Ron G.

RottieGrrrl... The current popular treat for Arkinsaw tourists is deep fried dill pickles. Just take a big ol' pickle, batter it and deep fry it. They aren't bad at all, once you get used to the idea. My personal favorite is the jalapeno pepper stuffed with cheese, then battered and fried. Affectionately known as "Armadillo Eggs" they, too are quite popular. A new thing has come on the grease horizon and that's the battered and fried chicken on a stick with a slice of dill pickle and some other unidentifiable things added for good measure. Aint life grand in the deep fryer? ****************************** In a real world and just society, lazy critters eat last. If any care to feed them. DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

Mike... You have every right to speak your mind as you see fit regarding VPW's material. I doubt anyone really minds. My son took over my computer last night and I ended up turning the tv on only to see a PBS rerun of an old Lawrence Welk show....kinda reminded me of your VPW posts...all tired and worn out, but we all were there at one time or another in our lives. When you said VP's writings carried the same authority as Pauls, I about fell out of my chair...but 18 years ago, I'd have agreed with you...and that embarrasses me. Here are some suggestions for other dead hosses you can beat for a while that are equally interesting, but won't generate nearly the negative feedback... Was Paul McCartney really dead? (we know he isn't now, but was he back then when they had him barefoot on the Abbey Road album?) Who shot J.R.? Was it morally right for Capt. Pike to go finish his days in a dream world on that planet with those guys with the pulsating brains? Was Morton Downey Jr. really a nazi? Your posts are kind of a trip down memory lane. But I think for some folks here, it might be like the taste of bourbon to a recovering alcoholic. ****************************** In a real world and just society, lazy critters eat last. If any care to feed them. DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

You say you and oldiesman agree on something!! COOL!! I think ol' Mike has really hit on something that can actually make ALL of us agree in unison...even Garth and me! Mike... How long are you gonna keep beatin' that dead hoss before you realize it's just dust and bone? Just curious. Sudo... I always thought you must have the most awesome tape and record collection in the entire universe, but now I'm afraid of it. It seems to be fraught with VPWisms. But, at least YOU know the hoss is dead LOL ****************************** In a real world and just society, lazy critters eat last. If any care to feed them. DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

Ted... Thank you ever so much for those lyrics! I sure do appreciate you! I didn't get into TWI until '81, so "Daddy's Arms" kinda went with my time there. Buck... I guess I read your story about 5 times and even shared it with my 9 yr old son (leaving out some of the parts about Barcelona etc) as it's an inspiration to any who might read it. You write very well. Thank you for that. Chatty... Why aint YOUR name on that Certificate? ****************************** In a real world and just society, lazy critters eat last. If any care to feed them. DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

That, along with "Daddy's Arms" was my very favorite. Those two songs got me thru some rather unpleasant moments. Can the lyrics for "Daddy's Arms" be posted? Merry Christmas to you and Chatty and everybody else here!! (Ain't it fun to say Merry Christmas again?) ****************************** In a real world and just society, lazy critters eat last. If any care to feed them. DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

Here are some folks I think of often and would love to run across again sometime...it was them as well as many others like them (whose names I don't recall offhand) who made my tenure in TWI worthwhile. Joann Califano, Carolyn Sabolchack, Jerry ???, Kyle Sandel, Eileen White, Paul Goldberg, Dottie Castorina (sp?), Terry Ippolito, Randall Ashe, Ron Gualteri, The BC that lived in Merritt Island, FL 81-82 who moved to Tampa (remembered her name yesterday, but it escapes me now), the 81-82 WOWs from Eau Gallie, FL, the "Port Fierce" WOWs. If you aren't too embarrassed to admit you knew me (I know I probably would be), drop me an email. ****************************** In a real world and just society, lazy critters eat last. If any care to feed them. DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

Oh, and by the way, here is a fun site. I think A La and Bowtwi will especially enjoy it The Canonical List of Banjo Jokes I think there are around 300 banjo jokes here. ****************************** DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

I've been told that "perfect pitch" is being able to toss a Barry Manilow album down the outhouse hole without hitting any accordians on the way to the bottom. Is there any truth to that? ****************************** DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

He was a regular at The Cellar in Houston way, way back. I had a friend who was a bouncer there who knew him pretty well. ****************************** DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

