take it to the floor now

 

In conversation with a friend a few days ago - we got onto the subject of Las Vegas, and he said gambling isn't as popular with the younger generations as it was with ours and the one before - the Depression era and World War II people.

I thought that was interesting.

He said same way with smoking, not nearly as common for younger people today.

With the Internet and technology, there are more things for people to do, now.  Maybe that's why.

------------------------ Beyonce put out a country song called "Texas Hold 'Em."  You can play it from You Tube--there are many videos.

        There are videos of the song, and there are videos of civilians dancing to the song (check out the Bearded Boomer in a Short titled "So much fun I danced it twice").

        There are even several videos where the song is "on a loop" - it plays over and over, back-to-back, for an hour.  (Who would click on that and listen to the same song over and over for an hour?  Certainly not me....)

🪕 Banjo playing opens the song.  It's good. I think if Pete Seeger heard it he would approve.

-------------------------------

-30-

the time I was "gangster"

 

In the last post here I was describing how startling and surprising it was to me, when a man shoved in front of me in line at the post office.

It seemed so strange - and from that memory, my mind was led to recall another time when someone stepped in front of me in line.  That other time was when I was in third grade.  Thirty-some years earlier than the post office incident.

        That time, the line was in school.  This girl just stepped in front of me and I pushed her to the side and stepped forward to reclaim my place. (!) That might be the only time in my life when I pushed somebody.

LOL.

Even at that moment, I could hardly believe I did it.

        My family had just moved, from Mineral City, Ohio to Rootstown, Ohio.  I think I was a little bit stressed.  We had moved away from my best friend Jackie.  And all the upheaval with your stuff, and being in a new place....

        And it was during the school year.  So I had begun third grade with kids I knew, and our teacher Mrs. Busby.  And then we moved to Rootstown and it was kids I didn't know, and a different teacher, Mrs. Rine.

In Mrs. Rine's class we were doing punctuation.  I hadn't had that at all yet, and I came in in the middle, and I remember I found it kind of difficult, and inexplicable at first.

And that's so weird, because I was a child who read for entertainment... The Bobbsey Twins; Adventure At Black Rock Cave... Why was punctuation hard for me at first?

Just a bunch of changes that I didn't ask for, all at once.  That girl cutting in front of me in line was the last straw, I guess.

Should I have applied the same "gangster" tactic to the man who shoved in front of me in the post office line, 30 years after the third grade incident?  

        There was no way I would have pushed him.  

Older and wiser and more educated and experienced, I did not have the freedom of physical response that I found within myself at the age of 9.

_______________________________

- 30 -

are you talkin' to Me?

 

"Each story tells you how it wants to be told."

-  Paul Schrader, screenwriter / Taxi Driver

_______________________

I started noticing inappropriate aggression in regular society in either the late '90s or early 2000s.

        Sometime in there - 1998? - 2000? - I was at the post office in the town where I still live... standing in line, so to speak... there were posts with velvet rope or chain or something connecting them, and that's where you were supposed to stand, to wait your turn to walk up to a "window" and conduct your business.

A man who was maybe 15 years older than me entered the post office and stood behind me, and then took a step forward and "butted" in front of me in line.

When the customer at the window stepped away, finished with their post office task, the man who had pushed in front of me walked to the window and got - whatever he wanted, I guess.

I don't know if I should say I was shocked, but I was definitely extremely surprised.

        Like - you're quote-end quote "butting in line"??!! I mean, I'm old, and you're Even Older, and you're Butting In Line?!

        WTF?  Are you stoned or stupid?

It was so weird.

---------------------

-30-

celebrity poetry

 

Pretty Boys Are Poisonous

is a book containing poems written by an actress named Megan Fox.

        I heard about this book on a YouTube channel about poetry.

        The narrator used the phrase "celebrity poetry."

        ...New knowledge.

Each poem, the title of it is underneath, instead of above the poem's lines.

____________________________

-30-

coping

 

Tina Turner:

---------- My parents returned to Nutbush when I was five, so I was freed from the stifling environment at my relatives' place.  But our home wasn't much better because my parents were still fighting tooth and nail.

        Whenever they'd go at each other, I'd run out of the house...

        ... I knew I'd have to find my own way to carry on, to construct my own path to happiness.

