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David Mitchell

Mark,

I share your thoughts about our generation's great music. I still think "Alley Opp" and  "Running Bear" rank up there with the all-time greats.

But speaking of history, I don't think our grandkids are getting much real history. I think it's mostly Cyber - Warriors" and the new modern day Disney channel that looks like sheer "fluff" to me. As I mentioned before, none of my three grandkids has any clue what a Cowboy or an Indian is - or Robin Hood, or Davey Crockett, or Daniel Boone, or a Pirate ship.

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HOT!

My son and daughter in law live in Portland and it is headed for 111 degrees there and possibly 116 tomorrow. Ironically, if they could get away from work for two days and drive just 2 hours southwest to Newport, OR, it is only in the mid 70's. 

Michael McLeod

Mark: I think Charlie Brown was my role model.

Not to nag but I think I undersold Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It when I recommended that documentary about Rita Moreno in a recent post.

I saw it again yesterday at a lovely, lovely cinema house we have down here call The Enzian (it's an alpine flower; the family that owns the art house is German). The place could pass for a little farm with a produce stand - its under a bower of live oak trees next to a rolling field and a lake - and the seating is cabaret style. Just a treasure.

Anyway Moreno, who is now 90, had one of those forrest gump lives, spanning the incredibly sexist Hollywood studio system....and as a puerto rican she was typecast as every minority under the book and came up with an accent that passed for chinese/japanese/hispanic/biblical....and was raped by her press agent....and abused by her longtime lover/marlon brando....and won an emmy, grammy, oscar ad tony.....

Just an insprirational portrait of a woman who had a 70 year career and survived.  Say "West Side Story" to a young person these days and they won't know what the hell you are talking about. But that role for her was one of those art imitates life moments.

Anyway just had to loop back because I know a lot of you would be as moved by it as I was.

David Mitchell

My thanks to former Attorney General Bill Barr (Trump's strongest ally - for a while) for speaking out. 

"We realized from the beginning it was just bullshit".  (referring to election fraud claims)

I guess that about says it all in a nutshell.

Harold Clark

you know Mark, the Woody Wood Pecker song was no. 1 in 1948

Janie Albright (Blank)

Mark, love this topic! How about Duke of Earl? That must have been late grade school because I can remember John Favret singing it. Lion Sleeps Tonight. Teen Angel. Book of Love. These aren't as silly as the ones you mentioned but definitely indicative of an era. Some others are lurking at the corners of my mind but I can't quite capture them. 

Joseph D. McCarthy

Let's not forget "Big Bad John", "My Mother Got Run Over by Reinder".

Will someone please inform those classmates in the Northwest that today is neither a day to play golf or attempt to ride the lawnmower into town to the Dairy Queen.

Just thinking:

Something I've been hearing for a couple a years has finally appeard in newspapers in our area.  The treatment, and deaths, of native children in Canada.  I think the count is almost a thousand bodies that have been located on the grounds of the schools.  Approximately 75% of the schools were operated by the Catholic Church; the remainder were operated mainly by Lutheran and Protestant.  Couldn't happen here, or did itin another form. 

Just thinking.

Michael McLeod

On the goofy song list has anybody mentioned Alvin and the Chipmunks?

On another front, remember "Teen Angel?" You cried when you heard it. I know you did. Don't try to play gangsta with me.

And I guess I was spoiled because when I obsessed for a copy of "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier" an aunt was dispatched to Lazarus or lord knows where for a 45 rpm of it. I can sing it for you if we ever get together. It's a real crowd pleaser, that one, "kilt him a barrrr when he was only three" being one of the most poignant lyrics I can still very clearly recall. 

David Mitchell

I think we could incude Johnny Horton in that category. He also did "North to Alaska" and "Sink the Bismark".

(Sorry mark, I just went back and realized you mentioned  some of this)

David Mitchell

Joe,

Your mention of the Indian school in Canada, follows by several years a story about a lawsuit that the Canadian native tribes filed against one of the major Protestant Churches in Canada over teh mistreatment of some of these same ages of school kids in those same schools - forced to cut their hair, their native dress, and forbiden to speak their native tongues. I beleive they won a huge settlement, nearly bankrupting that Church. I'm thinkig it was the Canadian Epicopalean Church, but my memory may not be so good. It seems to me that it was about 10 years ago.

Sounds a lot like all those hundres of babies dug up in an old convent in Ireland about a year ago.

Michael McLeod

THIS MAKES ME SICK:

HONG KONG — With each passing day, the boundary between Hong Kong and the rest of China fades faster.

