AS 2023 APPROACHES, SOME FAMILY PHOTOS & SOME ROCK SOLID EXPECTATIONS FOR A HAPPY NEW YEAR

This is a Happy New Year Edition of Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap, our long-running weekend feature at readlarrypowell.com. We predict 2024 will present calorie-free health-enhancing milk chocolate, pizzas with extra cheese and no-cal cornbread and butter. Wait, I think I got that from an old wish list.
Back to the future presently. 
That’s Porche Noel this week, snoozing on her bed in our office — “our” being me, Porche and William Powell The Office Cat. (On the left, that is a photo of William when we met -- before he moved in -- in 2018 -- when he was a neighborhood wander-up helping me paint the wooden trim on our ol' Oak Cliff home.
 Hard worker -- grew up to take on a leadership role in the office. Paid his taxes, I was told.)
Like many of you, we could feature dozens of family animals from our collection of photographs through the years. No particular reason I’ve picked these photos.
Except that they remind me of happy times and we’ll all need a foundation for happy times in the approaching year 2023. 
[LARRY ASIDE: Pretty much had enough of 2022, though there’ll be fond moments I will recall — maybe — if I leave politics out of my mental processes. Martha and I have been “enjoying” Covid lately, so there’s no telling what’ll be left when we finally clear the dust out of our brainpans. I suspect that Martha’s theory is accurate --that the only thing actually in my brainpan is layers of dust that blew in during extended stays in newspaper newsrooms in the '60s and '70s. The '80s and '90s were computerized, so the dust was diminished.]
Also, that photo of Porche Noel out like a light on the back of the couch at our old house in Oak Cliff (in 2017) indicates more of a “goal of mine” than a “daily nap” by a beloved dog. (Porche has many daily naps. On the left, she is overseeing one of Martha's naps and about to launch a nap of her own. And just below you can see that Porche has a set of white eyelashes on the bottom lid of her right eye. Might have to blow it up -- but it's so darned cute, I can't resist smooching her beautiful face sometimes. Yeah, I'm an animal nut. Proudly.)
If I could balance on the back of a couch during a fit of insomnia, you’d find me there — only I’d be facing the TV and have a remote clenched in my paw, er, hand. An insomniac must always have a plan. For example, I’m probably going to rewatch the 4 seasons of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel before the fifth and final season debuts sometime in 2023. Bright and funny stuff —Rachel Brosnahan is Midge Maisel and Tony Shalhoub (Thank you for Monk!) has a meaty part as her daddy. Lots of good actors.
Speaking of good actors. Last weekend I began an unofficial “series” of photos of “Animals Not Dudley Sleeping In Dudley’s New Bed” — finally got this photo of Dudley the Angel’s running buddy, Wendy, snoozing away in the Dudley’s bed. That's Dudley's mug shot on the left.
Wendy, you may recall, is the “call name” for Wednesday Louise Wagstaff Arden, named in honor of the characters played by Irene Dunne (1940’s My Favorite Wife with Cary Grant) and Doris Day (1963’s Move Over, Darling with James Garner). …

