A Bob's Life: Monday Musings - February 7, 2022

Monday, February 7, 2022

Monday Musings - February 7, 2022

1. Greetings. It is the first Monday of February! There are 3 Mondays remaining in the month and 46 remaining in the year.

Finnegan Protesting
Tequesta, FL
February 4, 2022

Riordin in a Box
Tequesta, FL
February 4, 2022

2. How do we keep our cat, Riordin, happy? We put a box on the floor and he makes it his own personal space. He has been using the box now for three days. I would like to recycle it, but I believe it has been somewhat permanently repurposed. He is laying in the box as I write this morning.

3. Chris and I took Finnegan for a morning walk the other day. Since we were going biking we decided to stop short and return home. Finnegan had other ideas. He protested the truncated walk by doing the downward dog and stopping. He would not be moved--well, he only weighs six pounds and so he was moved and like a petulant puppy did return home with us in the end. But it was a funny moment where it was clear that Finnegan realized his morning walk was being shortened.

4. The Olympics are a bit of a disappointment. The U.S. is without a gold medal so far and has garnered only three silver medals. The Russian Olympic Committee has six total medals--twice the U.S. count. Don't get me wrong, I am happy that the U.S. team has won medals, but I think everyone expected more.

5. I am continually amazed at the impatience of drivers in South Florida. I do not understand why some people think it is OK to travel excessively fast on residential streets. Here in our small community we have had to erect a speed limit sign to slow drivers down. It is for 12 MPH. Hoping to see results soon.

6. Today in History. On February 7, 1964, Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from London Heathrow lands at New York’s Kennedy Airport—and “Beatlemania” arrives. It was the first visit to the United States by the Beatles, a British rock-and-roll quartet that had just scored its first No. 1 U.S. hit six days before with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” At Kennedy, the “Fab Four”—dressed in mod suits and sporting their trademark pudding bowl haircuts—were greeted by 3,000 screaming fans who caused a near riot when the boys stepped off their plane and onto American soil.

Two days later, Paul McCartney, age 21, Ringo Starr, 23, John Lennon, 23, and George Harrison, 20, made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, a popular television variety show. Although it was difficult to hear the performance over the screams of teenage girls in the studio audience, an estimated 73 million U.S. television viewers, or about 40 percent of the U.S. population, tuned in to watch. Sullivan immediately booked the Beatles for two more appearances that month. The group made their first public concert appearance in the United States on February 11 at the Coliseum in Washington, D.C., and 20,000 fans attended. The next day, they gave two back-to-back performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and police were forced to close off the streets around the venerable music hall because of fan hysteria. On February 22, the Beatles returned to England.