Testing One Two Three

For the past seven years I had a terrific blog host called Red Room, which was started by a group of San Francisco based writers and editors. Many of them were famous.  Some of them are now Facebook friends.

They invited me to  post for free because I was a librarian who led book groups.  I promoted their books if I liked them.  And I was among the first one hundred people who signed up on an experimental basis.  My blog was called the All Seasons Book Group because my reading themes tend to be seasonal--Anna Karenina in winter, beach reading in summer.







Alas, Red Room is no more--sold to another company.

So here is another attempt at a blog with fewer bells and whistles.
It is an experiment--I have never tried Blogger before.
I am writing it because my Facebook posts are getting too long.
And there's so much I want to tell you!

The blog is called Do You See What I See?
The title is in memory of my Dad who was a great storyteller and observer.
He was also a pianist and entertainer and when he spotted a beautiful woman or beautiful dessert in a bakery case or something completely absurd, his eyes would light up and he would sing that part of the Christmas carol:
Do You See What I See?

I would be at an Italian bakery with him or window shopping on Fifth Avenue or at a party where someone's husband was flirting with someone else's wife and suddenly I would hear Dad singing softly and merrily--Do you see what I see?

I wish I had a recording of Dad  to share with you.
Instead, click here for an Andy Williams version

Keep in mind that Dad sounded more like Mel Brooks than Andy Williams.

Why did he choose this song? Dad was an elementary school teacher back in 1962 and he ran the holiday pageant--the song was done every year and it stayed in his mind. I am not sure that he envisioned a Christmas miracle when he played the song--instead he saw it as a way of pointing out something delightful, joyous or completely ridiculous.

He would never sing the line if he saw something sad.

But I intend to share sad things here, too.

Okay--I am going to hit "publish" now.
Let's see if this works!

P.S. (To digress further--and my blogs always digress)--the formal title of the song is Do You Hear What I Hear?   It was a call for peace, written in 1962 in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The back story is here)