Andy Griffith on The Carol Burnett Show (1969)

3:05 to 7:30:  Kinda boring Aesop tale told by Andy.
17:11 to 23:30: Mildly amusing Carol/Andy "cop husband" skit.
34:21 to end: "The Down Home Fairy Tales" --- Initially only narrated

by Andy, but he eventually shows up at 42:47 and appears until end.

What's especially hilarious and bold-for-1969-TV throughout this episode (nothing to do with Andy):

First of all, the "King Family Singers" skit: 
A group of 11 blonde-wigged women, supposedly all of one singing family led by Carol---
but including "Becky" (Harvey Korman in drag---"Left in a fruit basket") and "Beulah" (Isabelle Sanford as "our token sister" demanding why she's stuck in the back row).

As for the final "Down Home Fairy Tales" skit that lasts from 34:21 to the very end of the show: Andy is almost a side-note here in favor of the ongoing overtly gay jokes of "Fairy Godfather" Harvey Korman! (Though Griffith does get in a good line: "I can't marry you!")

This show in 1969 handled every single social issue MUCH more humorously and cleverly than how we're handling it right now!

Andy Griffith: A-Sleeping At The Foot Of The Bed (1967 TV Special)

I finally cleaned my toilet!

Gosh, when I first started living in apartments on my own in my 20s, I used to clean everything all the time, including, of course, my toilet. That's just what you were supposed to do! (Similarly, I used to plan dinners for my solo self that included a meat, a green vegetable, and a potato.)

I'm sad to say, though, that I have not cleaned much of anything in my current apartment. I paid for a cleaning lady (for the first time in my life) maybe 3 years ago. And since then, I've just been doing desultory sweeping and wiping (plus cleaning up cat vomit and poop). 

My bathroom looked like shit (so to speak), and at the end of last year, I bought a new rug. And just a few months ago, I bought a new bath-mat for the tub. Both just sat there. Because I didn't want to put new things down before I'd cleaned! And I have not ever felt like cleaning recently!

For some reason, I was inspired yesterday while lying on the couch with a hangover. Hating everything at the moment. And disgusted with how both my life and my toilet looked. 

"Just do one thing," I told myself. And remembering that cleaning the toilet with a brush had not EVER been that hard, I started with THAT thing. It took only a mere 15 minutes to clean the toilet. Another 10 minutes to dis-engage the old bath mat, scrub beneath it, and put the new pretty mat down. (And while I was at it---during a cig break, I poured Drano down the formerly clogged drain and let the chemicals work their magic.)

p.s. The grout around the tub tiles, I can't help. I'm only renting this place.
p.s.s. Wall and shower-curtain art by Klimt.

KISS: Destroyer (1976) Do You Love Me

One of my top 10 favorite KISS songs. 

Kind of a Good Day

Temu and AliExpress have pretty shitty/stupid delivery drivers, who can't seem to read either simple directions or GPS. Over the past 5 years, I've had numerous neighbors come to my door with mis-delivered packages. And I've also had numerous packages that never arrived. Yesterday, I had my first package delivered to me that belonged across the street! It felt nice to walk over there and deliver it properly---and especially because when I walked up, the elderly lady was just coming home, and said how kind I was!

Rest of the day: A crappy haircut! Though I did get 2 loads of laundry done!

Imagine if HIllary Clinton Were Your President

Here she is---grinding awfully---on "Morning Joe" a couple of days ago.
THIS is what we would have been hearing constantly.

(p.s. In 2008, I voted for Hillary in the Dem primaries. I was a dumb woman with fond memories of the sane Bill Clinton '90s. I didn't think that Obama had earned the nomination, and I didn't yet know how radical Hillary Clinton actually was.)

Am I hallucinating, or are Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris now back on the scene?

If so, WHY? And both of them are still complaining about "straight white men"?! STILL?
Didn't we already figure out long ago that Hillary and Kamala are irrelevant---AND that sometimes "straight white men" have been put in charge because they know how to run things. If you disagree, then prove them wrong. (All of the women/blacks et al, elected/appointed to Mayor or "Police Chief" in major US cities per the Biden DEI policies have proven only that women/blacks don't know how to run things. What's going on now is embarrassing to me as an intelligent feminist. Oh yeah, and then there's Ketanji on the Supreme Court---the DEI hire who does not know the definition of "woman.")

