A few walks

First we start with, what do you see when you walk in 85 degree (that would be "thank God for the breeze" in Celsius) weather?

A dog that doesn't mind taking a break for a change...

Most of the birds sitting quietly in the trees to catch more breeze...

...and believe it or not, NOW they're playing lacrosse!

 

Next day, a little later, a little cooler...

...and deer in the back field!

I knew one was a buck, he snorted at us.

See his little horn nubs coming in?

What we didn't see- till we got home- was the FOUR of them!



All right, we're outta here!
 

But, Chris?  What do you see on a nice cool morning when you get a day off?

No better church than nature.  Everything is a preacher; everywhere is a pulpit.

First time in the river since the surgery.

The front lines...



One deer today, a little guy that Scrappy missed because he was intent on sniffing where it was ten minutes ago.

And the latest "Unusual fungi of 2013" contestant.

Time Machine week 68

It's May 17th, 1971.  With much of the world recovering from celebrating Chris Martin's birthday the day before, much is quiet.  Perhaps in belated honor of the occasion, Paul McCartney released his long-awaited solo lp, Ram.  Washington State either passed a law or added to it, I couldn't really determine which, that added (or included) gender as a basis upon which an employer could not discriminate- in either event, they were the first state to extend such protection to women.  And the responsibility for protecting people from unnecessary radiation exposure from household electronics passed from the purview of the Public Health Service to the FDA.   Not sure how the Food and Drug Administration latches on to household radiation, but I assure you the birthday cake WAS NOT radioactive.

Welcome to a very  somewhat kinda special Time Machine, in which we'll meet and greet the spring '13 class of the Martin Hall Of Fame!  We'll also test out a brand-new feature- and since that packs a lot of unusual stuff into the show, I decided to have Laurie pick one of the usual features to actually do this week.  She picked Where Are They Now, and hit one of my favorite singers in the bargain!

So let's start off with a couple of categories worth of MHOF inductees.  Two new acts in the category of golden oldies:

With twenty-one top 40 hits and the mammoth #1 Mac The Knife, Bobby Darin!

And with 5 top 40's, one of the best doo-wop bands of all, The Duprees!

Moving off to the Chris' Choice category:

With 8 top 40s and a #1 to his credit, Harry Nilsson!

And a newer, modern-rock act with 8 top 40's and a #1 on that chart, Better Than Ezra!

ah oh, it was good, livin' with you....

Our hot 100 this week had 16 debuts, of which I shall cast the spotlight on five.  Coming in at 98, the Five Man Electrical Band comes down from the great white north to give us Signs.  Just one spot higher, the Fortunes with Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling; Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds come in at 85 with Don't Pull Your Love; just one spot above that, Carole King with It's Too Late.  And after a bunch of newbies who's names made me think I was losing my memory, we have at 56 the Osmonds with Double Lovin'.

We kick off our birthday songs with a pair of not so big but still great hits that turn 30- Linda Ronstadt's Easy For You To Say, and Gary Portnoy with the Cheers theme, Where Everybody Knows Your Name.  Turning 35, Walter Egan's one-hit wonder Magnet And Steel, Steve Martin and the Toot-Uncommons with (can you guess?) King Tut, Quincy Jones' Stuff Like That (sung by Ashford and Simpson and Chaka Khan), and for those of us that enjoy disrespecting other peoples' faith, Billy Joel's Only The Good Die Young.  (Can't wait to see how that "crying with the sinners" works out for you, Bill.)

Turning 40, Three Dog Night's Shambala, Pink Floyd's Money, Paul Simon's Kodachrome, ELO's Roll Over Beethoven, and something that caught my eye- a tune called Love Music by Sergio Mendes and Brasil '77.  It seems Sergio has changed the band's name a few times, originally having been Brasil '65, and '99 and 2000 later on.  Why in 1973 he decided to make it Brasil '77, though, I don't quite know.

But go back to 1968, wherein lie the songs that turn 45, and you'll see he was at Brasil '66 with The Look Of Love.  Also turning 45 are Aretha Franklin's Think and the Animals with Sky Pilot. And turning 50 this week, the incomparable Bobby Vinton with Blue On Blue.  Blow out the candles...

Our next category is Not Quite Rock'N'Roll.  And there we have:

With 10 #1s on the country charts, the late  great George Jones!

And with 15 top 40s and 3 #1s, Percy Faith and Orchestra!





Last week I used the phrase "45s on 45" and said, hmm, sounds like a good title for a feature!  So this week I kick off the first 45 on 45, where we'll look 45 years ago to 1968 (when I was a young and innocent 1st grader) and see what's at #45.  This week, we get a song that has been featured in a long forgotten six degrees- Richard Harris singing MacArthur Park.  Harris was a wild 'n crazy film star, who'd had big roles in movies such as Mutiny On The Bounty and Camelot, and decided to do a few records.  He expressed this to songwriter Jimmy Webb, whom he met at a fundraiser.  Webb thought him kidding, but a few weeks later Richard popped around looking for songs.  He picked MacArthur Park- an autobiographical song about the end of the relationship between Webb and Linda Ronstadt's sister -which had been turned down by the Association.  Harris rode it all the way to #2- but his other three releases never got past #41.

