World's Most Popular

Football, not the gargantuan of American television but the international sensation we know as soccer, is the planet's most popular sport. From June 11 to July 11, millions of excited fans will focus on the World Cup in South Africa.

Ancient Chinese and Japanese texts mention a ball game using only the feet and head. The Romans enjoyed a similar pastime. The sport's acceptance took time. In 14th century England, King Edward III outlawed the sport as a public nuisance. Queen Elizabeth I levied punishments of up to 27 days incarceration for playing football. Times changed and 250 years later, England formalized the rules of game we know today.

Gaga Marketing embraces the world's most popular sport and sponsors the Rangers FC, a 1st Division Futbol Club based in Washington, DC. As of last weekend, they are in first place with a record of 5-0!

As World Cup fever raises the temperature of fans around the globe, you don't have to endure the hassle of international travel to enjoy world-class soccer. Just check out the next Gaga Rangers game. - As ever BB

"To say that these men paid their shillings to watch twenty-two hirelings kick a ball is merely to say that a violin is wood and catgut, that Hamlet is so much paper and ink." - J.B. Priestley

Canyon Believe They're Doing This?

Mark Elmore, Gaga's arduous adventurer, along with his intrepid mates will attempt to climb down the Grand Canyon, cross it, climb up the other side, camp and then do it back again the next day. A Herculean task to say the least.

It's all for a good cause. The link below explains it better than I. Please be generous and support this noble cause.

La Bonne Chance brave champions- as ever BB

"I attempt an arduous task; but there is no worth in that which is not a difficult achievement." - Ovid

Click this link for more information

https://atl.etapestry.com/fundraiser/ConnorsHeroes/HikingforHeroes/

Senescence

Days lengthen, nights shorten, the summer solstice is nigh. My natal anniversary precedes the solstice by several days. The American male's average lifespan is 75.6 years. Statistically speaking that puts me in the game of life's final quarter.

Shuffling off this mortal coil has never concerned me. Perhaps, it's my fascination with philosophy. Why worry about the end of existence when I'm not even sure what existence is? The ontological starting point for western philosophy is Descartes' phrase, "I think therefore I am." Popeye said, "I yam what I yam and that's all I yam." What about the existence of the sweet potato?

Many Eastern philosophies believe existence is an illusion. The Buddhist concept of anatta, non-self, negates worries over material and physical being. The Buddha did not deny self, but denied the phenomenality of self. An enlightened person transforms from insignificant self to bhavit-atto (one of significant self). Try working that into a birthday card.

Many say the final quarter of a professional basketball game is the most exciting. That is what I expect of my final quarter. Life proceeds whether the Primal Bingo Caller's next ball is 2B or not 2B. As ever - BB

"Swift as a shadow, short as any dream, brief as the lightning in the collied night." - William Shakespeare from A Midsummer's Night Dream

May Day

The person issuing this distress call must repeat it three times to distinguish it from similar sounding words. The signal has nothing to do with the first of May, but comes from the French, venez m’aider - come, help me.

Across the world, labor activists, socialists and others have designated May 1 as a day to honor workers. It’s also known as International Workers’ Day, or Labour Day.

The International Workers of the World (aka the Wobblies), led by Big Bill Haywood, celebrated one of the first May Days. I have an affinity for guys named Big Bill.

• There is blues man, Big Bill Broonzy who copyrighted over 300 songs and is best known for his version of Key to the Highway.
• Gangster/bootlegger/gambler, Big Bill Dwyer owned the first professional ice hockey team and first NFL team in New York City.
• Roaring 20s’ tennis great, Big Bill Tilden helped popularize the sport in the US.
• Country music performer, Big Bill Lister toured with Hank Williams. Hank liked touring with Big Bill because they both loved to sneak away and go fishing between gigs.
• Big Bill Thompson, mayor of Chicago and minion of Al Capone, is known not only as the last Republican mayor of the Windy City, but also as one of the most corrupt mayors in US history.
• Big Bill Morganfield, blues guitar player is the son of the great Muddy Waters – real name McKinley Morganfield.

May Day, May Day, May Day! How did musings about the first of May segue into a rant on men nicknamed Big Bill?

Curiouser and curiouser, cried Alice– as ever BB

“All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening.” Woodrow Wilson

Penny For Your Thoughts

It began with an innocuous gift, a pair of penny loafers. The question arose, “Why a penny?” I figured the loafer part came from the fact that they were casual shoes to be worn while relaxing. Wrong!