The Chinese Communist Party is remaking this city, permeating its once vibrant, irreverent character with ever more overt signs of its authoritarian will. The very texture of daily life is under assault as Beijing molds Hong Kong into something more familiar, more docile.

Residents now swarm police hotlines with reports about disloyal neighbors or colleagues. Teachers have been told to imbue students with patriotic fervor through 48-volume book sets called “My Home Is in China.” Public libraries have removed dozens of books from circulation, including one about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.

James Hamilton, M. D.

A Salute to Those Goofy Songs

Here is one that should make the all time Country goofy song list. It's definitly a winner and is probably Bobby Bare's best!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRWlnv0_svU

Jim

David Dunn

Thats true.  We rarely sing Rock n Roll songs about the War of 1812 anymore!  Seems like a long time ago now!                                                                                                                                                                               

My favorite songs for 1960 would be: Teen Angel, Ebony Eyes, and Angel Baby.   Please Mr Custer, about Custers Last Stand was also a good one.

David Mitchell

I just noticed something odd about that Johhny Horton video. I didn't catch it at first. He is wearing a Civil War period Union Army uniform. The war of 1812 (or in the case of the Battle of New Orleans, 1815) would have been fought in rather different uniforms.

I seem to recall an old movie from the 50's or 60's about the Battle of New Orleans with Charelton Heston as Andrew Jackson, but I cannot locate that film.   

David Mitchell

Found it!  "The Buccaneer" (1958) staring Heston (as Jackson), Yul Brynner - with hair - (as the pirate Laffite) Clair Bloom, Charles Boyer, Loren Green, Inger Stevens, and E.G. Marshall. Directed by Anthony Quinn and Produced by non other than Cecil B. DeMille.

I just remeber lots of cannons and those bright red British uniforms at the battle scene.   

David Mitchell

Okay, if I'm going to mention Yul Brynner, I have to include the best Western ever made - ever! 

They just don't get much better than this one. And the theme song is also the best - ever!

I loved Steve McQueen's line - "It seemed like a good idea at the time."  

Timothy Lavelle

Jim, 

In my callow youth I needed to get a cortisone shot. Worthington Hills had just opened and the entrance was like a 2 or 300 yards long driveway up a steep hill. Any teenager with the newest extremely popular child endangerment tool, wooden skateboards with composite wheels, would want to tempt fate on that hill.

The doc made the comment to my Mom while stabbing a needle into me..."we can only give cortisone to a person once a year". Yesterday I got three!

Sooooo, was that earlier doctor doing some unlicensed psychiatry on me to influence safer behavior? Or, has cortisone been improved or better understood? Or was yesterday's doctor just looking at an aging man and thinking "WTF, let's see what this old fart can take?"

This follows on from your 3J report (Joe, Julie, Jim) re trigger fingers. Happy to say I can still give "the finger" to Me Firsters (EMEFFers) who think it is more important to spread doubt, to just 'be different' than to support our country in a time when a simple shot could put this crap on the run, build a medical wall around us to keep us safe. There was a time in our joint callow youth that we thought more about being the winning American team, all of us together.

A serious note...I made Donna a non- volunteering member of my small cast performing "Humor that is only funny to the author" recently. I plead mental failure and apologize to her...not to you guys...to her. 

Sooooo, Jim, back to cortisone...... 

Michael McLeod

I don't know if you can get through the paywall. But there's a tremendous, 40 minute video the New York Times put together about January 6. 

I may have mentioned this before, but although smaller newspapers have shrunken because of competition from the internet, a few of the major papers are delivering the best product I've seen in 50 years as a journalist, and the mixed media presentation that the Times is doing is just spectacular and broad-ranging.

If you are interested in poetry, for example, there is a fabulous poem called The Art of Losing by a lovely woman named Elizabeth Bishop. And the Times ran a piece that involved reprinting the story and then, in a column alongside it, explained the background in her life that inspired the story and technical aspects of poetry that she employed to turn her experience into art. (The Times headline is "19 Lines That Turned Anguish Into Art." )

If nothing else I recommend reading that poem as a way of contending with loss, rising abovt it - you can see her doing that through every line. You can find it in any number of places on line. I swear - I never had the pleasure of meeting that woman, rest her soul, but I fell in love with her just reading it. 

David Dunn

Here's a Western for you!     How about Old Yeller!?  My Dad used to work out of town a lot in the 50s, and he would take me with him many times, to stay overnight somewhere in Ohio in a motel, and take me to the movies in the evening. Old Yeller was one of the first movies I can remember seeing in the theater at a young age. It seemed very poignant because it brought intimate death to the screen, which both scared me, and made me sad. 

