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Good morning WA2K radio.

Diane, One of the greatest songs by Peggy Lee, delivery wise, was "While We're Young. " I'll find that cd later and give it a spin. Your quote by Miles Davis was interesting, and consistent with his creative ability.

Bob, I remember Rachel Carson's SILENT SPRING, and she was quite prophetic as was Alvin Toffler's FUTURE SHOCK. Thanks for that excellent review, Boston.

Well, folks, today in America begins the long weekend known as Memorial Day, and the beginning of the hurricane season is just around the corner. Hard to believe that it's beginning all over again, no?

Thought for Today: ``History is not, of course, a cookbook offering pretested recipes. It teaches by analogy, not by maxims. It can illuminate the consequences of actions in comparable situations, yet each generation must discover for itself what situations are in fact comparable.'' - Henry Kissinger.



05/26/05 20:00

Alert:




If You Get This Enticing IM, Don't Reply!
If you receive this instant message, which will appear to be a reference to the newly released "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith": "hehe, i found this funny movie," and the word "this" is a hyperlink, do NOT click on it. It's a brazen attempt to infect your PC with a worm, reports CNET News.com.

For info on The Apaloosa, go to Fred Small's site:
http://www.jg.org/folk/artists/fredsmall/fred_small.html

And now for something really serious....

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.
"House" for instance, is feminine: "la casa."
"Pencil," however, is masculine: "el lapiz."
A student asked, "What gender is 'computer'?"
Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether "computer" should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.
The men's group decided that "computer" should definitely be of the feminine gender ("la computer"), because:
1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine ("el computer"), because:
1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.
The women won.

Love it, Bob! Hey, tonight is your night, right?

Since noone got the answer to the difference between an alligator and a crocodile, Let's listen to that song by Peggy Lee.



< instrumental opening >

Songs were made to sing,
While we're young!
Every day is Spring,
While we're young!

None can refuse,
Time flies so fast!
Too dear to lose,
An' too sweet to last!

Though it may be just . . .
For today!
Share our love we must . . .
While we may!

So blue the skies,
All sweet surprise,
Shines before our eyes,
While we're young!

( None can refuse,
Time flies so fast!
Too dear to lose,
An' too sweet to last! )

Though it may be just . . .
For today!
Share our love we must . . .
While we may!

So blue the skies,
All sweet surprise,
Shines before our eyes,
While we're young!

The clincher on that version by Peggy Lee was the last line. She ended up in another key altogether.

Good Morning, WA2K listeners:

May 27 Birthdays:

1794 Cornelius Vanderbilt, financier/railroad builder (Port Richmond, Staten Island, NY; died 1877)
1819 Julia Ward Howe, poet/writer and social reformer (New York, NY; died 1910) (Battle Hymn of the Republic)
1836 Jay Gould, financier/railroad executive (Roxbury, NY; died 1892)
1837 Wild Bill Hickock, frontiersman/lawman/gambler (Troy Grove, IL; died 1876)
1894 Dashiell Hammett, mystery writer (St. Marys County, MD; (Maltese Falcon; The Thin Man) died 1961)
1908 Harold Rome composer (Fanny, Pins & Needles, I Can Get It For You Wholesale) died 1993
1911 Hubert H. Humphrey, vice president of the United States and presidential nominee (Wallace, SD; died 1978)
1911 Vincent Price, actor (St. Louis, MO; died 1993)
1912 John Cheever, writer (Quincy, MA; died 1982)
1912 Sam Snead, golfer (Hot Springs, VA)
1915 Herman Wouk, novelist (New York, NY) The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War; War and Remembrance, Marjorie Morningstar
1923 Henry Kissinger, secretary of state, national security adviser, scholar (Fuerth, Germany)
1925 Mai Zetterling Sweden, actress/director (Only 2 Can Play, Quartet) died 1994
1935 Lee Meriwether Los Angeles CA, Miss America (Time Tunnel, Cat Woman, 1965; Barnaby Jones)
1936 Louis Gossett Jr., actor (Brooklyn, NY) (Oscar, An Officer and a Gentleman)
1939 Don Williams Floydada TX, country singer (I Believe in You)
1943 Bruce Weitz, actor (Norwalk, CT) (Hill Street Blues)
1948 Pete Sears bassist (Jefferson Starship)
1963 Peri Gilpin, actress (Waco, TX)
1965 Todd Bridges San Fransisco CA, actor (Diff'rent Strokes, Fish)
1968 Frank Thomas, baseball player (Columbus, GA)
1970 Joseph Fiennes, actor (Salisbury, England)




One of my favorite Don Williams recordings:

When I was a kid uncle Remus he put me to bed,
With a picture of Stonewall Jackson above my head.
Then Daddy came in to kiss his little man,
With gin on his breath and a bible in his hand,
And he talked about honor and things I should know.
Then he'd stagger a little as he went out the door.

