an honest house

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

        The development consisted of imitation Tudor houses clustered along little concrete-and-grass pedestrian lanes.  The place was doubtless designed for families with young children; traffic and parking areas were safely isolated and almost every house seemed to have a tricycle or some form of hobbyhorse overturned on the lawn.  Bernstein got soaked as he searched on foot for Sloan's house.

        Mrs. Sloan answered the door.  She was very pretty and very pregnant.  Bernstein introduced himself and asked for Sloan.  He was downtown and would not be home until 7:30 or so.  She was friendly, and asked where Bernstein could be reached.  

Bernstein was looking for a way to talk to her at least for a while.  She had worked at the White House as a social secretary, he knew, and she had been an important influence in her husband's decision to quit the Nixon campaign.

        He guessed she was about 30.  There was a softness about her good looks that seemed to suit the idea of becoming a mother.  She had big brown eyes.  Bernstein thought these must be awful days for the Sloans--a former assistant on the President's staff, out of work and under a cloud of suspicion, and his wife expecting their first child.  

At this time when they should be happiest, his name was showing up in the papers every day in a way usually associated with mobsters . . . she spent her time waiting for him to come back from the grand jury . . . FBI agents were talking to their friends and neighbors . . . reporters were knocking on their door at all hours . . .

        Bernstein shared these thoughts with her, trying to dissociate himself from the hordes.

        She sensed his discomfort.  She understood he was only trying to do his job, she said.  Like her husband.  "This is an honest house."  It was a declaration, proud, firm.

________________

On You Tube, find the video titled

1958 Buddy Holly - I'm Gonna Love You Too

uploader / channel:  The45Prof

and Play!

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all your turtle - dovin'

 

---------- [excerpt from All The President's Men, by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward] ------------

        The next morning, the New York Times did not mention the secret-fund stories.  At the White House, Ron Ziegler was not asked about them.  The networks carried neither of the stories, and most papers didn't either.  

On Capitol Hill, the Republican leader of the Senate, Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania, told an informal morning press conference that the Watergate case was not of concern to the average voter but of interest to "just Senator McGovern and the media."  "Nobody is paying any attention to what you're writing," he said.  

In the newsroom, Bernstein and Woodward waited for the first edition of the afternoon Washington Star-News to arrive.  The only Watergate story was about a George Washington University law professor who had filed a motion in federal court seeking the appointment of a special prosecutor in the case.

        Late that afternoon, Bernstein signed out a company car an drove to McLean, in the Virginia suburbs, to visit Hugh Sloan, the former treasurer of CRP.  The trip, ordinarily half an hour's drive, took more than an hour and a quarter in the rain; Sloan lived in a new development, and Bernstein had trouble finding it.

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

On You Tube, type in

That'll Be The Day, Buddy Holly

-- pick your video, and Play!

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the cautious side

 

(excerpt from All The President's Men) ---------------- Magruder's tone had made more of an impression on Woodward than his words.  He was second in command at CRP.  His job at the White House had been to deal with the press.  But his voice had been shaking as he talked to Woodward.

        A section of the story was about Hugh Sloan.  Deep Throat had said that Sloan had had no prior knowledge of the bugging, or of how the money was to be spent.  He had quit as treasurer of CRP shortly after the bugging because he "wanted no part of what he then knew was going on." 

        The story quoted the Bookkeeper anonymously.  "He didn't want anything to do with it.  His wife was going to leave him if he didn't stand up and do what was right."

        There was one problem in writing the story.  Deep Throat had been explicit in saying the withdrawals financed the Watergate bugging.  But the Bookkeeper--who suspected as much--could not confirm it.  

The reporters conferred with Sussman and Rosenfeld,  who decided to fall on the cautious side and say the money was used to finance widespread "intelligence-gathering activities against the Democrats." 

Gradually, an unwritten rule was evolving: unless two sources confirmed a charge involving activity likely to be considered criminal, the specific allegation was not used in the paper.

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

On YouTube, find the video titled

Oh Boy

--------- uploader / channel: Buddy Holly - Topic

... and play!

___________________________

All The President's Men, by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward.

