> Blanche was the same way.  She was the only cat I knew that came when
> called.
> She was indoor/outdoor cat.

I trained all my cats to come to their name -- it made life simpler.  My first  one I duiscovered tghis ws possible was Casey (K.C. -- short for "Kitty Cat"))  used to go for walks with me -- he'd heel as we walked up to the wee park up  the busy road, not flinching at traffic.

At the park, I'd light up a smoke, look for people to interact with &he'd go  havefun, climbing tres, chasing squirrels & butterflies.

When it was time to go, I'd call his name & he's stop whatever he was into, &  fly down the tree to me, & heel all the way back.

At hoime, I usually had to have a bit of a wrassle with him, to expend the  energy he had left (bit keyed up from being "on the hunt" & having it  interrupted) until I slowed it down into quiet time & he'd lie on or beside me  on the big chair, purring himself to sleep. . .

Ahh, good times -- he was my first dog-cat.

From then on, I always looked for young (8-12 weeks, or whenever the mother  naturally weans them) grey tabbies & raised them in much the same ways, with  mauybe improvement tweaks I've figured out.

After losing one cat to a catnapper, 'coon, or car, I switched to indoors-only.

That cat would come & go 24/7/365 in/out of the ajar window as he desired.

The goofy thing was is he refused to do his 'business' outside -- he had to  come home to use the litterbox.  I tried telling him he could save me funds by  going outside when he's out there anyway --lot's of open dirt around, vytr  hge;s have none of that -- thankfully he hunted enough to reduce what he ate at home.

My fave memory of Gilligan(my "little buddy") was after he got his nuts  chopped, he ha to stay inside 7 days -- he hated it -- sat for hours by the  closed window, whining & mewling at me.

On his first day outm he came back after 2 hours with a 1/4 of a seagull that  had to be twice hissize (based on the wing & bloody breast he brought in); I  say he was saying, "Hah! I don't need those -- I'm still a mighty hunter MAN!"

> When evening came she would be in back and I would go out on the back
> steps (I live on the third floor) and call out "Blanche!"  She would turn to
> look and I just had to say "Beddy" and up the stairs she ran.

Nice! So much more convenient -- & shows how much she loved & trusted you. . .

> Her adopted sister Molly McGee (named after the radio character) could
> care less about anything past the apartment door.

a homebody?

> Once I stopped at a roadside picnic area in Ohio after visiting a cousin
> in the Detroit area.  She flew out of the car and headed for the woods and
> tall grass.
> After about a half hour I called and called and no reply.
> Finally I said loud enough for her to hear, (she hadn't gone far, never
> did) "Well, I can't find her, I guess I'll just have to leave her here to
> fend for herself.  Hope some big animal doesn't eat her" and slowly walked
> towards the car.  She came out of th
> When in the car if on the highway she was under the seat.  But in stop
> and go traffic she would get between my feet and the pedals. :)

Nice! Same as you do with your 5yo child, who refuses to follow you at the  mall. Well, at one time, now they steal kids when your back is turned for 3  minutes to talk to someone!

>> When I play poker(& other games)
> I've never been good at card games, other than solitaire.  :)

Solitaire is fun -- I play a few variations, & mahjong -- I find both very  relaxing.

I found this site that has a bunch of old school card & board games. .  https://cardgames.io/
Free, no signup needed. . .  You can play a few games against others -- I do  Backgammon & Farkle on occasion. (Farkle was one of the first BBS doors I  played, on the first BBS I visited in '92)

>> Pretty much as TV began -- they grabbed the best of radio & put them to work
> There was a joke in the late '40s that vaudeville didn't really die, it
> just moved to television.

Not a bad thing -- I've seen some of those variety shows & heard their radio  originals -- like the toothpaste sponsored hours. . . Always funny to hear  cigarette ads & be amazed by the crap they & others'd say in selling things,  like give your baby some Coca Cola!

But they(admen) made billions from those ever so humble beginnings. . .

