Happy Bastille Day !!!

Happy Bastille Day !!!

I was in Paris, France, on Bastille Day (basically French Independence Day) with my parents in 1970, when I was nine years old. I remember the top of the Eiffel Tower was closed on that day, so we enjoyed lunch in the restaurant that was about halfway up the tower.

My parents and I were on a 28-day trip around the world. We were living in Babylon, Long Island, New York, so we started our journey at a New York City airport. We visited San Francisco, Honolulu, Tokyo, Osaka (Expo 70), Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau, Bangkok, (refueled in Calcutta and Karachi), Rome, Sturno (in Italy to visit my great-grandparents and cousins), Paris, London, and then home to New York.

I returned to France twice after that: once with West Islip High School on Long Island, New York (a week in Paris on a cultural trip with my French teacher and three girls) during the summer of 1978; and with Villanova University near Philadelphia (three weeks to study the French language during the summer of 1984). We lived in a high-rise school/dormitory in Massy, France, studying with many students from China and north Africa. We would only visit Paris on weekends, which was about 30 minutes by train.

July 14, 2026

Today Is ...

from husband Bill, July 14, 2026

I occasionally like Mac and Cheese, as shown below. However, I prefer Käsknöpfle, which is western Austrian homemade dumplings with farmers cheese and sautéed onions on top. My wife and I sometimes make it from scratch.

My Austrian aunt Brunhilde (R.I.P.) made the best I have ever eaten. I was fortunate to have enjoyed her homemade Käsknöpfle while on several vacations to visit her and my other Austrian relatives in western Austria, and to go skiing in the Austrian Alps.

Also, my wife makes delicious "regular" Mac and Cheese from scratch.

from husband Bill, July 14, 2026

At one time, I wanted to be a dairy farmer/cheese maker in the western Austrian province of Vorarlberg. Cow Appreciation Day is on a different day every year.

from husband Bill, July 14, 2026

On this date (July 14) in 2022, when I was living in a physical rehabilitation facility, my occupational therapist told me there was an apparently "crazy," elderly woman screaming and running around the hallways of the facility naked. I told my therapist that the reason for her actions could be dementia or simply because today is National Nude Day. I was fortunate not to have seen this woman. I wonder if that was the same woman who often screamed from her room down the hallway almost every night.

from husband Bill, July 14, 2026

I sold (and exchanged for free) many tape measures when I worked as a salesman in the light hardware department at Sears, when I first moved to southeastern Florida from New Jersey in 1998. I worked in that department for more than five years, including while searching for a job in my profession (journalism) and also after I secured a journalist job. While I requested shorter hours at Sears, I still could not reconcile working both jobs at the same time, so I had to quit my sales job at Sears.

from husband Bill, July 14, 2026

I like Grand Marnier, but I haven't had it in many years.

from husband Bill, July 14, 2026

Today Is ...

from husband Bill, July 13, 2026

I like eating sliced hot dogs mixed with Heinz vegetarian baked beans, as I have done for decades. I started eating Heinz vegetarian baked beans when I was a young kid in the 1960s. They are still my preferred baked beans.

My paternal grandfather would always have many cans of these beans in the pantry in the root cellar of his house in the 1960s and 1970s . (There was also the regular pantry near the kitchen.) He mostly did the grocery shopping, so whenever canned foods went on sale, he would stock up on them.

He was NOT a vegetarian and would often eat vegetarian baked beans with various meat dishes.

from husband Bill, July 13, 2026

My dear friend and I used to bet on the standardbred horse races at a few tracks when we were at university in Pennsylvania in the early 1980s, and also beyond. These include tracks in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey, and also in Illinois. I have also been to tracks in Missouri and Florida. I grew up on Long Island, New York, and lived there after I grew up, but I have never been to a track in New York.

from husband Bill, July 13, 2026

Today Is ...

