Random Friday Thoughts — July 7, 2023

Hopefully, you had a safe and enjoyable Fourth of July.

For many of us across Illinois, it was one of cleaning up from damaging winds and tornadoes that left at least 107,000 Ameren Illinois customers without power. Even at midweek, there were still a thousand or so in the dark.

Thus, I wasn’t able to post my thoughts last Friday, so here goes….

FINAL SUBMERSIVE THOUGHT

This follows up from my last blog. While I’m sad for the families of those onboard the Titan submersible that imploded killing the five men on board, I just can’t get past how reckless the whole adventure was going into it.

It’s been reported that four of the men paid about $250,000 a person for the adventure, that’s a million dollars!

Meanwhile, in the Mediterranean, migrants are paying almost every penny they have to unsafely cross the Sea for a better life knowing they could die.

This sums it up!

BUD LIGHT CONTROVERSY WON’T GO AWAY

I honestly want to stop talking about the silliness that is the Bud Light controversy.

I don’t drink beer, so it affects mostly those that hate trans people and want to be on the wrong side of history.

Country icon and legend Garth Brooks is opening a restaurant in Nashville called “Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk”.

He says, “I want it to be a place you feel safe in, I want it to be a place where you feel like there are manners and people like one another.” He went on to say, “If you [are let] into this house, love one another. If you’re an asshole, there are plenty of other places on lower Broadway.” Oh, and it’ll serve “every brand of beer”.

Of course that prompted the ire of right wing commenters and the very intelligent Florida congressman Matt Gaetz. (Sarcasm!)

But, the biggest fool of all is Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

He tweeted a FAKE article about Brooks being booed off the stage in the Lone Star state and thanked Texans for being jerks!

He has since deleted the tweet.

Clearly, I’d chose Brooks’ “friends in low places” over Abbott’s friends!

Good Lord, I’m still laughing about it!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

While he’s at home with end-of-life hospice and she’s suffering from dementia, my idol former President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter are celebrating their 77th wedding anniversary (July 7).

They are the longest-wed presidential couple.

MY FAVORITE FOURTH OF JULY

My favorite Independence Day is, without a doubt, probably one of your favorites, too.

Back in 1976, the United States was celebrating its 200th birthday, its bicentennial.

As a kid, I was mesmerized with the sight of more than a dozen tall ships and tens of thousands of boats filling New York Harbor.

On my transistor radio, “Fernando” by ABBA was playing.  It’s hard to believe that just one month later, the band would release the iconic “Dancing Queen”!

MY LEAST FAVORITE FOURTH OF JULY

On the other hand, none compare to the 4th of July in 2007 for the worst!

I was working the morning show and on my drive in, it started pouring rain. In the three minute drive to the station, it was coming down in buckets.

As I was running toward the door, my keys flew out of my hands and went underwater in a puddle.  I got to the door and banged and banged, but no one heard it! It was 1:45 a.m. (I didn’t have a cell phone at the time!)

So, I dug through my bag and found my spare car keys.  I drove to the other side of the building and, this time, one of the producers heard me knocking and opened the door.

Since I was soaked, I decided to go back home and change into a dry suit.

As torrential rains continued falling, a wall of water came crashing into the intersection. Without warning, in just seconds (real-time seconds), my car stalled and died as the water quickly came up to the door.  At the same time, three other cars met the same fate as mine.

I quickly thought about the power doors and windows and opened my door! If there was a shortage, I would be locked inside!

Three intoxicated teenagers came running through the water and helped me push my car into an alley.

Soaking wet, I walked fifteen blocks to my house bare-footed in a ruined suit.

I ended up with three large blisters on the soles of my feet. Luckily, I didn’t step on anything sharp, which would have allowed bacteria from the nasty floodwaters to make me sick!

By the way, I made it back in time to get my weather graphics done and was on the air at 5 a.m.!

As a meteorologist, I’ve never encountered the force of raging water and now I know first hand just where “flash flooding” gets its name. 

It just two or three seconds, the water came out of nowhere and submerged the cars!

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Remember, it only takes about six inches of flowing water to sweep a person off their feet, a foot of moving water to make a car buoyant, and only two feet of raging water to sweep a car away!

SUMMER AND TICKS

Now that summer is here, mosquitos are a pest and ticks are lurking.

There are some amazing smelling herbs and plants you can put in your yard to create a barrier between wooded areas and your home that keep ticks away.

Mint, sage, lavender, rosemary, garlic, and marigolds have tick-repellent properties, with fragrances, textures and oils that ticks can’t tolerate.