KISS: C'mon And Love Me (1975)

One of my favorite KISS songs ever. 
And, oddly, every time my microwave starts, I'm reminded of the beginning notes of this song.

She's a dancer, a romancer
I'm a Capricorn and she's a Cancer
She saw my picture in a music magazine
When she met me, said she'd get me
Touched her hips and told me that she'd let me
I took her hand, baby, this is what I said

I said, "Baby, baby, don't you hesitate
'Cause I just can't wait
Lady, won't you take me down to my knees
You can do what you please
Come on and love me."

I'm a man, I'm no baby
And you're looking every inch a lady
You're good looking and you're looking like you should be good
You were distant, now you're nearer
I can feel your face inside the mirror
The lights are out and I can feel you, baby, with my hand

So baby, baby, don't you hesitate
'Cause I just can't wait
Lady, won't you take me down to my knees
You can do what you please
Come on and love me...

Playground in My Mind (Clint Holmes, 1973)

My parents weren't joyous folks who had lots of music around the house,
but I DO remember this song coming on the radio in our home! 

(Once I heard my mom funnily sing along to the falsetto 

"My name is Michael" portion of this song!) :)

In lieu of love in your own life, there are always images from movies, TV, songs, et al., to tide you over.

In a warning against this practice:
Islam, for instance, forbids images of living people (aniconism is the official term)---Probably for good reason!
I mean, this edict is no fun, but it does try to keep you from admiring something other than what you actually have at the moment, thus ostensibly making you a more-content person in the long run.
(On a darker note, most serial killers have first been porn addicts---exactly what Islam has been warning everyone about! But no one thinks their iconography is going to go that far!)

Below: My latest icon---the very handsome Andy Griffith. 

Some famous people are just very darkly attractive to me: 

Joan Crawford, Griffith, George Jones, Ted Hughes.
There are plenty of good-looking people around with absolutely nothing behind their eyes---
The above, though, all have something.

I guess I can't ever be a Muslim. 

Some people's images are too pretty not to reproduce and then moon over!

 

Example from the worst time in my life

Maybe 1998 or so. I'd gotten back to Austin in 1995 from 2 years in grad school in San Francisco.

The apartment was pretty enough, and spacious enough, but I had a dick living below me, who jacked up his music nearly every day. I was miserable. (I reported him to the apartment manager, but she accused ME of being disruptive----the ultimate in insanity.)

One time, trying to do something positive, and trying to escape the blaring music from this guy below, I went to the banks of the Colorado and spread a blanket and had a book to read. When I arrived, I had a huge swathe of land to myself. But within a half-hour or so: Some kids and their parents arrived, and they were literally kicking some ball right to where I was sitting----despite there being very much space elsewhere.

At that time, I truly felt like I was cursed. My internal state was horrible to begin with, and then when I tried to find some peace outdoors, some idiots kicked an unnecessary ball in my direction. (I've got to re-iterate: When I first arrived, there was no one anyone near me. These people could have gone anywhere else to play ball---WHY right on top of me?)

This was over 20 years ago, but right now, I'm in an equally bad place. When EVERYTHING, no matter what you do, just feels crummy. Even without drinking, I wake up feeling crummy. 

Not Grateful

A few years ago, on the "New York Post" site, I remember dismissing an anti-US post from a guy with a Vietnamese name. I said that he was only in our country because we felt guilt post-Viet Nam war, and that was the only reason that he was in the US to begin with.
 
I felt mean for saying that at the time. BUT--- It's true, isn't it? If you're not a native of the country, then shouldn't you NOT bitch about your new country? You really don't have any deep knowledge of it, other than what the current shallow online Marxist ideologies tell you to think.

I feel somewhat bad for immigrants who have experienced a psychological upheaval: People like Rep. Ilhan Omar---from Somalia, deposited in Minnesota, for instance. Must seem weird. However, don't spew your "weird, Marxist feelings" onto the rest of America. We were very nice to let you in to a nice environment to begin with. And how are you repaying us? You're mucking up every place you've been deposited in instead of being thankful for being here.

