a pistol shot

 at 5 O'clock,

the bells of heaven ring.

tell me what you done it for

no,,i won't...tell you a thing ( Hunter/Garcia)

follow the bouncing ball ladies and gentlemen....everyone wins a prize at this carnival.

so....in order to distract from the fact that "vast majority" of attacks on Asian Americans are committed by our very own oppressed African American cousins, the Mayor and Chuck Schumer paraded out as many black woman as they could to denounce Asian attacks in Chinatown......that's called hiding in plain sight.....if only they hadn't blocked Trump from social media they could tie all these attack's back to one of his recent tweets.

and.....obviously bracing for the inevitable spike in Covid cases as a result of the thousands of illegals streaming across the border and being housed in every hotel, gymnasium and cage they can find...the govt went on the emotional offensive and old Joe begged states to reconsider the Mask mandate....never mind that 48 hours prior he patted himself on the back for administering Trumps vaccine at a record pace.....and CDC director Rochelle Walensky went so far as to talk about "IMPENDING DOOM"......they are so ready to explain the migrant spike that they are showing their cards too early.

and Kamala ? that didn't take long.......as the NY Post noted.....6 days after old Joe put her in charge of the Border....she said NO THANKS........i'm only working on Root causes of immigration....not border security......stupid white man thought he was the president.

and congestion pricing is coming soon to NYC.....this will be the final nail in the coffin and ensure that the white males from the other 4 Boroughs stay at home and leave the city to the Shines to Beat the asains and frighten the occasional tourist.

"Take up your china doll
it's only fractured -
and just a little nervous
from the fall"

what kind of house is this ?

 Where I have come to roam?”

“It’s not a house,” said Judas Priest
“It’s not a house . . . it’s a home”
(Bob Dylan)

you know when i rambled around europe with the US Navy in the late 80's i always walked the streets of these ancients cities and tried to transport my brain back in time to the days of wine and roses.....in Jerusalem i thought of Jesus and Pilot and the Crucifixion and looked at ancient buildings and wondered who had built them and who may have lived in them......in Palermo i thought of General Patton.....and the allies that passed through..in Nairobi i thought of Hemmingway and wondered if i was drinking in a hotel bar that he may have frequented......France, Turkey, Spain , Greece.....same story......buildings that seemed to be hundreds or even thousands of years old and i felt it was my duty to ponder the existence of people i had never met....i read every plaque on every monument i passed.....it mattered once.....someone cared enough to erect it or build it.....i could at least stop and think about it.

Bayridge has been turning over new leaves since....well probably since it's existence.....Brooklyn itself seems to be a pass through stop on the evolution road.....stop, drop and roll..........when my parents sold the only home i had ever known in 1989 i avoided walking down that block for the next 5 years or so......as if i was a tresspasser.......now when time permits on sweater nite weekend i allow myself one quick stroll down memory lane past 554.....but it's all too weird.....i do it to spark a memory of a neighbor or an event that may be buried in subconscious.

the 200 series on 73rd street between Ridge Blvd and 3rd Avenue is one of those blocks that is bursting at the seems with memories, families and wild Characters of the Night.......too many to list or recall....but for the short time i lived on 73rd between colonial and narrows , that block was my part of navigation system home , whether i was coming from the subway or the bars , i would walk down that block..and memories would come flowing back.....i'd peer at the windows of homes i used to frequent and smile.....even as the neighborhood changed and people moved away  there was always a familiar face at the house numbered 221........sadly this week that house has changed hands.....for the first time since approx 1963 there is No Longer a Woods in residence...and that is sad....i wonder in the future on some quiet sunday morning....when the new owners are drinking coffee in the dining room and reading the paper.....will they hear the familiar THUD of someone dribbling a basketball in the bedroom above....

