Protest-news -free Saturday for me

 #PrincessBeatrice was married on Friday and wore the same tiara that her grandmother Queen Elizabeth wore on her own wedding day in 1947. No photographs of Beatrice's dad Prince Andrew and  no new recording of the Sex Pistols, God Save the queen.

I found an old interview online of the late Jim Carroll labeling his writing as 'Burroughesque", a recorder or conduit of stories. For the most part, Ol Bill Burroughs was better at removing himself from the scenes he was writing about.

I 'm about a third of the way through Hakan Nesser's, Stranglers Honeymoon. It's been great catching up on fictional, Swedish detectives.

It was great to hear Teardrops, by Womack &Womack.

July 21, 2020

I guess the salamander's slimy coating is why the word is used in titles for TV shows and movies.The Golden Salamander is an ok flick from 1951 about  Tunisia, and the French and British interests there. I can see why #AnoukAimee , the French actress, was all the rage

Salamander is the title of a Belgium cop series that aired from 2012-18

July 25, 2020

While watching The Bootlegger, a 2016 documentary about Henry(Killie) Wagle (1886-1929) of Colchester , IL, the  voice of a radio news reader had a flat, midwestern sound  that reminded me a bit of author William Burroughs(1914-1997), a writer who was born in St Louis, MO which is about three hours from Colchester.

July 30, 2020

After a few trials #christineConnor  was found guilty in Belfast of the attempted murder of police officers who she lured  to areas with bogus 999 calls.  Also, she posed online as a blonde Swedish model called Sanne Anderson to recruit helpers to carry out her plans. Detective fiction writers will be 

using some of this material in future novels.

August 1, 2020

The Space X astronauts are hoping to land in the Gulf of Mexico today in the  first splashdown return for US astronauts in 45 years.

I started reading The Summer of Kim Novak by Hakan Nesser and came across a new acronym TPW for an old expression, The Perfect Woman.

Aug 6, 2020

 Saniniu Laizer, who has been in the mining business in northern Tanzania for more than 15 years, hit it big after selling three rough Tanzanite stones for $5.4m.

Aug 9 

I 'd never considered rubbish as a verb  and saw it was used in the past tense in Belfast Telegraph article yesterday. #SinnFein rubbished claims that Gerry Adams was an MI5 informant.

Aug 16, 2020

 While watching  a documentary on corruption in Bulgaria, which referenced the after-effects of Soviet occupation and battles with the Ottoman Empire, I got to wondering about well known folks from Bulgaria. Some historians believe #Spartacus was a part of the Thracian tribes (Bessi, Maedi or Getae), the ancient ancestors of today’s Bulgarians, who lived in what is present day Sandanski in southwest Bulgaria. 

Aug 31, 2020

  The Vanishing of Sidney Hall(2017) provided plot answers, but you had to watch  the entire movie as the chronology of events, at times felt random.  Hall, played by Logan Lerman, is a  best selling author of modern suburban angst, who is not treated with kid gloves  by the the movie's director, Shawn Christensen. I was hoping they were going to delve deeper into censorship demands and results.

Sept 7

Clicked  on U-Turn (1997) , a movie starring Sean Penn, Nick Nolte and J-Lo, yesterday and was pulled in by how bad it was. Penn and JLo are a mismatch. Nolte improves as the movie bounces along. Jon Voight as the Blind man   bordered on a complete goof.

Hey, Oliver Stone is the Director , which explains why  it's lacking direction.

Sept 13

 The Courier had some interesting  scenes and Gary Oldman was decent, but the countless ways in which Olga Kurylenko's, a Ukrainian-born actress, character managed to survive made this thriller into a farce. 

Sept 26

Curiosity about threats to the Roman Empire led me to this name.  #Boudicca , the warrior queen, an uprising against the Roman Empire,after the death of her husband Prasutagus ,who ruled East Anglian people of the Iceni. The Romans prevailed and she committed suicide in 61 AD.

oCT 18

I watched a 1986 flick, In Defense of the Realm, and have become nearly immune to  a prevalent theme of British kids who were Communists in college, then shift slightly to center as Labor Party politician, and are later framed for spying for Russia or East Germany. As if Philby were an aberration.

Oct 25

Inherit the Viper is a solid movie about small town Appalachia drug dealing of pharmaceutical opioids, and how the Conley siblings sort out their differences. #MargaritaLevieva , the leader of the Conley drug crew, nabbed my attention. I was surprised by the ending in this flick not filled with stereotypes.

nov 8

A sports channel was running clips of the 2015 KC/NYM World Series , and I could not recall the name of the Mets Manager.  #terrycollins  was the Mets MGR from 2011-17. He "retired" from managing and moved into the Mets front office. #NedYost was the Royals MGR in that World Series.

Nov 15

#CoreyConners of Listowel, Ont., shot the lowest round by a Canadian at the Masters, a seven-under 65 in Round 2. The previous record was 68.

Nov 19

I've been captivated lately by episodes of #Decoy, a 1958 American TV series about a NYC policewoman starring #BeverlyGarland , who later played the stepmom in My Three Sons. Some of the stories aren't too hokey and  the film footage of NYC in 1958 is great.

Nov 23, 2020

Garland's character, Casey Jones, in Decoy threatened an aggressive informant with arrest for mashing. That a new term to me so I went searching and found : Enrico Caruso, the great opera singer, was arrested at the Central Park Zoo in 1906 after pressing himself up against a woman and  was fined $10 in court for mashing.

