. Robert Leo Sheppard, aka "Bob" Sheppard, died this week-end. He was a much-beloved figure in the world of Major League Baseball. Sheppard was the announcer for the New York Yankees from 1951-2001. He announced over 4500 Major League Baseball games. While he was with the Yankee organizations, his team won 22 American League Pennants and 13 World Series Championships.
Yankees players and fans sometimes called Bob Sheppard the "Voice of God." Derek Jeter, shortstop for the Yankees, loved Sheppard's work so much that even after Sheppard retired, Jeter asked that a recorded version of Sheppard's annoucement be used whenever Jeter came to bat.
Bob Sheppard was 99 years old, just months shy of 100. RIP Bob Sheppard.
Mel Gibson and Lindsay Lohan have a lot in common. They both have foul-mouths, both are alcoholics, both are involved in a series of public scandals, can't seem to keep their mouths shut. We hear about both that this time they're done, nobody will hire them. But we know that's not true, and it should not be true. If they clean up and apologize, they should be allowed to work just like everyrone else.
If you read comments from people in Hollywood, and even some in the national political scene, they're fairly ridiculous. Ari Emanuel called for Mel Gibson to be "shunned" by everyone in Hollywood. Sounds Biblical, doesn't it? Who did Mel Gibson kill? Why, nobody, that's right. I wonder if Ari Emanuel has ever called for the public to shun his brother Rahm Emanuel who is a big supporter of the U.S. slaughter of citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan? No, I don't think that killing Muslims rates a shunning from him. Ari Emanuel, by the way, is a big agent in Hollywood. He probably was hoping others would shun Mel so he could sign him.
I'm reading others trying to rally the public, saying this is it for Mel, we must act in a unified manner, as if Mel Gibson was the Boston Strangler, and we needed to organize teams to walk the city streets and warn old ladies to keep the latch on their doors.
What is it he did again? What's the story of Mel Gibson? His father's a Nazi, we know from public comments made by Herr Father. Mel was raised in some cult religious group that claims to be Catholic although the Catholic church denies it. Mel Gibson is an admitted alcoholic, chain-smoker, addict with significant impairment throughout his life. He suffers from chronic depression and has been suicidal at different times. He's fanatically religious and has a rather odd obsession with violence which could arise from a childhood of acting as punching bag for some psychotic authority figure. His movies, notably Braveheart and the Jesus Slasher Film, focus on violence and suffering as if that was a good thing. Backwards, for sure. He was married for many years to some poor (but rich) woman and impregnated her at least 7 times. We know that much.
We also know that as soon as he and the Mrs. split, he hooked up with some pretty young babe who seemed to get pregnant on the first date or soon therafter. I'm guessing that Mel Gibson, a 50-something year old drunk with lots of money but publicly a disgrace, wanted to believe the young babe was in love with him, but recently learned that the pregnancy is the same as a lottery ticket. I want to know how much money her attorney demanded. Given that it's Hollywood, my guess is $20-30 million. For having sex with the guy. And now Mel is furious because he realizes he's been had. So he calls up the babe in a (drunken?) rage and rants, and she tapes it. And I would not be the least surprised if the tapes are being released to put pressure on him to settle, to give her the amount of money she's demanded. Sorry, but this lady is 40 or close to it, and I don't buy the "I'm just a sweet innocent victim" act she's putting on. Mel screwed her, and now she's screwing him.
In the process of screaming at the babe, Mel used the n-word. She taped it. He previously used the J-word (not Jesus, but Jews) when he said that the Jews started all the wars in the world. Okay, I've never heard that one, but okay. Stupid, but not the worse thing I've ever heard. Not as bad as all the "towel-head" and "rag-head" slurs we regularly hear from Hollywood insiders, not even close to the B*tch and C*nt words we hear from the Hollywood insiders every day when they talk about women. I wish somebody, somewhere, would stand up and demand that somebody "Shun" a major actor because he called a woman a B*tch! That'll be the day.
