So after the amazing pool series, the mystery woman in the fruity dress, and a round of "Chris' philosophy on music:drunk edition", we made it to Sunday. And the main feature their was a cookout at the Peanut Factory.
We have the world's most astounding weed in front of our apartment...
Big boy!
My kids KC...
...and Shenan playing cornhole
Aaron, mighty scorekeeper
Monday's lone event was the semi-annual Ft Wayne Time Lords meeting at the Fortress, home of Bobby G and the lovely Mrs G...
Bob explaining the economic value of large-leaved plants
FB people have already seen this- my lovely glass of Pepsi in a flashing Hello Kitty glass...
Which brings us to the first excursion day on our VACAY...
"Hmm... appears to be Shipshewana..."
I loved this concept- yardzee- yahtzee with big dice for outside play
Shirts for the Peanut
I may live in this one
"Cheer up, Laurie! It's very pretty!"
The line getting into the flea market as we were getting out
Then came the best part- tucked away in a remote corner of rural Elkhart- the Hall Of Heroes
This museum has comics from every era, memorabilia you wouldn't believe, and is run by a dude who ran Hall Of Heroes comics back in the 90s, where Ethan van Sciver got his start! Here, let me show you around...
This blurry mess is the actual clay model of the "three-story" Sandman from the Spider Man movie.
A genuine Chris Evans-used Captain America shield
An Adam West-used Batman suit
Lots of first issues. Place is insured for $4 mil...
A cool set of Kingdom Come figures
A William Katt Greatest American Hero costume. He was there to present it. Many shows have been there including American Pickers, Stan Lee's Super Fans (the Man hisself was there!), and others.
In fact, there he is- in figurine form
"Don't push it, Tin Man..."
Superman pogo stick, lol
"Miiiiight-ORRRRR!"
Even the $6 Million Dollar Man
And Ultraforce!
That's Allen Stewart, the guy who runs the place, under the wing of Stan the Man
Friday afternoon kicked off the Mighty Martin Vacation 2017. But pictures start the night before...
So they've tilled up a couple of grassy trail sections around the west soccer fields- no idea why, but after Scrappy and I walked across this section Wednesday, they taped it off. Oh my, I damaged tiny dirt clods...
It was a hot one Thursday evening, and Boofus and I took a good spell resting. Soon later, we saw a runner doubled over looking like upchucking might be in his future.
Then, a way off, caught sight of this feller...
Friday, Isaiah came for a visit
Screw the camera, I want the lanyard!
"I don't see what all the fuss is...grmbl grmbl mttr mttr moan."
Saturday Scrappy had a big day, starting at Metea Park....
Despite the presence of a rather large company picnic at the Nature Center area, it was a nice peaceful jaunt...
...complete with more monarchs than I've seen in about the last four years put together!
We finished the trip off with a stop at Culvers, where Scrappy had a huge cup of ice cream, several french fries, and various other bites. On the way home I saw what would be the second weirdest thing I'd see all day...
...why someone would want a huge flamingo dangling from their rear-view, IDK. Maybe he missed the trashy front yard he grew up in...
After a well-deserved nap, Laurie and I adjourned to Mitchell's for drinks and pool.
First game might have been the best game I ever played. I think Laurie said she took 3 shots total.
Second was close to a mirror image. I took more than three shots, none of them good, though.
Game three was a well-played, down to the wire affair that Laurie took to go up 2-1.
Laurie put in the 8 by accident to tie things up. Game five was another of my more typical games, so Laurie won 3 games to 2.
This is me dropping the camera as I took a shot. And why would I drop it (Outside of the 3 long islands and two duck farts)?
Well, it might be that this woman was wearing a dress whose front was completely covered in orange peels...
This week two things have been talking to my spirit- the series David Jeremiah has been doing on David, and along the way Saul; and the bio of Martin Luther I have been reading. And from them, two things emerged. One was Jeremiah talking about how Saul was with the Lord for a while, then left Him- to which I said, "I don't think Saul ever really WAS with God. There are a lot of evidences to the idea that God was just something he used, and not someone he knew." More on that as we go in. The other came from the bio.
