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Comments and opinions expressed on THE KNIGHT SHIFT are those of Christopher Knight and not necessarily those of subjects discussed in this blog, of advertisers appearing on it or of any reasonable human being. Any correspondence/irate letters/lawsuit threats/Nigerian e-mail scams can be sent to theknightshift@gmail.com.
A longtime friend was banned for life from a sports restaurant last night after breaking-bad on UNC-Chapel Hill, which lost bigtime against Kansas in the semifinal of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. The Jayhawks won 84 to 66. Not once did Carolina take the lead, and at one time they were down by 28 points. Apparently my friend could not contain his relish at the Tarheels going down so hard.
Another friend is reportedly going to burn his "lucky underwear", which he had worn during every UNC game for the past few seasons.
I've already warned Lisa to expect some long, sad faces tomorrow at school. Whether there will be more depression among the students or her colleagues, remains an open question.
And after reviewing both semifinals last night, I've my own guess as to who'll win between Kansas and Memphis tomorrow night. But at this point, it doesn't really matter. I'll just be tuning in, knowing that I can expect a great basketball game.
This coming Friday night, on April 11th, MSNBC will be premiering the new documentary Meeting David Wilson. It was written and directed by David A. Wilson, a black journalist from New Jersey who took time off from his career to research his family's history. His quest eventually led him to the plantation in Caswell County, North Carolina where his great-great grandfather was once a slave before the Civil War.
And then David A. Wilson of Newark, New Jersey wound up meeting David B. Wilson of nearby Reidsville, whose great-great grandfather had owned David A. Wilson's ancestor.
The film is already getting rave reviews. I'll certainly be tuning in because I've known Reidsville's David Wilson for a long time. He owns Short Sugars Drive-In in Reidsville, a place famous across the country for its barbecue (and where we shot the final scene of Forcery a few years ago).
When they were filming The Ten Commandments, it came time to shoot the scene where God speaks to Moses through the burning bush. Remember how God told Moses to remove his sandals, because the ground he was standing on was holy? When they were about to film Moses returning back from the encounter, Charlton Heston told director Cecil B. De Mille "You know, if someone was told by God Himself to go set His people free, do you really suppose that person would take the time to put his sandals back on?" That's why we see Moses barefoot when he's walking back down from the mountain.
I've always thought that anecdote said a lot about the kind of person that Charlton Heston was. Even though he was an actor playing a part, his mind was considering details like that.
One of my very favorite movie soundtracks is the score for The Omega Man. I can't tell you how many times I've had that playing in my car, pretending that I was Charlton Heston while driving around in daylight, looking for "the Family".
The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, El Cid, Soylent Green... and of course Planet of the Apes ("It's a madhouse, a madhouse!!"), so many other films that this man did.
It might interest my fellow North Carolinians to know that Heston had quite a lot of connections to our state. He was stationed in Greensboro when he joined the Army, and Greensboro was also where he and his wife Lydia were married in 1944. A few years later they moved to Asheville and managed a playhouse there.
Think I'll watch Ben Hur later today in his honor.
9:31 p.m. EST: One of the announcers has just said that this game "is over" already, with 7 and a half minutes left in just the first half! Kansas 38 and UNC 12.
Someone who shall remain anonymous has told me that Davidson did better against Kansas than the Tarheels are doing tonight.
9:44 p.m. EST: 40-19, Jayhawks still in the lead with just over 3 and a half minutes in the first half. Carolina is starting to show some pepper here.
9:51 p.m. EST: Kansas 44, UNC 27 at the half. Kansas might have burned much of their juice too early in this game and Carolina is still gaining some traction. All the same, I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the Tarheels locker room right now.
10:20 p.m. EST: 15:54 in the second half, Kansas with 54 and 40 for Carolina. If both teams stay consistent, this could turn out to be one of the better second halves of a basketball game that I've seen in awhile.
10:30 p.m. EST: Tarheels on a roll, although Kansas still leads 54 to 46 with 12:16 left. I think the Jayhawks might have become more than a little over-confident after having led by 28 points earlier. With that much time left and the lead trimmed to single digits, Carolina can still pull this one off.
If they do, although I'm not much of a Tarheel fan, they will have earned my respect bigtime for this one.
10:42 p.m. EST: Under 8 minutes to play and UNC has whittled the Jayhawks's lead down to just five points.
I haven't seen an NCAA Tournament semifinal game this hard-fought since the Duke/UNLV "rematch" in '91.
10:53 p.m. EST: Kansas coming back, now with a 12 point lead.
FINAL UPDATE 11:06 p.m. EST: Kansas wins!! Jayhawks 84, Tarheels 66!
Gotta give UNC credit: they did a remarkable job in coming back from such a wide deficit. In the end, Kansas really did recover from their bought of cockiness and regained solid ground in a matter of minutes.
So it'll be Memphis versus Kansas on Monday night. Hmmm... that's gonna be a tough one to call. Guess I'm just gonna have to watch and see what happens. But my heart is leaning more toward Kansas right now.
Many years ago (like when I was a teenager) I had a friend who told me something that's become so prophetic, it's absolutely frightening in its accuracy: the "information era", he told me, would soon become something dominated more by information than by people. To the point that information would become like a god that people would be sacrificing every precious moment of their lives toward satiating. And I think I understood enough of what he was saying back then to be legitimately scared about it.
That's why The Knight Shift isn't my bread and butter, and I don't particularly care for it to become that either. It's just a hobby. I only post about subjects that I find interesting or "cool", and my own personal ruminations. I'm not expecting those to fetch top dollar anyway because, hey, I already know that I can't spin a party line like the pros. This is just my lil' corner of the web: my personal "message in a bottle" for whoever might find it. And given how many neat people I've met because of it, so far I think it's been a great success.
Anyhoo, there ya go: absent an official warning from the Surgeon General (do Surgeons General even make warnings like that anymore?), don't let yer blog dispatch you to "the choir invisible" :-)
Abby Prince of WebProNews has filed a fascinating story, albeit one with significant ramifications, about the fast-evaporating pool of available Internet Protocol (IP) numbers. Ever since the Internet's inception the computers connected to it have been given addresses under the original IP4 scheme. But with the increase of devices that use the Internet combined with the number of developing countries that are beginning to build up their information infrastructure, there is a dwindling number of IP addresses still free for use. A new scheme, the IP6 protocol, has already been developed but it's far from being fully implemented... meaning we could possibly and likely will see an IP numbers "crunch" in the near future.
"Trees will tap dance, elephants will ride in the Indianapolis 500, and Orson Wells will skip breakfast, lunch, and dinner before State finds a way to beat Houston."
-- Dave Kindred writer for The Washington Post April 4th, 1983
It became, and remains to this day, the defining sports moment of the modern era.
It was twenty-five years ago tonight, on April 4th, 1983, that North Carolina State won the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, in what has become regarded by many as the single greatest basketball game ever played and one of the biggest upsets in the history of athletics.
