Reader Tips

Reader Tips 42 Comments

The name Curly Putman doesn’t ring a bell for most people, but millions of people are familiar with the Alabama native’s songs, which have been recorded by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Tom Jones, Dolly Parton, and many, many others. “Green, Green Grass of Home” first topped the charts in 1964, and has subsequently been recorded by more than six hundred artists “in most of the world’s major languages.” Two songs that Putman co-wrote with Bobby Braddock became monster country hits: Tammy Wynette’s “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” in 1968, and George Jones’ 1980 recording of “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” Tonight’s featured song, another of Putman’s collaborations with Braddock, was a hit for two solo artists, Charlie Rich and Bobby Vinton, but tonight it’s performed as a duet. From 1970, here’s Bobby Bare and Dry Ridge Kentucky’s own Skeeter Davis singing Claude “Curly” Putman’s My Elusive Dreams.
You are invited to provide your Reader Tips in the comments.

42 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. “He dreamed of the coyote again. The animal was on a mountain path
    where there were no homes, no cars, no people. It was moving very
    quickly through the dark as if it was trying to get away. But the path
    and place were his. He knew the land and knew he would escape. What
    it was he fled from was never clear, never seen. But it was there, behind
    him in the dark. And the coyote knew by instinct it must get away.”
    — Michael Connelly

  2. As the staff waved them off and shouted “Get well soon!”…
    Thirty guests at a ‘wellness’ hotel in Hessen ended up in hospital over the weekend after catching a stomach bug, prompting a criminal investigation into the hotel management.
    Ambulances were outside the four-star Aqualux hotel in Bad Salzschlirf the whole day on Saturday, picking up guests and ferrying them to local hospitals….

  6. Hamas rises in the West
    By Caroline Glick
    It is not surprising that Obama is siding with Hamas. His close associates are leading members of the pro-Hamas Free Gaza outfit. Obama’s friends, former Weatherman Underground terrorists Bernadine Dohrn and William Ayres participated in a Free Gaza trip to Egypt in January. Their aim was to force the Egyptians to allow them into Gaza with 1,300 fellow Hamas supporters. Their mission was led by Code Pink leader and Obama fundraiser Jodie Evans. Another leading member of Free Gaza is former US senator from South Dakota James Abourezk.
    http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=178470
    http://www.carolineglick.com/e/

  7. Skeeter Davis. Wow! Now that’s a blast from the past. Liked her stuff back when, but over time, seems she’s slipped from my consciousness.
    If I can find the time, I’m going to revisit some of her heydey performances.
    Thanks EBD.

  9. Yeah, Kevin, a commenter here – I think it was – linked to particularly odd interview of Greene, conducted by MSNBC, I believe, in which he seemed like he’d just had a lobotomy.
    Very strange. Even Democrats are horrified:
    “State Rep. Todd Rutherford told Fox News that he went to Greene’s house to discuss with him how Greene succeeded last week in becoming the candidate to challenge Republican Sen. Jim DeMint in the November election, but he found it difficult to decipher an answer.
    “‘About two questions into a conversation with him, it would become apparent that he is not probably fit to answer the questions befitting a Senate candidate,’ said Rutherford, a Democrat. ‘If he was put into this, then it is a joke that is funny to all the rest of us, but he doesn’t get it — because I don’t know that his mental status is such that he can get it.'”
    It’s as if Chauncey Gardiner got himself elected. One woman said she voted for him because his name sounded like “Al Green,” the soul singer…

  11. O’force n’One.
    …-
    ““I Don’t Sense Executive Command.””
    Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Howard Fineman react to President Obama’s Oval Office Address on the oil spill. Here are the highlights of what the trio said:
    Olbermann: “It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days.”
    Matthews compared Obama to Carter.
    Olbermann: “Nothing specific at all was said.”
    Matthews: “No direction.”
    Howard Fineman: “He wasn’t specific enough.”
    Olbermann: “I don’t think he aimed low, I don’t think he aimed at all. It’s startling.”
    Howard Fineman: Obama should be acting like a “commander-in-chief.”
    Matthews: Ludicrous that he keeps saying [Secretary of Energy] Chu has a Nobel prize. “I’ll barf if he does it one more time.”
    Matthews: “A lot of meritocracy, a lot of blue ribbon talk.”
    Matthews: “I don’t sense executive command.””
    …-
    “The Gulf
    The Washington Post reports that President Obama has named a lawyer to supervise oil drilling.”
    http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2010/06/15/the-gulf/#comments