In it, a section of what Pope Hadrian wrote to Frederick the Wise in asking him to execute judgement on Luther stood out:
"...Be not beguiled because Martin Luther appeals to Scripture. So does every heretic, but SCRIPTURE IS A BOOK SEALED WITH SEVEN SEALS (emphasis mine) which cannot be so well opened by one carnal man as by all the holy saints..." (Bainton, pp 193-4)
Besides being a horrible mistranslation of Revelation 5, it made me say, "if there ARE seven seals on Scripture, they didn't come from God." But that isn't quite right, either... if you look at Saul's career, you can come up with seven things that can seal Scripture to an individual.
1- When he hid at his coronation (1 Samuel 10:21-22)
Already anointed by Samuel the Judge, already having prophesied under the Spirit, when it came time to be announced to the people, he was found "hidden among the equipment". They had to drag him out before the people. If he was truly with God, why fear the people? He had no confidence in God, that much is sure. And lacking confidence in the Word will keep us from getting anything from our Bibles. We are told to go BOLDLY before the Throne. Have confidence not only in God's word, but the Spirit's ability to reveal what it is saying to YOU.
2- When he did the sacrifice without Samuel (1 Samuel 13:8-9)
When the seven days' wait had passed facing the Philistines without Samuel making his appearance, and the people started slinking off in fear (leadership comes from the top, no?), Saul went ahead and sacrificed to the Lord- which he would have known better than to do had he any idea of what he was doing. If he had been truly ground in God, he would have remembered the not-that-long-ago tale of Gideon, who defeated the Midianites with half the men Saul had left. But he lost PATIENCE with Samuel- and through him, God. You aren't going to get a lot out of the Bible if you open it to a random page and demand God fill you in right then and there. Read with patience. Wait for God to get His point across.
3- When he pronounced his stupid curse (1 Samuel 14:24)
"Cursed is the man who eats any food until evening, before I have taken vengeance upon my enemies." How wrong could a man go in one sentence? He got cocky because they were winning in the early part of a battle- that was accomplished more by Jonathan his son acting in the will of God than anything Saul did; a self-defeating oath, guaranteeing his forces would get weaker as the day went on; "HIS" vengeance, "HIS" enemy, instead of the Lord's. His, his, his- the victory, the vengeance, the enemy- and his SON who almost paid the price, except for that common thread for Saul- he feared the people, who demanded that Saul couldn't kill the real hero of the battle.
You cannot get anything from reading the Bible if your purpose is me, me, me. Not anything that God actually WANTS you to see, that is. In all things of faith, God MUST come first.
4- His failure to obey God by killing all of Amalek (1 Samuel 15:24)
He was told BY GOD to kill everything of Amalek, from the king Agag down to the mangiest dog. However, he took the king prisoner, and let the people collect the choicest spoil. After Samuel lowered the boom on him, he finally confessed he did it "because I feared the people and obeyed their voice".
You aren't going to get anything out of your Bible if you are afraid to DO WHAT IT TELLS YOU because of what people might say. Without obedience, it's just a novel with some high and low spots. And excuses won't alleviate that responsibility. If you want the Bible unsealed to you, you must remember that every time you pick it up you will be taking on a responsibility.
5- The Spirit leaves him (1 Samuel 16:14)
This is how atheists and others can read it and find an evil, corrupt God, or contradictions, or cherry-picked items that seem to excuse all manner of behavior. You have to have the Holy Spirit within you, revealing each page like an onion being peeled, layer upon layer of meaning coming through every new time you look at a passage. Without Him, you not only aren't going to "get it", you are going to have an empty spot like Saul, just waiting to be filled with a "distressing spirit" that will lead you to destruction.
6- The song (1Samuel 18:7)
"Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands... Then Saul was very angry, and the saying displeased him; "They have ascribed ten thousands to David, and they have ascribed to me but thousands. What more can he have but the kingdom?"
One thing every non-Christian hates about the Bible is that it destroys his self-image. To the people who think good deeds are enough, it tells them no; to those who violate natural rules of sex and marriage, it calls their "lifestyle" abominable; to false teachers, it tells them they'd be better off at the bottom of the sea. If our self-image is more important than God, you might just as well read a comic book.
