today, i was proud of my students

"Your students? You haven't taught for nearly eight years, ya know."

Yes, I was reminded of that yesterday while talking to Cathy of California. She'd called to check in and made sure I knew she was retiring on June 29! I told her I keep thinking it's been 7 years, but... I retired in May of 2018... so next month will make 8 years.

"Yes, indeed. You need to plan something to commemorate that occasion. So, what brought that up tonight?"

Well, you know that crazy TV show I like? "The Game With Balls"? Tonight was the second show of their second season and it had male firefighters - complete with them partially clad in calendar shots!!! - versus male and female nurses. I liked that diversity, as some of my students had been men, too. Anyway, it gets down to one lone firefighter playing three rounds all by himself. All of the others - all five on the nurses' team, as well as his two brothers and the other two from their fire house - had all missed answers and fallen into the pool. Splash!!!

"Oh, wow!"

So, he manages to win them $31,000, theirs to keep. Then he gets to go up against the Golden Balls for $100,000 of prize money. All he has to do is answer five questions correctly, that's all.

"Easier said than done, I'm sure!"

Get this: he chooses "Chemistry" over "Girl Groups". "Chemistry"!!! He says that's the topic he goes for when playing "Trivia Crack", whatever that is. The other four guys applauded like crazy!!! Apparently, he does pretty well with that. And so I was excited to see what would happen in this duel between Nate and those Golden Balls.

"And..."

And he did impressively well! The question that stumped him would have gotten me, too. But the others? He really did know his science! The first question had been a soft pitch. "Which element forms table salt when combined with chlorine?" He knew immediately that was "Sodium"! Take that, you Golden Ball!

"Hahahaha! That was an easy choice, though. Given that the other possibilities were 'Lead', 'Nickel', 'Nitrogen', 'Boron', and 'Hydrogen'."

Very true. The next question was a little harder. "Legume plants are known for fixing which element into the soil?" Well, he ran right onto the space for 'Nitrogen', knowing that element to be good for dirt... and he was right, of course!

"Oh, nice, you caught that in the photo!"

You bet I did! The third question was a bit harder. "Deuterium is an isotope of which element?" My students would have known 'isotope' means 'type of atom of same element' and that 'Hydrogen' has two isotopes, Deuterium and Tritium. Somewhere in his mind, he know that, too!

"Very good! Three questions down, two to go!"

The fourth one asked: "Galena is the primary ore of which element?" He recognized that to be a metal and chose 'Lead'. Bravo! I feel like my students would have gotten that, too. But the fifth, and final, question? That was tough. "Which element has a Curie point?'

"Yikes! What's a Curie point???"

Well, as Jay told us afterward, a Curie point is "the temperature at which a metal loses its magnetism". That's not anything I ever recall talking about, ever. I would have thought it had something to do with its radioactivity, given Marie Curie's work. However, it's named for her husband, Pierre Curie, not her. Oh, well!

"So, what was the answer? 'Nickel' or 'Boron'?"

'Nickel'. I bet he'll never forget that! I know I won't. Nice to learn something new, especially when it's from an unexpected source like a game show.

a tale of two elliots

To tell the truth, I'd been a little concerned about this reboot of a show that I'd enjoyed twenty years ago.

Yes, I'm talking about "[scrubs]", still written in lower-case and with the brackets it wore for nine years.

The three major characters - 'J.D.' (Zach Braff), 'Turk' (Donald Faison), 'Elliot' (Sarah Chalke) - had all been 26, 27, and 25, respectively, in 2001, when the series began.

Those were all reasonable ages for medical interns, and as they aged, they moved into new jobs, as they should.

Now, it's 2026, so they're all at least 50 years old.

What the heck's going on???

Fortunately, the series has jumped ahead the quarter-century in time, right along with the actors of those characters.

'J.D.' and 'Elliot' had married, but are divorced and never had children; 'Turk' and 'Carla' are still married and have four daughters of various ages.

Okay, that's good, but what's going to make the show work?

Here's what: they kept the song, and they kept the format: it's still a vlog of the thoughts and daydreams of 'J.D.'. 

Very nice!!!

In tonight's episode, "My Rom-Com", there was a line I just loved!

'Elliot' is upset about the new towel dispenser in the bathroom and 'Carla' tells her to get a grip.

