Good morning and let me wish you a very joyous Easter holiday.  I hope you are having a great day with your family and or friends.  I am at my Florida house this weekend to check on things as the repairs continue and are about done from Hurricane Ian.

I sure do miss The Beautiful Windy today, but as she starts a new job with plenty of work travel of her own, she could not make this trip.  But we will be back here in May.  But today I am with some of my great friends, Ray and Tim whom I have been friends with pretty much my entire life.  We are playing some golf and celebrating life well lived, eating steaks, having a cigar or two and catching up as we don't see each other enough.  It's a very good weekend.  It's too bad our friend Beef (Don) couldn't make it on this trip, as the four of us love to play golf together.

On this Easter Sunday, I also remember my dad Robert who passed away 45 years ago today, much too young. If he can see me,  and us in total he would approve of this weekend with us living life well and having fun doing it.  My dads famous saying to us was "Fun is fundamental."  I've never forgotten it, and try to live by it. 

It is too bad Windy never met my dad, Ray too.  My friend Tim and I grew up near each other and he remembers my dad, as of course do I. Celebrate a nice Easter today.  I am, we are, and we will.

Happy Easter -  Thanks for reading.

My Dad  RFW  1924 - 1978

Touch A Hand, Make A Friend - Oak Ridge Boys  - 1985

There are times an artist can record a song that they were born to, and for me that was this song by these guys. Being very honest, overall I was not a huge Oak Ridge Boys fan back then. I loved Elvira, American Made and Bobbie Sue like everyone else did, but the four part harmony guys thing was not my favorite as young guy.  BUT I was a huge fan when they sang songs with a bit of spirituality to it.  I felt the same way about the Statler Brothers.  When they  -  and the Oaks sang a song of good will, or gospel, or a deeper spirit, I felt they were at their absolute best. After all, those are their roots.  You may not know, but the ORB go back to the 1940's as a gospel group and went country with the current boys in the late 1970's.  This song was a big R&B hit for the Staple Singers in 1973, and this was tailor made for the Oaks in 1985.  I love how this song makes you happy, and gives you hope -  and these days we can use some of that.  I stand by this, of all the Oaks big hits, of which there are plenty, I proudly played them all, but this is their very best song. And you made it a big #1. 

Last Week #38

San Diego State and Connecticut are playing Monday night for the men's NCAA basketball championship of 2023. The semifinals and the championship game are being played at NRG Stadium in Houston - home of the Houston Texans. My issue with the NCAA tournament is that since 1997, they play these 3 games in an NFL stadium. In my opinion, that's just way too big of a facility.

The seats are so far from the court itself. That's especially true if you're in the "nose bleed seats"! My other major complaint being since they only play in NFL stadiums with a roof, that immediately removes most NFL markets from the list of ever hosting the semis and final and therefore receiving the economic impact. Those markets are:

1. San Francisco

2. Denver

3. Kansas City

4. Green Bay (Milwaukee)

5. Chicago

6. Nashville

7. Jacksonville 

8. Tampa

9. Miami

10. Charlotte

11. Cincinnati

12. Cleveland

13. Pittsburgh

14. Washington

15. Baltimore

16. Philadelphia

17. Buffalo

18. New York

19. Boston

Now, some of these NFL markets likely may never be chosen anyway (especially somwhere like Green Bay) simply for logistics. But look at some of these others! Nashville, Chicago, Miami, NEW YORK! I totally understand why they do it this way (economic benefit for the NCAA), but it's just something that gets me.

I hope you had a fun weekend and weren't without power.   Saturday after heavy winds and rain my power was out for a number of hours.  Then the line workers (Thank you so much for all you do!)...  Let There Be Light!   I ended up watching Wrestlemania all weekend.   Even if you are not a fan of wrestling.  Jimmie Allen went Hollywood at SoFi Stadium in front of 81K and some change...  Jimmie sang "America The Beautiful" on Night 2 of Mania.  

He did a great job singing as always but also got some great pictures:

I love a good tip from Babs, her Instagram account is full of them! With Easter coming up, I thought I would share this post from her, three unique ways to color Easter eggs! 

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Babs (@brunchwithbabs)

Hey, sometimes you just don't have everything you need at the house to make something delish.  Here are some ways to make great things without having to run to the store!

Make It Up As You Go!

Recapping March 50 Favorites From 40+ Years

Eat Of The Week

50 Favorites From 40+ Years #38

Forgotton Jukebox E-71

Country Music Memory Lane

Wynn At The Movies

Box Office Results - Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves - ($38.5 million)

John Wick  -  (28 Million)

New This Week -  The Super Mario Brothers Movie  /  Paint

Scarlett Johansson – Says she's “too fragile” to ever get on social media  (Story) 

Moana - There will be a live action version of this, and The Rock will produce it!~ (Story)

Get Ready - Warner Bros. Discovery is close to finalizing a deal for a Harry Potter television series (Story) 

This Weekend – Check out my Country Music Memory Lane  (link)

Also - My 50 Favorites Over 40+ Years This Week #38   (Link)

This week 90's country music favorite Hal Ketchum would have been 70 as his birthday is this weekend.  His career was relatively short on the country charts, but he had a real strong following, and a very loyal fan base.  Let's look back at the article I wrote on him three years ago, shortly after he passed away, way too soon at 67.

My Profile On Hal Ketchum

Again this Saturday night, I was looking for something to do. I was flipping through the channels on Pluto TV and remembered they have a channel dedicated to my mom's favorite show from high school...DARK SHADOWS!!!

So as you can probably tell, Butercup got all settled in my lap and we watched a good 3 hours of the show. If you're familiar with the show, they were in their 1897 storyline. And as always with the soap operas, virtually nothing happens in those 30 minute episodes. The show is so cheesy and low budget it's funny. Yet, you do kinda get sucked in...and I am not one who gets sucked into soap operas at all.

I remember going to see the movie with Johnny Depp in 2012 and thought that was not too bad. My mom and I enjoy watching the show looking for mistakes by the camera crew, actors, or both since it was such a low budget show. Either way, I can always sit and see what the Collins family is up to.