7- The witch (1 Samuel 28:7)
For a second, and more desperate time, Saul sought out the Lord's counsel when he was in over his head. And perhaps, if Saul TRULY knew God, and saw Him as "an ever-present help in time of trouble", and came repentant, and seeking God's WILL rather than His advice, He might yet have answered. That did not happen; and when he finished 'going through the motions' (" by dreams, or by the urim, or through the prophets"), he did as he would do when any other resource in his toolbox failed- he tried another one. In fact, he with full knowledge of what he was doing (for he, in a younger day, had cast the mediums out of Israel), did a complete 180 on God. That it worked was more to God's plan than his own- else why would the witch have screamed when "her seance" caused Samuel to appear?
If God is not speaking to you in Scripture, if He isn't answering you, look at how you are approaching Him. Is He the one you go to as "just another resource"? Will you try another way if you don't get the answer you want?
Martin Luther continued his resistance to Rome because every time they refuted him, they did NOT use Scripture but the teachings of men. If they had been WITH God, they would have seen in that one statement how they were failing the Faith. But it was their eyes that were sealed with seven seals-
They put their confidence in "the holy saints"-men instead of God.
They refused to even hear him out, only meeting with him to give HIM the chance to recant.
They feared the destruction of their power structure, and the source of their purse.
They feared to admit that ANYBODY with faith could be as discerning as they "were".
They did not fall upon the Spirit to guide them.
They refused to set down their places of pride, especially noted when Luther called upon the Pope to stand "as a stinking sinner" when he took Communion rather than sitting with a bowing Cardinal offering it to him.
And the stood with man instead of God- "The Scripture needs to be interpreted. And the Pope is the interpreter." (To which Luther replied, "His Holiness ABUSES Scripture!")
What seals do YOU put on the Bible? Do you read without confidence? Do you expect ready answers at your convenience? Do you come looking for God to tell you what YOU want? Are you afraid to put what you read into practice? Do you pray for guidance before opening the Book? Are you afraid to see yourself in it? Do you even believe it to be the truth? You CAN overcome those seals- but only by putting God first and the rest of the people second. Saul never did.
It's the early morning of August 4th, 1970, and we find the Doors' Jim Morrison peacefully sleeping- on the front porch of an elderly lady named Elenor Brough. After trying to wake him up with no luck, she called the police to dispose of the unconscious Lizard King. Imagine this happening in this day and age- not so much the "Morrison wouldn't be able to get away from Paparazzi" angle, but think of the wicked selfies Elenor could have taken....
"An' all the money I'd have had to pay to get them destroyed. Whew!"
And with that, we move merrily on to this week's Time Machine- a week in which the Panel battle was a two-song game of "anything you can do, I can do better", with almost 63% of the vote split between them! Also getting from the Supremes to Stevie Wonder- through the Stones and Peter Frampton! And a bit about the difference between a Billboard chart and a Cashbox chart! And, a cameo by Wayne Newton! Get yer mojo risin' and let's go!
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This is one of those rare occasions that a currently charting single on today's Billboard charts actually makes the M10! The Killers have nine top 10 alternative songs, and this week they sit at #7 with a song that comes onto the M10 at #10...
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This week's 70-station Panel started out with a five-song dogfight that quickly turned into a two-song classic that was decided by virtually the last two votes! So let's get this started with our POTMs, Denny Zager and Rick Evans! Thanks for stopping in, guys.
Denny: Delighted. Rick: Thank you, Chris.
Now I read that you guys got your start in the musical wasteland that is Nebraska...
Rick: "Wasteland"'s a bit unfair... Denny: Really? It's 47 years later and all we have is 311, Mannheim Steamroller, and Randy Meisner. Rick: Well, Randy was with the Eagles... Denny: Randy got FIRED from the Eagles...
How about I just apologize for my... er, unfortunate turn of phrase and let you guys do the Panel Picks.