Jan 17, 2021

Jeju Shinhwa World, one of the largest resorts on Jeju Island, reported to police that over 14 billion  Won notes, the equivalent to $13 million dollars, had gone missing from the Landing Casino. It was in smaller denomination notes so it wouldn't have been an easy move. A female employee from Malaysia who had been in charge of the cash but hasn't returned to work after leaving for a vacation at the end of December, is the top suspect.

Jan 23, 2021

Some dates won't leave my cranium. I went to a Catholic elementary school that had an affiliation with Pallottine nuns. Saint Vincent #Pallotti died January 22, 1850  at the age of 54.

Feb 2, 2021

I started reading Pirates of the Chesapeake Bay last weekend and  learned that thieves ruled the day in that area in the 1600s. Great Britain was slow to react, while MD and VA argued over territorial rights ,and the  thieves would head south to the Carolinas when they felt threatened.

March 13, 2021

Narcosubs, semisubmersibles that float mostly below the waterline, have been used in to transport cocaine from Columbia to Central America.  In February Spanish police discovered a narco-sub in Malaga on Spain’s Costa del Sol that was most likely intended to transport cocaine ashore from a larger vessel.

March 21, 2021

I watched a few episodes of West of Liberty, a spy  TV mini-series filled with  Russian mobsters, CIA pricks, Arab terrorists, and Stasi vets, yesterday, and the character Lucien Gell, obviously based on Julian Assange,  was portrayed as a man with many masters. It was entertaining and  had enough  diversity to piss  off anyone viewing it through  the lenses of his or her favorite political agenda.

april 25, 2021

I watched a few episodes of Aber Bergen, a Norwegian  TV Series (2016–2018) about lawyers, yesterday and was a bit surprised that nearly all the cultural references were to famous American entertainers.

may 8, 2021

I checked out this tune after reading a WSJ review on Van Morrison latest album“Latest Record Project: Volume 1”  that mentions 

only a song      a  number with a harmonic structure similar to his tune “Wild Night"

June 19, 2021

When I needed  foreign language  credits in college I saw a chance to get them  by taking a course taught in German and English on the Weimar Republic. Four years of German classes in high school, in what I later learned was High German, helped a little and opened my eyes wider to an era in which Brecht and the Mann brothers were thriving in literature, the Bauhaus was influencing Architecture, while Hitler was battling Hindenburg for political power. Below are some  political ads in Berlin in 1932.  

July 5, 2021

#kremilinletter , a #johnhuston flick from 1970,   entertained me this weekend. I was a bit mesmerized by #BibiAnderson , and needed a scorecard sometimes to keep track of the plot twists and how often Richard Boone used the word nephew. The opening ten minutes included  #GeorgeSanders  as a drag queen so you knew  this was going to be a little different.

July 26, 2021

I found this tidbit while reading  some June 2021 news. When a 49-year-old Greek man was arrested on June 28, 2021 and  asked why he stole the Picasso painting, the Mondrian, in 2012 from the  Athens Pinacotheca, he said he grabbed the first paintings he encountered. However, this painting was so "hot" he was unable to find a buyer willing to take the risk.

August 1, 2021

When I saw the names, Fritz Lang and Bert(Bertolt) Brecht associated with this 1943 Hollywood movie ,Hangmen Also Die!, I thought I was in for a treat , and it had some decent moments, but it felt a bit stunted and gave the feeling of a play put on film. It was loosely based on the aftermath of the assassination of  Reinhard Heydrich, the SS Chief of the Reich Security Main Office, by the Czech resistance in 1942. 

Walter Brennan as Professor Stephen Novotny was a revelation.

Aug 21, ,2021

On August, 21, 1970 my parents gave me the Steppenwolf Live album for my eleventh birthday, which was a big deal since my budget allowed for an occasional 45 rpm purchase.

Sept 19, 2021

Dorothy Tapper Goldman, plans to use proceeds from the upcoming sale of one of 11 surviving copies of the first edition USA Constitution for her foundation, which funds grants intended to help improve the understanding of democracy. Sotheby's Auction House estimates it will sell for between $15M and $20M dollars.

oct 26, 2021

Morton & Eden Ltd hopes to get 300 thousand dollars for a rare coin that was minted in colonial Boston in 1652 and was recently found in the UK inside a candy tin. The mint responsible for producing North America’s first silver coinage was shut down by King Charles II in 1682 because he considered the operation treasonous.

Nov 27, 2021

I found a thick book titled The War Chronicles, for five bucks at B&N a few weeks ago, and it has refreshed my brain on war stories that occurred during BC. The author does the reader a favor by adding a note to ancient city names, this is modern day ___ in ___. 

Dec 11, 2021

I checked out "My Man Godfrey", a 1936 screwball comedy, yesterday for the fourth or fifth time in my life because I wanted some laughs, and Carole Lombard certainly provided them. It's filled with noble poor/ stupid rich cheap shots, but also has some great one- liners.

Then I checked out Demimonde, a 2015 Hungarian film about a courtesan, her housekeeper/ long -time associate, and a recently hired maid, living in Budapest of 1910s. The interplay among the three women was intriguing and, at times, I kept thinking of Emile Zola's book Nana.

Dec 25, 2021

Erroll Garner (1921-1977), a jazz pianist, on never learning to read music, “Hell, man, nobody can hear you read.” 

Don't confuse him with Erle Gardner(1889-1970), the author of the Perry Mason series.

Jan 22, 2022

I like the taste of milk chocolate and of dark chocolate M&Ms and could care less about the M or whatever image is on the candy. However, to be more inclusive Mars will switch the footwear from boots to sneakers on the green M&M. Am I showing my age(62) or do most folks stare at a piece of candy for a long time before consuming it?

