(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Odds & Ends: News/Humor (with a "Who Lost the Week?" poll) [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-16 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 and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead. ART NOTES — an exhibition entitled Art and War in The Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries — seven lavish tapestries, twenty-eight feet wide and fourteen feet high (plus arms and armor) depicting the Battle of Pavia conducted by the Holy Roman Empire, being shown in the US for the first time — opens Sunday at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas through September 15th. Tapestries circa 1530 AD YOUR WEEKEND READ is this essay by Amanda Marcotte in Salon — on how the Federalist Society essay castigating Dolly Parton for "condoning immoral sexual behavior" (i.e., the LGBTQ+ community) — from a publication that (a different essayist) in 2016 suggested be elected president — is par-for-the-course, often used by Christianist pastors to warn their flock against the outside world. TRAVEL NOTES — while it will not open until at least a year from now, iron-workers and operating engineers in Canada and the U.S. completed the installation of the final two edge girders for the new Gordie Howe International Bridge project between Windsor, Ontario & Detroit, Michigan — linking the late hockey legend’s native Canada and the city where he spent much of his career. HAIL and FAREWELL to two French music makers who have died recently: Françoise Hardy, a captivating pop singer of the 1960’s whom Bob Dylan wrote some love letters to (at age eighty) and Jean-Philippe Allard, a record producer who helped revive the careers of jazz greats who had been all but forgotten in the U.S. and received numerous awards (at age sixty-seven). THURSDAY's CHILD is named Cinder the Cat - what a Humane Society in central Oregon called a unicorn: a male tortie. A rare XXY cat whose two X chromosomes allowed for its tortoiseshell coloring (but without a uterus or ovaries) and the Y chromosome allowed for its testicles (male torties & calicos are usually sterile). Cinder the Cat AS A CHILD I vividly recall the Horn & Hardart restaurant Automats — the subject of a 2021 documentary featuring Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, RBG and Colin Powell among others. I visited the last one (which closed in NYC in 1991) … but now a new CEO is bringing back the Horn & Hardart brand name: first as coffee sellers and (he hopes) to have a new Philadelphia location (where one will open the slots not with coins … but instead, a credit card). YUK for TODAY — On this day in 2016, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant went on trial on a music plagiarism charge over whether the song Stairway to Heaven took its opening guitar melody from a song by the California band Spirit. And as the songwriters of Led Zeppelin had some prior settlements over plagiarism, it was not out-of-the-question. (Fortunately, they were acquitted in this case: as it sounded to the jury to be more-than-a-stretch). The Economist’s daily newsletter at the trial’s start wrote, "The tune will come to you: Led Zeppelin", and concluded with: "Past royalties, estimated at some $550m, are not up for grabs, but future ones would be …..... and a new day will dawn for those who stand long." FRIDAY's CHILD is named Daisy the Cat — one of several felines at Georgia Tech (under the supervision and care of student organization Campus Cats) and have become favorites of the larger student body. Daisy 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. THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at Wilhoit’s Law — dedicated to the many right-wing “constitutionalists” who see law enforcement quite unlike others. FATHER-SON? — two music producers: Englishman Johnnie Stewart (who launched Top of the Pops in 1964) and multi-Grammy winner T-Bone Burnett. J. Stewart (1917-2005) T-Bone (born 1948) ...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… in reading about the death of the songwriter Richard Sherman a few weeks back (at age ninety-five) it reminded me of a tune that he and his older brother wrote years ago … and the variety of artists who have covered it. Richard and Robert Sherman were a prolific songwriting team — believed to have written more songs for movies (film scores) than any other songwriting team in film history. For many years, that took place at the Walt Disney company … and as a seven year-old in the summer of 1964, I heard their It’s a Small World After All song … ad nauseum at the New York World’s Fair that year (and ever since). Interestingly, the brothers had a tortured relationship with each other … except for their songwriting rehearsals. They were jointly inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005. The song I have in mind is Trust in Me — not the 1937 song performed by many big bands, but instead one that the Sherman Brothers wrote for the Disney company’s 1967 animated film version of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Walt Disney had felt that Kipling’s book had an overly dark undertone and wanted a lighter aspect, which the Sherman Brothers strove for (and interestingly, Walt Disney died in late 1966 during film production). This song is sung (originally by Sterling Holloway) via a snake intent on devouring its beguiled prey by lulling it into a false sense of security (though the prey is saved just in time). The Sherman Brothers used the music from a song they had written for Mary Poppins (yet went unused) entitled Land of Sand. The tune has been recorded by performers as diverse as Scarlett Johansson to Louis Prima to Veronica Swift to Selena Gomez. Two versions stand out to me. One is this straightforward version by the Canadian pianist/singer Holly Cole: And this version by Siouxsie and the Banshees — who came-of-age during the late 70’s punk era in Britain before transitioning into a post-punk, alt-rock band: led by lead singer Susan Ballion, whose stage name is Siouxsie Sioux. 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