Magnificent Obsession

My next door neighbor, of whom I have written several times before, has a most interesting “hobby”. It seems to be peaking a bit beyond hobby, but I leave it to you to be the judge of that.

I promised to be good to them in this post as I was offered free reign of the garage to take the photos and made sure I would do this with a reporter’s eye, and not that of an erstwhile comedian.

What you see is the garage and the driveway. A Black Jeep is currently missing from the photo and is stored at this moment elsewhere. The Jaguar, the BMW and the Acura are in the driveway and are in regular service, except that two will be stored through the winter. What remains, and the focus of this post, are what is in the garage and what is stored else where and not the four others.

In the garage, on the lift, we have a 1966 Triumph TR4a. (Yes, I said a lift!) Under that we have a 1964 Triumph TR4 with 26,000 miles on the odometer. This one comes with factory overdrive in case you were wondering.

On the right we have a 1975 Triumph TR6, the yellow one, which is running, is tagged and burns a bunch of oil but not unusual for a Triumph. In storage elsewhere are 2, 1969 Triumph TR6’s one with factory overdrive and one with after market overdrive and a 1974 Triumph TR6 with factory overdrive.

There was an old lady who had too many cats, if this sounds familiar. There is a theme here.

The car on the left, not theirs, is a 1965 TR4a, just to show you one all finished.

The Earworm

This morning’s earworm was very strong. The earworm, as described on Wikipedia is:



Earworm, a loan translation of the German Ohrwurm, is a portion of a song or other music that repeats compulsively within one's mind, put colloquially as "music being stuck in one's head." Use of the English translation was popularized by James Kellaris, a marketing researcher at the University of Cincinnati, and McGill University’s Daniel Levitin. Kellaris' studies demonstrated that different people have varying susceptibilities to earworms, but that almost everybody has been afflicted with one at some time or another. According to research by James Kellaris, 98% of individuals experience earworms. Women and men experience the phenomenon equally often, but earworms are more likely to last longer for women and to irritate them more than men.


This morning while walking Max the Wonder dog I found myself singing this out loud, the Frank Sinatra version, the one I remember best of all. But then, I also relate this song strongly to Eddie Cantor, of vaudeville fame and an early television star.




So, while not much of a story, I leave you to look and listen to both of these and make your own decision about which, if any, you prefer. As well, I have no idea where this all came from this morning.

Editors note:


I found out where the earworm came from!

I was taking Max out this morning and I always talk to him as we go out, and when we walk. I was getting ready and looking for my shoes. I said (this morning),” I’ve got a lot of shoes here in the garage” and it hit me, here is the lyric:

Alot of shoes, alot of rice

the groom is nervous. he answers twice

its so Killin that he's so willin'

To make whoopee

The Earworm start has been discovered!

Stairway to Gilligan's Island

Many years ago my oldest son sang a song for me that was the lyrics from the Gilligan’s Island theme song sung to the tune of Stairway to Heaven. I have since, one time, heard a version on the radio.

The other day, with the help of Google and you tube, I discovered the source.

They seem to have reordered the Gilligan's Island lyrics and thrown in 'and it makes me wonder' from the Stairway lyrics for this song:

Just sit right back & you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip


That started from this tropic port aboard this tiny ship.


The mate was a mighty sailing man, The skipper brave & sure.


Five passengers set sail that day for a three hour tour,


A three hour tour- and it makes me wonder


Now the ship's a-ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle


With Gilligan,


The Skipper too,


The millionaire and his wife,


The movie star


O, and the rest. They're here on Gilligan's Island.


The weather started getting rough,


O and the tiny ship was tossed,


If not for the courage of the fearless crew


O, the poor Minnow would be lost,


The ship's a-ground on the shore


Of this uncharted desert isle


And they're here on Gilligan's Island.


Little Roger and the Goosebumps is a pop/rock band from San Francisco active during the 1970s and early 1980s and resurrected in 2006. It has been led throughout its history by Roger Clark and Dick Bright, with various sidemen.