However, I'm going to have to find a better PLACE for it, because this is where the WATN feature comes in!  (What about the big dropper/big climber?  Be patient...)  This week begins the feature's shift to the #51 slot, where we find the first single by Boz Scaggs, We Were Always Sweethearts.  Despite the talent of the man, popularity has always been hit and miss.  The biggest hit being the 1975 lp Silk Degrees.  After 1980's Middle Man, he went into a hiatus of about 8 years before his next lp, Other Roads.  That album had his last top 40 hit, Heart Of Mine (peaked at 35), and came soon on the heels of the OD death of his son Oscar.  It would be another 6 years before 1994's Some Change, which began a very productive time- he would put out ten lps between then and now; the latest, Memphis (which was released in March and peaked at 17), after a 5-year drought.  In between growing grapes and making wine with wife Dominique, he's been on tour with The Dukes Of September Rhythm Revue, which is himself, Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, and former Steely Dan mate and Doobie bro Michael McDonald.

All right, you wanna know about the big movers?  Right after I give you the new inductees to the girl's wing of the MHOF!

With 5 top 40s and a #1, Yvonne Elliman!!!

With 20 top 40s and 4 top dogs, the late Donna Summer!

And, with 11 top 40s and a #1, Leslie Gore!



First, I'd like to thank the...uhh...WHOSE hall of fame?

The big mover up actually was kept out of the top 40 by the big dropper!  Up 21 spots (beating out a pair of 20's) to #41 was Rainy Days And Mondays by the Carpenters, kept out of the top 40 by Paul McCartney's Another Day falling 29 spots from 11 to 40.  Another first here on TM!!

Newbies in the top 40 this week include Paul Humphrey and the Cool-Aid Chemists with their hit Cool-Aid, climbing 34 to #39.  Not familiar with Mr. Humphrey?  Among his accomplishments as a jazz drummer and sideman, he was the drummer for Lawrence Welk from 1976-82.  New MHOFer Yvonne Elliman cracks the forty hard, with her version of I Don't Know How To Love Him blasting up 14 spots to #38 (while Helen Reddy's climbs from 37 to 31). After ten weeks- a space so long, I forgot it was in the countdown- The Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose finally make the 40, climbing 12 with Treat Her Like A Lady.  The Partridge Family blast up 19 with I'll Meet You Halfway.  Diana Ross' cover of Reach Out I'll Be There moves up 14 to land at 34, and her former bandmates, the Supremes, come in at 33, up 17, with Nathan Jones.  Finally, with one of the songs that moved up 20, the Chi-Lites with (For God's Sake) Give More Power To The People at 29.

 

 

 

The Men's category brings us three more new members:

 

With 47 top 40's and 10 (count 'em) #1s, Stevie Wonder!

 

With 14 top 40s and 4 #1s, George Harrison!

 

And with 21 top 40s and 2 #1s, Glen Campbell!

 

 

I think I need a small vacation... but it don't look like rain...

 

Before we move on, here's an almost but not quite shoutout to our favorite victim of cannibalism, Timothy by the Buoys.  They held at 13 these past two weeks.  So, Bobby G., do you think that the rest of the band will turn into Wendigoes?

 

Dropping from the top ten this week, I Am... I Said (7 to 23) and Power To The People (10 to 15).


And now, the Big Name category!

With 15 top 40s and 3 #1s, Simon and Garfunkel!

With 29 top 40s and 2 top dogs, The Miracles!

And finally, with 17 top 40s and a #1, The Spinners!!

And there you have them, the class of 2013a!

So let me get this straight... there's no cash prize?
 

And now, a somewhat familiar top ten...

New MHOFer Stevie Wonder drops back to ten with We Can Work It Out.

Up five notches to #9 are the oh-so-politically correct Rolling Stones with Brown Sugar.

The Doors are up to #8, a 4-notch climb for Love Her Madly.

Daddy Dewdrop climbs a spot to #7 with Chick-A-Boom (Don' Yew Jes' Luv It).

See if you can guess the key word from here:

Bread                 HOLDS at 6 with If.

Aretha Franklin HOLDS at 5 with Bridge Over Troubled Water.

The Bells           HOLD at 4 with Stay Awhile.

Ocean ebbs a notch to 3 with Put Your Hand In The Hand.

The Jackson Five move up that notch to #2 with Never Can Say Goodbye.

And at #1 as they say in Estonian (more or less)...

 

 

 ....Kolm Koer Ohtul koos Rõõmu Maailma!!!!!

 

 

(Which is either "Three Dog Night with Joy To The World", or "why is your dog copulating with my sofa?")

 

 

Stay tooned for the sequel, "101 Ottomans..."

 

See you here next week with a slightly more normal Time Machine... I guess... just in case, you should bone up on your Afrikaans!



Turning 51...

