The Old Ball Game: Peanuts, Cracker Jacks & Katie Casey

June 9, 2015July 1, 2025 / Ally Bean / 28 Comments

• I’VE BEEN TO THREE BASEBALL GAMES so far this year.

Two of the games were MLB & one was Single-A. I’ve sat a few rows up from the field and I’ve sat a few rows down from the top. Plus I’ve sat in box seats.

None of the games have been scoreless, but they haven’t been memorable either. No grand slams. No amazing fast balls. No outrageous home runs hit out of the park.

Just pleasant somethings to do.

• I ONLY MENTION THEM TODAY BECAUSE, oddly enough, I have no real flapdoodle or twaddle to tell you, my gentle readers.

I usually have something to say here, whether it be a topic or an observation or an absurdity. So in place of the usual, I thought that I’d leave you with ALL the lyrics for “Take Me Out To The Ballgame.”

Not everyone understands that if it weren’t for Katie Casey, none of us would be singing this particular song during the 7th inning stretch.

That girl had it going on!

• • •

• • •

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Katie Casey was baseball mad
Had the fever and had it bad.
Just to root for the home town crew,
Ev’ry sou, Katie blew;
On a Saturday, her young beau
Called to see if she’d like to go
To see a show, but Miss Kate said “No,
I’ll tell you what you can do.”

“Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,
I don’t care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don’t win it’s a shame.
For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out,
At the old ball game.”

Katie Casey saw all the games,
Knew the players by their first names;
Told the umpire he was wrong,
All along, good and strong.
When the score was just two to two,
Katie Casey knew what to do,
Just to cheer up the boys she knew,
She made the gang sing this song:

• • •

And Now, Class, We’re Going To Learn About The “Bee’s Knees”

May 28, 2015May 6, 2021 / Ally Bean / 27 Comments

[Occasionally when I’m researching Serious Subjects For Important Projects, I stumble across Fascinating Other Things To Know. The following, my gentle readers, is a non-serious thing that I have learned & will now share with you.]

• • •

{ Source: The Bee’s Knees Cocktail }

SO LET’S SAY THAT I’m a flapper, which isn’t that big of a stretch because if this was the 1920s you know that I’d be one.

Free spirit. Flapper. Very similar.

And let’s say that I wanted to tell you that someone or something was OUTSTANDING – ADMIRABLE – COOL. Then there’s a good chance that I’d say that he or she or it was the BEE’S KNEES.

Unless, of course, I was using other slang from that era. In which case I’d probably say that he or she or it was the:

cat’s meow,
monkey’s eyebrows,
skeeter’s elbow,
cat’s pajamas, OR
eel’s ankles.

HOWEVER BEING THAT I AM Thoroughly Modern Ally I think that I’d go with bee’s knees because it sounds cute to say and because there’s an actual logic behind the saying.

You know how I am about lurving the logic.

So to wit, and in conclusion of, what has turned out to be a rather lengthy post about an antiquated, but memorable, slang phrase, I give you this bit of information [from an unexpected source]:

“‘The Bee’s Knees’ is a term indicating excellence – the highest quality. Because bees carry pollen back to the hive in sacs on their legs. The allusion is to the concentrated goodness to be found around the bee’s knee.”

~ San Diego Bee’s Knees Business Guide

Break A Leaf: The Garden Show Must Go On

May 21, 2015May 21, 2015 / Ally Bean / 31 Comments

What is a garden, but one big stage production?

And as any well-grounded director knows, every big theater production is filled with characters.

Here’s the diva, a honey locust tree, bowing to the backyard audience, wowing them with her pale yellow scented spring flowers.

Below her, the stones and grasses, covered with her discarded snowflake-like flower petals, create an encouraging group of extras, allowing her to look her best. Always.

Meanwhile, out in the front yard along the driveway, catmint is stealing the show. He’s the star who has blossomed into his own this year, giving a most dazzling performance.

While on the other side of the front yard, under some birch trees, his understudy waits in the wings, hoping to grow-up and be as famous as his great-uncle over by the driveway.

Around back, the colorful ingénues are content, contained until it is time for their dramatic entrance onto the stage. So young. So pretty.

Near the ingénues, the comedy duo of tomato and pepper sit hopefully. Grown ostensibly for their vegetables, more often than not, these garden stars fall victim to the shenanigans of overly enthusiastic fans such as squirrels and raccoons.

And finally, no production would be complete without a character actor who supports the story. A true thespian, sure of where he is going, the stone path is always willing to allow the other plants to shine. Knowing that without him, there’d be no garden production at all.

THE END

My Neighborhood: Not Much Of A Story, But The News Is Good

May 19, 2015 / Ally Bean / 24 Comments

The economy has perked up around here and with it, the real estate market. House sales are beginning to happen faster. That is, houses are on the market for weeks now, instead of for months & months.

Neighbors who are selling their homes are sprucing up what they have, meaning that our street has looked exceptionally nice this spring. And with the subsequent home sales, we have new younger, active neighbors.

This is a good thing, huh?

~ • ~

I’m seeing lots of these now.

~ • ~

I realized the foregoing as I was driving, very slowly, the long way home through our subdivision. It dawned on me that as well as being outside on the move, many of our new neighbors are driving new cars. Perhaps I’m overly aware of this sort of thing because I drive a 12 y.o. car, but I was kind of amazed.

~ • ~

I’m not seeing any of these.

~ • ~

The cars that I noticed weren’t fancy and/or sporty. They were Fords or Toyotas or Hyundais, usually trucks or mini-vans or SUVs, middle of the line, practical. But they were bright + shiny + new.

So that’s what’s up around here. Not too exciting from a blog story-telling point of view, but encouraging from a midwest homeowners point of view. Of which I am one.

You gotta take the happy where you find it, eh?