  12. So how’s that local socially engineered behaviour modification working out for you? Oh, you weren’t aware your city council is modifying your behaviour through local bylaws as per the UN climate/environment template? Well lookie here :
    http://tinyurl.com/mv7cjk
    and here:
    http://www.iclei.org/index.php?id=iclei-worldwide
    And just where is the global head office for this think-globally-act-locally UN subterfuge?
    World Secretariat
    401 Richmond St.
    Studio 417
    Toronto, Ontario

  13. Barack Petroleum News: Update.
    Got Mitt Uns.
    Herrmann’s View from Der Spiegel:
    “But it is time that he picks a fight with the American public.”
    “Bill Clinton addressed his citizens there after lying to the county(sic) and his wife about his affair with an intern.”
    …-
    “Obama’s Half-Hearted Battle
    President of Change Unwilling to Tackle US Oil Addiction
    Obama’s Half-Hearted Battle: President of Change Unwilling to Tackle US Oil Addiction
    US President Barack Obama has taken the fight to BP. But it is time that he picks a fight with the American public. American energy consumption is at the root of the Gulf of Mexico disaster, but Obama preferred to sidestep the issue in his Tuesday speech. By Gregor Peter Schmitz in Washington more…
    * Text of President Obama’s Speech: ‘We Will Fight This Spill With Everything We’ve Got’”
    http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,701025,00.html
    http://www.bluelikeyou.com/2010/06/16/the-scary-duo/#comment-83819
    …-
    P.S. O’s Harvard buddy, Liberal Ziffy, is off to Provence, France for l’ete and latte.
    After all, Ziffy is “Just Visiting” Provence, er Canada.

  15. Hmmm…Kate is conspicuously absent…
    Perhaps meeting with Kory Tenyke and Co.?

  17. Sooooo guess which oil company was first on the cap and trade lobby band wagon –
    “the Kerry-BP alliance for an energy bill that included a cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gases pokes a hole in a favorite claim of President Obama and his allies in the media — that BP’s lobbyists have fought fiercely to be left alone.”
    Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Once-a-government-pet-BP-now-a-capitalist-tool-95942659.html#ixzz0r1aZhXB5

  18. ‘Always loved the name Skeeter (am Googling her to see if I can find out where it came from; maybe she’s a good shot) but this is the kind of C&W I find difficult to listen to!
    But, lots of people like it, so who am I to complain?!

  20. I am sorry EBD but this is not a tip ( and I have thought for some time that at least one day a week could be set aside for Readers Questions. Between you, and previously, Vitruvious’ erudition I have often been tempted to tap into the knowledge base resident here but been too shy of offering mere ignorance instead of an illuminating Tip; and the Net is guide-less and hazardous for those genuinely adrift ).
    My questions.
    The latest political guesstimate of the Mexican Gulf oil leak is 60,000 barrels a day. That is almost 40 barrels per minute ( 24 hours by 60 minutes equals 1440 minutes. Wolfram/Alpha gives 31.5 US gallons per barrel and so 60000/1440 gives 41 barrels per minute which equals 1291.5 US gallons per minute. Divide by 60 seconds and you get 21.525 gallons/second.( If I remember correctly a firehose is about one gallon per second, much smaller bore but 21 times smaller in cubic cross section?)
    My several questions relate to the engineered bore width of the hole; what is the largest diameter deep Sea bit used? what is the viscosity of the oil sampled i.e. even with enormously balloon puncturing pressure behind it how much flow/minute is the very upper turbocharged credible limit( even adding 20% for surprise) that a single given hole will allow for?
    Does the observed discharge argue more for fracturing of the surrounding substrate or political exaggeration or methane mix or humble ignorance of the possible release of stresses/pressures/minerals involved? How does this fit into the geophysics informed by the stresses caused by the K/T boundary asteroid strike of 67 M year ago?
    Thank- you for your forbearance in my using Tips for Questions, may I suggest a weekly regular on a set night where no question be too mundane ( e.g. My beer fridge has let loose its outer doors gasket, should I use liquid cement or let good enough alone and just strap it up with big elastic bands?)
    Sincerely,

