Here we are at Posting number 525. It must be a week or a good seven days since the last one!
Another eclectic mix of whatever. Now that I think on it, ‘eclectic’ and ‘mix of whatever’ are surely twin meanings??
First off I want to quote Dale’s quote so it’s a quote of a quote. I was mentioning to him my hate of royals. I would need a novel length posting to tell you why. A two novel length to tell you why the fawning sycophantic fuckers who curtsey and bow their heads are worse than the in-breds and then a quick wee leaflet about why castles piss me off too.
Before you want to argue – Think on this – Has any human-being any right to be more important than any other. Okay, you could argue murderers, rapists, thieves etc. should have less merit!!! But look at the history of the monarchy and…Well…Do I need to say any more??
To whoever wants to bow their head, that’s up to them. Me, I will always hate and hate even more those fuck-wits who want to bow their heads!!! Stand up for your fellow man, the poor bastards that are skint, that can’t heat their houses, that die because they haven’t been diagnosed, those who are robbed, raped and murdered and the system does fuck all for, those that can’t access Police or Ambulance due to their Postcode etc., etc…Never pander to the privileged!!!!!!!!
Anyhow back to Dale’s quote, this is a belter and I will need to learn this off by heart:
In the early days of the world…There were no kings…The consequence of which was there were no wars…The exalting of one man so much above the rest cannot be justified by nature.
Thomas Paine.
Next up is at the time of writing this it was the birthday of the total genius that was Alex Higgins. I had to give him a nod. If you don’t know him, look him up but please look at this. Even if you don’t want to see the whole break – Go to 10 minutes 34 seconds and watch the last two shots. I spent a lot of time on snooker tables and I reckon, he is the only man who would either attempt these shots and more importantly be able to execute them!
Higgins was a tortured soul who thought he was bigger than the sport and to be honest, at that time he was!! He put snooker on the map.
I give you this and every-time that I see it, I’m in awe!!!!!
If anybody has ever picked up a cue and tried to hit a ball, they will know how difficult this was!
I may have shown you this before but no matter, it’s always worth watching!!
I’ve been off this week and decided to watch a few films that I hadn’t seen for a while and that got me thinking on some absolute gems that are maybe that wee bit obscure.
I came up with these:
In no particular order
American Yakuza.
The Ghost And The Darkness.
Wedding Belles.
Blue Tiger.
Love, Honour And Obey.
Midnight Sting.
Big Fish.
Murder By Decree.
State Of Grace.
Once Upon A Time In America.
I would highly recommend any of those.
But as I’m returning to work on Wednesday, I think I’ll need to watch ‘The Exorcist’ a couple of times to cheer me up!!
Okay, onto this week’s stories.
Four new folks, which is always good to see, and we had a third timer.
As always, we welcome all our new folks, we hope that they have fun on the site and, most importantly, we want to see as much work from them as they want to send us.
Our initial comments follow.
First up was matt Liebowitz. This was his third story for us and it was entitled, ‘Nobody Has Any Clue’
‘A bit of a different approach.’
‘It does link to the others but also stands alone.’
‘Sadly, this subject keeps coming up.’
Ashley McCurry was our first new writer. ‘Swimming’ was her story on Tuesday.
‘This captures a time gone by very well.’
‘You get more out of this after a few reads.’
‘Very well written.’
Elizabeth Rosen was our next new writer. ‘Something From Montreal’ was next up.
‘The false hope and despair was done well.’
‘Some good stuff in this.’
‘The divide between the father and mother was excellent.’
And the newbies keep on coming. On Thursday we had, ‘The Spoils’ by Toni Juliette Leonetti
‘Pretty hard going.’
‘A gripping story.’
‘I felt that there was accurate research.’
Our last new writer was Cailee Combs with, ‘Root Rot.’
‘Nice and emotional.’
‘An old subject told very well.’
‘This one stayed with me.’
That’s us for another week.
Keep commenting guys!!
Please say thanks if someone has commented on your story.
And check out the Sunday Specials – We really would like to see more of you having a go!!
To finish, I heard the most stupid joke the other day and it did make me giggle.
A man told his wife that he was wanting to identify as a Flamingo. She told him he couldn’t so he had to put his foot down!!
And now for some music.
My taste in music hasn’t changed much from 1986. I loved everything up to then. Gwen slags me off that I don’t listen to much new music but my argument is that from 1986 backwards, I love more than 90% of the music. When I listen to anything from 1986 I probably hate 90% of the music!!
However, as I have got older, I have realised that I enjoy ACDC more than I ever did, Led Zeppelin, I know enjoy although I have always loved ‘Black Dog’
But just recently, and I know that so many folks love this guy and I thought his music wasn’t to my taste but I hadn’t heard this.
It’s probably an older record and I should have heard it before but here is one of my new favourites!!!
Oh and any guy that was in ‘Mystery Men’ is fine by me!!!
