Joe Cocker passed today at 70 years old. He wasn’t a veteran or anything, but “You Are So Beautiful” convinced a lot of girls to be bad during my days as a young soldier.
He also convinced me that I should leave the bathroom window unlocked;
Joe had a unique stage presence that was parodied by Jim John Belushi;
I believe in Father Christmas.
A few years ago, I realized that if a man is lucky he will go through the three stages of Santa Claus. I have been fortunate in my life, I have hit each stage and am a better man for it.
For those of you that don’t know what those three stages are, I will explain.
Stage 1. I believe in Santa. As a child, the belief in Santa is absolute, we know that there is a Santa, and we thrive in the wonder and spirit of Christmas.
Stage 2. I don’t believe in Santa. I remember when I found out there was no Santa, it changed my life, innocence lost. For a while I still wanted to believe. Then I pretended it did not matter. Later, I became jaded and scoffed at the whole idea, how could I have been so foolish? Later was the acceptance, Christmas had lost its magic, it was all about the gifts I could get.
Stage 3. I am Santa Claus, I have been Santa for almost 30 years, and with the birth of my first son I inherited the title. Christmas had its magic again, I saw the wonder of it all again, through the eyes of my children. I have loved every second of it.
I can remember one or two Christmases as a child, I remember every one as an adult. Those are the most special. Any parent who has ever watched A Christmas Story and remembers the dad saying “What’s that over there?” will understand that it’s about bringing joy to the kids. I have held many titles in my life, but the one I liked the most was Santa. One Christmas as an adult stands out in my mind, we had five kids under the age of twelve, the oldest two knew the deal with Santa but they were under orders not to ruin it for the younger ones. Over a period of days we had manages to smuggle five bikes and other things into the house and hid them in every possible location. Christmas Eve: getting everything out was a logistical work of art.
I admit I am at a bit of a loss this year, my kids are all grown and getting on with their own lives. I have a beautiful granddaughter, but she lives on the other side of the country, facetime and skype are nice but its not the same as being there. So I guess I need to add another Stage. I used to be Santa.
For those of you with young kids, please remember to buy batteries for all the toys, and I promise in the years to come you will look back on putting toys together, and then not getting any sleep fondly. I can honestly say that in my days as Santa I enjoyed getting up on Christmas morning to see the kids open their gift more than any gift I ever received. I admit I pretend to be a bit of a Grinch at Christmas, but it’s just a front I use to hide my real identity as one of the millions of retired Santas in the world.
Merry Christmas to you, my TAH friends and “God bless you every one.”
We hear that phrase from time to time. But it’s rarely done in practice.
However, check out this little gem from Vietnam:
Yes, that is EXACTLY what you think it is slung under the wing of that aircraft (an A-1H belonging to the US Navy’s VA-25). For the details, check out this story about VA-25 in Vietnam. An alternate version may be found here, with video (if you can get it to run – I can’t).
No word on whether the intended target for that unique bit of “ordnance” was a VC field latrine. (smile) Regardless, hopefully the lads packed the damn thing full of C4 and rigged it to blow when the nose fuse went off.
You nautical types are sometimes kinda weird. But we still love ya like brothers (and sisters) anyway. (smile)
Hat tip to Poetrooper for the first link above.
After a tough day chocked full of phonies, you guys probably need a palate-cleanser. The folks at the production company of this new movie coming out next year by the name of “Little Boy” sent us some stuff about the movie. It looks like a pretty good flick about a son’s love for his father who went off to World War Two. And it’s about Faith.
Set during the height of World War II, the film centers on a little boy, Pepper Flynt Busbee (Jakob Salvati), who is willing to do whatever it takes to end World War II so that he can bring his father home. Through his struggle, Pepper learns lessons of morality, such as the value of self sacrifice, how to face the town’s bullies (at times hilariously depicted), the importance of racial equality, and many lessons in between.
This heartwarming family film expertly captures feelings similar to those recognizable in so many great American movies.
Here’s the trailer;
Courthouse News reports that Discovery Channel personality, Joe Teti is going on the warpath against our friends Mykel Hawke, Scottie Hughes and George Davenport for Teti losing business because they questioned his military career;
In a lawsuit filed in the federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina, Teti says Mykel Hawkeye, who claims to have been his Special Forces Operational Detachments commander, has made false statements about him on Facebook and other website.
In addition, Teti says, Hawkeye has made similar defaming comments to the Discovery Channel itself, and to companies with whom he has endorsement deals.
In his complaint, Teti says these statements ranged from Hawkeye’s having falsely claimed that Teti has violated the Stolen Valor Act; that Teti and his fiancé have threatened and harassed Hawkeye and his family; that Teti created false profiles online to attack Hawkeye; and that Teti has a history of stalking and “harming women, children, and animals.”
The Discovery Channel star says none of these accusations are true.
Teti has also named George Davenport in the lawsuit. Davenport is a member of the nonprofit organization Special Forces Association, of which Teti used to be a member. According to the lawsuit, Teti ceased to be a member when his membership lapsed because he didn’t pay his annual dues and renew his membership.
For you legal eagles, here’s the lawsuit;
I guess Teti found someone else to be mad at besides us for the time being. I’ve had enough fun in the courts to last me a few weeks, so I’m glad he ignored us for the time being. But then, I never said anything that he could dispute, even though he did. Here and here and here. I guess he just punched himself out early with us.