Jan 27, 2022

Netherlands unveiled the Ijmuiden lock which will allow large, modern cargo ships to reach the port of Amsterdam without having to wait for a favorable water level. 

Feb 16, 2022

Eleven years ago, Borders, a 40-year-old retail book superstore chain that began as a used book shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and at one point had 650 locations and 19,500 employees, filed for bankruptcy. I used to go to the Towson, MD store often.

May 5, 2022

Midges, non-biting flies which are found near lakes and smaller bodies of water, are blanketing Chicago. 

May 13, 2022

Three musical instruments including a 1758 violin were stolen from a town home in the South Loop Wednesday morning while a family of musicians was sleeping.

May 15, 2022

MingHuan Xu, a resident of the South Loop in Chicago and a professional violinist and director of the string program at Roosevelt University, said an antique violin, made in 1758 by Nicolò Gagliano, was stolen from her house.

According to surveillance cameras in her neighbor’s garage, the thief entered her house after being able to open Xu’s closed car and clicking the garage button inside the car.

July 3, 2022

I watch Bowery at Midnight with Bela Lugosi,  but Wanda McKay snared my attention. Man, she appeared in a zillion things.  

July 23, 2022

Surfskating, a version of skateboarding that uses a more flexible front-end wheel assembly to enable deeply carved turns akin to surfing, is all the rage in Chinese cities since the spring, particularly among women. 

August 1, 2022

While watching The Adventures of Tartu. a WW2 pro Allies film, I was dozing off when a line something like "the High Command shouldn't fraternize with the Czech girls," woke me up. Then I focused on Valerie Hobson (1917–1998) who played the role of Maruschuka Lanova in the flick.

August 14, 2022

I was watching Port of New York, a 1949 film that features great shots of NYC and the screen debut of Yul Brynner. The cops are tracking an opium smuggler in Penn Station, and I hear the ETD announcement for several east coast cities including Baltimore, which the station employee pronounces Bal-tee more.  I spent the next five minutes trying to recall if I've heard it pronounced that way in my nearly 63 years on the planet.

Sept, 11, 2022

I hit pause on football games to watch Beautiful Kate, an interesting movie about sibling incest in the Outback,AU produced by Rachel Ward. Bryan Brown, Ward's husband, played the father of the family. 

Story bounced around but the familial difficulties were not candy-coated.

Dec 17, 2022

While watching The Birthday Cake(2021) last night, I was guessing if Val Kilmer's speech problems, due to a tracheotomy, were built into the plot? Definitely wise to use sub -titles. Movie felt half-real , half mob spoof.

Dec 31, 2022

Another discovery of #BeverlyGarland before she played the stepmom on My Three Sons. This time she was beguiling thief in a 1960 episode of Tales of Wells Fargo.

Return of the anti-redneck, redneck

 Years ago, I'm  sipping beer and guzzling whiskey with some long haired biker dudes when they start explaining the credo of the anti-redneck, redneck: Yep, we hunt down the bullies and teach them lessons. In a cautious manner, I mentioned they could become the bullies and was told to "shut the Fuck up and drink your Irish whiskey."

Dare I extrapolate into the raging debate on gay jocks. Indeed, Iwill.! Mike Wallace, a WR for the Dolphins, tweeted aloud that with all the beautiful women around , he didn't understand why Jason Collins , the first active NBAer  to come out of the closet, was gay. Within hours he was backtracking after the groupthink chants of homophobe, and intense front office pressure from the Dolphins.

I agree with Wallace's later tweet accept for the sorry

Never said anything was right or wrong I just said I don't understand!! Deeply sorry for anyone that I offended

William Burroughs, the author of Naked Lunch, suggested during interviews that gay life was better in the shadows, and he wasn't sold on gay day parades. I've heard other gay folks express similar sentiments. I enter this fray as someone who's been the only male in a room ful of lesbians suggesting test tube babies as the only way , and the only straight in a room full of gay guys making breeder jokes while  winking at me. Basically anyone   who wants to call me a homophobe, refocus your lenses and adjust for myopia.

Tolerance is a two-way street.


Should homosexuals be moved into a protected class?

Whether the dreamers like it or not most pro athletes don't prefer showering with guys they know are gay and changing corporate policies and represssing discussion will not make them more open-minded .

11/21/13

Interesting response from a gay, ex-jock.

 "I don't think what he (Jason Collins) did was courageous-at all," Bryant told the magazine, insinuating that the NBA free agent was just using SI to try to land another contract .

More from Dorien Bryant

12/27/13

Openly gay jocks- wow these stories have faded

1/9/14

I return to  Dorien's point (above) that Collins was washed up before coming out.

2/2/14

Not sure if the Groundhog will come out, but Jason C attended the SOTU cuz he came  out.

2/5/14

What's next ? Does Jason C want to be the next  openly gay  assistant coach? Just a hypothetical

2/10/14

Michael Sam, an All-American defensive lineman from Mizzou and the Associated Press' SEC Defensive Player of the Year, said that he is gay and ESPN  Sports  is basically calling him a hero on Sports Center & Mike &Mike. WTF, can you cover some sports and stop acting like MSNBC

2/11/14

Some scouts are now claiming he's too small for his position. The stock-slide has started.

2/12/14

why is the MSM surprised the NFLers don't want  all that crap that goes with having a gay teammate such as sensitivity training  to adjust how they talk.

3/4/14

Jason Collins may  get a second-day contract. Is  any other player trying for a second 10 day contract getting so much ink on his  beliefs.  Being gay gets you "heard"

4/1/14

Will we be  overwhelmed with Jason Collins' stories in the playoffs? He averaging under one of everything except fouls a game.

5/6/14

Has Collins made an appearance in the playoffs.
where will Sam be drafted?

5/9/14

I am Sam not drafted in rd1 but gets a deal with Visa

5/10/14

Two rounds done and the apologists say, that Sam  the SEC  Defensive PoY was a hustle player but not very talented. Really? it has nothing to do with his  being gay?

5/12/14

NFL slams free speech.  Don Jones, a Dolphin DB , tweeted OMG and horrible about  Michael Sam and was fined and suspended.

5/16/14

I am Sam agenda drive deeper as on the oprah channel . The NFL should allow an open debate instead of silently endorsing the Oprah /Sam crap.

6/16/14

Noticed that Reason Magazine is catching up with the late William Burroughs - see my initial post.

7/23/14

Tony Dungy says he wouldn't have drafted Michael Sam and he's pillioried. Obviously,  the hateful anti-hate folks are  out to intimidate  anyone not in their camp. Hey Keith Olbermann, look up tolerance in the dictionary cuz you forgot it's meaning.

9/2/14

Is the Sam saga over?   So far the intolerant anti-hate folks have been subdued but will that last?

9/9/14

Olberman has been smirking at redneck evangelists for years but his Ray Rice rants are worse.

10/15/14

I nominate Houston's gay Mayor Parker for the anti-redneck, redneck award. link

The city of Houston has issued subpoenas demanding a group of pastors turn over any sermons dealing with homosexuality, gender identity or Annise Parker, the city’s first openly lesbian mayor. And those ministers who fail to comply could be held in contempt of court.

11/3/14

Cowboys quietly cut Sam a few weeks ago. funny thing about media driven stories

1/23/15

first a baker  who  refused to bake a gay wedding cake is fighting a legal order
now another  baker who refused to bake an anti-gay cake  is facing a  civil rights complaint for not baking an anti-gay cake

5/25/15

Less fanfare for Sam's signing by the CFL

6/3/15

Usually, I surf by TV sports documentaries, but i caught a snippet of Dusty Baker and others talking about Glenn Burke, a gay outfielder for the dodgers who was traded to the A's for Bill North  in 1978.
Eventually he had to play for Billy Martin , and there's some interesting Tommy Lasorda back story here too.

7/2/15

really? what's next for the NFL? LBGT

LGBT pride event slated for Lions game this fall

8/4/15

Update on Houston's Mayor Parker  losing in court link
Houston City Council has 30 days to repeal the equal rights ordinance or place it on the November ballot.

11/4/15

Mayor  Parker's bill gets overturned big time.

Voters rejected the ordinance by a margin of 62% to 38%, Houston news channel KHOU reported.

11/10/15

Hey I'm unhappy fire somebody! Be careful what you wish for. Inmates running the asylum. Did those Missouri football players offer their tuition and free housing  before threatening to sit out the BYU game?

3/7/16 

I'm way behind on this story but was Mark Jackson fired by the GS Warriors a few years ago  because Rick Welts, the openly gay  team President was offended by Jackson's faith.

4/21/16

Curt Schilling fired for not supporting boys in the girls room . ESPN is in the ratings game so  is over 50% of it's audience pro the LBGT agenda.

5/2/16

Curt schilling deleted from documentary on the 2004 WS. ESPN deleted Schilling's bloody sock in game 6 of the 04 WS. Beware the white-washers of history!

5.26/16

Regardless of how you feel on gay marriage  the Church of Scotland has struck an odd bargain.

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has voted to allow ministers to continue to serve if they are in a gay marriage......However, they will not themselves be allowed to conduct gay weddings within the church.

7/21/16

  They took away the 2017 all-star game from Charlotte- so what. I know some transgender folks are serious about their gender change, but how the hell  can we keep up with some folks ( not just trangenders)  deciding  what bathroom they want moment by moment. Opposing  a law that grants special rights is now  an act of discrimination. Where's George Orwell?

8/4/16

trannie train halted for now. SCOTUS (5-3) has temporarily overturned a ruling that allowed Gavin Grimm,a Virginia transgender high school student, to use the bathroom of his choice.

8/9/16

Well now Athlete Ally, another LBGT the self -appointed God of who does and doesn't discriminate, is telling the Big 12 to not add BYU. It claims Byu violates Title IX while not listing or proving those violations.

9/18/16

Jocks and their sitdowns, fistups,etc. I bet most sports fans tune into games as an escape from their day to day not for  reminders. I get enough of Trump, Hillary, #blacklivesmatter, #bluelivesmatter, #alllivesmatter everywhere else. Yes, we have free speech but that doesn't mean it may not cost down the road. You can say almost anything, but I don't have to listen.

10/24/16

I'm dealing the "artist's" card.Can one consider a baker an artist.If I went into a gallery could I make a painter or photographer create an image he or she didn't want to create?

Back to reality: In court on Monday, three judges in #NorthernIreland  said it did not follow that icing a message "support gay marriage" meant you supported that message- that's a head scratcher. The Christian owners of #Ashers, a Northern Ireland bakery, have lost their appeal .

11/23/16

Yes,I get that #ellendegeneres is popular , but  she doesn't make me laugh. I could care less that she's gay,  but BO giving her the medal of freedom for "coming out'. Christ, I knew people who were openly gay in the workplace in the 1980s. Yes, I know her job is more public.

