Tin soldier

Some of you older people may remember the song "One Tin Soldier".  It was the sound track to "Billy Jack", a radical, in your face anti-establishment movie.  Well, this song was very popular and the lyrics are as follows:

1 Listen children to a story
2 That was written long ago
3 'Bout a kingdom on a mountain
4 And the valley folk below

5 On the mountain was a treasure
6 Buried deep beneath a stone
7 And the valley people swore
8 They'd have it for their very own

 CHORUS

Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of Heaven
You can justify it in the end

There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the Judgment Day
On the bloody morning after who
One tin soldier rides away

9 So the people of the valley
10 Sent a message up the hill
11 Asking for the buried treasure
12 Tons of gold for which they'd kill

13 Came an answer from the kingdom
14 With our brothers we will share
15 All the secrets of our mountain
16 An' all the riches buried there

17 Now the valley cried in anger

18 "Mount your horses, draw your sword"
19 And they killed the mountain people
20 So they won their just reward

21 Now they stood beside the treasure
22 On the mountain dark and red
23 Turn the stone and which beneath it
24 "Peace on Earth" was all it said

Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend, blah, blah.
 One Tin Soldier rides away!

There are a few points to be made about these lyrics and are important to discuss.  But first, I must digress to my tender age of fourteen years.  As I was hearing this song for the first time, I was thinking  about line 7 and 8.  The valley people are so rude. Now with true heavenly grace lines 13-16   I thought, "Boy isn't that nice that the mountain kingdom is willing to share all it has with the valley people".  Line 17-20 shows that the valley people were not willing to share even shit that was not theirs.  I was an impressionable child and I was crying for the mountain people,  All of those children and old people that were butchered.  Tears were running down my face.

Now we have a show we can watch called "Game of Thrones" that reminds me of this song.  Line 23 and 24 were even more shocking.  "Peace on Earth" was all it said.  I was stunned.  If I was the sole survivor of the mountain kingdom,  I would be pissed.  My emotional roller-coaster was a rough ride that continues every time I hear the song.  Today our entire country acts like the valley people and they are proud of it.  Somehow it is standing up against something and we cannot be treated that way.  Someone should slap our parents silly for not slapping us silly every time we acted selfishly and rude.

And finally the Tin Soldier thing.  What is a tin soldier.  Is the current definition a result of this song?  Is there an old English definition of it.  I do not know. This has always bothered me.  Were armor suites ever made of tin?  There was a bronze age but no tin age.  I think bronze has tin in it.  How does tin feel about copper and bronze getting an age in history?  What is an age?  And finally, is the tin in the soldier the same as a tin horn dictator which is a bad thing?

Friday Music 04-15-16

 Every morning I wake up with a song in my head and a pain in my bladder.  Here is a quick recap of the songs.

Monday Morning - Easy Living   Uriah Heap
Tuseday Morning - A Horse with no Name  America
Wednesday Morning - Run Through the Jungle  Credence Clearwater Revival
Thursday Morning - Stealin when I should been Buyin  Uriah Heap
Friday Morning - Smackwater Jack  Goffen and King

Baseball

Today I am thinking baseball.  Specifically about memories with my crystal radio listening to the Cleveland Indians.  Also today, James Loney of the Tampa Bay Rays was let go after having a great spring training following three great years with Tampa.  I am sad for James's spirit.  He has made some money, millions and seems level headed so I assume he has plenty enough.  Yet, here is a guy who has done everything his dad ever taught him about baseball and it seems  not to be enough.  He hits for a good average, lifetime .281, is considered a better than most first baseman, bats left handed which everyone likes.  He is also a true team player and experienced leader on a "ball club".   His salary this year was creeping up there but not too much for what he brings to a team.  He also was in better shape this year physically so what is up.

I suspect that with being on the Tampa rays payroll, his salary was part of it but most of it was that he cannot hit home runs very often.  He was taught to connect with the ball, to get the bat on the ball.  You can tell, he rarely swings at bad pitches.  When you have ducks on the pond, you want someone to move them around.  Not any more. Baseball demands you take steroids and hit the ball out of the park although very few do hit it out of the stadium anymore.  Maybe stadiums are bigger, probably.  Many players, good and exciting ones are having a tough time these days because they do not hit the long ball.  My dad said that he would have taught us differently.  He would have taught us to hit the ball harder regardless of average.  My dad could have taught a three legged two toed sloth to hit a baseball.  The best pitching arm in Utah in 1975 would not play baseball because he could not hit a baseball.  He hated baseball after years of embarrassment.  I told him, my dad would teach you how to hit, "You just pitch".  He had a fastball that tailed up and in, what a pitch.  That pitch cannot be hit at any level.   The scouts were talking about Axel Hardy and Bruce Hurst not this guy.  I digressed.

Not being good enough for some is hard to accept.  You do the best you can and screw the rest.  Someone will pick up Mr. Loney.  He is valuable to teams and baseball.  His qualities are valuable to the world. 

March Madness First Week

Our family and friends always have a March Madness bracket tournament that is fun and dull all at the same time.  As the games progress my brother keeps track of the scores and his pointing schedules.  They are a mishmash of ratings of the teams and probabilities of winners.  He loves numbers and probabilities yet knows very little about quantum mechanics and how much he pisses me off with his Spockical logic.

His Email today:  

Here are the point totals (along with how many of today’s games the person can win, followed by any upset picks today):

 

Mike      490  5 Iowa, Wisc.

