Posts
ITEM: Recently got back from a pleasant morning walk. Pure blue skies, cool temps. Far from last night's journey that was split between the first half of Mosquito War III and the second half of Revenge of Old Man's Colon. Scrappy's favorite part came at our new "dog park". It's basically a fenced-in area with a hoop to jump through, a ramp to climb over, and a tunnel to explore, along with benches for mom or dad ( you were expecting Cedar Point?) The premise being give the puppy some sans-leash time and meet and greet fellow canines. Scrappy is still learning the fine art of canine interaction, so I haven't had him in with a group yet, but he has roamed it solo, and frankly was much happier when I put the leash back on and he could explore the rest of the neighborhood.
This morning, though, he met at the fence a Basset girl who came loping up the way Scrappy does when you bring him a snack. They touched noses and Scrappy spun around like a dancer. She, however- as most Bassets do- looked like she was nursing a hangover. I fully intend to let him do a meet and greet before the summer's through- as soon as I'm comfortable that it won't be a doggie catastrophe.
ITEM: My friend Nain, in addition to blogging about her adorable terrorist Aubrey, is also a member of the legal profession and writes for her local legal paper. Having subscribed to her posts, I am getting quite a cross section of modern jurisprudence. For example, one story dealt with Frosted Mini-Wheats. Apparently a few years back, they ran a commercial touting a report that claimed that children eating their product for breakfast were like 29% more attentive in school. Of course, when you flesh something like that out with stats, you'd better be able to stand behind them. Unfortunately for FMW, they couldn't and now there's a class action lawsuit that will be paying out damages to those who claim that the "unprovable" claim caused them to buy the product. Eat your Mini-Wheats, Junior, there's gold in them there bowls!
On the other hand, you also get stories that really make you think, like a recent Supreme Court ruling. Boiling down to the gist, the dude was being questioned (without benefit of Miranda) and at a certain point the cops asked a question that he went silent rather than answering. I gather at this point he was Mirandized and eventually put on trial. In the trial, his silence was used as evidence, and he was convicted. They appealed, saying his silence was protected by the 5th Amendment, but the High Court ruled that since he hadn't been Mirandized, he would have had to actually verbally assert his Fifth Amendment rights, and since he did not, he was not protected. The dissenting opinion thought that it should have been obvious BY his silence that he was asserting those rights, but the majority said that he had to be advised of those rights first. Hmmm... I don't know about this one...
ITEM: I'd just like to say a couple things about the basketball game last night. First, while I will NEVER root for a "money talks" team like the Heat, I have to say how disgusting it was to watch the Spurs turn into a group with no clue how to play basketball. They stopped rebounding, took only stupid shots, and blew a 12-point lead in OT. Look at the film, Spurs, of the 4th quarter and tell me if you deserve to win. The other thing, ABC has got to be the WORST sports network of all time. Let's take a sporting event with pushing, shoving, and sweating, give it a fancy cursive logo as if it were Breakfast at Wimbledon, and then focus so totally on one team and one player that there is no doubt about your lack of neutrality ( or professionalism). Just because Brent Pusberger likes a team doesn't mean the whole WORLD does. That's why it is called a league and not "the Miami Heat and some guys they beat up on."
ITEM: Bobby and Al, help me out here. This has been a BAAAAD week for Philly in the news. First, people are killed when a stoned excavator driver knocks a building down the wrong direction. Then the dude that just did a workplace inspection of the site kills himself ( anyone out there smell payola?) But now, we have a guy who settles an argument in an assisted-living home by CASTRATING one of the participants- a paraplegic, at that! Good grief, people!
ITEM: Finally, I have one thing to say about the Aaron Hernandez deal. Quick fill-in: Cops searched the home of the New England Patriots star in connection with a rental car, a dead body, and an associate of his. ABC news ( about as reliable as ABC sports, so get yer grains of salt) claim Hernandez was "at first uncooperative". I don't have any idea of guilt or not, but I will say this- how long do you figure Hernandez has left in Bill Belichick's "squeaky-clean" environment? I'd say it's roughly equivalent to the chances of ABC running a close-up of anybody but LeBron James more than once every quarter.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Monday, June 17, 2013
Lotsa Little Bits vol 20
ITEM: I didn't have a lot of game this morning, but I have overcome enough to give you at least a halfway interesting post.
ITEM: Thank you to Mynx over at Lizard Happy! As a result of a drawing held for the attendies of her anniversary blog party, I have won yet another piece of her magnificent artwork! For those who hadn't seen, here is my other piece:
That one I won as a result of a contest where a bunch of her followers submitted their artwork to her; this time, I think it was a reward for not getting into her underwear drawer.
ITEM: Every city has them: massive outdoor sculptures that make no real sense to the common man. In Fort Wayne, we had the "Helmholtz" sculpture in Friemann Square, in front of the Art museum. It looked like this:
According to the Journal Gazette:
The Helmholtz, a large sculpture made of stainless and painted steel, was created by Mark di Suvero in 1985, according to the artist's website.
Amanda Martin, deputy director for the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, said the sculpture was created specifically for Fort Wayne to commemorate the city as the Magnet Wire Capital of the World.
The steel sculpture was commissioned in 1983 by Rea Magnet Wire Co. to celebrate its 50th anniversary in Fort Wayne. It is named after 19th-century German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz, who worked with magnets.
You'll note I said, "looked like". Here it is this morning:
A 23 year old man with a .19 BAC and lack of appreciation for fine art remodeled it with his car last night. The Helmholtz, which is of unknown value (but sculptures one-third the size have went for $400,000 to $600,000), is now an 8-ton pile of recyclable material, which at today's current prices would bring $1160. Remains to be seen whether the young man in question will be charged or decorated.
ITEM: Quick AIUHL update, the least I can do as it is the first time in 5 weeks the league's website had all the boxscores up by Monday Morning! Adelaide split a pair with the Mustangs. Saturday was a 3-2 shootout win, going OT despite the Ads outshooting the 'Stangs 42-24. Travis Ouellette had a goal and an assist, and Darren Corstens got the SO winner. Sunday, they again went to a shootout after a game that was tied five times! Despite the Ads again outshooting the 'Stangs 47-39 and a 2-goal performance from Greg Oddy, Pat O'Kane's pair of scores led Melbourne to a 5-5 tie after regulation, and Brendan McDowell got the shootout decider for a 6-5 'Stangs win.
The Ice Dogs split a pair this weekend, too. They beat Newcastle 4-3 on Saturday, but lost Sunday when Newcastle's Dominic Osmun beat Anthony Kimlin with just 1:03 left in the game to give the North Stars a 1-0 win.
The fun continues for Canberra as they absorb a 12-1 whipping at the hands of the Melbourne Ice Saturday. They were outshot 55-14 (and are averaging being outshot 50-14 the last three matches) and have been outscored 27-3 the last two weekends. Matt Armstrong scored another 4 goals in this game, and added two more in a 4-3 win over the Bears on Sunday. With that, the Ice Dogs (8-3-4) are on top with 33 points, 2 ahead of Newcastle (10-3-0) and 5 up on the Ice (8-3-2).
ITEM: Also in hockey, the KHL made official the two new teams to join the league for the 2013-14 season. The expansion team is Admiral Vladivostok:
They had their expansion draft on June 13th, in which they could pick from any of the Russian teams- except Lokomotiv, still exempted because of the plane crash two years ago.
The new team coming over from Austria's EBEL, Croatia's Medvescak Zagreb:
In addition, the former Vityaz ("Knights") of Chekhov is moving 27 miles up the road to Podolsk, a city three times the size still in the near environs of Moscow. Actually, this is a return, as the team started out in Podolsk, but moved to Chekhov when the HC MVD team was formed. MVD then moved to another Moscow suburb, Balashika, where it spent two years in the KHL until it was decided there were too many teams in the Moscow area and was folded into Dynamo. In Chekhov the team built up a rep for being run by the Molina and being stocked with thugs that washed out of the AHL. Now they try to make a new start as Vityaz Podolsk.
ITEM: And what about the rumors of other out-of-Russia teams joining the league? Apparently Milan and Gdansk are still tying their Ps and Qs together; Switzerland is looking at a team next season; Belarus claims they can have as many as four more teams in a couple of years; and existing teams such as Norway's Stavenger and Finland's Espoo are still kicking it around. But not this year, boys.
ITEM: Decided it's been a while since I checked on Rikuzen Takata, the Japanese city flattened by the tsunami I've been following. Earlier this month, they completed a "restoration" of the lone pine tree that survived the wave, but was killed by the salt water it absorbed. The tree was preserved, given artificial brances and leaves, and the scaffolding was removed this month. A flower altar and park will be built at its base, at a cost of around $1.6 million- and the locals are SO appreciative that monies that could have been used in restoring their city were spent instead on a dead tree.
