WA2K Radio is now on the air

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55EYgFUNkf8
Listening to Ricky Van Shelton this afternoon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQwCi8f3iuk
Wish I could join Hoagy right now.

edgar, don't know Ricky Van Shelton, but I truly enjoyed that song. Very clever title, too. "I Meant Every Word He Said".

Now Hoagy I know, Texas, but didn't know that he did Up a Lazy River.

Time for me to say goodnight, and I just finished watching The Ninth Configuration again. Where's Fresco?

In order for life to have appeared spontaneously on earth, there first had to be hundreds of millions of protein molecules of the ninth configuration. But given the size of the planet Earth, do you know how long it would have taken for just one of these protein molecules to appear entirely by chance? Roughly ten to the two hundred and forty-third power billions of years. And I find that far, far more fantastic than simply believing in God.

My good night song is from a birthday boy, y'all.

Here is Adrian Paul and Queen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeJtnPdobY4

From Letty with love and a sign

We all are free to believe as we wish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNigDOHz4j0
Ray Stevens

I've never watched any of the Highlander shows, but the video was interesting.

As I read this article, I thought of The Red Badge of Courage.

CNN) -- What does it feel like to kill a man? James Lenihan of Brooklyn, New York, knew.

He fought in Europe in World War II and he killed a German soldier during a battle in Holland. He described how it felt in a poem.

I shot a man yesterday

And much to my surprise,

The strangest thing happened to me

I began to cry.

So begins "Murder: Most Foul," a work that echoes poetry about war in the tradition of William Shakespeare and borrows its title from the bard's "Hamlet."

As powerful as the poem is, the story behind it is also fascinating.

Sgt. James Lenihan returned home after the war, got married, had children and made a career as a salesman in the meatpacking industry.

If he ever wrote any other poems, his son Robert and daughter Joan, who still live in Brooklyn, New York, don't know of any.

In fact, they didn't know about this poem until after their father died. They found it when they were going through his possessions.

Robert and Joan Lenihan found two typewritten pages, each with a copy of the poem. It was unsigned, but Robert believes the poem was written by his father and later typed up by his mother for safekeeping.

The poem describes a killing in Holland, where Lenihan served in the 104th Infantry Division as it battled German units.

It portrays a soldier very upset about taking a life.

I knelt beside him

And held his hand --

I begged his forgiveness

Did he understand?

But even while he describes the shooting as murder, Lenihan makes clear he had no choice.

It was the War

And he was the enemy

If I hadn't shot him

He would have shot me.

Robert Lenihan said the poem is a bit unlike the father he grew up with -- a man who could be a "tough customer" if need be, not someone tormented by a fleeting, albeit intense, moment on a battlefield in Holland.

"I'm just starting to appreciate how much he suffered only now in this part of my life. When I was a kid, like if he yelled at me or something, I'd say 'Well, Dad's being cranky,' " Lenihan said.

Lenihan said even though the incident in the poem took place more than 60 years ago, it still resonates and should be a lesson to young soldiers coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan that they aren't the first to face such emotional turmoil as this.

"That feeling they may have of regret and pain and shock of what they've done. It shows they are not alone," Lenihan said.

While Lenihan is obviously proud of his father's poem, CNN sent it to Georgetown University professor David Gewanter, who has published several books of poetry, including "War Bird" published last year.

Gewanter called the poem "accomplished." In an e-mail to CNN, Gewanter said the poem "is good, and its truths are that of experience and some literary traditions."

Robert Lenihan sounded surprised when he heard Gewanter's analysis of his father's amateur poem.

"I'm very deeply touched," Lenihan said. "For an expert to assess it that way and make such important comparisons I'm amazed and quite touched."

The poetry professor said Sgt. Lenihan's poem reminds him of a famous portion of Shakespeare's play "Henry V."

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remembered --

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

But Gewanter said it perhaps most closely resembles "The Man He Killed," a work by Thomas Hardy written at the start of World War I. In that poem, Hardy writes that the soldier and the foe he killed might have shared a drink or loaned each other money had they met somewhere other than a battlefield.

Sgt. Lenihan's poem ends not with talk of loans or drinks, but a darker scene.

I shot a man yesterday

And much to surprise

A part of me died with Him

When Death came to close His eyes.

Morning Ms Letty,Ed and all at WA2K.Just heard the news that Dennis Hopper has passed over.An old school maverick/bad boy (a bit like me) ....

