A look at a few vignettes, after the jump …………..
But first: Top Comments appears nightly, as a round-up of the best comments on Daily Kos. Surely ... you come across comments daily that are perceptive, apropos and .. well, perhaps even humorous. But they are more meaningful if they're well-known ... which is where you come in (especially in diaries/stories receiving little attention).------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send your nominations to TopComments at gmail dot com by 9:30 PM Eastern Time nightly, or by our KosMail message board. Please indicate (a) why you liked the comment, and (b) your Dkos user name (to properly credit you) as well as a link to the comment itself.
In a recent weekly Odds & Ends from yours truly, I noted the passing of the pedal steel guitar innovator Rusty Young at the age of seventy-five from a heart attack. In it, I noted that many years ago he had a monthly column in Guitar Player magazine that not only focused on guitars (of all types) yet also musicianship. And I now recall now one that dealt with: making mistakes on-stage.
He gave practical advice, yet concluded — as was his wont — on a humorous note. Saying that if all else failed, “you need a fall guy” — and in that case, he said words that went something like:
“A likely candidate is your bass player. So cast an evil eye in his direction (regardless of fault). Don’t worry about hurting his feelings; he’s too busy figuring out why he has only four strings.”
Back then, his last sentence had meaning …. now, with 5, 6, 7 and even a few more-than-that strings on electric basses, the punch line may no longer register.
As someone who came to love the band Cream as a twelve year-old (just as they were splitting-up, though I saw a pair of their 2005 reunion shows) — I, like many others, wondered about the title of their second (and breakout) 1967 album:
There was many-a-discussion amongst myself and friends as to what message they were trying to make about a former leader of their nation?
Maybe it was mentioned somewhere in the magazine articles of the day, though I thought I read whatever I could find of them. It was not until this century(?) that I finally read about the malaprop origin from their drummer Ginger Baker:
We had this Austin Westminster, and Mick Turner was one of the roadies who’d been with me a long time, and he was driving along and Eric (Clapton) was talking about getting a racing bicycle. Mick, driving, went ‘Oh yeah - Disraeli gears!’ meaning derailleur gears... We all just fell over... We said that’s got to be the album title.”
Next, a story about street names …. not the usual naming convention, either, but instead one named out of revenge … that somehow stuck.
When I first relocated to Keene, New Hampshire in 2013, I observed a numbered street (93rd Street) near my new office … yet noted there was not a 92nd or 94th. Nor, did I later discover, were there any other numbered streets in town — why?
The answer was supplied to me by fellow DK poster (and Keene native) Elwood Dowd at a Drinking Liberally session — now, our local newspaper historian spelled-it-out, earlier this month.
Just east of Main Street in the mid-1870’s, a blacksmith named William Brooks was unhappy with the entrance to his shop (which was a lane through the yard of a neighboring machine shop) and so he pressed the city council for a new street to go past his shop. And he had some supporters.
There were, however, dissenters who signed a petition opposing it and initially the city council said no. Brooks fought back and eventually won-over the council.
The day after the approval, Brooks placed a sign with the name, “Ninety-Third Street”— listing the number of signatures on the petition opposing the new street. And that was the name given to the new street when it was completed in December, 1875 — even though the blacksmith shop was out of business by 1900.
Friday of last week was the 40th anniversary of what many baseball people consider the greatest college baseball game ever played. This was a Northeast regional qualifying match for the College World Series, between St. John’s and Yale universities, played at Yale Field in New Haven, Connecticut.
It is thought to be great as it featured two future World Series champion pitchers: Frank Viola (who was on the Minnesota Twins 1987 championship team, starting Game 7 of the World Series) and Ron Darling (who was on the NY Mets world Series championship team the year before, also starting Game 7 of the Series). Later, they were teammates on the Mets (from 1989-1991). Here were their stats:
Ron Darling, Yale: 12 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 5 BB, 16 K, 190 pitches thrown, a no-hitter through 11 innings
Frank Viola, St. John's: 11 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 8 K, 160+ pitches thrown
In the stands, where baseball writer Roger Angell of the New Yorker and celebrated former Red Sox pitcher Smoky Joe Wood sat, it became quiet. The essay that Angell wrote for The New Yorker is also considered a literary gem.
In the top of the 12th, Ron Darling gave up his first hit …. and the runner managed to steal second, third and finally home (on a misplayed double steal).
Both men consider it the most challenging pitching duel they were involved in.
With the death of the noted children’s author Eric Carle (at age ninety-one) — he managed a place on the Top Ten circulated books list of the New York Public Library, when it celebrated its 125th anniversary in January, 2020:
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats: 485,583 checkouts The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss: 469,650 checkouts 1984 by George Orwell: 441,770 checkouts Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak: 436,016 checkouts To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: 422,912 checkouts Charlotte's Web by E.B. White: 337,948 checkouts Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: 316,404 checkouts How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: 284,524 checkouts Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling: 231,022 checkouts The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle: 189,550 checkouts
Finally, a quick note about the resignation of the attorney general of Oklahoma:
He apparently is divorcing his wife of nearly forty years, after having an affair with a state employee ….. which one state blog suspects they know who it is.
I’ve always been fascinated by just how far-out on the FamilyValues scale those who do not practice what they preach are. All GOP'ers have to preach it, yet some just give lip service; content to be corporate lobbyists masquerading as public servants. There should be some sort of 1-10 scale (maybe 1-10 Bibles)?
Well, he appears to have been an enthusiastic supporter:
Hunter made his marriage a part of his 2018 race.
"Mike is most proud of his accomplishments as a husband and a father," one campaign flyer stated. "He and his wife Cheryl have been married for 35 years."
It should be duly noted that he is resigning — unlike the South Dakota AG (set to face trial in August for killing a man with his vehicle along a highway) and the Texas AG indicted for securities fraud several years ago.
Let’s close with a Steve Winwood song from his days in the band Traffic — performed here by Brian Auger.
Now, on to Top Comments:
Highlighted by TrueBlueMajority:
In the front-page story on the Arizona state senator who authorized the ‘fraudit’ — this comment (made by Eric Nelson).
Highlighted by Proginoskes:
In the diary by ChrisRodda about a GOP congressional hopeful who echoes the Big Lie and wears his Army uniform while doing so — this is a Top Comment, methinks, coming from greenharper.
And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the diary by RobertEnders on why he believes that FormerGuy knew what would happen on January 6th— the nonpareil Wee Mama begins a thread of intrigue about what took place in the White House that afternoon.
Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful (and now eternal) *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will take you to the comment that features that photo.
TOP PHOTOSMay 26th, 2021 |
(NOTE: Any missing images in the Quilt were removed because (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments, or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library which didn't have permissions set to allow others to use it.)
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And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
1) [embed] by OwossoHarpist +1332) Thanks Greg. Good news. … by Denise Oliver Velez +11512) [embed] by ian douglas rushlau +7413) [embed] by ian douglas rushlau +7115) (UNLADYLIKE EXPLETIVE DELETED) by asilomar +6816) Prior enlisted here. … by BlackSheep1 +6724) Olympic Athlete … by BMScott +5925) [embed] … by ian douglas rushlau +5825) [embed] by TrueBlueMajority +58