GA Russell

I love to see all the teams wear their throwback uniforms. Especially the Patriots because I hate their blue uniforms. Let me say, if anybody cares, that as far as I've seen, the other AFL teams are wearing 1960 uniforms, but the Patriots are wearing 1962 uniforms. In 1960 the jersey was solid red. In 1961 they added the UCLA stripes, two whites surrounding a blue. In 1962 they changed the stripes to make it two blues surrounding a white.

While we're talking about wrestling, I have a wrestling story for you. In 1985 there was a young lady at work (named Theda) who was a wrestling fan. That year I went to the Grey Cup and met Angelo Mosca. I had his bubble gum card in 1959 when he was a defensive tackle for the Ticats. I'm pretty sure that he is now in the Canadian league Hall of Fame. After he retired from football, he spent many years wrestling. I believe that in Canada he was a good guy, but I'm sure that in the US he was a bad guy. In the US he dropped the "Angelo", and just went by "Mosca". So I asked for his autograph made out to Theda, and I told him that Theda had never heard of "Angelo Mosca", but I'm sure that she is very familiar with "Mosca". So he made it out something like "To Theda, Best wishes, Mosca". So I brought back my little present to her, and being the true wrestling fan that she was, she was really put off by it! She just couldn't believe that a bad guy would be the kind of person whose autograph you would want!

How 'bout dem Saints! Yeah, you right!

16-0? You mean 18-1?

I have two Lou Albano stories, if you will. 1) About the time that the Lauper video was out and wrestling enjoyed a comeback, I saw Albano on Nightline with Ted Koppel and some college professor. It was supposed to be an intelligent discussion about pro wrestling, but every once in a while Albano would slip into character and start ranting. The other two would just smile, and the college professor said, "He's doing it again!" 2) About ten years ago Albano was the credited author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pro Wrestling, which I read. The book was quite informative about its history, which was that it arose from six-hour long wrestling matches staged at carnivals.

I don't think that the Steelers are very good this year.

Happy Birthday 2009 Chris!

Saskatchewan Roughriders 44....Calgary Stampeders 44 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/foot...article1328176/ The two teams tied for first place in the West played to a tie. I was unable to listen to the second and third quarters, but did hear the Sask broadcast at home and the Calgary broadcast in the car on Sirius. Both sets of announcers were talking about what a great game it was. The score was tied at 30 at the end of regulation. It looked like the Riders were going to win it in the first overtime when the ref made a very questionable call that gave the Stampeders a first down and new life.

Edmonton Eskimos 22....Toronto Argonauts 19 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/foot...article1327708/ The loss eliminated the Argos from playoff contention. We're talking about two bad ballclubs here. The Eskimos won because they scored two TDs on big plays. The Argos had the better of them on the stats. That's not to say that the Argos looked good! The win keeps the Eskimos in contention not only for the crossover playoff spot but also for a Western spot. Sask and Calgary have 8 wins, and BC and now Edmonton have 7 wins. PS - Late in the fourth quarter the Argos got their first TD pass in seven games!

Congratulations to both you and "Ophelia" Jim! When there is a birth in my family, I always recommend that the parents buy copies of newspapers of both the date of birth and also the following day. The following day's issue tells what happened on the day of birth, and years from now I'm sure the baby will enjoy seeing it.

Happy Birthday 2009 HG!

Rumor has it that Lions owner David Braley wants to buy the Argos. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Tor...404406-sun.html ***** David Naylor Week 17 preview http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/week...article1324189/

Happy Birthday 2009 Bluerein!

Weston Dressler's father told the press that he had not only a sprained ankle but also a broken leg. His loss would be big for the Riders. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Sas...1378386-ap.html ***** Two games from Monday, Thanksgiving Day: Montreal Alouettes 32....Calgary Stampeders 11 http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.../AJN4259747.htm The Edmonton Eskimos set the record with a 16-2 mark in 1989, and people are thinking now that the Als can match it this year. The Stamps were in first place in the West, and they were never in the game. Another bad showing by Henry Burris. The Stamps let backup QB Drew Tate play in the fourth quarter. I think that's the first action he's seen all year. ***** Winnipeg Blue Bombers 38....Hamilton Tiger-Cats 28 http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.../AJN4259758.htm The two teams are now tied at 6-8, as are the Eskimos. The Bombers are on a three-game winning streak, while the Ticats and Eskimos continue to lose. With three minutes to go in the third quarter, the score was 31-0, and the Ticat fans were leaving Ivor Wynne. But the Ticats with Kevin Glenn in the game started to play well, and sort of put a scare into the Bombers. Remember twenty years ago when the league broadcast a game each week? It was called the CFN - the Canadian Football Network. ESPN carried those games each week. The announcers were Bob Irving and Neil Lumsden. Well they were reunited for one game on the Bombers radio broadcast. It was a lot of fun listening to them again. When the score was 31-0, they said that the game was the Ticat fans' second turkey of the day! ***** The Argos' owners are looking to sell the team. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/for-...article1322625/ ***** The Argos will play a regular season game in Moncton next year. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/argo...article1323867/ ***** Gregg Xenakes Week 17 preview http://64.246.64.33/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=s...aspx?id=4260067

Happy Birthday John! Have you been to an Argos game yet this year?

