GA Russell

Happy Birthday MG, wherever you are!

Happy birthday DukeCity!

Happy Birthday HolyStitt!

Happy Birthday marcoliv!

Happy Birthday Brad!

BM, that's MTA! Interesting that your kids, without any knowledge of the group's history, would choose as their favorites the group's two biggest hits!

With the Bombers' loss, the Als clinched first place in the East. In the Hamilton-Montreal game, Anthony Calvillo set a league record with 44 completions. The previous record of 41 was held by Dieter Brock and Kent Austin. http://tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=251661&lid...os=secStory_cfl

Here's confirmation that the Roughriders have clinched a playoff berth. http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/new...4a-6f10b3ba7c93 ***** Hamilton Tiger-Cats 44....Montreal Alouettes 38 http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform...aspx?id=4183577 Great game, and what an upset! Quinton Porter played again for the Ticats, and threw 5 TD passes. Prechae Rodriguez set the Ticats' team record with 13 receptions (including 3 TDs). (The previous record of 12 was set in 1976 by Jimmy Edwards.) Ben Cahoon broke Ray Elgard's career record for most receptions by a Canadian. He now stands at #5 on the career list. ***** Edmonton Eskimos 36....Winnipeg Blue Bombers 22 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ory/GlobeSports http://64.246.64.33/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=s...aspx?id=4183603 Winnipeg got off to a 14-2 lead in the first quarter. Very early in the second quarter, the Eskimos scored a TD to make it 14-9 just as I was tuning in. Well, the Bombers didn't do much after that. Edmonton scored 4 TDs in the second quarter, and I turned it off at the half with the score 30-16. I turned it back on late in the third, but not much had happened. The Bombers started playing again in the fourth, but by then it was too late.

I was in college in DC when Eddie Brinkman played for the Senators. Their last year, their manager was Ted Williams. The tv announcer was Warner Wolf. Many, many times over the years, I have heard Wolf refer to the fact that when Williams managed the Senators, he had everybody on the team batting forty points above his average. And Wolf would always cite Eddie Brinkman, who hit .260 that year instead of the .195 he would usually produce. From the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,5054501.story <h2 style="">Ed Brinkman</h2>Tigers' shortstop set record in 1972 Ed Brinkman, 66, the quintessential "good field, no hit" major league shortstop who set a record in 1972 with 72 consecutive errorless games for the Detroit Tigers, died Tuesday in his hometown of Cincinnati, according to the Chicago White Sox. No cause of death was given, although friends said he had a heart ailment. Brinkman won a Gold Glove Award in 1972 and was named to the American League all-star team in 1973, when he played shortstop in all 162 games. He finished his 15-year major league career with a batting average of .224 and a fielding percentage of .970. He went to the Tigers after the 1970 season, when the Washington Senators sent him and several other players to Detroit for Denny McLain, the Tigers' pitching ace who had won 31 games in 1968, and others. Brinkman began with the Washington Senators in 1961. After 10 seasons with the Senators and four with the Tigers, he played briefly for the New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers before retiring in 1975. The White Sox hired him as an infield coach in 1983. He stayed with the team as a scout until 2000. Edwin Albert Brinkman was born Dec. 8, 1941. He was a high school pitcher on a team whose second baseman was Pete Rose. Brinkman missed much of the 1968 season while serving in the Army National Guard. A week after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Brinkman was stationed in the left-field seats on opening day in Washington.

I hear The Edsels doing various songs on Sirius quite often. From the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,5054501.story October 4, 2008 George 'Wydell' Jones 'Rama Lama Ding Dong' songwriter George "Wydell" Jones, 71, who wrote the doo-wop hit and performed it as a member of the Edsels, died of cancer Sept. 27 at his home in Youngstown, Ohio, his son, Steffon Jones, told the Associated Press. The song -- originally released as "Lama Rama Ding Dong" -- peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1961. The Youngstown-based Edsels also included Harry Green, Larry Green, Jimmy Reynolds and Marshall Sewell. During their heyday, which lasted about as long as that of the Ford model for which they were named, the Edsels performed at the Apollo Theater in New York and appeared on "American Bandstand."

