American Idol: America Got It Right With Choice of Candice Glover

Candice Glover is the new American Idol of Season 12.

It has been evident since the Final 10 were chosen by judges, that Candice Glover was the best singer among those singers in the Final 10.

American Idol fans confirmed that she was the best, by choosing her as the new American Idol for Season 12. The only surprise would have been if Candice had not won. Kree Harrison finished second and Angie Miller was third in Season 12. I look for Kree and Angie to have successful careers, but Candice should have her first album released long before either of them, since her album should be in stores for months, before Kree and Angie release their albums.

The producers are smart to release the first album of Candice much sooner than usual. Most albums by the current American Idol are not released till November, so the summer release will let fans of Candice have her music, in their MP3 players and phones sooner rather than later, plus many albums should be sold on the American Idol tour this summer.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=frankie+valli+on+american+idol+finale&view=detail&mid=DE2CA8D5E78046F9CAD9DE2CA8D5E78046F9CAD9&first=0&FORM=NVPFVR.

There were many guest artists on the finale, but none of them came close to matching Frankie Valli and him singing with the five guys on I Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You and Grease. Valli commanded the stage like giants of entertainment do when they enter the spotlight. Valli turned 79 earlier this month and was born a year before Elvis Presley. Valli has been singing since 17, which was 62 years ago.

Aretha Franklin also sang but her singing didn’t have the impact of Valli, since she was singing from New York, but she sang some of her biggest hits, which were received well by the audience.

It was great to see Candice become the first girl  to win American Idol since Jordin Sparks won in Season 6.

Randy Jackson said his goodbyes to fans of American Idol last night. He is the only one of ten judges to remain with the show the first twelve seasons. Latest rumors say that the other three Idol judges could be leaving too, but it could be several months, before any changes to the judging panel will be announced. There are even some reports that the show could return to a three judge format.

It is too early for ratings results for the finale, but it is almost a foregone conclusion that the ratings will be the lowest for any finale in the 12 year history of the show.

The Voice Season 4 will be ending soon, then Season 5 of The Voice will return in the fall along with Season 3 of X-Factor, so three music competitions will end before American Idol returns in January.

 

 

 

 

American Idol: Candice Glover Should Be Next American Idol

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/candice-glover-performs-i-who-have-nothing/17womoku7

It will be complete shock if Candice Glover isn’t crowned as the next American Idol. The above video escalated Candice to a whole new level of excellence. Kree Harrison is a great singer, that should have a long and successful career, but she is not the singer that Candice is.

Her rendition of I Who Have Nothing the Ben E. King classic showed that she is the best singer on American Idol this season. However, her chances of winning depend on how her voting base voted last night.

American Idol needs a win by Candice, since she is a powerhouse singer, that should sell millions of records and draw thousands to her concerts. Kree may sell a lot of albums, but she will never reach the star power of Candice, who delivers the big moments in her songs, that the Idol judges are looking for.

There are rumors that Keith Urban, Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey will not return as judges, while Randy Jackson has already announced he won’t be returning for Season 13.

Simon Fuller: Creator of American Idol

Simon Fuller the creator of American Idol was criticized last night, for the songs he chose for Candace and Kree to sing last night. Randy Jackson disliked his song choices and Ryan Seacrest interjected, that he only said that since he would be leaving the show after tonight’s finale.

Randy was wrong to even mention song choices, since Candice and Kree only sang the songs and had no part in selecting them. Why criticize the man who created the American Idol juggernaut and paid Jackson millions of dollars since the first show?

We can expect many changes in American Idol in Season 13. Another year of lower ratings demands that changes be made.

There is way too much emphasis on the celebrity of the judges, when the focus should be entirely on the contestants. Paying Mariah Carey $18 million, Nicki Minaj $12 million and Keith Urban $5 million was not able to attract viewers in larger numbers and in fact this season had the lowest ratings in the history of the show.

There are already rumors that Jennifer Lopez may return as a judge in January, but can’t see the producers signing another high salary celebrity.

I wouldn’t mind seeing some of the previous winners join the judge panel, who wouldn’t have the clout to demand huge salaries, plus they would understand better, what the contestants are experiencing during the life of the show.

Former American Idol contestants currently have albums in the Billboard 200. The Voice may be attracting more viewers, but their winners are not selling albums and downloads like winners or also-rans from American Idol. That makes American Idol the king of the singing competitions, till the other shows start producing singers that sell albums in the millions.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/idolchatter/2013/05/15/american-idol-sales-finale-week/2164287/

1948 Killer Smog In Donora, Pennsylvania

Killler smog that engulfed Donora, Pennsylvania in October of 1948.

I have been reading Stan Musial: An American Life which mentioned that a killer smog had took 18 or more lives. Stan Musial’s father Lukasz already had health problems before the killer smog and died less than two months after the smog hit Donora, Pennsylvania, late in October of 1948.

The smog first started engulfing the city on October 27 and remained until October 31, when rain dispersed the smog. Poisonous gases from the Donora Zinc Works and American Steel and Wire plant usually left the area, but this time the poisonous gases were trapped in smog that covered the area nearest to the plants.

Driving was risky during the smog, since visibility was close to zero. Drivers had to drive with their head out the car window to see where they were going.

Surprisingly, a high school football game was played during the killer smog, but no passes were thrown, since they couldn’t be seen through the smog.

Fluorine gas was the cause of the deaths and illness experienced by Donora residents. Some of the victims had 20 times the normal fluorine in their bodies.

Nearly 7,000 people became ill from the killer smog, which was about half the population of Donora. There is no telling how many deaths were a direct result of the smog, in the years following the smog.

Boston.com website has an excellent article on the Donora killer smog:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/11/02/pa_town_remembers_killer_smog/

Historical marker commemorating the killer smog in Donora, Pennsylvania in October of 1948.

The killer smog in Donora eventually brought about change in the way poisonous gases were released into the atmosphere when Clean Air Act was enacted by the government.

It is possible that young kids living in Donora in 1948, who would be about 65-75 today could someday too be victims of the 1948 killer smog if they ingested smaller amounts of the poisonous gases.

 

Day of Fun Turns Into Tragedy In Boston (WordPress Formatting Problems With Some of the Paragraphs)

A bomb explodes near the finish line at the Boston Marathon on Monday.

The Boston Marathon is usually a cause of celebration, but two bombs exploding near the finish line turned the day into an unspeakable tragedy.

Earlier that day the Boston Red Sox had played the Tampa Bay Rays and the players heard the explosions as they left Fenway Park, after playing the traditional Red Sox game, that coincides with the Boston Marathon.

27,000 runners had converged on Boston to participate in the 117th running of the Boston Marathon. After the bombs exploded near the finish line nobody was even thinking of who won the race, but everyone was concerned about the three killed and 148 injured, according to the latest reports.

New York Times photo and overhead shot of where the two bombs exploded.

The mood of the crowd changed from euphoria as they cheered the runners crossing the finish line, to utter shock as two bombs exploded near the finish line. The reports of the injuries to those wounded in the bombings are too graphic to recount in this article. I heard some gruesome accounts of what witnesses saw in the aftermath of the bombing, but no need to detail their accounts, since the terrorists would enjoy hearing the gory details, of what pain and suffering was caused by the bombings.

Now the focus turns to who committed such a cowardly act, that led to loss of life and injuries that may force some of the injured to be crippled for life.

Is Anyone Really Safe?

This latest tragedy caused by terrorists once again reminds us of how fragile life is. People were having fun one minute and then utter chaos ensues after the bombs do their damage to innocent people, who only wanted to enjoy a day off from their work, only to have it end in such a tragic manner.

We don’t know whether international terrorists or national terrorists are responsible for yesterday’s tragedy, but we do know it was a terrorist act, whether by an organized group or one or two individuals.

There certainly was a state of fear on Boylston Street in Boston yesterday, when an idyllic day turned into a day that will never be forgotten, but never to be forgotten for the wrong reason.

United States has been the scene of terrorism in the last year or so, from those shot or killed at the Aurora, Colorado movie theater, to the students and teachers who lost their life in their school in Newtown, Connecticut and now this terrorist act on Boylston Street in Boston, Massachusetts.

Even though the theater and school murders were executed by lone gunmen they still were acts of terrorism in my book and while the bombings in Boston seem to be the work of organized terrorists we still don’t know for sure how many were involved.

What we do know is that theaters, classrooms and downtown streets are no longer safe. Is there really a safe place that can be regarded as terrorist free? The terrorists have answered that question with a resounding no.

I could point out the many places that invite terrorism, but why give terrorists ideas of how to inflict more loss of life. It is difficult to understand the mind of a terrorist, since most people may not like a situation they are in, but would never take the extreme measures, that terrorists take to inflict their will on their victims.

All we can do now is to hope that the government agencies can track down and arrest who were the masterminds, behind the tragic murders of innocent victims yesterday in Boston.

That doesn’t mean that other terrorists won’t continue to strike fear into American citizens, with other terrorist acts like the one, that was committed in Boston yesterday.

Twelve years have passed since 9/11, but the world is no safer than it was on that Tuesday morning, when terrorists ended the lives of thousands of Americans, who were on routine flights or had gone to work in downtown New York or in the Pentagon and the policemen and firemen who gave their life that day.

Life is very fragile and we learned that again, from what happened in Boston yesterday.

Jodi Arias Trial In Slow Motion

Only Jodi Arias would be smiling in her mug shot after being booked for first degree murder.

The Jodi Arias trial started on January 2 and 83 days later is still going strong, with no end in sight. Arizona permits jurors to ask questions and when they do it slows down the trial. The judge asks the witness the questions, then the prosecutor and defense in turn get to ask questions, about the questions that the jury asked.

When Jodi Arias testified on the witness stand for 18 days, then it really slowed the trial down. The defense attorneys Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott would ask her softball questions, then prosecutor Juan Martinez would ask her questions like ” Were you crying when you shot Travis Alexander?”, “Were you crying when you stabbed Travis Alexander?” and “Were you crying when you slit his throat?”.

He also made a very good point, when Arias was telling she couldn’t commit suicide, because it hurt too much to cut herself, then he asked her “How do you think Travis Alexander felt when you plunged the knife into his chest?”.

Martinez showed she had planned a trip to the house of Travis Alexander, with the intent of killing him. Why else would she take filled gasoline cans with her, except to avoid being filmed when she stopped to buy gas? Martinez caught her in a lie, when she said she was nowhere near Mesa, then Martinez showed her the receipts from convenience stores, where she had bought gas. Taking an oath”to tell the truth and nothing but the truth so help me God” made no difference to Arias. She has a long of history of lying and wasn’t going to stop because it was in a courtroom.

Jodi Arias dressed like her defense attorney Jennifer Willmott in an effort to give a good impression to the jurors, but she is a liar no matter what she looks like.

The trial has been slowed down by the numerous sidebars, requested by the judge and the attorneys. Even worse each sidebar usually results in more commercials.

With HLN network now being the sole network broadcasting the trial the viewers are being deluged by commercials, about every 10 minutes. It seemed like when TruTV (formerly Court TV) was also broadcasting the trial, that the commercials were less frequent on that network. Somebody made an executive situation to move the trial to HLN, so more money could be made from more commercials.

Judge Sherry Stephens consults with prosecutor Juan Martinez and defense attorneys Jennifer Willmott and Kirk Nurmi during one of the frequent sidebars during the Jodi Arias trial.

Dr. Richard Samuels a witness for the defense has been one of the most discombobulated witnesses ever seen in a death penalty trial as he was totally unprepared when he testified in the courtroom.

When Dr. Richard Samuels was called to testify you could almost feel the case for the defense starting to crumble. It was bad enough that the jury had to endure 18 days of lying by Arias, but then they had to see an expert witness that was a stumble bum on the witness stand that made numerous errors, while scoring PTSD reports of Arias.

Prosecutor Juan Martinez called attention to the mistakes of Samuel numerous times, who didn’t bring all the papers he needed on the first day he testified.

The jurors had many questions for Dr. Samuels, that only gave the prosecution more ammunition in attacking the credibility of Dr. Samuels. If there is ever a class telling expert witnesses what not to do, while on the stand, then Dr. Samuels would be the poster boy.

It is crucial that the prosecutor wrap up the trial with his closing arguments. It will be interesting to see how he describes the timeline of her trip and how she more than likely brought the gun, which had been stolen from the home of a family member. It is too much of a coincidence that the gun was stolen, about the same time she was leaving to murder Travis Alexander.

The gun that Arias said Alexander owned probably did not exist and it is almost certain that Arias hid the gun in the closet, so she could get it when she was ready to murder him.

We will probably never know if Alexander became angered, when Arias dropped his new camera. We are depending on Arias telling the truth, since there are no witnesses and the only time Arias told the truth was when her lips weren’t moving.

The more I know about the case the more I think it was premeditated murder, because Arias knew she could not have Alexander and wanted to make sure nobody else would have him.

Her self-defense claims to me at least are a bunch of malarkey. If this wasn’t a planned murder, then she would have simply left the house if Alexander actually threatened her, which I doubt ever happened. Someone that felt threatened would not have hung around long enough to shoot Alexander and stab him close to 30 times.

If there was any “fog” clouding the memory of Arias it was from the cloud of lies she told detectives, in the days after the murder.

Arias may have been better claiming insanity, since it may hold more water, than her self-defense claims. Someone never stabs someone that many times, unless it is out of rage and the slitting of the throat to the spine tells me that this was the work of a woman who had been spurned and rejected by her former boyfriend. She only knew he had to pay and he paid with his life at the hands of an evil woman, who had no remorse after killing him.

The detective interviewing Arias at the police station had to have a lot of patience. Every time he presented evidence that she was there at the house the day that Alexander was killed, then she would say ” I wasn’t there”. He knew she  was feeding him nothing but lies. A less patient interrogator would have read the riot act to her, as soon as he or she would know that she was piling lies on top of lies.

When she asked the detective, if she could clean up before she was booked I knew she had no remorse for what she did. Doing hand stands in the interview room and singing a song about her memory tells me that Arias is a criminal of the worst sort.

It will be interesting to see what verdict the jury renders in this case. We can only hope if it is not over by Easter, that it will be over by the 4th of July.

Jodi Arias is not eager for the trial to be over, unless she thinks there will be one jury member, that is unwilling to send a woman to death row, but her best case scenario is life in prison with no parole. I don’t know if the world is ready for a Jodi Arias retrial, but it would be worth going through all of this again, to see her sentenced to death or life in prison.

Debra Milke, Wendi Andriano, Shawna Forde are the three women on the Arizona death row and would be joined by Jodi Arias if she is sentenced to death at the conclusion of her trial.

The lady on the left has had her conviction overturned, so Arias may be one of three women on the Arizona death row. The prison for women is located at Goodyear, Arizona, where the state prison for women is located.

This link is about the lady above who had her conviction overturned. It is a particularly hideous murder, so don’t read this link if you don’t to read about a heinous murder.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57574511-504083/debra-milke-arizona-death-row-inmate-has-conviction-overturned/

It will be interesting to see how the latest defense expert witness Alyce LaViolette fares, when questioned by Martinez, if he gets to cross-examine her today. The defense doesn’t need another fiasco, like the Dr. Samuels debacle to materialize.

