Well, I warned you...

...I might be posting more often than usual due to my layoff.  Call it "non-occupational therapy."  But don't feel sorry for me;  when you consider I have blogging friends with serious diseases, disabilities, and at least one in a drug-induced haze after knee surgery, I have nothing to complain about other than boredom (and calls from my radiologist, to whom I must find a way to make some kind of tribute payment.  If only that Booogle hadn't run off the fatted calf...).

Anyway, I've searched my favorite news sources (including the BBC, News Au, Xinhua, RTV, and Al-Jazeera) and found a few things of note.

First, as it is coming up very frequently on FB, my two cents on the Paula Deen fooferall.  As far as I can figure it, you have a deposition out there (which Laurie has read, and thus is my fact source) that dug deep into her family business, and especially cut hard on brother Bubba and issues of sexual harassment and racism.  However, ALL you hear on the media is Paula Deen used racial slurs.

May I be so insensitive to say, so what?  People of her generation, location, and ethnicity have done that for years.  Many of us were brought up in homes where "Darky" was a descriptive and not a perjorative, and quite frankly our parents did a pretty punk job of explaining how a "darky" might feel about it.  I am going to be painfully honest here, so if you are racially sensitive, scroll down one paragraph.  My Dad's best friend at work was an African-American gentleman who was wiser than most of the A-A community's leaders of today.  He knew that "nigger" meant -originally- "lazy, or worthless".   He always told my Dad, "Woody, it's not the blacks (referring to the crime, the thuggery, that they saw even back then), it's the G.D. niggers."  We simply put a different spin on the meaning back then. 

And those were the meanings, the thought processes we grew up with.  Have you totally rejected and purged yourself of all the negative things you learned in childhood?  If so, congratulations.   If not, do you find it amusing, as I do, all of the people out there casting the first stone at Paula, when they are TOTALLY ignoring the context in which the revelation was made?


Even people who should know better (Stand up, Herman Cain!) are posting as if the SOLE point of the deposition was a few wrong phrases.  So, my stand on the Deen affair is simple:  read up or shut up.


In other news I collected, a woman died in a NY exercise club while Nero fiddled.  You see, the woman collapsed in the ladies locker room behind a locked stall door.  Another member rushed to the front desk to get help, where the sole employee in the building informed her he couldn't do anything because he "wasn't allowed in the ladies' room", and wouldn't even so much as call 911.  He did offer, however, that a female co-worker would be there soon.  He however, continued to stare blankly at a computer screen.  Still doing so 41/2 minutes later when a second member finally called 911.  Still doing so 8 minutes later when the other employee showed up and rushed in to help her.  And presumably still doing so when the woman was pronounced dead just under an hour after she entered the restroom.  Planet Fitness, the club's owner, has had only one comment- telling the deceased's lawyer that they are not liable.  Wanna bet on that one?


Another story from Nain's legal report shows the Supreme Court deciding 5-4 that a black woman could not file a Title VII civil rights complaint against Ball State because the white employee who was harassing her was not (technically) a supervisor.  According to the majority, a "supervisor", to meet the definition, has to have the power "to effect a ‘significant change in employment status, such as hiring, firing, failing to promote, reassignment with significantly different responsibilities, or a decision causing a significant change in benefits"- and this woman, whether she was a de facto supervisor or not, could not do any of those.  Thus, the University is off the hook.  I guess (cribbing from BSU's ad slogans) that education isn't the only thing "redefined" in Muncie, IN.

And while I do have a lot of sympathy and my prayers are with the people of Calgary, who had to abandon downtown over the weekend due to the two rivers going through the city "looking more like an ocean," in the words of its mayor, I am a bit curious about not only the lack of concern over the more massive flooding in Central Europe, but the total ignoring of even worse flooding in Northern India and Nepal.  At least 8,000 are dead just in India, perceived inaction may overthrow the government in Nepal, and nary a word in our local media.

And while we here in the land of pollution, environmental unfriendliness, and global warming are griping about the heat and humidity (or MacGyvering solutions to broken AC, like our friends at A Beer For The Shower (you really need to check this out!), Not a word for the poor people of Malaysia.

Thanks to poor farmers in Sumatra using slash and burn clearing methods in their former forests, half the nation is under a smoke cloud which has put up to twice the amount of pollutants into their sky as are considered hazardous.  Indonesia is trying to round up the illegal burners and put out the fires, but the nation which got the 7th most rainfall of all measured nations in the world in 2011 (over 106 inches) is waiting on rain to come to put it out.


