WA2K Radio is now on the air

My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.

Thanks, McTag. Perhaps I am getting suspension and cantilevered confused. Sooooo those overhangs on the house are rather like a draw bridge, then?

And incidentally, Brit. I have heard that 666 is 999 turned upside down.

Take a frown turn it upside down and you will still have that birth mark, buddy. :wink:

Hey, Bob. I missed your response here in the studios, and now I am a wee bit confused. Sweep the house with a glance? Would that be akin to mine sweet?

I'm beginning to understand why McTag was preoccupied with 666. I just looked at the number of responses..and there were three sixes there. UhOh.

Our Booman2 is having trouble accessing A2K, and I appeal to all you computer savvy folks to help him out. Yitwail is going to try, as did I.

(In Pennsylvania, the number 666 is still often referred to as a "Nick Perry" and the lottery rigging as the "triple six fix". )

If you're curious:

"Putting in the fix
Academic exercise or pre-meditated swindle? The 1980 Pennsylvania Lottery scandal left an indelible mark on the lives of many in the Mon Valley.


Ask anyone in Western Pennsylvania what the number "666" means, and they'll regale the listener with the myth and fact of the 1980 lottery fix, executed at WTAE-TV in Wilkinsburg. And though not strictly a McKeesport story, it has touched so many people so deeply --- ending, in many respects, the career of one of Pittsburgh's most beloved personalities, Nick Perry --- it deserves to be told in full. Through its connections to the Mon Valley numbers racket and in its communities like Braddock Hills, Monroeville and Wilkinsburg, the legend truly belongs to the region.

By Jason Togyer
(A shorter version of this story appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Nick Perry has been silent for two decades about the scandal indelibly linked with his name: the infamous "666" Daily Number drawing of April 24, 1980.

But Pennsylvanians have been talking ever since, investing the story with its own mythology, retelling it whenever a glitch disrupts a lottery drawing.

The scandal made national headlines, ended several careers and changed the way state courts looked at computer crime. And now Hollywood filmmakers are getting into the act, with plans to produce a movie loosely based on the incident. Shooting could begin next summer in Harrisburg.

Retired and living in Highland Park, Perry said recently that he wasn't surprised. "I'm never shocked at what they do," he said.

Neither is the prosecutor who put Perry and lottery official Edward Plevel in prison, former Deputy Attorney General Henry G. Barr.

"I was a little surprised that years ago, someone didn't base (a movie) on the case," said Barr, now an attorney with Meyer and Shapira, Downtown.

But some --- including Plevel's attorney, Thomas Ceraso of Greensburg --- wish everyone would let the incident drop.

"It's over and done, it's a dead issue as far as we're concerned," he said.

Plevel, who still lives in Monessen, where he served as city councilman before the scandal, declined comment. Ceraso said the rehashings of the tale have harmed his client's livelihood.

"It's somewhat tragic because it always portrays him in a light that is not Ed Plevel. He's a good, good person. ... It's just one of those things that occurs in your lifetime."

: : : : : : :

Ground zero for the scandal was Perry's announcing booth at WTAE-TV's studios, which then produced the drawings. The lottery bureau had no broadcast facilities at the time; the drawings were moved to Harrisburg after the scandal broke.

State officials called Perry the "mastermind" of the scheme because he was the one man linking all of the members of the conspiracy.

Besides Plevel, who supervised the nightly drawings, others implicated included former WTAE art director Joseph Bock, stagehand Fred Luman, and Peter and Jack Maragos of Monroeville, members of Perry's church and business partners with him in a vending machine company that supplied WTAE.

"It's a sad, sad thing that this happened," said KDKA-TV anchorman Don Cannon, a WTAE anchor at the time, "because a lot of good people were hurt by it."

