Christiern

Which brings us to "Arse Hole in Spades," one of my favorite films. Well, there was also "Carry On Arse Hole," but...

Don't cheapen your product with incentives, Allen.

She was the wife of Leonard and I think she dabbled, but he may have put her name on something he cribbed, for tax purposes. OP....Oyl Popeye?

Plausible, I'm afraid.

...and how and when did he do it?

Leonard totally lost whatever subjectivity he might once have had when he saw a good looking lady, especially one who also was a celebrity. Hentoff? I think you might have heard an honest opinion from Nat, at least prior to his conversion.

As I was sayin'...

I love that drawing of Ran carrying his oversized case and looking as if it contained the Los Alamos formulas. That's the Ran Blake I met in 1960, the Ran Blake who all but dragged me to a small NYC apartment to meet Reverend Gary Davis. I don't think I ever saw Ran as enthusiastic and full of awe as he was when speaking to Davis.

If Chan had not latched on to Charlie and opportunistically borrowed his name (They were never really married on paper) and Alice had not married John, I don't think we would be spending a pixel on either one of them. Apropos shameless exploiters, whatever became of Kim "Parker"? Come to think of it, if Chan had kept her self-serving needs to herself, Eastwood might haved consulted someone else (Doris, for example) and made a more representative movie—hey, it might have been about a great performer rather than a drug addict. On second thought, I guess that's too far-fetched.

The head portion of a giant bust of George Washington is carried by crane April 6 to a flatbed truck, where it will be secured for delivery. Six busts of presidents were removed because the land they were placed on in Pearland, Texas, is under foreclosure. The development company still owns the statues and will them return to their maker, local artist David Adickes.

Because, as a kid growing up in Denmark, I was sworn to secrecy.

How much did thy pay him for his "donation"?

And may the year ahead be good for the business of spreading our culture around. P.S. Sorry for the recycled greeting, but two liner note deadlines are eating away at my time.

You have probably drawn your own conclusions, but in case you wonder why total dummies become prominent spokespersons, take a look at this sad glimpse of shallow-minded American mentality...

I noticed that, too, Ted, but—perhaps due to my advanced age—I consider 1991 to be a recent year.

Well, in some ways, he was, but Bernie had a Robin Hood streak in him, shall we say? He robbed the IRS and RIAA to benefit the fledgling record collector (as well as himself, of course). I wrote a couple of liner notes for Bernie, so I suppose I aided and abetted, albeit for orts.

Yes, the NY Times is not immune to hype, nor—in recent years—known for fact-checking.

I don't think "Sissy Man Blues" is among the albums Rosetta pirated. She was a horrid woman who twisted historical facts to fit into her very narrow feminist perspective. I all but threw her out of my apartment when she came to see me. BTW, the Wikipedia piece was probably written by family—it is 90% bullshit

Well, actually, it stands for Don't I posted elsewhere a brief recollection of how Valburn stole all my 78rpm test pressings (a few hundred). He had volunteered to transfer them to tape, he came to my apartment, we made several trips carrying the discs to his car and I never saw my records again. In fact, he claimed never to have taken them! I was a true bastard and I am not at all sorry that he is gone, albeit far too late. His girlfriend, Rosetta Reitz was another one who blessed us with her departure—they deserved each other. I am by no means his only victim. Here's a post from an Ellington forum: You want a respectful comment? Well, here it is. Jerry Valburn was a crook and a swindler and I hope that he rots in hell. I met him through other collectors in the 1960’s. He pretended that he was a friend. He came up to Montreal with his wife Barbara to convince my wife and I that I should go into the record business with him. I was much younger than him and trusted him. I spent six or seven thousand dollars and had the first 4 LP issues on the Jazz Gulld label manufactured here (2 Duke Ellington and 2 Artie Shaw), brought them to a local transport company and had them shipped to Valburn. He sold them to various dealers and distributors. He told me that he had the rights to the material. (I later received an invoice from someone in Florida for $3,000 for the Shaw material with a note that I should pay him as that was the arrangement with Valburn.) ( Still trusting him, I even lent him $5,000 that he said that he needed to issue an LP with Marty Grosz and Wayne Wright for his Aviva label. Luckily, I was repaid the $5,000.) A considerable time passed and I never received one penny back on the money I put into the venture. He claimed that he did not collect from the distributors. I contacted the largest distributors and they showed me proof of having paid him. I telephoned him many times and asked him how he could do this especially to a friend . He usually laughed and would hang up on me. I recall also phoning Barbara. Her comment was that they had to take care of themselves first. He obviously knew that he had an east mark . My wife and I at the time had foster children as well as our biological children. I guess that he knew that being busy with the children and living in Canada that we could not afford to take legal action against him. I lost every cent that I put into the venture not to mention the work and aggravation. In later years I would see ads for the same material on other LPs and CDs. I could not help but wonder if he found other victims. Marvin Ekers Montreal, Canada

Jerry Valburn passed away. One less light-fingered collector to worry about. Hey, I wasn't his only victim.

Yes, and it was almost as good as the coffee.

Yes, but surely that wound has healed, no?

Very sorry to hear what you have been going through and glad to see that things are moving the right way. Here's a strong hope for complete recovery. Chris

Never had a cup of Starbucks that I didn't dislike. For instant, the best I have had is Nescafé Taster's Choice 100% Columbian. After WWII, when they introduced instant coffee in Denmark, there was only one brand: Nescafé. It became a generic term for instant coffee. When I first came here (U.S.) as an adult, I fell in love with Horn & Hardart's coffee (hated the very thick cups, however)