I was on my cleaning job one night, thinking about the drunk woman driver who'd just killed 4 out of a family of six or something on those lines. I thanked God for allowing that NOT to happen to me in all my stupid years of drinking and driving. He replied, "That's because I knew I could reach you without going to that extreme. The sin remains the same, only the consequence never came..."
-------------------------------------------
Last week, I did a post about an award, and among the things I had to tell about myself, I said this:
1- The two greatest things in my life (Laurie and the kids) came as a result of the two biggest mistakes of my life (working at Arden Co. and marrying their Mom, respectively).
Later, I thought about those two items and realized, in those cases, I HAD hit bottom. I had been the drunk crashing the car. And God taught me the only way I would listen. And WHY wouldn't I listen?
Well, I could give you a million socio-emotional reasons for it. But you know why I won't? Let's revisit another earlier post, last Sunday's Narrative vs Dialogue. In the comments section, you'll note I said this:
At this point though, I'd like to point out that I left a mouse trap in this post- something that someone could bust me on, but if they did, it would really drive my point home. Not that hard to set, if you're willing to admit to being wrong on something. Which means my erstwhile debaters wouldn't dare do something like it...
And that thing was, I inserted my own narrative, allegedly explaining why I got upset with commenter "Tempest", which was no more of an explanation of my actions than the original guest posters' "narrative" was of her point. And thus, no narrative on the reasons why I hit rock-bottom job wise and relationship wise... although, it is time to share with you the ONE reason behind both.
When we were taught to pray as little kids, we prayed in the moment. We thanked God, we asked for our "daily bread", we asked him to "Keep our souls" until we woke up. But we never were taught to pray about the future. Were you taught as a child to ask for God to lead you down the path He wanted for you, or did our prayers just assume we'd either blunder into it or God would just "come along for the ride"? I have heard multiple messages about how we should pray that our children walk in God's path, or find a "good Christian mate", but I have never heard one talk about TRAINING your children to pray for their futures themselves!
If I had prayed about it as a child, perhaps I might not have blew a college education on things which never interested me. Perhaps I wouldn't have stayed with a job that took the best years of my life and rewarded me with bupkiss because I never tried to find something better. After I lost it, and I prayed for guidance and help, I was led to a woman at an employment agency that carefully took my skills into consideration and matched me with a job which, despite its faults, couldn't be better for me.
If I had prayed about it as a child, perhaps my children would have a mother, who is Christian, kind, thoughtful, and concerned about things other than how her friends perceive her... like Laurie. God put me in a very good place with Laurie- though not a marital relationship, and I firmly believe that is because I blew my shot at marriage... and afterwards, with romantic relationships. Then I learned to give such things to him, and ta-da, here we are.
So now I'm on that broad place that God promised David, who seemed to pray about every little thing (with the notable exception of Bathsheba...). But it wasn't praying about "every little thing", it was praying about what matters... and putting the future in God's hands REALLY matters.
But I had to figure that out the hard way, and so I'm sure some of you. But those of you that have contact with little ones, you have a marvelous opportunity to make their lives better. And take a look at this world- they will need ALL the help you can give. So teach them to pray for their OWN future, as soon as they are able. Train them up in the way they should go, that when they grow up they won't wander from the path.
My Mom taught prayer by praying in silence. The nuns taught prayer by formulaic recitals. Be an activist teacher for your little ones. Help them find the broad place sooner than we did... sooner than I did.
This week we go back to the ho-hum normalcy on Ti... Hey, waitaminit! We're going back to 1966! The sixties, dude! And today, Martin Luther King is in Chicago, addressing a crowd variously described at 35-45,000 at Soldier Field. The message is a broadside against housing discrimination, and the pivot point was:
We must not wait for President Johnson to free us. We must not wait for the Supreme Court and Congress to free us. We must not wait for Mayor Daley to free us...'the battle am in our hands' ."
He then marched to city hall where he posted a list of demands to real estate agents, financial institutions, the Mayor and others, for the removal of discrimination in housing, hiring, and wages.
Meanwhile on Time Machine, the shuffle ten returns...and half of it are album cuts! Also, the summer 100 returns, with those who had multiple hits on the countdown; the tightest race bar none in panel history; a nutty anomaly on the Cashbox countdown; a much younger Bottom's Up than Last week, and a six degrees that starts with...
DR. ROBOTNIK!!!
A sonic of a different sort there, eh? Climb in the musical Tardis and let's go!
