Sunday Message: Take my wife, please

So when God tells a story two or three times, you know He's trying to get a point across.  And one time He told the same story three times was the merry "she's my sister...or my wife?" deal that pops up in Genesis 12, 20, and 26.  For those not familiar, here is the gist:

Genesis 12:  Famine makes Abraham go to Egypt; afraid of Egyptians because "they do not know God"; tells wife Sarah to say she is his sister, because she's a knockout and he's afraid they'll kill him to get her.  Pharaoh gets the hots for her; disease breaks out in the land; Pharaoh finds out the truth, chews Abraham out.  Abraham prospers, all live happily ever after.

Genesis 20: Abraham goes to Gerar because of famine.Same thing happens with Abimelech as with Pharaoh.  Abimelech chews out Abraham; he says, "Well technically, she IS my half sister...";  Abraham prospers, all live happily ever after.

Genesis 26:  Put in Isaac for Abraham, Rebeckah for Sarah, assume that you're dealing with Abimelech the Second, and have him catch Isaac and Rebeckah noodling out his window. After the chew out, they make a treaty, all live etc, etc.

So I'm reading and re-reading the texts, trying to find the commonalities and differences, anything to help me figure out what God is getting at here.  Head hurting, I shut my Bible and turn on the radio, and Tony Evans is doing a sermon on the End of Days.  In the middle of it (from my perspective) he pauses.  He says, "I have this watch... I know it's got these gears inside, it has these 'idiosyncratic' movements in it, but I don't have any idea how they work.  BUT, I CAN tell you what time it is..."

And I understood that I tuned in at that moment to get a handle on my story as well.  Strip it down, make it simple.  Okay, that I can do.

Step one: God has a plan for Abraham/Isaac.  A plan that was NOT going to be overturned by any stupidity they could add to the mix.

Step Two: A worsening condition occurs that makes them abandon their hope in God's provision and go somewhere God didn't particularly want them.  Now, that sounds a little more familiar, doesn't it?

Step Three:  Out of God's direct will, they began to fear for themselves.  Let's not concentrate on how less-than-gallant their "solutions" were, but the fact that moving out of God's direct will didn't help their overall circumstance, they merely traded hunger for fear.

Bunny Trail:  I see this also in Lot's actions when the Big Bang came to Sodom and Gomorrah.  He's told to move up into the mountains.  "Oh, I'm afraid of the mountains.  Can't you just spare, say, Zoar and let me go there?  See, it's just a little city..." So God allows it, and after the Big Bang and his wife's getting turned into a condiment, he looks around, and none of these people in Zoar who he just got spared by accident particularly like him.  So then he moves up into the mountains anyway.  Then, without mother to keep an eye on them, his daughters get him drunk so he'll make them babies, and the next thing you know you have centuries of problems with Moabites and Ammonites.

However, somewhere along the line, the plans for Abe and Isaac weren't the same as those for the less-obedient Lot, so we move on,

Step Four: They tell a lie.  But because God has a plan, He shields them from the CONSEQUENCES of that lie.  However, the people around them aren't so lucky.  Pharaoh got hit with sickness; Abimelech #1 got a warning visit from God Himself; and Abimelech #2 went through a season (Gen 26:8 "And when it came to pass he had been there for a long time...") where none of his women could bear children.  In the end, it comes back on them, and someone they SHOULD have been an example TO had to berate them for not being on the up-and-up.  And they had nothing to say, other than Abe's lame half-sister excuse.

Step Five: All is forgiven and they prosper in the land.  Wait, back the train up!  How do they get away with profiting from the lie?  Because God has a plan, and the plan goes on DESPITE how man jacks it up.  If you look at the genealogy of Jesus through Joseph, you find such non-upstanding characters as Jehoram, Manasseh, and Amon, three particularly rotten Kings of Judah, as well as it's namesake, the patriarch Judah, who ended up getting his late son's wife pregnant.


So what lesson do we learn from this?  Well, I think that there is a macro- and a micro- lesson here.  Macro: That God has a plan for our lives, and it would look a lot better on us if we LISTENED and did it His way.  Micro: There aren't as whole lot of Abrahams, but there are a LOT of Lots.  Do you really want to push the envelope of obedience to find out which one YOU are?

