Shrove Tuesday 2017

Fat Is Where It's At!

The day before Ash Wednesday
is known as Shrove Tuesday,
aka Mardi Gras (French for "Fat Tuesday"), aka Pancake Tuesday after the traditional practice
of eating pancakes as a way to remove rich foods like eggs, butter, and milk from the household before Lenten fasting began.

The tradition is notably popular among the Irish, so it is entirely possible that I might visit my local Village Inn today in solidarity with my Gaelic brothers and sisters...

"Irish, schmirish, you just want an excuse to eat out today."

It has been quite awhile...I'm overdue...

Explosion

"¡Uno dos tres CUATRO!"

My beloved Kansas City Royals got back on the winning track in Cactus League action yesterday, bombing the Seattle Mariners 14-3 Monday at the Peoria Sports Complex.

All-Star C Salvador Perez led the offensive outburst with a homer and four RBIs. OFs Paulo Orlando and Peter O'Brien also homered.

"Just taking it one step at a time..."

Royals starter Jason Vargas pitched two complete innings, and thanks to the Royals' four-run top of the 1st inning got credit for the win despite not pitching particularly well.

Of course, at this point the main thing is just having Jason back out there,
as he continues his comeback from his 2015 Tommy John surgery.

"Not wallowing in pessimism today?"

We scored 14 runs and hit three homers...of course not...

Railfan Fun

Baltimore & Ohio EMD E8A in 1964

On February 28, 1827 the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was incorporated as the nation's first common carrier railroad. The B&O soon became a leader in American railroading both in technology and in its innovative business practices.




Railfans like me will always have a soft spot for classic B&O paint schemes like the one pictured above, which adorned famous passenger trains like the Capitol Limited and the Columbian. The road's famous B&O Warehouse in Baltimore was bought by the Baltimore Orioles when they built Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and now houses the team's offices and other facilities.

"You still hate the Orioles though, right?"

Once baseball season has started? Yes, of course...

Now That's Funny!

So a clever librarian
in Platteville, Wisconsin decided to have a little fun with last Sunday's epic Academy Awards snafu...

Good Call

From the indispensable comic strip Non Sequitur, by Wiley Miller, which you should read every day, as I do (even though Wiley is a squishy liberal).

Until Next Time...

One of the things I miss the most about teaching is chaperoning dances, especially
the more formal ones like Homecoming, Winter Formal, and Prom.

When I returned to the classroom in 1995 after my hiatus, Bishop LeBlond typically
had just those Big Three dances on their calendar each year, as it was a small school whose population was stretched pretty thin with sports, music, speech and drama events, and church-related activities.

Just as it had been for my own generation, the mainstream pop music charts at that time were largely a reflection of the preferences of high school-age kids. The first thing
I noticed when I began chaperoning dances again that fall was that the charts had been taken over by vocalists (mostly female) rather than bands. In 1996, for instance, most of the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit singles were by Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men, Celine Dion, and Toni Braxton (plus that ridiculous novelty song "Macarena"). Rap and especially hip-hop music had began to make inroads with the kids, though, and by the time 2004 rolled around every single Hot 100 No. 1 was by a rap or hip-hop artist or group.

The king of that particular hill that year was unquestionably Usher Raymond IV, who used his first name as his stage name. At both of LeBlond's dances in early 2004 by far the most enthusiastic response I saw my kids give to any song was to Usher's "Yeah!" The song had been released in mid-January and had quickly become a monster hit.

Original 2004 CD single

On February 28, 2004 "Yeah!" reached No. 1 on the Billboard 
Hot 100 Singles chart, a position
it would hold for the next twelve consecutive weeks. It was bumped from No. 1 by Usher's own "Burn," which then ran his streak of consecutive weeks at No. 1 to 19,
the longest such streak for any solo artist in the history of the Hot 100.

Usher also had two more singles that hit No. 1 in 2004, making him the only solo artist ever to have four
No. 1 hits in a calendar year.


Today's send-off is the official music video for the song, which has over 84 million views, from Usher's VEVO channel. Enjoy...