MC Horoscope

Congratulations, but file under phrases that need to be retired:

"A lovable rag tag team of blue collar working class underdogs" to describe a sports dynasty that has won 4 World Championships in the last 14 years.

Ha!

Yes, it can get remote pretty quickly. I believe it goes like this:

1st cousins share same grandparent

2nd cousins share same great grandparent

3rd cousins share same great great grandparent

4th, 5th, and so on ...

Most of my cousins my age are 1st cousins once removed. (They''re the children of my first cousins, most of whom are 20 years older than me and were having their first kids at the time my parents were having their last one!)

____

On another note, Robert Ryan is a favorite of mine. Although he often played mean or rough or at least crusty characters, sometimes even racist, as in Bad Day at Black Rock, The Racket, The Professionals, The Wild Bunch, Dirty Dozen, you wouldn't know it but he was committed to liberal causes. When Woody Guthrie died Ryan did narration at the Carnegie Hall celebration of Guthrie's music in 1967, reading quite movingly from Guthrie's book Bound for Glory. After the show the cast of musicians packed up and crowded Ryan's Upper West Side apartment for socializing and sing alongs. Turns out that very apartment/suite later came into the hands of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in, that's right, The Dakota, along Central Park.

What about this question number 6?

6. The Roosevelts: What were the names of the 2 branches, and can you elaborate? 

I guessed Hyde Park and Oyster Bay, where the FDR and TR branches spent a lot of time.

On 9/27/2018 at 4:10 PM, ktmoomau said:

The Life Aquatic- the combination of the soundtrack, Wes Anderson (I love all of his movies) and the scene when they are walking through the town just make this movie for me, and plus it has Bill Murray.

I liked blowing open the safe, finding nothing in it, and the remark "That's it. I'm retired."

There is only one player who has pitched 10 Complete Games in a season *this century*.

That's crazy!

Thanks for that steer, Shaho, on the eggplant puree! Just as you described! We were there for lunch today and I had it with my escargots fricassée appetizer and my wife had it with her salmon main course. 

I think we both liked the Lemon Torte and Blueberries in Jam the best in the end! Delightful!

Chef Yannick was there watering his flowers at the front of the bistro. Friendly service. When we were ready to order from the dessert menu the waiter asked "One of each?" That's my style! "Peut être à la droit?" (the after dinner drinks)

On 7/19/2018 at 12:31 PM, dcs said:

Now in Living Color: Ted Williams’s Last Game, by Bill Pennington, July 19, 2018, on nytimes.com.

Look at his graceful warm up! It's like hearing John Wayne talk.

Thanks for this! And a combat veteran of two wars! You gotta shake your head.

In my heart I know that if I survived a single battle I would have said "Are you out of your MIND? You want me to go out there AGAIN for another one?" Some men went to two WARS! I don't have their stuff, to say the least. Done some brave things in my time, just not with ammunition flying at me. Got the Yossarian in me, I guess.

Right. The point of Major League baseball is not to score runs but wins, or actually World Series championships. Some years the team with the best record of most wins does not become the World Champion.

Now I am even more impressed by that pitcher than I was before!

Wow! That's amazing! 1933 Jimmie Foxx Philadelphia Athletics, Chuck Klein Philadelphia Phillies. Never would have guessed.

John Havlicek said something very close to this in Havlicek Stole the Ball -- 50th Anniversary.

"The good players see the game in slow motion and they see what's going to happen before it happens."

Larsen's perfect game in a World Series seems to have kind of snuck up. Do we know how the CROWD was reacting? Did it even LOOK like an overpowering performance? The catcher, Yogi Berra, said he knew it was a shut out but didn't even realize it was a no hitter much less a perfect game! Just a lot of mowing the opponent down with few strike outs, ground balls, fly outs here and there, some good defense. Efficient as could be. I don't know if that says more about Yogi than the performance itself or what! I think some of Scherzer's games leave more of an impression on the fans and teams at bat. Nolan Ryan's last no-hitter sure impressed. In my most recent years Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, and Randy Johnson have been most impressive. Not just the numbers but the manner.