12/16/16

#titleIX rears its head again in the #minnesotagophers suspensions.  It appears the college bureaucracy now "trumps" the judicial process. #boycott looms. Ten Minnesota Gophers' football players were suspended due to a Title IX investigation conducted by the university into an alleged sexual assault, which was separate from a police investigation into the alleged assault in the early hours of Sept. 2. The Title IX hearing occurs in January. Basically the Minn ADM gave BS answers to these kids  and their parents. Prosecutors did not press charges.

12/17/16

A settlement was reached in the Minnesota Gophers football "rape"  case in October. Read #Camus or #Orwell if you want to see where #titleIX "courts" are taking us.

2/6/17

FU to the  car and beer  advertisers and their cheap shot inclusion commercials. Super Bowl is the only entire foootball game I watch and they made me "pay"..

Then the "Sisterhood" crap from  the thespians.

3/9/17

Texas is fast-tracking a bill  that peple use the public toilets that correspond with their birth gender and the NFL is whining abut inclusiveness. Love the quote from TX Gov Abbott  "the NFL needs to concentrate on playing football and get the heck out of politics".
And may I add it would be nice if pro leagues stop extorting  cities for publicly funded new stadiums.

5/10/17

#Cakes are back in the news. Top UK court  will review a lower court ruling that the refusal of family-run #Ashers bakery (Belfast, NI) to make a cake iced with the slogan "Support Gay Marriage" in 2014 was discriminatory.

5/19/17

Here we go again.  Blue Jays outfielder #KevinPillar will miss the team’s next two games after MLB officials suspended him for directing a homophobic slur toward Braves pitcher #JasonMotte.  Coarse language is not going to disappear from Sports. Is #motte gay? Why did he have to apologize to the LBGT community. More Protected groups of people.  If a gay athlete calls a straight a "breeder", will he apologize to the straight community?

6/6/17

Why is #ESPN struggling? Guest hosts on Mike & MIKe talked about the the NHL finals for thirty seconds, #Kapernik for half an hour, & no Baseball.

6/17/17

As if you need more proof that most jocks and ex-jocks are clueless on international affairs. #dennisrodman comment about his latest vacation in #northkorea .  "Everybody's going to be happy. It was a good day. It was a good trip. A really good trip," 

7/18/17

 #LPGA was accused of “slut-shaming” female players after introducing new rules that crack down on players’ choice of clothing. #slutshaming might be a self-defeating term and backfire on those opposed to more stringent guidelines about covering the bottom area, etc.

8/14/17

Ok let me check out #mikeandmike on the four-letter now Sports-less network. Heard #charlottesville and did my fastest channel click in a while. If I want to hear about politics and race, I know where to find various viewpoints from people who do it for a living. I found the Sports Junkies on CSN  which has a heavy DC Sports flavor, but they were talking about MLB, NFL, and NHL- imagine that. Just now they start into the riots' crap. TV is off.

9/16/17

#jemelehill : Early season College and pro football, baseball playoffs approaching, and hoops and hockey around the corner and she bad-mouths Trump. That's why #ESPN is crumbling.

9/25/17

Crumbling #espn  is now a mouthpiece for #nflpa  kneelers and is demanding new cable fees from #Optimum despite sagging ratings.

9/28/17

A more serious sports protest: #Malaysia, one of North Korea's  few remaining diplomatic partners, bans travel to #NorthKorea for an #AsianCup soccer qualifier.

11/3/17

#Saints defend team's support of military after vet #johnwells a Navy veteran, declines award., and #jordancameron tweets show he refuses to grasp that most folks don't want  your politics at the game and continue to dislike  kneeling (even before the anthem) as a  way to protest. In fairness, #Cameron says he's working in his community for a change..

11/14/17

#tonykornheiser  on ESPN PTI mentioned that the three UCLA hoopsters might want to thank Trump for being released from jail in China and heading back to the USA . Tony acknowledged  this may be a first for the show. I'm still  in shock.

12/16/17

Please everyone let's stop instantly finding every person accused of sexual harassment immediately guilty. Now to #ESPN who keeps stepping in crap. Here's their lame  explanation of their edited defense of their boy #buccigross against  #lawrence 's accusation.

"While we didn't include every message submitted in the legal proceeding, we felt the released portions capture the nature of the friendship over a period of months"

It's possible that  the complete details will backfire on ESPN.

1/3/18

#arizona probably fired #richrodriguez because he wasn't winning enough, but had a nice wedge issue, sexual harassment.Your eyes and ears aren't deceiving you.  This is how our universities are handling their business: the firing was  "in part after sexual harassment allegations against him that the school says could not be substantiated."

1/26/18.

I'm not a huge fan of  #KidRock 's music but am pleased the #NHL didn't bow to the PC nannies who suggested he 'd removed as an entertainer  during the 2018 NHL All Star festivities. Besides, he's a big #redwings fan. And most of the alleged backlash isn't coming from NHL fans- it's coming from cultural Marxists who could care less about hockey.

2/5/18

Maybe we should wait on the Costo Rican soccer team's opinion?   #Munoz  advanced in the Presidential race in #costarica by opposing gay marriage. An international court ruling saying Costa Rica should allow same-sex marriage shook up this presidential race.

2/22/18

#markcuban opines away on every topic while his  #mavericks house is in shambles. He touts tanking and kept #sneed , despite domestic abuse arrests, etc, on the payroll while telling the world to be more open-minded. Clean up your house, leave us alone.

3/1/18

I tune in to #ptl  on the four letter network a few nights and week  despite   Wilbon's and Kornheiser's snide, liberal  chatter, but tonight I changed the channel in five seconds when I  saw #keitholberman in one of the chairs.