Up the coast lies another damaged city, Minami Sanriku. In 1960, it had been hit by a tsunami from the 9.5 quake in Chile. Decades later, the President of Chile was visiting and was greeted by a simulated Easter Island Moai statue in their honor. The recent wave took it down and Chile promised to send a new one, better than the first. It arrived on Christmas last year, but because bigwigs from Tokyo and other large cities wanted to see it first, it made a grand tour and finally came to its new home at the end of last month.
Nice to know they are keeping it all in perspective. Just like the US of A, there seems to be a cotierrie of "monument builders" scanning the world for the next disaster, which they can use to get government money to commemorate. Hey, I hear Fort Wayne has a spot opening up...
And just like the US of A, the tree was supposed to be ready in March- but was delayed. Seems they had the angle of the "branches" wrong.
ITEM: That's all I got! Enjoy your day.
ITEM: Thank you to Mynx over at Lizard Happy! As a result of a drawing held for the attendies of her anniversary blog party, I have won yet another piece of her magnificent artwork! For those who hadn't seen, here is my other piece:
That one I won as a result of a contest where a bunch of her followers submitted their artwork to her; this time, I think it was a reward for not getting into her underwear drawer.
ITEM: Every city has them: massive outdoor sculptures that make no real sense to the common man. In Fort Wayne, we had the "Helmholtz" sculpture in Friemann Square, in front of the Art museum. It looked like this:
According to the Journal Gazette:
The Helmholtz, a large sculpture made of stainless and painted steel, was created by Mark di Suvero in 1985, according to the artist's website.
Amanda Martin, deputy director for the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, said the sculpture was created specifically for Fort Wayne to commemorate the city as the Magnet Wire Capital of the World.
The steel sculpture was commissioned in 1983 by Rea Magnet Wire Co. to celebrate its 50th anniversary in Fort Wayne. It is named after 19th-century German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz, who worked with magnets.
You'll note I said, "looked like". Here it is this morning:
A 23 year old man with a .19 BAC and lack of appreciation for fine art remodeled it with his car last night. The Helmholtz, which is of unknown value (but sculptures one-third the size have went for $400,000 to $600,000), is now an 8-ton pile of recyclable material, which at today's current prices would bring $1160. Remains to be seen whether the young man in question will be charged or decorated.
ITEM: Quick AIUHL update, the least I can do as it is the first time in 5 weeks the league's website had all the boxscores up by Monday Morning! Adelaide split a pair with the Mustangs. Saturday was a 3-2 shootout win, going OT despite the Ads outshooting the 'Stangs 42-24. Travis Ouellette had a goal and an assist, and Darren Corstens got the SO winner. Sunday, they again went to a shootout after a game that was tied five times! Despite the Ads again outshooting the 'Stangs 47-39 and a 2-goal performance from Greg Oddy, Pat O'Kane's pair of scores led Melbourne to a 5-5 tie after regulation, and Brendan McDowell got the shootout decider for a 6-5 'Stangs win.
The Ice Dogs split a pair this weekend, too. They beat Newcastle 4-3 on Saturday, but lost Sunday when Newcastle's Dominic Osmun beat Anthony Kimlin with just 1:03 left in the game to give the North Stars a 1-0 win.
The fun continues for Canberra as they absorb a 12-1 whipping at the hands of the Melbourne Ice Saturday. They were outshot 55-14 (and are averaging being outshot 50-14 the last three matches) and have been outscored 27-3 the last two weekends. Matt Armstrong scored another 4 goals in this game, and added two more in a 4-3 win over the Bears on Sunday. With that, the Ice Dogs (8-3-4) are on top with 33 points, 2 ahead of Newcastle (10-3-0) and 5 up on the Ice (8-3-2).
ITEM: Also in hockey, the KHL made official the two new teams to join the league for the 2013-14 season. The expansion team is Admiral Vladivostok:
The new team coming over from Austria's EBEL, Croatia's Medvescak Zagreb:
ITEM: And what about the rumors of other out-of-Russia teams joining the league? Apparently Milan and Gdansk are still tying their Ps and Qs together; Switzerland is looking at a team next season; Belarus claims they can have as many as four more teams in a couple of years; and existing teams such as Norway's Stavenger and Finland's Espoo are still kicking it around. But not this year, boys.
ITEM: Decided it's been a while since I checked on Rikuzen Takata, the Japanese city flattened by the tsunami I've been following. Earlier this month, they completed a "restoration" of the lone pine tree that survived the wave, but was killed by the salt water it absorbed. The tree was preserved, given artificial brances and leaves, and the scaffolding was removed this month. A flower altar and park will be built at its base, at a cost of around $1.6 million- and the locals are SO appreciative that monies that could have been used in restoring their city were spent instead on a dead tree.
Up the coast lies another damaged city, Minami Sanriku. In 1960, it had been hit by a tsunami from the 9.5 quake in Chile. Decades later, the President of Chile was visiting and was greeted by a simulated Easter Island Moai statue in their honor. The recent wave took it down and Chile promised to send a new one, better than the first. It arrived on Christmas last year, but because bigwigs from Tokyo and other large cities wanted to see it first, it made a grand tour and finally came to its new home at the end of last month.
 |
| An Easter Island statue- just what every Japanese city needs. |
 |
| The miracle (I used to be a) tree. |
Nice to know they are keeping it all in perspective. Just like the US of A, there seems to be a cotierrie of "monument builders" scanning the world for the next disaster, which they can use to get government money to commemorate. Hey, I hear Fort Wayne has a spot opening up...
And just like the US of A, the tree was supposed to be ready in March- but was delayed. Seems they had the angle of the "branches" wrong.
ITEM: That's all I got! Enjoy your day.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Sunday Message
Okay, first I know this is later than usual. God delivers when He chooses, take it up with Him if you like.
Second, I know I said something earlier in the week about 2 Kings 4. We'll get to that.
Just got done listening to Dr. Jeremiah's weekend message. One of the points he brought up was the question, "If Satan was utterly defeated at the cross, why does it seem like he's still winning?" Dr. Jeremiah's answer was prayer. That prayer is the "enforcement tool" for the verdict handed down at Calvary. That the reason that this world is still Satan's world is that we have been lax in our task of praying for God to enforce the verdict.
Debate that one if you like, it only got me started on what struck me. My thought thread is how Satan tries to build an existence exactly opposite of God. Evil rather than good, destructive rather than creative, self-centered rather than God-centered. And I began to see the ways that that mindset worms its way into this world, garnished and adorned so that those who choose not to believe can look at it as a good thing.
God told Adam and Eve first thing, be fruitful and multiply. And that "for that reason a man will leave his mother and father and cling to his wife and the two will become one flesh". Satan tells us to accept homosexuality and embrace it, with the results that what is clearly unnatural by nature (debate that all you want, but it is clearly a "slot A, Peg B" thing) is made acceptable, and the bringing of new life into the world will be lessened- because if we were ALL gay, we'd be extinct in a generation.
God taught us respect for life- in His response to Cain, in the meticulous rules he gave the early Hebrews about killing even for food. Of the power of blood. Satan teaches us that "it's a woman's choice" to abort her child. I don't think he's trying to empower women here- his point is to denigrate the respect for life of ALL humans. Abortion is no greater sin than eugenics and euthanasia.
Oh, God has respect for life, you say? What about telling Israel to kill all the Canaanites, you say? Glad you went there. Satan teaches us to tolerate and accept evil. The Canaanites were the most evil, debased, deranged, inbred lot since the flood. God was commanding them to stay separated from such a lot, to keep themselves Holy, as He is holy. Satan tells us we have to accept the choice of evil, embrace the choice of evil. "Love the sinner, hate the sin" is judgmental, homophobic, xenophobic, whatever. Love the sinner, accept the sin is the new mantra. That's all a part of freedom.
And what about freedom? Once upon a time, freedom meant to cease to be enslaved to that which tortures, abuses, enslaves us. Now, it means keep God out of our lives so we can do what we want WITHOUT GUILT. Now it means sex is reserved for EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING, and thus judges think it right that a six-year-old girl should have the right to receive an abortion pill without ever asking her parent's consent. It means we shouldn't be shocked if a baby can be half out of the womb before it is murdered, and that is legal. It means that our children should be taught the beauty of having sex with the same gender, and that a family with "two mommys" or "two daddys" is just as good.
You see Satan has two goals. To lead as many blind fools into destruction as is possible, and to hinder the ability of those of faith to prevent that. To do that, he gives us the freedom to escape our consciences by legality, to escape God's watch by denying His existence, the freedom to pervert anything we see by preaching tolerance of everything- with the exception of those who stubbornly cling to the Word of God.
Dr. Jeremiah suggests that we have two tools to fight this, the Word of God and prayer. He suggests that too often that we limit prayer to the concepts of "to" and "for", and forget "against"- praying against the will of Satan being done. I suggest that perhaps we've lost a lot of the concept of prayer. Let me now go to the passage in 2 Kings.
