Sand Animation - Nazi Invasion of The Ukraine

Hitler invaded the Soviet Russian Provence of The Ukraine in 1941 under Operation Barbarossa. This was a German attempt to wrest control of a nation that was rich in agriculture from the Russians. During this invasion one in four Ukrainians were savagely murdered by German troops.

The following video is from the TV show, "Ukraine's Got Talent". Yes, there is such a show. The usual winner for America's Got Talent or Britain's Got Talent is someone who sings and perhaps dances. However Kysenia Siminova's specialty is sand art or sand animation. She does this by putting sand on a light box and creating wonderful caricatures.

This sequence depicts the Nazi invasion of the Ukraine. Although I cannot read the final words, I can tell you 1945 is the year that WWII ended and the war was over.

By watching the audience and the judges reaction you can tell these people have not forgotten history (as is the case in the much of the United States).

The video is as amazing as it is touching.

(Click on the second button from the right for a full screen view.)

Baby Zoey Rose

Baby Zoey Rose Franxman arrived this morning at around 9 AM and says she is very hungry.

Hooray!

Daddy Glen & Mommy Elizabeth





Big brother Ben

Ellie Greenwich - The Undisputed Queen of Pop & Leader of The Pack

Ellie Greenwich, the New York songwriter behind a string of 1960s hits that gave effervescent voice to unbridled teen romance including "Da Doo Ron Ron," "Chapel of Love" and "Be My Baby," many of them in collaboration with her husband, Jeff Barry, died August 26Th of a heart attack. She was 68.


Brian Wilson was quoted as saying, "She was the greatest melody writer of all time." The chief creative force of the Beach Boys, whose music was strongly influenced by many of the hits Greenwich and her husband Jeff Barry wrote with Spector, has often cited "Be My Baby" as his favorite record of all time.

"Those songs are part of the fabric of forever," said songwriter Diane Warren. "Ellie's songs were written in the '60s, and it's 2010 almost, but they are as relevant and meaningful today as the day when they were born."

Greenwich and Barry were part of the fabled Brill Building stable of professional songwriters that also included the teams of Hal David and Burt Bacharach, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil as well as Paul Simon, Neil Sedaka and Neil Diamond. Greenwich also broke ground as one of the first female record producers, working with Barry in crafting Diamond's early recordings, including "Cherry Cherry," "Solitary Man" and " Kentucky Woman."

Diamond had struggled as a songwriter until he came under the wing of Greenwich and Barry, who'd already logged numerous shimmering pop hits for groups such as the Ronettes, the Crystals, the Dixie Cups and Ronnie Spector. After recording some demos of his songs with Greenwich supplying backup vocals, Diamond recalled her telling him, " 'I think you're pretty good -- maybe you'd like to meet my husband, and we could sit and talk.''.


They got me a contract, as a writer with [Jerry] Leiber and [Mike] Stoller's Trio Music."The songwriting-production team of Leiber and Stoller, who had written many of Elvis Presley's hits and dozens of other chart-topping '50s songs, had been impressed with Greenwich's songs and brought her into their company."

"The songs that they wrote were simple but very wonderful," Stoller said Wednesday. "She was very gifted at writing that kind of a song. She was just terrific."

Their collaborations with Wall of Sound creator Phil Spector are regarded among the greatest singles ever created. The music publishing rights organization Broadcast Music Inc. lists more than 200 songs she wrote or co-wrote, including "Then He Kissed Me" (the Crystals), "I Can Hear Music" (The Ronettes, Beach Boys), "Hanky Panky" (a hit for Tommy James & the Shondells), "Maybe I Know" (Lesley Gore) and the song Spector considered his greatest recording, "River Deep, Mountain High" (Ike and Tina Turner).


Greenwich has said that the title phrase of "Da Doo Ron Ron" was never intended to be part of the song; it was improvised as a nonsensical space filler until she and Barry could come up with a real line to follow the tune's opening lyric: "I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still." "We got all the rest of the words and music together, but we couldn't find anything for this bit." she said in 2005. "Believe me, it doesn't mean a thing."




