GA Russell

As I understand it, Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican holiday celebrating the Mexican army's victory over the American army in a particular battle. If that's the case, it should become more well known in the US that that is the case, and obviously it should be discouraged although not outlawed of course.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354086,00.html ST. CHARLES, Ill. — There will be no indoor smoking at a large convention for pipe smokers in Illinois. A new Illinois law bans smoking in public places. That's taken some of the steam out of this weekend's Chicagoland International Pipe & Tobacciana Show in St. Charles. The event draws 4,000 pipe collectors from more than 60 countries. Organizers tried to get around the new law by arguing their gathering was a private club meeting. Police and health officials said no. Instead, a large smoking tent has been set up 15 feet away from the Pheasant Run convention center. Convention-goer Al Shinogle of Denver likens it to a wine tasting without the wine.

Here's his AP obituary: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,6146788.story From the Associated Press 8:01 AM PDT, May 2, 2008 BERLIN -- Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager, believed to be the last surviving member of the inner circle of plotters who attempted to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944 with a briefcase bomb, has died. He was 90. The German military said in a statement today that the former army major died Thursday night. It did not give a cause of death. Von Boeselager was part of a group of officers who tried to kill Hitler on July 20, 1944, supplying explosives for the operation led by Col. Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg. The von Stauffenberg plot is the basis for the upcoming Tom Cruise film "Valkyrie" in which the American actor plays the aristocratic colonel. Von Stauffenberg placed the bomb in a conference room where Hitler was meeting with his aides and military advisers but escaped the blast when someone moved the briefcase next to a table leg, deflecting much of the explosive force. Almost immediately afterward, von Stauffenberg and many of his cohorts were arrested and executed in an orgy of revenge killings that saw some hanged by the neck with piano wire. Though many of those rounded up by Nazi officials were tortured in the hopes they would give up other conspirators, von Boeselager's name was never divulged and he was never found out. Still, he carried a cyanide capsule with him until the end of the war in case his secret was revealed. Von Boeselager, who lived in Altenahr, near Bonn, was first recruited by von Stauffenberg coconspirator Maj. Gen. Henning von Tresckow in 1942, he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview three weeks ago that was published today. He said he knew that Jews were being systematically killed and that Germany was waging a war of annihilation along the Eastern Front with Russia and that he never considered declining taking part in the plot. By 1942, he said that "It was no longer about saving the country, but about stopping the crimes," the newspaper quoted him as saying. Assigned to the army high command as an aide to Field Marshal Gunther von Kluge, the plotters first arranged for von Boeselager to try and shoot both Hitler and SS-chief Heinrich Himmler at a meeting in 1943. Von Kluge, who committed suicide a month after the 1944 attempt on Hitler, called the assassination off at the last minute after learning that Himmler would not be at the meeting. Von Boeselager followed von Kluge's orders, but told the FAZ the decision to do so never ceased to haunt him. "I always see Hitler from here to the fireplace in front of me and think 'What would have happened if you had shot him?"' he told FAZ, describing a distance of about two feet with his hands. He also recalled when he joined the von Stauffenberg plot: his brother called him in the spring of 1944, asking for his help in providing explosives. Von Boeselager recommended English-made explosives as the best, and -- as part of his assignment to an explosives research team -- was able to acquire them without drawing suspicion. He delivered them to Maj. Gen. Helmuth Stieff, packed into a suitcase. Stieff was later executed for his role in the plot, and von Boeselager's brother was killed in fighting on the Eastern Front. Had the bombing succeeded, von Boeselager said he was assigned to lead a 1,000-man unit into Berlin to secure the capital. Von Boeselager told FAZ that in the years immediately after the war, he spoke with his wife, Rosa, about his role in the resistance, but otherwise said little else. "There was nobody one could talk with about it," he said. "They were all dead, and with others it would just have been bragging." There was also the fact that immediately after World War II, the July 20 plotters were widely viewed as traitors, a label the Nazis gave them that stuck for years. "For a long time, it was not believable to normal Germans that the government was criminal," he recalled. "And as soon as one thought they had pushed that out of the way, then people just didn't want to know."

I was over at Wikipedia today reading about the proposed United Football League which may have a team in Raleigh, and the links took me to the CFL. You might enjoy seeing what they have to say about the league and the history of Canadian football. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Football_League

The feet trick worked for me. Then I couldn't get her to go clockwise again. So I scrolled down until she was off the screen. When I scrolled back up she was clockwise again.