Time Machine week 79

Okay, here's the situation:  I am going to be making several short stops here on June 24, 1969, because of a little incident that happened Tuesday night.  You see, Hurricane Scrappy was going full tilt through the living room, in his most adrenalized "Hulk smash" mode.  He decided to jump up on the couch, and that the best available path there was skull first through my chin.  Didn't faze him in the least- it was ten minutes later he figured out I wasn't playing with him anymore- but I ended up with a mild concussion that has left me less than mentally cognizant ever since.  I missed Wednesday and made it through about 3 hours of Thursday before throwing in the towel.  Thus, I am going to do this here thing the "low-impact" way in hopes I might still get a decent report out of this.

However, I am not the worst off this day, as a Dominicana airlines DC-4 cargo plane made a spectacular and fatal crash landing down the middle of 36th Street in Miami today.

The four man crew and six on the ground, including the two teenage sons of the owner of what may have been this auto shop were killed.  And another boy killed there was the cause of a court case in which the jury awarded the family $1.8 million.  It was fought on appeal on the grounds that a "disinterested witness" testified that Lloyd's of London (who insured Dominicana) had already paid claims on damaged cars at a nearby car lot- and that testimony was somehow prejudicial and should have caused a mistrial.  REALLY?


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Hopefully, though, I won't crash us on this week's Time Machine trip, the centerpiece of which is FOUR debuts on the M10!  I have just a buttload of new songs in my feed- including a couple from the blogosphere that might be trying to sneak in later down the road- and there's no way that there isn't going to be a high turnover in the lower rungs, while this week's #s 1 and 2 prepare to carve up Summer 2016 between them!  And here with that first debut at #10 this week , is the third single from the Jayhawks' Paging Mr Proust lp:






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And the final segment before I make landing number one, I believe, will be the intro of our lovely Panel of the week:  WFIL Philadelphia, WIFE Indy, WLCY Tampa, KXOL Ft Worth, KISN Vancouver, WA, KYNO Fresno, CKLW Detroit, WCFL Chicago, WHBQ Memphis, WPOP Hartford, WCOL Columbus, and KDWB Minneapolis.  They racked up 21 different songs, including an amazing 8 songs that garnered double figure points this week- thus I'll be giving you the very first Panel Eight!And even those ten missed two of the #1 votes- the Buchanan Brothers with Medicine Man (Memphis) and Elvis' In The Ghetto (Tampa, and the national #1)!  The low charter this week, if I did this right, was Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline, which was stopping in at #55 at this point.  Just to contrapose against last week- when half of 32 songs were #41 or below, this week had just 4 out of 21 outside the top 40.


And with that, the Panel, er, Eight...

At #8, with no #1s and 11 points, the Beatles and Get Back, which was #4 on the big board this week.
At #7, also with 11 points but including the #1 from Fresno, Desmond Dekker and The Israelites, which was #9 on Cashbox this week.
At #6, with 16 points and the #1s of Hartford, Columbus, and Vancouver, Zager and Evans' In The Year 2525, the national #35.
At # 5, 4, and 3, a three way tie for 17 points and a single #1:
- CCR's Bad Moon Rising, the national #3. (#1 from Ft Worth)
-Three Dog Night and One, the national # 5. (Indianapolis)
- and Blood Sweat and tears with Spinning Wheel, the national # 8. (Detroit)

At #2, without a #1 vote, but 4 #2s, and 18 points, the national #7, Oliver and Good Morning Starshine.

And with three #1s and 24 points, the national runner-up... stay tuned.