Denny: Not a problem. Our first contestant is Mashmakhan, with their hit As The Years Go By, which actually is a couple weeks away from getting national notation. Rick: Next is Freda Payne's Band Of Gold, which was #5 on Cashbox this week. Denny: An odd choice from one station- or multiples, I guess, because you really shouldn't know it only got the one vote yet- is a song by the Youngbloods called Darkness Darkness. It peaked at #87 for 2 weeks in May, so this goes in Chris's "Didn't get the memo" category. Rick: Mungo Jerry was at #10 nationally with In The Summertime. Denny: Jeez, who did the alphabetizing here? You've got the Carpenters with Close To You here between the Is and the Ls! Rick: Well, it does start with the subtitle "They Long To Be..." Denny: So instead of 3 places wrong one way, it would be five wrong in the other direction! Rick: I was just trying to help... Denny: ANYway, that song by either title or any other misspelling you want to bring in, sits at Cashbox's #1 spot. Rick: Robin McNamara was at # 8 with Lay A Little Loving On Me. Denny: Bread was at #2 with Make It With You. Rick: Three Dog Night gets on the Panel picks this week, too! They were at #11 with Mama Told Me (Not To Come). Denny: Clarence Carter was at #27 with Patches. I always liked Strokin' better. Rick: Denny, that song is nasty! Denny: Oh, don't be a sissy. Take yer turn. Rick:(Grumbles) Eric Burdon and War were at mmmbl mmbl mutter... Denny: I can't HEAR you... Rick: I SAID ERIC Burdon and War were at #4 with Spill The Wine. I am NOT a sissy! Denny: Oh, grow up. Chicago was at #22 with 25 or 6 to 4. Rick: And Edwin Starr was at # 9 with War.
Wow, great job, guys! So now let me thin the herd a bit As I said, at the very start, five songs were going at it pretty good, until two of them broke away. So that five were by Mungo Jerry, the Carpenters, Bread, Edwin Starr, and War. In other words, 5 of the 7 CB top 10s. So make your pick, and if you are nice, I might even narrow it down to the Big Two after while.
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So if you were paying attention at all, you might just have said to yourself, "I'll bet last week's clue...
...might have been referring to the Carpenters..."
And you would be right- they were in that 15th-place tie in our countdown of the top acts of Summer! Following them at #14 was another "one song wonder" in our countdown:
...Bill Haley and his Comets! Say, is that second-lowest dude Eddie Haskell? Maybe not. Anyhow...
Starting this from the fifties as I did, there are a lot of old time acts like that one that hung in the top ten for a loooong time before dropping back. And one of them, the one at #13, is the highest female soloist...
...Connie Francis!!!! Next, an act that added old hits to a later comeback to make #12....
...Paul Anka!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And rounding out the list for this week... with just two more times left to go- at #11....
...another act that combined older and newer to make the list, the Bee Gees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Next week- or actually in two weeks- we start the top ten, and one of the acts is in amongst the Panel Picks this week!
Two weeks, you say? Yes, because next week is the Mighty Martin Vacation 2017 and all yer gonna get is an M10 update... if I get to it!
And speaking of the M10, here is a debut at #9, the second M10 hit for Amber Bain, AKA The Japanese House...
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So coming up in the StatPack at the #101 this week is a tune by Vanity Fare (Early In The Morning, Hitching A Ride) called (I Remember) Summer Morning. It peaked later on at #61 on CB- but only at #98 on Billboard. Why the discrepancy?
Well, in researching this, I found a LOT of comments by former record store owners who said CB reflected their sales a LOT more accurately than the Billboard charts, who would climb songs slower and then drop them precipitously. This was because for most of their ME competition, CB weighed especially the top end on sales, while BB was a bit more airplay heavy.
One famous example of that discrepancy was the Beatles I Saw Here Standing There. BB charted it at #14- while CB had it at #100 -yes, one hundred- for one lousy week. The source that pointed that out (and I confirmed) also added, " Now you may be tempted to say that it had something to do with the fact that it was a B side, but the problem there is that all of the other B sides of the period, and all of the other Beatles B sides, charted fairly similarly on Billboard and Cashbox. This discrepancy sticks out like a sore thumb."
There are others- like the Spinners and Dionne Warwick on Then Came You. It hit number one on both charts- but three weeks apart, and it was #43 on CB when BB put it at the top.
But the biggest difference came in December 1992, and it involves our good buddy, Wayne Newton. Come on in Wayne...
YEAH! Back again!
