another bad languistic trend in our dear nation(UGH!)

One of my favorite websites http://www.tolerance.org/ is listed on the right on my blog as one my favorite website. If you read this sad, unfortunate excerpt of something going on in the Redneck area of the South, then you should pay a visit to Southern Poverty Law Center a/k/a http://www.tolerance.org/ as well.

Southern racists adopt "Canadian" as a euphemism for "black"
Posted by Cory Doctorow, January 27, 2008 12:10 AM permalink


The Canadian National Post looks on with mild horror as American linguists report on the growing trend in the American south to use "Canadian" as a masking euphemism for black people, so that white racists can say socially inappropriate things without tipping listeners off about the cancer in their souls.
Last August, a blogger in Cincinnati going by the name CincyBlurg reported that a black friend from the southeastern U.S. had recently discovered that she was being called a Canadian. "She told me a story of when she was working in a shop in the South and she overheard some of her customers complaining that they were always waited on by a Canadian at that place. She didn't understand what they were talking about and assumed they must be talking about someone else," the blogger wrote.

"After this happened several times with different patrons, she mentioned it to one of her co-workers. He told her that ‘Canadian' was the new derogatory term that racist Southerners were using to describe persons they would have previously referred to [with the N-word.]"
A similar case in Kansas City was reported last year on a Listserv, or electronic mailing list, used by linguistics experts. A University of Kansas linguist said that a waitress friend reported that "fellow workers used to use a name for inner-city families that were known to not leave a tip: Canadians. ‘Hey, we have a table of Canadians.... They're all yours.' "
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emphasis added by VPJS
sad, sad, sad..............................

Changes in BOTH rules and content

Well there have been some recent developments that have changed the content of this blog.

Saturday morning, I noted on my blog that there were 17 readers. There have been some more. It started out innocently enough on Saturday night when I couldn’t sleep. Instead of sleeping, I was working on my blog, getting a few advertisers. If one advertises on this blog, you make money. No one wants their blog to be merely a billboard for someone else, as we have something to say. Still, in this day and age when times are definitely not easy (& you know that just as much as I) advertising could help with a bill or 2.

Anyway, on Saturday, I was working very late into the night. That bothered Maribeth because if I couldn’t sleep, it would be hard to go to church the next morning (which it was), she was even concerned I wouldn’t go to church (but I did).

Since Maribeth was wondering what the heck was going on, I told her I was setting up some advertising. I had told Maribeth about this blog way back in 2005, but she did not remember that because it was a very brief conversation. We were still apart, still divorced. Suddenly, on Sunday she was very interested in the blog.

With her interest came rules that she set for the blog.
1. No pictures of her.
2. No post that could remotely embarrass her, and I was to not even post about her except with her express consent.
That was reasonable; she said, “I don’t want people at work knowing all about my business outside of Loyola.”
Ok, so I did some deleting. There was a post earlier this month about my sympathy for Maribeth working at a tough place like Loyola Univ. Medical Ctr. She and her co-workers go through a lot, and so out of concern and sympathy, I wrote about her, her background, how we met. THAT POST ALONG WITH PICTURE – Deleted. The post in 2005 where I was upset at her when I carryied an air conditioner, and she said something I didn’t like – Deleted (we were apart then anyway). The post about my humor and regard for the person who bought us a microwave at the law firm – deleted.


If there is a post that’s going to cause a fight – DELETED. I’ve fought enough, Maribeth and I have had her fill of arguments so posts have to be removed to keep the peace. The only exceptions are in the November and December,2006 posts when I talk about getting back together. I can't and I won't delete those because they were a pretty important event for everyone involved - me, Maribeth, obviously our 3 kids. & the picture of her is staying too because she looks fine. (sorry, Maribeth, hope you don't get all upset about the December, 06 posts)

Why didn’t I ask her before when I posted? Why do I have to delete now? The opinion goes: “Maybe I just shouldn’t have posted in the first place”.
I wanted artistic freedom or more specifically “writer’s freedom”. I had something to say of interest, and so I said it. I received response from those posts so they couldn’t have been too boring and ignorable. If I talk about the mundane, I’ll get even fewer responses. I guess maybe I can ask her about some of the deleted posts and then if it’s ok, I’ll put them back on.

I said there were 17 people who read this blog. There are now over 20 and one of those 20 readers is very important, and I have to make adjustments. That’s all there is to it. Maribeth also wants to write on this blog, and we all can look forward to that.

& don’t worry there are still a lot of past posts that are interesting. When I met Patti way back in spring of 2006, you can still see the argument I had with one several of the readers who thought it was a bad idea. I still don’t regret meeting Patti. That was just part of life. Maribeth doesn’t regret some of the men she met and spent time with. We were separated from Jan., 2003 to Nov., 2006; we acted accordingly.

Revisions

This website is under some changes. More to come later..................

It's been very cold in Illinois, and as you all know, we live 25 miles SW of Chicago. If I'm not mistaken, 25 miles would be about 50 km.

At any rate, I figured this picture of my 2nd son, Ted and his neighbor would make us all think of a warmer time.

A week later, the Packers lose

Ok, first the pictures, this is about Ted, so he is the boy to the right of Santa, and in the 2nd picture is the boy in the white t-shirt. Today, at 5:30 pm.....it looked so hopeful. Packers are at home. They are favored to win by most of the experts (bookies said by 7). Favre doesn't play well, the defense doesn't play that great, and Plaxico Buress of the other team (N Y. Giants) lights up the Packer secondary for over 200 yards. Green Bay Packers are beaten by Giants 23-20. Giants are going to go to the Super Bowl and get their ass whipped by the New England Patriots. Why do I think the Patriots are going to win? Because their QB, Tom Brady has had an astounding season, one of the top 5 seasons a QB has ever had. They have few, if any, weaknesses, and they have many, many strengths.

This is not good. There are 2 things that kind of console me. No one thought the Packers were going to play in the NFC Championship back on Labor Day, September, 2007. Then the Packers win 13 games, only lose 3 and win last week, before losing their 4th game this week.

Secondly, my 2nd son looooooovvvess football. He was born in Chicago and roots for the Bears. But since the Bears are gone from the playoffs and are sitting in warmer climate, Ted Schauf, my dear 9-yr. old son, is rooting very hard for the Packers. Why? because his lucky father (lucky to have such a great son) was born in Wisconsin, lived there the 1st 26 years of his life and has roooooted for the Green Bay Packers since 1972!!! (& how many of you were even born before 1972, lol).

So, the Giants field goal kicker kicks the ball through the goal posts and helps beat the Packers 23-20, and my son stands there and cries and cries. I'm so busy consoling Teddy that I don't even feel bad for myself. I hug him a long time. I love my son. He's a great kid, and I'm a lucky father.

It was still a good season. I don't like the way it ended. I don't like that Plaxico Buress getting over 200 yards and taunting and chiding the Packers sideline and being an asshole poor sport. & anybody who complains about Brett Favre having a bad game can go straight to hell because the Packers would never have even made the playoffs if Favre didn't have the great season he had!

Because Buress really is an asshole, and he's going to get his but whipped with all the rest of his teammates. & if the New York Giants win the Super Bowl, I'll walk from Chicago to New York City in the winter because the improbability of that act matches the improbability of NY Giants beating a team, the New England Patriots, who have 18 wins 0 losses team. Really, I will walk all 800 miles (or is it 900?? I know it isn't 1,000 miles)

Uuuhhhhh, maybe not, if the GIants shock the 100s of millions of people watching the Super Bowl, I won't walk 800some miles to NY in shock because..................I can't afford to miss work, unless some reader out there pays for my lost wages and sponsors me. Really, I mean it...................Anyway, I'm reallly glad Ted feels better.

PACKERS WIN! GO PACK! I'M HAPPY!

I want anyone who has given this Blog a read with just the slightest ounce of wishing the Green Bay Packer football team well to make a comment on this post. IF you do, I'll be forever in your debt. For real. The Green Bay Packers helped start the NFL with a team from Chicago, New York, Washington D.C. and a few other teams in the 1920s. That's a team that's been around for over 80 years, "brothers and sisters"! The fans who support the Green Bay Packers are over a million strong (not an exaggeration) and are part of PackersNation. (that's like another famous franchise in baseball, Boston Red Socks; fans call themselves RedSocksNation, or is it RedSox Nation? whatever). Amel, if you're reading this, you and your husband have automatically been given honorary status as members of PackersNation for as long or as short a time as you want (hehe, lol).

It's Saturday 3:45 pm. PackersNation is very sad. Their mighty Packers are down 0-14. Some of them (I won't lie, I'm an honest man, I was one of them) are screaming for Ryan Grant to get the hell off the football field. He fumbled twice, the Seattle Seahawks (the team the Packers played today) took 2 fumbles in for 2 touchdowns and the Packers were very down. He goes on to have the game of his life and runs 201 yards.
See #4 up there in that picture? 37 yr. old guy is the leader of the team. He's too old to get overly excited, too experienced to be down, and too awesome not to play well. He leads the Packers to score 21 points and his team is never ever down again as they go on to win 42-20.
I am happy as a lark and flying just as high!!

