(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: 2023-10-08 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. ART NOTES — an exhibition entitled Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400-1800 — from royal portraits and devotional sculptures to embroidered objects, tapestries and more — will be at the Baltimore, Maryland Museum of Art through January 7th. Artemisia Gentileschi, c 1624 THE PHOTO ABOVE is from a Twitter post by one Lisa Smith (who is ”seated” to the right of Lawrence O’Donnell). Others include Robert Mueller, Letitia James, Kanye West, E. Jean Carroll, Stormy Daniels, Hillary Clinton, legal analysts Julius Kim and Glenn Kirschner, Fani Willis, Rachel Maddow (w/NY Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, whose disability 45 mocked), Michael Cohen, George Conway, officers Harry Dunn/Michael Fanone, Jesus, Gold-Star father Khizr Khan, Barack Obama, John McCain, “Where’s Waldo?” …. and of course, “far right” Kid Rock. YOUR WEEKEND READS #1 & 2 are these two complementary essays by Amanda Marcotte in Slate — first, that Lauren Boebert’s mishaps may have been making-up for her lost youth (when the stakes were much lower) and why Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift dating seems to enrage “Incels and incel-adjacent” young men. THURSDAY's CHILD is named Giles the Cat — winner of the Nationwide Insurance annual Hambone Award for pet insurance (being caught under a sofa bed). Giles the Cat YUK for TODAY — in the front-page story about the Trump Family fraud trial in Manhattan — this caught my eye. As an aging accountant myself, I’ll confess: I wouldn’t remember much of the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) if I was asked point-blank myself (other than, say: consistency, matching revenues-to-expenses, and conservatism in the sense of not overstating assets and understating liabilities). It’s all a matter of habit, developed over forty years. But when Don Jr. said he learned of them in Accounting 101 …. this is priceless: INTERVIEWER: “What did they teach you about generally accepted accounting principles in Wharton?” DON JR.: “I’m not an accountant, but that they are …. generally accepted.” FRIDAY's CHILD is named Miss Piggy the Cat — a Minnesota kitteh who went missing for eight days after a home explosion … but despite severe burns, will make a full recovery. Miss Piggy the Cat BRAIN TEASER — try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz. YOUR WEEKEND READ #3 is from Mary Trump from her Substack account — about how her family was quite used to Failing Up and that her grandfather Fred “understood Donald’s limitations and knew he was promoting a fiction, but he didn’t care. He wanted the fame: and he was perfectly happy to live vicariously through Donald’s. Fred was paying for it, after all”. MOTHER-SON? — GOP Reps. Harriet Hageman (WY) and George Santos (NY). Harriet (born 1962) George (born 1988) ...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… someone who began her career at the tail-end of the folk music boom, then segued into the singer-songwriter mode, with later careers in teaching and painting was Norma Tanega — whose work has been sampled by a wide variety of musicians both early (and late) in her lifetime. Her foray into experimental music later in her life, plus her romance with Dusty Springfield ... combine to make her career worth a new look. Born in 1939 to a Panamanian mother and a Filipino father (who was a US Navy bandmaster for thirty years) gave her a unique perspective in the music field when she entered after graduating from both Scripps College and Claremont College in California. She moved to NYC and in addition to performing in Greenwich Village clubs: had a day job in a mental hospital (where she sang to her patients). While performing at a summer camp in the Catskill Mountains, she was referred to Bob Crewe (noted for his work with Frankie Valli) and he signed her to his label in 1965. Her debut album of 1966 featured songs such as You’re Dead (which in 2014 was used in the vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows), No Stranger Am I (in 5/4 time, uncommon for the era), I’m the Sky (later recorded by Marianne Faithfull) and the quirky yet infectious title track (which will be the focus below). She appeared on American Bandstand and was on a nationwide US tour (with Gene Pitney, Chad & Jeremy and Bobby Goldsboro). She met Dusty Springfield on the UK show Ready, Steady, Go — and Norma moved to Britain, as the two began a relationship which lasted over five years. Some of Dusty’s later hits were of songs that Norma had a hand in writing (that may have gone un-credited). Dusty recorded Come for a Dream that Norma wrote with Antonio Carlos Jobim. Norma recorded a 1969 album Snow Cycles (that was never released in her lifetime), but did have minor success with 1971’s I Don't Think It Will Hurt If You Smile (with songs inspired by Dusty). The two parted ways the following year. Returning to California, she began teaching art, music and ESL in high school, as well as becoming an adjunct instructor at Cal State Poly in Pomona. Her music career shifted from folk towards more experimental singer-songwriter styles. Over the years she began painting in a more serious vein and, in the 80’s, joined a collaborative entitled Ceramic Ensemble (with a Scripps ceramics art professor). Later groups she recorded with were Hybrid Vigor (1990’s), Latin Lizards (2001), Baboonz (2008) and Twin Journeys (2010). Claremont Heritage held an exhibition of her paintings in 2019, a few months before her death from colon cancer at the age of eighty. Her legacy includes bands covering her debut album songs including The Oh Sees, Dr. Hook and Yo La Tengo, and she was portrayed in a London stage production of the life of Dusty Springfield. And just last year, there were two releases about her life’s work: an art book as well as a compilation album released of her more popular songs (as well as the unreleased Snow Cycles) that sums up her musical career. Norma Tanega in the 60’s … and later in life That quirky tune that helped launch her career was Walkin' My Cat Named Dog (regular readers of mine should know that I couldn’t pass that up) which was the title track of her debut album. She explained that the building she lived in would not allow dogs, and so she got a cat and named it … Dog. It reached #22 in both the US and UK charts in 1966. It was covered that same year by both Barry McGuire (of Eve of Destruction fame) and also Art Blakey & his Jazz Messengers (as an instrumental). Nearly fifty years later, it was also covered by They Might be Giants. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/8/2197233/-Odds-amp-Ends-News-Humor-with-a-Who-Lost-the-Fortnight-poll?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/