The story goes that on a concert series in Vegas, a depressed Elvis Presley wrote some lines down in a letter, which he threw away. People being what they are, and Elvis being Elvis, somebody fished the letter out of the trash, and eventually it got shown to Wayne, who turned it into a song called The Letter.
On Cashbox- which in the 90's was in deep disarray- it hit #1 and spent 30 weeks on the chart, with a subscript of "curb album cut", whatever that means. But nowhere on any BB chart- nor anyone else's chart anywhere- did this song appear. Speculations as to how this could happen are a dime a dozen, but whatever it was, it was the greatest chart discrepancy between the two ever.
NOTE: I just jumped back in time to let you know that you're choices are between the #1 song by the Carpenters and the #2 song from Bread. Okay, see you in as little bit!
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6D time, and we start out with the song Ain't No Mountain High Enough. This was done twice by Diana Ross- once as a duet between the Supremes and the Temptations, and once as her first solo hit. Among the chorus singers- and there were quite a few- on this second cover were Brenda Evans and Billie Calvin, two ladies who would later make up 2/3 of The Undisputed Truth. They had the big hit with Smiling Faces Sometimes- which would have been a Temps hit, except they recorded it sung by Eddie Kendricks, who would walk out mid-show before it could be released, and they had nobody who could do Eddie's part on tour. In fact, they lost Eddie right after Just My Imagination hit the top. And that tune in turn was covered by the Rolling Stones on Some Girls in 1978. The year before, with the band in flux over legal problems involving Keith, Mick added vocals to Peter Frampton's cover of Signed Sealed Delivered, an old Stevie Wonder hit that was not only Stevie's first Grammy nomination, not only the first single with his female backup group featuring future wife Syreeta Wright, not only the first single he produced himself- but, at #3 this week in 1970, our 6D victim.
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Stat Pack part two: The Dells, best known for their two versions, 10 years apart, of their doo-wop hit O What A Nite, were our #70 in '70 with Long Lonely Nights. The UK #1 was Elvis with The Wonder Of You, and Mungo Jerry had the biggest hit simultaneously on both sides, with In The Summertime being #10 here and #6 there.
Oh, and I'm up to 52 songs I knew on the hot 100.
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Finishing the M10:
Amber Coffman at #8, up one, with No Coffee.
Northern Faces climb 3 to #7 with Cops Come.
Bantug up 2 to #6 with Wine Beeline.
Two songs arrest their fall and move back up. courtship. does it with Sunroof going back to #5, and Quiet Hollers returns to #3 with Funny Ways.
Public Access TV will need that trick next week, as Monaco slips to #4.
Moving into the runner-up spot is Cotton Mather with Girl With A Blue Guitar.
And at the top for a second week:
...Foster The People with Sit Next To Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The last two weeks 1 year ago a song that I had told myself, "Either this goes nowhere or straight to the top," was at #1- Agnes Obel's Familiar. Foster The People, of whom I said much the same about initially, repeats that trick these last two weeks.
Oh, I completely forgot to let you know the Big Two, didn't I? Let me go back in time and fix that. There, all better. Who did you pick? The winner is....
The Carpenters!!!! that means that, in two weeks, I'll have Karen Carpenter on Time Machine!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am tres excited! Tune in next week for a quick M10 update, and be here in two for 1971!
ITEM: Bobby G reminded me that this is the anniversary- the 73rd, in fact- of the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis in WWII- an uprising her "brave" allies, Britain and the US, decided to aid the James 2:16 method (16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?). This allowed the Soviets to hang back and let the Polish "Home Army" get slaughtered (despite being a stone's throw from the battle) so they could have an easier time mopping up the rest. I found it ironic in light of a story I found last night:
The Russian government has warned Poland that it will face sanctions if it removes monuments glorifying the Soviet victory in World War Two. Last month Poland updated its "de-communisation" legislation, banning "totalitarian" symbols, which would include Soviet propaganda monuments. Now Russian foreign ministry officials have warned of "asymmetric measures" if Poland removes Soviet war monuments. Russia could refuse visas for Polish officials or downgrade trade relations. The officials, quoted by the Russian daily Izvestia, were not named.
