Every once in a while, I start reviewing some old music videos on YouTube, and one of them is ELO (the Electric Light Orchestra) with Jeff Lynn. The video is of the band playing “Showdown” from 1973. The band is standing on the south side of the Thames, and their background is the Thames and St. Paul’s Cathedral across the river. This is a long time before the Millienum Bridge was built.

Below, approximately where the band would have been located in the above video (before Millineum Bridge).

Above, looking back at the Tate Museum from on the Millenium Bridge.

There is a “Meltdown Festival” celebrated at Southbank Centre, and apparently this is the 29th year of the celebration, and the singer, performer Chaka Kahn is “curating” this year’s festival (whatever that means). So, seeing Chaka Kahn reminds me that I saw her at a Louisville Redbirds (minor league baseball team for Louisville, KY) back in 1983. Apparently the Redbirds had just come to Louisville the previous year, and in 1983 they set an attendance record of over a million visitors. I’m not sure if Chaka Kahn sang the National Anthem at this game, or if it was another game, but I was there, with some friends (fellow students from Southern Seminary, where I was attending). We went in one gate at the stadium, but heard that the millionth customer had come in a different gate and they had received some attention & gifts for being the millionth customer at the game that year. *I just read that that league went out of business, and the Redbirds ended up at a different town, and representing a different ML team now. Louisville now has a minor league team called “The Bats” and they are now affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds. **I recall sitting in the stadium, and blowing a little, plastic, red “bird” promotional whistle.

I was walking down the isles of the IGA grocery store in Benson, NC several years ago, and “Showdown” began to play on the store audio. I love the beat and energy of this song… couldn’t have told you who did the song, at the time, or even who Jeff Lynn was, but since, went online, watched/listened to several of the groups videos, and now can at least remember Jeff Lynn. This was the same IGA, and might have been the same day that I ended up buying some Honeycrisp apples there, for the first time. These apples had a distinctive, and delicious flavor. I was on my way through town (Benson) and am not sure where I was heading, but made a point to come back through Benson on my way back to Fayetteville so that I could stop at the IGA and buy some more Honeycrisp apples.

So I went into the IGA and picked out four large Honeycrisp apples and took them up to the register. The clerk rang up the 4 apples. That’s all I was buying, and she said, “That will be $10.25.” The price for the four apples caught me by surprise. I realized, and I think I said, “That’s more than $2.50 per apple.” A quarter more than $2.50 each, but they were good, and “this time,” I went ahead and bought the four apples. This was a few years before paying that much for a grocery item would become the norm.

These apples were extremely large, and most apples that are offered today (at the groceries I regularly shop at) are much smaller. I fell out of love with the Honeycrisp because they continued to be “over priced” and the distinctive flavor wasn’t the same, or as pleasant as the first ones that I tried.

Well, “Small World, Long Time.” My thoughts, as expressed elsewhere, are that with all the stuff we do, or can do, in a lifetime, most of it is relatively meaningless. And, the American political climate has changed so drastically, from what I grew up with as a child and into much of my adult life. The Republican Party had the “high moral ground,” for many issues. But that has changed drastically. With the backing of Donald Trump, the Republican Party became similar to an alien race that comes to Earth, takes over, and says, “The Sun rises in the West. Oranges are blue,” and any number of items that are so “wrong” as to not be supportable, by me, in any form. It is as if labelling a person or belief as being “Republican” automatically makes it right and completely defensible, and even supportable… when they/it are NOT. I’ve still got friends that think Donald Trump is “the greatest thing since sliced bread.” And, it boggles my mind how they can still see him that way. I think Trump is a major threat to America and the American Way. *How can anyone justify in any way the attack by low-life pieces of shit Republicans on the US Capitol on January 6th? On that day, Trump is on camera telling people to go down to the Capitol in support of him. And when things get so out of hand and become so violent at the Capitol, Trump does nothing to step in to bring things in line, as they should be, and doesn’t even send someone down to protect His VP, Pence. It is obvious from his actions that day that he actually thought Pence should take action, and overturn the Election results, in Trump’s favor. What a piece of shit! The American Electoral System may not be perfect, but it has worked for hundreds of years,… before Donald Trump. And then he says, he was cheated out of the election… which is repeatedly never proven. But still he has supporters who would still, even enthusiastically vote him into the Whitehouse again. I DON’T GET IT! I only have one vote, and unless I go nuts, I would rather vote for an aged, or even dead, Joe Biden instead of a live Donald Trump. And that is even with the sorry assed way Joe Biden has handled (mishandled) the Southern Border crisis. I don’t understand that by Biden, and if the Republican Party offered any viable candidate for President, I would easily vote Republican instead of the decrepit Joe Biden. Biden shouldn’t be running for another term as US President. He is TOO OLD, and I AM OLD.

I came along after “sliced bread” so sliced bread was the norm for me. It was always white bread, perhaps Merita, Sunbeam or Wonder Bread. The cheese was usually sharp from Kraft or yellow American cheese for sandwiches. Dukes mayonnaise, Frenches yellow mustard, Heinz or Hunts ketchup and sometimes Miracle Whip dressing. Not sure, but it was probably Mount Olive Pickle Relish that would go into our potato salad. There were no Vidalia (sweet) onions.