On the other hand, when she and Barry wrote "There she was just a walkin' down the street" to start another song, she responded with what she imagined a young girl skipping down a street would sing: "Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do." "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" became a No. 1 hit in 1965 for the British group Manfred Mann.

Eleanor Louise Greenwich was born Oct. 23, 1940, in Brooklyn, N.Y., to a Catholic father and a Jewish mother. They moved to Levittown, Long Island, when she was about 11, and she began studying accordion before switching to piano.She enrolled at Queens College when she was 17 and in 1958 released a single with two songs she had written, "Silly Isn't It" and "Cha-Cha Charming." She transferred to Hofstra University, where she met Barry. She graduated in 1962, and married Barry the same year.

Their common interest in music also gave birth to a songwriting team. On a visit to the Brill Building, she was plunking out notes on a piano while waiting to meet with another writer, and Leiber looked in thinking he was hearing Carole King.

Greenwich introduced herself, showed off some of her songs and soon Leiber and Stoller offered her a songwriting contract at Trio Music.

She and Barry recorded a few songs as the Raindrops, but their biggest hit reached only No. 17, "The Kind of Boy You Can't Forget." Leiber and Stoller also had been working with Spector, who clicked with Greenwich and Barry and crafted many of his biggest successes with their help. We just got Phil," she said in 2001. "We made him laugh. And we understood him. We accepted his idiosyncrasies. . . . I think he just felt safe with us. Plus, we turned out some really good stuff."



Greenwich suffered a nervous breakdown after she and Barry divorced in 1965, and the hits stopped flowing. The public's attention was shifting to the Beatles and other British invasion bands as well as a rising crop of self-contained singer-songwriters such as Bob Dylan, putting many Brill Building pros out of work."When my marriage fell apart and my style dropped out of fashion, it seemed there wasn't anything left." she told an Australian newspaper in 2005.


"It's easy to say I had plenty left, but that's not how it seems when you're there."In the '80s she created a musical titled "Leader of the Pack" that included many her pop hits and told the story of her rise to fame and equally steep fall.

She bounced back with new songs, and scored Tony and Grammy Award nominations for her show. As recently as 1997 one of her songs, "The Sunshine After the Rain," became a dance-pop hit in England and Australia. Cyndi Lauper, Nona Hendryx and Desmond Child were among artists who recorded her compositions in recent years.

Edward Kennedy's Legacy

Senator Edward Kennedy died last week. He is being eulogized as the Lion of the United States Senate. His legacy is very complex. He acheived some admirable goals, but his behavior and left leaning views left his image tarnished.



Two weeks prior to his death, he gave President Obama a ten page sealed letter to deliver to the Pope during Obama's visit to the Vatican. Perhaps this best exemplifies the power the Kennedy's weilled in that the very President of our nation is used as a mailman.



Subsequently the Pope, who recently sent condolences to the Kennedy family on the death of Kennedy's sister, has been silent about Edward Kennedy. At his funeral mass we learn the letter was part confession and part justification for his life. No mention was made of his stance on abortion.


JFK and Robert Kennedy were assassinated in days when government officials were held in esteem and protected by a silenced news media. Those days are gone, due to former President Nixon being caught in lies and deceit. His brother's deaths left Edward Kennedy as the golden boy. For the position he was handed, his wealth, attitude and behavior got the better of him.





It is no secret that he was an alcoholic.



This first came to light when he drove off a bridge, killing Mary Jo Kopechne into Poucha Pond, a tidal basin off of Chappaquiddick island. He rescued himself and left her to perish in the overturned vehicle and did not report anything until the following day. After this he made a tearful plea on national television for forgiveness. A secret inquest and a Massachusetts grand jury investigation acquitted Kennedy of wrong doing. I ask you, did this seem just?