Martinez did cross over the line in my estimation, when he accused Dr. Samuels of having feelings for the Arias, which infuriated Dr. Samuels as he said ” I beg your pardon”. Martinez was visibly angered when the defense asked the judge to tell Martinez to stop yelling and Martinez said “I object to the speaking objection of the defense”.

It is very doubtful that the trial will end this week, since we don’t know how long LaViolette will be on the stand and if the jurors will have questions for her.

Even if she does prove that Alexander was abusive towards Arias it won’t excuse her behavior on June 4, 2008, when she killed him in a jealous rage. If she was so scared of him why did she take such a long trip to see him? I think she caught Alexander in a moment, when he was helpless and in the shower and murdered him in cold blood.

My only hope is that Juan Martinez, in his closing arguments can convince the jury that Arias killed him in a premeditated murder.

I think America is ready for this trial to be over and the sooner the better.

Bonnie Franklin Of One Day At A Time Dies At 69

Bonnie Franklin 1944-2013

Bonnie Franklin died earlier today in her Los Angeles home at the age of 1969 from pancreatic cancer complications.. One Day At A Time was the television show that catapulted her to fame. She first appeared on the show on the Dec. 16, 1975 “Ann’s Decision” debut episode and would remain on the show till the 208th and last episode “Another Man’s Shoes”, which aired on May 28, 1984.

Franklin was born as Bonnie Gail Franklin on Jan. 6, 1944 in Santa Monica, California. She made her television debut in Shower of Stars in 1954, when she portrayed Susan Cratchit in “ A Christmas Carol “.  She free-lanced in movies and television from 1954-1975 before landing the role of Ann Romano in One Day At A Time.

She was seen on television only sporadically , after leaving her hit show and was only seen seven times from 1984- 2012. Her last two appearances were on Hot in Cleveland in 2011 and an episode of Young and Restless in 2012. She was seen those seven times on television, in the last 29 years of her life.

The reason given for the success of One Day At A Time is that the average viewer could identify with her situation and some who wrote the show said the show was “my life”.

We have lost another television icon today and it makes me wonder, why this show is not being shown on any network  ( that I know of).

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-bonnie-franklin-20130302,0,6526075.story

Jodi Arias: What A Tangled Web We Weave…….

A smiling Jodi Arias is pictured in her mug shot.

Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive! Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17. Scottish author & novelist  (1771 – 1832)  

Jodi Arias apparently never heard of Sir Walter Scott’s famous quotation above, because she has woven such a web of lies and deceit, that not even she can remember them all. Few criminals are smug enough to be shown smiling in their mug shots, but it is par for the course for Arias, who left a trail of lies behind after murdering Travis Alexander.

The salacious audio recordings of her and her ex-boyfriend talking about sex are a prime example of how the media has changed and how cable news networks are getting away, with foisting this stuff on the American public. The major networks would have been heavily fined for presenting the lurid details of their sexual encounters in such graphic terms.

The defense and prosecutor even played some of the same recordings, in their prosecution of and defense of Arias.

Arias Claiming Self Defense

It is ludicrous that Arias is trying to save herself from going to death row, by using the self-defense claim. It seems preposterous that she would claim self-defense, when Alexander was shot and stabbed 27 times. If it was self-defense then why would she stab him 27 times? Rage had a lot more to do with his death, than self-defense since stabbing him that many times shows that Arias  was not content with him being almost positively dead. She could have fled the house sooner if it was really self-defense, since Alexander was not in any shape to endanger her life.

Prosecutor Juan Martinez battled  with Arias for many days, while she was on the stand. She showed time and time again, that she was not capable of answering a simple yes or no question. She often pointed out any mistakes Martinez made. Martinez would ask a question and Arias would go off on a tangent that had nothing to do with his question. So he had to repeatedly ask the same questions over and over again. I doubt Martinez has ever encountered a more reluctant witness than Arias.

Martinez went into details of how Arias had lied to the detectives and showed the 48 Hours interview, which clearly showed her making up lies as she went along.

The defense allowing  Arias to testify was a formula for disaster and Thursday we saw just how a big mistake it was for her to testify. Once Martinez started questioning Arias about the day of the murder we saw her smirk disappear, because she was now being cornered into admitting more, than she wanted to admit on the stand.

Were Tears Fake?

We will never know if her tears yesterday were real or only more of her act. I think she sent herself to death row yesterday by her testimony. Martinez pointed out how well she was remembering other events on the day of the murder, but her mind was in a complete fog, when it came to remembering murdering Alexander.

Martinez mentioned earlier while questioning Aria that she had attempted to commit suicide, but couldn’t stand he pain of cutting her wrist, so Martinez asked her “If you thought that nick was painful, then imagine what pain Alexander had felt when she plunged a knife into his heart. That question rid the smirk off the face of Arias.

The key point about her mind being in a fog to me is that how can anyone stab someone 27 times and not even remember it? Her mind was not in a fog and she knew exactly what she was doing.

It was a mistake on the part of the defense to let Arias testify and she may have signed her own death warrant yesterday, with her testimony of being in a fog that day, while Martinez pointed out many discrepancies in her testimony, that showed that she was not even close to being in a fog.

My concern is that she may have been on the stand so long, that a juror may have begun to feel sorry for her and that is the only hope for Arias now to have a hung jury. I would be in complete shock if a not guilty verdict is rendered, but not so surprised to have a hung jury. Let us hope that doesn’t happen, because I don’t know if the nation would want to go through this trial for a second time.

Tried to Cover Her Tracks

Arias tried to cover her tracks by leaving voice mails, texts and email, addressed to Alexander while knowing good and well she had already killed him.

The communications pictured her as a concerned friend, who wanted to see how he had been doing and acting as if she knew nothing about his death.

There reportedly will be no trial today and court will re-convene on Monday.

We can only hope for a rapid end to this trial. Arias has to know that she should have taken the advice of Sir Walter Scott, instead of weaving a web of lies and deceit that could lead to her execution. The following poll asks the question, that if you were a juror, with your knowledge of the trial as of today, which verdict you would render…Guilty or not guilty.

Do We Really Need Women in Combat?

American women soldiers could find themselves in combat situations, as early as May as the services have until then, to implement plans for using them in combat.

I may be in the minority, but am not in favor of having women in combat, especially when a husband and wife are both in a combat situation. I hate to think of kids growing up without a mother, because they died on a battle field.

Now that the Pentagon has approved using women in combat there is concern about their safety. However, there may be some cases in which a woman would react better, in a combat situation than some men. I still can’t condone a woman having her life in jeopardy.

A Los Angeles Times poll shows that those polled favored women in combat, with 66 percent favoring women in combat, while only 26 percent were against it. The following article says there was little difference in how the men and women voted in the poll.

Those 65 or older that were polled favored women in combat by 52 percent, with 36 percent being opposed. Those younger than 50 favored women in combat with 72 percent in favor of women in combat.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-poll-women-military-combat-20130129,0,6439618.story

After reading the poll results it places me squarely in the minority. My post has nothing to do, with whether women or men make better soldiers. I just don’t like the idea of mothers and daughters being in combat situation. It is bad enough to lose a father or brother in combat, but I don’t want to think about losing my mother, if she was still alive or one of my three sisters on the field of combat. I am particularly worried about women, who become prisoners of war and subject to the mercy of their captors.

Readers are welcome to agree or disagree with me, since this is my opinion only and not those of anyone else.

Memories of a Lifetime: 2011-2013

2011 – We were living in Sulphur, Louisiana, a city of about 20,000 at the start of 2011. We were living on Live Oak Street in Sulphur and we found a home church in Calvary Baptist Church on Lewis Street. We were impressed by the pastor Rev. W.D. Darnell, who lived what he preached and only used the King James Version of the Holy Bible. We made many friends, among the members of the church. Rhonda was very involved with the activities at the church and I often sang special music on Sunday and Wednesday nights. Rhonda and me sang duets a couple of times and she sang On The Wings Of A Dove with another lady one time.

Rhonda liked living in Sulphur, since she had a sister and her mom living there. We lived close to the neighborhood, where my daughter and family had lived before moving to Groves, Texas.

I would return to working as a caregiver again in November of 2011. I worked with a disabled man with diabetes and lost the job at the end of the year, when his family changed to another caregiving company.

An international news story was when an earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan took 15,840 lives.

President Obama announces the death of Osama bin Laden on May 1.

Casey Anthony was acquitted of the murder of her daughter Calee Marie Anthony, in a controversial verdict by the jury.

Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Computers dies on October 5 of cancer.

House were renting at $955 a month in 2011.

A gallon of gas cost $2.89.

Movie tickets were selling for $8.20.

 

2012 – I worked as a crossing guard at a school in Sulphur for a few weeks, toward the end of the school year. It was interesting work and enjoyed the job. The job could turn out to be the last job I will ever work, since I haven’t worked since becoming sick a couple of months later.

We moved to DeRidder, Louisiana in July and are living in a trailer, that is about halfway between Merryville, Louisiana and DeRidder. We are living in the country and liking it so far.

Knew something was wrong when I began vomiting up blood and lost about 35 pounds in less than two months during the summer. Found out in October in Houston VA Hospital, that I had duodenal cancer. It was a very disease to diagnose, since it mimics acid reflux and duodenal ulcers. It is very rare disease with only two percent of gastrointestinal diseases being duodenal cancer.

Surgeons in Houston performed a resection surgery on Oct. 16 to remove a blockage, which was cancerous and was successful. However I found out in November, that duodenal cancer has a history of returning and has a relatively low survival rate.

Chemotherapy started at the VA hospital in Pineville, Louisiana on Dec.13 and have had three chemo IV’s since that date, with five more to go. Have finished six of a 24 week program of chemotherapy. It seems like the side effects have been worse with each chemo IV. Had difficulty walking in a straight line after the last IV and sort of lurch from side to side.

2012 was a life changing year for us, with us being evicted, moving to a new city and finding out that I had cancer and had surgery a few days later. Spent a total of 32 days in hospital in Houston.

July 20 would be the first of two mass shootings in the United States, when a gunman killed 12 and injured 58 in an Aurora, Colorado theater.

December 14 would bring the second mass shootings of 2012, when a man kills 20 children at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, along with six adults, before killing himself.

A gallon of gas would rise to $3.89 during 2012. It is about 64 cents a gallon cheaper now in 2013.

House rent average goes over the $1,000 mark for the first time, as it rose to $1,045 a month.

A pound of bacon which was $2.96 in 2008 had risen to $4.48 in 2012.

 

2013 – This year should be a very interesting year, as the chemotherapy continues through May and it will be interesting to learn the results of the bloodwork after the last week of chemotherapy. May 21 will be another important date for us as we return to Houston for another C-scan, which will show if the cancer is completely gone or has returned.

We don’t know what this year holds, but we plan to remain positive, even if the news is bad and I don’t plan on being negative, regardless of what happens in 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Memories of a Lifetime: 2001-2005

Grandson Mark Geisel who was born one day after my birthday.

 

2001 – Mark Geisel was born on October 15, 2001 in Sulphur, Louisiana, while his father was the manager at the Domino’s Pizza place in Sulphur.  Mark has done very well in school and loves to read. He plays goalie and other positions on his soccer team. His red hair goes back a long way in family history. My mom had a red-headed brother, that was born in the 1920′s or 1930′s. My mom had two red-headed sons and a red-headed daughter and a daughter with auburn hair. I was the black sheep of the family with black hair.

We moved to Gibbons Street about this time and then moved to Linda Drive later that year in the Kingsville area.

September 11, 2001 – A day that will live in infamy.

 

September 11, 2001 was a day that none of us will forget. I had called the mechanic that morning checking on our car in his shop. He asked me if I had the television on and that is when I found out about the horrific events of that day. The memory of those planes slamming into the twin towers of the World Trade Center will forever be ingrained in my memory.

I couldn’t comprehend how four planes could be hijacked the same morning and that day let us know how lax our airport security was at the time. The nation was in chaos at the time, with aircraft being grounded all over the country. It was eerie hearing about passengers on these planes talking to loved ones, on their cell phones telling, about the horrors of what they were experiencing and then knowing those same people on the cell phones died a violent death minutes later.

It is difficult to believe that September 11 of this year will be the 12th anniversary of that horrific day.

The “War on Terrorism” begins with the invasion of Afghanistan.

Dale Earnhardt dies during a crash in the last lap of the Daytona 500.

Richard Reid known as the “shoe bomber” attempted to blow up an American Airlines plane.

The first iPod was released and Wikipedia was launched on the internet.

The average rent jumped $40 from $675 in 2000 to $715 in 2001. The price of a gallon of gas jumped from $1.26 in 2000 to $1.41 in 2001. A loaf of bread cost $1.82.

2002 – My favorite memory of this year was the 40th class reunion of Pineville High School. I had never attended a reunion until 2002. If I was scheduled to work on the day of reunion, then I would usually work, but this year I made sure I had that week off, so I could attend. It was great seeing classmates from the 1962 class, for the first time in many years. I hadn’t run into some of them even though they had never left Pineville. The saddest part of the reunion was when the members of our class that had passed on were mentioned in a Power Point presentation, with Duane Yates singing the Lord’s Prayer in the background. Sadly Duane died before our 50th reunion in 2012. Seeing the teachers and students from 1962 again made this a special time in my life.

The price of gasoline escalated to $1.61 a gallon, a 36 cent a gallon rise since the $1.26 gasoline of 2000, which was two years earlier.

 

2003 – This turned out to be the last full year that I worked at the Alexandria Town Talk newspaper. The paper was never the same, after it was acquired by the Gannett Corporation. The Christmas bonus we had received while the paper was owned by the Smith family and the Central Newspapers chain was the first thing to go, under the auspices of the Gannett mega corporation. That $150 we had received each Christmas was now a thing of the past, as was the free newspapers for employees.

Iraq is invaded on March 19 by the United States military.

Saddam Hussein is captured by the U.S. 4th Infantry Division.

Gasoline prices jumped to 1.83, a jump of 57 cents a gallon since 2000.

 

2004 – My 36 years at Town Talk and 38 years in newspaper production ended in 2004, when I retired with my last day of work being Halloween night. I spent most of my working life at Town Talk. In fact it was my first job after returning from Vietnam in 1966. I had seen my pay go from $1.40 an hour in 1966 to $13.50 an hour in 2004. Still I never took home more than $28,000 in any year, that I worked for the Town Talk.

We had a traumatic event  this year when my stepson Justin was sleeping in the den and was woken by a burglar, who was rifling through cabinets and drawers, while looking for painkillers. Neither Justin or the burglar knew anyone else was in the house. Thankfully, Justin thought the burglar was a relative, who told Justin he was taking stuff because his mom owed him money.

A few days before the burglary a man had knocked on our door and wanted to know if anyone lived in the trailer next door. Evidently, he was casing the house and had a timeline of when my wife Rhonda and me would be at work. Anyway he had left, about 30 minutes before I arrived home from work that night.

Justin followed him from room to room and the burglar told him to tell his mom, that he would return the next night. The burglar did have an encounter with our cat, when the cat bit him and the burglar said “ouch”. The burglar would be later caught due to his own stupidity. He overdosed and the paramedics noticed painkillers all over his trailer, which included some painkillers my wife had in our house, after having major surgery. He lived only about five houses up the street from us and was arrested for burglary and sent to prison.