It also produced some of the most memorable sports images to be ever televised or photographed.
What can be said about that game that hasn't already over a quarter-century? Nobody was expecting the Wolfpack of NC State to take down Houston. Guy Lewis's Cougars - dubbed "Phi Slamma Jamma" - boasted Hakeem Olajuwon and Clive Drexler. The entire team was already playing like NBA pros. They were ranked #1 in the nation. And after crushing Louisville in the semifinals of the 1983 NCAA Tournament, the Houston team was practically being laureled by most sports reporters as national champions even before tipoff. Writers like Kindred of The Washington Post were stepping all over themselves trying to describe the inevitability of Houston taking it all.
But nobody cared to tell any of this to a scrappy team from Raleigh, North Carolina that had been nicknamed the "Cardiac Pack". Nor did it seem that anybody thought to pass the word along to a cetain Italian kid from Queens.
Long before the start of the 1982-83 basketball season, North Carolina State's head coach Jim Valvano was telling his players that they possessed a lot of talent, and that they had the potential to bring home a national championship. Valvano believed it. The team believed it too. In spite of a rough regular season, the Wolfpack persisted and won the 1983 Atlantic Coast Conference championship.
And then NC State went to the Big Dance. The Wolfpack kept winning. Against Pepperdine, UNLV and Virginia the 'Pack achieved victory only within the last minute of each game after trailing for most of the time. And it wasn't long before everyone started to stand up and take notice of NC State and its sensational coach...
So it was that events converged on a showdown in Albuquerque, New Mexico - appropriately enough at The Pit, legendary for its hostile design - on the night of April 4th. Jim Valvano's North Carolina State versus Guy Lewis's Houston. Cardiac Pack against Phi Slamma Jamma. Irresistible Force meets Immovable Object.
The whole world was watching. Including a certain young boy in north-central North Carolina, who had been cheering for State since he could remember and was tuned-in to the game on WFMY along with his family. And truth be known, as much as we have always been faithful NC State fans, we were wondering how they could pull this off, too.
Most of y'all know how this went, and if you don't or if you need a refresher tonight ESPN Classic is running a half-hour special about the 1983 NCAA Championship game. In the final minute Derek Whittenburg and Sidney Lowe brought State within sight of victory by bringing the score to a 52-52 tie (after gaining a comfortable lead at halftime only to watch Houston sap away at the margin). State's Thurl Bailey passed the ball to Whittenburg, who with seconds left in the game threw what became the most televised air ball in history.
The ball was short, and that would have been the end of it for State. Except that sophomore Lorenzo Charles swooped down from seemingly out of nowhere and slammed a dunk with two seconds left before the buzzer.
The final score: North Carolina State 54, Houston 52.
The Pit went wild with pandemonium! To say nothing of what was going on in countless homes and restaurants across the country. Millions of people had watched the impossible: Phi Slamma Jamma had been defeated at its own game.
And Jim Valvano could not control himself: he leaped from his seat and began a frantic rush up and down the court, looking for somebody, anybody, to give a hug to. It has became the most iconic moment in the history of college basketball, and one of the most famous ever in sports.
Here it is, courtesy of YouTube: the final glorious moments of the 1983 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship game... and the first wild moments in the birth of a tradition that would come to be known as "March Madness":
It's hard to believe that it was twenty-five years ago today that all of this happened...
And it's even harder to believe that this month marks fifteen years since Jim Valvano was taken from us at the all-too-young age of 47, after a year-long battle with bone cancer.
Jim Valvano was one of my all-time personal heroes, for more reasons than I can possibly relate in this space. And it's one of the greater regrets of my life that I never got to meet him. Valvano was always larger-than-life and after the Wolfpack won the championship in 1983 he became an inescapable presence. He went on David Letterman's show and even appeared along with friend Dick Vitale in one of the final episodes of The Cosby Show (Valvano was one of the "V and V Movers" in the episode where Cliff is trying to move a grandfather clock). After his time at NC State, Valvano also became a well-respected commentator for ABC Sports and ESPN.
But in spite of all of his new-found fame and the thrill of victory, Valvano never lost sight of the things that mattered most. And his animated personality never diminished, even after receiving the prognosis in 1992: "Hey doc, you forgot to use the flash", Valvano joked the moment he saw the cancerous dark tissue on his x-ray.
It was a humor that Valvano maintained during the length of his battle. During his speech at the 1993 ESPY Awards, he dismissed a teleprompter's notifying him that he had 30 seconds left to wrap things up. "They got that screen up there flashing 30 seconds, like I care about that screen," Valvano said on live televison. "I got tumors all over my body and I'm worried about some guy in the back going 30 seconds?"
The day he passed away, a lot of people cried. Including me. And I've always wanted to go pay my respects to the man and all the good things that he stood for.
So since this is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the greatest moment of his career, yesterday afternoon I set out for Raleigh...
On a good day, it's about an hour and a half's driving time between Reidsville and Raleigh. I like going there, but given how gas prices have been soaring lately it's become harder to justify going out that far. But this is something that I'd made the choice many months ago to do, and as it happened I had some free time yesterday to make a short day trip for this.
I left Reidsville at 12:30 yesterday afternoon. For early spring it has been unusually cool this past week, and I had to wear a long-sleeve shirt and jacket. My route had me getting onto Interstate 40 in Burlington, then heading east toward Raleigh. I stopped at the new Lowes Foods in Burlington (the one near the new shopping center with the Target and Best Buy) and found just what the occasion required: a single red rose, adored with lilies. The girl at the register said that my wife was "going to love this!" I had to tell her that "actually it's going on a gravesite", and I shared with her what I was doing.
"You're driving all the way from Reidsville, as high as gas is? That's sweet!" she told me.
I got onto I-40 just after leaving Lowes Foods. And according to the directions I pulled off the Internet, it would be another fifty miles before I left the interstate. But it turned out that the directions were off a bit, and I ended up bewildered somewhere in Cary (I think it was Cary...). I stopped at a gas station and asked for directions toward Glenwood Avenue, and the guy told me to take a right and keep going and "it's only two miles away."
I never found Glenwood Avenue. But I can't help but think now that maybe it was providential, because I wound up driving through the campus of North Carolina State University. After going through downtown Raleigh on New Bern Street, I stopped at a pharmacy and asked if anyone knew where Oakwood Avenue was.
"Go back down New Bern, take a right onto Raleigh Boulevard, and then a left right there at Oakwood. You can't miss it," a woman told me. She also asked "Are you looking for anything in particular?"
"A cemetery," I told her.
"Okay well you'll definitely see that," she replied.
Finally, at around 2:30 yesterday afternoon, I arrived at Oakwood Cemetery...