THE BLUES, Part 2 of 2, The Legend of Robert Johnson

II. The Legend of Robert Johnson (born 1911, died 1938) Rolling Stone magazine valued Robert Johnson enough to make him (in the “Best 100 Guitarists” issue of last year or so) the 5th best guitarist ever. I disagree with his high ranking because Johnson did not live long enough (dying in the 1930s) to play electric guitar. He could not explore the nuances of electric guitar with it’s various sounds as Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townsend (of The WHO), Alex Lifeson (of Rush), and of course, Keith Richards (of the Rolling Stones) had the gift, opportunity, talent and vision to do. I would rank Mr. Johnson 12th best ; a very good singer and a masterful guitarist, it still is only speculation what Johnson could have done with an electric guitar, wa-wa pedal and the numerous guitar pedals that color the sound of the guitar that were available to the guitar legends by the end of the 1960s. One of Johnson’s famous songs is “Crossroads Blues”, and it was covered by Cream, featuring Eric Clapton on lead guitar and lead vocal. After the song was made, the legend among the jealous, simple and judgmental ones was that Robert Johnson went to a crossroad/intersection, met Satan, let Satan tune his guitar and sold his soul to him. IN return, Satan supposedly granted him the gift of playing guitar masterfully and writing, recording great songs. The legend of Johnson selling his soul to learn to play guitar is said to have taken place in either an intersection of Rosedale or an intersection in Clarksdale, (both cities/towns in Mississippi). Feel the jealousy! You can almost hear the neighbors (both Black and White neighbors) wondering why Robert Johnson didn’t work at the factory or stay home on the farm like others who lived near him. “What the hell is he doing with that guitar??? Respectable people don’t go out and play in Blue in clubs and juke joints!” These neighbors during the Jim Crow 1920s and 30s likely looked down about him with even more cutting and judgmental criticism. “That fool doesn’t play guitar nearly as well as my cousin Andy, and you don’t see Andy hotfootin’ ‘round town. Andy is smart enough to work at the barber shop! And how many times did you see that boy in church? Not a once these last few months! Robert be makin’ eyes at that hoochie, Mary, and be messin’ with her after he done playin’ that fool guitar. They both have as much aim in life as a feather!!” It’s not bad to be revulsed by sins of another, in fact, that’s good. Yet, when one is so openly condemnatory, as a few or even some of Johnson’s neighbors were, it falls into the “judge other and you will be judged as well” type of action. Yet, like so many instances, rumor and sensationalism are not really what happened when Robert Johnson made “Crossroads Blues” Wikipedia tells the true story of what the song “Crossroads” is about. “While the legend of Robert Johnson selling his soul to the Devil is fascinating and evocative, the song itself plainly describes the very real, harrowing situation feared by Johnson and other Blacks in the Deep South in the early 20th century. Historian Leon Litwack has suggested that the song refers to the common fear felt by blacks who were discovered alone after dark. As late as 1930s in parts of the South, the well-known expression (from redneck sheriffs, KKK members and other racists) , “Nigger don’t let the sun go down on you here!!” was according to Litwack “understood and vigorously enforced”. In an era when lynchings were still common, Johnson was likely singing about the desperation of finding his way home from an unfamiliar place as quickly as possible because, as the song says, “the sun goin’ down, boy/dark goin’ catch me here”. This interpretation also makes sense of the closing line “You can run/tell my friend poor Willie Brown/that I’m standing at the crossroads' as Johnson’s appeal for help from a real-life fellow musician.”[1] So many, many times, TOO MANY TIMES, too many people are simple and stupid enough to go for the sensational (that’s why the National Enquirer sells so well, makes so much money and pisses me off!) Obviously, a Black man afraid of being lynched is much more humdrum and boring to some and not worth gossiping to the next door neighbor compared to telling same neighbor that Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil, and as a result that’s why he was a sensational guitarist. After some research, there are some signs that Johnson himself may have acquiesced to the rumor as well. This is a shame, because he also wrote and sang a song like “Hellhound on My Trail” covered fear of the Devil. With a rough and tumble life with so many hazards, signs of the Devil, amid all the misfortune in his life, were prevalent. Playing the Blues, not making much money doing so, "seeing" the occasional woman, traveling and worrying over lack of money are shown in his lyrics in the song “Crossroads Blues” (just Google: lyrics & “Robert Johnson” and “song”), Robert Johnson in the mid-1930s was recognized enough that certain executives arranged to record his songs and great talent. He cast an enormous influence over rock and roll and has even been nicknamed “The Grandfather of Rock n Roll”. 30 years later, he influenced Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Peter Gabriel and many, many artists over the years. He made the songs that united (and continue to unit) Blacks, Whites and other races alike, just as good and great Blues music does!! Then, there’s the sad, obscure death of Robert Johnson. With poor healthcare in the Jim Crow era, Johnson didn’t go to the hospital and with an unknown cause (neither Johnson nor anyone could determine or help treat Johnson in the last 3 days before his death), Johnson died a slow painful death. Dead at the age of 27 he dies at the same age as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) and Brian Jones (the founder of the Rolling Stones and rhythm guitarist). As noted in Wikipedia, “There are a number of accounts and theories regarding the events preceding Johnson's death. One of these is that one evening Johnson began flirting with a woman at a dance. One version of this rumor says she was the wife of the juke joint owner who unknowingly provided Johnson with a bottle of poisoned whiskey from her husband, while another suggests she was a married woman he had been secretly seeing. Researcher Mack McCormick claims to have interviewed Johnson's alleged poisoner in the 1970s, and obtained a tacit admission of guilt from the man. When Johnson was offered an open bottle of whiskey, his friend and fellow blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson[2] knocked the bottle out of his hand, informing him that he should never drink from an offered bottle that has already been opened. Johnson allegedly said, "don't ever knock a bottle out of my hand". Soon after, he was offered another open bottle of whiskey and accepted it, and it was that bottle that was laced with strychnine. Johnson is reported to have started to feel ill into the evening after drinking from the bottle and had to be helped back to his room in the early morning hours. Over the next three days, his condition steadily worsened and witnesses reported that he died in a convulsive state of severe pain - symptoms which are consistent with strychnine poisoning. Strychnine was readily available at the time as it was a common pesticide, and although it is a very bitter-tasting substance it is extremely toxic, and a small quantity dissolved in a harsh-tasting solution such as whiskey could possibly have gone unnoticed, but (over a period of days due to the reduced dosage) still produced the symptoms and eventual death that Johnson experienced.” (emphasis added by blog author). Robert Johsnon never had the chance to witness how appreciated and valued his music was until Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Rolling Stones and other musicians herein illuminated his music 30 years later. ____________________________ [1] http://www.wikipedia.org/ “Robert Johnson” (musician) [2] Sonny Boy Williamson lived considerably longer, naturally had a more prolific career and was seen in person by Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant (as discussed in the book Hammer of the Gods). The book even goes as far as to say that Plant got so close that he stole Williamson’s harmonica.

