I've always wondered what parents were thinking when they name their children after a month. I did hear of one girl named June who was born in August.
Probably an overdue pregnancy
Ruby...
I have a niece named Crystal and her daughter is Diamond.
Over the years, there have been several stories about guitarist Duane Allman and a bottle of Coricidin brand of cold tablets. There is a style playing where blues guitarists have used cutoff necks of wine bottles as a slide. It's different from a Hawaiian guitar or Western steel guitar as those instruments use a heavy bar of steel (often chromed steel) to create clear ringing tones. The glass slide has a totally different sound. It's not as bright as steel and often brings harmonics for a different texture or more colorful sound.
In the old days, they literally cut the necks of bottles using a file to score the glass and heat to temper the glass.
Worn on a finger, the 'Bottleneck' slide is a mainstay with blues-style guitarists.
Drawbacks to this are it's fragile. When dropped, you can be sure of it shattering... so keep a few handy when gigging. Or... buy one made of metal. It won't have the same sound as glass, but you won't be buying them every time you get careless and have one roll off your amplifier and break.
As legend has it, Duane found the empty bottle of Coricidin to be a perfect match for his style of playing.
This photo shows the original design and years later the bottle was changed to support child-proof caps. Coricidin is now sold in boxes of blister packs... no more glass.
The amazing thing is original Coricidin bottles fetch prices upwards of $150.
Replica bottles were also available.
Photos of Duane playing slide show he wears it on his ring finger.
Here's a short video of Jeff Massey explaining some of the techniques used by Duane. He's using a slide made from porcelain used on his pinky finger.
The trick wasn't the pills... it was the bottle they came it!
I'm back to watching musically oriented YouTube videos (among other things) and came across a few musicians who were said to be 'gifted' and after hearing their stories, I see that at an early age of 5 or 6 most (if not all) were enrolled in music training, usually classical.
Many of the 'gifted' adult guitarists, started in their teens and fit guitar lessons into a life full of other things. The turning point was 6 hours of practice daily. Eddie VanHalen dedicated hours upon hours of practice to get to the level he achieved. Hard work of 40 hours or more each week practicing guitar is what did it... not being gifted.
I'm rethinking the word 'gifted' when it applies to famous musicians.
Hard work?
John Petrucci of Dream Theater discusses his background and going to Berklee College of Music.
Accomplished, yes. Gifted... no.
When you buy a vehicle at a dealer, they often issue a temporary tag until they can get the permanent tag issued. For years, I've heard people reference this as a 'paper tag'
The paper tag is usually good for 2-3 weeks giving enough time for the dealership to process the official tag or sticker to validate the new or existing tag.
Today, I found there is an official name for the paper tag... it's called a DRIVE-OUT TAG.
In the news, a man and woman in Memphis, Tennessee were arrested for creating fake drive-out tags. Police found 236 of them!
Memphis Police Department found printers, tags, plastic laminator machine, a rifle, handgun, bag of marijuana, digital scales.
Each were charged with 236 counts of forging evidence of title assignments.
Among that, a list of other charges ranging to drug paraphernalia and possession of a weapon.
The Shelby County Fugitive Task Force passed the tip to the Memphis Police Department who made the search and arrests.
Fraudulent drive-out tags...
Biker Ralph “Sonny” Barger was the founder of the California-born motorcycle club Hells Angels. He passed away at the age of 83 after a battle with Cancer.
A rough life, he had. Dropped out of school in the 10th grade, on a forged birth certificate, he joined the Army at age 16 and was kicked out when they found out!
Inspired by the 1953 movie "The Wild One" he wanted to join a motorcycle club. The idea was to 'ride a motorcycle, party and have a good time'
Hells Angels were founded in the 1940's and Barger formed the Oakland chapter in 1957, becoming the club's most visible figure as their national president.
No stranger to jail, Barger had visited them several times.
Every day there is an article about Elon Musk's $44 Billion bid to buy Twitter.
Did he, didn't he, what are the conditions, is it legal, etc, etc.
This morning I see some reality that a percentage of Twitter accounts are bogus... bots as it robotically controlled. Could Twitter be deceiving some of their numbers?
Maybe he's thinking of a way to back out of a seemingly bad deal.
Hmmm...
The Rudy Giuliani back slap incident is far from over. The number of news stories about his 'attack' has taken on a new life. The guy's name an address is easily Googled now.
I mentioned in a previous blog, the guy casually tapped Rudy.
One story had a photo of the angle with the hand going out and I ask, does that really look like anything close to the pounding Rudy described?
(photo from New York Post)
Let's focus a little deeper. What was Rudy Giuliani doing inside a ShopRite store?
C'mon, I know you know the answer...
One of the many story links:
I was reading a bunch of comments for and against the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn a law that's been around nearly 50 years and of the comments, one asked 'what's next?' What other laws do they want to overturn?
Several were aimed at Clarence Thomas, where one reader stated: "He’s been quiet for 30 years, now he’s become unleashed, like the Frankenstein monster, and wants to legislate from the bench. Character always reveals itself, eventually." (20 likes, 0 dislikes)
There's more: "Wonder why Uncle Clarence is not revisiting the Loving case ?
Loving v. Virginia a Supreme Court case that struck down state laws banning interracial marriage in the United States." (29 likes, 6 dislikes)
Another similar comment: "I wonder when Thomas will suggest overturning Loving vs. Virginia? Now that will be ironic!!" (14 likes, 3 dislikes)
It looks like Clarence isn't very popular this week.
News today, Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in connection with the Jeffrey Epstein abuse case. 20 probably means 3 to 5.
I hope she meets a lot of new friends there...
I thought I'd offer some lighthearted humor to all the political ruckus currently going on this month. In the news this morning, it's reported that former president Donald Trump issued a 12-page rebuttal to testimony and evidence presented by a House committee investigating the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
12 pages??
How is that possible??
Someone must have helped.
Ivanka? No way.
Right after every school shooting, both sides of the 'gun' issue think they have the answer.
In a previous blog I stated nothing will get fixed. No one has the answer and if they actually did, the issue would get 'shot down' by the side who disagrees with the solution.
Repeating my comment from that blog:
My prediction: For or against, nothing will happen. Nothing will get fixed.
Doing some research, I found a few sites that explain some current gun laws and how it affects schools. There are variances from state to state, but basically (other than security and law enforcement) possession of a gun in a school is a crime.
Uvalde, Texas massacre has so many errors and why the police didn't confront the shooter. I read "there’s no doubt some of those children bled to death while waiting for police to make entry"
One of the possible solutions that's been kicked around for years is to arm the teachers.
Personally, I think that's a bad idea and just to be sure, I asked a security guard who is a retired police police from New York and also served in the U.S. Army for his opinion on the subject.
His reply: "Bad idea, very bad idea"
Before I could ask for an explanation he was offering a few details.
He explained that Military training lasts for months and as a soldier you live the job.
Police academy last for months and while it's a job, you have to be mentally conditioned to fulfill the responsibility.
Teachers aren't allowed to discipline unruly students and now you want to arm them?
Consider the enormous liability he said. You have to train every teacher to accept the position of security, issue weapons. Where do they keep the guns...? lockup?
His sister-in-law would give her resignation. She's a teacher and not security.
He went on to say, there are lots of retired cops and former military who are suited for positions as security and not some overweight guy with a gun and keys who is one notch above janitor.
I agreed with him. The only guns that should be allowed in schools would be in the hands of trained professionals hired in security positions.
The issue is will something actually be done?
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