"time rolls on, and the band played on.....somebody's favorite tune" ( Jorma)

 

struggle for a dollar...scuffle for a dime

 Step out from the past and try to hold the line

So how come history takes such a long, long time

When you're waiting for a miracle   ( Bruce Cockburn)

sorry for the delay but we had some family emergencies this week......alas all is well....where was i ?

ah yes.....Friday February 22nd 1980.

first off I went skiing upstate at a Dude Ranch with the Mc Evoys.....me, Whitey, Freddie Roc and Dermot....we skiid and drank in the hotel for 3 days....complete insanity....terrorized the slopes by day ...and took a taxi into town, bought beer at the age of 14 and went back to the hotel to terrorize some more....on Friday we took a Bus from the Catskills to the Port Authority and we arrived at the crossroads of the universe around 6:00 - 6:30 pm.......keep in mind this was 1980.....no cell phones, no internet and the USA-Russia game was not being televised......as we arrived in the Port the place was buzzing....out on 8th avenue people were standing around and chatting about the GAME.......someone told us that the Americans were beating the Russians late in the 3rd period.......unreal....we couldn't believe it......we crossed 8th avenue and walked into a Bar.....my memory isn't perfect....it was either A Blarney Stone /Blarney Rock or Mcahons.....one of those chain Irish Bars.....real bucket of blood....but on this Friday afternoon it was jumping.....we were still a few weeks away from our 15th Birthdays but the drinking age was only 18 .....and we looked older.....so we combined all of our singles into a pile and ordered 5 mugs of Bud.......the game was not on TV or Radio.......but the stereo behind the Bar was tuned to 1010 WINS and every 15 minutes was a sports update.......John Montone or someone similar was outside the arena at Lake Placid and filing updates that were being passed out to him.......the bar went silent when he announced " There are less than 3 minutes to go and the Americans are clinging to a 1 goal lead , but the Russians are swarming the Americans trying to tie the game".....the Bar Roared.....everyone high fiving and raising their beers triumphantly........then the bar got silent again......we stood staring at the ceiling or floors  listening to the radio and some crazy report about potential subway strike or an expansion project at the Javits center..we were all excited , but we would not have been shocked if the next report said the Russians scored twice in the closing minute...they were that good.......and then.....we interrupt this report to go live to Lake Placid where 1010 WINS John Montone is standing by.

"Well it's all over at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid......the underdog Americans have shocked the world and defeated the Soviet Union"...........BEDLAM.......pure fucking BEDLAM......everyone was jumping up and down and taking to the streets with their Beer Mugs.....Cars on 8th ave honked their horns......eruptions and Roars went up from the Port Authority as word Spread.....42nd street was electric........chants of USA, USA, USA broke out all over the city............looking back on that moment i laugh at the oddity of it......of all the places in the world for a group of 14 year olds to be.....but that was NY in the 70's/80's........we walked to Broadway and caught the RR train back to Bayridge....i walked home and sat down just in time for ABC to televise the game on tape delay......a moment that changed my life forever......sadly we will never know a moment like that again.....nobody cared that it was Jimmy Carter in the White House, everyone was truly United to Beat Russia....and we did.......it was the first Real Sign that the United States of America was roaring back to Life........5 years later i would be enlisting in the Navy and hoping to go to war with those Russian Bastards on the High Seas....America owes a debt of gratitude to Herb Brooks and all those wonderful lads....

if only you believed in miracles...

 so would I (Marty Balin)

In the aftermath of the Mark Pavelich passing i turned to You Tube. I re-watched a 1 hour documentary about that 1980 team and memories galore came flooding back. 

