Laughing with Di – August 2020

Not much to laugh at. My most happy moment lately was when I found Creamette elbow noodles at the supermarket.
But, let’s have a laugh.
My granddaughter showed me the new ceiling fan/light in her bedroom – very hi-tech and connected to Alexa. I asked how Alexa knows there is a new ceiling fan/light in this her bedroom. I thought maybe there were guys somewhere behind a curtain frantically typing data into Alexa’s program letting it know about this new fan/light it was now in charge of. Sort of like the Wizard of Oz behind his curtain feverishly manipulating buttons and dials to get answers. My granddaughter proceeded to explain but, unfortunately, all I got was that it has something to do with WI FI, websites, maybe the “cloud” and perhaps some typing.
So, for inspiration I decided to get nostalgic and go backward to the fifties when I was growing up in a much simpler world. Recently, streaming on cable, were the original, black and white episodes of “The Lone Ranger”. I watched them. After Hopalong Cassidy, the Lone Ranger was my dad’s favorite cowboy. Westerns were the TV fare at our house. Luckily, I am able to satisfy my nostalgic needs by watching the third season of Kevin Costner’s show “Yellowstone”.
I think what we need as law and order in this town are cowboys. Guys like Gene Autry, The Cisco Kid (played by Duncan Renaldo who had the greatest name ever), the Rifleman, Wyatt Earp, even Zorro. Why, right here in Newhall on The Walk of the Western Stars we remember cowboy actors like Tex Ritter, Tom Mix, Hoot Gibson (now there’s a name), John Wayne, Audie Murphy and, of course, my favorite, Steve McQueen.
Maybe we can summon them, like Batman, whenever they are needed by telling “Alexa” and they will ride in with a Hi Ho Silver and save the world!