Holy Cow! I can't believe it has been so long since I've added to my blog! Things have been incredibly busy, as I'm sure they have been for most of you. It's a full time job just trying to survive these tough economic times!

UPDATE: Bear was found! He went to PAWS Animal Shelter and they found him a great new home within two weeks! Though I have no way to contact his new owners, they were kind enough to call me and let me know he had a forever home with home with them. I couldn't be happier for the little guy!

HELP! Since things have been so difficult financially for so many people, I am asking you all to please write in with ideas on how to save money. We could all benefit from things you may be doing to save money or make extra cash.

My money saving info for today is: Aluminum has gone up in price, so save those cans (most cat food cans are also made of aluminum, BTW) and cash them in! A penny saved is a penny earned! Click on "comments" below this article to add yours or view ideas from others.

Video Of Bear

Hello! Please help us find Bear. Read the story below and please pass it on in any way you can as soon as possible. Time is of the essence! Every minute counts! Thank you!

This Christmas, we tried to do something nice. There was this dog who was living outside in rural Missouri. Several people got together to bring the dog back here to Chicago to a new and loving home, just in time for Christmas. The process of finding him a home took a few months, and coordinating the three legs of the trip took some effort, but finally, FINALLY, last week we did it! Bear, a two year old beagle mix found a lifelong loving home in Oak Park. Great story, right?

Well, having lived outside for all of his young life, Bear did not have any training and on Thursday, he pulled too hard on his leash and got loose. Terrified, he ran with the lease dragging behind him, and ran, and ran. His new owners searched for him for hours, and called local shelters, the police, everyone they could think of. He still has not been found. The two little girls who thought they had a new friend for Christmas are heartbroken. It will not be Christmas for them without Bear.

Please help us to find Bear! The whole purpose of bringing him here was to give him a good loving home where he would be warm and fed and loved. He is probably out there somewhere scared to death of the big city and doesn't know his way home. Won't you please pass this to everyone you know on Facebook, Twitter, Email, any way possible and help Bear find his way home for Christmas? He is a beautiful young dog with a loving spirit.

A dog expert that I know, recommends offering him a McDonalds burger (no onions as they are toxic for dogs). He was still wearing a red harness and if you try to catch him you would have to be careful that he doesn't pull backwards or he will be able to pull out of the harness. He could be hiding under a house, in someone's garage or shed. He may be too scared to come to you, so please call me right away if you see him. Thank you so much for caring!

Thank you.
Dancy Bateman
847-710-3987

Random Acts of Kindness

During these difficult economic times, it can be hard to take our focus off of our own problems. However, there is so much we can each do to bring happiness to others, which in turn can bring happiness to ourselves. Please check out this link to Random Acts of Kindness that we can ALL do.

And remember, when someone does something nice for you - pay it forward! You will be amazed at how a small act of kindness can make a big difference!

http://www.actsofkindness.org/images/downloads/original/RAK_group_and_individual_ideas.pdf

You may have to cut and paste this to your browser.
Thanks for reading my blog, and have a GREAT day!!!

Folk Remedies

Great new folk remedies by my friend the Snow Leopard! If the link below does not work, please cut and paste to your browser.

http://the-snow-leopard.blogspot.com/2009/10/random-acts-of-folk-remedies-or-mother.html?showComment=1254779555721#c2379774620612096189

What other folk remedies might benefit others? Would love to post them here!

Mother Nature Knows Best

Check out this link to see how some schools are putting a new plan into action - breakfast and lunch plans, that is!

http://www.therealfoodchannel.com/page/31.html

Please cut and paste to your browser.

Johnny Crawford

Last night while watching Svengooli's feature film The Village of the Giants, I recognized one of my old TV favorites, Johnny Crawford, from The Rifleman. Out of curiosity, I searched the web for information on what became of him. Here is what I found:


You wouldn't think a former rodeo cowboy would end up leading a dance band that specializes in music from the '20s and '30s, but readers may recognize the name Johnny Crawford for another reason: For five years, Crawford played Mark McCain, Chuck Connors' son on one of the most memorable Westerns from the early years of network TV, "The Rifleman."

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Crawford, now 63, has amassed a lengthy resume over the years. In addition to his current job leading the Johnny Crawford Dance Orchestra, he's an Army veteran, stage and film actor, former teenage heartthrob and one of the Mouseketeers from the first season of "The Mickey Mouse Club" in 1955.

Those who remember Crawford on that show (Disney dropped his option when they pared the kiddie crop from 24 to 12 after 1955) or his Emmy-nominated role in "The Rifleman" may wonder how Crawford managed to survive the pressures of being a child star and, in his teenage years, a pop star ("Daydreams," "Patti Ann," "Cindy's Birthday"). But talk to him now and you'll quickly understand why: It has to do with the combination of a centered upbringing and having so many other interests he probably never had time to crash and burn.

"I always say that life is not easy for anybody," he says by phone from his Los Angeles office. "People hear about the young actors who have a rough life, but there are plenty of other kids who aren't actors who have a rough time, too, and I don't know if the ratio is any different."

In the late '80s, a two-year stint as a vocalist for Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks convinced Crawford that he could make a living performing the music from the '20s and '30s that he obsessively loves. He formed his dance orchestra in 1990 and is reissuing the band's 2008 CD, "Sweepin' the Clouds Away" this month. It's already available online and will be in record stores by June 16, his publicist swears, although Crawford the perfectionist is still tinkering with it.

Musical family

Crawford came by his musical interest through family ties. His paternal grandfather had been a jockey in Chicago, but a fall from a horse redirected his career toward music. He became first a song plugger and later an important music publisher. Although he died before Crawford was born, his grandfather left a trove of sheet music and original recordings that his grandson fell in love with.

"My parents bought a record player for my brother (former actor Bobby Crawford) and me, for our room, and I grew up playing these dance band records - Eileen Stanley recordings, Paul Whiteman. I just loved 'em."

Inevitably, as he became a teenager, he "got sidetracked by Johnny Ray and Frankie Laine, but then I would every once in a while put on one of those old dance band records. And early on I remember thinking, this is really wonderful and it doesn't sound like any of this other stuff I was hearing."

His mother's side of the family was also musical, he adds. His maternal grandfather was a violinist who became concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic in 1918 and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the late '20s, and his mother was a classically trained pianist who continued to play at home even after she developed her acting career.

When Crawford was just 5, a producer wanted to cast him in a stage play.

"My mother, who was still doing theater work around L.A. at the time, was not comfortable with the idea of us getting into acting," Crawford says. "She was afraid it would lead to disappointment. So they put it to me. I felt kind of guilty that I should want to do it, but I said, 'Yeah, I'd like to do that.' "

One of first Mousketeers

After a number of small parts in film, theater and TV, he was tapped as one of the original Mouseketeers when Disney unleashed the daily "Mickey Mouse Club," in glorious black and white, and changed the whole notion of children's TV in the United States. For millions of Baby Boomer kids, even more than "Howdy Doody," "Hopalong Cassidy" or "Kukla, Fran and Ollie," "Mickey Mouse" became destination TV.

Although disappointed to lose the Mouseketeer gig, Crawford kept working between 1956 and the start of "The Rifleman" in 1958. Like lots of kids in the '50s, Crawford was nuts about Westerns, but he kept getting overlooked for those parts because he didn't look like the blond, muscular idea of an American kid. Finally, a role in what he calls "a grade-B movie that was really a grade-C movie," "The Courage of Black Beauty," enabled him to learn to ride horses, and that made him more attractive when the next big Western part came along.

"The Rifleman" was originally an episode of "The Zane Grey Theater," a TV series produced by former film crooner Dick Powell. As excited as he was to be doing a Western, Crawford was just as thrilled to be working for Powell because he was already a fan of music and film musicals from the '20s and '30s. Powell at first thought the 12-year-old "was putting him on," Crawford says, "when I asked him about 'Hollywood Hotel.' "

After "The Rifleman" ended, Crawford kept working, snagging roles in TV and film. He has more than 60 TV credits to his name, appeared in films such as "El Dorado" and "The Naked Ape," spent two years in the Army before his discharge in 1967 and then turned to stage work until he formed the orchestra.

Although Crawford keeps contact information for some 500 musicians he can call on to work with the orchestra, it's not always as easy as just picking up the phone.

"Trying to play the music in an authentic style that is no longer used is a real challenge, and I find I have better luck with younger musicians," he concedes. "They don't have as much attitude."

Authenticity is important to Crawford's music, which is why many of the familiar songs on his album, such as "Isn't It Romantic" and "You Were Meant for Me," may not sound like the versions we heard at our cousin's wedding or even on original recordings and old films. One reason has to do with the limitations of early recording equipment. But the real difference has to do with the orchestrations, Crawford explains. Today, "wedding bands" will offer predictable arrangements of classic songs in a single key. But the original orchestrations were far more complicated, with key and tempo changes that might vary from orchestra to orchestra.

More to the point, the orchestrations were meant for unamplified performances in concert halls and hotel ballrooms that were specifically designed for orchestral performances.

"My CD is really about the orchestrations," Crawford says. "This music is so rich, and what's exciting is that, because of the Internet and iTunes, young people can discover it for the first time."

Today, Johnny Crawford lives in Los Angeles and is separated from his wife, Charlotte, the high school sweetheart he reconnected with in 1990 and married five years later.

These days, rodeos and "The Rifleman" may be behind him, but you don't get the idea he's wallowing in the past.

Except, of course, for the music he's loved since he was just a little kid, playing his grandfather's old 78s on his bedroom record player.

"Sweepin' the Clouds Away" is available at www.cdbaby. com.

Hear a young Johnny Crawford sing Cindy's Birthday

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=36155903

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/07/PK4E17UQVU.DTL#ixzz0RgrjQcT6

Free Clothing!

What a great idea my friend had! Host a clothing exchange in your home or church.

Here's how it works: Everyone brings clothes in good condition that they or members of their family no longer wear. Whomever brings items to exchange gets to look through the clothing, try things on, choose whatever clothing they would like to take home, and enjoy each others company. If there are any clothes left at the end of the evening, it can be donated to the charity of your choice. This is a great way to get rid of clothes you no longer wear and get new ones without spending any money! With Fall emerging, this is an especially good time to trade seasonal clothing.

For a little twist, you can have everyone bring a nonperishable food donation for your local food pantry. Many food pantries are struggling and with the colder months just ahead, it is only going to get worse. You can do this with food, toiletries, or anything that someone else can use.

To put a different spin on the exchange, make it a theme centered around children. Bring their outgrown clothes or toys. You can even work out play dates or offer to exchange babysitting services.

What other kinds of ideas can you come up with? We would love to hear from you!