Her response is priceless: "I can't get a grip, my hands are wet."

Hahahaha!!!

After that, I pulled up an episode of "Just Shoot Me!" that I'd recorded two days ago.

I really like that show... but it doesn't come on until 3 AM on Mondays.

So, I try to remember its schedule so I can enjoy on my time!

Here's the thing: I had not realized that it's 'Elliot' was spelled the same.

Hahahaha!

On this show, that character is a male photographer who gets to point his camera - all puns intended - at all the hot models. 

I do so love Enrico Colantoni in that role!

This time, in "What The Teddy Bear Saw", he's talking to 'Nina', who has just expressed one of her usual dingbat thoughts.

He then asks, "When you tilt your head to the side, does it sound like a rainstick?"

Hahahaha!

Just think, if I hadn't run these two shows back to back, I would have missed the similarity: they both give me jokes and puns!

Right place, right time!

(smile!)

flash! Ahhh ahhh!

Yes, I have been staying up until ridiculously late hours.
(Or insanely early, depending on your point of view.)
But that worked in my favor today!
As I was waiting for the coffee to perk, I was searching the television version of the ether to find a bit of lightweight entertainment to begin my day.
Talking heads?
I prefer the music, thanks.
Judges and such?
Um, no.
Sales pitches?
Absolutely not.
And there it was... 1980's "Flash Gordon"!!!
Now, THIS is tv as it should be!

I watched the whole thing, too.
I had tuned in near the start, just after Flash and his friends have been captured by the evil Ming.

Then, near the end, one of my favorite scenes!
Brian Blessed, boisterously blustering!
Here he is in his glory, urging his Hawkmen on,
reprising his childhood role of Prince Vultan!

At last, the evil emperor is pinned down!
(Get it? Pinned down?)
Hahahhaha!

Woohoo!!!!

Flash, sword-wielding,
is stepping up to finish off
the evil Ming...

Success!!!
All hail Flash!
Go, Flash! Go!!!

I couldn't say it any better!
My thanks to YOU, brave Hawkmen!!!

(smile!)

Now, to truly begin my day and head off to school.
Later!

psych! it's a musical!

I am exactly where I need to be.
That's the message I received from the universe and beyond.
How do I know?
I'm watching a two-hour special episode of Psych ... and it's a musical!!!
Right?!?!
One of my favorite tv shows, having a Friday night blitz, and the episodes that are airing, after I have settled in from my drive down from Savannah, are a musical, replete with dancing, both regular and tap.
Wow!
Of course I stayed up and watched the entire thing! When else will I ever see it???
And I realized that all had worked out as it should.

I had been a bit bummed out for the past few days.
You see, on Tuesday afternoon - just three days ago - I had been playing around on the Diamond Resorts website, to see about reserving a place in Virginia for the end of July or beginning of August. Then, just for smiles & giggles, I had looked to see what might be available for Daytona Beach for the next few weeks.
And there it was: a two-bedroom at my home away from home, for the entire Memorial Day weekend, from Friday the 23rd until the morning of Tuesday the 27th.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME????
Someone must have given it up at the last minute.
I immediately jumped on it and got it!!!
Woohoo!!!
I had not expected to go out of town this weekend, so this was a straight out blessing and incredible coincidence!!!
Okay, let's see about sharing this with someone else!!!

Yeah.
That didn't happen.

First up was my niece Christy and her family. She kept expressing a desire to return to Daytona, so I gave her the first shot at it.
No.
She had to work on Friday and Tuesday and wouldn't be able to come.
I assured her that she didn't have to go for the whole time, just whatever days she and her husband and my greatniece could be there.
Thanks, but no, she said.

O-kay.

Maybe my BFF and her darling daughter would join me!
No, they had plans already for Saturday, so they would only be able to come for Sunday and Monday.
Great! Come on down!
No. But thank you, she said.

Let's try this!
Surely my stepmom would welcome a break at the beach? My stepbrother would be off for the holiday weekend and could tend to his two sons and give his mom a much-needed respite, right?
Apparently not.
She felt she could not leave him, as his dental surgery was still bothering him.
But she loved me for asking.

Fine.

Let's see if some of my broke NK! girls wanted a free place in Daytona Beach for a holiday weekend!!!
Only the beachwalker even replied.
She had to work on Saturday and Tuesday, so, as much as she loved the beach, she had to decline.

