Time Machine week 98

It's December 13th, 1971.Today, John Sinclair got out of jail.  Who's that, you ask?  Well, he's the prototype of today's Obama administration.  A poet, an activist, leader of the White Panthers (which was the Black Panthers' honkey auxiliary)... and someone who got stung giving two joints to an undercover cop in Michigan in 1968.  For this heinous crime (and likely more for the other aforementioned attributes), he was sentenced to TEN YEARS in prison.  Needless to say, even those who weren't, as Rush Limbaugh would say, maggot-infested, dope smoking, pinko hippies" had to take umbrage to five years a lid, so there were many protests, both legal and illegal, including this little stunt by Abbie Hoffman:

At Woodstock in 1969, Hoffman reportedly interrupted The Who's performance to attempt to speak against the jailing of John Sinclair of the White Panther Party. He grabbed a microphone and yelled, "I think this is a pile of shit while John Sinclair rots in prison ..." Pete Townshend was adjusting his amplifier between songs and turned to look at Hoffman over his right shoulder. Townshend reportedly ran at Hoffman with his guitar and hit Hoffman in the back, although Townshend later denied attacking Hoffman.  Townshend later said that while he actually agreed with Hoffman on Sinclair's imprisonment, he would have knocked him offstage regardless of the content of his message, given that Hoffman had violated the "sanctity of the stage," i.e., the right of the band to perform uninterrupted by distractions not relevant to the actual show.

By December 10th, enough legal wheels had turned that Sinclair was about to be released, unbeknownst to his loyal and addled supporters, who put together a concert at the U of M's Crisler Arena that might have been unnoteworthy... until fellow commie hippie Jerry Rubin talked John Lennon and Yoko Ono into performing.  Besides Lennon and about 8 hours worth of Rubin, Hoffman, et al, bloviating about how unfair it was and how Dick Nixon was the antichrist complete with horns and tail, others performing included Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, the Joy Of Cooking (remember Brownsville a few months back? ), Teegarden and Van Winkle (ditto for God Love And Rock'N'Roll), local boy Bob Seger, and the surprise appearance of Stevie Wonder, who couldn't pass up a chance to bash Nixon in public.  Three days later, the Marijuana Left could claim yet another victory they really had little to do with.

 

 

Welcome to the 98th week of Time Machine, and here's the line-up as we count down to volume II's 100th episode:  This week, a special list of songs from 1971 that I'll explain more about in a bit;  next week, per Bobby G.'s big idea, the songs from 1962-79 that spent the most weeks on the chart; and then on the anniversary post, the REAL top songs of 1971 (accept no substitute)!  Also this week, we'll connect Cher to Casey Kasem; and a really anemic birthday week.  Oh well, can't win 'em all...


First, the tops around the world.  Changes internationally this week start in the Netherlands, where prototype boys band Les Poppys hit with another en vogue Vietnam protest called Non, Non, Rien N'a Change. It's not bad for a protest done by a choir of pre-pubescent  boys singing in French.  Now I have to hand it to the writer, the lyrics in English were really good:

No no, nothing has changed

It’s the story of a truce
for which I had asked
It’s the story of a sun
for which I had hoped
It’s the story of a love
that I thought to be alive

 It’s the story of a beautiful day,
when I as a little child,
I wanted happiness
for the whole planet
I wanted, I hoped
that peace would reign
On this Christmas Eve
But everything went on
But everything went on
But everything went on
No, no, nothing has changed

 Everything, everything went on
Hey! Hey ! Hey! Hey !
And however many people
have sung with us
And however many people
have knelt
to pray, yes to pray

 But on television
I saw guns and canons
every day
even on Christmas Eve
I have cried, yes I've cried
I have cried, yes I've cried
Who's going to explain me that...
No, no, nothing has changed

 Everything, everything went on
Hey! Hey ! Hey! Hey !
I think about the child,
surrounded by soldiers
I think about the child
who's asking "Why?"
All the time, yes all the time
I think about all this
but I shouldn't
All these things
don't concern me
However, yes however
However, I'm singing, I'm singing...
No, no, nothing has changed

 Everything, everything went on
Hey! Hey ! Hey! Hey !

Also, Ireland changed this week to a version of I Don't Know How To Love Him- this one by a showband called Real McCoy fronted by a girl named Tina.  A pretty faithful version, she just has a slightly higher register.

Young miss Tina Robbins.

Also, Canada moved on to the Shaft Theme, Australia caught on to Maggie May, while the UK, as they always do in times of crisis, turn to Benny Hill, who hits the top with Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The World).

In the US of A, Brand New Key holds the top in Detroit, Minneapolis, and WCFL in Chicago; LA lifts up Respect Yourself; WLS in Chicago still had Have You Seen Her at the top; and Pittsburgh, always rebellious, has You Are Everything at #1.  The AC chart has All I ever Really Need at the top, the R&B chart has Family Affair, and the Country chart was topped for the third time this year by Charlie Pride with Kiss An Angel Good Morning.

That brings us to our debuts, and out of a crop of 15, I'll give you two... well three, sort of.  You see, Beverly Bremers dropped off the Chart after five weeks of piddling around with Don't Say You Don't Remember; but now it gets a second wind and re-enters at 99.  Nilsson comes in with his big hit Without You at 87; and a song we'll get familiar with in the coming weeks- the Jacksons with Sugar Daddy comes in at 60.

