If You Can't Get Out To See Iron Man This Weekend Watch This

Eddy Arnold 1918 - 2008

Eddy Arnold has passed away just days short of his 90th birthday. He was a legend in country music. Arnold helped the "hillbilly music" of the 30's & 40's evolve into the "Nashville sound" of the 60's & 70's. Arnold paved the way for country artist to like Kenny Rogers, Shania Twain, Faith Hill and Glenn Campbell to top the Adult Contemporary charts. He went from being "the Tennessee Plow-boy" in his early days to reinventing himself in the Sixties as a tuxedo-clad crooner like Frank Sinatra and Dead Martin. Martin was one of his fans, as was Leonard Nimoy (which explains his attempts at country music) and my father.

I went with my parents to see Arnold when he was in Branson a few years back (a double bill with the Chordettes). He could still sing the songs, but he was really too sick to perform. He had a horrible cough (he blamed it on "sleeping on the porch") and at one point, he went into a coughing fit and I thought "I'm going to see him die on stage."

Here is CNN's story about Eddy Arnold.

"Hazel" and "Peabody and Sherman" Creator Ted Key Dies

Associated Press is reporting the death of cartoonist Ted Key. Key was 95.

Here is part of the story : "Hazel" was a popular feature in The Saturday Evening Post from the time it debuted in 1943. It evolved into a prime-time series in 1961 that starred Shirley Booth and ran for four years on NBC and one year on CBS.

Key also created the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman for producer Jay Ward. The time-traveling dog/scientist and his boy made their TV debuts in 1959 in segments on the animated show "Rocky and His Friends."

In 1969, Key acquired the rights to his character from SEP. Since then it has been syndicated to newspapers by King Features. Key retired in 1993.

I had several books when I was a little super-villain that were illustrated by Mr. Key. I believe one involved a caveman sitting on a dinosaur egg.

Mel Brooks once said if Hazel was his maid, he'd half to kill her. Hazel would say, "Sure Mr. B!"

Crazy Jane and her Toothless Anti-Bullying Law

We have mentioned State Rep. Jane Cunningham in the past and her lip service to anti-bullying legislation. Recently, Rep. Cunningham received an endorsement from former Governor/Attorney General John Ashcroft. Monday she was on the KSGF morning show bragging about her so-called anti-bullying legislation. Vincent David John Jacob Jingle Himerschmit Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla (who found a kangaroo) Shimmy Shimmy Ko-ko Bop Ramma Lama Ding Dong Do Wah Diddy Diddy Da Do Ron Ron Ron Da Do Ron Ron Gidyup Ooomp Pompa Oooomp Pompa Mow Mow Hiyo Silver Away Banana Fanna Fo Fanna De Doo Doo Doo De Da Da Da (That's all I want to say to you) Gabba Gabba Hey Gabba Hey (Now you're one of us) two all-beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onion on a sesame seed bun, Itsy Bittsy Tiny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Joiner-Kersee Sammy Davis Junior Jericho kissed every inch of her butt while trashing local State Rep. Sara Lampe’s work on the bill.
Cunningham basically that she doesn’t want sexual orientation on the bullying legislation because it would give special treatment to "certain groups." She claimed that Rep. Lampe’s version of the bill would "punish" a person for telling another student (her words) "I don’t like your lifestyle." CUNNINGHAM WANTS TO PROTECT THE BULLIES FROM PUNISHMENT.
Cunningham was probably never bullied in school like I was, so she probably doesn’t know what goes on. I will allow her that. Bullies will use any excuse to get out of trouble. The favorite lie a bully tells is "I was only joking" or "We are just having fun." I’m sure some bully will probably use "I criticizing their lifestyle." I’m not gay and I wasn’t gay in school, however, I was bullied over my clothes, my choice of music and my choice of girls to be interested in (Rod Hance proved, my choice of women STILL upsets some people in Lebanon).
Cunningham is trying to make this a toothless, ineffective law where nobody would be punished. The way Cunningham wants it, the bully can turn tables on the victim. It will be the same thing that we have seen from the right-wing talk show host for the past few year, "You can’t condemn me for hating (insert a minority group here), because you hate me because I’m conservative." The argument about who is bullying who will go back and forth and the school won’t know who to punish. Cunningham’s anti-bullying law will allow the bullies to get off scot-free and be back in class causing trouble.
The basic point made over and over in the interview was "sexual orientation" should not be in mentioned in the anti-bullying law. I SAY IT SHOULD FOR THIS REASON: ALL BULLYING IN JUNIOR HIGH AND HIGH SCHOOL IS BASED ON DISCRIMINATION AGAINST GAYS EVEN IF THE VICTIM IS HETEROSEXUAL. Junior high and high school bullies get a kick out of calling their victims names like "fag," "queer," or "homo." If sexual orientation is mentioned, then these bullies can be punished. Cunningham would allow them to explain their actions as "a religious intervention."
Here is something that I feel both Lampe and Cunningham should put into an anti-bulling law: if a student has more than three bullying complaints against them, the parents have to be punished too. I’ve learned that bullies learn there hatred for others at home. Any bullying law needs to punish the parents as well as the kid.
From the tone of her discussion on KSGF, Cunningham is not sincere about stopping bullying. Usually it is old white guys who cloud the issue on bullying because, they were bullies themselves in their school days. My theory is Rep. Cunningham was the girl who was sweet on the bully boys.