British Columbia Lions 24....Toronto Argonauts 20 http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform...aspx?id=4183417 http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Gam...6973416-cp.html Surprisingly good game. The Lions were the better team, but the Argos had the chance to pull it out in the last minute of the game. The Argos were in the game because of two long TDs runs by Jamal Robertson. Adriano Belli sung the National Anthem! He hit all the notes, sort of. With the Argos' loss, the Lions and the Stampeders (and I suppose the Roughriders, but I haven't seen or heard a confirmation of that) clinched a playoff spot (the crossover spot). ***** Saskatchewan Roughriders 37....Calgary Stampeders 34 http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home Great game! Michael Bishop had a good night. The Riders lead the Stampeders in point differential by one, with one more game against the Stamps to go. They could have kicked a short field goal for the last play of the game to extend that lead to four, but they chose to take a kneel down. I suppose that it didn't occur to Ken Miller.

Will do! I heard a George Cables electric piano track the day before yesterday on Sirius's Jazz Cafe channel, which is a mix of contemporary jazz (sometimes pretty good) and smooth jazz (often lousy).

Two games tonight, two tomorrow evening. Fred Williams Week 15 preview http://64.246.64.33/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=s...aspx?id=4183322

Happy Birthday Ken! Always enjoy your comments.

I recall the Pirates that, in was it "78 or '79?, at least one World Series game they didn't sell out. I lived in Pittsburgh at the time, and I remember thinking that I could just drive right down and buy a ticket to the World Series! However, it was snowing lightly, so I didn't bother.

Listening to The Kingston Trio tonight, I was reminded that it was Reynolds who spoke the lengthy intro to Tom Dooley, and who sang the lead on MTA.

The Mark Murphy is from about 1966. I've wanted it for decades. I'm curious about the Doldinger. I have one of his from 1968 released on World Pacific called Blues Happening. I like it a lot, and if this has more of that I'd be interested.

Nick Reynolds died yesterday. Dave Guard, Bob Shane and Nick Reynolds made up The Kingston Trio. Guard was the leader, but left the group in late '61. He was replaced by John Stewart (who passed away earlier this year), and the group continued to have hits. The group broke up in '67. Shane continued touring with two other guys as The New Kingston Trio. I saw them in '69 I think. About ten years ago I picked up a CD of their recordings, and by coincidence I listened to it yesterday. It was more country than folk. Anyway, in the early 90s Reynolds and Shane got back together with a third guy as The Kingston Trio. I saw them perform in Atlanta around '93 or '94. Very enjoyable, although there was a loud table in the back that talked through much of the performance. RIP. I'll pull out my cds of Tom Dooley, MTA and Worried Man in Reynolds' honor. Here's a link to Kingston Trio YouTube videos: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...,0,218679.story From the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,6426162.story Nick Reynolds, 75, dies; was a founding member of the Kingston Trio Nick Reynolds, a founding member of the popular 1960s folk group The Kingston Trio, died Oct. 1 in San Diego. He was 75. In the 1950s, the group helped drive the folk music revival that paved the way for such artists as Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary. By Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer October 3, 2008 Nick Reynolds, who as a college student grabbed a guitar, donned a broad-striped button-down shirt and quickly helped propel the 1950s folk music revival to the top of the pop music charts as a founding member of the Kingston Trio, died Wednesday in San Diego. He was 75. Reynolds had been hospitalized in recent weeks with acute respiratory disease and a variety of other illnesses, his son, Josh Reynolds, said today. His family chose to take him off life support. Nick Reynolds Kingston Trio video links (YouTube) The group's recording of the tragic 19th century folk ballad "Tom Dooley" went to No. 1 in 1958 and earned Reynolds and his partners Dave Guard and Bob Shane a Grammy Award for best country and western performance at the first Grammy ceremony. In that inaugural year, the Grammys had no categories dedicated to folk music, which was booming on college campuses around the country. The following year, the group's album "The Kingston Trio at Large" picked up a second Grammy for its members. "The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta ... from Odetta, I went to Harry Belafonte, the Kingston Trio, little by little uncovering more as I went along," Bob Dylan once said. Reynolds typically handled the middle part of the trio's scintillating three-part harmonies, sometimes adding congas and other percussion accents. Although the group's music generally shied away from the politicized content of such forbears as Woody Guthrie and the Weavers, its commercial breakthrough in the late-'50s represented a clean-cut alternative to the sexualized rock 'n' roll of Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and others that had American teens in its grip. And it helped set the stage for such upcoming folk-rooted protest singers as Dylan, Joan Baez and Peter, Paul and Mary. "It really started with the Weavers, in the early '50s," Reynolds said in a 2006 interview speaking of the group that included Pete Seeger. "We were big fans of theirs, but they got blacklisted in the McCarthy era. Their music was controversial. Suddenly, they couldn't get any airplay; they couldn't get booked into the big hotels, nothin'. "We played their kind of music when we were first performing in colleges. But when we formed the trio ... we had to sit down and make a decision: Are we going to remain apolitical with our music? Or are we going to slit our throats and get blacklisted for doing protest music? We decided we'd like to stay in this business for a while. And we got criticized a lot for that. ... If Bob Dylan or Joan Baez had come out at that time, they'd have been dead in the water. But four or five years later, [their music] became commercially viable." The trio also charted hits with "The Tijuana Jail," "M.T.A." and Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," a protest song that became popular with anti-Vietnam War activists and that the group eventually sang on the White House lawn as President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Ladybird Johnson, looked on. Nicholas Wells Reynolds was born July 27, 1933, in San Diego to Stewart Shirley Reynolds, a Navy captain, and Jane Keck Reynolds. The family, including sisters Barbara and Jane, often engaged in singalongs led by their father, a guitarist with an affinity for old folk songs. It was in these sessions that Reynolds developed his facility with intricate vocal harmonies that became one of the hallmarks of the Kingston Trio's music. "Nobody could nail a harmony part like Nick," Shane once said. "He could hit it immediately, exactly where it needed to be, absolutely note perfect, all on the natch. Pure genius." After graduating from Coronado High School in 1951, he attended the University of Arizona and San Diego State before enrolling at Menlo College near San Francisco. During a particularly dull accounting class, he noticed a student dead asleep and later introduced himself to Bob Shane. Shane and Dave Guard knew each other from the time they'd played music together in Guard's native Hawaii, and when Guard decided to reconfigure his Kingston Quartet, which he started while studying at nearby Stanford, he drafted Shane and Reynolds. Reynolds left the group in 1967 after the British Invasion rendered its style effectively antiquated in the minds of pop music fans, and moved his family to Oregon, where he stayed until the 1980s. In 1991 he joined Shane in a reconstituted version of the Kingston Trio. Guard died of cancer that year, and had left the trio in the 1961 to form his own group. Guard was replaced by singer-songwriter John Stewart, who went on to have a significant solo career. Stewart died in January of a massive stroke. Reynolds continued performing with Shane until he retired a second time in 2003. Shane eventually bought Reynolds' and Guard's shares of the rights to the Kingston Trio name so he could use it exclusively, and the act has continued to tour since Shane's retirement with three latter-day members. In recent years, Reynolds and Stewart had hosted a "Trio fantasy camp" in Arizona, where folk music fans would learn to play and sing many of the trio's hits and other folk standards. Reynolds is survived by his wife, Leslie; sons Joshua Stewart Reynolds and John Pike Reynolds; daughters Annie Clancy Reynolds Moore and Jennifer Kristie Reynolds; and sisters Jane Reynolds Meade and Barbara Reynolds Haines. No services have been set, Josh Reynolds said.