(Chorus)
I can still hear the soft southern winds in the live oak trees
And Those Williams boys they still mean a lot to me,
Hank and Tennessee.
I guess were all gonna be what were gonna be,
So what do you do with good ol' boys like me?

Nothing makes a sound in the night like the wind does,
But you aint afraid if youre washed in the blood like I was.
The smell of cape jasmine through the window screen,
John R. and the wolfman kept me company
By the light of the radio by my bed,
With Thomas Wolfe whispering in my head.

(Chorus)

When I was in school I ran with a kid down the street,
And I watched him burn himself up on bourbon and speed,
But I was smarter than most, and I could choose.
Learned to talk like the man on the six oclock news.
When I was eighteen, lord, I hit the road
But it really doesn't matter how far I go.

(Chorus)

Yeah, what do you do with good ol' boys like me?

and there's our Raggedy with her updates on celebs.

That's a great song, my dear, by Don Williams, and although I have never heard him, it's very interesting that it comes at this particular time. Dys's news about cross burning in Durham, North Carolina was a definite pause for thought, and feel that a poem reading is appropriate at this time:

Any Human to Another
by Countee Cullen

The ills I sorrow at
Not me alone
Like an arrow,
Pierce to the marrow,
Through the fat,
And past the bone.

Your grief and mine
Must intertwine
Like sea and river,
Be fused and mingle,
Diverse yet single,
Forever and forever.

Let no man be so proud
And confident,
To think he is allowed
A little tent
Pitched in a meadow
Of sun and shadow
All his little own.

Joy may be shy, unique,
Friendly to a few,
Sorrow never scorned to speak
To any who
Were false or true.

Your every grief
Like a blade
Shining and unsheathed
Must strike me down.
Of bitter aloes wreathed,
My sorrow must be laid
On your head like a crown.

Alligatoridae
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Alligators and Caimans

American Alligator
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Crocodylia
Family: Alligatoridae
Genera

Alligator
Caiman
Melanosuchus
Paleosuchus

Alligators and caimans are reptiles closely related to the crocodiles and forming the family Alligatoridae (sometimes regarded instead as the subfamily Alligatorinae). Together with the Gharial (family Gavialidae) they make up the order Crocodylia.

Alligators differ from crocodiles principally in having the head broader and shorter, and the snout more obtuse; in having the fourth, enlarged tooth of the under jaw received, not into an external notch, but into a pit formed for it within the upper one; in lacking a jagged fringe which appears on the hind legs and feet of the crocodile; and in having the toes of the hind feet webbed not more than half way to the tips. In general, the more dangerous crocodilians to human beings tend to be crocodiles rather than alligators.

Alligator

Alligators proper occur in the fluvial deposits of the age of the Upper Chalk in Europe, where they did not die out until the Pliocene age.

The true alligators are now restricted to two species, A. mississippiensis in the southern states of North America, which grows up to 4 m (12 ft). in length, and the small A. sinensis in the Yangtze River, People's Republic of China. Their name derives from the Spanish el lagarto, "the lizard").

In Central and South America alligators are represented by five species of the genus Caiman, which differs from the alligator by the absence of a bony septum between the nostrils, and the ventral armour is composed of overlapping bony scutes, each of which is formed of two parts united by a suture. Some authorities further divide this genus into three, splitting off the smooth-fronted caimans into a genus Paleosuchus and the Black Caiman into Melanosuchus.

C. crocodilus, the Spectacled Caiman, has the widest distribution, from southern Mexico to the northern half of Argentina, and grows to a modest size of about 7 feet. The largest, attaining an enormous bulk and a length of 20 ft., is the near-extinct Melanosuchus niger, the Jacare-assu, Large, or Black Caiman of the Amazon. While all wild animals should be treated with respect, the Black Caiman is the only member of the alligator family posing the same danger to humans as the larger species of the crocodile family.

Although the Caiman has not been studied in-depth, it has been discovered that their mating cycles (previously thought to be spontaneous or year-round) are linked to the rainfall cycles and the river levels in order to increase their offspring's chances of survival.