As for Lindsay Lohan, her crime apparently is that she is a drunk and/or a drug addict, she had a girlfriend instead of a boyfriend, her mother is skanky and wear skirts way too short for her age, her dad used to be a drunk, she hasn't had a successful movie in a few years, and she painted F-You on her fingernail and held it in front of her face in court, like she was saying that to the judge. Well I can sympathize with her on that one. I've known some judges who should be told that on a regular basis. But what is the serious, significant wrong she has done, other than being a substance abuser like so many others? She didn't start any wars. She didn't rob the country blind like the criminals on Wall Street did. So is she really Top 10 Most Wanted material? Or is this just silliness?
\What bothers me about the self-rightous gang-banging quality of the unified condemnation from those paragons of virtue in Hollywood is that they are so obviously disconnected to the real world. There are calls to boycott, condemn, shun Mel Gibson and Lindsay Lohan. Really? Because they are drunks and say bad words?
How about this, Hollywood insiders. How about shun every person who works on Wall Street, how about condemn them for destroying this country? How about shunning the people who support these wars of aggression, and shunning businesses that throw Americans out of work. Shun rich people who use tax dodges to bankrupt our nation and use slave labor to make themselves richer. Shun the politicians who take money and sell their votes.
I'm not saying Mel Gibson or Lindsay Lohan should be admired. Just put into context. They don't matter. Not nearly as much as the unemployed Americans who can't find jobs, and who can't afford healthcare, housing or even food. And for heaven's sake, if the elite and those drawn to the limelight want to call on the world to shun two drunken actors, they should at least take that arrogant condescending tone out of their voice before they say it, because all they're really doing is getting together with other rich and powerful people and gang-jumping a couple of drunks.
1 pound dried pasta 6 cups chopped tomatoes (combine different types of tomatoes) 1/4 cup olive oil 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 cup chopped fresh basil leaves 1/3 cup walnuts or pine nuts Salt and pepper to taste Cheese for topping: Parmesian or Feta.
Directions
1. In large glass bowl, combine tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, basil, salt and pepper, gently toss to combine, cover with saran wrap. Leave out at room temperature. Can be left out all day if it's not too hot outside.
2. Toast walnuts or pine nuts over medium heat in frying pan.
3. Cook pasta.
4. Combine tomato mixture with the cooked pasta.
5. Serve. Sprinkle toasted nuts and cheese on top of each serving.
Serves 4
NOTE: you can add other ingredients to the "sauce," such as, for example, chopped mushrooms, zuchini, or olives. Whatever you like.
Hair was an anti-war musical which originally opened in a small theatre off-Broadway in New York City in 1967. The main story revolved around a young man who had been drafted, and did not want to go to Vietnam to fight in the U.S. War Against Vietnam.
The characters in the play were all "hippies," who smoked dope and had sex outside of marriage, wore long hair (the name) and cotton tie-dyed clothing. They were tree-huggers and earth-lovers, recycled before anyone knew what that meant, environmentalists who believed we should consume less, waste less, live more simply. The hippies, and those represented in this play, were both horrifying and fascinating to the rest of society because they represented such a radical break with the buttoned-down Dick Nixon 1950s suburban America which these young people were rejecting.
The show rejected and ridiculed the mindless patriotism of those who come to attention everytime they see a flag, which is exactly what has again taken hold of this country with the Flag-Lapel controversy about which we've heard way too much. Some young people at the time burned American flags to show their disgust with this nation's wars of aggression, and the right-wing to this day always wants more laws passed making it criminal for anyone to burn a flag. When is the last time you heard about somebody burning a flag?
But the main theme of Hair was anti-war. Although the U.S. War Against Vietnam would not end for many years, Hair helped to bring anti-war views into the mainstream, helped lay the groundwork for what eventually would turn the public against that war.
In the 1950s and 1960s in America, hairstyles for men were usually pretty limited to the military cut (like a flat top) and kept short. "Real" men had short hair. Longer hair, and that's just a tad longer, like Elvis Presley, for example, was something for the pretty boys, the lover boys, but not for normal men. But for the young men who joined the counter-culture, became hippies or just adopted some of the lifestyle, wearing their hair long became a symbol to the entire world that they were against the U.S. War Against Vietnam, and were against the typical limited role for men in this country.
That's why you get a song like "Almost Cut My Hair" by Crosby Stills Nash and Young. Young men with long hair at that time were verbally assaulted by other men, could be physically assaulted, and were often called queer, or faggot, or other derogatory names for homosexuals. When they were drafted, and their heads shaved, it was a double wound, one which reflected the loss of their individual choices and their recruitment into a brutal war where they would be sent to kill and die, like gladiators being set out to the slaughter. Hair, on young people's heads, took on enormous significance.
