Bustin' Out All Over

Anniversary

Missouri River at Council Bluffs on June 1, 2011

On June 1, 2011 the Missouri River reached flood stage at Council Bluffs. What followed was the longest flood event in U.S. history,
as the river remained above flood stage for a record 101 days.




I was living in Atlantic at the time, and we had some flooding of our own to deal with that summer, but nothing like what happened in the Bluffs.

Here in the midwest we're famous for our tornadoes, but this flood was a devastating economic blow to the whole city, and in some ways my hometown is still feeling the effects of it even today.

"I still get a little nervous when it rains for several days in a row..."

Me too, old friend...

Boom Sticks

My beloved Kansas City Royals continued their recent offensive surge last night at Kauffman Stadium, beating Tampa Bay 10-5 for their season-best fifth straight win.
It was also the team's eighth straight game with double-digit hit totals.

"BOOM!"

The offense got going early, with
CF Lorenzo Cain hitting a two-run home run in the first inning. Lorenzo went 2-for-4 with 4 RBIs and scored twice.

1B Eric Hosmer added a pair of RBIs on a three-hit night, and
DH Kendrys Morales had 3 RBIs, two of them coming on a home run that closed the Royals scoring in the 6th inning.

"It wasn't always pretty, but the team won."

Royals starter Dillon Gee improved to 2-2 after laboring through five innings. He struck out seven and only walked one batter, but gave up a three-run home run in the top of the 2nd inning that put the Royals in a temporary hole.




RHP Chris Young contributed three scoreless innings, but a wobbly 9th inning by Scott Alexander required an appearance by All-Star closer Wade Davis, who recorded his 15th save with just five pitches.

The latest injury.

The news from the stadium wasn't all good, though. Rookie LF Brett Eibner had to leave the game after injuring his ankle in the top of the 5th inning. He is scheduled to have an MRI later today, but manager Ned Yost's comments on the injury make it sound like a trip to the Disabled List is imminent.



That's an especially tough break, as Eibner was hitting .462 (6 for 13) with three doubles since being called up.

The series with the Rays concludes tonight. The Royals have already won the series, their sixth straight, but they will be trying for their second straight series sweep.

It's June 1, nimrod...WAY too early to be thinking like that...

Happy Birthday!

On June 1, 1926 Norma Jean Mortensen was born in Los Angeles. Under her stage name Marilyn Monroe, she would become a Hollywood icon. As was the case with many young boys, Marilyn was the first woman I ever saw completely nude (her pictorial in the inaugural issue of Playboy magazine in December 1953, which I saw when I was in 6th grade, was passed around like the Rosetta Stone by adolescent boys).

Original 1954 "one sheet" poster

Marilyn didn't really make the kind of movies I watched as a kid, but director
Otto Preminger's 1954 western epic
River of No Return was one of my mom's favorite movies, and I watched it with her many times.

The film, which was shot in Technicolor and CinemaScope in Banff National Park, Jasper National Park, and Lake Louise, is said to be one of the most visually beautiful movies ever made. I don't disagree.

Like most people, I was shocked and saddened when news of Marilyn's death made headlines in the summer of 1962.
My grandmother (mom's mom) took it particularly hard, and I remember sitting on my grandfather's porch with her as she cried after hearing the news on TV...

In the fullness of time, I came to understand the arc of her life and career more completely, and how Hollywood's packaging of her contributed to her troubled life and untimely death. She had genuine talent, as she showed in Bus Stop, but her life proved
to be a cautionary tale about Hollywood's cult of celebrity.

Newspaper of Record

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

Until Next Time...

I was about to reach my 11th birthday when The Beatles debuted in America with a legendary performance on The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday, February 9, 1964. The band performed on each of the following two Sundays as well, and by the time they returned to England on February 22 "Beatlemania" was in full swing here in the United States. It is difficult to describe what a cultural phenomenon they were to people who didn't live through that experience.

By the time I graduated from 8th grade in 1967, The Beatles were already being hailed
as the greatest rock and roll band of all time. While I was certainly a fan of their music,
I never really thought of them that way, as there were other artists I liked much better. At that point in my life, I consumed music in the form of 45 RPM singles, as most young kids did. Among their many accomplishments, it was The Beatles who transformed my generation into album buyers.

On June 1, 1967 the band released  
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in both the U.K. and the United States, their first-ever simultaneous release date. You could say it was a hit.

The album debuted at No. 1 on the U.K. sales charts. In the United States, it took four weeks for the record to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart (July 1), but once there it held that position until October 14, a remarkable 15-week run at the top.
It was the first full-length LP record
I ever purchased.

It is difficult to overstate the influence of this album, both musically and technologically. You can make an argument that it is the greatest album in the history of rock music.

Today's send-off is one of the few official videos The Beatles have on YouTube. It is
"A Day in the Life," the album's finale and perhaps the most talked-about track on the album. The music is paired with film of the recording session. Enjoy...