Starshine rising

A great lady, Carol Channing, has gone to the Great Green Room in the Sky.

Or somewhere.

She was a class act and gracious when I interviewed her at the Nugget in Sparks. I think she spotted that I was unseasoned and gave me her best.

And, a few days later, an actual Western Union telegram arrived for me at the newspaper thanking me for the story.

When I cleaned up my junk jewelry box a few years ago, I kept the little bracelet I caught from the batch she always tossed to the audience during her nightclub act curtain calls.

I don't know about diamonds, Miss Channing, but a mensch is unmistakable.

RIP.

P.S.: Tell Debbie I said hi, please.

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You don't miss it until it's gone

Thank you, whoever plucked the graffitied clothes dryer that spent three months in the mud, dust, and more mud across the river from where I live. The dryer showed up with a washer and with a small kitchen stove. The other two vanished, one by one.

Bright red scribbles appeared on the dryer.

But they were on private property empty of everything but weeds and dirt (and the illegally deposited machines), and the Washoe Sheriff's litter squad could not touch them.

Last month, the dryer fell over on one side, its door open and twisted.

I hope it didn't take too long for me to notice that it was gone.

##

I faced a dilemma today and probably did the wrong thing. There was a car key, the kind with the computer chip, on the pavement where I parked at the U.S. Post Office in Sparks. It had a bright yellow paper tag with handwriting, like the tags auto repair shops attach to keys. Maybe like a parking valet might use. No name, no contact number.

I set it down on the curb, about 10 feet from where it was dropped. If the owner makes the rounds of "where did I have it last" it might be spotted. Or, some punk will take it and drop it in the sewer.

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First idiotic moment of 2019

I enjoy "Doctor Who" more than I probably should, but ...

The New Year's episode begins with 9th-century humans killing what turns out to be a Dalek scout.

They cut it in three parts and send them to the far ends of the Earth for secret burial.

9th-century humans knew how to burn things. Why didn't they burn the Dalek? Why keep it around?

Because then there wouldn't be a movie, as director John Ford said, apocryphally, about why the Indians didn't just kill the horses pulling the stagecoach.

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