3/21/18

#richardsherman - props to you for studying and negotiating your own deal,  but please give us a break on hinting that it may be collusion if  #ericreid , a free agent and Kapo's kneeling buddy,  remains unsigned.  Business always ways the pros and cons of hiring  someone.  The kneeling during the Pledge hurt the NFL big time- so grow up.

6/4/18

#SCOTUS  rules 7-2 for the Colorado baker holding that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission showed hostility toward the baker based his religous beliefs The two female judges dissented.

6/5/18

Apparently less than ten #Eagles were going to attend a White House ceremony honoring their Super Bowl victory so #Trump  rescinded the invitation. The NFL dished out a 100M to deal with the social issues at the core of your  anthem protest yet you persist in stamping your feet. The point  Kapernik's crew is missing is a majority of the NFL fans turn on the games to get away from politics.. My hunch is most fans don't want to hear pro Republican or pro Democrat themes on Sunday afternoons in the fall.

6/6/18

Now #Argentina gives in to a small number of #palestinian protesters and won't play a "friendly" soccer match  against Israel in Jerusalem.  #Rajoub, the head of Palestine's Soccer Federation ,  urged #Messi not to play in the game in Jerusalem and urged fans to burn shirts bearing his name if he did.

6/27/18

Detroit Tigers pitching coach  #chrisBosio was dismissed for making an insensitive comment directed at a team employee, and the team will have no further comment. I'm wondering was this a snowflake incident? Why so hush-hush?  #MLB

7/6/18

Rumors that #espn won't re-sign #paulfinebaum . Not surprised ! I check in occassionally and at least Finebaum is a break from ESPN's preachy let 's mix politics and sports agenda.

9/28/18

The  #NFL refuses to listen to its fans and insists that pass rushers run full speed at the QB  then stop and ask him to fall down. Is there a more tone deaf executive group ?

10/11/18

Check out this use of Govt funds in Northern Ireland in the "other bakery " case. #Wardlow , the head of NI Equality Commission, has defended spending more than £250,000 of taxpayers' money supporting #GarethLee , a gay rights activist, in his legal challenge against #AshersBakery. The Supreme Court of London ruled for the bakery.

11/9/18

Inanity reigns supreme  from the  NBA word cops. #jokic ,a center for the Denver Nuggets, was fined 25K for saying "no homo. he's longer than you expect"  during a press conference.  This is mild  compared to most of the sh^t talk you hear from jocks.

1/9/19

Here we go again:  #wiggins , Twolves guard   apologized  quickly to the LBGT community for telling reporters this about #dennisschroeder , Thunder guard: "Uh, he was just gay. He was acting crazy for no reason,". The NBA will fine Wiggins  and the word police will keep winning. Folks need to get over it. I never expected  apologies for all the times I've been called a breeder.

1/21/19

#CurtSchilling  who was fired by ESPN in 2016 for not supporting boys in the girls room and other PC crap, is getting  some #trump tweet  love in  the MLB HoF process.

2/23/19

 "And then Fernando,  was King Kong at the end of the game.” #garydolphin 's , a  Iowa Hawkeyes announcer,  comment about  a black Terps hoopster got him suspended for the season. He apologized. Ok, but hasn't the King Kong reference  been used often about athletes of any color for a long time. Speech codes are complete bullsh^t.

4/12/19

I thought the O's should've have retained #adamjones but now the DBacks can deal with his crap.  Zach Buchanan asked Jones : "Do you think Manny’s  (Machado) reputation would be different if he were white?"  Jones' response: 100%

4/16/19

 How about #nickBosa (ohio St) toning down his pro-Trump talk and tweets cuz the Niners may draft him?

5/11/19

Good luck #joeybosa with your new 49ers teammate  #richardsherman who said all that matters is can Bosa  play well, then said cr^p like this: “At the end of the day, I think a guy that has played with African Americans his whole life, not saying he can’t be racist, but they know how to maneuver around African Americans." Hey Richard - Look in the mirror and maybe it's you that's been maneuvering.

7/3/19

#nike agrees with  #kapernik that  #betsyross was a racist and drops  flag logo on it 's shoes

7/8/19

This may be the new hot topic in the Dem Presidential Primary:  A Lithuanian couple won the World Wife-Carrying Championship for a second time in a row in  #Sonkajarvi , Finland.  Some have said this dates back to the practice of wife-stealing.  Many present-day contestants compete with someone else’s wife. Current rules state a male carries a female.

7/25/19

Hey #danlebatard the S in ESPN is for Sports. Find a different venue for  your political rants. Most folks view Sports as a break from  politics , etc..

8/18/19

   Thrash metal band #Slayer  was dropped as the primary sponsor of the No. 54 racecar that J.J. Yeley  drove at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday. Apparently other Nascar sponsors thought the signage was too "rad".  Bit puzzling- sounded like a decent fit.

8/22/19

 There is anger because Jay-Z has teamed up with the NFL, and  Kaepernick's girlfriend #Nessa, feel the NFL is actively keeping him unemployed. Hey Nessa, your guy Colin opted out of his contract with the 49ers in 2017.

10/6/19

I'm wondering where the Sports Media is on this story.  Boston Celtics center #EnesKanter, whose publicized criticisms of Turkey's President #Ergodan have made him a wanted man in #Turkey and has led him to avoid playing overseas,  claimed he and teammate ,Tacko Fall, were harassed at a Boston mosque by men speaking in Turkish.

10/7/19

The #NBA 's apology to China for  Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey's pro- Hong Kong protestors' comments has temporarily united the Republicans and Democrats. GOP Senators Ted Cruz , Rick Scott and John Coryn agree with Democrats Julián Castro, entrepreneur Andrew Yang and California Rep. Eric Swalwell that the NBA is kowtowing to Chinese repression.