1. Lalo Schifrin?
2. Inherit the Wind?
3. Both Ryan and March's last film co-starred Spencer Tracy?
6. The Theodore Roosevelt branch was named for Oyster Bay on Long Island where they had a home. The FDR branch was named for Hyde Park where they had a home.

Thanks. I never heard that before about the Carter Family connection to the President!

Glad you liked the song. Very sweet, like most of their stuff. But this particular recording featured A.P. more than the women so it wasn't too representative of their sound. Doesn't showcase just what kind of singer Sara Dougherty Carter was. I am a sucker for polls whenever I see one asking who's your fave country singers but I ALWAYS name her in my group. Probably lots of YouTube vids of her in the lead all over. This one is from the 1960s, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, does not have A.P. on it. Parlor songs, morality songs. Stuff of the early 1900s for sure. Three Little Strangers! Yes, I am a big MOOSH!

No, WG didn't change the melody much. I love his lyrics though!

Elvis Presley drummer DJ Fontana dead at 87

Had the pleasure of seeing him a few times with the Sun Rhythm Section at the old Twist and Shout in Bethesda. Funny thing, the whole room would be burning with sweat but he'd be playing drums, wearing a jacket, and never perspire!  That's a cool cat!

Blue Suede Shoes on the Milton Berle show

He "borrowed" his melody from a tune originally done by The Carter Family, When the World's on Fire No matter, the gentleman of the group, A.P. Carter, had for years gone door to door in Appalachia looking for songs and tunes for his group to learn and perform. I do not know if he bought them or "borrowed" them himself. The Carter Family were one of the most popular groups of the 1930s. More on The Carter Family here, including a tidbit about how they were going to be featured in a Life Magazine story that never appeared due to the attack on Pearl Harbor! Stole their thunder, to say the least, and country music was never the same!

Woody Guthrie liked to take the pious songs of The Carter Family and turn them into something more like social commentary. The Carter Family sang a lot of religious songs hoping for a better world in the next life, but WG was AGAINST songs like that because they were too passive, not working hard enough to improve life now. Not sure where I got that nugget, probably the WG biography by Joe Klein or maybe even Guthrie's own book Bound for Glory, which is not an easy read I have to say.

Arlo Guthrie definitely makes it a point to sing these forgotten verses posted above.

The second Birchmere used to have little cards on the tables asking patrons to respect the performers and hush. The notable exception was the annual New Years Eve party with the Seldom Scene. We went to that one time and were given noisemakers for 12 o'clock. I joked that I wanted a T-shirt that read "I talked out of turn at the Birchmere!"

Yes! It's like saying 7 take away 2. (Baby talk for subtraction). And DON't say Coonass around anyone my age, 62. Or older.  It very definitely was an insult no matter how much the revisionist appropriators of the term want to say otherwise or don't care that there are still people offended by the term.

A horse named Justify!

Very strong horse! But he was foaming at the mouth just before the race and I usually take that as a bad sign. Was wrong!

Bad luck for Bravazo. Couldn't go inside, couldn't go outside, never had a lane or made himself one. After the Preakness I was thinking this horse would win the longer Belmont. WOULD have won the Preakness, IMO, if it had been 50 feet longer.

What amazed me most though in the Belmont was Gronkowski coming from dead last and a really poor post to SECOND! If you see the replay you will marvel at that horse passing up everybody but Justify! Good payout, I am sure!

Molly and Tenbrooks! (Bill MONroe!)