For "GA" it has: While on a camping trip, you become trapped in an outhouse for days. To avoid starvation, you eat some of the waste matter floating in the toilet water. You become violently ill and die shortly thereafter. Strangely enough, I recall posting once here about using an outhouse on a camping trip in Idaho. And as I recall, I said that all things considered it was a more pleasant experience than using a federally mandated low flush john. edit to make the quote legible

Happy Birthday rostasi!

Ron Estay has serious cancer. He has taken a four-month leave of absence from the Riders. He and I are the same age, and we both grew up in southern Louisiana. He told me that he went to South Lafourche High School. I met him at the 1978 Grey Cup when he played for the Eskimos. Please keep him in your prayers. http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/new...1a-0be9eb472e23 ***** Dominique Dorsey injured his knee and his ankle. It hasn't been determined how long he will be out - maybe three weeks, maybe the remainder of the year. The Argos have brought in Keith Stokes to take his spot on the roster (not that Stokes could fill Dorsey's shoes). The Argos also cut Bethel Johnson, who was with the Patriots when they won the Super Bowl in 2004 and 2005. http://www.thestar.com/Sports/Football/article/509252

You made my day, Ray!

Thanks, BG. This morning's paper said that today is Dave Holland's 62nd birthday. I still think of him as a young guy!

Here's a Spectator article which claims that the Ticats of the past four years are among the worst pro sports teams ever! I don't think it's true, because the Ticats have had the lead in the fourth quarter in about half their losses this year. Still, four years is a long time to go without improvement in the won-loss record. http://www.thespec.com/Sports/article/442624

Here's his Washington Post obit: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,4377293.story