And of course, the biggest news of the day is good ol' Sylvio Berlusconi, former Italian top dog and all-around gadabout, was sentenced to seven years in prison for hiring a lady of the evening who wasn't quite a lady yet (IOW, an underage prostitute).  I'm sure he'll get a nice comfy cell somewhere in Cinque Terre.



Damnable cell... every day, the same view...

And we wrap it up in Russia, where a local government deputy tried to get out of a fatal hit-and-run by loading the deceased into his vehicle before running!  Police quickly pulled him over (Oh for the good old days when you could send witnesses to the gulag, eh?) and he is currently awaiting charges.  The only thing that makes this story far fetched was that "alcohol is not believed to be involved."  In Russia?  Cahmahn!!!!!!!

A letter to Dr. Kingsley Moghalu

Dr, K. Moghalu
Deputy Governor
Central Bank Of Nigeria
Financial System Stability Directorate
Lagos, Nigeria

Dear Sir (Oops, sorry, that's the way we would address a business letter in the US of A.  Let me do it your way-)
Hello, Dear,

I am responding to your e-mail of yesterday.  I appreciate that it is from your PERSONAL e-mail account (paymasterofficemail@ katamail .com, which is not only a clever name to fool scammers, but also wise that you are using an Italian based server) in order to combat the trashing of your good reputation by the scammers  which I read about on all the scam e-mail sites.

I also appreciate how you have to use commas for every break instead of proper punctuation to throw them off.  It does make it a bit difficult to follow, but I think I have the gist of it, as well as why you want me to "keep it to myself".  I also appreciate the logistical efforts made in my behalf- why just getting yourself, the 11 men on the board of directors (looked it up), the President, the Federal Assembly of 469 members (ditto) around one table to look at the file on li'l ol' me is amazing.

I am a bit confused as to how I misplaced $10.7 million of my money with your bank however.  Perhaps it was during a transfer from savings to checking in order to pay my radiologist (who's probably wondering what happened to me), my rent (who MUST be fair and charge even five year tenants late fees to scare the riff-raff who are always late), or the History Channel Club (who I usually pay late so they stop sending me so much junk).  In any event, I am glad that you were honest enough to let me know about it.

In keeping of this spirit, I am enclosing the information you requested.

1) FULL NAMES:  Puddin' Tang, AKA Joe Smith, AKA Barack Obama

2) COUNTRY AND ADDRESS:  a tree as high as the Moon, AKA 1600 Pennsylvania, United States (or Hawaii or Indonesia or Uganda, depending on name

3) AGE AND DIRECT TELEPHONE:  51, give or take 10 years, P/N 202-456-1111 ask for Barry.

Yours sincerely,

George Washington


_____________________________________________________

Along the line yesterday, I told you what happened to the poor Canberra Knights.  Just wait, it gets better.


But first, I am pleased to announced that Adelaide Knocked off BOTH of the top teams this weekend!  Saturday, the Ouellette brothers did in Newcastle 5-3.  Each had two goals, and they added six assists between them, as the Ads twice held three-goal leads before Dominic Osman and Pier-Oliver Cotnoir scored 31 seconds apart to cut the lead to one before brother Britt scored with 2 ticks left.   Sunday, they whapped the Ice Dogs 4-1 behind 3 Josef Rezek goals, two of 'em unassisted.  This pulled Adelaide (5-7-2) into a fifth place tie with Perth and past the Sydney Bears.

The other two games of the weekend were the "which Melbourne team can beat Canberra worse" contests.  I already told you that the 'Stangs hung a 10-1 thumping on the Knights Saturday with FIVE goals by Jamie Bourke and 8 tallies just in the third period.

Sunday, the Ice broke both those marks.

They put NINE in the net in the third period en route to a 16-0 rout of Canberra.  Todd Graham ( who had 2 goals all year coming in) had a hat trick and an assist;  Tommy Powell ( who had three goals coming in) scored three more and added 2 assists; and three other players had 2 each (including top scorers Matt Armstrong and Mitch Humphries), as the Ice scored 3 goals 40 seconds apart, 2 goals 9 seconds apart, and 3 goals 1:31 apart- all at separate points of the third period!  And add to that it was already 7-0 going into the third period.

 You have to feel for goalie Chris Slauenwhite (who took a seat after giving up goals 8 and 9 on just 4 shots).  The man has faced 81 more shots than anyone else, and has made 42 more saves, and still is giving up close to 7 goals a game.  His backup, Stuart Woodall, fared no better as the two combined to give up a third period goal every second shot.  I guess you can look at it this way- they cut the shots against down to 43 (about 8 fewer that they've averaged on a now-nine game losing streak); but the took as many shots themselves (16) as they gave up goals!  And even though they've only put together a 21-68-11 record the last four years, this year they may join Bat-Yam Israel and China Dragon as one of the worst teams of all time!  In fact, they would have to score .7 more goals a game the rest of the way and give up 2.35 less goals a game just to tie the WORST they did the last four years!