During the Viet Nam era, a time that most of the younger generation has long since forgotten, Kennedy initially was vocal regarding the expansion of United States involvement. During those days when we would see our nations young men being shipped home in a box every night on the six o'clock news.



However the Kennedy family seemed to avoid being drafted into the armed services, a plight that befell millions of boys that were fresh out of high school, unable to buy their way out of a future in Southeast Asia.

During the Nixon years Kennedy's strong backing of the unions lead to his crusade for government mandated health care. Due to the impetus of the unions he pushed for a single payer US health care system. He compromised with the administration for the creation of HMO's.



This move took health care decisions out of the hands of doctors and medical professionals and putting them into the hands of insurance company bureaucrats. This is a situation the current Administration would like to take up a notch.

His divorce, the Chappaquiddick incident, his support of abortion, his chronic alcoholism and womanizing only furthered his blotched reputation. He was instrumental in passing legislation for the COBRA act, which was to make health care portable upon leaving employment, however most common folks cannot afford the oppressively high monthly out-of-pocket premiums.

His reputation was further tarnished during a stay at the family's Palm Beach estate, when he walked into a bedroom clad in only a nightshirt where his nephew was with a young lady. The nephew and the young lady left the home and had sex on the beach. But the young lady said later that it was rape. A nationally televised trial only shed further light on Kennedy's drinking a philandering.

I say all of these negative things about Kennedy, but there was some good that came of his 46 years as a Senator. Most of this had to do with various health care acts that made health care portable and a new Medicare provision to provide affordable drugs. He also favored strong action against the Taliban and pointed out the vulnerability of the military Humvee. He helped broker peace in Ireland. He favored compromise over demanding his way.


It is bothersome to me there are no term limits for the United States Congress. It is beyond me, with all the crap that Kennedy did during his lifetime, he was consistently re-elected by the citizens of Massachusetts.

In my opinion it is time to think about term limits for both the US Senate and the House.

Cake From Wal-Marts

Okay so this is how I imagine this conversation went:

Walmart Employee: "Yeah dis is Walmarts, whats ja' want?'

Customer: "I would like to order a cake for a going away party this week."

Walmart Employee: "Whats ju' wan' on da' cake?"

Customer: " 'Best Wishes Suzanne' and underneath that 'We will miss you'."

Walmart Employee: "Yeah sure...whatever. I gotta' go! "

The Nixon Pose

I saw Obama give a speech on Healthcare the other day. Whoa there's a surprise, the man gives at least two speeches every day if not more.


Anyway, he greeted his audience with both arms outstretched in the air, which got me to thinking about Nixon.

Nixon was famous for this pose. For those of you that are young'uns', the two up-raised fingers was the sign for peace, back in the day.


The pose is reminicent of the cruxifiction but without the messy nail scarred hands, bleeding and dying. Obama seems to like it. H'mm makes you wonder about his character.



I don't know if this greeting has a name, but by order of the power vested in me and to the republic for which I stand I hereby declare this to be the Official Nixon pose.



Some ladies like to use this pose as well.

BUI

Breastfeeding Under the Influence - It is sad,but true. Common sense is rapidly disappearing from this ol' world.

This just in. A mom in North Dakota is charged with child neglect for allegedly breastfeeding while drunk. Today, a judge ordered Stacey Anvarinia to seek treatment for chemical dependency to help her avoid jail time.

Anvarinia was arrested last February, after police answering a domestic disturbance call at her home. She apparently told police her boyfriend assaulted her. Anvarinia already had a criminal record. The officers saw her breast-feeding the baby and holding the child upside down. Prosecutor Carmell Mattison says Anvarinia at one point held the child by one leg and was too drunk to know what she was doing. Police say she was breast-feeding her 6-week-old baby while drunk. After obtaining warrants,police arrested the 26-year-old last April.

In court today, Anvarinia told the judge she knew what she did was wrong. She says she is working hard to get her daughter back.

