Time Machine week 41

It's November 9, 1970.  Some people will tell you that today's biggest news was the death of Charles DeGaulle.  Renegade general for Free France to trusted ally to the man who charted an independant course for France, not caring whose feathers got ruffled.
Or, for the more domestic-minded, you might say that the big news was the Supreme Court by a 6-3 vote refusing to hear arguments about a new Massachusetts law giving citizens the "right" to refuse to fight in an "undeclared" war.  Considering the era of declaring war died in Korea 20 years before, I've my doubt how long that lasted.
But I, your humble author have found the most far-reaching news of this day.  Today NASA launched the OFO- the Orbiting Frog Otolith rocket.  Despite the fact it was now 16 months after Armstrong walked on the Moon, now we decided to shoot a pair of bullfrogs into space to measure the effects of weightlessness on the inner ear (specifically the otolith part) and balance.  The frogs were "surgically prepared" (which included strapping them in to prevent movement- other than their heads, which were moved remotely by scientists- and hooking them up to IV nourishment) and sent off to orbit the earth.  The mission was a "success"- they found that there had been "changes" to the inner ear in space, that reversed themselves after 10-20 days.  Like they couldn't have figured that out from the men, chimps, and dogs who'd ALREADY been shot into space, but whatever.

Welcome to Time Machine, and I have a wealth of info on music and such for you today, including the case of the strangled aunt on the Where Are They Now, the mystery of the band leader who partnered with Batman to solve a crime, the connection between Free and the Travelling Wilburys,who came up with the old jingle "Raise your hand if you're Sure" and why it appears on a music show, and the Curious Case of the Talking Guitar.  Oh, and a new number one!  So let's have at it, shall we?

We start off as always with this week's hot hundred debuts, and out of 12 new songs on the overall chart, I'll mention 5 of them.  Coming in at 99 is an act billed Runt (because Todd Rundgren thought "Todd Rundgren" might be a bit of a mouthful) with the saga of LeRoy Boy and his dating troubles called We Gotta Get You A Woman.  At 91 we have Van Morrison (who'll reappear in a couple minutes) with Domino.  Santana breaks in at 85 with Black Magic Woman; at 66 is Neil Diamond's version of the Hollies big hit He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother.  And at 64, Chicago follows up 25 Or 6 To 4 with Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

I know, it's time for our birthday songs, and we have a bucketfull of 'em!  Turning 30 this week is the Michael Jackson/Paul McCartney duet This Girl Is Mine, along with Men At Work's Down Under, John Mellencamp's Hand To Hold Onto, Steve Winwood's Valerie, Phil Collins' cover of the Supremes' You Can't Hurry Love, Frieda (from ABBA) with I Know There's Something Going On, and Prince with 1999.  Turning 35 are Kansas with Point Of Know Return, Andy Gibb's Love Is Thicker Than Water, Earth Wind And Fire's Serpentine Fire, Van Morrison (see, I told you he'd be back) and Moondance, and a song about a talking guitar by the band Stillwater called Mind Bender:

My Daddy was a GIBSON
My Mama was a Fender
That's why they call me Mindbender
Mindbender. That's my name
You better believe it
It was a mind-bending thing


Turning 40 this week are Jethro Tull's Living In The Past, Eric Carmen and the Raspberries with I Wanna Be With You, Three Dog Night's Pieces Of April, Curtis Mayfield's Superfly, and Stevie Wonder's Superstition.  Turning 45 are the Monkee's Daydream Believer, The Bee Gees' Massachusetts, the Small Faces' Itchycoo Park, and Gary Puckett and the Union Gap with Woman, Woman.  Hitting the big 5-0 is the Drifters' Up On The Roof; and Chuck Berry's original on Rock'N'Roll Music and Jimmie Rodgers' Kisses Sweeter Than Wine hit 55.  Blow out the candles...

Our big mover this week, speaking of the Supremes (which I did if you were paying attention), are the Ross-less Supremes with Stoned Love, climbing 19 to #64.  The big droppers both fall 16 spots- El Condor Pasa, still in the top 40 to #30, and Three Dog Night's Out In The Country to just outside at #41. 

And that brings us to #50 and Where Are They Now with the dropping Unite The World by the Temptations, which peaked at 30 two weeks ago.  The Temps are one of the longest running bands in history, so I will focus on the quintet featured on this particular song. 

Otis Williams is the one surviving original member, and one of two who never left.  He was the group's organizer and leader, but never the frontman.  He is still touring with the band at the age of 72, with a group of younger men headed by Ron Tyson, brother of the Manhattans' David Tyson, and the third-longest tenured Temptation.

Melvin Franklin is the second longest.  He and Otis promised themselves, amidst the ever-changing lineups, that they would never leave, and Melvin stayed as long as he was physically able.  Cortisone shots for his years-long battle with arthritis gave Melvin scads of autoimmune problems, including diabetes, and in 1995 he fell into a coma and passed away.