By the time Hair opened on Broadway, it also included nudity, something unheard of in legitimate theatre in the U.S. The show also contained "strong" language which led its performance to be banned in some countries. The show opened on Broadway in 1968 with a fully integrated cast, which also was rare in theatre, but fascinating to Americans who had been educated by the Civil Rights struggles, but still mostly lived and worked in segregated communities.
For women, the image and fashion of the hippies, and as portrayed in Hair, was a radical rejection of mainstream society dictates. In the 1950s and 1960s in the U.S., women's style and fashion was strictly dictated by men who ran the clothing industry, and who shared the Protestant view that women's bodies were evil, that sexuality was bad and women were bad unless restrained. Women's hair, for example, was permed, curled, "styled," teased or back-combed, then sprayed with tons of hairspray designed to keep the hair from moving. Because we all know how slutty it looks for a woman's hair to move.
Undergarments for women were harsh, starting with girdles made of stretchy canvas and worn very tight from the waist to the lower theigh, to make sure nothing on the woman "jiggles." Bras were also sturdy and big garments to prevent breasts from jiggling, although oddly enough, they were cone-shaped and sharply pointed at the end to make sure that men knew that yes indeed, this female specimen has a pair.
The female hippie fashion style, therefore, was almost the equivalent of a girl saying "Look at me, I'm a slut." The hair was not cut or permed or colored or curled. It was allowed to grow and grow, was never cut, and simply flowed around the head with no hairspray or artificial products. Hippie women did not wear bras or girdles, so they did jiggle, and they felt just fine about it. It was shocking.
After the New York Broadway version had taken hold, another theatre opened the show in Los Angeles. After that, nine other groups opened in cities around the nation, many of them travelling to additional places. By 1968, Hair was also showing on stage in London, followed by France, Germany, and Mexico.
By the early 1970s, Hair was an international success with productions in many nations including productions in Europe, South America, Japan, and Israel. The show was also an enormous financial success. The music has been recorded by many different artists, and some of the songs are now a well-established part of American popular music.
The music was written by Galt MacDermot, lyrics and book by James Rado and Gerome Ragni. Among the hit songs from Hair are the title song "Hair," "Let The Sunshine In," and "The Age Of Aquarius." After opening off-broadway in 1967, it moved to Broadway in 1968 and to London that same year, then to numerous productions throughout the U.S. and the world. It has been revived at least 3 times, most recently in 2009 in New York City and in 2010 in London. It was also made into a movie.
As the music and the play became more popular, and the songs played on the radio, so did much of the fashion and other views of the hippies become part of mainstream. The right-wing was opposed to everything represented by the Hippies, and by the anti-war youth of this country. The movie forrest Gump is an example of a right-wing revisionist propaganda piece that distorts everything that happened in this country in the 1960s and 1970s, and is an interesting contrast to the play Hair. In Hair, the young people supported peace and opposed war. In Forrest Gump, the protagonist and his friend support war, and go to war to kill, because they are "good" Americans.
In Hair, the women own and control their own bodies, and are comfortable with their own bodies, decide with whom and when to have sex. In Forrest Gump, the pretty young woman has sex outside of marriage then immediately gets Aids and dies (even though there was no Aids back in the 1970s). And so on. Those battles continue today, and are commonly called the culture wars. Crew-cuts versus natural hair, burkas vs. cut-offs, the same underlying beliefs fuel both sides. One group (the heirs to the hippies) are anti-war and believe people should live simply, cooperatively, contribute to community, and take care of the earth. The other group, the Republicans and tea-baggers, believe in neverending war, that greed is good and people should acquire and consume as much as possible, live in gated communities separate and apart from others, and rape the earth, stealing everything from it.
Hair certainly did not end the war or, ultimately, control the obsessive greed of the people who run this country. But it did briefly present a different world view. It's a shame that the right fought back so hard. For example, if we had followed the direction of the hippies, there would be a lot more bicycles and fewer cars. People would work fewer hours and have smaller homes, develop their communities instead of their egos, be cooperative instead of competitive, re-use and re-cycle, wear old clothes, and when they're too old to wear, sew on a colorful patch and wear them anyway.