Facebook was launched in 2004 and was originally only for students at Harvard University.

Strongest earthquake in 40 years hits near Indonesia and the earthquake and resulting tsunami would take 290,000 lives.

Martha Stewart is convicted of felony and sentenced to five years in prison.

Gasoline continued to skyrocket to $2.10 an increase of 84 cents a gallon from the year 2000. Oil peaked at $50 a barrel in 2004.

 

2005 – I returned to work in 2005, when I was hired as a caregiver by Louisiana Community Care in Ball, Louisiana. Sometimes I would start a shift at 8PM and would finish the shift at 8:30 AM the next morning. It wasn’t hard work, but it was detail work, that required a set schedule of administering medicine. I found out later in Tennessee, that anyone administering medicine in Tennessee was required to take a course and pass a test to give meds to a client. However, Louisiana required no certification to give meds. I was giving meds my first night. There was a voluntary meds certification, but it wasn’t required at this time.

Later that year I went to work for Plasti-Pak in Kingsville area and I learned how much work is involved with factory work. I operated a box making machine for Procter and Gamble products the first night there. We went to work at 6:45 PM and the shift would end at 7:15 the next morning, so we would get a full 12 hours per shift, with a half hour break to eat. It was tiring and exhausting work and dangerous work. I back over my foot with a hand truck, which resulted in losing two toenails. I bought steel-toed boots the next day. It was a temp job with Westaff and the job played out soon and I was one of first laid off, since I was one of the last ones hired.

Then I went to work for Coastal Culvert operating out of Eunice, Louisiana. It was the easiest job of my life, after working the hardest job of my life at Plasti-Pak. My job was to be the manager of a new Alexandria branch for the company. My main job was to check inventory of the culvert pipes outside the office. I had to call the Eunice office each morning, to verify I was at work. Then I would read the paper, listen to old-time radio shows or watch Andy Griffith shows on the DVD player till it was time to go home that afternoon. The job lasted from November till February of 2006, before they decided to close down the Alexandria office, since there was little to no business.

I can’t say enough good things about the Coastal Culvert executives. They invited me to their annual Christmas dinner and they gave me a $100 Christmas bonus, even though I had been there less than a month.

Some of the damage from Hurricane Katrina seen the day after.

The major event of 2005 in Louisiana is when Hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast of Louisiana and a break in the levee resulted in 80 percent of New Orleans being flooded. 1,577 died from Katrina in Louisiana. Many New Orleans residents waited five days for food and  water to arrive in the city. It was a colossal case of bad planning by government officials, who let people go for days without food or water.

Katrina didn’t cause much damage in Alexandria-Pineville area, but Hurricane Rita was a different story as many trees fell on houses in the area, with fallen trees closing roads.

Lance Armstrong won an amazing seventh Tour de France championship, as he demonstrated how he could live better through chemistry.

Video gamers saw the Microsoft X-Box 360 launched in 2005.

The price of gasoline climbed to $3.18 in 2005 an increase of almost $2 a gallon from the $1.26 price of 2000.

 

 

 

 

Memories of a Lifetime: 1986-1990

For some reason my memory of the 1986-1990 period in my life is drawing a blank for the most part. Anyone with memories of what happened in Pineville-Alexandria during these years are welcome to comment.

1986 – Halley’s comet appeared in 1986 and won’t reappear till the year 2061. It had last appeared before 1986 in 1911. IBM launches the first laptop computer 27 years ago. Smoking was banned on all public transportation, in the United States which had to be tough for smokers on coast to coast airplane flights. The nicotine patch was invented in 1986. A Plymouth Colt could be purchased for $4,999. A gallon of gas only cost 89 cents. Average rent was $385 a month. Top Gun, Platoon and Crocodile Dundee were popular movies in 1986.

1987 – A Private First Class in the Army was earning $9,385.20 a year. When I joined the Army in 1962 a recruit earned $936 a year as a E-1. A gallon of gas was 89 cents, the same price as in 1986. The U.S. stock market crashed on October 19 with a 508 point drop. Fox Broadcasting made its debut 26 years ago. A seven-day Caribbean cruise cost $1195.

1988 – The price of a gallon of gasoline remained relatively stable, rising to only 91 cents, after being 89 cents the previous two years. Movie tickets were $3.50 and average rent was now $420. Yellowstone National Park had 250 separate fires in 1988 that destroyed 793,880 acres of the park, which was a third of the total acreage of the park. A Logitech mouse cost $89.99, while a Amiga 500 with a color monitor cost $849.

1989 – I had surgery in July of 1989 at Rapides Hospital. I would be off work for six weeks. I would then work from 1989-2004 at the Town Talk , while missing a total of one day of work and was in the hospital that day, after being admitted from emergency room, due to emergency room physician thinking I may had a blood clot, but it turned out to be a muscle tear. I think I got my work ethic from my dad who didn’t miss a day of work over a 40 year period.

That same month before the surgery I had gone to grocery store to get snacks to watch the 1989 All Star game. By the time I got back an earthquake had hit the San Francisco area and film was being shown of the players leaving the stadium with their families. Then we saw hours of coverage of the devastation in the area. Hard to believe 24 years have passed since that date.

Other big news in 1989 is that the Yugo cars went bankrupt. The Yugo is 39th on the list of worst cars in history. One feature was the rear window defroster, which kept your hands warm, while you pushed it. The car looked like it had been assembled at gunpoint. The article also has this to say about the Yugo:

The engines went ka-blooey, the electrical system — such as it was — would  sizzle, and things would just fall off.

1990 – I think this is the year my son Steve played football for the Pineville High School Rebels. He played end and endured practices from summer till the end of the season, but only played in the last game of the season, for only one play and the worst thing is that his mom had left the stadium, by the time he played in the game and I was at work, so no family member was there to see him in that one play. I still respect his work ethic to stick with it all season, even if he didn’t get to play but in that one play.

Gasoline had skyrocketed to $1.34 by 1990. Today gasoline is in the $3.25 range in our area. A Super Nintendo cost $159. Cabbage Patch Kids were $29.99. A six volt Batman car could be purchased for $199 and had a top speed of 3 MPH. A Smith Corona Daisy Wheel Typewriter could be purchased for $179, while a cellular car phone could be bought for $325.

Medical Update, LBJ: The Mastermind of The JFK Assassination

MEDICAL UPDATE:

It has been a month-and-a-half since my cancer surgery at the Michael Debakey VA Hospital in Houston. Since then I have learned I was injected with steroid, which causes meningitis and am now close to starting a 24 week chemotherapy program, to try to prevent the duodenal cancer from returning.

LBJ: The  Mastermind of  The JFK Assassination: By Phillip F. Nelson

I have always thought that there was a conspiracy, behind the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. After reading LBJ: The Mastermind of The JFK Assassination, there is no other conclusion in my mind, that Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson orchestrated the planning of the assassination.

Illegal Election Involvement

My thoughts of Johnson until lately were that he was a politician well-skilled, at making whatever political maneuvers necessary to win an election. He lost the 1941 election for the U.S. Senate to W. Lee Daniel, with Daniel winning by a 311 vote margin.

The 1948 Senate election was even closer with Johnson defeating Coke Stevenson by 81 votes, out of a million votes cast. A box of ballots was mysteriously found that gave Johnson the win. George Parr a Democratic boss was the one that found the mysterious ballots, which included 99.1 percent voting for Johnson. Some of the voters were dead Mexicans. Johnson knew exactly what was going on and it was just one of many times, when Johnson would resort to criminal activity, to win an election or to get illegal kickbacks.

The 1954 Senate election was won by Johnson by a wide margin, while defeating Republican Carlos G. Watson, with 84.59 percent of the vote.

Forced JFK To Choose Him As Vice President in 1960

Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy had offered Sen. Stuart Symington the chance, to run as the vice presidential candidate.  at the 1960 Democratic convention in Los Angeles. Johnson who wanted desperately to be the vice president, then proceeded to force JFK into choosing him as his running mate, by threatening to reveal that Kennedy had been running around with some women and had the information in files kept by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Kennedy had no choice but to withdraw his offer to Symington and offer Johnson a place on the ticket, though he and his brother Bobby did not want Johnson on their ticket.

It was one of the most crooked elections in the history of the United States, when John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States. Richard Nixon, his defeated opponent refused to contest the election, even though if he had it may have revealed the extent of criminal activity in the election.

LBJ’s Hitman: Malcolm Wallace

Lyndon B. Johnson had his own personal hitman in Malcolm Wallace. When someone threatened to reveal Johnson’s criminal activity, Wallace would eliminate them, if requested by Johnson. He killed one man by shooting him in the back five times and the defense tried to say it was a suicide and Wallace was freed. The author of the book says Wallace may have been involved in as many as 17 murders, including the murder of Johnson’s own sister, who Johnson feared would disclose secrets about his criminal activity. The most shocking revelation about Wallace was that his fingerprint was found on a box found, on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

LBJ: The Unhappy Vice-President

Johnson was not a happy camper as vice president, being shunned by the Kennedy brothers. He was sent on fact-finding trips around the world, to get rid of him for an extended time. This story was not in the book, but I remember reading somewhere, that Johnson was making a speech and Bobby Kennedy forced one of his aides to tell Johnson to cut the speech short. After the aide told Johnson what Bobby Kennedy had requested, he continued to talk for another 15 minutes angering Bobby even more.

Even though he was vice president, the Kennedy brothers would not invite him to important meetings. Worst of all LBJ knew that he probably would not be able to run for president, until JFK and RFK had finished their terms as president.

Assassination Plans Started

It had to be during this time that Johnson formulated a plan to assassinate JFK and replace him as president. He pushed JFK to make a trip to Dallas. Johnson was involved in planning the route of the motorcade. He wanted Jackie Kennedy to ride with him, two cars behind the presidential limousine, but Kennedy refused the offer. LBJ wanted his enemy Senator Ralph Yarbrough to ride with the Kennedys, but that didn’t work out either.

Johnson had everything in place for him to be president. When President Kennedy and his wife Jackie started their day on Friday, November 22, 1963, they didn’t know that President John F.Kennedy would be dead that afternoon.

LBJ Hiding In The Killing Zone

The Kennedys may have not known what was about to happen that day, but Vice President Johnson knowing he was entering the killing zone and that President Kennedy would soon be shot, crouched down inside his limousine two cars behind the Kennedy, to avoid getting hit by a stray bullet. His wife Lady Bird Johnson and Senator Yarbrough were not told about the assassination, so they were sitting up and smiling and waving to the crowd. To think LBJ would put his own safety ahead of his wife’s safety tells me all I need to know about Lyndon Baines Johnson.

One mystery about that day is why the presidential limousine stopped in the middle of the gunfire that was hitting President Kennedy. Another odd thing is that Jack Ruby was seen at Dealey Plaza that day with a gun case and then would show up at the hospital and at the police station before the night was over.

There was an ugly scene at Parkland Hospital, when a gun was pulled on a doctor wanting to autopsy the body, but was overpowered as the body was taken to the airport. Another mystery is why the presidential limousine was cleaned, since it was the crime scene and it was taken to Washington and cleaned some more and wound up being rebuilt to remove any trace of evidence.

LBJ Asks Jackie Kennedy To Stand With Him For Oath

As if Jackie Kennedy hadn’t gone through enough on this day, LBJ then asked her, to stand by him as he was administered the oath of office. Johnson had now achieved his life-long dream of becoming president. Now all he had to do was cover up, what really happened on that November day in 1963.

Warren Report Whitewash

President Johnson adopted the lone nut theory, as soon as Oswald was captured. Oswald himself said he was a patsy, but Jack Ruby never let Oswald tell his story. I am amazed that Ruby was allowed in the police station, without being checked for firearms.

Ruby’s action kept Oswald from implicating any of the people, that were behind the assassination. So Ruby made it easy for the Warren Commission to issue a whitewash of a report, not including any testimony that backed a conspiracy theory.

If Johnson hadn’t become president he may have been sent to prison for criminal activity in the Billie Sol Estes and Bobby Baker scandals, since he became rich from accepting kickbacks. Matter of fact a hearing was being held in Washington on the same day that JFK was assassinated, that featured an insurance salesman named Don Reynolds, who knew that Johnson was involved with criminal activity.

J. Edgar Hoover helped the Warren Commission determine it was a lone gunman that killed President Kennedy, by holding back any information that could show, that it was a conspiracy.

Witnesses before the committee, who didn’t agree with the lone gunman theory were not allowed to have their testimony included in the report.

Summary

We may never have conclusive evidence revealed that Johnson was behind the assassination, but there is a mountain of circumstantial evidence that points only to him. He had the power, had the right connections and definitely had the motive, since he knew his dream of being president would never be realized, unless President Kennedy was eliminated from the picture.

Anyone reading this book may not be swayed to believe that Johnson planned the assassination of JFK, but they will learn the extent to which LBJ would go to have his way.

Sheryl Crow Believes Cell Phone Caused Cancer

Just when we thought it was safe to use cell phones again, Sheryl Crow has stated that her “archaic cell phone” may have caused her brain cancer. Crow stated in an article that the cancer developed in the vicinity of where she had talked for hours on the cell phone.

It will be interesting to see if others say they too have developed cancer, close to where they held their cell phones. I think cell phone users everywhere would be in a state of shock, if they were found to have caused cancer, but so far it may be only the older cell phones which have been linked to cancer.

She made the statements on the debut, of the Katie talk show hosted by former CBS anchor lady Katie Couric. The following article doesn’t mention about the cancer appearing, where she held her own, but it includes her comments about former boyfriend Lance Armstrong, who was recently stripped of  his seven Tour de France titles.

The complete New York Daily News article:

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/sheryl-crow-believes-benign-brain-tumor-result-old-archaic-cell-phones-article-1.1156230

 

 

Steven Franken “Chatworth Osborne Jr.” On Dobie Gillis Dies At 80

Steven Franken who portrayed Chatsworth Osborne Jr. on Dobie Gillis has died at the age of 80 in Los Angeles.

Steven Franken who is probably best known for his portrayal of Chatsworth Osborne Jr. in the Dobie Gillis series has died of cancer in Los Angeles. He was 80.

Franken made his film debut in 1958 in Stage Struck and then portrayed Willie on Playhouse 90, that same year in his television debut. 1959 would see Franken begin a five-year run in Dobie Gillis, as rich kid Chatworth Osborne Jr. His mom Clarice was played by  Doris Packer. He was in 32 episodes of Dobie Gillis. He replaced actor Warren Beatty on the show. Beatty’s character Milton Armitage was replaced by Franken’s Osborne character.

http://home1.gte.net/res09cc9/chatsworth.htm

He appeared in either a television show or movie each year till 1997, then would not appear on-screen in 2008, 2011 and 2012. Those were only four years, in his 55 year career, in which he didn’t appear on either a television or movie screen at least once.

His last film Reach is in post-production and won’t be seen till 2013.