Copyright 1974.

Simon & Schuster.

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mother, don't you recognize your son

 

I've said  before,  I love every single song they used in The Sopranos.  David Chase and I must have the same taste. 

The Rolling Stones 

Bob Dylan 

Joan Baez ("Diamonds And Rust")

Artie Shaw

Chuck Berry 

The Faces ...

In The Sopranos episode titled "Marco Polo" there's a song at the end - "Bad 'N' Ruin".

It's so good!  And I had never heard it before. 

        It's by a band called The Faces, lead singer Rod Stewart. 

One viewer comment said the song is "underrated."  (That word is used a lot on the internet.)

        On YouTube, type in  

Faces, Bad 'n' Ruin

and you will get several videos of the album cut you can listen to. 

One video I want to highlight:

Faces - Bad 'N' Ruin  / THE SOPRANOS 

uploader-channel -- WGON Music 

Click on that one and play it.  It's the song,  with scenes from the Marco Polo episode. 

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

Comments under one of the album cut videos:

--   I swear to God I find a new song after every episode of the sopranos 

--   Thank you again David Chase.  This song rules. Rod Stewart is awesome as f---.

--   I literally can't kill someone outside of a brothel without literally listening to this first 

--   God I love how the comment section of every song featured on the sopranos on YouTube is overrun with sopranos quotes 

--   Loved this when it was released.  Blew my mind when heard it on the Sopranos.  One of my favorite songs. 

--   What a track.

______________________

-30-

every game you play

 

Since Sean Combs has been in the news so much lately I realized I've never heard his music. Typed him into YouTube and tapped on a video: it was a song with P. Diddy singing / rapping, but it was a song I had heard before, by The Police.  "Every Breath You Take."

A viewer comment under a news video argued that a young lady said she wasn't attracted to Mr. Diddy but then she became his girlfriend anyway after he "showered her with gifts, clothing, jewelry, apartments"...

The concept of showering someone with apartments.

It made me think of The Wizard Of Oz, when Dorothy Gale's house falls out of the tornado and lands on the Wicked Witch Of The East.

____________________________

-30-

unpleasant people

 

Several years ago I watched a documentary called "Surviving R. Kelly" - it kind of helps the viewer to contemplate what goes wrong with some people who get fame, money, and power.

        Or - does something "go wrong" with the person, or were they always that way and the power just put them in a position to run amuck?

(John Oliver had a segment on Rudy Giuliani a while back, he said people ask what went wrong with the former New York City mayor, but - leaning forward to the camera and vibrating with his trademark manic energy - "HE'S ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY!!!")

Now it's Sean Combs (P. Diddy) ...

You tube viewer comments:

--   How arrogant do you have to be to record your own illegal crimes with someone else's phone?

--   Just rich..... the rich have different rules.

--   In any society where money and influence can build a shield against the law, this will continue to happen.

--   Pro tip: if you're in a position of authority, do not abuse your subordinate(s).

--   Like R. Kelly, Diddy has been on my "never listen to this fool's work EVER" list for a few decades.

--   Diddy earned everything that he's getting.

______________________________

I was reading about this, and someone referred to R. Kelly and Mr. Combs as "unpleasant people."

        Bit of an understatement.

--------------- I learned who Jennifer Lopez was when I saw the movie Selena in 1997, when it came out.  Then she was making a record album called "On The Six." (Back then I would get my music news from VH-1.)

        THEN, later on that year, I was getting dressed, getting ready for work, and the news said Jennifer Lopez had been arrested (ARRESTED?!) along with her companion puff Diddy, p. Daddy, Whatever, they were at a nightclub and a gun was involved in the scenario...??

I was thinking, OK, that young lady should NOT be dating that person.

...And as soon as she calls me to ask my advice, I will Tell her that. ...

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

-30-

the wheat fields waving, and the dust clouds rolling

 

Listening to "Texas Hold 'Em" by Beyonce recently, the banjo-playing reminded me of Pete Seeger.

On YouTube, play for yourself and your family and friends the video titled:

Pete Seeger This Land Is Your Land

----  uploader / channel - Ruchira Natraj

___________________________

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