FAN: Still A Fan, The Early Years VIII

This picture is one I'm not crazy about. While it's not an insult to bass drummers, they typically aren't as technically proficient as snare drummers or trips or quads in marching bands. They do outrank the cymbal players, but sometimes the cymbal players are hawt. I was asked to play bass drum this particular year because of sheer size. Look how strong I look there! The other dudes on the drumline for the elementary school band were too small to carry it. I was pissed, but what are you going to do? It's actually the only parade in my life where I played bass drum instead of snare. This picture is dated Memorial Day May 25, 1981. Fun times. Not sure what my parents did as the back of the picture states that while I marched in one parade, Still A Sis there was in the Jr. High Band and they marched in another. Makes me want to go to a local parade tomorrow. I just might.
This picture is from September 1981 and my Mom wrote on it "Finally Got His Wish". She got that right. I don't remember one thing about this set other than it was mine and I beat the living hell out of it. A classic 5-piece with only one cymbal. Future pictures show that for Christmas that year I received a new pedal, 2 Camber Cymbals and 2 stands. Also clear Remo heads. I like the fact that I'm wearing Pony sneeks in this one. Again, we've seen it before but look at that carpet!
Christmas 1981 and what male my age didn't at one time own one of these bad boys? I had the Steelers versus the Cowboys. I played with two brothers up the street. The one ended up kicking for the High School team and then my college team. We lived in the same house for 3 years in college. Did anyone ever figure out how to pass with this game? The ball came out so fast we could never keep track of it. Plus, you'd be playing in the living room and throw a pass to Swann - and it would hit him (maybe) and then you couldn't find the damn ball. It would be three rooms over. We would always decide before the game if we would allow passing or not. I'd love to find a set of the Steelers from this game and put them on display.
Wine: The Gateway Drink. I was 13 plus when this was taken, more than 7 years from legal drinking age. Still A Dad....what were you thinking? At least I was rocking the Steelers shirt. I know this can't be the first time I had a sip...well, maybe of wine. Still A Dad started grooming me for drinking beer by giving me little sips here and there. I think he just liked to see my face go sour. He would mow the lawn and be having a cold one (Miller's?) over the fence with Nick our neighbor and I would ask for a sip and it was granted. Still A Mom would shoot an evil eye if she saw it. I'm still not much of a beer drinker. I really have to be in the mood to get even buzzed from beer as I get full very fast from it. I had two last night with my chinese takeout after working in the bathroom all day but I prefer vodka when out at a bar. I would guess in the last 10 years the 10 days I've had the most beer are all Steelers Tailgate parties or poker games I throw at the house.
This one Dog will love as we talk about this band all the time. It's a local fire company band that has some rich history....I believe dating back to WWI. There is typically an age or size you have to be to join so the uniform will fit but Dog was in the band prior to me and had a superb rapport with the director so Dog's father actually had a talk with the director about me and got me in. The shirts wouldn't fit me yet so I had to just buy a blue shirt that kind of matched and I didn't at first march in any parades that were competitive because of it. On this day we were playing at a memorial service at Crawford's Cabin which was on my paper route. I took the daily paper to that house in the background. I believe Dog covered the history of the Cabin in a prior post and really went deep by describing the battle of Jumonville. This was a non-paying gig at the cabin so attendance was light.

FAN: Hi, Would You Like To Be A Jerk In Public?

You know, when I buy something at a store and there are 10 people behind me in line, do you have to ask me if I'd like to donate $1 to kids with cancer? No, I don't want to. I'll say it in public, I don't care. I might come home and write them a check, but I'm not doing it through your store. I have no idea what kind of side deals you're doing or what charity you're even collecting for.

I leave that store and go to another and it's the same thing - would you like to donate a $1 to help kids in tough environments get a better education. No! People donate to what they want to donate to. I'm sick of going into a store specifically to buy something that costs $5 and I have to put up with the donation question at the end of the transation. No wonder I enjoy online shopping so much. It's peaceful. I don't have to park. I don't have to wait in line and I don't have to donate a $1.

I get it, I understand - one US Dollar doesn't sound like a lot and a charity that might otherwise get ignored gets some money - but I have an underlying feeling that the store makes out somehow. Even if not, charity is personal and private, to me at least. Grrrrrrrr. I feel bad for the poor kids running the registers that have to ask. I'm sure they have something to say under their breath when somebody can't give $1 to sick kids. Maybe they should take a look at my tax return to see what I give. Oh, that's right, I like to keep that private.

