Glen Brammell

Most of the time when I think of the flute, I think of Native American music. Those are songs that are haunting and very spiritual, usually accompanied by drums and chanting.

This morning I was poking around YouTube and came across two songs, by accident, that featured the flute Celine Dion’s theme song from “Titanic,” and a song by Celtic Woman called, “Scarborough Fair.” The odd thing is that I don’t remember the flute from the first version I ever heard of that song, by Simon and Garfunkel.

So I clicked over to the Simon and Garfunkel version and listened to that one. Their version features acoustic guitar and harpsichord – not the flute.Until the very end – and then there is a flute or possibly clarinet? I can’t really tell and I listened to it twice. Anybody know which wind instrument is featured on the Simon and Garfunkel version of Scarborough Fair?

That put me in the mindset for some old folk rock and I listened to some other Simona nd Gafnkel songs for about 30 minutes, then I had to get out of the house and head off to work.

Some days I want a candy or something sweet, and other days I want something salty or crunchy. I wonder what makes us crave one thing over the the other? The time of day for me to crave candy seems to be after dinner. Did the invention of dessert have anything to do with appeasing a sweet tooth after a big meal?

I know that I used to love chocolate as a kid, and the Halloween and Easter holidays were two of my favorites because they are both big days for candies. I couldn’t wait to go trick or treating and bring home a huge bag of candy to sort through and eat as much as I could before my mom got alarmed and cut me off.

Nowadays I try to hold out for good candy, not just grocery store checkout impulse purchases. I like a quality chocolate and try to measure the good ones against the taste of the famous Sees candies that I used to have as a kid. If its not as good as Sees candies, then I don’t want it.

When my grandparents retired and moved to Arizona, they started mailing a box of Sees candies to my mom and dad for holidays and gift occasions, like birthdays and anniversaries. Since they lived out West, they could buy Sees candies anywhere, but back East we couldn’t buy them anywhere. Of course, now we can order Sees candies online have them delivered. But getting them as a gift from my grandparents was always a big part of the special occasion. Any time I see a box of Sees, it makes me think of my grandparents and their little adobe house out in Arizona.

Feeling a little down and grumpy, so I went on Youtube and started listening to old songs. Some of them are vaguely familiar and some I’ve never heard before. It started with a Celine Dion song from back in 1990 and somehow morphed into a duet by Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn – and I don’t even like country music much. The duet is called “You’re the Reason Out Kids Are Ugly.” It’s a really funny noveltys ong from the 1970′s that I am sure my parents listened to and got a good laugh from the lyrics.

That’s part of the fun of Youtube – you never know where your listening buffet will take you.

When we create our Facebook accounts we are supposed to fill out a lot of information fields describing what we like, favorite quotes, where we’ve lived or grown up – all kinds of information. Which I am fine with that – I don’t put up anything on the internet that is going to come back some day and bite me.I’m sensitive to privacy issues, but then again,  don’t have anything to hide, either.

But in my rush to get the account set up, I had skipped over some of the fields and just today realized that I needed to add some details. The section about your favorite TV shows, movies, books and sports got neglected the first time around. So I added some information.

As a kid, I was a Redskins fan and a Baltimore Orioles fan. I didn’t care about NASCAR or hockey, and don’t really remember much about basketball. So to pick a sports hero, I would have to go with Cal Ripken, Jr. This man was not only a great baseball player, he was a family man and a good citizen. You never heard anything bad about Cal Ripken. I’m glad he was able to have such a gerat career, he made good money, and now he is retired and still doing good things, like his work with kids.

I don’t drink a lot of milk, but sometimes I want a cold glass of milk to go with something I’m eating. Milk goes really well with chocolate chips cookies. It also goes really well with brownies right out of the oven.

A word from the wise – if you are going to pour a big glass of milk – check the expiration date on the carton. A big gulp of sour milk will ruin your day.