10/8/19

Double talk from Commissioner #adamSilver :  "And I will just add that the fact that we have apologized to fans in China is not inconsistent with supporting someone’s (Morey) right to have a point of view.” Hey Adam so it's no big deal  that #JoeTsai, owner of the Brooklyn Nets and co-founder of Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba penned an essay chastising Morey.

10/9/19

I wonder if China goes after  NBA employees who have Apple phones . #People'sDaily , the Chinese Communist Party main newspaper criticized the Apple Music store for hosting a song advocating for Hong Kong's independence from China.

10/15/19

#lebronjames says #darylmorey acted selfishly. Look in the mirror pal. Plus , you just fanned the flames again. Then he backtracks slightly on calling Morey basically ignorant on China and doesn't want to discuss the substance of the China issue.
Hong Kong residents are burning Lebron jerseys

10/20/19

About 300 protesters wore pro Hong Kong, pro Morey shirts to the Nets game  at Barclay Center last night, and #kyrieirving said he understood "but there's enough oppression and stuff going on in America for me not to be involved in the community issues here as well." Hey Kyrie:  If you lived in China and said you were oppressed, you'd be in jail. Get over it, pal.

12/5/19

 Tim Ryan , a 49ers radio analyst,  has been suspended and has apologized for saying this about #LamarJackson during the Ravens win on a rainy day in Baltimore.
"He's really good at that fake, Lamar Jackson, but when you consider his dark skin color with a dark football with a dark uniform, you could not see that thing,"
  I don't how else he could have stated something that's a possibility.

12/13/19

 #janorisjenkins , the Giants DB, is a knucklehead, but it's bonkers how folks are so offended by his use of the word  retard in a tweet.  This may be the first and last time I concur with his reaction.
"So if you take it how you're going to take it, it's on you."

12/22/19

RIP #JuniorJohnson , a moonshine runner-turned-Nascar driver and race car owner.   He served eleven months of a 20 month sentence for a federal conviction in 1956 for working at his father's still. Legend has it he was never busted while running the roads with "shine". Here's the bi-partisan angle:
In 1986 Reagan gave JJ, a Democrat for most if not all of his life, a full presidential pardon in 1986  for the 1956 conviction.

04/28/20

Hey, I agree with Democrat!  North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper (D) said in a media briefing that NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 race is on track to run May 24, 2020 @ Charlotte Motor Speedway. Probably without fans but it's a start.

5/18/20

Nascar turns to elbow bumps.  #KevinHarvick gave his teammates  elbow bumps on Victory Lane  after his win at Darlington yesterday.

5/30/20

Part of a tweet from Reds pitcher,  #trevorbauer : ScottBoras, rep your clients however you want to, but keep your damn personal agenda out of union business.

6/7/20

 Iowa placed strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle on administrative leave  last week based on allegations of negative experience some black players had in the Hawkeyes football program. I haven't seen any mention of the use of the N-word by Doyle.  Some players felt as if the way they grew up was being judged as unacceptable , and it would impact their playing time. Can this be proven?

6/13/20

Meanwhile Mitch Trubisky is referencing a 1910 speech from Teddy Roosevelt : “self-restraint, self-mastery, common sense, the power of accepting individual responsibility and yet of acting in conjunction with others, courage and resolution — these are the qualities which mark a masterful people.”

6/16/20

Oklahoma State's football coach Mike Gundy is 'making changes' after a picture appeared on Twitter of him in an OAN(One America News) shirt. Chuba Hubbard, OK St star halfback, is angry because OAN leans conservative,  and some of it's commentators have dared to say something critical about BLM. Now if Gundy had worn a CNN T-Shirt-------

6/21/20

Just an FYI: In 2016, Kaepernick restructured his dealwith the 49ers and gave up $14.5 million in injury guarantees for the ability to opt out of his deal . In 2017 he opted out.

6/26/20

The lunacy has not reached its nadir:  Oregon/Oregon St  will stop referring to their annual football match up as The "Civil War"

7/1/20

 Burgess Owens, a black man and a former NFL player, won the GOP Primary for the 4th Congressional District in Utah. Here's his comment: "This is a district that both parties need – the Democrats need it to keep their chaos, and we need it to keep our country and our culture.”, won the GOP Primary for the 4th Congressional District in Utah. Here's his comment: "This is a district that both parties need – the Democrats need it to keep their chaos, and we need it to keep our country and our culture.”

7/7/20

Sean Jackson of the Eagles blasted this from  Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader, as well as pictures on his feed of a quote he attributed to Hitler, in which "white Jews" are accused of trying to "blackmail America." "(They) will extort America," the quote read, "(and) their plan for world domination won't work if the Negroes know who they were."

But we took it the wrong way

7/10/20

MLB Umps union condemns Joe West for his comments on Covid  which included this:"I said, 'Look, most of these people that they're reporting are dying are not healthy to begin with---". Yep, the union has your back.

Musing about the Beat writers

of which I include Neal Cassady. I read an interview with Carolyn Cassady,http://victoriamixon.com/2010/02/17/gobsmacked-the-carolyn-cassady-interview/
 one of Neal's wives, in which she had kinds words for Neal and Jack Kerouac.


I finally saw  a utube clip from French Tv of a not completely drunk Kerouac doing an interview.

Got to wondering about Mardou Fox (alene lee) the black/cherokee love interest of leo Percepeid (jack kerouac) in the book Subterraneans and found this photo of her sitting next to William burroughs. Ol bill didn't spent much time with the ladies.