FAN: Roach Clip

Wow. Look who joined me in the bathroom at work this morning! I would have killed it, but I fear it would have splashed my shoes. That's a quarter inch grout line btw.
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DOG: Chesapeake Blues Fest - Day 2

The second day of the Blues Festival started off with another Philadelphia string band. This time it was the Philadelphia Polish String Band. And I really enjoyed the playlist these guys assembled as I knew all the songs. Not the least of which was the Steeler Fight Song, The Pennsylvania Polka!! Whereas the South Philly String Band used brightly colored costumes resembling native American garb, the Polish String Band were costumed more like court jesters.


Concert promoter, Don Hooker (left), got into the act by dressing up and dancing with the patrons during the string band music. Instrumentation was similar to the other string band. Although I noticed something you don't see often in ANY band. That's a Bass Saxophone! That's what this guy in the photo at the right is playing. You'll be able to contrast it with a more common Baritone Saxophone in a photo further down the page. But brother, a Bass Sax is a Big MFin' horn!








The blues portion of Sunday's show got underway with Bobby Parker who played a nice set. But what I'm going to tell you about is his harp player. This guy was a good musician and combined with the tenor sax man they sounded like a full blown horn section. But just look at the dude. If that ain't the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of OZ, I don't know what is!!!





I have no idea what the guy's name is but just looking at him had me laughing. At any rate, it was a good way to start off Sunday's action. And on top of that, it wasn't raining in Annapolis like it was most of my trip down there. Dry is good.

Anders Osborne was the next performer. And if Grizzly Adams would have been a bluesman, he'd have looked like Anders Osborne. Anders is really better known as a songwriter than as a performing musician. But his set was energetic if not particularly inspiring.
Toward the end of the Anders Osborne set I hit the wall from too much beer and sunshine the day before and crashed out for about an hour on the ground. I awoke to find the next band, Bonerama sharing the stage with Osborne. I understand Bonerama just came out and started jamming with Osborne at the end of his set. So there was no break. Osborne left the stage and Bonerama took over.

Now Bonerama played the National Anthem at a Super Bowl a few years back but I can't remember which one. Anyway it's the instrumentation that got the hook in me with this band. They feature three trombone players, a guitar player, a keyboard man, and a drummer (same drummer as Osborne). It's mostly New Orleans style music. But they are notorious for arranging other peoples songs to that style and covering them. They cover everybody from The Beatles, to Hendrix, to The Allman Brothers, to Thelonius Monk, to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin!! To finish the set they brought Anders Osborne back out to play some slide on Turn On Your Lovelight and When The Levee Breaks, which many of you will remember as a Led Zeppelin song but it was actually written by Memphis Minnie. Anders really sounded much better with these guys than he did with his own band.

Next up was Jimmie Vaughan. And I took Fan's advice and took a piss and got some food as his set began. I had seen Jimmie before and his music does nothing for me. But.... as I sat down to eat my pulled pork, peppered sausage, smoked chicken and coleslaw from Red Hot & Blue I heard this low low saxophone in an unmistakable tone. As I returned to my seat Mrs. Dog said, "Look there. It's your buddy!" I scanned the crowd for someone I recognized but didn't see no one. She said, "Up on the stage, dumbass."

Doug "Mr. Low" James

And there I saw my friend from the Blues Cruise, Doug James, playing baritone sax for Jimmie Vaughan. There's a strong connection between the former Roomful of Blues musicians like Doug and former Fabulous Thunderbirds guys like Jimmie Vaughan. Doug's usual gig is in the Duke Robillard band. Duke replace Jimmie in The Fabulous Thunderbirds when he left. Doug is playing in Kim Wilson's band this fall and Kim has also played both with Roomful & the Thunderbirds. And of course most people know that Duke started Roomful of Blues and Doug played baritone (and a dash of tenor) sax with them for around 15 years. So even though I didn't give a rats ass about hearing Jimmie Vaughan, it was nice to see my friend Doug James again.

Topping the bill for the festival was Rock and Roll legend, Chuck Berry. Chuck is 83 now and still rocking. Chuck Berry probably has done more for music in this country than just about anyone. As far as his importance as an American musical influence goes, I'd put him right up there with John Phillip Sousa and George Gershwin.

But like I said, he's 83. His heart's still in it, and his mind is still sharp. He remembers all the words to all his songs unlike Jerry Lee Lewis. But his pitch is gone, and he plays bad notes all over the place. He can still do a little duck-walk though. After a while and several "false starts," it got to be embarrasing to hear him up there making mistake after mistake. I guess he must still need the money to be out on the road with a band at his age. Or maybe, like BB King, he just doesn't know any other life. In any event, after about 45 minutes of Chuck, we hit the road. I couldn't take any more. It was not how I want to remember Chuck Berry. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I saw him play. But I was embarrased for him, being the headline act and all.

