Nana Courtney would be pissed

I heard a story on NPR this afternoon about how this will be the final year for the National Liberace Society museum in Las Vegas; I guess ten years ago they were booming with over 5 million people visiting each year. Now, they have an average about 35,000 people go to the museum, so it just isnt financially feasible to keep it open. I think my Nana would say otherwise.

If you are not familiar with Liberace, picture what would happen if Harry Connick Jr and Lady GaGa had a baby....then multiply it by seven. Libarace was a PERFORMER, and an amazing piano player. Nana Courtney used to watch Liberace each and every Saturday night (I think it was Saturday) and a lot of people used to make fun of her for it. To be perfectly honest, I think when I was little I was kind of scared of this Liberace person who used to dress up like a psychedelic chicken to play the piano. And now people won't be able to go and see all his pianos and golden shoes and sequin mink jackets and so on.

I wonder if Nana ever took one of her Paragon Bus Tours to go see this museum...

It is funny: I find that as I get older, I am becoming more like my Nana in terms of how I seek out entertainment. My grandmother did a lot of "unconventional" things for fun, and things that made her "famous" in the eyes of her kids and grandkids for how idiosyncratic they were. She was obsessed with her Ellery Queen mystery magazines (which, I can tell you, they still make...because Amanda and have checked them out and thought about getting them). She also was a big radio person, listening to Claprood and Whitley on WHDH (the station that now is a bastion for all kinds of radically stupid talking heads like Howie Carr, et al). And I prefer radio to television ten-to-one. I would much rather listen to a good NPR story or show, or some kind of cool podcast, or some type of neat station on the Wunderradio Application for Amanda's iPod touch.

We are a bit unconventional in how we seek out entertainment, just like my Nana was. I think she would be proud of the way I take after her in terms of my affinity for mysteries and my affection for listening to the radio while drinking a cup of coffee. I guess the biggest difference, though, is that when I drink coffee, I drink COFFEE. Not Sanka. Like she did.

So I guess we are different....