Flutes,Kazoos and Violins

One day in grade school  in the 1950's our female teacher told us to buy flutes at the store that were $1.00 each so we can play in a flute band. It actually were not  real music lessons we played by number.

All I remember now is on the flute you cover the first three holes then let go ,and then play the fourth and fifth holes and let go and play it twice for a coocoo sound.

It seems silly to me now to be in a flute band while my teacher was waving a baton. It's like directing people rapping with a baton waving.
Below is a song that uses a flute for the song itself and for the musical break.
click here Goodbye Cruel World by James Darrin

One day still in the 1950s at the Ohio State Fair I saw a man demostrating a kazoo.He did all sorts of wonderful acts with it and I bought one and again the price was $1.00.I took it home and it did not even sound like his. My mom told me he had a different one and not actually the ones that they were selling.*
Below is a song that uses a kazoo  just during the musical break:
click here for Johnny Get Angry by Joanie Sommers

What's the difference between a fiddle and violin? They're actually the same instrument and depends on the genre of music being played. 
Below is a country song that uses a violin:
click here Dance With Me by Johnny Rodriguez

* Remember, when  at a fair or cardival  the games are design for you to lose. For example a child trying to throw a ball in a fishbowl. Put the child on your shoulders and let her/him pitch from there. She/he will have a better chance.
Winning at the pea and shells game ?: When ask to pick quickly pick up the first and third shells and say "It's not under these two, it must be under the second one !". Gimme my money.
  :)          :)             :)                 :)                :)

Prostate, U.S.A (Men's health ,all text) rated (MA)

I am writing this blog to tell young men what they may have to go .through when they are over 60 or even 50.

Having an enlarge prostate pressing against the urethra is like a person stepping on a garden hose that  keeps the water level low or not to flow at all.

On December 19th I had trouble urinating nothing came out I went through the whole day like that. Hardly got any sleep that night. So, Saturday about noon I called 911.(Yes, not being able to urinate and depending on age is a legit emergency) they sent an albulance over.

Once in the hospital I was ask to try to urinate in a bottle somehow after a struggle I manage to urinate two ounces of urine.

Soon after this nurse entered the room I was laying in the hospital bed and she put a capater inside of my meatus ("P" hole) and thread  it through my urethra to drain my bladder. It hurt somewhat felt like a sewing needle going through my body. Anyway the nurse kept draining my bladder until the plastic bag was two thirds full of yellow urine.

Once the capater was taken out I still felt like I had to pee. The nurse told me it feels that way because  the capater was in and she also told me I wouldn't able to  pee anyway because my bladder was completely drained.

,The doctor came in the room and told me there was no infection in my urine which is good news ,and then the nurse gave me a pill called flomax and a cup of ice water.That stuff does not fool around I felt better after a few minutes.

I was given a prescription for flomax and they told me to take it only at night because it  may cause dizziness.Well, I rather have that and was sent home.

At home I was able to pee again except it burn while coming out due to the former capater being in ;But the pain left after 30 seconds, but again when I had to pee the burning pain started in again, but the next day I was able to urinate without any burn pain at all.

On December 24 I had a follow up on my prostate I was given the glove test and yes I have an enlarge prostate and was told to keep taking the flomax and as a precaution I was given a prescription for Cipro for infection , not being able to urinate may cause kidney infection or worst kidney stones. Even a kidney stone about the size of a pin head can cause extreme pain.

Fortunely,  I have 3 forms of insurances. One that pays 75% of the bill, the other insuranace pays the other 25% and one for my prescriptons with a copay less than $5 for each prescription.
Even my ambulance bill  will be paid by these insurances.

Vamping and Gene Autry

I am not talking about the vamp where one puts new uppers on top of his/hers shoes. This vamp or vamping I am talking about is repeating a small passage of music over and over again during the full song.There are three samples listed directly below.

First one is called "The Bollweevil Song" by Brook Benton

Click here for Bollweevil Song By Brook Benton


Second with vamping is a song  titled "Shame On Me" by country singer Bobby  Bare.

Click here for Shame On Me by Bobby Bare

Finally, a pop song by ABBA singing "Winner Takes all"  also you may nothice the same passage of notes being played backwards as well as forward.

Click here for Winner Takes All by ABBA

Now what about Gene Autry ?   He was a cowboy who wrote and/or co-wrote Chrismas songs "Here Comes Santa Claus", "Frosty The Snowman"  and "Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer"  songs that I haven't posted to this blog since we all heard those songs since babyhood.

