Today, Jim Maloney of the Cincinnati Reds got his second no-hitter, and it was a strange one. On a cold, wet night- just the kind that Jim hated- he struck out 13 batters of the worst team in the division (Houston), and got plenty of run support, from a seven-run fourth inning on 2 hit batters, 3 walks, 2 wild pitches (one to Maloney), oh, and a bases-clearing triple by Bobby Tolan. In the 8th, he'd score the 10th Reds run, pull his groin, finish the 9th with a fly ball (just the 2nd ball to the outfield all game), a grounder, a walk, and a strikeout. And then not pitch again for 2 1/2 months.
The Astros? They complained he 'greased the ball', and went on to no-hit the Reds the next night.
Welcome to this week's Time Machine, and who did you line up for us this week in your "fake mistake" guest selection?
Nardole: Well, gee golly, I know you asked for "Gary Puckett", but I seem to have goofed and gotten...
...Kirby Puckett of the Minnesota Twins, selected from a reasonable time frame, and not our target year 1969, as he would have been 9 at the time...
KP: Hi, everybody! I don't know exactly why I'm here, or what is exactly going on, but I'm glad to be here! Heck, I'm glad to be anywhere!
Well, Kirby my friend, you are what's preventing us from having Bobby Goldsboro here, and keeping us legal at the same time! And what we're doing is a music show, and we are currently hovering over April of 1969!
Uh-HUH. Well, I can't say as a kid I had much time- or money- for music, but I'm willing to try it if you are! So what kind of show is it?
Truthfully, a set of unconnected special features that shift between two temporal poles- one side is the present, and my personal top ten for the week (which can contain anything from any era as long as I never heard it before I put it on my shuffle), and the other is the Panel, which is the #1 song from this week in the target year on a variety of radio stations, put together in an election-like form, whose winner gets to be the guest the next week- unless we fudge a little bit and bring in a ringer, like yourself.
Hmm. Do know as I've ever been called a music 'ringer' before... So what do we do first?
First, let's have the first of two debuts this week on my M10. And that would be this little number, at #9, from an act who's been here just once before, Major Murphy:
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Cool, man! Now what?
Well, now we do our musical 6 degrees, whose victim at the end of the trail is the highest ranked song on that week's Cashbox chart that didn't get a Panel vote. And this song ought to be close to you, as it describes what you yourself were going through at the time, growing up. And here to do the honors is another man connected to the other side of the story- our very own Elvis!
EP: Now we start this here story with me singin' one of my big later-on hits, In The Ghetto...
KP: I pretty much lived that one, too!
EP: You an' too many others, my friend! That song was on my From Elvis In Memphis album, which had a lot of old hits. I did Johnny Tillotson's It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin', Glen Campbell's Gentle On My Mind, Hank Snow's I'm Movin' On...
Hey, I have a funny story about that one...
EP: I'm sure you do, boss. So anyway, one song was the old Chuck Jackson Any Day Now...
Which was a big #1 on the M10 by the Four Seasons last year...
EP: Son, who's tellin' this story? Anyhow, that song was the b-side to our 6D victim, as Chris likes to call 'em, Jerry Butler's Only The Strong Survive, #5 without a Panel vote...
KP: Boy, I loved that one. Your Panel's nuts!
EP: So's the Boss, but we humor 'im...
Sure sounds like someone wants to do the Christmas Party with the Beatles again...
EP: Er, yeah, sorry about that....
Or Bobby Goldsboro...
EP: Man, if that ship hadn't sailed, you'd be scarin' me now...
Good. Anyway, it's time for Mr Puckett to give us the Panel finalists.
KP: Just the finalists? Howcum?
Time. We had 24 songs from 87 stations this week, including three that never charted nationally, and three that don't make the chart until next week.
KP: Gotcha. And we have four finalists, so choose from...
The Cowsills and Hair, #2 on Cashbox this week...
Mercy, Love Can Make You Happy, the big mover this week going from #66 to #20, 46 notches...
See, buddy, he don't have to take his shoes off to figure out the move...
EP: Yep, just one big, happy family here...
KP: Next, we have the Fifth Dimension and Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In at #1...
...and finally, the Isley Brothers and It's Your Thing at #3. Imma have to take them, personally.
All right, there you go! I will say it was a tight battle between 2 of these songs, so choose carefully. And now, here's our high debut- up at #6. This combines a M10 newbie- a duo known as Overcoats- and an M10 star act, the duo Tennis. From the new Overcoats album called Used To Be Scared Of The Dark...
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KP: Okay, I liked the song... but the movie? Not for me.
