My friend asked me, "Quick! Quick! What's the ninth letter of the alphabet?"

I admit that I guessed, but I was right.

My family likes to sing carols during the holidays. Alas, I have a cold this year, so when I offered to lead one of the carols, my cousin suggested that I sing away in a manger...

Far, far away, in a manger.

"A-A-R-P, I wanna join the A-A-R-P..."

"Hey Joe, what's that you're singing?"

"I'm one of the Retirement Village People, and I'm practicing for our upcoming concert!"

A long time ago, while traveling in north Africa, I fell in love with the cuisine so I bought cookbook while I was in Morocco.

When I came back to the States -- that's what we experienced travelers call America -- I made some of the recipes. The one for biscuits called for fresh thyme, but I only had an old jar of dried stuff so I used it and added a tad extra water. We chefs learn to adapt.

The biscuits turned out well; as I reminisce, I liked that old thyme Moroccan roll.