterday? Think they look kind of fun? Amazing how they blended the color of the shirt so well with the shirt? Notice anything odd, though? Look at the wrinkles in the shirts. They are all the same. So, this is a digitally produced version of the shirt. Who knows how good the real ones will look. Disappointing, at least to me. Why not take the extra 45 seconds and photo each of the shirt designs?

I was thinking of The Beatles' song I'll Cry Instead in the shower this morning. Why? I'm not sure. Maybe because I had to get up early and go to work?

The other day, the group of us up in NYC were saying the titles of songs that come to mind about NYC, MBH and I chose the song I mentioned yesterday, Theme from New York, New York. SS and D-I-L picked Empire State of Mind by Jay Z and Alicia Keys. I don't think the GRANDS had a song. What song would you first think of? NYC is 352 years old, having been renamed from New Amsterdam back in 1664. As you can imagine, I was very young back then. BTW, this photo is not mine. I just liked its grittiness and B&W.

Here is the backdrop we saw looking toward the stage as we waited for the musical to begin the other day.

And here is the view of the theater looking behind us. It is now a very big place, so everyone should have had a great seat.

This is the view if you looked down towards the orchestra pit. What is it? The cross-hatching is actually a net so that nothing would fall down on the orchestra. The image in the center is the view of a camera so the orchestra and see the conductor. They are completely under the stage, and so, when he is watching the action on stage and directing, not all the orchestra and see his baton. This monitor lets them watch him. Still cannot see it? You can see his left arm in the monitor on the left side.

Oh, I am way late finishing today's post. I will end with today's CoV.

Thanks for sticking with it to the end.

I Woke Up In the City That Never Sleeps

Does the title of today's blog post bring to mind any specific locale? If not, then you need to get out more. Frank Sinatra sang a famous version of the song. Still nothing? Well, the first verse of the song includes the lyrics I tweaked above. The song, New York, New York, starts like this:
Start spreadin' the news,
I'm leavin' today.
I want to be a part of it,
New York, New York.
These vagabond shoes,
they're longin' to stray.
Right through the very heart of it,
New York, New York.
I wanna wake up in a city that doesn't sleep.
And find I'm king of the hill,
top of the heap.

Now that your creative juices are flowing, you are probably wishing you had a nice slice of pie right now. No, not a dessert. I'm talking a pizza pie from New York. If that's true, nothing could be more useful to you than some way to carry it for later.

What's with all this New York-related stuff? Well, MBH and I just got back from celebrating a milestone anniversary with SS, D-I-L, and two GRANDS in NYC. Yup, we spent a few days staying at Times Square, seeing sights, musicals, and local eateries. Special thanks to Daughter-In-Love for planning it for us. We were there for five full days, and I gained 1.5 lbs. That's only 5 oz per day. Still, I would not want to keep that up for too long.

I didn't find much to share today from my web search (except for the pizza pocket shirt). And I have not processed any photos from my DSLR yet, so I will start with a couple from my phone. First is the night MBH and I took the GRANDS to Bubba Gumps in Times Square for her birthday. Here, they are singing to her after making her dance a bit to earn her special dessert.

Next, a shot of Times Square.

And finally, this plaque is placed in the sidewalk in front of the Imperial Theatre where we saw a Broadway musical. Maybe you can guess which one, if your creative juices are still flowing. I will tell you more about it in coming posts

Did you know that I recently purchased a new HP Envy laptop? I took it with me on the trip to download photos each night. I cannot get it to boot. You may remember that, about a week ago, I mentioned I had that problem, but got around it. Turns out that, nope, I didn't. So, the company I purchased it from said contact Amazon to see about returning it. Also, one of the key caps has already popped off. I will not go with that model again, and probably not an HP of any kind.

The grandson of a high school friend committed suicide this past week, so keep Jo and her family in your prayers. I know it was hard when a nephew of ours was killed in a car accident a few years ago, so this family has a long healing process ahead of them.