7/4, maybe being right-brained makes me a day late and a dollar short!

I see her going clockwise, and I can't make her go counter-clockwise. See for yourself! By the way, I suppose that the analysis is fairly correct for me, but I like to think of myself as logical too. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...281-661,00.html

I would have enjoyed that! All the time people tell me that I don't speak with a New Orleans accent. I used to try to tell them that there are many accents including a neutral one, but I gave up.

This is now available from BMG/Your Music.

Here's David Naylor's report on each pick of the first two rounds of today's draft: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ory/GlobeSports

Happy Birthday!

Glad to hear you had a great time! I went twice and both times had a ball. But when I went there was plenty of jazz. Did you check out the gospel tent?

Happy Birthday again!

Here's an explanation of the finanances involved with the Bills playing their games in Toronto: http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home Bills to be paid $78-million for Toronto games Associated Press April 29, 2008 at 6:39 PM EDT BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills will receive $78 million — more than double their calculated 2006 operating income — to play eight games in Toronto over the next five years. The payment to the Bills was disclosed for the first time in Rogers Communications' 2008 first quarter report released Tuesday. Rogers is part of a consortium that negotiated a deal with the Bills to have them play five regular-season and three pre-season games starting this year at the Rogers Centre. In becoming the NFL's first team to play annual games outside the United States, the Bills are scheduled to host Pittsburgh in a pre-season game at Toronto on Aug. 14, followed by a regular-season game against Miami on Dec. 7. Rogers spokeswoman Jan Innes would not comment beyond the one-paragraph statement included in the company report, except to say that the $78-million figure was in Canadian currency. The Canadian dollar hovered around par to the U.S. greenback during the first quarter this year. Innes declined to say whether any portion of the payment has been made to the Bills. Bills spokesman Scott Berchtold also declined comment, citing a policy that the team does not discuss financial details of its business relationships. The deal, announced in February, was reached with a group headed by Rogers CEO and founder, Ted Rogers, and Larry Tanenbaum, chairman of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors. Rogers also owns the Blue Jays as well as the Rogers Centre. As part of the agreement, the Toronto group is effectively leasing the home games from the Bills. Buffalo will provide the team, the NFL provides an opponent, while the Toronto organizers will be responsible for selling tickets, concessions and promoting the event. The Toronto group is using use the eight-game series to show the city can support its own NFL franchise. The Bills sought out the agreement as a way to generate additional revenues by expanding their market to Canada's largest city and financial capital, located a 90-minute drive from Buffalo. The $78-million payment eclipses what Forbes calculated the Bills made in 2006, in the magazine's latest annual financial breakdown of NFL franchises. Forbes calculated the Bills had an operating income of US$31.2 million after bringing in $176 million in revenues that year. Broken down, the Bills will make nearly $9.75 million per game in Toronto, something they'd be unable to make at Orchard Park, where the small-market team has perennially had the lowest ticket prices in the NFL. The Bills' average ticket price for this season is about $51 at Ralph Wilson Stadium, which has a 72,000 seating capacity. Ticket prices for the games in Toronto have not yet been released, but are expected to average more than $100 at a facility with a 54,000 seating capacity for football. Demand is already high after more than 100,000 single-ticket reservations were made for the eight-game series through a website established by the Toronto group. Tickets will be distributed via a lottery starting next month.

The Argos have signed former Arizona Cardinal Pro Bowl receiver David Boston. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=235384&amp...os=topStory_cfl ***** Moncton is building a $27 million dollar stadium that may one day be available for a CFL team. http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/new...e3-d084721cb8bf ***** Calgary was awarded the 2009 Grey Cup game. Won't this be the 100th anniversary of the first one? A couple of years were missed during World War II, so Toronto is sheduled to get the 100th game (I think in 2012). But as I recall the first game was in 1909. Go Varsity! http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Cal...373776-sun.html ***** Here's a report on the Ticats' off-season so far: http://www.thespec.com/Sports/article/359045 ***** Here's a pre-draft summary: http://www.tsn.ca/columnists/duane_forde/?id=235765 ***** Here are summaries of the defensive and offensive prospects in the draft: http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/feature/?fid=11457&a...=topRelated_cfl http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/feature/?fid=11452&a...=topRelated_cfl

Happy Birthday Niko!

Happy Birthday Joe!

