Potpourri

Good Morning.

This is a day for short shots. My brain isn't geared toward any one subject at the moment.

The first real valentine I ever got was from a freckly boy who sent me a card with a puffy white satin heart on it. I was eleven years old at the time and he was a much older man of twelve. Prior to that time valentines were small items that came in a box and were handed out to everyone in the class whether you really knew some of the recipients of not. If you were particularly generous, you tucked in one of the little pastel candy hearts with phrases on them that were dumb and somewhat embarrassing. The satin heart card marked the end of an era and the start of a different, lifelong one, although I don't remember much about some of the subsequent cards. It depends on the sender. If he or she is memorable, you recall something about the card. If not, you don't remember anything. My late husband sent really mushy cards and long-stem red roses. He was memorable.

I did not watch The Emmys last night. I watched an old black and white movie, Advise and Consent, with an all-star cast that included Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Walter Pidgeon, Pater Lawford, Gene Tierney, Franchot Tone, George Grizzard, and Burgess Meredith. The people who watched The Emmys probably have never heard of those actors and the people who are familiar with those actors would probably not watch The Emmys. This is called a generation gap and it's okay.

The Westminster Dog Show is on tonight and tomorrow night. I never miss it even though it's a

marathon affair like the Academy Awards that goes on for hours. Every year there are three or four new breeds that are accepted by the AKC and every year I learn something about the older breeds. A German Shepherd is officially German Shepherd Dog, for example, and there's no such thing as a French poodle. There are standard, miniature, and toy poodles but there's a big dispute about their heritage. Most experts say the breed originated in Germany with some insistent that the dog, whatever its size, really does have French lines. I like dogs, pedigreed and otherwise, and I like people and most of us are otherwise.

A friend of mine has sworn off television, and one of the reasons is that he cannot stand the commercials. I agree with him. People with good broadcast voices used to pitch the benefits of certain cereals, cars, and toothpaste, but now we're literally swamped with ads for drugs that will fix up every kind of disease and affliction with the side effects rattled off ad nauseam. Every five minutes there's another promo for life insurance, no health questions asked, to leave enough behind for funeral expenses, step-in bath tubs with wrinkled up seniors, dating services for every age group, and intensely personal products that should never be discussed outside of a medical facility. My friend has his own business and clearly supports the free enterprise system but he gets his news from NPR.

Every other day there's another announcement for the Democratic nomination for president. I thought Elizabeth Warren had already announced but apparently it wasn't official until Saturday when her supporters had to bundle up for an outdoor declaration in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Senator Amy Klobuchar made her plans official on Sunday in frigid, snowy Minnesota weather. I'm not sure whether the message at both these events was that they're tough enough to withstand inclemency in various forms or that their fans will brave the elements to support them, but as the saying goes, get a room.

Best regards,

Elisabeth