X: I can't see clearly now

Ah, the letter X. Horse racing fans might regard X as the Becher's Brook of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. For sure there are a surprising number of words in the English language that begin with X but how many of them can I say are reasons to be cheerful?

Despite this, X has to be gone through. Our journey from A to Z takes us through X. We've seen off Q and we've still got Z, but by then I'll be so relieved to have made it I'll probably latch on to any word that begins with the letter Z.

But back to X. It's quite straightforward, my letter X reason to be cheerful is X-rays. Discovered by Rontgen in 1895, X-rays have a variety of uses. I suppose two that many of us come in to contact with are for medical purposes enabling doctors to see inside us (note the non-technical description) and for security reasons at airports.

X-rays mark the spot.

I am dreadfully nosy and quite happily look over the shoulder of the X-ray machine operator to see what they can see in the baggage as it passes through. Fortunately, I've never seen anything illicit, that would be a bit too scary just as I'm about to board a plane, but I'm still fascinated by what people do carry in their bags.

So that's X-rays. As a child I was intrigued by the adverts for X-ray specs, which claimed that purchasers would be able to see through clothing. Phwoar! How much did I want a pair of those remarkable specs? Needless to say, my parents were never going to give me money for such frivolities and I never had the necessary cash so all was not revealed.

If I had been able to get a pair of X-ray specs, in my imagination it would have been like the short video that goes with this post's music offering. I'm not entirely sure of the name of any of it. It's labelled X Ray Glasses.

• Question: Were you lucky enough to get a pair of the X-ray specs I so much wanted as a child? Did they work? Please say they did and tell us what you saw in the comment section while at the same time bearing in mind that this is NOT an adult content blog.

* Picture of X-ray scanner by User:Mattes (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

J: Shake, wobble and roll

Back to eating for this reason to be cheerful. And also, in a sense, back to childhood. J is for jelly.

A glow in the dark jelly.

It's probably just as well at this stage to do a bit of what Wikipedia calls disambiguation. The jelly I am referring to is the slightly wobbly, gelatinous fruity concoction which is a must at children's parties, especially if served with ice cream. I am not talking about what I understand Americans call jelly, which I would call jam. There, is that clear?

Having said that, it has been pointed out to me by Mrs C that if a British person made jam and strained out the fruit pieces the product would be called jelly rather than jam. It's confusing up to a point, but I suppose the thing to bear in mind is that we are talking about nice things to eat.

In my book, jelly must taste strongly of the fruit it contains and its consistency must be just so. Not too firm, not too runny. It should also be the case that if the jelly was made in a large bowl from which portions are being served the spoon taking the jelly from the large bowl ought to make a farty sound. As I said, jelly is something I associate with children's parties, so it puts me in an immature frame of mind.

Probably only one bit of music that should go with this post and that's It Must Be Jelly Cause Jam Don't Shake Like That. 

• Question: Do you like jelly? If not, what food must a children's party have to be successful? 

* Jelly picture by Jellorama (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

B is for Beatles

Right, first off a couple of things. Number one, strictly speaking they were The Beatles, so it might be argued they, and countless other snazzy pop combos, should fit in at the letter T. Well not on this blog they don't, so save your breath, I'm not arguing about it.

Secondly, and this is where I might fall out with all sorts of people, I don't really like the Beatles. It's not that I can't stand the sound of them, but they just don't get me going. But that is not what this series of postings is about. It's about memories arising from music.

For the Beatles the memory is of me being aged about six or seven and charging round a small department store called Dawsons in Whitstable singing/bellowing She Loves You, which as some of you will recall, includes the chance to chant "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" The strange thing about this is that She Loves You was a major chart success in 1963 which was several years before my family moved to the Kent town of Whitstable. I can only conclude that I liked the Beatles enough in those days to commit some of their songs to my youthful memory.

Anyway, not a big fan of the Beatles, who were "just a band", and here's a song to show that.

Also-rans: James Brown performing Get Up Offa That Thing. Reason: I'd quite like this played at my funeral and when I've told people that, they've laughed, which makes me smile. So it's a strangely happy memory. I'd also like Bare Necessities from Disney's Jungle Book cartoon played at my funeral, but we can talk about that later, much later.

For more on the A to Z Challenge go to: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/