Randy Twizzle

Anything by Liza Minnelli. Death would then be a happy experience.

Steinbrenner had only 1 horse in the race, Bellamy Road. The trainer of Bellamy Road, Nick Zito also worked with 4 other horses none of whom were owned by Steinbrenner.

More like beating one's head against a brick wall, actually. I understand Clementine's points. He has mixed feelings about Francis Davis. On one hand he despises him, on the other he wishes Davis would drop dead.

Here's another use for cellphone cameras from today's NY Daily News. It's the best subway pervert vs feisty Catholic schoolgirls story that I've read this year. A subway pervert was caught in a flash yesterday by feisty Catholic schoolgirls armed with a cell phone camera in Queens, cops and witnesses said. The suspect sicko flashed the teens twice last week as they rode the F train toward their high school in Jamaica Estates. He got away - but made the mistake of lurking inside the 179th St. station yesterday just as the girls stepped off the train at 7:30 a.m. Terrified, but determined to get the creep arrested, one of the girls snapped his photo with her cell phone and ran to NYPD Officer Vincent Tieniber for help, police sources said. "The cop looked at the picture, ran down to the platform and spots the guy getting on a train," a high-ranking police source said. "He grabs him and takes him upstairs where the girl IDs him," the source said. "A little bit of new-age policing." The alleged pervert, 57-year-old vagrant Wilfredo Ponte, was wearing the same brown pants, short-sleeved button-down burgundy shirt, silver jacket and black shoes he had on Monday morning, police sources said. He wore the same ensemble last night when he was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court and held on $3,000 bond. Although police say he told a detective, "Maybe I did it, maybe I didn't," his Legal Aid attorney said Ponte is no flasher. Lawyer Joseph DiFlumeri said, "Mr. Ponte adamantly denies the allegations in the complaint. He's frustrated, he's upset that he's being accused of this." The girls' principal at Mary Louis Academy, Sister Kathleen McKinney, said she was proud of her plucky students. "Our girls wanted him arrested," she said. "They didn't want him doing this to anyone else. They were willing to do what they did to stop him." A token booth clerk who helped the freshmen from nearby Mary Louis Academy praised them for staying calm and taking the photo. "The girls came running up. They were really upset, but one had gotten the guy's picture, and wanted him stopped," said the clerk, who asked not to be named. "For a grown man to be exposing himself to children at 7:30 in the morning, it's terrible," the clerk said. "That girl deserves a lot of credit for getting him off the street." Ponte was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child and public lewdness. Ponte is apparently homeless - the address he gave cops turned out to be a Bronx bridal shop where one of his longtime friends works. "He liked little girls," said the friend, Eva Santana, who described Ponte as a homeless man who often visited E&E Bridal on Westchester Ave. "He liked to see the girls go by," she said. "We used to say, 'Get married, get an apartment.' But he wouldn't do it. He needed help. We told him every day, but he didn't want it." Ponte targeted the girls because he was attracted by their freshman uniforms - baby blue shirts and gray skirts, a police source said. Ponte's arrest brought some comfort to the parents and students, even as some of the girls remained shaken. "I'm in a really bad state of mind," one of the teens said yesterday through her apartment door. "She's scared," said her mother. "She's only 14."

Last week I heard my 21 year old nephew ask his mother "Who was WC Fields?"

I remember reading that at one point in his career Mudcat Grant got into a fight with a redneck bullpen coach who took issue with Grant's rendition of the opening line of the national anthem: "This land ain't so free, I can't go to Mississippi."

From the NY Times By PETER KEEPNEWS Published: April 30, 2005 Jimmy Woode, a bassist who spent five years with Duke Ellington but was best known as one of the leading figures on the European jazz scene, died on Saturday at his home in Lindenwold, N.J. He was 78. He died of postoperative complications after surgery for a stomach aneurism, his daughter Deirdre Woode said. Mr. Woode spent almost his entire career in Europe after moving to Sweden in 1960. He adapted so comfortably to his surroundings, Ms. Woode said, that he eventually began pronouncing his last name "Woody" because Europeans tended to pronounce the silent "e." More important, Mr. Woode - who lived in Sweden, Germany, Austria and Switzerland before moving back to the United States in 2001 - became a fixture of a jazz community that in the 1960's and 1970's was still dominated by American expatriates. He worked with many of them, notably the pianist Bud Powell and the saxophonists Don Byas and Johnny Griffin. Most important, he was a charter member of Europe's most successful jazz orchestra, the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band, remaining with it from its inception in 1960 until it disbanded in 1973. James Bryant Woode II was born in Philadelphia on Sept. 23, 1926. He studied both piano and bass and began playing professionally at 16. In the early and middle 50's, while living in Boston, he worked regularly at two local nightclubs, Storyville and the Hi Hat, accompanying Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday and many others. What was supposed to be a two-week engagement substituting for Ellington's regular bassist at Storyville in 1955 turned into an eventful five-year stint. Ellington's career was at a low ebb when Mr. Woode joined, but a year later Ellington's rousing performance at the Newport Jazz Festival led to a triumphant comeback. Mr. Woode left the Ellington organization and the United States at the same time, but he remained closely identified with Ellington. He frequently gave talks about his years with the band, and last year he participated in a reunion of former Ellington sidemen at Claremont College in California, taking part in group discussions and jam sessions. Mr. Woode was married and widowed twice. In addition to Ms. Woode, of Santa Barbara, Calif., and Florence, he is survived by two other daughters, Shawnn Monteiro of Providence, R.I., and Anne Frederickson of Stockholm; a son, Patrick Bergmans, of Berlin; two sisters, Ruth Fullard of Camden, N.J., and Edwina Reese of South Ozone Park, N.Y.; four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Here's an article that tries to explain the psyche of Wilbanks, a woman who had the good fortune of not turning up dead in an abandoned mine, a muddy pond or a forrest preserve. No drifters wil be arrested tonight and Greyhound gets publicity as the best way to travel when you need to escape from the future hell of writing 600 thank you notes. ATLANTA - On the surface, Jennifer Wilbanks was a happy bride-to-be who showed no sign to friends or family that she wanted to call off her extravagant wedding. But underneath, as she would later tell police after running away to New Mexico, Wilbanks was scared and not sure she wanted to go through with her big day. Marriage counselors say Wilbanks' actions are an extreme but understandable reaction to the stress of the wedding and the fear of disappointing others by backing out. "Sometimes it's like being stuck in a river getting whisked over a waterfall," said Dr. Charles Raison, a psychiatrist and Emory University instructor who has counseled people about marital concerns. "The current is so strong, you can't fight it." Shame about canceling a wedding at the last minute can lead to feelings of helplessness, counselors say. "They've committed themselves out there in public, to their partner, their minister, their community, their friends while they've been perhaps nursing some ambivalence, mixed feelings and they feel isolated without being able to share it with anyone," said marriage counselor Andrew Gee. "It's like they've committed themselves to a course of action they're not comfortable with. That would be a nightmare to me." Police say Wilbanks cut her hair to disguise her appearance so no one would recognize her during her bus trip west. She left her identification, credit cards and diamond ring behind. There was no note, and, for four days, no call home. Then, late Friday, Wilbanks called her fiance and said she had been kidnapped - a story police later said was made up. Raison said the size of the wedding - as many as 600 guests and 14 bridesmaids - may have overcome Wilbanks. "Weddings are terrible stresses on people," he said. "They really try people's relationships, especially when they're one of these big productions." Dr. Joan Miller, a marriage counselor in Marietta, Ga., said Wilbanks' case of second thoughts before marriage is common, though people don't always react to their situations the same way. "She had everything planned and had an effective way to address the situation," Miller said. "It's hard to understand what's going on in her head because we're not in her situation." Gee said some brides-to-be are open with their families about their jitters, while others keep the feelings bottled up. Running away "seems a little extreme," Gee said. "But it feels extreme if you feel like you're about to break a commitment or you can't break a commitment. So, she resorted to extreme measures it seems." Another Atlanta marriage counselor, Leslie L. Brenner, said the case suggests better communication is important between couples. "It's a good wake-up call for everybody going through an engagement," Brenner said.

