PIANO & VOICE Lessons

05/23/2026

05/23/2026

1976. A movie set in California.
Sidney Poitier meets Joanna Shimkus. She’s 33. He’s 49. Oscar winner. Global icon.

She wasn’t impressed.

“I didn’t care about the fame,” Joanna said years later. “I cared that he listened.”

They marry. Two daughters. 45 years together. Until his death in 2022.

But here’s the part most people never heard:

Sidney proposed to Joanna twice. She said no both times.

The first time: 1974. They were dating. He asked. She laughed.
“I’m not marrying you just because you’re Sidney Poitier,” she told him. “Marry me because you can’t live without me.”

The second time: 1975. He tried again. She said, “Ask me when you mean it.”

The third time, he didn’t ask.
He handed her a folded piece of paper. No ring. Just words.

On it he’d written:
“I’ve been alone in rooms full of people my whole life. With you, I’m home. Don’t answer now. Read this every day for a month. If you still want to leave, I’ll drive you to the airport myself.”

She kept that note.
In her wallet. For 45 years.

They married in 1976.

After he died, Joanna was asked what made it last.
She pulled out the paper. Creased. Faded. Still folded.

“He never asked me to be Mrs. Sidney Poitier,” she said.
“He asked me to be the reason he wasn’t lonely.”

Sidney Poitier — the man who broke every barrier in Hollywood — was terrified of being alone.
And the woman who said “no” twice became the reason he never was.

He carried the weight of history.
She carried his heart. In her wallet. Every day for 45 years.

Digital artwork image inspired by Be Human Be Trend

05/16/2026

05/16/2026

https://youtu.be/c4M2z7lmUKc?si=ZUivvRHTZt7ikJC_

05/16/2026

05/16/2026

Please!
Donate as you can for the
GEORGE FLETCHER MEM. FOUNDATION
FUND for Military Veterans!!!

05/15/2026

Played last week at Hideaway Lake… last week was not easy for me… looking forward to better times…May 2026…
Thx for the foto, Sally and I missed Bill terribly. He wanted me to play there a looong time! Wish it could have been better all the way around! Love you!🥰

05/15/2026

For centuries, scientists believed s***m moved like tiny snakes, pushing themselves forward by whipping their tails side to side.

That idea came from early microscope observations dating back to the 1600s, when Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first described human s***m cells.

But modern 3D imaging technology revealed something surprising. In 2020, researchers using high-speed microscopes discovered that s***m tails actually move asymmetrically, not evenly side to side. Instead of “swimming” like eels or snakes, s***m spin rapidly in corkscrew-like rotations while moving forward.

The reason earlier scientists got it wrong is because traditional microscopes showed movement only in 2D.

From that flat angle, the spinning motion created the illusion of side-to-side swimming. In reality, the s***m rotates constantly while its tail beats unevenly, almost like a spinning drill moving through water.