2Ki 4:1 And a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, saying, Your servant my husband is dead. And you know that your servant feared Jehovah. And the lender has come to take my two children to himself for slaves.
2Ki 4:2 And Elisha said to her, What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house? And she said, Your handmaid has not a thing in the house except a pot of oil.
2Ki 4:3 And he said, Go, borrow vessels for yourself from outside, from your neighbors, empty vessels. Do not let them be few.
2Ki 4:4 And you shall go in and shut the door on you and your sons. And you shall pour out into all those vessels. And you shall set aside the full ones.
2Ki 4:5 And she went from him and shut the door on her and on her sons. They brought to her, and she poured out.
2Ki 4:6 And it happened when the vessels were full, she said to her son, Bring me another vessel. And he said to her, There is not a vessel left. And the oil stopped.
2Ki 4:7 And she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons shall live from the rest.
Pretty straightforward, right? Trust in God and He will provide. True, but there is a deeper layer that I found when examining verse four- And you shall go in and shut the door on you and your sons.
Do you remember Jesus teaching the Lord's Prayer?
Mat 6:6 But you, when you pray, enter into your room. And shutting your door, pray to your Father in secret; and your Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly.
Do you get the point? What Elisha told the widow to do was an ACT OF PRAYER. Let's look at it from that angle.
The word "empty" in "empty vessels" translates the concept of void, worthless. God is sending us out to pray, to find the void spots, the worthless habits and feelings of our neighbors, to "borrow them. Why? to fill them with oil. The word for oil translates the concept of richness. We are to, through prayer, to "borrow" our fellows' emptiness and fill it with the richness of God. Now look. Does all that oil bring them riches? no, it pays the debt they owed, and gives them something to live off of. Or to put it another way, it gave them that day their daily bread.
But it doesn't quite end there. Who got the benefit of the oil? I don't mean the money from it, but who got the use of the oil? Other people- people who never had any idea of its miraculous creation, people the widow would either never meet, or wouldn't know if she did.
So part of prayer is taking the needs of others, pouring them out to God in secret, and as a result God not only fills the empty pot, but blesses you and others you never see.
And the other part? Well, look again at the first two verses. Here we have a woman of faith crying out in need. Ah, now there's traditional prayer, you say. Yes, but look how it's answered. First, Elisha inquires about her resources. Then he sets her to work, using not only those resources but humbling her to borrow from others. God moved when she took her faith and added to it humility and her own work. "God helps those who help themselves" again, Chris? Yes, but notice that her work would have been vain without the faith; that the work was never meant to enrich herself; and that people she never met received blessing through that combination of faith and work.
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your[a] works, and I will show you my faith by my[b] works. (James 2:14-18)
The lady in our story had little more than faith and a little oil, and translated it into something great, for herself and others. But this world tells us faith is a delusion, freedom is the choice to sin, and we should look out for #1. And if Satan is this pathetic, trying to destroy a world out of nothing but spite, then how pathetic are those who listen to him? As the definition of the vessel's descriptive says, they are:
empty; figuratively worthless.
And it's our job to fill them with oil. That is prayer. And that's what defeats Satan.
Second, I know I said something earlier in the week about 2 Kings 4. We'll get to that.
Just got done listening to Dr. Jeremiah's weekend message. One of the points he brought up was the question, "If Satan was utterly defeated at the cross, why does it seem like he's still winning?" Dr. Jeremiah's answer was prayer. That prayer is the "enforcement tool" for the verdict handed down at Calvary. That the reason that this world is still Satan's world is that we have been lax in our task of praying for God to enforce the verdict.
Debate that one if you like, it only got me started on what struck me. My thought thread is how Satan tries to build an existence exactly opposite of God. Evil rather than good, destructive rather than creative, self-centered rather than God-centered. And I began to see the ways that that mindset worms its way into this world, garnished and adorned so that those who choose not to believe can look at it as a good thing.
God told Adam and Eve first thing, be fruitful and multiply. And that "for that reason a man will leave his mother and father and cling to his wife and the two will become one flesh". Satan tells us to accept homosexuality and embrace it, with the results that what is clearly unnatural by nature (debate that all you want, but it is clearly a "slot A, Peg B" thing) is made acceptable, and the bringing of new life into the world will be lessened- because if we were ALL gay, we'd be extinct in a generation.
God taught us respect for life- in His response to Cain, in the meticulous rules he gave the early Hebrews about killing even for food. Of the power of blood. Satan teaches us that "it's a woman's choice" to abort her child. I don't think he's trying to empower women here- his point is to denigrate the respect for life of ALL humans. Abortion is no greater sin than eugenics and euthanasia.
Oh, God has respect for life, you say? What about telling Israel to kill all the Canaanites, you say? Glad you went there. Satan teaches us to tolerate and accept evil. The Canaanites were the most evil, debased, deranged, inbred lot since the flood. God was commanding them to stay separated from such a lot, to keep themselves Holy, as He is holy. Satan tells us we have to accept the choice of evil, embrace the choice of evil. "Love the sinner, hate the sin" is judgmental, homophobic, xenophobic, whatever. Love the sinner, accept the sin is the new mantra. That's all a part of freedom.
And what about freedom? Once upon a time, freedom meant to cease to be enslaved to that which tortures, abuses, enslaves us. Now, it means keep God out of our lives so we can do what we want WITHOUT GUILT. Now it means sex is reserved for EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING, and thus judges think it right that a six-year-old girl should have the right to receive an abortion pill without ever asking her parent's consent. It means we shouldn't be shocked if a baby can be half out of the womb before it is murdered, and that is legal. It means that our children should be taught the beauty of having sex with the same gender, and that a family with "two mommys" or "two daddys" is just as good.
You see Satan has two goals. To lead as many blind fools into destruction as is possible, and to hinder the ability of those of faith to prevent that. To do that, he gives us the freedom to escape our consciences by legality, to escape God's watch by denying His existence, the freedom to pervert anything we see by preaching tolerance of everything- with the exception of those who stubbornly cling to the Word of God.
Dr. Jeremiah suggests that we have two tools to fight this, the Word of God and prayer. He suggests that too often that we limit prayer to the concepts of "to" and "for", and forget "against"- praying against the will of Satan being done. I suggest that perhaps we've lost a lot of the concept of prayer. Let me now go to the passage in 2 Kings.
2Ki 4:2 And Elisha said to her, What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house? And she said, Your handmaid has not a thing in the house except a pot of oil.
2Ki 4:3 And he said, Go, borrow vessels for yourself from outside, from your neighbors, empty vessels. Do not let them be few.
2Ki 4:4 And you shall go in and shut the door on you and your sons. And you shall pour out into all those vessels. And you shall set aside the full ones.
2Ki 4:5 And she went from him and shut the door on her and on her sons. They brought to her, and she poured out.
2Ki 4:6 And it happened when the vessels were full, she said to her son, Bring me another vessel. And he said to her, There is not a vessel left. And the oil stopped.
2Ki 4:7 And she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons shall live from the rest.
Do you remember Jesus teaching the Lord's Prayer?
The word "empty" in "empty vessels" translates the concept of void, worthless. God is sending us out to pray, to find the void spots, the worthless habits and feelings of our neighbors, to "borrow them. Why? to fill them with oil. The word for oil translates the concept of richness. We are to, through prayer, to "borrow" our fellows' emptiness and fill it with the richness of God. Now look. Does all that oil bring them riches? no, it pays the debt they owed, and gives them something to live off of. Or to put it another way, it gave them that day their daily bread.
But it doesn't quite end there. Who got the benefit of the oil? I don't mean the money from it, but who got the use of the oil? Other people- people who never had any idea of its miraculous creation, people the widow would either never meet, or wouldn't know if she did.
So part of prayer is taking the needs of others, pouring them out to God in secret, and as a result God not only fills the empty pot, but blesses you and others you never see.
And the other part? Well, look again at the first two verses. Here we have a woman of faith crying out in need. Ah, now there's traditional prayer, you say. Yes, but look how it's answered. First, Elisha inquires about her resources. Then he sets her to work, using not only those resources but humbling her to borrow from others. God moved when she took her faith and added to it humility and her own work. "God helps those who help themselves" again, Chris? Yes, but notice that her work would have been vain without the faith; that the work was never meant to enrich herself; and that people she never met received blessing through that combination of faith and work.
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your[a] works, and I will show you my faith by my[b] works. (James 2:14-18)
The lady in our story had little more than faith and a little oil, and translated it into something great, for herself and others. But this world tells us faith is a delusion, freedom is the choice to sin, and we should look out for #1. And if Satan is this pathetic, trying to destroy a world out of nothing but spite, then how pathetic are those who listen to him? As the definition of the vessel's descriptive says, they are:
empty; figuratively worthless.
And it's our job to fill them with oil. That is prayer. And that's what defeats Satan.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Of Dads and dogs
A lot of you are writing Father's day posts. A subject I've long avoided, because anything about my Dad, if I am to be honest, would have certain unpleasantries. But you all have shown fathers warts and all, and still found a way to salute the man. Let me try.