Back to “Fond Moments of ’22 I’ll Recall.” They generally involve kids and grandkids, i.e., not mine in all cases, but some lovely additions to families I know. There's a young girl on the East Coast named Waylon, a young boy on the West Coast named Duke and a newborn great-grandchild named Lainey Jo who has definite Dallas roots, i.e., a link to the State Fair of Texas. 
May they all have an extraordinarily Happy New Year. Oh, and that's a 1972 copy of a photo of a formerly young newspaper writer/editor and his twins, Bart on the left and Bret on the right. Bart is right-handed and Bret is left-handed. Both love dogs. My hair was once black. And that photo on the left shows how Wendy can get some sleep without getting onto Dudley's bed -- she's stretched out on Martha's lap while they both snooze in front of the TV. It's a system.
By the way, we wish the very best of a New Year for the folks at the great State Fair of Texas and Dallas’ Fair Park. Preservation work and enhancement work being done at Fair Park is a great demonstration of appreciation for Dallas’ past, present and future.
Yeah, I’m a sap for Fair Park — a great place to visit and think. [LARRY ASIDE: One of my favorite places to walk through and study the past is the African America Museum of Dallas — it’s a fantastic presentation, inspiring a grown-up person to weep with joy and, also, weep at the horror of our pasts, too. It’s a history lesson for people who need to know more about their town and the good people who helped build it.] Honestly, Fair Park is loaded with great places for learning. And, maybe, the whole darned metro area is a great place for learning if we’ll just take some time to slow down enough to examine what we’re looking at. This Dallas/Fort Worth area isn’t just a “former farm run by pioneers,” this is a collection of cities benefitting from a vibrant gathering of people who want to make life better for themselves, their neighbors and the kids not yet born. It is the land of ambition. It is not without grand dreams and triumphs. Whoa, thinkin’ about all that’ll keep an insomniac up nights and daytime, too.
As I learned from The Senator in his workout classes, a growing city needs to stay fit, be limber and ready to move swiftly at a moments notice while respecting the rhythm of the dynamics of organized progress. That is The Senator as he was preparing to teach his "Wise Workouts Class" when he was younger. Bless his late soul! I miss him daily.

 We’re going to close with a favorite photograph from earlier in this decade. That is my beloved — so beloved I’m tearing up while typing this — counselor and companion The Senator. He was a wander-up cat who came into our Dallas home in 2008. His name was “The Senator” because his hairline indicated he’d undergone hairplug implants as so many members of the Upper House of Congress had done many years ago. His demeanor was that of a gentleman of our national legislature and we had the honor of living with him until March of 2022 — one of several feline and canine family member we lost in 2022. 
As you can see in one photo, The Senator claimed the top rung in the Sleeping Rocker — Porche piled up on our late boy Earl, the Rescued Rottie. That is a chairful of congeniality.
 
But we’re going to close with this “reminder” photo. That is The Senator who posed while wearing a watch in an effort to remind us all to waste no time in being upbeat, happy, gleeful and positive about making 2023 the best year we’ve yet since Y2K on this really curious planet Earth. 

If I don’t win Lotto Texas with my “lucky numbers” on New Year's Eve, may all of you win a little bit with your numerical selections!
A winning lotto ticket might help an insomniac find something new to worry about instead of sleeping!
And, yes, Dear Readers, if you’ve gotten this far into this edition, I adore you with all my heart. If you didn’t get this far, give it another shot. You can read this entire edition, smile at the animals and never once wonder if there are secret messages to foreign agents. This is written by Larry Powell, not The Ghost of Ian Fleming. (That’s a James Bond gag, for those of you who don’t read spy novels from the previous century.)
[DEAR READERS, I KNOW YOU’VE GOT GREAT PHOTOS of your slumbering dogs and cats! Send copies of those pictures and tell us about the sleeping dogs, napping cats, snoozing whatever critters you’ve got — email the info and pictures to [email protected] and we’ll post their stories and why you love them in our long-running weekend feature Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap. We love to tell people about your critters. Your story may help someone decide to give a home to a dog or/and a cat. You may also help an insomniac get some sleep, if he can just find the right wristwatch to balance on top of his head as he tries to nod off while binge-watching hit cable shows. Thanks. And Happy New Year to you all!
And here’s a mystery gift: It’s a link to the traditional New Year closing of ABC News with anchor David Muir, one of the most touching versions ever of Auld Lang Syne and nobody can identify just who the artist is. It has a special staying power other versions don’t enjoy. Click HERE
https://youtu.be/L85bGSX0Dsk?t=1 . You'll have to listen to an anchorman's message, but, honetly, the closing song is warmly listenable.]
—- Offer wit for the new year by clicking on ‘comment’ below or by emailing [email protected] and put ‘YOU AIN’T NO NEW YEAR’S BABY, LARRY’ in the subject line. —-