I post a weekly diary of the historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I featured this past week in "Cheers & Jeers". For example .....
SEPARATED at BIRTH - two noted GOP prognosticators: Karl Rove and pollster Scott Rasmussen .... who probably aren't having a good week.....
ELECTION DAY's CHILD is Mr. Nuts the Cat - a Bay Area kitteh who has made predictions on the Super Bowl and other events in the past, based upon ... ummm .... which litter box he poops in. And his track record held up, by correctly predicting the presidential race outcome.
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
WHAT MORE is there to say, after this election? Congratulations to Bill in Portland Maine & Common Sense Mainer (Michael) - you've waited for this day for some time, with so many starts-and-stops in Maine politics. I agree that holding a popular vote on civil rights is abhorrent .... but given that the people enacted it - over the objections of governor Paul "I used to steal Halloween candy" LePage ... is sweet.
ART NOTES - 131 pieces displayed of the sacred and personal possessions of King Tut are at the Museum of Idaho in Pocatello through November 24th.
AS A WIDENING corruption scandal got ever closer to his office, the embattled Gérald Tremblay - the mayor of Montreal, Canada (and a Harvard MBA) - resigned one day after a deadline passed that would have necessitated a special election ... but whose post can now be filled by his party. Note: things will probably not end well for an elected official with the word "embattled" next to his/her name.
THIS PAST THURSDAY yours truly hosted Top Comments - with a photo diary of Election Day in my town of Lebanon, New Hampshire .... complete with a Drinking Liberally meet-up at a pub (always a good choice, anyway).
As has been well-documented, we have an all-female governor/congressional delegation in 2013. That's good ... but truth-be-told, I'd rather Paul Hodes had been able to defeat Kelly Ayotte two years ago for the U.S. Senate. (Next time).
BOOK NOTES - an essayist nominates the 10 most difficult books to finish in the Guardian.
WEDNESDAY's CHILD is Bob the Cat - who helped a London busker (and heroin addict) get his life together, and who is the subject of a book and soon, a film.
MUSIC NOTES - of the 123 singles that have sold over a million copies in Britain, Elton John's Candle in the Wind tops the list - which you can read at this link in its entirety.
FILM NOTES - at the next Golden Globe awards, Jodie Foster will receive a lifetime achievement award.
ART NOTES - the exhibit Angels & Tomboys: Girlhood in 19th-Century American Art is at the Newark, New Jersey Museum to January 6th.
LANGUAGE NOTES - the head of Spain’s Real Academia de la Lengua (Royal Spanish Academy, or RAE) said that the variation of spoken Spanish in Latin America "does not endanger" the language, believing it is spoken equally well on both sides of the Atlantic.
BY-THE-WAY - feel free to write-in a name below for "Who Lost the Week?!?!" as there are so many names to choose from:
a) I declared the Romney/Ryan ticket winners losers of the week
b) Just to avoid a vote-by-acclamation
c) I always try to include some foreign names (especially for our non-US readers)
d) And some non-political names (i.e., business, sports, film, etc.)
e) But this week, I really needed 24 slots (plus a write-in), not just 14
f) Either way .... enjoy, it's for fun!
THURSDAY's CHILD is
Charley the Hero Cat - who awoke the husband of a woman who had gone into diabetic shock.
TRAVEL NOTES - the travel guide Lonely Planet has hailed Sweden’s second city of Gothenburg as the world's second best place to visit for those on a shoestring budget - behind only Brazil's Rio (and with Portland, Oregon in sixth place) - saying "In short, this is as much Scandinavia as you can get for your money".
THE EFFORT to nominate a new member of the European Central Bank’s powerful executive board has been slow, as Spain's prime minister Rajoy is hoping to advance the case of Belen Romana Garcia - a former director of the Spanish treasury - as the board's first female member.
By Request FATHER-SON? from Audri - the late actor John 'Dean Wormer' Vernon as well as TV/film star Bill Murray - Whaddya think?
BRAIN TEASER - try the latest Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC - though this week it is (fair warning) more UK-centered than normal.
END of an ERA - a church in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, famous for its monthly services for the blessing of animals - and which also marries divorcées and has said it could marry same-sex couples in the future - is slated to close after the building was sold by its landlords, who are now seeking a new location.
FRIDAY's CHILD is Meeko the Cat - who was lost for five months during a family move from Oregon to Louisiana .... and was found in New Mexico.
