Don Knotts was many things.  A gifted comic actor, a multiple Emmy winner, and one of TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.  However, he was not (and I think we can all agree on this) leading man movie star material.  Yet in the '60's, driven no doubt by the popularity of his brilliant portrayal of Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, he WAS the leading man in a handful of popular comedy movies.  As I kid I loved them all, but my favorite was The Ghost & Mr. Chicken."   I had forgotten that, until the movie began calling to me a few weeks ago, first on two different Friend's Facebook pages, and then on one of the premium cable channels.  Ended up recording it, and when I finally sat down to watch it I discovered that the movie really was as funny as I remembered, and what's more, there were some surprises in the picture that I never picked up on as a kid - surprises that had nothing to do with ghosts. If by some chance you've ...

Once in a great while, I think to myself, "Self, sometimes you just let life boss you around and push you where it will!  Why don't you take control for once?"  This is usually followed by some crazy plot twist that I could never write, and I remember that we have so little control... life always has the winning hand up it's sleeve. A lot has happened since I started this blog.  On a whim, we took a tour of a new neighborhood, fell in love with a house, and bought it.  We moved, then spent the last 2 1/2 months getting our old house ready for market.  As of today, the old place is officially sold.  That's a lot in a short period of time, but there was more.  Our niece got married, and we had both of my stepson's and their families staying with us for a few days (NEVER long enough).  A friend who I had worked with off and on for over a decade took her own life.  And, my professional life hit a bit of a bump. There were...