Easy Rider -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWhgLjim6Rc
The Byrds - Wasn't Born To Follow.

Apocalypse Now - (warning STRONG LANGUAGE!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5JXrP8yv8o

I'm gonna miss him!

From another of his films....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icfq_foa5Mo&feature=related
Bobby Vinton - Blue Velvet.

Good morning WA2K folks.

edgar, Love Ray Stevens' Ahab the Arab. He does such funny songs, Texas.

also, Thanks for the background on Sgt. James Lenihan. Fascinating, Texas.

Hey Brit, Dennis Hopper was a BAD boy alright. Did like Easy Rider, buddy, but my favorite from that one was The Weight.

Sheeeze, I couldn't watch Apocalypse Now. Reminded me too much of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Blue Velvet was just too weird, buddy. I watched, but a little too ribald for me.

First, the Thomas Hardy poem to which edgar made reference.

The Man He Killed

Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have set us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!

But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.

I shot him dead because--
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although

He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
Off-hand like--just as I--
Was out of work--had sold his traps--
No other reason why.

Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
Or help to half a crown.

Now a tribute to Benny Goodman whose birthday is today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rifhroClGI&feature=related

Morning Letty, Edgar, Baz, Panz and WA2K peeps

Hope all are well here... going to be in clean mode again today - will no doubt be back a little later... lotsa music filling the house this weekend

Changes - Will Young
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxYD5rfxtT4


love....

x

Grace - Will Baby - oh yeah.................

My thought on Apocolypse Now - I was enjoying the film up until Marlon Brando made his appearance. From that point on, I lost interest.

That was one of Benny Goodman's very best, letty.
This is dedicated to Rock the squirrel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWK8GgWD4uA&feature=related

Mornin izzie and barry and all radio folk.
Appreciate the poem, letty.

Welcome back, Izzie. Really like Will Young's Grace and Changes. Thanks, hun.

edgar, thanks again for the comments and Walker's Pick up Truck is perfect for the mooseman. Hope he joins us today.

Here's one by John Legend, y'all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jtzlQOaVbQ&feature=related

Been having some problems today. Hope it doesn't last.

The John Legend song says what I have been saying for a long time. Very good lyrics.
Prez Prado has made several reecords that are big favorites with me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDjAN8sKb1A&feature=fvw

On this date in:


1431 Joan of Arc, condemned as a heretic, was burned at the stake in Rouen, France.


1539 Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto landed in Florida.


1854 The territories of Nebraska and Kansas were established.


1911 The Indianapolis 500 was run for the first time.


1922 The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C.


1982 Spain became NATO's 16th member.


1982 Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles played in the first of a record 2,632 consecutive major league baseball games.


1989 Student demonstrators at Tiananmen Square in Beijing erected a 33-foot statue they called the "Goddess of Democracy."


1996 Britain's Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson were granted an uncontested decree ending their 10-year marriage.


1997 Child molester Jesse K. Timmendequas was convicted in Trenton, N.J., of raping and strangling a 7-year-old neighbor, Megan Kanka. The case inspired "Megan's Law," which requires that communities be notified when sex offenders move in.


2002 A solemn, wordless ceremony marked the end of the cleanup at Ground Zero in New York, 8 1/2 months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.


2005 American teenager Natalee Holloway disappeared while on a high school graduation trip to Aruba. (The 18-year-old was last seen leaving a bar with Joran van der Sloot. Aruban prosecutors say they lack evidence to charge him.)


2005 Vice President Dick Cheney predicted the Iraq war would end before the Bush administration left office, saying "I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency," on CNN's "Larry King Live."


2006 A jury in Rockville, Md., convicted John Allen Muhammad of six of the Washington-area sniper killings.

Aftenoon Lovelies

got me some music to get the sunshine back into life



hope your weekends are going well - Letty, hope the probs clear up

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

edgar, Love Perez Prado. Thanks once again for the highlights in history.

Ah, Izzie, Johnny Horton's I Can See Clearly now is one of my favorites. Thanks, hun.

Good to have techie friends visiting for Memorial Day weekend.

Another by Perez.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9-1mvQkXfU&feature=related

and, folks, De Soto.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxsLUGxfYvQ&feature=related

More DeSoto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f53BJ_zZ17c
Thanks for Perez Tico Tico.

Just as Thomas Edison destroyed Nicola Tessla, Detroit destroyed Tucker.

Love that De Soto commercial, edgar. What a memory that brings to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL-AFSAIln0