____________________________

BTW don't expect any walk pictures today.  We took a short one about 8:30 AM, and Scrappy was already so hot, he drank a bowl of water, quietly ate his breakfast and passed out.

Sunday walk

First though, here's a look at last night's "supermoon"...

Moving right along, it was a walk right after Dr. Jeremiah for Scrappy and me.  And we soon were passed in the woods by a jogger.

GRRRR...

Now I do not hate joggers or jogging as a concept (other than, as Juli can tell you, I'M not gonna be the one doing it).  However... I don't mean to say that it attracts a self-centered crowd, but consider- a jogger jogs to stay in shape, to improve themselves.  Someone like us, who walk through the woods, are there to enjoy the beauty of nature.  A jogger can jog on a road, a sidewalk, a parking lot.  Anywhere they jog- and more particularly if they stay out in the sun- will take off the pounds and firm up the muscles.  ALL you accomplish jogging in the woods is scaring off the animals that ANYBODY ELSE might want to see.  If you want to do your exercise in your own little world, that's okay, more power to you.  We have plenty of open trail to do that on.  Why ruin it for us by running in the woods?  Almost done with rant, on to pictures.


For example, the jogger in question immediately scared a deer I would have otherwise been able to show you.  But his damnable running kept the deer on the move and out of the area.

I thought I might have seen her head here, dead center peeking up...

...but, it was actually this.  Thanks bunches, buddy!

A jogger runs through life never stopping to see some of the marvelous little things in God's creation...

...like tree boobs.  Now I'm done ranting.

New bridge coming along fine...

Turtle relaxing in the swamp...

Scrappy giving the WTH look to frogs jumping into the swamp ahead of us.

I decided to hang out under the IPFW (Venderley) bridge.  A couple of pigeons had the same idea.

Something was up with this one.  Other than turning his head or blinking an eye, he never moved.

It was too hot, and we were too broke to enjoy Riverfest yesterday.  I sure missed the pontoon rides...

Here's Scrappy being pissed that I made him rest.

"Tough $#!t.  We are resting for a while!"

For those of you that haven't seen it yet, it is a very nice bridge.

A while back, Bobby G. teased me about the size of our rivers.  It's not the size, it's the beauty.  And you can find that anywhere.

Back down the ravine trail...

...she came back and posed for us!

Just stood there watching, until the trail wound us too close.  Then she snorted and jumped away...

...just far enough to get her comfortable spot, and then watched us all the way back to the main trail.

Okay, now I'm getting tired.

Sunday Message

A wise man once said that picking Bible verses by random is a hard thing to do.  Years of bookmarks, dogears, and other such make it so that the same "random" page can be hit over and over.  So I have changed my daily Bible reading to the first three chapters of each book in turn.  Which means that I have this week seen the first three chapters of Genesis through Judges.  And even from that, you pick up on the structure of the whole map of salvation. 

Genesis gives us the fall of man.  Exodus gives us the plan for man's rescue, and the call of the one man, Moses, who starts the ball rolling.  Then comes Leviticus, the beginning of the Laws to teach man the respect and reverence of God.  Deuteronomy begins with the retelling of all that happened to Israel since they left Egypt, Joshua the beginning of the conquest and especially the prayers for their human leader at the end of Chapter one.  And Judges begins to detail God's faithfulness even in the face of man's absent obedience.

(You missed one, Chris!)

So, let me look at them a little closer, if briefly.

In Genesis 3, we see the reasoning behind man's choice to fall:

3:6-And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make wise, she took of its fruit, and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. And where do we see this reasoning put in perspective?
1Jn 2:15 Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him,
1Jn 2:16 because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh (the tree was good for food) , and the lust of the eyes (it was pleasing to the eyes) , and the pride of life (a tree to be desired to make wise) , is not of the Father, but is of the world. And thus, a simple choice- God or the world?  -and the man that had the least reason of all time to make the wrong choice made it for all of us.  Because if he was going to screw it up, what chance did we have?

And then in Exodus, man finally equates suffering with the need for God to be with them.  But His rescue would not be halfway.  He would train a man up from scratch, and use him to deliver the people.  And He would have to start from the beginning.

Exo 3:13 And Moses said to God, Behold, when I come to the sons of Israel, and shall say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they shall say to me, What is His name? What shall I say to them?
Exo 3:14 And God said to Moses, I AM THAT I AM. And He said, So you shall say to the sons of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. Which God are we referring to, they would ask; and the answer is I AM.  What better descriptive could there be of our God?  And this is why, though I am friends with those who see "divinity" in Jesus but not "Trinity" in God, I can never agree with their line of thought, because Jesus makes it pretty clear...

