Christmas message- the water and the morsel

When God really wants to tell you something, He's not afraid to take you the long way around the barn to get you to hear it.  Case in point:  As a once-Catholic, part of my Christmas for a long time has been listening or watching to the Midnight Masses.  Once upon a time, Ft. Wayne/South Bend's late Bishop John D'Arcy made sure Midnight Mass was on TV, along with a special during-Communion message to the TV viewers.  The new Bishop for whatever reason chooses not to.  After one year with no coverage, the Catholic radio station, Redeemer Radio, started doing a broadcast ( and play by play of a mass isn't all that easy!).    Tonight I settled in to hear this mass, spending the long Choir praying for as many of you as I could think of.  But the coverage  was spotty, and just as the Bishop started the Mass, Redeemer lost their signal.  So back downstairs I traipsed, and found a live stream from St. Jude's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Florida.

There, I listened to Bishop Robert Lynch give a very good sermon on how the best way to receive the gift of Christmas is to put away selfishness. I enjoy once a year returning to the old rituals, especially since now they've gone back to the wording I new as a young child rather than the sanitized "modern version".  But the moment that struck me was during Communion-  "the Lord's Supper" for those not hip to the lingo, as it were.

I felt drawn to participate, as I do once in a great while.  But at 1:30 in the morning and not wishing to wake the whole house (i.e. one less than reverent Beagle), I decided to "make do".  No wine in the house?  Okay, we'll sub water.  No unleavened bread?  Don't feel like opening the next sleeve of Ritz crackers?  Well, on the table sits a half-eaten box of doughnut holes.  The sweetness of the one makes up for the lack of the other, right?

Before you call lightning down on me for my blasphemy, let me tell you what happened next.

As I said a prayer before eating the "bread", I noted that it was more like the morsel Judas Iscariot dipped with Jesus before he went out to betray Him.  How appropriate, I thought, for a sinner such as I to be sharing, rather than the Bread of Communion, the Betrayer's Morsel.  It seems I do a lot more of that than doing the right thing in remembrance.

And then I prayed about the water.  And the thing that it reminded me of was the last trickle of water from Jesus' side on the Cross.  Just moments after He said, "It is finished".

And that's when it hit me for the millionth time, just in a new way.  Every day I eat the Betrayer's Morsel of sin.  And at the end of each day Jesus says, "It is finished."  And those sins are forgiven, and He wakes me in the morning with "See, I make all things new."  Even me.

With that in mind, it's now Christmas, and He has made all things new. Let's take advantage of that and do well. May your day be blessed and bright, with those you love and the One who's birth in us we celebrate.

A Prayer from Indiana

Heavenly Father,

This morning I was reading your Word in 2 Timothy 4, and read Paul's words to Timothy:

 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: ² Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. ³ For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴ They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. ⁵ But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.


This reminded me of someone who seems to have gone down this very path.  In another passage, in Hebrews 6, it speaks about knowing those who have been saved by whether they bear fruit or briars.  And I remembered this friend mentioning in passing her "salvation moment", calling it "a mystical experience" but never further elucidating.

And I thought, if we are to have a testimony, should it not begin with our salvation moment- especially at the time of year we remember Your Son's manifestation on earth?  For every one of us was born a "little Israel", having knowledge of You, but in the darkness until Jesus was born within us.  Thus You dealt with me;  I knew who You were, instructed in religion by Pharisees and scribes, until the moment a group of friends- my Angels- announced to me Jesus' coming birth.  Led by common shepherds, You drew me to the manger.

The darkness on the land, for me, was like a chorus of demons, calling me, screaming at me, telling me I was their slave.  It was not just faith, but their oppression that drove me to my knees.  I was at the bottom of what I would be.  But then, I called out to you, and a voice bid me step into the manger.  And there Jesus was born, within my heart, and the demon-darkness rose like a curtain from over me, never to rule me again.  Nothing "mystic", lightning didn't fall from the sky.  But I was changed.  The faith of my fathers had born its ultimate fruit in me.

Heavenly Father, while we find a time every year to concentrate on that birth, so often we fail to consider that Christmas is actually that moment of salvation- and so is Good Friday, when Jesus died for our sins, and Easter when He rose again.  The holiest of the days You give us is just that one.  And as I finish this prayer, I praise You for bringing THAT day to my soul.




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This is part of the 50 States of Pray event formed by Mark Koopmans over on his blog.  I thank him for the opportunity and hope you will follow the links and read some of the other prayers as well.