Picture of Robert Johnson (below) was taken in 1935 when he was 24. The picture was one of the few authentic pictures of this legend.

Please note: for some inexplicable reason, I could not eliminate the space between the text below and Robert Johnson's picture.

The BLUES, part 1 of 2

The BLUES

I. Music with Suspicion - The Blues
A. Good singing, good song
B. Blues inspiration
C. The Flood
II. Companion story, "The Legend of Robert Johnson"

I. Music with Suspicion - The Blues

A. "Good Singing, Good Song"
When I grew up, there were some very clear opinions expressed about what a good song was (especially from older brothers even moreso than Kathi). A good song had a nice, upbeat, decent melody. A good song had a good singer with a good voice (like Karen Carpenter or Paul McCartney). A good song absolutely did NOT have screaming in it or riff-drenched, wailing guitars.
So are the underlined principles in the above paragraph true? That’s difficult to say because no 2 musical tastes are alike. Each is unique. Even with 2 people with similar taste, you will find one who likes a certain song better than another. That makes judging music somewhat relative and not so absolute.
However, the underlined principles in the 1st paragraph are supported by popular demand. After all, it was the Beatles and not Sonic Youth (Seattle band of the 90s) who make (yes, that’s present tense "make" because Beatles CDs are bought every day some place on planet Earth) tens of millions of dollars and were better known. People of Chicago can crow all they want about Smashing Pumpkins (a very good group that originated in Chicago and Joliet) but did they sell as well as the Rolling Stones? For every 1 person who loves the anger-laced, distorted guitar- driven song by the Pumpkins called "Bodies" (& that includes me), you will undoubtedly find 50 people who will like "Yesterday" by the Beatles. "Yesterday" is also a sad song, but a far more palatable and popular song than "Bodies".
While my political views changed away from most of my family in 1982, my musical tastes were very similar to my family’s before 1988. In the summer of 1988, I fell in love with Led Zeppelin thanks to a great roommate from Minnesota named Mike.
It is indisputable that the roots of Led Zeppelin are from the Blues. While this rock band was classified as Heavy Metal, heavy metal has been defined as "Blues on steroids". Like Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin were inspired by the Blues.
The Blues is about emotion. If someone screams during a song, it’s to reflect anguish, pain. The sad singer’s point comes across as clear as sterile water. Sometimes the Blues is a music of emotion, rather than a music filled with artful tunefulness. Like a good movie that mirrors the reality rather than the "Leave It to Beaver" sugarcoating, the Blues offers you an unvarnished look at life. & life can be difficult.
B. "Blues Inspiration"
The inspiration of the Blues is pretty clear. Certain themes are very recurrent in Blues, and they are
a. man upset that his "woman (or as they sing "wimins") is cheatin’ on him or vice versa man cheating on woman, and the anguish that results.
b. being "messed around" and "double dealed" at work
c. being poor
d. Floods
e. Drinking
f. Getting no justice in Court
g. death
Of course, there’s Blues songs with other themes but that covers about 65% of the Blues. That’s not a criticism!! The Blues is amazing, beginning with the 1st song composed beginning in 1903, all the way to musicians in the present who take a mere handful of themes to make so many awesome songs! So much hurt, pain, and, in general, downtrodden conditions, and therein springs beautiful, empathetic and sometimes even inspirational music vanquishing all the negativity!
Here’s a great example. Before 1975, Robert Plant, singer/songwriter heard and bought the Blues song "Jesus, Make Up My Dying Bed"; that song is old, written 1929-30, composed by "Blind Willie" Johnson. It must have been an artful song, because Robert Plant and the other members of the band reworked the song and came up with "In My Time of Dying" which was released in 1975 from the album Physical Graffiti.