So that concludes another year of the Chesapeak Blues Festival. I hope they raised a lot of money for their various charities. This festival is a total non-profit event and they raise money for Special Olympics and Johns Hopkins Cranio-Facial among others. Hope to see some of you folks there next year... right Bluz & Fan???

And I apologize in advance if the spacing, and paragraph structure gets all hosed up. I have been in a wrestling match with Blogger for 2 days now trying to get this post published. Had to re-write half of it this morning because it wouldn't publish last night and in trying to do so wiped out all my text from Jimmie Vaughan to the end.

DOG: Chesapeake Blues Fest - Day 1

The first day of the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival started off in colorful fashion with the South Philadelphia String Band. A marching unit that is essentially a saxophone army surrounded by a couple accordions, several string basses, and a few banjos. They marched in, played a few numbers which I actually learned in the 3rd grade (most notably "I'm Lookin' Over A Four Leaf Clover") and then the National Anthem, and marched off.

First of the blues performers was Patty Reese.

Patty had performed last year as part of the Chesapeake Rhythm & Blues Women. An all-star group assembled specifically for the festival which featured Deanna Bogart on keys & tenor sax. But this year Patty brought her own band which included a dude who played a mean slide Telecaster with a bottleneck. Patty hails from Silver Spring, MD and plays extensively in the region. It was a very nice set to start things off.


Next up were Moreland & Arbuckle "all the way from Wichita, KS."

They were part of the show Fan described in his post from the Friday night concert. They sounded much better live than on a studio recording from what I heard. I'd agree with his assessment. Not particularly great, just OK. At the end of the set I thought how nice it must be for these young men to play the kind of music they obviously enjoy and get paid to do it as part of a national tour!

Cedric Burnside & Lightning Malcom followed and played a set I liked more and more as it progressed.

Cedric is the grandson of the late R.L. Burnside who Mrs. Dog and I first saw at this same festival in 1999. They play a style of blues that comes from the North Mississippi hill country as opposed to the more well-known delta blues of Robert Johnson. A lot of heart and intensity goes into the music as opposed to a large instrumentation pallette. It's just a guitar and a drum set.

After that came Tinsley Ellis. This was Tinsley's second appearance at the festival.

Tinsley is well known as more of a blues-rock musician than for straight ahead blues. Nonetheless, he can both rock it and turn it down to a slow blues burn. Either way, his sets are always smokin'! He absolutley blew me away with a terrific version of Mercy, Mercy, Mercy originally popularized by jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, written by Joe Zawinul. I liked This set a lot, as I knew I would. Tinsley Ellis rarely disappoints.

The next act was The Yardbirds. Yeah, right. I did not have any idea of what to expect. The Yardbirds I knew evolved into what we know as Led Zeppelin back in the late 60s after Jimmy Page ended up holding the rights with none of the other band members willing to stay on with him. Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck had both left the band some time before.

So you see, the band has a rich heritage in lead guitar players. I'm guessing, because I don't know for sure, that one of the original members has ressurrected the Yarbirds name and taken on a pack of young talented musicians to put a new spin on many of the old Yardbirds hits. At least that's what it looked like to me. And these young fellows were indeed talented. Ben King, pictured above, now holds the lead guitar spot and can handle the role very well. It would be ludicrous to imply he could follow in the footsteps of Clapton, Beck & Page but he's talented enough that it could happen.

The act so many had looked forward to came next. The unquestioned Queen of the Chesapeake Blues Festival, making her 6th appearance, Shemekia Copeland!

As always, Shemekia was just great. She is pictured above doing one of her signature numbers, Ghetto Child. During this song she steps away from the microphone and sings to a festival crowd, outdoors, a capella, no amplification, and fills up a state park with sound. You could hear a pin drop people are so in awe. The first time I saw her do it I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I've heard that she did it at the Chicago Blues Festival a couple years back in front of 30,000 people outdoors and it was all the people talked about. There were several thousand at this festival and the Chesapeake Bay not 100 yards away yet her voice resonated above all. She always dedicates the song to her late father, Johnny "Clyde" Copeland the great blues guitarist from Texas.

And finally The Man, Buddy Guy took the stage. Buddy put on a clinic. Started out playing like Albert King, ended up playing like Eric Clapton, with Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and a little Bill Withers thrown in the middle. And he told the largely white audience about the British Blues Invasion -which featured blues based music by bands like Cream, John Mayall, Ten Years After, & The Rolling Stones. He said, "Then came what was known as the British Invasion. All these English bands using blues riffs in their songs. My good friend Eric Clapton did that in his band Cream. But there wasn't really no British Invasion. The blues was here all the time. Y'all just didn't know what the fuck you had!!"

Getting too late to post any more tonight. I'll follow up with day 2 tomorrow. Stay tuned... Bluzdude you got to go to this festival. Schedule the trip to Ohio for another week next year.

DOG: Buddy Guy...AGAIN!

Buddy Guy @ Chesapeake Blues Festival

Don't have time to write much, as I'm headed off to Annapolis for another day of blues music. This time in a bit of a drizzle. But yesterday was a sizzle!

Lots of good music I will telly you about in detail once the Festival is over and the smoke clears. Suffice it to say that in a day of many real good acts, Buddy Guy was AWESOME! I think I must've had better seats than Fan did on Sat. night. And more than a camera phone helps too!

FAN: More Buddy Guy

I saw Buddy Guy again last night at a small venue outside of Philadelphia. It's the third time I've seen him in as many years. As always, he didn't disappoint. There were two opening acts which made the wait for Buddy a little painful, especially since I was burying Captain & Cokes right across the street.

Coming out first was Moreland & Arbuckle who bill themselves as a Roots/Blues band. They are a trio of vocals/harp, drums and bass/guitar. As fas as musicianship goes, the drummer and guitarist were average at best. The vocals/harp player was good but they really didn't have much stage presence. They only played a handful of songs but I did catch my leg keeping time as as the songs had decent riffs and harp solos. I may pickup some of their stuff today. I met the lead singer while he was selling his music and shirts during the Jimmie Vaughan set when I went to the facility and to buy yet another $2 bottle of water to try to hydrate myself. He seemed like a really nice guy and was excited to play where the Dog is today.....a blues festival near Baltimore.

Jimmie Vaughan came out next and overstayed his welcome if you ask me. When opening up for a legend, I don't think you should be playing what felt like an entire gig. You could tell some folks were there just to see him, but dare I say I was bored to death during his set. In fact, I can't think of one moment or solo to even relate to our loyal 40 readers...lol. I was hoping for some Fabulous Thunderbirds songs but if he played any I didn't recognize them. It sounded to me like mostly bad wedding music but as the Dog knows, I like "blues" blues the most, not doo-wop ish or psuedo blues. The make matters worse, he brought out a female singer whom he must be banging and let her sing about 6 songs. Again, I was not impressed. The act felt old and stale to me, yet he did get a standing ovation when done so maybe I am just missing the boat on Jimmie Vaughan.

Finally after two sets and two intermissions the main attraction came storming out and instantly infused energy into the sleepy crowd. As always he held the crowd's attention in the palm of his hand. From what I remember he played "19 Years Old" (and told the crowd in the middle of it "hey don't be mad at me I didn't write this song" which drew a big laugh), "Hootchie Cootchie Man", "Slippin In", "Fever", "Voodoo Chile", "Skin Deep", "Damn Right I Got The Blues", "Boom Boom" and pieces parts of others that got enveloped between other songs. I dig his other guitarist Rick Hall as well as I've noted here before. I was lucky enough to meet him once too in a hotel in Reading. Buddy's voice is as good as I've heard it and his playing continues to make grown men stand up and yell things. He's the master. All hail Buddy Guy.

FAN: RIP Ronnie James Dio

I forgot to mention this earlier this week. A sad day for metal indeed. I just saw him this season on That Metal Show and from what Eddie Trunk was saying the outlook wasn't all that bad. He took a turn for the worse and just like that, the big C ended his life.

I remember buying Dio's The Last In Line in 1984. I was 16. I already had my drums and I used to play along to Mystery. It was one of my favorites. Rainbow in the Dark had much more staying power and is now a metal staple. I bought Holy Diver shortly after TLIL even though it came out first. There was nothing I liked more than playing those songs and banging the hell out of the big bell on my ride cymbal.

Rest in peace, Ronnie.

FAN: When It Rains.....

Prior to last month, I had not been to a Phillies game since the first year Citizen's Bank Park opened. Prior to that, it may have been 1993 when I went to about 10 games. I've been to PNC Park a few times but not to really watch a game...lol. I went more so to hang out with my brother-in-law and my nephew (who is graduating soon and going to Seton Hill to run track).

So I did grow up liking the Phillies once Mike Schmidt was there and established and since the team is doing well and Still A Stroke likes them, I wanted to take her to a game this year. As I was searching Stub Hub for seats a few weeks ago not believing that all weekend games were sold out already - our CIO handed me 11th row seats right past the dirt of first base. It's where my Nikon and me took this photo of the exact split second Shane Victorino blasted a homerun to deep right center.

