Orca attacking Great While Shark – Good Morning America #video

| March 6, 2024

After recently visiting Sea World in Orlando with our family … and posting on Orcas and Sharks for years here on MyDesultoryBlog.com … this ABC Good Morning America YouTube video of an Orca attacking a Great White Shark was amazing:

Pilots and Planes: Smithsonian on Capt. David McCampbell, World War II aviation and the Grumman Hellcat

| February 24, 2024

A few of the history oriented books I read in 2023 were about World War II Naval Aviation in the Pacific … after the previous years studying Navy and US Marine battles. As much as I enjoyed the books by several aviators who flew Corsairs (1, 2, 3, 4) … I really enjoyed reading last […]

My Favorite Commercial from Super Bowl LVIII was by Volkswagen: “An American Love Story” #video

| February 13, 2024

  As a long time Volkswagen guy … I enjoyed the “An American Love Story” commercial (YouTube) in Super Bowl LVIII. Of course there were a lot of creative advertisements, but the VW one tugged at my heart-strings. Those who know me, know that I’ve had a memorable history with VW vehicles, from my high […]

How does a manual transmission and clutch work? #video

| February 6, 2024

While looking for an excuse to modify and add this automotive humor meme to a post … Below the break there’s an animagraff that details a front wheel drive manual transmission and clutch assembly on YouTube.  It’s well done and rather mesmerizing.

This Simple Joint is Stronger Than a Dovetail! #woodworking

| January 11, 2024

All woodworkers making projects tinker with making joints and deciding on which ones are best for their drawers, frames and boxes. I’ve experimented with a variety usually based on traditional construction and visual appeal. BUT I also assumed certain joints were stronger an provided both glue and mechanical strength necessary (ie. drawers getting closed and […]

Music Monday: Dave Matthews and JB’s “A Pirate Looks at Forty”

| January 1, 2024

When a few of my “other” favorite groups or musicians sing Jimmy Buffett songs, I can’t help but listen and sing along (suspect I’m not the only one who will miss his music)? In December, a social media friend forwarded the YouTube video below, but thought I would include a Zac Brown Band and Jimmy […]

My favorite Babylon Bee Parody Video For 2023

| December 31, 2023

After commenting back in 2022 on a favorite Babylon Bee parody video (added from YouTube below the break), this 2023 year year end New Year’s Eve favorite is another California oriented music video. Both parody clips highlight memorable songs as well as destructive policies from progressive Democrats governing a once idyllic state. It does seems […]

The TaxFoundation and “An Introduction to the History of Taxes”

| December 26, 2023

Have you ever wondered about taxes … and how many (or how much) is too little or too much? If so, here’s a short YouTube clip from the TaxFoundation:

A Music and Movie Monday Merry Christmas to ALL!

| December 25, 2023

Pre-posting a Christmas day blog update as I’m expecting to be busy with our family … and for the record … I am finally getting in the spirit and correct mood to celebrate Christ’s birthday. Since this is a Music Monday, it is appropriate to include the most popular Christmas song in America … BUT […]

Music Monday: Daryl Hall and John Oates – “Private Eyes”

| December 4, 2023

The music I listened to in the early 1980s was in my opinion still leftover from the 1970s. I was still finishing up college and grad school … but growing up since Brenda and I were married in 1982 (although “grown up” would be a stretch)! So for me, Hall and Oates and their hit […]

Music Monday: “Come Sail Away” by Styx (1977)

| November 27, 2023

“Come Sail Away” is today’s Music Monday song by Styx. It took me back to hanging out in the dorm room with my roommate and listening to music. Was life less stressful back then … or is it just the rose color glasses perspective of time (probably the later)? 

