Music & More

liar, liar ...

With the presidential election getting closer, emails of a political nature keep a coming. Most of these come from hopefully well meaning friends. Often the message concludes with a dire warning like "our country's future is at stake" and requests that I forward the email to all my other internet friends. The problem with many of these emails is that they are lies, plain and simple, lies! - not just a difference of opinion. I don't want to spread these lies and I feel that if I just delete the message, I'm in a way endorsing the sender's lies. What to do? First a little background.

If you believe that politicians never deliberately lie, stop reading right now. You're hopeless. While it is sometimes by omission, taking statements out of context, etc., almost all politicians stretch the truth. Maybe that's one of the reasons that the approval rating of Congress, aka the millionaire's club, has been hovering around 10% for quite some time. Ethics is not their strong suit. I liked the woman in the Occupy movement who had a sign that read something like "I'm carrying this sign because I can't afford to buy a congressman".

This situation is not new:

I'm sure that many readers are familiar with this famous quote from Mark Twain: "It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress".

Ambrose Bierce in his "Devil's Dictionary" defined politics as "n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage." (The Devil's Dictionary can be found on-line.)

More recently, country singer Brad Paisley's song "I'll Take You Back" is about a guy who in effect is saying that he'll get back together with his ex-wife or lover when hell freezes over. In one verse he sings that he'll take her back "when politicians everywhere stop telling lies, and only state the facts".

One of my ways to determine the veracity of these political emails is to check certain websites devoted to uncovering false statements. I haven't read of any complaints about them. They seem to be bi-partisan. If they favored one party over another, they would lose all credibility.

PolitiFact.com is said to be a project of the Tampa Bay Times to help you find the truth in Washington and the Obama presidency. They aren't picking on President Obama; they also review comments from the Republicans hoping to unseat him. Statements are characterized as true, mostly true, half true, false, mostly false and whoppers are characterized as "pants on fire" as in "liar, liar, pants on fire".

www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker is another source. The Fact Checker by Glenn Kessler describes itself as "the Truth Behind the Rhetoric". It awards up to 4 Pinocchio's depending on the extent of the lie.

Snopes is broader based, not specifically focussing on politics. Snopes.com describes itself as the definitive internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation.

When I receive a false email, I reply to the sender with a copy of the data I found on the above websites.

Sometimes a slick sender will claim that the information being forwarded has been verified by Snopes. Don't assume this to be true. Check out the citation yourself. I have gotten emails where the Snopes article referenced did not support the lie they were spreading.

 

 

Christmas Truce

I was looking into the music of lyricist Joe Henry recently in conjunction with writing a post on the Gary Burr cd, "Lime Creek". Best known for his song writing collaborations with John Denver, Joe co-wrote all the songs  with Gary on Lime Creek. He also wrote a song with Garth Brooks about a Christmas Day truce during World War I. The song was "Belleau Wood", the last track on Garth's "Sevens" album. During the night of the truce with the snow falling over the men in their trenches, a German soldier began singing a song the Americans recognized as "Silent Night". They stood up and joined in the singing. But once the clock struck midnight, all hell broke loose again.

Did this touching story in "Belleau Wood" actually happen? I can believe that it did. Soldiers stressed out and weary of all the death and destruction could certainly be looking for consolation in a Christmas hymn and even enemies could be brought together in song by their common human needs. I know of an event that actually did occur during a Christmas truce and it also led to a soldier breaking out in song.

On Christmas Day of 1968 in Viet Nam there was a truce. My unit, Charlie Company of the 1st Battallion, 28th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division (the Big Red One) was somewhere out in the boonies north of Saigon. Since we were away from our temporary base with its bunkers and concertina wire as well as artillery and mortar support, we had set up a defensive perimeter for the day. A week earlier our company lost a few very good men killed in an ambush so this truce was especially welcome. Our leaders wisely decided not to count on a silent night. The men at each position took turns at guard duty and LP's - Listening Posts - were sent out just before dark.

Each Listening Post consisted of 3 men who alternated on guard. There were generally four LP positions, roughly equidistant outside the perimeter and 100 meters beyond it. Each position was equipped with a PRC-25 radio, fondly known as the "prick 25". The purpose was to provide early warning of a possible attack. When we first joined the company, we were warned about the dangers of falling asleep on guard. A story was told of an LP who fell asleep and woke up to find his two guard buddies with their throats slit.

That Christmas night, one of the LP's fell asleep. The company RTO - radio operator - kept trying to contact the position, repeating "LP1, LP1, if you have a negative sitrep (situation report), break squelch twice". (The LP was supposed to hit the squelch button on the radio rather than talk so as not to give away his position.) The sergeant in the command post was not happy. If there was no response, someone would have to go out and check on the status of the position. The entire perimeter would have to be alerted that one of our own was going out so that he wouldn't be mistaken for an enemy.

At my squad's position, I'm monitoring my radio and thinking please God, I hope it's just that someone fell asleep, when over the radio I heard one of the guys from another position start to sing. To the tune of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", he sang "In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle, the LP Sleeps Tonight". Since the sarge in the CP immediately expressed his displeasure in no uncertain terms, I didn't get to hear any more of the song. Luckily, there were no violations of the truce that day, at least in our area of operations.

The most famous version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is by the Tokens.  According to Songfacts.com, the song hit the top of the charts 50 years ago, during the 1961 Christmas holidays. The Lion song has an interesting history going back to the 1930's so if you want to learn more, get googling.

 

 

11-11-11

This Friday is Veteran's Day, 11-11-11. There will be parades and ceremonies and some restaurants will be offering free meals to veterans. Maybe this cool looking date, 11-11-11, will spur more than the usual attention and lead to a greater appreciation of their sacrifices.

Since 1973 when the military draft ended, the youth of America has not had to delay getting on with their future by spending two years in the military. The all volunteer military has met our war related challenges. The strain, however, has become apparent in the last few years due to multiple tours of duty in combat areas. In addition to death and dismemberment, cases of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have risen dramatically.

If you ask anyone if they support the troops, it's highly likely that 99% will say yes. If you were able to see how many gave more than lip service, the percentage would most likely be a lot lower. Granted there are many in these hard economic times who are unable to contribute financially and then there are those who have volunteered their time to help disabled veterans. It's certainly possible that the thought of giving to an organization supporting disabled veterans just hasn't occurred to many of our citizens. Maybe 11-11-11 will be a wake-up call to giving.

Here are two of the best known organizations you can contribute to:

Disabled American Veterans - www.dav.org

Wounded Warrior Project - www.woundedwarriorproject.org

Before giving to any organization claiming to aid veterans (or any other charity), you should check them out on Give.org to make sure they're legitimate. To be accredited by the BBB (Better Business Bureau), a charity has to meet 20 standards for charity accountability. The Disabled American Veterans and Wounded Warrior Project have met these standards.

 

 

 

9/11 Remembered - 10th Anniversary

As everybody knows, this Sunday is the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Shortly after 9/11 Alan Jackson asked in song, "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?". Where were you?

I was sitting at my desk on the 4th floor of 6 World Trade Center at about 8:45 on the morning of September 11, 2001. I heard a crash and saw debris falling past my window to the ground. I didn't know it was a plane that hit Tower 1 but I did know this was no accident. I had been at work the day of the first terrorist attack in 1993. I got up from my desk and started heading for the door, following others who also instinctively knew to get out. I didn't stop to get anything out of my desk.

We exited building 6 and headed across a walkway over Vesey St to building 7, looking over our shoulders to make sure no more debris was headed toward us. We waited about 20 minutes before our division director gave us the ok to start heading home. He was trying to get in touch with the bosses at our headquarters in Washington. The glass fronted lobby of building 7 was making a lot of us nervous. An explosion could send all that glass right at us. In addition to the twin towers, buildings 6 and 7 were also destroyed when the towers fell.

Some of our personnel headed towards the World Financial Center across West St. They saw people jumping from the towers and others already lying dead on the ground. Glad I didn't see that.

I headed uptown. My thought initially was to go to Central Park. There are no buildings hence it wouldn't be another target. I got to call my wife from a pay phone around West 4th St. I didn't have a cell phone then. I was on 7th Avenue near the corner of 22nd St when Tower 1 collapsed. I couldn't believe it. That massive building of concrete and steel collapsed? I had seen it almost every weekday for the past 24 years. I started heading back uptown and saw the Empire State Building. I thought it could be another target so I walked over to 8th Avenue to be further away from it. 