...is, as I type, just 23 hours and five minutes away.  So once again, I try to ignore the stiffness in my back, the soreness in my right foot and calf, and my ever-blurring eyes to load up on the reasons I should be delighted I'm one year into the second half of the Martin century.  So I went on a site that told me what celebrities are currently 51.

"Little" Al Unser, Jr.  Not a bad start.
Boy George.  Uhhhmmm...
AJ Feely.  My son could tell you how much I appreciate this former incompetent Miami Dolphin QB; that would explain why he's under Boy George.
Barack Obama.  That's it, I'm done here.

Next, I had to wade through 50,000 posts of how 51- year-old actor Doug Hutchinson just married his 16-year-old girlfriend.

Yeah... good luck with that.
 

But I did managed to get past her chest those posts to find a small plethora (a plethorita?) of factoids.

At the age of 51 (which starts the last age category), I should be consuming 3 cups of dairy a day.  Of course, I should have been doing that in the 19-30 and 31-50 age groups, too.

At the age of 51, two months ago former NFL RB Herschel Walker announced he'd like to fight in the UFC.  I think I'd rather be Doug Hutchinson.

At the age of 51, Gordie Howe began his last season in the NHL.  With the then-Hartford Whalers, he scored 15 goals and 26 assists in 80 games.  It was the most games in a season in his career, and his third-lowest point total.  In fact, he had 5 seasons where he topped 41 just in goals.

At the age of 51, Bilbo Baggins was on his quest in Lord Of The Rings.  But gravity was less back then.

The world's oldest living horse, Shayne, died in February.  He was 51.

Oddly enough, he lived in the same town as the world's oldest living dog (Pip, a terrier whippet cross that is supposedly 24).  Something in the water?


The average age in the Western world for the onset of menopause is 51.  Well, there's one I don't have to worry about.

On the bright side, I am younger than 85 out of 100 US Senators, 305 US Congressmen, and 42 governors.  Buncha old fogies, anyway.

One site says I should have saved a minimum of $455,000 by now.  Of course, that's based on a yearly income of $65,000.  Using as a multiplier what I've made the past few years, that would work it's way down to $122,847.19.  Sorry to say, I'm WELL short of that, but I did buy a Powerball this morning.  However, another site says if I'd put 50 cents in my piggy bank every day since I turned three, I'd have $8,765.50, and I DO have that beat.


One site, called Poke my birthday, said this when I put in May 16th, 1962:
You are exactly 51 years 1 week 5 days 20 hours 18 minutes 42 seconds old.

Which means they are either one week, 5 days, 42 hours, 46 minutes, and 42 seconds in the future, or they suck at telling time.


And me?  I'm still here, still stiff and sore (I'll tell you about taking a walk at 85 degrees later), a bit ashamed about my post whining yesterday, and appreciative of all the birthday wishes I've gotten so far and those who are waiting till tomorrow to lower the boom.

And Lord?  I was just kidding about the "Martin CENTURY"....

Lotsa grouchy bits, vol. 1

ITEM:  Yes, I'm grouchy, I've had comments from ONE person (thanks, Bobby) since I put up comment moderation.  I guess I need to go back to my old "who cares if anyone's listening" mindset and accept that summertime's coming in the US of A and people just aren't going to be around as must.  But right now, my last post has 4 views and the spam-ridden Time Machine Week 27 from last August has 10 today.  Maybe I should just thank Al Gore for all the pageviews...

ITEM:  I'm also grouchy at those who claim to be my fellow conservative leaning people who know Obutthole was a mistake.  Let's see:  Benghazi?  We didn't know what was happening at the time...   IRS?  Oh, it was just a small group of low level employees... in the ONE site in the entire country that does tax-exempt applications?  But no harm was done... except when certain "low level" employees sent the mined info to a left wing journalist training ground called Pro Publica, who "accidently" published info knowing it was illegal to have it?  Oh, wait, we didn't know about the IRS...  AP gate?  Oh, that was a DEPUTY attorney general what did that... Fast and Furious?  Oh, that was a DEPUTY attorney general what did that.

Okay, enough defaming defining the character of the current administration.  My beef is with the RINO voters who ALLOWED this to happen because Romney wasn't candidate enough for them.  If you didn't go vote, then quit whining.  I voted, I'm allowed.

ITEM: One last political note:  Nixon used the IRS against his enemies, too- and he probably wasn't the only one.  But he's a monster, the "Bogey Man" of presidents.  Obutthole will skate, Democrats always do.  And liberals- even those I consider intelligent, and friends, will not say a word about it.  Just like they won't say anything about that soulless monster Kermit Gosnell, because if they had the courage to speak out against a man that cuts the spinal cords of newborns and calls it abortion, they'd have to step on the sacred cow of "a woman's right to choose".  That's why we need to get those morning-after pills to six-year-olds.  Liberals, if I have wronged you, use the comment section.  As long as you don't end your post with, "here is my website:  Vactionsinsiberia.com"  I'll publish you.

