All Purls. No Swine.
I have long deplored the current unfortunate tendency to politicize the days, weeks, and months of the calendar to the point where it’s almost impossible to escape the continual onslaught of SJW causes thrust in our collective faces through cards, jingles, ads, sports events, and media coverage of one sort or another. While many of… Continue reading Happy Happiness Day!
To be infatuated with the power of one's own intellect is an accident which seldom happens but to those who are remarkable for the want of intellectual power. Whenever Nature leaves a hole in a person's mind, she generally plasters it over with a thick coat of self-conceit--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Outre-Mer, A Pilgrimage Beyond the… Continue reading Quote of the Day: Longfellow On Self-Conceit
I see that today, February 8, 2023, is the 102nd anniversary of the death of George Formby, Sr. That implies the existence of a "George Formby, Jr, and indeed I see that the younger Mr. Formby is the one I'm familiar with via my family's interest in comedy and music hall songs of the 1920s… Continue reading George Formby, Senior and Junior
As reported in several places: XX= Woman XY=Man YYY=Delilah In an effulgence of political correctness/cowardice, the Welsh Rugby Union has announced that the Tom Jones hit song Delilah will no longer be played as part of its approved song list. Because, you know, "misogyny." Thankfully, and as I had hoped, it's foolish and pointless to bet… Continue reading Meme: YYY, Delilah!
It was sixty-four years ago today, on February 3, 1959. Rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were killed when their plane, a Beechcraft Bonanza, crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa, when the pilot lost control of the plane in bad winter weather, and crashed into a cornfield. All… Continue reading The Day the Music Died
Something of a train wreck at the personal level, but he leaves behind some lovely music. Rest in peace. https://youtu.be/OVAA9Ov-z0k
Loretta Lynn has died at the age of 90. Some who know me might find my love of American country music a bit odd. Mr. Right never did. He understood that it hearkened back to centuries ago, to the traditions of English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish ballads, and to the stories those songs told, stories… Continue reading Loretta Lynn, R.I.P.
https://youtu.be/kOcW9gZv68A Oh. Wait. Sorry. Wrong Englebert Humperdinck. “Wut!” I hear you exclaim in disbelief. There’s more than one Englebert Humperdinck? Well, no….. The “real” Englebert Humperdinck, born September 1, 1854 was a German composer best known for his opera Hänsel und Gretel, based on the Brothers Grimm fairy-tale of the same name. Like many of his… Continue reading Happy Birthday, Englebert Humperdinck!
The year is 1964. The pop revolution is underway, and groups like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones own the British charts and are besieged by thousands of screaming girls throwing flowers (and much else) at them wherever they go. Out of nowhere, that May, a quartet of young Australians who'd worked their passage from… Continue reading The Carnival is Over: Judith Durham, R.I.P.