HB, Big Joe!

The splendid Birthday Boy Himself, back in his haberdashery days, when men
dressed like gentlemen (a coat and a tie even to attend a ball game!), there was
 no such thing as "Casual Friday,"  and "wifebeaters" as outer garb were strictly
limited to stevedores and meat packers and then, only in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Ahhh, the good old days...the sign "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service"?  Didn't
exist.  No need.  Show up at church or Sunday brunch in jeans, tennies,
 and a t-shirt?  Never happen.  And knuckleheads wearing their pants halfway down
their glutei maximi?  Only in the circus.

Classy, sartorially-correct, and one of Carbondale's
very best...that's Big Joe. 

 

HB, Esteban!

Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, circa 1990 - Young Steve, Big Red (his
beloved teddy), and Young Nicole, just prior to their inital
injections of HGH (human growth hormone) to kick start their
delayed development.  Back then, they were "not much bigger than
a chipmunk" (old family joke), but thanks to aggressive treatment, they
have since advanced to the point where now just one of them fits
in the chair. 

All the Best on your Big Day, Stevie Boy!

Gettysburg, PA, 2004 - An older-but-still-young Stevie, shown here to have

reaped the full benefits of his HGH treatment.

DS: Upfront and Personal...

"Somehow Delicate Steve got some air time via these short
documentary-style clips...pretty cool how this stuff gets created
and then put 'out there' (all thanks to basic tools of the digital generation)..."
MJ Marion, 1/29/12

Part 1:  http://www.noisey.com/watch/meet-delicate-steve

Part 2:  http://www.noisey.com/watch/wondervisions

Part 3:  http://www.noisey.com/watch/butterfly

Sent from my iPhone
Ed. note: This little "brag line" is Apple's nefarious and not-so-subtle way of attempting
to shame owners of lesser phones into upgrading to an iphone of their own.  Insofar as
nobody cares where their email comes from and only naive "newbies" retain this empty
declaration, I recommend that all iphone owners disable this signature by going to...
Settings>>Mail, Contacts, Calendar>> Signature >*erase everything*    

And finally:  Until Christmas 2012, MJ's cell phone was of the super-clunky,
bag variety (see below).  Now that he's finally - at long last - upgraded to the aforementioned
iphone, he'll be able to provide us with more timely content, and for that, we are grateful.

Mike's cell phone until his recent iphone upgrade.
Purchased in 1995, it gave him 17 years of uninterrupted
service (uninterrupted, that is, unless he was actually
talking to you on the contraption).

Steve and Michelle and the Magic of Christmas...

MJ sent this shot that he took on Christmas morning, 2011.

Astoundingly, when he looked at all of that day's images 

on his mac later that evening, this photo was among them.

Weird. Very Weird.

Newton, NJ, 10/2/11 - Ellie, Joe jr.'s mutt (seen here hovering

 at Joe's knee), joined us for our annual and very festive pre-Cox

 Classic dinner at the Commissioner's home.  It was another

 splendiferous supper, prepared by the stellar mother-daughter

 team of Donna and Michelle, featuring a battle of the

 chilis -- meatatarian (Donna's) versus vegetarian

 (Michelle's) -- that ended in a virtual tie (because

what ingrate imbecile, having downed a heaping bowl of

 each, would deign to choose one over the other?).  

In any case, Ellie surely enjoyed them both, having been

 fed directly from her owner's plate throughout the meal,

a faux pas in most social circles, but what's a little

impropiety among friends and family? 

Joe jr., about to serve Ellie her wine which, I observed,

the dog properly sniffed and considered prior to lapping

up the glass' contents down to the last drop.

Music to Read By.

 The ever-vigilant Michael J passed this along...

 

Click HERE, then on the QUICK TOUR beneath the

featured kindle, and listen closely.

May Your Big Day be Wrinkle-Free, Stevie!

Ann Arbor, Michigan, July 2011

Birthday Boy Steve and his mates (l to r, Mickey, Adam, Christian -- out
 of frame, Mike) are  mesmerized by DS merchandise-meister Joe
 (AKA, Joseph, Guiseppe, Joey, Hey You!, et.al.), as he lectures them
 on proper clothes-folding  techniques, a valuable skill he learned
 in his retail days.

  Visibly impressed by Joe's ability to handle everything from
 wife-beaters to boxers with the easy facility of a laundromat mogul,
 the boys then promptly left the room, and in a sudden rush to
 get back on the road, haphazardly and hastily crammed all their
 belongings into their backpacks. They then stuffed their backpacks
 into any nook or cranny they could find in the van, vowing to begin
 folding their clothes just like Joe at the next stop.  Not.

HB, Steve!

A fitting Tribute to a Fine Specimen of Doghood...