Lala: Red Garland Quintet w/ Coltrane - Dig It!

I can tell you a little bit about the new Keith Jarrett solo concert album. From the cover it looks like it is called Paris/London - Testament. But the text calls it Testament - Paris/London. The Paris concert was at the Salle Pleyel November 26, 2008. The London concert was at the Royal Festival Hall December 1, 2008. Like The Koln Concert, both concerts consisted of Jarrett improvising alone with no preconceived plans regarding what he would play. The package is three CDs. The 1:09 Paris concert is on the first CD. The 1:33 London concert is divided between discs 2 and 3. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but you can now hear it at lala.com here: http://www.lala.com/#album/432627041169188...don_(Testament)

I liked Denver's uniform when I was a kid. I saw them occasionally on TV. Our TV was b/w throughout the 60s, but I knew the colors from the bubble gum cards. In addition, the Broncos wore dark pants with light jerseys which was rare in the 60s. The socks were disliked by the players. The vertical stripes were the idea of the owner Bob Howsam who later made a name for himself in baseball. The Denver fans either strongly liked or disliked the socks, and Howsam figured that anything that got people talking about the team was a good thing. By the way, Denver was the only AFL team to never sign its first round draft pick until the two drafts were merged. 2009 being the 50th season of the original 8 AFL teams, the NFL is engaging in a special promotion for those 8 teams. That includes wearing the throwback uniforms for a number of games. I went to the Patriots' website last night, and found that they are selling a cap with the Pat the Patriot logo with the word "Boston" above it. I think I'll get it.

Thanks Jazzjet! I had four: Mike Westbrook - Marching Song Mike Westbrook - Love Songs Elton Dean John Stevens - Chemistry

Saskatchewan Roughriders 32....Toronto Argonauts 22 http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.../AJN4259425.htm Run of the mill game. The Riders led throughout. It looked like it was probably over at halftime, but the Argos didn't give up in the second half. Kerry Joseph was out for a while, and Cody Pickett looked good in relief. Jamie Boreham injured his neck last week, and it now looks like he may be out for the season. Weston Dressler sprained his ankle very badly while making a great catch tonight, so he is expected to miss next week's game.

British Columbia Lions 34....Edmonton Eskimos 31 http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.../AJN4259178.htm Crazy, crazy game. A tale of two halves. The Eskimos didn't get a first down until 7:23 was left in the second quarter. By then the score was 17-1. But Ricky Ray had it in gear the rest of the way. At the half the score was 20-11. The Lions started the third quarter with an impressive drive, and bumped the lead to 27-11. Over the course of the second half, the Eskimos then scored 20 unanswered points. Ray scored a TD on a quarterback sneak with 57 seconds left in the game to give Edmonton its first lead of the game 31-27. With 12 seconds to go, Buck Pierce threw a deep pass to Geroy Simon. The two defenders collided, and Simon went all the way for the score, a 62 yard TD pass. On the last play of the game, Noel Prefontaine tried a 59 yard field goal, but it fell short. Edmonton was in first place in the West after 8 games with a 5-3 record. They fired offensive coordinator Rick Worman, and replaced him with Kevin Strasser, who had worked with Danny Macciocia in Montreal. Since then the Eskimos have gone 1-5 and are now in last place. So everyone in Edmonton is asking who the genius is who is responsible. PS - Paul McCallum did the kicking for the Lions instead of Sean Whyte. I didn't hear why.

Our Columbus Day is Canada's Thanksgiving Day, so there will be two games Monday. David Naylor's Week 16 preview http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/week...article1317998/ ***** The Dolphins didn't let Cam Wake play the first three weeks, but last week they did, and he got three sacks! http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/wake...article1317996/ ***** Gavin Walls ruptured his ACL and he is out for the year. That's bad news for the Bombers. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/blue...article1319079/ ***** Snow is predicted in Regina for the Argos game Saturday. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Tor...347186-sun.html

