I can see this Sandusky trial is going to be…a trial. I think I’m going to have to read the weekly summaries, because I can’t take too much more of this daily stuff. Especially stuff like this:
“Sandusky was standing right up against the back of the young boy with his arms wrapped around (the boy’s) midsection in the closest proximity I think you can be,” McQueary said. “I was extremely alarmed, flustered and shocked.”
At one point, McQueary said, he returned to his locker and slammed the locker door “in an attempt to say someone’s here, ‘break it up.'”
I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again: None of us knows how we would react in such a situation. But my god, I’m growing tired of all the harrumphing and locker-slamming and eye-averting that went on in this case. I think, every time, of the women I know, the mothers. I could tick off a dozen 110-pounders who, if they saw such a thing, would have rushed in like those little birds you see in the spring driving crows away from their nests. They would have Heisman’d that old perv and taken the boy out under their fierce little wings, and if anyone tried to stop them, well, then you’d see the fingernails.
But again, we don’t know what we’d do. We only hope we’d do better.
For Detroiters and visitors: The owner/chef at Supino’s Pizza gives you a few options for local dining, in GQ. Did I mention Hank Stuever is coming to visit in a couple of weeks? Hank, what looks good to you?
I hope I’m recovered by then. Went to the doctor today, for the second time in a week. I told her my head felt like I was wearing a diving bell at all times, that Alan was complaining about how loud I was setting the TV volume, that I drove an unknown number of miles yesterday with my turn signal on, because I couldn’t hear the thing clicking at me.
“Ear infections take their time to resolve,” she said.
“I don’t say this often, seriously,” I replied. “But I want a more powerful antibiotic. Not the carpet bomb. Just something with a little higher octane.”
So, a Z-pack. Fingers crossed.
And so, bloggage:
Worst songs of all time: Bobby Goldsboro’s “Honey.” Worse than “Dreams of the Everyday Housewife?” Worse than “Watchin’ Scotty Grow?” Yeah, I think so.
Farewell from inside the diving bell.
coozledad said on June 13, 2012 at 1:03 am
The “Dreams of the Everyday Housewife” trope even metastasized through Paulie, and while Paul’s singing is gorgeous, it’s clearly devoted to Satan. The Satan of mildly abusive marriages, bad wallpaper and half-eaten dishes of oatmeal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw_Jao8hMPA
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Jakash said on June 13, 2012 at 1:05 am
Boy, that “human bobblehead”, “diving bell” infection sounds awful, Nancy. Don’t think I’ve ever had anything like that, and I’ve had my share of ailments. You sounded so optimistic after taking the first antibiotic; I certainly hope this latest pharmaceutical assault does the trick.
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MarkH said on June 13, 2012 at 1:11 am
I bet the Z-Pack does it. It better. I can’t think of anything other than your illness to drive you to bringing up Bobby Goldsboro on your blog.
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alex said on June 13, 2012 at 7:44 am
Bobby Goldsboro’s greatest hits playing in your head would probably kill more cooties there than Vancomycin applied with a trowel through a burr hole in your skull.
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coozledad said on June 13, 2012 at 7:52 am
Alex: He paints, too:
http://www.bobbygoldsboro.com/custpage.cfm/frm/11246/sec_id/11046
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nancy said on June 13, 2012 at 8:03 am
You know what, though? I bet he’s really happy. I wish I could be like that — turning out crap in multiple forums, making a good buck, never thinking too hard about anything.
On second thought, maybe not. It seemed to eat Thomas Kincade’s guts out from inside.
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beb said on June 13, 2012 at 8:04 am
Picking the worst song of all time is hard because there are so many to choose from and everyone has a different reason for hating a particular song. For me that worst of the worst is “The Last Kiss.” That has me plunging for the Suicide Booth every time I hear it. “Honey,” I will confess is a really sucky/sappy song. MarkH really nails it, that only your ear infection would drive you to bring up Bobby Goldsboro.
The thing about Penn State is that all these golden careers and shiny reputations have already been destroyed. It’s just a matter of determining whether these people will live our the rest of their lives as pariahs or jailbirds. What I’d really like to see is that Cardinal (Dolan?) prosecuted for bribing pedophile priests to go away, then denying that ever did any such thing.
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basset said on June 13, 2012 at 8:16 am
Nance, is there no pain? Are you receding? Is everything coming through in waves? Do your hands feel like two balloons?
ZPack is good stuff, should fix you right up.
