Rosalynn Carter’s Controversial Nanny

by Kathy Ehrich Dowd Time Magazine    Mary Prince, a Black woman who had been convicted of murder, was already a controversial figure at Jimmy Carter’s 1977 Presidential Inauguration.    Although she was incarcerated, Prince was given permission to travel to Washington, D.C. for the event and arrived in a dress made of material given …

Dictionary Words Are Funky, Stylish And Cool

by Kevin Burton    If the 60s were groovy, the 70s were nothing if not funky.    The funk was everywhere then, beginning with music, first seeping then flowing into just about everything else. The funk was the soup we swam in.    But I was a little surprised to see funky show up on …

Words From The Wrong Side Of The Law

by Kevin Burton    Some of the entries on today’s word list from Merriam-Webster I learned as a wee lad, by following the news about the federal government.    If it hadn’t been for the Nixon Administration and the Watergate scandal, I would have thought hush money was money a parent spends to keep the …

Texas Rangers Redeem Echoes Of The Senators

by Kevin Burton    Futility, barren and bleak as it gets, has been the hallmark of the Texas Rangers.    But Wednesday, with the Yankees and Dodgers on their couches at home, The Rangers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 to finish off a four-games-to-one, World Series win.    World Series win. Texas Rangers?  Yes indeed, …

The Story Of Pringles From Cradle To Grave

by Kevin Burton    Without this great big clue you would never guess this, or even think of it. With the clue you surely won’t miss.    Guess where and how the ashes of the late Fredrick Baur, inventor of Pringles, are buried?     Yep, in a Pringles can.    Ah but ain’t that America? …

Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift, Jumping The Shark

by Kevin Burton    America, do we hate the Chiefs yet?     On second thought, let me extend the question to the rest of the world, since the NFL plays games in London, Mexico City and Frankfurt, Germany. World, have we had enough?    It seems as usual I am behind the times, late to …

Gotta Love Breakfast To The Moon And Back

by Kevin Burton    What’s for breakfast?    Good question. Fun question. Breakfast means morning and morning means a new day. A new start. A little surge of hope. And breakfast means fuel for the journey.    So, what’s for breakfast?   The topic takes me back to Saturday mornings in the days of Cap’n …

Coast To Coast: Billy Joel’s “Stop In Nevada”

by Kevin Burton    On the Billy Joel portion of our rock and roll road trip you could have reasonably expected “New York State of Mind” or even “Allentown.” Instead we swing west to look at “Stop In Nevada.”     This song fits very well into our road-trip theme.    Today’s tale includes one of …

Tell A Stranger About Philadelphia Freedom

by Kevin Burton    Trying to wrestle down he lighter-than-air 70s anthem “Philadelphia Freedom” by Elton John is like trying to tell a stranger ‘bout rock and roll.    You kind of can’t.    You can parse the words if you like, look into its origins, the elements that went into it. But in the end …

Motown’s Move To LA Stifled The Magic

by Kevin Burton    There is more than a little irony in the 1971 Jackson 5 song “Going Back To Indiana.” That makes for an easy choice to make Indiana a destination for our summer rock and roll road trip, Coast to Coast.    For Coast to Coast we are talking rock and roll history, …