        I spent a lot of time outside, where I could think in peace.  Nature was the only place where I always felt welcome and enjoyed a sense of belonging--my truest childhood home.  

Whether sitting in the garden at night staring up at a star-filled sky or lying in the noon shade of a tulip tree, watching butterflies glide by, I felt the healing force of love everywhere in nature, and I soaked it in.

        I didn't let my unstable family situation prevent me from finding enjoyment in the world around me. 

In those days, Nutbush and other areas north of Memphis were a mecca for local and traveling gospel, blues, and jazz musicians.  

They performed in our churches, cafes, and juke joints and became my first musical influences.  I loved listening to all different types of music, and I did so every chance I got.  

We didn't have a record player, but we always had a radio, and that was good enough for me.

        I enjoyed singing in the church choir and occasionally performed with Mr. Bootsie Whitelaw, a popular Nutbush native, and his String Band.  During high school, my music teacher even had me learning to sing opera.

___________________________

(excerpts from the book 

Happiness Becomes You 

    by Tina Turner, with Taro Gold and Regula Curti

Copyright 2020 - Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster)

-30-

baptized every other day

 

A you tuber I listen to sometimes says people don't continue with situations where they are treated badly unless there is some "pay-off" they're getting from it.

I thought about that idea recently while wondering about the Israeli - Palestinian conflict.  I.e., Do they like to fight?  Is it possible that they enjoy living in constant peril?

And whose fault is it? The people's, or the governments?

Is it because it is more exciting to fight, and life would be too boring if it was just regular?

        (In an episode of The Sopranos Christopher Moltisanti says he can't stand "the regularness of life."...)

In one YT video it showed an outline of a map, and the narrator said there are four contested areas:  Israel, Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank.

        But wait, isn't Jerusalem IN Israel? See how confusing it always is?  Drives me crazy.

        Checking Wiki, yes it is in Israel, it's the capital--maybe I memorized that map wrong dammit.

This caused me to remember a song, "Don't You Hear Jerusalem Moan" -- it's good, very upbeat, you-tube it and listen.  There's one by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (uploader NGDB). Ricky Skaggs sings the lead - one commenter wrote, "When Ricky holds the word moan my dogs howl."

There's a video of a super old-timey version of the song, by Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers.  Someone typed the lyrics in the comment section - they're hilarious.  "... there's a Campbellite preacher an' his soul is saved / don't you hear Jerusalem moan / but he has to be baptized ever' other day / don't you hear Jerusalem moan..."

-30-

Rudy, we hardly knew ye

 

On Amazon Prime Video right now - two excellent documentary series:

Giuliani: What Happened to America's Mayor?

        and

Watergate: Blueprint For a Scandal

_________________________

Both very informative and interesting.

----------- 'What in the world happened to New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani?' is a question I have asked myself a few times, in recent years.  He used to be serious, and a decent politician and leader / manager.  Now he seems like a hostile buffoon, running around like a crazy nut.

This behavior ratcheted up during the Trump-in-spotlight years.  I don't think Trump told him to act like that, but it does seem like Giuliani saw Donald Trump exhibiting crazy behavior and lying and being cheered for it, and he followed suit.

That's the impression I get.

        In the Amazon program they show a scene where Giuliani is appearing in front of a large applauding crowd.  It's during George W. Bush presidency before the Era Of Crazy, and Dick Cheney (vice president at the time) can be seen at the front of one section of the crowd. He is clapping, but not smiling.

____________________

-30-

any secret fund

 

-------------- (excerpt from All The President's Men, by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. Copyright 1974. Simon & Schuster) ----------------

        Moore agreed.  It was a breakthrough, the reporters felt: an opportunity to penetrate the committee's haze of anonymous and ambiguous statements.  Magruder called about half an hour later and said it was "absolutely untrue" that he received any money from any secret fund.  "I only received my salary and expense account," he told Woodward.

        Then how did he account for the fact that the federal investigation had determined he had received at least $50,000 from the fund in Stans' safe?

        "I was questioned about it, but it was discarded . . . and it was agreed by all parties that it is incorrect." The FBI had questioned him extensively.  "That's on background," he added as an afterthought.

        Woodward told him he should know better than to try to put something on background after saying it.  Magruder had served as the number-two man in the White House communications office before becoming deputy campaign manager.