Run O Molly run, run O Molly run
Tenbrooks gonna beat you to the bright shinin' sun.
To the bright shinin' sun O Lord to the bright shinin' sun

Tenbrooks was a big bay horse he wore that shaggy mane
He run all around Memphis he beat the Memphis train
Beat the Memphis train O Lord beat the Memphis train

See that train a-comin' it's comin' round the curve
See old Tenbrooks runnin' he's strainin' every nerve
Strainin' every nerve O Lord strainin' every nerve

Tenbrooks said to Molly what makes your head so red?
Runnin' in the hot sun puts fever in my head
Fever in my head O Lord fever in my head

Molly said to Tenbrooks you're lookin' mighty squirrel
Tenbrooks said to Molly I'm a-leavin' this old world
Leavin' this old world O Lord leavin' this old world

Out in California where Molly done as she pleased
Come back to old Kentucky got beat with all ease
Beat with all ease O Lord beat with all ease

The women all a-laughin' the child'n all a cryin'
The men all a-hollerin' old Tenbrooks a-flyin'
Old Tenbrooks a-flyin' O Lord old Tenbrooks a-flyin' (I love this verse all out of rational proportion!)

Kyper Kyper you're not A-ridin' right
Molly's beatin' old Tenbrooks clear out sight
Clear out of sight O Lord clear out of sight

Kyper Kyper Kyper my son
Give old Tenbrooks the bridle let old Tenbrooks run
Let old Tenbrooks run O Lord let old Tenbrooks run

Go and catch old Tenbrooks and hitch him in the shade
We're gonna bury old Molly in a coffin ready made
Coffin ready made O Lord coffin ready made

The Bird play is more impressive but the call on Havlicek is NBA history! That game 7 was played on April 15, 1965! Sure has changed a lot.

I agree about Jordan and Bird! And if I need a smart steal I want Havlicek!

I found this blog on the the Ken Burns baseball documentary:

http://hardboiledcinema.blogspot.com/2010/05/ken-burns-baseball-5th-inning-1930-1940.html

It's hard in the off season for baseball fans. My cable package has MLB TV and every December or January they re-run this wonderful documentary out of mercy for fans like me.

I'd like to see it again to be sure I have it exactly but here's someone posting Red Barber's quote (partial quote):

"I saw so many great pitchers, and maybe it's because of an early impression, but of all the pitchers I saw — thinking in terms of their control of themselves spiritually, as well as their ability to throw the ball, to manipulate the pitch — I would say... Let's put it this way: If I had a ball game to be pitched and my life hung on the balance, I'd want Carl Hubbell to pitch it."
— Red Barber

Red Barber did radio play by play for Cincinnati but most famously for the Brooklyn Dodgers, including the year Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey integrated baseball and following. So he's special. He lived until the 1980s, so he SAW Dizzy Dean, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson,  Warren Spahn, Juan Marichal, Jim Palmer, Bob Feller, Whitey Ford, and a slew of other Hall of Fame players! Like I said, high praise.

Don, that's probably right. That probably was Red Barber in the Ken Burns documentary. If I remember correctly he said Hubbell had ice water in his veins. Fearless!

Wow! Most like Juan Marichal! Cool!

On 6/6/2018 at 10:12 PM, DonRocks said:

(Warren Spahn, post-WWII, averaged over 20 wins a season for SEVENTEEN straight years (yes, it's true - from 1947 until 1963!))

That stat on Warren Spahn is just amazing! Nobody will ever do that again unless the game changes a whole lot!

Imagine all the great pitchers Red Barber must have seen from the 30s to the 50s! I was struck in the Ken Burns Baseball series by Red saying that if he had ONE game to win the man he would call on, the most dependable in the big game, out of all the great pitchers he had ever seen was Carl Hubbell! High praise. I nominate him for underrated. He's not the first name or even fifth that pops up when you think of all time greatest.

Pedro Martinez was dominating, for sure. He might indeed be underrated.

---

Carl Hubbell (DonRocks)

Graduated. I graduated from LSU.

I thought I read that it's the school that graduates you. "I WAS graduated from LSU." or LSU graduated me.

But I NEVER hear this. Makes more sense that the school graduates you (puts you in a higher grade?)