I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — an exhibition entitled Transilience: Transgender, Nonbinary, and Two Spirit artists from in and around Montana — bringing artists from within and around Montana to promote visibility, and to honor and celebrate their works — is at the Holter Museum of Art in Helena, Montana, closing on March 30th.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is (actually) a pictorial from The Guardian — 50 photographs that reshaped the sports world.
HAPPY TRAILS to the NPR correspondent Sylvia Poggioli, who has announced she will be retiring on March 31st. She was the subject of a 2011 Top Comments essay of mine (at this link) — and will be interviewed on next Saturday morning’s Weekend Edition by Scott Simon.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Lucky the Cat — a Florida kitteh who went missing and was found nearly 1,500 miles away in Missouri … before being returned home due to his microchip.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #2 is this essay by the American Prospect’s Robert Kuttner, on the “inventiveness” of the crypto industry creating a whole new self-regulation concept called “proof of reserves”.
FRIDAY's CHILD is the late Powell Cat — the unofficial mascot of the UCLA campus (named after a school library) who provided comfort for students who missed their pets at home and whom campus tour guides mentioned when leading prospective students around the college — who has died, circa age ten.
BRAIN TEASER — try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz.
A NOTE on TODAY’S POLL — as there is no official announcement (nor do we know what the ramifications are yet, should it in fact happen) FormerGuy will be deferred to next week’s monthly Trump Poll. Stay tuned.
SEPARATED at BIRTH — communications director for the Hillary Clinton campaign Jennifer Palmieri and legal analyst Dahlia Lithwick.
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… the site downtime thwarted a more full profile, so a re-run (with a slight update) for St. Patrick’s Day.
Someone whose work can be heard in Irish pubs around the world is Pete St. John yet who - although a noted performer himself - has often seen his works become well-known through other performers. But he along with Phil Coulter, Rory Gallagher and Christy Moore reflect a generation of Irish performers who came-of-age in the 1970's and offered a fresh, more wide-ranging Irish voice than the traditional John McCormack tenor songs of yore.
Born Peter Mooney in Dublin, he worked at many different crafts before embarking on a career in music. Educated as an electrician, he emigrated first to Canada, then spent time in Alaska, Central America and the West Indies. He eventually became an electrical contracting executive in the US, spending nearly 15 years before returning to Dublin in the late 1970's.
Along the way, he became very active in the peace and civil rights movements - that, along with his concern about unemployment and other social issues led him to begin writing songs about social issues.
He didn't, though, forget about more traditional Irish themes - and The Fields of Athenry is his most noted composition; describing a man who was caught stealing grain during the Great Famine and banished to Australia. True-to-form, it was versions by Danny Doyle and Paddy Reilly which became the famous versions. Similarly, The Ferryman became famous due to the Irish Rovers and others.
He has two sons who live in the US and given his fifteen years living here: he wrote two tributes to 911 in the USA and a follow-up 911...The Answer later.
More recently, he had success and praise for his song Never Drink & Drive - and been cited for his efforts in diabetes research as well. Pete St. John received awards for not only his music but his works for peace organizations, and died a year ago this week at the age of ninety. It's a safe bet that in Irish pubs world-wide, you can hear some of his songs performed ... year-round.
Upon returning to Dublin in the late 1970's, Pete St. John was distraught at some of the changes he saw had taken place over the years (with glass office towers that had not existed before). And one of the first songs he wrote was not a traditional Irish theme (the Famine, the Crown, the Troubles) but one of loss of the old places - nostalgia you might hear in any musical genre. He sings of Anna Liffey (the River Liffey that passes through the city), ‘redundancy’ (layoffs/unemployment), Pimlico (a neighborhood), and theaters and music halls torn down.
The Rare Ould Times — as once again was the case with his songs — was first made famous by others (first, the Dublin City Ramblers and sung here by Luke Kelly) and is a song that you could request from a band performing at a traditional Irish pub ...... and probably receive.
My name it is Sean Dempsey,
As Dublin as can be
Born hard and late in Pimlico,
In a house that ceased to be
By trade I was a cooper
Lost out to redundancy
Like my house that fell to progress
My trade’s a memory
The years have made me bitter,
The gargle’s dimmed me brain,
‘Cause Dublin keeps on changing,
And nothing seems the same
The Pillar and the Met have gone,
The Royal long since pulled down,
As the grey unyielding concrete,
Makes a city of my town
Fare thee well sweet Anna Liffey,
I can no longer stay,
And watch the new glass cages,
That spring up along the Quay
My mind’s too full of memories,
Too old to hear new chimes,
I’m part of what was Dublin,
In the rare ould times
Ring a ring a rosey
As the light declines
I remember Dublin city
In the rare ould times