A NEW CAR!!!!

Well, we talked to the man at Preferred and he got us into a 2009 Impala. Dark blue, 7 years newer, 50k less miles, and about $30 a month more than what we were paying. I'll take some pictures in the daylight tomorrow so y'all can see it.

Main thing is, they paid off the Taurus free and clear, knocked down the price to get it off the lot, and gave us $2,000 for the Taurus on top of it. With these circumstances, it would've been hard to justify hanging onto the Taurus- we'd never get as much out of it again.

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In the midst of our good news, we got the bad news about Gabrielle Giffords getting shot in Arizona by that nutjob. Sounds like another tinfoil-antenna type that got issued a sidearm through stupidity. I'd just like to take this moment to point out to all you loose-hinge, conspiracy-seeing, disgruntled at employer-ing, give my life for Allah-ing $#!t for brains out there like Jared Laughner- if nobody cares about your BS before, they sure won't give a crap afterwards. Or, to put it another way,

Back off before I call her on you!!!

Step into my time machine week thirty-seven

This was kind of a blah week for TM, but I'm going to attempt to spice it up with the tyrannical Berry Gordy, the piano tuner who became a famous rock band, the high speed story of Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.,a first time in Time Machine event in the top ten, and the continuing story of the Beatles knocking each other about. Confused? Good, then I have a chance...



Only 10 debuts this week, and the most memorable of them are Bruce Springsteen's autobiographical Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out at 83 and Gary Wright (who'll get another shout out later) with his iconic Dream Weaver at 92. Our big movers include the fictitious Cledus Maggert (another recurring theme today) whose White Knight rises at a below-the-speed-limit 16 notches to 67, and big dropper Island Girl, which sinks to 71, a 25-spot fall. Also tumbling this week is Feelings, dropping from 45 to 68. This most unwilling of movers is now at 31 weeks; second place is Jigsaw's Sky High at 19 weeks.



Our almost but not quite is "a little lower", as War might say. Fire On The Mountain has been floating around the lower end for 11 weeks now, and spends its second and last week at 55 today. This nifty song about the life of prospecting for gold comes to us from a band who took their name from the doorkey to the warehouse in which they first began practicing- a name that belonged to the piano tuner who rented the building before them, Marshall Tucker. The Marshall Tucker Band became country rock legends despite indifferent commercial success. Their biggest hit, Heard It In A Love Song, peaked at 14 pop and 51 country. This song peaked at 38 on the Billboard charts, but here its time is done.



Only three newbies in airplay alley this week. Up 5 to 39 is David Bowie with Golden Years (don't you wonder why they don't use this song on retirement home commercials? Well, maybe not...). Helen Reddy and her bully management team move up 4 to 37 with Somewhere In The Night. And making the biggest leap, from 47 to 33, are our old friends from Rhythm Heritage and the Theme From SWAT.



Our countdown of the #1 albums of the 70s has reached the summer of 1973, where McCartney and Wings' Red Rose Speedway, which knocked the Beatles' "Blue Album" out of #1, is in turn knocked out by George Harrison's Living In The Material World. On top for 5 weeks in June and July, this lp contained the single Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth), which did Paul the double-dirty of also knocking his single My Love out of the top spot. Living In The Material World exited in late July for another album that would spend 5 weeks on top, though not consecutively- Chicago VI. This lp, which would spend 3 weeks at the top, drop to 2, and resume the top spot for two more weeks, featured two singles. Just You 'N' Me (#4) was written, as was many of their songs, by trombonist James Penkow, who wrote it for his girlfriend after a spat; when they were engaged shortly thereafter, the wedding invites were their pictures embossed onto the song's cover sheet. The second hit was Feelin' Stronger Every Day (#10). In between the two trips to the top for Chicago sat Jethro Tull, who took the top slot on August 18th with A Passion Play. Like Thick As A Brick, Passion was basically a 1-song album. Unlike Brick, it got bad reviews and went as quickly as it came.



For the first time since we've been doing TM, no songs come into the top ten- thus, no songs fall out. Funny how what works.