A broadcasting pioneer, Perry was a former radio personality who had joined Pittsburgh's first television station, WDTV, when it went on the air in 1949. After WTAE signed on in 1958, Perry joined the Wilkinsburg station and worked as a booth announcer, doing station breaks and voiceovers. Perry also hosted a long-running game show called "Bowling for Dollars."

Yet he wasn't the first choice for the lottery's master of ceremonies. The original emcee was Tony Mowod, currently host of a popular late-night jazz show on WDUQ-FM.

According to published reports, a few lottery officials claimed Mowod's delivery was "dull and unexciting," and replaced him with the avuncular Perry.

Perry's words at the end of each drawing --- "If you've got it, come and get it, if not, better luck tomorrow" --- became a catchphrase for more than a million viewers.

In fact, Arbitron reported that the Daily Number was the top-rated broadcast in Pittsburgh at 7 p.m., outdrawing even the CBS news with Walter Cronkite.

According to testimony at Perry and Plevel's trial, Perry approached Peter Maragos in February 1980 with the idea of fixing the lottery.

"Pete, what I'm about to tell you I don't want you to tell no one," Perry said, according to Maragos' testimony. "The lottery can be fixed."

: : : : : : :

Indeed, despite protestations to the contrary from state officials, security for lottery drawings was shockingly lax.

"Essentially there was none," said Barr, the former prosecutor. "I thought it was incredible."

The lottery balls and machines were kept in a room locked with two keys, according to a 1979 magazine feature story about the lottery.

But the grand jury that indicted the conspirators in September 1980 learned that Perry had one key, and Plevel --- the Western District supervisor for the lottery --- had another.

And though practice drawings were to be held before each drawing, Plevel and Perry were the only observers.

According to testimony, Perry asked Bock to find a way to weight the numbered ping-pong balls used for the lottery drawings.

After experimenting, Bock found that a few grams of white latex paint, injected into the balls with a hypodermic needle, made them too heavy to be selected by the air-powered lottery machines.

Then --- using decals from a stationery store --- Bock made a duplicate set of lottery balls. Luman was asked to swap the phony ones for the real ones.

After several test runs, the conspirators weighted all of the balls except the numbers "4" and "6." On April 24, the Maragos brothers and others fanned out across the state to purchase lottery tickets in eight different combinations.

They also placed bets on the lottery with illegal bookmakers. That proved their downfall.

The bookies noticed the unusually heavy play on 4 and 6 combinations. And as soon as the drawing left the air, they put the word on the street that they weren't paying off.

For the state, the 666 lottery payout was by far the largest in the Daily Number's history --- $3.5 million, including some $1.18 million for tickets that members of the conspiracy purchased.

Cannon, the anchorman, heard the first rumors of a fix on the night of the drawing, when he ducked into a Wilkinsburg restaurant to have dinner.

"The waitress said, `You know that number was fixed,'" Cannon recalled. "I laughed. I said it can't be possible."

Though lottery officials say triple-digit numbers are always heavily wagered, the number 666 raised a few eyebrows. Some Christians believe the combination has Satanic overtones because it's mentioned in the Book of Revelation.

By May, rumors of a fix were in the press. And though lottery officals issued firm denials, the state Attorney General's office began an investigation.

At WTAE, News Director Joe Rovitto pulled a videotape of the drawing from the station's files.

"We looked at it, slowed it down frame-by-frame," Cannon said. "All of the other balls were staying flat --- only the 4's and 6's seemed to be buoyant. That's when we started investigating it thoroughly ourselves."

: : : : : : :

Eventually, the Maragos brothers and Luman and Bock agreed to testify against Perry and Plevel in exchange for lighter sentences.

Perry and Plevel were convicted May 20, 1981 by a Dauphin County jury on charges including criminal mischief, criminal conspiracy, theft by deception and rigging a public contest.

Computer records of ticket purchases and telephone calls between the conspirators and the announcer's booth at WTAE proved crucial, Barr said. "The fact is, they just didn't know how much the computers would be able to trace their movements," Barr said.