Decline?
You're kidding me, right???

By now, it was Thursday.
So I contacted my first niece, the foster mom.
It was hers if she wanted it! I had tried to share the largesse with others, but they had all declined.
She had just been there with me in February, but if she wanted to go now...
And she did so very much... but she had to clear it for the foster child to go, too... and DFACS simply does not work that quickly.
It's debatable whether Tuesday afternoon would have allowed enough time.
It's for sure that the Thursday before a holiday weekend did not.
So, even though she wanted to run away and join me, she could not.
Drats, I told her.
But you better believe that you have first dibs the next time, I said.
Te amo, she said.

Now, here I am, watching one of my favorite television shows about friendship, watching the musical crafted for two episodes of that tv show, and not having to be concerned about keeping anyone else awake as I danced and sang along with the choruses of the fourteen songs, reveling in the sight of Barry Bostwick and Ally Sheedy sharing in the shenanigans - oh, what a glorious time I am having!

Exactly where I was meant to be.

psych! it's a superhero!

Still high from the Gnats' win in their first game, I came home to this!
Wow! They're a graphic novel, not a television show!
No, really!
And it's apparently the second issue of "The Amazing Psych-Man and Tap Man". I cannot imagine how I missed the first issue? I didn't see it in the stores...
Psych!!!
I still don't know if they were actually in print, but this episode was sah-weet! I love this show about friendship, especially as it also involves fighting crime and solving mysteries, but I especially like it when they take a novel approach.
Get it? "Novel"?
HAhaHA!!!
Like I said, I'm still pretty up from seeing my boys of summer earlier.
(smile!)
This Friday evening, they had a double-header. The Sand Gnats took that first game and slam-dunked the Drive into oblivion!!! Five runs in a single inning!!! Woohoo!!!
That means my ticket is good for a special pizza deal at Papa Murphy's, thanks to that national chain's sponsorship of the Gnats. How special a deal, you ask? Well, you get the large pie dough for free, essentially, and five toppings costs only $5. That's a savings of $8 per pizza!!!
Coincidentally, $8 is the cost of a 'General Admission' ticket to the game.
I don't know if that's on purpose or strictly a coincidence that the ticket price is the same as the savings.
I know there are other deals, printed randomly on the back of the tickets, that you can get from the sponsors.
For instance, Coach's Corner offers a BOGO on their '10 Chicken Wings' order. That is actually worth about $8, looking at the difference in price between the 10-piece and 20-piece wings. That's pretty generous for a local sponsor.
Papa Murphy's usual is three bucks off the price of a family pizza. There's also a smart-phone "scan here" deal, but I can't read squiggles.
Sticky Fingers, another national chain, has the best offer, though. Their ticket deal, a BOGO for a free entree, nets you a savings of more than sixteen dollars. Heck, that's double what you pay for the ticket alone!!!

What about the second game tonight? Did the Gnats win?
Well, no they lost.
I guess they noticed when I left and they just lost their spirit.
That would have been around the third inning. The temperature started dropping and I got chilled in my shorts, light shirt, and sandals.
Brrr!
Seriously. The weather this year has been wackadoodle. Here it is the middle of May and it's too cool at night to be out in shorts.
Or maybe I was supposed to go home so I could catch this particular episode of "Psych"?
Yeah, I'll go with that!

big salad time!

Ah, it must be summertime!!!
Today, for lunch, I am having my first Big Salad!!!
Elaine Benes would be so very jealous...

good to the very last drop

Better than a week ago,
the ever-huggable Hai
had asked if I were going to be home on Friday afternoon.

He wouldn't give a reason.

He was being quite mysterious.

Then he arrived with this beauty!

Earlier this week, that "new to me" television set lost its voice.

The picture was still fine, but no sounds emanated from its depths.

Not quite a week had passed.


Drats.

This morning, before I went to my Weight Watchers meeting, I took it out of the house - oof! so heavy! - and set it by the curb.
Today is the day the city trash service picks up household goods.
When I returned home around noon, it was already gone.
The city truck doesn't make its collections until mid-afternoon.
I guess someone out there must have a need for huge, broken, VCR tube-driven, heavy doorstops.

