Me and Bobby McGee Janis Joplin took the song Me and Bobby McGee to number one on the Billboard charts in 1971 with her posthumous album named Pearl. It was the second such posthumous success after Otis Redding put out The Dock of the Bay, days before his death in 1967. Of course, Janis died of a heroin overdose and Otis died in a plane crash going to a gig, but they both have their…
The Night the Lights Went Out No, this is not another Santa Ana wind emergency or a story about SDG&E and my struggles with Tesla Power Walls and the solar/battery system installed by Baker Electric. That has “resolved” itself by virtue of a simple call from Baker to me on a calm morning when I did not feel like getting crosswise with another vendor. They have done nothing to physically alter my system or its…
The Night Before COVID Christmas I thought about writing a Christmas poem this year as a traditional retake of the Clement Clarke Moore classic and then Apple News and The Atlantic intervened. At this point in the news cycle, I am starting my day by reading many news summaries. I read them in the sequence in which they come in since I am somewhat dogmatic about reading my emails in chronological order. There is probably…
The Cleaning Crews I have three crews of Hispanic (mostly Mexican in heritage, I believe) workers that do things around this household. I suspect I am like almost everybody here is Southern California to some degree or another and perhaps like lots of people all across the United States. Such is the nature of the Hispanic diaspora, it reaches to every corner as people just try to find a place to live a peaceful life…
Ringing in the New We are in the home stretch of the modern world’s annus horribilis. While we will soon be at the start of another year that will undoubtedly begin as badly as this one will end, we are all hopeful that over the course of the twelve months of its duration, 2021 will somehow work its way out of this malaise and resolve itself into a fine year. For that to be the…
A Wave to The Promised Land Of all the personal entertainment activities I could have during a pandemic, I suspect that motorcycling is one of the best under the circumstances. Yes I like riding with my pals of the AFMC and I like it when Kim chooses to ride pillion with me, but I have always been content with riding solo and just enjoying the road and the ride. I imagine that comes from my…
Mission Impossible When I was growing up, there were several shows that I especially liked because my mother liked them as well. There was that early courtroom show, The Defenders. I once asked mom why she didn’t like Perry Mason and she said she just couldn’t get into Raymond Burr for some reason. She liked Gunsmoke because she knew James Arness from her days in Pacific Palisades and she thought he was a handsome and…
Dashing Through The Snow There is only one Thanksgiving song I think of when the season is upon us and it provides a great start to the holiday season. That is none other than that ubiquitous Jingle Bells that ranks up there with Happy Birthday as one of the best-known American songs in the world. It is supposed to be about going over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go. It…
The Holiday Spirit I am not sure that A Christmas Carol, the Dickensian story of the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge makes my top five favorite holiday movie list (It’s A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas, Love Actually and a tie between Four Christmases and The Holiday…and maybe Elf), but it is a very memorable tale that I suspect any one of us could recite with ease. It all revolves around the spirit…
Exit Stage Left With COVID-related deaths now exceeding 250,000 in the United States, the news is once again dominated by by two things, the manner of reaction being taken to combat the virus, and the lack of enablement by the current Trump administration insuring a smooth transition of power to the new Biden administration, especially vis-a-vis management of the Coronavirus battle. Rather than celebrating the impact that Project Warp Speed might have had on the…