I was resting for a few minutes, sitting on a bench outside a building in the west 40's on 8th Avenue when I spotted a co-worker who also lived on Long Island. We continued uptown to 59th street and then headed toward the 59th street bridge. We crossed the bridge into Queens and somewhere got a bus to the Jamaica railroad station. We then walked to 169th St and Hillside Avenue where my wife and her sister picked us up. The soles of my feet were burning but otherwise I was fine. All of my co-workers made it out safely so we had a lot to be thankful for. I wish that all the 9/11 victims had been as lucky.

 

Just about 3 years ago I wrote about some good times at the WTC. I thought I'd re-post it here for the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

 

September 21, 2008

Country Concerts at the WTC

The 7th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks was observed a little over a week ago. With good reason, whenever anyone mentions the WTC, the first thing that comes to mind will be the events of that awful day. We will always remember the victims and the heroic firemen, police and other emergency workers, many of whom became victims themselves.

Prior to 9/11, there were good days at the WTC. I recall those wonderful lunchtime country concerts held outside at the Austin Tobin Plaza of the WTC. From my office window, I could see the side of the stage. Although I missed quite a few concerts because of summertime family vacations or business, I still got to see many great performances.

Country Thursdays was sponsored by former country radio station Y-107 and some corporate sponsors like the NY lottery and Chrysler. (It's a shame that NYC has been without a country music radio station since May of 2002.) In addition to Country Thursday, the WTC also had Classical Mondays, Broadway Tuesdays, Jazz Wednesdays and R&B Fridays. I read somewhere that 2001 was the 15th year of concerts which were generally held from late June to the end of August. I don't remember them being around that long but my memory is not the greatest.

I got to see Suzy Bogguss, the Dixie Chicks, Terri Clark, Ty Herndon, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Phil Vassar, Big House, Trick Pony, Steve Wariner, Darryl Worley and probably others. Some of the acts I missed include Hal Ketchum, Lari White, Bryan White, Jo Dee Messina, Mark Wills, Keith Urban, Gary Allan, Chris Cagle, Toby Keith, Chely Wright, Tracy Byrd and Lila McCann. The following is a typical schedule I found on line at www.panynj.gov/pr/92-98.html that came out on June 27, 1998:

July 9    Hal Ketchum

July 16    Gary Allan and Mark Wills

July 23    Bryan White

July 30    Dixie Chicks and Gil Grand

August 6 Lari White

August 13    Big House and David Kersh

August 20    Steve Wariner and Suzy Bogguss

August 27    Chely Wright and Jo Dee Messina

I'd love to see the complete schedule for the entire fifteen years of the concert program. If you go to the website noted above, you can see what artists were scheduled to perform that year in the other music formats.

In addition to the lunchtime concerts they had Summer Oldies on Thursday evenings and a Salsa Dance Party on Friday evenings. I remember seeing Johnny Maestro of the Crests and later of the Brooklyn Bridge. The Boxtops, Drifters and Gary Lewis & the Playboys were also scheduled. I got to see the Tokens featuring Jay Siegel (loved "The Lion Sleeps Tonight") but I believe that was a noon time show.

Chock (not as) full o' Nuts

They're at it again - raising prices by reducing the weight of the product. This time the villain is an old friend of mine. I've been drinking Chock full o' Nuts, described on the label as "New York's coffee since 1932", since around 1960. By the way, it says on the can that "No, there are no nuts in here (it's a long story) ..." Maybe the story's on-line somewhere. No hazlenut or French Roast for me. I still drink their Original blend, a medium roast said to be their signature coffee known by generations of New Yorkers as the "Heavenly Coffee". One of the things I made sure of before moving to Nashville was that the stores here carried Chock.

I remember when they reduced the 1 pound cans to 13 ounces. I was shopping at a Stop 'n' Shop on Long Island at the time. The can was the same size. I can understand that because it would mean big bucks tooling up to manufacture a new size can. This morning I was shopping at Kroger's and saw that they were selling the big Chock for $12.35. (Publix was selling it for $9.99 and recently had it on sale for $6.99.) So I picked up the can and took off my glasses for a closer look. Much to my surprise, the net weight of the can is now 33.9 oz. For quite a few years now, the large can of coffee has been 39 oz., down from the 3 lbs it was when the small can weighed a pound. I still have one 39 oz. can in my pantry closet so the change occurred recently. Customers may not notice the weight reduction because at a quick glance 33.9 oz. can look an awful lot like 39 oz. If they were not trying to deceive the public, why didn't they reduce the weight to 34 oz. Was that extra .1 oz so vital to the company's financial well being? Raise the prices if you must, but don't be sneaky about it.

