saturday 9

It's So Nice to Be Nice

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

 

1) In this song, Monica Lewis encourages us to greet our neighbors with a smile and a hello. Tell us about one of your neighbors. my downstairs neighbor is the mother of a high school classmate of mine and she is very sweet.

 

2) She reminds us that it's "nice to be nice." Who has recently shown you kindness? Tammy, the secretary at my eye clinic, was very kind to me on Thursday when I was confirming my appointment

 

3) Monica Lewis was born in Chicago, where her mother performed with the Chicago Opera Company. Have you ever been to the opera? no

 

4) Her family moved to New York City, where she attended college by day and worked at radio station WMCA in the evenings to help support her family. Which do you listen to more: the radio or podcasts? well... I stream Spotify or Amazon Music so are they considered radio?

5) In the 1940s she appeared all around New York – in nightclubs, on Broadway, and on radio shows. It was then that she got her best-known and longest-running role: the voice of Chiquita Banana. For decades she was heard singing the jingle, "I'm Chiquita Banana and I'm here to say ..." Do you have any bananas in your kitchen now? no, although I have a quickbread mix for banana bread that I was thinking about whipping up

 

6) Around 1950 she moved to Hollywood. She had recently divorced and wanted a fresh start. There she dated an actor who was also newly divorced: Ronald Reagan. Obviously she never had to ask, "Whatever became of him?" Who is the last former romance, classmate or coworker that you looked up on the internet? I looked up a very dear college friend who might just be the one that got away

 

7) In 1947, when this song was popular, actor Ted Danson was born. He's best known as Sam Malone, the bartender at Cheers, "where everybody knows your name." Is there a bar or restaurant where you are recognized on sight? yes... it's a small town

 
8) The 1947 Studebaker Champion was one of the first cars to have an adjustable driver's seat designed to accommodate motorists of various heights. When you're driving someone else's car, do you usually adjust the seat? it depends on the distance I'm driving

 

9) Random question: When someone takes advantage of you, are you angrier at them for doing it, or at yourself for letting it happen? hmmm... I seldom get in this position--I guess I am angrier at them for doing it