in the summer/fall of 1979 i closely followed the US Olympic hockey team as best i could.....which if you too were old enough to remember 1979 meant i would check the NY Post for the overnight scores and hope they had a blip about international or exhibition scores. only about 10 Ranger road games a year were carried on channel 9....no home games of course unless you went to Manhattan for cable......there was no E.S.P.N...heck the 1975 Stanley cup finals appeared on PBS..the flyers-sabres classic series was briefly interrupted by Monty Python commercials and some liberal flames begging for donations..........no articles about the team to speak of......nobody covered college hockey so i had never heard of any of the players or even knew who the coach was.......but every week or so a score would appear in the paper....just the final score....and i being a naïve 14 year old started to believe that we had a pretty good hockey team......i remember telling my oldest brother Jay that we were going to win a medal at Lake Placid....he laughed........a few months before the actual Olympics they held a pre-olympic tournament at Lake Placid.....according to the papers.....still no real coverage......and we beat the Russians....Holy Cow....I was Right.......i couldn't wait to tell my brother.......but he scoffed and laughed some more.......he told me that the Russians were so good that they had a B Team and a C team......he told me that Tretiak and the others would never play in a silly pre-olympic tournament....he reminded me that when the Russians mopped up the NHL the prior year that they sent a second team in addition to the National Team......(Moscow Dynamo if i recall).........deep down i knew he was right , but i held out hope.......one night during a Ranger road game in November they ran an ad for tickets to see the USA mens team play the Russians in mid December at the Garden......i begged my father to get tickets from work..........i think...and i could be wrong.....but i think he could have gotten them but nobody was wiling go to the game with me on a weeknight in December....and there was never a possibility that i was getting the Pfizer Red Seats to go to the game with Steve Mac......even at 14 i was knee deep in trouble 80% of the time ...and Mac was Mac.........the game wasn't televised and i couldn't find a radio feed.......i distinctly remember calling sports phone for an update and hearing Pat Hallas state that the russians were putting on a clinic at MSG.......i think it was 3-0 before people settled into their seats.....and 10-3 final........in the documentary i watched over the weekend Al Michaels referenced that game and said it wasn't as close as the 10-3 score indicated.........well.......i grudgingly accepted the fact that my brother was right.

tomorrow i will share the fascinating tale of where in the world i was on February 22nd 1980....it's a doozy.....and one of the top moments in my life where I  thank God that the stars alligned just the way they did.

In the bleak midwinter

 In the bleak mid-winter

Frosty wind made moan;
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.

I first heard the name Mark Pavelich like the rest of our Country in February 1980. He was the 5ft 7 spark plug for the United States 🇺🇸 hockey team at Lake Placid. On February 22nd on a Friday afternoon, WE beat the Russians......Still the Greatest Hockey game....not just my lifetime but the Nations....

I later was lucky enough to be in the blue seats in February of 1983 when Mark Pavelich became the first (and still only)American Born player to score 5 goals in a game....... with a flair for the dramatic it also happened to be CAP night.... and everyone at the game received a Red baseball cap compliments of Winston cigarettes.......10 or 15 thousand it seemed were tossed on the ice with the hat trick...... and some more with #4 ..... and still more with the 5th goal.

His tenure with the Rangers ended abruptly when he quit the team in the prime of his career because he was feuding with then coach Ted Sator.

He often refused to attend the Olympic team reunions and a few years ago was arrested for beating his neighbor with a tire iron.....it was later disclosed that he was suffering from mental illness and living like a hermit in the woods.

Mark Pavelich haves me two of my greatest thrills as a hockey fan.... and I always loved him for that.

Yesterday, in the bleak mid winter; he died.

Rest In Peace Mark

Look out any window

 any morning, any evening, any day

Maybe the sun is shining
birds are winging or
rain is falling from a heavy sky -
What do you want me to do,
to do for you to see you through?

it's all a dream we dreamed....one afternoon.....long ago. ( Hunter/Lesh)

today we leave the real world alone.

no politics or political scandals for me.

No Fox business & Maria Bartiromo

No Sports talk or Twitter

No Instagram , Yahoo or ESPN

i might not even Blog today....oh....wait.....never mind.

nope.....today i spend the morning on the treadmill......take my Boy Matteau Matteau for a short walk ( its cold).......read a little Kerouac ...listen to some good Ol Grateful Dead, and then repair to the bar Room in Redbank for Tall Glasses of Beer....i'll stare blankly at the TV showing Grapefruit League baseball from the sun drenched fields of Florida and i will enjoy a delicious steak with Val and celebrate my  56th successful trip around the Sun.