___________________________________
This week's groovy panel features for the first time not one, but TWO hoosier stations! WBOW from Terre Haute (trust me, it's in Indiana), and WJOB Hammond (an ironic name for a station in a city currently with 7.0 unemployment). Also this week we have WNWC Arlington Heights/Chicago; WTRX Flint MI; KNUZ Houston; WOKY Milwaukee; KJR Seattle; Our old pals WSGN Birmingham; WAKR Akron OH; KYNO Fresno; WLOB Portland ME; and KFWB Los Angeles. And they put on a show the likes of which the panel has never seen before! Each of the top three had a number one from the last three stations I checked; and for the first time there was a flat footed tie for second, with 27 points and two number ones! Their votes included one for the Cryan Shames with a really good forgotten tune, Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice- which was a week away from cracking the national chart at #121; and the first chart hit for the Grass Roots, Where Were You When I Needed You.
Another oddity in the panel songs was a song we had in a recent story, Younger Girl by the Hondells. Despite only being at #38 on Cashbox (its peak, while on Billboard it stopped at #52), it was at #5 in Terre Haute... but in Milwaukee, it was another version, by the Critters (known for Mr. Dieingly Sad) was at #5! The second version peaked this week at 21 on Cashbox, but only 42 on Billboard. There wasn't a whole lot of difference in the two, which means two good tunes divided but did not conquer.
Oh, and the number ones that didn't make the panel four: Tommy Roe's Sweet Pea was tops in Seattle, The Platters' I Love You 1,000 Times topped Birmingham, and The Cyrkle's Red Rubber Ball was capital in the rubber capital of the world, Akron.
So anyway, onto the panel's dogfight.
At #4, with the number one from Fresno, it's the nation's #2 song, the Beatles with Paperback Writer.
One half of the second place tie, with the #1s of Terre Haute and Portland, is the nation's #1, Tommy James and the Shondells with Hanky Panky.
The other half of the tie, with the number ones of Arlington Heights and Hammond, the Troggs with Wild Thing, the nation's #7.
And if you think that's an odd selection, wait till I let you in on the (just barely) number one song on the panel list, and I'm going to let you in on it JUST a little early....
_________________________________
But first, I had a slew of good candidates for unknown songs, but the winner is the #3 in Terre Haute, which in true Indiana tradition had dropped off the chart nationally at #56 a week ago. The band in question was called Dee Jay and the Runaways, from "Spirit Lake in the state's Northwest corner". And the band prolly should have went with the spelling Dee, Jay, and the Runaways, as the "Dee" was drummer Denny Storey, and the "Jay" was bass player John Senn. Senn was the one who put together a investor group to build a state of the art studio in the state (in Milford), and their one big hit wonder, childrens-story-themed single came from it:
____________________________________
This was certainly a week for unusual songs, and something I noticed in researching the Bottom's Up sure fits the bill. You see, four weeks ago, Johnny Cash entered the charts with a tune called Everybody Loves A Nut:
Everybody loves a nut The whole world loves a weirdo Brains are in a rut But everybody loves a nut...
Along comes a dude named Leroy Pullins, a fella trying to sound like Roger Miller and whose only known biographical info comes from the liner of one of his two albums. Anyway, he seemed to be replying on the chart to Johnny with his one hit wonder- I'm A Nut!
I'm A Nut, I'm A Nut My life don't ever get in a rut Woot-woot-woot-woot The head on my shoulders is sorta loose and I ain't got sense God gave a goose and I ain't crazy -but- I'm a Nut...
Johnny sat at 70 this week, while Pullins was at 77.
______________________________________
And while we're on the subject, let's go Bottom's Up!
10- Bob Dylan comes in here with I Want You, at 45 after 2 weeks.
9- The first of our three debuts comes from a band shortly to star in our summer 100 feature- the Rolling Stones, coming in at 46 with Mother's Little Helper.
8- Here comes irony- a song done by one guy on the shuffle ten shows up here by someone else! I'll hold the info until we hit the shuffle, just to build up the suspense.
7- Bobby Hebb's Sunny is at 54 after 5 weeks.
6- Neil Diamond claims this spot, at 60 after 9 weeks with Solitary Man, in its first try at the top 40- but it wouldn't make it until it's re-release in 1970.
5- A song I fell in love with when I first heard it during my "One Hit Wonders' Next Hit" feature a while back, the Ides Of March with You Wouldn't Listen, at 61 after five weeks.
4- Manfred Mann's Pretty Flamingo sits at 68 after 2 weeks.
3- The Lettermen are at #82 after three weeks with Only Have Eyes For You.
2- Our second debut comes in at #71 this week- the Loving Spoonful with Summer In The City.
And the top bottom?
...The Happenings with See You In September, debuting at #88!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
_____________________________________________
So it's time to let you in on another dozen songs from the summer 100! There were a lot of acts with multiple hits on the countdown, but none more than the Rolling Stones. They were the kings of summer, with FIVE hits in the countdown! They put Jumping Jack Flash at #48; Honky Tonk Women 35; Paint It, Black, at #26; Miss You at #11... and one more in the top ten! The Beatles couldn't match this- they managed just A Hard Day's Night at #28 and Get Back at #76. Elvis couldn't do it; his lone score was In The Ghetto at #80. The Beach Boys, ditto; they landed I Get Around at 22.
