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The things I learn!

The Brown Mountain Lights are one of the most famous of North Carolina legends. They have been reported a dozen times in newspaper stories. They have been investigated at least twice by the U.S. Geological Survey. And they have attracted the attention of numerous scientists and historians since the German engineer, Gerard Will de Brahm, recorded the mysterious lights in the North Carolina mountains in 1771.
"The mountains emit nitrous vapors which are borne by the wind and when laden winds meet each other the niter inflames, sulphurates and deteriorates," said de Brahm. De Brahm was a scientific man and, of course, had a scientific explanation.
But the early frontiersman believed that the lights were the spirits of Cherokee and Catawba warriors slain in an ancient battle on the mountainside.

One thing is certain, the lights do exist. They have been seen from earliest times. They appear at irregular intervals over the top of Brown Mountain - a long, low mountain in the foothills of the Blue Ridge. They move erratically up and down, visible at a distance, but vanishing as one climbs the mountain. From the Wiseman's View on Linville Mountain the lights can be seen well. They at first appear to be about twice the size of a star as they come over Brown Mountain. Sometimes they have a reddish or blue cast. On dark nights they pop up so thick and fast it's impossible to count them.

http://users2.ev1.net/~smyth/linernotes/thesongs/brownMtLight.htm

Panz, I was going to say, "X-files material"..and then what should I see but the fact that the lights were a subject of one of the episodes. That is one legend that I had never--NEVER heard before.

Me either, though I played the Linville-Grandfather Mtn Festival many times.

Stay tuned, listeners, and remember, you heard it first here on WA2K.

There was an annual blue grass festival at Rural Retreat, panz. Ever play that one?

don't reckon so...Union Grove, the granddaddy. Grandfather Mtn...where I watched on stage as Nitty Gritty blew the crowd away.
The earliest festival I remeber was one in Va called the Centerville BF...about'72.

Well, listeners, as one thing leads to another here on WA2K radio, we going from Union Grove--to Fiddler's Grove to China Grove:



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When the sun comes up on a sleepy little town
Down around San Antone
And the folks are risin' for another day
'Round about their homes.
The people of the town are strange
And they're proud of where they came.

Well, you're talkin' 'bout China Grove, wo, oh, oh,
Oh, China Grove

Well, the preacher and the teacher,
Lord, they're a caution, they are the talk of the town.
When the gossip gets to flyin' and they ain't lyin';
When the sun goes fallin' down.
They say that the father's insane
And dear Missus Perkin's a game.

We're talkin' 'bout the China Grove, wo oh ho
Oh, China Grove.

But everyday there's a new thing comin',
The ways of an oriental view.
The sheriff and his buddies
With their samurai swords,
You can even hear the music at night.

And though it's part of the Lone Star State
People don't seem to care,
They just keep on lookin' to the East

Talkin' 'bout the China Grove, oh, China Grove.

Doobie Bros.

A little rythm and blues, folks.



Lawdy Miss Clawdy
(Lloyd Price)


Well lawdy, lawdy, lawdy miss clawdy
Girl you sure look good to me
But please don't excite me baby
I know it can't be me

Well as a girl you want my money
Yeah but you just won't treat me right
You like to ball every morning
Don't come home till late at night

Oh gonna tell, tell my mama
Lord, I swear girl what you been to me
I'm gonna tell everybody that I'm down in misery

So bye, bye, bye, baby
Girl, I won't be comin' no more
Goodbye little darlin' down the road I'll go
So, bye, bye, bye baby
Girl, I won't be comin' no more
Goodbye little darlin' down the road I'll go

ah, edgar. Made me think of another song, but before I post it, let me try a test of mammoth proportions:









My Manifesto

To be an ordinary person
To lead a peaceful and contented life
To live in harmony with everything
To be free from want :-
To have enough to eat, enough to rest
To be happy myself
To wish happiness for others
To be loved and regarded for what I am
Not for what I can do
To have the same feelings towards others
To be free from expectations, from me and of me
To share love in its completeness
A natural but perfect sweetness
Self-evident but egoless.
To balance reality with vision
Destiny with passion
Making life worthwhile.

I don't know who wrote that, but it is and was inspiring.

Late evening news item:


FDR's Grandson Protests Soc. Security Ad

Thu Jan 13, 3:59 PM ET White House - AP


By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The grandson of Franklin Delano Roosevelt on Thursday protested use of FDR's image in a television ad touting President Bush (news - web sites)'s plan to partially privatize Social Security (news - web sites).