  22. Excerpt from Lorne Gunter’s “Clutching desperately at the flotilla myth” in the NP:
    “But what can no longer be disputed is the character of those onboard the flotilla.
    “Sure, there were many useful idiots on the decks — pro-Palestinian activists from Western nations who had been included merely because they made good PR decoys. And, yes, most of them probably swallowed whole the bumph flotilla organizers were selling–that the exercise was merely an attempt to run Israel’s blockade of Gaza ports and bring food, medicine, clothing, toys, etc. to the poor, starving residents.
    “But the real passengers were 40 operatives from the Turkish Islamist organization, the IHH, which has close ties to the ruling AKP party and directly to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, according to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. It has also been reported that the ship on which the deadly commando raid took place, the Mavi Maramara, was purchased by the IHH from a company owned by the AKP with money furnished by the Turkish government.”
    The whole thing here.

  23. Personally my favorite is “It’s the end of the world” by Lil’ Skeeter Davis. Made for some interesting High School slow dances, in the day.
    I beleive we used to call them “dry boners”.

  24. “A Palestinian public opinion poll conducted over the past week reveals that a majority of Palestinian Arabs oppose their government’s decision to ban employment in Jewish settlements.
    “Conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, the survey asked respondents if they supported or opposed Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s decision to forbid Palestinian laborers from seeking employment in Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria. Fayyad has given Palestinians until the end of the year to find alternative work.
    “A firm 60 percent majority said they oppose Fayyad’s decision. Even in the Gaza Strip, where there no longer are any Jewish communities, a 55 percent majority opposed the decision.
    “Unemployment is a serious problem in the Palestinian-controlled territories, and removing jobs in Jewish communities from the list of possibilities is expected to increase hardships considerably.”

  25. “The Scary Duo”:
    Liberal Ziffy and his Liberal MP Rodriquez.
    Send Rodriquez his pink slip, Ziffy.
    Expel Rodriquez from your Liberal caucus, Ziffy.
    MSM uses the words, “Liberal MP” in its headline.
    …-
    “Liberal MP pleads not guilty to disobeying police order
    MONTREAL ­– Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to one charge of refusing to comply with a police order in connection with an April car accident.
    Rodriguez was involved in a car accident on April 16 in Montreal’s Notre-Dame-de-Grace area in which property was damaged.”
    http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/06/15/14402516.html
    http://www.bluelikeyou.com/2010/06/16/the-scary-duo/#comment-83833

  27. Why couldn’t BP create a large ‘rubber/plastic’ flex hose say with a diameter 2x’s the flow width and angle it towards shore or some collection ship/point and thereby control the direction and flow?
    And again my ignorance, but how does one underestimate the flow rate from 30,000 barrels to 60,000? That’s 50% difference. I mean these guys are suppose to be professionals right?
    I know we’re talking a mile down, but heck they could have built a pipeline causeway out to it by now so to speak.

  28. Toronto Star
    “The Toronto woman who blames a Rogers cellphone bill for breaking up her marriage says she is launching a campaign to improve privacy protection in Ontario.
    Gabriela Nagy has launched a Facebook group to help look for other frustrated customers to join her lawsuit against the telecommunications giant for what she claims was a breach of her privacy….”
    Doesn’t look like Ms Nagy has alot of Facebook fans:
    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=101855416533441&v=wall&ref=search

  29. casing sizes could be 12″ could be 18″ , they havent really told anyone whats sticking up. the casing has to be big to hold a 450 ton BOP

  30. “Carney warns of ‘age of austerity’
    CBC.ca – ‎1 hour ago‎
    The world is entering an “age of austerity” that will take about $7 trillion US out of global output by 2015 and restrain economic growth, Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney said Wednesday.”
    …-
    “A modest proposal for curing a whiny nation”
    […]
    “This is why I have come to believe that what Canadians need most at this moment in our history is a good famine.
    By “famine”, I do not mean those 24-hour fruit-juice-sipping adventures in group narcissism devoted to curing the problems of that continent-wide parade of dysfunction known as “Africa.” No, what I have in mind is …”.
    http://www.katewerk.com/modestproposal2.html

  31. I’m recalling Bobby Vinton’s version of My Elusive Dreams. I was 12 at the time, and I remember thinking to myself what a sad song it was.
    I tip my hat to Curly Putnam, one mighty fine songwriter.