Founded in 1869, with a large amount of acreage devoted to thousands of Confederate veterans who are buried there, Oakwood is easily one of the most magnificent and beautiful cemeteries that I have seen in this part of the country. It is also wonderfully maintained, and the staff there was glad to help me find the spot I was looking for. "Jim Valvano is buried up there. Take a left and look for a large black marble marker," one of the groundskeepers told me.
It had already started to rain by the time I approached Raleigh. It had begun to fall even harder. The rain was washing the pollen out of the air and from the surfaces, leaving a sickly yellow residue to drain away. By this time the thermometer in my car was registering an outside temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
And finally, in the Cedar Hill Section of the cemetery, there it was...
The groundskeeper wasn't kidding: Jim Valvano's grave is positively big. But it's not necessarily ostentatious. One of the things that I thought when I saw it for the first time was that even his grave marker, in its own way, spoke volumes about the man that it served to honor.
I took those photos from one of the little roads that criss-cross the cemetery. By the way, if you ever visit Oakwood please be very careful and alert, because the driveways within the cemetery barely accommodate one vehicle, much less two at a time. And the only entrance to the place is large enough for one car at a time, period. So as you approach the entrance on Oakwood Avenue, be aware of any cars trying to leave the cemetery too.
Along with the rose that I'd bought on the way, I had something else that I wanted to leave at Valvano's grave...
It's, I guess it's called a "graveside note": something that I created in Photoshop yesterday morning. At the top of it is a color photo of Valvano surrounded by his players, taken moments after North Carolina State won the national championship in 1983. And then there was something that I wrote that was inspired by Valvano's words at the ESPY Awards, and which are also engraved on his tombstone:
Dear Coach V, You made us laugh. You made us think. You made us cry.
And you made us proud.
On the 25th anniversary of your greatest victory, from all of us who will remember that night for the rest of our lives ...
Thank you.
I then placed the note and the rose on Valvano's grave...
The rain was falling harder by then. I finished up with my personal honoring of Valvano's memory, and then started to leave. Here's one last picture I took...
And then I said my goodbye to "Coach V" and left. I felt immensely satisfied that I was finally able to do this, and honor the memory of the man who inspired so many with both his witty humor and profound wisdom.
I know of no better way to wrap this up, than to post the video of Jim Valvano's speech at the 1993 ESPY Awards, along with perhaps the most famous words he gave from the podium that night...
"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special."
Basic cable television network Spike - formerly known as "Spike TV", formerly known as "The New TNN", formerly known as "The National Network", formerly known as "TNN", formerly known as "The Nashville Network" a Gaylord Production from Opryland USA, "That's all!" (five hundred points to whoever can tell what that's a reference to) - starts running ALL SIX MOVIES of the Star Wars saga, in their proper chronological order, beginning tonight at 8 p.m. EST/7 Central with Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Then tomorrow night at the same time will be Episode II: Attack of the Clones followed Sunday night with the world broadcast premiere of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and fittingly the cycle repeats next weekend with Episode IV: A New Hope, then Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and finally Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Premium channels like HBO have been able to show them all for awhile now (and every few months I catch them running all six close together) but this is the first time that a regular network has been able to show the complete series.
In case you haven't seen it yet, here's the commercial that Spike has been running to promote the Star Wars saga on its network. Personally, I think this ranks right up there with the final trailer for Revenge of the Sith as among the most intense and awesome bits of Star Wars marketing ever made. Enjoy!
I've a nasty suspicion that this is only a taste of what's barreling toward us...
So I was headed west down I-40 from a day trip to Raleigh (which I'll be posting about tomorrow) this afternoon and around Burlington, I started flicking through radio stations.
And as I was going across the AM dial just after 5 p.m. I happened to catch some pastor preaching with all due exuberance and conviction that Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama is "the Antichrist". This pastor also added that just as the Antichrist does not have "a single Christian ounce in his body" that Obama is going to Hell.
I checked the frequency. It was 880 AM. Which means it was a broadcast of WPIP, a radio ministry out of Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem.
Not that this really surprises me.
Apart from sporadic music, from sunrise to sunset WPIP's broadcasting is pretty much wall-to-wall a network of "good ol' boys" who like to preach variations on (1) the King James Version is the only Bible and any other translation is a work of Satan, (2) independent fundamentalist conservative Baptist churches are the only real churches (similar to the local "Church Of Christ In Name Only" that's been talked about here lately) and (3) Democrats and "liberals" are evil and are all Hell-bound sinners.
You can get a sense of what WPIP stands for just from its bumpers. WPIP's staff likes to call it the "conservative Christian radio voice". Berean Baptist's head pastor Ron Baity is often heard proclaiming that WPIP is "the way radio ought to be": apparently holding to the notion that to contend for the faith means aping Rush Limbaugh. And then sometimes I hear this station boast that it sticks to the "old paths".
Yeah, they're "old paths" all right: as old as Babylon.
Any Christians that obsess on the American flag, American military might, love of George W. Bush, hatred toward "liberals", and electing Republican candidates far more than they do with serving Christ in love and humility, are not Christians that God can possibly bless the work of. I'm hard-pressed to believe that these "Christians" worship anything but power.
And part of me has to wonder how many of these preachers have truly experienced the salvation that can only come with the grace of God. Think about it: How can so many professed "Christians" in America be free from sin if they can't even be free from the Republican Party?
But then, any "Christian radio station" that sincerely believes the world needs to listen to a cult leader like the late Lester Roloff is hard to take seriously, anyway.
According to WPIP's program log for Monday through Friday, this would make the program that I heard this afternoon that of Meadowview Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. I found the church's website. If this is indeed the same show that I heard this afternoon - although this being AM radio and how lax WPIP seems to be in maintaining its website, this is not a confirmed certainty - then its pastor Robert Hutchens is apparently the one who's already consigning Barack Obama to Hell.
If you're a longtime reader of this blog, then you know where I'm coming from. I don't call myself a "liberal" any more than I call myself a "conservative". I don't profess to being an active supporter of any political party. I'm just a guy trying to do what's right and what God would have me to do. So nobody can claim that I'm trying to pursue a "political agenda" by taking these supposedly "God-called pastors" to task for their un-Christlike motives and methods.
First of all, it's not this preacher's place to already condemn someone to Hell. As long as anyone... any person... has breath in his or her lungs, he or she is free to call upon God for forgiveness. In rashly stating that Obama deserves Hell, this minister is forgetting that he himself deserves Hell also, just as we all do.
And it's a much worse thing to practically be gloating about Obama or anyone else going to Hell. Especially if the basis of that condemnation is something so silly as a political dispute.
But what bothered me especially is that this preacher, whoever he is, is way too consumed with the patterns and politics of this world. Now, I do believe that we as Christians should be fully active wherever it is that God puts us, and that if they happen to live in America then this means living up to the stewardship that God has charged us with over this land. But that means taking our roles as citizens seriously... and that's not something that's possible by blindly following a political party! And these "men of God" are trying to goad us into doing just that, when they seek to rile up our emotions.