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Okay, one quick 45-minute nap later, let's look at M10 debut #2.  This is the flip side of the "Property Brothers" Johnathan and Drew Scott's hit Hold On from earlier this year, and they ratchet up the fun at this week's #9 spot:





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Trying to find famous classical English men of music is like finding a needle in a haystack, since they are so overshadowed by the great German composers.  However, and I'll blame it on the concussion, my eyes were drawn to a certain name- one Dr. William Crotch.  Crotch was a virtuoso almost from birth, and an excellent composer of hymns, critic, and artist.  His theory on music split it into three categories- the sublime ("Simplicity and its opposite, intricacy, when on a large scale (for example a large chorus)" is what he saw here, as in his beloved church hymns), the beautiful ("Softness, smoothness, delicacy... symmetry... simple harmony..." one would think he would put Pet Sounds here), and the ornamental ("...the result of roughness, playful intricacy... eccentric and difficult melody, rapid, broken, or varied rhythm...wild and unexpected modulation"; for example, Tangerine).  He had one quote, which I blew a lot of brain cells getting to, that I really think says it all:


Music has been called the Language of Nature; but it is a very imperfect language- it is all adjectives and no substantives...

William Crotch, 1775-1847

And now, let us adjure to the adjectives and...

10- Smoky Robinson and the Miracles hit the top 20 here about 4 years before with Tracks Of My Tears.

9- And it was back in March CCR peaked in the US of A with Proud Mary.

8- I hadn't really heard this one before, but it was #85 this week here on its way to #63- the Beach Boys and Break Away.  Funny thing is, the Boys charted higher on the UK chart with EVERY single they did on both sides from Sloop John B in '66 till Rock'N'Roll Music ten years later.

7- Thunderclap Newman's one big hit, Something In The Air, would chart at only #37 in November here, but become a cult classic, while hitting the top in the UK.

6- A song I can empathize with today- Tommy Roe's Dizzy, which had been #1 here in March.

5- The #1 song in the US of A this week- In The Ghetto by Elvis.

4- Last month, Booker T and the MGs took their instrumental Time Is Tight to #8 here.

3- Here's a case of "Well named, sir"- Jethro Tull's Living In The Past, which would not cross the ocean until June of 1973, four years later.

2- The Edwin Hawkins Singers were already on the way down, sitting at #29 after a successful top ten tour with Oh Happy Day.


And Tops of the Pops?

The Beatles with The Ballad Of John and Yoko (John's first attempt at an "aw, poor me" song), which was at #12 in the States this week, and got only a #3 from Vancouver from the Panel.


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Time to get ready for another break in typing, but first here is the debut at # 8 from a brand-new LA band called the Pom Poms:





(Note to Shady:  The girl to vote for here is named Marlene Gold.)

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1985 was at the beginning of my "country phase", and so the list of songs that were nominated for Song of the Year at the 1986 Grammys were big hits on my Country10 at the time.  Song of the Year is a writers' award, and the songs that earned their writers recognition included three #1s on the Billboard country chart:  The Judds' Love Is Alive, Alabama's 40-Hour Week (which became a Bud commercial as I recall), and one of my all-timers, Roseanne Cash's I Don't Know Why You Don't Want Me (which she and Rodney Crowell wrote after Seven Year Ache didn't win).  Also on the list was Mel McDaniel's Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On and a cut from the Highwayman lp by Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson, Desperadoes Waiting For A Train.  That song had a deep meaning for me and led me to buy the album, which was highlighted by the title cut, which hit #1 and won the grammy for writer Jimmy Webb.  Webb had also won this award, on the pop side, back in '68 for a song taken to near the top by the 5th Dimension, Up, Up, and Away.  Their version hit #7 in '67- while another made it to #71 the next year.  That version was by South African instrumentalist Hugh Masekela, who had hit #1 with his original version of Grazing In The Grass.  It was the Friends Of Distinction who would write words to that tune and take it again into the top ten- and this week it sits at #10 on Cashbox, the highest song without a Panel vote.


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And now, the M10!

You've heard 10, 9, and 8- the debut at #7 is the just-released debut from the Monkees new lp Good Times!  The second single from this great album:




This video is even COOLER than the last!  The ending segment was the best!

In a week that might have had as many as five or six debuts, the band Whitney manages to hang on, improving its position to #6, up a pair, with Golden Days.

Dami Im becomes a victim of the numbers game, slipping a spot to #5 with Sound Of Silence.

Krewella takes that spot, moving up one to #4 with Surrender The Throne.

The first single from Good Times! falls a notch to #3- the Monkees and She Makes Me Laugh.

The battle at #1 is one of the hardest choices I have ever made, but case/lang/veirs and Honey And Smoke get held off one more week, moving up a spot to #2.

