When I was 11 years old, this man's victory in the ICE BOWL of 1967 made every boy in Wisconsin want to be Bart Starr

Bryan Bartlett Starr, January 9, 1934 – May 26, 2019, RIP.

Happiness is "quick" rustic loaves in the Chicago Metallic French Bread Pan

2 t yeast

1.5 c lukewarm water

dash sugar

2 t salt, generously rounded

.25 c rye flour
.25 c white whole wheat flour

3 c unbleached all purpose flour

splash olive oil

1) whisk water yeast and sugar in mixer bowl and let stand five minutes

2) add flour a little at a time starting with the rye and whole wheat and mix, using a silicone spatula to incorporate if needed, and add the salt when you still have one cup left to go

3) when you have one half cup left to go, add a generous splash of olive oil 

4) use spatula to turn out onto a floured board and knead-in the flour (dough will be sticky to start, so flour your hands also)

5) divide into two equal parts and roll out lengths to fit your pan

6) place in pan covered loosely with a clean damp dish towel to rise in a warm spot, about one hour

7) bake at 450 degrees F for 25 minutes on the middle level
8) allow to cool thoroughly on a rack before slicing  

Happiness is when the birdie does a self portrait on the window of your car

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Birdie.

There's an artist in everyone, sometimes just bursting forth.

As quickly as the one hit wonder struck, it was gone, never to be heard from again.

Happiness is 1961's "Who put the bomp" by Barry Mann

Who Put The Bomp - Barry Mann

Happiness is Slim Whitman singing "Paloma Blanca"

Happiness is lavender oil for anxiety

Have never tried it internally, but externally it's great!

Doctors should dish out LAVENDER OIL as a first-line treatment for people with anxiety instead of addictive drugs, psychiatrist claims:

Professor Hans Peter-Volz said doctors are too quick to dish out benzodiazepines and other drugs to patients with anxiety. ...

Professor Volz claimed lavender oil capsules have been shown to be as strong as commonly used anti-anxiety medications. ...

Professor Volz is the medical director of the Hospital for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine in Schloss, Germany.

Happiness is odds made even

The fox, the ape, and the bumble bee,

Were still at odds, being but three;

Until the goose came out of door,

And staid the odds by adding four.

-- William Shakespeare, Loves Labours Lost, Act III, Scene 1

Happiness is an Omaha Steaks Filet Mignon Burger on the grill

About $5 a pop for 5.3 oz. of delicious, tender beef with a whopping 16g of saturated fat per burger, a full day's allocation of dangerous, heart-clogging lard if you have coronary artery disease, or want to get it.

Still, a nice gift for that occasional transgression of the rules.

I washed it down with a head of broccoli!

Hail bounteous May . . .

 

Hail! bounteous May, that dost inspire

Mirth and youth, and warm desire;

Woods and groves are of thy dressing,

Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing.

-- John Milton (1608-1674)

It's May Day! Time for "Springtime for Hitler and Germany"!

Springtime for Hitler and Germany

Mel Brooks, who won an Oscar for his 1967 film The Producers, will be 93 in June.

Happiness is a good deed

How far that little candle throws his beams!

So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

-- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act 5 Scene 1

Happiness is John Gay's chosen epitaph

 

 

 Life is a jest, and all things show it,

I thought so once, and now I know it.

-- John Gay (1685 – 1732)

Happiness is biddy biddy bum, all day long

If I Were A Rich Man

  

If I were a Rothschild

If I Were Rothschild • Sholem Aleichem

Happiness is a sweet song

 

 

 Thy songs are sweeter to mine ear,

Than to the thirsty cattle rivers clear,

Or winter porridge to the lab'ring youth,

Or bunns and sugar to the damsel's tooth.

-- John Gay (1685-1732)

Happiness is the birds of spring

 

The painted birds, companions of the Spring,

Hopping from spray to spray were heard.

-- John Dryden

Happiness is a glorious spring day in Grand Rapids, MI

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't do a dang thing I was supposed to do. Instead I raked the leaves away from the fence line and from under the deck, and started a fire to burn them with in ye olde fire pit, using the old twigs and branches from last fall and winter. The birds got fresh water in the bird bath. The wind was gentle, the sun bright and the temperature was just oh so right. It was a glorious three hours. And now I'm tired. Good and tired. And a little bit sun-fried.  