Three other bands that we haven't yet gotten to hit twice each. Three Dog Night hit with One at #74 and Shambala at #85. The Rascals, Young or otherwise, hit with Groovin' at #29, and People Got To Be Free at #56. And the third has one of their two hits at the panel's number one slot- and I bet you wouldn't guess who it is in a million years! So here, with the early panel #1...
Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs with Lil' Red Riding Hood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This week's panel #1 sits at 66 on the summer 100, while Wooly Bully lays at 99.
And now, it's time to play a little Sonic the Hedgehog....
On the cartoon Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Dr. Robotnik was voiced by one Long John Baldry, who played in the 60's with a few great up and comers. In 1965-6, he was in a band called Bluesology, along with a young piano player named Reginald Dwight. Dwight wrote their hit UK single Let The Heartaches Begin, and went on to become famous as...
...yep, Elton John. Before that, he was in a band called Steampacket, whose vocalist was a young Rod Stewart. Another member of that band was a keyboardist who became famous as a jazz artist and session man named Brian Auger. Brian lent the harpsichord to the Yardbird's track For Your Love. It was a harpsichord, because after they called him in, they found that their recording studio didn't have a keyboard, a piano, anything for him to play- except an old harpsichord.
Anywho, the 'Birds had a manager named Simon Napier-Bell, who co-wrote the English lyrics to a song first featured at the San Remo music festival, a song that sat at #5 this week on the Cashbox chart but got no love from the panel- Dusty Springfield's You Don't Have To Say You Love Me.
_______________________
And now, the return of the shuffle ten!
One of my all timers at our 10 spot, Henry Gross's Shannon. It was #6 in '76.
Jackson Browne places his second S10 at our 9 spot, after placing it at #13 in 1983- Lawyers In Love.
And now, the song that hit both the Bottom's Up and the shuffle ten, by different artists. On the BU, Jack Jones hit the top 40, landing this week at 48 in its 6th week. Here, Andy Williams recorded it on the lp of the same name in 1971. That song, at our 8 spot, is The Impossible Dream (The Quest).
Our second of five album cuts comes from the cult classic Odyssey And Oracle by the Zombies from 1968. The cut is called Beachwood Park, and lands in the 7 spot.
Jethro Tull hits their second S10 from 1971s Aqualung. The tune, a compliment to the title cut, was Cross-Eyed Mary, and lands at our 6 spot.
Laughing in the playground -- gets no kicks from little boys: would rather make it with a letching grey. Or maybe her attention is drawn by Aqualung, who watches through the railings as they play.
A "letching gray", BTW is British for "dirty old man". Personally, I'm among those that thought it said the little boys would rather make it with electric trains. Learn something new every day.
Neil Young hits his fourth S10 with the hit Old Man from 1972, which made it to #31 here but was top five in Canada. And so it is here, landing in spot 5.
Paul Revere and the Raiders' 1966 hit Good Thing is next. #4 then, #4 now.
Alan Parsons Project's great 1980 lp The Turn Of A Friendly Card leads off with an instrumental called The Gold Bug. It buzzes into the #3 slot, giving them 3 S10s.
Bob Dylan has now been in the Shuffle Ten twice, and both times from his 1981 CC album Shot Of Love. This week, the title cut- which made #38 on the mainstream rock chart- is our runner up.
And with the panel number one already taken care of, that brings us to our Shuffle number one, and the S10's first appearance for Flogging Molly! From 2004:
Well, that oughtta get yer blood up! Next week, the second to last summer 100 post (in other words, everyone that's left except the top ten), and we travel to... 1962!
Yesterday, I got a nomination from one of my favorite bloggers, Holli at Holli's Hoots and Hollers. What I did to her, I don't know (Juuuuuust kidding), for I am one of those people who isn't very "blog award" motivated. Mainly because of the usual "nominate X bloggers" requirement, this time 5 to 20. Twenty nominations would have me dipping heavily into the "that asshole Martin nominated me" end of my blogging friends. Heck, 5 might cover that. It always makes me feel a lot like Jehovah's Witnesses must feel in my neighborhood. So why don't I post a "No awards please" sign on my blog like some others do? Pure ego.
So I promised to do the first two requirements, which doesn't rightly qualify me for the "Creative Blogger Award", so maybe I'll just claim to be a creative bugger and leave it at that. Anyway, the first requirement is "thank and link to the nominating person", which I have linked. And now I am thanking. Thank you so much. Kinda what I get for spilling your "secret" in the comments section yesterday, huh? LOL.