The Mighty Casey

December 24, 1995 - August 12, 2011

The greatest dog in the world was laid to rest on Friday, peacefully fading into canine afterlife. No doubt Casey's new universe will include an endless supply of every imaginable consumable treat, all within easy reach: no counter tops to scale or reprimands for having an insatiable appetite for almost anything--but especially human food.

Casey joined the family five years before the turn of the century and endured into its second decade. In dog years she was old--very old; in the human equivalent, she was ancient (about 108). Her "cousin" Hillary, also a Vizsla who came into the world at about the same time, lived a great long life--and died two years ago.

Our Casey was a true homebody, never straying far from the patio and always preferring the company of people. Vizslas crave attention and affection and behave more like classic "lap" dogs. Even when she was full-grown, Casey wouldn't hesitate to pile on to you or put her face in your face or her paw on your leg--gently intruding on whatever you were doing for a dose of human touch. She made a lot of friends that way, including complete strangers, who often greeted her with a "hi sweetie" or "what a sweetheart" refrain. Indeed, she was beloved.

Though Casey was no watchdog, she did let the others in the local animal kingdom know on whose homestead they were treading. She eventually made peace with deer, probably because they visited so frequently. Bear were another story: her voice went up two octaves at the very sight, hair tense and up on the back, alive in sheer hysteria. At the other extreme, there were skunks, and Casey's curiosity was appropriately acknowledged: she was twice christened, and when she re-entered the house, she couldn't hide her humiliation. While it took weeks for the stench to fade, it only took her a day or two to get her mojo back.

But it was Casey's preoccupation with food that was the thing of legend. In her prime, she was a master thief: creative, crafty, and most of all, persistent. Among her trophies: an entire gingerbread house, loaves of bread, a tin of coca powder, tomatoes from the garden, a pan of brownies, a whole chicken leg (bone and all, stolen at a picnic out of the hand of a guest). Her tastes sometimes strayed from food and included sun glasses, retainers, tar paper, mulch, bar soap, Q tips, paper napkins, candles. Those occasions didn't always end well, but before long, she would be back in the game.

Mark Twain once said, "It's a good thing a dog has fleas, they keep its mind off of being a dog." Maybe there's an analogy here for Casey. She wasn't bored being a dog, she had a mission. Maybe it was her relentless pursuit of the next item of food that kept her youthful and alive for so long; maybe her insatiable appetite actually added years to her existence. Not because of the additional nourishment, but because she was "in the hunt." Maybe that's Casey's legacy for the rest of us: Whatever the pursuit, there is something to always being hungry. 

MJM, 8/14/2011

R.I.P. Casey.

Got news yesterday of this great dog's passing. In honor of a life well fed, er, led, we offer up this vintage post of classic Casey...

Busted!

Newton, NJ, August 2007 - Our exclusive Hidden HackFester Cam caught crafty Casey up to her old tricks -- in this case, sweeping stray Zingerman's bread crusts off the kitchen counter into her mouth. The above photos reveal her time-tested method: Spotting, balancing, reaching, grabbing, gobbling.  As her loyal and long-suffering masters have learned over the years, nothing edible -- from tomatoes to birthday cake to snotty Kleenex (and worse) -- is safe with this insatiably hungry hound in the house.

Better Early Than Never...

Got this apologetic e-card from MJ on 7/24/11, more than a week BEFORE
 our upcoming 30th wedding anniversary.  Note that he has resorted to blaming
poor, decrepit, defenseless Casey for the card's "tardiness."  So sad.

My reply is below card:

Happy (belated) Anniversary! Just a belated good wish for your now past anniversary! Of course we would have been on time with a call, text, or email, had we not be distracted with Casey's continuing loss of body weight; she's now about 30% of her full adult girth. But she still has a ravenous appetite and can still hold herself up, so we trudge on... We hope you enjoyed a wonderful anniversary dinner! XXOO, The Marions _____________ You can tell us in person Mr. Mgoo... our "now past" anniversary  isn't until Monday, August 1. Or you can recast this email to  suggest an early anniversary greeting.... Either way, early or late, we ALWAYS appreciate the thought, Mikey.   wom

The hits just keep on coming...

Delicate Steve's patriarch and publicist passed this along... Click HERE.

A DS-MM Production.

MJ passed this along.  Check it out... 

click me:COLLABORATION.

Happy Hour...

May 2, 2011 - RJ & MJ, hanging at the Delicate Steve Concert,

 the Kennedy Center, Washington DC.  Joining them are a

 couple of longneck Budweisers, that most American of American beers,

 the perfect choice of libations the day after the astounding announcement

by President Obama that (to paraphrase) "Osama bin laden has been

 summarily and permanently dismissed from the premises."

 Well done, boys.  

Directly from our nation's capital...

If you missed Delicate Steve's recent K.C. concert, not a problem.  Click just below, and there you are...

Delicate Steve Live 

Our boy Stevie, seen here trying to give a Delicate twist to Roger
Miller's all-time classic, Dang Me.  He later admitted that it's
tough to improve on perfection.