I had a dream where I changed the line to "Hank and Tennessee, and Don."
I told Mona about it, and she was confused. It turns out that she has misheard the lyrics all these years, and thought he was saying "Back in Tennessee."
(Those of us of a certain age first heard these songs on a mono AM radio with a half-inch speaker. One of the first thing we used the internet for was to look up all the lyrics we couldn't make out.)
Full lyrics HERE.
I don't know how I missed this one at the time, but it's one of the best protest songs I've heard this millennium.
Music to start a revolution by.
They didn't used to be called "transgender." They were called "transvestites" or "cross-dressers," and you'd read about them regularly in Dear Abby and see them on Phil Donahue.
What changed is that they're no longer treated as freak shows. Gender differences are now generally accepted as a valid expression of the human condition.
There are still a few people out there, like Ted Nugent and Ron DeSantis, who think we we would all be better off if we were more like them, or at least pretended to be.
These people are morons.
This began as a commercial jingle, then was expanded into a song. It's a happy, catchy little thing.
Full lyrics HERE.
I have a really weird pot, and nobody is quite sure where it came from.
It's made out of metal, but I have no idea what kind. It's too heavy to be aluminum, but whatever it is doesn't rust.
You can't put it in the sunshine because it would get hot and cook whatever was in it, and there's no drainage hole so you have to be super careful when you water it.
Fortunately for me, it works great for my Betel Plant. They like indirect sunshine, so I can put it on the porch, and you really can't over-water them, so if I accidentally create a tiny wetlands it will happily drink up the excess.
Betel Plants are native to India, but I got mine through Neem Tree Farms in Florida. I've had great luck with them, and I'm happy to give them an unpaid endorsement. They are on the web at (of course!) NeemTreeFarms.com.
Jazz is fairly new to me, so use a few tricks to help me wrap my head around it.
The first is some advice I remember hearing an old Deadhead give to a young Deadhead: "Listen to one instrument at a time, then listen to how they interact with each other."
My other trick is to play a song I'm familiar with, so I can hear what they're doing differently.
Tangential bit of trivia: Cyrus Chestnut has a daughter named "Jazzmin."
A big part of who I am is who I am not.
Two examples:
My Dad views life as a sort of check-list. He told me once that he never really wanted kids (thanks, Dad) but that’s just the way it’s done: you get a job, you get married, you have kids. A task is completed, you move on to the next one.
I don’t live like that.
My Mom was big on saving things “for a special occasion.” We had a Christmas candle that was too pretty to light, and in one of our many moves it melted into a blob in a moving van. She had a bottle of wine that was set aside, and eventually it went bad. She had a set of expensive glasses someone had given her, and when she died they remained in the hutch, unused.
I just declare a Special Occasion and use that stuff up. Light the candle, drink the wine, and if you crack a glass get a different one.
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." ~Abraham Lincoln (source)
"You know who I really hate? Fat kids. And kids who chew gum. And kids who see my toys and then want one for themselves. And God, don't even get me started on Kids Today and their damned fascination with screens. Seriously, fuck those kids." ~Roald Dahl, probably
You might recognize their drummer, Chris Slade, who went on to drum for AC/DC. The guitarist looks vaguely familiar, too.
Full lyrics HERE.
Moby has often said that Animal Rights is his favorite album.
The first time I played it I hated it, but his liner notes ask us to listen twice before making up our minds, so I played it again.
And I hated it again.
I set it aside and forgot about, but months later I came across it, popped it in the CD player-- and loved it.
I think now that I was led astray by my preconceived notions. I had an idea in my head of what a Moby album should sound like, and this wasn't that.
It's something different.
Full lyrics HERE.
My favorite baseball player, Rougned Odor, signed a minor-league contract with the Padres.
He has always been a superior defensive player but a poor offensive player. Particularly with the new rule changes, I'm not sure there's a place for him in today's game. That's a shame. He has a passion and sense of joy that has become rare in professional sports, and he's always fun to watch. He's easy to root for.
He has one of the more interesting batting averages: he hits a pretty dismal .200 overall, but hits .300 when there are men on base and .400 in extra innings.
So Scott Adams, the cartoonist who created Dilbert, said basically that since Black people are so ungrateful for all White people have done for them, we should bring back segregation. He pointed out that he is already leading the way by having moved to an all-White neighborhood.
Predictably, he is now complaining about being "cancelled."
I think it's more accurate to say he's been "rejected."
A.R. Maxon wrote a nice article titled "The Case for Shunning" which uses Adams as a jumping off point. It's available online HERE.
I used to work the second shift, 3:30 pm until 1:00 am. Sometimes
I would do my grocery shopping afterwards, and it always felt a little
surreal: wide aisles, glaring white light, and not a soul around.