There’s no way to tell exactly how much alcohol was in her system, because police didn’t conduct a blood-alcohol test. Investigators say she was drunk, and they acted on it. Remember this is NORTH DAKOTA and we've all seen FARGO.

Anvarinia was sentenced to 18 months in jail with all but six months suspended. The judge said she could get credit for chemical dependency treatment.

According to La Leche League International, Mothers who are intoxicated should not breastfeed until they are completely sober.

Wait for most of the alcohol to leave your system. As alcohol leaves the bloodstream, it leaves the breast milk.

Cardioversion

I've had problems with Atrial Fibrillation since at least May of 2008. It more than likely was earlier than that. However in May of that year I was hospitalized three and a half days until the intraveneous medication, Amiodarone and digoxin, converted my heart beat to normal sinus rhythm.

However this May I once again found myself in the hospital with Atrial Tachacardia. The diagnosis was Atrial Flutter. This is akin to Atrial Fibrillation, but the atrium or top chambers of the heart are beating with a stronger irregular pattern.

The introveneous medication was not helpful this time. Yesterday I found myself in the cardiac catheterization lab of St. Elizabeth Hospital awaiting the electro-cardioversion procedure, accompianied by my poor nervous wife.

I don't know if I wasn't upset because I am just plain tired of feeling so tired or I am faithful that God is taking care of me. I just couldn't get upset about it. I'd read as much as I could about the procedure. In fact I view several videos on Youtube of cardioversion. I had to wait until my coumadin level was at least 2.0 for three weeks in a row before I could have the procedure. There is a risk of developing a blood clot, hence the coumadin therapy. The day prior I had to have blood work run. And then came yesterday. C-Day


I arrived at the hospital at 11 AM and was directed to the cardiac catheterization department. From here a nurse at the station in the room's center announced, "We have been waiting for you." She took some information from me and escorted me to an area that had a stretcher,a couple of chairs, some monitoring equipment and an IV pole. I was presented with a lovely green gown that was too small for me. My heinie stuck out the back and it ended about five or so inches below my crotch.
This attire would be fashionable for a 16 year underfed high school girl, but not so for a chubby boy of 57 years. How those young girls walk around without embarrassment is beyond me. But back to the subject at hand. At least I had a sheet to cover up with.

I was probed, prodded, stuck, squeezed and examined. You know all the usual hospital stuff. They had a very interesting new thermometer. It looked sort of like a rachet wrench that the nurse dragged across my forehead and down my left cheek. It instantly provided my temperature. We are getting closer to Star Trek technology all the time.

Shortly after that another nurse introduced herself as Casey. She unlocked the stretcher I had been lying on and wheeled me down the hall after I kissed my wife. I arrived in a catheterization lab. It had a panel of six 19" flatscreen computer monitors that were hanging from a boom attached to the ceiling. On one screen was a view of the prior patients heart and cardiac arteries. On another screen I could see the program that Casey was running when she moved the mouse.

Another nurse named Mary Ann helped loosen my tiny gown, while Casey attached a pad with a metallic undersurface to my left upper chest and another directly behind it on my back. Wires were connected to the pads. I also was fitted with some more sticky thingies to attach the EKG leads.

About this time Dr. Kevin Miller came in the room. The nurses kidded him because he had to wear a white coverall over his street clothes. They said he looked like the Sta-puff Marshmellow Man. He is far too skinny for that comparison. He looked more like he was wearing a white rabbit suit without the tail.


The nurse had drawn up a syringe full of a white substance she called "Mothers Milk", because it was so soothing. Dr. Miller told my I was getting Diprivan and commented, "This is the Michael Jackson drug", since it has been reported that Jackson was taking this as a sleep potion. The last thing I heard was one of the nurses commenting, "it will make you a great dancer." After that the ceiling started spinning and I was hallucinating that someone was asking me all these questions and I had to push around the computer mouse on my stretcher to click on the correct answers.

