Jan. 28: If We Start Honoring Women, Pretty Soon We’ll Have to Honor Everybody
That’s pretty much the stance of state Sen. Gary Simpson, who objected to a monument honoring women’s WWII service at Leg Hall. His logic is impeccable:
“Obviously men had struggles and gave up a lot when they fought those other wars, Vietnam, (World Wars) I and II. I just, I hate to see one segment of society separated out. I can’t imagine if we were to suggest a monument to the men who fought in wars, the outcry that we would hear. And I know that I’m not being politically correct here, but I just hate to see us go in this direction.”
He’s right about one thing: He’s not PC. The question is why bring it up at all? Despite his dissent, the proposal passed on a 9-1 vote. It could be symptoms of a virus that Trumps carried into the GOP and has swept its ranks, rendering its victims incapable of not speaking whatever ignorant thought pops onto their tongues. Or maybe Delaware Republicans, looking to protect the weakest among them, are holding a contest to see which legislator can do something so stupid that Colin Bonini starts to seem like just another clown in the car. Leave other possibilities in the comments.
Most people cling to the past, but sometimes that’s a good thing. Without that instinct, George and Paula Wolkind wouldn’t be starting a Delaware Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Back in the day George fronted Snakegrinder; the couple moved back to Delaware from Colorado with this project in mind. A fun read for anyone who remembers the Delaware music scene of the ’70s, ’80s and earlier.
Looking for good a read on a rainy Sunday? I recommend off this Manhattanite’s realization that she was violating nature by feeding birds in a window of her 25th-floor apartment. Should she stop? When she researched the question, she learned that America’s millions of bird feeders are actually influencing the evolution of finches.
Chickens vastly outnumber humans in Delaware, but most people don’t think about them much beyond roasted or fried. Certainly no Delaware chicken got the sendoff Big Mama got from her grieving owners in Texas, who placed an obituary in the local paper after her demise. Link also includes some facts on chicken intelligence that might make you rethink your fondness for Walt’s.
Speaking of chickens, selling them as a franchisee of the Colonel comes with a lot of strings attached. One guy in the Midwest found out when the company told him he can’t advertise his chicken as halal — a big blow considering he opened his restaurants in heavily Muslim areas with that as the drawing card.
While we’re on the subject of food, you might want to rethink that box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day after you read about the connection between sugar and Alzheimer’s.
A longitudinal study, published Thursday in the journal Diabetologia, followed 5,189 people over 10 years and found that people with high blood sugar had a faster rate of cognitive decline than those with normal blood sugar—whether or not their blood-sugar level technically made them diabetic. In other words, the higher the blood sugar, the faster the cognitive decline.
Trump got into a Twitter fight with Jay-Z this morning — is there a black person anywhere he won’t pick a fight with? — and struck at him by citing an actual fact that he didn’t make up: Black unemployment is at historically low levels, something that Van Jones and Jay-Z talked about in the interview Trump was reacting to. Jay-Z’s response was that “money doesn’t bring happiness,” which is what you’d expect to hear from a man whose wife recorded a gazillion-selling album about his infidelity. My response: Black unemployment was at 0% in 1859.
While Trump is taking credit for putting the young bucks back in the cotton fields, his retreat from the International Space Station and the privatization of American launch capability is speeding the day when China pulls way out ahead in the space race.
I left this out because the roundup was so long already, but Gary Simpson’s idiocy was at its height in this sentence:
“I can’t imagine if we were to suggest a monument to the men who fought in wars, the outcry that we would hear.”
I have seen literally hundreds, perhaps thousands, of monuments to men who fought in wars. So has everyone in the country. They are unavoidable. I don’t know how Sen. Simpson could have missed them.
Brit prosecutors caught systematically concealing potentially exculpatory evidence in rape cases:
Sharing is for communists, puck, you know that.
I might should have mentioned that the Simpson link is to a Matt Bittle column in the Delaware State News that also mentions an item of interest in the race for State Auditor: Incumbent Tom Wagner has only $3,800 in his campaign account.
On a lighter note LMAO at the thought of a Delaware R&R Hall Of Fame, this is going to be pathetic in the extreme. Can’t wait to hear the nominee’s ,assuming it gets that far.
Read it at the link. Names are proposed. It’s happening already. Big fund-raising party last night headlined by Mark Farner. Sold 300 tix in three days.
Went to the Delaware Rock ‘n ‘Roll Hall of Fame site and found it very thorough. Lots of fun. Offhand, I can think only of two members of one band who are not cited and maybe should be. I might have missed them.
Well-regarded, nationally known 1960s psychedelic rock band the Blues Magoos included two musicians from Delaware who had been playing here before moving to New York. In New York, guitarist Mike Esposito and drummer Goeff Daking became early members of the band.
If somebody did a jazz hall of fame, a few musicians leap to mind. Saxophonist Ernie Watts grew up in Wilmington and, I believe, studied with the legendary Boysie Lowery. So did Clifford Brown, also from Wilmington and one of the greatest trumpet players who ever lived.
Lowery and Brown were cited in an interview with one of the organizers of the hall. So was vibraphone player Lem Winchester, a Wilmington policeman who went on to play and record with several jazz greats. Maybe the hall means to include jazz.
Watts made many albums as a leader and played with everybody from Charlie Haden and Kenny Burrell to Marvin Gaye and Frank Zappa. He was a longtime member of the Tonight Show band.
Another name to reckon with is Matthew Shipp. He moved from Delaware to New York and has become a go-to pianist in the avant-garde word.
I just thought of another one. Late in his career, the great hard-bop trumpet player Donald Byrd lived in Dover and taught at Delaware State.
Oh, and Cab Calloway, who had relatives here, died in Hockessin.
Probably much more than you want to know. I got kind of carried away.
I’m just skeptical about all these state-level halls of fame in general. Without a physical location like a museum, it sounds like an easy way to start a paper nonprofit, hold one or two fundraisers a year, get friends to be your board, put up a website and send out a press release, and write yourself some nice paychecks.
NOT that that’s the case with this one. But the model seems ripe for abuse. And I’m a cynical asshole.
“Cash cows. That’s what you are.”
Commentary on the Sunday Times, etc.
Brought to you by Artist Taxi Driver. Go on, my son!
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@SW: In general, you’re right. A lot places called “halls of fame” are just museums. The two terms are almost interchangeable. I remember a few years ago when Harmon Carey wanted an African-American “museum” that was going to feature biographical stuff about prominent Delaware blacks — in other words, a Hall of Fame.
Cookie Jar and the Crumbs played Delaware on occasion, that is when they were not playing the Legendary Crescendo Lounge in Pennsville. Of course none of you Carrcroft types would ever have been allowed to drive over the bridge.
Don’t be a putz. Everybody went to the Crescendo. The drinking age was 19.
I sent your comment over to George Wolkind, @Nathan Arizona.
For all of the naysayers, no worries, Wolkind is the real deal.