We're in the 9s once again in our look at the #1s of other years. In 1999, R. Kelly and Celine Dion team up for I'm Your Angel- not sure here which one was the angel. 1989 had, on it's frozen chart for this week, Poison's Every Rose Has Its Thorns. In 1979, Chic was in the 5th of its 7 weeks with Le Freak; In 1969 came the strange story of I Heard It Through The Grapevine. It was first given to Smoky Robinson and the Miracles, but Berry Gordy thought it "unreleasable". Co-writer Norman Whitfield then reworked it a bit and had Marvin Gaye record it for his album The Moods Of Marvin Gaye, but Gordy really had something up his butt about this song. It sat unreleased while Whitfield reworked it yet again for Gladys Knight and the Pips. Intentionally attempting to do it in a "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" style to "outfunk Aretha Franklin", Whitfield got Gordy to release it this time, though he put none of Motown's legendary might behind it. Even so, it became a hit, reaching #1 in November of '67 on the R&B chart, and kept out of the top spot by Daydream Believer on the pop chart. Whitfield was still convinced that he had another hit with Marvin's version, but Berry refused to give Marvin a hit with it when Gladys had just got one. Whitfield managed to get Gaye's recording put onto the new album In The Groove; and while the Gordy selected single from the album foundered, deejays put such a demand upon Motown to release Grapevine that Gordy had to relent, and Marvin as a result was in his 4th of 5 weeks at the top this week in 1969.

In 1959, we find Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., who'd spent almost all of his last $200 to buy a machine that one could vary recording speed on. With this machine, he'd had one hit already earlier the year before with Witch Doctor; now, he would take his voice, this machine, and the names of three record executives to crate the fictitious rodent band Alvin and the Chipmunks. Labelling himself David Seville, he recorded The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late) which held the #1 spot for 4 holiday weeks. It was his son, Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., who would later have a hit with the album Chipmunk Punk (from which I remember Rock104 playing their covers of Queen's Another One Bites The Dust, Tom Petty's Refugee, and my favorite, Billy Joel's You May Be Right).



Everyone's here in the top ten from last week, they're just re-arranged. At ten, down from 4, are the Bay City Rollers with Saturday Night. David Ruffin is the first of 6 in a row to move up one notch; he takes #9 with Walk Away From Love. The O'Jays are at 8 with I Love Music; Hot Chocolate is 7 with You Sexy Thing. John Denver is at 6 with Fly Away; Sweet climbs to 5 with Fox On The Run. The Love Rollercoaster stops at 4 for the Ohio Players; Barry Manilow drops from 1 to 3 with I write the songs. Now I remember that the WMEE list at the time didn't have I Write The Songs fall until 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover was there to replace it. But Paul Simon's still piddling around in the mid-teens here, so that's not gonna happen. Manilow hung at the top a LOT longer in Fort Wayne. Convoy resumes the pattern moving up 1 notch to #2. That means our #1 this week, from a movie directed by Berry Gordy (after he fired the original director, go figure), isssss.....

Diana Ross, with the Theme From Mahogany- Do You Know Where You're Going To!!!!

I know where I'm going to- to make me some lunch! See ya next week!

Another Day At Home (Sigh...)

Well, the good news is that the car is home once more. The bad news is that we still have no work, and we don't go back till Monday. Nice for vacation, bad for wallet. Looking into a possible trade up, but probably down payments will put it off for right now.
Took a walk today in that lovely light snow this morning. We took the camera in case anything both interesting and capturable came along (it didn't), although we did see the red fox again, and Scrappy had a meeting with a Scottie (which, being a male, didn't go real well).
Hearing more and more about Jim Harbaugh to Miami. Gotta make Sparano feel real good that owner Stephen Ross et al are flying to the coast with reports saying they're going to offer him approximately twice what the 49ers are. At least Rich Rodriguez got the privilege of knowing that he was going to get fired even though Michigan knew they'd never get Harbaugh. Gotta love that statement in the chancelloor's press conf when he said no, he wouldn't be forming a committee to search for a replacement because he had plenty of people giving him advice. IOW, he was quite aware of the alumni breathing down his neck, chanting, "We told you not to hire an outsider...", and was confident they would make his life a living hell unless he hired someone they approved of without having to form a committee to expedite it.
Finally, a shout out to the Baseball HOF for FINALLY putting Bert Blylevin in. Remembering Bert reminded me of the biggest trade I ever saw, in December of '77. Texas was at the heart of this 4 team deal that sent Bert to Pittsburgh, where he would have his typical year in 1978- 14-10, 3.03 ERA. He would rack up 34 wins in Pittsburgh in 3 seasons, moving on to Minnesota, Cleveland, and California to pile up 148 more. Texas also shed themselves of: Tommy Boggs, a pitcher who ended up with a 20-44 career record; Adrian Devine, a pitcher coming off an 11-6 year but only went 7-7 the next 3 seasons; Eddie Miller, an OF who played only 6 games the next year, but went on to have some small success as a pinch runner, all to Atlanta; and Tom Grieve, an outfielder who was much better known later on as Texas' GM, and a player to be named, to the Mets. For Texas' grab bag, the Braves gave up Wille Montanez to the Mets. Willie was a capable OF who gave the Mets his last good season in 1978, .256 BA with 17 HRs and 96 RBI. The player to be named the Mets got was OF Ken Henderson, who had left his best years behind him in San Fran and the south side of Chicago and lasted just 7 games in New York before inflicting his eroding talents on Cincinnati. For all of that value, the Mets sent Jon Matlack to Texas, where he had one of the best years in his 8 years in the majors- 15-13 with a 2.27 ERA; and John Milner to Pittsburgh, where he put up 6 HRs and 38 RBIs the next year and chipped in 16 HRs and 60 RBIs to the "Fam-il-ee" World Series champs of 1979. To finish things off, the Pirates received from the Rangers minor league SS Nelson Norman and 1B Al Oliver, who also became a big cog in the "Fam-il-ee", hitting over .300 in each of his 4 years in Pittsburgh and notching 117 RBI in 1980. So on balance, Texas made out like bandits and so did the Pirates, while the Mets gave up on Matlack (who had had one of his worst years in 1977) a year too soon and the Braves got no more than they could've scraped out of their own double-A team. Oliver and Blylevin are the only ones to have had any lasting success after the deal.
That's hindsight, though. I still remember my excitement when Dick Defay announced the trade on the "sports today with Dick Defay" (subbing for "the gateway to sports with Hilliard Gates"). Ah, Memories.

Gerry Rafferty

Well, we've lost our first musical celebrity of 2011.

Singer-Songwriter, Gerry Rafferty Dead at 63
5 Jan 2011 03:41 PM
- by Jessica Verderame, Assistant Editor
If you think you’ve never heard of Gerry Rafferty, the singer-songwriter wouldn’t have been surprised, rather, he would’ve probably preferred it that way. Rather, you will recognize his hugely popular songs instead, like “Stuck in the Middle With You” and “Baker Street” which both expressed his loneliness and detestation for the world and industry in which he was involved. Scottish-born Gerry Rafferty has died Tuesday at the age of 63. The cause of death is not yet apparent, though some sources say he was battling ongoing liver and kidney problems, possibly related to alcoholism.
Rafferty was born in 1947 in a town near Glasgow, Scotland to Mary Skeffington, and an Irish miner, Joseph Rafferty. His father, who was an abusive alcoholic, died when Rafferty was 16. He began playing music at a young age with school friends, inspired by Bob Dylan and the Beatles.
The singer rose to fame in the 1970s, when he co-wrote the song “Stuck in the Middle With You” while a member of rock group Steelers Wheel, a song that would later be used in Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 film Reservoir Dogs, which brought the song back into popularity.
However, it was his 1978 album City to City that really launched him into fame; it made No. 1 on charts in the United States, with the track “Baker Street” making Top 10 lists in both the US and Britain. His follow-up album, Night Owl (1979), was also very popular. Though his talent was evident, his success wasn’t close to what it could have been.
However, no one else is at fault for the decline of his success except for himself. In an obituary that Michael Gray, Rafferty’s former manger, wrote for the Guardian that he didn’t like fame, and “..disliked being recognized. But behind an aggressive front, and a strong awareness of his own musical excellence, was fear.”
It was because of this, evidently, that he refused a tour that would have boosted his career dramatically; a tour that involved musical legends Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney.
According to Gray, his last success was producing the Proclaimers’ hit Letter From America; though he released other albums, they didn’t do as well, and many critics would say that the standards and quality of his work declined over time. After he “spiraled into alcoholism,” his wife, Carla Ventilla, left him in 1990.
Gray quoted her as saying, “He became dangerous at airports…and he’d scream across restaurant tables at me…There was no hope. I would never have left him if there’d been a glimmer of a chance of him recovering.”
After Carla left him, Rafferty moved to California until 2008, when he moved to a rented house in Ireland. He mainly stayed under the radar until August 2008, when hospital management at a five-star hotel in London had him admitted to a hospital after a five day drinking binge on their premises. According to Gray, after the story hit tabloids, it was largely ignored until 2009, when a statement was released that the singer was doing well and living in Tuscany. In the statement, he claimed he was working on new material, but nothing ever came of it.
He died in Dorset, England, and is survived by his daughter, Martha, his granddaughter, Celia, and his brother, Jim.

What one article calls "nothing ever came from it" another lets us know became the album ironically titled Life Goes On. I sampled the title track, and at least his voice hadn't changed a bit. City To City was one of the best albums I ever listened to. I guess it is unfortunate that Gerry never got around to his "dreams about buying some land/give up the booze and the one night stands/ and then he'll settle down/ in some quiet little town/ and forget about everything." And I guess if you play Baker Street in your mind as an autobiography, it makes sense that it would end for him that way.

Gerry and Stealer's Wheel hit #6 with Stuck In The Middle With You (though he'd quit the band just before the album was released); He reached #2 with Baker Street, #12 with Right Down the Line, #28 with Home And Dry, all off City To City; 17 with Days Gone Down, 21 with Get It Right Next Time, and 54 with Royal Mile.

Eurohockey update

It's been 53 days since I did a update on the European hockey leagues that I've developed a fascination with. So let's see how things have developed. I'm going to put the leader's record- when available- with ties and ot w/l lumped into one column for ease of reading. Keep in mind that different leagues have different scoring systems; so a 16 point lead in one league is only as good as, say, a 7 point lead somewhere else.

In the UK's EIHL, Belfast's Giants (23-7-3) continue to hold that 1 point lead, although it is now over Cardiff. Sheffield and earlier runner up Nottingham are within 6. All 4 are over the 20-win mark in the feast or famine EIHL; of 10 teams, 4 have 20 wins and 3 have 20 losses.

In France's Ligue Magnus, defending champ Rouen has taken a 2 point lead on Angers and Amiens; Strasbourg, formerly in the hunt, has collected just 3 points in the month and a half since we last visited.

In the Swiss National League A, HC Kloten (26-6-6) continues to lead Davos by 7; defending champ SC Bern continues to trail at a distance.

Italy's Serie A continues to show Valpusteria in front by 8 over Balzano; defending champ Renon is 9 out.

Norway's GET- Ligaen is still led by Sparta Sarpsborg (20-4-5); they've increased their lead to 9 over Valerenga.

In the AL Bank-ligaen in Denmark (where I've learned it's less confusing to read the standings in Danish than English), SonderjyskE (17-8-2) has seen a 14 point margin over Blue Fox Herning erode to 5.

When we last looked in on Germany's DEL, Hanover's Scorpions and the Tomas Sabo Ice Tigers were battling for first; since then Hanover has went 2-9 to drop 16 off the pace, and TSIT limped to a 5-8 mark to fall 11 behind- Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg! GAW (17-6-9) went 10-5 over the stretch to pull into a 1 point lead over the DEG Metrostars, with defending regular season champ Eisbaren Berlin 2 pts back.