This is pretty much equivalent to the tornado threatening to come back if you call your insurance agent, because you should be happy for your lowered property tax. Hey, Poland, let me answer the "unnamed Russian official" for you:
(Note: Since one of the comments on yesterday's spam post was a spam comment, wouldn't it be funny if an unnamed Russian official replied to THIS one?)
ITEM: Apparently the only real qualification for being "far-right" or "far-left" is being "far-stupid". Take for example this story.
A fake news blog created by German university researchers found an eager audience among far-right sympathisers who shared racially charged stories. The experiment by Hohenheim University researchers set up four fake profiles on Facebook. One false story claimed that asylum seekers were having free sex with prostitutes funded by a local council. That story reached 11,000 people within four days and was shared more than 150 times, German SWR radio reported. Many readers reacted indignantly to the "news" about free prostitutes for asylum seekers. Few Facebook users spotted that the place where it was allegedly happening - Bad Eulen - does not exist.
So my question is, were they upset because the local governments were "paying" for it, or that THEY weren't getting any freebies?
"Don't mind them, boys. I'm reasonable... and I take Euros!"
ITEM: You know you're washed up when this looks like a good publicity move...
The internet has gone udderly wild for a Texas calf's uncanny resemblance to Kiss frontman Gene Simmons. The baby cow, named Genie, was born on Friday at a ranch in Kerrville, Texas, and even likes to stick out its tongue like the rocker. Hill Country Visitor, a tourism agency that promotes the region of Texas Hill, shared the image on Facebook, joking that Simmons could be the father. Simmons himself was delighted, tweeting: "This is real, folks!!!"
I wonder if the ranch has a cat that looks like Peter Criss....
ITEM: I suppose I really should say something about the hiring and firing of ephemeral Press Sec Anthony Scaramucci, in all fairness, but only two things come to mind. First, swiftness of his self-inflicted foot wound prolly sets him up to be the fastest gun in the Beltway. Second, if we learned one thing about the Management style of President Trump, it is that he delegates vetting to Baron. BBC had a fun look on the subject- a list of empowered people who had similarly short reigns at the top. In descending order, their list included:
Pope John Paul I- 33 days. Either from a heart attack or foul play. Back in the day I read the book In God's Name, which made a fascinating albeit circumstantial case for his murder.
President William Henry Harrison- 32 days. I am quite overdue for a new round of WHH-bashing. His last words are rumoured (by me) to be, "I never wanted this damn job anyway. Good luck, Johnny..."
Alan Fishman, CEO of Washington Mutual for 17 days. Just in time for the whole thing to go down the tubes. It reminds me of a joke going around when International Harvester/Navistar was preparing to go belly-up, and a story about possible Japanese buyers made the rounds. "Did you hear about our new company symbol?" the story went. "A rising sun over a sinking ship."
Jack Koehler, the previous holder of Scaramucci's dubious record- 11 days. It came out he was in the "Nazi Boy Scouts" as a kid. Apparently the Gipper let Bonzo vette that one.
Lady Jane Grey- 9 days as Queen of England before the well-to-dos decided they'd rather her Catholic cousin Mary instead. My Mom always used to ask, "Who do you think you are? Lady Jane?" I never realized she meant, "You're putting your neck in the guillotine doing that!"
David van Rooyen, South African Finance minister, 4 days. The old FM got sacked in 2015, then President Zuma thought better of it, brought the old guy back- and he's still there.
Emperor Duc Duc (I kid you not) of Vietnam- 3 days. This was 134 years ago two weeks back. I guess he "duc"ed the first two days and got "goosed" the third.
Joseph Goebbels, Chancellor of Germany for 1 day. In between Hitler blowing what passed for his brains out, and Goebbels following suit. His rumoured (by me) last words were, "I didn't want this damn job anyway. Good luck, Karl..."
King Louis XIX of France- 20 minutes. The time it took after his daddy Charles X was encouraged to find alternate employment in 1830 and his decision to follow in Daddy's carriage-prints.
And finally, the winnah and still champeen-
Leroy Rosenior, soccer coach for ten minutes. The time elapsed between him being named manager of Torquay United in 2007, and a consortium buying the team and sacking everybody. They were coming off a 7 win- 25- loss season and were getting relegated clear to the fifth level that year, so it was prolly a good career move. At least he went undefeated.
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.
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