My company is going to a Phillies game this summer and even though the seats aren't great, it's free, the family can come and there is a huge tent with food and drinks for us in the parking lot. As if that wasn't enough - the owners of my wife's company just granted her a pick of games and we took a Labor Day weekend game. Their seats are FOURTH row, right inside fair play right field. So, I went from sobbing about weekend prices on Stub Hub to seeing 3 games for free, twice within 11 rows of the field. Not a bad summer. I won't have Dog's food, but I can get the Bull's Bar-B-Q.

DOG: The Thrill Of The (new) Grill

Porterhouses a la Dog!

As you loyal readers will recall a new Weber Genesis grill was to be assembled at my house last Saturday. And to christen it I bought some absolutely fabulous 1" thick Porterhouse steaks to grill.

When you buy a cut of meat that good you cannot afford to fuck it up. So cooking on a new grill is a challenging adventure because you don't know it's personality yet and neither does it. Every grill has hot spots and cold spots and you have to cook on it and pay attention to locate them. But this bad boy did not have any apparent significant areas of varying heat. It cooked evenly throughout.

A steak is a very easy thing to cook on a grill but it does require one thing, hot grates. You need to preheat that sucker to a very high heat before you ever put the steaks on. That is, if you have any intention of getting those fabulous diamond grill marks like is shown on mine above. And this new grill got up to a hot temp (over 450) very quickly.

How do you get those grill marks like a pro? Well, always oil down your grates when you first light the grill. It helps clean them, protect them, and keeps your food from sticking. And it helps sear in those grill marks. After preheating 10 min. or so put your hand above the grates if you can keep it there less than 3 seconds, you are ready to cook. Put your meat on the grates. In 90 seconds give each piece a quarter turn. Repeat on the other side. Turn the heat down to low and cook as desired for whatever, medium rare, medium, medium well or whatever your guests like.

You'll notice I have cast iron grates. And quite honestly I'd never own anything else. Lots of grills have thick gauge stainless steel grates nowadays. And some folks will tell you they are nearly as good as cast iron. But I call bullshit on that. I cooked boneless pork ribs on my buddy's stainless steel Jenn-Air last Sunday and there is no comparison. The stainless ones are OK. But if you're buying a grill, do yourself a favor and get the cast iron.

And if you get cast iron you must "season" it before it's first use. Here's where I enlisted my grandson to help. Actually he pested me all day saying, "Granpap, can I help?" So he helped me season the all important grates. To season them you coat them with cooking oil and put them in the oven at 350 for about an hour. Here is a photo of Little Dog "painting" the grates with olive oil.

So another season of grilling (as if it isn't year-round anyway) has gotten off to a flying start. As I dream up new stuff to cook on the grill I will post the results here and hopefully give you some ideas for stuff you can try on your outdoor cooking implements. I do have some tricks stuff up my sleeve for Memorial Day weekend but I'm not sure if I can pull off a Boston Butt, a Picnic Shoulder, a dozen trout, and some Moinks simultaneously. But that's what I'm thinking.

And my apologies to the good folks at Char-Broil. But man, them Chinese parts just don't hold up like the Webers do. I loved that Commercial Series but it had to go. I kept the cast iron grates though. Worked too hard on those babies to just let them walk away.

As with all my grilling posts, I invite comments and questions which I will do my best to answer.

FAN: Worn Out

So I purposefully do not include photos of Still A Stroke here on The Slant. Every once in a great while I just can't help myself and one ends up online. Here is a perfect photo that expresses all three of us right now as we head into Trenton station on NJ Transit. She is so tired she doesn't want her picture taken so this is the best I can do. Leaving our house at 7 am and getting home close to 11 pm is a long day.....and an expensive one! We have bags from FAO, American Girl Place and Paul Frank. Mrs Fan liked our lunch so much she bought jars of some of the ingredients. She and I had PB, Vanilla Cream Cheese, Apple slices and raisins on very freshly baked bread. All in all we had a really fun day and it felt good to get 40 blocks away from Time Square for half the day.
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FAN: Ben plus The Crapbirds

What do you get when you cross the shitbirds with Ben Roethlisberger? A Ravensburger of course! From FAO's as well. Now going to Asian Fusion dinner at Ruby Foo's which we found from the Where Locals Eat website.
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FAN: Joan Jett Barbie at FAO's

I should buy this for Bluzdude!!
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FAN: Blue Man Group

Awesome!!!
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DOG: Deuces Wild!!

Just came back from a recycling run at the landfill and look what the odometer read when I pulled in the driveway. 222,222.2 miles!

I've had "The Old Red Horse" now for coming up on 16 years. Today we hit a landmark of all twos straight across the board. That won't happen again for another 111,111 miles.

To put that into perspective, Mrs. Dog's 2002 Ford Escape just clicked 111,111.1 two weeks ago. But she didn't have the presence of mind to take a picture of it. And 111,000 miles is really not too far out of the ordinary anyway. So basically we're talking another 8 years of pretty much full-time use to see 333,333.