Louis Woodrow "Woody" Martin. A man who I almost have to consider backwards through time, because unlike a lot of people who knew him and loved him, I was one of a chosen few that got to experience the Jeckyll and Hyde story he could be.
First of all, let me clear away any misconceptions. He was a good man at core. A hard worker, he'd go all day at International Harvester, then eat dinner and go out doing handyman stuff with his brother in law. (I should point out right here that, having seen some of his work, he was more Tim Taylor than Al Borland.) He loved kids, though by the time I rolled around, he was a bit old to get too involved. He was rarely ever violent, and the mere sight of his hand on his belt buckle was all he ever needed to restore order.
But there were two Woody Martins. The one I lost sight of was all of those things above. He was, I thought, a handsome man when he wanted to be. Never knew a man to not be his friend. Fair, funny, and dedicated to an extent that was hard to see. But there was another Woody as well, and for a long time he got in the way of all my memories of the man.
Beer. Beer changed him. The handsome features shifted: the eyes lost focus, the steel brow became a mass of sagging lines, the turkey neck became pronounced. The attitude changed; suddenly every story had to end with, "...and he said, 'God Damnit, Woody, you're right!' " But the stories were just the start.
Somewhere along the way, like many of us, this man had to reset his self-esteem from some perceived low, and only knew of two ways to do it. One was the stories, repeated ad nauseum. The other was to belittle those he was closest to. He would come up with some apparent weakness, some character flaw, or something that happened years before, and nag on it. And nag. And nag, in a slow, low, slurred voice. Pecking away at one's self restraint until you had to shout back at him! And then, his inevitable reply:
"Why are you yelling? I'm not yelling."
The other man was very skilled at hurting you, pressing your buttons. Legend has it that an older brother came to blows with him one night before my birth. I watched him kick in the bottom of an aluminum screen door one night when Mom locked him out. Spent more than one night shut up in the bedroom with her, picked up shards from more than one bowl hurled at him.
Some in the family found that hard to imagine. There were five of us kids, and I was the baby by ten years (thus two had moved out before I was born, and another left when I was three or four.) Oldest brother was a Girardot like me, and we bore a lot of the brunt with Mom. Two were more like Dad and escaped the worst. (Think I'm kidding? Out of nine grandkids, he had nicknames for 6 of them: Jonesy, Stinky, Smokey, Smiley, Tag, and Bruiser. Only one of them did not belong to the two "Martin" kids- the other to my middle sister, who was basically neutral.) To the favored, which included one brother -in-law, he was the greatest guy in the world. My other sister's sons, "Smokey and Smiley", idolized him.
I could never understand it. By the time he died, the man who watched baseball and football with me, got along with all my friends, made me the top rank euchre player I am today, busted his butt so I'd have something- he was buried too, but not by soil.
I was just going into high school when Mom died and I became the prime target of the other man. I couldn't see how much I meant to the real Woody. Shortly after Mom died, Dad made a dinner that I don't remember, but I didn't want it. I was a far more finicky eater back then, and it was nothing for me to refuse to eat something, Mom never forced it on me. Dad was a different bird, though. He took it as a personal failure, not with food but with me, and broke down in tears. Maybe, if things had been different, that could have bridged the gap between the insecure man and the self-centered boy. But within days, the other man was telling me that, despite the fact I had been doing our lawn mowing for three years and Aunt Cleo's for two, I was "afraid to get on the lawn mower, Mom has you scared to do anything", and the moment was lost. Finally the drinking caught up to him. After an all-day binge while I was in classes at IPFW, he plastered half of his pickup truck onto the back of a parked semi about two hundred feet from home. Miraculously, he had been in the one place in the vehicle that anyone could have survived; any passenger would have been decapitated.
And the first thing the other man did when I got there? Reached into the shattered truck's glovebox to pull out a pair of woman's panties, saying, "Where do you suppose these came from?"
That was the last words the other man ever said to me. The increasing drinking since Mom had died ended that day. I actually got to spend the last year and a half or so with Woody Martin.
It was years later at a Promise Keepers rally that I finally came to terms with the two sides of my Father. That the real Woody Martin was the hard worker that I first described. The man who busted ass to make things better for a punk kid that never appreciated it in time. The other man was just a loud and obnoxious weakness in a man who had fought unknown demons and tried his best. Which is all any of us can do.
So when Father's Day comes up, I still have a hard time seeing the difference between the man that made me love being called "you dooflink" and the one who made me sick of hearing, "I'm jus' happy-go-lucky." (I still cringe at that phrase, and it's been over 30 years now). Every memory is a fight to remember that there WAS a difference. But there was. And there is.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Some of you may know by recent comments that Scrappy had kind of a rough yesterday. We took a long walk, and he gets so pumped for them, I never know that he's hurt himself until the adrenaline wears off and he finally starts to slow down. Well, He started showing a little when we were almost home, and once we got there, he had a painful limp that was really killing him. He would barely put any weight on it, and I actually took his dinner to him. About 9 PM I had to coax him to make a pee trip, and he was warm and giving me that "Daddy, make it better" look. I looked around to see if we had any of his old pain meds (we didn't), and just as I was about to give up in despair, I came up with a seemingly good idea:
If it's giving him a fever, cool him down. Give him some ice cream.
Two scoops of Fudge Swirl later, he laid down until Laurie got home from work. When he got up, the limp was almost gone. This morning, he's 95% normal. Either I'm a genius or he's a hypochondriac.
Anyway, here's a look at some of what did him in.
.JPG)
Louis Woodrow "Woody" Martin. A man who I almost have to consider backwards through time, because unlike a lot of people who knew him and loved him, I was one of a chosen few that got to experience the Jeckyll and Hyde story he could be.
First of all, let me clear away any misconceptions. He was a good man at core. A hard worker, he'd go all day at International Harvester, then eat dinner and go out doing handyman stuff with his brother in law. (I should point out right here that, having seen some of his work, he was more Tim Taylor than Al Borland.) He loved kids, though by the time I rolled around, he was a bit old to get too involved. He was rarely ever violent, and the mere sight of his hand on his belt buckle was all he ever needed to restore order.
But there were two Woody Martins. The one I lost sight of was all of those things above. He was, I thought, a handsome man when he wanted to be. Never knew a man to not be his friend. Fair, funny, and dedicated to an extent that was hard to see. But there was another Woody as well, and for a long time he got in the way of all my memories of the man.
Beer. Beer changed him. The handsome features shifted: the eyes lost focus, the steel brow became a mass of sagging lines, the turkey neck became pronounced. The attitude changed; suddenly every story had to end with, "...and he said, 'God Damnit, Woody, you're right!' " But the stories were just the start.
Somewhere along the way, like many of us, this man had to reset his self-esteem from some perceived low, and only knew of two ways to do it. One was the stories, repeated ad nauseum. The other was to belittle those he was closest to. He would come up with some apparent weakness, some character flaw, or something that happened years before, and nag on it. And nag. And nag, in a slow, low, slurred voice. Pecking away at one's self restraint until you had to shout back at him! And then, his inevitable reply:
"Why are you yelling? I'm not yelling."
The other man was very skilled at hurting you, pressing your buttons. Legend has it that an older brother came to blows with him one night before my birth. I watched him kick in the bottom of an aluminum screen door one night when Mom locked him out. Spent more than one night shut up in the bedroom with her, picked up shards from more than one bowl hurled at him.
Some in the family found that hard to imagine. There were five of us kids, and I was the baby by ten years (thus two had moved out before I was born, and another left when I was three or four.) Oldest brother was a Girardot like me, and we bore a lot of the brunt with Mom. Two were more like Dad and escaped the worst. (Think I'm kidding? Out of nine grandkids, he had nicknames for 6 of them: Jonesy, Stinky, Smokey, Smiley, Tag, and Bruiser. Only one of them did not belong to the two "Martin" kids- the other to my middle sister, who was basically neutral.) To the favored, which included one brother -in-law, he was the greatest guy in the world. My other sister's sons, "Smokey and Smiley", idolized him.
I could never understand it. By the time he died, the man who watched baseball and football with me, got along with all my friends, made me the top rank euchre player I am today, busted his butt so I'd have something- he was buried too, but not by soil.
I was just going into high school when Mom died and I became the prime target of the other man. I couldn't see how much I meant to the real Woody. Shortly after Mom died, Dad made a dinner that I don't remember, but I didn't want it. I was a far more finicky eater back then, and it was nothing for me to refuse to eat something, Mom never forced it on me. Dad was a different bird, though. He took it as a personal failure, not with food but with me, and broke down in tears. Maybe, if things had been different, that could have bridged the gap between the insecure man and the self-centered boy. But within days, the other man was telling me that, despite the fact I had been doing our lawn mowing for three years and Aunt Cleo's for two, I was "afraid to get on the lawn mower, Mom has you scared to do anything", and the moment was lost. Finally the drinking caught up to him. After an all-day binge while I was in classes at IPFW, he plastered half of his pickup truck onto the back of a parked semi about two hundred feet from home. Miraculously, he had been in the one place in the vehicle that anyone could have survived; any passenger would have been decapitated.