“GEORGE MICHAEL: A LIFE”

This 2022 biography by James Gavin was very honest and very enlightening. A must read!

It covers all of the demons George battled in life — from his childhood (overweight and insecure) to early adulthood (worldwide fame and drugs) to later in life (fame, avoiding the spotlight of fame, drugs, and weight gain). Oh, and that arrest in the Los Angeles park bathroom!

George died on Christmas Day 2016 and eerily, his sister, Melanie Panayiotou, also died on Christmas Day three years later.

WHAM! (THE DOCUMENTARY)

I can’t wait to check out the “Wham!” documentary that debuted on Netflix earlier this week.

“WHEN WE RISE: MY LIFE IN THE MOVEMENT”

Pride month is over, but I still want to share some details from LGBTQ pioneer Cleve Jones’ 2016 autobiography.

He came up with the idea of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in 1985 at a Harvey Milk memorial service.

Jones also fought against Anita Bryant’s “Save our Children” campaign in Florida (1977) and John Briggs’ California Proposition 6, better known as the “Briggs Initiative” (1978), which would have banned gays and lesbians (and their allies) to work in the California school system.

After his historical election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in November 1977, his friend, the legendary Harvey Milk, told Jones, “Even if we lose, having the debate moves us forward, just by requiring people to think about the issue. The more they think about it, the more progress we make. And we have to get everyone to come out of their closet.” Milk smiled and added, “If we all come out, we will win. Once people understand that they have gay friends and family members and coworkers and neighbors, they won’t fear us, they won’t hate us, and they won’t vote against us. That’s how we win. Everyone must come out.”

And, I loved the story that Jones told about his sadness after finding his lover in bed with another man. When he told Harvey, Milk told the young Jones (in his early 20s) that later in life he’d realize who was and who was not the great loves in life. He said that Harvey was right.

MY FAVORITE GEORGE MICHAEL (WHAM) SONGS

There are many to choose from, so “Monkey”, “Too Funky”, and “Freedom 90” missed out.

“WAKE ME UP BEFORE YOU GO GO” (Wham!) (3 weeks at #1, 1984)

“I’M YOUR MAN” (Wham!) (#3, 1986)

“I WANT YOUR SEX” (#2, 1987)

“FAITH (4 weeks at #1, 1987)

“I KNEW YOU WERE WAITING (FOR ME) with Aretha Franklin (#1, 1987)

THAT’S IT

With all the craziness in the world, make it the best in your little part of it!

Anthony

Celebrations for Three of My Favorite Ladies – 2019

If today is your birthday or anniversary, I hope you have a happy one and that the next years are incredible.

It’s March 28th.  Today is the 87th day of the year and there are 278 days left in 2019.

On this day back in 1920, there was a major Palm Sunday tornado outbreak in the Great Lakes and the Deep South;  in 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania partially melted down; and in 2005, an earthquake rocked Indonesia with a magnitude of 8.7.

But, let’s get back to birthdays and celebrations!

64 years ago today, one of my idols, Reba McEntire, was born in Kiowa, Oklahoma.

While she’s been very busy over the past years, she hasn’t had a new country album out since early 2015 and it was pretty much ignored by country radio!

That changes soon!

Her new album, “Stronger Than The Truth”, comes out on April 5th, and it features her new single, “Freedom”, which is starting to get country airplay.

“Freedom” is being called “euphoric” and a “fist-pumping anthem”!

Take a listen!

Lady Gaga is also celebrating her birthday today, number 33!

And, back in 1964, 55 years ago today, my parents married.

Later that year, she’d give birth to a baby boy six weeks premature.  Yes, it’s yours truly.

Happy birthday Reba and Lady Gaga, and Mom, happy anniversary.

Anthony

Random Friday Thoughts — February 21, 2014

My favorite two days of the week are upon us — the weekend.  Okay, technically, those aren’t “days”.  But, I’m sure you get the point.

Whatever you have planned, make the best of it and enjoy.  Thank you for checking out my random thoughts.

FIVE YEARS!  HERE’S TO FIVE MORE…

Saturday marks the fifth year that Ray and I met in person for the first time.  While we chatted before then, we had drinks for the first time on February 22, 2009.   It was champagne and we hit it off rather well and after he left, Miss ABBA, the golden, and I talked and agreed that he was worth a second date.

That came a couple of days later with lunch at Exotic Thai in Moline and the rest is history, as they say.

Here’s one of our first pictures together from the spring of 2009!