If we had made a national commitment to end wars and to live in harmony with nature, we would have so much money that we could have spent to help others, bring other people up to a good level with housing, medical, education, food, and we could have avoided all those wars, all those dead people.
It was a great story.
Let The Sunshine In We starve, look at one another, short of breath Walking proudly in our winter coats Wearing smells from laboratories Facing a dying nation of moving paper fantasy Listening for the new told lies With supreme visions of lonely tunes
Somewhere, inside something there is a rush of Greatness, who knows what stands in front of Our lives, I fashion my future on films in space Silence tells me secretly Everything Everything
Manchester, England, England Manchester, England, England Across the Atlantic Sea And I'm a genius, genius I believe in God And I believe that God believes in Claude That's me, that's me, that's me
We starve, look at one another, short of breath Walking proudly in our winter coats Wearing smells from laboratories Facing a dying nation of moving paper fantasy Listening for the new told lies With supreme visions of lonely tunes
Singing our space songs on a spider web sitar Life is around you and in you Answer for Timothy Leary, dearie
Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in The sunshine in Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in The sunshine in Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in The sunshine in
Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in The sunshine in Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in The sunshine in Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in The sunshine in
Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in The sunshine in Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in The sunshine in Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in The sunshine in
Senator Robert Byrd was born Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr., in North Carolina in 1917. One year later, in 1918, his mother died in the influenza pandemic that swept the world killing millions, which was commonly called the Spanish Flu. After his mother died, all of the children were sent to live with relatives. Robert was sent to live with his aunt and uncle Vlurma and Titus Byrd, who re-named him Robert Byrd, and raised him in a coal-mining town in West Virginia.
Byrd was first elected to Congress as a representative and later became a Senator, serving a total of 58 years in Congress representing the state of West Virginia. He was a Democrat whose reputation was clouded by his membership in the Ku Klux Klan when he was younger. He not only belonged to the Klan, but held various leadership positions including "Grand Cyclops." He later apologized for his membership in and support of the Klan, and became a supporter of civil rights.
“ I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times... and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened." (Robert Byrd, 2005)
While Senator Robert Byrd, who even then was an old man, stood up on the floor of the Senate and spoke at length against the proposed U.S. War Against Iraq, and logically laid out multiple reasons why the war was wrong, and would be a disaster, and why Democrats needed to use their brains instead of simply supporting war because they would receive corporate bribes from the defense industry if they did so, many of the Senate Democrats voted in favor of that war.
Robert Byrd's speech against the proposed U.S. War Against Iraq, Part 1:
Robert Byrd's speech against the proposed U.S. War Against Iraq, Part 2:
Some of the Democratic Senators who voted for the U.S. War Against Iraq, like Senator Diane Feinstein, have spouses or relatives in the war business, and they make money off of war. Was that her motive? Isn't she rich enough?
Others simply wanted to be part of the fascist military parades they knew would come, be "pro-military" for the next election. In fact, pretty much every Democratic Senator in a leadership position voted in favor of the U.S. War Against Iraq, including Biden, Edwards, Kerry, Clinton, Daschle, Dodd, Feinstein, Landrieu, Lieberman, Reid, and Schumer. They were wrong. They were wrong, and it has cost the American public $1.0 Trillion, as well as causing the deaths of over one million citizens of Iraq.
Democratic Senators, International War Criminals, Who Voted In 2002 In Favor Of The U.S. War Against Iraq.
Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Biden (D-DE) Breaux (D-LA) Cantwell (D-WA) Carnahan (D-MO) Carper (D-DE) Cleland (D-GA) Clinton (D-NY) Daschle (D-SD) Dodd (D-CT) Dorgan (D-ND) Edwards (D-NC) Feinstein (D-CA) Harkin (D-IA) Hollings (D-SC) Johnson (D-SD) Kerry (D-MA) Kohl (D-WI) Landrieu (D-LA) Lieberman (D-CT) Lincoln (D-AR) Miller (D-GA) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Reid (D-NV) Rockefeller (D-WV) Schumer (D-NY) Torricelli (D-NJ)
. I want silver sparkly socks and a black sequined jacket. I want to be able to sing and dance on a stage in front of millions, with such grace and magic that everyone who ever sees the performance will swear that I took flight.
