Two Blog House

Congratulations are in order at chez Gunther! Last Saturday morning, my wife gave birth…to a blog! It all happened without complications; mother and blog are doing fine.

We are now a household comprising two adults, two cats, two blogs and several hundred books, DVDs, CDs, and shot glasses.  It will take a lot to support the new blog, so please give generously.

Anne Marie has named it From My Brain to My Mouth. I’ve looked in and so far it is a collection of free association thoughts in keeping with my wife’s interests and philosophies. So far she has given her readers 100 facts about her life, a pound cake recipe, random thoughts about songs which have influenced her and a couple of music videos. All-in-all she has given the world a very entertaining outpost on the Internet.

The blog actually came into existence through the persistent begging, cajoling, or holding-their-breaths-until-they-turn-blue persuasion tactics by other bloggers who were amused at Anne Marie’s contributions to their writings over the years. My wife resisted all of their pleadings for years. For a long time, she was content to just comment on their blogs — many times in language that would make a sailor blush — and serve as the senior editor for arteejee.  She finally broke down last week, and has been the toast of her loyal blogger friends ever since.

I can’t prove this for certain, but I would not be surprised if her blog fans conspired amongst themselves to make her an offer she couldn’t refuse. It wouldn’t surprise me if indeed they threatened to kidnap her, tie her down, prop her eyelids open and force her to watch “Xanadu” until she agreed to write in the blogisphere. Fortunately, they did not have to resort to this torture tactic.

Of course, I had to go find out what all of the excitement was about. In the process, I was reminded of many things that I’ve discovered over the years. I also served as a spoil sport when I found an error in one of her entries.

One of her posts detailed her favorite songs of all time. For her favorite love song, she chose Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore, but she attributed it to Cheap Trick. I reminded her that it was actually recorded by REO Speedwagon. A quick fact check on Wikipedia confirmed her error, and before I could say Paul Ryan she had corrected her mistake.

She told me that she always gets Cheap Trick and REO Speedwagon mixed up. Huh? REO Speedwagon is a rather non-descript looking group of power balladeers that musically — in my imagination — were a precursor to the big hair bands of the late 1980’s. On the other hand, Cheap Trick had some definite differences.

True, they were equally adept in the power balled department, but they had some unique visual characteristics not shared by REO. For one thing, their drummer was named Bun E. Okay, how many drummers are known by a name that is a pun for a small furry animal? Not many!

Also, in their heyday, Cheap Trick’s lead guitarist Rick Nielsen had a striking resemblance to Huntz Hall. Now I ask you, how can one get these two bands confused with each other. How many members of REO resembled child actors from the 1930’s? Not many; in fact, it’s more like zero!

I shouldn’t be surprised at the number of commentators she has accumulated already. After all, they are only repaying the favor of their thoughts on her blog, as she has done to their blogs. Still, I can’t help noticing that she has had more comments in her first week then I had in my first year. Not that I’m jealous.  

Comparisons of our two blogs would be an apples to oranges proposition. Anne Marie’s blog is an entertaining assortment of short, sound-bite length pearls of wisdom albeit seasoned with salty words, coupled with the occasional music video and all of the other technical bells and whistles which the blogisphere has to offer. While my blog is a series of witty (I hope), but more often cranky commentaries on conservatives and Republicans, but with no bells or whistles.

See? It is apples to oranges! Or Cheap Trick to REO Speedwagon, if you prefer! Okay, maybe I’m a tad jealous!

In any event, please partake of both of our blogs.  Either way, you should be entertained.

(Thank you for reading. If you have to ask who Huntz Hall was, then you just won’t understand.)