Kevin     489  6 No. Iowa

Russell  481  7 -

Scott      474  5 -

Gloria    472  6 Hawaii, S.F. Austin

Austin   441  6 N. Iowa, Wisc.

Matt      423  6 Ore. St., Wisc.

Ashley   411  7 –

Mark      401  6 No. Iowa

Ed            392  6 –

Brett      389  6 –

Kelly      381  6 Hawaii

Erika      370  5 –

Ryan    <350  6-

Paul     <350  5 Wisc.

 

Great contest with five people within 18 points of the lead!

I had to reply to his status after the first week of games.


Every year it goes UN-recognized or highlighted that Mike is always near the top until the end where he sucks it.  I am not saying that he spends hours "making the rules that only he truly understands" but as with all good loyal republicans, the house of cards collapses in fine fashion with a hollow, what was I thinking sound.  I have no false hope because I refuse to support in any way and hate Kansas, Kentucky, NC, Duke, Miami and if San Luis Obispo was in there I would hate them.  I forgot where I was going with this.  Notice he could have said six people withing 68 points of the lead but NOOOOOOOOOOO. 

The Sweet Sixteen starts today.   This format is the best format for a sporting event in the world today.  It is really enthralling.


PS     Russel will probably win.  He is kind of obnoxious when he wins, like at the Easter Egg Hunts we used to have at Mom's house but forgiving youth is what older, wiser and more humble people do.

PSS   yes I know that 490 minus 423 is 67 but I never could express myself well with prime numbers so I just do not deal with it.

Best Kiss Ever

Just for an example, imagine that you received a kiss from someone you wanted a kiss from and before hand you were hoping it was not going to be just a kiss but a nice kiss.  The instant your lips touched you knew something extraordinary was going on.  You had "nice" expectations because you like to kiss in general and the person you were going to kiss has good hygiene, nice lips and a great smile. 

With your eyes closed, that first nibble lasted only a second, maybe, but you are now confused with how to breath.  All of your senses have been hijacked.  You are touching the person's shoulders but your hands and arms are frozen unable to move.  Your mouth is still open but not wide and you need air and inhale through your nose.  The scent of her hair and her breath fill your nasal cavity, you can taste the lipstick although you cannot tell what flavor it is. You pull back and open your eyes to see a face in front of you with a similar look of astonishment.  You realize that no other kiss, even with this person will be as intense, as rewarding, as destructive as this kiss was.  It ruined all other kisses, probably for the rest of your life.

Now, stop imagining this kiss because it will just upset you that there are few kisses like this one to go around.

Recently, I had lunch at a little shop in an antique alley kind of place.  I had heard the food here was excellent yet a little pricey.  I am a cheapskate but I felt the need to splurge a bit even though price can ruin a meal for me but I was being adventurous.   I ordered, well it does not matter what I ordered as a main course.  I ordered tea, an Earl Grey variety.  The waiter, a kid of fifteen years quickly brought us a complimentary scone.  It was a blueberry, lemon pecan scone.  I am not sure what exactly a scone is but I can assume it is what he brought us.  My Earl Grey arrived quickly also.  The scone was excellent tasting and I will order scones again assuming it was a scone and not a biscuit in which case I will order a biscuit.  The tea was also quite good.  I opened the tea cup to notice that the grounds were actual leaves, a sign of a quality tea I am told.  We placed our orders and waited in the warm sun at an outside table.  Expectations were high and anticipation was mounting.  As I was gazing off into space watching some such nonsense down the block, our meals arrived.  It was simple fare and with no real frills except nice china and heavy silverware.  The table was so small the young waiter explained we could move the tea pots to the flower bed adjacent to our table.  "That was cool" I thought.  There was not hint of disappointment so far. The open air, the smells and the view.

I grabbed the spoon and without really looking a my food, I scooped up a bit of it and sipped it off the spoon.  I immediately looked down to see what I had just eaten.  I quickly took a full spoon in my mouth.  I looked up and said " Oh holy shit", "taste this". and I offered my guest a taste.  My head was spinning, I literally could not breath effectively.  The expression on my guests face was similar to mine so I knew I was not dying.  As my eyes welled up with tears, I said, " I think that is the best thing I have ever tasted".  I was pretty close to weeping out loud so I did not speak and tried to maintain a little composer. My guest is laughing now and I took another bite of the scone.  I returned to my meal and did everything in my power to make it last, hopefully the rest of my life but maybe seven minutes.  I have had this dish other places, not fancy like this but nothing has ever hit my taste buds like this.  I have no idea how to make something taste like it tastes.

I like food.  I watch cooking shows all the time.  I watch great chefs mix spices and stress techniques. Nothing comes to mind on how this flavor with this dish is even possible.   I have several dishes I call "food of the gods".  Most are traditional old family recipes that really are tremendously tasty.  Some are newer and I consider them special any time I can get them.  I am afraid they are all now mere shadows for my future culinary quests.  I hope the Halupke will still be my ultimate favorite.  I hope the Curry Mango dishes I love will still be there for me.  Today, I do not think so.  I ate some leftover spaghetti and everyone knows second day pasta dishes are better than first day. It was good but somehow weaker, less necessary.  I could give up a life to taste food from this little shop or anywhere this good, even if it was just this dish.  I could give up stuff.  I could end up riding a bicycle to work because of this dish.