Music Monday: “The Best Day Of My Life” – American Authors

| November 6, 2023

Although I’m sure I’m not the only one, but today’s Music Monday song (and YouTube served music video) is one of those songs that after hearing it, I can’t get out of my head … in other words, an earworm.  The “Best Day of my Life” from 2013 is by pop band American Authors and […]

Music Monday: Neil Diamond – Jonathan Livingston Seagull

| October 23, 2023

While laying on the beach and watching the clouds drift over last week, Brenda stuck a granola bar in my mouth and I laughed, commenting that I was like a seagull … a Jonathan Livingston Seagull. She rolled her eyes as I headed down memory lane remembering and played the Richard Bach story (fable) from […]

Music Monday: A Cover Band version of “Copperline”

| October 9, 2023

It is hard for me not to enjoy almost any James Taylor music no matter who sings or plays the songs, but the music is especially enjoyable when it is the Lexington Lab Band (includes my schoolmate from high school, Rob Pottorf). For Music Monday this week, here’s the group’s YouTube video of “Copperline” that […]

Music Monday: “Island” – Jimmy Buffett lives in my head

| October 2, 2023

It is still difficult to believe that Jimmy Buffett in gone and won’t be making new music or touring. I know I still hear his music in my head and wish there was a way to go back a few decades to enjoy a new albums and songs every year all over again.    Jimmy […]

Music Monday: “Baby I Love Your Way” by Peter Frampton

| September 18, 2023

When I hear Peter Frampton, I’m transported back to high school and riding with a photographer friend Chris Carr in Sidney, Ohio … and istening to “Frampton Comes Alive!” in his first generation Chevy II Nova with an 8-track player (previous post)!   So for today’s Music Monday‘s “flashback memory,” here’s “Baby I Love Your […]

Music Monday: Bertie Higgins and “Key Largo” 1981

| August 28, 2023

While winding down the last of the lazy summer pool weekends (photo from 2016) this August 2023, there aren’t many better songs than those from the singer/songwriter Bertie Higgins. A few years back his “Just Another Day in Paradise” was a Music Monday selection and probably a favorite … but equally enjoyable is “Key Largo.” […]

Music Monday: “Lido Shuffle” – Boz Scaggs (Silk Degrees 1976)

| August 21, 2023

William Royce “Boz” Scaggs “recalled: “Lido Shuffle” was a song that I’d been banging around. I … took the idea of the shuffle [from] a song that Fats Domino did called “The Fat Man” that had a kind of driving shuffle beat that I used to play on the piano, and I just started kind […]

Woodworking thoughts: Saving a couple router table ideas

| August 20, 2023

One of the frustrations in setting up tools of any kind is to get the settings precisely adjusted quickly and accurately on the first or at least close to the first try. For years I’ve struggled with my old questionable router table (35 years old) and dislike a few of the set up items. I […]

How political has science and climate change become? #video

| August 16, 2023

Deep down … I think most people know that there is something corrupt when it comes to climate science, grant money and politics. Still we are hesitate to question anything because “who am I to question these complicated issues?” It has always bothered me that so many things become an immediate, high priority “crisis” when […]

Music Monday: “I Melt With You” by the band Modern Engish

| August 14, 2023

Although the “new wave” music genre isn’t something I generally listen to or know much about, hearing the 1982 song “I Melt With You” as aTV business news segment change did catch my ear. I think I said something like, “I like that. Perhaps a song from the band Modern English would make for a […]

Music Monday: A couple times a hit, “Hooked On A Feeling”

| August 7, 2023

The songwriter Mark James wrote the song “Hooked On A Feeling” that became a hit in 1968 for singer and entertainer B.J. Thomas (see Geraldo video below) and then became a hit for Swedish rock band Blue Swede six years later. Both versions are memorable, although the Blue Swede producer Jonathan King’s “ooga-chaka” introduction on […]

Music Monday: Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl) by Looking Glass

| July 31, 2023

Today’s Music Monday song by Looking Glass is one nearly every generation that enjoys pop music would find difficult not to like. Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl) is about as popular as a song can get in the early 1970s. It rose to #1 in the charts in 1972.  Interesting tidbit: Following the song’s release […]

