Grumble, grumble...

Y'know, there are just some days I've had enough of this world.  I mean, look at this:

Boy, 9, Suspended from School for Sexual Harassment After Calling Teacher 'Cute'

Published December 04, 2011

| FoxNews.com

A 9-year-old boy North Carolina boy was suspended for calling a teacher “cute,” WSOCTV.com reports.

The boy’s mother, Chiquita Lockett, said the principal of Brookside Elementary in Gastonia called her after the incident to say the comment was a form of “sexual harassment.”

"It's not like he went up to the woman and tried to grab her or touch her in a sexual way," Lockett said. "So why would he be suspended for two days?”

According to the station, a district spokeswoman said she could not go into detail, but said the boy was suspended for "inappropriate behavior" after making "inappropriate statements."

The district's Code of Conduct doesn't list "inappropriate behavior," but says "disruption of school" is punishable by five days of out-of-school suspension.

The news of the North Carolina boy’s suspension comes as a Massachusetts elementary school is investigating a first-grader for sexual harassment after the boy struck another boy his age in the groin.

The mother of the accused 7-year-old tells the Boston Globe that her son was fending off another child, who had choked him in an altercation on the school bus on Nov. 22.

“I think my kid was right to fight back,’’ said the mother, Tasha Lynch, 30. “He wasn’t doing anything except protecting himself.’’

Lynch says her son has been afraid to return to Tynan Elementary School in South Boston since the fight, according to the paper.

Matthew Wilder, spokesman for the Boston public schools, declined to comment on the incident or why it has been classified as a possible case of sexual harassment. He said officials do not discuss confidential student information.

Like Laurie pointed out last night, if the teacher thought this was such a problem, why not call the parents and discuss the problem with them?  Why on earth disrupt and embitter a child's education because a teacher can't take a compliment?  And if he said it in an inappropriate manner, why not (like I just said) CALL THE PARENTS?  It seems like that's how it was handled back in the day, and it worked pretty well for us.

Back then, mom and dad were the fear of God, and we behaved. Now, we must be careful not to damage their frail little self image, so they can grow up stupid, spoiled, and join the occupy movement, like Rush says.  Luckily, we have liberal leaders who will rewrite history for us so we can see that it was not their dipshit ideas that ruined this country, it was the fact that this country has never gotten around to apologizing to the radical Muslims, Hirohito, Hitler, and the great-great- great- grandchildren of slaves and Indian chiefs for all the horrible things with did to and thought about them.  That and all the fatty burgers we eat (like the two I cooked myself tonight).

And then you have my favorite female dog, Nancy Pelosi:

Pelosi didn't go into detail about Gingrich's past transgressions, but she tipped her hand. "One of these days we'll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich," Pelosi said. "I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff."

Outside of the fact that what she proposes to release violates every rule of congressional ethics, I just look at this and what the Democratic stooges at Politico and their sister organization, the Lying Liberal Prostitutes of the Food Service Industry, did to Herman Cain, and I have to ask this-

Can the Democratic party defeat any candidate on the merits of their candidate, or do they HAVE to smear a man's reputation to win?  When I got my first voter registration, I told my dad that I registered independent.  He said, "We're Democrats."  I said, "Well, I'm not."  One thing I did that I will never regret.  If I had to change history, bend the truth beyond all recognitions, run to BarackObama.com for my latest sound bites in order to think, tell people, 'let's just vote on it and then we'll figure out what's in it', and pay homeless women to have imaginary affairs just to keep my party in power, I'd rather make a living selling dog poop on the street corner.  At least I could live with myself- at least I could sleep at night.  Outside of morphine, I don't know how "Princess Nancy" does it.

Okay, try to cheer myself up.  Okay, here's something funny.

'Germany's dumbest bank robber' gets seven years

(AFP)–3 days ago

BERLIN — A man who tried to hold up a bank that closed 17 years ago has been jailed for seven years, in what the Bild newspaper on Friday called the case of "Germany's dumbest bank robber".
The regional court in the western city of Osnabrueck said the defendant, identified only as 57-year-old Siegfried K., arrived at the bank branch, now equipped only with cash machines, with a toy gun in May.
He seized a female "hostage" in the lobby of the building to demand a 10,000-euro ($13,483) ransom from bank employees.
a physiotherapy practice," the court said in a statement.
Bild said the bank had moved out 17 years ago.
"After the defendant recognised the situation, he changed his plan and demanded a passer-by withdraw money from the cash machine," the court said.
"She withdrew 400 euros and the defendant made off with the cash in a car he had stolen."
He later abandoned the vehicle but left the plastic pistol, covered with his fingerprints, between the seats.
The court said Siegfried K. had confessed to the robbery and judges handed down a seven-year sentence on Tuesday due to 22 previous convictions over the last 40 years.

I guess next year I should work harder at getting a good stable of "who's dumber" stories.  But man, this year, it just seemed like there were too many to chose from.  Really, just let me sleep till people get good sense.  I got tired waiting.

I don't mean to say it rained a lot, but...

Pictures from the Sunday morning walk.

That's not the river- that's the old feeder!

All the lowland woods along the river was flooded.

The view from Scrappys Landing.

Remember all that color a few weeks ago?  Here's all that's left.

The bank by the turn has fallen even farther.  If they don't do something about this soon, the roadwork they're doing at the bridge (Washington Ctr. just past the light at our addition) to put in the greenway path across the road will be wasted.

Those trees in the distance left of center are in someone's yard.

Sunday Message

So the last three weeks, in preparation for Christmas, I've been looking at the prophecies concerning the Messiah, and seeing what they say to us.  In Gen. 3:15, we got the concept of the big picture, the battle between Christ and Satan.  In Deut. 18, we saw that, like Moses he had two ministries- leading the people and setting them free.  In Ps. 2, we explored His nature- how it was that He is both human and Divine.  This week's passage sheds light on what that really means.

Psalm 110 addresses what I will call the Thomas Jefferson problem- believing that Jesus was a historical figure, yet not Divine.  There are two key verses here.  V1 says:

"The LORD said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”

Jesus specifically questioned the pharisees about this very verse in Matt. 22:41-6.  His point being that the Messiah could be no mere descendant of David alone. ⁴⁵ If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” ⁴⁶ And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.  His point being, David would not call a descendant "Lord".  This puts Messiah beyond being a flesh-and-blood descendant, which is what the Jewish priestly elite were looking for.

The Psalm goes on to expand upon that separation in v4:

⁴ The LORD has sworn
And will not relent,
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”

Now who, you might ask, is Melchizedek?  There are only two places to learn about him.  The first is Gen. 14.  Those of you that have read the Prayer of Jabez know the power of one expanded verse in the midst of a string of dry reading that illuminates the whole chapter, and we have a similar here.  Five named kings of five named cities went to war in Abram's neighborhood with 4 other kings of 4 named cities, and he got involved because the one bunch kidnapped his nephew Lot and his people.  So Abram gathered his people, chased down the scoundrels (a king in those days probably wasn't in charge over much more than the mayor of Woodburn), and saved the day.  And as he returned with the spoils of victory, Melchizedek appears.

¹⁸ Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. ¹⁹ And he blessed him and said:

“ Blessed be Abram of God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
²⁰ And blessed be God Most High,
Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”
And he gave him a tithe of all.
And that's it.  But there's a lot here.  Melchizedek  translates to "king of right (or righteousness).  And Salem, from the same root of  Shalom, means "peace".  Both of these are used in the prophets to describe Messiah.  Note next that he brought bread and wine, the very elements of the Lord's Supper.  Note third that he blessed Abram; and fourth that here the tithe is established.  I am not the first writer to note that this would seem to indicate that Melchizedek was a manifestation of Christ- nor would it be the last time Abram/Abraham would encounter Him.  But if you're not convinced, see what the writer of Hebrews says about Him.

 ¹ For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, ² to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” ³ without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.
⁴ Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. (Heb 7: 1-3)

Remember the point being the difference between the Messiah and a mere flesh and blood descendant?   without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life.  Inserted independently into the world, Superior to any human priesthood.  The "order of Melchizedek" is no flesh and blood priesthood, and it's high priest no flesh and blood priest.  THE MESSIAH WAS NEVER TO BE A MAN OF ONLY FLESH.  But the Jews of Jesus' day, the intellectuals of Jefferson's type, and the atheists of today cannot cope with the uniting of Flesh and God in one being.  They claim to be all about discovering the undiscovered, examining the unknown, but look at this most primal of mysteries- the "mystery of Godliness" of I Tim.3:16- and throw up their hands, saying, "We cannot prove it, ergo it does not exist."  All the while conveniently forgetting they have just as much direct proof of the Big Bang, which still doesn't make sense unless SOMETHING brought it into existence.

We cannot know the beginning of God.  Any lead scientists trace down has to lead to another beginning.  Every philosophical debate has to come to a point where something is eternal.  Every religious conversation has to come to a point of believing in something beyond understanding.  And the division of mankind we discussed in our first message comes down to those who say, "But the answer CANNOT be God," and those who have said at some point, "Why can't it be God?"

FCS round two plus Christmas decorations

Another one of those" things that Chris should never discover" is the quadruple screen on ESPN3.  Thus, I got to watch at least parsts of several of the eight playoff games today.  The main one I paid attention to was the ODU-Georgia Southern shootout.  Back and forth into the third quarter, ODU had to play catchup late, and missed an onside kick by the margin of less than a yard in the air and fell 55-48.  That was one of my five correct picks against 3 misses.

At the top of the bracket, Sam Houston survived another shootout, coming from behind to top Stony Brook 38-31 (I got that one, too).  They'll get Montana State, who beat UNH 26-25 when the extra point to tie with 7 seconds left got blocked, costing me that one.  Northern Iowa won the last game to go final against Wofford 28-21 (another miss) on quite possibly the bonehead play of history.  After UNI had scored to go up 21-14, the kickoff went to Wofford return man Stephan Shelton, a very discouraged young man tonight.  He caught the ball inside the 5, but the momentum carried him into the end zone.  Not only does he not leave the end zone (since he must have thought he caught it in the end zone instead of outside), but he doesn't even kneel to down it- he just starts casually walking it to the referee.  The UNI players realize, unlike Shelton, that the whistle HAS NOT blown, and run up and knock the ball from his hands.  He continues toward the ref, asking WTF that was about- until the ref runs past him to watch UNI land on the ball for a TD.  Merry Christmas, UNI; happy holidays, Stephan.

UNI gets Montana, who disposed of Central Arkansas 38-7 (win for me) next round, to finish out the top of the bracket.  On the lower bracket, Ga So will get Maine who, as predicted, topped App State by an unpredicted 34-12 score.  North Dakota State, in a game I should have gotten right but went for the upset, topped JMU 26-14, and they will face my cautious but correct pick, Lehigh.  In a game with no fewer than 6 ties, the last one was snapped when Lehigh caught the Towson qb in the end zone for a safety in the last minute and change for a 40-38 win.

Next round, Martin the Magnificent takes Sam Houston to keep the undefeated season going against Montana St.; Montana to take out UNI (unless Stephen Shelton transfers over this week); I'll take GaSo over Maine in next week's battle of the century; and Lehigh over the Bison of  NDST.

_______________________________________________________

And now, after some technical difficulties, here are our Christmas decorations!

The angel in my bedroom window- I LOVE flashy lights!

Laurie's patented Christmas village

My "random lights" in the front window

The newest addition to the village, A second story glass-enclosed ballroom with music and dancing people.  Much better than dancing with the stars.

And the village people... so to speak.  The houses are a general store, a private home, and the village jail.  With three policemen patrolling a 4-foot village, we must have a lot of reprobates.



Laurie's display at her old house used to be a grand display, on a ten-by-three table that we had no room for when we moved on.  Though smaller, it more than makes up in greater quality as the years have gone on.  The new ballroom she got today is so neat- the little people sweep around the ballroom to Silent Night, and it has a volume control so they can look neat without being annoying.  My only question was how they would get in, as the door seems to be a bit smaller than they are.  But since it doesn't open, I suppose it doesn't matter.

The lights in the front window are from her dad's estate, older than Methusaleh and never been used.  The ones in my room have a controller that changes them from running lights through several flashing patterns to (Scrappy's favorite) gently fading on and off.  We sleep with the fade on all night (making Christmas not one of Scrappy's top times of year).

And now... the great seventies countdown!

As the applause dies down, the Humble Author steps to the mike.  "Thank you, " he begins.  "Thank you for coming by for this, what I hope will be, a wonderful show.  I'd like to say a few words of introduction before we begin.  One can only realize how many truly deserving songs there are when you try to set an arbitrary limit to these things.  Like with the sixties countdown, you could literally make lists of 'the 500 top songs that missed the countdown'.  And still have good songs. 

"For myself, I had actually made a list of over 1,200 a couple years ago, and this is basically that list.  A lot of changes have been made; some songs that graded high because I'd just gotten a CD with it have slid;  Others I have revisited and said, 'what are you doing down there?' The old top fifty are relatively intact. But there are a lot of new faces elsewhere, and some old faces have disappeared.

"Some songs wear better than others, and this has been a factor since I burned the top 150 or so to CD from the old list.  This was especially damning to a couple of songs.  Carly Simon's That's TheWay I've Always Heard It Should Be got nailed for all the early morning heated conversations I had with Carly over her take on marriage and how she was complaining about "I'll never learn to be just me first" when she's out of college and still living at home.  Another one didn't fall clear out, but it did fall to today's list, so you'll have to wait a minute on that.

"Even last night after I printed the list, I agonized over songs 'I should have put in'.  But in the end, I looked for the emotional connection- something in the memory, the lyrics, or the music, that set one apart from another.  So, allow me one more check of the numbering, and we'll begin."  And with that, he steps back from the stage and the lights dim.  Suddenly, he sticks his head out one last time and says, "Glad we checked that.  The numbering was indeed buggered up; and it will be 320, and not 325."

320- I Like Dreamin', Kenny Nolan, peak position #3, 1977.  This is a song that happened along about the time of my first big freshman crush.  Her tastes at the time ran more along the lines of Don Ho.  Kenny actually wrote along with Four Seasons mentor Bob Crewe songs like My Eyes Adored You and Lady Marmalade.

319- Second Hand News, Fleetwood Mac, unreleased, 1977.  Man, remember how great Rumours was?  I could have easily put all ten tracks on here!  I think I ended up with three.  And looking at the list, now I've got I Don't Wanna Know playing in my head.

318- Lady Blue, Leon Russell,pp#14, 1975. Perhaps the smoothest song of all time.  I find it hard to believe this couldn't have been #1 in any era, but Bob's your uncle.

317- Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Beatles,  #49, 1976.  Silly, yes.  Fun, yes.  Got a lot more airplay here than nationally, apparently.

316- Knowing Me, Knowing You, ABBA, #14, 1977.  Top ten in 14 countries, #1 in five.  Only the USA, Spain, and Finland had it outside the top ten.

315- Head First, The Babys, #77, 1979.  The title cut of an lp that got played a ton that summer in our group.  One of many songs that remind me of summer at Snow Lake. Frankly, I thought the only single was Everytime I Think Of You, though I would have released California.



314- Nightrider, Electric Light Orchestra, non-charting, 1976.  Wiki claims it didn't chart on either Billboard or Cashbox, but I thought it had on Cashbox. One of the best songs to never chart, then, I guess.

313- Message In A Bottle, The Police, #74, 1979.  The first of 3 straight #1s in the UK, a moderate AOR hit here.  One of those songs I wish I could say, "It's my all time favorite of theirs", but it's a crowded line.



312- Heard It In A Love Song, Marshall Tucker Band, #14, 1977.  I don't know what's weirder- that there are so many 1977's down here, or that so many of them hit #14.  A mellow song I always sing along to.

311- Tin Man, America, #4, 1974.  This song got tucked in last night.  I remember Mom hated this song- see couldn't make sense of it because she thought they were saying, "I never did give nothing to the Tin Man" instead of "Oz never did..."  And if you get derailed there...

310- Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted, the Partridge Family, #6, 1971.  This was the other big dropper from the original countdown I mentioned.  I remembered this as a clip to the episaode where Danny thought he was adopted, and was looking through graveyards, etc., for clues to his "real" family.  Funny how Bonaduce never did get that clue.

309- Jazzman, Carole King, #2, 1974.  Carole is the second great love of my life, after Yvonne Elliman.  Her vocals just soar, and the imagery:  "When the Jazzman's testifyin' and the band is windin' low/ It's the late-night side of morning in the darkness of his soul.."

308- Jamie's Crying, Van Halen, unreleased, 1978.  Plenty of drunken times in the party woods to this one.  Van Halen was like one-two with AC/DC to the drinking crowd back then. (Of course, I never cared for AC/DC.)

307- Detroit Rock City, Kiss, #25, 1976.  Despite the fact that all the rest of the world wanted to hear was the b-side (Beth) this song was night after night battling for #1 on the nightly top ten call in show on WMEE.

306- Spirits In The Night, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, #97, 1975. I love all of Manfred Mann's Bruce Springsteen covers.  Just heard this on my pandora station last night, as a matter of fact.

305- Magnet And Steel, Walter Egan, #8, 1978.  This song, forever linked in time and my mind with Toby Beau's My Angel Baby, immediately takes me back to the hottest days of summer.

304- The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Genesis, non-charting, 1974.  Pre pop-chart Genesis is the best! "Wonder women draw your blind!/Dont look at me! Im not your kind./Im Rael!"

303- Tear The Roof Off The Sucker(Give Up The Funk), Parliament, #15, 1976.  I'm a sucker for good funk.  And no one was better than P-Funk.



302- Thunder Road, Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street band, unreleased, 1975.  Springsteen Live  changed our lives.  Another summer nights at Snow Lake song.

301- Happy Anniversary, Little River Band, #16, 1977.  There's just something about that middle part: "There's a lesson here to learn, when your baby ups and leaves you/Carry on don't be concerned, even though you're so much in love/ You need a little help from above, whoa-ohh".

"And that brings us to the end of this installment", he says as the lights edge up just a little bit.  "Be here next time for more funk and fun in the seventies.  Drive safe, and here's something to guide you home.  Good night, everybody!"

Just to let you know...

Unless I change my mind by tomorrow morning, the Great Seventies Countdown will begin with a leadoff 25- song list from 325 to 301.  That's right, we're going three-twenty-five, and it could have been a LOT bigger- you never know how MUCH bigger until you look at the songs that couldn't make the cut.  Even at that, my printoff of my wordpress list ran 15 pages!

Also, prepare yourselves for the NEW living room!  Actually, the room isn't completely new, but the arraingement is.  The before was (l-r) computer stand for new computer, table with non functioning attached lamp, big blue sofa dirty from happy paws and listing at one end from fat bottoms, and Scrappy's cage with Laurie's custom built covering table.  Now the table sans non functioning lamp are off-frame to the left, with my lovely Old Crown case full of beer caps and the collections three bottes taking their new place in place of said lamp.  New computer stand remains the same, but it's new neighbor to the right is the cage/table, with our printer  and a functioning lamp taking their place amongst the stuff on its top. 

What is new is not the beagle, but the couch/recliner, made of beautiful I-can't-believe-it's-not-leather, guaranteed to clean easier than fabric and allegedly proof against even Scrappy's claws (which I really should trim this weekend).  And next to it...