Joh 8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and He saw and was glad.
Joh 8:57 Then the Jews said to Him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?
Joh 8:58 Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham came into being, I AM! I think the implication is unmistakable- if you think Jesus never claimed to be God, you are wrong.  It is not the King's English that makes the phrase in Genesis, "Let Us make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness."  If man can have body, mind, and spirit, and yet be one being, then how can a Creator too great to fully understand not be able to also be triune beyond our conception?  But, that's a bunny trail for another day.

Leviticus may seem to be a dry recitation of the ritual that Israel was called to do, but look at it from a few steps back.  Each of the passages of Law bear out a couple of ideas- one, that God deserves utmost respect, and two, that man's sin has set him so far away from God that a special mediator between man and God is needed.

Deuteronomy through Judges is pretty much a single train of thought.  In the first, we are called upon to recognize the necessity of remembering what God has done for us;  in Joshua, especially the aforementioned prayers, we see the necessity of having a strong leader whom God will be with, and will have the courage of his convictions.  And then, in Judges, the consequences of a people who did not do their part, who did not remember, and had to then deal with the consequences thereof.  But even then, when they DID remember and DID repent, God was still faithful to them.

(Chris!  What about Numbers?!?)


But, how do we go from a man fallen and so separated from God, and God being willing to forgive?  Is God going back on His word, is He lowering the bar?  Not at all.  Let us NOW look in Numbers, O impatient one.

In Numbers 3:39, at the end of numbering the armies of Israel, he has them number the Levites, the tribe who were the set-aside people who mediated between God and man.  They counted 22,000.  Then, God goes on to explain that since He spared the firstborn of Israel in Egypt, that the firstborn of Israel now belonged to Him.  But rather than weeding out all the firstborn from all the tribes, H e would just take the Levite tribe as a substitute for them.  These substitutes would them be the mediators for the whole people, since they belonged to God.

But was it a fair trade?  God just couldn't say, "I guess that's good enough,"- He had to make it good enough.  So He had them count the firstborn.

Num 3:42 And as Jehovah commanded him, Moses numbered all the first-born among the sons of Israel.
Num 3:43 And all the first-born males by the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those numbered of them, were twenty-two thousand two hundred and seventy-three.
Num 3:44 And Jehovah spoke to Moses saying,
Num 3:45 Take the Levites instead of all the first-born among the sons of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle. And the Levites shall be Mine. I am Jehovah.
Num 3:46 And for those that are to be redeemed of the two hundred and seventy-three of the first-born of the sons of Israel, who are more than the Levites,
Num 3:47 you shall even take five shekels each by the head, according to the shekel of the sanctuary you shall take. (The shekel is twenty gerahs.)
Num 3:48 And you shall give to Aaron, and to his sons, the silver of the redeemed left over among them. So that way, ALL of them were redeemed.  So in God's redemption plan, there had to be a way for everyone to be redeemed, there had to be a substitution in place of those who would have been taken, and those who were the substitution would be the go-betweens for man and God.

So NOW let's take one last look at what we have here.

In Genesis, man chooses sin and falls. 

In Exodus, we see the power and holiness of God, and the need to bridge the gap sin caused.

In Leviticus, We see the need for a mediator between man and God.

In Numbers, we see the need for a total, substitutional sacrifice for redemption.

In Deuteronomy, we see the need to keep God not only in our minds, but in those of the next generation.

In Joshua, we see that in a fallen, sinful world, we need strong, God-driven leaders.

And in Judges, we see with even all that, we need a God willing to forgive.


And now you see why I left Numbers for last.  In the midst of dry statistics and lists of names, we see that Jesus' substitutional sacrifice is the centerpiece of God's plan for salvation.  Some people read those three chapters and see nothing but a boring old census- just "numbers".  What do you see?

Life at the ranch

(As in, "meanwhile back at the ranch...")

Well, the good news is, for the next couple of weeks I'll be commenting on your blogs a lot sooner....

Yep, laid off until the week of the 8th, and possibly again thereafter.  It seems our one customer (at least in the opinion of one co-worker) is paying their karmic debt for being bossy to their vendors by having several of their most important parts run out at the same time, right in the middle of their big move to another location.  So, while they were glad-handing the mayor and governor over a move that will lead to "200 new jobs", they were actually laying people off- and so, now us as well.  Quite frankly, if I don't stop "borrowing to pay Paul" soon, Peter's gonna kick both our butts!

But there IS legitimate good news- I GOT MY ARTWORK!!!