Some crocodiles can be found in salty water, but most alligators stay in fresh water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alligatoridae

Well, well, well. Here's Bob with the info. You know, folks. I had always thought that the only distinction between a croc and an alligator were the mandibles, a crocodile having viability only in its upper jaw while the lower remained fixed; the alligator, on the other jaw<smile>, can open both the upper and the lower.

Bull alligators make the strangest sounds--very ominous.

Time for a musical interlude:

A crystal river is flowing
and falling below
Fact or fiction
I've heard the tale
of death lady's cove
Many men come here
to seek the enchantress divine
lured by her power to heal saddened,
heartbroken minds
She stands behind the falls
that crush the bodies onto jagged lime
Blood mixed with water a crimson stream
now washes through mine
I can hear her song, a haunted melody
I can now see her face, unequaled beauty
Legend does say
a fearless heart
will cross the falls unharmed
But who doth have
a fearless heart that's also broken
A warrior am I who's fought
not wars of swords and armor
The thirst of loneliness
I've tried to quench for all my life
Moving closer I gaze
onto healing emerald eyes
Song of solace breathes
through the lips of soothing red wine
Long flowing hair blows
through whispers of wind from my dreams
Two arms that will embrace and hands
that will caress my longing face
Her voice now calls me clear
my fear's abandoned
Lustful were other men
whose souls have fallen
Can't see the spray
that whips my face
and robs the air I breathe
Thunder falls,
such power that it dwarfs my body
Yet I continue on
even if it means that I will drown
to know that I have felt
the hope she gives forever moving
Moving on and on
To what ending? I still hear her song
Under or through the waterfall
I now shall go
[SOLO]
Behind me water falls
my body is left behind
My soul now in her arms
enchanted I'll remain
on, on forever on...forever enchanted

See You Later Alligator
Bill Haley & His Comets

Well, I saw my baby walkin'
With another man today
Well, I saw my baby walkin'
With another man today
When I asked her what's the matter
This is what I heard her say

See you later alligator
After 'while crocodile
See you later alligator
After 'while crocodile
Can't you see you're in my way now
Don't you know you cramp my style

When I thought of what she told me
Nearly made me lose my head
When I thought of what she told me
Nearly made me lose my head
But the next time that I saw her
Reminded her of what she said

See you later alligator
After 'while crocodile
See you later alligator
After 'while crocodile
Can't you see you're in my way now
Don't you know you cramp my style

---- Instrumental Interlude ----

She said, I'm sorry pretty baby
You know my love is just for you
She said, I'm sorry pretty baby
You know my love is just for you
Won't you say that you'll forgive me
And say your love for me is true

I said wait a minute 'gator
I know you meant it just for play
I said wait a minute 'gator
I know you meant it just for play
Don't you know you really hurt me
And this is what I have to say

See you later alligator
After 'while crocodile
See you later alligator
So long, that's all, goodbye

I like that funny song, Bob. I think I first heard it by Elton John.












Today in History - May 27


Today is Friday, May 27, the 147th day of 2005. There are 218 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On May 27, 1937, the newly completed Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, Calif., was opened to the public.

On this date:

In 1896, 255 people were killed when a tornado struck St. Louis, Mo., and East St. Louis, Ill.

In 1933, Walt Disney's Academy Award-winning animated short ``The Three Little Pigs'' was first released.

In 1935, the Supreme Court struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act.

In 1936, the Cunard liner Queen Mary left England on its maiden voyage.

In 1941, amid rising world tensions, President Roosevelt proclaimed an ``unlimited national emergency.''

In 1941, the British navy sank the German battleship Bismarck off France, with a loss of 2,300 lives.

In 1964, independent India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, died.

In 1985, in Beijing, representatives of Britain and China exchanged instruments of ratification on the pact returning Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997.

In 1993, five people were killed in a bombing at the Uffizi museum of art in Florence, Italy; some three dozen paintings were ruined or damaged.

In 1994, Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia to the emotional cheers of thousands after spending two decades in exile.

Ten years ago: Actor Christopher Reeve was left paralyzed when he was thrown from his horse during a jumping event in Charlottesville, Va.

Five years ago: Freight cars loaded with hazardous chemicals crashed and exploded in Eunice, La., forcing the evacuation of thousands.

One year ago: Abu Hamza al-Masri, a Muslim cleric, was arrested in London and accused of trying to build a terrorist training camp in Oregon.