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alex said on June 13, 2012 at 8:26 am
Cooz, the brunette rug and low-hanging upper denture are more artful than anything he ever put on canvas. But as Nance says, I can’t begrudge him for trading on his “brand.” At least he’s not hawking third-rate annuities on cable at 3:00 AM like some of his more talented colleagues of the same era.
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Randy said on June 13, 2012 at 9:22 am
Nancy,
I once had a wicked ear infection that antibiotics couldn’t fix. My doctor ended up packing my ear with cotton tha twas soaked in some kind of stronger antibiotic. Not fun, but it got the job done within a few days.
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Dorothy said on June 13, 2012 at 9:24 am
My family doctor from about 4 neighborhoods ago used to tell me, after dispensing antibiotics “If you aren’t feeling better in a couple of days, call us and we’ll change the meds.” That’s a rule I live by – but I also try NOT to take antibiotics unless absolutely necessary. I also boycott the antibiotic soaps that are so prevalent. We need to be exposed to some germs in order to work up the antibodies to fight them! I’m not an idiot – I wash with soap and water frequently. But I hate and refuse to use hand sanitizer. Yeccchhhh.
Thank heavens McCreary was a witness – I think it’s going to be the salvation for the prosecution. He should have launched himself at Sandusky and called the police on the spot, yes yes YES. All kinds of swearing and smacking about that perv’s face would have been happening if I’d been there. My heart aches for the victims who have to testify and I fervently hope they get all the help they need. All the people who looked the other way or pretended they didn’t suspect something over the years – even his G-D WIFE – I wish they all could be punished.
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nancy said on June 13, 2012 at 9:27 am
Thanks for the concern. I’m not in pain anymore, and I’m willing to give this a few more days. At this point, it’s mostly a nuisance — the hearing loss, the diving-bell thing. I’m just very leery of ear infections in general. John Glenn had one that incapacitated him for months. A friend had one that left him unable to walk for a spell. That’s why I went back to the doc. She said they’re “obviously infected, but not angry red,” which she takes as a sign it’s resolving. It will take a while, that’s all. So that’s where we are.
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coozledad said on June 13, 2012 at 9:28 am
Sometimes I wonder if those guys aren’t a member of some secret society where you’re required to cultivate a cheesy public personality. In this world, Bobby’s got both a giant log-built ranch house on a golf course in Dothan Alabama, and two floors of the Dakota stocked with Blaue Reiter paintings and bondage weapons.
I can’t get Billy Ray and his goddamn red Chevrolet out of my head now.
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Lois Marquart said on June 13, 2012 at 9:30 am
Perhaps you should consider seeing an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist. A grandson of mine experienced similar symptoms and ended up having a ruptured eardrum, threatening his hearing. All turned out well after having tubes inserted in ears; hearing restored. Good luck with your recovery.
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Prospero said on June 13, 2012 at 9:40 am
Worst song: The Night Chicago Died, Indiana Wants Me> Nope, It is Billy Don’t be a Hero. Bo Donaldson and the Haywoods certainly have several slots in the top ten.
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/11/154583824/health-care-decision-hinges-on-a-crucial-clause?ft=3&f=127088100&sc=nl&cc=ph-20120613
A distant ship out on the horizon. You are only coming through in waves, Your lips move but I can’t hear what you say.
Dorothy is correct. McCreary’s non-intervention is inconceivable. How do you let an adult attack a child and go tell your old coach.
The single Constitutional issue in the ACA decisision has to do with the commerce clause, and GOPers are clearly on the side of laissez faire in this case, all I said previously is that the originalists will have to sing a different tune, and that will expose Scalia and Clarence as convenients defenders of their so-called faith.:
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/11/154583824/health-care-decision-hinges-on-a-crucial-clause?ft=3&f=127088100&sc=nl&cc=ph-20120613
Coozledad, I suppose I was a jock, but swimmer more than footballer. But damn good at both. Latent homosexuality was never really an issue. And towel snapping was more or less non-existent.
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Connie said on June 13, 2012 at 9:41 am
Worst song of all time: Marty Robbins “El Paso”. Second worst song of all time: anything by John Denver.
As to Detroit area restaurants, The Root in White Lake has been hailed as best new restaurant. It’s not far from me, but I hear reservations are a must. http://www.therootrestaurant.com/restaurant.php. Or you could do what Anthony Bourdain did: Go to Lafayette Coney Island and a Polish restaurant in Hamtramck. And Guy Fieri went to a place in Clarkston about which I hear good things about the food and bad things about the parking.
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Bitter Scribe said on June 13, 2012 at 10:10 am
I don’t know about the worst song…there are so many. But the worst music video ever has to be David Hasselhoff (sp?) doing “More Than a Feeling.” (I think that’s what it’s called. I can’t access videos at work, and I wouldn’t access this one if I even could. Look it up yourself, if you’re morbidly curious. Shudder.)
Does His Eminence the Most Exalted Prince Cardinal Nolan ever look at himself in the mirror and wonder how he got to be this way? Someone whose mission, whose calling, whose service to the Lord, has become to silence victims of sexual abuse?
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Dorothy said on June 13, 2012 at 10:14 am
Anything on the radio sung by Michael Bolton brings up my gag reflex faster than you can say “changethestationimmediately!”
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MarkH said on June 13, 2012 at 10:16 am
Prospero, I once lost a college girlfriend that went back to her old boyfriend — Bo Donaldson.
EDIT — Wow, Connie, that’s harsh. Robbins had one of the finest voices in country music, which made El Paso at least tolerable for me. BTW, we are very much a library-loving community here and ours is going through a major expansion and renovation. It’s going to be beautiful and I’ll post some photos as we get to completion in Sept.
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Kirk said on June 13, 2012 at 10:31 am
Good choices for worst song (except “El Paso”; MarkH is right), and have to agree with hating on John Denver stuff.
For me, “God Bless the USA” by that disgusting troll Lee Greenwood ranks right at the top. Let’s not forget anything by the Archies, either, or “Afternoon Delight.”
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Maggie Jochild said on June 13, 2012 at 10:48 am
When I was four, my favorite song by a long yard was “Last Kiss” — made me cry every time it came on the radio, which was often then. Later, in my 20s, I actually did some counseling work on undoing the messages in my head left by that song and others like it, the “romance” lies of the 50s. It has that appalling narcissism of a love definition throughout: She’s dying because I had to hot rod and even then I force a last kiss on her so I’ll have the memory.
There’s a solid reason my generation created feminism.
Which brings me to the Sandusky hoo-ha. It won’t be popular even here, but after having listened to the personal stories of HUNDREDS of women and men starting to work on having been sexually abused as children, certain things are extremely common:
(1) You have a mostly-male environment, you have child sexual abuse. It has nothing (ZERO) to do with homosexuality: The safest families statistically are lesbian-run households. It has to do with how our current male conditioning imprints sexuality. Children are fair game when women are also prey in the power/sex distortion.
(2) If you experienced sex abuse as a child, even “merely” as a witness to it in the environment, without intervention or treatment, your ability to then intervene as an adult will be severely compromised. You will be much more likely to either seek partmers and family dynamics with perpetrators (esp if female) or become a perpetrator yourself, or both.
(3) Sandusky was not the only one. He was surrounded either by those unable to act against him (former affected children) or other perpetrators. He was only the most visible. These folks find each other and network; look at the Catholic Church.
Going down the “it’s queers after our liddul boys” rabbithole simply keeps the infrastructure in place.
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Sue said on June 13, 2012 at 10:56 am
Good one, basset.
“Honey” isn’t the worst song because everyone knows how bad it is and it doesn’t get any airtime beyond a targeted infomercial or PBS audience, easily ignored. I nominate either that smug, self-righteous “Signs” because even I want to smack a hippie every time I hear it, and it’s still getting air time with another cover for gods’ sake, or “One Tin Soldier” because it seems middle school chorus teachers to this day find it so deep and profound that it has to be sung at every damn concert.
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Bitter Scribe said on June 13, 2012 at 11:02 am
Maggie: Agreed. One of the most infuriating, obnoxious responses by the Catholic Church and its apologists to the molestation scandal is: “If only we removed ‘the gay culture’ from the Church and the seminaries…” This is usually followed by “it’s the fault of the hypersexualized ‘anything goes’ liberal outlook.”
This is simply an attempt to confuse the issue, and score points against a perceived enemy, by conflating pedophiles with gays.
THEY ARE NOT THE SAME. The fact that an adult man rapes a little boy does not tarnish homosexuals as a class, any more than it would tarnish heterosexuals as a class if he raped a little girl. Attempts to muddy the issue by implying otherwise are despicable.
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Jakash said on June 13, 2012 at 11:08 am
There are some bad songs that have been mentioned, and, as pointed out by alex and Coozledad, the danger of this game is getting one of these atrocities stuck INSIDE the Diving Bell, but, as far as I’m concerned, none of them top “Having My Baby.” “Afternoon Delight” would be in the money, though, Kirk.