The second requirement involves sharing five "facts about myself." Remember, you asked for it:
1- The two greatest things in my life (Laurie and the kids) came as a result of the two biggest mistakes of my life (working at Arden Co. and marrying their Mom, respectively).
2- As a kid, I had a handful- rather, two handfuls- of warts. Probably goes a ways to explain my social awkwardness. The summer between grade school and high school, I decided to try the old wives' cure of slicing a potato in half, rub it on the warts, throw the potato over your shoulder without looking for where it landed. It may be a chemical in the potato or some magic force, take yer pick. But within two weeks, more than two dozen warts, which had defied the best efforts of Compound W and prescription cremes for almost a decade, simply crumbled into dust and never came back.
3- My Mom actually helped make the Oakland Athletics my favorite baseball team. It was the 1972 playoffs, and I was kinda rooting for the A's, because how cool is green and gold? Lerin LaGrow was pitching for the Tigers to Bert Campaneris. A pitch thocked Campy hard in the shin. He dropped to one knee, and promptly tomahawked his bat at LaGrow. What then ensued was a fifteen minute argument between an mother against violence and a ten year old defiantly shouting, "I'd do the same thing!" If there was going to be a doubt about who I was following thenceforth, that argument erased it.
4- If I have all the ingredients at home, my ultimate cheeseburger has the following toppings (or bottom-ings, depending): Ketchup, ranch, light bit of onions, sliced mushrooms, heavy on the onion powder, Mrs. Dash (trying to watch the salt, y'know), and any available cheese, up to and including Velveeta or available substitute, American slices, shredded mozzarella, and grated parmesan/romano blend. If we have buns, better be sesame seeds. Otherwise white is fine. Oh, and potato chips for crunch.
5- As a newly minted Whovian, I am never far from my sonic screwdriver, which gets used more than I like to seal shut a certain dog's aromatic orifice.
________________________________
Picture time, from a collection of walks!
Wild raspberries. Nothing but tart, but still a nice treat.
Left center of the picture, little white eye. Has the camo thing down good.
"Mom, this vacation you booked really sucks."
"Crap, here comes Scrappy. Do I run, or just laugh at him?"
So today we set out on a walk to the woods. Only thing we ran into (other than rain on the way home) was an odd sort who we ran into near the last curve in the trail before the north end of the side trail (if curious, go back up and hit the map link.) He seemed to be pacing back and forth, fiddling with his phone, and eating a banana. As we passed, he asked what Scrappy's name was. I told him, he grunted, end of conversation. Later, we passed a banana peel hanging on a bush just where the trail leaves the woods. Really dude?
So I thought to myself, it's a drug deal. The banana is a signpost for his contact. He opened the other one so we wouldn't be suspicious when we passed the "signal" one. His contact is late, he's checking the time. Awkward conversation was to throw us off the scent, too. It's right near the nursing home, he's prolly waiting for someone to sneak him out some Oxycodon or morphine.
Or he's just a weird sort of litterbug. Anyway...
My pet slime mold is thriving again...
Under the barn overhang in the "ferocious rainstorm".
_____________________________
Lastly but not leastly, we need to address the topic of Jared Fogle. A lot of rumors going around, and I'm not going to add to them. Honestly, I prayed for him today when I thought about him, either falsely accused or trapped in a life that is about to destroy him.
However, the smartass in the back of my head, came up with, "Subway should just change their slogan to, What surprise will Jared have for our buns today?"
I'm going to kick things off with a little less fun stuff, but the same ol' stupidity.
ITEM: Most of you by now have heard this story: In San Francisco, the very heart of radical-liberal America, a "sanctuary city", for what that's worth, has out of it's kindness and grace allowed a man 5 times deported to live in their town, and randomly kill a woman in a "random" shooting. Thus blowing holes in the liberal mindset of allowing illegals to stay in this country, as well as their protests over Donald Trump's recent comments, as well as an innocent 32-year-old woman out for a stroll with her father. Thank you, San Fran, please continue to boycott Indiana.
ITEM: And here's another one you've prolly heard-
Devon Staples, 22, and his friends had been drinking and setting off fireworks Saturday night in a backyard in Staples' eastern Maine hometown, Calais, when the accident happened with a reloadable fireworks mortar tube, police have said.
Yes, this genius set off a mortar on his head. He rapidly went from stupid to deceased, and now his mother says that more regulations on fireworks would have saved his life.
The state should consider requiring safety training courses before allowing someone to use them, she said.
You mean, Maine doesn't have a regulation covering setting off an explosive device on your head while drunk? Maine, the state that has a regulation regarding not stepping out of a plane while in flight, and another requiring church attendees to bring shotguns in case of an Indian attack? (Look it up, I did.) Perhaps the mother of the dear deceased ought to work on ALCOHOL regulation.
ITEM: If the mother of blast-head needs some ideas, I know where NOT to get them. I found a story about the drunkest states in the nation- and some other interesting stats.
