I was culling books in the attic Saturday

Oh the things you find.

Four copies of Volume I, number 1 of "Parnassus" the literary magazine of Northern Essex Community College, from 1966 or so. Why four copies I hear the yowl? Well, (sheepish shuckens ensues) there are several chunks of juvenilia from Yrs Trly, and I was on the staff of the mag. We invented it. Was fun. Also on the staff was Tom Sexton, well known poet, professor, and former Poet Laureate of Alaska (honest). Knew Tom well, he was a hoot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Sexton

Also in the rummagem, lots of Christie, and incredible array of miscellany, a copy of the "War Log" of the USS New Jersey from WWII, my dad's ship, and his copy of Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle, inscribed "To George from Greta, Christmas 1925."

No idea who Greta was but apparently Little George was doing ok at 14 back there in Leominster.

Did you know that TASER (that ray gun that reduces the perps to yowling jelly on "Cops") is an acronym? I always figured it was, but it stands for "Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle." That's what I've heard, anyway - you could look it up. I may have to read that book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taser

"That music, used to make me smile..."

and I know that some of the (few & dwindling) folk who check in here from time to time share some of my affections, but I know some of the folks have their own likes etc. and I'm wondering about them.
As if anyone didn't know, I'm a folkie at heart, so The Weavers and The Kingston Trio and all the names of The Great Folk Scare, are sacred to me.
But I also grew up as a kid of folks who came of age in the Depression and WWII - so Swing and Big Band (and they are different) are very special to me as well. The audio wallpaper to my very earliest memories is not Glenn Miller (though he's in the background) but Patti Page and Perry Como, who were current when I was a tad. Later I grew an appreciation of Miller slightly later, (and even stronger) Benny Goodman. So those are my faves of that era.
Later yet I became acquainted with an even earlier era - that of the 30s, and "Hot Jazz" and that where I met Grapelli and Reinhardt who are today heroes of mine for the genre they invented & mastered.
I have no affection for "cool jazz" or "be-bop" in the vein of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. I hear their stuff and I'm enough (just barely) of a musician to recognize the importance of what they did nd how the shifted things, but the bottom line is, they (Bird and Diz and miles etc.) don't make me smile.
Django and Stephane make me smile. Benny & Krupa make me smile. The Trombones of G. Miller in the break of Moonlight Serenade or In The Mood make me smile - always. Just like a piano rag of Joplin makes me smile, without fail.
What artists of which genres make you smile? I'm especially interested in hearing from the folks I know who drop in regularly, but also some of the unknown folks - lurkers, what music, which artists, make you smile?