I found the following article on-line which mentions 10 more products that have reduced weights, including Tropicana Orange Juice which has gone from 64 to 59 oz.

Downsized: More and More Products Lose Weight

Jan 5, 2011 ... It's also an alternative to a price increase. ... propellant weighs less per unit volume, the net weight in the same-size can was reduced. ...
www.walletpop.com/.../downsized-more-and-more-products-lose-weight/

RIP: Davy & the DJ

Fess Parker died this past Thursday at the age of 85. Unless you're a baby boomer or older, the name might not mean much to you. Mr. Parker played Davy Crockett in the Disney TV series back in the early 1950's. (See my post of August 30, 2008, Davy Crockett Sundaes In Front of the Alamo.) In addition to the TV series, the show's theme song, "The Ballad of Davy Crockett", became famous. The Bill Hayes version went to #1 on the pop charts. Beginning in 1964, Fess played another frontiersman, Daniel Boone in a series that lasted 6 years. I don't recall watching it, at least not on a regular basis. In his later years, Mr. Parker owned and operated a winery, among other business ventures.

The most interesting item to me in the New York Times obituary is the account of how Mr. Parker got to play Davy. Glenn Ford, Sterling Hayden and Ronald Reagan were said to have been considered for the Crockett role but were ruled out. Someone recommended James Arness so Walt Disney went to see him in the sci-fi movie "Them". Arness, later to win fame as Gunsmoke's Marshall Dillon, had a major role in the movie and Fess Parker had a small part. Disney chose Parker. (Just saw a 1959  Maverick episode, "Gun Shy", which spoofed Gunsmoke including Miss Kitty, Doc and Chester in addition to the Arness character, Marshall Matt Dillon. The latter was transformed into Marshall Mort Dooley played by Ben Gage who kept trying to throw Bret Maverick - James Garner - out of town.)

A few days before Mr. Parker's death, the New York Times included the obituary of Ron Lundy, a noted NY DJ who died of a heart attack at 75. The obit noted his longtime catchphrase, “Hello, Love — this is Ron Lundy from the greatest city in the world!”. He was at WABC-AM from 1965 to 1982 and WCBS FM from 1984 to 1997. I remember him well. The article mentioned other NY DJ's such as Bruce Morrow (Cousin Brucie), Dan Daniel, Dan Ingram, Scott Muni, Herb Oscar Anderson and Jack Spector.

I began listening to rock'n'roll on the radio in 1957, the year I turned 11. The big deal for me was catching each week's new top 40 which I think came out on Tuesday evening. The first DJ's I remember were Peter Tripp, who called himself the "curly headed kid in the third row", Alan Freed and Murray the K. Murray, aka the "Fifth Beatle". Murray called his show the "swinging soiree" and often spoke of "submarine race-watching". On the Alan Freed show, I seem to recall that a song would end, Alan would say something like "time to pep up with Hi-C grape drink" and immediately play another song. The rock group called the Earls had a hit single in the early 60's called "Eyes". Wish I could remember the DJ who used to introduce the song "The Eyes have it, the Earls sing it". Could it have been Bob Lewis who called himself Bob-a Loo?

 

Old Nashville News

As my wife and I were leaving the Athens Family Restaurant on Franklin Pike after breakfasting on spinach and feta omelets (delicious) we noticed a newspaper on a rack by the door with the headline "4 OPRY STARS DIE IN CRASH". The headline was just above the fold and below a picture of an equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson. To the left of the picture is an article on the the statue from 1848. The paper is a free monthly called "The Nashville Retrospect" which describes itself below the banner as Stories & News from the City's Past. The Opry Crash story was about the death of Patsy Cline which occurred 47 years ago. The current issue is 10 pages and the pages are roughly 15" x 22", a broadsheet (folded twice) rather than a tabloid. The first issue came out in July of '09.

Since this is the March issue, all the stories have March datelines. The stories identify the Nashville paper in which the column originally appeared. The Opry story appeared in the Nashville Banner. The 1848 story on the Jackson statue is from The Daily Union. There's an 1888 story from The Daily American called "The Hasheesh Eaters" which said that the opium habit is decreasing in Nashville. A story from The Colored Tennessean in 1866 called "Our Colored Soldiers" expressed concern about the  lack of consideration for colored troops now that the war has ended. The Nashville banner provided a little humor - at least to today's readers - with an AP story of March 14, 1940, "Wives urged to keep quiet at the breakfast table" if they want to keep their husbands healthy.