"My grandfather would surely oppose the ideas now being promoted by this administration and your organization," James Roosevelt Jr., wrote in a letter to Progress for America, a private group that supports conservative issues.


Roosevelt, who served as the Social Security Administration (news - web sites)'s associate commissioner for retirement policy in the Clinton administration, said, "On behalf of my family, I would ask that you cease using my grandfather's image in your advertising campaign."


Progress for America, in a statement, said it appreciated the feedback from Roosevelt but "will continue to air the ad in its entirety. ... Strengthening Social Security continues FDR's legacy and giving younger workers the option of a voluntary personal retirement account is an important part of this effort."


The ad, running on Fox News and CNN through January 19, shows FDR signing the legislation creating the Social Security system and refers to the courage needed both to create the system and to protect it.


To compare the courage needed to create Social Security "to the courage it will take to dismantle the most successful social program in history is simply unconscionable," Roosevelt, 70, wrote.


Bush wants to remake Social Security by letting workers divert some of their payroll taxes from the retirement system into personal investment accounts. Critics argue that such a move is too risky and would undermine the system's financial solvency.

I am livid as hell that the government keeps reneging on the SS commitment to its citizens. Each time they touch it we lose a bit more.

Yes, edgar. I know. Sweet dreams, my friend, and may visions of COLA stay out of your head.

I will leave you with one smile:

When I taught, I asked my students to do a brief analysis of a current political item.

One young girl talked for several minutes saying that Reagan was going to tax soft drinks.

Signing off.................

From Letty with love

At least they don't tax air.

Welcome sulphur dioxide,
Hello carbon monoxide
The air, the air is everywhere
Breathe deep, while you sleep, breathe deep

Bless you alcohol bloodstream,
Save me nicotine lungsteen
Incense, incense is in the air
Breathe deep, while you sleep, breathe deep

Cataclysmic, cataplasm
Fall out atomic orgasm
Vapor and fume at the stone of my tomb
Breathe like a solemn perfume
Eating at the stone of my tomb

Welcome sulphur dioxide,
Hello carbon monoxide
The air, the air is everywhere
Breathe deep, while you sleep, breathe deep

Civil Rights Pioneer James Forman Dies
I greatly admired James Forman. When he came to Berkeley to organized Freedom Riders, the only way I could contribute was to take care of the children of volunteers who went south, many of whom were beaten and jailed. ---BBB

Jan 11, 6:16 PM EST
Civil Rights Pioneer James Forman Dies
By JEFFREY McMURRAY
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- James Forman, a civil rights pioneer who helped inspire young people in the 1960s as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, has died of colon cancer, his son said Tuesday. Forman was 76.

He died Monday night at a hospice in Washington, where he lived for several years. Forman's son, Chaka Esmond Fanon Forman, said his father had been fighting cancer since 1991 and was surrounded by friends and family members when he died.

"He went very peacefully - just stopped breathing," Forman said in an interview with The Associated Press.

A Chicago native who grew up in Mississippi, Forman was a principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington and the Freedom Rides in which blacks rode across the South to make sure buses were integrated as ordered by the courts.

In 1961, he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and was elected its executive secretary one week later.

Although both the student group and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference were fighting the same struggle, there was friendly competition. Often the students organized demonstrations and took positions that went beyond those advocated by King.

For example, when Mississippi tried to send an all-white delegation to the 1964 Democratic convention, Forman was far more outspoken than King about the compromise that allowed two at-large votes for black delegates. SNCC helped organize a protest in Atlantic City, N.J., where the convention was held that renominated President Johnson.

"They always thought King got all the publicity and they did most of the suffering, that they were the shock troops," said Taylor Branch, who has written two books on the civil rights movement. "There was tension and resentment and cooperation all at once."

But John Lewis, a congressman who was the coordinating committee's chairman when Forman was its executive secretary, said Forman's role was critical in convincing students they had a stake in the fight for equality and justice.

"He was the glue that held the young people together during the most abrupt time of the civil rights movement," said Lewis, D-Ga. "He was somewhat older than many of the young people who became part of the movement but was thoughtful, had great organizing skills and was a good manager."

Lewis credits Forman for persuading the group to purchase its own office building, printing press and research department that helped document the struggle. Rather than wait for King to arrive in a town and deliver a motivational speech, Forman tried to develop leadership among students, including the appointment of field secretaries to recruit young activists across the South.

