Thought For The Day

Don't matter how much money you got, there's only two kinds of people: there's saved people and there's lost people.
- Bob Dylan -

Subterranean Homesick Blues

Look out kid
Don't matter what you did
Walk on your tip toes
Don't try "No Doz"
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You don't need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows

- Bob Dylan -

Thought For The Day

Who is your best friend, really? Try this test to determine once and for all: Put your wife and your dog in the trunk of your car for an hour. When you open the trunk, which one is happy to see you?
- from 'The London Observer', "Humor Me" column -

Poem For The Day

Make the choice adventurous stranger,
Strike the bell and bide the danger
Or wonder 'till it drives you mad
What would have happened if you had.
- C.S. Lewis -

Thought For The Day

A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.
- Sir Winston Churchill -

Election 2008

Here we are, only a few months away from the election. It looks like Obama's trip to the Middle East and Europe has been a big success. He has looked confident and in charge while meeting with heads of state from other countries, and with our troops in Iraq and Afganistan.

McCain and his people have been reduced to whining about the press coverage and how Obama seems to be acting like he's already President. Yet, the polls are relatively close. How can that be?

The media is speculating that McCain will pick Tim Pawlenty, the Governor of Minnesota as his VP, but I think he's really too much of a no-name. He has to pick a younger person - that won't be hard. I also think he'll make his choice soon to try and regain the media spotlight that Obama has been in lately. The best choice would be Mitt Romney, but a Mormon might be the final straw for the Southern Christian conservatives.

On the other hand Obama is under less pressure because he is doing so well. He doesn't need a big name. I was hoping Jim Webb, the Senator from Virginia, would take the job, but it doesn't look that way. He might go for Senator Chris Dodd from Connecticut because of his foriegn policy experience.

We still have a lot of politics ahead of us; VP picks, conventions, debates. Good stuff for us political junkies.

Thought For The Day

By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day.
- Robert Frost -

Thought For The Day

Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.
- Sydney J. Harris -

Thought For The Day

In the business world an executive knows something about everything, a technician knows everything about something - and the switchboard operator knows everything.
- Harold Coffin -

Poem For The Day

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbow'd.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Lies but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
- William Ernest Henley, "Invictus", 1875 -

Thought For The Day

If you work for someone, then work for them: Speak well of them and stand by the institution they represent...Remember, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness...If you must growl, condemn, and eternally find fault, resign your position and when you are on the outside, complain to your hearts content...but as long as you are a part of the institution do not condemn it.
- Elbert Hubbard -

Melody Tent Update

So far, it has been a long hot summer at the tent. There have been some good shows, Blondie, (how often can you hear a band who is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?), Melissa Etheridge, Boz Scaggs, and some real klunkers, Plain White T's, some dreadful opening acts, and the worst of all; Moe.

Hopefully, we hit rock bottom with Moe. I don't even know what to call their music. It wasn't rock. It wasn't punk. It wasn't rap. It was just four guys pounding on their musical instruments, making noise, for three, seemingly endless, hours. I know I'm old school, but I thought I liked all kinds of music. However, Moe was just awful.

The only group I've seen so far, that I would actually pay to see again, was Box Scaggs. If you like Steely Dan music, you would love Boz Scaggs.

We wrap up July with WWE wrestling - ouch - Bill Cosby, and B.B. King. I have been looking forward to B.B. King for months. It should be an easy night of ushering, and then we can settle in and listen to some really good music.

August has the makings of a good month. We have Kenny Rogers, ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, KC and the Sunshine Band, Huey Lewis and the News, and Vince Gill. I'm not scheduled for the Beach Boys, but I'll switch with one of the other ushers so I can see them again.

Thankfully, we didn't get scheduled for the Saw Doctors, an Irish rock band. Apparantly, their Irish fans arrive already drunk, dressed in green, and waving their Irish flags. The place is chaos. What a shame I have to miss that.