        "But you've got to help me," Magruder pleaded.  "I'll get in trouble if I'm quoted."

        Woodward told him he might put that statement in the paper, too.  Then, at Magruder's request, they went on background.  Woodward told him the Post intended to go ahead with the story unless Magruder could come up with a convincing reason to hold it.  

Magruder did not argue.  

But he asked Woodward to write that "government investigators," rather than the FBI, had informed Magruder of allegations against him.  "You've got to help me on some of this."

        It was a small point.  Magruder obviously thought that an allegation attributed to the FBI sounded more serious than "government investigators."  The request didn't seem unreasonable.  Woodward agreed.

_________________________

On YouTube, find video:

Paul Simon - Late in the Evening (Official Audio)

---- uploader / channel:  Paul Simon

and play and enjoy!  The song has a sort of reggae-like rhythm.  Or maybe salsa-like, I don't know...

-30-

when evening falls so hard

 

---------------- (excerpt from All The President's Men) -----------

        A touch of his old good humor returned:  "Let's just say I'll be willing to put the blossoming situation in perspective for you when the time comes." But there was disgust in the way he said it.

        Bernstein was already sparring with the typewriter.  Woodward glanced at the lead:

-------- Two of President Nixon's top campaign officials each withdrew more than $50,000 from a secret fund that financed the bugging of Democratic headquarters, according to sources close to the Watergate investigation. ----------

        Woodward reached Powell Moore, the deputy press director of CRP, and told him in general terms what the Post intended to report in Monday's paper.  Moore was a jocular 34-year-old Georgian who had worked in the White House communications office before the campaign.

        "Thanks a lot," Moore said.  "That's just what I need on a Sunday." He was sure the story was untrue--the reporters were getting bad information somewhere, he didn't know where, but he wished they would come off this crusade and check out these things better before putting them in the paper.

        Woodward saw a lever.  The reporters were sure of their facts, he told Moore.  They had verified the information with sources in enough different places.  

But there was always the possibility of some explanation that they might be unaware of.  If Moore would get Magruder to call him and discuss the allegations substantively, Woodward would agree to hold the story until after Magruder had his say.  

And if Magruder could convince the reporters that the story was in any way wrong, or based on some misunderstanding, they would continue to hold it until everything was checked out.

        Moore agreed.

_______________________

On YouTube, listen to this video:

Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water (Audio)

uploader / channel:  Simon & Garfunkel

-30-

something was horribly amiss

 

-------- (excerpt from All The President's Men, Woodward and Bernstein.  Simon & Schuster) ------------------

        The call clearly was a mistake. His friend was displeased,  even angry at him. But what struck Woodward even more was how frightened Deep Throat seemed.  The fear had been building, but Woodward had not recognized it until now.  

Only a part of it was personal.  It had more to do with the situation, the facts, the implications of what he knew about.  Woodward had never known him to be so guarded, so serious.   At their last meeting,  he had seemed weighed down.  If Woodward was reading his friend right, something was horribly amiss.

        Woodward told him what he and Bernstein had heard from the Bookkeeper about Magruder and Porter.

        "They're both deeply involved in Watergate," Deep Throat responded.  He sounded resigned,  dejected. 

        Woodward asked him to be more exact. 

        "Watergate," he repeated.  Then he paused and added, "The whole thing."

        He confirmed that Magruder and Porter had received at least $50,000 from Stans' safe. And Woodward could be damned sure that the money had not been used for legitimate purposes--that was fact, not allegation.  That was all he would say.  From there,  Woodward and Bernstein would be on their own for a while. 

_____________________

On YouTube,  play the video -

Taylor  Swift - I Wish You Would  (Taylor's Version) (Lyric Video)

uploader / channel:  Taylor Swift 

       and experience the soaring! 

------------------------

-30-

the reporters

 

------ [excerpt from All The President's Men] -------

        Back at the office,  Woodward went to the rear of the newsroom to call Deep Throat.   Bernstein wished he had a source like that.   The only source he knew who had such comprehensive knowledge in any field was Mike Schwering,  who owned the Georgetown Cycle Sport Shop.   

There was nothing about bikes--and,  more important, about bike thieves--that Schwering didn't know.   

Bernstein knew something about bike thieves:  the night of the Watergate indictments, somebody had stolen his 10-speed Raleigh from a parking garage.   

