Winter Wind

Snowzilla

This time, it appears, the dire winter storm forecasts for the northeast turned out to be pretty accurate...

 

We get this sort of thing here in the midwest from time to time, of course, so I know what those folks are up against. I have friends in that neck of the woods, and I pray they get through the disruptions safely.

I'm also saying prayers for everyone who traveled to Washington, D.C. for the annual March for Life rally, that they will all make it back home safely.

March for Life, yesterday, before the storm began

"I thought snowstorms made you feel like a kid again..."

Up to a point...when they threaten peoples' lives, they're less charming...

Duty and Honor, Exemplified

A lot of the visitors to Arlington National Cemetery yesterday took pictures of the Honor Guard sentry standing post at the Tomb of the Unknowns (unofficially known as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier) as the snow began falling.


Keep this image in mind the next time some nitwit progressive compares our men and women in uniform to medieval barbarians like ISIS and Al-Qaeda.

Meanwhile, Among the Liberals Progressives Democrats

From the pen of Chip Bok, whose editorial cartoons you should read often, as I do.

Until Next Time...

I became a widower in June 1977, at age 24. For quite awhile after that event, news of untimely deaths involving people I admired in the entertainment business (the deaths of such people usually make the news) were especially upsetting to me.

On January 23, 1978 guitarist Terry Kath died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. It was entirely accidental, but it was also proof that not everyone who owns a handgun has the good sense not to treat it as a toy. He was just 31 years old.

The news hit me pretty hard. I was a fan of Kath's in part because we shared the same first name, but mostly because of his work with the rock group Chicago.

Original 1969 Chicago Transit Authority album cover

I had discovered the band quite by accident in 1969. They were calling themselves Chicago Transit Authority in those days, and I bought their debut album mostly on a whim (the store didn't have the album I was shopping for, this one was a double album, and it was on sale, so I took a flyer).





To say that I quickly became a fan would be an understatement. I played that album almost non-stop for weeks, and proselytized the band's virtues to all of my friends. Because the band incorporated brass instruments along with the more typical rock configuration, it was a tough sell at first.

That changed with the release of the band's second album, titled Chicago (and referred
to now as Chicago II), on January 26, 1970. The album was a huge hit, producing three Top 10 singles and reaching No. 4 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart.

That album launched the band on a career that has seen them sell more than 100 million records and wind up in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (their formal induction will take place on April 8, 2016).

January 31, 1946 - January 23, 1978

Kath was a significant contributor to the band's success both as a guitarist (Jimi Hendrix once told one of Kath's bandmates that he thought Terry was a better player) and as a vocalist.

His flashy playing and soulful vocals fueled several of the band's biggest hits. He was an important enough contributor to the band's signature sound that they considered breaking up after his death.





Today's send-off features Kath's distinctive playing and singing on "Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon," the extended suite that dominated Side 2 of the Chicago album and contained two of the band's signature hits, "Make Me Smile" and "Colour My World." Requiescat in pace, Terry...