ITEM:  On to the next thing that pisses me off:

This clown spent an hour eating bird seed and practicing acrobatics.   A dozen times, I said "Scrappy, he's back!"  and a dozen times he came back.  I yelled, "Get the H outta there!" and he came back.  Each time he'd hide behind the shed until we left, or at most ran up the nearby tree, until we went in.  Then back up he went, and the most Scrappy accomplished is making him almost fall.  Finally I threatened to go behind the shed with Scrappy and he bounded off like a bunny goosed by a deer to one of the pine trees.  About 15 minutes later I let Scrappy out for his after dinner poop, and there he was at the pine tree... watching.  "I see you," I told him, and he at last got the message.

ITEM:  Now to rant about sports.  First, I know that it's common to get hurt in Baseball, but (sorry Skippy)  here's Bryce Harper showing how much disengaging your brain can add to it:




One jammed shoulder, eleven stitches to the chin.  And it wasn't even as a result of a graceful catch.

ITEM:  Sports #2:  Quick look at Aussie hockey.  Saturday, Adelaide knocked off the Ice 6-4.  Britt Ouellette had 2 first period goals to put Ad (Adelaide or Adrenaline, either one's too long) up 2-1.  Melbourne's Joseph Hughes scored a shorthanded goal to put the Ice up 3-2, but the Ad's tied it after 2 at 4-4, and finished it off with a pair from Luc Blain and Josef Rezek.

Melbourne's Mustangs won, though.  They rolled out 55 shots on 2 Canberra goalies to win 5-1.  Jack McCoy (not the one played by Sam Waterston)  got 2 goals in a 4-goal 3rd for the 'Stangs.

And the Sydney Bears got a pair of 2nd-period goals and held on to top Newcastle 2-1.

Sunday, the wormed turned in a second match between the Ad's and the Ice.  Adelaide's New Zealander goalie Rick Parry gave up 4 goals on just 9 first period shots, and not surprisingly left trailing 4-0.  His replacement is "veteran" Peter King, who has logged 15 games in a seven-year career as the Ads backup.  Joseph Hughes scored twice, including another shorthanded score, and Jason Baclig and of course Matt Armstrong did likewise in the 9-3 rout.

Canberra found a new star in one Jordan Baird.  Fresh from 3 seasons in the Southern League in the US of A, where he won a championship in 2012 with the Columbus, GA, Cottonmouths, he got a natural hat (three goals in a row), and it was just enough to give Canberra a 4-3 win and Newcastle their second loss of the weekend.  And Matt Puntereri matched the 'Stangs' Pat O'Kane's two goals with two of his own- one into an empty net at the end- to give the Ice Dogs of Sydney a 4-2 win over Melbourne.

The Ice now have a one-point lead over the Ice Dogs, with Newcastle dropping 4 points back.  Maybe Newcastle should start calling themselves the Ice Stars instead of the North Stars...

ITEM:  Alex Ovechkin is complaining that the refs were against his Washington Capitals team as the NY Rangers knocked them out in the first round last night.  And there is something in what he says- ever since the NFL used replacement refs, every major sport has had poor refereeing.  Baseball is this week trying to live down three incidents of umpires screwing up badly in just two weeks, with at least five men in blue fined and one getting a two game suspension.  But before we call to hang the refs high here, let's just look at Ovechkin's playoff record in Washington, shall we?

2006- Missed playoffs.
2007- Missed playoffs.
2008- Lost in first round.
2009- Lost in 2nd round.
2010- Lost in first round.
2011- Lost in 2nd round.
2012- Lost in 2nd round.
2013- Lost in 1st round.

So, you see, there is as much evidence against the officials here as there is that Ovechkin is a crybaby who is just a little more upset than usual that his golf game is back.

Look on the bright side... we'd have kicked your butts next round anyway!

I didn't wants to do it, or the Weekend

Well, the weekend came early, as for the second straight day we got sent home early Friday.  And now you're thinking, here comes some pretty good stories, some great pictures, and, of course, a full run down on Aussie hockey. 

0-for-3.

We went out with Laurie's family to celebrate our birthdays Friday night at a new Chinese place.  It was good food, good conversation afterwards, but other than the running gag about one buffet item called shrimp balls, nothing of blogworthy entertainment value.  When we got home, though, we did look into the factoid that her dad had been aboard a ship called the USS Edson- a subject he never talked about, and they wouldn't have known as much as the name had there not been a plaque lying around somewhere with both their names on it.   So we did some looking up, and turns out the good ship was a destroyer that hit the seas in 1959-60 and did several tours of duty in and around Vietnam.  We also learned her dad was a sonar tech/ senior CPO on board starting in "1965-6" but with no off date.  It looked like the standard tour was 7 years, though, which means he would have been around for a medal winning search and rescue of a downed training plane, providing cover for a truck convoy near the Gulf of Tonkin, and just maybe he was in on being strafed by his own airforce, who one day in 1968, shot at the Edson and a few other American and Aussie ships.

The best part, the one that I would have said, "Yeah, with Bob on board, that makes sense", he missed out on by a couple of years- the ship was prominently featured in episode #104 of The Twilight Zone, in 1963.

