Wednesday Ketchup

I stopped blogging for awhile. Just needed a break. Some ketchup things:

Joyce is doing great on the second drug in her regimen, taxol. It's much less debilitating to her than the first one. She only has three more treatments left (three weeks) and is looking forward to regaining her life. We're planning on doing a little celebrating.

Thanks to Bob Bell (proud owner of the beautiful 55 Buick convertible pictured in earlier posts), I've reconnected with my classmates from the 1958 graduating class of Isaac Litton High School. They have a monthly dinner and an annual summer picnic. It's been great to meet and talk to people I haven't seen in fifty years.

The season's finally over for the Preds. They lost to the Vancouver Canucks on Monday. Their playoff run got me a little more interested in the great sport of hockey and with Buck's and Canadian blogger-friend Deb's help, maybe I'll learn more about the game next season.

Mindless Bureaucratic Wealth Redistribution

There's an article in yesterday morning's online Tennessean which reports that the TN Technology Center in Nashville will no longer offer student loans. The default rate was at 16% and was in danger of jumping to 23%.

After reading the following, I'm not sure why the Nashville Tech Center offered student loans as long as they did:

Under federal guidelines, schools that offer student loans cannot refuse a loan to any student who applies for one, nor can they run background checks to see if someone is going to be a bad credit risk. Yet the institution is held responsible for students who don’t make their payments.

The educational institution can't refuse a loan...can't run background checks on applicants...but is responsible for students who don't make their payments. I'm sure all of these "guidelines" were written  with good intentions to help students, but shouldn't we at least be sensible about it and allow background checks and loan refusals. Without those safeguards we might as well just publicly say: "Come to college, get free money." Geez, I'm an English Teacher, not an economist, but I think I can see where those common  sense safeguards would be a good idea. With them you're still helping students--just not those that will more than likely default.

Who writes these federal regulations and "guidelines" (I just love that word), and how did congress come up with such nonsense anyway? Can you imagine, if financial institutions had to operate that way, what a disaster it would be? Oh. Wait. They did operate that way through the mid '90s right on up to the current recession. And didn't they get in trouble with soaring default rates on mortgages, etc.? I'm thinking here of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and some of the large banks that got in trouble. I'm not sure about McDonalds' Big Mac. Did they get a bailout too?

It's just this kind of BS that's contributed to the fat, bloated, gargantuan government bureaucracy we have today. Congressional staffs spend weeks planning this stuff, more weeks writing it, then our representatives debate it (many times without reading all of it) and modify it and add more BS and a hefty amount of pork to it before they finally pass it on to the president who gets his picture made while signing something he probably hasn't read either.

In a business situation, one asks the basic question: can I pay for this? Is that too hard for our representatives to understand? They look down their morally superior noses and say: "You're a greedy, heartless, corporate shill who is blocking progress. It's not about the money, it's about building a better society and helping the less fortunate."

I say BS. High moral intentions don't pay the bills. Moralizing rhetoric doesn't pay the bills. We pay the bills. Therefore, we have to bring government back down to a much more manageable size. Instead of using a scalpel and removing a few wasted and unnecessary billion, let's use the Paul Ryan chain saw with those trillion dollar cutting teeth and rip this thing up.

Maybe I'm becoming a libertarian in my dotage, but I'm thinking that there are only a few things the federal government needs to be doing: provide a strong defense, operate the FBI, pave the interstates, administer a trimmed down social security program, and perhaps do some minimal regulation of water, food, and medicine. But as I said earlier, I'm suspicious of any kind of regulation. I like the planet I live on as much as any freaking activist in the Earth Liberation Front or even Saint Gore, but look what the EPA has done, for example, and continues to do to prevent us from utilizing our own fossil fuel resources.

It truly makes my blood pressure rise when I think about the kind of country my grandkids are going to inherit. If those Federal agencies keep meddling and if those bland officious bureaucrats keep writing Federal Regs and Guidelines (!), the US will soon turn into California.

Of course we could always appoint a federal commission to study the problem and made recommendations.

Rain. Rain. And More Rain.

I'm beginning to wonder if Tennessee is turning into one of those countries with a monsoon season. It's been raining some almost every day for a good while. According to the Tennessean this morning, the Weather Service is calling for 4-7 more inches of rain through Wednesday. That rain will fall on ground that's already saturated to the max.

Flash flood watches have been issued for the area and and the EMA is monitoring the Cumberland, the Harpeth, and the Red River. The flooding so far is not anywhere as severe as last year, but it's bad enough. Rain. Rain. And more rain.

Maybe a rain song will appease the rain gods and entice them to turn off the spigot over Tennessee for awhile and turn on the one over in East Texas. Folks over there could really use some rain.

