Stay-at-Home Orders for Smallpox

Jack Kerouac Unmolested

“If it hadn’t been for Western-style capitalism, free economic byplay, movement north south east and west, haggling, pricing, and the political balance of power carved into the U.S. Constitution, I wouldn’t have been able or allowed to hitchhike half broke through 47 states of this union and see the scene with my own eyes, unmolested.”

Jack Kerouac

Dharma Bum

Free Speech Zone

"We Have to Start Managing These Lands"

"Those of us who live in the rural areas know how to take care of lands. We have to start managing these lands. It’s the right thing to do for our people, for our environment, for our economy and for our freedoms."

 Montana state Senator Jennifer Fielder at Legislative Summit on the Transfer for Public Lands

Married in Seattle

HONOLULU -- Jim Nabors, 82, best known for playing Gomer Pyle on TV in the 1960s, has married his longtime male partner Stan Cadwallader, 64, in Seattle on January 15. They traveled from Honolulu to Washington state, where gay marriage became legal last month.

The couple met in 1975 when Cadwallader was a Honolulu firefighter.

"I'm 82 and he's in his 60s and so we've been together for 38 years and I'm not ashamed of people knowing, it's just that it was such a personal thing, I didn't tell anybody. I'm very happy that I've had a partner of 38 years and I feel very blessed. And, what can I tell you, I'm just very happy."

Nabors said he's been open about his homosexuality to co-workers and friends but never acknowledged it to the media before. He doesn't plan to get involved in the issue politically.

"I'm not a debater. And everybody has their own opinion about this and actually I'm not an activist, so I've never gotten involved in any of this."

Nabors became an instant success when he joined "The Andy Griffith Show" in spring 1963. The character of Gomer Pyle - the unworldly, lovable gas pumper who would exclaim "Gollllll-ly!" - proved so popular that in 1964 CBS starred him in "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." In the spinoff, which lasted five seasons, Gomer left his hometown of Mayberry to become a Marine recruit. His innocence confounded his sergeant, the irascible Frank Sutton.

FROM: "Jim Nabors, Stan Cadwallader Marry In Seattle", January 30, 2013.

Most Influential American Musicians

1. Al Jolson (1886–1950) dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer".
2. Jimmie Rodgers (1897–1933) considered "The Father of Country Music".
3. George Gershwin (1898–1937) he wrote numerous jazz and pop standards that have become part of The Great American Songbook, often with his lyricist brother, Ira. He also wrote Broadway musicals, the opera "Porgy and Bess", and the symphonically jazzy “Rhapsody In Blue”. Dying at 38 "his music is as fresh and vital today as when he originally created it." (Michael Feinstein)

4. Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong (1901–1971) called "the greatest of all Jazz musicians" and "the Founding Father of Jazz", Duke Ellington said: "If anybody was Mr. Jazz, it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of Jazz and always will be."
5. Robert Johnson (1911-1938) "the most important blues musician who ever lived" according to Eric Clapton.
6. Woody Guthrie (1912-1967)  author of "This Land Is Your Land" and almost 3,000 other folk songs, father to Arlo, without him we wouldn't have Bob Dylan. 
7. Billie Holiday (1915-1959) she "changed the art of American pop vocals forever" according to critic John Bush.

8. Hank Williams (1923-1953) considered the father of contemporary country music.
9. James Brown (1933-2006) known as "The Godfather of Soul".
10. Elvis Presley (1935-1977) referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"; the best-selling solo artist in the history of popular music; regarded as "the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century" by Leonard Bernstein.

11. Bob Dylan (1941--) Edna Gundersen stated in USA Today that "Dylan's musical DNA has informed nearly every simple twist of pop since 1962."
12. Michael Jackson (1958-2009) referred to as the "King of Pop"; recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records.

Not the America I Know

"If you don't like it, there's the f**king door!"

So said the M.C. of a comedy open mic last night at my favorite cafe. This after one of his comics had shouted at a couple of paying customers . .

"Will you shut the f**k up!"

The patron, thus addressed, ducked so quickly for the door it was hard for the eye to follow—the last straw for me, one of the only regulars at the cafe who continued to show up for what some of us had dubbed "Tragedy Night". The M.C. had regularly shushed us during performances.

Quieting paying customers because they're not paying attention to your terrible show? So I shouted at the comic from the back of the room that he couldn't tell us to shut up, that this was our place. An exchange ensued, which resulted in heckling on my part.

Some of his comments, after screaming primally into the mic for several seconds—making the point that he could drown me out, he had the power—including a threat to do me physical violence with the microphone apparatus. I invited him down off stage.

A spew of expletives on the vile nature of my personage including the delightful . .

"I wish your mother had aborted you!"

After this had gone on for some time, a barista came to my table and informed me that if I "disrupted again" I would have to leave.

After the show I asked the M.C. if I heard him right, that his attitude was essentially "there's the f**king door". "Damn right," he replied. More heated discussion ensued whereupon I received another warning. When I kept it up I was asked to leave, and the barista made a show of calling the police. An M.C. who forces you to be quiet through his bad show, and a policeman who tosses you out if you complain.

That's not the America I know.