David Mitchell

Dave,

My dad also took me to see "Old Yeller" (back when Disney still made quality family films).

I absolutely loved it, but I cried my eyes out. 

Dad took me to see a lot of movies a a kid. My first movie was 1952 with the whole family seeing "Snow White and the 7 Dwarves" down at the old RKO Palace in the ground floor of the Lincoln LeVeque tower. I was terrified of the widked witch and my mother had to hold me to keep me from crying out loud.  Mind you, I loved the dwarves, but I could not handle the witch. Before she picked me up to hold me I tried to hide down under my seat.

The second feature was "Wild Blue Yonder" - a story about B-29s with Forrest Tucker adn Wendel Corey (and I think, Walter Brennan?). I was absolutley mezmerized. I could not take my eyes off the screen. I think that may have been when the hook was planted in me to want to fly.

The first film that dad took me to see - just the two of us - was another double feature Disney pair. We saw "The Living Desert, which I think was a benchmark film for many great nature films to follow. The second feature was "The Littlest Outlaw" about a little boy in Mexico and a horse. I remember almost nothing about that film, except that Dad and I went together.

p.s. I think "Wild Blue Yonder" is considered to be one of the worst movies ever made. It has never been ported over to video.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Tim,

Cortisone injections are used for a variety of problems, both systemic and localized. Localized are often done into joint spaces (capsules), bursa and tendon sheaths. Systemic are occasionally used for allergic reactions, rashes, etc. and are usually given intramuscular or orally, depending on the problem and its severity. 

The common practice for localized joint injections is that any single joint or tendon should not be injected with a corticosteroid (and there are several kinds) no more often than every 3-4 months to a total of three times a year. The reasoning is that corticosteroids - which are potent anti-inflammatory agents (a good thing) - can also weaken bones by causing osteopenia/osteoporosis if overused. This can occur in localized tissue with localized overuse or systemically with long term - especially higher dose - systemic use. Elbows, shoulders, fingers, hips, knees, ankles, and spinal areas are often targets for localized injections and, since they are subject to weight bearing and/or frequent activity, the worry is increasing the risk of an osteoporotic fracture. There are, of course, other side effects from these drugs such as raising blood sugars but the bone effects are the ones that we are discussing here.

There are several types of corticosteroids which have different potencies. Also some are available as a "depot" form which allows them to last longer in the injected site and less likely to be systemically absorbed.

I do not know for what you recieved your three injections but I assume they were given in three different locations. 

Hope this helps,

Jim

Timothy Lavelle

Jim,

Thanks. You're like having that big blue medical book whose name I can't remember..."every home needs one" guide to not freaking out when your child is snake bitten sort of thing.

Yeah, three seperate fingers and hey, those shots lived up to the doctor's comment..."these may sting a bit". Do you think that was because the skin on the hand is tougher to get thru or just extra nerve endings in the area. Both? Neither? Study up, test next week.

But, the buried question as to whether you would testify in person against that doctor from 100 years ago who took me out of contention with...Tony Hawk?...I coulda been a contenda Jim...

Party on.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Tim,

That would be the Merck Manual. I could not recall the name either, but my wife remembered it immediately. Today there are several of them out there and the one from The Mayo Clinic is found prominently on internet searches.

Injection of the small joints of the fingers is painful due to the nerves, probably not the thicker skin, and since we use our hands so frequently to determine if something produces a painful stimulus, like heat or sharp, they are more "trained" to be sensitive..

I recently had to have a partial matrixectomy (removal of about a third of my big toenail due to an ingrown nail) and the podiatrist injected the local anesthetic to four areas around the toe on the bottom (plantar surface) of my foot. He said that the injections would be the worst part. Fortunately, he used a topical refrigerant spray before the needle sticks which worked miraculously and I felt no pain.

Jim

David Barbour

Thanks Mike for the heads up on the NYT video, very fabulous!!!

To all the rest of us, worth whatever it takes to see it, great journalism!!

DB

Michael McLeod

Glad you could get in to see it Dave.

Unfortunately it's one of the events our generation will be known for once we're gone. 

Donna Kelley (Velazquez)

Tim, once again I hear my name resounding on the Forum in one of your posts! In recent years we have become true buddies and I now know you well enough to know when you are joking (usually) and when you are being serious (rarely but just often enough). This is to say, "No problem, amigo"  and as they say over here, "Party on, hermano!"