13th & 14th December, 2004

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rod in “The Best is Yet to Come” 11/6/04
Photo by Shira Greenburg ©2004 by Broadway.com. Used by Permission

A Thought for Today

It seems to me the others parts contributing to calendars have too little quiet. Though winter can admittedly contain too much.

 

Dear Diary,

I didn’t get a flu shot this year, there weren’t enough to go around. Of course since I have never ever had a vaccination against whatever winter virus was poised for attack – though from time to time I’ve thought of it – that’s even less than a lame excuse for finally catching the bug. It’s day fourteen and counting of being flat on my back with too much orange juice, chicken soup, vitamin C popping and too little energy and time awake to do much of anything productive.

Down time is something I’ve never been able to handle well but after the first few days of realizing that I have to sweat it out (not just a metaphor) I’ve relaxed a bit knowing that fighting the flu is no way to overcome it.

Slugging this bug is the most important thing right now and since that is up to the whim of time all I can do is try to co-operate by helping to push it along by staying flat while feverish. Weird, feeling well and happy but lacking mental and physical energy.

Tempus fidget.

RM 12/13/2004 1:39 AM PST

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notable birthdays

Monday 13 December

Rex Allen o John Anderson o Steve Buscemi o Jimmie Carroll o Christie Clark o Marc Connelly o John Davidson o Tom DeLonge o Jamie Foxx o Kathy Garver o Van Heflin o Henry IV o Michael James o Mary Todd Lincoln o Ross MacDonald o Wendy Malick o Clark Mills o Edwin G. Monk o Archie Moore o Ted Nugent o Genevieve Page o Larry Parks o Drew Pearson o Nicolas Petrov o Christopher Plummer o Lillian Roth o Tom Sanders o Dick Van Dyke o Richard Zanuck

Tuesday 14 December

Morey Amsterdam o Frances ("Aunt Bee") Bavier o Jane Birkin o Marilyn Cooper o Dan Dailey o Patty Duke o George Furth o George VI o Don Hewitt o Shirley Jackson o Spike Jones o Elyse Knox o Abbe Lane o Nostradamus o Michael Owen o Lee Remick o Charlie Rich o Geraldine Robinson o Margaret Chase Smith o Dee Wallace Stone o Carol Widel

Rod's random thoughts A friend is forever.

Love is an act of giving; giving is an act of love.

We cannot close out the cold, especially if it lies within ourselves.

TWENTY-FIVE /
THE COMING OF THE RAIN

Where were we
when the coming of the rain
made us turn from conversation to the window?

In mustard fields maybe,
               or the love jungle,
and as we talked
we were with others, not ourselves.

I was thinking of old birthdays and holidays gone wrong
                  and pretty people seen on streetcars
        but never met.
Selling soda bottles to pay for movie matinees.
             I was twelve.
    Tarzan was the man I most resembled in those days.
How can I have grown so old without once swinging on a vine?
             Did you think of party dresses
and high school plays
              or hallways full of lovers not yet met?

The mind is such a junkyard;
                   it remembers candy bars
                                  but not the Gettysburg Address,
Frank Sinatra’s middle name
             but not the day your best friend died.

If in your mind there is some corner
    not yet occupied with numbers you may never need,
remind your memory of the day
                 we turned to watch the rain
   and turning back forgot
         that we belonged to one another.

-from Listen to the Warm, 1967

 
© 1967, 1980, 2004 by Stanyan Music Group & Rod McKuen. All Rights Reserved
Webmaster: Ken Blackie o Birthday research by Wade Alexander, coordinated by Melinda Smith
Poetry from the collection of Jay Hagan o Sound & Fury: Dr. Eric Yeager o Editor at Large: Bruce Bellingham
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