Image: A golden crown (fake if ever there was one) on a black background. From pixabay.com
literally stories 
Hugh
Another intelligent and energetic post. I do not understand why we cannot shed the concept of royalty. We live in an age where the truth is more or less known about people but the need to elevate persists. Goes for celebrity as well. You cant walk past a magazine rack without Taylor Swift being involved.
I admire people who have great skill like high end bowlers and snookers (is that the right plural?)
Tom Waits is incredible. There’s a YouTube with him and Iggy Pop at a coffee shop that was very interesting.
Plenty of drinking hours till Wednesday. Be sure not to pace yourself because there is no discipline in boozing.
Leila
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Hi Leila,
You got me thinking, ‘Snooker Players’ is a bit boring. ‘Snookers’ has a ring to it – ‘Higgins, Henry, Higgins and O’Sullivan were and are Snookers!!’ Actually, ‘Snookerers’ would be fun to say after a few haufs, you wouldn’t be able to stop the erer’s!!
I’m going to seek out some more Tom Wait – I used to think he was depressing but now I embrace depression. It cheers me up from my usual mind-set!!
Thanks as always!!
Hugh
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Hi Hugh
Snookerers would be a great test in a bar. If you can’t say it anymore then maybe you should have some food before your next pint!
Leila
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Tom Waits is a true original. (I almost credited him with Short People until Randy Newman corrected me.) My 1986, music-wise, is around 1975 … whenever dreaded disco became popular. Good post and roundup.
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Hi Dave,
Disco was never my favourite!!
One or two tunes hold up but overall it was a bit soulless. It was more about movement!! Maybe I’m just being jealous as I can’t dance a fuck. Pogo, Waltz and Gay Gordons are all that I can do…BADLY!!
Actually, Pogo is out as my knees are shot!!
I will seek out some more Tom Waits – I love that feeling of finding new music even though it’s been around!! The last time that happened, I thought I had found a new artist and then realised that he was in his seventies!! (Taj Mahal)
Stay happy and inspired my fine friend.
Hugh
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Hugh
This, right now, should be the Season of Revolution again if there ever was one (interior revolutions for each and every one of us, one heart at a time).
In that spirit, I offer another quote by Thomas Paine which bolsters your reflections from today. I know more about the so-called “leaders” in the USA than I do about the ones in the UK, so for me, I think about the US when I hear this. But it applies to the UK, or anywhere, just as much!
“It is not so much the absurdity as the evil of hereditary succession which concerns mankind. If it ensured a race of good and wise men, it would have the seal of Divine Authority. But as it opens a door to the FOOLISH, the WICKED, and the IMPROPER, it hath in it the nature of oppression. Men who look upon themselves as born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent…Their minds are poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have built little opportunity of knowing its true interests; and when they succeed to the government, they are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.”
If that doesn’t apply to Mad King Donald and his Court Jester Fool Elon from South Africa, I don’t know what does!
Thanks for standing up for the downtrodden, the forgotten, the underdogs and the lost ones in this world. It’s a world that rewards things like GREED, AVARICE, SELF-CENTEREDNESS, and AGGRESSION, and crushes benevolence, forgiveness, generosity, and simplicity…a world of LIES and the worship of mammon (money). Time for all of us to wake the F-CK up!
Dale
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Oddly I hadn’t heard much about Tom Waits until quite recently and then Ian played a few of his tracks and then there was this. I like him I have to say. A bit unusual.
I noticed your list and I absolutely throughly rate ‘The Ghost and The Darkness.’ One of my all time favourite films.
Another entertaining post, I do love a good rant on a Saturday! Thanks Hugh. dd
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Hi Dale,
More informative and level-headed comments from your good self!
Mr Paine said more eloquently than my rendition of, ‘They are all a bunch of…’
Well, we all know where that was going!!
The hypocrisy of the elite is summed up beautifully in this clip of the wonderful ‘Still Game’ – It’s stupid and childish but I hope it makes you smile.
Thanks as always my fine friend.
Hugh
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Hi Diane,
Don’t know what’s happening as my answer to Dale seems to be in the wrong place.
Also whilst typing, my text is sometimes jumping into the middle of text that I’ve already typed!!!
Whit the fuck – It keeps me on my toes!!!
I don’t really like Michael Douglas as an actor but you are correct, ‘The Ghost And The Darkness’ is tremendous. I also enjoyed ‘Falling Down’ (I can relate to that!) and ‘The Game’.
I preferred his dad. Although Monty Python has ruined a line for me…All I hear now is not, ‘I’m Sparticus’ but ‘I’m Brian and so is my wife’
Thanks for everything and all my best to you and Ian.
Hugh
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Editor laughed at flamingo story.
I doubt the claim about wars being anything new. Our relatives chimpanzees go to war, and I think we got it from those relatives. Wars are much more lethal now because we rub up against our neighbors too much in an overcrowded world. Earlier people didn’t have so many irritating neighbors and as dangerous weapons. Anthropologists (beware my MIB addled brain) say previous skirmishes were less deadly. It’s not that we didn’t fight battles, there are just more of us now and we are more deadly.