And the first thing the other man did when I got there? Reached into the shattered truck's glovebox to pull out a pair of woman's panties, saying, "Where do you suppose these came from?"
That was the last words the other man ever said to me. The increasing drinking since Mom had died ended that day. I actually got to spend the last year and a half or so with Woody Martin.
It was years later at a Promise Keepers rally that I finally came to terms with the two sides of my Father. That the real Woody Martin was the hard worker that I first described. The man who busted ass to make things better for a punk kid that never appreciated it in time. The other man was just a loud and obnoxious weakness in a man who had fought unknown demons and tried his best. Which is all any of us can do.
So when Father's Day comes up, I still have a hard time seeing the difference between the man that made me love being called "you dooflink" and the one who made me sick of hearing, "I'm jus' happy-go-lucky." (I still cringe at that phrase, and it's been over 30 years now). Every memory is a fight to remember that there WAS a difference. But there was. And there is.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Some of you may know by recent comments that Scrappy had kind of a rough yesterday. We took a long walk, and he gets so pumped for them, I never know that he's hurt himself until the adrenaline wears off and he finally starts to slow down. Well, He started showing a little when we were almost home, and once we got there, he had a painful limp that was really killing him. He would barely put any weight on it, and I actually took his dinner to him. About 9 PM I had to coax him to make a pee trip, and he was warm and giving me that "Daddy, make it better" look. I looked around to see if we had any of his old pain meds (we didn't), and just as I was about to give up in despair, I came up with a seemingly good idea:
If it's giving him a fever, cool him down. Give him some ice cream.
Two scoops of Fudge Swirl later, he laid down until Laurie got home from work. When he got up, the limp was almost gone. This morning, he's 95% normal. Either I'm a genius or he's a hypochondriac.
Anyway, here's a look at some of what did him in.
 |
| I thought to myself, Dog equivalent of sniffing girl's bicycle seats. |
 |
| Down to the creek. |
 |
| The recent rains cut the channel a bit deeper than it was. |
 |
| Aw, c'mon, Dad! There's something I wanna roll in here.. |
 |
| Funny little sandbar. |
.JPG) |
| Robin taking a bath in the swamp. |
.JPG) |
| And as usual, Scrappy never saw him... and tracked his scent backwards. |
.JPG)
 |
| Blue Jay actually posed. |
Friday, June 14, 2013
Time Machine week 72
It's June 14th, 1971. Today we had two somewhat earth changing events occur. In London, the first Hard Rock Café opened. And in Steve Wozniak's garage...
...When he finally got around to building his first computer, with the aid of Bill Fernandez, it was news, literally. Sure, every gamer around builds their own rigs today, but in Woz's youth it was something special. So special a reporter was on hand to see the computer perform.
What the reporter saw was a box called the cream soda computer for the beverage Woz and Bill drank while building it, with lights that would turn on and off. Not very exciting. Things picked up when the computer caught fire. From inauspicious beginnings come great things and the inauspicious beginning of Woz's computer design occurred this month, on the news, in 1971.
And with that warm thought, we begin this week's Time Machine! This week, The Coasters... and The Coasters... and The Coasters...; What do velvet gloves have to do with spit (Bob, do you catch THAT one?) ; an Andrew Lloyd Weber six degrees; and a top ten with only one song going down. Go ahead, flip the switch- I don't even LIKE cream soda!
As packed-full of music as we were last week, we are light this week. Out of ten hot 100 debuts (in itself a low number), I knew just one- Olivia Newton-John's debut, If Not For You, which if you recall was a Bob Dylan comp that was first recorded on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. And after having almost fifty birthday songs the last two weeks, we have only 10 this time. Turning thirty, Loverboy's Hot Girls In Love (another fine example of their intellectual lyrics), Def Leppard's Rock Of Ages, and Bryan Adams' Cuts Like A Knife (which I always thought was perfect karma for what he "did'" on Run To You). Turning 35 we have Wings' I've Had Enough, the Cars debut single Just What I Needed, and Nick Gilder's Hot Child In The City. Maureen McGovern's Poseidon Adventure theme The Morning After turns 40 this week; Donovan hits forty-five with Hurdy Gurdy Man. Finally a pair that turn 50- Doris Troy's Just One Look and Randy and the Rainbows with Denise. Blow out the candles...
That brings us to our 45 at 45, or the #45 45 of 45 years ago. This week we find Joe Tex with a tune called I'll Never Do You Wrong. Joe, who had had his biggest hit thus far a few months before with Skinny Legs And All, was most famous for his longstanding rivalry with James Brown, a rivalry that stretched from Tex wearing a cape a la Brown and screaming, "Someone get this cape offa me!" (as an opening act FOR Brown in his home town), to Brown hiring Tex's ex as a singer, then sending her back to him, saying, "I'm done with her". This particular song only hit in the high 50's on BB, so once again it's already higher than that on Cashbox.
Problem is, like an idiot, I first looked up the #68 song of the week- which is where the Velvet Gloves and Spit come from. That was the title, for reasons I couldn't determine, of the Neil Diamond lp which contained the song at 68, the autobiographical Brooklyn Roads. The lp released three hard luck singles, of which BR was the highest charting (#58). But wait, the story's not over! Because after he had Cracklin' Rosie and a couple other hits under his belt, the record company re-released the lp, this time adding the song Shilo (which had been released and failed to chart for him on his former label). Shilo, with a new life, charted at #24, giving the album at least one good hit- sort of.
The biggest climber this week is Jean Knight's Mr. Big Stuff at 55, a 27 notch move... and going down, Me And You And your mangy dog Boo, dropping 32 to land at 43.
Our where are they now at #51 this week was a bit of a challenge. The act was called Chee Chee and Peppy, named after the two singers' pet Chihuahuas. The singers were one 14 year old Keith "Chee Chee" Boiling and 12 year old Dottie "Peppy" Moore (later Moore-Thomas). Dottie was discovered by manager/producer Jessie James, who ran the board for Cliff Nobles and Co.'s The Horse. She was teamed up with young Boiling, who the internet describes as (erroneously) Dottie's brother and (unconfirmed) Sam Cooke's son. After the bubble-gummy hit, Boiling disappears; 10 years later Dottie and a new Chee Chee ( a dude named Charles Campbell) had a second lp. Nowadays, Dottie is a member of Bishop Bobby Hilton's Word Of Deliverance Church in Forest Park, Ohio, whose choir has had some recordings.
5 new songs enter the top 40. Elvis moves up one to 40 with the song Life. Up 4 to #39 are Ike and Tina fighting their way through Oh Poo Pah Doo (and without having listened to this yet, I wonder if it's the song on Gilligan's Island that Ginger sings when the feather goes up her nose and cures her amnesia? Nah, I can't see THEM singing THAT). James Taylor jumps from 55 to 38 with You've Got A Friend; Carly Simon moves 8 to 36 with That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be; and Isaac Hayes takes his shot at recent top dog Never Can Say Goodbye, climbing 7 to #35.
If I learned anything in doing our lookback this week, it's that EVERY member of the Coasters had their own Coasters after the group split up. Yes, this week in 1958, the Coasters shot up a quick 15 with Yakety Yak. The original band was formed when a group called the Robins had a regional hit with a song called Smokey Joe's Café. This was enough to get the group and the song's writers, the famous Lieber-Stoller team, a deal with Atlantic. But some of the group didn't want to make the move, so members Carl Gardner and Bobby Nunn, became the nucleus of the Coasters. They added Billy Guy, Leon Hughes, and Adolf Jacobs. With the success of Yakety Yak, the band moved to New York and replaced Nunn and Hughes with "Dub" Jones and Cornell Gunter. After Jacobs left, the Coasters' string of 6 top tens between May of '57 and August of '59 dribbled out, with Little Egypt (Ying-Yang) being their last top 40 in April of '61.
At this point, it was almost as if someone fired a shot and yelled, "Disperse," and several members founded their own Coasters group. That included Hughes and Nunn, who originally formed The Dukes after being canned. But the strangest thing about the group is how many of them came to horrible ends later on. Gunter was shot to death in his car in Las Vegas in 1990. Nate Wilson, a member of Gunter's Coasters, was killed and dismembered in 1980- by former band manager Patrick Cavanaugh, because Wilson was going to turn him in over some stolen furniture. And King Curtis, the sax player on their big hits (but was never an official member), was stabbed to death by a pair of junkies who were shooting up on his front porch in 1971.