And stores in Philadelphia, Erie, Pittsburgh, Monroeville and elsewhere remembered the unusually heavy ticket purchases. Peter Maragos bought $1,413 at one location, officials said.

Pennsylvania courts had never handled a case which stretched through so many jurisdictions, Barr said. Justices finally ruled that Dauphin County had jurisdiction because the lottery's mainframe computer was located there.

Former WTAE reporter Lynn Boyd Hinds, now a historian and professor of communications at Drury College in Springfield, Mo., said Perry's implication in the crime was stunning. Hinds --- who occasionally filled in for Perry as an announcer --- was among those questioned.

"It was a scary sort of thing," he said. "I asked him, Nick, did you do this? And he laughed. We made a joke about it."

Hinds still has a hard time believing it. He thinks the fix may have been an academic exercise until the temptation to try it became too great.

"They weren't your typical criminals by any stretch of the imagination," Barr said. "They didn't seem to need the money --- they may have just wanted to see if they could do it."

Perry last week declined to offer his own opinion on who else may have fixed the lottery. He chalked his arrest and conviction up to "poor investigation."

Retired WTAE broadcaster Paul Long, Cannon's onetime co-anchor, said he once asked Perry about the fix.

"I mentioned something in a lighthearted vein and he sort of turned on me," Long said. "He said, `You're like all the others. You think I did this thing.'"

"He was very sensitive about it, and he insisted to the end that he was not guilty," Long said. "He's done his penalty, if there was one justified. Do I really believe he's guilty? I don't know for sure."

One detail sticks in Long's mind. During the investigation, someone needed Perry's phone number and couldn't find it until they remembered his real name was Nicholas Katsafanas, Long said.
They found the listing in the Pittsburgh white pages --- on Page 666. "I've remembered it ever since," Long said, chuckling ruefully.

(There was a movie made - Lucky Numbers, with John Travolta, based loosely on the above incident)

(Plevel was convicted and spent two years in prison. Bock and Luman pleaded guilty in exchange for lighter sentences. The Margos brothers avoided jail time by agreeing to testify against Perry.

Perry was convicted of criminal conspiracy, criminal mischief, theft by deception, rigging a publicly exhibited contest, and perjury in 1981 and was sentenced to 7 years in prison. He served two years at Camp Hill State Penitentiary and spent another year at a halfway house in East Liberty, Pennsylvania. Perry remained on parole until March 1989. He held a number of jobs after prison including an unsuccessful attempt to return to broadcasting in the late 1980s. Perry died in Andover, Massachusetts on April 22, 2003. )

Hey, Raggedy. I've always claimed that the lottery was fixed. Frankly, I blame the entire thing on Greg Peck.

Hey, folks, when my eyes aren't crossed, I'll drop in and give your contribution another look see.

Station break:

This is cyberspace, WA2K radio.

Annabelle Lee, Annabelle Lee,

Oh the moon never beams
Without bringing me dreams
Of my beautiful Annabelle Lee
And the stars never rise
But I see the bright eyes
Of my beautiful Annabelle Lee

We're never apart for I gave her my heart
She gave her heart to me
And I love with a love
That is more than just love
My adorable Annabelle Lee

Yes he gave his warm heart to sweet Annabelle Lee
For he loved her so dearly you see
To think of her charms
Have been here in my arms
To think she loves only me

Heaven offers no more,
I've been there before
In the arms of my Annabelle Lee
Annabelle Lee

Well, listeners, it's been a long day for me, so I must save Raggedy's triple six fix for tomorrow.

Wow! Beyond the Sea is everywhere. Just heard, I think, Bubles singing it for a cruise commercial. Old Blue Eyes had more of a reach than he would ever expect.

edgar, who did that version of Poe? Well, whoever, I must lie down on my side in my bed by the sounding sea.<smile>

Goodnight, my friends.

From Letty with love.