Very simple system for lotto playing.

Yes, I know everyone wants to win the jackpot in the lottery but that is extremly hard to do.

The trick is to get what you can from the lottery. For example playing powerball and you hit all the numbers except for the power ball number sometimes it can be much as $100,000.  Now who complains because they "only won" $100.000.

The system below is a shorten 9 number system if  5 out of 9   is guessed it will win "at least " one 4/6 prize .The odds "after" guessing 5 out of 9:  1 to 1
However, if by some fluke you guessed 6 out of 9  numbers the odd of winning at least  one 4/6 prize is still 1 to 1  with a 43  to 1 chance of winning the second prize 5/6  (after the numbers are guessed )which may be over $1,000.

Odds of winning the jackpot "after"  6 out of 9 numbers are guessed:  28  to 1.

Make a chart like below and enter your 9 numbers.

After you have choosen your 9 number arrange them as below the system is easy to remember.

   With this system the lost is only $3 or $1.50 at 50 cents a game. Always play less for more. Remember it is impossible to win all the time. (End)

North Market

We used to have a store in town call North Market and they had very good meat even tough the cost was $1.50 more per pound than the regular shopping stores.

One day I went to North Market and ask for various meats from the lady who was in back of the counter. It took some time but she wrapped  about 20 packages of meat by hand.


After she got finished with the last package I told her "I've change my mind, I don't want those !"  then I told her I was just kidding.She and the nun beside me started to laugh and the lady behind the counter said "These are sold" while still laughing.

I saw Flippo The Clown live

Flippo was a tv clown in the 1950's in Columbus,Ohio.  He had a show that came on at 3 PM every weekday showing Popeye cartoons which later change and only showed Popeye cartoons just on Friday. Rest of the week he showed movies.Even tough Flippo was a local celebrity he did have his picture on the National TV guide along with a written article.

On one Saturday Flippo the clown was live at the Hudson's movie theater before the movie started Flippo entertain us by letting us sing certain songs and following a balancing ball on the screen and telling jokes. after which everyone got his autographed picture even as a kid I could tell the autograph was a pre-print.The movie they were showing that day was "Smiley"

I do not have Flippo's autograph picture any more  because when I grew up and became a teenager that picture went into the trash.

Below is a Popeye cartoon that uses rotoscoping (tracing the outlines of real people movements one frame at a time). Not only that they had panes of glass on a round table in which the cartoon cels  and backgrounds were place  on vertically and the cartoon camera was at the side not on top like most cartoon cameras.  This gives the cartoon a foreground, middle ground and background effect.The dance routine in this cartoon will amaze you.

click here for Popeye With Heart cartoon

In the 1960's the tv station odered more Popeye cartoons but were cancelled after two weeks even Flippo the clown said that they are not like the others. Flippo was  right. They still use cel work but today the following Popeye cartoon below could have been done on a computer without cels,paint,  etc.A cel is a sheet of transparent plastic with a character drawing to be place on a background.

click here for Bore Me Popeye Cartoon

In the 1950's  at the month of November the Hudson theater advertise that they are going to show 30 cartoons on Thankgiving day. Guess how many people showed up ?  Two just me and my friend Barry. After the 30 cartoons and comedy shorts were shown we tried to stay to watch it again, but we were asked to go home.The theater made 50 cents that day and lost lot of money cartoon reels are expensive to rent. 

The Mystery Of The Phantom Train

 In the 1970's for two days straight at 2:30 in the morning people heard a train going through their small town ,but the thing was they had no tracks in that town.  The phantom train was not heard for the next two months, but after the two months the train was heard again
and again it was at  2:30 in the morning.

Well it was someone playing a joke this person (I am not saying who--lol) had a Hi-Fi stereo sound effects cassette tape and was playing it  full volume while riding his bicycle in sync with the sound .At that time this small town had no security lights and was almost pitch black.

At 2:30 in the morning here is what the town's people heard "WOOO WOOO  ! cluck-a-lug cluck-a-lug".This guy (whoever he was--lol) plan it just before it rains maybe to erase his bicycle tracks.

Yep, he went through this small town for two days straight and then quit.He figured the authorities  would have  the town under surveillance for at least the next two months .After the two months this prankster started in again for one day only and again at 2:30 in the morning after ward he had quit forever.