Martin World News

And now, bringing you the variety of stupid stuff from around the world, starting with:

ITEM:  My computer.  Just so blogger knows, I am SICK AND TIRED OF THIS:

  Everywhere you go on Blogger, no matter what I do, I get this.  The story is Blogger trying to fix compatibility issues with IE 11.  Except that I went beck to IE 10 (because 11 has its own issues)- as well as it says it's reading a "user.agent value" (whatever that is) of IE 9, which I haven't had in some time.  Once again proving, the more they upgrade something, the more dumb stuff gets thrown in the mix.

ITEM: Next stop, Mercer County, Ohio.

Yet another addition to the really dumb things I've pulled from the news in this county, from the deputy who left the scene where horses were loose on a road to phone it in, while a car hit one, killing the driver, to the (presumably) other deputy who left his police dog in the squad car without AC last summer until it dropped dead.  But at least this time, it wasn't a cop that did the stupidity.  According to WANE.com,
According to the Mercer County Sheriff's Department, the truck was stuck on Tama Road, between Stose Road and US 127. The driver of the vehicle, 57-year-old Dennis Bollenbacher, said the water had filled his truck up to the steering wheel.

So, Dennis, WHY then did you drive INTO it?  But the story goes on:

Bollenbacher said he would not leave the truck until it was towed.  Police told him he would be arrested if he returned to retrieve the truck before the water receded. 
“There was no reason to risk a tow operator in the water, it was bad enough that firemen had to be put at risk. We continually warn people not to drive through high water on the roadways, it is very frustrating. Thankfully, no one was injured," Sheriff Jeff Grey said.

ITEM: Next up, how about this thing with South Sudan?  It wasn't a year ago that the international community celebrated the willingness of The Sudan to allow this breakaway area independence.  Peace was forged in the wake of ethnic strife.  Or was it?  Now, supposed ethnic strife has broken out again between the tribe of the President and the tribe of the recently-fired Vice-President.  So, just how much dividing of the area is needed to bring peace?

For those of you that are historically challenged, look up "Austria-Hungary".

ITEM:         

Meet former USAF Major General Michael Carey.  The "former" part is that this dude, in charge of the USAF nuclear weapons codes, spent a tour of duty in Russia getting drunk, loudly telling tavern goers he saves the world every day, and hanging out with some very questionable ladies... two nights in a row.  When he was tried for the allegations, he became "flippant", and either conveniently or alcoholically forgot "substantial portions" of what had happened... although one thing he did they got on tape:

At a Russian-hosted lunch banquet on the first day of the nuclear security exercise, Carey gave a toast that included unspecified comments about Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency leaker who was in Russia at the time but had not yet been granted asylum. Moscow refused U.S. requests that he be returned to the U.S. The report said Carey's remarks were "not well received" by his Russian hosts.
My thanks for this story to the Moscow Times.  Also for this one:

ITEM:  Vladmir Putin has signed a new law to combat Russia's version of the illegal immigrant problem.  You see, over there, they make immigrants register in the city in which they are staying.  But, what actually happens...

The bill approved by Putin on Monday is part of a fight on so-called "rubber apartments," a term that refers either to apartments in which up to thousands of people are registered but do not live, or to dilapidated buildings that house large numbers of migrant workers in often unhygienic and overcrowded environments.

Migrant workers — like nearly all people on Russian territory — are required to register with local authorities in their city of residence.
In 2011, authorities identified 6,400 of these "rubber apartments," at which more than 300,000 people were registered, according to Interfax. These figures place an average of 46 people at a same address.

Which I find funny, because in the US of A, we try to ignore the laws requiring legalization (our version of registrations) and the illegals DO live 46 to a building!

ITEM: From The Local, "France's news in English", comes a list of the ten best French gifts to give at Christmas.  Here are some of the highlights:

-"SPORTS CALENDAR. Calendars always go down well at Christmas so if you are looking for something French for your sister, mum or grandmother then look no further than Les Dieux du Stade 2014, which features various French rugby and football stars in semi-naked poses. It is guaranteed to keep your mother-in-law quiet on Christmas day. The annual calendar is available at Amazon and if you don't like calendars, the players also come in the form of fridge magnets".  If you think I'm putting this picture on MY blog, "she don't know me very well, do she?"  But if you want an eyeful, click here.  I believe this will take you right to picture #8:if not, seek and you shall find.

