Month: September 2026

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Halloween pins are en route

An early Halloween toast to those who are receiving  my annual holiday pins. Yep, the Halloween season beckons. Some already have received the little boxes sent to those on my list. To others, have patience; you’ll get yours shortly.

A sampling of the range of boo! characters are depicted here — ghosts, bats, witches, pumpkins, and even Frankenstein.

‘Twas a fun project, but often a painful mission, since I had to take numerous breaks (read: halt the pin-making) because of my recurring  nerve attacks on my right leg. Yep, the sciatic nerve has been relentlessly active.

The early  Halloween launch, last June, enabled me to map out a creative pin-making schedule to work on moments before and after the pain eruptions. The production,  despite the nagging pain, is virtually done, with the final batch of boxes somewhere in the postal mailing system.

It required a different strategy, when you try to make, make, make the pins, then take breaks, breaks, breaks and rest pauses for the pain to subside.

The effiort enabled me to complete 1,000 pins — yeah, a lot! — and it might have been plentiful, but my mailing list isnearly 100 (I deliver, traditionally, to my handful of doctors, since I have appointments), but only these pins have yet to reach their recipients. 

For insurance, I created 200 additional  pins, in case I ran short (I do) mostly since multiple pins go into each of the little box..

So I’ll take a breather, but rest assured, the Christmas pin project is lurking. I’ll be focusing on Santas and snowmen as Halloween festivities proceed. But I can’t locate my red card stock paper — found the green sheets — so I will have to go out shopping this weekend.

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Mother Nature calls, he answers

If there’s a whim, there’s a way for comedian Frank DeLima, who leaps into the parody-writing game, whenever nature calls. That’s Mother Nature, of course, since she uncorks her stormy weather with flair and like a firefighter, DeLima jumps into action.

This month, DeLima – now a Las Vegas storm trouper of sorts – released “Lala’s Whip,”  even though his storm-related musical parody arrived a skosh tardy, as it was Lowell  who succeeded Lala in the stormy limelight on local TV and national stations like CNN and NBC the past few days.

Frank DeLima

DeLima tapped the theme song of “Gilligan’s Island,” and advocated advanced planning – including  assembling an emergency kit, to survive the threat of wind, rain, and waves of flooding. (Watch the video performance at https://www.facebook.com/wayne.harada.5, Harada’s Facebook page; this site does incorporate video).

“I have an emergency kit, too, since our electricity in Vegas goes out due to high winds,” said DeLima, about the differences in prepping for the arrival of a storm.

 “I was told that there were flash floods in the past (in Vegas) with a clear blue sky above! Storms in the surrounding mountains caused water to empty into the valley,” said DeLima about the differences of impact from Hawaii. 

“Last year we had a hail storm … in the desert! The  ground looked like one truckload of ice in the desert.in the desert! Lasted for 5 minutes.”

He quoted his late Portuguese mom Pearl, who always said, “You nevah know!”

His survival kit included dry fruit and beef jerky from the Las Vegas Jerky store where locals flock to, no matter the weather. And his prep included batteries for lamps, a hand-cranked radio, and other essentials when lights might go out.

So he got dried fruit and beef jerky from the popular Las Vegas Jerky Store 

And batteries for lamps.

A handcrank radio, too.

I researched and found on ine what should be in emergency kit 

And he did a parody of theme song of “Gilligan’s Island”

He sings:

“Just sit right back

“And you’ll hear one song;

“One song with a list of tips

“Giving all the damage reports…

“Let’s learn from Lala’s whip.”

“No dilly dally

“Follow da plan;

“Takes moa

“Den be brave…”

He suggests you pack enough “key stuff that last 14 days or 1,200 hours or more.”

Edibles? Non-perishable food, like chips, jars of jam, peanut butter, protein bars.

Missing from his compilation: tins of  Vienna sausages, a can opener for tuna, and happily, he didn’t forget bottled water…

And that’s Show Biz…