Harry Belafonte did that version of Annabel Lee, letty.

following up on Ms. Letty's expression of concern for Booman2, i started a poll in the Help Forum. i don't know what good it will accomplish, but there shouldn't be any harm in trying.

Cole Porter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Cole Porter (June 9, 1891 - October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. His works include the musical comedies Kiss Me, Kate (1948) (based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew), Fifty Million Frenchmen and Anything Goes, as well as songs like "Night and Day," "I Get a Kick Out of You," and "I've Got You Under My Skin." He was noted for his sophisticated lyrics, clever rhymes, and complex forms. Irving Berlin used to refer to "Night and Day" as "that long, long song."

Porter was born in Peru, Indiana, into a wealthy family; his grandfather was a coal and timber speculator. His mother started Cole Porter in musical training at an early age, and Porter learned the violin at age 6, the piano at age 8, and he wrote his first operetta (with help from his mother) at age 10. Porter's grandfather wanted the boy to become a lawyer, and with that career in mind, Porter attended Worcester Academy and then Yale University beginning in 1909, (at Yale he became a member of the famous secret society, Scroll and Key), and spent a year at Harvard Law School in 1913. After realizing that he wanted to concentrate on music, he transferred to Harvard's School of Music. Porter's first Broadway production, in 1916, See America First (book by Lawrason Riggs), was a flop, closing after two weeks.

Porter enlisted in the French Foreign Legion and served in North Africa. [Other chiefly modern sources dispute Porter's claim, but it was accepted at the time.] He was transferred in 1917 to the French Officers School at Fontainebleau and was assigned to teach gunnery to American soldiers. He set up a luxury apartment in Paris and alternated between his officer duties and leading a playboy lifestyle. In 1918, in Paris, he met Linda Lee Thomas (1883 - 1954), a rich Louisville, Kentucky-born divorcée several years his senior; they were married in 1919. She was once dubbed the most beautiful woman in the world.

His musicals and individual songs soon gained him popularity; many were written specifically with Fred Astaire in mind. A riding accident in 1937 crushed his legs and left him in chronic pain and largely crippled, but he continued to compose. (According to a biography by William McBrien, a probably apocryphal story from Porter himself has it that he composed the lyrics to part of "At Long Last Love" while lying in pain waiting to be rescued from the accident.)

Cole Porter is interred in the Mount Hope Cemetery, Peru, Indiana.

His life was made into Night and Day, a 1946 Michael Curtiz film starring Cary Grant and Alexis Smith. It is also chronicled in De-Lovely, a 2004 Irwin Winkler film starring Kevin Kline as Porter and Ashley Judd as Linda.

http://www.able2know.com/forums/posting.php?mode=reply&t=40045

Track Title: Night And Day
Album Title: Cole Porter Songbook, disc 2

Prime Artist: Ella Fitzgerald
Producer: Norman Granz
Written by: Cole Porter (C. Albert P.)
From the Show: The Gay Divorcee 1932 (S)

Lyrics:
Like the beat beat beat of the tom-tom
When the jungle shadows fall
Like the tick tick tock of the stately clock
As it stands against the wall
Like the drip drip drip of the raindrops
When the summer shower is through
So a voice within me keeps repeating you, you, you
Night and day, you are the one
Only you beneath the moon or under the sun
Whether near to me, or far
It's no matter darling where you are
I think of you
Day and night, night and day, why is it so
That this longing for you follows wherever I go
In the roaring traffic's boom
In the silence of my lonely room
I think of you
Day and night, night and day
Under the hide of me
There's an oh such a hungry yearning burning inside of me
And this torment won't be through
Until you let me spend my life making love to you
Day and night, night and day

Good morning, WA2K radio.

edgar, I am amazed at the songs that Belafonte has done. Thanks, buddy.

Yitwail, you were most kind to start a thread concerning Booman2's inability to access A2K and I, for one, am very appreciative as I'm certain he will be.