Let's end with a revisit of an old comic, which is still timely since I heard we are moving to a different building soon.

I am in town for a while now, so my publishing schedule should be more regular. No guarantees on my creative juices, though.

Happy B-Day, GD#1

Recent free downloads of music offered by our local library include some classic Sam Cooke, the first Santana album, and Willie Nelson singing Gershwin songs. Before that was some Mountain, Kansas, and Gloria Estefan. As you can see, my tastes are a bit eclectic, but not as often modern. Salesman Son does still bring more recent releases to me that I enjoy, so that is fun, too.

I don't know if you have been checking, but there have been a few days when no blog post was published. Why? I have been a bit under the weather since last week. I finally decided I had to see the doctor and I have a viral bronchitis (it may have started as the flu late last week). Anyway, I am now on medication and the cough has definitely gotten better (meaning healing, not that I am improving my coughing techniques).

My college roommate has written a Rhyming Bible Stories book about Noah. We ordered a copy for reading the the GRANDS.

Have any of you ever considered trying to rearrange the US states but still fit them within the geographical constraints of the country? xkcd did.

I have a few more Twitter postings for renaming common things. How about an alternative moniker for a toaster?

A new name for insomnia?

It is St. Patrick's Day. Did you wear green today? If not, has anyone pinched you yet? Well, good luck. It is also the birthday of our oldest GRAND. We will be seeing her later today. Still, I hope she can start her day with us wishing her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Here is a music-making machine using marbles to play a nice little melody. Oldest GRANDdaughter, consider it a nice little birthday song. It is also a pretty incredible device.

Funny analogy for today: Marriage is like a deck of cards. In the beginning, all you need is two hearts and a diamond. But by the end, you wish you had a club and a spade.

Bad Pun Dog makes his final visit.

More chalk art:

I do not remember how my father taught me to shave. The first step, though, would be to apply shaving cream to face, right?

A Quidditch bicycle, perhaps?

You may have heard that there is a presidential election this year. One of the consequences of that could be a delay in replacing  Judge Scalia on the US Supreme Court. However, there is a good reason to actually confirm Obama's nominee.

Well, it's time for my inhaler to treat this cough. Sucks, right? Get it? Inhaler? Sucks? OK, maybe that is too much humor after a few days off. In fact, I will help you ease back into the blog by not publishing tomorrow. See you next week.

I Don't Always Write Blog Posts....

I do not always have a song in mind when I take my morning shower. If you have noticed that there are some days when I do not mention it, either I forgot to add it into the blog post, or, more likely, no song came to me at that early hour. Today, though, I was thinking about 'All About That Bass' by Meghan Trainor. Her version, though, made me think of the arrangement by Straight No Chaser where they compare the basses and the tenors in the group. Much more fun for me.

I took some cough medicine last night that must have made me sleep more deeply, because I woke up 27 minutes late this morning. As I was getting ready, I glanced at the clock and the following thought occurred to me. 'I am still in a state of deshabille at a time when I am normally arriving at my desk.' Why did I think of that wording and not a more normal wording such as 'getting dressed'? I wish I could explain it, but I don't know, either.

Well, we purchased our 'new' car yesterday. It's a 2010 Nissan Xterra. No, I did not drive it today because I have not yet affixed the temporary registration sticker yet. It is insured, so it will become a car for one of us starting Monday. It looks like this... except it is silver and not wrecked.

Today's calendar entry from the 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said calendar. I want to blame it on autocorrect, but I don't know if that is true or not. The calendar does not mention if it is an Orthodox rabbit or Reformed.
RABBIT TO OFFER FIRST SHABBAT SERVICES
newspaper headline

If you live in a state where they observe Daylight Savings Time, this Sunday begins the savings. Do not forget to reset your clock. If you want your clocks as accurate as possible, you should wake up at 2am and reset them exactly then. Otherwise, you could wake up at 12:30am and your clock already says 1:30am. Think of the confusion.

