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The two impatiens I repotted appear to be doing well together on the porch. As a young boy in Wisconsin, my parents had a greenhouse business. Perhaps I’m finally connecting with that part of my past.

On my Criterion Channel list is The Small Back Room, from 1949. It’s a lesser-known Powell/Pressburger movie, with the always sublime Kathleen Byron, that I have never watched. As I did for years with Gun Crazy, I’ve delayed watching Hour of Glory, as it’s known in America, because there can only be one first time for everything. Maybe you’ll watch it before I do.

The temperature is coming down, but it’s been just below freezing, so the snow is wet and heavy. “Heart attack snow” to shovel, for some middle-aged and older men who aren’t in good physical condition.

[Last week was I going to publish this post about a joke by old-school stand-up comedian Shecky Greene, but then I put it off. Now I wish I had published it, while at the same time being glad I didn’t, because Shecky died today.]

It’s a perfect joke for multiple reasons:

• • It was based on an actual event
  • It’s very short, with a minimum of only ten words, maybe even nine
  • It requires a certain knowledge, albeit dated, but perfect for its intended Las Vegas audience
  • It’s self-deprecating while also sticking it to someone else
  • It isn’t dirty and there’s no swearing.
  • It’s funny in a way that could have made management uncomfortable

The joke:

Frank Sinatra saved my life…
He said, “that’s enough, boys.”

Ten words. Boom. Perfect.

Tommy Smothers, gone at age 86.

I’m the odd man out among most of my friends, because I’m not a dyed-in-the-laundry Red Sox fan. I enjoyed playing baseball as a kid, at least until needing glasses but, like Stephen Colbert, professional sports doesn’t interest me. I like to go running, and I used to participate in the Boston Marathon, but that’s it.

I am obviously very much into enjoying and appreciating music, to the extent of being a former radio DJ, and yet I’ve never felt much of a connection to Bruce Springsteen. So it’s perhaps semi-ironic that my favorite song by the Boss is “Glory Days”.

What got me started on this was watching “Fenway Park”, the first episode in the PBS series Iconic America, with rich guy David Rubenstein. Next year will be the 20th anniversary of the Red Sox ending the Curse of the Bambino. The documentary makes the case that the curse was less about superstition and Babe Ruth, and more about management and longtime owner Tom Yawkey.