First, the highest percentage of adults who've had at least one drink in the last 30 days, and Wisconsin wins this one at 65.33% , just ahead of D.C., with Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts stumbling on behind. Next, percent of "heavy drinkers", and Wisconsin and Washington DC come in 1-2 again. Third chart was binge drinking, and guess who were one and two. The cast of also-rans were an ever changing lot: Montana, Oregon, and (for a second time) Vermont on the heavy drinking, and North Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois on binging.
They also did a cross-ref with age and ethnicity, and on a really cute interactive chart, we find the greatest drinkers in the 18-24 age group are multiracial; "other" took a slight lead at 25-34, while the white boys (and girls) edged ahead at 35-44. "Other" nosed ahead again at 45-54, and Asian took the lead at 55-64. The last category, 65+, was a dead (drunk) heat between "other" and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander.
For the sober among you, fewest drinkers was Utah, and both heavy and binging was least popular in Tennessee. The interactive chart was really interesting on the sober side. The Hawaiian group was lowest in the two youngest groups, and WAAAAY lowest in the 55-64 group, which makes their "shot" to the lead in the oldest group all the more curious. In between, 35-44 had the Asians lowest (right before they took THEIR lead), and the Hispanics lowest at 45-54.
Indiana was towards the middle at light drinking, and well into the sober side on the other categories. They also topped the list in "state most likely to lie to interviewers."
ITEM: A man from China, whom I'll bet was 55-64 years old, bought a pair of puppies in Vietnam. Whether this is a story to show how dumb Chinese tourists are or how dishonest Vietnamese pet dealers are, I'll let you judge. The puppies thrived with the man, one Wang Kaiyu, although they began getting big- really big- and did odd things like killing and eating Wang's chickens. But it was only when Wang "saw some leaflets from the local Public Security Bureau on endangered wild animals" that he realized what he really had...
...that's right, they were two endangered Asian Sun Bears. Nuff Said, eh?
ITEM: A comedian named Kurt Braunohler decided the world needed to be brightened up with a bit of randomness. This is why he is driving around the country with this...
...a 14 ft tall, 15 ft long, 8 feet wide, 1,600 pound butt. He calls it the "Love Butt". And that really is the end.
I have recently been involved in a very interesting but unpleasant blog discussion. I am not going to tell the entirety of the story, and what I do will be in my words. I don't want to just rehash the experience, just make a point about the difference between a narrative and a dialogue, and when one or the other is useless to what it wants to accomplish.
Long story shortened, a blogging friend had a guest poster who was a black lady who was speaking on racism. She had a tragic story of her own, and has struggled to get where she is. The one thing I took as a point of controversy was a theory she had that, boiled down, says that black culture today in the USA is where it is because of slavery. Yeah, you've heard that before, but wait, because that's not the whole thing and it makes some sense. She points out that over the years of slavery, a black woman had to be the one to raise their family, because they never knew when the male, the husband, would be sold, or moved... or worse. They had to come to depend upon themselves. And because of this, the black woman has had to become accustomed to being that family head, to doing it all when the man's not there.
True, so far as it goes. I tried to make pains to show that I would go THAT far. But, as she went on, she tried to say that this is the reason that black society TODAY is in the state it's in, and that by extrapolation it is wrong of critics to place personal responsibility as the cause of any of the heartaches the black community suffers. My words, not hers, but that was the impression I got. So I commented on the place of personal responsibility in the equation as well. Here's part of what I got in return:
So, basically, what you are asking is for black people to choose not to succumb to the pressure of the struggle, to overcome the discrimination on our own without asking yourself or the majority of white people to be accountable for the hows and whys of the way systemic, institutional racism and bias keeps us hobbled.
Notice the word "YOURSELF," which was to me, dumping me in with the problem without knowing anything about me other than the assumption of MY race. I didn't care for that, as you might imagine, and it went back and forth, with me trying to explain why I said what I did, and her looking for what was wrong with what I said. Finally, we came to what was really the crux of a disagreement that we shouldn't have even have been having: Your two cents vs my two cents are like the dollar vs the dinar. So as much as it might possibly hurt your feelings, no, a true dialogue is not what is asked for or needed in this context. But luckily cooperation does not require those qualifications. It only requires willingness to put your own perspective and ego on the back burner and let someone else have the front. It's not about doing what you're told to do, it's about sympathizing without putting your needs ahead of those you're trying to support.
And there it was, in -if you'll excuse the unintended allusion- black and white. It was never meant to be a dialogue. The white person in her opinion had a place- to shut up, listen to whatever fabricated excuse she the suffering came up with, say, "Aw you poor thing," And go along with whatever solution she came up with.
But she had no solution, not even a hint of one. She had a narrative, a dictation. And what I had said, even though it was a complimentary part to what SHE was saying, should be kept to myself.