The list of films and television shows that Franken appeared in is a long one. He appeared in television shows from Perry Mason to Patty Duke Show to Marcus Welby. My favorite movie, that he appeared in was Hardly Working, a Jerry Lewis film that was one of the funniest movies, that I have ever seen, but is difficult to find in circulation.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0291266/

Dobie Gillis is one of those shows that is seldom seen on any television channel today. It is sad how many television shows have disappeared from television screens today. Franken’s death was one more reminder of how much Dobie Gillis is being missed today.

In the Path of Tropical Storm Isaac

 

This latest tracking map indicates that Isaac will engulf almost the entire state of Louisiana. Now that we are living in a trailer, there is even more concern than usual about the impending storm, which is strengthening and should be classified as a hurricane soon.

We were fortunate to have missed Hurricane Katrina for the most part in 2005, but were hit by Hurricane Rita as it toppled several trees in the Cenla area of Louisiana.  Trees blocked several streets and roads in the area and I can remember my son-in-law, who managed the local Domino’s Pizza store at the time keeping the store open for people who had lost their power and were unable to cook a hot meal.

However, Hurricane Audrey hit Cenla with full force in 1957. That was the first hurricane that I can remember and it knocked down a very tall pine tree on our property. Audrey had already killed about 500 in Cameron, Louisiana area before reaching Alexandria and Pineville, Louisiana.

I can remember not having electricity for three days and my dad going to Jimmie Hoyt’s Truck Stop to purchase some dry ice. I was particulary worried about my baby sister, who had been born three months before Hurricane Audrey and how she would react during the storm, but as far as I can remember she handled it alright.

We don’t know what the future holds in store for us in the next two or three days, but right now we in the path of a storm that is out in the Gulf of Mexico gaining strength.

If the storm spawns tornadoes, there could be even more danger to people living in trailers, since tornadoes have lifted trailers off their foundation and sent them airborne. I don’t mind flying, but would rather not be flying around in a trailer.

Nothing is certain as of this minute, since storms can change course and go a different direction, but right now we have every reason to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

I remember when Hurricane Rita was first supposed to hit land at Corpus Christi, Texas, but it kept drifting eastward till it hit land around the Lake Charles, Louisiana area. The track of Isaac seems to be moving westward. It looked like the worst of it would hit Florida, but now it is on track to hit Louisiana later this week.

All we can do now is prepare for the storm and wait to see what happens when the storm or hurricane hits. We are about 100 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, so that may spare us the worst of the storm. Last month we were living 50 miles closer to the Gulf of Mexico, so we will see if the extra 50 miles inland makes a difference, when it comes to damage from the possible hurricane.

People living near the Gulf of Mexico know that during hurricane season, they have to be prepared to evacuate on short notice and this is one of those times. Those living further north in central Louisiana are also affected by the storm, as they buy generators and stock up on batteries, food and supplies in preparation for the storm. They may not be hit by the full brunt of the storm, but falling trees can knock down power lines, which causes homes to have no electricity.

It would be great if the storm goes off in another direction, but it doesn’t hurt to be ready for the worst.

 

 

 

Bank Robber Sentenced To 1,256 Years, Will Be 1,287 Years Old When Sentence Ends

Daryl Lamont Keener an habitual bank robber has been sentenced to a 1,256 year sentence. He had served only part of a six-year sentence for a previous bank robbery charge. Evidently that sentence did nothing, to prevent him from ending his life of crime. Instead he participated in eight more robberies and Colorado treats repeat offenders harshly as Keener found out at the sentencing.

Keener will be 1,287 years old when his sentence ends in the year 3268, so could be the oldest man on earth at that time. It is doubtful that Keener will re-embark on his bank robbing career, after his sentence ends since he will probably be using a walker by then.

http://www.gazette.com/articles/bank-141658-gets-tricks.html

Big Brother 14 Twist (Spoiler Alert), American Idol Judges Dropping Like Flies

Big Brother 14 debuted for the 2012 season on Thursday night with a couple of new twists. The first twist was that four former contestants, including two winners would be coaches this season. The house guests will be competing for a $500,000 prize, given to the winner in the finale show this September.

Big Brother 2 and Big Brothers All-Stars winner Mike Boogie and Dan Gheesling of Big Brother 10 were the two returning winners, while Janelle Pierzina of Big Brother 6 and Big Brother All-Stars and Britney Haynes of Big Brother 12 will be the other two mentors, who will be competing for the $100,000 prize for best coach.

The other twist was that no house guests were given keys, because the coach of the losing team, in the head of household competition, on the inaugural show would have to choose one of his team for immediate eviction on opening night.

Personally, I hope this never happens again, since each contestant deserves one full week on the show, before being evicted, instead of being unceremoniously sent home on the first night.

This website is a great source of information worth saving to your favorites if you want to keep up to date, with what is going on in the house between the shows. Don’t go to this site if you want to wait for the shows to air, since it tells who was nominated since Thursday’s show and who won the veto, plus will tell the outcome of the veto ceremony next week.

http://www.mortystv.com/big_brother.shtml

Latest American Idol News

It is now official that Steven Tyler is not the only American Idol judge leaving the show. Tyler had announced earlier this week, that he was leaving American Idol to return to Aerosmith full-time. There have been rumors that Jennifer Lopez was resigning her job as a judge. Those rumors are no longer rumors, as Lopez told host Ryan Seacrest, that she was leaving the show to have more time, to allow herself to have more time to pursue other options in her entertainment career.

As if this wasn’t enough news about judges for one week, there is now word out, that Randy Jackson may be leaving the show as a judge, but may remain as a mentor for the contestants.

This would create openings for three judges. Mariah Carey has been mentioned as a possible judge, but there is no official word, as to whether she was actually offered the job. Adam Lambert has also been mentioned as a possible judge. With the auditions for Season 12 going on now, it is probably imperative that a new set of judges be chosen soon, so they can be filmed at the auditions, determining the fate of the contestants.

After a huge drop in ratings last season, American Idol may be having too much change, too soon for these changes to improve the ratings for Season 12. The proliferation of singing contests has reached the saturation point and I can foresee the ratings drop for the entire genre. The Voice and X-Factor return in September and The Voice being on twice in one year, could be a huge mistake since it hasn’t produced a name star yet.

With Britney Spears reportedly being a train wreck on X-Factor as a judge, this is what can be expected from X-Factor this September.

http://www.billboard.com/column/reality-check/new-x-factor-video-shows-britney-spears-1007557952.story#/column/reality-check/new-x-factor-video-shows-britney-spears-1007557952.story

 Big Brother 5 Winner Tasered By Cops

Big Brother  winners have a history of having run-ins with the law and Drew Daniel winner of Big Brother 5 is the latest winner, to experience a brush with the law. He reportedly injured a man, while in a domestic dispute. Now for the rest of the story, including the part where he is tasered by the cops.

http://bigbrotheraccess.com/big-brother-5s-drew-daniel-arrested-353325/

Dead Man Watches NASCAR Races, While Girlfriend Cashes His SS Checks

Everyone knows how popular NASCAR is among racing fans, but one fan took it to the extreme by continuing to watch the races for 18 months after their death.

He even had a gal pal that talked to him during the races, that liked him so much that she continued to cash his Social Security checks, even though he was dead. She didn’t get the memo, that she was supposed to stop cashing his checks after his death.

Neighbors probably became suspicious when Charles Zigler suddenly disappeared, yet there was no missing person report filed until recently and no obituary for him appeared in the local newspaper.

Linda Chase who was his girlfriend, saw he had died in his chair and left him there for 18 months. It is strange that his relatives waited 18 months, before they reported him missing, saying they had not seen him for a while.

Needless to say, Ms. Chase won’t be cashing any more of Charlie Zigler’s SS checks, since they don’t have a bank in the federal prison in Michigan, where she will be watching NASCAR races from in the future.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/woman-watched-nascar-deceased-man-over-021212570–nascar.html

Andy Griffith Dies At 86 On Roanoke Island, North Carolina

Andy Griffith 1926-2012

Andy Griffith died this morning at his home on Roanoke Island, North Carolina at the age of 86.

Death has taken another star of the Andy Griffith Show. George Lindsey who portrayed Goober on the show had passed away on May 6.

Andy Griffith’s character Andy Taylor was one of the most beloved characters on television. The show revolved around him and he saw early in the show’s run, that it would be better to play the straight man for off the wall characters like Barney Fife played by Don Knotts, Gomer Pyle who was portrayed by Jim Nabors, Otis Campbell being portrayed by Hal Smith and the aforementioned George Lindsey as Goober.

Life Lessons Taught

Andy taught his son Opie Taylor well, trying to bring him up without a mother in the home. Many shows dwelt on Andy telling Opie, how to deal with life’s problems the right way.

Whatever problem Opie may have been experiencing Andy always had the right solution , to any problem that might arise. This video from the show in which Opie killed a bird with a slingshot is an excellent example of  how Andy taught his son to do the right thing.

 

The interplay between Andy and Barney Fife was a huge part, of the success of the show. Don Knotts suggested that the show needed a deputy and that move guaranteed the success of the show. Andy asks Barney about the Emancipation Proclamation, which shows how Andy could rile up Barney.

 

When Don Knotts left the show after five years, Andy proved he could still draw the fans. as the show’s ratings stayed strong, after the departure of Knotts.

 

I can remember watching Andy Griffith and Don Knotts in No Time For Sergeants movie, many years ago and we watched the movie three times in a row, since that was allowed in the 50′s.

We have lost an American icon in Andy Griffith, one day before the July 4th holiday. Andy Griffith represented everything, that is great about America. He leaves a rich legacy behind of television shows and movies, in which he appeared.

Andy Griffith will be missed.

 

The New York Times obituary for Andy Griffith:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/arts/television/andy-griffith-actor-dies-at-86.html?pagewanted=all

 

Kenny Rogers: Legendary Singer In Music Business For Seven Decades

Kenny Rogers as he appeared when singing with First Edition.

Kenny Rogers was born August 21, 1938 in Houston, Texas. Rogers is in his sixth decade of being in the music business, starting the mid 50′s with the The Scholars, which was disbanded and Rogers struck out on his own.

Kenny singing That Crazy Feeling in 1958 on Carlton Records singing in the doo-wop style.

Only 194 people have viewed this video of Kenny Rogers at the House of Blues, which apparently was on the Disney Channel sometime in the past. He is seen early in the video singing Walkin’ My Baby Back Home a 1931 song and nothing like a song, you would expect him to sing.  He is shown playing the upright bass in another song at the 14:25 mark in the video.

When he sings When I Fall In Love, one of the girls in the audience rests her head on the shoulder of the man, that she is sitting with, which demonstrates the emotion which Rogers sings with carries over to the listeners. He sings another song from the past, in I Get Along Without You Very Well a 1939 tune, penned by Hoagy Carmichael and demonstrates the gift of Rogers to sing any genre. At 43:53 in the video Rogers sings perhaps the best rendition of I Remember You, that I have ever heard sung.

The video is interspersed with Kenny telling about the highlights of his career. Clips from the past are shown, in addition to him singing at the House of Blues, with the backing of a string orchestra. The video shows Kenny singing Sweet Home Chicago, showing Kenny can sing blues music too. He also sings some of his big hits like Lady and The Gambler. This video is worth watching, because it shows how multi-talented Kenny is and helps bring home the fact, that he may be one of the best singers, to ever walk on a stage.

This is why it is a mystery, why he has never been enshrined in the Country Music or Rock and Roll Hall of Fames. Maybe his crossover hits, prevented him from being defined into either category. One thing for sure is that he is going to sing well, regardless of what genre he is singing at any particular time.

Kenny Rogers seen while part of the Bobby Doyle Trio with Kenny on top, without his beard.

Kenny joined the New Christy Minstrels in 1966, but he left the folk group the next year to form the First Edition.  The group’s best known hits were songs like Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town and my personal favorite Reuben James.

Kenny and the First Edition singing Reuben James.

Ten years later in 1976, Kenny would begin his solo career which is still going strong 36 years later.

1977 would produce his first No.1 hit in Lucille, which would be the first of many No.1 hits. He would have seven No.1 hits when the 1980′s started. Then he recorded his first song to be No.1 in U.S. Country, U.S. and Adult Contemporary, which was Lady and maybe his most popular song recorded and was written by Lionel Richie. 1983′s Islands in the Stream recorded as a duet with Dolly Parton placed first in all three of the categories again.

It has been 26 years since Kenny recorded a non-duet No.1 with his recording of Tomb of Unknown Love in 1986.

The complete Kenny Rogers discography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Rogers_discography

Kenny recorded many duets and eight of those songs made the Billboard charts.

Kenny singing Don’t Fall In Love With A Dreamer with Kim Carnes.

Kenny singing Islands In The Stream with Dolly Parton at the 25th anniversary of Dollywood in 2010.

Kenny and Dolly singing the same song a few years earlier.

Kenny and Dottie West singing Everytime Two Fools Collide

Yesterday, I found a Kenny Rogers DVD of his appearance on Live By Request on the CBS television network. I had given it to my wife for her birthday several years, but she had never gotten around to watching it till yesterday and that is why I am writing this article today.

I was surprised to look in my MP3 player and there wasn’t one Kenny Rogers song in the player. I will have to rectify that situation, as soon as possible but I do have a Kenny Rogers LP, which I hope to listen to today.

Any collection of Kenny Rogers hits would need to include Lady and The Gambler.

Kenny singing Lady in the Live By Request  program on CBS television. Viewers called in any Kenny Rogers song they wanted to hear and Kenny would sing it.

Kenny singing one of his classics The Gambler.

Kenny  singing She Believes In Me.

Kenny singing Through The Years at Giants Stadium 26 years ago.

Kenny Rogers is not only a great singer, but is also a talented photographer. This short article shows some of his photography. Kenny is so well-respected in the photography field, that he has been a judge in a Digitial Camera’s Photographer of the Year competition, which is described in this undated article, but appears to have happened in 2011.

http://www.futureplc.com/2011/07/06/kenny-rogers-named-digital-camera%E2%80%99s-photographer-of-the-year-judge/

Kenny Rogers decided to have plastic surgery, when he married his wife Wanda Miller, that is 29 years younger than him. They are still married 15 years later. He has been married for 48 years combined, after five marriages. He has twin sons Justin and Jordan who will be 8 on July 6. His wife is a twin and both he and his wife have a history of twins in their families.

http://inyourface.ocregister.com/2008/10/30/kenny-rogers-regrets-plastic-surgery-but-is-hopeful/1334/

Kenny singing Love Or Something Like It at Bonaroo festival three weeks ago. Sorry for the poor sound quality, but thought readers would want to see Kenny is going strong at 73.

Kenny and Lionel Richie singing Lady after Kenny tells about the history of the song. If you only watch one video in this article this is the one to see. To see two professionals like Kenny Rogers and Lionel Richie singing one of the greatest songs ever written, makes taking the time to watch it worth every minute.

No article on Kenny Rogers would be complete without mentioning his movie career. Kenny appeared in the The Gambler TV movies five times from 1980-1994, which again proved how talented Kenny is in any endeavor that he undertakes.

Kenny as he appeared in the series of The Gambler TV movies.

Not everything Kenny touched turned to gold, even though it may have in the early days, when his Kenny Rogers Roasters expanded to 350 restaurants in 1995. Three years later, the company was bankrupt and sold for $1.25 million. Kenny must have taken a financial bath, for the company to be sold for only $1.25 million. No Kenny Rogers Roasters remain open in the United States today.