His Gypsy 66 seemed to be very popular when it was new. I only have one album, Spellbinder, which I enjoy fairly often, mostly because it doesn't sound like any other album I own. Szabo co-owned Skye Records with Gary McFarland and Cal Tjader as I recall.

I didn't listen to the radio much in the 70s, and I don't remember I Go Crazy, but I remember very well '65 Love Affair and Cool Night. Here's his LA Times obituary: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...1,4667138.story <h2 style="">Paul Davis</h2>Songwriter hit top 10 with 'I Go Crazy' Paul Davis, 60, a singer and songwriter whose soft-rock hit "I Go Crazy" stayed at the top of the charts for weeks after its release in 1977, died of a heart attack Tuesday at Rush Foundation Hospital in his native Meridian, Miss., cousin James Edwards said. Davis' other hits included " '65 Love Affair," "Cool Night," "Ride 'Em Cowboy" and country duets with Marie Osmond, including "You're Still New To Me." His 1977 album "Singer of Songs -- Teller of Tales" featured the ballad "I Go Crazy." The song slowly climbed the charts, peaking at No. 7 eight months after its release, according to Billboard's website. The song stayed in the top 100 for 40 more weeks, according to Billboard. The son of a Methodist minister, Davis was born April 21, 1948, and raised in rural Mississippi. He started his music career in Jackson, Miss., then worked in New York, Atlanta and Nashville before returning to Meridian to retire.

All of the Walmarts in this area are sold out, and they don't know when they will get the next shipment in. I went to Best Buy Monday evening and checked out their converter box. It comes with a remote control. You change channels with it. I think you turn the TV on and off with it too. I saw that most of the stations in this area broadcast digitally two or three stations, all of which the box picks up. I don't think that all of these stations are available on cable TV.

Vignettes went on sale today in the US. It's just Crispell on solo piano. It is very laid back, with her improvising on an hour's worth of songs that sound like classical music. I suspect that the album would sound more like jazz if there were bass and drums accompanying her. I enjoy it. It's good for late at night, or else to have something playing in the house while you are doing something else besides listening to music. I'm sorry that I won't have the opportunity to see her on tour. That would be something that would be a treat. All in all, a very classy record.

The Way I Play went on sale today. It's a very solid album, but I don't think that it is as good as his last two, Song and Dance and The Deep Blue Organ Trio's Folk Music (which has become one of my favorite albums of the past year). The first seven cuts on the CD are standards, and the last song is a 12 minute original. Because the standards are such great tunes, I expect the album will get a lot of airplay. As luck would have it, the CD's first song is one that I have never liked, Strike Up the Band. We've been through this drill before, so I quickly decided to skip over it when I play the CD. All of the songs are laid back - no flag wavers, as Art Pepper used to say. That is why I would rank this album below Song and Dance. I would have expected more variety in the performances for a live date. The playing of Broom and his colleagues Dennis Carroll on bass and Kobie Watkins on drums is excellent throughout. That is why I expect a number of the tunes to be selected for airplay. But as much as I like this, I would recommend that you pick up the other two mentioned above first.

As someone whose grandmother's maiden name was Parziale, this made my day! http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGQky-YndTk

I took the plunge tonight. I used a brush and hard shaving soap for years until I moved to North Carolina. The water here is so hard that I could not get a good lather. (As it turns out, I didn't know what a good lather was. I have found a video on YouTube about stirring up a good lather. I will post the link later.) As the News & Observer said, people who take shaving seriously use a double edge blade. So tonight I went that direction. I went to razorandbrush.com and ordered: Weishi polished chrome razor ARKO regular shave cream and these blades: Derby Extra Dorco Platinum Crystal Platinum Personna Platinum Red (known as Israeli Personna) The N&O article said that the best shaving cream is Proraso green, which I picked up last week at my local Bath & Body Works under their private label C.O. Bigelow. So when the package arrives, maybe by the weekend, I'll be ready to go with a DE blade! Most people say that the Dorco is best for beginners, as is the Weishi. One thing that I learned in my investigations is how cheap the blades are. Although I ordered packs of 5 or 10, they are typically sold on the internet in boxes of 100 for $15-25. That's a quarter each. Think about that the next time you spend $2.50 for a Gillette Fusion cartridge.

I've been doing a fair amount of studying this month regarding razors, blades and creams. Dorco is a South Korean company whose double edge blade is highly regarded for beginners of "wetshaving". Here's something I haven't seen before, a Dorco cartridge with six blades! http://www.pace6.com/