  34. Stand with PM Harper and Canada.
    Stand with Israel.
    Resist Islam in all its forms.
    Resist Taliban Jack LaytoNDP, et al.
    …-
    “Harper compares Davies to terrorist groups
    Prime Minister Stephen Harper has called for the resignation of Libby Davies as NDP deputy leader over comments made at an anti-Israeli government protest.
    Prime Minister Stephen Harper stepped up the pressure on the NDP’s Libby Davies to resign her position as her party’s deputy leader on Wednesday, accusing her of making “extremist” statements about Israel that were similar to the language used by terrorist organizations.
    “The deputy leader of the NDP knew full well what she was saying,” Mr. Harper said during the daily question period in the House of Commons. “She made statements that could have been made by Hamas, Hezbollah or anybody else with no repercussions from that party whatsoever.”
    Mr. Harper even suggested that NDP Leader Jack Layton should not be criticizing Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff for proposing a post-2011 training mission role for Canadian troops in Afghanistan, since he hasn’t adequately disciplined his MP. Hamas and Hezbollah are both on a Canadian government list of organizations considered to be terrorist groups that use violent means to achieve political goals.
    “Quite frankly, I do not think that a leader who shelters an MP who makes anti-Israeli extremist statements without repercussion should be making any criticism of policy,” Mr. Harper said.
    Ms. Davies initiated the controversy earlier this month at an anti-Israeli government protest in Vancouver during an interview with an Internet blogger, David Katz, who went outside with an Internet web camera after hearing the crowd going through his neighbourhood. In the interview, she told Mr. Katz that she believed Israel had been occupying Palestinian territories since 1948, the year of Jewish independence, and also that she supported a campaign to boycott and sanction the democratic state.”
    http://www.nationalpost.com/news/compares+Davies+terrorist+groups/3163092/story.html#ixzz0r3rV70iZ
    …-
    >> The cowardly, politically correct MSM does not use the words, Islam/Muslim, in its report:
    “[Muslim] Father and son plead guilty to strangling teen in ‘honour killing’
    Aqsa Parvez’s father and youngest brother pleaded guilty Tuesday to strangling the 16-year-old student in December, 2007, after she rejected the strict cultural traditions of her family and an arranged marriage.
    Muhammad Parvez, 60, and his son Waqas, 29, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges in what prosecutors say was “a gender-based crime motivated by patriarchal concepts of honour and shame.”
    The crime of second-degree murder comes with an automatic life sentence, with a minimum of 10 years to be served before parole. In a joint recommendation, both the Crown and defence asked the judge for 18 years of parole ineligibility.”
    http://www.vancouversun.com/Father+plead+guilty+strangling+teen+honour+killing/3160569/story.html

  35. via EBD: “Claudia Schiffer sparks race row after posing in afro for Karl Lagerfeld shoot.”
    So, who’s going to speak out on behalf of the brainy Barbie Schiffer’s obviously channeling in the adjacent photo?
    C’mon Mattel, step up to the plate. Make a complaint:
    “There are not enough Barbies featured in mainstream magazines. This just suggests you can counteract the problem by using … Claudia Schiffer as a very poor substitute … We don’t believe they deliberately set out to offend, they obviously gave no thought to the history behind what they’ve done, and forgot that we don’t make any profit from Schiffer’s posing as Barbie.”

  36. Hey batb: you’d previously mentioned your background as a folkie (amateur or otherwise) so, while I’ve – hopefully – got your ear (as it were) here, in a soon-to-be stale-dated thread, do you have any suggestions/ideas for songs to post in the Reader Tips thread?