And now it's birthday song time, and it's not the big list we've been used to.  Turning 30, we have John Mellencamp's Pink Houses, Christopher Cross' tribute to General Hospital, Think Of Laura, and Nena's 99 Luftballons.  (God, THAT'S 30?)  Turning 35 are Barry Manilow's cover of Somewhere In The Night, The Stones with Shattered, and Dolly Parton's adventure into disco, called Baby I'm Burnin'. 

On the same album as the excellent song Heartbreaker, you get this...

No one of note turned 40, so we slide to 45 with the Bee Gees I Started A Joke, Tommy and the Shondells' Crimson And Clover, and Jay and the Americans with This Magic Moment.  Blow Out The Candles...See?  Short list!

Speaking of lists, I had decided to figure up the top songs of 1971 for the end of the year.  You say, but Chris, doesn't Cashbox HAVE a year-end list?  Why, yes they do; and just like Billboard, deadlines force them to have a cutoff date of roughly the end of October.  I don't know about you, but my calendar ends at the end of December.  So I dutifully decided to go to the top 20 for each week, give points on a 20-19-18.. basis, adding single points for weeks not in the top 20, and came up with a list.  Then I compared it to the CB list and learned something disturbing.

Because of the cutoff, songs like the Theme From Shaft, Gypsies Tramps And Thieves, and Family Affair did not make the 1971 list... OR the 1972 list!  By their way of doing things, these songs didn't exist!  WTF?  So, I had to find a way to remedy this.  MY list wasn't going to short anybody!  But how to do it fairly?  I debated this at length with my son, and we had some really good ideas I decided NOT to do.  In the end, the only fair thing to do is to do TWO countdowns.

This week, I'll present the top songs that charted in the top 20 in 1971 with their total points.  Some of them were mostly in 1971, some were barely in 1971.  I'll give percentages of points racked up in 1971.  Then, in two weeks, I'll do the top points in 1971 alone.  This way, you'll see both how they charted overall, and in the set time frame.  So without further doo-doo, the top twenty that charted on the top 20 in 1971 in FULL points:



20. Tears Of A Clown, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, 148, 13.5%.
19. It's Too Late, Carole King, 150, 100% (which I will henceforth not put up a pct. for).
18. Gypsies, Tramps, And Thieves, Cher, 151 points.
17. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, Bee Gees, 153.
16.  Never Can Say Goodbye, Michael Jackson, 154.

14T. One Less Bell To Answer, 5th Dimension, 155, 56.1%.
14T. One Bad Apple, Osmonds, 155.
13.  Theme From Shaft, Isaac Hayes, 156, 98.1%.
12. Mr. Big Stuff, Jean Knight, 159.
11. Indian Reservation, Raiders, 160.

10. She's A Lady, Tom Jones, 162.
9.  Family Affair, Sly and the Family Stone, 168, 69.2%.
8.  Brand New Key, Melanie, 170, 40%.
6T.  I Think I Love You, Partridge Family, 171, 20.5%
6T. My Sweet Lord, George Harrison, 171, 59.6%

5.  Maggie May, Rod Stewart, 178.
4.  Knock 3 Times, Dawn, 179, 28.8%.
3.  Let's Stay Together, Al Green, 181, 5.5%.
2.  Joy To The World, Three Dog Night, 198.
1.  American Pie, Don McLean, 206, 13.6%.

So as you can see, you get a pretty big tip off to what the countdown in two weeks will be like... but some like American Pie and Let's Stay Together  I'd probably have to count out the entire 196 top 20 hits of 1971 to get to, and others like My Sweet Lord wouldn't have gotten their full credit.  Tune in in two weeks to see how your favorite did in JUST 1971.

Yeah... I'm guessing I won't be there...

Our 45 at 45 this week belongs to the Mamas and the Papas, and it was pretty much the last single they hit with while still together.  They were covering the Beach Boys, who were covering Bobby Freeman, with the song Do You Wanna Dance.  The song was actually off their first album, If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears, which had the big hits Monday Monday and California Dreaming (which the Beach Boys would themselves cover many moons later).  But the group had been bombing with their later releases (with their last hit of note being the Mama Cass solo Dream A Little Dream Of Me), so the record company got the bright idea of re-issuing album cuts of their big lps.  For The Love Of Ivy had already went down (81 Billboard, 59 CB) in flames, and now DYWD would follow suit (76 BB, 43 CB).  Can't blame the song- Freeman had took it to #8 in 1958, the Boys hit #12 in 1965, and Bette Midler would hit #17 in 1972.  It's not a bad arrangement, but the slow tempo and a couple really bad register changes probably did it in.

What, no "maggot-infested hippie" jokes, crumb?

Big movers- going up is in the top 40; going down is Inner City Blues, falling 27 to #53.

Speaking of the top 40, here's the new entries this week.  Jefferson Airplane's Pretty As You Feel moves up 4 to 39; Tommy James moves up 8 to 38 with Nothing To Hide; Peter Nero's Summer Of '42 theme comes in at 36, up 6; and the big mover- American Pie, up 28 notches to #23.

An almost but not quite shout out goes to Coven's One Tin Soldier, slipping this week from it's peak of #18.  I remember Sister Ann teaching us this song in music class.  And seeings as we're almost ready for the top ten, I'll tell you that our two droppers this week are Imagine (7 to 15) and Two Divided By Love (10 to 18).



And guess what, we lead off the top ten with the six degrees victim.

Gypsies Tramps And Thieves (falling from 4 to 10), Cher's signature song (at least until her geriatric years and Believe)  was written by producer Bob Stone, who originally called it Gypsies Tramps, and White Trash (I kid you not).  Bob got arranger credits on the Sandpipers' hit Come Saturday Morning which had lyrics by Dorie Previn (who's been a guest on 6D before).  She and her husband, Andre, composed several songs featured in the movie Valley Of The Dolls.  I cannot find out for sure whether one of them was the haunting Come Live With Me, sung by Tony Scotti, who also led the band Heaven Bound.  Tony would go on to bigger and better things, eventually including a stint as executive producer on the America's Top Ten TV show featuring Casey Kasem.

Three Dog Night (and boy, ain't it one tonight!) crack the top ten with An Old Fashioned Love Song, moving up a pair to #9.

David Cassidy edges up by association (nyuk nyuk) a notch to #8 with Cherish.

Aretha Franklin also climbs but one with Rock Steady.  (Frankly, I like Bad Company's Rock Steady better. Heck, I like the Whispers' Rock Steady better, too.)

The Chi-Lites hold again at 6 with Have You Seen Her.

So do the Jacksons at 5 with Got To Be There.  I guess they had to be there.

Melanie unlocks a door with her Brand New Key that takes her from 15 all the way to #4.

Ready for a recurring theme?  Holding at #3 Bread with Baby I'm-A Want You.

Holding at #2, Isaac Hayes' Theme from Shaft.

And holding at #1 this week...

Okay, that's SHARON Stone. But it saves me from redoing my stupid warning sign again!

...Sly and the Family Stone with Family Affair!!!!

Next week- Bob asked for it, you got it- the longest charting songs in the Martin Era!  Whatever you think they might be... they aren't!

Year in review

My blogging friend over at Holli's Hoots and Hollers had a Year in review questionnaire that I thought I'd try my hand at.  First, let me tell you about Holli's year.  She has been an unselfish giver to the underprivileged, as well as sharing in a Tuesday's Tunes link up that has featured a lot of good music.  In between, she's gotten married, helped her father through a double-lung transplant that he died three times during, saw a valued co-worker pass away and a good friend move away.  Despite it all, she's kept a tremendous attitude and continued to put others first.  So there, go visit her!  And when you're done, come back here and see how my year stacked up.

What did you do in 2013 that you’d never done before?
Well, I learned to operate a computer cutting machine, which I think is pretty neat...

Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Still keeping the one from about 40 years ago, to never make another.  Let's see one of you yahoos beat that mark!

 Did anyone close to you give birth?
Not to my knowledge.  That's calmed down a lot now that we don't have any hamsters.

Did anyone close to you die?
I don't remember my sister calling and saying, "Christopher, I have some bad news, "  so I think that's a no.

 What countries did you visit?
China, South Africa, Russia... no wait, that was the President.

What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?
I remember when I was younger, I'd have said, "Sex," but I guess more self-control might be a better answer.  Oh, and Cheddar Bay Biscuits!

What date from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory?
How about May 6th, when I hired in at my new job?

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting that new job.  Making our first walk to Shoaff Park.  And of course, the Buffalo Burger at Johnny Appleseed.

What was your biggest failure?
The ongoing battle to walk the straight and narrow.  Thankfully, I have a very forgiving Coach.

Did you suffer illness or injury?
Had a screaming molar that went from, "Hey, that hurts!" to "And good riddance!" in a matter of hours.

What was the best thing you bought?
Dental insurance.

Whose behavior merited celebration?
Anyone who has to put up with me on a daily basis, such as Laurie, or Rhonda and Debbie at work.

Where did most of your money go?
Between the one tooth I had pulled and the seven that Scrappy got yanked.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Fox sightings on our walks, the 12-hour period I thought my KCAs fantasy football team made the playoffs, Rewound Radio.

What song will always remind you of 2013?
So many golden nuggets I've stumbled upon do to Rewound Radio.  Shelby Flint's Cast Your Fate To The Wind, Manfred Mann's Fox On The Run, Lighthouse's Pretty Lady.  But I think the one that will stick for the year is going to be Middle Of The Road's Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep.

Compared to this time last year, are you: Happier or sadder?
For the first time in a long time, happier.

Richer or poorer?
Pretty much a wash, but in a better place.

What do you wish you’d done more of?
Tickling Laurie's toes and trying to get her to smell my socks.

What do you wish you’d done less of?
Bitching and complaining.

 How will you be spending Christmas?
Not sure, but it won't be looking at eight bobbing reindeer buttholes.

 Did you fall in love in 2013?
No, I have two things now that I didn't have in my youth to prevent it- Laurie and better sense.

 How many one-night stands?
Did you not read the answer to "what you want in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?"

 Who were your best friends?

What thing did you do that was meaningful to others?
Hopefully my Sunday Messages.

What were your favorite TV programs?
The only one I watch regularly is Deadliest Catch.

 Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Hate is a waste of energy, ignoring works much better.

What was the best book you read in 2013?
Susan Wise Bauer's History Of The Renaissance World.

What was your greatest musical discovery?
Rewound Radio, of course...

 What did you want and get?
Three double cheeseburgers plain and a large fry.

What did you want but did NOT get?
A "Best of the West" Oakland A's division champions t-shirt.

What was your favorite film of this year?
As my son can attest, not a big movie person.  I think, though, I'll vote for Thor: The Dark World and hope it's as good as all that when I finally see it.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Me and Laurie were born 5 days apart, and we always celebrate somewhere in the vicinity with Red Lobster.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Having my old boss call me to come back and getting to laugh at him.

What kept you sane?
Who said I was there in the first place?

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I can't get over how much cuter Suzy Kolber is now that she let her hair get longer...

  What political issue stirred you the most?
How about the President that was too busy playing cards and skipping security briefings while four loyal Americans were butchered?

 Who did you miss?
MOST (but not all) people from my old job.  Especially my last supervisor there.  My new one kinda reminds me of her in a geez-she's-skinny sort of way.

Who was the best new person you met this year?
A lot of candidates, but I'll go with the inimitable Stephen T. McCarthy over at Ferret-Faced Fascist Freaks.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013.
That just as God seals some people in faith, He allows others to be sealed in unbelief, and if He built that wall, you ain't gonna breach it.

 Quote that sums up your year:
"He got beat like a red-headed step-mule!"


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Hey, I've been meaning to let you in on Christmas Lights 2013:

I'll get you one from room-level later.

Also, the Laurie-ites get it:  The Elks beat the Ducks 52-33 to set up the SECOND all-Laurie Super Bowl (no, none of us have even done it once).  They'll Face the Greenwoods, who topped the Angels 42-15.  The Greenwoods beat the KCAs in the very first Super Bowl Waaaaaay back in 1997 31-27; the Elks lost in 2003 (to the KCAs 31-30 in the best SB ever) and won in 2007 (the other Laurie vs Laurie game, over the Beagles 28-24).

Finally, another shoutout to the aforementioned Mr. McCarthy.  In addition to a CD I won on a giveaway on his blog, he also sent me 10 more beer caps for the ol' collection (which I will post about on the caps blog this weekend-ish-  I had the Blue Moon and the Shiner, but the others were all winners).  Merry Christmas!

My two cents

Welcome to the latest feature in the tradition of (all the other features where I just throw a bunch of random crap together in one post), My Two Cents!  Today, I have several things to sound off about, including:

-The HORRIBLE refereeing in the NFL this year.  NOT ONLY did not one, but two officiating crews get their wee-wees spanked by the league last week;  not only can I honestly say that I heard announcers say to the effect of, "I can't believe that call" in at least half of the games Sunday (and mind you, that's just the sections of games you get on NFL RedZone), but one of those very refereeing crews that got disciplined last week (not to mention names, Jeff Triplette) reviewed a call in which everyone plainly saw that a player got tripped near the goal line, fell flat prior to crossing the goal line, and bounced across the line.  The ref on the field called a touchdown, and even the announcers (Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf) said he had been tripped by an opponent and was down before crossing the goal.  And when Triplette (oops, there I went and named him) announced his review decision, It went like this:

Ref: ...the runner was not down by contact before crossing the goal line, TOUCHDOWN."
Dierdorf:  ARE YOU KIDDING ME???
Gumbel: What did he think made him trip?

Later, the ref explained to pool reporters that they had basically ignored everything but if he had been touched AFTER he hit the ground.  Mind you, the runner never got up and crossed the line- he hit the ground and bounced across.

If that's not enough, at least two all-pro players (Minnesota's Adrian Peterson and Seattle's Richard Sherman) chanced hefty fines by speaking out (Sherman on the team's website, AP on Twitter) about poor officiating costing their teams their games.

In the meantime, the league's best ref, Ed Hoculi, was stuck in this mess in Philly:

A field that had just been swept prior to kickoff had two inches of snow on it before the first score went up, and Hoculi sadly said, "We can't see the goal lines."

Oh, speaking of Football, unless Dez Bryant and Dallas' kicker and Defense score 20 points to Matt Forte and Jason Witten's 0, those of you supporting "Team Laurie" will get your wish with an all-Laurie Super Bowl in our fantasy league.  I'm down, but I ain't out yet!


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Next, Nelson Mandela.  Since he died, we've been barraged by those praising him (including our far from original President, who stole the line about Lincoln, "Now he belongs to the ages,), and those reminding us of his terrorist beginnings and communist leanings.  And my first instinct is to go along with the latter, but consider-  when he was fighting against Apartheid, the only way to get any attention in Africa was to be on one side or the other of the Cold War, and the US of A was using South Africa's Apartheid government as their proxy against Russia and their Cuban proxys in Angola.  Thus, he had few other places to turn.  Also, consider that his communist leanings were like those in the rest of Africa- once the money dried up, so did the communists.  South Africa is a western-style democracy now- and no more Apartheid.

And a word about Apartheid.  It came into power as the British colonial governments turned over the reins to the white citizens who were afraid of losing their rule to the blacks.  Not necessarily noble, but look at any of the black governments from Mali to Zimbabwe, and what is happening in any of them (for example, the CAR where French forces are trying to re-establish order as we speak), and ask yourself if you REALLY blame them.

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Next up, the anniversaries of Pearl Harbor on Saturday and John Lennon's murder on Sunday.  I've gotten to a point that I avoid these anniversaries, because so many bloggers do a fine job without me.  But for what it's worth, here's my tuppence.  As for Pearl- it shouldn't have had to come to that.  But nobility calls for us to wait to be struck before we can fight for what's right.  In the mean time, the women of Nanking are raped.  Or the citizens of Phnom Pehn are slaughtered.  Or a US Ambassador dies in Benghazi.  Then we can fight.  If then.  Because the United States is ALWAYS in the wrong.  At least if you listen to the same people that allowed all that, we are.  Never mind, they are of the same party that supported slavery, the existence of which is often used as proof that the US of A is always wrong.  Funny, I've often heard it said that all white folks should apologize for slavery, but I NEVER hear that Democratic Party apologize for championing the cause of slavery for half a century.

As to Lennon,  I mentioned this in a comment on Bouncin' Barb's tribute (see here) - Nobody deserves to die like that, just for coming out into the public.  Even a "godless communist" like John.

________________________________

At this point, I'd like to discuss the Multi-ply machine at work.  This is kinda like my machine, purchased in order to cut the carpet orders that will one day flow into our plant.  Right now, we're using it to cut enclosures.  What's an enclosure?

The enclosure we built custom for pontoons.  As you can see, there are sections of fabric (cut on MY machine), and sections of "glass" (aka thick clear plastic) and screen mesh, which we cut on the multi because it REALLY ruins my blades.  But my point here is not the enclosure, but the multi, the most user-unfriendly machine not powered by some tiny, smart mouthed dinosaur deep inside.  First, unlike my machine which has a plastic conveyor belt with holes for the vacuum to grip the material, the multi sucks through a half belt made up of what might best be described as 3X3 squares of the prickly side of Velcro all grown up.  So you need to go up the side by the controls first, pulling up your material, which immediately sticks to the squares.  Then you climb through the rack that holds the material roll to straighten it on the edge of the belt.  THEN, you have to work your way around an enormous vacuum-exhaust tube in order to straighten the other side.  All the time, you are trying to avoid hitting any of the two dozen emergency stop buttons that prickle the machine like a porcupine with mange.  If you somehow get it straight enough, far enough up the belt, and covered sufficiently with the plastic necessary to hold in the vacuum, you next will have to watch out for where the "Velcro" part of the belt transitions to the more traditional "I don't need no steenkin' vacuum" belt that takes stuff to the other end.  Because you then have a "cow-catcher" that (in theory) carries the material over the gap.  Problem being, as the squares get used, they get gaps between them... and the vacuum sucks up the material into the depths of the gaps and thence under the cow catcher.  If you catch it immediately, you have a 50% chance of getting your part out without damage.  If you wait a little too late, you have a 75% chance of having the maintenance guy come over and remove the plate the cow-catcher is attached to FROM BOTH SIDES to pull the now destroyed part out.  And woe to you if you decide to hit one of the many e-stops to halt the thing rather than the ONE pause button (which is on the constantly moving control panel), because at that point, the machine forgets what you're cutting, and the process to get it back is every bit as clunky as everything else about the damn thing.


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Finally, here's how my hockey teams are doing.

Rouen, France, 12-0-1, in first by 12 points.
SonderjyskE, Denmark, 15-4-0, 1st by 1 point.
Reckord VSV, 18-9-3, 2nd 4 points out.
Stavenger, Norway, 14-6-3, 2nd 10 points out.
Sanok, Poland, 15-8-4, 3rd 14 points out.
Sheffield, UK, 12-7-2, 3rd 7 points out.
Val Pusteria, Italy, 11-6-2, 4th 6 points out.
JYP Jyvaskyla, Finland, 14-10-7, 5th 17 points out.
Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg, Germany, 14-8-4, 5th 4 points out.
Ocelari Trinec, Czech Rep., 13-12-4, 6th 14 points out.
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, KHL (Russia), 13-12-9, 14th (of 28) 23 points out.
Farjestad, Sweden, 10-11-8, 8th 25 points out.
Geneve Servette, Switz., 10-12-9, 8th 19 points out
Tohoku Free Blades, Asia, 9-10-3,th 22 points out.
Fort Wayne Komets, ECHL, 6-8-6, 13th (of 22) 15 points out.
Martin, Slovakia, 9-14-8, 8th 27 out.
Lida, Belarus, 9-19-3, 7th 58 points out.
NY Islanders, NHL, 5-17-8, 28th of 30 46 points back.

Time Machine week 96 (but actually 96 and 97)

It's December 6th, 1971.  Today and tomorrow, roughly 120 soldiers of India's 23rd Battalion A company held off an invading Pakistani force of two to three thousand of the 51st Infantry Brigade PLUS the tanks of the 22nd Armored Regiment at a place called Longewalla, through a full-moon night until the day broke and the Indian Air force came in and chewed them to bits, killing 200 Pakistanis to 2 Indians, and destroying 34 tanks.  On the other side of the subcontinent, Bangladesh was officially recognized as a nation by both India and Bhutan... but not here.

You see, in the US of A, President Nixon and Henry Kissinger were playing a deeper game against the USSR and Red China, playing their "new buddies" who supported Pakistan against the nasty Russians who supported India.  Unfortunately, that involved the government being on the side of Pakistani genocide.  Now, we were nine going on ten then, and we kept up with such things.  Oblivious to Nixon trying to bait China into getting involved, we knew a lousy situation when we saw it and we all supported India and Bangladesh- just as we would two years later when we supported and loudly cheered Israel's war despite Nixon all but threatening to cut off aid if they didn't knock it off.  I know he had realpolitik reasons for his choices, but we only saw the truth of the thing.


Welcome back, believe it or not, to Time Machine as we rumble towards our upcoming one hundredth episode of volume II!  Now, for you newbies, that doesn't make for 100 Time Machine posts- there was a volume one that ran 89 posts;  specials on the first Thanksgiving and Christmas (2010) and the second Memorial Day (2011); The Hal David Memorial (my #2 all-time most viewed post); the inaugural Beauty Contest episode; and the One-Hit Wonder special, for a total of 191- plus the related Great Sixties/Seventies/Eighties Countdowns, which we could stretch a point and add, which would put us at 240 posts this week!  But this week is something we've never done before- combine two weeks into one to make up for this year's Thanksgiving No-Show!  That's right, we'll have TWO top tens, two sets of debuts, a big pile of belated and un-belated birthdays- and one, count 'em ONE six degrees that will take us from the second drummer for Yes to... the FIRST drummer for Yes!  Hang on with both hands!

To shorten things up a bit, we will eschew the international #1s (they all are still listening to Mamy Blue anyway) and just look at the local areas.  In Detroit, WKNR and CLKW both had Family Affair at the top last week, and replaced it this week with Brand New Key.  Minneapolis' 2 stations had a thing for Bread;  KDWB had Baby I'm-A Want You at the top this week, but Sunshine (Go Away Today) last week, while WDGY had them last week, with Family Affair this week.  Family Affair captured both weeks in LA, Pittsburgh, and this week at Chicago's WLS; and Shaft took the other week at WLS and both weeks at WCFL.  See, that wasn't too confusing!

Say, wasn't this just a political post?

Debuts on the hot 100 this week include:  Out of 16 last week, some that you'll recognize from the list on the Scrappy World News post- at 94, Charlie Pride's Kiss An Angel Good Morning; two versions of I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing- And stop me if you've heard this one (just kidding there).  The song was created as a Coke jingle, and the New Seekers were asked to record it, but they were too busy at the time.  So producer Al Ham threw together a group of singers (dubbed the Hillside Singers for the group of kids on a hillside that lip-synched the commercial) that included his wife and daughter, two guys named Shaw, and two couples named Marino, and they recorded it.  But it became so popular, people wanted to buy it as a record- which is where the New Seekers became "un-busy", and this week the Hillside Singers come in at #95 and the New Seekers at #82 with it.

Also in week one, Al Green comes in at 77 with Let's Stay Together;  The Guess Who at #73 with Sour Suite; and Don McLean at #70 with American Pie.

This week, there were 10 debuts, including the Grateful Dead with Truckin' at 93, Carly Simon with Anticipation (also a classic TV ad) at 81, and Badfinger's Day After Day at #78.  Our birthday tunes I threw into one big bunch, so they can all celebrate together.  Turning thirty, we have:  Genesis'  That's All, Culture Club's Karma Chameleon, Eddie Money's The Big Crash, Nightranger's Rock In America... and Jump In The Saddle with The Curly Shuffle...

Oh, wise guy!!!

Turning 35, we have:  the Eagles' Please Come Home For Christmas, The Blues Brothers with their cover of Sam and Dave's Soul Man, and yet another "Chris has to stop and tell a story."  Nigel Olsen, a member of Elton John's band, hit with a song called Dancin' Shoes.  This song was written by Carl Storie of the Indianapolis-based Faith Band, who would chart with their own version the next week.  The Faith Band, who actually did have achievements beside coming up with the best lp title of all time (1977's Excuse Me, I Just Cut An Album), fought their way in 8 weeks up to #63, while Olsen would peak at 17 some time later.

Turning 40 this week, BTO's Blue Collar, Barbra Streisand's The Way We Were, Love Unlimited Orchestra's Love's Theme, Ringo Starr's You're 16, and ELO's Showdown.  Turning 45, Canned Heat's Going Up The Country, Jimi Hendrix's Crosstown Traffic, The Supremes and the Temptations with I'm Gonna Make You Love Me, Brooklyn Bridge's The Worst That Could Happen, and Sly and the Family with Everyday People.  Turning 50 are Bobby Vinton's There I've Said It Again and the Trashmen with Surfin' Bird.  Turning 55, Ritchie Valens with Donna, and the Chipmunk Song; and finally turning 60, Patti Page's Secret Love.  Take a deep breath, and Blow Out The Candles...


That brings us to our 45 at 45, and this week we have a song called Shake by Shadows Of Knight, famous for the garage hit Gloria.  Gloria was originally done by Van Morrison's group Them, whose version was banned on many stations for a line "she comes to my room, then she made me feel alright" , which SOK changed to  "she called out my name, that made me feel alright" .  The change was good enough to net them a top ten hit, but later singles didn't pan out.  Lead guitar Jerry McGeorge left to join psychedelic rockers HP Lovecraft;  Bassist Joe Kelley formed his own blues group; Hawk Wolinski, who took over on bass when Kelley switched to lead, and drummer Tom Schiffour formed Bangor Flying Circus, and Schiffour was at first replaced by a fan.  (Schiffour was replaced later in BFC by one Michael Tegza, who had been in the now-failed HP Lovecraft.)  By 1968, the only remaining member from Gloria was singer Jim Sohns, who kept the all new band together- but their new contract was with Buddha records, which means they got forced into bubblegum by the time they recorded Shake.  I just listened to Shake;  if you are an aficionado of bubblegum, it's okay- if you are a fan of Gloria, you'll cringe.


Big movers for the two weeks:
Last week's big mover is in their top 40, the big dropper was the Bee Gees' Don't Want To Live Inside Myself, falling 15 to #54.  This week's big mover was American Pie, climbing 19 to #51, while the dropper was Superstar, falling 14 to #50.

Did I say top 40?  Last week, 3 songs debut-  that big mover was Donny Osmond's Hey Girl, jumping from 72 to 39; moving up 7 to #37, The Who's Behind Blue Eyes; and from 41 to 34, Bill Withers with Grandma's Hands. Seven songs debut this week:  up 10 to 40, the Honey Cone with One Monkey Don't Stop No Show; up 4 to 39, John Denver with Friends With You;  Rod Stewart and the Faces version of (I Know) I'm Losing You is up ten to #38; Jonathon Edwards' Sunshine, the toast of Minneapolis, climbs ten to #37; the Stylistics are up 8 to 36 with You Are Everything; Donnie Elbert comes in at 34, up 8, with a cover of Where Did Our Love Go; and James Brown tops the pack, climbing 8 to 33 with I'm A Greedy Man.

Last week had one entry into the top ten, with one falling out-  and the one falling out this week was the one that came in last week!  The one dropping last week was Marvin Gaye's Inner City Blues, falling from 10 to 17. This week's other dropper was Peace Train, falling from #9.

And at this point, I'm going to try to eliminate some confusion by going ahead with the six degrees; and it starts out with the ONE song that dropped both weeks- the one I falsely claimed (actually , wrongly guessed) was at #1 the skipped week:  John Lennon's Imagine.  Needless to say, I have little good to say about this song, so rather than drag it through the mud, (and because virtually every trail I went down dead ended, with one exception- the one where the drummer was Alan White, who would soon replace departing Bill Bruford as Yes's drummer), I flipped the record to the b-side.  This was a song called It's So Hard.  This song included one of the last appearances by sax legend King Curtis, who was murdered 40 days after the session.  King Curtis, you might recall from a past six degrees, was the sax on the great Coasters hits like Yakety Yak.  One of the later Coasters was Ronnie Bright, most famous as the bass man in Johnny Cymbal's Mr. Bass Man  One of Bright's later performances was on Peter Gabriel's 1986 hit In Your Eyes.  Gabriel was, of course, the original front man for Genesis.  When he left after the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway tour, Genesis had to find a new lead singer- and soon found that Phil Collins was the man for the job.  But he was also the drummer, and would need to step out from behind the kit to be the new singer.  In the studio it wasn't a problem, but on stage, they needed a drummer.  And they found a winning volunteer- founding Yes drummer Bill Bruford!


Okay, let's stick together and get through the weirdest way to do a top ten you'll ever see!

Santana came in last week at #10, up one, with Everybody's Everything- and promptly fell to 18 this week.

As I said, Peace Train had dropped from 4 to 9 last week, and thence off the chart.

Replacing it at #9, up three spots, was David Cassidy and Cherish.

The Grass Roots held at 8 last week with Two Divided By Love, and drop to 10 this week.

The other newbie this week was Aretha Franklin's Rock Steady, climbing to that 8 spot.

Got To Be There makes a pair of 2-notch jumps for Michael Jackson- to #7 last week, and to #5 this week.

The Chi-Lites slip a notch to #6 last week, and stay there this week, with Have You Seen Her.

Bread climbs from 7 to 5 last week, and thence to 3 this week, with Baby I'm-A Want You.

Gypsies, Tramps, And Thieves slid a notch to 4 last week, and stayed put this week, for Cher.

The aforementioned Mr. Lennon and Imagine dropped from 2 to 3 last week, and to 7 this week. 

The Theme From Shaft slipped out of the top spot last week, and holds at #2 this week.

And at #1 both weeks, after a 5 spot jump:

Sly and the Family Stone and Family Affair!!!!

If you have any good suggestions for that upcoming week 100, be sure to let me know.  God knows, it can't be any worse than this was!

The Return of Lotsa Little Bits

First off, let's start with this...

Mark Koopmans  is doing what he calls the 50 States Of Pray.  Basically, he is looking for (at least) one person from (at least) each of the fifty states (so far by my count he has 30 states and 7 foreign nations represented).  The name of the game is, on Christmas Eve, each person posts "a prayer, a thought, a memory, a hope (or) even a regret about the past and/or a wish for the future", in about 100 words.  I'll be there; and I encourage any of you so inclined to hit the link and join the list found therein.


Next, I just finished my most creative use of turkey leftovers ever!

Pre-cooking...

The basic concept is "turkey salmon patties"- I chopped turkey small, added what I would to a can of salmon (one egg, salt, crumbled bread in lieu of the Ritz Crackers I didn't have, and garlic Italian croutons), fried 'em up with a cheese slice, and put 'em on white toast.  Result:  Damn good, although my innards were a touch disappointed that it wasn't salmon, but much better than the usual turkey sandwich.  I do think, however, that turkeygeddon 2013 is run its course and the remaining leg will have to go to Mr. Humpty Back when he next raids the dumpster.



Next, the first round of the 2013 NHFFL fantasy football playoffs is in the books.  The Angels routed the Fiery Beagles 42-28, and the Elks rolled over Buzz 40-27.  The Angels play the Greenwoods next; the teams split this season's games, with the Angels taking the week three meeting 41-29 and the Greenwoods winning 4 weeks later, 46-41.  The Elks will go up against the State Ducks;  they have played two close matches this year, with the Ducks winning 41-39 in week 3, and the Elks handing them their second and final loss, 33-31 in week nine.  The Elks have beaten the Ducks twice in the playoffs:  30-17 in the first round in 2005, and 51-30 in another first round game in 2007.

Why State Ducks, you ask?  Well, I found a shirt in a garage sale years ago.  It was red with a gold embroidered logo for "State Dock Marina" with anchor and all.  I loved that shirt, but my son -raised in the finest tradition of smartassery I learned from my sister Jenny- looked at it one day and said, "State DUCK?"  When we decided to re-expand the league in 2005, I brought the State Ducks into the league.

One last word here on NHFFL for those who may not comprehend:  Me, Laurie and KC each run four teams, but each of us has a main team.  The Elks are Laurie's; the Clock BBQs are KCs; and mine are the KCAs, named for my favorite son and baseball team.  Oh, and Laurie runs Scrappy's team, the Fiery Beagles (originally the fiery dragons, but when Laurie joined the league in 2002, they became the Beagles in honor of her dog, the late and missed Fred.


Then, there's the matter of work.  After killing the better part of an hour and a half as the big boss from corporate trained us on the proper way to train an new employee (and gave me my next new word- when you hold comments in until you finally let out a bunch of them at once, they call it "gunnysacking") this morning, we then had an hour-long sit down on re-upping our health insurance.  Good news, our plans are ACA-approved so screw you, Obama.  Bad news, they go up an average of 9%, so screw you, Obama.

Finally, a serious note.  After all the battling I've been going through with the blogger I mentioned Sunday morning and her slow slide into atheism, I heard a pertinent message on the program Grace To You last night.  The pastor, John McArthur, listing characteristics of the Bible, said that it was "deterministic."  He explained that "The Word of God is the determining line between salvation and not... if you believe what God says in His word, you are guided by the Holy Spirit and ergo you are saved; while if you look at portions of the Bible as "outdated", "contradictory", or against what you believe, then odds are that you have not established that one-on-one relationship with Christ.

  This doesn't mean that you have to just close your eyes and take it all blindly; but if your seeking, reading and learning lead you away from God rather than nearer to Him, you have a problem.  Sadly, I mused, that fit this blogger to a "T".  Much of the discussion before I left came down to a post about the "ridiculousness" of the story of Adam and Eve.  Why did God put the tree in Eden was a question that, instead of leading her to the concept that there had to be a choice between good and evil, to obey God or not, led her to listen to people telling her that "Adam and Eve couldn't possibly make the right choice because a) they had no experiential knowledge of what good and evil were and thus couldn't POSSIBLY grasp the concept of obedience, and b) how did they know that God was "good" and Satan was "bad"?  This is not the reasoning of someone honestly seeking God; this is the reasoning of someone justifying disbelief.


Alright, I gotta wrap this up because I tested this post earlier and deleted it, and now a certain Canadian thinks I'm an Indian giver.  Have a good evening, everyone!

Out in the cold...

"Now, class, the MOST important thing to remember when bobbing in ice-cold temps is..."

At the "beach"...

Attempt at "freeing" a bubble

Country roads, take me home...

Stick with a coat of stain and two of gloss!

It finally dawned on me that they took out one lane of old California Road south of the IPFW bridge so idiots wouldn't be tempted to use it for motorized traffic anymore.

Walking along the bare shore of the river you find many odd things.  Beer cans, old flip flops... broke open coconuts...?

Sunday Message- a God of Legos.

It had to happen.

I'm sure those of you that follow the SMs know I have been dealing with a woman who's been blogging basically about her descent from faith to... something else.  And I can understand how she got lost.  She was someone who took "If you diligently seek Me" to heart literally.  She went from a catholic world of the Church Fathers deciding what God meant to a Calvinism that assigned people to heaven and hell almost randomly, to a universalism that said everyone goes to heaven regardless to... where ever she is now.  And this week, I un-followed her- not because of anything she said in her posts, but her growing-apparent attitude in the comments.  She was no longer truly responsive to those who, through their experience were trying to help her "re-find" God's will; instead, she was more eagerly lapping up the poisonous views of atheists congratulating her for her "wisdom" in questioning God.  In particular, three people were her main source of "wisdom" - one who theorized that since man was no more than an animal, the concepts of good and evil were artificial and really didn't apply; another claimed to have been an evangelical minister who had rejected all he had preached for "the wild and wonderful world out there."

When I look back over her story, I see her idea of seeking God as seeking a God made of Legos.  Each verse, each bit of knowledge, having to be this perfect square that fit in neatly with each other perfect square, eventually building a God she could comprehend with a rigid confidence.  But where she took the failure of that construct to mean that maybe there isn't a God, she totally rejected Paul's explanation of "Now we see as through a mirror darkly,", that God HAD to want to be revealed perfectly or else why should anyone believe?

God is more like the sand on the seashore.  At times, the tide rolls out and we have an epiphany of revelation, and a section of His relations with us make sense.  Other times, the storm pushes the sea forwards and we cannot make Him out amidst the driving rains and the whitecapped swells.

But just like the sand, God is still there.  Shifted to our perceptions, perhaps, but still sand, still shore, still unchanged.

Today, Dr. Jeremiah's talk on Thanksgiving included a pertinent observation:  "Sometimes we have to go back and see how things WERE, before we can be thankful for how things ARE."  This is where we get to me, on the other side of the coin.

I mentioned last week one day that I had been re-reading over and over a certain passage.  That passage was Romans chapter six.  In it Paul asks, "What shall we say then?  Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound?  Certainly not!"  (v1), and again, "What then, shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace?  Certainly not!" (v15).  The old conundrum of what is the relationship of grace and sin- and how are we perceiving it in our actions.

Before I was saved, I was little more than the "evolved animal" that the blogger's one commenter claimed to be.  I had a sin in my life, and was ruled by it.  It left me no (zero) choice in my actions, I was going to commit it.  I had no purchase for escape.  Then I was saved, and I LITERALLY (a concept that atheists will never understand) felt those chains come off.

But have I remained thankful for that freedom through the years?  You tell me.  It has become a freedom to sin, knowing that forgiveness is eventually mine through Jesus Christ.  I can do it, regret it, repent it, seek absolution, feel better, and do it again.  And totally ignore what it felt like under chains.  And I can excuse it, not by pointing out contradictions in the Bible, or by focusing on one verse while ignoring the surrounding narrative that it's pulled from, as this blogger did several times to justify her doubts.  No, I justify by things like, "I have a thorn in the flesh, to keep me humble", or "Now there is no condemnation..."

And conveniently brush aside "Shall we continue?  Certainly not!"

My crime is not one of building a God from Legos; it is looking at the wall and saying, "Oh, that's just the mirror being dark."