Our lovely model Laurie shows off her new computer table for the old computer.  Other than the part played by the delivery guys and a bit of assistance with the table's slide, Miss Laurie did this all herself whilst I loaded a truck that will be bringing those Arden patio cushions you demand to a K-Mart store near you.
Blurry-eyed again from a last couple of hours tweaking the list, I say goodnight for now.  Tune in tomorrow, for TGSC week one!

step into my time machine week 84

I've got some good bedtime stories for the trip tonight (as I'll be working tomorrow), including a MHOFer in the Where Are They Now feature, the birth of a brand new feature, two of the stupidest group names of all time, meeting a Beatle at the urinal, and we'll connect Rod Stewart to Eric Burdon and War.  You ready?  I am! Let's all go...

We kick things off as usual with the hot 100 debuts from this week in 1976, and there were ten of them.  A couple that I recognized I'm going to hold off on mentioning- for now...  But I will mention 4 of the set- 2 of them debuting in unusually high positions.  Coming in at 89 is newcomer Stephen Bishop with a song I really liked back in the day, Save It For A Rainy Day.  Bob Seger introduces us to his Silver Bullet Band at #80 with the title cut to their Night Moves lp.  Get yer lighters ready- the debut at #56 is none other than Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird.  And all the way up at 46, from the mega album Songs In The Key Of Life, Stevie Wonder with I Wish.

Joining these now-35 year old hits in birthdays this week, three songs turning 40- Day After Day by bad luck's poster children, Badfinger; Carly Simon's famous Heintz Ketchup theme, Anticipation; and the Grateful Dead's opus Truckin'.  And four songs turn 45 this week: Paul Revere and the Raiders' Good Thing; the Monkees' #1 I'm A Believer; the Mamas and Papas' Words Of Love;  And a song called 98.6 by the unusually billed Keith.  Actually James Barry Keefer, this song gave him his greatest fame.  One result of which was getting slapped on the back and told how great a song it was- by John Lennon, while side by side at the urinals.  I guess if he was the kind to wet himself when meeting a celebrity, he was in the right place.  However, things had fallen apart by 1968, when he had the double whammy of a flop second album and an arrest for draft evasion.  He quickly went from "Pissing With The Stars" to "Serving Coffee To The Four-Stars".  Happy birthday, anyway.

Our big dropper this week was Dr. Hook's top ten A Little Bit More, falling 22 to #77; the big mover was Blinded By The Light, climbing 25 to #57.  And that brings us to #49 and the where are they now segment.  Why #49?  Because it's my age!  Where were you in '62?

And at 49, we find the steadily climbing Lost Without Your Love by Bread.  Now anyone that cares knows that Bread was David Gates, who is alive, kicking, and singing.  The other members have some good stories, as well.  Jimmy Griffin, who was the second most successful of the members, eventually left the band, sued Gates over names and royalties, and eventually joined with fellow member Rob Royer to form Toast.  Jimmy died of cancer in 2006, as did drummer Mike Botts.  Botts joined on the second album, replacing veteran sideman (and one man six degrees from last week) Jim Gordon, who left to join Clapton in Delaney and Bonnie's entourage.  The remaining original (and Surviving) member was Rob Royer, who also left early and was replaced by Larry Knechtel.  Royer was partnered with Griffin for a long time before and after Bread, including writing the Carpenters' hit For All We Know.  After Griffin's death, Royer finished in 2010 a project started years before with Griffin, a deathbed request.  It was a trippy sci-fi narration deal which would take mouch more time to explain than for you to just look up on Wikipedia if you're interested.  In the meantime, Knechtel- who was already famous for being the piano man on Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Waters- died of a heart attack in 2009.  Thus, the reunion tour they did in 1997 is all there is.  The band was inducted into the Vocal Groups Hall Of Fame in 2006, and the MHOF in this last crop of entrants.

Three songs enter the top 40 this week, and once again the Lords of Irony rear their familiar head.  Last week's WATN victim Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band climb 9 from the magic 49 spot to 40 with the triple song Whispering/Cherchez Le Femme/Ce Ce Bon; I Like Dreamin' by Kenny Nolan moves up 8 to 39; and the aforementioned Mr. Clapton goes from 43 to 32 with Hello Old Friend.

And now, the new feature.  Last week, I announced the demise of the #1s of different years portion of our show.  To replace it is somewhat of the same thing with a different spin.  A dude by the name of Josh Hostler has a site where you can find the #1 song on whatever date of ANY year.  Now sometimes he jibes with what you find on other sources, sometimes he doesn't.  Accepting his entertainment value if not his accuracy, I'm going to pick one song that catches my eye from that date each week and spotlight it.  And all of you growing up on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In like I did will understand why I picked this one.

The #1 song for this week in 1929 (although Wiki says it was actually #1 in May) was the "theme song" for famous crooner Nick Lucas- Tiptoe Through The Tulips.  This was the bigger of two hits he had from the movie musical Gold Diggers Of Broadway.  The first color film by Warner Brothers, this was the #1 grossing film of all time from 1929-1939.  This song has actually been covered several times, including by two of the truly stupid named bands of all time- Uke Til U Puke and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.  Of course the definitive cover of the song was by Tiny Tim; and when he and Miss Vicki got married on the Tonight Show, they were serenaded with the tune by Nick Lucas himself.  How's that for a heartwarming story?

Three orders of business before we enter the top ten.  First, an almost but not quite salute to the Commodores' Just To Be Close To You, which peaked at 11 last week and drops to 20 this time around.  Second, we have two new top tens, and thus two songs make room for them. The Edmund Fitzgerald goes down fast, falling from 3 to 13.  And former top dog Rock'n Me drops from 9 to 18. Third, I'd like to note the trio of my all time favorites who are banging on the door.  Burton Cummings climbs from13 to 11 with Stand Tall; Nights Are Forever Without You does likewise from 14 to twelve; and Livin' Thing moves from 20 to 17.

Climbing 5 to join the tops of the pops at #10 are Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis with You Don't Have To Be A Star.  Moving up one spot to #9 is Alice Cooper with I Never Cry.  Firefall holds at #8 with You Are The Woman.  moving from 12 to 7 is Leo Sayer with You Make Me Feel Like Dancing (which I think should have been covered by Uke Til U Puke).  The Spinners climb one to #6 with Rubberband Man.  Nadia's Theme likewise climbs one to #5 for Messers Botkin and DeVorzon.  Boston holds at four with More Than A Feeling.  The Bee Gees leapfrog Tom Scholz and Co. to move into the #3 slot with Love So Right.  Holding at #2 are the Captain and Tenille with Muskrat Love.  And that leaves us with our #1 song- and our six degrees victim.

The whispered French in Tonight's The Night by Rod Stewart, as I've mentioned before, belongs to his babe-at-the-time Britt Eklund.  Britt came to the world's attention as a Bond Girl in the film The Man With The Golden Gun.  Gun was scored, as were many Bond flicks, by John Barry, who composed the theme, which was sung by Lulu.  The only Bond theme not to chart in either the USA or the UK, Barry himself hated it, and it was described as "inane" (having read the lyrics, I'll vouch for that) and "one long stream of smut" ( which may be a bit strong, but it was a Bond theme, after all).  Ironically, the aforementioned Mr. Cooper was asked to write a theme for the film- which he did- and it got rejected.  It ended up on the lp Muscle Of Love.  While not any of the things the Lulu version was described as, it certainly was repititious.  Anyway, that brings us through Lul to the "Jimi Hendrix incident."  This occured on the UK variety show that Lulu hosted under various names from 1968-75. 

"...one episode remains famous for Jimi Hendrix's unruly live appearance where, after playing about two minutes of Hey Joe, Hendrix stopped and announced "We'd like to stop playing this rubbish and dedicate a song to The Cream, regardless of what kind of group they may be in, dedicate to Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce". He then broke into Sunshine of Your Love. With the studio director signalling for Hendrix to stop he continued. Unrepentant, Hendrix was told he would never work at the BBC again. He told his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham "I'm not going to sing with Lulu. I'd look ridiculous".

And to finish out with a biiig stretch, the last performance that Jimi made before his death was a jam session with- Eric Burdon and War.  And with that, and a congrats to Mr. Stewart for his third week in a row at #1, I bid you good night and good music.