Odds & Ends: News/Humor (with a "Who Lost the Week?" poll)

CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.

ART NOTES — a retrospective of the pioneering early 20th Century photographer Clarence H. White will be at the Art Museum of Princeton, New Jersey through January 7th.

Now at Princeton University

YOUR WEEKEND READ — is that of the last few people who must spend time in an iron lung— due to contracting an extreme case of polio in the days before vaccines — and how they must deal with equipment maintenance/lack of parts.

THURSDAY's CHILD is named Dexter the Cat— a British Columbia kitteh who went missing on a summer camping trip … but now reunited with his family.

          Dexter the Cat

From the WOTTA SURPRISE file — nineteen directors have been charged with causing the collapse of north-east Italy’s Veneto Bank— and eleven have tried to shield their assets by creating family trusts or by selling and transferring property to relatives: with some only months away from reaching the statute of limitations.

From the WHY AM I not SURPRISED? file —

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At United Club, LAX. “Mr Robert Mueller” was paged to the front desk. Every head turned.

— Dana Delany (@DanaDelany) December 2, 2017

FRIDAY's CHILDREN are named Henry the Dog and Ballou the Cat— who accompany a couple on their outdoor adventures ... and are best buds.

Henry & Ballou: adventurers

THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary which I had intended to be a look at revisiting my youth … but realized it was a triumph that old-fashioned record stores— with knowledgeable sales clerks selling not just the latest best-sellers, but a spectrum (including vinyl records) which I feared would become extinct — have a new lease-on-life, with the revival of an old haunt of mine.

BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.

OLDER-YOUNGER BROTHERS? — anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist as well as Alex Azar— the pharma-bro who is the Trumpster’s choice for the new HHS Secretary.

Grover Norquist (born 1956)

     Alex Azar (born 1967)

...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… although it was written by Joni Mitchell (who seems to be recuperating well, thank heavens) …. each year at this time, I feature the man who popularized it and — according to Rolling Stone — ushered in the singer/songwriter era.

Say what you will, Tom Rush gets around. He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, came-of-age in Massachusetts, made his mark at the Boston/Cambridge coffeehouses of the early 1960's, has lived in the Rockies and the West Coast, then Vermont, now back in Massachusetts and who-knows-where tomorrow.  

As Steve Leggett of the All-Music Guide puts it, “Rush's warm and slightly world-weary baritone” has a way of growing on you, and he was one of the first performers to feature works by Jackson Browne and others when they were just beginning. Garth Brooks has cited him as an influence, with James Taylor going so far as to say, "I took as much from Tom Rush as possible and unwittingly modeled myself on him. Like a lot of people who do what I do, I owe my career to him".

For a few years, Tom Rush has had an album of humorous tunes Trolling for Owls - which he notes is "not available in stores!" And one of them - The Remember Song - has received in excess of 7.1 million hits on YouTube. After being told it had gone viral he wrote, "I thought I was being accused of being a musical equivalent of Ebola ......... but my children explained to me that this was a good thing".

And for several years, The Very Best of Tom Rush has provided listeners with his classic songs. But it wasn't until 2009 that he released What I Know— his first new studio recording in 35 years— because as he explained, "I don't like to rush headlong into these things".

This marks the 54th anniversary of the career of Tom Rush and — at age 76 — is still quite active. In 2012 he recorded What's Wrong with America?— a spoof of Mitt Romney's notorious 47% comments. He performs in a lot of college towns and — without mentioning you-know-who by name — said last year:

In terms of the politics, I try to create kind of a little oasis from the problems of the world. So I don’t tend to get political, because I really don’t want to remind people of how much things suck. I’d rather give them a little holiday from all the turmoil.

On the other hand, there are times when I just can’t help myself and have to comment on something. I’ve been saying lately there are aspects of the recent election cycle that make you realize we really have to spend more on education. You can make of that what you will.

For many years he performed an annual show in Boston's Symphony Hall in December, with his current tour bringing him around the Northeast/Middle Atlantic for the next few months (along with a Georgia show on Jan 31st).

Tom Rush (in the mid-60’s)

… and much more recently

That Joni Mitchell song that Tom Rush helped to popularize: is her 1966 tune Urge for Going - about the oncoming Canadian winter. And below you can hear Tom Rush sing it (with the accent guitar of the late Bruce Langhorne that, to me, truly makes his version special).

I awoke today and found ... the frost perched on the town … It hovered in a frozen sky ... then it gobbled summer down … When the sun turns traitor cold ... and all the trees are shivering in a naked row … I get the urge for going ... but I never seem to go

Now the warriors of winter ... give a cold triumphant shout … And all that stays is dying ... and all that lives is getting out ... See the geese in chevron flight ... flapping and racing on before the snow … They got the urge for going … and they've got the wings to go

And they get the urge for going  …… when the meadow grass is turning brown .. Summertime is falling down .. Winter's closing in

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