The band is best known for its single "Gilligan's Island (Stairway)" a song combining the lyrics to the theme song of the television show Gilligan's Island with the music of "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin. The band wrote the song in 1977 as "material to pad the last set of the grueling 5 nights a week/4 sets a night routine," recorded it in March 1978, and released it as a single in May 1978 on their own Splash Records label. Within five weeks, Led Zeppelin's lawyers threatened to sue them and demanded that any remaining copies of the recording be destroyed

During a 2005 interview on National Public Radio, Robert Plant referred to the tune as his favorite cover of "Stairway to Heaven."

They recorded their next single, "Kennedy Girl" (based on Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl"), in 1980, then waited over a quarter-century before producing their debut album They Hate Us Cuz We're Beautiful, featuring new recordings of 14 songs drawn from three decades of original material

Their single "Fudd on the Hill," essentially a performance of "Fool on the Hill" as performed by Elmer Fudd, was included on the novelty compilation album The Rhino Brothers Present the World's Worst Records, Volume 2.

The New CD's

Tonight my daughter (who I never am allowed to talk about in these posts) asked me if I’d go to Best Buy and pick up the new Taylor Swift CD, “Speak Now”. I asked if she would pay for it and she was delighted, so after dinner I went. My wife (who I never am allowed to talk about in these posts) had earlier last week asked me to get the new Elton John, Leon Russell CD, “The Union”. I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone but two different debit cards and get them both.



For my non-Canadian readers, yes, there is a Best Buy in Canada.

At the check out the guy asked me, “A Taylor Swift fan?” I laughed and said no, it was for my daughter. He laughed and said, “Is she 16?”

I was amazed! He was right on the mark.


I told him he was great and knew his business and he asked if he wanted me to tell me my age from my choice. I declined. I said it was for my wife anyway, so we could forget it. Besides, I was standing there so it was no great leap of knowledge. As well, Leon Russell fans are a very limited group in age I imagine.

We both discussed the dwindling numbers of CD buyers, and both of us were into downloads.

We had a bond, this 20 something young man and this aging senior citizen, and besides, he guessed my daughter’s age by her musical taste! Those skills, while limited, are remarkable!

Give me an H, give me an A.......

(She's on the right in the top row)

My youngest daughter does not like me to discuss her in these pages, but this one was just too good to miss!


She is part of the Junior Ti-Cat Cheerleaders. This is a group of girls who work on the field at Hamilton Ti-Cat games along side of the “real” Hamilton Ti-Cat Cheerleaders. They are all dancers, and participate. The junior ones consist of some older girls like my daughter and her friends, and a large group of kids starting from the very little ones. They are part of a dance class devoted to being a cheerleader.

For my non-Canadian readers, the Hamilton Ti-Cats are a professional CFL football team. My daughter, who is shy by nature, dances in front of 23,000+ people per game and is in the group that appears on national TV, etc,. It’s the real deal!

Last Friday night, in an important game against Montreal, the cheerleaders had a Halloween night. Their cheerleading uniforms had already been turned in for the season, but the group had to dress like witches. They were required to wear black and gold costumes. There were several hundred kids there that night as every dance studio in the area participated on the field at half time. The Ti-Cat juniors were different in their witch’s costumes, as were the other groups uniquely dressed.

After the game which was a hoot and we won 40-3, the girls had to meet us. We texted each other and we chose a corner to meet. People poured out of the stadium, in the old neighborhood, a nice but sort of fringe area of Hamilton, and it took us a while to catch up with them, with tons of patrons out on the streets.

My daughter and her girl friend were waiting, dressed in black witches short skirts, with black tops, stage makeup and leather jackets.

My daughter said to me that she wished they still had their cheer costumes, because dressed like they were, standing on this questionable corner, with tons of inebriated guys pouring out, they were perceived as prostitutes!

She than looked at me and told me, as she is happy to do, that I looked like a Hobo! (She never likes my style!).

I told her it beat looking like a Ho!

The Girl in the White Terry Cloth Robe

This story is a bit over the top and my son, the editor, will ask me to remove it, but I will stay the course, because it’s good.


Let’s start with the basics.

I was not married at the time of this story, and I was not cheating on anyone. I was a free agent so it’s OK to tell without getting into trouble.