Weather: thunder storms building up, possible flooding of rivers due to unusally early snow melt. Hope the rest of you are having beautiful weather. So far for us, it is a lovely sunny day. It is going to change...


Shelf Cloud

A shelf cloud, well Lady Di, that's easy to see.

It's perfectly beautiful here, folks, but still mild for May.

No one to talk with all by myself,
No one to walk with but not happy on THAT shelf

I got the strangest telephone call a couple of days ago sponsored by the Army Corps of Engineers. I listened patiently to the young woman and tried to answer her questions accurately (as accurately as any forced choice survey can be). It had to do with Emergency Management, but since I couldn't figure out what the Army Corps of Engineers had to do with anything, I promptly terminated the conversation, especially when she said a word that didn't make one bit of sense. I later determined that is was "vulnerable". Where do they get these people, anyway, folks?

Letty, your observation that Peggy Lee ended up singing in a different key reminded me of a great Cole Porter song, featured to great effect in De-Lovely:

We love each other so deeply
that I ask you this, sweetheart,
why should we quarrel ever,
why can't we be enough clever,
never to part.
Ev'ry time we say goodbye
I die a little,
ev'ry time we say goodbye
I wonder why a little,
why the gods above me
who must be in the know
think so little of me
they allow you to go.
When you're near
there's such an air
of spring about it,
I can hear a lark somewhere
begin to sing about it,
there's no love song finer,
but how strange the change
from major to minor...
ev'ry time we say goodbye.
Ev'ry time we say goodbye
I die a little,
ev'ry time we say goodbye
I wonder why a little,
why the gods above me
who must be in the know
think so little of me
they allow you to go.
When you're near
there's such an air
of spring about it,
I can hear a lark somewhere
begin to sing about it,
there's no love song finer,
but how strange the change
from major to minor...
ev'ry time we say goodbye.
Ev'ry single time
we say goodbye.

Yit, You just touched a nerve with that song. It has a special meaning for me.

A brief pause, listeners, while I compose myself.

all right. Composed now.

Everyone has a song that touches them somewhere in the secret places of the heart and soul; tell us yours, listeners.

To me it's Oscar Benton : Different dreams...

Francis, share the song with us if you will.

Oscar Benton

Our honeymoon is over
And the best days of our love
Are dead and gone
Instead of growing closer
This time goes on and on
We're getting miles apart
Though you're beside me as before
And when we kiss goodnight I find...

...That since we're sharing the same bed
We're not sharing the same dreams
Anymore
That since we're sharing the same bed
We're not sharing the same dreams
Anymore

We're using the same bathroom
Where your personal things
Are lying close to mine
And I know that our clothes
Are drying on the same line
When friends come to call
They read our names on the door
If they could read our minds, they'd find...

...That since we're sharing the same bed
We're not sharing the same dreams
Anymore
That since we're sharing the same bed
We're not sharing the same dream(s)
Anymore

(We're) talking about problems
But we keep our feelings deep inside
We never say a tender word
We couldn't even if we tried
It's hard to realize you're the girl
I've been waiting for
'Cause when we kiss goodnight I find...

...That since we're sharing the same bed
We're not sharing the same dreams
Anymore
That since we're sharing the same bed
We're not sharing the same dreams
Anymore

Oo-woo-woo-wooi-woo...

That's what I refer to as a "telling song", Francis, and it's just that--lovely and dependent. Make sense?

Well, listeners, should you want to share a "telling" song with us, please do, because this is the place to do just that. <smile>

Cat's in the Cradle
Harry Chapin

My child arrived just the other day
He came to the world in the usual way
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay
He learned to walk while I was away
And he was talkin' 'fore I knew it, and as he grew
He'd say "I'm gonna be like you dad
You know I'm gonna be like you"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home dad?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then

My son turned ten just the other day
He said, "Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on let's play
Can you teach me to throw", I said "Not today
I got a lot to do", he said, "That's ok"
And he walked away but his smile never dimmed
And said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah
You know I'm gonna be like him"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then

Well, he came home from college just the other day
So much like a man I just had to say
"Son, I'm proud of you, can you sit for a while?"
He shook his head and said with a smile
"What I'd really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys
See you later, can I have them please?"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then

I've long since retired, my son's moved away
I called him up just the other day
I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind"
He said, "I'd love to, Dad, if I can find the time
You see my new job's a hassle and kids have the flu
But it's sure nice talking to you, Dad
It's been sure nice talking to you"

And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me
He'd grown up just like me
My boy was just like me

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then