The following article gives extensive details about the life of Kenny Rogers, but it may take close to an hour to read the entire article:

http://www.billdeyoung.com/onekenny.html

Kenny sold his home in Georgia on Wednesday of this week:

http://www.ontheredcarpet.com/Kenny-Rogers-home-in-Georgia-sold-for-2-25-million–auction-avoided-Photos/8719446

I knew Kenny Rogers was a successful singer, but only in the last two days have I learned, just how great he was and is still great today.  It is safe to say that Kenny Rogers has made a lasting impression on many Americans, through his music and his acting. I have developed a new appreciation for Kenny Rogers and will be looking for his LP as soon as this is posted.

In closing it amazes me that Kenny Rogers is not in the Country Music Hall of Fame, even though he has had 21 country hits. Part of the problem is that maybe the voters who elect singers to the Country Music Hall of Fame don’t consider Rogers a pure country singer, but just sang songs that found their way to the top of the country charts.

In addition, I can’t see why he isn’t in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame either, because if any singer belongs, in both Hall of Fames it would be him. Hopefully he will be inducted to one or the other or both, while he is still with us and can enjoy being inducted, like so many others have in past years.

Timothy Poe of America’s Got Talent Has Warrant For His Arrest

The trail of lies and deception continues to grow as Timothy Poe’s back story on America’s Got Talent is questioned., since his emotional appearance on America’s Got Talent last week.

Poe had stated on last week’s show, that he had been injured in Afghanistan by a grenade. After that story has been refuted by the Minnesota National Guard, with whom he was serving at the time, it appears the only time Poe isn’t lying is when his lips aren’t moving.

Now the latest news is that Poe has an outstanding warrant for his arrest, in a case in which he is charged with assault, against a family member in 2002.

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/06/09/060912-news-singer-fibs-1-2-zzfpvzz/

Almost everything that Poe stated in his back story for America’s Got Talent has turned out to be a lie. The most flagrant lie to me is that he fell on a grenade, to save the lives of his buddies. You would think some of his friends would remember this happening. If he had indeed fell on a grenade, then he would have visible injuries, resulting from the grenade exploding. If you take Poe’s word, the grenade only caused his stuttering, which his ex-wife questions if it is real.

The only thing real about his appearance on America’s Got Talent was when he sang If Tomorrow Never Comes, the Garth Brooks hit. Everything he said on the show has been refuted.

Last I knew the United States does not award medals for an ear infection, while being in Afghanistan for only one month. It is a slap in the face of every veteran, who was in a combat zone during a war, for him to declare himself a war hero, when he did nothing to merit him being a war hero of any sort. For him use the photo of another veteran, tells me that Poe has no shame, by representing another soldier as himself.

It is amazing that Poe could keep a straight face, while telling lie after lie. He said he had only started singing recently, which has been denied by those, who knew he has been singing  in bands for many years.

It is safe to say that the only time Poe wasn’t lying on America’s Got Talent was when his lips weren’t moving.

The panel of judges on the show fell for his story, which is logical for them to do, since if you can’t trust a serviceman, then who can you trust. Apparently Poe is one that never should have been trusted.

The following article reports that Poe may have already been eliminated from the show. The judges will look with more jaundiced eyes at the other contestants, who have back stories, since they were told so many apparent lies by Poe.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/06/08/agt-contestant-timothy-poe-getting-boot-source-says/

Surely Poe didn’t think he could get away with his myriad of lies. He has found out that the old Sir Walter Scott’s quote, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive” still rings true today, as he been caught in his web of lies.

 

 

Kris Allen: May Be Time To Pull Plug On American Idol

American Idol producers can’t be too happy with Kris Allen, after he said it may be time to pull the plug on American Idol. It is surprising that he would say that, considering that without American Idol he probably would be singing at grocery store grand openings. It wasn’t that long ago that Lee DeWyze sang at a bowling alley opening, which is not saying much for how the career of Allen and DeWyze is going.

To his credit Allen’s latest album Thank You Camellia has 12 reviewers giving it a 5 star rating out of 15 reviewers.

The following article and video from TMZ.com includes a poll at bottom, that is showing that 74 percent of the voters think American Idol should be canceled, which has to be troubling for American Idol producers and may signal more losses in viewership in Season 12. This is a fairly large sampling of over 51,000 voters, so this tells me there is still some backlash, after Phil Phillips became the fifth guy in a row to win American Idol.

kris-allen-american-idol-finale

After viewing the video, am not sure that Allen said what he reportedly said in the article, unless he made some remarks, not shown in the video. Anyway, the alarming poll results have to be a huge concern.

We can’ t help but wonder if X-Factor and The Voice are killing the American Idol reality star.

Angel Food Ministries Founders Indicted On Fraud Charges

Linda and Joe Wingo have been charged with fraud in a 49 count indictment listed in a 71 page document that details their misuse of funds in the name of the Angel Food Ministries that provided food at affordable prices for those in need.

The Angel Food Ministries organization has helped less fortunate families put food on their table at reasonable prices.The organization was founded in 1994 by Joe and Linda Wingo. They provided groceries for struggling families for about half the price, of what they could be bought at a grocery store.

However due to the Wingos being indicted on fraud charges, the ministry no longer exists. Greed seems to be the motivating  factor that caused the Wingos to focus more on themselves, than the people they were supposed to be helping.

Michael J. Moore, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia made this statement about the charges:

 “As alleged in the indictment, these Defendants raised money in the name of Christian charity, and then used a number of schemes to defraud the organization.”

The ministry reportedly had expenses of $17,000, while reporting revenue of $96,000 in 2006. Meanwhile the Wingos and their two sons reported income of $2.1 million for the  year. One of the more egregious law violations was that Joe Wingo set up a corporation to buy a personal jet, then leased the jet to Angel Food Ministries for a $10,000 a month profit.

Menus were posted on website to show what foods were on the menu for a certain month. The following menu shows the food items on the September 2010 menu:

http://www.brownwoodnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3025:angel-food-ministries-september-2010-menu-&catid=36:life&Itemid=59

If convicted of the fraud charges Joe Wingo could receive a 105 year prison sentence, while his wife Linda would receive a 85 year sentence. Linda also told an employee to remove a hard drive from a computer and destroy it to thwart a federal grand jury investigation.

I was doing a search for Angel Food Ministries to see they had a local distribution point, when I encountered many articles about the Wingos being indicted.

Could find no information about a trial, so the prosecutors are probably still gathering evidence and should announce a trial date sometime in the future.

It is sad that a Christian ministry was enriching their own bank accounts, while seemingly concerned about those who couldn’t afford to pay exorbitant prices, for their groceries at local supermarkets.

Angel Food Ministries no longer is an active ministry, thanks to the Wingos who founded the ministry 17 years ago. Instead of focusing on the ministry the Wingos were busy padding their bank account, by using unscrupulous methods to enrich themselves.

The ministry was a good one, until the Wingos saw there was money to be made through the ministry. They funneled money to themselves instead of the ministry, but justice may have finally caught up with them. Wearing shackles to the courtroom may have given them the message, that they are in serious trouble, even though they deny any wrongdoing.

For more information on Angel Food Ministries and the charges against the Wingos:

http://www.christianpost.com/news/angel-food-ministries-founders-indicted-on-fraud-charges-64054/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_Food_Ministries

Dave Garroway: First Host of Today Show, Broadcasting Pioneer

Dave Garroway 1913-1982

David Cunningham Garroway was born on July 13, 1913 in Schenectady, New York. Garroway had lived in 13 places by the age of 14, but did settle in St. Louis, Missouri, where he attended University City High School and Washington University.  He earned a degree in abnormal psychology.

A broadcasting career didn’t seem to be on the horizon for Garroway, after he finished 23rd in a class of 24 for NBC announcers. He was still able to find work with KDKA in Pittsburgh, which reportedly was the first commercial radio station.

After having moved to Chicago after his stint with KDKA, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was a disc jockey for a Honolulu radio station on the side. Then after the war he returned to Chicago as a disc jockey on WMAQ radio.

Dave Garroway is shown promoting his new show Today with Fred Allen injecting humor during Garroway’s promotional pitch.

Garroway appeared in several radio and television shows before receiving his big break, when he became the original host of the Today show in 1952, including Garroway At Large which was broadcast by NBC from June 1949 to June 1951.

Dave Garroway and his co-host J. Fred Muggs shown celebrating the 5th anniversary of the Today show in 1957.

NBC began telecasting Wide Wide World from 1955-1958. I can recall watching this show often, since there was not much on television on Sunday afternoons.

Dave Garroway introducing the television program Wide Wide World. The video shows scenes from across America, while Garroway comments on what is happening. It is a great way to relive what it was like, on a Sunday afternoon in America 57 years ago.

The key to the success of Garroway was his easygoing style, which made him almost seem to be a family friend, when he was appearing on a television program. I will never forget him holding his hand up and saying “Peace” at the end of some of his programs.

It would have been nice to say that Garroway’s time on Today ended on the best of terms. He reportedly began to be more difficult to work with and even would disappear in the middle of the show. Then his world changed forever on April 28, 1961 when his second wife Pamela Wilde died from drug-related causes. It upset Garroway so much that he announced he was leaving Today and made his last appearance on Today on June 16, 1961.

Garroway didn’t disappear from the television screen, but never came close to being the force on television, that he was when he was the host of Today.

He appeared on the 30th anniversary show ofTodayon January 14, 1982 with his co-host Jack Lescoulie, and the news editor Frank Blair. In addition the anniversary show featured Pat Weaver who created Today.

It is sad to know that Garroway who appeared to be enjoying celebrating the 30th anniversary show, would be dead six months later.

Garroway had open heart surgery prior to taking his own life. He was found dead on July 21, 1982 in his Swarthmore, Pennsylvania home. He was 69 at the time of his death.

The following video of the 30th anniversary of Today was apparently videotaped on a VCR. The video is shaky at first but is better a few seconds later and very watchable.

The video shows the very first Today show from 1952 and will bring back memories to those who watched the show in the early days of the show.

It is ironic to hear that critic John Crosby thought Today would last no longer than 15 weeks. It turned out he was a little off, as the show celebrates its 60th anniversary this year.

While doing research on Dave Garroway, it reminded me once again of how little we really know, about celebrities like Dave Garroway. The late Andy Rooney of 60 Minutes did know Garroway better than most of us and knew that he did have a dark side as is revealed in this article written shortly after Garroway’s death:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=lNs0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=TfsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2343,847687&dq=dave+garroway+obituary&hl=en

This obituary tells more of the details of how his body was found 45 minutes after his wife left the house, on the morning of July 21, 1982:

http://www.richsamuels.com/nbcmm/davegarrowayobit.html

This article doesn’t come close to telling the life story of Dave Garroway. He was a complex man, with a wide variety of interests including jazz music, automobiles and astronomy.

Sadly, Garroway never wrote his planned autobiography, so we will never know his complete thoughts on the events in his life.

However, he does leave a legacy in the memories of each of  us who watched him five mornings a week for nine years on the Today show, watching him on Sunday afternoons for three years on Wide Wide World and countless other appearances after leaving both of those programs, in lesser known, but not any less important programs before his death.

The most lasting impression from Garroway was him holding his hand up and saying “Peace”. Thank you Mr. Garroway for doing your part in sharing the world with us.

American Idol: Heejun Han May Be Going Home

Heejun Han should be in the bottom three tonight.

Heejun Han is almost certainly to be in the bottom three, after Randy Jackson said that he was in the most trouble after singing last night. The other two judges, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler declined to give a name of a singer in trouble. I don’t know if this is a good idea, to ask the judges who is safe and who is in trouble. When a judge says someone is safe, the supporters of that singer may not bother to vote for them and we could have another Pia Toscano situation like in Season 10. The producers may instruct the judges to name names, of those singers in trouble instead,  of leaving it to America to decide like Jennifer Lopez stated. Ryan Seacrest was asking this question for a reason and it is to stir up drama, so when a judge refuses to name names there is no drama. Regardless, Heehun Han will be in the bottom three, if there is a bottom three tonight, in the aftermath of the Jermaine Jones dismissal from the show. American Idol producers have a few options, to avoid the show ending a week earlier than planned. The judges could use their save this week or later to keep the show on schedule. Or they could bring Jeremy Rosado back. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Speaking only for myself my favorites are Joshua Ledet, who lives 10 miles from here in Westlake, Louisiana, Shannon Magrane, Hollie Cavanagh, Jessica Sanchez and Erika Van Pelt. It is time that Jimmy Iovine and the guest mentor let the singers pick their own songs. They may have the best interests of the singer at heart, but the singer’s fate can depend on the song choice, so why not let them make that choice. It is better than them thinking later after being voted off the show, that they should have went with their own song choice. One thing for certain is that Joshua Ledet was by far the best singer last night, when he sang the Percy Sledge classic When A Man Loves A Woman. It started a little slow for me, but he brought it home in the last half of the song, as the judges gave him a standing ovation. Ledet is not only a singer, but a natural entertainer and will be interesting to listen to and watch in Season 11. Just hope the judges didn’t give him the kiss of death, by saying he is safe, when in reality nobody is ever safe on American Idol till they win on finale night in May. For more details on last night’s show: http://theclicker.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/14/10692860-a-bad-night-on-american-idol-for-more-than-just-dqd-jermaine-jones

World of Kardashians Crumbling?

The Kardashian family franchise may be showing signs of crumbling in the last few months. First of all there was the backlash, after Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from NBA player Kris Humphries. There are questions now if their wedding was genuine or a made for television sham that had nothing to do with reality.

Kourtney Kardashian is having a second baby born out-of-wedlock with Scott Dissick the father. That only shows a weakening of family values in American society, when a family with one child out-of-wedlock has another one on the way. Apparently Kourtney is still waiting for Dissick to prove his worth as a father for the children, but to me that should have been decided long ago. Of course Ryan Seacrest who produces Keeping Up With the Kardashians wants this kind of tension between Kourtney and Scott to continue, since drama drives ratings and the more drama the better for the E network.

 

Khloe and Lamar Move To Dallas

The relationship of Lamar Odom and his wife Khloe is being tested by the trade, that sent Odom to the Dallas Mavericks from the Los Angeles Lakers. Odom has not played well since joining the Mavericks and it could be that he is still incensed over being traded, so is not the player he was with the Lakers. He is too good of a player, to suddenly become a terrible player.

Odom is earning over $8 million this season and will continue to be paid his salary. The situation can’t be helped by the filming of Khloe and Lamar. All the drama during the filming may make for good television, but it can’t be good for the relationship or for Odom’s basketball career.

The situation became even worse last week when Odom was demoted to the developmental team but in the last 22 minutes that move has been rescinded. The same player who was voted the best sixth man in NBA last year is having a season to forget.

 A quick look at Odom’s percentage numbers this season compared to last season show badly he is playing this year. His field goal percentage has dropped from .530 last season to .357 this season. His free throw percentage fell from .675 to .577 and his scoring has almost been cut in half from 14.4 points per game last season to only 7.7 points per game this season.