On page 2, there's a Contents Timeline running from 1780 to 1982 with entries like 1784 - the town of Nashville is chartered, 1796 - Tennessee becomes the 16th state, 1843 - Nashville becomes state capital, 1864 - Union troops win Battle of Nashville, 1883 - U.S. Customs House completed, and 1950 - Name "Music City, USA" coined by DJ. There's also a map of Downtown Nashville in which the old names of today's streets are given. For example, 2nd Avenue was Market Street, 4th Avenue was Cherry Street, etc. The remainder of the paper has more articles and some advertisements which I assume pays the freight.

I like this paper and look forward to the next issue. The paper has a website, Nashvilleretrospec.com. When you open the site there's a picture of the current edition under which you can click to get a list of locations where the paper can be picked up. The list includes most of the public libraries. One of the other locations is Joey's House of Pizza in Brentwood which has the best pizza in the Nashville area. The owners are from Brooklyn, NY which may explain why it's so good. Maybe the editors can find a story about who introduced pizza to Nashville.

Freedom Bird - 40th Anniversary

I missed Woodstock. If you read the papers, get your news online or watch TV, you know that the most publicized music festival of all time ran for four days forty years ago, from August 15th to the 18th. A Richie Havens song "Freedom" became famous. My favorite song at the time was a 1965 single by Eric Burdon and the Animals, "We Gotta Get Out of This Place". Today is the 40th anniversary of one of the happiest days of my life. August 19, 1969 was the day I got on the World Airways plane, the Freedom Bird, that took me away from Viet Nam. It was the most exhilarating feeling when that plane took off. I had survived my tour as an infantryman (aka a "grunt") with the Big Red One and I was headed home. I wasn't through with the army - I still had to spend 6 months at Fort Carson, Colorado - but I was alive and well. In a war that ultimately took over 58,000 American lives and who knows how many lost limbs or minds, that was a big deal.

I had been scheduled to depart on August 23rd but I wasn't going to argue about getting to leave a few days early. In fact, if I had extended my tour in Nam for about 2 months I could have gotten an early out and avoided the 6 months at Fort Carson. It wasn't worth the risk. August 23rd was my DEROS date. I always thought that the acronym stood for Date Ending Rotation Over Seas but I've seen other variations such as date of expected return from overseas. On the flight to Nam on Flying Tiger airlines the year before, I sat next to a guy from Iowa. The same guy sat next to me on the flight back to the states. Don't know if that's unusual or not. We got assigned to different units so I hadn't seen him for almost a year. If I saw a picture of him as he looked back then I think I'd recognize him although I have no recollection of his name.

I was a draftee. I did not volunteer to go to Nam. But I knew that once my year was up I would not have to go back. If someone told me that I would have to return I think I would seriously have considered heading to Canada. I can't imagine doing 3, 4 or 5 tours like some of our soldiers have in Iraq and Afghanistan. While we're out attending concerts and ballgames, they're enduring many hardships and facing death or dismemberment on a daily basis from IEDs, car bombs, etc. The stress must be unbelievable. To leave a combat zone but know that you have to return obviously takes away a lot of the joy from getting back to the states. Some may say that they enlisted and should have known the risks involved. That doesn't make it any easier on them or their loved ones. I hope to soon see the day when we have no troops in a combat zone.

driving me crazy

I've had it. Doesn't anybody know how to pass another car on the highway? I was driving from Nashville to Staunton, Virginia recently taking 40 east til I picked up Interstate 81 about 25 miles east of Knoxville and took it to Staunton. It's a little over 300 miles from south Nashville to the Virginia border at Bristol and another 220 up route 81 to Staunton. Had to have happened at least a dozen times that a driver would pass me and then pull in less than 2 car lengths in front of me. Since I was driving around 65 mph someone passing me should be 6 - 7 car lengths ahead before pulling in - one car length for every 10 miles per hour. Don't they teach this in driving school any more? One guy came close to taking off my driver's side head light. Hope these drivers don't pull in front of 18 wheelers like that. There was another idiot who was behind me in the right lane, riding my butt. Since I wouldn't speed up (I guess), he pulled out into the passing lane and immediately pulled in front of me - just in time to get off the interstate. He couldn't have just stayed behind me and gotten off?

