A funny thing happened as I was preparing to write a new blahg. 
Funny things always happen on the way to work, the forum, this blahg. The truth is that maybe it’s not all that funny but I intend this blahg to be funny regardless. This is blahg number 50. That’s right, I counted them all up and there were exactly 49 before this blahg.
Fifty blahgs in 4 years? I’m sure that’s not a record to boast about. I remember when I started this blahg that I had high ambitions. I deluded myself into thinking I could write two blahgs a week. I then amended that goal to write 50 blahgs before I turned 50. I turned 50 in September of 2012. I guess I missed that goal as well. To tell the truth, I’m just glad that I’m still writing; even if I don’t know if anyone is reading.
If I’m being really honest, some of my blahgs were a cheat; in a way. There have been a couple of video blahgs and one where I just posted “Je Suis Charlie.” 
Still, those were times where I made a concentrated effort to at least post something. So what about this blahg? I don’t really want to rehash what I’ve posted before but I also want to pay homage to the 49 blahgs before this one. And I wanted to make it funny. So, I thought fifty statements pulled from or related to the previous blahgs that sum up my philosophies. Of course, I realize that posting 50 statements with some commentary, images, or music would make this a very long blahg indeed. That’s why this blahg has a “Part One” added to it. You’ll get the second half in my next blahg.
Here goes with Part One:
1. The Most Happy Sound. I guess this is subjective. It might be the sound of your own voice or someone else’s voice when they’re telling you they love you, or they like you, or they tolerate you, or they’re paying back that money you loaned to them and gave up all hope of getting back. Maybe it’s the first sound or first word from your child. It could be music or a train whistle or a dog whistle if your hearing’s that good. I think the most happy sound is “there, another blahg done”.
2. Frank Sinatra. I wrote two blahgs in the beginning about Sinatra. If you haven’t guessed: I AM A FAN. 
I once saw a button that said, “It’s Sinatra’s World, We Just Live In It”. Given that Sinatra would have been 100 on December 12th of this year, I think that’s still appropriate. Come back to the five and dime, Frank Sinatra, Frank Sinatra.
3. When A Good Man Goes Missing. Go looking for him. There’s a lyric to a song from the movie “Meet Danny Wilson” starring Frank Sinatra and Shelly Winters that goes like this: “A good man nowadays is hard to find.” No he’s not. Sometimes he’s right under your nose…or behind this blahg.
4. Turn off your cell phone. That originally was meant for people in movie theaters. Now I’ll open it up to everywhere else. Turn it off and put it away. You might just discover there’s a big beautiful world out there that you couldn’t see behind your phone’s screen. You might also avoid walking into a telephone pole or oncoming traffic.
5. 
David Letterman Broke My Cookie. Mmmmmmm, cookies! Especially Christmas cookies. Pass the milk please.
6. Merry Christmas. I know it’s probably not politically correct to say that but substitute words and celebrate whatever you celebrate. Me? I said it was going to be Sinatra’s birthday on December 12th. I’ll celebrate that. Happy Birthday Ol’ Blue Eyes!
7. Happy New Year! In another month it will be 2016. Of course the Chinese New Year won’t be until February 8th, 2016. It will be the year of the Monkey. I was born in the year of the Tiger. My youngest daughter was also born in the year of the Tiger. Funny, neither of us looks good in stripes.
8. The Death of A Big One. I wrote that blahg about the shutting down of the file sharing website, Megaupload. That now defunct website has been in the news again recently. Shady dealings and underworld ties are all the rumors. That particular blahg also saw the publication of one of my poems, “The Death of a Big One,” about a giant snowman and my friend ‘The Gar’. I reconnected with ‘The Gar’ by email this year. That will be this thought. Reach out and touch someone…but ask permission first.
9. The Washing Machine. Well, we still have that washing machine and it still works. My old dishwasher died however this past year but I won’t mourn it here. Besides, the new one works much better. 
Oh, by the way, clean out your lint traps on your drier and vacuum out the venting hose. We found that made a world of difference in our drying time. Anyone know how to knit a sweater from 10 pounds of dryer lint?
10. A Little Crazy In The Head. Or you could say, Poco Loco In The Coco. A nice song but then I don’t need a song to tell me I’m a little loco. Who am I kidding? If the loco comes in any other sizes, I’m probably an extra-large.
11. April Fools. My friend, Glenda, was born on April 1st. She is very clear that if a joke is played after noon on that day then it doesn’t count as an April Fool’s Day joke. I wonder if she was born before noon? If not, then I guess she’s just an ordinary fool or joke like the rest of us.
12. I Shined Jerry Lewis’ Shoe. True story but then you’d know that already if you’d read that blahg. This past weekend I re-watched “The Geisha Boy”. It is still a very funny and moving film. When are they going to release his last movie, “Max Rose?” Get on with it!
13. Toshiba Sucks. I don’t know if they still do but I still have problems with my Toshiba Blu-Ray player. Really, it was their customer service and their product that did all the sucking…sucking the energy right out of me. Only a Hoover should suck. Get it?