        That was the difference between him and Woodward.   Woodward went into a garage to find a source who could tell him what Nixon's men were up to.   Bernstein walked in to find an eight-pound  chain cut  neatly in two and his bike gone. 

        The tone of the conversation that Sunday afternoon was ominous.   When Deep Throat heard Woodward's voice there was a long pause.   This would have to be their last telephone conversation, he said flatly.   

Both the FBI and the White House were determined to learn how the Post was getting its information and to put a stop to it.   

       The situation was far more dangerous than Woodward realized.   The story about Mitchell's aides had infuriated the White House. 

_____________________

On YouTube, the video --

Taylor Swift - Now That We Don't Talk (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault) (Lyric Video)

--- uploader / channel:  Taylor Swift 

play and enjoy 

(I have discovered Taylor Swift's music and I'm liking it!  So many albums!   So many songs!)

--------------------------

-30-

big figures

 

--------- (excerpt from All The President's Men - Woodward and Bernstein, 1974, Simon & Schuster) ------------------

        "P" was Bart Porter; they were sure of that, they said.

        "He got a lot of money.  It was in $100 bills; everybody got $100 bills."

        Bernstein reminded her of a joke she had made--"We're Republicans, you know.  We deal in big figures."

        Porter, too, had gotten more than $50,000, she said.

        The Bookkeeper was disturbed by the narrowness of the indictments.  "I went down in good faith to the grand jury and testified and obviously the results are not there.  My feeling is that the FBI turns the information in and it goes upstairs. . . . I just want out now.  Hugh Sloan made the wisest decision of all.  He quit.  Mr. Stans said, 'I begged him to stay, but he wouldn't.'"

        She said that people had evaded the grand jury's questions:  "Rob Odle said to me after he'd come back from the grand jury, 'Don't you feel like you've been through the wringer?' And I said, 'No, and you wouldn't feel so bad if you'd tell them the whole truth.'". She wouldn't go into what Odle might have concealed.

        "The propaganda since the break-in has been, 'We have nothing to do with this and hold your head up high,'" she told the reporters as they left.

__________________________

On YouTube,

Taylor Swift - Shake It Off (Taylor's Version) (Lyric Video)

uploader / channel: Taylor Swift

............. play and enjoy

----------------------------------------

-30-

born yesterday

 

The classic movie Born Yesterday is available to watch on YouTube, now.  

William Holden

Judy Holliday

Broderick Crawford

Crawford is - like - the king of bluster.

__________________________

video:

Born Yesterday (1950)

uploader / channel - Classic TV Rewind

----------------- on this blog, when I recommend a movie that's available on YouTube, I sometimes forget that on some people's devices there might be a ton of ads.

On Born Yesterday there are complaints in the comments, "ruined by too many ads"...

        There are no ads at all if you use 

m.youtube

and Ad blocker. ------------------------

__________________________

-30-

teaching the world how to eat

 

On The Sopranos when food is referenced, even the children are sophisticated and discriminating - at Janice's house, preparing for Sunday dinner one of the kids questions her using soup out of a can!

        When I was that age I would not have spoken up on this topic - cans are where they keep the soup, right?

Something else I notice during Sopranos food conversations is, they call pasta sauce "gravy."

        Obviously I call it "sauce" - and maybe Italian Americans would find that to be offbeat.  Then my question is what do they call the sort of brown, tasty liquid that goes on mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving? - because to me, that's gravy...

Anyway:  and I want to add, in yesterday's post a YouTube comment mentioned Tony Soprano heating up pasta in the microwave and drinking milk out of the carton, like he doesn't care about good cooking if he has to do it himself.

However in another episode it showed him preparing pasta for his Uncle Junior - two pans on the stovetop, he pours pasta into boiling water, in the other pan is "gravy" ... So yes, he can prepare something good for dinner.

        I think in the earlier microwave scene, he was tired, didn't have time, and was in a bad mood.  At Uncle June's, he has Artie Shaw music playing - it's a more relaxed moment.

----------------------------

other viewer comments on the Sopranos food video:

---  Simple sequences like that make me love this show

---  Probably lots of stuff like this makes us subtly love Tony - I don't have any desire to make proper food either

---  lol  back in the 90s and 00s Americans thought Europe was some magical place

---  Yeah but at least their cuisine isn't just junk food and unoriginal.