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Julie Robinson said on June 13, 2012 at 11:23 am
Maggie, I think you’re right. But, like Nancy, I can only listen to so much of the testimony before I need to turn away, and focus elsewhere for a while.
And, given my name, I’ll vote for Julie, Julie, Julie as worst song ever. It came out when I was in junior high and plagued me for years. Of course, I can also vote for Mrs. Robinson, even though I liked the song before I married.
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brian stouder said on June 13, 2012 at 11:33 am
Here’s to you, Mrs Robinson
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Sue said on June 13, 2012 at 11:33 am
Just one minor quibble, Maggie:
Our generation didn’t create feminism. Our generation finally got a toehold, and if we’re not careful to continue pointing out what happens when bad men and those women who follow at their heels call the shots, we’ll fall right back down that vertical cliff.
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paddyo' said on June 13, 2012 at 11:46 am
Did somebody say, “Seasons in the Sun” by Terry Jacks?
What? Earlier, you say? Like, maybe, “Yummy Yummy Yummy” and “Chewy Chewy” by Ohio Express?
Take those three earworms, Nance, and the diving-bell feeling will be a distant memory.
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Snarkworth said on June 13, 2012 at 11:51 am
“Sometimes when we touch, the honesty’s too much…”
Blearrrghhh.
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nancy said on June 13, 2012 at 11:54 am
It’s actually a pretty good song, but astonishing to listen to today, even after five seasons of “Mad Men” — Wives and Lovers.
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coozledad said on June 13, 2012 at 11:54 am
I was in a band in high school whose guitarist would put the guitar behind his neck to play the solo from Freebird. People would go nuts.
I hated that song and sort of wished I could nail their heads to the floor with gutter spikes.
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alex said on June 13, 2012 at 12:01 pm
This is the palate cleanser I put on this morning before leaving for work so as to get “Honey” out of my head.
It was still playing until I started reading the posts here during lunch. Bo Donaldson, Terry Jacks… even more maudlin and cloying than Goldsboro. Nance can take Azithromycin to get rid of it but I think I’m going to need Ritalin.
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LAMary said on June 13, 2012 at 12:09 pm
I had that same ear infection stuff about 15 years ago and it took a long time to get my hearing back to normal. Like months. After trying amoxicillin they switched me to ZPack, and it worked, but the hearing loss went on and on. I have really unpleasant memories of the winter of 1997 with two little kids and a head that felt like it wasn’t entirely connected to me. I remember mine started on Christmas Eve and I spent Christmas morning with a heating pad that I was moving from one ear to another.
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Prospero said on June 13, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Tom and Dicky do Honey:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGBdbRqflUg
It wasn’t big? That’s what Honey said. That was the kind of shit that got R. Raygun elected president. Despite his obvious Oldtimers. What the hell is wrong with Americans?
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Sherri said on June 13, 2012 at 12:21 pm
Dorothy, way back at #11, I keep hand sanitizer in my kitchen for one purpose: handling hot peppers. Hand sanitizer, because it’s alcohol-based, does a much better job of getting the oils from hot peppers off your hands than soap and water does. The alcohol molecules bind to the heat-causing molecules. Alternatively, milk also works.
Same thing in your mouth, if you’re looking for an excuse to have a beer with your spicy meal. Since I don’t drink anymore, I go for the sour cream or the raita or the equivalent, depending on the cuisine.
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Pam said on June 13, 2012 at 12:28 pm
Nan, when I was little (before you were born), every winter I got bad ear infections (before tubes also). When the infection actually cleared up and I went back to school, mom had to speak with the teacher about temporarily moving me to a front row seat and speaking to me a little more loudly because my hearing was still bad for about 3 more weeks. It was like I had cotton in my ears (although diving bell is also accurate). So it might take awhile for the congestion to clear. But then, there were no Z-Pacs then.
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brian stouder said on June 13, 2012 at 12:37 pm
What feat of magic makes good pop music, on one hand, popular and memorable; and not silly or cloying?
I was thinking about this very thing last weekend, when we were driving along somewhere or the other, and a song came on Shelby’s station, which I immediately liked.
It was a little goofy, with a simple melody and slightly techno-sounding music. The catch line in the lyric is “Now you’re just somebody that I used to know”.
