Tricks And Treats

Most people rust out due to lack of challenge. Few people rust out due to overuse.

Unknown
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Don't look now but there's a rabbit in your hat.

The people who have been the best influence and inspiration to me in my life have been those who have kept going in spite of seemingly impossible problems.

I confess that in my early years I often sought the easy road, the soft job. For me sitting in a radio studio was easier than acting. Certainly broadcasting had its challenges and I admire the men and women I worked with in that industry who performed in it very well. Some of them were excellent. There were times when the pressure was fierce, when I didn't have enough music to fill out the time, or when I had to interview an impossible guest, or when I had to announce an outdoor concert in the pouring rain when no one was there but the orchestra.

Theatre on the other hand is filled with wall-to-wall problems. If a good systems engineer sat down to figure out how to run a theatre he would conclude that it couldn't be done. My theatre friends who are reading this are smiling.

So I left the relative comfort of the radio studio and went back to theatre because I knew the challenges and that they would be met somehow. In show business there are no rules and there is no such thing as giving up on a theatrical effect if it is needed for the production.

I love to watch a good magician. I don't try to figure out how he does it, I just enjoy seeing him do things that look impossible. A magician I know once pulled one of my own cigarettes out of my ear. That was amazing enough but even more scary was where he got it from since it was one of my own cigarettes and he didn't smoke. He must have filched it from my pocket without my knowing. I saw a magician crunch down and lock himself into a small box after which his assistant stuck a sword through all the sides and the top of the box. When she opened the box he was gone but it was filled with hens who came strutting out and around. That was great theatre because it was not only a great trick but it was also funny to see all those hens.

Sometimes magic happens in the theatre and people don't realize it. A character walks off stage and 30 seconds later comes back on in a different costume. The color of the walls change from scene to scene even though no scenery is moved. I did a play called "Greetings" in which the Christmas tree lights come on even though they aren't plugged in. Murders are committed and no one dies. The actor playing King Lear reaches the point of raging madness and completely recovers his sanity in time for the curtain call.

Amazing things happen, mountains get climbed, seas get crossed, planets get walked on, discoveries get made, problems get solved because people don't give up on them. To take up the great problem of life and work toward it's solution without giving up or giving in is what keeps the chrome shining.

DB - The Vagabond
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Sunday Puzzle Answer
1 correct answer and it comes from Val of the Blogspot Tigers.

One of these things is not like the other.
Which one and why?

1. baseball, soccer ball, football, tennis ball.

OK, that was the easy one, Now they get tricky.

2. grizzly koala black polar
the koala is not a bear
3. flute violin banjo harp
the flute has no strings
4. Washington Adams Franklin Jefferson
Franklin was never Presidnet
5. palm tomato peach zucchini
palm, all the rest are fruits
6. 2 4 6 8
6, the only one divisible by 3
7. New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York
New Mexico not one of the 13 colonies
8. tennis badminton ping pong volley ball
vollye ball requires no racket
9. Champlain Erie Michigan Superior
Champlain not one of the Great Lakes

To Val goes the grand prize of stainless steel eraser.
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SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

5 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
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