Not for everyone, for sure. But now we move on to a feature we call Overseas If You Please. These are the number ones on the target week around the English speaking world, and by tradition, Kirby, these are yours to read off.
KP: All right, so today's lineup starts with the UK batting leadoff with the Beatles and Get Back...
Up next is Canada with Blood Sweat and Tears doing You Made Me So Very Happy...
Australia in the three-hole with Paul Sarstadt and Where Do You Go To My Lovely....
Batting cleanup is New Zealand, featuring John Rowles and M'lady...
And in fifth is South Africa and the 1910 Fruitgum Company and Indian Giver! Howsat?
Only thing I'd add was that Get Back was on the Panel and would hit the charts next week at #51, while You Made Me So Very Happy was also a Panelist at #4 on CB, and Indian Giver was a Panelist (since Springbok Radio is a Panelist) and was at #63. And now, the rest of the M10...
10- and falling 4 is Rogue Wave and Aesop Rock.
8- and now the all time leader with 13 weeks on the chart, and the first song on the M10 to bust the 100-point mark, Home Free and Don McLean's American Pie, down one.
7- with a whopping 10 weeks on the chart, the Explorer's Club and Don't Waste Her Time, down 2.
5- Evanescence and Broken Pieces Shine, up 5.
4- Matthew Sweet with the third of this week's former #1s, Blown Away is down 2.
3- Maddie and Tae hold at 3 with Woman You Got.
2- Blackberry Smoke up a pair with Ain't The Same.
And at the top for a second week....
Redspencer and Happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
King, you want the picks?
EP: Sure, so long as you got the per-cents already on there!
If'n you took the Isleys, you got 8%.
Mercy got ya 10.3%...
The final battle was 22.9% to 19.5%, in favor of....
...the Cowsills and Hair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I 'spect that means things'll be a might crowded in here next week, so get a seat early!
Chapter 3 of Titus is essentially the sane as the last chapters of both letters to Timothy, and why wouldn't it be, since they were all encouragements to young pastors? So we have to take a different angle to glean the new here, and that means looking deeper into one particular passage:
Tit 3:8 The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. Tit 3:9 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.
Just like now, Paul and his pastors were fighting a battle between faith and philosophy. This is the core of what is going on in today's Church- we are fighting over how much of the world to let in, instead of barring the door to a watered down Gospel and getting back to the essentials. And what are those essentials? Paul spells it out- belief in God, which includes the deity, death, and resurrection of Christ, and doing good for others. And in these two verses, he uses two pairs of words to contrast the difference between that and philosophy, where the controversies, etc, take center stage.
Here, they are translated "excellent", "profitable", "unprofitable", and "worthless". Some Bibles, including my paper version, change out the first and last for "good" and "vain". Excellent/good are meant to suggest a value or virtue; worthless/vain indicate empty. Without faith, the good works are worthless and empty- maybe not in this world, but certainly in the next.
The difference in the 'profits' are the difference between helpful and useless. I want to look at the actions that are deemed useless and have acquired a certain coin in society.
"Foolish controversies": For example, some Catholic FB acquaintances have posted time and again about proper music, the position of hands in prayer (folded or upraised), and other such things that I generally scroll on past. I was a bit shocked to find that the literal translation of this one was "blockheaded searching".
"Genealogies": This actually reference back to 1 Timothy:
1Ti 1:4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.
Genealogies was more a blow to the Judaizers who haunted every church, it seems; but it applies to the legalists in every age, and when you break it down, the translation is calling this a slightly less blockheaded version of the first one.
"Dissensions": I note that the word translated here is actually Eris- the name of the Greek goddess of discord. Perhaps if he lived now, Paul would have used the phrase, "everyone gets an opinion on social media".
"Quarrels about the law": The word for quarrels literally means "to go to war". I give you today's politics, which is why I have said time and again we need to remove the subjects of worth from the realm of politics to see what Jesus wants of us. Debates of COVID, mask/no mask, meet/no meet, Trump's a Nazi/ Biden's an idiot work their way right back around to "blockheaded searching".
All of which, Paul tells us are empty and useless. Faith in Christ, and bringing good to others- THAT'S what has value.
1Ti 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
That moment when, after telling God you need encouragement, you realize why so many of the pastors you listen to are in 1 Timothy 6 and 2 Timothy 4....
The Better Part, Day #105:
Col 4:3 At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison--
Col 4:4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.
Col 4:5 Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.
Col 4:6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Simply my watchwords for today- and, boy did I need them: Pray, walk, and watch the talk...
The Better Part, Day #106:
"Oh, baby, I think we may have caught the static..."- Lucius, Pulling Teeth
There was something I heard on Michael Youseff this morning on the way into work that caught my ear as a possible TBP topic. A tiny voice said, "don't forget to apply," and got more or less a "yeah, yeah" response from the front of my mind. At work, the reception I got for David Jeremiah was more static-y than usual, and this line from that song wouldn't get out of my head. Then, I did what has become a "customary review" of all I'd heard to glean the day's post. I knew there was something I'd heard, but I couldn't remember- no, I wasn't ALLOWED to remember it, I could tell. Then, that interference, the static on the radio, the static in the song- I got the message. These posts are not meant to be teaching posts, and I darn well knew it. They are "sharing what I learned today", and I was doing my best that day to make everything I was supposed to be learning a "sound bite" for the post.
Stop. Rethink. Learn. Like Yesterday, pray, walk, talk. Suddenly, I remembered what it was I had heard- and what I had failed to apply. I'd like to say I won't make that mistake again, but I caught myself again before the morning was over. Some days my dunce cap fits tighter than others.
The Better Part, Day #107:
Exo 14:15 The LORD said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.
Exo 14:16 Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.
Exo 14:17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen.
Exo 14:18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen."
Sometimes, like today, I wonder about how I'm going to get everything accomplished I want to do in a day. (Never mind that I'm far from up against a wall task wise.) But today, this passage came up a couple of times, and the best thought about it was shared by Alistair Beg: "You don't need to know how God is going to do what He's going to do. He will keep His promises; your job is just to put your stick out over the water and watch Him keep His promises."
The Better Part, day #108...
On a day where God, from several mouths, had me debating all the "but that's just me" items that work contrary to His will in me, I finally got a graphic demonstration. After a talk with my boss about a certain problem, I said to myself, "What frustrates me is, when I report a problem, I want it solved. He likes to kinda 'flow around' the problem. I mean, it works, but I'd rather solve it."
And the voice in back of my head says, "And how's that work for you?"
I answered, "Usually with solutions that don't work, or don't address the actual problem, or just plain aren't feasible. But I want it solved, because I'm stubborn...
"...but that's just me."
That moment when your dippy boss is right all along- and so is God.
The Better Part, Day #109:
Pro 22:2 The rich and the poor meet together; the LORD is the maker of them all.
A Pastor I've had... well, issues with before, said something that bothered me on 2 levels. During a sermon on the proper ways for a man to treat his wife, he delved into "not leading them into temptation". His statement involved it being wrong to "throw her out into the workforce" where she finds "in the office all these slicked-up fellows" while having to come home to "you in your raggedy old t-shirt and jeans".
First problem, this SEEMS to be saying, a man should be able to keep his wife at home all the time. A working wife is PROMOTED in the Bible; in many places, most notably the last chapter of Proverbs.
Second problem- and one that constantly amazes me coming from those who are supposed to follow Christ's example, is the attitude that EVERYBODY works in an office. Hello, factory workers here, construction workers here, service workers here! Almost EVERY national radio preacher seems to make this assumption- and the two worst at it, incidentally, are the two most notably involved in politics that I hear. I realize when you are managing, in some cases, multi-million dollar ministries it gets harder to realize that not everyone lives like you... but it doesn't mean that everyone who hears your message lives like you.
So my thought is, pray for our pastors, that while they have to cater to those that can afford the 'conference cruises to Alaska', or the 'enriching trip to the holy land', they are also talking to quite a few somewhere between the Rich Man and Lazarus who need enriching as well.
Elvis: Hey, is it true you're shutting down Time Machine when we hit 700 posts?
I'm thinking good possibility. It was so much easier just doing that M10 deal last week...
But what about yer loyal crew? We'll be unemployed!
But you're imaginary, so you'll be okay.
An' I would like to continue being imaginary. Sure beats, "deceased".
I'll probably keep doing little specials, maybe some more parties, they were fun. By the way, do you know when we'd be stopping, in the odd case that we actually keep on schedule the rest of the way?
Um... lessee, 6 goes into four...
Halloween weekend, my friend. Maybe we could close out with a big Halloween bash- and come back and to another Christmas show!
That'd be burnt! But what're we doing in the meantime?
I'm not quite sure. This was last week's Panel, so it was mid-April 1968, and you know what that means...
Yeah... unfortunately. It means Bobby Goldsboro and Honey won big, didn't it?
Oh, yeah. Lapped the field once, and was coming back for seconds. Fortunately, I have a couple of ideas... and we have a live 6D to put together!
I got an idea. Let's you n me put our heads together an' flesh out these 'couple'a idears', and let Bellbottom do the live 6D.
