Our Morris once had more nighttime activity

Remember the Coborn's parade float? It was the giant shopping cart. The store is fading into Morris' past. The image is from "hometown source."

 
Morris had a 24-hour grocery store for a long time: Coborn's of course. Coborn's was probably not as sharp an operation as Willie's today. Nevertheless it blazed a trail in this community by being open 24 hours. We came to take it for granted. If I discovered I was out of dog food for the next morning, I could make a dash at any time.

Coborn's has been gone from our midst for some time. That end of town is not the hub for people traffic like it once was. People traffic has of course subsided in a big way overall due to the public health crisis. 

Morris history should never overlook how we had a 24-hour restaurant. It was Atlantic Avenue Family Restaurant owned by Floyd Schmidgall. Was it ever practical as a business matter to have such a place in our humble rural community? We might assume it was, based on Floyd's unquestioned business acumen. 

Businesses that operate 24 hours might be seen as consistent with a college town. The restaurant reportedly attracted a lot of college youth who'd study or at least had a purported purpose of studying. A credit to them, but of course relaxed socializing became a prime aim. Word was, to no one's surprise, they didn't spend a lot of money. 

The mere existence of late night places was a statement of openness and sociability, was it not? The gesture suggested vitality despite how nighttime activity often suggests a low-life underbelly. I'm told that simply walking through town these days late at night or middle of night, can get you a visit with law enforcement people. Heard a personal story re. this. It's hard to argue with the vigilance toward public safety. Still, we must acknowledge we cannot create a perfectly safe world. Or to cite a saying: the perfect is the enemy of the good. 

By the same token, we guard our kids to the point where they become sedentary and obese, whereas the parents of my generation would let us off the leash so much. Is it true that "walking to school" is frowned upon or maybe even contrary to law now? Well, it's vigilance toward safety. How can we argue with that? The Jacob Wetterling case which stretched out over so many tragic years left a legacy not entirely heartening. When all was said and done - a fortune spent many times over on law enforcement investigating and tips followed - we learned that the Wetterling story was one of profound law enforcement incompetence. 

Someone joked with me a few years ago about how we guard our kids so closely now, maybe we should just have them wrapped in Nerf until a certain age. I believe that friend was Roger Boleman. A perceptive view. 

"Nighthawks" painting by Edward Hopper

We can have highly mixed thoughts about the night. Shall we assume it has inherent dangers? Well yes, but insulating yourself from constructive human interaction when the sun goes down seems not the best route. 

Night has risk as with simply driving an automobile. Shall I assume that nighttime drivers no longer "dim the lights" using their left foot? It was once a staple of driving activity. I rarely drive at night, very rarely, and if I do it's only to town and back. And I'm struck by the greater challenge or dangers presented when driving at night. I remember the line from Robert Redford as "Roy Hobbs" in "The Natural": "All I know about the dark is that you can't see well in it." To refresh: the baseball character was in the office of team owner who had an unusual fear of bright lights. 

 

Hyper danger w/ the dark

My sense about nighttime driving is supported by what we saw happen in South Dakota with the attorney general. Imagine running over and killing someone on the shoulder, having to pay a fine or fines for negligence in connection with the incident, and continuing your professional life as public servant as if nothing had happened. Stranger than fiction, but myriad strange things can happen where one-party government exists. You're in pretty good shape in South Dakota if you run for public office with the "R" next to your name. 

Increasingly the conservative Republican governor seems on the defensive because of the feeling of entitlement she developed, as leader within the prevailing party. You might check the headlines every day: Kristi Noem is in there. We wince as we realize the lack of accountability, the accountability that would come in a healthy two-party system with checks and balances. 

The South Dakota attorney general drove after dark after attending a Republican fundraiser in Redfield SD. Why the need to have a fundraiser? A Republican gets in trouble these days, we hear about an "investigation" and then I grimace as I realize these things just go down a rabbit trail. Or, into a "black hole": choose your cliche. 

Donald Trump is "under investigation" for his phone call to the Georgia secretary of state. His voice is on tape. Matt Gaetz is "under investigation" for child sex trafficking. The investigation just hangs out there until we realize it means essentially nothing. 

If a person is actually innocent of something as heinous as child sex trafficking, it should be trumpeted to the world. Instead we see Gaetz acting in his usual cocky, irritating way, basically like the South Dakota Republicans - a netherworld where nothing seems to happen. There is a continuing odious projection, but that's all. "There is an investigation." 