 

Back To Lawsuit

Meanwhile back to the lawsuit, it raises the question, of if celebrities who endorse products should be financially liable, if that product is not as advertised. Assuming that the Kardashians actually used QuickTrim, they should have some idea of whether it is a good product or not. If they knew it was not as advertised and continued to endorse it, then they may be liable. However, it may be impossible to prove in a courtroom, that they knowingly endorsed a less than effective product, while knowing that product was not worthy of their endorsement.

One positive outcome from the suit is that it may warn celebrities, to really check out the products they are endorsing and not just assume they are as advertised.

This situation is reminiscent of when Pat Boone appeared in commercials touting Acne-Statin which was supposed to clear up skin blemishes. This Wikipedia entry tells about what happened to Boone, when it was proved that Acne-Statin was not what it was cracked up to be:

In 1978, Boone became the first target in the Federal Trade Commission‘s crackdown on false claim product endorsements by celebrities. He had appeared with his daughter Debby in a commercial to claim that all four of his daughters had found a preparation named Acne-Statin a “real help” in keeping their skin clear. The FTC filed a complaint against the manufacturer, contending that the product did not really keep skin free of blemishes. Boone eventually signed a consent order in which he promised not only to stop appearing in the ads but to pay about 2.5% of any money that the FTC or the courts might eventually order the manufacturer to refund to consumers. Boone said, through a lawyer, that his daughters actually did use Acne-Statin, and that he was “dismayed to learn that the product’s efficacy had not been scientifically established as he believed.”^[14

^{It will be interesting to follow the class action suit against the Kardashians, to see if they have to make restitution or whether they can emerge from the lawsuit, without having to pay anyone.}

There are plans for even more Kardashian spin-off shows on the E channel. It is surprising that people still watch these shows knowing there is very little reality involved in the so-called reality shows. Ryan Seacrest is getting richer and is making all the Kardashians richer from these shows. 

Maybe the Kardashian family will be more cognizant of the fans that buy the products they endorse and make more of an effort to insure that those products do what the Kardashians say they will do.

Their world may not be crumbling, but there are signs of cracks in the foundation.

 

 

 

Louisiana Gambling History: From Smashing Slot Machines To 22 Casinos Operating Today

Gov. Robert F. Kennon was governor of Louisiana from 1952-1956.

It was almost 60 years ago when Louisiana State Police Superintendent Francis Grevemberg started making surprise raids on gambling establishments in the 50′s and seized and smashed slot machines, rendering them to the point of which they were completely useless.

 

Grevemberg and his associates made 1,000 raids and destroyed 8,229 slot machines during 1952-1956 when Gov. Robert F. Kennon was the governor of Louisiana.

 

Gangster Frank Costello was forced out of the slot machine business in New York City when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia destroyed the machines and pushed them into a watery grave in the 30′s.

 

Senator Huey P. Long sensing a chance to make some quick money offered Costello a deal, where he could set up his slot machines in Louisiana, with Long demanding ten percent of the profits.

 

That is how Louisiana became saturated with slot machines and Grevemberg was given the task of ridding the state of slot machines.

 

Former Louisiana governor, Edwin Edwards was a Crowley attorney at the time and argued that the slot machines were legal, since they were being taxed by the state. For more on the raids and the history of slot machines see this Eunice Today article:

 

http://www.eunicetoday.com/view/full_story/8851601/article-Slot-machine-raids-divided-citizenry-

 

 

Louisiana State Police Superintendent Francis Grevemberg shown smashing slot machines during a raid in the 50′s on a gambling establishment during the Gov. Robert F. Kennon administration.

 

Governor Earl K. Long took office in 1956 and ordered a stop to the destruction of slot machines. Little did Long or anyone else for that matter foresee that the gambling industry was down, but not down for the count.

 

Now it is almost 60 years later and slot machines are in operation, by the thousands in Louisiana casinos. There are now 22 casinos in operation currently in the state of Louisiana.

 

With the proliferation of casinos today in Louisiana, the chances of slot machines being destroyed are slim and none. The taxes from the casinos are pouring into Louisiana coffers and any opposition to gambling casinos is probably a waste of time.

 

So instead of smashing slot machines being smashed, they are kept in good repair, so the state of Louisiana can continue to reap tax dollars from their use.

 

 

 

Disgusted Sponsor Sparked Twenty One Quiz Show Scandal

Charles Van Doren at left, Chuck Barry host and Herbert Stempel as they appeared on the Twenty One quiz Show.

 

Herbert Stempel shown stopping the game, that ended his run on Twenty One quiz show. Pay particular attention to the phony baloney spoken by both Stempel and host Jack Barry, since they both were participants in the rigging of the show.

 

The first Twenty One show aired September 10, 1956 and it didn’t go well, because neither contestant knew many of the answers. Pharmaceuticals, Inc. the maker of Geritol sponsored the show and the sponsor was infuriated, threatening to drop their sponsorship of the show if there was a repeat of the first show. That first show would be the only honest show in its two-year run.

 

The producers were desperate to placate the sponsor, so proceeded to tell the contestants, which questions to answer correctly or when to give the wrong answers. This may be the first time a reality show, turned into a non-reality show as nothing was ever real about this show again.

 

Two months later, Twenty One introduced Charles Van Doren, a college professor who competed against a nondescript Herbert Stempel. The producers wrung all the drama possible out of the shows, between the two contestants, but Van Doren eventually emerged victorious over Stempel.

 

Stempel was told to give the wrong answer to the question of which movie had won the 1955 Oscar for Best Picture. It so happened that the answer Marty was one of Stempel’s favorite movies. He could have thrown the show into chaos, since he thought about giving the correct answer, but decided to go along with the producers and give the wrong answer.

 

The show would remain on the air, despite Stempel was saying that the show was rigged. The show was investigated, but there was not enough proof of wrongdoing to take the show off the air.

 

Another quiz show Dotto came under scrutiny when a notebook with all the answers to the questions, for the other contestant was found. This brought a new spotlight on Stempel’s charges and Twenty One ended when Charles Van Doren confessed before a Congressional committee that he had been given the answers.

 

It would be 11 years before Jack Barry hosted another quiz show Generation Gap in 1969, then Barry would be the successful producer-host of The Joker’s Wild. Barry who had created Tic Tac Dough in the 50′s, now produced the Wink Martindale hosted version of the show in the 70′s and 80′s before Barry’s death.

 

Charles Van Doren’s statement about his involvement in the rigging of Twenty One. It is lengthy but takes us inside the mind, of a brilliant college professor who made some bad choices but told the truth to end tormenting himself for not telling the truth.

 

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6566/

 

Stempel a disgruntled contestant on Twenty One couldn’t prevent himself from disclosing the rigging of the show, despite knowing he would incriminate himself and Charles Van Doren.

 

This is just another reminder that what we see on television is not always real, even if they call it reality television. The sponsor of  Twenty One started the producers down the road of cheating and misleading television viewers. Once they went down that road, there was no turning back.

 

Drama is what sells on television. The sponsor thought nobody wants to see two contestants struggling to guess the right answers, so he scared the bejeebies out of the producers to force them to cheat and manipulate the show to protect their jobs.

 

Nobody would want to watch a reality show like Big Brother if all they did was sit around and talk about the weather. The same goes for quiz shows. It wouldn’t surprise me to hear that one of our quiz shows today has been manipulated to wring out more drama.

 

Viewers, beware of what you are watching, because it may not be real, no matter how much the producers deny they are not manipulating a show.

 

 

 

 

1968-1969: Years of Assassinations, Moonwalks and Protests

 

 

 

Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.

 1968 and 1969 were years defined by the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, American astronauts being the first to walk on the moon, anti-war protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the New York Jets and the New York Mets were surprise Super Bowl and World Series winners.

 

Super Bowl II would be won by the Green Bay Packers when they defeated the Oakland Raiders on January 14.

 

Mister Roger’s Neighborhood would be seen for the first time on February 19, 1968.

 

March 16, 1968 would be one of the low points of the Vietnam War when between 374-504 unarmed civilians were killed at My Lai by United States troops. 2nd Lt. William Calley was charged with 22 of the deaths and sentenced to life imprisonment, but only served three-and-a-half years of house arrest.

 

President Lyndon B. Johnson announced on March 31 that he would not be running for president in the 1968 election. His decision resulted in the Democrats only having one president elected in the next 24 years, when Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976. It would be 1993 before Bill Clinton took office as the 42nd president and he would become the first Democratic president to serve two complete terms since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

 

April 4, 1968 started a year of assassinations and demonstrations, when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated on the balcony of his Memphis motel room. Ironically only seven days later the Civil Rights Act bill was passed by Congress, which outlawed racial discrimination, which Dr. King had been fighting before his death.

 

Then only two months and one day after the assassination of Dr. King, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated while celebrating a win in California primary during his 1968 presidential bid. Sirhan Sirhan is arrested for the murder of Kennedy.

 

 If Kennedy had lived to win the Democratic nomination, he may have defeated Richard Nixon in the 1968 election. Instead Nixon defeated Senator Hubert Humphrey by half a million votes.

 

The Yippies led by Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman would descend on Chicago and the streets of Chicago turned into a riot zone as the Yippies and other radical groups battled Chicago police, U.S. Army and National Guard, while the Democratic convention was being held.

 

The chaos on the streets of Chicago poured onto the Democratic Convention floor when Senator Abraham Ribicoff denounced the use of Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago. His remarks enraged Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago would could be seen yelling at Ribicoff.

 

Anti-war protesters in Chicago may have hurt their own cause. In retrospect they may have protested at the wrong convention since the Democrats were more on their side than the Republicans. The Republican convention in Miami was turmoil free, in contrast to the chaos in Chicago.

 

Richard Nixon would go on to defeat Senator Humphrey in the general election.

 

1969 was another year with many newsworthy events and January 12 of 1969 would see the New York Jets defeat the Baltimore Colts 16-7, after Jets quarterback Joe Namath had predicted the Jets would upset the Colts.

 

Richard Nixon would take office as the 37th president on January 20. The Beatles who had first sang in America almost five years ago would hold their last public concert on January 30.

 

Sirhan Sirhan admits assassinating Bobby Kennedy on March 3. Ironically seven days later James Earl Ray would plead guilty to assassinating Dr. Martin Luther King. Later that month former President Dwight D. Eisenhower died on March 28, 8 years after finishing his second term as president.

 

The first American troop withdrawals of the Vietnam War were made on July 8. Senator Teddy Kennedy would end any hope of becoming president, when he drove his car off a bridge on July 18, in what became known as the Chappaquiddick incident. Mary Jo Kopechne would die at the age of 28 in the submerged car.

 

Two days later on July 20, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon, when the lunar module Eagle landed on the moon. It had to be ranked as one of the biggest stories of the 20th century. The first flight by the Wright Brothers in 1903 would have been another major advance in the 20th century. Their flight led to commercial flights by airlines in later years.

 

August 9, 1969 was a day of violence as Charles Manson followers killed actress Sharon Tate and four others. The next day August 10, they would murder Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their home.

 

August 15, 1969 will always be remembered as the day the Woodstock Music Festival kicked off on Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York. The promoters were expecting 50,000 fans, but those numbers were very conservative, considering 500,000 fans showed up.

 

August 17 would be another deadly day, this time because of Hurricane Camille which hit the Mississippi coast killing 248 people and causing damage of $1.5 billion.

 

The first ATM was installed in Rockville Centre, New York on September 2, while on the same day Ho Chi Minh, leader of North Vietnam died.

 

The Chicago Eight trial begin on September 24 in Chicago, but was changed to the Chicago Seven, when Bobby Seale a Black Panther was sentenced to four-year sentence for contempt of court.

 

Another New York sports team would win a championship, when the New York Mets defeated the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. Seven years earlier the Mets had been the laughingstock of baseball when they posted a 40-120 record in 1962.

 

On a lighter note Sesame Street would be seen for the first time on the National Education Network on November 10.

 

While 250,000-500,000 demonstrators were protesting against the war in Washington, D.C. on November 15, Dave Thomas is busy opening the first Wendy’s in Columbus Ohio.

 

American astronauts would walk on the moon, only four months after the initial landing, four months prior to the Apollo 12 landing. Pete Conrad and Alan Bean would both walk on the moon.

 

With the year drawing to a close, a draft lottery was put in place on December 1 and would be the last major event of 1969.

 

A quick rundown of the events in 1968-1969:

 

1968

 

Dr. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy Assassinated

Unarmed Vietnamese Citizens Killed By U.S. Troops

President Lyndon B. Johnson Announces He Will Not Run For Presidency

Anti-war protesters riot during the Democratic National Convention

Richard Nixon is elected president in general election.

 

1969

 

Richard Nixon takes office of presidency

Withdrawal of Vietnam troops commences

Teddy Kennedy drives car off bridge in Chappaquiddick incident

Four astronauts become first men to walk on moon

Charles Manson followers kill seven in two days

500,000 anti-war protesters attend Woodstock Music Festival

Hurricane Camille kills 248 persons

First ATM installed in Rockville Centre, New York

Ho Chi Minh Dies

Chicago 7 Trial Begins in Chicago

250,000-500,000 demonstrate in anti-war protest in Washington, D.C.

Dave Thomas opens first Wendy’s

Sesame Street shown for the first time on National Education Network

Draft lottery is instituted

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gov. Earl K. Long (La.) Sent to Mental Institution In 1959: Fires Administrators, Absconds From The Premises

 

1959 was not a good year for Governor Earl K. Long, the Democratic governor of Louisiana. Governor Long wanted to retain his position as governor, but was prevented from running again, since he was not allowed to succeed himself. So that problem, along with the return of his heavy drinking and taking up smoking again, combined to place him in a bad mental state. In addition he was taking pills to make him sleep, in combination with uppers and downers.

 

The situation was exacerbated when he was in a rage as he ranted during a legislative session. He later meant to apologize for his behavior, but instead flew into another rage instead.

 

The following short audio of Governor Long ranting  in the legislature can be heard here:

 

http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1959/Governor-Earl-Long-Goes-Crazy/12295509433704-5/

 

Jesse Bankston, the Louisiana Director of Hospitals, thought that Long needed immediate treatment, so had him restrained for two days, while mulling over what to do next about the governor.

 

It was determined that it would be better to transport Governor Long to an out-of-state hospital, so that he could not use his power of governor, so he was sent to a Galveston, Texas hospital.

 

Taken to Galveston Hospital

 

He was strapped into a gurney and flown from Baton Rouge to Galveston and taken to John Sealy Hospital. Dr. Titus Harris had been informed that Governor Louisiana was there on his own volition, but found out that was not the case.

 

Governor Long filed papers to be released from the hospital, after threatening his wife Blanche with federal kidnapping charges, for having him transported across state line to Texas. He then made a deal with Blanche and Russell Long, that he would consent to be sent to Oschner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans.

 

However after one day there, he told Blanche wanted to Winnfield to rest. Blanche told him that he had promised to stay at Oschner, but Earl said that he didn’t say how long he would stay.

 

Blanche Long worried about what the governor might do next, had Chester Williams the coroner of Baton Rouge prepare the papers, to have Governor Long committed to a state mental institution. Meanwhile Long who had left Oschner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans, was intercepted by six sheriff’s deputies and taken to Baton Rouge.

