A Poem for Technophobes

            In the old days….

A COMPUTER was something on TV

From a science fiction show of note.

A window was something you hated to clean,

And a ram was the cousin of a goat.

Meg was the name of my girlfriend,

And gig was a job for the nights.

Now they all mean different things,

And that really mega bytes.

An application was for employment,

A program was a TV show.

A cursor used profanity,

And a keyboard was a piano.

Memory was something you lost with age,

A CD was a bank account.

And if you had a 3-inch floppy,

You hoped nobody found out!

Compress was what you did to the garbage,

Not something you did to a file.

And if you unzipped anything in public,

You’d be in jail for a while.

Log-on was adding wood to the fire.

Hard drive was a long trip on the road.

A mouse pad was where a mouse lived,

And a back-up happened to your commode.

Cut you did with a pocket knife;

Paste you did with glue.

A web was a spider’s home

And a virus was the flu.

I guess I’ll stick to my pad and paper,

And the memory in my head.

I hear nobody’s killed in a computer crash,

But when it happens, they wish they were dead.

My Favorite Top 15 Songs

1.    I Left My Heart in San Francisco (Tony Bennett)

2.    People (B. Streissand)

3.    Unforgettable (Nat Cole)

4.    One Less Bell to Answer (M. McCoo, Fifth Dimension)

5.    We’ve Only Just Begun (The Carpenters)

6.    You Belong to Me (Jo Stafford)

7.    If Ever I Would Leave You (Robert Goulet, fr. Camelot)

8.    Chances Are (Johnny Matthis)

9.    Autumn in New York (Sara Vaughan)           

10.  I’ve Got You Under My Skin (Frank Sinatra)

11.  Beyond the Sea (Bobby Darin)

12.  Friendly Persuasion (Pat Boone)

13.  Moon River (Andy Williams, fr. Breakfast at Tiffany’s)

14.  Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkle)

15.  Lullaby of Birdland (Ella Fitzgerald)                       

        Above is a short list of 15 top megahits of all time.  Admittedly, they are my favorites, but surely anyone over 50 would have to admit that they are all giant hits from various times in American pop music history.  There are others to be added, and I'm here inviting you to make recommendations to expand this list to perhaps 25 or 30.  What do you think?  

      In case you're interested, you might visit my music website at  www.ChrisWhalenMusic.com

Olympic Figure Skating

Yivgeny Plushenko!   Can you believe this guy?  Three Olympic appearances, three medals (one gold, two silver).  Evan Lysachek was the better skater last night, but the Russian is still in a class of his own.  Scotty Hamilton was right: "This guy is one of a kind; a true gift to the world of skating." 

How do they get out there on that hard, slippery ice with all that pressure and, for over four minutes, continuously turn and spin and jump and step.....  Amazing!