A male sounding voice sings the ditty, and he’s being shunted aside by his girlfriend, and there’s all that self-centered stuff going on…and then the song completes with a sweetly feminine riposte, and it was like – wow – what a great song!
I told Shelby that I’d bet 20 years from now, she’ll hear that and it will evoke memories of these summer days
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Jakash said on June 13, 2012 at 12:45 pm
If you manage to ignore the part about the Dickensian working conditions, here’s a nice story about Starbucks getting its new mugs from a company in East Liverpool, Ohio, from yesterday’s New York Times. At the end, it mentions that the Homer Laughlin China Company is the other pottery company that remains in the town, which has been home to 300 pottery companies over the years. I’ve often noticed that name on the cups and plates at many regular Good Eats-type restaurants. The ones that don’t get their dishes from China, of course.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/business/starbucks-turns-to-ohio-not-china-for-coffee-mugs.html?pagewanted=all
Eight jobs may not be many, and I’m no fan of Starbucks, but I give these guys credit for considering that it might be in the interest of businesses to do something about the outsourcing of American jobs themselves, rather than looking to Washington for the answers to the problem.
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baldheadeddork said on June 13, 2012 at 12:48 pm
You should read this bit on the Penn State molestation scandal by LaVar Arrington. Finally, there is one person connected to Penn State football who hasn’t missed the plot. (And for all the blather about how JoePa built character in his players, this makes it damn clear that on his best day he couldn’t carry Mrs. Arrington’s lunch. Mama birds and all that…)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/hard-hits/post/i-wish-id-paid-more-attention-to-one-young-mans-pain/2012/06/12/gJQAkgviXV_blog.html
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JWfromNJ said on June 13, 2012 at 12:48 pm
Seasons in the Sun would have my vote. Or anything by Pantera although I have no clue what they’re saying. But no one goof on my fave band Insane Clown Posse cause I’m a Juggalo 4 life. Just kidding…
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Connie said on June 13, 2012 at 1:01 pm
These days Homer Laughlin is best known for still making Fiesta dinnerware.
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Peter said on June 13, 2012 at 1:07 pm
Bitter Scribe, you’re absolutely right. Tom Roeser once wrote that gay culture was the motivating force behind Vatican II, and none of this would have happened if we had stuck with the Latin mass.
If it weren’t so tragic it would be comical.
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beb said on June 13, 2012 at 1:15 pm
What we’re seeing in the Sandusky trial is the exposure of the “Good ol’ boy” network viewed through the eyes of a visitor from another planet. McCreary didn’t intervene directly because he worked at will for Paterno and knew that Sandusky was a favorite of Paterno’s. So instead of calling the police he makes noise hoping to break-up Sandusky’s little tryst de rapine. Even so he’s career is proboably over because he ratted out a fellow coach.
Sue brings up the song “signs” is indeed annoying because it remains popular on the radio. I keep thinking of all the signs the singer wants to ignore — like ‘no trespassing – mine field’ or ‘High voltage – stay out.’
To the extent that I haven’t heard “yummy yummy yummy” in a long time, I like that song. It one of those songs that easily gets stuck in your head and you spend all day with it running through your head. But it doesn’t try to tell a sanctimonious story like “Honey” does. Which reminds me, no has nominated “She’s having my baby,” for worst song. That’s a puke inducer of the highest order.
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MichaelG said on June 13, 2012 at 1:21 pm
Good to see you, Maggie and I like your post.
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adrianne said on June 13, 2012 at 1:28 pm
“We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun.”
Yup, Terry Jacks (sp?) definitely gets my vote. Since I grew up in the ’70s, I have lots of contenders, but that’s the most annoying earworm.
Aargh, now I can’t get it out of my head!
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Jeff Borden said on June 13, 2012 at 1:43 pm
I’m glad Jakash brought up “She’s Having My Baby,” which is so horrible it makes me lament that my ears work. I would add ANYTHING ever sung by Wayne Newton to the list. And I hugely agree with Kirk about Lee Greenwood’s crappy song. . .not just stupid and jingoistic but boasting lyrics that will reduce your IQ by 3 points every time you hear it.
And what the fuck does he mean. . .”where at least I know I’m free?” Freedom is the least of the values of the USA? Arrggh. Now I have that song in my head. Time for an ear enema with some Ramones!
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Brandon said on June 13, 2012 at 2:10 pm
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/justin_time_is_up_p2yL2tHwywz5Dq8yXfIdmI
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alex said on June 13, 2012 at 2:21 pm
I remember my mom poking fun at “Having My Baby” when it came out and she gave me a sort of mini history lesson in pop music. I’d never heard of Paul Anka before, and was surprised to learn he had written all sorts of familiar songs — rather good ones. There was sort of an early rock-n-roll revival going on in the mid-’70s with artists who hadn’t done anything in 15-20 years — Paul Anka, Neil Sedaka, Toni Tenille and Daryl Dragon, Frankie Valli. I’d never heard of any of them before and had no idea they were established artists.
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Jeff Borden said on June 13, 2012 at 2:27 pm
Poor Lee Greenwood. His feelies have been badly hurt. Thanks for sharing that link, Brandon. I’m still laughing. And, of course, it HAD to be the New York Post that would run with that kind of story.
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KLG said on June 13, 2012 at 2:29 pm
If McQueary, the former Division I quarterback who now laments the likely permanent loss of his career, had reacted like a normal human being at the time, his career would be on track and Sandusky would be well into his long prison sentence. That is all.
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Brandon said on June 13, 2012 at 2:32 pm
@Jeff: I thought it was ironic that both Lee Greenwood’s and now Justin Bieber’s songs were banned at the school.
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Jeff Borden said on June 13, 2012 at 2:37 pm
I guess choosing any song is fraught with peril for any school administrator, but I like her defense of not allowing the Greenwood tripe in her ceremony. Christ, I’m an American, was raised Catholic so I’m considered a Christian by all but the nuttiest evangelicals, etc., but I find “God Bless the USA” offensive.
Yesterday, in my speech class, I showed the students George W. Bush’s speech with a bullhorn from the rubble of the WTC, which I usually note is an example of a very short but effective speech that rallies a still stunned nation, promises some form of vengeance, evokes sympathy for the dead and runs less than 3 minutes. Several of my students were turned off by the chants of “USA! USA!” in the background and thought they were a horrible response to the speech itself. Maybe this generation is not so jingoistic as others???
Or it may be just lingering dislike for the wee man from Crawford.
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Sherri said on June 13, 2012 at 2:37 pm
I disagree, KLG. Sandusky might be well into his long prison sentence, but McQueary’s coaching career would still have been lost. Whistleblowers aren’t the favorites in many careers, but even less so in the coaching fraternity. Had McQueary stopped and turned in a random person, he’d be a hero, but a fellow coach? His career was doomed.
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Kirk said on June 13, 2012 at 3:36 pm
And this lyric is also nonsensical:
“and I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free.”
“American” isn’t a place.
Oh, and there also is ABBA.
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KLG said on June 13, 2012 at 3:37 pm
Could be, Sherri. But this wasn’t a run of the mill recruiting violation. It was the rape of a child. In any case, from the very beginning of this horror story I have not been able to understand how McQueary did not (1) put a stop to the rape and (2) call the police. IIRC this happened in 2002. A graduate assistant coach (26 years old at the time, married and a father, I think) for Penn State surely had a cell phone in his pocket. He instead just ran out and told his daddy. Sheesh.
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Scout said on June 13, 2012 at 4:06 pm
“Feeeeelings, nothing more than feeeeeelings…” was one that my little group of music snobs mocked mercilessly.
We already know what Sandusky is, we are just haggling over the price he’ll pay.
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Hattie said on June 13, 2012 at 4:07 pm
Yes, Honey is the worst song in the history of the universe.
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Prospero said on June 13, 2012 at 4:09 pm
El Paso is a great song, Connie, but it’s sad Social Disstortion never did a version:
http://www.ovguide.com/video/social-distortionring-of-fire-f4665d9b91004e38d20161640a17af1e
Kirk, that litle shit is atrocious one way or another. The NCAA once nailed UGA for an assistant coach driving a destitute kid to his grandma’s funeral. Penn State? Yeah right.
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Prospero said on June 13, 2012 at 4:13 pm
And anything by that shitheel Proud to be an American jackass is atrocious. What a fracking tool.
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Sherri said on June 13, 2012 at 4:25 pm
I’m not defending McQueary’s lack of action, KLG, just making an observation based on years of watching college sports. Check out the story of Abar Rouse, for example, who blew the lid off the mess at Baylor, which involved a teammate murdering another teammate and a head coach conspiring to paint the murder victim as a drug dealer to cover up his recruiting violations: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=oneil_dana&id=3371852. Rouse’s coaching career is over.
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brian stouder said on June 13, 2012 at 4:41 pm
Prospero, that’s a crucial point you make, regarding the institutions involved, as Nancy pointed out yesterday.
The human damage has been done, but why are the institutions still flying above all this?
If the NCAA has any reason to exist, why don’t they act, and decisively so?
If a program can get a “death penalty” for recruiting violations or other things within which players get caught-up, why the hell isn’t the same sort of penalty imposed when ‘key players’ within the university itself are so deeply immersed in such a genuinely terrible breach of the law, let alone the public trust?
Why is Penn State allowed to play football this year? Why would any other university send their football team there, or allow that team to set foot upon their campus?
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Sue said on June 13, 2012 at 5:20 pm
Hey jeff borden! Look at what New York’s doing!
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/new-york-to-repeat-chicago-s-parking-meter-catastrophe-20120613
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Sherri said on June 13, 2012 at 5:36 pm
The NCAA isn’t some external policing organization. It is merely a convenience for colleges for intercollegiate athletics. It has exactly as much authority as university presidents allow it to have, and no more. The NCAA is really designed to protect the institution, not police it, despite the thick rulebook with the arcane recruiting regulations. Read Taylor Branch’s excellent take-down of the NCAA in the Atlantic, or Joe Nocera’s columns on the NCAA in the NYTimes.
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Dexter said on June 13, 2012 at 5:55 pm
Three years ago I had a troublesome ear condition. Not pain, just odd pressure and ringing inside my head when I talked, and also a mild hearing loss. Doc said antibiotics would not help and he sent me to an ENT doctor. I swear I thought they were going to place tubes in my ears like they do for babies. Instead, this specialist told me the same thing my regular doc said: “Just be patient and this condition will simply go away on its own.” Yes, it’s true…no help would help. By fall of that year I was back to normal.
Worst song ever is “Last Kiss” by J. Frank Wilson. Oddly , for prom season a few years ago, Eddie Vedder re-made it and I sorta liked that version.
And of music, I heard a great interview today with the son of one of the members of LA’s “secret band”, The Wrecking Crew.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xs2kJn6PBE&feature=player_embedded#!
Who knew these guys were the musicians playing on all the studio albums out of Los Angeles in the 1960s and 70s?
You thought The Beach Boys themselves played like that? Nope!
It was not just The Monkees, it was everybody…Cher, Mommas and the Poppas, Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound…the music was done by these uncredited professionals. I can’t wait for this Rock and Roll movie to come out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk4I12-dVkA&feature=related
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Prospero said on June 13, 2012 at 5:57 pm
Sherri,
The NCAA is a cash money organization. If the NCAA couldn’t figure out that Cam’s dad got paid bigtime, they are stealing cash. No joke, UGA lost scholarships because an assistant coach drove a kid to his mom’s funeral, but Cam Newton’s dad shopped the guy all over the SEC. Fairly corrupt.
And I would have attacked the creep that was assaulting the kid. And sort it out later. Coach or no. How do you let that shit happen?
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hexdecimal said on June 13, 2012 at 6:15 pm
Doesn’t anyone else remember “Muskrat Love” by The Captain & Tennille?
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beb said on June 13, 2012 at 6:40 pm
hexdecimal: Remember? I’m trying to forget it.
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MarkH said on June 13, 2012 at 6:44 pm
I knew it, Dexter, in fact posted about the Wrecking Crew here a few years back. Hal Blaine has been a hero of mine since I played drums in high school and college in the ’60s-’70s. I first remembered them when the controversy erupted surrounding the Monkees musicianship a year after they started. One of the finest bass player in the country is the Crew’s Carol Kaye, just a wisp of a woman back then. I posted this earlier for Kate Derringer’s benefit:
http://www.carolkaye.com/
The Beach Boys mostly played their own instruments on recordings, always Brian Wilson, but never Dennis Wilson. I can’t explain how he pulled off concert appearances when he hardly rehearsed. Here’s a new book out about the Wrecking Crew. It blows the cover off countless ’60s groups:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/books/the-wrecking-crew-by-kent-hartman-on-60s-studio-musicians.html
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brian stouder said on June 13, 2012 at 7:31 pm
Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam’s cover of Last Kiss was marvelous; not least because of Eddie’s dead-pan (so to speak) remarks about the song, when he was asked about the huge reception their cover of that song got.
In his baritone voice, he said something like “We do well with songs about dead teenagers” (referring back to Jeremy, presumably)
On the other subject, NCAA is mainly in charge of counting the money; I get that.
