Saturday 9: America, the Beautiful

It's a working weekend for me, but I can't miss the fun. I'm linking up with Sam and the gang @ Saturday 9.

America, the Beautiful  

Unfamiliar with Frank Sinatra's 1945 version of this song? Hear it here.

1) In 2016, a group recommended that this week's song replace "The Star Spangled Banner" as our national anthem. They maintain it's just as beautiful but easier to sing. How do you feel about this?   The Star Spangled Banner is about one battle that, sadly, most people probably don't even learn about any longer.  America, the Beautiful has a wider appeal and it is definitely more singable, but on the other hand...I'm not sure it has quite the same majestic quality and you kind of want your national anthem to be majestic.

2) Katharine L. Bates said her lyrics were inspired by a trip to Pike's Peak. What's the most beautiful American spot you've ever visited?  Wow. I've been to many beautiful places, but I don't think I can choose one as the most beautiful. I do have some pretty high hopes for Acadia National Park, which we will be seeing later this month.

3) The music was written by organist Samuel Augustus Ward. Both Bates and Ward were very formal when signing their names professionally -- she including her middle initial and he with his full middle name. How about you? When you sign checks or documents, do you use your middle name or initial? When I got my first checking account years and years ago I was TOLD to use my middle initial, so I do, and it's become such a habit that I include that middle initial no matter what I'm signing.

4) In 1945, when this version of the song was recorded, America lost Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Frank Sinatra said, "I lost a hero." What late, great American hero from our past would you like to honor today? Thomas Jefferson. As the main writer and framer of the Declaration of Independence he (along with the other framers) was a genius! Those men looked far ahead to what could happen and what should happen and they tried to build in safeguards to keep the country on track. I think it's amazing!

5) Also in 1945, a 19-year-old "hoofer" waited outside the Los Angeles radio station where Sinatra was being interviewed. That was the beginning of the friendship between Sammy Davis, Jr., and Frank Sinatra. Tell us about your oldest friend. We've been friends since jr. high and live only a couple houses apart in the same neighborhood we grew up in. She is the one privy to all the secrets of my younger days. We are pretty different, in that she is very outgoing, loud, and has never met a stranger (yet suffers from social anxiety) and I am more of a quiet introvert who is slow to make friends. She is one of those people who either knows everyone or is related to them. She lost her husband the week of Easter when he had a heart attack on the way to work and drove his car into a house. She has been stronger through it than I thought she'd be.

6) The Fourth of July means we're in the middle of summer. Are you careful about applying sunscreen?  Yes! I have fair, freckled skin and I had several severe (2nd degree) burns in my younger days. Now that I'm getting older and I have a lot of moles and other skin things going on I wish I had been more careful.

7) Mosquito bites can be a major summer annoyance. Are you scratching any itches right now?  Not at the moment, but if I was outside I would be. All the rain we've been having is helping the skeeters flourish.

8) Emergency rooms report an increase in wrist injuries in summer, with people falling off bikes and skateboards and jamming their wrists catching hard-hit softballs. Have you  been to the ER or Urgent Care during 2019?  Yes. I had to go a couple of months ago and have my finger lanced because it was swelled up and throbbing with infection. Because of where I work I wasn't taking any chances with what might have been festering in there.

9) New York is home to Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest every year on the 4th. Will hot dogs be consumed in your household this weekend?  Not in my household, but we did have some at our family cookout yesterday. We do not, however, consume them in the quantities the contestants in the Nathan's contest do. I watched them on the news this morning. Did you ever notice that the winners never look happy? They look pretty sick. I don't really get why anyone would want to do that to themselves.