Saturday we slept in (research on the Edson till 2:45 AM), and Sunday KC came over.  In an effort to stand out among the many birthday wishes Laurie got on Facebook, his said, "Merry birthday."  We watched baseball, listened to some music, and were entertained by the melodic sounds of Scrappy's butt.

So, not a bad birthday weekend (mine is Thursday, BTW), just not real noteworthy.  Just pleasant.

Next, I'd like to address the first part of my title.  I said on this week's Time Machine (Get over there and read it, darn you!) that I had thought about and discarded for the time being the idea of comment moderation.  And if you comment today (...) you'll see I have indeed launched it.  Don't fear, as long as you aren't a spam comment complete with hyperlink, you'll get past the censor (I know him personally).  But Friday I was looking at my stats and saw that the post I mentioned in last week's TM, from back in August, had 97 pageviews THAT WEEK and had pushed into 4th place all time- and a very high percentage of that was spam.  In fact, if you looked at the "in the last week" right now, you'd see it's nearly beating the next four posts COMBINED.  I looked further, and saw that a lot of those phony views came from Current TV's website, which is now graced with a big, "Coming soon, Al-Jazeera America" sign. I guess that Al Gore must have suggested spam links as an appropriate form of "viewer-driven" advertising, but how they hooked onto a post that featured Hurricane Celia, Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, and the Carpenters is beyond me.

Another one that intrigued me is how a guy (you'll see how I know) found his way to this passage in my inaugural Great Sixties Countdown:

Now one thing I need to say right off the top- good songs got left off.  Can't be helped.  Did everything get into the right order?  Well... mostly.  How could I not have (song name here) on my list?  Either A) I had no room, B) I don't know it, C) I missed the damn thing in either research or writing down, or D) I don't like it.  If you get curious about a song (it's possible presence or lack thereof), feel free to shoot me a comment.  I'll say A) it missed the cut and why, B) what the hell is that, C) Crap!  I need to put that in right there, or D) tough titties. Or E) be patient, it's coming up. 

by searching for this:

justynwife big tits

Yesterday, a movie site called Film Hill was in on the scam parade, but seems to have dropped off.

One of the plethora of no-comments was this one:

Today, I went to the beachfront with my children. I found a sea shell and gave it to my
4 year old daughter and said "You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear." She put the
shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear.

She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is completely off
topic but I had to tell someone!

Feel free to visit my homepage: rival


Rival actually links to some woman's profile on Plurk, which is like a blog/twitter hybrid that is heavily used in Taiwan.  In fact, it would seem very few of the links go where they say.  One went to a closed account on some Facebook wanna-be called moodle; two different no-comments claimed to go to sites that would improve your vertical jump, but the only one that went somewhere exercise-related was the hyperlink "Seattle mortgage loans".  So in conclusion, don't click on hyperlinks because they don't know where they came from or where they are going.

Meanwhile, here's some pics to entertain yourself with:

Babies!!!

 

 

 

Dumb butt of the year trying to break his neck getting at an empty seed bell.

 

This was right after a chipmunk ran out in front of him and scared him spitless.

Okay, this took longer than I thought, so I'll be saving the Aussie hockey story for next time when I might actually have the two still-missing box scores for this week!  Remember to put in nominations for the Martin Hall Of Fame for this week's Time Machine!  Or do ya wanna I ask Al Gore ta do it?

Sunday message

Sometimes you must think, Chris, why do you do this?  The "choir" already knows the things you say, and the others just quit reading at the title.  And it's interesting that I was just about to start this when I saw on my list a post from my friend Shirley at Thinking Out Loud.  One of the things she observed in meditation on the goal of the Ten Commandments was the meaning of "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."  Somehow, we have been distracted from the true meaning of this by an injunction on cursing.  The truth means more; it means that when you take of the Lord's Word, to not do it vainly; to do it in such a way that bears fruit.

So, again you ask, how do you bear fruit when the congregation is in the know and the sinners won't listen?  Well, to the second, my job is to put the Word out there for them; what they do or don't do with it is between them and God; I have to be faithful to what I am called.  But the congregation?  This week I got six good reasons to "preach to the choir".  (Remembering I am a part of said choir.)

First was Monday, 2 Timothy 4.  Paul tells Timothy, Preach the Word!  And warns him that along will come/have come/are coming those who will not accept sound doctrine; as Shirley said, a good example (and one I've been hammering at) is the concept of hell, and the idea "a loving God wouldn't etc., etc."  Preaching has to start with sound doctrine, and not leaving things like judgment out "because it might offend someone."  From Matthew 7:

¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Paul goes on to explain it is better to preach the sound doctrine and turn people away than to tell them what they want to hear and have GOD turn them away.