I did not find anything to share in my normal sources. So, I will just go back to the stories I save in email for these types of slow-news-story days.

Let's start with two more of the songs where George Martin influenced the Beatles.

Yesterday
Mr. McCartney first played Mr. Martin his classic torch song during the group’s Paris residency in January 1964, so the producer had plenty of time to mull how to handle it. The group may have considered it, at first, as simply a ballad that would get the full-band treatment. But when Mr. McCartney decided to record it, during the “Help!” sessions in 1965, Mr. Martin proposed that Mr. McCartney accompany himself on an acoustic guitar, with a string quartet taking the place of the other Beatles. Mr. McCartney had his doubts: In his view, string arrangements on rock records were suspect. But Mr. Martin played him some recordings and sat him down at the piano to show him what could be done. In the end, Mr. McCartney was convinced, and Mr. Martin — typically open to the group’s ideas — worked out his quartet arrangement with Mr. McCartney present. Mr. Martin has said, in fact, that one of the arrangement’s highlights — the descending cello line, after the lyric “I’m not half the man I used to be” — was Mr. McCartney’s idea.

Strawberry Fields forever
“Strawberry Fields Forever,” the first song recorded for the sessions that produced the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album, had as difficult a birth as any song the Beatles and Mr. Martin created. Lennon wrote this psychedelic dreamscape while filming “How I Won the War” in Almería, Spain, and recorded demos of all kinds — on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, with and without keyboard overdubs — before taking it to Abbey Road on Nov. 24, 1966. That night, the Beatles recorded a simple, short version with harmony vocals and a Mellotron approximation of a slide guitar, but they junked it two days later and started again, recording a tougher, tighter version with Mr. McCartney playing a fluty Mellotron introduction. Lennon didn't like that one either, and asked Mr. Martin to write an orchestral score. Mr. Martin responded with a hard-driven chamber score for brass and cellos. He sped the piece up, and moved the song to a higher key so that he could use the vibrant sound of the cello’s lowest open string. On Dec. 8, the band and its symphonic friends recorded this third version, which also boasted a raucous timpani part, played by Mr. McCartney, and an Indian zither, played by George Harrison. Lennon liked it, briefly, and then he didn’t. He told Mr. Martin that he enjoyed both the band’s version and the chamber version, and envisioned a combination. Mr. Martin protested that the two were in different keys and at different tempos, but Lennon knew the extent of his producer’s magic, and said, “You can do it, George.” As it turned out, the key and tempo changes worked to Mr. Martin’s advantage: by slowing down the orchestral version and speeding up the band take, he found common ground without making either sound too unnatural. If you listen closely, you can spot his splice exactly one minute into the song.

I saw this display of beer and it reminded me of a current news story. Did you hear that they are replacing the actor who plays 'The Most Interesting man in the World' for someone younger to appeal to millennials? Yup, it's true, but they will be sending him out in style.

Snapchat worth saving.

And some chalk art. How can those creative types even envision these scenes?

Bad Pun Dog makes a return today. His typically bad joke reminds me of the TV program Little Big Shots, hosted by Steve Harvey. Did you see it? I think the first episode and a new one are being replayed Sunday. If you remember the old Art Linkletter shows and liked them, I am certain this series will be equally clever. Why did I think of that when I read this comic? One of Steve's guests was a spelling champion at age 4 or 5. Amazing. The longest word he spelled was .... I don't even remember, but Steve said 'He just spelled mononucleosis in the volcano'.

Time for a Clarity of Vision fix for Friday.

And now, sadly, it is time for saying goodbye. To you. To the week. To today's blog post. All good things must come to an end.  So, enjoy your weekend. Enjoy time with loved ones. Enjoy the blessings God has given you. See you next week.

From Me to You - Songs, Stats, and Snapchats

Did you hear that George Martin, the legendary Beatles producer, the Fifth Beatle, died this week at the age of 90? In honor of him, I have two Beatles-related stories. The first is a tale of his influence on a couple of songs.