OOPS!! Yup...you're right!! The song I MEANT was "Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song". He also did a parody on "Song Sung Blue" that can't be repeated here. It was only performed live and might give some folks cardiac fibrilations, as were many of ol' David Allen Coes songs. Sorry about that. It's this pesky altzheimers, ya know. ****************************** DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

That reminds me of something that happened in Ft. Worth many years ago. There was a club that began in the 50's as a beatnik coffeehouse and slowly changed with the times into kind of an amateur rock and roll bar and strip joint. Musicians would just climb out of the audience and perform and ocassionally girls would just come from the audience and do a strip dance. It was called "The Cellar" and one was opened in Dallas and another in Houston, too. Anyway, from time to time, they would hire bands to play and two local guys came and auditioned...two brothers. Thay were hired (I think) but soon canned because the audience didn't like them and booed them off the stage. Maybe they were booed off during the audition...I don't recall, now. Maybe it was because of their very odd appearance and the way they dressed. They were both albino and although didn't they make it at The Cellar, Edgar and Johnny Winter had a decent recording career for a while. The Cellar has been gone now for a very long time, but some of us still have fond memories of that club downtown that never did get a liquor license and just sold setups and espresso. A few locals who made it big got their start at The Cellar. Dallas boy Steven Stills started out there as did Kenney Rogers and The First Edition. I guess the best known were these guys with their hair dyed blue who called themselves "The Neurotic Sheep"...later changed their name to ZZ TOP. There were quite a few others, too. One was the guy who did "Song Sung Blue" but I forget his name offhand. Now I wonder if YOU or anyone else here ever did a gig at The Cellar... ****************************** DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

I'm not any sort of authority on guitarists, but my personal favorites are Wes Montgomery and Merle Travis. Somebody mentioned George Benson and it seems to me his style comes directly from what Wes did. Maybe ol' Merle Travis was more of a writer than guitarist, since his "Westphalia Waltz", "Nine Pound Hammer" and "Sixteen Tons" and so many. many others are all time classics. A blues guitar player I always thought was great was John Lee Hooker. IMHO his music was much more honest and less "commercial" than that of B.B. King. One of my former neighbors (he died in 1997 but lived in Timbo, Arkansas about 15 miles from me), Jimmy Driftwood (wrote the songs "Battle of New Orleans" and "Tennessee Stud" among many others) used to have jam sessions at his place and I used to go and take in the music. I met Comer "Moon" Mullins there, the national thumbpicking grand champeen in some contest in Nashville a few years back, and he WORSHIPS Merle Travis...even owns one of his old guitars. Merle Travis' son was also a regular there as well as Willie and Suzie (Willies daughter) Nelson. The prevailing music here in the Ozarks is referred to as "folk" or "old tyme" or just "string band". It isn't exactly country or bluegrass and kinda defies categorization. If anything, it most closely resembles Celtic folk music such as done by bands like The Chieftains, Altan or The House Band...only with a southern twang. Many of the tunes are the same but with different titles...for example "Irish Washerwoman" is called "Ducks Eyeball" etc. So what was my post about? I forgot. Oh yeah, guitar players. I vote for Merle, Wes and ol' John Lee Hooker. ****************************** DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

When I was going to to Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, I got a job as photographer for Herald Photo in Lubbock. We did all sorts of photography, but the bread an butter of the place was college frat party pictures. Every Friday and Saturday night of the world, I was shooting a frat or sorority party. That was back in the days before DJs and every party had a local live band. One night at a particularly raucus frat party, the guys in the frat told the band to play one song over and over and over and not to play any other songs. That song was "Light My fire". After the party, I was gathering up my equipment and the band was doing likewise and one of the band members and I got into a conversation. I asked how he could stand playing the same tune over and over like that and he asked me how I could put up with the drunks and all that went with frat parties in the mid 60's while taking care of all my photo equpment. We had a good conversation and later went for some coffee. He and I became sorta friends as he was very likeable and we always went for coffee and food after a party that we ended up at together. He was an Air Force brat college boy named John Deutschendorff. I never saw him again after that year and since I paid little attention to pop music at that time, I had no idea until years later when I saw one of his albums at a store somewhere. He had left Tech and joined up with the Chad Mitchell Trio and later began recording as John Denver. Another musician I ran into who did a lot of frat parties at Tech was David Allen Coe. He did sorta Elvis impersonations before that sort of thing became popular. A few years later, I was hired by Chardon in Dallas to do some promotional photography. Chardon was Charley Prides company that handled other acts. I only met him once, tho and mostly dealt with his wife, Donna. I shot promo stuff for Dave (Rowland) and Sugar and Janie Fricke, a couple of country folks who never really made it big as far as I know. I've never heard of them again since 1977 or 78 or ao, but then I don't keep up with that sort of thing. Dave and Sugar around 1977 ****************************** DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