Music Monday: Al Stewart and “The Year Of The Cat” (1976)

| July 17, 2023

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Music Monday: “Key West Address” by James T. Slater

| July 10, 2023

In July I’m usually looking for hot weather music mood, so for summer 2023 I’m tuning SiriusXM to the Florida Keys Xtra channel. James T. Slater‘s “Key West Address” popped on and it does a pretty good job of capturing my summertime state-of-mind, although it would probably be just fine in the middle of winter […]

Tech Friday: Artificial Intelligence photos, video and voice

| June 16, 2023

Technology advancements and AI photo and video editing has been around a few years (FaceApp photos) … but some of the newer fakes or clones are a bit “too” convincing (link to a “human generated” one, but not necessarily convincing). 😉 As a society, there’s no turning back once artificial intelligence abilities are here, but […]

How much do you know about the Federal Reserve?

| June 8, 2023

If the answer is “not enough” … check out this short YouTube video explainer.

Music Monday: RIP Gordon Lightfoot, a folk singing legend

| May 8, 2023

Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot passed away last week; he was 84. The respected entertainer has been a favorite of mine since high school and I enjoyed his music throughout the years … and still do. Music Monday has highlighted a few of his many songs and I felt obligated to reflect on his music this […]

Books: “MegaThreats: Ten Dangerous Trends That Imperil Our Future, And How to Survive Them” by Nouriel Roubini

| April 29, 2023

This past month while semi-vacationing in Florida (condo window installation), I started reading an excellent new book by well-known economist Nouriel Roubini called “MegaThreats: Ten Dangerous Trends That Imperil Our Future, And How to Survive Them” (October 18, 2022). The book follows a trend for me and what I’ve been reading when it comes to […]

Mellow Music for Sunday: “Duke’s On Sunday” – Jimmy Buffett

| April 23, 2023

As I often do in the evening, I was listening music on headphones while reading last night. Jimmy Buffett was singing “Duke’s On Sunday” on SiriusXM’s Radio Margaritaville … and it soothed my soul; I think I could listen to it on repeat over and over.  So instead of waiting until Music Monday, I’ll tag […]

Music Monday: Never knew I enjoyed Taylor Swift music

| April 17, 2023

Who knew that I was becoming a Taylor Swift music fan (I may have to listen a little more)? Well at least after hearing a couple of her songs played on “KC‘s No Shoes” SiriusXM channel, I’m starting to enjoy and perhaps now know what I’ve been missing. So for today’s Music Monday, here’s “Breathe“ […]

Music Monday: “Smoke From a Distant Fire” (1977)

| March 27, 2023

If you were around in the later 1970s, you no doubt heard “Smoke From a Distant Fire” by the Sanford-Townsend Band. After hearing the 1977 song while driving last week, and remembering it was released the year I graduated high school and started college, it seemed like the perfect Music Monday song for this week. […]

Music Monday: “Happy Does” and Happy Birthday Ellerie

| February 20, 2023

My youngest granddaughter turns 3 years old today … WOW! Happy Birthday Ellerie. We wish we were spending it with you, but we will be calling you on your way home from Michigan (photo above on Sunday) and celebrating soon for your combined birthday with your sister. For Music Monday today, I was thinking about […]

Music Monday: Bonnie Raitt sings “Angel From Montgomery”

| February 13, 2023

While driving and listening to a few of my usual music stations last week … one being SiriusXM The Bridge … hearing Bonnie Raitt singing “Angel From Montgomery” reminded me how I’ve always enjoy the solemn blues sounds she can offer in her southern rock. This make not have charted as a hit or even […]

Archiving a few WWII B-26 Marauder videos

| February 9, 2023

Here are a couple of B-26 Martin Marauder YouTube videos to archive (saved to personal cloud too) due to my interest in aviation and military history … but also because my late father-in-law serving as navigator on “this beautiful ship” in World War II (I can still hear him saying that). 