From Me To You
When the Beatles turned up at EMI’s studios on Abbey Road to record their third single, on March 5, 1963, they brought “From Me to You,” a short song that John Lennon and Paul McCartney had started writing less than a week earlier. Mr. Martin pondered the possibilities through the first four takes, and then proposed a solution for the song’s two biggest problems, its brevity and lack of variety. After two verses, a bridge and a repeat of the first verse, the Beatles would play the verse yet again, this time with the first two lines as a short instrumental break, punctuated with the phrases “from me” (after the first line) and “to you” (after the second), before singing the final two lines. To fill out the break, Mr. Martin had Lennon play the song’s melody on the harmonica, shadowed by Mr. McCartney on the bass. For the introduction, Mr. Martin experimented with a string of overdubs. In one, Lennon played the tune on the harmonica. In another, the group hummed it. They also sang it, twice using the syllables “da-da-da, da-da, dun dun da,” and once with a falsetto floating across the top. In the end, Mr. Martin chose a combination of the harmonica and the sung line (sans falsetto), which establishes the song’s bright character immediately.

In My Life
Mr. Martin began adding keyboard parts to the Beatles’ recordings virtually from the start, a notable early example being the ringing celesta line on “Baby It’s You.” But the finest such contribution was his solo on “In My Life,” an autobiographical meditation by Lennon, on “Rubber Soul.” When the Beatles recorded the song, on Oct. 18, 1965, they left an instrumental verse open, to be filled with a solo, the nature of which was yet to be agreed upon. By Oct. 22, the group agreed to turn the solo over to Mr. Martin, who decided to give it a Bachian twist, writing a part that had the character and ornamentation of a Two-Part Invention. On his first pass, he used a Hammond organ but didn’t care for the result. A piano worked better, but Mr. Martin, a functional but not virtuosic pianist, was unable to fully channel his inner Glenn Gould. So he played the master tape at half-speed, recording his part slowly and precisely. When the tape was played at full speed, the piano line was not only suitably crisp, but the speed change gave the instrument an unusual character — somewhere between that of a piano and a harpsichord, but not quite either.

A second Beatles-related story is an article ranking the 11 studio Beatles albums from worst to best. How would you rank them? This author suggests that Beatles For Sale is the weakest, in part because 6 of the 14 songs were covers. Next comes With The Beatles, another album with 6 cover songs. Falling in the middle is A Hard Day's Night, and the reason is because it still reflects their early sound before they expanded their style and songwriting prowess. Of course, #1 is ... something that you will have to check out the article to see if you agree.

OK, last Beatles story for today. I was listening to the Rubber Soul album as I wrote this and I heard the lyrics to Run For Your Life. I looked them up because the song begins with the phrase "I'd rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man." Wow, that sounds way too scary for women, right. It turns out John Lennon was inspired by an Elvis song, 'Baby, Let's Play House'. That entire phrase was lifted from that song. It is still quite a jarring image, but now I understand why he used the phrase.

I don't know if sales statistics influenced that last author's attention, but stats certainly influenced me when I created this Clarity of Vision comic.

OK, I said there were two Beatles-related stories, and then I added a third, but I just came across a fourth. Paul McCartney has announced his dates and locations for a new tour. You might want to see if he is coming to your town, or you might just want to marvel that people still pay to hear him sing songs way too high for his 73-year-old voice. I still like him, but most of his songs just don't sound that good anymore. Let me rephrase that: his voice just is not strong enough to carry most of his material the way it used to.

I think I have mentioned this dude before, but there is a Japanese artist who creates his work in Microsoft Excel. Check out the waterfall below. It is all done using the shapes in the tool.

Bad Pun Dog is still hanging around.

Chalk art is still a thing.

Some Snapchat users know their geometry.

Clever graffiti at a gas station.

I have one of the systems in one of my projects being launched today, so I need to go get some stuff ready. Another goes live tomorrow, so it'll be a busy couple of days. I'll still make time for you, though.