Bob, thanks again for the excellent background on Cole Porter and playing one of his most remembered and beloved songs.

It still feels like night here, folks, but the day will enter at any moment now.

Here's a song to make us smile, listeners:

Hippie Again


First I was a hippie
Then I was a stockbroker
Now I am a hippie again

In the Summer of Love I was mellow and high
I had my bus and my dog
and everything I needed to get by
But the years rolled on and I settled down
I parked my bus and took a car pool into town

A stockbroker in a three piece suit
I gave up sellin' hash and started doin' toot
I had more money than I'd ever dreamed of
I forgot all about the Summer of Love

First I was a hippie
Then I was a stockbroker
Now I am a hippie again

The years went by faster and faster
Down on Wall Street they called me the master
I soon had more money than Lady Astor
I couldn't see an impending disaster

But I wasn't happy
I broke out in a rash
I just couldn't handle the stress...
And then came the crash

First I was a hippie
Then I was a stockbroker
Now I am a hippie again

I'm free -- I lost all I had and that's ok with me
I'm free -- I think I'll check the oil in my van
I'm free -- I've got tickets for all five nights
of the Grateful Dead
I'm free -- hey, see my new macrame briefcase
I'm free -- etc...

That was a song by The Bobs. <smile>

Good morning, Letty!

That was a sweet little song.

I just want to relate some news from Oz to your listeners: It rained this morning! In Melbourne (where I live) & other places in eastern Oz.
I woke up around six, heard this strange noise outside (What IS that? ) & had to go & investigate. RAIN! Amazing, we haven't had any for so long. But we need much more to recover from this from the drought. (Over six years now, I think.) So do some rain dances for us please, folks!

Some say that love's a gentle thing
But it's only brought me pain
"Cause the only one I ever did love
Has gone with the midnight train

I never will marry, never take me a wife
I expect to live single all the rest of my life

The train pulled out the whistle blew
With a low and a lonesome mourn
She's gone, she's gone like the midnight dew
And left me here alone

I never will marry, never take me a wife
I expect to live single all the rest of my life

There's many a change in the winter wind
And a change in the clouds design
There's many a change in a young girls heart
But never a change in mine

I never will marry, never take me a wife
I expect to live single all the rest of my life

msolga, six years of drought? My goodness that is startling news, my friend. My oldest sister, the one who lives in reality and possesses a PhD in anthropology, had a beautifully designed octagonal plaque that was a Pennsylvania Dutch good luck appeal for rain. Believe me, that thing worked, or at least, we thought it did. <smile>

Within us all, listeners, there is this little seed of charms and amulets that we look to when things go awry, right? So, we will do a rain dance for our msolga in Melbourne.

edgar, what a wistful song. There is something about a train that conjures up departed love. Why that is, I do not know.

The dawn is here, folks and the wind is gentle. Tonight I may get sentimental.

Seeing that I'm part Indian I suppose I'll have to be the one to do the rain dance. Of course I'll need some music. It's not important what it is; anything goes.

ANYTHING GOES

Times have changed
And we've often rewound the clock
Since the Puritans got a shock
When they landed on Plymouth Rock.
If today
Any shock they should try to stem,
'Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock,
Plymouth Rock would land on them.

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now, God knows,
Anything goes.
Good authors too who once knew better words
Now only use four-letter words
Writing prose,
Anything goes.
If driving fast cars you like,
If low bars you like,
If old hymns you like,
If bare limbs you like,
If Mae West you like,
Or me undressed you like,
Why, nobody will oppose.
When ev'ry night the set that's smart is in-
Truding in nudist parties in
Studios,
Anything goes.

When Missus Ned McLean (God bless her)
Can get Russian Reds to "yes" her,
Then I suppose
Anything goes.
When Rockefeller still can hoard en-
Nough money to let Max Gordon
Produce his shows,
Anything goes.
The world has gone mad today,
And good's bad today,
And black's white today,
And day's night today,
And that gent today
You gave a cent today
Once had several chateaux.
When folks who still can ride in jitneys
Find out Vanderbilts and Whitneys
Lack baby clo'es,
Anything goes.

If Sam Goldwyn can with great conviction
Instruct Anna Sten in diction,
Then Anna shows
Anything goes.
When you hear that Lady Mendel standing up
Now turns a handspring landing up-
On her toes,
Anything goes.
Just think of those shocks you've got
And those knocks you've got
And those blues you've got
From that news you've got
And those pains you've got
(If any brains you've got)
From those little radios.

So Missus R., with all her trimmin's,
Can broadcast a bed from Simmons
'Cause Franklin knows
Anything goes.

I do believe that worked, Bob. msolga can already hear the rain on the roof.

And speaking of "anything goes", listeners, when I took a quick trip to our one stop shop place yesterday, I overheard a conversation between one of the clerks and a man. They were discussing this particular store as a safe place. When I asked the woman what that meant, she explained that people who were in trouble could come into the shop and seek shelter until the police could respond. I was taken aback and dismayed to realize that there had been several such incidents and was an ever mounting problem. When I asked her opinion as to the why of it, she simply said one word: Drugs! Now, over the counter stuff must be dispensed because so many are using the ingredients to create heavier things.

From Coleridge:





In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

As I was given to understand, this was a poem that enveloped the "ecstacy of sound", listeners.

Rinnng...ring, good morning Letty, to the listeners, and the staff. I'm so glad that Msolga had some rain today. We have too much down here. I would like to dedicate this Native American poem to msolga.

Summer Rain
By Gerald Fisher

Father Sky is gray
As the new light appears
And the laughter of the birds is still
the clouds shed their tears
and the land drinks of this heavenly dew
puddles replace the dust
irresistible temptations for little feet
Turning my face to the sky
and feeling the gentleness of the mist
washing away my cares
filling my heart with happiness
Lifting my spirits
like the quenching of the crops
Raising my arms
I turn to the four winds
and give thanks for this
gentle…Summer Rain.

Good Morning WA2K. Great Porter bio, Bob.

And here are the June 9 B.D. celebs:

1781 George Stephenson, inventor of the steam locomotive (near Newcastle, England; died 1848)
1893 Cole Porter, composer/lyricist (Peru, IN; died 1964)
1900 Fred Waring ,Tyrone Penn, musician/conductor/inventor (Waring Blender) Sold millions of records and won the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor the U.S. government can bestow on a civilian.
1908 Robert Cummings, actor (Joplin, MO; died 1990)
1915 Les Paul, musician/singer (Waukesha, WI)
1916 Robert S. McNamara, World Bank head, defense secretary, and author (San Francisco, CA)
1930 Marvin Kalb, journalist/educator (New York, NY)
1931 Jackie Mason, comedian (Sheboygan, WI)
1934 Donald Duck famous fowl
1940 Dick Vitale, sportscaster (East Rutherford, NJ)
1947 Mitch Mitchell drummer (Jimi Hendrix Experience-Purple Haze)
1951 Bonnie Tyler [Gaynor Hopkins], rocker (Total Eclipse of the Heart)
1956 Patricia Cornwell, mystery writer (Miami, FL)
1961 Michael J. Fox, actor (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
1963 Johnny Depp, actor (Owensboro, KY)
1964 Gloria Reuben, actress (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
1981 Natalie Portman, actress (Jerusalem, Israel)


And in honor of Cole Porter and dedicated to WA2K:

At words poetic, I'm so pathetic
That I always have found it best,
Instead of getting 'em off my chest,
To let 'em rest unexpressed,
I hate parading my serenading
As I'll probably miss a bar,
But if this ditty is not so pretty
At least it'll tell you
How great you are.