Kind of related to this beef is the "if the other driver even has to touch his brakes, you shouldn't have pulled out in front of him" rule. OK, I made this rule up but it makes sense. This applies when you're stopped at an intersection ready to turn or cross as well as when both vehicles are on a highway, 2 lane road, etc. This rule is for the jerks who are inching out at an intersection, see you coming, and when you're just about on top of them they pull out forcing you to slam on your brakes. Other death wish drivers are those who wait til the last possible second before making a left hand turn in front of you.

Since I'm talking about car lengths, the subject of tailgating comes to mind. Some drivers are in such a hurry they want everyone to move out of their way so they try to intimidate drivers ahead of them by driving right on their rear bumpers. (Maybe some of these scared drivers are the ones who keep pulling in front of me?) Some even flash their lights to get you to move over and let them pass. When this happens, I always hope to see the tailgater pulled over by a state trooper. It never happens.

While I'm in a ranting mood, let me hit a few more targets. Ever notice cars ahead of you who keep drifting over into your lane. You know what these drivers are doing. If it isn't merely holding a cell phone to their ear, it's sending a text message. You want to pass them quickly before they drift again. Besides the phones, I remember one young kid had a hard cover book propped up on the steering wheel as he drove south on route 65 doing about 65. Do driving schools these days teach kids how to drive with one or no hands? I think that states that do not have laws against driving while texting or using a non-hands free cell phone should be required to teach those applying for a driver's license how to safely drive with one hand (if that's possible). The applicants should have to take their road test one handed. If we're going to allow people to drive one handed, then they should be taught how to safely drive that way. 

Pursuing Trivia on 65 North

Driving north on interstate 65 from Nashville to Indianapolis is a pleasant drive, especially if you leave after 9 a.m. when the local rush hour is over so you arrive in Indy before their rush hour begins. About 55 miles from our house in south Nashville, we cross the state line on 65 into Kentucky. The first major city we hit is Bowling Green, a city celebrated in the song "Bowling Green", written by Terry Slater and Jaqueline Ertel and first made famous in 1967 when the Everly Brothers sang "A man in Kentucky, sure is lucky, to love down in Bowling Green". It's also the home of Western Kentucky University and, at exit 28, the National Corvette Museum on the left or west side of 65. A little further on around exit 53, there's a Dinosaur World amusement park heralded by a huge statue of a dinosaur. For roughly the next 40 miles you can see the results of the January ice storms - all the damaged trees. Many have been cut down or trimmed and there are piles of cut trees and limbs on the side of 65, ready to be hauled away.

But the big attactions on this drive are clustered along about a 5 mile stretch from around exits 76 thru 80. First on the left you see a big sign reading "HELL IS REAL" - the "H" is in red (representing the fires of hell?) with the rest of the letters in white on a black background. A few hundred feet further on the right, there's an adult video store advertised by a sign on stilts. We never see any cars in the parking lot of this store so maybe the "HELL IS REAL" sign is getting its message across. The back of this sign has the last 5 of the 10 Commandments which you can see on the drive south. (Thou shalt not commit adultery, kill, steal, bear false witness against your neighbor or covet your neighbor's wife.) A few miles further north on the right we see one of my favorite roadside signs. It's a structure that  looks like a wishing well. The roof bears the name Sullivan Farms and has an American flag mounted on the right side. A sign mounted between the uprights supporting the roof reads "Used Cows for Sale" and gives a telephone number. What is a "used cow"?. Has someone from the adult video store been messing with these cows? According to the 10th Commandment, in addition to not coveting your neighbor's wife, you're also not supposed to covet his cattle.   

The drive north through Kentucky on 65 culminates in Louisville before you cross the bridge over the Ohio River into Indiana. Some of the fields on the side of the interstate appeared to have some kind of purple ground covering. Was it a wildflower of some kind? Some say that timing is everything. We always play cd's to pass the time on the road. While we're wondering about the purple, we hear Kathy Mattea singing "Summer of My Dreams",  a song written by Dave Mallett. When she got to the line "There's a field of purple clover" we had our answer. We also discovered a chain of restaurants new to us, Max and Erma's. We've eaten in two right off the interstate on the way to Indianapolis and one near 465, north of Indy and have been pleased with all of them. They have a website, maxandermas.com.