Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for November 20, 2024

For some reason I now hear Robin Williams yelling, “Good morning, Vietnam!”

Next old guy test: Have you used a rotary dial telephone?

Ayuh ! I did use a rotary dial and our Number was a party line !

I don’t even remember that song. Does it mean that I’m young or too old?

Anybody here remember “Pluck your magic twanger, Froggy” on AFR/VN

Ah yes. I tutored Eng Lit at the university level for many years. I remember standing at a bus stop after a session, and suddenly exclaiming “Nidhogg!” to the bemusement of everyone else. It’s the name of the dragon who lies at the foot of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, gnawing away at the roots. But do you think I could remember that during class?

I miss when pop music had more male singers and all of it was about entertainment right now third of it is about women’s rights and most pop singers are females.

How many can remember ‘The Ballad of the Green Beret’ by Sgt. Barry Sadler? The ultra patriotic anthem of the day?

Fighting soldiers from the skyFearless men who jump and dieMen who mean just what they sayThe brave men of the Green Beret

An excellent song, one in a string of great singles by Billy Joel. I tend to think of it as sort of a cousin to “Allentown”; one’s about the Vietnam War, the other’s about the decline of the American steel industry.

I’m trying to not google the answers, getting my brain to work it out.

It may take 15 minutes to the next day, but I finally get it.

Must have dropped the pen……

Only the good die young, Stephan.

That peeves me. Stephan’s only in his mid 50’s. I’m knocking on 70 and that means… I forgot where I was going with this.

Lethologica versus lethonomia

I disliked it so much that I left it out when I ripped my mp3s.

Nylon Curtain, side one, last track. Ha! Take THAT, brain!

On the Ballads of the Green Berets album there was a song called “Saigon” about going on R&R in the city.

Can you add, subtract, multiply, or divide on paper?

Good night, Miss Saigon.

The terror of downloading a picture off the internet only to lose 3 hours of progress when someone calls trying to sell your mom tupperware…

The older you are, the more Super Bowls you’ve had the opportunity to see.

When you’re my age it takes a few hours but you think of it!

Next Old Guy Test is: …. um….. HM! Oh well, time for … what time is it?

About a year ago, I was in an upstate NY antique shop. There was an old rotary phone (circa 1950s style). A young guy (maybe 20?) was studying it. Picked up the receiver, put it down. Then tried to use the rotary dial in a weird way. He couldn’t figure out how this all worked. I suddenly felt very old.

I remember Billy Joel, do not remember that song. Must have gotten very little play time on the radio.

My personal favorite Billy Joel is “New York State of Mind.”

Never heard it. Nor does The Count care to.

A great tune, that tells a story. Back in the day, you had Eric Burdon and The Animals’s Sky Pilot. Then it was Gordon Lightfoot’s (RIP) Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (which got a lot of play, but also Canadian Railroad Trilogy. Later on, it was Telegraph Road by Dire Straits. Perhaps the most haunting of the tales was And The Band played Waltzing Matilda by Eric Bogle.

I was in a store recently, and a woman was singing along with Linda Ronstadt. I asked her if she remembered when stores played old music.

I still have one hooked up.

Can’t sneak up on my brain, it left long ago…

It’s the random ear hair. They’re like tree rings.

How about Country Joe’s Vietnam Rag?

“Alice’s Restaurant”

I remember November 19 like it was yesterday…

My husband’s doctor said, when asked why it was so hard to remember things – there is so much information in your brain as you get older that sometimes it takes a while for the information you’re looking for makes it to the front where you can access it. Loved that description!

Old Fossil Test: Are you forgetting things you want to remember, & remembering too many things you’d rather forget?

He’s one up on me, I had to flog my brain to remember that there is such a song. Now that I’ve been reminded of it, I want to listen to it. It’s a good one if you’re in the right frame of mind.

I remembered the name of the song before I read the third panel. How did I do?

I love that song! I first heard it at summer camp. About ten thousand times. The cabin counselors played it over and over on the boom box. And the at closing campfire (which was very emotional for a lot of us girls), each cabin would stand before the rest of the camp and each camper would share two memories, one would read a poem and then the whole cabin would sing a song. That year, our cabin sang this along with the boom box. Someone wrote out the words though I think some were heard wrong.

When Herr Goebbels says—“We own the world and space”

We Heil right in Der Fuehrer’s face

When Herr Goering says—"Hey,they’ll never bomb this place!

We Heil! Heil! right in Der Fuehrer’s face!

An oldt Dutch saying " We grow too soon oldt and too late smart."

I’ve had those moments lately.

Miss it. Always knew where it was.

I’m an old guy and have never heard of that song.

Wow, this is very true! I’m glad that I’m not the only one who experiences (and uses) this technique!

“Good morning Vietnam…,” wait that was that guy who died by strangulation.

That was after my time. Also I hated Billy Joel so I’m not really up on his oeuvre.

I was eight years old when the song “Remember Pearl Harbor” came out and everyone was singing it. Ten years later I was in the Navy because the Korean War was on. I guess that makes me one of those “suckers and losers”.

This must be some kind of record for comments on one page on GC. Current count is 258!

Did you have a mandatory civics class in high school that included explanations of how government worked and included chapters on how to spot propaganda and common dishonest debate tactics?

I’m old enough I still don’t know if that’s the right answer.

290 comments! I wonder what the record here is for comments.

At least his memory trick worked fast for him. When you get my age, you remember things when you wake up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.