Happiness is episode one of McHale's Navy, the sitcom, from October 1962

In which we learn that before the war, McHale [Ernest Borgnine] was the captain of a camp steamer in the South Pacific and is in possession of a deep familiarity with "Taratupa" and all its fictional surrounding environs, which won him a commission as a commander of PT-73 once war had broken out with Japan.

An Ensign for McHale

Happiness is Clarence Frogman Henry singing his 1956 hit "Ain't Got No Home"

Here.

Happy Birthday to Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou, electronic musician and composer, popularly known as Vangelis

Older fans know the Academy Award winner for his soundtrack to 1981's film "Chariots of Fire", which includes a memorable rendition of "Jerusalem", and to Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" on PBS in late 1980. 

Happiness is Freddie "Classy" Blassie singing "Pencil Neck Geek"

Here!

Happiness is vegan grifter world on youtube going boom after famous vlogger caught eating fish

 

Turns out based on this story that the hypocrisy is everywhere.

 The Weird World of Vegan YouTube Stars Is Imploding:

 Last Sunday, a five-second video clip of vegan YouTuber Yovana Mendoza single-handedly brought down the luminous 28-year-old’s entire career. In it, you can see the raw food advocate, who goes by the name “Rawvana,” smiling at a restaurant in Bali as she prepares to tuck into her meal. But in an instant, the health guru’s face changes, as she realizes her friend’s camera is trained on her plate. She moves to cover it, but it’s too late. Internet sleuths watching the 10-minute vlog later would quickly deduce what Mendoza was trying to hide: a piece of fish. 

Happiness is Congressman Tim Burchett making fun of Congress

Happiness is Ann Coulter confessing to gaming her own college admission

Happiness is the "US Field Artillery March"

John Philip Sousa unknowingly stole the song, it turns out, from Edmund L. Gruber.

My dad was with the US Army field artillery from 1943-1945, serving in France and Belgium, and trained at the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. As a child I was fascinated by all things artillery and things that go "boom".

To this day I wake up singing this march to myself, silently in my head, as I make the morning coffee:

For it's high high he,

In the Field Artillery,

Shout out your numbers loud and strong!

Happiness is the new reason to say "Take this job and shove it"

Happiness is 1958's "To Know Him Is To Love Him" sung by Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris in 1987

To Know Him Is To Love Him

 

Happiness is my Carhartt jacket No. 2, vintage 2014 . . . the 125th Anniversary

die Hand in der linken Tasche, rückwärts

No. 1 from the 1990s now looks like a shotgun got it.

Happiness is Lou Mitchell's Restaurant of Chicago

Go for the breakfast, stay for the coffee.

Science proves that diner coffee is weak and terrible:

But my favorite diner coffee is served at one of Chicago's oldest restaurants. The sign outside Lou Mitchell's (565 W. Jackson Blvd.), opened in 1923, reads, "Serving the world's finest coffee." I wouldn't go quite that far, but compared with most diners, Lou Mitchell's is in another league. Each sip is smooth and well-rounded, without any underlying bitterness. It's exactly the kind of coffee you want with eggs and honey-cured ham.

Why is the coffee good? According to the shop, the coffee beans are ground every morning. Instead of using regular tap water, filtered water is used. The machines are cleaned regularly. These steps sound really boring, but when it comes to making a solid cup of coffee, it's really as simple as that.

Happiness is Ivars Fish Bar of Seattle

Summer of '77 . . . twenty-one and hungry.

Happiness is Ol' Dan Tucker by the 2nd South Carolina String Band

Ol' Dan Tucker: 2nd South Carolina String Band

 

Happiness is milk that tastes good

Happiness is The Impalas singing 1959's "(Sorry) I Ran All The Way Home"

Happiness is the wisdom of Ma in Little House on the Prairie

Happiness is The New England Patriots for the win in Super Bowl LIII

A battle of the defenses until the Rams just wore out in the 4th quarter against a relentless Patriots offense which the Rams stymied again and again but ultimately could not stop.

Happiness is The Michigan Upper Peninsula Creation Story

In da beginning dere was nuttin'.

Den on da first day God created da U.P.

On da second day He created da partridge, da deer, da bear, da fish and da ducks.

On da third day He said, "Let dere be YOOPERS to roam da U.P."

On da fourth day He created da udder world down below.

And on da fifth day He said, "Let dere be TROLLS to live in da world down below."

On da sixth day He created "DA BRIDGE" so da TROLLS would have a way to get to Heaven.

God saw it was good, and on da seventh day He went huntin'.