Guy left to do solo work (and of course, form his own Coasters), died in 2002. Nunn , who called his band the Coasters Mark II, passed in 1986. Jones, the bass voice in hits like Charlie Brown, died in 2000. Gardner, who actually owned the name and ran the "real" Coasters, retired in 2005 and was replaced by son Carl, Jr., who then himself left that group to form yet another Coasters iteration in 2012. Carl, Sr., died in 2011. Hughes, who was a member of several of the splinter groups (including Guy's) and joined Jones in "the World Famous Coasters", and Jacobs are the only remaining living members.
Two songs enter the top ten, two fall out. Dropping are the Jacksons' Never Can Say Goodbye (5 to 15), and Bridge Over Troubled Arethas (3 to 11).
The Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose climb 4 to #10 with Treat Her Like A Lady.
Joy To The World makes one last stop in the top ten, dropping 3 to #9.
And here, at #8 and holding, our six degrees victim.
Murray Head holds a second week with Superstar, Judas Iscariot's solo from Jesus Christ Superstar. Murray's other hit, of course, was One Night In Bangkok. Besides the singer, these two share a common lyricist, Tim Rice. Rice was the words behind Andrew Lloyd-Weber's music, and he and ALW combined on Superstar. However, Chess, from which Bangkok came, was Rice's baby, and when he began the writing, ALW was busy putting together Cats. So Rice was led to Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA. Their band was in process of breaking up, and they were looking for new projects. So it was Benny and Bjorn that wrote the music to Bangkok, while Cats spawned the hit Memory, which both Barbara Streisand and Barry Manilow hit the charts with- but was ACTUALLY supposed to be a solo for the star in Evita, but didn't make the cut.
Donny Osmond holds at 7 with Sweet And Innocent.
Carole King jogs up 10 spots to #6 with It's Too Late.
The Partridges flutter up 5 to #5 with I'llstop at Meet You Halfway.
The Carpenters also make a 5-spot ascension with Rainy Days And Mondays at #4.
Ringo Starr moves up a notch to 3 with It Don't Come Easy.
Holding at 2, the Stones and Brown Sugar.
And in a second week at the top...
... The Honey Cone with Want Ads!!!
Alright, that's a wrap for another week! Don't take any cream soda computers!!!!
...When he finally got around to building his first computer, with the aid of Bill Fernandez, it was news, literally. Sure, every gamer around builds their own rigs today, but in Woz's youth it was something special. So special a reporter was on hand to see the computer perform.
What the reporter saw was a box called the cream soda computer for the beverage Woz and Bill drank while building it, with lights that would turn on and off. Not very exciting. Things picked up when the computer caught fire. From inauspicious beginnings come great things and the inauspicious beginning of Woz's computer design occurred this month, on the news, in 1971.
 |
| Great Scott!! Fried Apple! |
And with that warm thought, we begin this week's Time Machine! This week, The Coasters... and The Coasters... and The Coasters...; What do velvet gloves have to do with spit (Bob, do you catch THAT one?) ; an Andrew Lloyd Weber six degrees; and a top ten with only one song going down. Go ahead, flip the switch- I don't even LIKE cream soda!
As packed-full of music as we were last week, we are light this week. Out of ten hot 100 debuts (in itself a low number), I knew just one- Olivia Newton-John's debut, If Not For You, which if you recall was a Bob Dylan comp that was first recorded on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. And after having almost fifty birthday songs the last two weeks, we have only 10 this time. Turning thirty, Loverboy's Hot Girls In Love (another fine example of their intellectual lyrics), Def Leppard's Rock Of Ages, and Bryan Adams' Cuts Like A Knife (which I always thought was perfect karma for what he "did'" on Run To You). Turning 35 we have Wings' I've Had Enough, the Cars debut single Just What I Needed, and Nick Gilder's Hot Child In The City. Maureen McGovern's Poseidon Adventure theme The Morning After turns 40 this week; Donovan hits forty-five with Hurdy Gurdy Man. Finally a pair that turn 50- Doris Troy's Just One Look and Randy and the Rainbows with Denise. Blow out the candles...
That brings us to our 45 at 45, or the #45 45 of 45 years ago. This week we find Joe Tex with a tune called I'll Never Do You Wrong. Joe, who had had his biggest hit thus far a few months before with Skinny Legs And All, was most famous for his longstanding rivalry with James Brown, a rivalry that stretched from Tex wearing a cape a la Brown and screaming, "Someone get this cape offa me!" (as an opening act FOR Brown in his home town), to Brown hiring Tex's ex as a singer, then sending her back to him, saying, "I'm done with her". This particular song only hit in the high 50's on BB, so once again it's already higher than that on Cashbox.
Problem is, like an idiot, I first looked up the #68 song of the week- which is where the Velvet Gloves and Spit come from. That was the title, for reasons I couldn't determine, of the Neil Diamond lp which contained the song at 68, the autobiographical Brooklyn Roads. The lp released three hard luck singles, of which BR was the highest charting (#58). But wait, the story's not over! Because after he had Cracklin' Rosie and a couple other hits under his belt, the record company re-released the lp, this time adding the song Shilo (which had been released and failed to chart for him on his former label). Shilo, with a new life, charted at #24, giving the album at least one good hit- sort of.
The biggest climber this week is Jean Knight's Mr. Big Stuff at 55, a 27 notch move... and going down, Me And You And your mangy dog Boo, dropping 32 to land at 43.
Our where are they now at #51 this week was a bit of a challenge. The act was called Chee Chee and Peppy, named after the two singers' pet Chihuahuas. The singers were one 14 year old Keith "Chee Chee" Boiling and 12 year old Dottie "Peppy" Moore (later Moore-Thomas). Dottie was discovered by manager/producer Jessie James, who ran the board for Cliff Nobles and Co.'s The Horse. She was teamed up with young Boiling, who the internet describes as (erroneously) Dottie's brother and (unconfirmed) Sam Cooke's son. After the bubble-gummy hit, Boiling disappears; 10 years later Dottie and a new Chee Chee ( a dude named Charles Campbell) had a second lp. Nowadays, Dottie is a member of Bishop Bobby Hilton's Word Of Deliverance Church in Forest Park, Ohio, whose choir has had some recordings.
5 new songs enter the top 40. Elvis moves up one to 40 with the song Life. Up 4 to #39 are Ike and Tina fighting their way through Oh Poo Pah Doo (and without having listened to this yet, I wonder if it's the song on Gilligan's Island that Ginger sings when the feather goes up her nose and cures her amnesia? Nah, I can't see THEM singing THAT). James Taylor jumps from 55 to 38 with You've Got A Friend; Carly Simon moves 8 to 36 with That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be; and Isaac Hayes takes his shot at recent top dog Never Can Say Goodbye, climbing 7 to #35.
 |
| "...I wanna be loved by you... alo-o-one, oh poo-poo-pah-doo!" |
If I learned anything in doing our lookback this week, it's that EVERY member of the Coasters had their own Coasters after the group split up. Yes, this week in 1958, the Coasters shot up a quick 15 with Yakety Yak. The original band was formed when a group called the Robins had a regional hit with a song called Smokey Joe's Café. This was enough to get the group and the song's writers, the famous Lieber-Stoller team, a deal with Atlantic. But some of the group didn't want to make the move, so members Carl Gardner and Bobby Nunn, became the nucleus of the Coasters. They added Billy Guy, Leon Hughes, and Adolf Jacobs. With the success of Yakety Yak, the band moved to New York and replaced Nunn and Hughes with "Dub" Jones and Cornell Gunter. After Jacobs left, the Coasters' string of 6 top tens between May of '57 and August of '59 dribbled out, with Little Egypt (Ying-Yang) being their last top 40 in April of '61.
At this point, it was almost as if someone fired a shot and yelled, "Disperse," and several members founded their own Coasters group. That included Hughes and Nunn, who originally formed The Dukes after being canned. But the strangest thing about the group is how many of them came to horrible ends later on. Gunter was shot to death in his car in Las Vegas in 1990. Nate Wilson, a member of Gunter's Coasters, was killed and dismembered in 1980- by former band manager Patrick Cavanaugh, because Wilson was going to turn him in over some stolen furniture. And King Curtis, the sax player on their big hits (but was never an official member), was stabbed to death by a pair of junkies who were shooting up on his front porch in 1971.
Guy left to do solo work (and of course, form his own Coasters), died in 2002. Nunn , who called his band the Coasters Mark II, passed in 1986. Jones, the bass voice in hits like Charlie Brown, died in 2000. Gardner, who actually owned the name and ran the "real" Coasters, retired in 2005 and was replaced by son Carl, Jr., who then himself left that group to form yet another Coasters iteration in 2012. Carl, Sr., died in 2011. Hughes, who was a member of several of the splinter groups (including Guy's) and joined Jones in "the World Famous Coasters", and Jacobs are the only remaining living members.
 |
| The one and many... |
Two songs enter the top ten, two fall out. Dropping are the Jacksons' Never Can Say Goodbye (5 to 15), and Bridge Over Troubled Arethas (3 to 11).
The Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose climb 4 to #10 with Treat Her Like A Lady.
Joy To The World makes one last stop in the top ten, dropping 3 to #9.
And here, at #8 and holding, our six degrees victim.
Murray Head holds a second week with Superstar, Judas Iscariot's solo from Jesus Christ Superstar. Murray's other hit, of course, was One Night In Bangkok. Besides the singer, these two share a common lyricist, Tim Rice. Rice was the words behind Andrew Lloyd-Weber's music, and he and ALW combined on Superstar. However, Chess, from which Bangkok came, was Rice's baby, and when he began the writing, ALW was busy putting together Cats. So Rice was led to Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA. Their band was in process of breaking up, and they were looking for new projects. So it was Benny and Bjorn that wrote the music to Bangkok, while Cats spawned the hit Memory, which both Barbara Streisand and Barry Manilow hit the charts with- but was ACTUALLY supposed to be a solo for the star in Evita, but didn't make the cut.
 |
| Don't cry for me, litter box... |
Donny Osmond holds at 7 with Sweet And Innocent.
Carole King jogs up 10 spots to #6 with It's Too Late.
The Partridges flutter up 5 to #5 with I'll
The Carpenters also make a 5-spot ascension with Rainy Days And Mondays at #4.
Ringo Starr moves up a notch to 3 with It Don't Come Easy.
Holding at 2, the Stones and Brown Sugar.
And in a second week at the top...
Alright, that's a wrap for another week! Don't take any cream soda computers!!!!
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Lotsa Little Bits vol. 19
ITEM: Time for all of you to go over and check out some new members of the beer cap collection on the caps blog, along with the plug for the blogger who sent them. Stephen T. McCarthy (you can get the link on the caps blog- another good reason to go) is intelligent and irreverent, well-versed but not perverse, and though you might not always agree with him, you'd better have your stuff together if you wanna challenge (or agree, for that matter) with him. So go, check the caps out, check out his blog, and find out why his favorite beer sucks!
ITEM: You'll also see that there is something else he sent me (and can't thank him enough for his generosity), which I am listening to as I type this. You see, the whole thing got started when the name Walter Egan got brought up. For the seventies-challenged among you, go Youtube his hit Magnet And Steel. Well, before that- and after- he was involved in a surf band called the Malibooz. In 1999, they reunited to do an lp called Living Water (The Surfer's Mass). Basically it is Catholic mass done in surf music. I'm on my second play, and still absorbing the entirety of it. What I can tell you is what I've said before in many ways- worship is when you are so in tune with what you love, that the love becomes aimed at He who allowed what you love to exist. Music, nature, surfing... I have a friend who finds it in fishing. It is the purest form of praise, praise not needing the words. The inexpressible groanings of the Spirit. Eventually, I may have more to say on the subject, but for now let me close by adding that I think a new layer has just been added to my Christmas Vigil ritual.
ITEM: As long as I'm pimping, you should all check out Bobby G.'s latest post. I told him in all seriousness, it is one of his best. Not surprising as he conjures the wisdom of his father to look at today's world. Take a look, really.
ITEM: Anybody out there see what happened to the Heat last night? Hee Hee....
ITEM: An upcoming Sunday message is going to talk about 2 Kings 4 ( which I thank Lorraine for bringing up via text message. In the upcoming talk, I'm going to look at it in a slightly untraditional way... but I bring it up today because the conventional interpretation applies. You see, this was the passage where Elisha has the widow borrow jars from the whole neighborhood, and then fill them up with the little bit of oil she had in her jar. The resultant miracle paid her rent and gave her and her sons something to live on.
Last month's rent was made difficult by two rounds of tooth extractions and about 3 3-day weekends. This week, I get even better news- due to lack of orders and other difficulties, this work week is Tuesday, 1/2 Wednesday, Friday, and whatever we end up working on Saturday. Next week, Tuesday and Thursday, that's it. So I'm borrowing jars- hoping to get them filled with some prayers that God will, indeed, see us through, giving us the wisdom to ride out this storm in His hands. Anyone who can "lend a jar", it would be appreciated. And since I have to pour something IN those jars, be sure to send along your prayer requests as well. Thank you in advance.
ITEM: Here's one for the baseball books:
A busted pipe under the infield at Rangers Ballpark created a sinkhole right behind the mound. On-field batting practice Tuesday for both the Texas Rangers and Cleveland Indians was canceled so the grounds crew could fix the problem.
Workers had to dig more than 3 feet deep to try to fix the pipe under the field that is used to water the infield. One of the workers could only been seen from the waist up after getting down into the hole.
(And you'll have to dig to get THAT line!)
ITEM: Looking over at the news, I see it's just posted that 10-year-old Sarah Murgnahan is getting her new lungs as we speak! Thank you, Jesus, for letting common sense beat bureaucracy this once. Now guide her surgeon's hands and heal her.
ITEM: Also on the news, 72-year-old Jan Cooper of Anaheim was watching a burglar trying to break into her home. It was up to her to defend herself and her wheelchair bound 85-year-old WWII vet husband. She warned him off called 911, even had her Rottweiler barking at the burglar, but still he came. So she fired her .357 mag S&W revolver at the idiot, one Brandon Alexander Perez, 31, a career burglar who was living in a nearby halfway house. The bullet, police said, had to have missed his left cheek by inches. His response?
The stunned intruder apologized to Cooper after she fired, she recalled, telling her, "I'm sorry, ma'am. I'm leaving. Please don't shoot."
See, my liberal friends? Not only do guns prevent crime, they increase politeness!
ITEM: Next, the strange case of Edward Snowden, who says his conscience led him to blow the whistle on government eavesdropping. He is currently hiding somewhere in Hong Kong, while "patriots" like John Boehner call him a traitor. And today, not surprisingly, international skunk Julian Ass-ange called him a hero.
I cringe that I must agree this once with him. But look at the facts.
Ass-ange's other hero Bradley Manning, leaked information not to the American people, but to a foreign website, Ass-ange's Wikileaks. He leaked information that could have cost lives among the men he was serving with, men whose efforts to keep him safe in his support job were repaid by sticking their heads on the block. Manning is a full blown traitor, a little leftist smartass who just wanted to stick it to "the Establishment". Those that do that rarely care who get hurt along the way.
Snowden did not compromise lives here. He pointed out that the Obutthole administration was playing Big Brother with our phones, our computers, even the news media. Because every possible source of opposition MUST be snuffed out- that's Chicago politics, and that's why the IRS went after Mitt Romney, the Koch brothers, and the Tea Party. He was, in his own words, not a traitor or a hero, but an American, who decided:
'I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things'.
So to Ass-ange, he's a hero for the same reasons that Bradley Manning is. To me, he's a hero for that last quote.
ITEM: With that in mind: OBAMA!!! I'M RIGHT HERE! I am not scared of anything you can do to me, because, I have a reward in heaven. As the famous philosopher Van Zant once said, "Does your conscience bother you, tell me true..."
ITEM: You'll also see that there is something else he sent me (and can't thank him enough for his generosity), which I am listening to as I type this. You see, the whole thing got started when the name Walter Egan got brought up. For the seventies-challenged among you, go Youtube his hit Magnet And Steel. Well, before that- and after- he was involved in a surf band called the Malibooz. In 1999, they reunited to do an lp called Living Water (The Surfer's Mass). Basically it is Catholic mass done in surf music. I'm on my second play, and still absorbing the entirety of it. What I can tell you is what I've said before in many ways- worship is when you are so in tune with what you love, that the love becomes aimed at He who allowed what you love to exist. Music, nature, surfing... I have a friend who finds it in fishing. It is the purest form of praise, praise not needing the words. The inexpressible groanings of the Spirit. Eventually, I may have more to say on the subject, but for now let me close by adding that I think a new layer has just been added to my Christmas Vigil ritual.
ITEM: As long as I'm pimping, you should all check out Bobby G.'s latest post. I told him in all seriousness, it is one of his best. Not surprising as he conjures the wisdom of his father to look at today's world. Take a look, really.
ITEM: Anybody out there see what happened to the Heat last night? Hee Hee....
ITEM: An upcoming Sunday message is going to talk about 2 Kings 4 ( which I thank Lorraine for bringing up via text message. In the upcoming talk, I'm going to look at it in a slightly untraditional way... but I bring it up today because the conventional interpretation applies. You see, this was the passage where Elisha has the widow borrow jars from the whole neighborhood, and then fill them up with the little bit of oil she had in her jar. The resultant miracle paid her rent and gave her and her sons something to live on.
Last month's rent was made difficult by two rounds of tooth extractions and about 3 3-day weekends. This week, I get even better news- due to lack of orders and other difficulties, this work week is Tuesday, 1/2 Wednesday, Friday, and whatever we end up working on Saturday. Next week, Tuesday and Thursday, that's it. So I'm borrowing jars- hoping to get them filled with some prayers that God will, indeed, see us through, giving us the wisdom to ride out this storm in His hands. Anyone who can "lend a jar", it would be appreciated. And since I have to pour something IN those jars, be sure to send along your prayer requests as well. Thank you in advance.