For someone who claims to be a "man of God", this kind of vitriol is symptomatic of an unregenerate mind. A mind that is yet carnal and has not been transformed like unto that of Christ.
It's a shame that these "conservative Christians" are scouring the gutter. As it is, they show nothing in their actions that could convince the lost of the existence of a real and loving God. Not when they focus more on this world than they do on Heaven.
And I think we can expect worse from some of them as the months progress.
Maybe if they would repent of their own arrogance, their prayers that America as a nation might repent could come true.
Will that happen? Could these people do that?
Let's put it this way: I have faith in God. I do not have faith in too many of my fellow Christians.
A few weeks ago the revenuers busted Popcorn's "white lightning" operation in Tennessee's Cooke County. The Feds and Tennessee "citizen harassment authorities" (that's what I'm going to call 'em) captured three 1,000-gallon stills, almost a thousand gallons of finished moonshine and several hundreds of gallons of corn mash in the raid on Popcorn's premises. They also found some firearms, which Popcorn wasn't supposed to have since he's already a convicted felon from previous moonshining charges.
Which if you ask me, the government should have just left him alone back then, too. What Popcorn is doing is not an act of evil. It's only a "crime" because the government is addicted to power and the money that comes with taxing something like alcohol. It can't cut spending. It can't even go after the millions of illegal aliens that are still coming into this country. But it can go after a man who is just minding his own business and not hurting anybody. To add insult to injury, it wouldn't surprise me if the government sends Popcorn to the big house for the full 15-year term... while letting rapists and the like out after just a few years.
There is something very screwed-up with America, when it treats one of its few legitimate original characters in this manner.
WGAL in Lancaster, Pennsylvania has a great story about teachers there who have made a series of Star Wars-inspired short films designed to help local students prepare for their state standardized tests. The PSSA Wars videos, offering tips on how to handle the critical exams, feature such characters as "Duke Skywriter" and "Math Solo" and even include the classic Star Wars saga-style scrolling intro. And not since Hardware Wars have there been such glorious special effects in a Star Wars spoof! Seriously though, I watched the episode that WGAL is hosting on its site at the link above, and I thought these teachers did a terrific job! Thanks to TheForce.net for this awesome find :-)
So the question is raised anew: What did happen to the parachute that Cooper used in his 1971 caper?
I will admit: I'm kinda glad that last week's find is not Cooper's, because it just means that the real parachute hasn't been found. And maybe that's because Cooper did survive the fall and is still out there somewhere.
"To be the man, you've got to beat the man, and I'm the Man!"
"Hey baby! Do you want to ride Space Mountain?"
"WHOOOOOO!!!"
Regardless of what you think of pro wrestling, he did survive a plane crash with a broken back and was told he'd never wrestle again. That was in 1974. He proved the doctors wrong and not only stayed active in one of the most physically demanding of spectator "sports", he also became one of the greatest performers ever to grace this form of art.
1. There is no such thing as the U.S. Department of Public Health.
2. Reidsville does not have a deputy mayor.
3. Irving "Bud" Wombler is a fictitious character that I made up this morning.
4. Rockingham Regional Medical Center only exists in my mind, and will likely never be built in the Midway area.
5. Fritz Hippler was a real-life filmmaker who ran the Film Department of the Propaganda Ministry under Joseph Goebbels during the reign of Nazi Germany. I "borrowed" his name since this story needed someone likewise doing propaganda. And I'll admit that I liked the sound of the name. But other than that there was no other reason why I chose to use it, in case anyone's wondering.
6. The murals are not in any danger.
7. This whole thing was not meant to be a reflection at all on Reidsville mayor James Festerman, the mayors and city councils of the other towns in Rockingham County, or the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners.
8. The two comments on the post were my own creation.
9. The federal goverment is not offering Rockingham County $180 million.
10. Finally: no one is going to take tobacco away from Rockingham County.
But in spite of those facts, a lot of people seriously believedthis year's April Fools gag that I posted early this morning! How many? Well, two reporters from long-established news outlets contacted me wanting to do stories about Rockingham County banning tobacco and how the federal government was asking for the murals to be destroyed. A number of e-mails came in and I received an outraged phone call this morning demanding to know more about the "ban". Mark Childrey made mention of it on tonight's edition of Star News (he admitted to me last year that my previous April Fools gag that had Lisa and me joining the Amish had really convinced him) and a few others have written in or otherwise told me in person that they had bought this year's gag also, to varying degrees.
So all in all, this year's April Fools joke was an unexpected success! I'm not as satisfied with it as the Amish one last year, 'cuz I literally waited months to unload that one and the idea for today's only hit me this morning and it was finished in fifteen minutes. But still, I can't deny that this one was a lot of fun :-)
Details about this will soon be released to the press via regular channels, but here is what The Knight Shift has learned...
Rockingham County, North Carolina - the #1 tobacco-producing region in the entire country - will soon become the first 100% tobacco-free area in the United States.
What this means is: no smoking anywhere in public, no smoking in private homes, and no cultivation of tobacco on the many farms throughout the county.
It's part of a deal between county officials and the U.S. Department of Public Health. In exchange for "willingly" giving up tobacco, the federal government will disburse $120 million to assist Rockingham County's medical and preventative health infrastructure.
If all goes according to plan, there won't be a cigarette, cigar, pouch of chewing tobacco, or can of tobacco seed in sight by spring of 2009 anywhere in Rockingham County.
County officials reached late last night said that they felt they had little choice but to accept the deal. "Look Chris, Rockingham County needs all the help it can get right now," Reidsville deputy mayor Irving "Bud" Wombler told me via telephone. "I know it seems like we're going to be giving up a lot of our culture and our industry, but these are modern times and it's time we embrace that."
Wombler told me that in addition to shoring-up the county's health services, that part of the money would be used to establish a new state-of-the-art hospital in southern Rockingham County, which is seeing enormous population growth as people from Guilford, Forsyth and Alamance counties move to Rockingham to enjoy relatively lower property taxes. "We are considering land along U.S. 158 in the Midway area for the Rockingham Regional Medical Center," Wombler said. When I asked if this would be near what is locally known as the Cheap-Cheap Curb Market, Wombler could only give a curt "no comment" reply. When I notified him that $120 million would not come anywhere near close to covering both the full cost of a new hospital (the new county jail alone is expected to cost $40 million) and providing medical services, Wombler could only mumble something about "bond referendum".
Fritz Hippler, Municipal Relations Director with the U.S. Department of Public Health, returned my phone call late yesterday evening. He was polite, but he was also resolute in his department's policy: "Right now it's just a pilot program," Hippler told me, "but we are looking at expanding it to other cities and counties throughout America. The reason we approached Rockingham County, North Carolina first is that if it can be made to work here, it can be made to work anywhere."
At this point I asked him about whether there had been any consideration about personal liberty in this. Hippler told me: "It's the belief of the current administration that the American people should and are willing to give up a little liberty for a little security. Isn't being able to go into a smoke-free town worth all the money that it will be getting from the federal government to improve health and well-being in that city?"
Hippler further suggested that more money would be sent to Rockingham County if it took steps to "cleanse" its tobacco-centered culture. "It is my understanding that City Hall in Reidsville has a mural depicting tobacco farming," Hippler told me. "We would grant the City of Reidsville additional funds if it paints over it and removes that image from public display." When I informed Hippler that there is also a very large mural on Scales Street that depicts rows of tobacco being farmed, he told me that "of course that would have to be removed also, if Reidsville wanted the additional funds."
Wombler told me that Reidsville mayor James Festerman would be appearing in a joint press conference along with the mayors of Eden, Stoneville, Madison, Mayodan, as well as the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners before the end of the week to discuss the deal and how Rockingham County will make "the transition to a completely tobacco-free society". As part of the grace period, Wombler told me that the federal government would be sending coupons to eligible residents of Rockingham County that will be redeemable for free nicotine patches and "nicotine chewing gum".
I'm going to stay on top of this story, folks, and report anything else that I find. In my opinion this is going to be a disaster for Rockingham County: I'm not a smoker, but I'm no fool and this is going to destroy this area's economy like nothing ever has before. What the hell are these people thinking?!
It's been awhile since I've posted some vintage Sesame Street clips. Here's a short one, but it's ranks up there as one of the all-time greats: Ernie and a little blue "Anything Muppet" in "Four People Fooled!"
How old am I? Heh-heh, well, I'm not quite halfway to 70. Not yet anyway.
But it's funny: in the past two weeks I have been mistaken for a college kid twice and a high school student once! Lord only knows how much longer that will last.
I wrote here last year about why I don't like having a birthday, and it has nothing to do with "getting older" at all. That's still something that time hasn't fully shaken off of me. For some people, birthdays are already a reminder of one's mortality and to have one like that is harsh enough to rock you for a lifetime. So I still don't care very much for birthdays.
But as Lisa told me this morning: "It beats the alternative, doesn’t it?"
Suddenly, it didn't seem so bad :-) Gotta love having a wife like that.
Lots of people my age and even much younger – I know of a few who had this happen to them in their teens - already start to feel what some people call "middle-age crisis". That's something that I never understood, and as I've gotten older I still don't understand it. I guess it has to do with how I grew up.
Yeah, I had people my own age to associate with. But I was also very blessed to have considerably older people in my life too. And not once did I think of them as "old" or "middle-age" or even my contemporaries as "young". I still don't. They were and are just "people".
Just as I've honestly never understood the whole thing about race or differences of religion. I grew up surrounded by white people, black people, people of various other stripes and creeds. Focusing on "the young" or "the whites" or "the Methodists" was something that never became instilled in me. We were all just one big bright and wonderful tapestry, and I was going to have to find out on my own where I belonged in that. More than thirty years on I'm still trying to find out, but I digress...
And even the ones that were chronologically more mature than I was, they were never bothered by age at all. These were people who had done remarkable things with their lives and were still doing remarkable things. I'll never forget the day that "Mr. Henry" as we called him, 70-some years old, taught me the art of dowsing. That's the arcane technique of detecting subterranean water sources while walking around on the ground above. I was eight years old at the time. There we were out in a field with his dowsing rods and some branches that he had found that were suitable for the purpose. In today's worldview we would be termed "a pre-adolescent and an elderly man" together, but I never saw it that way and I don't think Mr. Henry did either. The difference in our ages didn't matter to us. I never saw it figuring into anything then and I still don't see age difference figuring into anything today. Later that afternoon I started teaching my Dad what Mr. Henry had taught me. And it didn't occur to me until years later that it must have looked strange for someone as small as I was to be demonstrating dowsing to his father.
Ya see how much more fun life can be when you don't worry about things you can't control?
And don't give me that crap about "being too old" to enjoy some things, either. One of my friends has a boyfriend and both of them, and his parents all play World of Warcraft together. Aside from the two lovebirds, everyone else is 50 or more. That doesn't stop them from going around slaying orcs, or whatever they do in World of Warcraft.
And hey, one of the gnarliest Myspace pages that I've ever seen belongs to my 72-year old aunt. She designed it herself. Her page looks better than mine! She's cool as all get out :-)
"Ageism", "fear of aging" and everything that comes with it, there's no doubt that it comes from our culture. But ever wonder about why that is? It occurred to me a few months ago: American society has become too engineered toward allocating resources for material comfort rather than unleashing personal liberty.
That was without a doubt the worst thing that resulted from Social Security and the rest of the New Deal: that it imposed, by force of government, a definition on the quality of life, instead of letting individuals choose to define that quality for themselves, as it should be.
Think about it: most people in this country work and slave most of their lives to save up for their retirement. And it doesn't leave them time or passion to do anything else with their life! If we didn't have this damned Social Security and everything else that comes with socialized spending and "womb to the tomb" government involvement, the quality of life for everyone across the board would skyrocket. I’m not talking about "comfort" here, either. Government cannot guarantee a comfortable existence, and it's foolish to look to it for that to begin with. What I'm talking about is having the freedom to make of your life what you want to make of it, instead of just being a cog in the machine.
There is the cause of yer so-called "mid-life crisis" right there: realizing what you only think is too late that that your time on this Earth has been for you to be a slave to altruism, with nothing left for yourself.
But it's never too late. And I don't care how old you are, or even if you are one of my worst enemies (and you know who you are). You can always turn around, and go a different way. And start finding your own purpose in this world, whatever it is that God has for you.
My all-time favorite musical is Children of Eden. Elon's drama department did a production of it almost ten years ago when I was a student there. It's one of only two musicals that I own the soundtrack CD from. The final song of the show is "In The Beginning". Part of it goes like this...
Our hands can choose to drop the knife Our hearts can choose to stop the hating For ev'ry moment of our life Is the beginning...
There is no journey gone so far So far we cannot stop and change direction No doom is written in the stars
It's in our hands...
We cannot know what will occur Just make the journey worth the taking And pray we're wiser than we were In the beginning It's the beginning Now we begin...
Every moment of our life is the beginning, of something wonderful. It's in our hands.
I guess what I'm trying to say with all of this is: there is no young life, or old life, or even "middle" life. There may be younger or older, but those are just relative terms, and not even empirical values.
There is no bad life, or even a good life.
There is just life.
And it is for you to make of it what you will, however or wherever you are on the journey. So long as you have breath in your lungs, you always have a choice as to what to do with it.
I should already be dead, more times than I care to count. It was a miracle that I even made it out of the hospital after I was born. By age 20 I had skirted fate way more than necessary. By 30 I seriously wondered why was I still alive or even sane (if that can ever be said :-). I've been shot at, poisoned, almost blown to smithereens, nearly decapitated, and some stuff that I still haven't a clue how to begin to relate on this blog.