14. Some Things To Celebrate. Well, let’s see. Christmas. New Years. A Federal Liberal majority here in Canada. Oh, and there’s that thing about Sinatra’s 100th Birthday. Did I mention that already? Probably did, but then maybe I didn’t. My mind’s a little fuzzy, I’ve made it to 50 and I’ve been celebrating a little too hard.
15. The Life of Riley. 
The salt of the earth. The apple of my eye. The sweat of your brow. Practise what you preach. The writing is on the wall. All phrases that have come and gone and come back again. PT Barnum once put up a sign saying “this way to the egress”. He wanted to move his patrons along but when they went to find the egress they found the exit instead. They both mean the same thing. He also said there’s a sucker born every minute. If you’ve read this far, I guess it’s true.
16. Advice For The Next 50: Think For Yourself. I’m tired. You think of something funny for this one.
17. Remembering Phyllis Diller. I still miss Phyllis Diller but it’s time to remember some other celebrities who left us in 2015: Dickie Moore (Our Gang star and first on screen kiss for Shirley Temple…not too shabby). Martin Milner (Route 66 & Adam 12. “One Adam 12, One Adam 12, see the man.”). Jean Darling (another Our Gang star. Are there any left?) 
Yvonne Craig (1960s Batgirl. Forget Cat Woman, it was always Batgirl). Omar Sharif (“Lawrence of Arabia”, “Doctor Zhivago”, “Funny Girl”…that guy had class). Patrick Macnee (Another actor with class. John Steed from The Avengers…not Marvel folks, the British spy series). Dick Van Patten (One of my favorite TV Dads. Father to the “Eight Is Enough” brood). Leonard Nimoy (Spock, among other things. I got to meet him and shook his hand about 7 years ago. He was a delight). Anita Ekberg (What a beauty. I think she was the ‘bust’ in the Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin comedy “Hollywood or Bust”). 
Donna Douglas (Elly May Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies. Did I say it was Batgirl that floated my boat? I better amend that to say it was a tie with Elly May). Frank (Our Christmas Cat. We had to have him put down this year and he still is missed every day).
18. My Christmas Wish List. I don’t know what’s on my Christmas Wish List for 2015 besides World Peace. World Peace should always come first because everything comes second to that. Health, love, and happiness are all there. I wished on the first star of the evening the other night and wished for World Peace and then a Happy Christmas with my family. That’s all I really need.
19. What Is Wrong With The World? I ask myself that every day. Maybe I should spin that question and ask what’s right with the world. What Is Right With The World? There are lots of good people and lots of good things happening. Unfortunately those get overshadowed by the bad things done by bad people. Maybe it’s time to focus on acknowledging all the good. Remember my little ditty? “Do good. Do good, it’s brotherhood. It feels so good to say, ‘I did good’.”
20. If You Can Read This, You’re Too Close. 
Leave it to me to turn a bumper sticker into a blahg about my own poetry. Roses are red, violets are blue, if you like my poetry, there may be something wrong with you.
21. The Better Person. Be the better person. You may be right but you don’t always have to prove it. To heck with that. I’m always right. In your face!
22. Deanna Durbin. My body might belong to Batgirl or Elly May 
but my heart, after my wife, belongs to Deanna Durbin. Do yourself a favor and watch “Lady On A Train” over this Christmas season. It’s always a favorite in our house.
23. More Poetry From The Mind of Scott Henderson. Here’s one for this holiday season. If you ever wondered about the word ‘Xmas’ then this might explain it to you.
‘bout Xmas
now I don’t expect
ya’ll get the meanin’
of that
‘til sometime
in mid-july
and ya’ll be sittin’
in the cab
of a half ton truck
stopped at
a railroad crossin’
and ya’ll look up
at that
big X sign
and ya’ll remember
mid-december
in yer winter parka
at the Walmart checkout
behind someone searchin’
through her purse
fer the correct change
24. I Am Still Here. This was a sad blahg about the death of my friend Roni and our little kitten, Willow (aka Super Faster Hair). 
I had not written for a while before posting that blahg. That happened again this year after the passing of our beautiful cat Frank. Over the past 4 years of writing this blahg, we lost not only our cats Willow and Frank but June and Stella as well. I don’t want this to be all sad so I’m posting a picture here of Zoey and Annie. Zoey has been with us a couple of years but Annie is our new addition that came into our home this past August. This is the first picture I have posted of our little black kitten, Annie. You can see that she and Zoey are best friends. Click on the picture for a larger view.
25. All That Jazz. The original title of that blahg was “Zoey, Frank, June & All That Jazz” but I’ve already talked about the cats. 
I continue to enjoy Dixieland Jazz and I think I have mentioned, or maybe I haven’t, that I really like The Salt City Five who later became The Salt City Six. If you are curious about the name, they originate from Syracuse, New York which once had big Salt productions. Now you know the history of the name and now you can enjoy their music. Here’s a real swinger called “That’s A-Plenty”, taken from their self-titled LP “The Salt City Five” on the Jubilee label.
Next time: THIS IS 50, PART TWO