Austria's Erste Bank Ligan still has KAC Klagenfurt in front, 23-12-8, 4 points up on Red Bull Salzburg.

Sweden's Eliteserien has also changed drastically, with former leader HC Lulea going 7-9 to drop into fourth, a mere 3 points behind dual leaders HV71(17-11-16) and Skelleftea (18-10-14), with Farjestad 1 point up on Lulea in third.

Finland's S-M Liiga is still being dominated by JYP Jyvaskyla (25-7-3), with a 5 point lead on Assat. Defending champ TPS Turku continues to flounder at 7-21-8.

The Czech Extraliga has seen a leadership change; Vitkovice Steel (19-11-7) has overtaken Ocelari Trinic, with 5 teams within 7 points of the lead.

The Slovak Extraliga is one of those leagues with a somewhat exaggerated point system; as a result we see that Kosice (27-4-11) has a 16 point lead over almost-KHLer Poprad (23-9-10) and 26 over third place Banska Bystrica (20-12-19).

The Asia League shows the Oji Eagles (18-6-5) having spread its lead to 8 over defending champ Anyang Halla. Our favorite whipping boy, the China Dragon, continue winless at 0-25-2, although they have played relatively better of late, bringing their average score down to approximately 6-1 against.

In the KHL West, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (yay!) has powered past UHC Moscow Dynamo; their 24-9-6 record is 6 points ahead of the Moscow team, whose merger last spring has made them the dominant Moscow team with a vengeance; Spartak (14-17-8) clings to the last playoff spot by 2 points, and CSKA (10-20-9) trails that spot by 8.

In the KHL East, its a real dogfight which totally changed from when I first looked this morning to 2 hours later when the standings were updated. Avangard Omsk (21-9-4) and Metallurg Magnitogorsk (21-8-10) have 78 points; perennial powers Ak Bars Kazan (21-8-10) and Salavat Yulaev Ufa (20-9-10) have 77.

Bits and Pisses

First of all, if you have looked at the last post and followed the comments, you know that we have, as Gambit of the X-Men once said, been "up dat creek" this week. But we've had a trio of angels who have come down from heaven to help or to offer help, and we should be "car"ed sometime tomorrow. Which is a very good thing, seeing's as we are again in the calm before the storm at work. Calm? We're in the Horse Latitudes tomorrow and possibly Thursday, at about as miserable a time as we could find. Mary, Jack, KC- God bless you.



On the subject, I had an opportunity to work with a gentleman on the shipping dock today who told me he was from Guatemala. He first asked where we were from (an honest question since the plant is in Kendallville and most of the workforce are Ft. Wayne commuters) and then offered his situation. I mentioned to him that we sponsor a boy in Guatemala; we've done so almost 10 years now. He got somewhat emotional, and in his broken but understandable English said, "God bless the people who do this. God bless the people that do this." I guess we can never really know what such an act means until we see the faces of those who live it. And all of those people that say, "I'd like to do this someday" need to give themselves the incredible reward of doing it NOW.



Moving on, My son says on his blog that I really made him eat crow when TCU topped Wisconsin New Years Day. He says, "TCU is my dad's small town team- Boise State is mine." I say, Boise, TCU, Utah- anyone who can suitably make the BCS fatcats look like EEdiots is fine with me. I thought TCU would win because Wisconsin is a lumbering rushing team that had never seen a defense as fast as TCU. And their O is good enough to keep Wisconsin from getting a lead, which draws away from the time that lumbering running game can beat on the d-line. I'd just like to see Arkansas knock off Ohio State tonight so that the Big Ten has to wake up tomorrow wondering how Illinois became the conference's only bowl winner.