 

This paragraph from Inside Northside Magazine describes the chaotic scene at the courthouse:

The deputies dragged the governor of Louisiana, kicking and screaming, out of the car. They punched him, knocked him to the ground, and put him in their car. He was examined by the coroner, who was not a psychiatrist, and by a psychiatrist who had never met him. The psychiatrist rendered a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, which was quite commonly used at that time to commit anyone for any reason.
He was taken to Southeast Louisiana Hospital in Mandeville, where he was admitted under the commitment order. While he was treated there, the acting director of the hospital, Dr. Charles Belcher, later indicated that they had not made any final diagnosis of his true condition.

Governor Long contacted Joe Sims to represent him in a habeas corpus hearing in Covington, Louisiana. The governor had a trick up his sleeve though. He called a meeting of the state hospitals board to meet before the hearing.

The governor had Jesse Bankston removed from office at the meeting, then appointed a friend of his as the new director. The new director then proceeded to fire Dr. Charles Belcher the superintendent of Southeast Louisiana Hospital. The new superintendent, then stated that there was no reason for Governor Long, to remain in the hospital and authorized his release.

Feared Being Poisoned

Governor Long was taken to the Green Springs Motel in Covington to eat breakfast, but refused to eat food off his plate, fearing it might be poisoned, so helped himself to the food on the plates of the others eating there.

He would spend the next few days at the Pine Manor Motel in Covington and while he was there Blaze Starr a stripper, from Bourbon Street in New Orleans paid him a visit on July 2, 1959. His romance with Starr seemed to be more of a revenge thing, after Blanche had  him committed.

Long Garnered National Attention

Governor Long was in the national news that summer and we happened to be on vacation from Louisiana to Canada. One vehicle we encountered on the trip had someone holler “Hey Governor Long” at us. They probably couldn’t help themselves, when they saw the Louisiana license plates on our vehicle.

To read the complete article about him being committed the entire Inside Northside Magazine article, which is very lengthy can be read here:

http://www.insidenorthside.com/oct_nov03/art11.htm

53 years have passed since our governor went off the deep end and while researching today, have learned more about those days in one day, than what I have learned in the previous 53 years.

Runs For Lieutenant Governor

Governor Long was intent on becoming governor, but when he saw it wasn’t going to be allowed, he ran on the Noe-Long ticket with former governor of Monroe. The ticket came in a disappointing fourth place polling only 97,654 votes. They finished behind deLesseps Morrison with 278,956 votes, former governor Jimmie Davis with 213,551 votes and Senator Willie Rainach, who Long had ranted against in his legislature outburst received 143.095. The three candidates garnered 635,602 votes compared to the 97,654 votes for the Noe-Long ticket.

It looked like the political career of Governor Earl K. Long was dead in the water. But this is Earl K. Long we are talking about and he entered the race for the 8th Congressional District against incumbent Rep. Harold B. McSween. Surprisingly he won the election but died on September 5, 1960 at the age of 65, before he could take office.

The years 1959 and 1960 were turbulent years for Governor Long. It all started with his rant in the Louisiana legislature, then progressed to him being committed in two mental institutions, firing the administrators to be released. Then came his affair with the Bourbon Street stripper Blaze Starr, his loss as a lieutenant governor candidate in 1959, then he arose from the ashes to win the 8th Congressional representative seat, shortly before dying.

I only saw Governor Long once. He was at the Continental Trailways bus station making a speech on the stump, while handing out chickens to those, he hoped would vote for him.

Louisiana politicians were and are still known for taking their politics seriously and nobody took politics more seriously than Earl K. Long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heroes of D-Day Recount Experiences

 

Soldiers about to leave landing craft on D-Day on June 6, 1944.

The photo above makes me wonder what these soldiers were thinking, before leaving the landing craft on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Some of them would be dead minutes later, as they came under intense German gunfire from beyond the beach. They could see their fellow soldiers being shot, before they even left the landing craft.

I saw a PBS program about veterans returning to Normandy, France and telling their stories of what they experienced that day. One soldier was helping wounded soldiers, but then was hit himself several times. He had just told another soldier that he was too weak to help with the wounded soldiers and at that moment the other soldier was hit by a bullet that went in one side of his head and exited on the other side.

He assumed the soldier had died, but he encountered him at an Army reunion later and saw the man and his wife there. He told him that he thought he was dead and the other soldier thought the other soldier was dead. So both soldiers, had thought the other soldier was dead, when in fact both had survived their wounds from D-Day.

A 18 year old soldier on D-Day would be 86 years old today. The 70th anniversary of D-Day will be held on June 6, 2014. Any soldier that was 30 or older that day, probably would have died by that date.

Even though President Roosevelt had declared war on Germany on December 8 of 1941, it would be two-and-a- half years before American forces entered the European theater.

The French civilians on the program today, are still thankful for the Americans freeing them from German rule. They spoke of passing the torch to each generation of  the French people, to let them know that the American soldiers, were the reason that they regained their freedom.

Hitler’s harebrained military plans, enabled the Americans to gain inroads to other French cities, since he had 157 divisions on the Russian front, while having only 59 in France.

13,000 American paratroopers were dropped from the sky, as part of the D-Day invasion,  but the paratroopers were very fragmented and only 2,500 of them had joined up with their units, 24 hours after being dropped. One of the veterans on the PBS special said they wrapped up dead American paratroopers in their parachutes and buried them.

The allied forces were outnumbered 380,000 to 175,000 but still they still won the Battle of Normandy. Allied casualties at Normandy totaled close to 10,000 with 2,500 making the ultimate sacrifice for the allied forces.

Words can’t express our gratitude for the soldiers, who stepped out of their landing craft, facing death immediately and those that survived the onslaught at the beach, as they began their trek through France, as they liberated the French people, from the clutches of Adolf  Hitler.

X-Factor Finalists: Chris Rene, Melanie Amaro and Josh Krajcik

 

Chris Rene, Melanie Amaro and Josh Krajcik will vie to become the first winner of X-Factor in its inaugural season. The three singers will compete this week with the winner being announced on Thursday, Dec. 22.

The best singer remaining in the running, for the coveted $5 million recording contract, in my estimation is Melanie Amaro. My personal favorite is Chris Rene, since he has overcome many obstacles, to be competing to be the winner of the X-Factor. Going from being a garbage collector with a serious drug problem, to the brink of winning a $5 million recording contract, makes me want to root for him.

However, I expect to see either Josh Krajcik or Amaro take the top prize on Thursday night, on finale night. Krajcik has a powerful voice, but his mentor Nicole Scherzinger did nothing to change his stage persona or his appearance during the season. Rene changed his look during the season, due to L.A. Reid’s advice or did it on his own. Either way I think it increased his appeal. He commands the stage and seems to be enjoying entertaining the audience. Rene is by far the best entertainer, remaining in the running to win X-Factor.

Krajcik looks as unkempt as he did during the auditions and has made no attempt to clean up his look. Who would want to buy an album of his with his look, unless he changes it this week? It is sad to see a singer with such a great voice, look like he bought his clothes at a Goodwill store, with scraggly looking hair, that looks like it hasn’t encountered a brush or comb in months. I apologize to his fans for my criticism, but am only pointing this out, to say that a singer’s appearance is crucial to their success.

I look for Steve Jones to announce Amaro, as the winner on Thursday night. I still can’t believe that Simon Cowell chose four other female singers ahead of her.

Speaking of Jones, there are rumors that he will not return for the second season. He is opposite of Ryan Seacrest who seems to run a tighter ship, without all the drama. Jones has several times asked questions to singers or judges, that were emotionally distraught and refused to talk to him.

Jones seems to be obviously reading from a cue card, during X-Factor. I can’t see X-Factor bringing him back and will find a host, who is less annoying.

Shocking Eliminations

The most shocking elimination this season was when Rachel Crow was sent home, due to Scherzinger not being able to make a choice between Marcus Canty and Crow. The judges are paid to judge and her refusal to judge, resulted in Crow going home, since it was her only chance, to remain on the show.

Drew seemed to be a lock for the final three along with Crow, but Cowell’s insistence on her singing in a chair, for an entire song resulted in her being voted off the show.

The animosity between Cowell and Reid speeded up Drew’s departure from the show.

Summary of first season as of today: My personal opinion is that X-Factor went overboard, on the big production numbers. I can’t remember this many big production numbers, on American Idol. Their focus was more on the singers and not the staging of the songs.

X-Factor did well in the ratings, but didn’t come close to approaching the ratings numbers for American Idol. I look for American Idol to continue draw more than 20 million viewers in its 2012 season. Cowell had predicted 20 million viewers for X-Factor, but was 9 to 10 million off most of the season.

Jones, the host was a major distraction during the inaugural season. Know he was being hurried by producers, but then those same producers slowed down the show, by the dead air when announcing who was staying on the show.

X-Factor did alright for a first season, but it seems like they could have come up, with a better final three, than that competing on Thursday night for the big prize.

The fighting between the mentors, took the focus off the singers and onto the judges. Cowell and Reed were particularly disrespectful to the singers, in the other mentor’s tutelage.

One of the singers will have a $5 million recording contract, after the show on Thursday night. Amaro to me, has the best chance of becoming a recording star.

1953: The Last Year With No Rock and Roll On Charts

Song From Moulin Rouge by Percy Faith Orchestra was the No.1 song in 1953.

 

It was hard to believe that the first major rock and roll song, Shake, Rattle and Roll by Bill Haley and the Comets, would break into the Top 30 list, the next year 1954 ending in the No.26 spot. Bill Haley would come back in 1955, for his monster hit Rock Around the Clock, which went to No.2 on the chart.

The country had gone from an easy listening orchestra song in 1953, to two of the rocking and rollingest songs ever, in the space of two years.

These are some of the songs that were on the 1953 list, that began the end of the easy listening music era:

No. 2:  Vaya Con Dios – Les Paul and Mary Ford

No. 3:  How Much Is That Doggie In The Window – Patti Page….It was a novelty song that I can remember from Your Hit Parade Days.

No.8:  No Other Love – Perry Como

No.9:  Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes – Perry Como….Como had a third song on the list also Say Your Mine at No.21

No.12:  Ebb Tide – Frank Chacksfield Orchestra….One of the classic easy listening songs of all time. The orchestra  also had the No.27 song Limelight on the 1953 chart.

No.19:  Rags To Riches – Tony Bennett….One of the few singers who had a long career despite rock and roll taking over the charts.

No.22:  Dragnet – Ray Anthony Orchestra….Theme song from the television show Dragnet.

One of my favorite singers Joni James singing Why Don’t You Believe Me which was No.25 in 1953. She also had No.26 Your Cheating Heart and No.30 Have You Heard.

1953 chart represented a smorgasbord of musical tastes, from orchestra music, to novelty tunes, to the great crooners like Perry Como, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, groups like Hilltoppers, Ames Brothers and Gaylords, up and coming stars like Joni James, who would miss years of singing, while taking care of her very sick husband.

At the end of 1953, nobody probably even thought, that in 1956 Elvis Presley would have five songs in the Top 30, with Carl Perkins and Gene Vincent,  also having rock and roll songs, plus Bill Doggett had his instrumental hit Honky Tonk, which clearly was not an easy listening recording.

1956 emphasized even more that the easy listening era, was coming to an end. There were still some crooners and orchestras on the 1956 list. It is safe to say that 1957 was the year that rock n’ rollers took over the charts, 25 rock and roll songs making the top 30.

The easy listening era was over. We can still listen to old records and cassettes from the past, but it looks like rock n’ roll is here to stay, until the next best thing comes along.

The Bobhorst.com website lists the Top songs of each year from 1946-2010. The list expanded from Top 30 to Top 100. The link will take readers to the 1953 charts, but it can be switched to any year easily.

http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/top-100-songs-of-the-year/?year=1953

North Dakota Oil Boom: Slumlords Forcing Seniors Out Of Residences

Lois Sinnes, 82 was planning on living out the rest of her life, in the same community she grew up in. However, due to the oil boom in North Dakota, she was forced to move out by a greedy slumlord, who tripled her rent.

Sinnes is now living 230 miles away, after her landlord almost tripled, her $700 a month rent. What kind of person would force an 82-year-old woman, to leave the community she grew up in? A person who is a greedy, money-loving scumbag, who lets the mighty dollar rule his or her life, ignoring the effect it has on those, who can’t afford the exorbitant rent being charged. This landlord even had the nerve, to charge a $2,000 security deposit, to clients already living in the apartments.

There could still be a happy ending for Sennes, since she owns mineral rights, in the area and could sell those rights to drillers. She says she will return one way or the other, since she will be buried in town next to her husband. For right now, she is living in a town 230 miles away and doesn’t know what the future holds.

Some two bedroom apartments, in the area, are being rented for $2,000 a month. An ordinary mobile home is on the market for $149,500.  There is not nearly enough housing, for the influx of oil workers, so some workers are living in their cars and tents.

Compassionate Landlord

Mayo Miller 80, is fortunate that her landlord hasn’t raised her rent. She is paying $550 a month and delivers her rent check in person to thank her landlord, who is showing that there are some compassionate landlords left in the area.

It is good to know that money is not what drives her landlord. Otherwise, her landlord would be gouging the renters, like the slumlords who couldn’t care any less than they do, about the seniors being forced to leave their residences. Her landlord who realizes, not everyone is getting rich off the oil boom, could be charging Miller $3,000 a month for the apartment, but is doing the right thing, by letting her stay in her apartment.

Oil Boom Providing Jobs

The oil boom is providing jobs to thousands of workers, who are moving into the area. That is the main positive of the oil boom. However there is a huge negative, in that the oil boom encourages price gouging, knowing that the oil workers are being well-paid. Their gouging is not hurting the oil workers, once they get a few paychecks in the bank, but the people living on fixed incomes are seeing their dreams, of living their golden years peacefully,  in their hometown, being shattered by unscrupulous landlords.

To Gouge Or Not To Gouge?

Decisions are being made everyday, in the oil patch area. Landlords are having to decide, whether to do the right thing or join the crowd and start gouging their tenants, to inflate their bank accounts.

Senior Citizens Making Tough Decisions

The senior citizens and other tenants are having to make life-changing decisions, like finding a place to live, in another city or state, knowing their lives will not end the way they planned. Instead they are the victims of an oil boom, that creates job, but also creates victims of that oil boom.

Some of these landlords may later regret driving these senior citizens, from their residences, but it won’t make things any better, for the residents who are now living hundreds of miles away, from the hometown that they grew up in.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45292504/ns/local_news-clarksburg_wv/t/oil-boom-raises-rents-nd-pushes-seniors-out/

 

 

 

 

Have Kardashians Killed the Reality TV Star?

Photos from the wedding of Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries: Was anything about this wedding real?

When Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries exchanged wedding vows on August 20,2011, it looked they were headed, to a lifetime of happiness. However, that happiness came to a screeching halt when Kim Kardashian, decided 72 days later, that she didn’t really want to be married to Kris Humphries and filed for divorce.

Now Kim’s former publicist Jonathan Jaxson says, that the wedding was staged for the benefit, of the E channel which was televising the nuptials. Jaxson who says Kardashian didn’t pay money owed to him, so it may be a case of sour grapes, but then it could have been, only a ploy for ratings.