But other schools (if not the Big 10 conference, for example) could simply take a stand and say “We’re not playing them”. Those institutions don’t have to wait for some other institution to tell them what to do. They could act. They should have acted by now. In fact, their inaction (referring back to Nancy’s remark about institutional insulation) speaks volumes in itself.
Then, the next time a good “company man” sees anything like this going on, he’ll have every incentive to act decisively; intervention will be the default response (like hitting the fire alarm when you see smoke), rather than avoidance and minimalization
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LAMary said on June 13, 2012 at 7:40 pm
MarkH, my best friend was a roadie for the Beach Boys in the seventies, so I was backstage at a few concerts. Dennis played the drums himself. He gave me his drumsticks once in exchange for a cigarette.
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Kirk said on June 13, 2012 at 8:18 pm
Some of those guys played on stage but not on the recordings. Blaine played instead of Michael Clarke on some Byrds records, for example.
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Prospero said on June 13, 2012 at 8:19 pm
The Pearl Jam Last Kiss was astounding. I’d say all of the Beach Boys could play, except Al Jardine and that pitiful weenie Mike Love. Did any band ever have a more disgusting POS in it than that guy?
Muskrat Love was a gem compared with Afternoon Delight.
And y’all do realize Brian was the bass player. I mean, he was the chubbie Beach Boy.
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Prospero said on June 13, 2012 at 8:46 pm
GoOKCity, kick Lebron’s ass.
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MarkH said on June 13, 2012 at 8:50 pm
LAMary, that was my point. Dennis only played at the live concerts, never on the recordings, Hal Blaine did that. And Wilson was notorious for not rehearsing very much which led to my comment about how he could have got away with it in the live performances. But he did.
Prospero, I agree, all the Beach Boys really could play to one extent or another, even Jardine, who I thought was the lead guitar.
And Muskrat Love was an original top 40 for America prior to Toni Tennille.
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Sherri said on June 13, 2012 at 8:59 pm
Sorry Pros, I will never cheer for the team stolen from Seattle, nor for any team owned by noted homophobe Aubrey McClendon (who didn’t want the WNBA Seattle Storm because too many lesbians come to WNBA games.)
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Kim said on June 13, 2012 at 9:18 pm
Jeff Borden and Kirk – I interviewed Lee Greenwood once and had to ask him about the grammar issue in that song. He took it like a trouper, laughed, and said he’d always been a ‘C’ student in English. When I said, C’mon, man, you were so close. All you had to do was change “an American” to “in America” and you’d be home free of all the grammar freaks (I had to push it – I was younger and not often wrong!) he answered, “probably C-minus.” It pushed the song into tolerable for me.
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Charlotte said on June 13, 2012 at 9:21 pm
My best friend from college married a Chinese guy who has become something akin to the Billy Joel of Chinese pop music — his cover of McArthur Park is one I’ll never *ever* forget. I love the man, but jeez … Although Chinese covers of American pop classics is a deep deep well of cheese.
And as Celtics fans, we rooted heartily for Kendrick Perkins and the OKC Thunder last night … perhaps if Danny Ainge hadn’t traded Perkins and Baby, we might have been a contender again this year. I’m still mourning the loss of Baby. I love Big Baby.
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beb said on June 13, 2012 at 9:40 pm
How coould we discuss bad songs and not mention “Timothy” – where did he go?
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MarkH said on June 13, 2012 at 9:40 pm
Interesting list. I don’t have an opinion here, but guess what #1 is:
http://www.mediaite.com/online/the-top-10-songs-guaranteed-to-annoy-liberals/#0
EDIT — Worst song: how about The Rapper; and anything by Lobo. Also agreed on Terry Jacks.
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Kirk said on June 13, 2012 at 9:54 pm
Thanks for sharing that, Kim. And good on you for bringing it up.
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Crazycatlady said on June 14, 2012 at 12:21 am
I had a severe ear infection that required two rounds of antibiotics and I had pain for a while and difficulty hearing from that ear for 3 months. It does take time,and the Z-Pack is a good choice.It’s the drug of choice for sinus infections and pneumonia as well as ear infections. And I like the once-a-day dosage. I have an easier time remembering to take it. I hope you get well and get back on your bike soon!
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Prospero said on June 15, 2012 at 12:57 am
Sherri,
Want to tell me Kebrom didn’t foul the crap out of Duranr with about 8seconds left. I despise refs deciding games. No doubt Durant woud have made that shot. That is what he does.
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