On Tuesday, we find Saul's ignominious death in I Chronicles 10.  And the end of the chapter told us why he died such an ignoble death- he failed to inquire of the Lord.  He went to his preacher (Samuel), to a medium, and relied on his own foolish judgment, but never once do you see him truly inquire of the Lord.  Hearing a preacher teaching sound doctrine IS inquiring of the Lord- if you take the next step, and make it personal between you and God.  Think about it, ask questions, and then ask God how to apply it to yourself.  The alternative, for Saul anyway, wasn't pretty.

Wednesday took me to I John 2, where he described antichrists.  Not the scary Nicolai Carpathia types of Tim LaHaye, but the ones that come "from among us" - alleged Christians using the Word to their own purposes, to spread hate rather than the mercy of God.  These people, whatever goal they THINK they have, only serve to do one thing- cause people to deny the Son.  Whether by watering down the Gospel, morphing Jesus into Mr. Rodgers or Dr. Doolittle, or trying to add to the Word with human logic, they create an atmosphere of following a Jesus that just doesn't exist.  The job of solid preaching is to "make manifest" these people- to expose them to the light of truth- so that the dread consequences of denying God's Son do not come upon us.

Thursday, we go to Judges 2, where the last generation that saw the Mighty Hand of God got their last visit from The Angel Of The Lord (AKA Jesus).  They had failed to obey God, and as a result several tribes of Canaanites and Amorites  remained where they dwelt.  (Here come the flaming atheists claiming God promoted genocide; but remember a) this is a different world; b) these people were among the most depraved the world had ever seen since the Flood, and were under God's judgment; and c)the application to us is not living as those who are against God do.  )  At any rate, the Angel's message was, because you have not obeyed, not removed their temptations from your midst, they "will be a thorn unto you."  The congregation needs the preacher's sound doctrine to remind them why to obey- and when they are not.

Friday (which was actually an hour-and-a-half into Saturday due to a birthday gathering) brought us to the far end of Mark 1, where we find Jesus confronting a man with an unclean spirit IN THE SYNAGOGE!!!  How did their "church" end up with someone like that?  Because their teachers did not teach with authority- the authority that only comes from sound doctrine.  Because Jesus taught with authority, "not like the priests and scribes did,"  not only were the people astonished, but the unclean spirit was exposed.  Why preach to the congregation? Because without sound doctrine, they become just a cross-section of the world.

Finally, (later) Saturday morning, we come to Genesis 3- the story of the Fall.  Adam and Eve hid from God, which is silly on the surface because God always know where you are.  But God LET them hide- even called out looking for them.  What, He couldn't find them?  Not likely.  But the lesson here is, they received the doctrine they "wanted" to hear (from the serpent) and as a result, hid from God.  They hid in fig leaves, we hide in whatever makes us feel good, whether it be a safe, vain ministry, or telling ourselves, "Hey, I went to church", or the idea that God is the big friendly man in a beard sitting on a puffy cloud pointing to us.  But what did God do?  He let them hide.  God will find those who diligently seek Him; but He won't "find" those who hide from Him.

Note that each of these bore a consequence.  Those who endured false doctrine were in danger of falling away.  Those that didn't inquire of the Lord on their own failed miserably.  Those that heard antichrists denied the source of their salvation.  Those who failed to obey faced "thorns" that made it even harder to obey.  KEEP THAT POINT IN MIND!  Those who did without God's authority saw their gatherings corrupted.  And most important, those who hid themselves found themselves lost.

So you see, "taking the Name of the Lord" has two dimensions.  I have taken it to you, and it is not in vain for me because I pointed you in the direction of sound doctrine.  Now, it's up to you to take it from me.  Will you take His word and make something of it?  Or do you take it in vain?

Time Machine week 67

It's May 10th, 1971.  And you know you are going to have a bad day researching when it starts off here on the date teaser.  On the first page of Google results, we find that the USPS is raising special delivery rates by 15 cents.  Slow forward to page 7, where we find Officer Frank Serpico of the NYPD (if you don't remember the name, go Google Al Pacino) testifying at a superior officer's corruption trial.  And top it off on page 11 where we find one Kiyoshi Okubo, a Japanese serial killer who managed to kill and rape 8 women in just 41 days before the prospective ninth victim's brother tracked him down and apprehended them.  Kinda puts you in mind of the Cleveland PD about now, don't it?  Perhaps officer Serpico should have been in Japan instead of court.  Or at least in the Postmaster General's office.

Damnit, man, I should be out there busting Winton Blount!

Too bad it wasn't tomorrow, when Laurie turned nine!

Welcome to Time Machine, which has helped me with a momentous decision.  I have been contemplating cutting off anonymous comments from my blog for all the spam I get.  But today I got one on Time Machine week 27- wherein we did the story on the alternate lyrics of Mr. Lee, and the Carpenters were on top with Close To You.  This spam commenter added one of the most ill-placed comments of all time:

Yes! Finally someone writes about norton internet 2007.