Go to the back of the bus.
I close my discussion with the author with this:
I'm not perfect, there are things that would make me uncomfortable. I realize that's because I come from a section of society that teaches that uncomfortable-ness, and I also realize it's up to me to change that for me. I can't expect society to change if the change isn't in my own heart. That works on both sides of the fence as well.
After that, another woman joined the fray, and that discussion turned ugly. I will admit to my side of that, with this caveat- I feel I was being accused of being racist, and then getting, "I never said that" back. Not in so many words, but enough to yank my proverbial chain. Rather than go into that useless and unproductive discussion, I will tell you MY narrative.
Growing up, I had two fathers. One was the nice, funny, help anyone out father that I wish I would have known better. But at least twice a week, he became the other one. The other one would get drunk at the bar, have his good times, then return home to build up his self esteem. He did that by pressing every button he could think of, whether it was untrue, or something from 10 years in the past. He would pound at you and pound at you and pound at you, until you shouted at him. Then he would calmly say in a slur, "Why are you yelling? I'm not yelling." And then, smirking over his victory and whatever shred of esteem it bought him, he'd start right out again. I watched him do that to my mother for 12 years, too young to do anything about it, and when she passed, I spent the next five years on the receiving end. Until it got to the point that, years after he died, I couldn't understand how people who'd never seen "the other" could possibly look at him in a positive light.
Years and prayer later, I finally got to that point. But the scars remain. And one of those scars is having impatience and anger towards those who know me from a comment section and tell me I'm something I'm not. So I'll over explain, fight on long after I should just stop and say, this person has an agenda and will not listen. And then I get MAD.Where the original author didn't get me there, the commenter certainly did.
That commenter said at one point, that I perceived that I was being told to shut up and go to the back of the bus, when I was only being told to let the author speak uninterrupted. I took a little time and asked, "Did I do that?" I don't think so. She had the original post, which I read. Then, and only then, did I comment. It wasn't that I interrupted the author, but that I had the audacity to say my piece AFTER she was done. I didn't interrupt the author, I soiled the narrative. I didn't stop to realize she was speaking from the top of the mountain with tablets in each arm. For that, I was told I was an arrogant racist. For that, I was called insulting. Frankly, I see only one thing I think was insulting in what I said, that to the last commenter:
I'm sorry that you are both more interested in telling everyone else how wrong and evil they are than trying to find common ground. You people seem less interested in eliminating racism by cultural education (which is where her post excelled, but has to go both ways) than you are in solving the problem by white capitualtion. Sorry, not buying that.
All I have left to say on the subject is, if you ever want DIALOGUE, feel free to stop in. I have my opinions, and I will express them. To my best recollection, I have never banned or blocked anybody that disagreed with me (with the possible exception of "John Rambo" and his he-man's-women-haters club). But if I do disagree, prepare yourself for a response. I don't think the guest poster at the blog in question was.
Happy Independence Day! The musical Tardis is celebrating in 1979, where we find on July 3rd President Jimmy Carter signing a "presidential finding" authorizing funding for the mujahideen rebels in Afghanistan. It seems the plan to draw the Soviets into their own "Vietnam", launched by Carter and Zbigniew Brzezinski, was bearing fruit, and now it was time to give weapons to those same fun people who later gave us 9-11.
Wait a minute, you say? You thought it was George W Bush that got us involved in Afghanistan? Heh, that's what happens when you get your news from MSNBC.
Wow, that's amazing! Weird, wild stuff.
This week, I have a very special Time Machine in store for you. In place of the shuffle ten and this week's summer 100s, we'll have a special Fourth of July countdown. In addition to losing the ST for a week, we'll also be saying-
-to the six degrees feature! And we're gonna Turn Off The Light on the unknown song feature, and if that ain't enough, the top four of the Bottom's Up not only aren't debuts, but they have a combined 51 weeks on the chart! Who lives? Who dies? Hop in and find out for whom the bell tolls... it might be ringing for you!!!!!!
___________________________________
This week's panel includes KFI Burbank, KRUX Phoenix, WAVZ New Haven, CKLW Detroit, WHB Kansas City, WRKO Boston, KFRC San Francisco, WDRC Hartford, WCED DuBois, PA, WLS Chicago, WYSL Buffalo, and CHUM Toronto. They collected 22 different tunes in their top fives and 6 #1s, including ELO's Shine A Little Love (Phoenix) and Charlie Daniels' The Devil Went Down To Georgia (Kansas City)- which just rising up the charts at #67.
The panel list included 4 of the summer 100 (all of which are in the already-mentioned category), including three of the top four.
At number four, the national #9, which got #1s from Buffalo and Toronto and 20 points, Supertramp's The Logical Song.