Happiness is my hometown

Happiness is the New England Patriots' AFC OT win over the Kansas City Chiefs 37-31

Happiness is sleeping under a big, warm mothercomforter

Happiness is Joan Bennett singing Sentimental Moments in 1955's We're No Angels

Here.

The song was composed by Friedrich Hollaender and Ralph Freed and introduced to the public through the film. Hollaender is the legendary composer of "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)" from The Blue Angel, 1930.

Happiness is Junior Samples singin' "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More"

Riiiiiiiight here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happiness is making fun of politicians

 

Coffee, which makes the politician wise,

And see through all things with his half-shut eyes,

Sent up in vapours to the baron's brain

New stratagems, the radiant lock to gain.

-- Alexander Pope

Happiness is a gas burner trivet, to keep your little moka pot from tipping over on the stove

A simple but thoughtful gift and a daily reminder of the giver because a day without coffee this way is just, well, unthinkable!

Happiness is a do it yourself brick rocket stove build with the KGB Survivalist

Here.

Perfect for the old man in winter who can collect twigs but can no longer chop wood.

The best gift of all was always Tommy coming home for Christmas

Happiness is Tucker's Toofers, 2 hamburgers for 29 cents in Fondulac, Wisconsin

Originally it was 2 for 25 cents, but by the time I knew the joint in the early 1970s the "special" had gone up, like the price of the regular hamburger, to 2 for 29 cents. Food inflation was horrible in those days, as my mother often reminded me, and no one was immune.

And they're still in business:

In 1963, Rudy, Steve, and Barbara opened Tucker's Toofers at the corner of South Main Street and Pioneer Road.  The slogan then was "they're toofer 25," meaning two hamburgers for a quarter. The name Tuckers was chosen because it was the nickname of daughter Barbara, who, as a child, had a hard time staying tucked in and always kicked her blankets off. 

I've never had a bucket list, but I'm putting this place on it, for old times' sake.  

Happiness is the misty morning

When first the sun too pow'rful beams displays,

It draws up vapours which obscure its rays:

But ev'n those clouds at last adorn its way,

Reflect new glories, and augment the day.

-- Alexander Pope

Happiness is agreeing about Yes and No

In all affections she concurreth still;

If now, with man and wife to will and nill

The self-same things, a note of concord be,

I know no couple better can agree.

-- Ben Jonson (1572-1637)

Happiness is the soundtrack suite from Donovan's Reef by Cyril J. Mockridge, featuring the ever popular Pearly Shells

Here.

Except it wasn't quite yet the "Pearly Shells" we all know in its English adaptation of the original, much older Hawaiian song Pupu A O `Ewa (Shells of `Ewa). Pearly Shells as we know it is by Webley Edwards and Leon Pober. The first recording of that appears to have been by the Hawaii Calls Orchestra and Chorus in 1966, associated with Edwards' radio show of the same name, Hawaii Calls, which was releasing recordings as early as 1956 on the Capitol Records label. I don't see any evidence of the song, however, on their early releases between 1956 and 1962. Perhaps Mockridge's music score for the popular 1963 film Donovan's Reef gave Edwards the idea to ride the wave. By 1980 the song was a "best of" for the orchestra. Of all the performances I've linked to here, I like the sound and energy of Mockridge's version the best.

Happiness is Benny Bell singing The Shaving Cream Song

Here!

Shaving Cream

I have a sad story to tell you
It may hurt your feelings a bit
Last night when I walked into my bathroom
I stepped in a big pile of

{Refrain}
Shaving cream, be nice and clean
Shave everyday and you'll always look keen

I think I'll break off with my girlfriend
Her antics are queer I'll admit
Each time I say, "Darling, I love you"
She tells me that I'm full of

{Refrain}

Our baby fell out of the window
You'd think that her head would be split
But good luck was with her that morning
She fell in a barrel of

{Refrain}

An old lady died in a bathtub
She died from a terrible fit
In order to fulfill her wishes
She was buried in six feet of

{Refrain}

When I was in France with the army
One day I looked into my kit
I thought I would find me a sandwich
But the darn thing was loaded with

{Refrain}

And now, folks, my story is ended
I think it is time I should quit
If any of you feel offended
Stick your head in a barrel of

{Refrain}

Happiness is John Wayne and Elizabeth Allen in John Ford's 1963 "Christmas" film "Donovan's Reef"

Nominated for an Oscar in 1955, Cyril J. Mockridge composed the heartwarming score for the film.