The red truck is a 1995 GMC Sonoma. It's getting some rust cancer big enough to put your foot into on the drivers side but it still runs like a champ. Original clutch and shocks as well!

And the key to longevity (outside of not totalling it into a tree while drunk)? Change the oil every 3,000 or so miles like they tell you. And never EVER wash your truck. This truck has never been washed. In fact, the last time it was even vacuumed on the inside was 1997 when I had someone clean out the interior because they lost a bet to me. Of course it has an odor. But it's a mixture of gasoline fumes mixed with extra crispy KFC crumbs, two cycle engine oil, the dander and hair of 5 dalmatians (3 of whom are dead) and various residue from dog puke, sneeze phlegm, and spilled alcohol. There might be residual DNA on the seats somewhere but you'd have to go back more than 10 years for that. The dash is cracked and my Gator dog busted off the seat adjustment on the drivers side back when he was alive and raising hell. Oh yeah and the air conditioning hasn't worked for 3 years.

The old truck has hauled countless tons of firewood. Countless tons of furniture. Has been part of every move any one of my good friends and/or I have made since 1995. It's been driven in every state from Pennsylvania to Florida on the eastern seaboard. Was nearly picked up off the ground as we drove through a tornado back in '02. And during Hurricane Isabelle in '03 it was loaded with furniture cruising around the beltway in a driving hurricane rain to move Mrs. Dog into my house. It's been rear ended -where I pocketed the $600 for a new bumper- and had a lead pipe fly up off the road and take out a headlight and left front fender -which I had fixed properly.

Inside you will find everything you need to survive. Regular blankets, moving blankets, a hatchet, a crowbar, rope, a drumstick from "Popcorn" (the drummer for Michael Burks), a hunting knife, several pairs of gloves, an umbrella, and jumper cables. In the glove box you will find a toothbrush, toothpaste, a set of silverware monogrammed with my initials (stolen from a prominent airline back when they used to actually serve food on airplanes), and an expired handicap tag to hang on my mirror so I can find a parking spot at Wegmans. You can accumulate a lot of shit in 16 years.

So I'm wondering... on October 13th the Old Red Horse will be 16 years old. That means it will be old enough to get it's own drivers license. I see where some of these new Fords can actually parallel park themselves now. You think my GMC will do that when it's old enough to drive? Naah. The last thing that truck wants is to be parked. You got to run it to keep it alive.

Peanutbutter Co

Yes a cute little 8 oz bottle of soda is $1.75 at PB and Co. We got way off the beaten path to take Stroke to the Paul Frank Store so we are now in NoHo by NYU eating Fluffernutters!!!
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FAN: Waxed in NY

At Madame Tussard's in NYC. Completely overpriced!!!
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FAN: I Hate California

It's hard to read articles like this when you have kids. Some items that are in the story get glossed over and I don't understand why. One of them is from one of the victim's fathers where he says "Echoing statements he made at Gardner's plea hearing, Brent King said his family would have preferred the death penalty, but knew it was an "empty promise" in California." Amen brother. I would go to a gang in Compton and hand somebody a check for ten large to make it happen inside the prison. True That.

The other statement that just made me Google her was this gem: Mary Duval, chief executive officer for the Sex Offender Solutions and Education Network, an advocacy group for registered sex offenders, said anger-induced legislation is not the answer.

An advocacy group for registered sex offenders? Are you serious? You want to stay off the list? Stop committing sex crimes! There is some interesting reading out there on this.....I guess she's a person. I hope this guy dies a horrible death in prison. Can I be any more clear?

FAN: Still A Stuff

1. Did anybody else notice in SI cover story on Ben that the dude who had Ben tatted on his arm and now might regret it also had Plax Burress right above Ben? What is this guy thinking? Maybe you should wait until a player retires before having them put on your person for the rest of your life.

2. Bathroom project is moving along. Since everyone needs to comment it - there were no spiked drinks or hypnosis involved. We got along just fine while working and complimented each other's good ideas. Good ideas were needed by the truckload as we ran into little issues which turned big at every corner.....literally. I would say a short estimate of about 30 hours were put in over 3 days in increments of 13, 11 and 10 minus meals. Still A Dad is a workhouse for 69 or 29. We threw the wall up very quick. I only had the headers up in anticipation. Still A Dad then did the heavy work of most of the greenback drywall with assists by yours truly. The next day was a few ceiling fixes where I had to gorilla things out, cutting the pan to size and installing, cutting the curb to size and installing and then shortening the existing drain pipe by 2 inches through a 5" hole. Fun. After that we had to add support to the 5 inch hole to make it more like 3 inches. Lastly we had to measure 9 times and cut once the interior water barrier material that I bought as part of a kit and then install it in thinset. The new shower is 48x44 and I'm tiling to the ceiling so there was a LOT of mud needed. If anything, I am now very skilled at mixing mud to peanut butter consistency.

To answer the nosey people.....sure, we may have disagreed over a solution once.....or twice......but who wouldn't after being together in a bathroom for 30 hours together? It was all good. Still A Dad got me a lot farther along than I would have been otherwise. To this point, I've done all the work myself. I actually like it that way so I can take all the credit...lol. However, I have no way of transporting or hanging drywall without help and Still A Dad is one of the 5 people on the face of the planet who doesn't live in this house who I can stand for 30 hours in a bathroom. Y'all can prolly guess who the other 4 are. No, Ben Roethlisberger cannot help me in the bathroom.

3. Still A Stroke went to a VB camp type deal tonight after school headed up by the school's varsity coach for the 'A' team. They went undefeated this year and won the district and county tournements. They came in second in the Philadelphia Arch tournament. It was the first time she's seen Stroke play but knows me from being a JV coach. I came early to pick her up to watch a little. They were doing a passing drill and three times in a row the coach called out "Perfect height Stroke, perfect!", "Beautiful arc Stroke!", "Stroke, NICE touch, really nice". Of course she doesn't call her "Stroke". I had to wonder if the balls were really that nice (they were) or if the comments were for my benefit since they always need coaches to volunteer...lol. In was great exposure to the varsity coach and she knew her name already. She was trying to learn all the girl's names but only knew about 5-6 from what I could tell so that's good. Her team is super hard to get on as there are 4 varisty teams at the school and she only coaches one of them. Since she has been coach, every girl leaving 8th grade who tried out for a high school team has made it. That's saying something in this very densley populated area of bigtime high school sports schools. She doesn't love VB the way she loves swimming, but she is muscular for her age and very coordinated so we'll have to wait and see what happens. Maybe I can call her Still A Spike in the fall?

4. Still A Dad, how is that mower running? I don't even think Mrs. Fan knows I gave that too you. How would she ever find out? She's never seen the inside of the shed. I guess when the day arrives where we're having people over on a Saturday and it rains all week and my dude can't come....I'll be out there with a pair of scissors! It wouldn't have started for me anyway in that situation.

5. Stilladog, you get a date for your trip lined up yet? Funny story about your dad. I can't imagine him blowing up over the wrong tool.

DOG: The Early Years

Since I have very few photos of my youth due to the indiscriminate destruction of family photos by my father's -hopefully dead or suffering on the way to death- girlfriend; and the misplacement of others, I have to tell stories about my youth using other graphics like the Tube Tester above.

Someone posted a comment on here, I can't remember who or when, about how they wished they had become handy like their father. Well, I sort of fall into that category too. And for the same reason. My father had little patience for teaching me the wealth of information he had about fixing things. Usually I'd ask too many questions or not hand him the exact right tool and he'd blow up and I'd have to get out of the room/basement/house.

My father was a repairman for Sears at one time and could fix most any household appliance particularly large electrical ones such as refrigerators, stoves, dishwashers, radios, TV sets, washing machines, and dryers. Yes, once upon a time people fixed radios instead of discarding them to the bottom of the landfill and buying a new one. TV sets were a rather new phenomena back when I was little and they ran on vacuum tubes. So they were constantly in need of repair, and often it was just a bad tube or two.

So one of the things that I actually could do at a very early age, probably 3 (I say 3 because I know it was well before I went to Kindergarten and I was only 4 when I started school) was learn how to use a tube tester. The tube tester we had was much larger than the one pictured above which is a military tube tester used by radiomen in WWII and Korea. It could test probably a dozen more different kinds of tubes than the one shown. We're talking 1958 here and the one pictured is from 1949.

My dad would hand me a tube and I had to find out where it fit on the board, plug it in, and turn the test switch on. Then I'd read the needle to see if it was in the red, yellow (middle), or green. We'd keep doing this until I found a bad one that was in the red. Then we'd go buy a new tube to replace it at the Western Auto and put it in for the customer. We often replaced the ones in the yellow too because they were about to go.

Those are fond memories I have from my childhood as opposed to the way too many times I got scolded for fooling around or not paying attention or just getting in the way cause I was trying to see what was going on. But I missed out on a whole lot of plumbing lessons and electrical lessons that I could have had.