The town's people had no idea how they heard a train at 2:30 in the morning ,especially since they had no railroad tracks ,but they did put up a sign at the entrace of their town saying "Home Of The Phantom Train"  read on..

Below is a clip of the sound effect (audio only) 30 seconds except the prankster's cassette tape was much louder along with Wooo W000 and bells and whistles. Also the prankster did not stay stationary he kept riding his bicycle matching the speed of a train to complete the illustion.

It's not working, It may work.

Okay you start off your day by trying to mircowave a tv breakfast but it is not working. Could it be something minor?  It could be. The main problem with appliances and electronics these days are the computer chips inside them and they can get confused.

For an unworking mircowave unplug it for a while and plug it back in and also make sure the plug is not loose and see if that works.

On laptop computers if there is nothing but a blank black screen scaring at you try this : Turn the power off on your computer, if the display lights are still on after a while remove the batteries and leave it that way for at least 6 hours and then reinstall the batties and turn on your computer and see if that works.Important give it ample time to boot up.

Now sometimes windows update will blank the screen but if it is way too long follow the instructions in the previous paragraph.

If your enegry efficient furnace blower is too fast and just blowing cold air try this : If you have a on/off switch near your furnace turn the furnace off for at least 20 secords or more and turn it back on.See picture. If there is no switch near the furnace you may have to go to the circuit breaker box or fuse box and turn it off   from there.

But remember if the weather is way too cold some furnaces just can't keep up.Read on...

Okay so what is a therm ?  A therm is one cubit foot of gas.
Now sometimes enegy efficient motors will run contintinually but the motor will take no more electricity  than a 100 watt  light buld.The flames in the burner are not knee high as the old furnances.

Assuming your electirc cost 10 cents per kilowatt hour the motor will cost you a penny for every 100 hours or 1/100 of a cent per hour.

It is the gas and oil that costs. Usually my bill is about $230 a month which is not too bad for winter especially since I have enegry assistance and budget billing from my ele/gas company ,so I won't have to make any payments until February (Catch up month)which is usually around $200.
 The above figures are base on my 80% enegry efficient furnace.

Beating the lottery odds

So you want to beat the lottery odds give it up no one can but however there are ways to improve your odds. Let's use the Illinois 6/52 lotto what are the odds of winning the jackpot with just one ticket ?  Well, let's find out;  It involves math .

Here is the formula for figuring the odds of the 6/52 lottery game.

(52 x 51 x 50 x 49 x 48 x 47) / (6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 1)=20,358,520

so your odds of winning the jackpot with just one ticket is  1 out of 20,358.520 

Now suppose  a person played 6 random games what are the odds then ?  Simple, since he/she is covering 6 combitions simply divide the jackpot odds by 6.   (20,358,520) / 6  or 1 out of 3,393,087

But instead of playing  6 random games let's chose 12 numbers and sort those 12 numbers in 6 number combitions,So here's the new formula:

(52 x 51 x 50 x 49 x 48 x 47) /(12 x 11 x 10 x 9 x 8 x 7)=22033

Even without giving the answer you can tell the odds of winning went way down.In fact the odds now are 1 out of 22,033 and also notice the odds are not in the millions anymore but in the thousands.

Those are the odds of winning the jackpot if a person decides to play a full 12 number system.

(12 x 11 x 10 x 9 x 8 x7)/(6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1)=924 combinations.

Many people cannot afford that unless she /he are in a lotto club;But there are shorter systems that win a prize when 6 out of 12 numbers are guessed.

Why play this way ? Well it is slightly easier to guess 12 out of 52 numbers rather than 6 out of 52 numbers.By the way it is against the law for a person or lotto club to play every combination in the lottery game.

Let's recap : Playing 6 random games in the 6/52 lottery odds 1 out of 3,393,087  playing 12 numbers sorted 1 out of 22,033

Below is a video for the shorten 12 number system (no audio). Guessing 6 out of 12 numbers will win at least one 4/6 prize or better .Now what numbers to  pick ?  It's up to you if you're a sports fan how about the numbers of the players' uniforms ?

Just simply substitute your 12 numbers for the 12 letters and please play responsibly and probably just use 1% of your winnings for mad money just to get it out of your system.

ABCDEF

ABCGHI

ABCJKL

DEFGHI

DEFJKL

GHIJKL

Even if this was figure for the 6/52 lottery it will work on any 6 number lottery system, but the odds would be different more or less (end)