HB: I most strenuously object to these spur of the moment shenanigans! Sigh. Well, at least put on a little music while I gather my wits and information. Mr Nardole, would you be so kind...
N: Why not? At least YOU get my name right! So we have one debut that comes into this week's M10 at #9. An Alternative act of some standing, with a cut from their latest lp, this is Evanescence....
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HB: Well, you all have certainly given me a poser on this task. And not a Rodney Dangerfield in sight, as it were. So let me start this adventure by quoting Wikipedia:
"Langdon Winner (born August 7, 1944) is Thomas Phelan Chair of Humanities and Social Sciences in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York."
And why, you ask, do we care about Prof. Winner on this farcical music show? Firstly, because he was involved in a bit of a farce himself. It seems he contributed backing vocals and piano to a 'bootleg' album from "the Masked Marauders". The Marauders, despite scoring a single, never really existed; but according to a hoax by the editorial staff of Rolling Stone magazine, they were a supergroup consisting of three of the four Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. All it was, actually, was a fake review, at first. But then they decided to go one step further and hired an obscure act called 'the Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band', who actually did exist. After recording some songs mentioned in the review, including their ersatz Bob Dylan singing Duke Of Earl, and the fraudulent Jagger singing, er, 'I Can't Get No Nookie', they would go on to turn it into a full album which actually got to #114 on the album charts.
Why go to such an elaborate ruse? Apparently they were inspired by what seems to be the first bootleg album, a Bob Dylan disc eventually called Great White Wonder. This album included the first recording of what Mr Dylan described as "a nursery rhyme", that was later recorded and sits as our victim at #6, last week in 1968- Manfred Mann and Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo). How was that?
Wow, excellent job, HB! So here's the first thing we came up with- the tight battle for 2nd place. In fact, the two runners up and Honey took 83% of the votes. Who came in 2nd by a 14-13 score? Was it:
The Beatles, Lady Madonna, #2 last week in 1968;
or Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, Young Girl, #1 this week?
That's right, I said, #1, because Honey was still a week out from its four weeks on top of Cashbox and its chart! And still beat the 2 songs in front of it by more than what either of them got! Before we get to our other bright idea, Bud, you got the Overseas If You Please?
Sure! Last week in 1968, South Africa and Australia had the current #11 in the USA- and former #1- Paul Mauriat and Love Is Blue...
New Zealand had the 6D song, Mighty Quinn...
Canada had our #4, the Monkees and Valleri...
And always having to be different, the UK had Cliff Richard's Congratulations.
And the big mover was the Rascals an' Beautiful Morning, up from 77 to 42, a jump of... of... lessee, 6 goes into...
35 spots, King! So now, here I come with our other little game. The year 1968 on Cashbox had five songs collect HALF of the weeks at #1! Those same five songs also had 26 weeks at the top at Billboard, but with different amounts of weeks at #1, and one BB #1 had more weeks than 3 of the five Cashboxers, and one had the same. Confused? Let me rearrange...
No, here, let me, you ain't talkin' sense. Now, what's gonna happen is, you're gonna see a list of the Cashbox five that got 26 weeks, PLUS the two that did better than some of 'em on Billboard. YOU pick out the two that don' belong on the Cashbox list. See? Everyone can unnerstand that!
I suppose you're right. So here, in order of when they hit #1, are your choices...
Love Is Blue
Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay, Otis Redding
Honey
Mrs Robinson by Simon and Garfunkel
This Guy's In Love With You, Herb Alpert
People Got To Be Free, The Rascals
And the Beatles, Hey Jude.
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EP: Now, the next thing we gotta decide, is do we get Goldsboro on the show next week? I vote no.
HB: Good heavens, Presley, we're contractually obligated!
EP: How? He don' know he won, and he's imaginary, anyway!
Makes a good point, Horace...
Nardole: Perhaps I could have one of those "thoughtless moments" that you seem to like to write for me when you don't want a particular guest...
HB: How utterly dishonest!
EP: But it gets us in the clear, right?
(phone rings)
HB: Except that we're having this conversation on the post where everyone can see... would someone please get that phone?
EP: Yeah, Time Machine, Elvis here...
Bobby Goldsboro: Say, if you don't want me on the show that bad, why don't you all go...CLICK (dial tone)
Wow, problem solved! So let's get the rest of the M10 out of the way, and give out the game winners!
Nardole: Allow me.
10- and falling from six, Elton John, who has somehow survived two M10 hits without us posting him in the duck costume...
EP: Ya mean this one?
N: (Sigh), Yes, and his song Big Man In A Little Suit...
EP: Don' look so small to me, especially in the....
N: AT #9, was the song in the video, so...
8- Dami Im, falling from 3 with Lonely Cactus;
7- Holding at 7, tying for the most weeks on the chart, and one week away from breaking both that record and the 100-point plateau for the first time, Home Free with Don McLean and American Pie;
6- Rogue Wave with Aesop Rock, up 2 places;
5- Down from 2, after 9 weeks, the Explorer's Club and Don't Waste Her Time.
4- Up from #9, Blackberry Smoke and Ain't The Same.
3- Up one spot, Maddie and Tae with Woman You Got.
2- Lats week's 3-week #1, Matthew Sweet and Blown Away.
So the new M10 #1- a week after debuting at 5...
...Redspencer and Happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All right! And now, the winners- first off, the #1 contest.
On Cashbox, Love Is Blue and Hey Jude had 7 weeks on top, and four weeks for Honey, Mrs Robinson, and This Guy's In Love With You. The winning picks were Dock Of The Bay, which had 4 weeks on BB but never topped #3 on CB, and People Got To Be Free, which only got 3 weeks on CB but 5 on BB.
And the runner up winner was...
EP: Don' tell me, lemme guess- the Beatles...
Actually no, Gary Puckett was the 14-vote getter, so he was the best runner up!
N: Shall I contact him to be our guest next week- assuming we DO a next week?
EP: Haw, no, just go ahead and mess up like we planned. It's funnier that way!
This is the end of Paul- the last of his many letters, written during his final imprisonment to the one man he counted on above all others to hold up the standard when he was gone. This makes it seem harsh, almost bitter, but he was coming through what had to be a shocking disappointment- a team he thought would hold together had split apart, just like Jesus' team 40 years before:
2Ti 4:9 Do your best to come to me soon. 2Ti 4:10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 2Ti 4:11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. 2Ti 4:12 Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.
Now, he saw his last duty as stopping the erosion. And where five years before, he had wrote Timothy a patient letter to encourage him to growth, now Timothy was in a more solid place and Paul intended to keep him there. To do this, Timothy would have to face a battle Paul foresaw from his cell...
2Ti 4:3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 2Ti 4:4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
A couple I know on FB has been battling with their friends list (at least one-former- member of it, anyway) about some preacher whose already shaky rep as a questionable teacher was questioned further from a statement that, in all honesty, was taken out of context the wrong way- although, by the story they themselves posted, it may have been with good reason. Andy Stanley tells us we need to stop teaching the Old Testament to draw younger people in. Other famous pastors have been battling each other in the courts- in direct violation of the Bible- over property rights. YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT THEIR FRUIT, not just their words. Prosperity Gospel is just one horn of this beast; accepting the sin to bring in the sinner (AKA what this world calls 'tolerance') is yet another. Just do a survey among 'christians' about "What does God say about X", and you'll find along the way a lot of those myths- "God will let everyone into Heaven", "Hell doesn't really exist", and many others.
If it ain't in the Word, it ain't right. You think I'm wrong? Jesus' biggest 'rants' were against the Pharisees, a group whose main sin was exactly that. The Word + the interpretations of rabbis + the nit picky extensions of the Law they tacked on. So Paul, who saw OUR day as clear as his day, gave Timothy a set of instructions on how to keep his congregation out of this trap...
2Ti 4:2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
Along with ones to keep himself on the straight and narrow....
2Ti 4:5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Normally, this would be where I break down those verses, build a stairstep analogy or do a word study, to bring those traits into sharper focus. But as I type this, I feel that the real need here is that you see the SERIOUSNESS OF WHY these were Paul's last written words we have. Astrology won't get you there. Good hearted philosophy won't get you there. Blindly following any pastor without digging into the Word on your own won't get you there.
I won't get you there, only Christ will. As far back as 2008, large chunks of people attending evangelical churches believe there are many ways to heaven. In light of what Jesus told us...
Joh 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
...my thought is, if you are NOT going to believe what Jesus said, why be a believer at all? If you are not going to believe He is the only way, it doesn't matter what else you believe, what else you've grafted in, and what good works you do, the real place of Hell awaits.
And it was obviously Paul's thought, and fueled his desperation to make sure Timothy, his spiritual son and successor, got it right. Paul draws the line that all the world's pastors like Demas, 'who loved this present world' (v10) wander across in the name of softness, tolerance, and popularity. That wasn't Paul, and I pray it won't ever be me.
A lone man looking for means of expression in a tsunami of information. Seeking truth justice and the American way in the perspective of a Nixon conservative. And the Commissioner of the free world's smallest and best fantasy football league.
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