Music Monday: Kenny Chesney singing “We Do” live

| February 6, 2023

Since “No Shoes” was mentioned in last week’s Music Monday post, I’ll stick with the theme and include a Kenny Chesney and a “No Shoes Nation” video of his 2020 song “We Do” this week (included KC a few times here before). It is always great to see happy crowds enjoying some great entertainment and […]

Music Monday: David Crosby of CSN and CSNY will be missed

| January 23, 2023

Steven Stills, David Crosby and Graham Nash in concert in 2012 A depressing Music Monday today as music lovers remembered and reflected on the January 18, 2023 passing of the talented singer, guitarist and songwriter David Crosby. He impacted literally millions with is wonderful harmonies from the day he joined the Byrds in 1964 to […]

Music Monday: Remembering Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie

| December 12, 2022

Hearing that Christine McVie passed away earlier this month is just another reminder that we are all getting older. I still think of her as “the emotional glue in a band that has spent the past 50 years breaking up over and over, the most stable, sensible, down-to-earth member of rock’s most unstable, senseless, lost-in-space […]

Music Monday: “Puff the Magic Dragon” – Peter, Paul and Mary

| November 28, 2022

In keeping with the 1960’s Music Monday from a couple week’s ago, the song “Puff the Magic Dragon” by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary flickered by in some way this past week when someone mentioned the old rumors speculating that “it contained veiled references to smoking marijuana.” But the authors, including the original […]

Music Monday: More from England Dan and John Ford Coley

| November 7, 2022

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Music Monday: Fox Business on TV, Disco and the Bee Gees

| October 24, 2022

Music Monday triggers can come from anywhere. Today’s was from segment music on a morning Fox Business program and triggered a“disco” flavored song from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in 1977.   “More Than a Woman” was a Bee Gees song and was paired with a serene Minnesota early morning lake photo (new TV on […]

Who doesn’t love an illusion that messes with your mind?

| September 21, 2022

The triangle with the missing block … explained (below the break).

Music Monday: “ABC” and some early Jackson 5 #video

| September 19, 2022

The trigger for today’s Jackson 5 song “ABC” was due to hearing it as segment music on Fox Business last week. It triggered a memory of the choreographed “five-some” dancing and singing back on 1970’s TV, although I don’t recall watching them very much. Nevertheless, hearing them and watching a young Michael Jackson had me […]

Music Monday: “I’d Really Love To See You Tonight”

| September 12, 2022

The tail end of summers weather has been conducive for both working outside (and sweating) in the yard and cooling dips in the pool. I usually relax in a patched up floating lounger with a copy of Barron’s … but after my delivery frustration I’ve so far declined renewing until they can improve paper delivery. […]

Music Monday: “That’s My Wave” by Jimmy Buffett

| August 22, 2022

While listening to Radio Margaritaville and relaxing in the backyard at the end of the day last week, another Life On The Flipside song caught my ear and started me thinking about how I’m missing sailing and the ocean. I’m not an active surfer, although “IF” I still had decent balance (see Menieres), I wouldn’t […]

Summer storms continue, more COVID and Gilligan’s Island

| August 6, 2022

Well if one has to stay at home … looking at our backyard “storm is coming” pool photo … and we aren’t to be out and about, there could be worse places to be isolating? The summer storms continued rolling thru this past week and and after testing positive the previous week, I thought a […]

Video tips on how to do a better job caulking

| July 31, 2022

As someone who is not fond of both painting and caulking, whenever there are professional tips that make those jobs easier, I listen (a better “dripless” caulking guns link too).

Taylor is planning to own rather than rent in Cincinnati, Ohio

| July 28, 2022

A bit of news from my son Taylor who has decided to buy a condo in Cincinnati rather than renting a few blocks away. He has been looking for a while now and pondered a house vs property vs urban condo or townhouse. Escalating prices since the pandemic turned and rising rates in both lending […]

Music Monday: “Movin’ On Up” – Ja’net DuBois

| July 18, 2022

Don’t ask me what triggered the 1975 television show The Jeffersons theme song, but caught myself bopping to the tune in my head this past weekend (and I’m not really a “bopper”). The All in the Family spinoff wasn’t a series that I watched as a teenager, but the catchy theme song written by Ja’net […]