At number three, the national #3 with 22 points and the #1s of Detroit and Chicago, Donna Summer's Hot Stuff.
At number two, the national #5 also with 22 points but three top dogs (New Haven, Boston, and DuBois), again with the Donna Summer, this time Bad Girls.
As usual I will hold the identity of the panel's #1 for later, but I would mention the geography of the number ones in the panel -each has #1s from the same geographical area. And number one? Does it continue the trend? Quick detective work tells you it captured the number ones of two California cities...
...and Hartford. And seeings as their geographic area tells us that they should have had Bad Girls at the top, they were one of the stations that didn't even give it a top five. Just being difficult, I see.
______________________________
Our unknown song comes to us from New Haven, where they had at #5 a song that was at #84 that week on Cashbox and would reach a Billboard peak of #48 (though it made #2 R&B). It may have been unknown to me, but it likely isn't to anyone who is familiar with the sensational voice of the late Teddy Pendergrass:
______________________________________________
Now, I had a little trouble this past weekend gathering my info for this post. Saturday, Cashbox's website was going through one of their semi-annual "this account is suspended" periods they are so famous for. So I went to Billboard for the Bottom's Up, and found that it was difficult to get a read on what exactly was a debut, because BB's archive doesn't list the "weeks on chart" at the time, but in total. Thankfully, CB was paid in full by typing time, but the problem still remained- a full half of the BU crew were songs dropping from the chart after ten-plus weeks, including the top four! In fact, they pushed one debut- The Cars with Let's Go- right out of the list! So, without further ado-
-let's go Bottom's Up!
10- Dionne Warwick's I'll Never Love This Way Again, at 78 after 2 weeks.
9- Heaven Must Have Sent You by Bonnie Pointer claims this spot, at #80 also after 2 weeks.
8- The first of the Methuselahs of the BU comes next, sitting at 83 after 17 whopping weeks- one of my all-timers, England Dan and John Ford Coley's Love Is The Answer.
I remember reading somewhere an interview with Jim Seals of Seals and Crofts speaking about his brother, "England" Dan Seals, in which he said that if Dan and John would have had success first, then his act might have been named "England Jim and Dash Ford Crofts"! Well, I always thought it was funny.
7- Patrick Hernandez' disco hit Born To Be Alive is next, sitting at 87 after four weeks.
6- Waylon Jennings (curiously just billed as "Waylon") is also in his fourth week, at #89 with Amanda.
5- Maureen McGovern claims the sole debut on the BU this week, with a song that was originally the theme to a TV show I watched all the time back in the day- Donna Pescow's "Angie". The song is Different Worlds, and it sits at 90.
4- Here comes the over the hill gang, led off by another of my all-timers. The Beach Boys sat at 92 in week #10 with Good Timin'.
3- Tipping the scales at 16 weeks, Barbara Mandrell with If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want To Be Right) is at #94.
2- With a dozen weeks under its belt, Deeper Than The Night by Olivia Newton-John lies at 97.
And the top bottom, weighing in at 13 weeks:
...Nigel Olsson with A Little Bit Of Soap, hanging on for dear life at #99!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, there is a July Fourth countdown coming up, but for now let me just share what it's going to be. See, as I said CB had one of its semi-annual forgot to pay the bills moments this past week. So I had to take advantage of the harder-to-deal-with Billboard archives. Somehow or another that led me to this thought. What if I did something with the #1s on the 4th of July? And when the CB site came back, I thought, why not combine them? So what you get is not just Cashbox, not just the Martin era, but a combination: the number one songs on the 4th, with BB and CB total weeks at #1 combined, from 1960 to 1985! 16 such songs totalled 4 weeks or more- three of those without any help from one side or the other. Stay tuned to see who they are!
________________________
And now, It's Goodbye Cruel World for the six degrees. That song was one of two top tens in the early sixties for singer/actor James Darren, who also hit with Her Royal Majesty.
James concentrated more on the acting after his last top 40 hit, Mary's Little Lamb in 1962. One of his acting spots was the 1978-9 season cliffhanger/premiere of Hawaii 5-0, in which he shared a duet with my top lady, Yvonne Elliman, on her AC hit from 1977, I Can't Get You Outa My Head. Yvonne lent background vocals to many of Eric Clapton's hits in the seventies, including Lay Down Sally. A co-writer on that song was guitarist George Terry, whose other credits including being part of the Bee Gees' studio band on lps like Spirits Having Flown. Now, on Cashbox, had it been open at the time, the highest song that got no love from the panel would have been Kenny Rogers' She Believes In Me...but since it wasn't, a song that had already plummeted on CB (down to #30) was the lonesome loser on Billboard. That song, from Spirits Having Flown, set several records for the brothers:
-9th #1 song in the decade;
-6 consecutive singles going to #1, a mark only the Beatles could match;
-3 consecutive #1s each from 2 consecutive albums, the only time that had ever been done;
-and put them 4th all time in both #1s and total weeks at #1.