  38. Thanks batb. The comments stay open for as long as this thread is on the main page, so I’ll check back periodically.

  39. EBD, here’s a start and not at all exhaustive!
    Off the top of my head, starting with the folkies I listened to in the ’60s and ’70s:
    Tom Paxton (a folkies’ folkie) – The Last Thing on My Mind
    Judy Collins – My Father (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Enqj2ojicw)
    Joni Mitchell – Both Sides Now (of course!), Rainy Night House, or anything from Blue,
    Peter, Paul, and Mary -Early Morning Rain, Leaving on a Jet Plane
    Gordon Lightfoot – Canadian Railway Trilogy; Early Morning Rain; Pussy Willows, Cat-tails, Soft Winds, and Roses; Song for a Winter’s Night, etc.
    Ian and Sylvia – Someday Soon, Early Morning Rain, You Were On My Mind, etc.
    Kate and Anna McGarrigle – ANYTHING from their first album, for instance, Heart Like a Wheel, Talk to Me of Mendocino ***, Complainte pour Ste-Catherine, Travellin’ on for Jesus
    Simon and Garfunkle – just about anything – Kathy’s Song, Scarborough Fair, etc.
    Bob Dylan – anything on John Wesley Harding – All Along the Watchtower, Gotta Serve Somebody (from Slow Train Coming), Highway 61 Revisited, Just Like a Woman, New Morning, Queen Jane Approximately, Shelter from the Storm, Things Have Changed, etc.
    Leonard Cohen – Suzanne, Sisters of Mercy, The Future, Hallelujah, etc.
    Joan Baez
    Laura Nyro (not quite a folkie, but unique) – Timer, Stone Soul Picnic, Stoney End, And When I Die, When I Was a Freeport and You Were the Main Drag, Upstairs by a Chinese Lamp, Eli’s Comin’ – and just about anything else by Nyro, especially the early songs. Her album with Labelle, doing covers of Motown songs is fantastic.

  40. Thanks batb, great suggestions. A month or two ago I was close to posting “Someday Soon,” but the only YouTube-available version by Ian himself was a later version that, IMO, tooled around with the melody a bit too much. There was a reasonable version by Kathy Mattea and friends, maybe I’ll post that, but I’m just a bit of a stickler for literal-ish versions of any all-time great song; I don’t like it when someone over-“interprets” a song – like Bono or kd lang’s versions of Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” Or worse yet, when people take disrespectful, meslismatic liberties “interpreting” The Star Spangled Banner, for example. Uggh. Just sing it!
    Sadly, Bob Dylan’s entire body of work from his albums (with a few later-era exceptions, mostly lesser-known oddities) has recently been taken off YouTube by his record company. It’s slim pickings now.
    I’ve got a live performance of “Carey” (from Wembley stadium) cued up – just her and the mountain dulcimer – so you’ll be seeing that. Blue, in my opinion, might be the greatest album of all time.
    Thanks for the other great suggestions – some of them just never occurred to me; I’ll see what’s available at YouTube.
    If any other suggestions comes to mind, feel free…
    /:>)>

  41. Many versions of “Gonna Get Along Without You Now”:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m7bB-WtKow (Tracey Dey)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW_xw33lzvc (Skeeter Davis)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN_EYfFt-NU (Patience and Prudence)
    ———-
    Another hit by Skeeter Davis:
    I Can’t Stay Mad At You
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbUQYxfDSxQ
    ———-
    The best-known cover of Tom Paxton’s “The Last Thing On My Mind”, by the Move
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcKULRzUTEU

  42. I wondered, EBD, why I couldn’t find Dylan’s When He Returns from a concert he did at Massey Hall back in the early ’80s — a youtube video I’d watched over and over just a month or so ago. Now I know. Bummer.
    Joni Mitchell is amazing: voice, lyrics, virtuoso guitar (and piano), painter. I even like her album of covers, “Both Sides Now,” released in 2000, especially You’re My Thrill, At Last, and Comes Love. It’s overproduced but I love lush, ’50s orchestration (I was a kid in the ’50s and it brings back a lot of memories.) ‘Speaking of which, Linda Rondstadt did a couple of albums arranged by Nelson Riddle. I’m a sucker for them too.
    I’ll look forward to hearing Joni do “Carey” and anything else you come up with!

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation