(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Odds & Ends: News/Humor (with a "Who Lost the Fortnight?" poll) [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-06-18 I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers". OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted. CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead. Plus, a Happy Father’s Day to all whom it may apply to. ART NOTES — an exhibition entitled Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment — with nearly 200 works from painters, photographers, weavers, bead-workers and sculptors from a century ago — is at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa through August 20th. Prudence Heward, 1929 YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is this analysis by editor Robert Kuttner in The American Prospect, assessing the chances for Labor Party leader Keir Starmer to become the next British prime minister — in a general election that must take place no later than early 2025 — given the Tory scandals and Brexit fallout. HAIL and FAREWELL to the late Jeremy Margolis (a/k/a CameronProf, a/k/a BFSkinner) — whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the Cheers & Jeers dinner at the 2011 Netroots Nation in Minneapolis, and always looked forward to reading of the latest adventures of his orange tabbies Cash & Cloud — who has died at the age of fifty-four.. THURSDAY's CHILD is named Prison Mike the Cat — a Minnesota kitteh named after Michael Scott's prison character in The Office — who was among those competing in Nationwide Insurance’s 2023 Wacky Pet Names contest … and indeed, he won the cat category. Prison Mike the Cat FOR FATHERS DAY — the perennial favorite is the instrumental Song for My Father by the late jazz pianist Horace Silver (for his Cape Verdean dad) — and whose riff was borrowed by Steely Dan for Rikki Don’t Lose that Number. YOUR WEEKEND READ #2 is this OpEd in a Beaumont, Texas newspaper by a GOP state rep, explaining why he voted to impeach attorney general Ken Paxton — concluding with, “Soon, Paxton will have a full opportunity to defend himself and his actions in a Senate trial. I urge all Texans to listen to that trial, look at the evidence, and make up your own mind. I believe the facts — examined aside from politics and partisanship — point to one overwhelming conclusion”. FRIDAY's CHILD is named Gasket the Cat — one of a cadre of NYC brewery kittehs, some placed by the non-profit Hard Hat Cats — providing protection from their numerous sacks of grain being spoiled by rodents — plus employee companionship. Gasket the Brewery Cat THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a Mixed Bag assortment: A Cold War beverage commercial, the shortest #1 song in US chart history … and a look at the Saudi golf fiasco. BRAIN TEASER — try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz. OLDER-YOUNGER BROTHERS? — two Italian soccer head coaches: Roberto Mancini (manager of their men’s national team) and Simone Inzaghi (manager of pro club Inter-Milan) whose team lost a close 1-0 European championship match last weekend against (heavily favored) Manchester City. Mancini (b. 1964) and Inghazi (b. 1976) ...... and finally, for a song of the week ....................… time is my enemy yet again this week … thus, reprising the musical part of my Top Comments diary this week. In 2015, I noted what I refer to as the Musical Interregnum — that five-year period (1959-1964) when the charts were wide-open for many different types of music. Yet in 1960, a particular song achieved #1 status with two interesting features. Stay by the band Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs (in that Sputnik era) remains the shortest #1 song (at only 1:38). Later, it reached the Top Twenty by two different artists, and also boosted by a popular film. Maurice Williams composed the lyrics in 1955 when (as a teenager) his girlfriend was visiting his South Carolina home, yet his pleas to stay were dashed when her brother came to pick her up (at her parents’ insistence). Two years later with his own band, he wrote Little Darlin’, which his band recorded without much success … yet saw it reach #2 when recorded by a white group named The Diamonds. Two years later still, his band was set to release a single entitled Do You Believe — yet needed a “B side” for it. So he dug-out Stay — and that became the “A side” hit single, reaching #1 in November 1960 … five full years after the idea came to him. Fast-forward four years … when Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons reached #16 in 1964 with this song. Fast-forward another fourteen years, when Jackson Browne reached #20 with it as a single (and, as the closing song on his landmark Running on Empty album). Finally, fast-forward another nine years, when the song was given yet another lease-on-life as part of the 1987 Dirty Dancing film soundtrack. Two months ago, Maurice Williams turned age eighty-five … and is still active musically. 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