medjuck, since ole Shelby was a self-promoter, I had a hunch that he had written a bio of himself for Wikipedia. Sure enough, he's there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelby_Singleton The short answer to your question is that he left Mercury in '66. Harper Valley PTA was on a label he formed called Plantation Records in '68. He used the money from that to purchase the Sun catalogue in '69. I am surprised to see that Sun now controls the Red Bird/Blue Cat catalogue, which includes the Shangri-Las and the Dixie Cups. One question Wikipedia doesn't answer is how much Singleton paid for the Sun catalogue. I suspect that it wasn't a great deal. I think I read once that Sun did not have a hit after 1959, and did not issue any new records after 1964. My recollection as a consumer is that the Sun catalogue was DOA when Singleton bought it, and that he raised it from the dead. As I recall, he used contemporary photos of Cash and Lewis on their albums rather than the 1950s photos, which seemed dowdy. In addition, he did not re-issue albums. Instead he made new compilations. For example, he collected a dozen songs Johnny Cash sang about trains (such as Hey Porter) and issued them together. I'm pretty sure that for both Cash and Lewis there were two volumes of Greatest Hits albums. Anyway, there was something about the artwork of his releases that made them seem cool and vital rather than yesterday's news and obsolete. So I give him props for that. And by the way, the fidelity was quite satisfactory. I had one of the Lewis albums, and gave my brother-in-law for Christmas one of the Cash albums, and there was no sense while listening to them that the recordings were old. Of course, maybe Sam Phillips should get some of the credit for that.

I guess that Shelby Singleton was a self-promoter, because I remember very well his obtaining the Sun Records catalogue in the very early 70s, and releasing a number of Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis LPs. Prior to that, I believe that the catalogue was out of print. It was certainly never seen in the stores. He made money on it till the end. This spring I bought a 4 CD box of Sun recordings, and I've really enjoyed them. Here's his LA Times obituary. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,4187635.story Shelby Singleton dies at 77; maverick country music mogul The talent scout also launched the careers of Roger Miller and Ray Stevens, and resuscitated Sun Records. By Randy Lewis October 9, 2009 Shelby Singleton, a maverick country music mogul and talent scout who launched the careers of Roger Miller and Ray Stevens before resuscitating the fabled Sun Records label to give new life to recordings by 1950s Sun discoveries including Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis, has died. He was 77. Singleton died Wednesday in Nashville following a battle with brain cancer. He had been admitted to St. Thomas Hospital a week earlier after suffering a seizure, his longtime friend and associate Jerry Kennedy said Thursday. Singleton experienced literal overnight success in 1968 when he put then-unknown singer Jeanne Carolyn Stephenson into a recording studio with a Tom T. Hall song about small-town backbiting. "Harper Valley P.T.A." gave Jeannie C. Riley, Stephenson's stage name, a No. 1 hit not only on country radio but on the pop singles chart as well. "We did that at a 6 p.m. session on a Thursday night, I think," said Kennedy, who played the dobro prominently featured on the track. "I was going to Gatlinburg in eastern Tennessee for a long weekend, and when I was driving back, I started hearing it on the radio. Shelby had cut acetates and got them to radio stations all over the place. He took one to Ralph Emery on WSM . . . and he played it immediately, just a few hours after we had recorded it." With the profits from that million-seller, Singleton bought rights to the Sun Records name and thousands of master recordings made by the label's visionary founder, Sam Phillips, who had discovered Elvis Presley, Lewis, Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and dozens of other rockabilly, blues and R&B acts. Phillips had famously sold Presley's contract, and master recordings, in 1955 to RCA Records for $35,000, but Singleton wound up owning what's considered one of the seminal catalogs of early rock 'n' roll. In the 1970s he reissued many of those recordings, helping spur interest among new generations of listeners in the pivotal records of some of rock's greatest figures. He also launched the careers of some of country music's most colorful artists of the '60s, including Miller, Stevens and Jerry Reed, after quickly rising at Mercury Records to head of artists and repertoire, the talent scouting and development side of the record business. Shelby Sumpter Singleton Jr. was born Dec. 16, 1931, in Waskom, Texas. He grew up in Shreveport, La., and joined the Marines after high school. Upon discharge, he worked as an engineer for Remington Rand, the maker of the early Univac computer. In the late '50s he became Mercury Records' Southeast promotion man. Within about three years, he had risen to head of A&R, prompting his move to Nashville, which also aided the career of his first wife, country singer Margie Singleton. Long before he acquired the prestigious Sun Records catalog, Singleton snagged one of its cornerstone artists, Jerry Lee Lewis, whom he signed in 1963 when Lewis' career was at a low ebb. Within a few years, with Kennedy producing, Lewis became one of the most consistent country hit-makers of the late '60s and '70s. "He was one of the best all-around record men I've ever been in touch with," Kennedy said. "He did so much and did it so well: promotion, marketing, production. He was even involved in publishing and merchandising. He did it all." Singleton is survived by his fourth wife, Mary; sons Sidney, Steve and Stuart; daughter Shana; several grandchildren; and his younger brother, John, with whom he continued to work in recent years with the Sun catalog that he bought four decades ago.

Happy Birthday marcello!