So why am I writing this now? Because this weekend my step-son is coming over to help me assemble my new grill so I'll have more grilling stories for you later on this summer. And he is a very handy guy to have around the house. He too can fix most anything and he loves simple assembly projects. Whereas I do them grudgingly. Everything gets assembled OK, but there is a steady stream of profanity flowing off my tongue from start to finish.

Now my grandson, who much like me, just wants to be exactly like his daddy is going to want to help. So I am going to remind my step-son to please be patient with him so that he doesn't end up like me. Well, that and if he does get in the way too much Granpap Dog will just have to take him outside to play baseball and leave the assembly to the pro!

DOG: 4 Dead In Ohio - 40 Years Ago

40 years ago on May 4, 1970 the world changed as shots rang out at Kent State University in Ohio. Much like the shots at Lexington and Concord, these shots changed America forever.

I know they changed my life. I was 15, a high school sophomore at the time and a pretty gung-ho supporter of the government's efforts to win the war in Viet Nam. But when 4 students were shot to death for offering a dissenting point of view, I started taking a real long hard look at what was going on. And it changed the course of my life. For better or worse? Probably some of each.

I was just 3 years away from being drafted because my apathetic attitude toward classwork coupled with a healthy dose of inadequate educators put my GPA squarely in the mediocre to below average level in college curriculum subjects. So my parents decided to spend my college money elsewhere. That left the military as one viable option. And up until May of 1970 I probably would have been just fine either enlisting or being drafted into service.

But when those kids died, the reality of fighting in Viet Nam in a couple years hit me like a ton of bricks. I decided I'd avoid it if at all possible. I'm not so sure it was the right decision. At 18 I had no idea what I wanted to do for a living and the military would have given me time to mature and decide what I wanted to do. That is if I didn't take a bullet for Uncle Sam first.

Luckily, by my 18th birthday the Selective Service was still around and I got a draft number, but the draft had been eliminated as a method of enlisting men and women into the armed forces. If not, I'd surely have gone. My number was 51 (out of 365). Low numbers were guaranteed to be selected. And I would have had no choice. My father took a couple of shells for Uncle Sam in WII and I'd have no excuse not to do the same.

The photo above from 1970 coupled with this one during the Tet Offensive of 1968 sealed America's fate in Viet Nam. And I would go on to say they changed our lives every bit as much as the attacks on 9/11. Photojournalism at it's most powerful.

But that's just how the Kent State Massacre affected me. I know a lot of folks my age started really analyzing our government after that. What was once unquestioned trust of our leaders in Washington started to become scrutinized. And wow, what a pack of worms, snakes and vermin we discovered when that rock got overturned.

Fast Forward to today when the outcry against big government is as loud as it's ever been in my lifetime. To the point of new Tea Parties, Militia Groups, and anti-government protesting. We call these folks radicals, and crazies. And I have to be honest, they seem like fringe elements to me. But that's what they called the kids at Kent State who protested the escalation of bombing in Viet Nam. And that's what they once called Patrick Henry and Ben Franklin too.

Something to think about 40 years later.

FAN: Blood Blister

How many times do I have to have Still A Dad's voice in my head about wearing work gloves when appropriate?

I was demolishing the wall directly behind my shower on Sunday. Three quarter inch plywood was behind the drywall and it was nailed in well as well as being hemmed in by the shower pan on the bottom. I dropped the gloves when I dropped the crowbar for the jigsaw and then didn't put them back on.

The licorice jelly bean glued to my finger is the result of that mistake.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

FAN: Sweed's Career Could Be Over

Limas Sweed was already holding onto his roster spot by his fingernails; rupturing his Achille's heel did nothing to help that this year. On the plus side for him, he'll get paid as they will most likely place him on IR. Since he's already been a major disappointment and the addition of ARE, Battles and another rookie.....Tyler Grisham's future just got a little brighter. Limas may get another chance when he.....heels......sorry........but it wouldn't bother me if they allow him to get healthy and then cut him so he can try another team. In my opinion, this is a failed draft pick and we should cut our losses and move on.

FAN: Roethlisberger to Payton: Thank You

This story will hopefully grow some legs and take some heat off of Ben for a while. I like Sean Payton a little so I hope it's not true, but we need a diversion badly. I think Benny Boy should send him a little something as a small Thank You. I remember when 9/11 went down that one politician was going through the meat grinder over the missing Chandra Levy. Now I can't even remember his name. I wonder which story in the NFL knocked the Vikings party boat off the radar?

FAN: WWII Pictures

Excellent photos. These are cool to look at while I'm watching The Pacific on HBO. I was much more into Band of Brothers but The Pacific is still good. I don't care if it's Utah Beach or one of the beaches in the Pacific, if I was in one of those transport vehicles, I think I would have thrown up, jumped over the back and started swimming. I can't believe the courage those dudes had.