- How about Eiffel Tower vibrators?

The company making them promises a "monumental sensation".  Could I make this stuff up?

- SCENTED UNDERPANTS. With micro-capsules of perfume embedded in their cotton fabric, these briefs release the sweet-smelling odour of musk and pear as soon as you start to sweat. Invented by the French company “Le Slip Francais”, these men's briefs are priced at €35(about $48), while a pair of scented boxers are slightly more expensive at €40 (about $55). They’re available to buy online and in a number of high street boutiques.

- Well, this one you gotta see:

Sugar coated crickets on chocolate.  YUM!


ITEM:  Then there's the article on the Japan Times site about the most memorable quotes of the year.  Among the highlights:

- Japanese officials advising the US military to have their men patronize the many legal "sex service businesses" (AKA whorehouses), a sentiment backed up by one Tobonobu Togasaki, manager of all-girl pop band AKB48:

 “The women are sex workers,” said Togasaki, who is married, when asked about whether he was engaging in affairs. “They are not amateurs. Is that adultery?”

Hmm... not adultery if done by a professional.  Like to get Phil Robertson's take on that one.


- In October, an elementary school principal within the Osaka Board of Education denied charges of sexual harassment by claiming he was emulating a British spy.
“These were actions like 007,” Yoshida wrote in a letter to the board. “To get information from female spies, I showed them affection.” He resigned later that month.

I'm not seducing women; I'm fact-finding.  Bill Clinton should have tried that one.

-In May, Hideaki Ueda, Japan’s envoy to the United Nations on human rights issues, told members of the U.N. Committee Against Torture in Geneva to “Shut up!” Ueda was responding to laughter heard within the committee after he had defended Japan’s judicial system. He resigned from his post in September.

From the article..

ITEM:  Somebody posted an article the other day on Facebook called "The 25 most flawless answers to wrong number texts".  Here's some of my favorites:

Sunday message- bits and pieces

Unlike my normal Sunday message, this one's going to do a little bit of bopping around.  First up:

My contribution to the Fifty States of Pray blog hop by Mark Koopmans is in the can and will publish Christmas Eve at 12:30 AM.  I'll have a link there so you can go read some of the other entries- prayers and hopes for Christmas in the coming year.

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Next up, I want to "clear the deck" as it were, on the Duck Dynasty thing.  I have read the article, and I came away with these three thoughts.  First, I find it highly disingenuous for gay groups to attack ANYONE speaking their mind in a public forum, when they feel its acceptable to force business owners to cater to them despite the owners' personal beliefs.  "Christians should just shut up, A&E has the right to fire anyone they want," they say, and that's not discrimination.   But a Christian cake shop owner had to close their business because they did not want to serve an openly gay couple, and that refusal to serve IS discrimination.  I have had it way past up here with gay advocates crying that they are "marginalized", that they are simply "trying to be heard against the opposition of the nation's 'dominant religion'", but the truth is that they are just like the atheists- they don't want equality, they don't want fairness, they want to be the ONLY voice heard.  Second, I think GQ told their reporter to be the biggest ass he could be, so that he could give Phil Robertson his say and still make him look stupid.  My question to you, Mr. GQ "reporter", do you REALLY talk like that in public?  Frankly, Phil is a much better Christian than I for even putting up with your presence in his home.  Third, I think that was A&E's plan all along as well- give the "hick Christians" a show so the world can see how stupid Christianity is; but it took on a life of its own, because (surprise to A&E) not everyone thinks Christians are stupid.  They got caught with their pants down when it became a success, and now they are desperately trying to not look like idiots for having a show with people who don't back down from their Christian values.  Not near so funny now, is it, A&E?

Just a couple side notes more on the subject.  I sincerely hope that Willy and the rest stand by their dad and walk away from the show as soon as contractually possible.  And as for Cracker Barrel, who practically tripped over itself trying to get Duck Dynasty gear out of their restaurants:  So much for those old fashioned country values, eh?

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Finally, and what would be the core of today's message.  Those who have read along these last few months know that this basically started with my tasking myself to read three chapters out of each book of the Bible in turn every night, and praying to see the theme as the week went on.  And I'm sure most of you surmised that that particular way of doing things went up in flames some weeks ago.  Let me boil down how things such as this happen.