I also remember that after I posted the piece I did on him, he called me and had his lawyers sitting in on the call – mostly because he wanted me to edit your comments. When I told him that he could only judge me by what I wrote, he took me off the speaker.
But at least we didn’t publish the first FOIA we got on Teti. THIS IS NOT FROM THE RECORDS OF JOE TETI OF THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL SHOW:
Yeah, that was the first one we got back, so we really thought we had something, but cautious guy that I am, we decided to take another whack at him and got these records back the second time. That would have been embarrassing.
But, back to the lawsuit – Teti claims that all of these problems and the folks who started publishing his records were influenced by Mykel Hawke, I just want to be clear on this; We embarked on this journey without Mykel Hawke. We were curious when David Canterbury was fired from the show whether Discovery Channel would repeat the mistake and we got Teti’s records on our own. We never communicated with Hawke until months after the post was published. Mr. Hawke has never had any influence on us. In fact, after I published the Teti records I paid little, if any, attention to the controversy aside from reporting what is in the media.
Other than what Teti and his troops said on his Facebook pages and rarely on these pages, I have never felt threatened or stalked by Teti. Mykel says that he has a restraining order against Teti which he hasn’t previously disclosed publicly and that’s what triggered Teti’s lawsuit. I’m just glad that we’re not in this particular free fire zone.
I’ll just leave this here . . . .
No, the article wasn’t referring to the Board of Regents. (smile)
But if it was zombies, they’re gonna have one helluva hangover. From my dealings with OB and Crown beer while in Korea (which at the time still had measurable traces of formaldehyde), that sh!t will give you one of the worst hangovers possible.
Because of the date of the original incident, this song has become a minor Thanksgiving tradition on many modern radio stations. This should also bring back a few memories for our Vietnam-era readers; hopefully, at this point, the passage of time has made them reasonably mellow ones. Enjoy.
For what it’s worth: the song actually is based – loosely – on a real event. Alice was a real person (Alice Brock); Alice had indeed purchased an old church (Trinity Church) and lived in same with her husband Ray as depicted in the song.
Arlo Guthrie and a friend, Richard Robbins, really were arrested for illegal littering in Stockbridge, MA, on Thanksgiving Day, 1965 – after they hauled off some of the Brocks’ garbage, found all local dumps closed, and illegally dumped the trash elsewhere. The arresting officer actually did look through the garbage to find a clue (the Brock’s address on an envelope), leading to Guthrie’s and Robbins’ arrest.
The judge that later heard the case actually was blind, and the arresting officer was named William J. “Obie” Obanhein – sometimes referred to as, yes, “Officer Obie”. (The judge’s use of a seeing-eye dog, the famous “twenty-seven 8 by 10 color glossy photos”, and much of the rest of the song’s purported dialog and/or events may well be satirical exaggeration on Guthrie’s part). They pleaded guilty to littering and creating a public nuisance and were indeed fined $25 each – or $50 total.
Guthrie was later called for the draft (some accounts say he tried to voluntarily enlist). Whether his attempted entry into the military was voluntary or not, he was indeed disqualified for military service based on his criminal record (his guilty plea to the crimes of littering and creating a public nuisance and resulting in the payment of a $25 fine).
Though the song was at the time considered anti-war and adopted by the antiwar movement, Guthrie has long said the song was not written as an antiwar song. Rather, he says he wrote it more as an “anti-stupidity” song.
I have to say he has at least a partial point. Disqualifying someone for military service because of a guilty plea to the crime of littering at a time of manpower demand so extreme it led to Project 100,000 (AKA MacNamara’s “Moron Corps”) does seem to fail the “WTF?” test. Then again, all of us who’ve served already know that the Five-Sided Asylum often seems to regard common sense as a disqualifying trait for, well, pretty much anything. (smile)
Happy Thanksgiving, all. And remember:
You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant
(Excepting Alice)
You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant
Walk right in it’s around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant
At different times today most of us will sit down and have a meal with friends and family. Prayer will be said and and many will voice the things they are thankful for.
This time last year my son was at sea. I am thankful he will be home and once again surrounded by family. My thoughts are with those that have taken his place, the Carl Vinson Battle Group. My thoughts are also with those still deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq as well as bases all over the world and here at home in the US. As we all know there is always someone on duty protecting all of us.
I want to take the time to thank Jonn and all of you. First to Jonn for allowing me to post here and to all of you for reading my ramblings. When I get comments on my post a such as “it’s getting dusty in here” or “I laughed out loud” it makes my day. I am thankful that TAH and sites like it exist, they give voice to concerns that otherwise would be over looked and prove that in diversity there is strength.
All over our nation this week there have been protest and demonstrations, unfortunately a few people with evil intent cast a shadow over all of those that were protesting peacefully. It is no secret that I do not agree with cause of the protest, but never the less I am thankful that we live in a nation where the right to protest is protected, just as my right to disagree is protected.
I am a very fortunate man, I have in my life a good woman who loves me enough to point out my flaws as well as support my dreams. The last year has not been easy for us but we have not only survived but grown stronger. I am thankful for her faith and trust in me. While I have not always been able to be with her in person, my heart is always there.
Happy Thanksgiving