And, my dear Mynx, this is mounted beside the front door.  I can take a break from watching TV and look over and pretend I was there.  Tres Cool!


Excuse my questionable photography.  I couldn't quite clean the flash glare all off, it looks much better in real life.

Speaking of questionable photography...this is from a few days ago.

Looks more like an ancient lava flow than a fungi...

And guess what happens just as we get to the bridge?

Yep- she comes wandering out!

And Scrappy actually sees her for a change!

We haven't been so lucky since then.  In fact, we took our walk today at 7 AM because it's supposed to get into the 90s ( Celsius translation:  Screw the Barbie, I'm staying in the AC!) today.  Saw one chipmunk.

And then- after catching up on the world- I popped in on the Aussie hockey scores, thinking to myself, if Adelaide gets beat this weekend, we might as well bag the season.  But it could be worse- I could be rooting for Canberra.

Then I saw the scores.  When you're right...

Melbourne's Mustangs were playing Canberra today.  Despite Melbourne's 22-7 first-period shot advantage, it took 18:51 before anyone scored- and that was Canberra, short handed at that.  The 'Stangs tied it 11 seconds later, and you think, here we go.

In the second period, despite Melbourne having a 14-7 shot advantage, it was 18:17 seconds before they scored, to make it 2-1.

But oh, the third period...The 'Stangs scored EIGHT third period goals, out shot them 24-7 (for a total of 60-21) and won the game 10-1.  Their losing streak is now eight games, in which they have been outscored 62-12.  Adelaide, however, did manage to win, so at least I can hold off on their early post-mortem.


Hey, here's one to laugh at, from FoxNews:

 With a little more than two weeks to go before their wedding, Emily Dreyfuss' fiance ordered a tie and pocket square from Gap chain Banana Republic's website to go with his Navy blue suit.
What the couple got in the mail instead on Thursday would make an identity thief giddy: the confidential files of about 20 former employees, including Social Security numbers and W4 tax forms.
"We totally laughed," Dreyfuss, 29, said on Friday from her home in Cambridge, Mass.
She had misgivings about the package as soon as it arrived. It was really heavy and didn't say Banana Republic, but Gap Inc.
She and her fiancee have been buying each other presents, and she thought it may have been a really heavy piece of clothing with catalogs, said Dreyfuss, the daughter of actor Richard Dreyfuss.
Inside were three folders sealed with tape and labeled "HR Administration." They contained tax and Social Security information as well as handwritten resignation letters, doctors' notes and salary information -- seemingly the employees' entire record at the company...

San Francisco-based Gap Inc. blamed the mix-up on a human mistake.
"We're taking immediate action to evaluate and strengthen our processes to prevent mis-mailings in the future and apologize for the error," spokeswoman Edie Kissko said in a statement.
Dreyfuss said a Banana Republic representative has since responded to a tweet about the mix-up and apologized. Dreyfuss was told clothing and employee information is sent out in the same type of gray plastic bag, and the two packages appear to have been mislabeled. It wasn't clear how that happened. The representative told Dreyfuss the store would look into what went wrong and inform the affected employees.
The company is sending her a self-addressed, stamped envelope to return the information.


Apparently, they also offered to send them the actual order gratis, but the Dreyfusses (Dreyffi?) declined.

And remember me pimping Nain's work as a court reporter?  Here's another good one from her.

Two Columbus men were held on Monday, June 17, 2013, for an incident occurring over the weekend in Franklin, Indiana. Both men were arrested after they reportedly tried to dig in a Franklin woman’s yard. Charges are pending.
Todd A. Heagy, 35, and Benjamin Perry, 31, were arrested after they went to a home on Highland Avenue. Perry told the resident he wanted to dig up his dead dog allegedly buried in her backyard. The woman insisted they not dig up her yard, but despite her requests, the men continued on their mission. The woman contacted the police, informing them that she did not know the men.

When police arrived, both men began to argue with the officers. A struggle followed, and both men were arrested. At the time of the arrest, the report states that both men had been drinking.

No hearings are currently set regarding this matter, however, both men have a criminal history with prior convictions and arrests.

My only suggestion for this one is she should have titled it, Drunken Dog Diggers Detained.

Well, that's it for now- but it is only 9:36...

Time Machine Week 73

It's June 21st, 1971.  And if you are like some 50,000 others who love music like me, you are probably about 60 miles northwest of Baton Rouge, LA, wondering what the hell is going on.