You're the top!
You're the Coliseum.
You're the top!
You're the Louvre Museum.
You're a melody from a symphony by Strauss
You're a Bendel bonnet,
A Shakespeare's sonnet,
You're Mickey Mouse.
You're the Nile,
You're the Tower of Pisa,
You're the smile on the Mona Lisa
I'm a worthless check, a total wreck, a flop,
But if, baby, I'm the bottom you're the top!

Your words poetic are not pathetic.
On the other hand, babe, you shine,
And I can feel after every line
A thrill divine
Down my spine.
Now gifted humans like Vincent Youmans
Might think that your song is bad,
But I got a notion
I'll second the motion
And this is what I'm going to add;

You're the top!
You're Mahatma Gandhi.
You're the top!
You're Napoleon Brandy.
You're the purple light
Of a summer night in Spain,
You're the National Gallery
You're Garbo's salary,
You're cellophane.
You're sublime,
You're turkey dinner,
You're the time, the time of a Derby winner
I'm a toy balloon that's fated soon to pop
But if, baby, I'm the bottom,
You're the top!

You're the top!
You're an arrow collar
You're the top!
You're a Coolidge dollar,
You're the nimble tread
Of the feet of Fred Astaire,
You're an O'Neill drama,
You're Whistler's mama!
You're camembert.

You're a rose,
You're Inferno's Dante,
You're the nose
On the great Durante.
I'm just in a way,
As the French would say, "de trop".
But if, baby, I'm the bottom,
You're the top!

You're the top!
You're a dance in Bali.
You're the top!
You're a hot tamale.
You're an angel, you,
Simply too, too, too diveen,
You're a Boticcelli,
You're Keats,
You're Shelly!

You're Ovaltine!
You're a boom,
You're the dam at Boulder,
You're the moon,
Over Mae West's shoulder,
I'm the nominee of the G.O.P.

Or GOP!

But if, baby, I'm the bottom,
You're the top!

You're the top!
You're a Waldorf salad.
You're the top!
You're a Berlin ballad.
You're the boats that glide
On the sleepy Zuider Zee,
You're an old Dutch master,

You're Lady Astor,
You're broccoli!
You're romance,
You're the steppes of Russia,
You're the pants, on a Roxy usher,
I'm a broken doll, a fol-de-rol, a blop,

But if, baby, I'm the bottom,
You're the top!

Ah, Angelique of the East, that was soooo soothing. Thank you, my dear, that song enhances msolga's chances. <smile>

And once again, listeners, we have our Raggedy with her celeb updates and a song dedication to all of us. Hey, gal, you're the tops!

There's Johnny, and Donald, and Bob. What an unlikely trio, listeners.

For the three of them:


I'm not the guy, who cared about love
And I'm not the guy who cared about fortunes and such
Never cared much
Oh, look at you now
I never knew the technique of kissing
I never knew the thrill I could get from your touch
Never knew much
Oh, look at you now
You're a new man
Better than Casanova at his best
With a new heart, brand new style
I'm so proud I'm busting my vest
So you're the guy who turned down a lover
Yes I'm the guy, who laughed at those blue diamond rings
Ha, what are those things?
Oh, look at you now
He's not the guy who cared about love and
He's not the guy who cared about fortunes and such
Never cared much, but look at him now
Mm, my belover
He never knew the technique of kissing
He never knew the thrill he could get from her touch
Never knew much, but look at him now
Man, I've really come on
He's a new man
Better than Casanova at his best, right on
With a new style, a brand new heart
He's so proud he's busting his vest
So he's the guy who turned down a lover
So he's the guy who laughed at those blue diamond rings
What are those things?
But look at me now!
He's a new man, better than
Casanova, at his best
He's got some stuff and is really fine
I'm so proud I'm busting my vest
He's a lover!
Yes, we know he's a lover, yeah!
I laughed at those blue diamond rings
Just what are those things?
But look at him now
Hey! C'mon I'm ready!
Look at him now!




Gareth Gates