Democrat Tlaib and Republican Donalds on the House Floor

Take a moment to look up many other of Tlaib's appearances. 

How did this shrieking, ill-spoken, Marxist mess ever get elected to the US Congress?

(p.s. No one in Congress should ever be allowed to speak if they can't pronounce "important." 

Or if they insert "like" into a sentence. 

Or if they call anyone "fascist" without knowing what that word means.)

Tlaib is actually a representative of The American Dream: 
Her working-class parents emigrated from the West Bank to the US in 1976. 

And today she's a US congresswoman! 

That fact proves wrong everything she now preaches against the US. This is a country that allows ANYONE to reach the heights. (She's pretty intellectually unqualified, though---hopefully her district will re-think this in the future!)

Why Kimmel Should Be MORE Than Just "Suspended"

Kimmel said on air that the Charlie Kirk assassin was a Trump supporter. Which was 100% false. 

By every account (including interviews with his parents), Tyler Robinson had become left-wing radicalized in the last year. He had a trans lover. He wrote messages on his shells that said things like "Catch this, Fascist!" This info was released within days of Robinson's turning himself in. 

Yet AFTER all of this factual info, Kimmel STILL claimed falsely, on the public US airwaves, that the assassin was a Trump supporter. That kind of willful ignorance is not acceptable by any public figure, even a talk-show host.

(Conversely, Roseanne Barr lost her TV show because she tweeted that Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett looked like: "muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj."  Which is worse: Making fun of someone's looks in a juvenile tweet, or falsely claiming that someone was murdered by their own supporters?)

 

Redford/Streisand: The Way We Were (1973)

I've watched Redford in dozens of films. He was pleasantly appropriate in all of them.
But I never once watched a single Redford film where his own performance MOVED me.
I never felt any emotional connection FROM him or TO him.

p.s. I have an ongoing peeve about modern-day hair-styles being inserted into period films.
Redford's long '70s hair is not appropriate for either "The Way We Were" 

OR "The Great Gatsby." (Whose fault is that?)

The History of Celebrity

Stage Stars
Movie Stars
TV Stars
Rock Stars
Video Stars
Rappers
Internet "Influencers"

---------------------------------------

We've always wanted better-looking and more-talented people to represent us. But usually with at least SOME bit of human heart and soul.

But what I noticed when making the above list: There was a big drop-off after Movie. And then another after TV. And then another after Rock. What's left now is basically the basement of humanity: badly done porn---nothing beautiful, just a bunch of sleaze.

We've fallen quite a bit in the past 100 years, huh?

1966 in Movies (Soundtrack: Rolling Stones "Out of Time")

The Andy Griffith Show: Probing the Subconscious

I go through kicks every now and then, where I assign myself the task of either watching 

or reading EVERYTHING on a certain topic: 

 

Movies: 

Joan Crawford movies (not just watching, but writing reviews for ALL of them on my Joan site): Yes, done that! Plus have read all the JC bios.

Ingmar Bergman movies: Have seen maybe 2/3 of them. Own the complete Criterion box set, but have not started from beginning to watch all in order. 

Have read maybe 4 bios (plus his sister's fictional bio, which was interesting for family dynamics).

Literature:

Sylvia Plath: I've read ALL of her works and all bios.
Ted Hughes: Read maybe 2/3 of his works, and all bios.

F. Scott Fitzgerald: Yes, I've read everything published by him, and all the bios.

Thomas Hardy: I've read all the main novels (Far From the Madding Crowd, Return of the Native, Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess, Jude the Obscure), and much of his poetry, and some essays. A couple of years ago, I bought a complete set of all his works and started at the beginning--got through only the first 3, I think. I've read most of his bios, though.
Dawn Powell: Read almost all novels and bios. No short stories.

TV:

The Office: I've seen each episode at least a billion times. 

(Used to be vastly entertained by all, but upon multiple views: It's nearly mediocre once "Michael Scott" left the show. Way too much "Andy." No need at all for "Nellie." No need for Jim's sports-publicist career.)

 

Portlandia: I'd never seen an episode until just getting my "YouTubeTV" subscription a few months ago; there's a whole "Portlandia" channel, showing nothing but! 

It's clever as hell! (It ran from 2011 to 2018, and I missed it the whole time---had I had access to it earlier, I wouldn't have been so depressed about thinking that no one was noticing how INSANE leftists were!)

 

The Andy Griffith Show: Again, thanks to my new "YouTubeTV" subscription. 

I started watching after work on a whim, remembering seeing re-runs from my childhood in the '70s. There's a very good, happy vibe around all of the episodes. 

But while watching random episodes, I at one point tried to record ONE of them---only to discover that YouTube had then recorded EVERY SINGLE episode from all 8 seasons!
Oh, OK---I'll try that! (I was always wondering why Andy's girlfriends came and went---

what happened to them? Maybe now I'll find out!)

I'm currently in the middle of Season 2 of 8. Up until now, I'd always chuckled mildly on occasion. No, I'm not a fan, in general, of basic "country humor." BUT:

Andy Griffith (Andy Taylor) is so handsome (!), and I like his laid-back persona. 

Love Ronny Howard, who is super-cute and a very natural kid-actor. 

Annoyed by Aunt Bee. Barely amused by Barney's usually annoying neuroses. 

But the below made me REALLY laugh out loud for the first time since starting my journey with this show! 

This is as funnily weird and absurdist as anything in "Portlandia"!

"O-Tis Campbell..."

Death

First your pets, and then perhaps
A random friend or two
And later, parents or a mate
Time marches on---soon, you!

Charlie Kirk Assassination

NEW YORK POST reader post on evening of 9/10/25:

His voice and his thoughts were his to share. Whether you disagreed with him or not, he still had the right to talk and share them with anyone who would listen. He valued the debate and genuinely listened to people who spoke with him. Violence wasn't the answer here. This is a great example of how no one wants violence and only wants to talk, until violence silences those who want peaceful debate.

RIP Charlie. I didn't agree with your stances in many cases, but I respect your freedom to voice them.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

MY RESPONSE to the above:

I agree. And thank you for that. But I'm a lot angrier. I was a long-time Democrat right up until 2016. (Am now a Trumplican. And am proud to say I've never voted for a milquetoast Bush or Romney.) All that said: What's been going on in America for the past 10 years or so is horrible----the censorship of social media (before Musk bought Twitter), the refusing of most college campuses to allow speakers from the right, the takeover of mainstream media by extreme Leftists, the takeover of all educational levels by extreme Leftists, the takeover of the medical/biological/scientific fields by extreme Leftists spouting non-scientific nonsense about gender and climate. ETC.

The Left has COMPLETELY lost sight of what it originally stood for: Freedom of speech and intellectual honestly being two of those very important things. You guys have gone MAD in the past 10 years. You frighten me and you disgust me.

"The Male Gaze"

Back in the late '80s/early '90s or so, the phrase "The Male Gaze" showed up in an academic essay, and over the past 30+ years, this concept has trickled down to mass culture. The premise being that women in general can't truly be themselves because males are always looking at them and commenting on them. This concept perhaps culminated in the recent #MeToo witch-hunts online that damned most anyone who ever looked at or touched a woman. (Actual sex abuse---that's one thing. But #MeToo went WAY beyond that.)

Well, guess what: Women look at, and comment on, men, too. One example: Sylvia Plath---one of my favorite poets---constantly objectified husband Ted Hughes as a Superman, both physically and mentally. And just recently, now that I've got YouTubeTV, I've been enjoying my "Andy Griffith Show" re-runs---not because the shows are extremely witty or anything (although they are sometimes folksily funny), but because Andy Griffith is so good-looking! I mean, Ronny Howard is very cute to watch, but I'm primarily watching to see Andy Griffith.

People in show business, both male and female, are usually better-looking and more-charming on-screen than the rest of us. That's why we pay to see them at the movies, or watch them on TV. As for literature, most poets have been male, so we usually get their fascinated sexual views on females---but when there's a female poet, such as Plath, we get her equally fascinated sexual views on males.

The "Gaze" is Female as well as Male. The Gaze comes from any human looking at anything he or she is attracted to.

