Although Tom Paxton’s 1965 song Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation never became a hit, it was one of the first songs to accuse the president of the United States of lying about the Vietnam War. The line “to help save Vietnam from the Vietnamese” captured the disconnect between what Johnson said about America’s involvement in the war and the ideals of American democracy.
Lyndon Johnson told the nation
Have no fear of escalation
I am trying everyone to please
Though it isn’t really war
We’re sending 50,000 more
To help save Vietnam from the Vietnamese
Pete Seeger’s song “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” (and the big fool said to push on) was censored from a 1967 episode of “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” because of its obvious allusion to Johnson pushing ahead in Vietnam. The song was translated into Russian by Alexander Dolsky who performed the song in concerts in the 1980s during the Soviet war in Afghanistan which has been referred to as the “Soviet Union’s Vietnam.”
On another 1967 episode of “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour”, The Who destroyed their instruments at the conclusion of their performance of “My Generation”, with the usual addition of mild explosives for light pyrotechnic effect. On the show that night a small amount of explosive was put into the small cannon that Keith Moon kept in his bass drum. But it didn’t go off during the rehearsal. Unbeknownst to Moon, a stage hand had added another explosive before the taping, and later Moon added another charge so that now there were three explosive charges in the cannon instead of one. When Moon detonated it, the explosion was so intense that a piece of cymbal shrapnel cut into Moon’s arm; Moon is heard moaning in pain toward the end of the piece. Townshend, who had been in front of Moon’s drums at the time, had his hair singed by the blast; he is seen putting out sparks in his hair before finishing the sketch with a visibly shocked Tommy Smothers. The blast allegedly contributed heavily to Townshend’s long-term hearing loss.
In 1999, Kristen Chenoweth auditioned for the minor role of Pattie in the Broadway production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. What do you do when a petite blonde who can really belt out a song auditions for You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown? You fluff up her hair, put her in a pink dress with black polka dots, write a song for her, and cast her as the title character’s little sister, Sally Brown, even though the character was not present in the original production of the show. And watch her win the Tony and Drama Desk awards for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
ETA: Here’s Kristin in action at the 1999 Tony Awards, belting out My Philosophy
Little Dot was a Harvey comic book character who was obsessed with polka dots. Despite the one-joke nature of the character, the comic book ran for almost 30 years.
Japanese modern artist Yayoi Kusama, who has long grappled with mental illness and is voluntarily committed to Seiwa Hospital for the Mentally Ill for most of each year, has always prominently featured polka dots in her work.
Jimmy Sturr holds the record for most Grammy Awards for Best Polka Album. The first winner, in 1986 after the category had been broken out from Folk, was the legendary Frankie Yankovic, who, oddly, is not related to fellow polka accordionist Weird Al Yankovic.
The Fab Five, freshmen who constituted the starters for the 1991-92 University of Michigan basketball team, were Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson. They reached the 1992 and 1993 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship games as both freshmen and sophomores. However, most of their wins and both of their Final Four appearances were vacated due to Webber (and others) accepting money from Ed Martin, compromising their amateur status.
Frank G. Jackson, elected in November 2017 to his fourth term, is now the longest-serving mayor in the history of Cleveland, Ohio. A U.S. Army veteran and former member of Cleveland City Council, including service as its president, he first took office as mayor in 2006.
Sir Richard Whittington (1354–1423), an English merchant, was four times Lord Mayor of London and also a Member of Parliament. He left his fortune to charity, including hospitals and housing; the foundation still helps people in need today. He was the real-life inspiration for the English folk tale Dick Whittington and His Cat, in which a poor servant boy, running away, hears London’s Bow Bells telling him to turn back because he will become Mayor of London. He then makes a fortune through the sale of his cat to a Sultan in a rat-infested country. In real life, Whittington came from a wealthy family and made his fortune through the wool trade.
During the reign of Richard III, one political jingle was:
“The Catte, the Ratte, and Lovell the Dogge
Rulyth all England under the Hogge.”
The Catte was William Catesby; the Ratte was Richard Ratcliffe; and Lovell was Francis Lovell, whose heraldic crest was a dog. They were three of the closest supporters of King Richard III, whose crest was the white boar.
The author of the jingle was a Tudor supporter, William Collingbourne, who is said to have nailed it to the door of St Paul’s. He was subsequently convicted of treason and was hanged, drawn and quartered.
Ratcliffe and Richard III died at Bosworth Field.
Catesby fought at Bosworth and was captured by the Tudors. He was beheaded a few days later.
The fate of Lovell is unknown. He was Richard’s closest friend, possibly having been fostered to the same nobleman when they were both about eight. He fought at Bosworth but escaped. He is known to have fought at the Battle of Stoke in Ireland, the last gasp of the Yorkists, but after that he vanished from the historical records.
The lyrics of “Lillibulero” are generally said to have been composed by Thomas, Lord Wharton, around 1686, as a satire on the occasion of the appointment of Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell by King James II as Lord Deputy of Ireland. Its title and gibberish refrain are allegedly derived from an old Catholic watchword from the 1641 Ulster revolt. The melody itself was a popular quick-step march composed by Henry Purcell in 1687, on the basis of a traditional song, and was almost immediately conjoined to Wharton’s lyrics.
*… There was an old prophecy found in a bog
Lillibullero bullen a la
The country’d be ruled by an ass and a dog
Lillibullero bullen a la
Refrain
Now this prophecy is all come to pass
Lillibullero bullen a la
For Talbot's the dog and Tyrconnell's the ass
Lillibullero bullen a la
Refrain*
The 1937 class of Valley Forge Military Academy had a graduation song, with lyrics by member Jerome David Salinger:
ide not thy tears on this last day -
Your sorrow has no shame;
To march no more midst lines of gray;
No longer play the game.
Four years have passed in joyful ways -
Would’st stay these old times dear?
Then cherish now these fleeting days,
The few while you are here.
The last parade; our hearts sink low:
Before us we survey -
Cadets to be, where we are now,
And soon will come their day;
Though distant now, yet not so far,
Their years are but a few.
Aye, soon they’ll know why misty are
Our eyes at last review.
The lights are dimmed, the bugle sounds
The notes we’ll ne’er forget.
And now a group of smiling lads:
We part with much regret.
Good-byes are said; we march ahead,
Success we go find.
Our forms are gone from Valley Forge
Our hearts are left behind.
The Constitutional Democratic Party, also called Constitutional Democrats, formally Party of People’s Freedom, was a liberal political party in the Russian Empire, encompassing constitutional monarchists and right-wing republicans. Party members were called Kadets (or Cadets), from the abbreviation K-D of the party name in Russian. The Kadets’ base of support were intellectuals and professionals; university professors and lawyers were particularly prominent within the party. A large number of Kadet party members were veterans of the zemstvo, local councils.
Since World War II, with only one exception, the Democratic Party candidate has won the off-year election for Governor of Ohio every time when a Republican President is in the White House. In this year’s gubernatorial election, Democrat Richard Cordray, a former top Obama Administration consumer-protection official and former Attorney General of Ohio, is facing off against Republican Mike DeWine, the current Attorney General.
The Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines occupies 152 landscaped acres and contains the largest number of graves of American military dead of World War II, a total of 17,184, most of whom died in New Guinea and the Philippines. There is also a large terrace of Tablets of the Missing that contain 36,286 names of those whose remains were not identified or recovered. Among them are the 5 Sullivan brothers, lost at sea in the Battle of Guadalcanal, and whose story partly inspired Saving Private Ryan.
[Not in play: Annie-Xmas, is that JD Salinger in post 39269 above?? I have to wonder whether that was youthful enthusiasm or if it was tongue-in-cheek]
The Sullivan brothers were lost aboard the Atlanta-class light cruiser USS Juneau, when she was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine. The Juneau’s wreck was discovered by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen’s research team on March 17, 2018, more than 13,000 feet down and broken into several pieces.
The Ed Sullivan Show is TV’s longest-running variety show. It ran on Sunday nights on CBS for an amazing 23 years. Originally titled ‘Toast of the Town’, the show’s debut featured Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, along with Rodgers and Hammerstein previewing songs from their new Broadway musical, South Pacific.