Music:
Before 1950s lost of nostalgic stuff, big band and classic pop
Late 1950s – 1970s – Great Rock and Roll, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Fats, Jerry Lee, British Invasion, Doors, Beachboys, Led Zep
Thereafter – Mostly meh, some early Elton, Sheryl Crow, Pointer Sisters, Fleetwood Mac
Mr. Mirth
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Hi Doug,
I like most of Fleetwood Mac – They did some cracking Blues songs.
Pointer Sisters did a brilliant cover of Springsteen’s ‘Fire’
Thank Sharon for laughing – I’ve found that joke is a hit or a miss…Big time!!
Your comments reminded me of a joke:
Saint Peter was talking to God and he said, ‘You’ve created Scotland – One of the most beautiful countries in the world. Their hills and glens are stunning. The water is the freshest and purest of anywhere. Their wildlife is beautiful. Their people are lyrical, loyal and hard-working. Tell me God, why have you given them all these wonderful things?’
God replied, ‘Wait to you see who I’ve given them as neighbours!’
After my heartfelt apologies to Diane – I will say in my defence, that was a re-telling of a joke by someone other than me and I find it shocking and totally untrue!!!! (Well some of it!!!)
Cheers my interesting friend.
All my very best to you and Sharon!!
Hugh
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Hugh – Answer to Scotland joke. In 2030 phone calls to God are developed. The rate for Las Vegas is $50, but $1 from Oregon. Why? The phone call from Oregon is a local call. That story is no longer true because the people of Oregon are no longer special.
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Hugh
Also want to say thanks for the Tom Waits song. I had heard it before but never realized how great this one is until now.
Like Leonard Cohen, Waits has two voices…one that can be called his early voice, and one that developed after years of cigs, bars, and booze (but I think he quit all of the above eventually)…
One of my favorite Waits songs is “Shiver Me Timbers,” which has got to be one of the greatest “Farewell” songs of all time…
Waits can stand with Warren Zevon, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, as one of the greatest songwriters of all time…his songs elevate themselves to the level of literature in the manner of Robert Burns, as do the others…
Thanks again!
Dale
PS, The Higgins video is amazing. I used to run the roads with an old dude who made his living as a pool hustler in bars…the shots he could make, one after the other, were utterly amazing…almost as if miraculous…and that was after a few pints of whiskey, too…and always with burning cigarette in mouth…he would frequently win enough in one bar for us to drink all night nonstop in another bar and so it goes round and round…
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Hi Dale,
Thanks as always.
Regarding playing Pool, I was sixteen and green as grass but was able to get into pubs. After my last shift on a Friday I used to go for a few pints with a Joiner called Joke Tarrana. We would go into a district pub called ‘The Thistle’.
I decided to play Pool and Joke sat at the bar. I went up to get him a pint and said, ‘Joke, these guys are pish, I’m beating them all.’
He looked at me, looked at them and then said, ‘Start losing!’
I took the advice!!
Regarding your comments on having two voices, I think Paul Heaton has but in purpose. Please look at this clip and listen to his speaking voice (Which he normally sings with) and then this.
I adore this song!!
All the very best and thanks once again.
Hugh
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Thanks for a fizzing post, Hugh. The other day, saw a wee sidelight on changing attitudes to royalty: ‘Andrew’ has dropped like a stone from the list of favourite new baby names.
I’m a poor snooker player, but you didn’t have to be good to appreciate the extraordinary ability of Hurricane Higgins – thanks for the reminder.
Been a huge Tom Waits fan forty-odd years – wonderful musical story-telling. Great clip.
And best of all, loved the flamingo joke.
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Hi Mick,
Awww, the alive part of Wham will be so disappointed!!
Higgins was unique. I may be wrong but I think he must be the only player who had a ten year gap between World Championship wins (??)
It was heartbreaking to see how he ended up!
YouTube and Tom Waits awaits me when I get home from the pub this afternoon! (Either that or sleep depending on how much Ho-Hum I drink!!)
And so happy that you enjoyed the joke, I told it to an old friend yesterday and I thought he was going to punch me!!!
All my very best to you and yours.
Hugh
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Great post, and great week. I could watch the potting of the pink and black in that clip on repeat for an hour – simply stunning and someone could write a novel just about those two shots alone I reckon. Great choice of Tim Waits too from a great album.
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Hi Paul,
If I want cheering up I put that clip on. I follow it with the Ronnie O’Sullivan 147 in just over five minutes (I don’t think that will ever be done again) and finish off with another clip of Higgins (His 69 break to draw level with Jimmy White in the 1982 World Semi-Final)
I played a lot of snooker from the age of thirteen. Between it and golf that filled in the two years before I could get into the pub!!
Thanks so much!
Hope all is well with you and yours.
Hugh
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