I haven't had the heart to tell Hai that I no longer have the tv.
He had been so pleased with being able to surprise me with it.
I'm sure it was an attempt to thank me for his birthday gift.
Actually, he could just take me out to 17Hundred90 again.
What a lovely evening that had been! Fresh from my first successful week at Weight Watchers, he and I had gone to that fancy restaurant for a
"steak dinner", as he had deemed me worthy of such.
His girlfriend, he had said, was not yet worthy.
Score! Major points for me!
(big smile!)

alliteration in the mornin'

"Mild-mannered, money-making men", Ben Bailey, Cash Cab.

Spoken after the exit of two soft-spoken, non-high-five-ing, intelligent gents with $950 in hand for their forty-block ride on video.

Nice.

trudy's eyes

I think I may have mentioned a time or two that I'm a fan of Tony Shalhoub's character, Adrian Monk. Yes? Surely I have. He's a detective, formerly on the police force, but serves now as a consultant ever since the death of his beloved wife, Trudy.
Monk has a lot of quirks.
A lot of quirks.
Most people are willing to overlook those quirks, as he is so talented.
He has an assistant to help keep him stable, and to run interference for him, while he is solving murder cases.
The episode I just watched, "Mr. Monk Is Up All Night", was a bit different from the usual ones in the series. Amazingly, it also was one I did not recall ever seeing before.
Here's what happened (as Monk would say): He and his assistant are walking along in their hometown of San Francisco, just diddy-bopping along, and he gets bumped by a woman passing by. They all stop, she apologizes, and ... Monk feels compelled to follow her. He loses her in the traffic and the crowd. When his trusty assistant asks why? Did you know her? What's going on?, he has to tell her that he doesn't know why, that he has never seen the woman before, that he simply felt he had to follow her.
The man has a photographic memory. If he says he's never seen someone before, you can bet good money that he has never seen them before.
Odd, right?
So, I watched.
His not understanding his own actions keeps him awake at night. He calls his assistant and she suggests he take a walk, which he does.
There's a great scene where he is walking by a row of late-night businesses. As he approaches each one on the block, its lights are turned out, leaving him in the dark.
Get it?
Fabulous visualization.
So, a little later, a taxi pulls up beside him and the driver, a woman, asks if he needs a ride. He leans down to look into the passenger-side window, saying as he does so, "no, thank you" - and recognizes the driver as the woman he had been following earlier! But, too late! She is already pulling away before he can try to stop her. Oh, no!
And the chase continues throughout the show. (Another storyline is also unwinding as he deals with his dilemma, but you'll have to watch the episode yourself for that one.)
Meanwhile, all who know him are also mystified with his obsession with this unknown woman. Is he in love with her? Does he know her after all, but has forgotten her somehow? Is his famous memory having a lapse?
At last, they meet. What is it about her face that so attracts and distracts him? Wait, not her entire face - no, her eyes. There is something about her eyes...
Her eyes? She tells him of the birth defect that had left her blind until just a few years ago, of the transplant she had received, like a miracle, from a woman who had just died. And when she tells him the date, he echoes it back to her. It was the date his beloved Trudy had been killed by a car bomb. The eyes were Trudy's eyes.
And the woman is crying and he touches her tears, oh so softly, with his fingertips. This man who has a phobia about touching anything is trying to make contact with his dead wife through the tears coming from her eyes in a stranger's face.
And he leans forward and touches his forehead to hers.
And the woman says, as she sobs, "oh, I am so sorry, I am so sorry."
And the show ends with them standing just like that, heads touching, shoulders bowed, as the light goes to dusk on the street.
It was a very emotional moment for us all: Monk, the woman, and me.

I've always been a proponent of organ donation. I'm an organ donor and have been ever since my teen years. I guess it goes along with my "reduce, reuse, recycle" mentality and my altruism and general attempts to make this world a better place, one starfish at a time.
After all, parts are parts. Once the soul has left the building, so to speak, then the building can be dismantled and used for new construction. Anything which will help someone's mother or dad or loved one to live longer is a good thing, right?
But I must admit I haven't ever given any thought to the possible effect on family members of donors. After all, most transplants occur deep below skin level: hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys. No possibility of recognition of a dear departed loved one's internal organs should one happen upon the recipient on the street, now is there?
No.
However, what about the living who receive skin grafts or corneal transplants, as in this episode? What might be the chances that a family member of that donor might recognize the placement of a mole, a shading of skin tone, the reflection of light upon the eyes? What then?
I'm sure the issue doesn't arise often, if ever, in the real world.
The real world is not populated by a vast majority of people with eidetic memories.
Monk has such a memory and was able to recognize the corneas of his dead wife.
But, as my ex was fond of saying, Monk is a "poor little fictional character".
Still, it does give one pause, n'est-ce pas?