...... and finally, for a song of the week .......................................... they were a most unlikely couple: he from rural Georgia, she an Italian-American from Wisconsin - who eloped only two days after meeting - and who struggled financially in the early years of their marriage, living in a mobile home.
But while they may not be household names, Felice & Boudleaux Bryant became a songwriting duo for the ages: an institution in Nashville-and-beyond, whose work has been performed (by a wide range of artists) on over 300 million recordings. If you are a child of any age, you've heard someone perform their material.
He was born Diadorius Boudleaux Bryant in 1920 in southwest Georgia. Boudleaux Bryant trained as a classical violinist, touring with the Atlanta Philharmonic as an eighteen year-old in 1938. When a friend needed another musician he joined a country band, eventually touring with Hank Penny's Radio Cowboys who were a leading Western Swing band of its era.
She was born Matilda Genevieve Scaduto in 1925 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Unlike Boudleaux, she wasn't a trained musician: but her entire family sang and played musical instruments by ear. She began to write English lyrics to traditional Italian tunes, and during WW-II both sang at (and directed) USO shows. Fate brought them together at a hotel in Milwaukee in 1945 while he was on tour (and she served as the hotel's elevator operator). He gave her the nickname Felice, which is what the world later came to know her as.
After deciding against resuming a performing career, they tried collaborating on songs - and then tried to interest country musicians/publishers in their work. Like many aspiring songwriters, they met with rejection-after-rejection ... until Fred Rose of the legendary Acuff-Rose publishing house in Nashville - took a flyer on "Country Boy".
This became a #7 country hit for Little Jimmy Dickens in 1948. Delighted with that success, Fred Rose began a nearly 20-year business arrangement with the Bryants, who moved to Nashville in 1950 to become full-time songwriters. They had another hit song in 1953 with Hey Joe (no, not the Billy Roberts tune that Jimi Hendrix would popularize years later) that became a country hit for Carl Smith and a pop hit for Frankie Laine in 1953.
But it's safe-to-say that it was their collaboration later that decade (with a pair of brothers from Kentucky) that saw their career skyrocket - The Everly Brothers were the perfect act to extend their reach into the burgeoning pop/rock era. And you know the songs: Wake Up, Little Susie as well as ..... All I Have to Do is Dream reached #1 on both the pop and country charts.
Add to that Bye Bye Love plus "Devoted to You" are just a few more songs that the Everlys made famous (and numerous others have covered). Others had original hits with their tunes: Buddy Holly ("Raining in my Heart") and in 1962 Leona Douglas became the first African-American to have a charted country hit with the Bryants' "Too Many Chicks".
They formed their own House of Bryant publishing company in 1967 and that same year wrote perhaps their most enduring composition: Rocky Top has become one of the state of Tennessee's official state songs and an unofficial theme for the state university's sports teams. It was named #7 on the 100 Songs of the South list compiled by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. And uncommonly for non-performers: they were inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame as well as the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1991.
Boudleaux Bryant died in June, 1987 at age 67. Felice Bryant wrote solo before passing away in April, 2003 at the age of 77. And just last month, Boudleaux Bryant's hometown in Georgia held a festival in his honor.
To illustrate how widespread their appeal was, just consider the range of performers who have covered some of their 3,000 songs: Tony Bennett, The Who, Sarah Vaughn, Charley Pride, the Grateful Dead, Dean Martin, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Jim Reeves, Count Basie - and I saw Simon & Garfunkel delight the crowd at their 1981 Central Park show when they played "Wake Up, Little Susie".
Of all of their material, my favorite is their song Love Hurts (fair-use extract below) that was first a hit for the Everly Brothers in 1960. And as previously noted, the range of performers with cover versions is amazing: Roy Orbison, Joan Jett, Keith Richards/Norah Jones, Rod Stewart, Pat Boone and Cher - with the highest-charting version by the Scottish rock band Nazareth reaching #8 in 1975.
At this link is a special 1973 duet by Emmylou Harris and the late Gram Parsons - that truly captures the song's pathos.
I'm young, I know, but even so:
I know a thing or two I learned from you
I really learned a lot
Love is like a flame
it burns you when it's hot
Love hurts......love hurts
Some fools think of happiness
Blissfulness, togetherness
Some fools fool themselves, I guess
But they're not fooling me
I know it isn't true
Love is just a lie
made to make you blue
Love hurts......love hurts