To mark five years together, we’ll have champagne this weekend and go have lunch at Exotic Thai Monday.  We do that each year to mark those dates and Miss ABBA is still with us — in our hearts.

“LOOKING”

The eight episode, HBO series, “Looking”, is about three gay friends in San Francisco looking to find themselves and love.

It stars Jonathan Groff, who is best known for his Tony Award-nominated and Grammy Award winning role on Broadway in “Spring Awakening” and on “Glee” as Jesse St. James.  He also voices the character of Kristoff in the worldwide Disney smash, “Frozen”.

“Looking” has been criticized as “boring” and lacking diversity, even with one of the leads and a major recurring character being Hispanic.

I love the show.  It’s funny and it’s sexy.  My only gripe is that there’s only eight episodes and they’re only 30 minutes long!

Here’s the trailer and remember that it’s HBO, so there are so are some adult themes.

I have to admit that I have a crush on Patrick, Groff’s character.  Or, maybe I just have a crush on Groff?

JENNIFER NETTLES IS AN ALLY

Jennifer Nettles, the leader singer of the country duo Sugarland and a married mother of a one-year-old boy, is a friend of the LGBT community.

Nettles tells PrideSource that country music is slowly evolving and becoming more accepting.  “It’s exciting to see within the country genre, yet at the same time, for me in terms of social motivation and evolution and moving forward, I always feel — be it within a music genre or a religious movement or whatever — like, ‘OK, come on, let’s move faster. Let’s get there faster. Let’s get it done.”

She adds, “This should have already been behind us. So I am excited about it, but I want it to continue and be more.”

Sugarland, featuring former member Kristen Hall, who is a lesbian, took “Something More” to #2 on the Billboard Country chart in 2005, from their debut album, “Twice The Speed of Life”.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

ONE FOR THE RECORD BOOKS

We’ve had a lot of snow this winter.  We’re now up to 54.3″ in the Quad Cities.

That makes this the 5th snowiest winter on record (and the snowiest since I moved to the Quad Cities in November 2005)!

However, there’s some confusion.  A local newspaper and some local television meteorologists are reporting it as the “snowiest winter” on record.  What they are referring to is the snowiest “meteorological winter” on record.   “Meteorological winter” is the months of December, January, and February.

But, if you use that analogy, do you magically just forget about the snow that falls in October, November, March, and April?  That’s why when we list the snowiest winters on record, the National Weather Service runs the snow totals from summer to summer to cover all the snows from the first to the last.

One thing that isn’t confusing.  It’s the snowiest February on record in the Quad Cities with 21.8″!

Here’s a cool shot of the solar lights around our fish ponds trying to shine through the snow.

Gretel is definitely making the most of the snowy winter.

At this point last winter, we had only picked up 14.5″ of snow in the Quad Cities!

“MOST UNPLEASANT CITY RIVALING SOCHI”

How would you like to win that honor?  Russia’s blantant homophobia aside, we’ve heard the less than desirable reports of hotel and facility issues with the 2014 Winter Olympics hosting city.

Now, MissTravel.com, a travel dating site, recently polled more than 3,000 people and asked what the “most unpleasant city rivaling Sochi” is and the winner (or loser) was Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.

In second place was New Delhi, the capital of India.  Also ranking high on the list was Rio de Janerio, the site of the 2016 Summer Olympics!

Two American cities also made the list, Detroit, Michigan and Youngstown, Ohio.

I lived and worked in Youngstown for years from the late 1990s until the summer of 2002 and met some really nice people there.  I hope I don’t lose friends over what I’m going to say.  And, to put a positive spin on the dubious “honor”, I’ll start with a nice photo of Youngstown.

When I talk to people about all the places I’ve lived (there have been ten), I refer to the former booming steel town as “the most deplorable city I’ve ever lived.”

I know the loss of the steel mills and jobs, rampant crime, and mob activity took its toll.  From 1930-1960, more than 165,000 people called Youngstown home.  In 2012, the population is down almost 100,000 people to just around 65,000!

Sorry, Youngstown.  I guess I’m not alone.

SERIOUSLY, BILLY RAY CYRUS IS BACK ON THE CHART AGAIN!

I was still living in Kentucky, in 1992, when “Achy Breaky Heart, by Billy Ray Cyrus was so popular.  It spent five weeks at #1 on the Billboard Country chart and reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

At the time, I was appalled by the song and the fact that we were both from Kentucky.  I was okay with the down home country image that Loretta Lynn portrayed to the world about the Bluegrass state, but not with Cyrus!

Then, when Reba appeared on “TV Guide” with him, I just about died.