vicar of dibley to alice

A similar joke was once told by the Vicar to her lovely, though literal-brained, asistant, Alice. When I saw this in my email, I had to share!
(The little fang-toothed git shown above is a pumpkin I carved several years ago. It's a "permanent" pumpkin, residing in my pantry almost year-round.)

Two nuns, Sister Maureen and Sister Julie, are traveling through Europe in their car. They get to Transylvania and are stopped at a traffic light.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a tiny little Dracula jumps onto the hood of the car and hisses through the windshield.
"Quick, quick!" shouts Sister Maureen. "What shall we do?"
"Turn the windshield wipers on. That will get rid of the abomination," says Sister Julie.
Sister Maureen switches them on, knocking the mini-Dracula about, but he clings on and continues hissing at the nuns.
"What shall I do now?" she shouts.
"Switch on the windshield washer. I filled it up with Holy Water at the Vatican," says Sister Julie.
Sister Maureen turns on the windshield washer. The little Dracula screams as the water burns his skin, but he clings on and continues hissing at the nuns.
"Now what?" shouts Sister Maureen.
"Show him your cross," says Sister Julie.
"Now you're talking,' says Sister Maureen. She opens the window and shouts, "Get off the car, you fang-toothed git!"

renovation and tv

Okay, I think I get it now, this attraction to the tv that many people have. It all boils down to money, I do believe. This summer, I had to re-examine what I loosely call my budget. Actually, I never really had a budget, I just made sure the amount I spent wasn't more than what I made, so my cushion in my checking account didn't get a butt imprint from my good times sitting down too hard. Well, that hasn't been the case this summer. I had to get a new water heater, as the old one was about 17 years old and just wasn't quite up to the task anymore. So, there was an unplanned expense, but not too bad. I was able to put the device on a "6 months, no payments, no interest" plan and the labor was the only upfront, out-of-pocket expense. Cool. In fact, just last week I paid the final installment on the water heater. Yeah!
About the same time as that renovation, I decided that the time was right for new windows, to finally replace the old single-pane versions that had come with the house back in the 1950's. Actually, the window replacement had been on the agenda since moving into the house eight years earlier, partly because the windows were old and not energy efficient, partly because the doofus who had the house before had painted them all shut, making them useful only for viewing the outside world but not enjoying any cooling breezes. Anywho... As I was saying, I felt the time was right to replace some windows and I had a coupon that allowed me to put the cost of the materials on a "12 months, no payment, no interest" plan. So, I figured out how much the windows cost and how much I could afford to pay monthly for a year and let that determine how many windows I could buy. The magic number was seven, which allowed the front of the house to have new double-paned, double-hung, white vinyl windows. Fine, the back of the house would have to wait its turn, maybe next year. So, I purchased the windows, signed my name, and arranged to have one of my kin pick them up for me, as he has a truck.
So, there I was the proud owner of new windows. Woohoo! But who to install them? Well, honestly, I had ass-u-me-d that one or two of my brothers would help me out with that, especially as they were well-versed in that sort of thing. Yeah. Uh-uh. Not happening. Strike one! Sigh.
So, there I was the proud owner of new windows, which needed to be installed by someone I would have to pay. Woohoo. That was an expense I had NOT included in my plans, but a best friend of one of my brothers was in need of work and could take care of it for me. Alrighty then! I had known this guy for years and knew he could do the work. We never discussed money, though. Not once. Strike two! I just said "get 'er done!" and he said "no problem!" Well, those first two windows took him all of a day. No problem for me, I wasn't in a rush, as long as it got done.
Apparently, it was a problem for him, so he got a buddy to come help him. They finished up tout de suite the next day and came bopping along to get paid. Hey, I was glad to have the work done! I wasn't too keen on having had a stranger in my house, some guy I had never even heard of before, but it was done. So, now, my brother's friend is ready to get paid. Oh, and he "needs to pay his helper, too." Uh huh. Translated, that means I was going to be paying more than I had expected. Great. He wants $100 per window. That would be $700. Seven. Hundred. Dollars. And, no, he doesn't offer an easy payment plan, that needs to all be paid at one whack, preferably now, thank you very much. Damn. Strike three, and I am out of the renovation game for a while.