"The chairman was kind of the public face and spokesperson while the executive secretary was always the guy running the organization behind the scenes, making things happen," Branch said. "To the people scattered down in Mississippi going to jail for tiny projects, he was the one who made sure somebody would get you out."

In 1969, Forman became one of the first major black leaders to demand slavery reparations. His "Black Manifesto," delivered at a church in New York, sought $500 million from white churches for America's role in the Atlantic slave trade.

He remained active in promoting the cause of blacks throughout his career, including traveling to Africa and Europe on behalf of the Black Panther Party, planning a new March on Washington in 1982 and lobbying against the appointment of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork and the presidential campaign of former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke.

Dorie Ladner, a longtime friend and neighbor for several years in Washington, said Forman left his mark on the civil rights movement.

"He was very intelligent, a learned man with zeal for justice and equality," Ladner said. "He was fearless."

Yes, I admired Foreman and also mourn his passing.

If you miss me at the back of the bus
You can't find me nowhere
Oh come on over to the front of the bus
Because I'll be riding up there
I'll be riding up there, I'll be riding up there
Come on over to the front of the bus
Because I'll be riding up there

If you miss me on the picket line
You can't find me nowhere
Come on over to the city jail
Because I'll be rooming over there
I'll be rooming over there
I'll be rooming over there oh
Come on over to the city jail
Because I'll be rooming over there

If you miss me at the Mississippi river
You can't find me nowhere
Come on over to the swimming pool
Because I'll be swimming over there
I'll be swimming over there, over there
I'll be swimming right there
Come on over to the swimming pool
Because I'll be swimming over there

If you miss me in the cotton fields
You can't find me nowhere
Come on over to the voting booth
Because I'll be a voting right there
I'll be voting right there, right there
I'll be voting right there
Well come on over to the voting booth
Because I'll be voting right there

Good morning, listeners and staff.

BBB, a very timely item since this month in America, we'll be observing Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. To be candid, I am not familiar with James Forman, and if our radio audience is not, then they will benefit from your remembrance of the man.

edgar, your song reminded me of Ms. Jane Pittman, an exceptionally fine movie.

Brief movie review:

Last night I watched Paparazzi and found it to be a real cliff hanger.
It keeps us aware of the other side of celebrities and their personal lives.
If I am not mistaken, the term originated in the movie, Le Dolce Vita, but all of us have in some way been affected by the reporters of grim and gruesome--Princess Di and River Phoenix among others. It is worth a watch although I do not subscribe to vigilante tactics.

Good day!

Some folks of note who were born this day, January 14:

1741 Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary War general and traitor (Norwich, CT; died 1801)
1875 Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, and missionary (Kayserberg, Upper Alsace; died 1965)
1892 Hal Roach, director/producer (Elmira, NY; died 1992)
1896 John Dos Passos, novelist/journalist (Chicago, IL; died 1970)
1919 Andy Rooney, TV commentator (Albany, NY)
1938 Jack Jones, singer/actor (Hollywood, CA)
1940 Julian Bond, civil rights leader (Nashville, TN)
1941 Faye Dunaway, actress (Bascom, FL)
1943 Shannon Lucid, astronaut (Shanghai, China)
1944 Nina Totenberg, TV journalist (New York, NY)
1948 Carl Weathers, actor (New Orleans, LA)
1949 Lawrence Kasdan, filmmaker (Miami Beach, FL)
1967 Emily Watson, actress (London, England)
1968 L. L. Cool J, singer (New York, NY)
1969 Jason Bateman, actor (Rye, NY)

Once again, listeners, we must thank our Raggedy for keeping us apprised of the notables in history, filmdom, and music.

I zeroed in on John Dos Passos, because he lived out his life in Westmoreland County in Virginia, and has a seat of honor at UVA.

Of course, radio audience, most of us know Schweitzer through his famous understatement, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume."

And then there is L.L.Cool whose movie won fame in Deliver Us from Eva.

Surely not our Eva.

In Memory of Jimmy Griffin who died at age 61 from complications of cancer:

Love, look at the two of us
Strangers in many ways
We've got a lifetime to share
So much to say
And as we go
From day to day
I'll feel you close to me
But time alone will tell
Let's take a lifetime to say
"I knew you well"
For only time will tell us so
And love may grow
For all we know.

Love, look at the two of us
Strangers in many ways
Let's take a lifetime to say
"I knew you well"
For only time will tell us so
And love may grow
For all we know.

Jimmy's lyrics were done so beautifully by The Carpenters.