Music Monday: Radio Margaritaville and Jimmy Buffett singing “Slack Tide” from “Life on the Flip Side” while mowing

| June 27, 2022

It is officially summer … and what’s better in warm weather and sunshine than songs from Jimmy Buffett on Music Monday? So here’s “Slack Tide” off Life on the Flip Side album (as heard on Radio Margaritaville). I just happened to be listening to it streaming on the SiriusXM app on my new noise-cancelling Wyze […]

Music Monday: “So Many Paths” by Little River Band

| June 20, 2022

Just another Music Monday song from the 1970s, as heard on the relatively new SiriusXM Yacht Rock, Deep Cuts, Xtra “app-only” channel (from what I can tell?)  Today song is from Australia’s Little River Band  called “So Many Paths” … from side-B of their 1978 album, “Sleeper Catcher.”      Little River Band – “So […]

Music Monday: The Leonard Skinner and Lynyrd Skynyrd story

| June 6, 2022

I was tuned into a television morning news show a few weeks ago and was shocked that two of the three hosts didn’t know “the band” Lynyrd Skynyrd … in fact one commented, “but I’ve heard of ‘him.’”  Shocked, but maybe it’s an age thing? The conversation quickly shifted into the band’s eponym … Forby Leonard […]

Music Monday oriented Memorial Day: Vietnam vets likely remember singing “We’ve Gotta Get Out Of This Place”

| May 30, 2022

This Memorial Day reflection is a bit different than previous posts. Instead of an overall encompassing remembrance on all those who died in armed service to our country, it is a combined Music Monday twist that is a little more narrowly focused on those who fought and died in the Vietnam War (1955-1975). At the […]

Music Monday: “Where Do The Children Play?” – Cat Stevens

| May 23, 2022

While reading in the evenings I’m often sitting with my headphones on listening to music while Brenda is watching one of her streaming series … I think she is watching the Bridgerton TV series on Netflix before we cancel our streaming service. Anyway, while listening to SiriusXM’s The Bridge channel on my iPhone, I found myself […]

Tech Friday: What is all this Web3 decentralized internet about?

| May 20, 2022

While discussing the ever-changing way in which we use the “web” with a friend, he shared an “explainer“ video from Harvard Business Review earlier this month on Web3 (Web 3.0). It is also on YouTube and offers a glimpse into what they refer to as “read/write/own” information.

Music Monday: Dion – “Runaround Sue” #video

| May 2, 2022

Today’s Music Monday is a little bit before my time, but when hearing Dion DiMucci singing “Runaround Sue” on Varney & Co. FoxBusiness show’s segment bumper music last month, it caught my ear. For me, it triggered memories of my parent’s music … as it would have been their era. I would not be surprised […]

Music Monday: My one and only John Denver concert at Miami University was still the best

| April 18, 2022

The years have passed, but my memory of a John Denver concert “in the round” was still the best and most memorable concert I’ve ever attended. I suspect a lot has to do with John Denver being a true entertainer. He knew exactly how to connect with an audience and was especially effective on a […]

Music Monday: Starland Vocal Band – “Afternoon Delight” 1976

| April 11, 2022

This week almost didn’t have a Music Monday song, but after hearing “Afternoon Delight” over the weekend, I thought that since this was the only song I could remember from the group called Starland Vocal Band, that it would be worth adding? “Lo and behold,” I’m not alone in remembering it, as my wife started […]

Books: The Coddling of the American Mind and Roland Fryer

| April 2, 2022

The longer I live, the more I ask the question: “What is wrong with people?” While reading “The Coddling of the American Mind” last week, just before chatting with my son Taylor, the synopsis of the book came to mind. We were discussing a variety of current issues and ties to history (behavior, greed, crime, […]

Music Monday: “Hold On” from 1990 by Wilson Phillips

| March 28, 2022

Once again, in looking to get out of the 1970’s Music Monday rut, I pulled out a music memory from my trusty Apple iPod and Shuffle … mine is filled with Jack Johnson tunes (right – see Wikipedia list of iPods). The one I used most often was clipped to the back of a cap […]

Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
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