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

I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".

OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.

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

ART NOTES — a period look at works by Elizabeth Osborne in an exhibition entitled The Sixties will be at the Wilmington, Delaware Art Museum through January 8th.

in Wilmington, Delaware

HAIL and FAREWELL to the Canadian-born TV actor Alan Thicke— who left this planet too young, but did so playing hockey with his son, appropriately enough — who has died at the age of 69 ..… to the Welsh-born actor Bernard Fox— whom I recall best from “Hogan’s Heroes” and who acted in both 1958’s “A Night to Remember” as well as the 1997 version of “Titanic” … who has died at the age of 89 …. to the singer and longtime big-band radio host Jim Lowe — who played big-band music on radio station WNEW-AM at its low ebb and lived long enough to see its re-emergence — who has died at the age of 93 ….. and to the Guyana-born author E. R. Braithwaite, the author of To Sir, With Love— (and I can hear Lulu sing the film’s theme song, right now)  — who has died at the age of 104.

THURSDAY's CHILD is named Q199 the Cat— discovered underneath a train (in freezing weather) that travelled from Manitoba to Alberta, Canada … who survived with just some frostbite, and was named after the number of the train he rode.

       Q199 the Cat

THE WORLD’S BEST REGION at renewable energy appears to be South America— due to sunshine abundance and hydropower, with potential for wind power as well as geothermal (due to volcanic regions) …. and the lack of coal deposits (outside of Chile and Colombia) forcing alternate source development.

FRIDAY's CHILD is named Browser the Cat— the library cat at a Forth Worth, Texas suburban public library whom a city council member wanted to evict … and who just lost his re-election bid as a result.

YESTERDAY I featured one additional obituary, of the last surviving member of the Army helicopter trio that helped end the My Lai massacre of 1968 before it got any worse. Lawrence Colburn was aged 67, and lived to see the actions of he and his crew-mates (viewed initially as unpatriotic) to be worthy of honors.

       Browser the Cat

PROGRAMMING NOTE — I will be away next week visiting family and friends for the Yuletide season (and hosting our 41st annual party for three old chums who have birthdays during Christmas week) … and so will neither have a Friday C&J nor my normal Sunday diary of Odds & Ends. I will be back for New Year’s Eve.

If you celebrate it: Happy Hanukkah or Merry Christmas. Speaking of which …

CHEERS to learning that — in many markets across the US on Christmas Day — the TV special with holiday music called The Yule Log will be broadcast with the original 1966 film, shown for the first time since 1969.

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

SEPARATED at BIRTH — two Brits named Andrew: film star Andrew Garfield (“The Social Network”, “Amazing Spiderman”) and tennis champion Andy Murray.

Andrew Garfield (born 1983)   Andy Murray (born 1987)

...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… actually, two songs that I annually feature as the year draws to a close.

Although one was written by Joni Mitchell (who seems to be recuperating well, thank heavens), 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 6.8 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 53rd anniversary of the career of Tom Rush and - at age 75 - 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 just this past week:

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 to Georgia/Florida in February.

   Tom Rush in the 1980’s …    … and 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 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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And for the Yuletide ....

One reviewer called him "the most listened-to jazz pianist of all time" and with the Christmas season upon us: it might well be true that Vince Guaraldi achieved that status - in a quiet way - due to a certain comic strip of note.

His breakthrough hit (in more ways than one) was the 1963 Grammy-winning tune Cast Your Fate to the Wind - a gorgeous melody that eight years later the James Gang's guitarist Joe Walsh - later to join The Eagles - worked into a medley (most improbably) with a hard rock song entitled The Bomber in 1971.

In the early 1960's, Vince Guaraldi was successful in the jazz world, yet comparatively unknown to the American public. But that changed - dramatically - with a 1965 cab ride that TV producer Lee Mendelson took across the Golden Gate Bridge.

In much the same way that The Sopranos producer David Chase decided upon his show's theme song - by hearing the UK band "Alabama 3" perform it on the radio - Lee Mendelson heard "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" on the radio in that cab ride. He asked for help from the noted music writer Ralph Gleason (who helped co-found Rolling Stone magazine later that decade) - and was thus able to contact Guaraldi about composing for the upcoming Charlie Brown Christmas special.

Sixteen TV shows (and one feature film) later, the music of Vince Guaraldi is an integral part of the Peanuts experience - with the theme song Linus and Lucy plus the irresistible song Skating among his best-loved Peanuts music.

Vince Guaraldi died in 1976 (at only age 47) in-between sets of a gig in Menlo Park California. The musician David Benoit cites Guaraldi as an inspiration, and it's difficult to imagine Peanuts with any other music backing it. If you are a fan of George Winston: he had a meeting with Guaraldi in 1971, saying "He was very gracious and encouraging when I occasionally had the opportunity to play intermission piano between his sets” (a common practice at jazz clubs then).

Some long-lost film archives of Guaraldi were discovered in Ralph Gleason’s attic, and his son has helped restore them for a new documentary The Anatomy Of Vince Guaraldi— with a crowd-sourcing site to bring it to home video.

For the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis "Peanuts" was the only chance to hear jazz on TV in his youth. Wynton was also excited that his pianist father Ellis - the (now 82 year-old) patriarch of the talented Marsalis musical family - knew Vince Guaraldi. "Our father knew somebody who was connected to television!", he exclaimed.

Vince Guaraldi in the 1960’s     and near the end of his life 

While most of Vince Guaraldi's work is instrumental: appropriately for the season, the song Christmas Time Is Here had lyrics written by the show's producer Lee Mendelson for kids to sing. A nice grown-up version was recorded a few years ago by Diane Reeves - the featured nightclub singer in the film "Good Night and Good Luck". And below you can hear Vince Guaraldi's original version.

Christmas time is here Happiness and cheer Fun for all that children call Their favorite time of year

Snowflakes in the air … carols everywhere ... olden times and ancient rhymes … of love and dreams to share

Sleigh bells in the air … beauty everywhere … Yuletide by the fireside … and joyful memories there

Christmas time is here … we'll be drawing near ... Oh, that we could always see such spirit through the year ...

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