You start with the knowledge that the best way to keep up your faith and/or ministry and keep sin at bay is to stay in the Word.  Sometimes, though, that concept becomes ambiguous and life around you has a much better shot at knocking you off track.  So you go out and get the latest devotional, or put yourself on a reading program that can be quantifiably measured (as I did).  And at the start, it really helps you make a dedicated effort.

But the thing is, some areas of some books easily lend themselves to 3-chapter-a-night reading.  Story chapters in the historical books, dramas like Ruth and Esther;  even cup-of-coffee-and-alarm-clock ones such as Leviticus and Numbers, can be easily pored through on that basis.  But try that with John's Gospel, or Romans or I Corinthians, and try to get anything out of it.

So then it becomes a chore; and pretty soon, you hit a night you had something else to do.  Missed nights become like Lay's Potato Chips, and pretty soon you're feeling like the guy who chased out the demon, tidied up his soul, and then the demon came back with ten buddies.  And you don't feel worthy.  You ignore your Bible, avoid making eye contact with God, skip Sunday Messages... or just don't feel real good about them when God takes over your keyboard.

Somewhere in the middle of "Thou shalt read this much" and, "Where did my Bible get off to", there is a middle ground.  Somewhere in between, "I must examine every jot and tittle" and "ForGodsolovedtheworldHesentHisonlybegottenSonthatweshouldnotperishbuthaveeternallifeAmen", there is a place we can actually benefit.  There are a lot of factors wedged in-between Be Faithful and Be Flexible.  And that's why we should start any Bible time with prayer- not only for enlightenment, but wisdom in what is necessary.  Jesus told us it's a narrow road- that way, we know we're on the right track.  The part about "the mountain above, the abyss below," He figured we'd catch onto on our own.

The Grant Balfour hassle

Normally I don't spend a whole post on one sports subject.  This one, I want to be the first (as far as I can tell) to show the obvious.  The subject in a nutshell is this:  The Baltimore Orioles had signed former Oakland A's closer Grant Balfour to a 2-year, $15 million contract contingent on his physical.  A day later, they declared that a shoulder MRI showed "something"- they never said what, to anyone- and cancelled the contract.  Balfour denied that anything was wrong with the MRI, and was backed up by the team physicians for both the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cincinnati Reds.  He claims, the Orioles are just "backing out" of the deal, and the players union may file a grievance.

And they'll win.  Here's why.

Last season, the Orioles had Jim Johnson, one of the best closers in the game.  50 saves 2 years ago, 51 last year.  But Johnson was in his arbitration year.  When the Orioles talked to him about a contract extension, his agent floated numbers of about $11.5 to $12.5 million a year for four years.  If they went to arbitration, experts figured on him winning a $10.88 Million contract for 2014, a 59.7% raise.  Rather than pay that much, the Orioles traded him to the A's for Jemile Weeks, a former star potential second baseman who hadn't hit his weight in the big leagues in two years.  For those not baseball-literate, imagine trading your year-old Lambourghini for a 10-year old Yugo and a couple tanks of gas.

So obviously, owner Peter Angelos- rated the worst owner in baseball by Sports Illustrated in 2009- wanted to do the job on the cheap.  But apparently team President Dan Duquette didn't get the memo.  With Balfour now on the open market with the Johnson trade, Duquette signed Balfour to this contract, which pays 7.5 mill a year with a million deferred.  Cheaper than Johnson?  Sure, but when you consider Balfour made $4.5 million last year, it would be a 60% raise for him- just as the one Johnson would get.

Those are the facts.  Now, my speculation. 

Angelos calls Duquette into his office and says, "Didn't I say I was NOT going to give a 60% raise to no relief pitcher?  That includes someone ELSE'S relief pitcher!"
Duquette says, "But sir, we are saving over three million a year on the contract, and..."
"I don't care!  I didn't approve this, and I'm not paying it!"
"But sir, if we cancel the contract now, the union..."
"That's YOUR problem!  Now, get out of here! OUT!"

Sound pretty close to you?

So now the Rays are talking to Balfour, not scared away by the manufactured MRI concern or the 60% raise, and the Orioles are allegedly looking at Fernando Rodney.  Rodney was in Tampa last year, had 37 saves to Balfour's 38, but with almost a run higher ERA.  But guess what?  They could give Rodney a 60% raise and only pay him $4 million a year!  Of course the rub of that comes with a stat called WAR.  This stat tells you basically how much more valuable a player is to a team than the average Joe they would have to replace him with were he not there.  Here, Johnson scores a 1.5, Balfour a 1.4.  Rodney?  0.5.