---  U.S. food is much maligned, but it isn't all junk.  There's some regional variation, but I take your point that it is a lot of man vs. food type stuff.  Barbecue has a lot to answer for.

        Generally speaking, the U.S. hasn't accentuated the provenance of ingredients.  The Italians will venerate a tomato or an Amalfi lemon and build a dish around it.  In the U.S. a dish is much more than the sum of its parts, and the cuisine suffers because of it.  Much like in the U.K. really.

        As for origin.  Well, pasta comes from China via Marco Polo, all cultures borrow and adapt.  I prefer a Californian zinfandel to a cheap Euro white.  Love a deep pan pizza, with pineapple, always have parmesan on my prawn linguine.  No Italian can say sh*t to me.

_____________________________

-30-

a layer of basil leaves underneath the cheese

 

On The Sopranos they speak about food frequently.  One gets accustomed to that,  then you watch some other show and you kind of notice that the characters don't do a very good job with their food preparation - careless, not skillful, and when something gets messed up, someone will suggest,  Let's just go out....

"Italians taught the world how to eat!" Tony Sirico's character states indignantly in one scene.   (He's aggravated because he thinks non-Italians have borrowed Italian food and beverage inventions and are making money from them.)

Junior and Bobby - conversation:

BOBBY

She's been wonderful, helpin' take care the kids,  bringin' dinner over to the house...

JUNIOR 

Janice?

BOBBY

She's a pretty good cook. 

JUNIOR 

Since when?   Everybody steers clear o' her food. 

BOBBY

Nah.  She made lasagna the other night - delicious.  With sweet sausage along with the beef.  I thought Karen's was good,  but -

JUNIOR 

Sweet sausage?  In little pieces?  And a layer of basil leaves right underneath the cheese -

BOBBY 

That's right. 

JUNIOR 

That's Carmela's lasagna.

--------------------------

viewer comment:

The juxtaposition of Furio making his meal from scratch with fresh ingredients, paired with a red wine, and Tony warming his in the microwave and chugging milk is golden. 

___________________

-30-

"I don't care what David Chase says!"

I watched a video analyzing some detail of The Sopranos, and read some comments - one viewer explained very firmly the reasoning and history behind a particular plot line, and wrapped up his case with the statement,  "I don't care what David Chase says."

        David Chase is the creator, head writer,  and executive producer of The Sopranos.  It's a little difficult to see how this person who was in charge of the whole show and thought it up in the first place would somehow not be knowledgeable about plot lines and other granular aspects of the show, but that's how some of these fans are--they are thoroughly invested and involved in the stories and they will kind of 'take ownership' and stand by the analysis they believe in. 

Dedication. 

I was thinking it would be like someone reading Harry Potter and thinking their own understanding of it is right no matter who says otherwise:  "I don't care what J.K. Rowling says! "

        The Great Gatsby:  "I don't care what F. Scott Fitzgerald said! "

LOL.  

It occurred to me - someone should start a Sopranos channel on YouTube and name the channel I don't care what David Chase says. 

        I'd listen. 

_______________________

-30-

storm

a short poem

wind sweeps over,

moving things

and then dropping them

settling in peace,

leaving everything still,

until the next time 

the air has to disturb itself

and roll like a train

___________________

-30-

there was more to know

----------------- (excerpt from All The President's Men) --------------

        "Morale is terrible in finance," she said.  "Those of us who know are tired of being suspected.  There are little jokes all the time, like 'What'd you do with the twenty-five grand, lady?'"

        Was that how much Liddy got?

        She shook her head no.

        More than $50,000? Woodward asked.

        She nodded.

        Magruder got at least that too, didn't he?

        Again she nodded.

        Magruder was the only M to get money, right?

        Another nod.  But, she indicated, there was more to know about Magruder.  "Let's just say I don't trust him at all, especially where his own skin is concerned," she said.  "He'll stop at nothing.  The last three weeks he's turned on the charm to me something fierce."

        And LaRue?  The reporters said they knew he was involved, too, even though he had received no money.

        "He's very elusive, he covers his tracks," she said.  "He and Mitchell are like this"--she intertwined her fingers.  But she would not say what LaRue knew.

___________________________

Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water (Audio)

uploader / channel:  Retro Rock

        Take the trip.

--------------------------------

-30-