Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 3/17: Thin Lizzy, “Whiskey in the Jar”
Popular Irish songs might sound ancient, but many aren’t very old. “The Fields of Atheny,” for example, is about the potato famine, but it was written in the 1970s. “Ragland Road,” the poem, dates to 1946, but it was set to music in 1971. Every war and rebellion in Irish history, and there are a […]
Song of the Day 3/16: The Ink Spots, “We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)”
A theme song for the gubernatorial race. No editorial comment intended. The Ink Spots, among the country’s most popular vocal groups in the 1930s and ’40s, had tremendous influence on the generation of musicians who started doo-wop and rock ‘n’ roll. They formed in the early ’30s, but soared in popularity after high tenor Bill […]
Song of the Day 3/15: The Ides of March, “Vehicle”
An old anecdote tells of the student who went to see “Hamlet” and complained, “It’s just a bunch of cliches strung together.” Indeed, absent the Bard, would anyone refer to today as the Ides of March? This much is certain: Without him, this 1970 hit would be by the Shon-Dels. That was the name a […]
Song of the Day 3/14: Kate Bush, “Pi”
Pi Day, so called because in American notation it looks like the first three digits of the mathematical constant (in Europe today is 14/3), is a bona fide holiday, designated by Congress in 2009 in hope of spurring interest in math and science (don’t tell MAGAts, they’ll try to get it repealed). It didn’t exactly […]
Let Them Eat Cereal
The CEO of Kellogg’s, which has raised prices post-pandemic more than any other cereal company, thought this was a good time to mention a concept food processors have been pushing for years: Eating breakfast cereal for dinner. “The cereal category has always been quite affordable, and it tends to be a great destination when consumers […]
O’Mara’s In
Former DNREC Secretary Collin O’Mara filed the paperwork, becoming the first Democrat to enter the race for governor. His pitch: Democrats control every statewide office and both houses of the General Assembly, so it’s up to Democrats to solve the state’s problems. He made his pitch with a tour of all three counties today and […]
Song of the Day 3/13: David Allan Coe, “Take This Job and Shove It”
Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado is among the 23 Republican House members who announced they would not seek reelection this year, but yesterday he went them one better: He’s not even going to stick around until the end of the month. He’s leaving at the end of next week. Buck entered office as a Tea […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, March 13, 2024
I don’t know why this is surprising anymore, but it seems Robert Hur, the Trump-aligned special counsel who said Joe Biden’s brain was scrambled eggs, stretched the truth out of shape in his official report. Transcripts of the interview showed Biden was lucid, if occasionally confused about timelines. Democrats used Hur’s appearance before a House […]
Song of the Day 3/12: Raspberries, “Go All the Way”
Eric Carmen, the frontman of seminal early ’70s power pop band the Raspberries, died over the weekend at age 74. He gained greater fame in the ’80s after he left for a solo career, and in recent years some infamy for outspoken right-wing political stances, but his concept of a band that combined Beatles melodies, […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, March 12, 2024
The backlash against the police reforms that came after the George Floyd protests has been fierce, led by the police themselves. That’s led to many jurisdictions undoing those reforms in the face of reports of rising crime – which, if you bother to look at the numbers, is the opposite of the truth. Gee, I […]
Song of the Day 3/11: Roxy Music, “Virginia Plain”
People are still talking about Alabama Sen. Katie Britt’s disastrous State of the Union response, which seems to test the theory that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. I seem to remember Bobby Jindal had already disproved it back in 2009, when he was considered the GOP’s young, fresh, not-a-white-male face. All most people […]
DL Open Thread Monday, March 11, 2024
I realize that most opposition to immigration stems from tribalism and protectionism, but something anti-immigration warriors rarely appreciate is simple economics: More people equals more economic activity. That’s why the Congressional Budget Office estimates increased immigration will add $7 trillion, with a T, to the U.S. economy over the next decade. Trump’s vow to deport […]
Song of the Day 3/10: The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet
You can discover anything on the internet, just about. That’s why the online world’s inability to discover the name of this song or the musicians who recorded it makes it The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet. This much is known with 99% certainty: The synth-pop tune was recorded in 1984 by a young teen […]
Recent Comments