I started to awaken and found my right index finger still pressing on the scoll button of the hallucinigenic mouse. Dr. Miller announced I was back in normal sinus rhythm. I was cogniscent enough to ask how many times I had to be zapped. He said, "one time only." I then asked the nurses when the pain would kick in. They said if you are not in pain now, you will not be in pain. I was then covered up and wheeled back to my cubby hole. I had apparently had already been redressed and the patches were removed. Linny, my wife, was beaming. Dr. Miller had already spoken with her and told her I was a textbook case for cardioversion.

I had to stay around for about an hour until the Michael Jackson drug wore off. After a while I was told to get up and try walking around. I suggested I would, but could they find something to cover up my keister. So another gown was draped around my backside and I walked around just fine. I was offered some food, but I just wanted a big drink of water and to go home.

I was wheeled out by a nurse aide to the sidewalk outside to await Linny with our car.

I was making idle chit-chat with the nurse aide when a couple of girls were walking toward us. One of the girls had on a blouse that revealed just about all of what is usually not revealed. The nurse aide was going on how awful this was. I suggested perhaps she is a representative of the LaLeache League coming to do a demonstation of wet nursing. We had a laugh and I went home.

Your Physics Joke of the Day

Two atoms were running down a road when they collided with one another.

The first atom says, "I'm sorry. Are you alright"

The second atom replied, "I've lost one of my electrons."

The first atom says, "Are you sure?"

The second atom replies, "I'm positive."

click here

More of Marc's Rules of Life

Mens gots to dig.











Women must perform purse excavation.










Some days you're the baby...









...Some days you're the diaper.











You should never argue with a crazy man.
















All women's shoes are designed by men that hated their mother.












The good ol' days weren't all that good.

Chinese Ethnic Violence

Did you know that within China there are 56 ethnic groups? Here are a few of them.

Over the weekend there are reports of violence between two Chinese ethnic groups.






The Wiggers...

The Chinese pronounce it "Weegars" and spell it Uihgars. Trust me, they are no different than the USA version.







...and the Huns.

The Chinese pronounce it Hans. Hans, Huns, whatever!













Can't we all just get along?

More Jackson

You will need a ticket to attend Michael Jackson's memorial service? $25 plus any service fee will get you there if your name is drawn.

Pardon my mid-western ethics, but I have never heard of having to purchase tickets to go to a memorial service. Other artists have passed away who had millions of adoring fans. I've seen video of them filing past the deceased.

I'm old enough to remember where I was when President Kennedy was assassinated and the reaction of the nation following that event. I watched black & white TV coverage for the next several days and can still hear the drum cadence as the caisson bearing Kennedy passed through Washington DC for him to lie in state at the Capitol. There were no tickets for that event.

Shortly after John Lennon was pronounced dead thousands gathered in front of his apartment building. His widow, Yoko Ono, asked them to convene the following Sunday in Central Park for a memorial service.

Over 100,000 attended with similar events throughout the World. Liverpool was essentially shut down. People the world over spent 10 minutes in silence at Ono's request. No one needed tickets.


Elvis died in August of 1977 and thousands lined the street in front on his mansion to pay their respects. The crowd was orderly and well-behaved despite being in 90+ degree heat. Two days later the same crowd lined the same street to catch a glimpse of their idol being driven to his final rest. They were eventually permitted to file respectfully past his grave. No thought was given to selling tickets.


I realize that the state of California is facing a severe financial crisis to the point it does not have money to pay for services. I also realize the Staples Center is a for profit business.

News reports say 11,000 tickets for The Staples Center were printed and another 6,500tickets were offered for the adjacent facility with closed-circuit Jumbo tron viewing. The tickets were sold by lottery at $25 each. Other news reports state that the memorial service was paid for from private donors.

In the scheme of things, $437,500 that will be recouped from ticket sales is probably not a lot of money for such an event. Perhaps the ticket policy is just a means of crowd control. I don't know.

I am just appalled by the prospect of selling tickets to a memorial service.