I think she later hooked up with Lucien Carr. Enough name-dropping today. Burroughs is the character Frank Carmody in the book. Btw, George Peppard as Kerouac and Leslie Caron as Mardou are curious choices for the movie, but Jim Hutton as the allen Ginsberg character (adam moorad) and Arte Johnson as Gore Vidal (Arial) are the true head-scratchers.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054351/

3/1/13

  I recall attending a talk by Charles Plymell, a poet and associate of the Beats, in the early 1990's at 8X10 club on Cross St in Baltimore, He mingled with the crowd, and I bought him a beer and asked a few questions about Kerouac and Burroughs, He said in many ways Kerouac was a regular guy, and he nearly chuckled when I asked about Burroughs nasal twang, which he blamed on Missouri air.

He suggested that the Herbert Hunckes of NYC were a dime a dozen.

5/18/13

  It seems I've neglected Allan Ginsberg.  I never dug his politics even when I was younger and left leaning. I liked a few lines in Howl,  but I viewed him as mostly cock and bull.

6/19/13

 I'll add Gregory Corso to the list of Beat  affiliated authors that I didn't dig.  Gary Snyder was decent.

10/6/13

Two weeks late on the news of Carolyn Cassady's death on 9/22/13. Her friend Estelle Cimino, co-owner of the Beat Museum in San Francisco, confirmed the death to the Associated Press. No cause of death was given.

12/26/13

Thanks to my nephew for an interesting  chat yesterday on Kerouac. Jack has his arm  around Neal.

4/14/14

Interesting casting decision in the movie Kill your Darlings . Jennifer Jason Leigh as Allan Ginsberg's mom leaps out at me. kill your darlings  I think Kerouac married the gal who bailed him out of jail.

6/1/14

Kerouac espoused  the Catholic beatttitudes and was not a beatnik.  Ginsberg  saw it as :

  “The point of beat is that you get beaten down to a certain nakedness where you are actually able to see the world in a visionary way,”

It wasn't  Maynard Krebs pounding a bongo drum. banging a congo drum

7/31/14

I've been trying to get through the 2012 release of the movie "On the road" and doubt if I will. Maybe I should hunt around for the "the Subterraneans " released in the 1950's . I mentioned the cast in my  original post. Anyway Kerouac was a Catholic Boy. Here'a snippet from  "Visions of Gerard:

"His life.... ended when he was nine and the nuns of St. Louis de France Parochial School were at his bedside to take down his dying words because they'd heard his astonishing revelations of heaven

10/4/14

Re-read sections of Howl and think less of it. Ginsberg's, a one time ad-man in NYC,  description of Burroughs is quite a positive spin on Burroughs' move to Mexico after shooting his wife

 who retired to Mexico to cultivate a habit

3/31/15

This has been my sense of  Kammerer, and i haven't seen the movie Kill your darings. caleb carr on kammererr

  Every time Lucien Carr moved, and it was several times, Kammerer followed

4/12/15

Gary Snyder on Kerouac: link

 My second favorite novel, which is a better novel, is The Subterraneans. It's the perfect little French novel with a beginning a middle and an end. A nicely structured Flaubertian piece of prose which shows his craftsmanship

4/30/15

Drunk Kerouac joking on the William Buckley Tv show when asked about the war in Vietnam:

"a plot to get Jeeps into the country."

7/21/15

I never thought that Ginsberg was as talented as Kerouac & Burroughs , but his tribute to Bernie Sanders may have been his nadir. BTW, I'm aware that Ginsberg thought  artistic "comparisons are odious." And he couldn't resist this line : Socialist kids sucking socialist lollipops. Ginsberg 1986 tribute to Sanders

Plus politics, regardless of your slant, tends to drag a poem down.

5/19/16

Caught up with Beat , a 2000 flick starring Keifer Sutherland as Burroughs and Courtney Love as Joan Vollmer.  Movie was slow and the casting felt odd. Kyle Secor as David Kammerer was interesting. Also, didn't hear  much of that Missouri Twang from the Burroughs and Kammerer characters.

7/26/16

going back to a link I posted last year. Allan Ginsberg's socialist ode to then Mayor Sanders

Isn’t this poem socialist? It doesn’t belong to me anymore.

5/21/17

After viewing a few clips of the " #TheSubterraneans " movie on youtube, I get why #Kerouac shied away from Hollywood. Rumor has it that he turned down  project in which he would be super-imposed over a #BennyGoodman recording session. It  would have been more interesting to have seen him sitting aside #CharlieParker.

6/10/17

Found this quote from #garysnyder on #jackkerouac and thought YEP!

"total absence in Jack of anything elite, or yuppie, or academic, or intellectual, or any of that posturing at all that we associate with learned people, middle-class white people"

01/26/21

 I came across this item while reading a history of Prague and laughed. #AllenGinsberg, an avid lefty, was crowned King of May in Prague in 1965 then the communists kicked him out.

2/24/21

RIP Lawrence #Ferlinghetti  ,who passed away at the age of 101 yesterday. Ginsberg and Kerouac read their works frequently in the 1950s at his City Lights bookstore in San Francisco. I admired his patronage of the Arts but didn't dig most of his poetry.

02/11/22

Once a commie always a commie: In the early 1980s goofy, commie sympathizer #AllenGinsberg stated this about #BernieSanders and his Vermont groupies: "Socialist kids sucking socialist lollipops." 

Forty years later, Sanders doubled down on his argument that Americans should see Ukraine through Russia's eyes.

May 7, 2023

Plymell (88) is still breathing. In his WikiP profile , no mention of Kerouac- Jack would likely laugh. Plymell, too.