That Song in the Axe Commercial

If you've seen the Axe Commercial where the guy imagines every girl he sees in their underwear, you've heard this song. It is by one of the most overlooked rock bands of the 60s (at least by oldies/classic rock radio) - the Seeds. They were sort of viewed as the United States answer to the Rolling Stones. Sky Saxon certainly tried to sound like Mick Jagger. The late Lester Bangs said what made their only Top 40 "Pushin Too Hard" great was it escentially "Louie Louie" only faster and reduced to two chords from three.

Michael Reagan Still a Dork

Talk radio show host Michael Reagan is begging to be Vice President. According to All Access, he was a guest on CNN's Larry King Live a few nights ago a made the suggestion that if Hillary Clinton thinks she can be President because she was First Lady, he can be Vice President because he is the son of a President. OH YEAH, RIGHT!

His father may have been President, but as far as being the son of a Hollywood actor, Michael Reagan is STILL not as cool as Peter Fonda. Now I think Peter Fonda should be President because of this speech alone.

Day of Silence: Remembering the Cute Teacher and the Crazy Preacher at LHS in the 80s

The Lebanon Daily Record forums have been abuzz with talk about the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network Day of Silence being observed at Lebanon High School. It is a volunteer observation. Students are not forced into observing (personally I thing they should be or face expulsion - but that is me).

The fuss over this reminded me of what happened at LHS in 1986 (maybe 1985).

It involved the young lady pictured above. I won't give her name. It isn't important to the story. She was a teacher. I never had her for class. Too bad, she was HOT! I wish I could have been one of those kids who had sex with a teacher. I'd pick her.

The country was talking about A.I.D.S. Homophobia was rampant among teenage boys. It gave them a certain amount of masculine reinforcement. LHS had (probably still does) quite a few rednecks and jocks. They liked to call those they didn't like "faggot" or "queer."

This young teacher got tired of the some of the guys calling other students these derogatory terms for gay people. She had enough of this and told them her brother was gay. She said she would bring him in an introduce him to show that he was a "real human being."

She took this to the principal, who told her no because he was afraid of possible violence toward her and he brother. That should have been the end of it.

Not long after, a local preacher, who was a known trouble maker, shows up asking why the school was going to allow gay men to "make love in front of the students." Some way this had become a crazy rumor spread around the school. I might add the preacher had NO children in the school and was known to cause trouble with the school over silly rumors. He claimed once that there was an arcade in Lebanon where teenagers were dancing naked and drinking. Needless to say it closed soon after. Worst of all, this preacher had a radio show on KLWT every morning. He bashed everyone from Ozzy Osbourne to Jane Fonda, who he called a "harlot." If I had been running KLWT, I WOULD HAVE TAKEN HIM OFF THE AIR. Unfortunately, I was a junior in high school at the time (Sadly, I have a degree in media from MSU and I'm still not allowed to make programming decisions in radio).

The teacher left Lebanon after just one year, but the preacher had to leave town too. He was caught having an affair with another woman. He now lives in Springfield. He writes bad Letters to the Editor in the News Leader and has been heard on one of the local talk radio shows (Guess who?). He is also involved with local politics (Republican, of course).

Just a little story I thought I'd share.