So, Mangini is out, as I predicted. Del Rio and Marvin Lewis got their extensions. Miami has joined the teams sniffing around Jim Harbaugh. And, oh yeah, two women have scuttled out of the woodwork to file suit against the Jets and their former shutterbug QB Brett Favre. Y'know, I'd take this more serious if a) in a 20-some year NFL career, these accusations of the photogenic Mr. Favre weren't concentrated in one season- the one in New York; b) as the Jets said, not only is this the first time in the 2+ years since it allegedly occurred that it has been mentioned, but it is the only time the team was contacted about it. Until real, tangible evidence/ a confession comes out on this issue, I'm forced to believe that all of this just proves there are 3 times as many golddiggers in NYC as in the upper Midwest.



And some good news for Bobby G.- Godzilla has just captured Khoosra. Further details pending.

Why aren't you at work?

Because someone has to get the car fixed. Our 2002 Taurus did what 2002 Tauruses are allegedly good at- having a coil spring break and take out a tire. I'd read that this model had stuff like that happen, and when Laurie called me outside to fix the flat, it took very little time to see what happened. Of course on Sunday, of course when no one is open to take care of it, but thank God in the parking lot rather than while driving. So after about an hour of fussing over the next step, I got hold of a co-worker who could take Laurie in this a.m. so ONE of us didn't have to lose 2 days pay (today plus holiday).



In the meanwhile, I finally decided to go ahead and start Commissioner's cup '11, where I take total scores of our fantasy teams and add 'em up through the super bowl. Here at the start, the Ducks have the lead at 79, followed by the Elks at63, the Beagles at 47, Angels and T-Cubs at 40, KCAs and Rhinos at 39, Rangers at 34, SVA at 32, Clock BBQs at 27, Buzz at 25, and the B2s at 18.



In other football, it's that time of year to discover who your coach next year will be. Yesterday's results left Tennessee's Jeff Fisher, Oakland's Tom Cable, the Dolphins' Tony Sparano, Cincy's Marvin Lewis, and Cleveland's Eric Mangini in doubt. The Giant's man of the perpetual WTF face, Tom Coughlin, got told yesterday he's safe; the Vike's Leslie Frazier got told the interim tag is gone, and probably so did the Cowboy's Jason Garrett. Not so in San Fran and Denver, where both teams are rumoured to be in the Jim Harbaugh sweepstakes, along with the U of Michigan. John Fox got told coming in that he was done after his Carolina Panthers played (if you can call it that) Sunday. He can go home and wait by the phone. My hope is that Miami keeps Sparano; I fail to see how it was his fault that management failed to comprehend the lemon-hood of QB Chad Henne and WR Brandon Marshall. We need a quality QB, a deep threat that will actually catch a ball on occasion, and the next generation RB to phase out Ronnie Brown; not a new coach. I would be perplexed as to why the Raiders would dump Cable (since they've seemingly gotten past his sticky character issues), but the Raiders can be like that. One would think it would be a gimmie that a coach with a 4-12 record and a contract that's up would be gone (sorry, Marvin; you were just too tolerant of thugs and thuggery); and it can also be assumed now that Mike Holmgren can say, "Okay, I gave him (Mangini) a chance; now to pick my guy," he will do so. Coughlin I really like, and am glad the Giants kept him. Their WRs were hampered enough that go-to guy devolved onto TE Kevin (I only make good plays right after Chris bitches about me) Boss, which in turn changed Eli Manning from a 14-INT QB to a 25-INT one. And Fisher I would have fired two years ago if I was Bud Adams, but I never did like him.



Finally, we've been watching Holmes On Homes and Holmes Inspection on HGTV lately- Sunday nights. This guy should be required viewing for all contractors, inspectors, and people looking to remodel. A quote he had last night stuck with me: "Why be in a hurry? To make it ugly?" This guy actually inspires me to do better on my job- albeit inspiring me is like the commercial for "USA Prime Credit" where Lou Holtz calls "Peggy" and tells him he needs to send Lou out a replacement card tomorrow. "Peggy" says, "One Month," to which Lou goes into one of his inspirational talks. "Peggy" stands up and says, "You inspire me! Three weeks."