from husband Bill, July 12, 2026

When I was working, I preferred my professional life to be complex and my personal life to be simplistic. For example, from 1992 to 1996, I was a reporter, writer, editor, and researcher for an international weekly magazine on the financial and technical aspects of the chemical industry based in New York City. When I wasn't working, I would read Jughead Jones comic books to take a break from the complexity of my job and to add a little simplicity to my life.

from husband Bill, July 12, 2026

I like pecan pie. I once ate a piece which had chocolate ganache on top. It was terrific.

from husband Bill, July 12, 2026

My favorite Jell-O flavor is lime.

from husband Bill, July 12, 2026

In recent decades, plastic bags have mostly replaced paper bags. In recent years, the trend toward returning to the use of paper bags has gained speed and continues to do so.

from husband Bill, July 12, 2026

While I don't have different colored eyes, my eyes change color: from dark brown to light brown to hazel to green. Alexander the Great had one brown eye and one blue eye. Many dogs have mismatched eyes. It's called having a "China eye."

from husband Bill, July 12, 2026

Today Is ...

from husband Bill, July 11, 2026

Today (July 11, 2026) is All American Pet Photo Day. Here is one of my favorite pet dogs from the early 1980s, when I was in my early 20s. Actually, he was my dad's dog. He named him Dudley because he thought that his long-haired dachshund looked like actor Dudley Moore. The photo of Dudley (the dog) shows him as a puppy.

Today Is ...

from husband Bill, July 10, 2026

French fries are neither French nor from France. The fry was invented in Belgium. "Frenching" is a method of cutting vegetables.

I eat french fries in the traditional way: dipped in mayonnaise. I sometimes eat fries with tartar sauce, but never with ketchup.

from husband Bill, July 10, 2026

I do like Piña Coladas, but I haven't had one in decades.

from husband Bill, July 10, 2026

I struggle with Diabetes with Peripheral Neuropathy (constant numbness) in both of my feet; Congestive Heart Failure; and Restrictive Lung Disease. I am still unable to walk after many years due to my Neuropathy. 

from husband Bill, July 10, 2026

I have written more than 300 poems since 1986, but I have never written a "cherihew." Many of my poems have been published in national and international poetry anthologies through poetry contests.

"On July 10 each year, National Clerihew Day in the United States celebrates a poem style created by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. His four-line biographical poem offers a brief, though whimsical, approach to poetry." - National Day Calendar

"A clerihew poem must include:

Four lines.

Rhyming couplets of AA/BB.×

A person's name in the first line.

Something said about that person.

Humor because clerihew poems are meant to be a funny poem."

Here's an example of a clerihew:

"Sir Humphry Davy

Abominated gravy.

He lived in the odium

Of having discovered sodium."

from husband Bill, July 10, 2026

*

I have written more than 300 poems since 1986, but I have never written a "cherihew." Many of my poems have been published in national and international poetry anthologies through poetry contests.

"On July 10 each year, National Clerihew Day in the United States celebrates a poem style created by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. His four-line biographical poem offers a brief, though whimsical, approach to poetry." - National Day Calendar

"A clerihew poem must include:

Four lines.

"Rhyming couplets of AA/BB.

A person's name in the first line.

Something said about that person.

Humor because clerihew poems are meant to be a funny poem."

Here's an example of a clerihew:

"Sir Humphry Davy

Abominated gravy.

He lived in the odium

Of having discovered sodium."

July 10, 2026

Oreo Video

Taste Test: Oreo cookie (limited edition) video ("short") drops around 7 p.m., today (July 9, 2026).

***

from husband Bill, July 9, 2026

I created and uploaded a short taste-test video in regard to a limited-edition Oreo cookie flavor. (length: 1 minute, 56 seconds)

Taste Test: Oreo cookie (limited edition) (July 9, 2026)

https://youtube.com/shorts/xFwRQIBCcqQ?is=zuWyYwT0L7x8uYVT

July 9, 2026

Cookies & Dimples

from husband Bill, July 9, 2026

I am not really a fan of sugar cookies. They are too plain for me.