by Kevin Burton
Today, some updates, passing asides and leftovers from previous posts. When I cook these up together, I call them quibbles and bits.
Come and get it!:
From my two posts about favorite duets:
I can not overstate how much I love much of the work of Paul McCartney. I can not overstate how much I love most of the work of Stevie Wonder.
I have always been a big advocate for racial harmony and justice around the world. I have posted from time to time, some stories that shed light on racial injustice.
However, for some reason, I can not overstate how much I hate, hate, hate the song “Ebony And Ivory” by McCartney and Wonder.
“Cloying” is the word that comes to mind. Merriam-Webster defines cloying as “disgusting or distasteful by reason of excess.” For example, cloying sweetness.
If the song had never been invented, but somebody had made a wall hanging that said. “Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony side by side on my piano keyboard Oh Lord why don’t we?” I would have bought it, or been delighted if somebody gave it to me as a gift. I would be displaying it in my music room right now.
But the song? Yuck…….
In July I reported on two maintenance workers falling into a vat of chocolate at a Mars/Wrigley factory in Pennsylvania (“These Guys Were Really Into Chocolate,” July, 27, 2022).
Mars Wrigley was fined $14,500 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, according to the BBC.
“The regulator’s report labelled the incident ‘serious.’ It says the workers were hired to clean tanks, and were not provided with proper safety training,” wrote BBC reporter Max Matza. “It noted that the workers fell into a batching tank – a tank used to mix ingredients – for Dove chocolate/”.
That fine seems a little light to me. I’m sure that’s why a representative for Mars Wrigley welcomed the outcome of the investigation.
“The safety of our associates and outside contractors is a top priority for our business,” said (lied) the spokesperson.
“The workers were contractors who did not work full-time for the factory. The incident happened in June 2022. A hole had to be cut into the bottom of the partly-full tank to get them out. More than two dozen rescuers responded, and one worker was transported to hospital by helicopter, according to local reporting.
That “lied” bit was inserted by me, not the BBC, just to clear up any possible misunderstandings…….
I got this quote from fellow WordPress blogger Yohni Din on her God’s Glory blog:
“God has the ability of picking up a nobody, to be somebody, in front of everybody, without consulting anybody.”
Amen to that………
According to a widely-circulated piece by Anthony Defeo, the Kansas City Chiefs are the NFL’s new evil empire, replacing the New England Patriots.
The Patriots in the Tom Brady era, replaced the Dallas Cowboys as the evil empire. Defeo defines evil empire as “the team that gets all the calls.”
That late defensive holding call against the Eagles that allowed KC to run out the clock before kicking the winning field goal, was a textbook example of the kind of call the Cowboys and Patriots used to get. It was a foul, but it was the equivalent of jaywalking and should not have been called.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid is nowhere near as hateable as Patriots boss Bill Belichick. But I guess KC quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ wife makes up for that. A lot of people don’t like her for some reason.
I haven’t read any of her quotes. Until and unless she suits up for the Chiefs, I won’t be paying attention to anything she says……
Not long after I began a look into old-time radio and the DJs that made rock and roll what it is, we lost one of the best of them.
Beloved Philadelphia DJ Jerry Blavat died Jan. 20 at 82. Known on air as “The Geator With the Heater” and “The Boss with the Hot Sauce,” Blavat was one of the key early advocates for R&B music and artists.
“I tell people everywhere I go that I’m the product of the Philadelphia music scene,” said singer-songwriter-producer Todd Rundgren. “People ask me, what does that mean? I tell them it comes down to one thing: I grew up listening to the Geator. He played the music that would have been called race records at the time, the music that was made south of the Mason-Dixon Line. And that’s why so many white kids in Philly grew up wanting to sing R&B.”
Check The Geator out on You Tube if you get a minute. You’ll enjoy what you hear.
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