Considering that past performance is not necessarily an indicator of future returns, I'll be very very fortunate if I'm not pushing daisies by 40.
But you know what? If I die by then or thirty years from now or whenever, it’ll be okay. 'Cuz I'm just trying to make the most of my time now, as best that I can. I try to live each day for God first. That means, as the quote at the top of the page by C.S. Lewis says, I have to "die" to myself so that Christ within me can live that much more. I only wish that I had really understood that much earlier, because it is the fullest life that I have ever known.
Besides, it's much harder to worry about getting older when you've no idea if you're even going to live to see tomorrow. That's a lot more fun that it sounds! :-)
A friend put it to me best a few months ago: "People like us were never young to begin with. Why should we worry about getting old?" Indeed.
But as another friend told me a few days ago: "How can you ever grow old when you don’t stop growing up?" Which echoes the epitaph for Arthur C. Clarke: "He never grew up and did not stop growing." I like that one too, an awful lot.
So the things on my plate that I'm going to try to do in this next year: finish a book (that's already well-underway), make another movie (maybe more than one), build up my business, be the treasurer for a friend's political campaign... and, Lord willing, become a father. If I can have just that last one, everything else will be right with my world :-)
In the meantime, I'm off to enjoy my birthday. I think that Lisa might be getting me Guitar Hero III for the Xbox 360...
Not long after Cloverfield came out in January (read my review here) this blog received word from a reliable source (and still a reliable one in spite of things) that Michael Giacchino's "Roar!", the one bit of original music score for that movie, was going to be release "soon". Obviously this did not happen and we are still waiting for it.
Well today Ain't It Cool News is pointing everyone to a video at Film Score Monthly Online wherein Giacchino addresses the high demand for "Roar!" and the problems that have come with it. Nobody foresaw that a single piece of music like this would become so sought-after, Giacchino says. He also adds that the complete track is 13 minutes long and that when (not "if" but "when") "Roar!" comes out it will be the full piece.
So sounds like it's coming after all, just that they've had some legal stuff to sort through first. My bet is we'll see it on iTunes around the same time that Cloverfield comes out on DVD in a few weeks.
It's exactly what it sounds like: a group for people who are sick and tired of negative campaign commercials from political candidates.
The genesis for it came this morning, as I watched a seemingly non-stop torrent of commercials from this state's gubernatorial candidates. I can't recall any of the ads having anything upbeat and substantive to say about the candidates running them. They were all aimed toward tearing-down "the other guy".
That's when I decided that I wasn't going to vote for anyone in North Carolina's governor's race. Unless there's a candidate who hasn't run any negative ads. And even then, I'd have to seriously study him or her before I could give my support. But if they've run a single negative commercial, that's an automatic disqualification. By doing that they've only shown that they're more interested in the power that comes with the office than in using the office to serve others.
So I'm now vowing not to give my vote to any candidate who tries to destroy his or her opposition with negative ads and "dirty tricks". Which will severely limit who I can vote for. But I don't care. The line has to be drawn somewhere and this is it.
That's what this Facebook group is all about. It's for those who are likewise frustrated with the politics of personal destruction. It is not a partisan group. I'm not interested in one party or any other getting elected, and this group isn't meant to be a vehicle for that at all. It's just to promote honesty, integrity, and competence among our elected officials.
So if you're on Facebook and this sounds good to you too, you're invited to join the group. Oh yeah, it needs a good logo: something that really conveys the essence of our frustration with the way things are. If anyone has one that you'd like to have considered for use on it, shoot it over this way via e-mail!
EDIT 11:00 a.m. EST: I just whipped-up a graphic for it. It's on the group's page now, but if anyone else has a better idea, go ahead and submit it :-)
This pic of Richard Moore's grandson Jack is way too cute to not share with others...
On Richard's site, that pic links to the website for My Home Kitchen, hosted by Richard's wife Debbie and broadcast locally on WGSR Star 39. Check it out for recipes for some good eats!
Mr. Robertson, God does not care which "church" we belong to! God is not interested one bit whether we are "Church of Christ" (I'm going to start calling the bunch that broadcasts on WGSR Star 39 as "Church Of Christ In Name Only" or "COCINO" for short to differentiate it from the real Church of Christ, the independent congregations sincerely trying to serve God that most people have heard of) or Baptist or Pentecostal or Catholic or Methodist, or any other denomination...
God does care about whether or not we are seeking for Him, whether we honestly want Him. And that seeking for God is not dependent upon which doctrine we follow or how strenuously we adhere to it.
As I said in my original post, we are saved by the grace of God. And I haven't heard Robertson touch on that at all.
And God doesn't give a flip about what we wear to church either. If things were the way Robertson was claiming tonight, nobody would get into Heaven! What Robertson was arguing is, in effect, "conditional repentance".
There's another wrong aspect of what Robertson said about one's attire in church: it's as if the church building itself is imbued with some kind of power. More shades of Gnosticism there, as was mentioned in the earlier post.
Talk about hypocrisy: Robertson spent a good part of his show tonight condemning some churches for buying expensive buildings. When he and his bunch spend several thousands of dollars a month to broadcast... well, hatred toward other Christians. Robertson even publicly offered $1,000 last summer to anyone who could meet his challenge on something or other (I forget the exact details at the moment).
One last thing: Johnny Robertson, if you are reading this...
Before you even think of knocking, please know this ...
- "King James Version-Onlyism" is not only bullcrap, it is a doctrine bordering on heresy. I'm not talking about using the King James Version as a personal preference. I use it myself a lot of times. And no doubt always will. But to suggest that I'm a "lost sinner" because my main preference is the New International Version or some other translation is a lie from the pit.
- If you are doing this for your church or your pastor, you've already messed up. You're supposed to be doing it for Christ.
- Yes, I have a "home church". It is a real home church, in every sense of the term. If you believe that a "church" must have a building and a pastor, then you don't understand what church is to begin with. And it's not my problem if you can't comprehend that.
- If you don't even know why you are asking me "Are you saved?" then don't waste your time asking at all. Because I've been around the block enough to know that practically every time I get asked that, it's from someone who doesn't give a flying rat's butt about me or my salvation at all. They just want to know if I'm "of the same mindset" as they are and more to the point they want enjoy having a smug sense of superiority.
- If I tell you a story about Thomas Aquinas, it's only because I want you to think about it and if you understand the gist of it, then I hope you'll take it to heart.
- It's hard for me or anyone else to tell you that we're going to Heaven if it's too obvious that you are not sure if you are going to Heaven to begin with.
- I'm not interested in building up "your church". And I don't want to be bothered by people who are trying to grow a church either. I would much rather be visited by people who are sincerely interested in building the Kingdom of God.
