BEFORE 'MARTY SUPREME'.....THERE WAS 'FRANK' ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE NET.....BEFORE THE PING-PONG WAS SUPPLANTED BY 'BIGGER BALL GAMES'..

I'm not immune to emulating the activities and interests of Pop Icons........... Having a folding table tennis table installed in my parents 'recreation' room was a source of great social prestige in the early 1960's.........(yeah, sure!).......as was the foray into badminton, after watching "befuddled bungler, Bellamy B. Birdbrain" in an instructional film at the Lyric theater in the early 1950's..... or watching Paul Newman, hustling pool in The Hustler...leading to my getting a collapsable pool stick, in a lizard skin carrying case. My foray into 'computer/arcade games' ended with brief quarter-dropping into Centipede and Ms. Pacman, however........Too 'Virtual' for my tastes, I think......and some time wasted stoking blood pressure with Super Mario Bros...... Pick-up Sticks, anyone? Guess I'm a 'small court' guy....and the Bridge Table is just about perfect, if shuffling and dealing is enough exercise...........After all that practice, I never got to play with Frank, and my old ping-pong balls now serve another purpose, floating in the coffee-maker to indicate the water level......my old badminton was relegated to 'carpenter bee swatter' status. "Marbles", anyone?

A SPECK OF MAYFLOWER FLY'S WING MAY SEND MILLIONS OF ANXIETY-RIDDEN PEOPLE TO EMERGENCY ROOMS......

'online' at 3am, a few years ago, to discover which, of many 'conditions', may have caused this failing vision......using my 'good' eye, which was normal.....it 'seems' that just about every site was either promoting some 'eye doctor/clinic' or some 'drug/eyedrops'.....OR telling the reader to get to a hospital ASAP, for fear of having a stroke, macular degeneation, sudden deterioration of the eye, abrasion/scratching of the lens....and on an on....(more fuel for Anxiety)....."screw all of THAT", I thought, as I flooded my eyeball socket with ten year old prescription eyedrops and saline solution.....eventually, dislodging a tiny speck of what 'looked like' a bit of mayflower fly's wing......Now, back to normal, and listening to NPR during a morning caffeine fix, I was a bit amused to hear people discussing 'baby's 'milk' Formula Anxiety' that seems to be sweeping America while Nancy Pelosi makes her appearance, as U.S.'s highest ranking 'representative', to allay our Anxiety about the Russian takeover over of our newest Alliance in Central Europe.....Oh, I see!