"In My Time of Dying" is nothing short of a Christian song sung with a tragic beauty behind compelling guitars and drumming. It’s a song inspired possibly a 27 year old suddenly confronted with his own death and then making excuses. Now, when you read the lyrics and you are older than say, 32, you must cast off your viewpoint, because 50 year olds, 40 yr. olds and even many 30 yr. olds, thinks far differently than a 27 year old, especially about death. If we don’t understand nor empathize, we find an immature, superficial song. After all, he prays to Jesus, "You can deliver me Lord; I only wanted to have some fun!" But, we all have seen 20somethings confronted with a bad situation. After all, we lived in our 20s and had bad things happen to us during those times. With sons, daughters, nephews and nieces that we personally know, it really shouldn’t be that hard to imagine the desperation, even the minimizing of his guilt in the lyrics found in the Coda section .
Just one awesome song, and there’s so many more songs that pull one away from his problems, hurt and gives perspective. Yet, the Blues isn’t for everyone. It depicts the rough, raw, painful lives lead. See the companion story "The Legend of Robert Johnson" for how one man lived and died by the Blues in the next post before Jan. 12.
C. THE FLOOD
During the Jim Crow era, during 1927, when farmers in the US were already suffering horribly financially well before the Great Depression. The Great Flood of Mississippi savagely struck farmers, townspeople, Blacks and Whites in this tough, hardscrabble reagion. 13,000 people were forced to evacuate and over 1,000 died. Led Zeppelin and in particular, Robert Plant heard the song "When the Levee Breaks". Reworking the song, the band put it on Led Zeppelin IV, Back in 1927, when God decided to make Mississippi flood, it was like the song sadly sang, "Cryin won’t help ya, prayin’ won’t do you no good".
It’s common knowledge that the Mississippi River makes much of the farmland in the state of Mississippi low, flat and prone to flooding. It’s equally valid that sharecropping Blacks bought or tilled land most prone to flooding while their richer White farming counterpart owned better land, less prone to flooding. The Mississippi Flood of 1927 was inspiration to the Blues song "When the Levee Breaks" by the married couple Memphis Minnie and Kansas City McCoy. During the Great Depression, crop insurance was certainly not as commonplace for either White or Black farmers. Many, many farmers were hit by the Depression far sooner than the 1929 Stock Market Crash. Farmers succeeded with burgeoning prices during World War One; yet, those same crop prices crashed brutally in the beginning of the 1920s. The lyrics ache with the desperation of that relentless rain. The lyrics touch on the mass exodus that millions of Blacks (living in the nasty South) moving to the North during the Jim Crow era, moving mostly to Chicago, as well as Northern cities like Springfield, Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis and of course, Detroit.
"Going to Chicago, going to Chicago/Sorry, but I can’t take you!" - lyrics from "When the Levee Breaks"
Fathers and mothers (mostly mothers) had to make the agonizing choice of which one of the 5 or so children to bring up North and which one to leave with "Uncle Bob". "When the Levee Breaks" touches briefly on a person being left back in Mississippi to sort out the destruction and carnage left by the massive flood (and thereafter, hopefully finding solace in the many Baptist churches come Sunday). Clearly, there were big families in the South as there were in the North. Just as clearly, with so little money, some Black families couldn’t move North all at once. It happened, and it happened often!
Later in the aftermath, Blacks suffered insult to injury as they were forced at gunpoint to rebuild the levees ruined during the Great Flood of 1927. That’s just one of many cruelties inflicted on that race in the South during the Jim Crow era.
I advise any reader interested in the lyrics cited herein just Google the lyrics of "In My Time of Dying" and "When the Levee Breaks". Good lyrics, compelling lyrics and even better to listen to.