There's lots of rain songs around. One of the best in the country genre is Fred Rose's "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain." The song, of course, is not really about the rain, but it's is a significant and symbolic part of the image that the singer remembers.

Most people alive today first heard this great song from Willie Nelson. But "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain" goes back, way back to Hank himself. This rendition is from 1951 radio and the "Mother's Best Flour Show."

Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain

Written by Fred Rose, 1945

In the twilight glow I see her
Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain.
As we kissed good-bye and parted,
I knew we'd never meet again.

Love is like a dying ember.
Where only memories remain.
Through the ages I'll remember-
Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain.

Now my hair has turned to silver.
All my life I've loved in vain.
I can see her star in heaven.
Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain.

Someday when we meet up yonder,
We'll stroll hand in hand again.
In a land that knows no parting-
Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain.

Smashville Goes a Little Crazy Over Preds

Hockey fans in Nashville? As Sarah Palin would say, "You betcha!" Here's a video from WKRN TV Nashville which talks about the impact the Nashville fans have had on the team.

I'm sure some more experienced hockey fans around the league are yawning about all this excitement at just getting past the first round. The Tennessean's "take no prisoners" sports guy David Climer has a few words for you.

Note to all you hockey snobs: Stick it. Or high-stick it, if you will.

Read the rest of Climer's column; it's a good one.

This video from youtube shows the final seconds of the resilient Preds series victory over the Ducks and offers commentary on Nashville's success this year.

Preds Rule!

Anaheim at Nashville

Final	1	2	3	T
ANA	1	1	0	2
NAS	1	1	2	4

The mighty Ducks ain't so mighty anymore. And the Preds made some history. In their 6th trip to the playoffs, they finally got past the first series. From the Tennessean:

Nashville defeated the Anaheim Ducks 4-2 on Sunday at Bridgestone Arena to advance to the Western Conference semifinals....The Predators outlasted the Anaheim Ducks 4-2 at Bridgestone Arena in front of a raucous sellout crowd to win the best-of-seven series 4-2 and advance to the Western Conference semifinals against an opponent to be determined.

I'm Kinda Gettin' Into This Hockey Thing

Late last night I played computer solitaire and frequently checked in on the Preds vs. Ducks game in Anaheim. It finally ended after after an exciting 3rd period and an overtime.

PREDS BEAT DUCKS IN OVERTIME, TAKE 3-2 SERIES LEAD

This the fifth game, so the series ain't over yet, but this is the first time the Preds have won 3 games in a playoff series. Go Preds!

Thursday Things

1. Andy started it (posting pics of spring flowers, etc. around his place) and Buck joined in with some shots of his cottonwood detritus, plus his nekkid foot. We will not be outdone here at the Post. First, the dogwood by our driveway looks really nice this year. And you can see our neighbors' redbud tree in the background.

Spring in TN is never just pretty flowers and budding trees. Sometimes the wind blows really hard. One of the few remaining locusts got leaned over by the strong wind in the middle of the day last weekend. The wind, which the newspaper said featured gusts over 60 mph, and the thick rain created a wall of blowing water. From our back upstairs window, I couldn't even see the garage which is only about 20 feet from our house. The top of the tree's limbs are only a few inches from our power line, so I'll have to hire somebody to cut it down. $$$$

Our azaleas popped out earlier this week. They don't last long, but they are gorgeous.

2. At the college in Gallatin, TN, where Joyce and I worked for thirty years, there's a building called the Wood Campus Center. It's named for Randy Wood, founder of the famous Randy's Record Shop and Dot Records. Mr. Wood was a major patron and contributor to the college.

The Tennessean reports today that Mr. Wood is dead at 94. And believe it or not (Buck, take note) there is apparently no wiki bio for this very influential man. The Tennessean obit I linked to above gives a good bit of his life though, if you're interested in the man who gave Pat Boone his start. Actually, Mr. Wood did much more than that. This article, "Randy Wood: The Dot Records Story," provides a more in depth look at what he accomplished from his little mail order record shop in Gallatin, TN, starting in the late '40s. He was more than the guy who got white artists to cover black songs. If you like Rhythm and Blues, read this article and see how important this man was in moving black artists and R&B itself into the mainstream. Here's a pic of Mr. Wood with the singing group The Hilltoppers (their biggest hit was "P.S. I Love You").

Suffer a Fool

From Option:

Singer/songwriters Eric Brace and Peter Cooper both initially distinguished themselves as journalists, Brace at The Washington Post and Cooper at The Tennessean (where he remains their country critic). Both are first and foremost performers and part of a musicians/writers collective in East Nashville that offers an alternative direction for acoustic artists that’s far removed from Music Row’s radio-friendly demands. Master Sessions unites them with two giants from country and bluegrass, dobro ace Mike Auldridge and legendary steel guitarist Lloyd Green. 