I missed most of the music of the 60's. I was in a cult before TWI that eschewed rock and roll even more than religious zealots. We were the MUSICAL SNOBS who listened to REAL music done with REAL instruments. Some say RnR is of the DEVIL!! Well, I'm here to tell ya it's much worse than that. They just play guitars which isn't a real instrument, unless, of course Les Paul or Wes "God Bless Wes" Montgomery was playing it...then it was okay. All RnR saxophone players play with split reeds and have very bad form. When I hit Jr. Hi way back in '60 or so, I was lost in the lost world of Fabian, Elvis, Frankie Avalon and all the rest, but in Jr. Hi, I was introduced to SCREAMERS, and I saw the light! What is a SCREAMER, you may ask. Screamers are the ultimate form of musical entertainment. The messiah of screamers is the multi talented, super musician, role model and super hero Maynard Ferguson. I got my first album back in '61 After countless moves, life changes, Uncle Harry Days etc. I still have it along with 83 others I've managed to accumulate over the years. When I was in High School, Maynard came and conducted a clinic for our HS lab band and perfomed "Watermelon Man" with us in concert. As a true believer, I busted my chops thru high school and college to emulate that style, but preferred playing the tuba. To my joy, Maynard was a master tuba player as well and recorded a version of "Take the A Train" playing tuba as lead. What a guy!! It wasn't unti '72 that it became okay to listen to rock music. That was when Maynard recorded his version of "Hey Jude" and other screamers (and Maynard protoges and fellow Stan Kenton alumni) like Bill Chase left his job as lead trumpet with Woody Hermans band and formed his band called "Chase" and released his screamin' rock album called "Chase" and Bud Brisbois recorded with several rock bands of the era. Bill Chase and his band were killed in a tragic plane crash in '74 and Bud Brisbois took his own life in '78, but Maynard, at age 74 is still going strong and has just realeased a new CD...his 142nd album. Click here to hear Maynards intro to his arrangement of Elton Johns "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" which Maynard has never recorded...this was taken from a live performance. Maynard 1972 Maynard today with some of the instruments he plays ****************************** DEO VINDICE!! Ron G. [This message was edited by Ron G. on December 01, 2002 at 20:51.]

It seems the older I get, the better I WAS. Now that I have my new Official Hillbilly Belly Button Scrubber, I don't care about much else. Special thanks to Shellon for my and Andrews sqeaky clean belly buttons....and it leaves NO soap ring! ****************************** DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

I thought y'all might enjoy this... ****************************** DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

What was the story on the Way orchestra? I thought they had some pretty decent musicianship, tho the charts were vapid, vapid, vapid. Anyway, you spose Aaron Copeland is any kin to Kenneth Copeland? Naaaaahhhhhhhh ****************************** DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

I remember reading about a riot caused at the opening performance of Ravel's "Bolero". It's a rather earthy thing that is just a theme repeated over and over and over by different instruments and a kind of heavy rhythm. I think it, too, occurred in Paris. Teds posts are especially interesting to me as I'm a big fan of all kinds of American popular music dating all the way back to the early 1800's. My personal favorites that I enjoy are classical, dixieland jazz, Celtic folk and some other more esoteric stuff. I guess I'm probably the ONLY person in America, quite possibly the world, who equally enjoys driving while listening to my tapes of Karl King circus marches, Louis Armstrong, The Firehouse 5, Charlotte Church, The Altans or Maynard Ferguson. I personally can't see any reason to think any particular kind of music, in and of itself, has any "spiritual" effect on an individual outside of whatever that individual makes of it themselves. In other words, I thought those teachings from TWI were just plain silly. The Beatles with their curvaceous melodies and their unique chord changes had no more effect on any listener than the tunes of Cab Calloway, and their lyrics were far more "innocent" (remember "Minnie the Moocher"?) I remember as a kid seeing the wildly gyrating Elvis Presley (billed as "Elvis the Pelvis"....he toned it down quite a bit shortly after) at the Texas State Fair in 1956. The music he performed was no more "wild" than that of Hank Williams Sr. just a few years earlier. One interesting thing is, for all the hoopla at the time, ragtime (which I enjoy immensely) is quite possibly the most highly structured and tedious genre of music to perform. Okay....enough of my rambling. Back to our regularly scheduled thread. ****************************** DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