ITEM: Here's one for the baseball books:
A busted pipe under the infield at Rangers Ballpark created a sinkhole right behind the mound. On-field batting practice Tuesday for both the Texas Rangers and Cleveland Indians was canceled so the grounds crew could fix the problem.
Workers had to dig more than 3 feet deep to try to fix the pipe under the field that is used to water the infield. One of the workers could only been seen from the waist up after getting down into the hole.
 |
| Hold it... I think we've hit Dave Hostetler! |
ITEM: Looking over at the news, I see it's just posted that 10-year-old Sarah Murgnahan is getting her new lungs as we speak! Thank you, Jesus, for letting common sense beat bureaucracy this once. Now guide her surgeon's hands and heal her.
ITEM: Also on the news, 72-year-old Jan Cooper of Anaheim was watching a burglar trying to break into her home. It was up to her to defend herself and her wheelchair bound 85-year-old WWII vet husband. She warned him off called 911, even had her Rottweiler barking at the burglar, but still he came. So she fired her .357 mag S&W revolver at the idiot, one Brandon Alexander Perez, 31, a career burglar who was living in a nearby halfway house. The bullet, police said, had to have missed his left cheek by inches. His response?
The stunned intruder apologized to Cooper after she fired, she recalled, telling her, "I'm sorry, ma'am. I'm leaving. Please don't shoot."
See, my liberal friends? Not only do guns prevent crime, they increase politeness!
ITEM: Next, the strange case of Edward Snowden, who says his conscience led him to blow the whistle on government eavesdropping. He is currently hiding somewhere in Hong Kong, while "patriots" like John Boehner call him a traitor. And today, not surprisingly, international skunk Julian Ass-ange called him a hero.
I cringe that I must agree this once with him. But look at the facts.
Ass-ange's other hero Bradley Manning, leaked information not to the American people, but to a foreign website, Ass-ange's Wikileaks. He leaked information that could have cost lives among the men he was serving with, men whose efforts to keep him safe in his support job were repaid by sticking their heads on the block. Manning is a full blown traitor, a little leftist smartass who just wanted to stick it to "the Establishment". Those that do that rarely care who get hurt along the way.
Snowden did not compromise lives here. He pointed out that the Obutthole administration was playing Big Brother with our phones, our computers, even the news media. Because every possible source of opposition MUST be snuffed out- that's Chicago politics, and that's why the IRS went after Mitt Romney, the Koch brothers, and the Tea Party. He was, in his own words, not a traitor or a hero, but an American, who decided:
'I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things'.
So to Ass-ange, he's a hero for the same reasons that Bradley Manning is. To me, he's a hero for that last quote.
ITEM: With that in mind: OBAMA!!! I'M RIGHT HERE! I am not scared of anything you can do to me, because, I have a reward in heaven. As the famous philosopher Van Zant once said, "Does your conscience bother you, tell me true..."
Monday, June 10, 2013
Yeah, yeah, I know...
...but here's the latest AIHL update. At least, the best job I can give with recovering from the party at Lizard Happy!
A rare Thursday game last week featured the Battle of Melbourne round two, and this one again went to the Ice. This time, though, it was a tight 2-1 score; Jon Olthius kept the 'Stangs in the game despite being outshot 43-27. Matt Armstrong and Mitch Humphries each had a goal and an assist in the match.
Saturday and Sunday featured a wild two-game set in Perth between the Thunder and Adelaide. Game one was a back and forth affair, with Perth's Joe Tolles putting Perth up 4-2 with his first goal and 5-3 with his second. Then came Travis Ouellette of the Ads, who scored his second, third, and fourth goals of the game in a 2:30 span of the third, all assisted by his brother Britt, to put Adelaide up 6-5. But Perth's Michael Forney tied it at 6 just 43 seconds later, and (in a recurring theme) Matt Strueby scored with 4 minutes left to give Perth the win in game one, 7-6.
Game two was much like it. The first period ended in a 3-3 tie; but the Thunder scored three straight, including Jordan Kyros' second of the game, and it was 6-4 after two. Perth made it 7-4 early in the third, but the Ads rallied again- with Travis Ouellette's second of the game and 6th of the weekend, along with Luc Blain's sixth and seventh assists in the two games, to cut it to 7-6. However, they couldn't get that last score, and Matt Strueby (again) got the last goal of the game- into an empty net with 5 seconds left- to end the game 8-6.
Round two of the Battle of Sydney was played Saturday as well, Anthony Wilson of the Ice Dogs, with an assist from Simon Bars, tied the game at 1-1 with 1:01 left; and Bars got the only score of the shootout for a 2-1 Ice Dogs win and a 2-0 lead in that series.
Finally on Saturday, Newcastle got the privilege of playing the team that never comes to play, the Canberra Knights. How else do you explain a team who gets outshot 62-15- 30-6 in the third period alone? Jeff Martens matched Travis Ouellette's feat- scoring 4 goals, three of them in just under 2 1/2 minutes!
On Sunday, the Ice Dogs took their turn, routing Canberra 6-1. Captain Robert Malloy scored 3 times as the Knights has now given up 62 goals while scoring 23- 17 fewer than anyone else.
Finally, Newcastle beats the Bears 4-2. In a game in which their were only 8 shots combined in the first period, the Bears got the first two goals, but Tim Stanger (best known for scoring ZERO points as a forward in 20 games in 2009) started off a streak of 4 unanswered goals by four different skaters.
With the Ice Dogs and North Stars each winning twice, the Ice (6-3-2, 20 points) now see themselves looking up at the Ice Dogs (7-2-4, 28 points), and Newcastle (9-2-0, 27). The Bears, Mustangs, and surprising Perth are in a second group, with the Ads and Canberra falling further and further back. Perth, in fact, has pulled within 2 points of the Ice, going 6-3 since that 13-2 beatdown by Newcastle in the beginning of May.
A rare Thursday game last week featured the Battle of Melbourne round two, and this one again went to the Ice. This time, though, it was a tight 2-1 score; Jon Olthius kept the 'Stangs in the game despite being outshot 43-27. Matt Armstrong and Mitch Humphries each had a goal and an assist in the match.
Saturday and Sunday featured a wild two-game set in Perth between the Thunder and Adelaide. Game one was a back and forth affair, with Perth's Joe Tolles putting Perth up 4-2 with his first goal and 5-3 with his second. Then came Travis Ouellette of the Ads, who scored his second, third, and fourth goals of the game in a 2:30 span of the third, all assisted by his brother Britt, to put Adelaide up 6-5. But Perth's Michael Forney tied it at 6 just 43 seconds later, and (in a recurring theme) Matt Strueby scored with 4 minutes left to give Perth the win in game one, 7-6.
Game two was much like it. The first period ended in a 3-3 tie; but the Thunder scored three straight, including Jordan Kyros' second of the game, and it was 6-4 after two. Perth made it 7-4 early in the third, but the Ads rallied again- with Travis Ouellette's second of the game and 6th of the weekend, along with Luc Blain's sixth and seventh assists in the two games, to cut it to 7-6. However, they couldn't get that last score, and Matt Strueby (again) got the last goal of the game- into an empty net with 5 seconds left- to end the game 8-6.
Round two of the Battle of Sydney was played Saturday as well, Anthony Wilson of the Ice Dogs, with an assist from Simon Bars, tied the game at 1-1 with 1:01 left; and Bars got the only score of the shootout for a 2-1 Ice Dogs win and a 2-0 lead in that series.
Finally on Saturday, Newcastle got the privilege of playing the team that never comes to play, the Canberra Knights. How else do you explain a team who gets outshot 62-15- 30-6 in the third period alone? Jeff Martens matched Travis Ouellette's feat- scoring 4 goals, three of them in just under 2 1/2 minutes!
On Sunday, the Ice Dogs took their turn, routing Canberra 6-1. Captain Robert Malloy scored 3 times as the Knights has now given up 62 goals while scoring 23- 17 fewer than anyone else.
Finally, Newcastle beats the Bears 4-2. In a game in which their were only 8 shots combined in the first period, the Bears got the first two goals, but Tim Stanger (best known for scoring ZERO points as a forward in 20 games in 2009) started off a streak of 4 unanswered goals by four different skaters.
With the Ice Dogs and North Stars each winning twice, the Ice (6-3-2, 20 points) now see themselves looking up at the Ice Dogs (7-2-4, 28 points), and Newcastle (9-2-0, 27). The Bears, Mustangs, and surprising Perth are in a second group, with the Ads and Canberra falling further and further back. Perth, in fact, has pulled within 2 points of the Ice, going 6-3 since that 13-2 beatdown by Newcastle in the beginning of May.
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