Here is my weblog collegebuild.org

BTW, I did peruse the post, and I confirmed that it never mentioned Norton Internet 2007.  However, not only did it make me decide to leave up anon comments- at least for a while longer- but it filled in the tease, which, had I done my regular stuff, would have ate up 90% of my features this week.  Between very little info on all the features I researched and the fact that the top 3 stay the same, ahem, other concerns, about all I can tease you is there is a whopping 16 birthday songs!  Hey, whaddaya whaddaya?  (Bonfire Of The Vanities, anyone?)  Also, a surprise (to me) announcement at the end!!! Let's rock and roll!

Okay, so we start off with this week in 1971's hot hundred debuts.  15 of them this week, and we'll chat about five.  At #97 we have our first sighting of one John Denver with Take Me Home Country Roads.  Chicago will get mentioned twice this week with a pair of lesser hits- this one Lowdown, which comes in at 68.  The aforementioned Carpenters enter at #62 with the melancholy Rainy Days And Mondays.  Just one notch above, the late Janis Joplin with Cry Baby; and at #54, the Partridge Family, just four notches away from being prophets, with I'll Meet You Halfway.

At this point I'll mention a song that escaped my notice the last four weeks, sitting at #88.  Anyone who's read my music posts for any length of time knows about the song Can't Find The Time, which I just love.  The original was by Boston cult band Orpheus, and thanks to horrible mismanagement of their record company, three releases only managed a high peak of #80.  I've also mentioned the unreleased cover by Hootie and the Blowfish from the Me, Myself, And Irene soundtrack.  In between them is apparently the highest charting version of all, by a band called Rose Colored Glass.  The song is on YouTube, and is just as good as the other two; the band?  All I could find out for sure is they were from Texas, they did 2 45s and no albums, and peaked at #54.  All I can say is, ONE of these versions SHOULD have been a #1 song.

Birthday time!  Let's start out with our new 30-year-olds:  Elton John's I'm Still Standing; Little River Band's We Two; Alabama's crossover classic, The Closer You Get; and the Kinks with a song that mirrors how I've felt about music for years, Come Dancing.  Turning 35 this week, Bob Seger and the boys with Still The Same; Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight; REO Speedwagon's Roll With The Changes; the late Donna Summer and Last Dance; and that other hit by Chicago, namely Take Me Back To Chicago.  Turning 40, we have a song that has a lot of girls I knew sweating, the Stylistics' You'll Never Get To Heaven If You Break My Heart; along with yet two more crossover classics- Jeanne Pruitt's Satin Sheets,  and Charlie Rich's Behind Closed Doors- along with George Harrison's Give Me Love.  Hitting 45 on 45 this week (hmm, that'd make a nice feature title...) we have Herb Alpert's This Guy's In Love With You and a pyschedelic classic, Status Quo's Pictures Of Matchstick Men. And turning 50, Nat King Cole's Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days Of Summer, and a song that I liked because it was the theme of a one-season sitcom I liked, Tony Bennett's The Good Life.  Blow Out The Candles...

Yep, that's Larry Hagman and Donna Mills, who gave up the business world to become servants, on The Good Life.

Guess what?  For the second straight week, both the big dropper and big climber are in the top forty!  Mark it down, a TM first!

Next week, when I turn 51, the Where Are They Now feature moves to #51!  So in our last week at #50, we have the Supremes with Nathan Jones climbing 19 spots to be the victim.  Now this is the 70's Supremes- original Mary Wilson, along with Cindy Birdsong and new lead singer Jean Terrell.  The group didn't have long to live at this point, at least from a chart standpoint.  And when a 1983 reunion of the originals almost ended with an onstage fight between Wilson and Diana Ross, the rest of the collective story was few and far between.

  Mary Wilson, the only member of the 70s group to get HOF staus, still sings and is a tireless charity worker involved in the Susan G. Komen Race For The Cure, the American Cancer Society, St. Jude's, Easter Seals, UNICEF, and Cystic Fibrosis, among others.  Cindy left the 70s group due to pregnancy in 1972, replaced by Lynda Laurence; she returned the favor a couple years later when Lynda got pregnant, and stayed until retiring in 1976.  From there she was involved in many things- a Motown executive secretary, a nurse, and in the late 80s and early 90s became a minister.  I never found out what kind of minister, other than in 1992 she was enrolled in Albuquerque's Glorybound Evangelistic School, and was trying with a friend to set up a ministry through contemporary music organization tentatively called WordPsalms.  Jean was the hardest to find recent info about; other than sporadic appearances, she's very private.  In 1986-92 she joined Lynda Laurence and the final Supremes lead singer Scherrie Payne (yep, Freda's little sister) in a group called FLOS (former ladies of the Supremes).  A bit of deja vu there; Laurence joined up when Cindy decided against the project and backed out, thus replacing her for a second time.