And at #1?  M10 says:

Tangerine with You'll Always Be Lonely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Last week it became one of six M10 songs to spend three or more weeks at #1... this week, it becomes one of 3 to spend a fourth week.  And, becomes the tenth song to top the 50-point mark!

And, the Panel Pick?

...Henry Mancini with the Love Theme From Romeo and Juliet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


So one #1 Dr Crotch would term "ornamental"... and one he'd prolly put in the "sublime" category!  Next week, we'll go to the beautiful year of... 1976!  Be there!

Monday message (Monday? What's this about?)

Well, it starts with me listening to Alistair Beg on the way home today, and he explained a simple thought in a way I never heard it brought up before.

This is going to be a post where non-Christian followers can say, "Gee I guess this stuff can be harder to get than it looks", while the Christian ones will say, "Boy, have I been doing that wrong!"  And it involves politics.  The Preacher started in 1 Peter 2 and the subject of what we are supposed to do in dealing with the world and its politics.  "Do we go out and demonstrate? Do we demand this or that?" he asked, then read from 1 Peter:

13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.

Of course, there is a lot of FB talk about, "If you are a Christian, you MUST vote..." and Beg was really annoyed that the Church has brought this struggle into the sanctuary.  What should we be doing?  He pointed out Peter's example in Acts 12:


5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

6 The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

8 Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. 9 Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.

11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”


He then asked the question, "So what did the Church do to free Peter?  Did they gather a crowd in the streets of Jerusalem, to protest the unfairness of Peter's jailing?  Did they vote for the Conservative candidate from Bithynia?  No, they used the one weapon that God gave for them to use- THEY PRAYED."

And he went on, expressing how it was NOT by doing things the way the world would have done it that got Peter freed, but by doing the one thing the others would have thought was the stupidest thing of all to do- they got down on their knees.  And he also pointed out that this is NOT how the Church does things today.  No, we do FB posts, sign petitions, go to demonstrations, share memes with "like" and "ignore" options (which I think is by FAR the stupidest thing that ever comes across my FB feed)- in short, we use the world's weapons.  And as Beg said, (paraphrasing here), we cannot expect to be "nudged by the angel" if we are using the world's methods to do the Divine Will.


So here's a novel thought:  if you are worried about where our country is going, have you been praying- really praying- about it?  We did not get to the point of spending eight years under the man in the White House now, and we did not get to a point where the two choices we have actually look like choices a sane person would make, if we had spent as much time on our knees as we have eating chicken sandwiches, shopping at Hobby Lobby, and boycotting Target.

A Catholic FB friend just posted an article on why Catholics had to basically hold their noses and vote for Trump " to stop the great evil, Hillary."  As much as I agree with that, the Bible would tell us that there is nothing intrinsically more evil about Hillary than the Donald-  just the part about being pro-choice.  And frankly, Catholics since 1952 have voted for the pro-choice party in every presidential election with the exceptions of Nixon's 2nd term and both Reagan campaigns, per Gallup.  So even when we bring faith into it, it's not REALLY about faith.  And it shouldn't be.  Our "voting booth" should be our prayer closets, and our opinion should be expressed to God, more than on FB or a placard.

I know, nothing I haven't said before- some fights aren't the fight we need to be fighting.  And if our battleground isn't on our knees, we're wasting our time.

Anatomy of a dog party

So Friday evening one very bored doggie and one very lazy daddy decided to stop off at the local Bark Park.  For quite a while, it was just Scrappy, myself, and a LOT of cottonwood fuzz that made it look like we were having 85° snow flurries.  Then a doggie Scrappy has been wanting to meet came by.

His name is Finnegan, and he is actually a lead dog for a sight-impaired lady.  Normally, I tell Scrappy to leave him alone, "That doggy is working."  And he was really good about that this time too- he laid down and waited until she unhooked him and let him go.

They had a great time, trying to alternately hump and fight each other off.  Just as they were leaving, I saw KC and Jessica drive by.  Soon after they arrived, so did a Shepherd named Lucy (at least that's what KC heard).