Free Trade? Social Security Reform? Congressional Fillibusters?

How about light bulb music from 1915

Here's an interesting look at the 1940s novelty tune by David Hinckley in the NY Daily News For as long as there had been a 125th St. Apollo Theater, Clinton (Dusty) Fletcher had staggered across its stage, ladder in hand, imploring his roommate to let him in. "Open the Door, Richard" was Fletcher's routine, and you probably had to have been there to understand how it became a signature for both Fletcher and the Apollo through the 1930s and 1940s. Fletcher played a fellow in an advanced state of inebriation who returns home to find he can't get in. He can't find his key. And he can't wake the landlady, considering that he and Richard are 11 months in arrears on their $3-a-month rent. His only hope is to awaken Richard. But, while Richard is definitely inside, no amount of shouting seems to rouse him. Thus does Fletcher turn in desperation to the ladder, which alas he has insufficient dexterity to position and climb, owing to his current inebriation and all. It simply ain't fair, Fletcher mutters in the course of this five-minute exercise in futility: "I owes just as much back rent as he does." Eventually Fletcher and his ladder lurch offstage to appreciative applause from an audience that has probably seen the routine a dozen times. It isn't recorded whether Fletcher performed "Open the Door, Richard," on the Apollo's opening night in 1934. But he was on the bill, so he probably did. He definitely performed it right through the war, until vaudeville vets found themselves being phased out. He was semiretired in 1947 when an odd thing happened: Suddenly the whole world rediscovered Richard. Because Fletcher had worked the whole black circuit over the years, pretty much every black entertainer knew the routine. Thus one day in 1946 did bandleader Jack McVea, looking for fresh material, put it to music. The lyrics didn't capture that much of the spirit of Fletcher's original routine, but the music gave it a fresh edge and, as it happened, the country was ripe for a new song-inspired catchphrase. McVea recorded the song late in '46 for the Los Angeles-based Black and White label, and when it started to make some noise around L.A., New York's National Records hustled Fletcher into the studio to cut his own version. There was room for both, it turned out - and more. Count Basie cut a version in which the speaker became a bit more sophisticated, saying things like, "Common? I got class I ain't even used yet." The Three Flames cut a version. The Charioteers cut a version. Louis Jordan cut a version with new lyrics straight out of "Amos 'n' Andy": "He was abnoxicated . . . ." "Open the Door, Richard" raced up to No. 2 on the R&B charts, blocked from No. 1 only by another Jordan hit, "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens." On the pop chart, with no such obstacle, "Richard" went to No. 1, an astounding crossover that landed him smack dab in the middle of mainstream culture. Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, Fred Allen, Bob Hope and other major stars dropped Richard references into their comedy bits. Bing Crosby thought it was so funny he not only used the line, but recorded his own version of the song. Mercifully, Crosby's record was never released. But it was released by artists as white as the Pied Pipers and Burl Ives. Hank Penny cut a country version and there were recordings in Swedish, French, Spanish and Yiddish. Now Richard was not only popular, he was valuable. National Records, nominally on Fletcher's behalf, sued for composer credits. At the same time, old-time comedian John (Spider Bruce) Mason went to court claiming that Fletcher had learned the routine from him - which apparently was true, though Mason himself may have picked it up from a 19th century skit writer named Bob Russell. As Russell was no longer around to pursue legal claims, the lawsuits ended there. Ultimately Fletcher and Mason were assigned co-credit for the lyrics, with co-credit for the music going to McVea and Dan Howell, the latter a nonexistent person who was there simply to funnel a quarter of the royalties to National Records. Meanwhile, WOR announced it was so sick of Richard it was banning all versions of his song. The NAACP blasted the song and Fletcher for perpetuating negative stereotypes of black folks in lines like "I gwine back on relief Monday." Whether these criticisms had any effect, the "Richard" craze burned out fast. He was in free fall by the time the first wave of answer records hit, so they mostly flopped, suggesting the general public lacked the Apollo audience's tolerance for multiple repeats of the routine. Yet Richard wasn't that easy to kill - and besides, as Fletcher and the Apollo audience knew, you had to be there. Fletcher's career was revived and he went right back to the Apollo, where he appeared for the last time just three weeks before his death in 1954. Descendants of the character portrayed in "Richard" would become staples in rock 'n' roll, from the Coasters' "Charlie Brown" to Bob Dylan's "Basement Tapes." Perhaps most ambitiously, some gave Richard a larger-than-life metaphoric presence, seeing "Open the Door, Richard" as a coded commentary on all the closed doors in American society. Perhaps not wholly by chance, they suggested, was the song a hit at precisely the moment Jackie Robinson was photographed figuratively and literally walking through the long-slammed portal of American's National Pastime. In coming months and years, a Michigan minister used "Open the Door, Richard" for a sermon denouncing housing segregation. Civil rights demonstrators made it part of their call for desegregated public accommodations. Even if, in Dusty Fletcher's case, all he really seemed to want was a place to sleep one off.

