Rant #3,824: Potpourri

I remember on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," the writers created a running joke out of the word "potpourri," with the emphasis on the "P-O-T" of the word, pronouncing it like you would say 'pot,' which wasn't the intention or meaning of the word--

But it got past the censors, all right.

The definition I am going for here is "an amalgam of things," and that is what I strived to do on Veterans Day.

Let me explain.

Yesterday, we honored all of our veterans on Veterans Day, and we owe our fighting men and women quite a bit--

Including the freedom to do pretty much what we want to do when we want to do it.

Yes, "freedom" is the word here, along with "potpourri," because due to the gallantry of our past and present warfighters, I could do what I wanted to do--

I had the freedom to do a potpourri of things on this day.

Among them were--

I took my son back and forth to work yesterday, but in between, I did a lot of other things to bide my time.

I did have a little work to do, which i got out of the way as quickly as possible.

I spoke to my aunt over the phone for a substantial amount of time, with each of us catching up on the other one's recent activities.

I digitized a record I had been wanting to do for some time, a double album from 1970 that features 30 hits from that era.

It was put out by Post Records in unison with WSAI, then a top-40 radio station which still broadcasts to this day from Cincinnati, Ohio.

The LP, "Command Performance," features everything from "Band of Gold" by Freda Payne to "Something's Burning" by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition to "Jean" by Oliver and everything in between, and it was fun digitizing the 30 songs to listen to in my car at a later time.

Waiting in my car for my son, I listened to a good part of two LPs by the comedy team of Marty Allen and Steve Rossi.

Allen and Rossi were a clear cross between Abbott and Costello and Martin and Lewis, and they were an extremely popular act on TV and in Las Vegas in the early 1960s through the early 1970s.

What they did that both Abbott and Costello and Martin and Lewis didn't do on a regular basis was to put out comedy LPs.

Allen and Rossi put out, I think, seven such LPs from the early 1960s through the latter part of that decade, and I happen to have a few of them in my collection.

I recently digitized what I have, and I finally got a chance to listen to them in the car.

The comedy is very basic, but it is eternally funny, even 60 years later. 

And it is clean, although there is some mild innuendo thst doesn't ruffle any feathers.

After listening to these LPs, I have another comedy record lined up--

This is a Woody Allen LP, when he was actually funny--

In fact, as I remember it, it is one of the funniest comedy albums I have ever heard, so I can't wait to revisit it.

Woody Allen ... what happened to you?

So, those are just a few of the things I did on Veterans Day.

I did a true "potpourri" of things, and it was fun.

And most importantly, all day, I thought of my late father, a very proud Marine.

Talking about proud, i am, to this day, very proud of him and for his few years of service during the Korean War, and afterward, being the male leader of our family.

And that is really what Veterans Day is all about.

I really miss him.