WTIT: The Blog

Saturday 9: Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (1973)

Unfamiliar with this song? Hear it here.

1) Bette Midler sings that the bugle boy wakes up Company B every morning by playing reveille. What awakened you this morning (phone, alarm clock, sunrise, etc.)? Or did you wake up on your own? I woke up on my own. I think it’s time for the Queen to return. Or perhaps The French Twins. It’s a tough call. Just bring an alarm.

2) This single was produced by Bette’s arranger/piano player, who went on to have a successful singing career of his own. Do you have a favorite Barry Manilow song? God, I hate him. Just not my music, just show tunes. My fave was “Mandy”. Perhaps because it was his first. And he didn’t write it.

3) Bette was named after Bette Davis. Her sisters, Susan and Judy, were named for Susan Hayward and Judy Garland. So now we know who Mother Midler’s favorite actresses were. Who are yours? First I think you should have mention that they pronounce their names differently but spelled the same. Davis with “Betty” and Midler with “Bet”. Males: George Clooney & Denzel Washington. Honorable mention to Morgan Freeman. Females: Julia Roberts & Meg Ryan.

4) Bette has been married since 1984 to artist Martin von Haselberg. She was 39 years old, already a star, and had never married before. Yet within six weeks of meeting him, she was so sure Martin was “the one” that they tied the knot. Have you found that love takes time, or, like Bette, have you fallen in love quickly? Every relationship is different. Some immediately, others longer or much longer. Now this by me, is as noncommittal as it gets. I’d name names, but who the fuck is reading this. And while there are 4-5 people who comment, we get close 60 readers for any post. I wonder who those idiots are. “Idiots” as in – why?

5) When their daughter Sophie was growing up, it was Martin who taught her to cook. What was the last thing you prepared in your kitchen? Did you use the microwave, stovetop, convection oven, blender, coffee maker …? Last night I made a pastrami Reuben. After the sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, the Thousand Island dressing: I zap it to melt the cheese and warm the meat. I have done it on the stove as well, but not recently.

6) Bette says that listening and compromise have been the key to their happy marriage but adds, “Compromise is hardest of all.” On what have you compromised recently? Being locked in your on home – alone – for a year does not make compromise a possibility.

7) Bette and Martin have a farmhouse in upstate New York. She enjoys feeding the chickens (whom she has jokingly named The Kardashians) and puttering in her garden. Do you have a green thumb? Nope. But the last plant I bought was a Wandering Jew in 1973. It lasted. In spite of me.

8) In 1973, the year this song was popular, actor Neil Patrick-Harris was born. He’s best known as Barney on How I Met Your Mother, which ran from 2005-2014. Were you a fan? No. I never saw it. Not once. It must have been on when I was watching or taping something else because I always thought it “looked good”.

9) Random question — How often do you put crackers in your soup: Always, often, seldom or never? Always. I only eat a couple of types of soup. The most often it’s clam chowder & I add oyster crackers.

Well here we are in another end of January. It’s been a busy month. How anyone called the events of January 6 & call it “protesting”? Five people including 2 cops were killed. 45 Republicans said “He’s out of Office, anyway”. He was impeached while he was in office. It was the republicans who asked to postpone it. I’m just glad he is gone. I’ll worry about 2024, then. OK. I know politics is a tough subject. We will return. Same time. Same blog.

-30-