Andy Griffith + Joanna Moore: Down In The Valley (1962)

The gorgeous Joanna Moore made 4 appearances as Andy Taylor's girlfriend on the "Andy Griffith Show" in 1962.

After weeks of watching the show (just recently accessed through my new streaming service): I thought Moore was really extraordinary---beautiful eyes, beautiful manner, and lovely singing voice. She disappeared as a love interest from the "Andy Griffith Show" after this 1962 season, though. 

I learned later after some research: She was married to Ryan O'Neal from 1963 to 1967. She later became Tatum O'Neal's and Griffin O'Neal's mother. (Based on nothing but psychology: I'm guessing that a jealous O'Neal demanded in 1962 that she keep away from Griffith.)

She later became an utter mess: Drug and alcohol problems, and, according to Tatum's bio, she had a 15-year-old lover who physically abused Tatum. And her kids weren't fed, and they literally shit on the ground while they lived with her. (Ryan O'Neal was ultimately given custody of the kids---the fact that Ryan O'Neal, of all people, was given custody of anybody tells you something about how bad their mother was.)

The magic of Hollywood---because in this "Andy Griffith" episode, she looks like anyone's ultimate dream-woman!

p.s. No offense to the vast majority of Scorpios out there---but Moore was November 10. 
In my own life as a fairly simple Leo, I've been involved with numerous Scorpios---born on November 6, 8, 9, 11: How beautiful and interesting you all presented yourselves at the beginning, and how awful you turned out to be. 

 

Yes, most things in life are random, but this cluster of Scorpios is a bit beyond "random." I suppose there's some sort of Fate involved---me having to ultimately get along with ONE Scorpio before I die! :)

 

I do, though, long for another bright and pleasant Libra. So tired of weirdos and neuroses much worse than my own.

Andy Griffith Show: The Fishin' Hole (lyrics to whistling theme song)

Why the Guilt: Turning thermostat down to 77 degrees from 78!

When I was a kid, living in a rural area outside of Fort Worth, Texas, in the late '70s/early '80s, we (my mom, younger brother, and I) were poor after my parents' divorce in '77. My mom got the house---which I later found out had cost only $75K back then! Can you imagine??---but it was still apparently a monetary chore to keep up, especially since Mom, post-divorce, only had a low-paying entry-level Federal job at the nearby Air Force Base.

To save on air-conditioning costs: One of the rules in the summer that my mom imposed: While I was at home during the day baby-sitting my brother, I had to keep the thermostat set at 86 degrees F in the house. And the temps inside the house always DID hit that mark! Only at 3pm was I allowed to lower the thermostat to 78 degrees---in time for the house to cool down by the time my mother arrived home from work around 5pm!

(I know where "78 degrees" came from: In 1976, Jimmy Carter had given a TV speech about the need for energy conservation. He suggested 78 in the summer, and 68 in the winter.)

I was a pretty well-behaved tween, so I never cheated and lowered the thermostat much earlier in the day! Wish I had! (How would she have known? But I didn't know about electric bills, and feared some mass upcharge had I "dared" to lower the thermostat to 80 or something around noon!)

In other sweaty news: When my mother went to bed around 10pm each night, the AC then had to be switched off. Since I was allowed to stay up later watching TV in the summer, it got quite muggy after hours! I remember to this day the backs of my knees sweating!

All of that said: Now that I've long been a grown-up, and long been in charge of my own AC... WHY AM I STILL SETTING MY THERMOSTAT TO 78 DEGREES in the summer?? Because Jimmy Carter said so in 1976? Because it's better than 86 degrees? My own personal body temperature is still way too hot at 78 degrees in the house! The past couple of weeks have been uber-muggy, so I "dared" to set the thermostat to 77 degrees! Good Lord. 

Back when I was first on Facebook many years ago, I posted a query to my old friends from my home-town, asking what they considered a "normal" temp in their houses in the summer. Most said around 72 degrees; one said her husband had to have 68. 

I can today afford to have whatever comfortable temperature in my apartment. But I keep on with the "78" in mind, and thinking that "77" or below is somehow "radical"! :)