The song? Love You Inside Out. Backwards and forwards, but not on the panel picks...
___________________________________
Alright, here's the moment you've been waiting for (at least, maybe kinda sorta)! The top sixteen #1s of the Fourth of July, by combined CB/BB weeks, from 1960-85!
15th (tie), 4 total weeks:
Jackson Five, The Love You Save, 1970
Wings, Silly Love Songs, 1976
10th (tie), 5 weeks:
Everybody's Somebody's Fool, Connie Francis, 1960
Quarter To Three, Gary US Bonds, 1961
I Can't Stop Loving You, Ray Charles, 1962
Ring My Bell, Anita Ward, 1979
Funkytown, Lipps, Inc., 1980
7th (tie), 6 weeks:
Windy, The Association, 1967
Love Will Keep Us Together, Captain and Tennille, 1975
Bette Davis Eyes, Kim Carnes, 1981
5th (tie), 7 weeks:
Sukiyaki, Kyu Sakamoto, 1963
Don't You Want Me, Human League, 1982
4th, 8 weeks, This Guy's In Love With You, Herb Alpert, 1968
3rd, 9 weeks, It's Too Late, Carole King, 1971
2nd, 12 weeks, Flashdance (What A Feeling), Irene Cara, 1983
And the tops of the charts this week? Fourth of July chart says...
... Andy Gibb, Shadow Dancing, 13 weeks, 1977!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The other number ones included The Stripper, Mr. Tambourine Man, I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch), I Get Around, Paperback Writer, Strangers In The Night, In The Ghetto, Theme From Romeo And Juliet, Song Sung Blue, Give Me Love, Sundown, Afternoon Delight, Undercover Angel, Gonna Fly Now, Coming Up, The Reflex, Dancing In The Dark, Heaven, and Sussudio.
And survey says...
(where have I heard THIS before)... Anita Ward's Ring My Bell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Next week, all the proper parts will be back in place, and we'll be stopping off in... 1966! Be there or be square!!!
All right, let me tell you a bit about KC's doubleheader Sunday.
The Bad News Derby People actually had a good game in game one. KC drove in a run and they kept it close till the last inning- Which was the seventh, for a change.
LAURIE: How many innings do they play?
ME: I really am not sure, they've never made it past the 4th without being 20 runs down before!
There he goes!
Yes, believe it or not there are two girls on this team that throw it in from the outfield underhanded because they "can't throw it overhand". To her credit here, though, she made a pair of spectacular catches- one which she may just have soiled herself making. I know I about did.
Trying to beat the shift- fouled out.
The first game ended 11-2, but was 5-1 going into the 7th. Then we got a break while that team played Paul Davis. PD made short work of them, pounding the ball at will and actually putting one ball into the woods. Then PD turned and saw us.
And a lot of this happened.
PD ran up 11 1st inning runs, doing everything BUT hitting the woods. They tacked on 5 in the second, but we actually held them scoreless in the third while they were bored. Fourth inning, they decided that enough was enough, and returned to score-at-will, running it up to 22-0 so the ump would stop play. Allegedly, next game we'll finally be dropped down to a class more befitting, if there is such a thing. Paul Davis will be moving up, I'm told.
____________________________
And now, this afternoon's walk.
Remember the tree I described as massive, but you couldn't tell from that shot? You'll see it now.
Bent one tree over on the way down, busted another in two. I wrapped Scrappy's leash around the shattered tree's trunk to see how big it was- It was long enough to run from my foot to my hip.
And as you can see, the lesson learned is don't grow on the edge of a dropoff.
Peek! Someone napping in the meadow.
OMG, it's Scrappy! Run!!!
Scrappy in the flowers
Seen a few of these along the river.
I do have to give IPFW a bit of credit. This year, they are leaving a lot more of the "in-between" stuff unmown, unlike the last few years where if it didn't require a Bushhog, it got cut. Thus the places where we have caught our deer friends (like today, pardon the bad pun) are more animal friendly... but in order to not pick off ticks half the night, I'm going to have to declare the way to the duck pond inaccessible at this point.
However, if it's like a couple years ago, access might be resumed this weekend. Two years ago...
They mowed a path to the river's edge, from which to shoot off mortars at the river the rest of the holiday. I don't believe it was an "officially sanctioned event", but remote enough that anyone who might possibly complain would have the devil's own time finding them. I thought it was last year, but last Independence Day Weekend...
We found out what the fox says (answer: Bark bark yip yip)!
A lone man looking for means of expression in a tsunami of information. Seeking truth justice and the American way in the perspective of a Nixon conservative. And the Commissioner of the free world's smallest and best fantasy football league.
Posts