So now the Orioles are all crying about how they didn't "back out of the deal", that there was a legitimate medical concern raised by their medical staff.  But evidence doesn't lie of it's own, and it sure looks like to me that the only medical concern the O's had was the walletectomy their owner was facing.

Couldn't do this today

We took a longer walk yesterday.  Trudge through the woods, down to the river, and back up the frozen banks to the creek.

Even at the bottom of the river, there's no excuse for littering.

Halfway across the creek on the ice...

To cross the rest, we had to cross Rush Island.

The other side in sight...

Safe on the soccer field road

And here to show you how much ice we crossed, along with the new foot bridge and where we saw the foxes a few weeks back...(click to read better)

By this morning, though, I highly doubt the crossing would've been possible...

The Hump'N'Dump was a mess...

Frosty on borrowed time.

Time Machine week 99

On December 20, 1971, Larry King was arrested in Miami, Florida, and charged with grand larceny over his dealings with Louis Wolfson, a financier of questionable reputation. Although the details of the events are somewhat murky, apparently King was peddling his influence with the incoming US Attorney General, John Mitchell, suggesting to Wolfson that he could arrange an investigation that would clear Wolfson’s name. (Wolfson was in prison for selling unregistered stocks.) According to Wolfson, Wolfson gave King a total of $48,000, but King did not deliver Mitchell’s assistance. Wolfson pursued the larceny charge against King, but the statute of limitations had run out on the charges, so King was never tried; however, he did plead no contest to one count of passing bad checks in relation to the scandal.

King, born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in Brooklyn, NY, was a rising star on local Miami radio and television at the time. The scandal derailed King’s career for three years, during which time he wrote articles for Esquire magazine and worked as the public relations director for a race track. (From Hollywoodsmostwanted.com)

Welcome to another episode of Time Machine.  This week, a look at what Cashbox had and Billboard didn't;  The long awaited (for nearly two weeks) countdown of the longest charting singles of the Martin Era;  a less than six degrees with yet another lovely Berry Gordy story; and one sad note...

Monday, we lost country legend Ray Price.  Best known for For The Good Times ("lay your head... upon my pillow..), Price first hit the pop charts (and for the only other time) in 1956 with Crazy Arms, and racked up 39 country top tens and 7 #1s, including the #2 Make The World Go Away (1963), #9 Danny Boy (1967), and #1 You're The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me (1973).  He was elected to the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1996.

Back to business.  Our look around the music world finds us in Ireland where an unusual- in story- Christmas hymn hits the top.  Tommy Drennan was 11 years old in 1953 when he recorded a demo of O Holy Night.  For nearly two decades this tape sat in a suitcase; in the meantime, Drennan came to head an Irish showband called the Monarchs.  Somehow, the original tape was found and Drennan re-recorded the song, the two versions were melded somehow, and the hybrid song reaches #1 this week.  Other international changes include Switzerland, where a young lady named Mirielle Mathieu hits the top with a tune already having hit #3 in Germany called Akropolis Adieu; Canada, where Family Affair slides into the top spot; and the Netherlands, where a song that will be a big hit in the US of A in about a year- Mouth and MacNeil's How Do You Do, hits the top.

Around the national charts, Let's Stay Together is #1 in Detroit; Both Minneapolis and LA have fallen to American Pie;  Brand New Key rules in Chicago; and Pittsburgh loves Got To Be There.

That brings us to the hot 100 debuts this week.  Legendary rockers T-Rex hit at 98 with Bang A Gong (Get It On).  Black Dog by Led Zep hits at 83 this week;  Elton John's Levon comes in at 73; and at 63, John Lennon's Happy XMas (War Is Over) arrives for the holidays.  The Harlem Community Choir- thirty children of the ages 4 to 12- was credited on this single, as well as the latest iteration of the Plastic Ono Band.

Birthday songs are a little low this week.  Nobody on the 30th birthday list;  at thirty-five, Rod Stewart's Do Ya Think I'm Sexy (answer:  not my type), Foreigner's Blue Morning, Blue Day, Chicago's No-Tell Lover, Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive, and Santana's version of the Classics IV tune Stormy.  Only two turn 40-  Greg Allman's Midnight Rider and Dolly Parton's classic Jolene- and none at 45.  Turning 50 this week, Dionne Warwick (if you can fathom that) with Anyone Who Had A Heart, the Ronettes with Baby I Love You, and the Beach Boys with Little Saint Nick.  Finally, we have Ritchie Valens hitting 55 with La Bamba.  Blow out the candles...

The 45 at 45 WOULD have fallen on yet another song by the 1910 Fruitgum Company (who were apparently pretty good at hitting #45).  Thus, I give you another of my many research projects.  The Cashbox charts were traditionally more volatile than Billboard; thus, out of 127 top tens on Cashbox in 1971 (which means, if you followed last week, that nearly two-thirds of songs that hit the CB top 20 also hit the top ten), several did NOT make the Billboard list.  Among them-

Watching Scotty Grow, Power To The People, Love Her Madly, She's Not Just Another Woman, Stick Up, and Tired Of Being Alone peaked at 11; Bring The Boys Home, Everybody's Everything, and Respect Yourself topped off at 12; Pay To The Piper, Oye Como Va, We Can Work It Out, Never Ending Song Of Love, and I Woke Up In Love This Morning topped off at 13; Murray Head's Superstar, Double Lovin', and So Far Away peaked at 14; Funky Nassau, Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling, Thin Line Between Love And Hate at 15; Immigrant Song, Remember Me, Cried Like A Baby, Nathan Jones, and Two Divided By Love at 16; Don't Let The Green Grass Fool You, Don't Knock My Love, I Don't Want To Do Wrong at 17; and The Isley's Love The One Your With at 18.  14 of those thirty were R&B chart hits, and three more were ethnic-flavored;  another four were from the teeny-bopper genre, which might tend to point to BB concentrating on a more adult, white demo while cashbox ranged wider.

  Billboard also had 19 #1s to Cashbox's 29; of the 11 songs that hit on CB but not BB, five more were R&Bs (Mama's Pearl, What's Going On, Never Can Say Goodbye, Spanish Harlem, and Smiling Faces Sometimes) and one was country (Rose Garden).  Was there a BB bias against black artists?  I doubt it;  I believe that their collecting categories may have diverted more R&B power to the R&B chart which CB didn't have.  One side note is the two BB #1s that didn't top the CB chart:  The Stones' Brown Sugar and Janis Joplin's Me And My Bobby McGee.

The big climber this week is among the whopping ten top 40 debuts;  the big droppers fell 36 spots to land right beside each other again:  Everybody's Everything to 57, and One Tin Soldier to 58.  Almost making the big dropper are a pair of songs to give the almost-but-not-quite shoutout to;  Van Morrison's Wild Night peaked at 25 and falls to 53;  Yes' Your Move peaked at 29 and falls to 54.

Two weeks ago, I asked if anyone had a suggestion for something special for next week's 100th episode;  Bobby G.  asked for the longest charting singles.  So today, I give you the songs that sat on the hot 100 the longest.  A few things of note before we get going.  First, long chart runs were not the norm in the sixties and early seventies;  it was after about 1974 that chart runs began to increase.  Of course, the so-called "modern era" has the franchise on this- 35 songs have more than a year on the hot 100, and the only one that came before 1996 was the second half of the run of December 1963 (Oh What A Night), which was remixed in 1993 and doubled its chart run.

Now that doesn't mean some of them weren't good songs (like Jewel's You Were Meant For Me, Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know, Santana's Smooth, Duncan Sheik's Barely Breathing, and 3 Doors Down's Kryptonite), but over a year on the charts?  Really?

Another thing to note is that, like December 1963, many of these were on multiple chart runs, which was okay with me as long as it stayed within the Martin Era (1962-79).  As such, Chubby Checker's The Twist and Bill Haley's Rock Around The Clock get booted because of runs that started before the Martin era.  And finally, a song called Harlem Nocturne by the Viscounts loses it's spot because the first five weeks of it's run fall in 1961.  With that, here are the top 20 longest charting songs of the Martin Era:

T-16th:  Chuck Mangione, Feels So Good; Exile, Kiss You All Over; Village People, YMCA; David Naughton, Makin' It; Samantha Sang, Emotion; Andy Gibb, (Love Is) Thicker Than Water; Bee Gees, How Deep Is Your Love; and David Dundas, Jeans On- 28 weeks.

T-14th:  Andy Gibb, I Just Want To Be Your Everything; Maxine Nightingale, Lead Me On, 29 weeks.