And, in the "for whatever it's worth" department, Country Weekly reports that Peter Cooper is the journalist that Toby Keith cursed out last year after the Academy of Country Music Awards.

Brace and Cooper may be journalists, but they're also brilliant singer/songwriters. This song, "Suffer a Fool" is even getting a lot of airplay on WSM. Is it country? Is it folk? Americana? I don't know. You tell me. Whatever it is, it's very good.

 

Scooney and Dapper Dan Go to the Car Show: Part II Includes a Video

In March, Scooney accompanied me to a custom auto show in Nashville. We had a blast and I met up with and old HS friend I hadn't seen in over fifty years. I posted pictures of my old friend's Buick and a few others in an earlier post.

Yesterday, I threw together the remaining pics, added music, and made a little video. But, to get it on the blog, I had to save it to a different kind of file which considerably diminished the quality of the pics. Plus, all the pics showed up on the video with the damn Olympus stamp on them.

I'm tired of fooling around with the thing, but since I spent a couple of hours on it already, I'm posting it, flaws and all. But I am also including, below the video, a number of pics that I used in the video so you can clearly see the cars. Click on any of the individual pics below the vid to make them bigger.

Moody Was the Man

Every hear of Clyde Moody? I heard him on the radio a couple of times in my teens and then forgot about him for nearly 50 years until I heard the mighty Eddie Stubbs talk about him on WSM the other night. Here's the Wikipedia entry on Moody:

Clyde Moody (September 19, 1915 – April 7, 1989), also known as the "Hillbilly Waltz King" and sometimes as "The Genial Gentleman of Country Music" was one the great founders of American Bluegrass music.
Born in Cherokee, North Carolina, Moody got his start in the late 1938 in the string band J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers. He continued as a member of the Browns Ferry Four with Merle Travis, Grandpa Jones and The Delmore Brothers. In 1940 he was one of Bill Monroe's original Blue Grass Boys and on the Grand Ole Opry. They started out in Cincinnati in 1943 as the Drifting Pioneers onWLW radio. He also played at the first Bluegrass Festival at Fincastle, Virginia, in 1965.
His career highlights include appearing in the White House 3 times and writing and recording the million-seller Shenandoah Waltz. He sang with a young Elvis Presley in 1955 when Tom Parker paired them for a six-week tour.
He died in Nashville, Tennessee.
His nephew, Bruce Moody is also a popular bluegrass musician and toured with him 1962-1969. 

Did you catch that? Moody actually toured with Elvis in 1955! He was invited to the White House three times! And he wrote a million seller record, "Shenandoah Waltz." (I planned to post a video of that song by the Johnson Mountain Boys a few months ago, but never got around to it. I looked for the Moody version, but it's apparently unavailable.) 

"I Love You Because You're You" was a popular old country song that many stars of the day recorded. Here's Moody's version which Joyce and I like a lot. I believe that's Jerry Byrd on steel.

The following is Moody's rockabilly blues song "The Blues Came Pouring Down." I like the driving acoustic guitars on this one.

Dirt Post on Townes Van Zandt

I have a new post on Townes Van Zandt (remember him?) over on Country Dirt  some of you might be interested in.

Home the Healer

Joyce came home a week ago today after six nights in the hospital. She was very happy to be back in her own home and in her own bed. That afternoon, I was sitting on the edge of the bed talking about what she might want to eat for our evening meal when the phone rang. It was our neighbor Judy, who said she was bringing over a pot of homemade potato cream soup and some chocolate pie. The soup was unbelievably delicious, and the pie tasted like heaven, especially after all the hospital food we've been eating. The whole meal warmed our souls. We've lived next door to Judy and Ronnie for the past 37 years; they are truly "good people."

Joyce's feeling much better now and the sunshine we've had over the past few days has helped lift both our moods tremendously. She went in for a follow up chest X-ray this week on Tuesday, which showed her lungs to be clear. After a brief meeting with her oncologist, she was given the okay to continue her taxil treatments. This was her second, and there will either be four more of these or possibly six more, all one week apart. So far, other than a flushed, red face for two days, she's doing well with this round of the drug. 

I called in the Geek Squad last Saturday and finally got her laptop connected to our home wireless network; there was some kind of problem with our security setup, probably because it was installed by yours truly. She's surfing the net now and playing Hearts (which she loves). She told me to thank all of you again for your thoughts and prayers. Your support has meant a lot to her.