Summertime

The Long, Hot Summer. The African Queen. Lawrence of Arabia. Yes, like some old William Faulkner novel, the heat is on. You know how people tell you to think cool thoughts when the temperature starts rising - just put Schubert's Winterreise on the stereo and think about frozen lakes and deep banks of snow they tell ya. Well, that doesn't work and never has. I think the best thing to do is put on some summer music and go with the flow.

Hot fun in the summertime
Hot fun in the summertime

I love that song. Good ol' Sly Stone knew what the summer was all about.

End of the spring
And here she comes back
Hi hi hi hi there
Well, summer days
Those summer days
That's when I had most of my fun back
Hi hi hi hi there
Well, summer days
Those summer days
I'd lie down when I want to
Out of school
County fair in the country sun
And everything is cool

Ok, let's everybody sing it.

Hot fun in the summertime
Hot fun in the summertime
Hot fun in the summertime
Hot fun in the summertime

No, they don't write 'em like they used to. That's the problem with rap music. I'd like to like it, but somehow when they start singing about "I'm gonna kill you bitch" I lose interest. Give me a little of that "Hot fun in the summertime" anyday.

Movies are a different matter though. Face it, it's just plain uncomfortable to sit there sweltering and watch a movie like Bridge on the River Kwai to see a bunch of other people sweltering too. Let me tell ya, seeing those British soldiers sweating and fainting in the jungles of Burma is not a good way to pass a hot summer night. Although I love that scene where the Japanese Colonel Saito stands up before the troops to make his little pep speech. Don't know if you remember it, but these British troops have just arrived in a POW camp exhausted and half-dead after a brutal forced march through the jungle in a withering heat, and the colonel, standing there is a crisp, dry uniform, tells them that they are going to be put to work on a bridge over the River Kwai, and to remember to "be happy in your work." I love that. It reminds me so much of some company meetings I've been to.

Hot fun in the summertime

You go Sly.

Milpitas

The sign in front of the Milpitas City Hall says that Milpitas is fifty years old, so it seems to me that congratulations are in order. Something to commemorate a city I've been acquainted with almost all my life. Well, what can I say? Sure, it's a suburban wasteland just like hundreds of other suburban wastelands, but there must be something noble about it, something worthy of praise.

I'm thinking...

Well, let me just say this. It doesn't smell nearly as bad as it used to. I mean, the County landfill is still out there, but the smell doesn't carry the way it once did, and believe me, as someone who grew up downwind from a chicken farm I know about smells. There are people who tell you they know smells, but they don't know anything until they've spent a hot summer night downwind from a couple of thousand chickens. No sir, they're just amateurs in my book.

So, happy fiftieth Milpitas. Yes, I know you've been the butt of a lot of jokes over the years, but the fact is that you're all grown up now. You're hi-tech, and chances are that anyone who owns a computer or digital device has a little piece of technology built or researched in Milpitas right there with him. You've got the Great Mall, McCarthy Ranch, a Walmart, a Mervyn's and even an Embassy Suites Hotel. You've got parks and restaurants and major highways, movie theaters and the new light rail. Yep, you're all grown up, and best of all, you got rid of that awful smell.