A couple days ago, with my helper Isaac, I was preparing triplefruit trail mix: a large pouch of commercial trail mix — of almonds, cashews, and (dried) cranberries — with added packs of (dried) blueberries and cherries. (A couple handfuls of this trail mix is then added to some granola — rolled oats with almonds, raisins, cranberries, and pecans — to make a bowl of my breakfast cereal, which is, finally, moistened with yogurt and milk. Fiber, fruits, nuts, probiotics, and yumminess.
Assembling the trail mix involves dumping the pouch of commercial mix and the packets of dried fruits into a large plastic container, fixing the top firmly on the container, and then getting its contents thoroughly mixed, by turning and shaking the container briskly, over and over.
Trail mixing is noisy, energetic, and surprisingly entertaining. You are moved to treat the stuff in its container as a percussion instrument, to sway your hips a bit, and to contemplate breaking into song. This time, Isaac and I had the very same inspiration:
Shake it up, baby … Twist and shout … Come on and work it on out
Oh yeah! There’s a musical score for trail mixing, and it’s glorious.
Listen to the trail mixing. Here I think you should listen to the two canonical performances:
— the Isley (/ˈaɪzli/) Brothers in 1962, here (Wikipedia on the Isleys here)
— the Beatles (with video) from 1963, here (not so much a cover of the Isleys, but more like a replication)
For contrast, listen to the cover, here, by the Mamas & Papas (on Deliver, 1967), instantly recognizable as the Mamas & Papas, and not even slightly Black. (For reasons having to do with my history, this is the version I hear in my head.)
The song. The crucial lyrics:
Well, shake it up, baby, now (shake it up baby)
Twist and shout (twist and shout)
Come on, come on, come, come on, baby, now (come on baby)
Come on and work it on out (work it on out)
From Wikipedia:
“Twist and Shout” is a 1961 song written by Phil Medley and Bert Berns (later credited as “Bert Russell”). It was originally recorded by The Top Notes, but it did not become a hit in the record charts until it was reworked by the Isley Brothers for their album Twist & Shout in 1962. The song has been covered by several artists, including the Beatles [on their 1963 album Please Please Me], Salt-N-Pepa, and Chaka Demus & Pliers, who experienced chart success with their versions.
What’s in your trail mix? My trail mix is not only triple-fruit (cranberries, blueberries, cherries) but also double-nut (almonds and cashews). Adding the granola adds one fruit (raisins, plus more cranberries) and one nut (a few pecans). Separately, I sometimes have unsalted dry-roasted peanuts as a snack, so I get four nuts in my diet.
Meanwhile, I am regularly quizzed, by nurses and doctors, about what I eat, what kind of exercise I get, and how I arrange my daily life. A lot of these interviews end up with my being told that what I’m doing is (to put it nicely) less than optimal, so I should change. Occasionally, I’m told that what I’m doing is just right and I should keep it up, but people offering advice are inclined to push at things that (in their opinion) should be changed, since if they don’t they haven’t actually offered any suggestions and that wouldn’t be doing their job, now would it?
I find this attitude unhelpful and annoying, and it has led to some anxiety on my part — can I ever satisfy these people? — and to a recurrent unpleasant dream in which I’m asked about which nuts I eat, so I say almonds, cashews, and peanuts (and some pecans), and the authority counters that that’s not bad, but walnuts, hazelnuts, and Brazil nuts would be much better. This is of course absurd, but in the dream it makes me very unhappy; I have failed at the simple task of choosing which nuts to eat. I have been weighed in the balance and found wanting,
But I persist in my habits.
April 13, 2026 at 8:24 am |
“…which nuts I eat.”
“Nurse, I nibble on men’s testicles. ” LOL
April 13, 2026 at 8:41 am |
Ah, nutsucking (aka ballsucking). A sexual topic I don’t think I’ve blogged about, though it’s been the source of considerable pleasure for me, both giving and getting, and now figures prominently in my sexual fantasies. Delicate and sweet, it deserves an elegant name.