- If you tell me that your church is "fundamentalist", keep on walking. Because you do not want me as a member.
- Understand that you are paying a visit to an irreligious follower of Christ, who is not interested in "religion" at all.
- I can spot the people who are witnessing for the sincerely right reasons a mile away. If that ain't you and you come here with the wrong motive, I will know.
- Realize that you are dealing with a guy who is fed-up with how a lot of Christianity is "playing games" and "putting on a show" more for our own sake than for God's.
Sorry I have to do this folks, but after what happened yesterday here, I'm compelled to post a notice to anyone else who may come a'knockin'. I'm thinking of making a sign of it for my front door too.
I'm assuming that Popcorn has a second home or some other accommodations in Tennessee, because in addition to the bond he also cannot leave the state until at least a hearing next month ... that could send him to jail once more. He also must wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, submit to drug testing (and cannot imbibe of his or anyone else's "likker"), and agree to have his property searched at any time by federal agents.
I'll say again: Popcorn made a bad move by running a still across state lines in Tennessee, when if he had stayed home in Maggie Valley he could have remained in business. The man should have known better. But all the same: it doesn't look like the federal government has anything better to do than harass a legitimate American folk hero, and someone who is keeping alive some of the proudest traditions of Appalachia. It's funny: our government won't do anything serious about millions of illegal invaders, but it does have the will and resources to pursue a regular citizen who's just minding his own business and not hurting anyone else.
More details about the Popcorn Sutton Saga will be posted as they develop ...
On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation.
So by asking everyone to turn out the lights for an hour, this event's organizers believe that this will accomplish something meaningful?
Ha!
This whole thing is a stunt. As is everything motivated by "awareness" pretty much. A year from now it will barely be remembered at all. I do believe in being responsible with the environment, as wise stewards and custodians over it. And I certainly believe that mankind's activity over the past two hundred years has had an effect on the Earth: how could it not?
That said, Earth Hour is still just another one of those "flashes in the pan" intended to let people feel good about themselves and delude them into thinking that they just did something that "really matters" when in fact they haven't done anything at all. And I hate that kind of thing. Along with so much else it distracts us from taking hold of our own lives, and belittles us into thinking we have to "join the group" in order to make the most of our time on Earth. And we get so pressed to "help the cause" that we don't stop to look at who is leading this movement or to where, exactly.
I've watched this sort of nonsense ever since Earth Day in 1990. Enough to say with utter conviction that darn nearly all of the "environmental movement" is driven by politics and not about sincere concern for the Earth at all. And that's why I refuse to have anything to do with radical environmentalism: it is an inherently corrupt movement that creates more problems than it solves.
In case I haven't articulated it already: I think that people who support George W. Bush's "Surge" in Iraq are, for the most part, idiots.
So for the past year and more we've been hearing "The Surge is working! The Surge is working!" I'm reminded of how some passengers on the Titanic actually believed beyond all rational thought that the ship was coming back up to the surface just before it took its final plunge into the Atlantic.
Some of us knew it was only a matter of time before this mercenary operation failed. I just didn't expect it to happen so soon.
So in case you haven't heard already, Iraq in the past few days finally began collapsing into full-blown civil war. And the United States government is becoming actively involved on the side of the Iraqi government that it installed. Which is something that no sane leaders ever do with another country's civil war. Bush was a fool to step in and Iraq's prime minister Nouri al-Maliki was a fool to have accepted the aid, if Bush even offered it. Because if there's one thing that history has proven about civil wars, it's that outside interference always turns a bad situation into something far nastier. It will come back to bite us in the rear sooner or later.
But here's the thing about American involvement in the Iraq civil war: the U.S. is using air strikes against the Shia militias. This is pretty much equivalent to an official statement by the Bush Administration that "We admit that the Surge has not worked at all." Calling in air strikes is a very clumsy, ham-handed way to deal with a ground-based rebel force. For the faction using air support like this, it basically means that you don't care to broadcast wide and clear to your enemies that your own ground-based forces aren't up to snuff and can't win.
So George W. Bush has not only given many Iraqis who had so far been "on the fence" a damned good reason to take up arms against American personnel, he has also let it be known that "The Surge" has failed, and that the capabilities of United States military - the mightiest armed force in the history of the world - are now significantly diminished.
This past week might finally prove to be the point where it can be said that the Iraq War, at last, was the worst foreign policy fiasco of the previous quarter-century, if not longer. Because nothing has been gained, and everything conceivable has been lost because of it: innocent life, countless resources, and now the last shreds of respect for both American diplomacy and military prowess.
I don't know if we'll ever recover from this mess. Maybe we don't deserve to.
Earlier this week this blog reported the arrest of Popcorn Sutton: perhaps the very last of the original Appalachian moonshiners and an American living legend. As of this writing Popcorn is still in jail in east Tennessee after a raid that caught him with almost a thousand gallons of still-brewed booze and many hundreds of pounds of unfinished mash.
Since his arrest, Popcorn Sutton is gradually gaining support for his cause. I've heard that a legal defense fund has been established, and I'm trying to find out more details about that. Someone is even selling "Free Popcorn" shirts on CafePress. And now a couple of musicians have done a short song in honor of Popcorn. Enjoy!
For Christmas I got Lisa a Nintendo Wii. Had to camp out all night during cold rain in front of a GameStop store the week before to get it (this was when they had the vouchers thing going, and I wound up getting a Wii for Lisa and a Wii voucher for my sister, who got hers a little over a week after Christmas ... am I a great husband/brother or what? :-)
Along with the Wii I bought a card worth 2000 Wii Points, to spend on extra games or whatever through Nintendo's online store for the Wii. And until now we hadn't used it at all (guess we've been having too much fun with everything else on the Wii). So yesterday I loaded up the points and "went shopping", and even though it cost 500 points I thought it would be neat to have the Internet Channel installed. This is a version of the Opera browser customized for the Wii, that lets you surf the web (kinda like WebTV).
The Internet Channel for Wii is pretty neat. The first thing I went to was this blog (of course!) and then Lisa's and a few friends' sites. Then I went to Flickr. Why? Because I wanted to see if there were any new pictures of a certain girl...
A year ago I discovered Taci, an unbelievably cute cocker spaniel whose owner Kalen loves to take pictures of her and post on Flickr. Taci looks almost exactly like Bridget, our cocker spaniel who sadly passed away way too young some years ago. Kalen is quite a talented photographer and she's captured Taci in so many sweet (and often funny) poses and expressions. The pic above is one of the latest that Kalen has taken of Taci. So I zoomed-in with the Wii Remote and took this photo of Taci's face on a 37-inch high-definition television set via the Wii! Kalen thought it was hilarious (and hopefully so did Taci :-).