These two you would have thought were raised together, romping and running all over the place.  In fact, they took turns instigating- one would lay down, the other would go on the attack.  Scrappy, ever the opportunist, started this, but Lucy soon caught on and would "mock-hump" Scrappy when he sat down or block him when he tried to come to us.  Right when Scrappy was just about exhausted, the reserves were called in.

In any event, a good time was had by all.
The lady you see standing up brought the two little doggies- the shaggy gray one was Jimmy, and the black and white pug-spaniel looking mix was Fosco.  And, about then Finnegan and his mom returned.  That gave Scrappy a few well-needed moments to catch his breath as Lucy and Finnegan began to romp, Fosco joined in, while Jimmy visited the people before he paid any attention to his compatriots.

Fosco was very friendly too, and came over to say hello, but moments later, it became the Fosco show.    Finnegan decided to be submissive to Lucy, so Lucy would "attack" and Finnegan would roll over.  Which is where Fosco pulled a Scrappy and began humping Finnegan with a vigor that easily matched Scrappy at his embarrassing worse.  I told Scrappy Fosco was worse than he was; Fosco's Mom said, "Fosco!  You're getting a bad reputation!"

Time Machine week 78

Today was a very controversial day- June 17th, 1963.  Today the SCOTUS ruled 8-1 in the case of Abington School District v. Schempp.  This case was caused, I'm sorry to say, by Christian overreach- the state of Pennsylvania REQUIRED that each school open the day with a Bible reading.  Naturally, someone objected.  That someone was what was called a "Unitarian Universalist", which supposedly means he supports the " free and responsible search for truth and meaning"- except, of course, as it pertains to Christianity.  Nonetheless, the Justices agreed that it was not the State (and by extension, the Government) who got to decide who had to listen.  Which I have no problem with- the state requiring Bible reading clearly goes past the Establishment clause.  However... Justice Thomas Clark said that the Court was of the feeling that no matter the religious nature of the citizenry, the government at all levels, as required by the Constitution, must remain neutral in matters of religion "while protecting all, prefer[ring] none, and disparag[ing] none."  (Italics from Wiki).  I think that since then, we have went WAY beyond neutrality to eradication.  And my point- that perhaps this would have never become a deal- or at least, became one so soon- had not an overzealous legislature made it something that HAD to be addressed.  How unlike the bathroom battle we just went through.  But, that's just me.


And, this isn't a political post, it's a MUSIC post!  So welcome again to Time Machine, where we don't inquire about your political leanings to ride along, just that you make sure that your ring tone isn't the Doors, Aretha Franklin, or gangsta rap.  This week, the Panel stuck to the lower end of the charts, and we'll explore that;  connecting Tom Petty to Al Martino; and will the Monkees have what it takes to dethrone the Justad sisters from the top of the M10?  I'm banging the gavel on this trip, and away we go!

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This weeks' Panel consists of WJET Erie PA, WRNB New Bern NC, WHLO Akron, WLS Chicago, WSGN Birmingham, WBUT (the Big But?  Think of the possibilities...) Butler PA, KIMM Rapid City SD, KFJZ Ft Worth, KTKT Tucson, KFXM San Bernardino, WENE (the Big We... uh, never mind...) Endicott NY, and KJR Seattle.  They put together 26 different songs, and I'm gonna save the low charter this week for a bit.  They did post seven different number ones- three of which I'm also saving for later, and another which didn't make the P4 (which is a P5 this week as we have a tie for 4th) was Bobby Darin's 18 Yellow Roses, which was 13th nationally and top dog in New Bern.  The race at the top was quite close, with a couple of classics fighting for the top spot.  The Panel Four:

As I said, a fourth place tie with no #1s and 12 points-

Barbara Lewis (again this week, Shady!) with the national #10, Hello Stranger.

And... Nat King Cole with Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days Of Summer, the national #8.

At the third spot, with 19 points and the #1 from Erie, the Polish Prince, Bobby Vinton, with Blue On Blue, the national #11.

At the second spot, with 27 points and 3 #1s (Akron, Tucson, and the Big But), the national runner-up, Leslie Gore and It's My Party.

And at the top, with 36 points and the other four #1s, as well as the national top dog... stay tuned.

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So this week was a big one for the lower rungs of the national Cashbox chart amongst the Panel.  With 26 songs, only 26.9 % were top tens... but an even half of them were from #41 and below.  2 of those had just debuted nationally- Ray Stevens' Harry The Hairy Ape at 96, and the #1 song in Ft Worth, a catchy number by Kirby St Romain called Summer's Coming at 97. (The Harry vote was also Ft Worth, and they would have another low-bob coming up.)

I mentioned that we had THREE of these low charters get Panel #1s.  The other two were Jan and Dean's Surf City in San Bernie (#50) and Lonnie Mack's instrumental Memphis, which was #53 nationally and at the top in Seattle.  The other low-bobs included Marvin Gaye's Pride And Joy (#57), The Raindrops (I believe Shady featured this song once... nope, sorry, but he did feature the Raindrops here ) and What A Guy (#48), Johnny Mathis and Every Step Of The Way (#42), The Fleetwoods with Goodnight My Love (#83), Big Dee Irwin's Swinging On A Star (#65, the other Ft Worth low-bob), a pair from Tuscon- Joey Dee and the Starliters with Hot Pastrami and Mashed Potatoes (#59) and Little Peggy March's I Wish I Was A Princess (#63), and three from San Bernie- the aforementioned Surf City, Bobby Bare's Detroit City (#81), and the lowest of the week's lows- The Surfari's and Wipeout, which Cashbox had at 100.


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The first of the M10 debuts is a song that has been bopping around the lower rungs of the shuffle for quite a while, and manages to sneak in this week at last- the second single from the lp Hitch for The Joy Formidable:



TJF come in at the 10-spot this week.

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Tom Petty manages to start out the six degrees in part because he participated in an lp called Timeless: A Hank Williams Tribute back in 2001.  Petty saluted ol' Hank along with such acts as Bob Dylan, Beck, Sheryl Crow, Keith Richards, and Johnny Cash.  His contribution was a tune called You're Gonna Change (Or I'm Gonna Leave), a song that Williams took to #4 back in 1949- one of a string of 20 straight top tens that Hank ran until his death.  Ironically, 5 years later Petty would also cover the b-side of that single- an oft-covered Hank classic called Lost Highway.  Hank actually had that b-side itself make it to #12.  The original was recorded by the songwriter, Leon Payne, who took it to #1 that same year.  (All these Hank and Leon numbers are obviously the Country charts.)  And Leon Payne, who was more famous for his songwriting, also wrote the song that charted the highest nationally (#3) without a bit of Panel Love- Al Martino's recording of I Love You Because.



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I took a little extra time looking for a quote today, because today we received word of the brazen attack on and murder of  MP Jo Cox in the UK today.  An MP for barely a year, she was cut down because one of her positions was staying in the EU in the heated referendum debate over there.  A nutjob shouting Britain First! slogans shot and stabbed the 42 year old wife and mother of 2.


While from what I read about her, I suspect we might have been at loggerheads about many things, one thing you could say about her is that she wasn't in it for herself.  Here is what she had to say on the subject she died for...


Treasury experts estimate that we could be pushed into a recession with hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs. House prices would be hit, holidays made more expensive and shoppers forced to pay more for their groceries...

This uncertainty is not what businesses want nor is it what working people and families need.

And this is not a future I want to pass on to my children or grandchildren. A vote to leave is a risk that is simply not worth taking. 


So I believe that instead of doing the UK ten this week... let's just have a moment of silent prayer for her family and friends.

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And now, the rest of the M10...

Our second debut comes to us from a Philly girl named Eliza Hardy Jones.  She's beat around the Philadelphia scene for a while with various up-and-comers from the area.  But this year, she, her keyboard, and her drum machine put together a solo lp called Because Become.  And the first song from that lp that came my way comes in at #9:





Whitney moves up a pair to #8 with Golden Days.

The Jayhawks return to that old familiar 7-spot (three weeks out of 4) with Lovers Of The Sun.

Telekinesis becomes the ninth song to gather 50+ M10 points, even though Lean On Me sags to #6, a three-notch fall in week #7.

A big jump of 4 for Krewella and Surrender The Throne, to #5.

But Dami Im, she seems to be stuck, holding at #4 with Sound Of Silence.

Not surprisingly, Case/lang/Veirs also make a big 4-spot jump to #3 with Honey And Smoke.

And the answer to the earlier question- the Monkees hold at #2 with She Makes Me Laugh.

The #1s? On the M10:

Week #3 at the top for Tangerine and You'll Always Be Lonely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the winnah of the Panel vote?

Kyu Sakamoto with Sukiyaki!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Next up on our delicious list of time destinations- the Summer of '69!  I promise, no Bryan Adams, though!

X-Ray of Haney's head shows nothing

A while back, I'm sure I told you all of the trials and travails we have had at my job with the "new" cutting machine we got from our Missouri plant.  In the five or six short weeks we have had it, we have replaced the computer board on the machine itself, changed the conveyor belt (only to discover that the boards underneath were just as bad, and will have to wait until the next belt replacement- 6 months or more down the line- to replace them), had our IT people come down to work out various bugs (which fell into three categories- "fixed", "we don't know how to fix this, it's a cutting machine company issue", and "it is what it is"), replaced two axial motors, and learned to work with the various dear traits it exhibits.  But today may have finished it off for the time being.

This morning I tried to fire up the Haney (Named after the Pat Buttram salesman character from Green Acres, because we HAD to have bought it from him), and the screen came up "Windows is closing"- apparently it had been closing since I shut it down (or thought I did) some 15 1/2 hours before.  After taking a couple of minutes in trying to convince it to finish shutting down, I finally rebooted.  I signed in.  And then it told me, "Windows cannot open your settings.  The default settings are being opened. "  Along with a 30-second timer.  And then the usual desktop screen came up- with NO icons.

After some contact back and forth with the IT guy (who is in Minnesota in preparation for the upcoming executive meetings), it was determined that the computer running the cutter would have to be sent to him so he could determine WTH was going on.  Moments later, the Haney was lobotomized.  Leaving me with one machine, a fellow cutter who has worked approximately 10 and change of the last 40 working hours, and enough prototype "hot" orders (all of which were fubared to one extent or another) to leave me completely buried.

Days like this are a struggle for me (no kidding, Elroy?) because I start a day with every intent to do the best job I can and events like these just leave me feeling less and less accomplished until my frustration becomes a big mental/emotional boil that needs lanced.  The only solution I have found is to do the smart thing- just give up and say "Que sera sera"- and hope someone wanders by to give me a good laugh.  Luckily, we had that aforementioned long list of fubared protos, and eventually I hit one that had a panel so goofed it looked like a chronic alcoholic off the wagon designed it, and the crisis for me was over.  However, by this time my boss had passed "awesome", skipped "wonderful", and moved up to "Outstanding," which on HIS anger scale is about a Level Three Snow Emergency.  His will to not react hotly is astounding at times, and pushed to near his limit he still won the battle.  A battle I could only win (actually survive) by not giving a crap anymore.


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My next story comes to you from porn spammers, who evidently borrowed my address from Bob (jk) and hit me up about once a week now.  Not a big deal, but one of them had a turn of phrase I just had to share:

Undress me with your eyes tied up!

Still not sure how to accomplish this...  But still not gonna click the link to learn how...


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In lieu of a real Martin World News post, how about a couple of headlines?

#1


Study Learns Chicago Criminals DON'T Buy Their Guns Legally


A Chicago State University study, reported by Breitbart.


#2

POLICE: RANCHER LASSOS BIKE THIEF OUTSIDE OREGON WAL-MART

Yep- Lady cried, "Help, he's stealing my bike!"  Rancher jumped on his horse and lassoed the perp.  Surprise surprise, a transient from Seattle...


#3

Spanish town's giant dog dropping goes walkies (yep, a BBC headline)

That's right, a three-meter-tall, 66 lb. inflatable dog pile was stolen in the Spanish town of  Torrelodones- part of a campaign to, er, stomp out not picking up puppy waste.  At least this one was inflatable- there are others made of concrete all over town.  However, the poop did cost around $2700 and the town would like it back.

A to Z with lil' ol' me?

