Brabec Bulletin Tidbits on Life
April 15, 2026
A Lumberyard Full of Story Material
Are the End Times Near?
Music in the Public Domain
COVID, The Spanish Flu, and Hot Toddy Recipes
Hilarious Piano/Violin Performance
<=><=><=>
A Lumberyard Full of Story Material
Are you thinking about writing a family memoir? One of my favorite novelists is David Baldacci. Although he is best known for his suspense novels, I found his book, Wish You Well (Warner Books, 2000), to be both a wonderful work of fiction and an oral history of where and how his mother grew up in the mountains of southwestern Virginia. As a great nostalgia buff and family historian, I related strongly to Baldacci’s introductory remarks about how this book came to be written:
“We live in a time now where everyone seems to be solely looking ahead, as though we deem nothing in the past worthy of our attention. The future is always fresh and exciting, and it has a pull on us that times past simply can never muster. Yet it may well be that our greatest wealth as human beings can be ‘discovered’ by simply looking behind us. I’ve spent the last twenty years or so hunting relentlessly for story material, and utterly failed to see a lumberyardful within my own family."
If you’re thinking about or have already started to write a family memoir, I urge you to read my article, “How to Write a Good Memoir,” which tells how the book, Your Life as Story, helped me write my memoir, The Drummer Drives! Everybody Else Rides. It contains a wealth of tips and ideas you can put to immediate use.
Are the End Times Near?
Jeff Kinley is the author of The End of America? Bible Prophecy and a Country in Crisis. In an interview with CBN’s Faithwire, he said that much about AI remains to be seen, though he detailed some potential cautions. The video of this interview is titled “How Artificial Intelligence Could Intersect With Antichrist, Prophecy.”
“One of the biggest concerns is that AI replaces human intelligence,” Kinley said. “We are moving, as a society, towards replacing humanity in just about every way possible — replacing human labor, human thought, human writing, trying to pretty much put humanity to the margins of the narrative here. But the thing about AI that’s so frightening or potentially frightening is that there’s talk of this bioengineering, these nanorobots implanting within humanity.”
Music in the Public Domain
Ever wondered if you could use the lyrics to a song in a book without worrying about copyright infringement? Many writers do not know that song lyrics are copyrighted, and writers must get permission to use even one line in a book. The music industry is particularly vigilant about going after violators, so don’t do this.
The good news is that thousands of old songs are now in the public domain, and you can search for them on PD Info (Public Domain Information Project). This site contains a wealth of music-related copyright information, but what most of you might want is this “List of Public Domain Music.” Any song published in 1928 or earlier is in the Public Domain in the USA, and you can quickly search for song titles on this page.
Note that “sound recordings” are a different thing entirely. They couldn’t begin to enter the public domain until January 1, 2022, and due to the extended copyright protection given to creators, the first ones won’t enter the public domain until 2046. But if you really need a sound recording, there are many music recordings and MIDI files that can be licensed as “royalty-free music.” With payment of a reasonable one-time license fee, you can use the music repeatedly without further charge.
This article by Steffanee Wang explains what you need to know about sharing lyrics online, who owns lyrics, and how to make sure you’re not infringing on someone’s copyright.
COVID, The Spanish Flu, and Hot Toddy Recipes
When my high-school chum, Glen Walder, was researching the history of his family in central Illinois for background material for stories he was writing, he shared the following observations with me.
“I am totally amazed at the strength and perseverance of our ancestors. For instance, the 1918 Spanish flu did not shut the country down as it did during COVID, which brought to mind George Orwell’s novel, 1984, and how our political leadership so quickly fell in love with authoritarian practices and policies. Thank God the internet and social media did not exist in 1918. A sidebar note: I also find it interesting that the 1930 U.S. Census included the question of whether a radio was in the residence. At least our ancestors did not have to endure being propagandized by media sources and others with a communication blizzard.”
My Grandpa Williams survived the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918–1920 that claimed the lives of 676,000 people in the U.S. and between 50-100 million worldwide. Grandpa, who lived to be 88, told my mother that he believed the only thing that kept him from getting the flu was a hot toddy every night.
It might surprise you to know that bootleg whiskey became a respectable medicine during the 1919 pandemic. At that time, prohibition laws were in effect in half the states. You might find this article of interest since there are many similarities to COVID-19.
Just for fun, I Googled “benefits of a hot toddy” and found this: “Hot water relieves nasal congestion, honey can help soothe sore throats and suppress coughs, and the vitamin C in lemon juice helps to reduce phlegm. As long as you continue drinking water and other non-alcoholic fluids, there is little risk to the occasional Hot Toddy.” Here are suggestions on how to create your own special toddy, with several variations.
A Hilarious Piano/Violin Performance
This marked 20 years of performance for this amazing duo. The video is titled “ULTIMATE FINALE from Igudesman & Joo's final show: CODA The Final Nightmare,” and it needs no further explanation. If you need a laugh and appreciate fine musicianship, you’ll love it.
<=><=><=>
Back to
Archived Tidbits on Life T/C