Since one of our frequent commenters grew up in the nation in question, I’m thinking they’ll be interested in seeing this. From Odessa, Ukraine:
Darth Vader replaces Lenin monument
It’s no joke. And maybe I’m out to lunch, but to me it seems somehow . . . apropos. (smile)
Reports are a little confusing at this point, but apparently, some guy in a Star Wars mask went into a school in Trollhattan, Sweden with some edged weapons and killed a teacher and a student and injured another student, according to BBC;
One student told The Local newspaper: “I was in a classroom with my class when one of my classmates’ sisters called her to warn her that there was a murderer at the school. So we locked the door to the classroom, but our teacher was still outside in the corridor.
“We wanted to warn him, so a few of us went outside and then I saw the murderer, he was wearing a mask and had a sword. Our teacher got stabbed.
“The murderer started chasing me, I ran into another classroom. If I had not run, I would have been murdered. I’m feeling really scared. Everyone’s scared here.”
Good guys with guns showed up and shot the fiend who is in surgery. Sky News writes that two other students were also injured.
Charles sends us a link to an article about a State Guardsman in South Carolina who was hit by an angry 73-year-old man driving his car during the state of emergency last week. According to the story, Charles Kauffman intentionally struck Guardsman Bob Kuenzli while Kuenzli was directing traffic. Kauffman has been charged with attempted murder.
It looks like the reporter correctly identified Kuenzli as a State Guardsman, but the editor changed the headline to make him a National Guardsman;
The State Guard is a completely volunteer organization and is in no way shape or form part of the military. The South Carolina State Guard is one of the tools a governor has to help maintain order in her state. It looks like Mr. Kuenzli is indeed a veteran of the actual military, but he doesn’t appear in AKO or the global directory. I don’t blame him or the reporter – the URL shows that when the reporter submitted the story to the editor, he wrote that Kuenzli is a State Guardsman.
We hope that Mr. Kuenzli recovers quickly from his wounds and that Mr. Kauffman gets his just desserts.
It’s Columbus Day. So, here ya go – a musical “blast from the past”, down-under style. If you’re old enough, you might even remember this one. Enjoy.
For what it’s worth: the singer’s professional name is “Joe Dolce” – and that also happens to be his real name. He was born in Ohio, and has apparently been a US ex-pat in Australia for close to 40 years now (since about 1978). This was his biggest hit.
The song was a huge international hit in 1981. It hit #1 in a number countries (15) – including the UK, France, Germany, Australia, and Italy; was #2 in Canada; and charted in the US.
And yeah, he’s of Italian-American heritage. His Italian-American grandparents were reportedly the inspiration for the song.
If you have a problem with the song, I suggest you talk to Joe. I’m sure he’ll listen – as he’s on the way to the bank to cash his next royalty check. And then I’d guess he’ll refer you to the song’s title. (smile)
If you’re offended, I’d also suggest you find a quarter and buy a clue – or a sense of humor – and quit being outraged over nada. As I noted above, the song was a #1 hit in freaking Italy. So if Italians of the day didn’t have a problem with it and made it a #1 hit, I’m thinking you shouldn’t have a problem with it either.
Happy Columbus Day, everyone.
Figuratively speaking on the “terminally” – though I’m not sure whether we should be glad or sad about that.
In Michigan, a man was allegedly afraid of spiders. So when he saw one, he tried to burn it to death with his cigarette lighter.
While at a gas station. And while getting gas.
Did I mention the spider was on his vehicle’s gas tank?
Luckily the resulting fire was quickly extinguished without injuries – except to the gas pump involved, which was destroyed.
Idiot.
Some tunes are tied to a particular person, time, or place. Others are broader in their appeal.
Then there are some songs that are tied to a particular time of life. This is one of the latter. Enjoy.
The male singer was, well . . . to be charitable, he was homely. But the man could indeed sing. (The ladies involved – there were two – were anything but homely.) And Jim Steinman could certainly write catchy rock-n-roll.
Yeah, it’s rather cliche; it’s overdone, and it’s dated. But then again: don’t everyone’s teen years always seem that way in retrospect? (smile) And IMO this one captures some aspects of that time of life better than most.
A few bits of trivia about Paradise by the Dashboard Light, courtesy of Wikipedia:
1. Yes, that’s indeed MLB Hall of Famer and longtime Yankees announcer Phil Rizzuto doing the “play-by-play”. Whether he knew the context in which his vocals were to be used has been disputed. Rizzuto later claimed he did not know the intended context when he recorded the vocal. However, Meat Loaf (the male vocalist, who was present at that recording session) later stated that Rizzuto was fully aware of the intended context but later feigned ignorance to deflect criticism. Decide for yourself who you want to believe.
2. The lady singing in the audio here is not Karla DeVito, who appeared on the song’s music video (above) and toured with Meat Loaf; it’s Ellen Foley. DeVito lip-synched Foley’s vocal for the video; she sang it on tour. Both ladies are accomplished singers (as well as quite attractive).
You may recognize Foley from her work on television a few years after this tune was recorded – she played the character Billie Young during the second season of the TV series “Night Court”.
3. Todd Rundgren played guitar on the tune; Edgar Winter played saxophone. The song’s author Jim Steinman played keyboards and is also credited with “lascivious effects” on the recording. (smile)
4. Meat Loaf had previously appeared in the now-cult-classic film “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. Due to that fact, a recording of a live performance of the song was made on 35mm film and distributed to theaters showing “Rocky Horror” for use as a short subject before midnight screenings (the film was beginning its journey to midnight feature cult classic at the time).
The Associated Press reports that a member of the legacy governor’s staff was shot in the head when he was caught up in gun battle between gangs at New York City’s West Indian Day Parade yesterday morning.
At first I thought maybe he’d been shot by the New York Police Department as part of their bystander eradication program, but apparently not.
Of course, the legacy Governor, Andrew Cuomo is having problems dealing with the incident;
“I’m the governor of the state of New York, and there’s not a thing I can do,” Cuomo told reporters after he visited his staffer’s family at Kings County Hospital. “There’s not a thing I can say, and there’s nothing I can do. And sometimes it just hurts.”
But you can bet that he’ll use the shooting as an excuse to pass more gun laws, you know, even though the tragedy happened in the most regulated area of the entire country, yet they can’t seem to get criminals to follow the laws they write. Even though Cuomo admits that’s there is nothing he can do to prevent gun violence, that won’t stop him from doing something, anything.
I mean, I’m sure that the state called every registered gun owner in the state to see if they had an alibi for their whereabouts during the shooting – that’s the only law enforcement reason to have gun registration in the state, right? So they can solve crimes by trolling through the list of gun owners. Otherwise, the only reason to register every gun in the state is to know where the guns are when they finally decide to confiscate all of the guns, or, at least, particular guns.
But, the article isn’t without a few laughs;
Cuomo and several other elected officials were planning to fly to Puerto Rico to offer advice to the island government grappling with a debt crisis
And maybe Chris Christie will fly down and give Puerto Rico some dieting tips, Joe Biden can give them home defense tips, Bernie Sanders can fly down and give them some business tips.