So, I write him a check. With just a few penstrokes, I have given away two weeks' take-home pay. In less than two days, this guy and his buddy determined they were worth the money it took me 80 hours to bring home. Yeah, those windows on the back of the house will definitely have to wait a while longer. The windows currently installed will be paid off by mid-April 2010... or I'll have to add on the interest, which I certainly do NOT intend to do! And, truth to tell, the house looks better now and is ever so much easier to cool in the summer. My house faces the sun from sunrise to sunset, so having energy-efficient windows HAS helped lower my electric bills, in addition to keeping my thermostat between 78 and 80.
At any rate, the dimple in my cushion has meant that I've had to more vigorously shop sales at the grocery store. Neat things like that. Also, I've cut back on how much of my pay goes into my IRA. Bad things like that. Mostly, though, since I don't engage in shopping as a sport, I've had to lean toward less expensive means of entertainment this summer. More often than not, I check to see how much something is costing me per hour. A night at the theater, not including treats? Well, that's about $5 per hour. Not bad. A night at a local playhouse, enjoying a show? That'll run at least $10 an hour. Hmmm. Just how much did I want to see that particular play?
In addition, I have to include my travel expenses this summer. I do, after all, have reasons to bebop off to Charleston every other weekend or so, as well as trips to hither and yon. Thank you, VISA and MasterCard, for allowing me to enjoy today and pay next month! True, I have spent less than I normally would during the summer, when I have more free time on my hands, but I've also had that much less to spend, thanks to home improvements. Eventually, those will pay off even more than they currently have. I keep saying this to myself, as I pay the installments every month for my lovely new windows.
Most recently, I turned to the Savannah Jazz Festival for my entertainment, accompanied by my Charleston bird for three of the five days I attended. This FREE event is one of my favorites these last couple of years, mostly because I have the luxury of being introduced to music and musicians I would otherwise have never enjoyed. And enjoy it all I do! I usually, half-kidding, tell folks that I go because I've already "paid" for my admission. Sure enough, that part is actually true! The City of Savannah is one of the major sponsors of the weeklong event, meaning my tax dollars are actually being spent on something for ME to enjoy. You better believe I'm there!
But when there's a dearth of free events available, what's a girl to do? Well, there's always the television. Not only is it already bought and paid for, it actually is supposed to provide countless hours of entertainment. I'm already paying the cable company for the basic seventy channels of possibilities, so I should maybe partake more often, or so went my logic. And you know what I found out? There ARE some good shows on the picture tube. There's some real schlock and drivel, too, but I just avoid those, including advertising-driven "news" programs and so-called "reality" shows. And of the seventy-odd channels available with my cable package, I actually tune in to twenty-two of them. Not every day, mind you. But the four music video channels (GAC, CMT, VH1, and MTV)? Yep, almost every weekday morning, along with my coffee. The Weather Channel? You betcha, especially during hurricane season. The other seventeen I watch off and on, and even so, most of those are reruns of old favorites, with a few new shows thrown in for good measure. Married With Children. Just Shoot Me. Frasier. Scrubs. Sex And The City. Futurama. The Big Bang Theory. How I Met Your Mother. Medium. Drop Dead Diva. Good Eats. Dirty Jobs. CBS Sunday Morning. Mostly, a little light fare before bed, with no blipped words or blacked-out areas of anatomy.
Admittedly, television programming has come a long way in filling a need for more thought-provoking shows, but mostly, it's there to entertain, not to enlighten. Oh, but there ARE enlightening programs out there, you say? There are many fine programs on The Learning Channel, The History Channel, PBS, and Discovery. Sure, there are, but do YOU watch any of them? And, no, Virginia, news programs are NOT included in this category. So-called "news" offerings are, by and large, video versions of The National Enquirer, filled to the brim with sex, drugs, and death. What we must not lose sight of this: television programs are written to attract ADVERTISERS. It's purely happenstance if the shows delivered through our cables, satellite dishes, or antennae bring us some modicum of mood-lightening or mood-enhancing entertainment. Enjoy!