Slainte ~

t's just a box of rain

I don't know who put it there

Believe it if you need it

or leave it if you dare

But it's just a box of rain

or a ribbon for your hair

Such a long long time to be gone

and a short time to be there

no mans land

 there ain't no asylum here,

King Solomon he never lived round here ,

Go Straight to hell Boys ( the Clash)

i don't often push for Boycotts , and i try to never convince someone else as to what they should do with their hard earned pay.....but i will share some facts with my readers and give you something to think about the next time you are shopping .

Coca- Cola issued their employees a workplace diversity instructional document that gave them some free advice , guidance........"BE LESS WHITE".......not fake news, and Cocal Cola doesn't deny it , they did panic and try to blame the author and claim that the slides were also in Linkedin......but no outrage or apology or declaration to remove .

One of the slide announced the White children in the Western Hemisphere by the age of 3 or 4 believe that they are better than everyone else......YES....it's true........it's called PARENTING.....it's called ENCOURAGING.....it's called SUPPORT......white families are more guilty of this than the absent father - single momma communitties......but the White Parents are not telling their Kids to go out and slaughter whats left of the Indians......or attack blacks or mug Asians on the subway......they are instilling in their children the highest standards.....they are reinforcing to their children that they are Bright, have access to the Best Education on the Planet and that they can achieve anything if they set their mind to it........and in typical self loathsome liberal fashion, the left; instead of trying to mimmick the successful, instead try to tear them down so that everyone is equal in the gutter......it is sad and pathetic.

as a result i will no longer buy Cocal Cola products.....( minute made, sprite, schwepps, dasani and the list goes on and on) I no my little boycott won't change the world.....but i know i will sleep a little better.

"let me tell ya bout your blood Bamboo kid

it ain't coca cola, it's rice"

must be getting early

 clocks are running late.

paint by numbers morning sky, looks so phony (Hunter/Garcia)

we have come full circle....one year ago we stood in the Lief on the precipice of a global pandemic that few could have imagined. We raised tall glass of beer and honored our past while toasting our future. Time dragged on and the band played on......over 50 skaters paid homage that day....not to Hockey but to the 11209 community........and so this year it's all so very different, but gather we shall.

a spot at the Mahogany may be hard to come by but the high Tops will take their place in the folklore. Imbiberie's / Musketeers/ PC's will play host yet again on Saturday afternoon. our numbers reduced to a mere shadow of the behemoths of prior years but the spirit will be there stronger than ever. Sweater Nite 23 will take its' rightful place in history and i believe will be fondly remembered in the years that are to come....lets' hope so anyway.

Oh well a touch of grey

Kind of suits you anyway

That was all I had to say

It's alright

I will get by

I will get by

I will get by

I will survive

We will get by

We will get by

We will get by

We will survive

they walked along by the old canal

 a little confused, i remember well ( dylan)

ah joe.....poor old dementia joe......he said last night on town Hall that when he took over office there was NO Vaccine.......i have to assume that he forgot that HE received the Vaccine while Donald Trump was President.....it can't be BOTH Joe.....it just can't be BOTH,

he also said he is favor of forgiving 10K in Federal student loan debt ........i am very curious to hear the argument as to why.

is tuition to high ?  what are we doing about it ?

are the college teachers being asked to take a paycut to help lower tuition for minorities and women ?

were the loans unfair ? what are we doing about it ?

Did the Federal Govt lend money to kids who should not have been accepted into College ? what are we doing about it ?

is this a one time deal for current students ? or anyone and everyone that has an outstanding loan ? ( including doctors, lawyers and scientists ) 

what about high school seniors ? can they expect this forgivness next year ? is this an annual policy for eternity ?

or is this just more grandstanding wealth redistribution......take money from the taxpayers and give it to the blacks, women and illegal aliens ......because .....as Joe Biden said....."people of color may have a hard time figuring out how to get on the internet "

imagine if Trump said that. 