Who can forget this 70s romance? (probably just about everyone)

God bless you, but I've been commuting to work on different forms of public transportation for the last 25 years. and it's made me understand that most people should be swallowed up, preferably by large mammals.

A 1902 Police Note.

Why don''t the Yankees and Red Sox start their own two team league so they could play each other 162 times a year. Every day would bring new controversy and confrontation for the media and their fans to mull over while the rest of us could ignore it, unless it involved mass fatalities.

I think her husband deserves the 15 grand.

Or they've lied about their weight.

A company called Machina Dynamica is offering something called the "Intelligent Chip" which is supposed to permanently improve the sound of any CD by a kind of magical process. From the company website:(http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina27.htm) Instructions: Remove the orange Intelligent Chip from its clear plastic protective case and place it on top of the CD/DVD/SACD player directly above the transport section, silver label facing up. Next, insert the disc to be upgraded in the player, push "Play" and allow the disc to play for 2 seconds. The Chip can also be placed on top of the player while the disc is already playing with similar results. The upgrade takes less than 2 seconds and is permanent. Once the disc is upgraded, either remove the Intelligent Chip from the player and return it to its protective case or leave it on top of the player and insert the next disc to be upgraded into the player. Discs may be upgraded sequentially, leaving the Chip in place on the top of the player. If left on top of the player, the Chip will not function until the next disc to be upgraded is inserted in the player and played. Always store the Chip in its protective case, well away from the player.

As these two 6/25/68 obituaries (which I'm reproducing in their entirety) show, Robison was both a composer and a musician.

The same type of "look what I found" school of spam for this site has appeard in several forums. http://www.google.com/search?q=aeonradio&q...lr=&sa=N&tab=gw

"It's a Blue World" is track 1, you have to scan past that toget to Lover Come Back. On my player its shows as track 1 with an index of 0

I heard a couple of takes of "Lover Come Back to Me" and then strangely enough "Paul is Dead."

One of the first hit comedy records was Joe Hayman's "Cohen on the Telephone" from 1913: "Hello? Hello? Are you dere? Hello? Vat number do I vant? Vell, vot numbers have you got? Oh, excuse me. My mistook. I vant Central 248 please. Yes, dat's right, 248. I say, Miss, am I supposed to keep on saying hello and are you dere until you come back again? Vell don't be long! Hello? Are you dere...I vant to see de manager, please. Vot do you say? This is not a telescope, it is a telephone? Say, you tink you're very clever, ain't it? Vell, do me a favor. Just hang a small piece of crepe on your nose. Your brains are dead! And if I have any more of your impertenence, I'll speak to the manager about you. I said I'll...oh...oh, YOU'RE de manager. Oh, I beg your pardink. Much obliged..." I guess you had to be there... http://www.comedystars.com/Bios/hayman_joe.shtml

One of my favorite Schaap moments took place during a Sidney Bechet festival when he lost his temper on the air and threatened to stop the festival cold because too many listeners were calling the station and bothering him with questions, comments etc. when he needed to be doing other things. It was hilarious to hear him carry on like a stressed out substitute teacher, I wish I had a tape of it.

From 1932