Debbie the Dog-lady is doing a new blog-hop based on 26 A-to-Z questions about oneself that you get to answer.  It sounded interesting (talking about myself, who'da thunk it), so I thought I would try it- with my own little twists, of course.

A- Age:  I am the same age my Mom was when she died- AKA 54 years old.  But with a grandchild on the way, I assume the age curve is about to move into the exponential range.

B- Biggest fear:  I haven't really gotten too far thinking on that.  I remember when my former Pastor's father passed, how bad his wife fell apart.  I came home and told Laurie, "I'm going first".  So to Debbie, I'd say mine and yours are pretty much in the same vein.

C- Current time (really?): 4:21 PM EDT.

D- Drink you last had:  If you are referring to alcohol, I believe my son was serving Coors Light at his place two Saturdays ago.  If not, then  I'm about 2/5ths down a 16.9 ounce Pepsi.  But don't tell my doctor.

E- Every Day Starts with: At least one of the three S's and about 7 pills.

F- Favorite song:  No Time by the Guess Who, Strange Magic by ELO, or Sherry by the Four Seasons, depending on the mood.

G- Ghosts, are they real? : More things in heaven and earth, but I don't personally believe in them.  Much.  I do however respect the hidden world of elves, nixies, and other such mythological creatures who cling to a fragment of truth.

H- Hometown:  If you adjust the focus past "rural New Haven, Indiana" you will eventually zero in on Besancon- basically a church and a handful of homes started by the first French settlers in the area back in the 1850's.

I- In Love With:  Currently the Justad sisters from the band Tangerine.  See also Molly Rankin from Alvvays and Victoria LeGrand from Beach House.

J- Jealous of:  Occasionally the customers who buy our products, because if they buy our product, that means they have a big old boat and a lake cottage and THAT's what I want and won't ever get.

K- Killed someone:  What're you, CSI?

L- Last Time I cried:  You'll find it only takes the right song at the right time with me, so prolly last week while trying to figure the M10 (the countdown in my Friday Time Machine post).

M- Middle name:  William.  All though all the time's I've been called "Christopher Robin" you'd wonder.

N- Number of Siblings:  Four, all older.  Two brothers, 74 and 71; two sisters, too old and slow to get me if I tell you 68 and 64.

O- One wish:  Drink in hand, toes in sand, watching the water.  All I need is an ocean.

P- Person you Last called- Laurie, Friday night, asking her to pick us up because Scrappy popped his hip out again.

Because I had to check this out...

Q- Question you're always asked:  "Damn, you beautiful.  How you do dat?"

Actually, more like, "How's Laurie? Tell her I said hi."

R- Reason to smile:  Salvation.  Safe home. Good family.  Work ends at 2:30 PM.

S- Sounds that annoy you: The squeak of the keyboard tray maladjusted...

T- Time you woke up:  For good, 5 AM.  Before that, when Scrappy wakes up between 2-4 AM to have me let him under the covers.

U- Underwear color:  Really?  Outside of soilage, gray.

V-Vacation destination:

a-so far:My first night in Florida, at Ormond beach.  Because childhood, and Florida.
b- wish list: The old Bronze Age sites- Hisarlik (Troy), Mycenae, Tiryns.

The Lion Gate at Mycenae

W- Worst Habit:  Laurie suggests that this would be that my way of "being organized" involves having things laying around where I can get at them easily.  Many people would call this system "a mess" but it really doesn't seem messy to me, until it does.  Then I get it all gathered back together until I need to "organize" it again.

X- X-rays you've had:  A funny story here:  A few months into my current job, I was asked to train a couple of co-workers that had nothing better to do.  As I did, I swung around and smacked a blade to my machine with the back of my hand.  It left a cut that needed stitches, and so I was sent off to the care Center we use.  What nobody knew was that there were 2 Christophers in the waiting room, and soon they were wanting to x-ray my arm.  For a cut finger?  Guess what, wrong Christopher.  Now isn't that better than a dry (and likely inaccurate) survey of my life's total roentgens?

Y- Your favorite food:  A dangerous topic this close to suppertime, but I could easily live on Cheeseburgers.  Or Pizza.

Z- Zodiac sign:  This one should be obvious, if you know me:

Taurus.