words.....words

 between the lines of age ( Neil Young)

thats all you hear these days ....empty words.....the say anything generation has won......don't bother me with the facts...they change directions like weather vanes....that evil bastard cuomo gave a press conference and refuted his former aide who came clean and admitted a coverup in the nursing home deaths.....he said a lot of words....but never uttered two simple ones....."i'm sorry".....no , he dug his heels in further and insisted that the death totals were delayed because of a DOJ investigation....and that he TOLD the NY State assembly that months ago.....thankfully members from both parties immediately stepped forward and said NO HE DID NOT.........two weeks ago he had a hillary moment and flatly said of the 8,000 person discrepancy "THEY DIED" what do you want from me........reminds us all of "What difference does it make" ? .....oh but the sun will rise eventually , and cuomo and his aides will figure a new direction to go.....and deny everything and anything that has happened in the past 12 months......and the petrified will accept his explanation because the alternatives are too scary for the faint of heart......those who would rather bury their heads in the sand than face the ugly truth and harsh WORDS of Donald Trump will continue to skip along the path of destruction , right off the cliff into the abyss......all because of words.

i look out the window , and out on the road

their bringing me presents, and saying hello

The sun ain’t yellow it’s chicken

 That was of course a Bob Dylan line.....,,

The Biden administration quietly withdrew a proposed rule requiring disclosure of relationships with Confucius Institutes. The Confucius Institutes are entities in U.S. colleges and schools which are funded and staffed by China’s Ministry of Education. The  China task force tracks threats posed by Chinese Communist Party influence in America’s education system.  

Business as usual...... the Biden mafia family climbing back into bed with the Chinese 

 in the dead of winter.....with bars in NYC closed and the northeast blanketed with snow and frigid temps....in the middle of a pandemic , with states still in lockdown......you would think the ratings for the superbowl would be the highest in history......i mean....what else was there to do on a sunday evening ? can't go to the movies, can't go to dinner....and yet the ratings were the worst in 14 years......maybe , just maybe ; somewhere in the nfl coroprate offices, someone is realizing that actions have consequences....and when you alienate have the country your popularity is going to take a hit.

small quiet side note....Mark Cuban yesterday admitted that the Dallas mavericks made the decision to forego playing the national anthem before games this year........my question....if he feels this is the right move and he's not worried about backlash, why didn't he have a press release on opening night ? why wait 2 months into a season to admit it after relentless questioning by local press ?

there's nothing in the streets

Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight (Townshend)

oh sweet Jesus their hypocrisy know NO limits.....how many times in the past few years have i begun a post with these same comments....it's an ongoing disgusting theme,

AMAZON is facing a worker revolt in Bessimer Alabama......it seems the local yocals have the audacity to talk about Unionizing.....now one would think that Jeff Bezos , the capitalist billionaire and head of the liberals; would be delighted to hear of such progress for the working class........but NO.....seems they are fighting it tooth and nail....but here's the kicker.......remember that silly Presidential election ? the one where Liberal governers rewrote election laws and allowed everyone to vote by mail ( and even mailed people ballots whether they asked for them or not )?  and Beezos and the left thought it the prudent thing to do ?  well Amazon filed a Lawsuit in Alabama insisting that the Union could not accept mail in ballots and every Amazon employee HAD to vote in person ....why is that i wonder ? 

I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
Though I know that the hypnotized never lie

jorma

 if you have not been following the Jorma Quarantine concerts every saturday night since last April....you should try to check them out on Youtube......i have a Bose soundbar on my barroom TV and i have been catching up on the show this past month......try to ignore his annoying wife Vanessa and just enjoy his stories and incredible acoustic music......it's hard to believe he is 80 years old......he still remembers dates, time, places, addresses , and minutia detail from some incredible stories from 50-60 years ago......his weekly guest John Hurlbutt usually gets him to play 2 cover tunes .....lots of Dylan, the Band , Airplane and great stuff from the 60's........these concerts feel like his parting gift to the universe....he gets a little choked up at times talking about all the great musicians and friends that have passed on.......really great stuff tho.

Too soon ?