Jaxson is quoted in this article revealing how Kim loved to be the center of attention, to the point of creating unreal situations:

The publicist explained of their previous working relatinship, “I staged so many paparazzi moments for her…I arranged for her to be coming out of a jewelry store and made it look like Reggie was planning to propose to her.

“She would call and tell me to alert the press so there were cameras there whenever anything happened,” he revealed to the Radar. “Reggie cottoned onto it and he didn’t like it, that was part of the reason they split up. He couldn’t handle the fame and her desire for it.”

After the wedding, Kourtney and Kim Take New York began filming, creating a perfect situation, when E cameras would be rolling for the drama, between the not so happy newlyweds.

 Then after the filming was completed, Kim filed for divorce, knowing she and executive producer Ryan Seacrest, had no more use for Kris.

Kim’s mom Kris Jenner, has denied that the wedding was staged, but that is hard to believe, knowing her history of  promoting the Kardashian name. There is no way she is going to admit it was staged, whether it was or not.

 Ratings of Kourtney and Kim Take New York

The ratings of Kourtney and Kim Take New York, will be closely watched by the E channel executives and by Ryan Seacrest, who created the show. If ratings tumble after an apparently staged wedding for television purposes, then the Kardashians may slowly disappear from cable television.

We soon should know some answers when the show debuts in its new season later this month. Kim Kardashian may have sensed, that living in Minnesota, with Humphries would diminish her popularity and chose divorce over settling down with her husband.

Kim Voted Most Annoying By Parade Magazine

It was no surprise that a Parade magazine poll listed Kim Kardashian as the most annoying person with 29 percent of the vote compared, to second place Charlie Sheen, with 27 percent of the vote. Snooki came in third, with 21 percent of the vote.

E channel is bombarding us with three Kardashian series which rotate during the year, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Khloe and Lamar and the aforementioned Kourtney and Kim Take New York.

The wedding may or not have been staged, but a lot of fans will wonder if it was, after the sudden divorce, after 72 days of marriage.

This is just my opinion, but I think that the Kardashians have killed the reality television star, showing us that nothing about the Kardashians is real. Producers know viewers don’t want, to see the Kardashian family sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows, so they give us drama and a lot of it.

It makes me wonder now if Scott Disick even really hurt his hand, as badly as shown on television. The Las Vegas incident in which Disick stuffs bills in the mouth of a waiter, seems staged to me. If that really happened, it seemed like he would have been escorted out of the building, which I don’t remember happening.

If the Kardashian producers and other reality television show producers, are playing viewers for fools, they better hold on to their money, because their money train could be coming to a screeching halt very soon.

The reality TV star may not be dead, but could be in its death throes today.

Duggars to Change Name of Show: 20 Kids and Counting

There should be a name change in the future for 19 Kids and Counting as Michelle Duggar and her husband Jim Bob Duggar, announced on Today show, that they are expecting a 20th child in April. Jim Bob said they didn’t want to stop at an uneven number.

It is surprising that they would want another baby, after the problems experienced last time, for both mother Michelle and daughter Josie as detailed in this paragraph from the article at msnbc.com.

Michelle Duggar’s last pregnancy was fraught with danger. She suffered from gall-bladder problems as well as preeclampsia. In order to save her life, doctors delivered daughter Josie three and a half months prematurely – she weighed only one pound, six ounces at birth, and endured a series of health emergencies, including a perforated bowel. Josie eventually went home with the rest of the Duggar family, and is now a healthy toddler who will celebrate her second birthday in December.

It is hard to believe that they would take the chance  of  losing the mother or baby again, after what happened last time.

http://moms.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/07/8684372-20-kids-and-counting-michelle-duggar-announces-shes-pregnant-again

Richard Nixon’s First Brush With Fame In Alger Hiss Case, Career Highlights

Alger Hiss who was convicted of perjury in 1950 after a House Un-American Activites committee which included Richard Nixon sent the case to a grand jury and eventually led to his conviction.

Richard Nixon was a first term Republican congressman, from California, when he was appointed a member of subcommittee of three to investigate the Alger Hiss case. Nixon, Edward Hebert of Louisiana and John McDowell from Pennsylvania were given the job to determine whether Whittaker Chambers or Alger Hiss were giving truthful testimony.

They found enough evidence to bring the Hiss case to a grand jury, even though FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover had told them, he was told to not cooperate with the committee. The committee  investigators unearthed enough evidence, to bring the case to the grand jury.

Alger Hiss had advanced into a high position in the U.S. government, serving as an assistant to Secretary of State Edward Stettinus. Hiss accompanied Stettinus,to the Yalta Conference in February of 1945. The purpose of the conference ,was for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill, to plan the defeat of Adolf Hitler, which came a couple of months after the conference.

Hiss would later be found to have given intelligence to the Russians as early as the 1930′s. The fact that reached such a high standing, in the American government is troubling. It was alarming at the support he received from top government officials during his trials.

Chambers would produce five rolls of micro-film, which would become known as the “Pumpkin Papers”, since Chambers had hidden them inside a pumpkin.

This website has extensive information about the Pumpkin Papers:

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/pumpkinp.html

Grand Jury Indictment, Two Trials

A grand jury indicted Hiss on two perjury charges, but he wasn’t charged with espionage, because of the statute of limitations. Hiss then went to trial on May 31, 1949 and ended in a hung jury on July 7 of the same year.

The case against Hiss seemed to take a turn for the worse, when the key government witness, Chambers admitted he had given false testimony in the past. Hiss had friends in high places, in President Harry Truman, who called the trial a “red herring” and Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, who thought Hiss was innocent.

The second trial which started on May 17, 1949 ended on November 17, 1949 and it ended on January 21, 1950.

Typewriter Key Evidence

The key evidence against Hiss was that experts identified his typewriter, as the one which had been used to type stolen documents, then the top-secret papers were given to the Russians. Hess claimed until he died, that he had been framed and that the government, had committed forgery with his typewriter, to make it appear the documents, had been typed on his Woodstock typewriter.

Hiss Receives Five Year Sentence

Alger Hiss was convicted of two counts and sentenced to five years in prison, on January 25, 1960, on two perjury counts. He would be released 44 months later on November 27, 1954.  Ironically, Hiss would be allowed to practice law in Massachusetts d on August 5, 1975. Hiss died on November 15, 1996 in New York City, claiming his innocence to the end.

Richard Nixon handout from his first Congressional election in 1946 in California which he won.

Nixon Rises to National Prominence

Richard Nixon made the most, of his first national exposure and would be elected a U.S. Senator from California in 1950. Two years later in 1952 he would be chosen to be the vice presidential candidate in the 1952 presidential election in which Dwight D. Eisenhower would become the first Republican president, since Herbert Hoover left office in 1929. Nixon would serve as vice president until 1961.

Checkers Speech

Nixon would make the headlines many times in the future. Nobody who was around back then, can forget his “Checkers” speech, when he addressed questions about his campaign finances.

Nixon Attacked in Peru, Venezuela

He would make news again when he confronted anti-American demonstrators in Peru, then his limousine would be attacked in Caracas, Venezuela, with both events in 1958.

Kitchen Debate With Khrushchev

Who can forget Nixon’s famous “Kitchen Debate” with Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev, over the merits of capitalism and communism in 1959?

Lost 1960 Presidential Election

Nixon would win the Republican nomination. in 1960, but after a poor performance in the first presidential debate, would lose the presidential election, to John F. Kennedy by a slim 120,000 votes.

Loses By 300,000 Votes in California Governor Race

Many wrote the obituary for Nixon’s political career, when he lost to Gov. Pat Brown in the 1962 gubernatorial race, by a margin of 300,000 votes.

Rises From the Ashes in 1968

After his loss in California, Nixon practiced law and supported 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, then supported 1966 congressional candidates. He was nominated to be the 1968 Republican candidate, while Senator Hubert H. Humphrey was nominated by the Democrats, at a tumultuous convention, in Chicago due to demonstrations, by anti-Vietnam war protesters in the streets of Chicago. Nixon wins by a half million votes over Humphrey.

Wins Overwhelming Victory in 1972

Nixon would win every state except Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, in an overwhelming victory over Democratic candidate George McGovern.

President Gerald Ford, Betty Ford, Pat Nixon and former President Richard Nixon walk toward helicopter, that would leave with them for the last time on August 9, 1974 after his resignation.

Watergate Ends His Political Career

Five men broke into the Democratic National Convention offices, in the Watergate Hotel on June 17, 1972. There was no reason for the break-in as Nixon won the 1972 presidential election easily.

Nixon would use every political trick imaginable to cover up, White House involvement with the cover-up of the break-in. Nixon’s tactic was to deny, deny and deny some more, that the White House was involved. His own taping system in the White House came back to haunt him. We will never forget his famous “I Am Not A Crook” speech, but eventually admitted he was a crook by leaving office in disgrace, becoming the first president to resign from office. We can only imagine, what Nixon and his wife were feeling as the helicopter, left the White House grounds, for the last time.

 

X-Factor Fans Should Know Bell, Francis and Hagood Have Had Past Success

LeRoy Bell of X-Factor and Casey James who comprised Bell and James duo in the 70's.

X-Factor has given its fans the impression that 60 year old LeRoy Bell is trying for one last chance at fame. However, Bell as part of  the Bell and James singing duo had already experienced fame in a big way at the age of 28, when their hit song Livin’ It Up reached No.7 on the U.S. Blacks chart in 1979. That single sold over a million copies, which made it a platinum seller.

LeRoy Bell and Casey James of Bell and James singing their hit song Livin’ It Up.

X-Factor is taking a huge credibility hit, by not revealing that LeRoy Bell had a huge hit 32 years ago. X-Factor willingly or unwillingly has led its fans to think Bell was some down on his luck singer. Bell and James were a short-lived group who made only three albums, releasing their last album in 1981.

The worst thing is that a younger singer or group has lost their chance to be on X-Factor, because of Bell. There also have been rumors circulating that Stacy Francis has also had some success in the music business in the past.

Stacy Francis singing at a birthday party for Tom Cruise.

Dexter Hagood Wanted Off X-Factor

A third over 30′s singer Dexter Hagood asked to be taken off X-Factor, which as far as I know, was never mentioned on the show. His reason was that he only wants to sing rock. I was actually feeling sorry for him, but it turns out he sang with Xavion, the first all black group to appear on MTV. He should have known that singing competition shows, don’t allow the singers to sing only genre of music.  I can’t help but wonder if his tears were real, if he is willing to walk away from a possible $5 million recording contract because he is not getting to sing, his kind of music week after week.

There are reports the group wants him back, in the group and had lost contact with him, until they saw him on X-Factor. Unless Josh Krajcik has also had success in the past, he should be the best of the over 30′s singer by default, considering the other three contestants hid their past, or X-Factor didn’t do their homework on their backgrounds.

 

 

Stories mentioning the Hagood, Bell and Francis:

 

http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2011/11/the-x-factors-dexter-haygood-says-he-left-voluntarily.html

http://entertainment.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474980703368

 

 

http://www.cinemablend.com/television/X-Factor-Stacy-Francis-Lying-About-Her-Past-36600.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

American Idol: Paul McDonald Marries Nikki Reed

Paul McDonald of American Idol fame and actress Nikki Reed were married on Sunday in Malibu, California.

Paul McDonald may not have won Season 10 of American Idol, but he won the heart of actress Nikki Reed. They were married in Malibu, California after having announced their engagement in June.

McDonald finished eighth on the American Idol reality show and was eliminated on April 14, 2011. He had met Reed at a Hollywood premiere and his early elimination gave them more time to see each other.

Reed has appeared in five Twilight movies, with the fifth one The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part II currently in post-production.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2049967/Nikki-Reed-marries-Twilight-star-weds-American-Idol-beau-Paul-McDonald.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Neil Diamond Enters Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at 70

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Neil Diamond early in his career.

A more recent photo of Neil Diamond.

Neil Diamond was born in New York City on January 24, 1941. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 14, 2011. First thought is what took them so long to induct him, behind a band named Traffic, which was inducted in 2004. Traffic may have been a great group, but I can’t recall the name of even one of their songs, or band members and wasn’t even sure what they looked like, till I saw their photo at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website. There is no reason for Neil Diamond to wait 45 years to be inducted, after writing a No.1 song in I’m A Believer, which was also Popular Music Song of the Year in 1966.

Sweet Caroline perhaps his best known recording peaked at No.3 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart but went platinum. Diamond had Holly Holy in 1969, Cracklin’ Rosie and 1979′s duet You Don’t Bring Me Flowers with Barbra Streisand all reach the platinum status.

Neil Diamond singing Dry Your Eyes in The Last Waltz a 1978 movie.

Cracklin’ Rosie First No.1 Hit

Diamond achieved fame as a songwriter, before recording is first No.1 hit in 1970′s Cracklin’ Rosie, which was written and sung by Diamond. Two years later in 1972 Diamond would place Song Sung Blue, in both the U.S. and U.S. Adult Contemporary categories on the record chart.

Then Diamond continuing the trend of having a No.1 hit every two years, recorded Longwell Serenade, which was a No.1 song in U.S. Adult Contemporary in 1974.

Diamond would record ten No.1 hits during his career, with the last No. 1 being Heartlight released in 1982.

Only One No.1 Studio Album

The first studio album was released by Diamond in 1966. It would be 42 years later, in 2008 when he had Home Before Dark, a studio album place No. 1 on the record chart.

No other Neil Diamond album ever went to No.1, but six of his albums were designated as multi-platinum.

Neil Diamond singing his classic Sweet Caroline.

Third Most Popular Adult Contemporary Artist

Only Barbra Streisand and Elton John have sold more albums than Diamond among all adult contemporary artists. He is still touring at the age of 70 and drawing huge crowds.

Even at age 70, Diamond was No.1 in ticket sales according to this news from Billboard.com ahead of No.2 Jason Aldean and No.3 Dolly Parton:

Neil Diamond shines at No. 1 on the latest Hot Tours ranking with $4 million in ticket sales reported by London’s O2 Arena, the final venue on his tour outing during the spring and summer.  The veteran singer/songwriter played three shows in London on July 9, 11 and 13 with a combined attendance total of 36,000 for all three nights, capping off a slate of June/July arena performances in five markets in the U.K. and Ireland.  Diamond kicked off his 2011 tour in New Zealand at the end of February and played dates in Australia and South Africa during March and April.  The European leg began in Belgium in early June.

Dubious Claim To Fame

There is one thing that Neil Diamond would probably not want to be remembered for. His America would be used as the theme song, in the presidential campaign  of Michael Dukakis, in his futile bid for the presidency in 1988.

Katie McNeil is the fiancée of Neil Diamond who announced their engagement last month via Twitter.

Neil Diamond has had an eventful year, having been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March, even though some thought he was drunk when he made his acceptance speech, if it can be called a speech.

His concerts are drawing huge crowds and earning millions of dollars, but even more importantly, he has announced his engagement with his manager Katie McNeil.

Diamond has been in the music business for about 50 years, but he seems as popular as ever, since his fans are still showing up in droves in whatever venues, that he appears.