Now, I have to admit that I took a chance and listened to the new Buck 22 song, “Achy Break 2”, which features Miley’s dad!  And, Billy, you rock now.

“Achy Breaky 2” is at #80 on the Billboard Hot 100 and is up to #11 on the Hot Rap songs chart!

So, to make amends, here’s a more recent picture of Reba and Billy Ray.

Billy Ray, this is my sincerest apologies for disliking you so much more than twenty years ago!

One final note is that Buck 22 is Damon Elliott, a well-respected music producer and the son of singer Dionne Warwick!

“ENOUGH SAID”

This little romantic comedy that made $21.8 million at the box office was one of the last roles for the late “The Sopranos” star James Gandolfini.

He and Julia Louis-Dreyfus play a couple of divorcees, Albert and Eve, who meet at a party and start dating.  The only problem is that Eve is the masseuse of Albert’s ex-wife and she starts filling Eve’s head with all of Albert’s faults.

The movie is very touching and very funny.  It’s hilarious to watch these two awkward adults fall for each other.

GRADE:  B+

“CARRIE”

I absolutely love the 1976 original with Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie.

So, I didn’t have an opinion one way or the other when I heard that a remake was coming out.  I love director Kimberly Peirce’s “Boys Don’t Cry”, so having her behind the movie helped.  It was also a positive that stars Chloe Grace Moretz (“Let Me In”) and Julianne Moore are incredible.

While some of the special effects were awesome, the high school drama seemed very Disney and silly.  Maybe it’s because the original was so creepy that the suspense never built up for me in this one.

For a dollar in Redbox, you might enjoy it.  Otherwise, watch the original.

GRADE:  C

“SURE OF YOU”

I finished reading my eighth book of 2014 this week, “Sure of You”, which is the sixth book in Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of The City” series.

While you may not have read them, you’ve likely been following along with me about the book series in my blog.

It’s now 1988, twelve years after the first book and three years after the last book, “Significant Others”.   While the book had some fun parts, this was my least favorite of the series, so far, because there wasn’t much happiness to be found.

Like real life, friends drift apart over the years and that takes place here with some of Barbary Lane’s favorite tenants.

One chance meeting in the last book leads to love in this book and that is a happy point.  However, one person becomes very successful and leaves San Fransisco and their family for fame in the “Big Apple”.

“DJANGO UNCHAINED”

I finally got around to seeing my first Quentin Tarantino movie, “Django Unchained”.

The lengthy, Oscar-winning movie for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Christop Waltz was entertaining and fun.  However, it too long and too much of a joke.

Maybe that was the intent — to make you laugh through the horror that was slavery in America.  Even the shoot outs were jokey and fake with the overkill of blood.  Don’t get me wrong, I love “The Walking Dead”, “Dexter”, “Hannibal”, and “American Horror Story”.  So, I can handle the blood.

After seeing this, I’m really ready to see this subject matter handled accurately with “12 Years A Slave”!

GRADE:  B-

“I’M A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY”

In 2014, I’m taking a break from the 1980s music and featuring some of the country songs I loved growing up and when I listened to more country before going pop!

I remember a couple of my favorites from Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers Band.

From 1973 until their last hit in 1989, the trio reached the Top 40 on the Billboard Country chart 34 times.  Of those, 17 made the Top Ten and 3 topped the chart.

My favorites were “Broken Lady” (#5, 1976) and “All The Gold In California” (#1, 1979).

When researching Larry Gatlin for the chart information, I was surprised to see that he’s very conservative (not a problem) and a regular contributor for Fox News (less comfortable).  So, I was concerned about featuring the song because I didn’t want to promote him if he was anti-gay.  But, I haven’t come across anything to point to that.  Hopefully that proves that you can be a “Christian” and not be anti-gay!

Granted, if I learn otherwise about Gatlin, I’ll come in and delete this and that will be another blog topic altogether!

THAT’S IT FOR THIS WEEK

I hope you have a fantastic weekend.  Other than the plans I mentioned earlier, I’m having lunch with Ray and my sister, Tammy, Saturday and enjoying a blizzard tonight!

No, you didn’t miss a weather report.  I’m talking about a Red Velvet Cake Blizzard, silly!

After posting this blog early Friday morning, I added this line Friday afternoon because my local Dairy Queen was out of Red Velvet Cake blizzard!

That might be a good thing because I’m getting mixed reviews about them.  Some say they weren’t good, but I also heard that they excellent.  Oh well, better luck with the next blizzard, Peeps!

Anthony