T-9th:  Robert John, Sad Eyes (which took forever to hit the top 40); Hot, Angel In Your Arms; Walter Murphy, A Fifth Of Beethoven; The Surfaris, Wipeout; and Murray Head's Superstar (in three runs), 30 weeks.

T-7th:  Nick Gilder, Hot Child In The City; Kris Kristofferson's Why Me ( best known for "Lord, help me Jesus, I've wasted it so"), 31 weeks.

T-5th:  Morris Albert, Feelings (another one that took forever hitting the top 40); Aerosmith, Dream On (in two runs), 32 weeks.

4- Hall And Oates, She's Gone (in two runs), 34 weeks.

3- Gloria Gaynor, I Love The Nightlife, 35 weeks.

2- Paul Davis, I Go Crazy (another slow climber, just as slow down), 36 weeks.

Annnnnd the longest song on the charts- with three separate runs totaling 38 weeks-

Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers with The Monster Mash!!!!!


As I mentioned, we have a list of ten tunes that debut in the top 40 this week!  Lee Michaels' follow-up to Do You Know What I Mean, called Can I Get A Witness, moves up 9 to #40; The first of two versions of I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing  to debut this week, belongs to the New Seekers, climbing 23 to #38; the Partridge Family comes in at 37, up 28, with It's One Of Those Nights (Yes, Love);  moving up 8 to #35 are Rare Earth with Hey, Big Brother; California band Sweathog (a term I wouldn't know for another 4 years) hits with their one-hit-wonder Hallelujah, climbing 7 to #34; The other version of I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing, by the Hillside Singers, rises 11 to #33; and then we get 4 straight songs debuting within the top thirty.

The first is Betty Wright's Clean-Up Woman, climbing 21 to #26.  Then comes Joe Simon's Drowning In A Sea Of Love, climbing 22 to land at #24.  Next, we have Al Green's Let's Stay Together, up 29 spots to 22; and finally, climbing a whopping 40 spots to #20, the Jackson Five with Sugar Daddy- a song I didn't remember, and kinda fell flat for Laurie and I when we played it.  Sometimes you have to do more than just plug in the formula.  And sometimes, it's the name on the label more than the product in the box.

Two songs enter the top forty, two fall out.  Dropping are Gypsies Tramps And Thieves (10 to 21) and Baby I'm-A Want You (3 to 12).  And what happened to the ten that fell from the top forty? Nine of the ten landed between 43 and 60; and one, Yo-Yo, fell all the way off the chart.

Dennis Coffey and the Detroit Guitar Band get all Zodiacial with Scorpio at 10, up 4.

The Chi-Lites drop 3 to #9 with Have You Seen Her.

Coming in at #8, the best example yet why Sonny Bono was a better politician than a singer, Sonny and Cher with All I Ever Need Is You.  See the comment on Sugar Daddy.

Aretha Franklin holds at 7 with Rock Steady. Hmmm...

David Cassidy climbs two to #6 with Cherish.

Isaac Hayes' Theme From Shaft drops 3 to #5.  Shut Yo' Mouth! It wins the six degrees win!

One of the background singers was one-time Dawn girl and future actress Telma Hopkins.  Another was a lady named Pat Lewis.  Pat got her big break in 1968 when she filled in for a sick singer on the recording of Stevie Wonder's Uptight lp.  It was written by the duo of Henry Cosby and Sylvia Moy.  They came into Stevie's live at a low point... his songs weren't charting well, and puberty was changing his voice.  Berry Gordy was on the verge of dropping him, but Sylvia said, why don't we try coming up with songs that fit his now-deeper voice?  Berry gave the okay, and they took a riff Stevie had come up with and turned it into Uptight-Everything's Alright.  It was Stevie's first co-writing credit, and Henry and Sylvia would help him with more late sixties scores such as My Cherie Amour (which was originally about an old girlfriend, and was almost "Oh. My Marsha").

Three Dog Night barks up 5 spots to #4 with An Old Fashioned Love Song.

The theme at the top this week is, "up two".  As in, "Up two to #3, Michael Jackson's Got To Be There".

And, "Up two to #2, Melanie with Brand New Key."

And that means that-yet again- the #1 song is:

No, No, NOT Sly Stallone...

...it's Sly and the Family Stone, with Family Affair!!!!!!!


It's not too late to throw in a suggestion for the 100th episode!  Make a suggestion and be a part of history!