Okay, I'm back- I just realized I hadn't got six degrees done yet!  Anyway, I think that brings us to this week's EIGHT (count 'em) top 40 debuts.  From the bottom, then:  At 39, Wilson Pickett climbs 13 with Don't Knock My Love; at 38, another song I've pimped many times, Nilsson's Me And My Arrow, up 3.  A nine notch climb to 37 for Helen Reddy's version of I Don't Know How To Love Him- but look out, because Yvonne Elliman's version is up 17 spots and sits at #52.  At 33, a 16-notch rise for Bobby Sherman with The Drum; also up 16, to #31, the Honey Cone with Want Ads.  Now, let me just say there was a fierce competition within the top 40 debuts for the biggest mover this week.  The show horse was Ringo Starr's It Don't Come Easy, making an 18-spot leap (just beating Yvonne Elliman) to 25. The place horse (this bit would have been better last week before the Kentucky Derby) was also the high debut- a 20-notch jump to 22 for Donny Osmond and Sweet And Innocent.  And the winner, climbing 23 to land AT 23, Murray Head and crew with Superstar.

The big dropper category was much the same.  The show horse was Elton John's Friends (down 18 to #35); the place horse was One Toke Over The Line (down 19 to #32); and the winner- Just My Imagination, down 21 spots to land at #36.

Which brings us to another big load of frustration the lookback segment.  Since we've been slightly off-schedule the last couple of weeks, I just went with 1953 (which I was already there for to look for any 60th birthdays).  There I found a song whose combined efforts (remember, back then Cashbox combined any versions of the same song into one entry) had resulted in a jump from 36 to 22 for Big Mamou.  Mamou, so I learned, is a small town in Cajun Country, and the "capital" of Cajun Music.  The song itself detailed a girl who left her guy (or vice versa depending on the singer) and returned home to Mamou.  Two singers had this song out.  The eventual higher-placer was the version (and a neat song it was) by Pete Henley.  After a solid half-hour of research, all I really learned about Pete was he was on TV, might have been a regular comedian on the Ernie Kovacs show, and had two singles in 1953, with this one hitting #19 on Billboard.  The other singer was a somewhat more famous lady by the name of Delores Gray.

Hot... and this ain't even the "skimpy outfit" picture!

 

Delores was more of a stage actress, but she did have four charting singles (this one hit #28 on BB), and had some pretty plum  film roles too.  She was the Wazir's (Sebastian Cabot's) wife in 1955's Kismet, and Gregory Peck's ex-girlfriend in 1957's Designing Women.  She was also the "singing voice" of Marilyn Monroe in There's No Business Like Show Business.

Two songs into the top 10, two out.  One of which is What's Going On (9 to 15).  The other- since the only dropper in the top ten I did six degrees on LAST week- is the six degrees victim.

Paul McCartney's Another Day (dropping from 6 to 11) proved yet another research challenge- Paul wrote it, so no connecting author; the only players were Paul, Linda, and a session drummer who didn't really connect anywhere else; and the single was independent of the debut lp Ram.  But, thankfully, it was recorded in the same sessions, and thus I found out that it was backed by the New York Symphony Orchestra.  So I wikied to see who else the orchestra played for, and the article didn't say.  So I searched elsewhere and it all came down to one name-

Meat Loaf.

The NYSO played on the Bat Out Of Hell lp, so now we can move on to a much more connectable subject.  For example, at least the one I went with, is the Ted Nugent connection.

Huh?

Well, back when Ted did the lp Free-For-All, he got into it with lead vocal Derek St. Holmes, who left in the middle of the lp.  Up steps the then unknown Meat Loaf who sang lead on about half the lp ( the one well known song, the title cut, Ted sang himself.)  What, you want more?  Okay, Ted was lead guitar on the Amboy Dukes, who had the classic psychedelic hit Journey To The Center Of Your Mind.  BTW, as I type, I'm checking out Loaf's vocals on Nugent's Writing On The Wall.  Man, the dude can flat sing!

Ted lovin' him some Meat Loaf...

And thus, the top ten.

John Lennon and his ever-shifting "we try to drown Yoko out" players move up 2 to #10 with Power To The People.

Stevie Wonder edges up one to #9 with We Can Work It Out.

Daddy Dewdrop dew drop in on the top ten, moving from 18 to 8 with Chick-A-Boom (Don' Yew Jes' Luv It).

Neil Diamond has said all he has to say; I Am... I Said drops from 4 to 7.

Bread rises (you knew I'd use that one at least once) with the beautiful ballad If, from 8 to 6.

The fans are still confused; Aretha Franklin moves up from 7 to 5 with Bridge Over Troubled Water (see last week's top ten if you missed that gag.)

The Bells move gently up one notch to #4 with Stay Awhile.

And the top three will seem familiar:

The Jackson Five at 3 with Never Can Say Goodbye;

Ocean at 2 with Put Your Hand In The Hand;

And again, the number one song....

 

 

 

...Three Dog Night (or, in Romanian, Trei câine noapte), with Joy To The World!!!!

 

(Why Romanian?  Because Google translate won't translate Hebrew into English letters!)

 

Hey, I just got thinking that I'm overdue for a Martin Hall Of Fame selection!  So when you get done here, click on the MHOF link at the top of the blog, see what categories and who's in there, and send in some nominations!  I promise I will not ignore any nomination.  I may make fun of it, verbally abuse it, or satirize it, but I will not ignore it!  Results maybe this week or next week as I am so inclined.