 I love BROOKLYN STRONG in the Kentucky Derby.......remember the name, he’s going to be great for a long, long time 

we think we know what we're doing

 it don't mean a thing.

it's all in the past now, cause money changes everything. (c. Lauper / the Brains)

so what happened yesterday ? let me give a very basic explanation followed by very specific allegations.

normally we think of investing as buying stock ABC for $ 100 and eventually selling ABC for a price greater than $100....as Pat Garry would say  Buy low / Sell High.....but some people look at stocks and don't want to invest because they think the future is not bright for the ABC ( long term or short term). So their investment objective is the reverse , sell high / buy low , but how do you sell something that you do not own ?  on wall street you borrow it . 

simple example:  Eggroll  wants to buy ABC at $5 ,  Mac agrees to sell him 100 shares that he does not have. Mac borrows the shares from Schwab...........Schwab collects the $500 from Eggroll and gives Eggroll the  shares on behalf of Mac......Schwab keeps the $500 in an account for Mac until he settles the loan and gives them back their 100 shares. a week later ABC is trading at $3.50 ......Mac buys 100 shares for $350 , he gives schwab their shares and they give him his $500 ( he just made $150) Eggroll still has his 100 shares in a shoebox under his futon and he hopes someday that ABC bounces back.

Schwab charges Mac a fee for borrowing the shares , but where do they get their shares to give eggroll ? That's where MARGIN comes in......when a client trades on Margin they can borrow $$ from a brokerage based on the loan value of their portfolio, but they also enter into a rehypothecation agreement....which means the stocks that are used as collateral for the loan can be lent out by the brokerage firm....so schwab takes shares from their clients' inventory and uses them to give to eggroll, knowing that someday Mac will return the 100 shares and they will put them back in Matteau's account......In order for this whole merry go round to work, there has to be an abundance of shares available to lend/borrow......it's much more complicated than my example as there are hundreds of millions of stocks and shares in play everyday and rules on borrowing..... years ago , the stock loan dept was very powerful...as brokerages could lend shares to other brokerages in addittion to lending to their clients......so Morgan Stanley and Goldman both call schwab and ask to borrow 100 ABC , but schwab only has 100 ABC......who decides who gets the shares ? the stock loan dept.......and how did they decide ?  Ranger tickets in the skybox and a nice steak dinner usually did the trick.........ah but i digress.....today it's all computerized and tracked.

But the problem of availability is still an issue........

so if a hedge fund thinks ABC is going down they start selling short.......and selling more and more shares and borrowing from everyone on the street.......but if a brokerage can no longer lend the shares they must immediately call back their original loan ( a short squeeze) .......say Matteau wants his shares back for whatever reason...or an average Joe buys shares and does not want to be on Margin ( so the brokerage can NOT lend his shares) ...now the hedge fund HAS to give back the shares, but where do they get them if they can't borrow them ? they have to BUY them on the open market.....which makes the stock go up...........multiply that by 10,000 reddit nerds buying 100 shares each and the Hedge funds having to also BUY the shares to make delivery and you have 2 million shares traded in a previously a thinly traded stock, and that's how it  goes up 130% overnight.

now what happened at Robinhood ? ? 

well the allegations are that Stevie Cohen of the Mets lent his Pal at Citadell the money to cover his shares of Gamestock....legal.....and he used his influence to convince Robinhood to block the general public from buying GME until Citadell could cover their short....NOT LEGAL.

simple example.....yesterday at 9:30 if you were reading the wall street journal and following the GME story, you may have logged into Robinhood and said let me buy 100 shares of ABC because i know Citadell and others are being forced to buy ABC...and so the price goes up as demand increases....BUT....Robinhood said NO...and they blocked you from buying ABC until after the Hedge funds either bought shares to cover their shorts or were able to find someone on the street willing to lend them shares...and that of course,,,if accurate....is illegal.

side note... Citadell paid Janet Yellen 800K for giving a few speeches last year.......the White House is not concerned with the newly confirmed Treasury Secretary having such friendly ties to someone that will soon be under investigation...........imagine if this was Trump and Mnuchin ?

side note.....Joe Kennedy built his fortune as a whiskey bottlegger and stock scammer.....in 1928 he figured a way to sell more shares than actually existed in certain securities ( think the Producers, where 10 different people owned 100% of the plays proceeds...impossible) and when the company folded....well the stock certificates were worthless.......that lead to the Crash of 1929 and ensuing depression.......and when the market tried to come back they created the SEC to regulate the thiefs....and who was the first President of the SEC ? well yes of course it was Joe Kennedy.....takes a thief to catch a thief...

side Note.......Denny Forrest asked Steve Cohen on Twitter if he would be able to buy Beeeer at Citifield this year with his Bitcoin after it's worthless.

from the bob dylan radio theme on dogs  " one dog told another dog that he was crazy and should go see a physchiatrist........the second dog said he would love to, but he's not allowed on the couch.

happy friday , cheer up...we'll all be dead before long.