By the way, that might be the last photo that I post on this blog of our high-def TV: the one that I've been referring to as "The Behemoth" ever since we got it a little over a year ago. You can't see it in this photo but there's something wrong with the screen that looks like it's been a manufacturing defect (that's not a reflection on the company that made it by any means, these things just happen every so often). We tried to get it fixed but it's not really feasible, so next week the retailer is giving us another high-def television, one that might be even better. Thank goodness we got the service plan for this thing. But still, I've grown quite fond of The Behemoth. So before it went away I wanted to post a photo of it displaying something beautiful for a change, as opposed to, say, Gears of War :-P
Near the small town of Darvaz in Uzbekistan is a place that the locals call "The Door to Hell". Thirty-five years ago some geologists were drilling for natural gas there and hit upon a cavern. Poisonous gas was detected down in the hole, so the excavators ignited it in the hopes that it would "burn off" and clear out the air so that they could explore further.
It's been burning ever since, non-stop, for more than three decades.
Mash down here for more photos and one scary video clip of "The Door to Hell".
EDIT 2:28 pm 03/30/2008: Someone noted in the comments that Darvaz is actually located in Turkmenistan, not Uzbekistan. So I stand corrected. But in my own defense, I just took the original website at its word that this was Uzbekistan :-)
George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (or 1984 as it's more commonly written), the all-time classic novel about totalitarianism and the destruction of privacy, is now available for free reading on the web... and legally, too!
I read this book during the spring break of my senior year of high school. In many ways, Nineteen Eighty-Four broke the ground for much of the foundation of my personal philosophy and beliefs. And it's probably a safe assumption that to most people who've read the book, mentioning it brings to mind Big Brother, or the Thought Police, or Room 101. Certainly the telescreens of the book can now be seen as greatly prescient, considering how our own government is now fully capable of spying on regular American citizens without a warrant or any real oversight (I'll leave it as an exercise for any readers as to whether this government is actually doing it, but have you ever known of a government given power and then choosing not to use that power?).
But to me, the scariest concept of Nineteen Eighty-Four was always Newspeak and Doublethink. Because each day we see Newspeak all around us. Most people don't even care that it's there at all, they have become so inured to it. In Nineteen Eighty-Four Orwell shared the brilliant observation that without adequate language to share ideas, those ideas and thoughts were rendered utterly impotent... right to the point that over time, it would become impossible for a person to even be capable of the thought at all. Hence, the Party's systematic destruction of language as a measure of controlling the people. Most often this was done by cramming many disparate thoughts beneath the umbrella of generic terminology.
Now think about how many - some would even say "most" - Americans are intellectually incapable of thinking about this country's politics beyond the entrenched two-party system. Very many Americans only think that they are capable of deep meditations about this nation's politics... when in fact their thoughts have already been dictated by language and those who control it: the leadership of the two parties, with the eager assistance of a corporate press.
Don't even get me started on Doublethink. I've had a long day and don't feel like trying to educate some people for whom it would be lost in a cloud of cognitive dissonance.
But I must ask: how is what America is turning into not like the Oceania of Nineteen Eighty-Four?
Read the book, if you haven't already, and judge for yourself.
Chef extraordinairePaul Prudhomme - from whom millions of people have learned that there's more to Cajun cookin' than just having a bottle of red pepper handy and who has sometimes been blamed for the near-extinction of the redfish - was hit by a stray bullet while preparing food on a golf course near New Orleans during a PGA event two days ago.
Prudhomme felt a sting on his right arm above the elbow and thought he had been stung by a bee.
Turned out that he had been grazed by a .22 caliber bullet.
So what did Prudhomme do? He kept on cooking! Minutes later he was back in action and served up some tasty cuisine for the golfers, caddies and guests at the Zurich Classic.
Doesn't surprise me at all. Having known some, I can attest that them Cajuns are a good and hardy folk. Glad to hear that Prudhomme is okay, and is back to making more tasty gumbo!
John C. Larsh, better known to countless fans during decades of radio work as Jack Armstrong, has passed away at 63.
Armstrong is probably most recently remembered around here for being a longtime DJ at WMQX Oldies 93. I used to listen to him every day: Armstrong was easily one of the liveliest radio personalities that I've ever found on the dial. But before that, the Chapel Hill born-and-bred Armstrong had also worked in the Boston, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and San Francisco markets. During his long career he got to hook up with Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, Frank Zappa, and many other musical legends.
Armstrong's zest for life reflected in his radio work, especially after the Guinness World Records certified him as being the "world's fastest talking human". Armstrong also pulled off the rare feat of being a double-record holder when he broke the one for most revolutions on a roller-coaster: 750 on the Thunderbolt in Pittsburgh, riding it for 34 hours (my butt's sore just thinking about it...). And Armstrong's passion for radio would eventually lead to his being ensconced in the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame as part of the "This Is Dedicated To The Ones We Love... 100 Jocks From 1935" exhibit.
You can find out much more about Jack Armstrong at his official Myspace page, which is already becoming a shrine to his memory.
Thanks for the many good laughs and great tunes, Jack. We'll miss ya.
EDIT 8:42 a.m.: Want to hear just how fast Jack Armstrong's voice was? Here is his trademark sign-off in MP3 format (and thanks to WBFO for hosting it). Here's what Armstrong is saying, in case you need a guide...
"Don't get none on ya, do it twice, be nice. It's very nice to be important, but more important to be very nice. Let it all hang out, drag it in the sand, and make a deep rut. People who live in glass houses shouldn't... A bird in the hand makes it hard to blow your nose. One good turn takes most of the blankets. You can lead a horse to water, but don't push him in. Nothing smells any worse than a wet horse, or you can lead a horse to water, push him in and teach him the backstroke, then you've really got something. Wash your face in the morning, neck at night. Love is life, life is love. Light your own candle and the world will be a much brighter place. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a little knot, hang on and swing. Stay calm, try to adjust. You can't live with 'em or without 'em. Hoo hee, HEE HOO! Don't let your six gun get rusty. It's been a business doing pleasure with you, it's been real... and your LEEEEEEADAAAAAAAAH love you-ah!"
The first time I ever saw Richard Widmark act in a movie, it was The Long Ships. WFMY aired it as a Saturday afternoon movie when I was eight years old. I happened to start watching right at the scene where Widmark's character Rolfe, the dashing Viking, is about to ride the "Mare of Steel" and that crazy Moorish king Aly Mansuh (played by Sidney Poitier) gives him a "demonstration" first. I can't say that I remembered Widmark himself much from that scene: the sight of a long curved razor blade that the condemned was forced to slide down belly-first made a much bigger impression on my young mind.
Since then I've watched Widmark in Kiss of Death (his breakout film), Judgment at Nuremberg, and many others. At Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9 this past December one of the early movies on the program was Pickup on South Street starring Richard Widmark as "Skip" McCoy. It was a huge hit with the crowd. I must admit: I had come to be a fan of Widmark but that was one movie that had stayed under my radar until then. It was one of the films I discovered there that made the trip to the festival very worthwhile.