Dennis Edwards had replaced lead singer David Ruffin by this time.  He was with the band from 1968 until Otis Fired him in 1977.  He returned in 1980, but building a tentative solo career led to him missing rehearsals- and shows- and he was replaced again by Allie-Ollie Wilson in 1984.  In the late 80's, he formed a project with two other former Temps singers- Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks- which fell apart when the others passed away.  He still leads "the Temptations Review featuring Dennis Edwards" with the son of another Temp, Paul Williams, Jr.

Kendricks was with the band from the beginning until a final blow-up with Otis and Melvin in 1973, and had solo success with the #1 (and now commercial jingle) Keep On Truckin'.  He did go back for a reunion tour in 1982, but was cursed with lung cancer, which took a lung in 1991 and his life less than a year later.

Paul Williams was considered by many the heart and soul of the group, but was a man dogged by mystery.  He left the band under mysterious circumstances shortly after this lp (along with Kendricks), and soon later was found dead in a Detroit alley.  He had just left his girlfriend after an argument.  He apparently shot himself in the head- but the family disputed this because he was found with the gun in his off-hand.  His royalty checks were to be divided between sons Paul Jr. and Kenneth.  Kenneth went to jail in 1989 for strangling his aunt with a phone cord and served 20 years.  He had asked his sister to save up his checks, but when he was released in 2011, found that she had spent them all- around $220,000 worth.  He is currently suing her.

We have 6 top 40 debuts this week.  The Guess Who leap 12 to #40 with Share The Land.   Recent WATN feature Mark Lindsay's And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind climbs from 41 to 39.  Up 5 to 38 is a song called Part-Time Love by Ann Peebles.  Ann, in addition to a reasonably successful R&B career, wrote the hits I Can't Stand The Rain for Eruption (#18 in 1978; she also released it and hit #38 in 1973) and I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down ( #13 in 1985) for Paul Young.  Up 8 to #37 is one Jake Holmes with So Close.  Jake is better known for being the writer of Led Zeppelin's Dazed And Confused, as well as for a string of commercial jingles that included "Be all that you can be" for the Army, "Be a pepper" for Dr. Pepper, and of course, "Raise your hand if you're Sure" for Sure anti-persperant.  Another recent WATN, Mashmakan's As The Years Go By, moves from 44 to 36 this week, and at 35, up 11, are Washington, DC soul group The Presidents with 5-10-15-20 (25-30 Years Of Love).

Our lookback, as I promised in last week's comments, features the Kay Kyser Orchestra.  Kay became a household word for the long-running (1938-49) radio quiz show Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge, but he also led- and sang for- a very talented band.  They racked up 41 top tens and 5 #1s from 1935-48, including the #1 Jingle Jangle Jingle.  He was known for making stars of band members, including future talk show host Mike Douglas- and one guy I always wondered about. 

You see, I grew up watching Gene Rayburn's Match Game, and one of the completely random terms often thrown in was "Ish Kabibble".  Ish Kabibble was actually the stage name of Kysers' cornet player and class clown, who got the name from a "made-up Yiddish" term "Ische ga bibble" which perported to mean "I should worry?"

In February of 1941, he became the first bandleader to perform in front of military personell.  Unlike many who faded away as the reached the end of their career, the Kyser band got hotter, with 7 of their last eight hits making top 10, 5 of those top 3, including the #1s Old Buttermilk Sky in September of 1946, and Woody Woodpecker in June of 1948.  His band also appeared in a handfull of movies playing themselves, often with plots revolving around them (including one where Kayser learned acting from John Barrymore and another where he had a "hypnotic eye").  In another ground breaking move, he appeared in Detective Comics #144, in which he and Batman discovered that he had a sax player who moonlighted as a crook.

Kyser became a Christian Scientist in the mid 40s after drugs failed to cure his arthritis.  He passed away in 1985.

Three songs enter the top 10, three fall out.  Dropping are Green Eyed Lady (5 to 11), Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma (10-13), and Cracklin' Rosie (7 to 18).


The Kinks slide down 2 to #10 with Lola.

Glen Campbell comes in at 9, up 2, with It's Only Make Believe.

100 Proof Aged In Soul climb a notch to #8 with Somebody's Been Sleeping.

Bread rises (another pun you'll never get tired of) from 13 to #7 with It Don't Matter To Me.

And here sits our six degrees victim, Free falling to #6, down three, with All Right Now.

Everyone knows that Free basically morphed in to Bad Company when singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke got tired of the soon to mbe deceased guitarist Paul Kossoff's drug problems.  Another member of Bad Co. was Boz Burrell, who had been the bassist for the ever-revolving door of Prog-rock band King Crimson.  Among Burrell's bandmates there was Bill Bruford, who was KC's fourth drummer and became the first drummer for Yes.  He was there for Yes' first 4 lps- which means he played on the hits Long Distance Runaraound and Roundabout- before moving on to KC.  There, he replaced Ian Wallace, who went on to have a big career as a studio guy, performing on such songs as Stevie Nicks' Stand Back, and- the Travelling Wilburys' first single, Handle With Care.

The Partridge Family pulls their bus up 10 spots to #5 with I Think I Love You.

James Taylor climbs 2 to #4 with Fire And Rain.

R Dean Taylor moves on up to #3 with Indiana Wants Me.

The Jackson Five step out of the top dog seat, going to #2 with I'll Be There.

Which means i have to find a new picture for th the new #1 song this week is...

... the Carpenters with We've Only Just Begun!!!!

Well, that was fun!  See you next week!

Don Quixote is tired...

Moments after I posted "It Is What It Is", I went up to take a shower.  Mad at America, mad at myself for not doing enough, mad at God for allowing it. Thinking about just chucking all my connections- the blog, facebook, everything. "This is the world You wanted, " I snapped as I climbed under the water.

Should have known better.  God gets my attention best in the shower.

"You know, I HAD to let them make their own choice."

"I suppose.  What are You going to do about it?"

"What are YOU going to do about it?"

"Me?  Don't expect me to lead them by the hand out of Sodom!"

"But you already have been.  It is not your responsibility if Lot's Wife turns around and becomes a pillar of salt."


Hmmm.


So I guess that means nothing drastic changes here.  Time Machine will post Friday and all will be right with the world.  But Don Quixote is tired.  I feel much like a French soldier must have felt retreating through Poland and Germany in 1814.  Not willing to the battle, but knowing somewhere in France there is a girl not wanting to be raped by a Russian soldier.  Having to fight on for a country that is half-waiting for him to fail so they can go on to the next chapter- even if it is occupation by foreign forces.  The gun has no ammunition anymore, the bayonet is dull and barely cuts strips off my shirt for me to chew on in lieu of food.  But trudging on nonetheless, until I make it home or drop dead in a Saxon cornfield.

 Then He said to me: “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. ⁵ For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel, ⁶ not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you. ⁷ But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted. ⁸ Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. ⁹ Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.”
Moreover He said to me: “Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. 11 And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse.”  Ezekiel 3: 4-11

it is what it is...

Last night I said my piece about the Obama election on Facebook.  I said it because all over the internet were head-in-sand people saying, "it doesnt matter, they're all the same"; feminists declaring, "the world is safe for vaginas again"; immigrants saying, "Romney is a racist."  Everywhere were Obama supporters and their spoon-fed facts spouting all the things they'd heard on TV:

-Romney is a crook because he's rich.
-Romney is a racist because he wants our borders protected.
-Romney is out to destroy women because he's pro life.
-LGBT couples can now proudly hold hands in the sun because Romney lost.

It is such a comfort to know that the right to come into this country undocumented, the right to practice perversion openly, the "business" of playing Robin Hood, and the right to have unprotected, unfettered sex without consequences is worth giving up on living without government intrusion, giving up making medical decisions, giving up on our own people trying to work for us overseas.

It is such a comfort to know that the only way to get a republican in the White House anymore would have to require at least one of the following:

-Removing all media bias (which would mean shutting down all news sources)
-Closing down Hollywood, entertainers like David Letterman and Barbra Streisand
-Getting the RNC to run a campaign as if they weren't still in the 1960's
-Triggering the San Andreas Fault and innundating both coasts (not advocating, just saying)

Because, let's face it- this election wasn't about abortion rights, racism, or even the economy.  This election was all about whether we would ever have an election by voters who used critical thinking again, or if we were now doomed to get our thoughts on politics from late night comedy hosts and The View from now on.  Guess what?  America chose Entertainment Tonight to guide their political destinies from now on.

You see, with critical thinking, Obama would have been held responsible for the trashed economy, his worthless efforts to fix it, and his lying about it by fudging the unemployment numbers.  Obama would have been held responsible for allowing what happened in Libya, making us a joke to our enemies and a detriment to our allies.  Obama would have been held responsible for his past, his defending of Chicago slumlords, revolutionaries like Dick Ayres, racist preachers like Jeremiah Wright.  Obama would have been held responsible for giving guns to drug lords with which our own Border Patrol agants were murdered.

But none of that matters. Why?  Because Whoopi Goldberg, Bruce Springsteen, and Jon Stewart says it doesn't.

I was going to copy the entire rant I posted on Facebook, but because I am calmer (and because the "malicious program" Mark Zuckerberg sent to shut me down mid-post hasn't found me here), I'm only going to put the last piece.

Y'know, Michelle Obama said at his first inauguration, "I've never been proud of this country until now." Today, I say, "I've never been ashamned of my country- until now." You can read what I wrote below to figure out why I say it. If you'd have tried to see why she said what she did, maybe things would be different tonight.

Good night, America. I'd say "and God bless, " But I'm really having a problem tonight figuring out just why He would bother.

Oh, and the title of the post? That is the comment put on two-thirds of that post by a good friend.  At first, it pissed me off- and truth to tell, it still does- but it is true.  And when people start complaining as this nation slides into worse crap over the next four years of an Obama not held back anymore by re-election, perhaps that will be my words of cold comfort to you all.  It is what it is.

Just know, America, that I tried to prevent it.  But you'd rather trust David Letterman than me.

Sports Tuesday

Hello.  Betcher wondering where I've been, eh?  Just a long weekend with nothing major to say.  Hope everybody eligible to went out and voted to make our country better.  I do want to say one thing on this topic.  One of our three-way races here locally involved a Republican who got national attention- not wanted attention- during a debate when the discussion of abortion and rape came up.  He tried to explain that even though God and man sees rape as a reprehensible act, that if a baby is created thereby, it is God's will that that baby enjoy life.  Because, as Christians, we believe God takes the bad things of this life and uses them for good for those who believe.  The liberal press took the ambiguity of the statement to twist it and claim he was saying that rape is God's will, and his democrat challenger jumped right on the bandwagon.  However, the Libertarian challenger wrote a lengthy statement defending the Republican, explaining that A) whether or not he agreed with his intention, he realized that a debate is a highly charged, stressful atmosphere in which to express complex beliefs on a stopwatch, and B) as it turns out, he did agree with the statement.  Where the Democrat kept basically silent and let the national press attempt to destroy his opponant with innuendo, the Libertarian showed integrity, ethics and guts.  That is why, despite the Republican being my favored candidate in all areas, I voted for the Libertarian for having the courage that I doubt either of the others would have had in a similar circumstance.

Anyway, onto my sports report.  We had three big throwdowns this week in the NHFFL.  The KCAs put up 57 points, with Doug Martin scoring 30 all by himself- but it was not enough to top the red-hot Fiery Beagles.  Aaron Rodgers, Brandon Marshall, and Robbie Gould all hit double figures in a 67-57 win that kept them tied atop the leaderboard and gave them 6 straight wins after an 0-3 start.

In the second big game, the Aguas kept their share of the Purple Div. lead, and their tiebreaker advantage, with a 46-39 over an ever-more-desperate Rangers squad.  The Bears' D did the heavy lifting for the Aguas, putting up 21 points against woebegone Tennessee.

The third big contest pitted the Porkchops against Gold second-place B2s.  In a tight contest, it was Reggie Bush's TD that gave Porkchop a 38-31 win and the league's best record at 7-2.

This made the other two Gold games that much more important, as the Elks walloped the Ducks 64-25 behind the NY Giants' D scoring 19 and backup QB Carson Palmer posting 14.  Also, Buzz took advantage to move into second with a 52-30 pasting of the Clock BBQs.  The WR corps put up 30, with newcomer Randall Cobb and Eric Decker each scoring twice.And even the Greenwoods moved back into contention in the Purple with a 31-20 win over the Angels who, in a week where defences averaged 8.5 points with 4 teams topping 10, the Angels got 1 from Miami.



With the playoffs just three weeks away now, the Rangers, Clock BBQs, and Elks really need to step it up- and so far, only the Elks are managing it.   Next week is the second cross-division week, and we lead off with the biggest game so far this season- the Beagles vs the Porkchops!  The B2s fight for their playoff lives against the Aguas; The Elks and Rangers face off in a pivotal game for both sides; also, it's KCAs/Clock BBQs, Buzz/Angels, Greenwoods vs Ducks.

As for Lokomotiv, Friday was another OT affair.  In fact, our boys have played 15 games out of 23 as 1-goal matches and seven have gone OT, six of those to the shootout.  We are now 7-0 in OT after Friday's game in Ufa that matched us against Salavat Yulaev.  They took a quick 1-0 lead but stellar denfeseman Staffan Kronwall tied it at 6:50 of the first with his 5th goal.  My boy Emil Galimov put us up 2-1 with his second goal in regulation this year (he had two shootout goals coming into this one.  That came late in the second and set up a fairly wild third period.  Tomas Rolinek, a Czech in his first year with Salavat after spending the last four with Magnitogorsk, got his first of the season to tie things at 2-2 at 9:44 of the final stanza.  Artyom Anisimov, a lockout player from Columbus, part of the big Rick Nash trade this spring, put us back on top with his second goal at 15:57, but Rolinek struck again with less than 2 minutes left to send us into OT, and then the shootout. 

Curtis Sanford, making his second start, held off both Salavat shooters- including Rolinek- while Galimov collected his third SO goal and NHL vet Viktor Kozlov put it away with his score for a 4-3 win.

Our record (combining all the OT categories into one for W-L-O) is now 11-5-7, and puts us into a three-way tie for the league's second best in points (47) with Traktor (14-4-4) and Magnitogorsk (14-3-5), behind league leader Dynamo Moscow (14-4-5, 51 points).  Speaking of Dynamos, Dinamo Riga becomes the sixth team this season to fire their coach.  Pekka Rautakallio joins the coaches of Spartak, Avtomobilst, Dinamo Minsk, Lev, and Atlant on the unemployment line.

The league took three days off to help Swiss club Ambri-Piotta celebrate their 75th anniversary this week.  A group of Russian vets played the club to a 6-6 tie in an exhibition match, taking some of the sting off a season that sees Ambri-Piotta mired in 11th place (of 12) in the Swiss NLA, 5-12-3 and 27 points behind leader Geneva Servette.  As a result, Lokomotiv's next game is tommorow against Slovan at home.

And speaking of the Euro leagues, here's a quick look at the leaders around the continent.

Asia:  Oji's Eagles are 12-0-1, leading by 7.
Austria: The Vienna Caps (12-3-4) have a narrow 31-29 lead over VSV and Zagreb.
Czech:  Plsen (11-2-6) has a five-point lead in the Extraliga.
Denmark: SonderjyskE (10-2-0) are off to their usual lead.
Finland: The top 8 are within 6 points of each other, with JYP Jyvaskyla (11-6-4) and Saipa (10-6-5) at the top.
France: Undefeated Angers (7-0-1) leads Briancon by a point; traditional power Rouen (4-4-0) is in a group tied for 7th.
Germany: Kolner (10-5-3) has a 4-point lead in the DEL.  My Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg team is mired in last at 4-10-3.
Italy: Val Pusteria (14-2-0) is running away in Serie A with a 10-point lead.
Norway: Valerenga (11-1-4) has a five point advantage over Stavenger.
Poland:  Sanok (16-2-3) has run off to a 16 point lead.  In fact, one team (Torun, 1-12-1) has already folded.
Slovakia: Zvolen (15-11-3) has run off to a 12 point lead, with the traditional powers Kosice and Banska Bystrika well back in the pack.
Sweden, another tight race sees the top 6 within 7 points of each other, with HV71 (11-4-4) currently on top.
Switzerland:  As I mentioned, Geneva Servette (14-2-4) are out in front, up 9 points.
UK: a three-way tie at the top between Nottingham (8-3-4), Belfast (9-2-4), and Sheffield (6-5-6).

And there you have it! Pray for our nation today, that we may be granted a government blessed by God rather than the one we deserve.

Raccoon War I (and an announcement at the end)

It all started about 10 PM last night when Scrappy and I chased Mr. Raccoon off the porch.  Of course, Scrappy gets lauded as a hero and receives a bone shaped biscuit as a reward.  Then about 2:30 AM, he woke us up again, but we chased him off with a few barks/words from the bedroom window.

However, it all broke loose about 5 AM.

We spotted him from the bedroom window again, and this time, shouts didn't faze him.   He climbed up the side fence, over to the shed, up the shed and across its roof to the side with the feeders.  After puzzling how to get at them for a moment, he slid down to the gate and reached out for the feeder.

Yeah, pictures didn't work out so well.

Thus, I threw on some pants and we went downstairs, and Scrappy promptly ran him off again.  But not for long.  As soon as we went to bed again, I could see the little bugger walking the outside of the fence, which is a concrete ledge about 2 feet high.  So I said, "Okay, let's go settle this.

Scrappy and I went out the front door and looped around in hopes of catching him unawares.  He was gone, but not far.  Scrappy tracked him down to the 10-inch space between our outer wall and the neighbor's shed.  And that's when we discovered where he got his sudden bravery.

There were two of them!  One was wedged in high up towards the shed roof, the other sitting on the ledge against which the shed sat.  Scrappy pondered how to get at them, and I solved that problem- I found a large stick in the yard.  The lower one quickly moved onto the neighbors porch; the other one wasn't quite sure what to do, but a couple of whacks and a sore butt later, he joined his comrade in mischief on the neighbor's porch.

Of course, it isn't cool to enter a neighbor's porch uninvited, especially at 5:15 AM.  So we backed up for a while to see what they would do, and they decided to just chill.  All I saw of them was one of them jumping the fence onto the next neighbor's porch.  So we went in.

But not to be fooled again, we opened the kitchen blinds, cracked the door enough for Scrappy to smell any incursions, and we waited.  By a little after five-thirty, Scrappy declared the scene cleared and we called a cease fire.

Which brings us to the announcement.  If you remember a little while back, I gave you a link to Mynx's blog to see the drawings I submitted to her art contest.  If you were too lazy to hit the link and check them out, I think I have them here somewhere...

 

 

 

The top one is based on ancient Chines writer Wang Wei's poem.  It goes like this:

Dismounting, I offer my friend a cup of wine.

I ask what place he is heading to

He says he has not achieved his aims,

is retiring to the southern hills

“Now go, and ask nothing more;”

White clouds will drift on for all time.

A morning shower in Weicheng has settled the light dust;

The willows of the hostel are fresh and green.

Come, drink one more cup of wine;

West of Yang Pass, you will meet no more old friends.

 

 

The other is Attila the Hun's unhappy honeymoon.  Mynx intended to draw one or so from the entries (without judging, because they were all good), and the winner got a piece of her artwork.  Well, I found this e-mail after the battle:

 

 

You are a winner and an awesome artist

Thank you so much for taking part in my giveaway

Can you please send me your address again so I can send you your art?

Big hugs

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!??!! was my response (with my address, of course).  And just so you know how good an artist she is, take a look at the prizes here, and you can even vote for your favorites!


Returning to the war-at-hand, this afternoon, we took prisoners, as Scrappy discovered this on the greenway road:

He likely climbed up the nearby marker smelling "food", and couldn't give out.  In the interests of peace between our nations, we tipped the can to set him free...

...but he decided to wait until after we left, choosing to hide in the trash until after we took off.

We did a preliminary perimeter scout about 10:30 tonight, and saw no evidence of further infiltration, but I may well look again later.

In the meantime, here are some other pic to amaze yourself with.

Just another day at the water cooler feeder.

Ran up inside one of the fallen trees and came out here.

A golden-crowned kinglet- not supposed to be common around here, teeny-tiny, and cute as a button!

Tearing down the old sewage station on California Road.

Stony Run close to its entrance into the river.



Time Machine week 40

NOTE:  Fumble fingers actually hit "publish" instead of "Schedule", so you get this today instead of tomorrow.  OOOPS!

The day is November 2nd, 1970.  Tonight the expansion NBA team the Cleveland Cavaliers will set an NBA record.  They have openned the season 0-10, a tally that will go to 0-15 before they finally win.  But tonight in Philadelphia, they became the recipient of the biggest can ever opened on a team in league history, 141-87.  Seven Philly players including Billy Cunningham hit double figures, including one guy (Bud Ogden) who would only average 2.4 points a game for the year!  The team would follow up a 15-game losing streak with streaks of 12 (which put them at 1-27), 9, and 7 (twice) to finish at 15-67.  Ironically, the Cavs broke that record in 1991 with a 148-80 rout of Miami- which in turn was ironic because it was losing LeBron James to Miami last year that sent them on a league-record 26 game losing streak.  Funny business, basketball.

Welcome to Time Machine, and don't say you didn't have your chance.  Nobody sent in any suggestions for the Martin Hall Of Fame, so you have to put up with my picks for the MHOF class #4.  Also this week, see if you have an Elephant's Memory, The Three Little Fishies make an appearance, and a certain slowpoke song finally joins us in the top forty.  So, away we go...

First category up is the top names.  Joining the list are three acts. 
With 11 top 40 hits, seven of them top ten, including the #1s A Horse With No Name and Sister Golden Hair- America!

With 30 top 40s, 15 top tens and a whopping 9 #1s starting with How Do You Mend A Broken Heart- the Bee Gees!

and with 11 top 40s, five of them in the top ten, and a pair of #1s neither of which was their most famous hit, Bohemian Rhapsody- Queen!

This week, we have 12 songs debut in the hot 100, but only one of them gets mentioned today, the one at #95.  The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with the classic Mr. Bojangles.  Also light this week are our birthday songs- again- with but 5 of them, all turning 30 this week.  They would be: Supertramp's It's Raining Again; Don Henley's Dirty Laundry; Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing; Toto's Africa; and Peter Gabriel's Shock The Monkey.  Blow out the candles...

Next category is the top guys.  Again, I am adding three.  With 14 top 40s, 6 of them top tens, and the #1 Take Good Care Of My Baby- Bobby Vee!

With a smaller list of 6 top 40s, 2 top tens- but the big #1 American Pie- Don McLean!

And with 12 top fortys (but 82 on the country chart, with 12 #1s)- Johnny Cash!

Our big movers this week- and for a change, they don't include the Partridge Family! - are on the upside, the Guess Who, who move up 25 spots to 52 with Share The Land; and falling 25 to #61, Anne Murray with Snowbird.


The really good ladies are a bit harder to find.  So with 6 top fortys and the #1 Killing Me Softly- Roberta Flack!

At # 50 this week- and our Where Are They Now victim- is a group you've probably heard, but don't know by name.  They are Elephant's Memory, and they are at #50 with their biggest hit on their own, called Mongoose.  EM was an ever-changing Greenwich Village group, led by sax man Stan Bronstein and drummer Rick Franks, Jr.  Formed in 1967-8, they boasted a ranged of musicians over their short career- including for a short time, Carly Simon as vocalist.  In '69, they gained some fame with their songs Jungle Gym At The Zoo and Old Man Willow on the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack.  But their real fame came when John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved to GV and needed a backup band for some concert dates.  They picked the local boys (who became the "Plastic Ono Elephant's Memory Band" in concert), and they ended up being his band for the 1972 lp Sometime In New York City, which featured the infamously-named Woman Is The Nigger Of The World.  The band kind of drifted into obscurity by 1975.  I was unable to get anything about Franks, But Bronstein is in a bad way, nearly destitute and suffering from brain and lung cancer which has left him nearly incapacitated.  He is being aided by a musician's help group called Sweet Relief Mucicians Fund, and if you are interested in helping, you can reach them at sweetrelief.org.

Next up is the not quite rock'roll category, and I have a couple of biggies to add here.  With 229 top fortys (not a typo), 154 top tens, and 30 #1s- most famously White Christmas- Bing Crosby!

And with 54 top 40s, 15 top tens, and 3 #1s, not including the one Sherry denied him, Rambling Rose- Nat King Cole!

Our look back feature this week throws its spotlight on the Hal Kemp Orchestra.  Kemp started out with a UNC college band, the Carolina Club Band, from 1924-27.  He turned over the reins to classmate Kay Kaiser then to go pro.  From 1930-41 he charted 58 top 40s, 29 top tens, and 4 #1s including 1937s This Years Kisses.  This band was a classic case of turning a liability into a strength.  Vocalist Skinnay Ennis had problems carrying a note, so arranger JS Trotter overcame that by having him shorten the note, and filling the space with a stattacco muted trumpet that according to Johnny Mercer sounded "like a typewriter", giving them a sound unique.  The song they might be best known for came their way in 1939 when Kaiser (who had long since went pro and will be no doubt a lookback feature himself) came up with his #1 The Three Little Fishies.  Kemp's band recorded it as well and took it to #5.

In December of 1940, Kemp was seriously injured in a car accident.  In the hospital he quickly developed pneumonia, and died two days later at the age of 36.

Next up is the Chris's favorites category.  With 5 top 40s and 2 top tens- one of which, A Long December, you'll usually find on my New Year's Morning posts- Counting Crows!

And with 3 big top 40s, 2 of them top 10s, including Georgy Girl- The Seekers!

Four new top 40s to tell you about today.  Kenny Rogers and the First Edition hit at #40, up 12, with Heed The Call.  Yellow River finally makes it's top 40 appearance after 18 trudging weeks in the hot 100, moving from 50 to 39.  Elvis moves up 17 to #34 with his excellent cover of You Don't Have To Say You Love Me.  And at 32, up 10 spots, is Bryan Hyland with Gypsy Woman.

Our last category is the golden oldies, and with 33 top 40s, 11 top tens, and 3 #1s, including I Can't Stop Loving You- Ray Charles!

And there you have them- the class of Fall 2012!

Only one song joins the top 40, so only one falls- and that is Out In The Country, dropping from 9 to 25.  Also, an almost but not quite shoutout to El Condor Pasa, which peaked at 11 last week for Simon and Garfunkel, and slips to 14 this time around.

No six degrees this week, due to the MHOF and the fact that the only dropper in the top ten was the one we featured last week!

The New Seekers hold at 10 with Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma.

100 Proof Aged In Soul, a Motown quartet who featured Joe Stubbs, brother of the Four Tops' Levi Stubbs, comes from 14 to 9 with Somebody's Been Sleeping.

The Kinks remain at 8 for a second week with Lola.

Cracklin' Rosie slips from 3 to 7 this time around.

James Taylor moves up one- as do the next three songs- to #6 with Fire And Rain.

Sugarloaf moves to #5 with Green Eyed Lady.

R Dean Taylor is at 4 with Indiana Wants Me.

And the last song to actually move is All Right Now, from 4 to 3 for Free.

The runner up again this week is the Carpenters' We've Only Just Begun.

And spending their second week at #1- the Jackson 5 with I'll Be There!!!

But... rules is rules and you don't get yer picture posted for week #2.    Come back next week for more musical fun!

Since I have nothing better to post Friday...

(That being a reference to my accidentally posted Time Machine on Thursday.)  I thought I would take you through some of the head-scratching antics of the place I work for.

Friday as we were coming home from an afternoon walk, the temp company sends an automated message.  Basically, "Due to a lack of work for the pickers, those of you who work the Sun-Thurs schedule will work Mon-Fri next week."  Cool, three day weekend!

Sunday afternoon, my phone rings.  I say to myself, "Watch it be work telling me to come in anyway.  It WAS work- another automated message saying the system (either the computer system that runs the conveyors or the conveyor itself, they didn't say which) was down, and NO ONE would be working second shift Sunday.  I wasn't anyway, so I didn't care.

Monday, I go to check where I was working, and the chart has a handful of us at the bottom under "comments".  WTH?  Soon, we learned that:
 -Sunday they had been finishing the final adjustments to the new conveyor "multi-line" they'd been constructing apparently all summer.  Now it was operational, and they'd be staffing it with 20-30 people they'd choose and pull over after the shift started.

-With this new line and the upcoming holiday rush, they'd brought in another 13 temps who'd be training in the order picking areas (the "pick-mods") that night.  As a result, those of us in the "comments section" would be assisting the pick-modders, opening and breaking down boxes, sweeping, and the like.

-There weren't going to be a lot of orders, and with getting the new lines open, things were going to be "slow".

So we set to work, roaming the mods openning up boxes all night.  And with few boxes being picked from, we had to use our imaginations to stay busy.  Then, I found out that some people HAD been told to work Sunday. Oh, and one other thing:  We have company-issued clips that we get at the beginning of each shift that we use to clip the box we're picking for to distinguish it from the others on our line.  Somehow, these had all disappeared over the weekend.  Thus, those who were picking orders were forced to manufacture "clips" out of scrap cardboard.  Nothing like the marching backwards of technology.

Tuesday, I was back as a picker, and it was even slower.  Especially given that we had so many boxes openned the night before and didn't have that to fall back on while waiting.  Virtually the entire first half of the night was nothing; then in the second half it varied between dead, steady, and a couple little seiges of really busy.  It was like an inverse hurricane, with large swaths of nothing with chaotic "eyes" of total catastrophe. Plus, I discovered that something had been messed up in the setting up of the new system.  Where before, to scan in a given area, you had to scan your badge to log in, now, you had to scan your badge AND THEN scan a bar code on the area you were in.  Just lovely.

Wednesday was even worse.  The supervisor made it sound like it was our option whether we wanted to "make up missing Sunday" on Friday.  A lady told him, "(the temp agency) told us we WERE working Mon-Fri", to which he said, "Well, let's go with that."  So now we're wondering if we have to work Friday or not.  In addition, the one real buddy I'd made out there announced that he was moving back to Texas and this was his last night.

Slow doesn't cover the night; between start and last break, we had by my estimate a 15-minute period and a 10-minute period which might be considered legitamate working.  I would hide in one of the walk in bays, then look across to the other mod and see someone hiding in their bay, too.  Finally after last break we got fairly busy.  At 15 minutes to quitting time, I said to myself, "it looks like we have enough work to keep us busy to the end of the shift."

Exactly then, the computer system went down.  Stand around for ten minutes, hide in the restroom for four, get in line at the clock and leave.

Thursday, I heard someone say on my way to clock in that "the new line only had three boxes all day."  Geez.  Then I get up to where we have the shift meeting, and saw a sign up sheet.  "Hmmm, " I say, "Perhaps that is to sign up if you actually want to work Friday."

It was a sign up to leave voluntarily, IMMEDIATELY.

The supervisor explained that first off, there was extremely little work, and that was truly a sign up sheet to leave right now.  And there would likely be more opportunities to leave as the night wore on.  Then, he told us no temp employees were required to report Friday, but those that wanted to could sign up on another sheet. 

A lady asked, "Is there a chance that we could get sent home if we worked Friday?"  The supervisor said, "Well, we aren't anticipating a rush of orders, and at 8:30 we'll be shutting down the line to work on the new conveyor's spiral, so my answer would be 'very likely'."

I told myself, "stay till lunch, at least pay for your gas out here."

Then a forklift driver said, "Be sure to tell the pickers don't open any more boxes that you don't need, since we'll be moving a lot of them to new locations."

I said, "I am NOT sweeping for four hours."  So three day weekend again!

Won't be surprised if I get another call this weekend.

And yet, in about a week and a half, the holiday rush will start, and we'll be on mandatory six-day weeks until the first week of January.  Whaddaway ta make a living, eh?

________________________________________

Here's some more of the photographer's best efforts.

Mr. Pain in the butt by Laurie.

She also got a pic of Mrs. Cardinal!  They NEVER sit still for me...

Tag team munching.

Our little $#!thead.

The... Three... Amigos! Slap, slap slap, COUGH!

So pretty out today with Sandy finally dead.

With the river so low, many of the little coves and inlets are now mudflats.

Scrappy decided we should take advantage of the one that leads to the jungle above the "Ends of the earth" (see here)

This is a true jungle, with no established trails, and a lot of weird growth.  The bad thing is, you are spending so much time working your way through, that Scrappy is ahead of you playing "Scrappy's choice"...

..and that means he goes one way, sees you struggling, comes back, and gets tangled.  And when you catch up and attempt to untangle him, he's moving on to the next tangle.

When we finally fought our way out, this is what we faced...

And here, on the way home, we see more of those robins that have left the area.



 

In the spring and summer, this is a lovely little duck-filled inlet along the IPFW tree-walk.  Now, not so much.