 

it takes a lot to laugh

 it takes a train to cry. (dylan)

so my master has been listening to the Bob Dylan Radio Theme Hour on You Tubes this past month and i must say this little doggie learns something new every episode.....Yesterday he listened to the Theme about TRAIN songs.

MIDNIGHT SPECIAL was an old folk song with traditional lyrics and was first recorded by Lead Belly in the 1930's....Creedence Clearwater Revival did a cover in 1969....that much i knew.....what i didn't know was the origin of the folk song.

to paraphrase Mr Dylan , there was a prison in the middle of nowhere in the vast state of Texas and there was a nightly train that passed the prison and would drop off new prisoners and occasionally pickup a newly released individual.  The train arrived between 11 and 1:00 a.m. and thus was dubbed the midnight special. The inmates laying in their bunks would see the headlight of the train reflecting on the prison walls and would dream of the Day it was THEM waiting outside the gates to be picked up and so it followed "Let the Midnight Special shine it's ever loving light on me"

I believe if you think of things, people, fellow dogs...their spirit is alive....even if you don't know them individually.....so the next time you hear the Midnight Special, think of those cats who were signing that hopeful ditty 100 hundred years ago in the desert of Texas, and remember.."if you ever go to Houston, well you better walk right"

LAST TRAIN TO CLARKESVILLE , ah the melody....the happy go lucky , silly sounds of the Monkees.....all the sang about was pretty girls and hilarious hijinks....well not exactly.

Mr Dylan pointed out that this was a song about the hopelessness and uncertainty that surrounded the Vietnam war. In this particular song the hero was shipping to out to war in the morning and was trying to see his girl before he left.

Cause I'm leavin' in the morning, And I must see you again

We'll have one more night together, 'Til the morning brings my train

and then the last lines, which loose their edge when Davey Jones sings them , unless you really listen ...and then you hear the sadness that stands out like fool in the rain

"and I don't know if i'm ever coming back"

good stuff and thank you Mr Dylan for taking the time to shine a new light on some lost forgotten songs on your show and for taking a new look at some classics we think we remember.

Take two

 And hit to right.

Today the 9-1 squids of Annapolis take on the 8-3 cadets of West Point in basketball........basketball?? 

That’s right ....2:30 on the cbs sports network....I have seen Navy play and they are very good .....I am curious to see Army today.

Vacation day note....the NCAA announced the amended schedule for the first two rounds of the tournament ( if you like to play Hookie like me and sit in a bar watching day games on a weekday).....the play in games are slated for Thursday March 19.......the first round is Friday/Saturday....... and the second round is Sunday Monday........so we will have 16 games on Friday and 8 on Monday.......all games are being played in the state of Indiana this year.....tip-off times have not been released but we should at least get a few 4:00 games on Monday ( maybe even a pair of 2:00)

In my memory, I will always see

But when I returned how my eyes have burned
To see how a town could be brought to its knees
By the armoured cars and the bombed out bars
And the gas that hangs on to every breeze
Now the army's installed by the old gas yard wall
And the damded barbed wire gets higher and higher
With their tanks and their guns oh my God what have they done
To the town I loved so well

Don’t know why

 The thought came to me,

But why I’m here I really can’t see, and now (Collins/Van Zandt)

In a year of the pandemic , with so much death around us every day......I don’t know why but for some reason this one bothers me..Donn Sutton passed away today at the age of 75....... I saw him on TV last year and made a mental note about how healthy he looked......great shape, great tan, California living ........seemed like a good guy too.......shame