My wife does not read this blog so I am free of worry except for those of you who read it and know her, and it could become a bit of a problem, depending upon your big mouth!

It in no way is bad, it’s just an old man’s memory and a good tale to tell.

My neighbor was a fine young woman who I have written about before in these pages. We did go out together for a while, and this part of our story may have been from those times or perhaps immediately after it had ended, but clearly before she moved away or was married.

The young lady in question would call me from time to time, early in the morning, and invite me to breakfast, or at least to come over and have coffee with her in the mornings. We lived very close so I could just walk.Sometimes she would have a Danish or a bagel, but always a cup of coffee. Both of us had to go to work, so it was an effort to do these things and have enough time to get dressed. This, in fact, was the biggest part of the story, as I was dressed when I arrived, at least my tie was on if not pulled up, and I was ready to leave for work after getting a few items. She, on the other hand, was always about to get dressed when I arrived. She was, in fact, always the girl in the white terry cloth robe. This was not a big deal, except the robe was never closed, and she was never dressed! The belt was untied and hung to the ground as she went about gettting coffe, underware etc.

You can see the problem already I’m sure. I had a few minutes to spare before I left, she was all about coffee and getting dressed, and she pretended not to have planned all this. I was so nonchalant about the whole thing, as you can already tell, but I’ve never forgotten it! She was cool about it because she knew I’d not react! And so we had a standoff! An all but naked young lady and an aging gentleman, all dressed for work! And so we had coffee as she proceeded to get dressed.

I never broke my composure, she never expected me to. We had a beautiful relationship! It was a perfect liaison if I were a gay man! However, it was a huge turn on and turn off simultaneously! I never had enough time to "react" because I was needed at the office.

She moved, I moved, she got married and eventually, so did I. I heard from her after her divorce once, and I heard from her late in 1989, I think, as I left for Boston and she was about to marry her second husband. I never asked if she still “wore” the robe!

Soy Vay

My son from Chicago had brought us, some years ago, a wonderful product called Soy Vay

A basic Chinese marinade now available in local markets, Soy Vay is becoming a word-of-mouth hit. Appropriately, that's how the whole story began at an office potluck on the Humboldt State University campus.

Heidi Chien, 31, the business service manager and accountant for University Center, had brought a dish prepared with a sauce of her native Hong Kong. It was a hit with all, including Eddie Scher, 25, the coordinator for productions and concessions for Center Arts.

"Everybody liked it so much," Eddie recalls.

They started out on a small scale - a popular food booth at the North Country Fair in September of 1980. This small success was repeated at several other fairs.

After consulting the regional Department of Health and Services in the Bay Area for the correct procedures, Eddie and Heidi set about selecting a bottle, design and name to put on it. Until then they simply called the sauce a Chinese marinade. They came up with the name Soy Vay and printed it - both in Chinese figures and in Hebrew-like letters - on the bottle.

Bottled Soy Vay made its first appearance in the Arcata Co-op, then Larry's Market in Arcata, the Gourmet Gallery in Eureka and several stores in southern Humboldt County and the price was $2.98 a bottle.

"It's not a soy sauce," Heidi explains. "It's a very general Chinese recipe in Hong Kong but people aren't exposed to that kind of flavor here."

The basic ingredients in Soy Vay are an imported Hoi Sin sauce plus other spices; a combination of soya bean, garlic, sugar, vinegar, sesame seed and chili. It's good on beef, poultry, fish, eggs and vegetables. One customer, Eddie says, even likes it on hot dogs.

We wanted some and knew we couldn’t find such a wondrous product in Southern Ontario, so I contacted the factory and had some sent. They have several flavors now so we chose some and had six bottles sent. The price at that time was $5.00 a bottle, but due to the current exchange rate, shipping from California etc. the six bottles cost about $80 to deliver. We bit the bullet, it’s great stuff!

A week or two later, my wife arrives at my office (for lunch) with the news that she has just returned from the little gourmet market down the street where they have Soy Vey products on sale.

I never asked anyone at Soy Vay if their products were available in Canada, I just assumed they weren’t. They were $6.99 Cdn. a bottle.

I was not a happy camper!