Saturday 9

Welcome to Saturday 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9

questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme! 

Saturday 9: Cabaret (1972)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) In this song, Liza Minnelli encourages you to put down "the knitting, the book and the broom." Which of those three were you most recently doing: knitting, reading or housework?
Definitely reading.  You'd be hard pressed to find me doing the other two.

2) She sings that we shouldn't allow "some prophet of doom to wipe every smile away?" Do you know anyone who reliably looks at the downside of life?
I just came back from spending 5 hours with my mother, who has dementia.  She used to be such an upbeat person, but she very definitely looks at the downside of life these days.

3) In 1972, when this recording was popular, so was The Brady Bunch. In the two-part season premiere, The Bradys went to Hawaii. Do you have any warm weather vacation plans this fall/winter? 
Not really.  We have been invited to a wedding in Las Vegas in December, but I just found out how much it will cost for a wedding with no reception and I am re-thinking plans now, much as I have looked forward to this wedding for months.

4) Though not her uncle, just a friend to both of her parents, Liza always called  Frank Sinatra as "Uncle Frank." Is there an older person in your life who isn't a blood relative, but who refer to as "aunt" or "uncle?"
Not really.  We used to call Walt's old co-worker and good friend "Uncle Dave" for the kids, but we haven't seen him in years and the kids haven't seen them since they were adults, so I  think that moniker has gone by the wayside now.

5) Liza collapsed onstage during a Christmas concert in 2007. She says she'd been nauseous before she went on and simply fainted. Sam has never fainted. Have you? 
Only once.  The morning after Paul was born, I hemorrhaged and then, when the nurses took me to the bathroom, I fainted twice because I'd lost so much blood.  That's the only time

6) Liza told US Magazine that she loves to eat at Olive Garden. Do you?
My friend Kathleen and I ate at Olive Garden in Sacramento once a month for about 15 years, until she retired, then we switched restaurants to Cafe Italia Davis, because I'd been driving to Sacramento all those years and she figured it was her turn.  We always had the same thing at Olive Garden -- a bowl of soup and their salad, with bread sticks.  A cheap lunch! Now our monthly lunches are more expensive, but our choices more varied.
7) People are often surprised when they learn Liza is good friends with Gene Simmons -- the KISS member with the long tongue. Tell us about one of your good friends.
I mention Kathleen above.  I met her back in the 1970s, when we were both in La Leche League and both nursing our babies.  She ran a group in Sacramento and I ran a group in Davis and we worked together to plan a national conference.  As our kids got older we sort of drifted apart.  She went on to become a childbirth instructor and then head of a women's health department of a local hospital.  I didn't see her for a long time, but our paths intersected through PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays).  Once again, she lead a group in Sacramento and I led a group in Davis and we met again as we were preparing a mixed event, and we attended a few gay pride events together. She has a daughter who has given her two grandchildren; and a gay son, who is married to his husband and living in England -- the two men have weathered a lot of storms until it became legal for them to marry and they have been together for a long time.

I introduced her to my friend Steve Schalchlin, who came and performed at a Service of Remembrance for AIDS victims in Sacramento.

Some 20 years ago, we decided that we never saw enough of each other and we decided to start having lunch together once a month, a promise we have kept all these years.  We don't see each other, usually, during the rest of the month, though she has discovered The Lamplighters and we recently met her and a friend for lunch before a Lamplighters show.  We have supported each other through many personal and family crises and have spent a lot of time discussing politics.  In two weeks we will meet for our next lunch and post mortem on the election.  I expect it to be a depressing lunch!
 
8) She keeps apple juice and yogurt in her refrigerator at all times. Would we find either in your refrigerator right now?
Not right now.  I almost always have yogurt in the fridge, but I'm out at the moment.  I don't like apple juice, though, so unless I'm buying it for a recipe, I never have that.

9)  Random question: Which would be a more frustrating dinner companion -- someone who won't shut up, or someone who won't say a word?
I've eaten with both and I prefer someone who won't shut up.  I hate those awkward silences and I'm good at tuning out conversation I'm not interested in (besides, someone who won't shut up is more interested in what he is saying than he is what you are hearing)