My quest for an answer began on a dairy farm. Cows who are ready for milking move to a loafing area. Several websites extol the benefits of keeping bovine in this area before and after milking.

Norwegian dairy farmers wore easy-on/easy-off shoes when walking to and from the loafing area - ergo loafers. By the 1930s, Norwegians began selling these comfortable shoes. Esquire, then the final word in men’s fashion, did an article about loafers, and they became a casual wear necessity for American males.

Several U.S. companies began producing them. G.H. Bass & Company named their version Weejuns from Norwegian. To add a distinctive flair, Bass added a slotted saddle across the vamp of the shoe.

By the 50s, loafers had become de rigueur for teenagers. Enter the ubiquitous penny. Here, the streams of time and fiction muddy our search. Allegedly, concerned parents would slip dimes into the slots; so loafer-wearing adolescents would always have change for an emergency phone call. Back when people used payphones and a call cost a dime. Somehow a penny replaced the dime. Why? Several stories abound.

Kids liked the look of a coin in the shoe. Once the dime was used, they inserted pennies because they were cheaper. A shiny copper penny looked better in the loafer. The penny was added for good luck. Whatever the reason, the fad caught on by the mid-50s.

I’m confident about the etymology of loafer as slang for a slip-on shoe, but the veil of time cloaks the reason for inserting a penny. One question remains unanswered. Do I put pennies in my new shoes? – As ever BB

“I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty" - Imelda Marcos

Modus Vetatio

Our mode of transportation began with two feet and progressed to the internal combustion engine powering metal, plastic and rubber to shuttle us hither and yon.

The other night sitting with friends at a local public house, the conversation turned to bygone vehicles. This degenerated into a "can you top this" cavalcade of clunkers, jalopies and heaps. The air became thick with tales of mechanical legerdemain that would befuddle Rube Goldberg:

A 1962 Rambler with a push-button automatic transmission that would pop out of gear while in operation.

A 1964 Delta 88 which would not start unless the radio and heat were on and had a horn that sounded whenever the car took a sharp left turn.

A 1966 GTO with a bad starter. You had to make sure to park on an incline and have a couple friends with you to pop the clutch. Once running the carburetor occasionally needed adjusting. If the engine stalled during this process, the push-start was repeated.

A 1973 Vega that burned a quart of motor oil every 250 miles and had a large hole in the floorboard which facilitated emptying one's bladder without stopping. Great for road trips as long as you had a case of Quaker State in the trunk.

A 1975 Granada with power steering so bad Herculean strength was required to turn, brakes that had to be pumped three times before working and a passenger door tied to the floorboards and roof to keep from falling off.

As the evening deepened, our stories transformed from tales of terrible tribulation to paeans of past pals. We had advanced into middle-age; our lives filled with responsibilities to duty and humanity. Remembering these ersatz vehicles sparked a melancholia for an earlier time when the journey was more important than the destination, or the conveyance. As ever - BB

Darn the wheel of the world! Why must it continually turn over? Where is the reverse gear?" - Jack London

April Fool's Flim Flam

One of Herman Melville’s last novels, The Confidence Man, begins on April Fool’s Day. A con man sneaks onto a riverboat traveling down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. Allegedly, Melville’s inspiration was William Thompson a true-life gonif for whom the term confidence man was coined.

Another fraudster whose antics became common parlance was George C. Parker. Throughout the late 19^th and early 20^th century, his livelihood came from “selling” New York City landmarks including the Brooklyn Bridge. From his peculations, we get the phrase, “Believe that, and I have a bridge to sell you.”

Cinema embraces the scoundrel: Newman and Redford in The Sting, Frank Morgan as Professor Marvel and his Oz counterpart, the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz, W.C. Fields as Larson E. Whipsnade in You Can’t Cheat An Honest Man and, my personal favorite, The Flim-Flam Man.

In this 1967 film, George C. Scott plays Mordecai C. Jones, M.B.S., C.S. D.D – Master of Back-Stabbing, Cork-Screwing and Dirty Dealing. His portrayal embodies the larcenous soul , but soft-heart, of a confidence man. Alas, real life scammers can be less benevolent.

So tomorrow, if perchance an April Fool's practical joke comes your way remember the motto of Ken Kesey and his merry band - Never Trust a Prankster. As ever - BB

"The secret of being a top-notch con man is being able to know what the mark wants, and how to make him think he's getting it." Ken Kesey in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest