Wannaskan Almanac for Thor’s Day, March 15, 2018

Beatle Paul McCartney was born on Thor’s Day, June 18, 1942.
Beatle George Harrison was born on Thor’s Day February 25, 1943
                                  and died on Thor’s Day November 29, 2001.

Fifty percent of The Beatles were born on a Thor’s Day.

Twenty-five percent of The Beatles died on a Thor’s Day.

Fifty percent of The Beatles weren’t born on a Thor’s Day.

Seventy-five percent of The Beatles haven’t died on a Thor’s Day, as of 4:36 PM CST.

    However, I’m tired of The Beatles. If I never have to look at them again, I’d do just fine. I’m not starting any fan clubs, not whistling any of their lively timeless tunes, not reliving my past through their albums--although many of them do hearken back to specific locations, sights and smells. I’m done with it. Done with them.
 
    You see my wife and I play a game every morning, either cards or a board game like RummiKub® or Scrabble® to keep our minds and eyes sharp as old people need to do. We flip a Sacajawea dollar coin to decide what it is we’re doing that morning: Tails mean cards. Heads mean games. Then we flip it again to determine what is what. Game-wise, it’s simple. Heads mean Rummikub. Tails mean Scrabble.
 
    We call Scrabble, Squabble, because we tend to loudly argue/harangue one another about the other’s word selections or questionable verification. Although we didn’t discuss changing our verbiage beginning in 2018, we both have conscientiously toned down our terminology by merely using words ‘sounding’ like the four-letter words we used so liberally in 2017--although on extremely rare occasions this relatively new year--we’ve been known to slip, so I guess we could call it Squabble Lite this time around.
 
    Card game-wise, we have a number to choose from: Tic, Thirteen, Five Crowns, King’s Corner, Crazy 8s,--and occasionally Five Card stud if we’re terribly bored all around. Striptease poker, although a favorite in our early courting days, has all but dropped out of favor given we’ve aged appreciably since then and no longer individually feel, let’s say, ‘interesting’.
 
    We’ve burned through a few decks of cards doing this. The wife feels the need to change decks every ninety days or so when they get to feeling ‘sticky’ as she calls it, i.e., ‘sticking together in clammy embrace’ or ‘gummy’ as when they stay entwined, not separating easily. She’s always on the look-out for playing card sales, and people send her new playing cards whenever they get the notion, as I did from the sunny coast of Maine, off Deer Isle in 2015. Happening to be in Stonington, just before friend Joe and I set sail to Hull, Mass, I chanced upon a souvenir shop and purchased a deck of cards for my wife’s vast playing card collection that included fifty-two different lobster recipes I was sure she would appreciate, one on each card. What a deal.
 
    Likewise, stumbling about on the rocky coasts of LTD, my wife, God bless her, (not her real name) purely by chance discovered such a deal involving Jeu De Cartes Édition Spéciale: The Beatles,  a two deck set. Wondrous. Their numerals were easily read (an important feature for old eyes--the lobster recipe cards, not so much) and each card included a candid photo of the Fab Four,, some in color, some in black & white.  From short dos and hairless faces, to hairy manes and beards, I’ve shuffled their smiling faces from 1963 to 1970, eight cards depicted 1963, nine depicted 1964, ten of 1965, five of 1966, seven of 1967, six of 1968, five of 1969, two of 1970 in just one deck. At this point, it’s too hideous to fan through the other deck to arrive at the facts.
 
    A person has to feel sorry for them too, constantly made to dress up in gaudy costumes, pose in Tittenhurst Park to look like settlers out west, leaping into the air all at the same time, carrying one of them by arms and legs, Lennon posed with Harrison on his shoulders, standing in Paris as tourists, posed in front of and atop of an American flag in Paris, descending plane steps, performing on the Ed Sullivan Show (where were you?), posing with candles in the dark, standing in snow, Rubber Soul, standing on skis in Austria, three standing one laying, a Beatles poster for their show at Shea Stadium in NYC, a cuddly embrace/group hug pose in the Bahamas, running abreast on the beach in the Bahamas, Paperback Writer, Candlestick Park/1966, a pencil drawing of Revolver, Sgt. Peppers Club Band group photo, Nehru jackets, piano jamming, Magical Mystery Tour repetitive poses, The White Album white card, ditto the portraits, You say you wanna revolution, (The Tet Offensive meant nothing to these guys in 1968), standing amid hollyhocks, wide brimmed hats and dark coats in Tittenhurst Park in 1969, four guys in a boat on the Thames.
 
Let It Be. The end.