Two dead celebrities and six exciting tote bags.

Know how I amuse myself when Sam isn’t around and tthere’s much nothing to do? I design tote bags for The Howdygram Store on Zazzle! Yesterday and today I added the following six bags to the store’s growing collection. You should consider buying a few for early Hanukkah presents. Are these cute, or what?

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The Howdygram has two more dead celebrities to acknowledge tonight. First it’s former whackadoodle Mayor Rob Ford of Toronto, age 46, who died two days ago after a two-year battle with liposarcoma and bladder cancer.

Ford was a strangely popular riotous and public drunk — and a crack cocaine user — who was drummed out of office in 2014 after his addictions hit the fan and he started appearing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” When Ford refused to resign, the fed up Toronto City Council voted to rescind Ford’s mayoral powers (except for supermarket ribbon-cutting ceremonies) and transferred all of them to Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly. This was clearly A Very Big Hoo-Hah in Modern Democracy.

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We’re also sorry to announce that Ken Howard, head honcho of the SAG-AFTRA actors’ union and popular star of various TV series, films and Broadway productions dating back to the 1970s. I think my personal favorite Ken Howard role was Thomas Jefferson in the musical 1776. (He played the same part on Broadway and in the film version.) Howard also appeared in two episodes of the decadent mini-series “The Thorn Birds” (1983), where he was badly cast as a German with a stupid accent. Auf wiedersehen, Ken!

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And now for a couple of important news stories from right here at Howdygram headquarters!

I ORDERED A NEW DECORATIVE BENCH. It’s a gorgeous bronze metal thing from Overstock with a swell upholstered seat, and I bought it because I can’t walk from the study to the family room any more without sitting down at the halfway point. The new bench measures 19¼" x 18½" x 40¼" and will fit nicely in the foyer. We actually have decorative benches all over the house due to my mobility issues. (I can’t stand up, I can’t walk and I get dizzy a lot.)

BIG THUNDERSTORMS ROLLED THROUGH HERE TONIGHT. The following screen shot from Weather.com shows the storms around 8:30 p.m. A couple of hours later they were tearing across Mesquite (denoted by the little red star) with lots of thunder, lightning and heavy rain. I’m pleased to report that the roof didn’t blow off and we didn’t detect any flying monkeys.

I WATCHED A WEIRD MOVIE. It was A Song to Remember (1945) — Hollywood’s version of Frédéric Chopin’s life — starring Cornel Wilde, Merle Oberon and Paul Muni. Cornel Wilde deserved an Oscar for his performance; Paul Muni deserved a kick in the ass. He hammed up the part of Joseph Elsner, Chopin’s teacher, and actually looked like a cast-off chimpanzee from Planet of the Apes with his strange facial expressions and an idiotic curly wig. The only saving grace was the MUSIC. Nonstop Chopin played by Jose Iturbi!

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Thank you for reading this. Say hi to the family for me, okay?