You see, the Celebration of Life concert, a seven-day long concert featuring some seventy acts, including 27 rock bands, was supposed to be starting today.  You can look up further details here, but short story is that this was a concert made a few feet south of heaven.  Massive rains, a huge community backlash that resulted in start dates and locations being bounced around like Ping-Pong balls, and the fact that many of the acts allegedly performing hadn't even been contacted by the promoters, were just the start of the troubles this event suffered.  It was finally begun on the 24th, in a river bend plantation on the Atchafalaya River, after a week that saw four fans drown in the river trying to cool off, a poorly constructed stage structure collapse in a driving thunderstorm, and members of at least three motorcycle gangs being rounded up after behavior ranging from shooting from across the river "to see the girls' boobies bounce when they ran" to out and out rape and assaults.  In the end, only seven national acts- John Sebastian, Chuck Berry, War, Stoneground (the nucleus that would become Pablo Cruise), Jimmy Witherspoon ( a top R&B act of the late 40's- early 50s), Bloodrock ( of D.O.A. fame), and the Amboy Dukes (who'll be coming up in the birthday list)- answered the bell after the concert opened with this invocation:

The festival began Thursday night--three and one-half days late--with Yogi Bahjan taking the stage, chanting and saying, 'God bless you. Let us meditate for one minute for peace and brotherhood.' 'Fuck you. Let's boogie,' responded a member of the crowd.

Final totals there included over 100 undercover drug busts, one OD, and $700,000 in tax liens levied on the promoters when the rains returned Saturday and washed it all away.

Welcome to Time Machine, where you can get your music fix a lot safer and for free (the Celebration of Life cost $28 a head for all that fun!).  This week, a decent crop of birthdays- despite no one turning 30-  including... guess who:

Hey, hey, hey hey hey...

Also, a six degrees ending in the quite contrary Diana Ross;  The long and short of Pat Boone;  and yes, a new # 1 song!  It's fun to ride in the Ti-ime Machine...

But before the fun starts, it's time for the almost weekly bad news.  This week we lose Slim Whitman.  Now back in the day, when all we knew about Whitman was his TV album All My Best and the high note on Paloma Blanca, we found him amusing to our sophisticated teenage tastes.  But the truth of the matter is a #9 pop hit in 1952 with Indian Love Call, and 11 country top tens.  Not only that, but his single Rose Marie set the UK record with 11 weeks at #1- a record he held until Bryan Adams' Everything I Do (I Do It For You) held the top for 16 weeks in 1991- thirty-six years later.  God Bless ya, Slim.

...but that high note is still funny...

New in the hot 100, which I once again forgot to count for a total, include these hot waxes:  At 93, Neil Diamond sings a song he wrote and the Monkees made famous, I'm A Believer; the Bee Gees at 76 with How Do You Mend A Broken Heart; Cat Stevens at 74 with Moon Shadow; and at 68, the Rolling Stones with one of their best, Wild Horses.

And thus to the birthday list.  As I said, we ended up short on the 30-year-olds, but still marked up 15 tunes hitting an anniversary this week.  Turning 35, we have the Commodores with Three Times A Lady, Bruce Springsteen's Prove It All Night, A Taste Of Honey with Boogie Oogie Oogie, ELO with Mr. Blue Sky (which is one of the greatest hits of all time in UK music polls), Tom Petty's I Need To Know... and, as you must have gathered from the picture, the Village People's first chart hit, Macho Man.

Turning 40, Chicago's Feeling Stronger Every Day, Gilbert O'Sullivan's Get Down, Helen Reddy's Delta Dawn, and for a good laugh, Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen with Smoke Smoke (Smoke That Cigarette).  Turning 45, The Vogues with Turn Around, Look At Me, and the aforementioned Amboy Dukes (featuring Ted Nugent) and Journey To The Center Of The Mind.

Checking in at 50 years old this week, we have Little Stevie Wonder with Fingertips Part 2.  Part one was the a-side, the mainly instrumental beginning; but the b-side where he began the "say yeah" parts, was what became the hit, peaking when it couldn't get any higher.  Then came to the "false ending", when Stevie actually walked offstage, leaving the band to play- then he returned, and by the time he did the bass player for next act Mary Wells came on stage, hopelessly confused, and if you listen on the record you'll hear him yelling, "What key?  What key?"

And finally, turning fifty-five we have Bobby Darin's Splish Splash, along with the beginning of a curious Ricky Nelson story.  It seems that a 4-song EP was released containing the song in question, Poor Little Fool.  When the EP started hitting big, 55 years ago this week, the company rushed out a single- and that single went on to be the first #1 on the spanking-new Billboard Hot 100 chart.  So wait a few weeks, and we'll do this all over again.  (BTW, the other four songs were covers of Unchained Melody, I'll Walk Alone, and There Goes My Baby).

Now it's time -or would be time- for the 45 at 45.  However, Joe Tex's single from last week is still there this week.  Soooo.... let's move on.

Our big mover for this week is the duo of Dave and Ansell Collins, a Jamaican music act, with Double Barrel, climbing 18 to #75.  On the way down, Love Her Madly tumbles 18 (I've heard that somewhere) to 52.

That brings us to our Where Are They Now- and sitting at 51 is Joe Walsh and the James Gang with Walk Away.  This was off the lp Thirds, and was the last Walsh lp with the Gang.  While everybody knows Walsh has been both a popular solo act and a card-carrying Eagle, what about the other dudes?  At this point, that would include bassist Dale Peters and drummer/keyboardist  Jim Fox.  Peters was even a later member of the band than Walsh (only Fox was an original).  He remained longer than most, though.  Jim Fox has been there in every incarnation of the band, including right now, because Joe and the Boys are remixing their old hits in a new lp as we speak.  Jim is also one of the nation's leading License Plate collectors!



And now, the top 40 debuts!  Coming in at 40, up 6, are Brewer and Shipley, still tokin' on Tarkio Road.  Jean Knight busts into the party at 39, up 16 with Mr. Big Stuff.  The Guess Who, the cream of Canada, come in at 38, up 9 with Albert Flasher (It was a cold, snowy, rainy afternoon and we were sitting there in high school, my school...); climbing 12 to 30 are Gladys Knight (hmm, lotsa knights around the castle today, methinks) and the Pips with I Don't Want To Do Wrong; and the high debut, the Grass Roots moving up 13 to #28 with Sooner Or Later.

And one last I Don't Know How To Love Him update-  Helen stops a second week at 19; Yvonne slips one notch to 31.

Our lookback takes us to 1959, where the biggest mover this week was Pat Boone with Twixt Twelve And Twenty, moving from 55  to 32.  Now I could tell you a boatload on a man who's been around as long as he has, but I'm going to concentrate on one facet.  That starts in his early career, when he became the white knight of R&B, taking black hits and redoing them for a white audience.  Those included covers of Ain't That A Shame (#1 in'55), I'll Be Home (#4 in '56, with a flip side of Tutti Fruitti), Long Tall Sally (#8 in '56), I Almost Lost My Mind (#1 in '56), and Don't Forbid Me (#1 in 57).

I was surprised not to read anything about people having a problem with this.  However, at the other end of his career (1997 to be precise), he released a record of watered down metal numbers called In A Metal Mood:  No More Mr. Nice Guy.  This featured such tunes as Judas Priest's You Got Another Thing Coming, Metallica's Enter Sandman, Dio's Holy Diver, Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water, and his neighbor Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train.  And, believe it or not, Ronnie James Dio and Purple's Richie Blackmore helped out on the lp, along with Merry Clayton (screamy lady on the Stone's Gimme Shelter) and, of COURSE, Dweezil Zappa.  But it wasn't the music that got him in trouble.  No, he almost lost his job on Trinity Broadcasting for wearing black leather at an American Music Awards performance.  (He got it back after explaining he was doing a parody on himself.  Jeez, you couldn't figure THAT one out on your own, TBN?)

How does anyone take THIS seriously?

Two songs enter the top ten, two drop out.  Joy To The World (9 to 12), and Superstar (8 to 18).


Wilson Pickett moves up 4 to #10 with Don't Knock My Love.

The Osmonds move their "One Bad Apple" knock off, Double Lovin', from 13 to 9.

The Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose sneak up a pair to 8 with Treat Her Like A Lady (which must have been a comfort to Rose).

This time it's just Donnie Osmond, with Sweet And Innocent holding at 7.

The Stones slip to 6 from the runner up spot with Brown Sugar,


And at 5, the six degrees victim.

The Honey Cone slip from the top to #5 with Want Ads.  Want Ads was co-written by General Johnson of the Chairmen Of The Board, originally a somewhat different tune called Stick Up (which would actually end up being their follow up to Want Ads).  Of course, the Chairmen were known for using the Motown house band, the Funk Brothers.  One of those bros was Jack Ashford ( known as Jashford to friends), percussionist and tambourine player.  He played the tam on lots of Motown hits, from Edwin Starr's War to Thelma Houston's Don't Leave Me This Way.  That song was originally supposed to be the follow up for Diana Ross after her #1 Love Hangover.  Ross turned it down-as she almost did Love Hangover- and it was given to Houston, who hit #1 with it.  In the meantime, the recalcitrant Ross followed Love Hangover with seven songs, none of which charted higher than #19 until 1980's Upside Down.  I guess that's what happens when that Berry Gordy attitude rubs off.


Holding at #4, The Carpenters with Rainy Days And Mondays.

Carole King May be too late, but her song It's Too Late still moves up 3 to #3.

The Partridge Family move up 3 to the runner-up spot with I'll Meet You Halfway.  Bring it on, I got a sign ready if you top the charts 2 weeks...

And the new #1 song....

...the magical Ringo Starr with It Don't Come Easy!!!!!



That's it this week!  Stay alive, keep singing, come back next week!

Lotsa Little bits vol. 21.

ITEM:  Recently got back from a pleasant morning walk.  Pure blue skies, cool temps.  Far from last night's journey that was split between the first half of Mosquito War III and the second half of Revenge of Old Man's Colon.  Scrappy's favorite part came at our new "dog park".  It's basically a fenced-in area with a hoop to jump through, a ramp to climb over, and a tunnel to explore, along with benches for mom or dad ( you were expecting Cedar Point?)  The premise being give the puppy some sans-leash time and meet and greet fellow canines.  Scrappy is still learning the fine art of canine interaction, so I haven't had him in with a group yet, but he has roamed it solo, and frankly was much happier when I put the leash back on and he could explore the rest of the neighborhood.

This morning, though, he met at the fence a Basset girl who came loping up the way Scrappy does when you bring him a snack.  They touched noses and Scrappy spun around like a dancer.  She, however- as most Bassets do- looked like she was nursing a hangover.  I fully intend to let him do a meet and greet before the summer's through- as soon as I'm comfortable that it won't be a doggie catastrophe.

ITEM:  My friend Nain, in addition to blogging about her adorable terrorist Aubrey, is also a member of the legal profession and writes for her local legal paper.  Having subscribed to her posts, I am getting quite a cross section of modern jurisprudence.  For example, one story dealt with Frosted Mini-Wheats.  Apparently a few years back, they ran a commercial touting a report that claimed that children eating their product for breakfast were like 29% more attentive in school.  Of course, when you flesh something like that out with stats, you'd better be able to stand behind them.  Unfortunately for FMW, they couldn't and now there's a class action lawsuit that will be paying out damages to those who claim that the "unprovable" claim caused them to buy the product.  Eat your Mini-Wheats, Junior, there's gold in them there bowls!

On the other hand, you also get stories that really make you think, like a recent Supreme Court ruling.  Boiling down to the gist, the dude was being questioned (without benefit of Miranda) and at a certain point the cops asked a question that he went silent rather than answering.  I gather at this point he was Mirandized and eventually put on trial.  In the trial, his silence was used as evidence, and he was convicted.  They appealed, saying his silence was protected by the 5th Amendment, but the High Court ruled that since he hadn't been Mirandized, he would have had to actually verbally assert his Fifth Amendment rights, and since he did not, he was not protected.  The dissenting opinion thought that it should have been obvious BY his silence that he was asserting those rights, but the majority said that he had to be advised of those rights first.  Hmmm... I don't know about this one...

ITEM:  I'd just like to say a couple things about the basketball game last night.  First, while I will NEVER root for a "money talks" team like the Heat, I have to say how disgusting it was to watch the Spurs turn into a group with no clue how to play basketball.  They stopped rebounding, took only stupid shots, and blew a 12-point lead in OT.  Look at the film, Spurs, of the 4th quarter and tell me if you deserve to win.  The other thing, ABC has got to be the WORST sports network of all time.  Let's take a sporting event with pushing, shoving, and sweating, give it a fancy cursive logo as if it were Breakfast at Wimbledon, and then focus so totally on one team and one player that there is no doubt about your lack of neutrality ( or professionalism).  Just because Brent Pusberger likes a team doesn't mean the whole WORLD does.  That's why it is called a league and not "the Miami Heat and some guys they beat up on."

ITEM:  Bobby and Al, help me out here.  This has been a BAAAAD week for Philly in the news.  First, people are killed when a stoned excavator driver knocks a building down the wrong direction.  Then the dude that just did a workplace inspection of the site kills himself ( anyone out there smell payola?)  But now, we have a guy who settles an argument in an assisted-living home by CASTRATING one of the participants- a paraplegic, at that!  Good grief, people!

ITEM:  Finally, I have one thing to say about the Aaron Hernandez deal.  Quick fill-in:  Cops searched the home of the New England Patriots star in connection with a rental car, a dead body, and an associate of his.  ABC news ( about as reliable as ABC sports, so get yer grains of salt) claim Hernandez was "at first uncooperative".  I don't have any idea of guilt or not, but I will say this- how long do you figure Hernandez has left in Bill Belichick's "squeaky-clean" environment?  I'd say it's roughly equivalent to the chances of ABC running a close-up of anybody but LeBron James more than once every quarter.