> Some shows were not adaptable to tv simply due to the the constraints of
> the time.  It was much cheaper and easier to broadcast a live show than a
> filmed one.  (Tape didn't come along until the late '50s).

Yup, I've seen some of the blopers from live TV -- like when they tricked the  one Mr Clean type child host (Capt. Kangaroo?) behind the curtain where a naked woman was there to greet him with full frontal.  His flabbergasted reaction was so priceless!

Now it'd be no biggie, the guy'd say, "Oh, hi; you must be the new secretary -- please file those folders on my desk in to the blue cabinet & get me a Latte. & meet me like that, in the lockable Green Room a half hour after my show is  done.

> Some shows were kinoscoped where basically a film camera was placed in
> front of a monitor so whatever went over the air was filmed.  Those are the
> ones we have to day.  The quality wasn't always the best but with all sorts
> of inference (snow, wavy lines, e

But at least we have them in t he archives somewhere, slowlty meted out into  the public to view, sometimes for free eventually!

> On radio a few words set the scene, but on tv they had to provide the
> scenes.
> On radio: I'm going to walk over to that door and see if it opens, with
> footsteps heard.
> On tv: the actor walks across the room and opens the door.
> There is a reason radio was "the theatre of the mind".

Excellent phrase for it!

& kids/adults were so much more intelligent then. . .

>> I'm especiallyl awed by those giys who could make ANT sound effect, uwithout
> technology, on demand, to make a radio show (whether a short comedy, or a
> longer story("The Shadow" I used to listen to in the '70s, & others.)
> Sound men were the unsung heroes of radio.
> While actors had the words written out for them and they provided the
>inflection etc, the sound men had to come up with the sounds that were needed.

Yup -- they invented so much to provide many a nuance, & shared them amongst  their union.

> And there were times a sound didn't work, such as gun that jammed or
> something.
> There is a story of a murder mystery where this guy was to be shoot.
> The actor read his lines, but the gun jammed.  Immediately the quick
> thinking actor said, "No, I wouldn't shot you, I'll stab you instead".
> There is much disagree on whether or not this actually happened, or any
> show, etc.  Its sort of a urban legend.

Seems plausible & credit to the actor for the quick improvisation.

"Think fast" is an important skill in most any job.

I'm seeing a lot todasy who can't get there even with plenty of time! :( 

But, of course, if you never get to exercise it, it's not going to be available when needed.

You & I & our respective generations were raised with common sense & expected  to employ it always.

I was an inquisitive little twerpo -- took me a while to catch on that my dad  meant it when he said if I canl ook it up myself. do so & don't ask him somet  hing I could've found or figured out for myself.

I had two top encyclpedia sets & 100+ books on varous topics & for varoius  levels (50+ Companion Books containing all the classics, some abridged in the  Readers Digest colecdtion)

I loved looking up onething in t he Britannica & spending hours chasing other  ranbdiomn thoughts & questions across all volumes & even into the annual news  supplements -- joy, joy for me but made me a total nerd & not the most popular. . .
Maybe my dad wanted a different childhood than his -- fighting his way up &  down Yonge Street, as he wasn't one to sit at home & never go anywhere, & every block was already claimed as someone's turf (the '50s in a major city--go  figure!); I was a runner, not a fighter.

That was a fine thingthen, but I'm more prepared, emotionally, to fight, if  needed, even with being half paralyzed, now. . . if there's a threat to my  family, I'm in front of it!

I can probably punch right through someone's ribs! (over 250 lbs of landing  force at the end of my jab), as I have only one shot until my lack of one side  becomes a serious liabilty -- one shot to end the situation.  So I use the  wisdom I learned from a Toronto gangster when I was 12 (back in '79): If you're in a street fight -- the only rule is "Win." & I only count it as a win when I  can safely turn my back & walk home. . .& I live in Toronto!

Feels like valid advice, but rough -- I chose not to get into that angle of  life.  Good thing, as I lived in a town owned by the HAMC & there's not too  many life's directions to go in if you get their attention. . .

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-5