To one of my alltime favorite GSers I wanna welcome and say Happy Birthday!! I looked at her profile and noticed she was born in 1858!! That just may make her the oldest exwayfer here...except maybe for me, and I aint tellin. Love ya, T! ****************************** DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

he was LC over the golden state of Californey tryin to fornicate with the cute girl believers and impress everyone with his guitar playin abilities. He seemed like a pretty nice feller....nosey, but weren't they all...but Eric Clapton, he ain't. I heard here he was put on the BOD and haven't heard anything about him since. I haven't seen or heard from him since early '95 and the funniest thing is I haven't missed him a bit. ****************************** DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

Who was Emiliano Zapata? Mexican revolutionary; Contemporary with Pancho Villa What does he have to do with all this? Namesake of one of the worlds largest offshore drilling companies, Zapata Oil Why was an oil company named for him? Geo Bush liked his style. Who was founder, pres and CEO of this oil company? George Herbert Walker Bush What Federal agency did this CEO later take charge of? CIA Did he have any previous experience in this agency before taking charge? ??? What country did this oil company open up to oil development? Kuwait In what time frame did all this occur? 1953 to present ****************************** DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

PUBLIC SCHOOL GRADS IN SERVICE This week, our phones went dead and I had to call the telephone repair people. They promised to be out between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00p.m. When I asked if they could give me a smaller time window the pleasant gentleman asked, "Would you like us to call you before we come?" I replied that I didn't see how he would be able to do that since our phones weren't working. He also requested that we report future outages by email (Does YOUR email , work without a telephone line?). PUBLIC SCHOOL GRADS AT WORK I was signing the receipt for my credit card purchase when the clerk noticed I had never signed my name on the back of the credit card. She informed me that she could not complete the transaction unless the card was signed. When I asked why, she explained that it was necessary to compare the signature I had just signed on the receipt. So I signed the credit card in front of her. She carefully compared the signature to the one I had just signed on the receipt. As luck would have it, they matched. PUBLIC SCHOOL GRADS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD I live in a semi-rural area. We recently had a new neighbor call the local township administrative office to request the removal of the Deer Crossing sign on our road. The reason: too many deer were being hit by cars and she didn't want them to cross there anymore. PUBLIC SCHOOL GRADS IN FOOD SERVICE My daughter went to a local Taco Bell and ordered a taco. She asked the person behind the counter for "minimal lettuce." He said he was sorry, but they only had iceberg lettuce. PUBLIC SCHOOL GRAD SIGHTING #1 I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked, "Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?" To which I replied, "If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?" She smiled knowingly and nodded, "That's why we ask." PUBLIC SCHOOL GRAD SIGHTING #2 I work with an individual who plugged her power strip back into itself and for the life of her, couldn't understand why her system would not turn on. PUBLIC SCHOOL GRAD SIGHTING #3 When my husband and I arrived at an automobile dealership to pick up our car, we were told the keys had been locked in it. We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the driver's side door. As I watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered that it was unlocked. "Hey," I announced to the technician, "it's open!" To which he replied, "I know - I already got that side." ****************************** DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

It's obvious the sand sculpture is for real...regardless of background, it's definirely creepy. "The beauty of the 2nd Amendment is that it will never be needed until they try to take it away." - Thomas Jefferson DEO VINDICE!! Ron G.

Several have claimed it to be a fake so I tried to check and all I could learn is it was supposedly taken in Pakistan by a UK news photographer. It was published in the London Telegraph and later removed. Of the 20 men pictured, three are Sikh, not Hindu. Ron G.

I was thinking of doing this as a "Caption Contest" with a caption like "Will the Knob Creek targets please line up", but decided it was just too disgusting to be humorous. Anyway, how about them peace loving Hindus? Ron G.