Sigh, and South Dakota officials are still pondering whether to impeach the attorney general. The weeks plod on, but if I'm spotted by our local cops not wearing my seat belt - this has happened - I'm toast, no real recourse for me - I'm immediately ticketed and must pay a fine, plus I've undergone the humiliation in a small town of being pulled over to the shoulder by a cop car with lights flashing. And so I get accosted in church: "Don't you follow the rules of the road?" 

But child sex trafficking? A case like that can just linger or disappear permanently into a netherworld? Can't the media do a better job of explaining these things to us? I mean, how the SD attorney general can just keep showing up for work, really as if "nothing happened?" When Gov. Noem implores him to resign, is she just doing this with a wink? Fellow Republicans. And is Noem now having an affair with Trump acolyte Corey Lewandowski? Well, why not? Why not just have clown Trump re-elected in 2024? Keep the clown car running. 

 

Antiquated behavior

A final note about nighttime in our Morris MN: like all communities, there were places people went for the "bar rush" on Friday and Saturday nights. Floyd's restaurant and Don's were hubs for this uninhibited and frankly silly ritual, people acting stupid and not even caring. We had to wonder what the restaurant servers were thinking of us. (We used to call them "waitresses," just as we once said "stewardesses," and we saw TV journalist Sam Donaldson get in a bunch of trouble by referring to a female park ranger as a "rangerette.") 

I participated in a few bar rushes myself. The ritual accompanied the far more accepted behavior of social drinking, which may have reached its peak in the 1970s. The patterns of behavior faded without much commentary, frankly. 

So now we experience nighttime that is far more vacant, silent. Where you might invite a conversation with a cop if you have to be out and around. 

For me the nighttime motif will always be symbolized by the classic Edward Hopper painting "Nighthawks" from 1942. The front of Don's Cafe in Morris would be the subject for a like painting. Not a "copy," mind you, but a work with the same essential ingredients. An idea: the artist could have someone paying at the till who looks just like Elvin Presley! A customer might be looking up with an expression of shock.

 

Addendum: Floyd's restaurant of the past is now known as DeToy's. Just as all-night business there has been retired, maybe we'll have to say goodbye too, to the salad bar. The giant Coborn's shopping cart was in our summer Prairie Pioneer Days parade - what a spectacle, but it's gone just like Coborn's.

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

"Night Life" song w/ its bleak tone scored for Nelson

("discogs" image)

"Night Life" seemed a perfect song to hear on the radio toward the end of the 1970s, the cynical decade. In my mind the song will always have Danny Davis' brass players in the background. 

Consider how the song starts: "When the evening sun goes down, you will find me hanging 'round. The night life ain't no good life. But it's my life." 

This is considered songwriting gold, of course. I can only praise anyone who writes a song that gets such great traction. Consider that the lyrics cannot be considered uplifting. Scratching one's head, we might reason that the "positive message" is that this fellow accepts his life as it is. At the same time, he admits its shortcomings. 

So, can't a person step away from a life that "ain't no good life?" Couldn't anyone choose to set the bar higher? 

The song indeed reflects the zeitgeist of the 1970s. It was a rather stagnant decade where none of the miracle of digital had sprouted yet. We still had what columnist David Brooks of the New York Times called "the redundancies of the World War II type of organization." We had a shared popular culture far more than today. It is hard to conclude whether that was good or bad. 

The "niche" nature of entertainment is almost smothering us today. Entertainment systems cater to every minute whim or need, ad nauseam, and we must wonder at a certain point if it is all making us happy. A sea change in the 1950s was the boomer generation youth getting TV. We were marketed to, us kids. We saw through the marketing machinations better than the puppet masters of marketing realized. Thus we got Mad Magazine. 

Our whole culture found the so-called night life appealing. The arrival of darkness in the evening did not signal a retreat from vigorous activities. The late Larry King talked about "appointment TV." And that is what "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" was. I was as transfixed as anyone. We'd grumble about how much time off Johnny got. We'd get these "guest hosts" that could not replicate what Johnny offered. Johnny mastered the craft of entertainment after 10:30 p.m. CDT for a mass audience. Tell topical jokes. Come up with material that was just plain funny or irreverent. Have ongoing gags, so the show could be kind of a familiar home base for people. Connect to your audience in a way that was of course totally illusory. 

"Leave 'em laughing." Ann-Margret taught us about that phrase in the 1962 movie "State Fair." Her character explained it's an illusion by performers to connect with the audience in an almost personal way. Of course it is not personal at all. It's entertainment. 

  

Talent can have its baggage

Willie Nelson had the innate songwriting gift. And like so many with this inclination, his personality is idiosyncratic, off the rails in certain ways. My own church pastor once explained how people with creative talent can have psychological tics or even deep-seated problems. Consider Johnny Paycheck who actually ended up in prison: could you connect a guy like this to such a beautiful and sensitive song like "Old Violin?" 

("discogs" image)

I totally envy Willie Nelson and his success. Still, I review the lyrics of his song "Night Life" and can't help but think: "What's the big deal?" 

"OK Brian you write a song like that yourself, then." Such might be the retort. And I do try. I have respect for the songwriting craft that goes above how I feel about journalism. Journalism is a craft where I have professional creds. I mean, it was a full-time job for 27 years. You might extend the time period, realistically, because of the countless weekends and holidays when I worked. 

People can be conflicted judging journalism. Is it really supposed to be 100 percent "objective?" And can all even agree on what "objective" is? We all view current events or controversies through a lens developed through our own background. And if journalism defies clear understanding, songwriting is way further out there in terms of being inscrutable. A person capable of writing a textbook on songwriting might never be able to write a Top 40 hit. 

Nelson knew the key to reaching a mass audience with material that "clicked," even though the words seem not to reflect obvious genius. They do, but it's hard simply conceptualizing it. Or, to build a science around it? Forget it! 

 

Song has history of its own

I noted that "Night Life" seemed rather an ode to the defeatist 1970s, the "Studio 54" decade. Nelson actually wrote the song years earlier. It was first released as a (vinyl) record in 1960. The 'B' side was "Rainy Day Blues." 

The vicissitudes of the music industry are evident in spades when reviewing the song history. Any song has to start somewhere. The germination need not be in the kind of setting we expect: seated at one's piano keyboard at home, manuscript paper in front of you. It can happen this way but in myriad other ways as well. The key is to just have some paper available and a writing tool, lest you forget some song idea that has the potential to be heard all around the world! Isn't it amazing, the sheer power of popular songs? A song idea might be scribbled on the back on a receipt, you name it. Oh, there has to be a light source. 

Nelson wrote "Night Life" during one of his trips from his home in Pasadena TX to his work, singing at the Esquire Ballroom in Houston. He wrote the concluding lines on the way home! He was financially pressed. He sold the song for $150 to music colleague Paul Buskirk. The song initially got a thumbs-down at the studio level. See what I mean by "vicissitudes?" And why? The song was judged "not really country." 

Imagine writing a song like this and experiencing the letdown which pervades song composition, that letdown being "rejection." I talked to the respected head of a songwriting association once, who noted that even he had the door slammed on him sometimes. The point being, you had better love the craft of songwriting if you choose to plunge into it. You'll write many songs that are dead-enders before you just might - still no guarantee - write a song that hits paydirt. 

Just keep plugging away as Nelson has always done. It's built in to his soul. Does a little "weed" help? I won't explore that here. 

Nelson sold the song but he still pushed it for recording purposes. Legal wrinkles forced him to alter the spelling to "Nite Life" and to even alter his own name. Studio politics was involved, apparently. It wasn't until 1963 that the wrinkles evidently got pushed aside and we got "Night Life by Willie Nelson." 

The original "Nite Life," presented with Buskirk's name and "Hugh Nelson," went essentially nowhere.

Patience brings all things?

 

Bursting through

Ray Price in 1960 purchased the song. Imagine such simple lines of lyrics getting bandied about for a pricetag. Interesting way to make a living. The song became the title track for Price's 1963 album "Night Life." Someone knew something: the song became a hit. Who says that resigned or defeatist thoughts - a gravitating to the seedy "Night Life" - can't be endearing or far-reaching? 

Or, maybe let's interpret the song like this: the singer admits the shortcomings around him but has the wisdom to describe it accurately. For whatever reason he is committed to these surroundings, perhaps only short-term.

Nothing succeeds like success. Doris Day of all people recorded the song in 1963 also. She of the cheery saccharine disposition. Nelson's original 1960 recording, this time with "Night" spelled correctly, came out in '63 too. My goodness, the trumpeter Al Hirt recorded the song! He sang some. 

Nelson re-recorded the song in 1965. A veritable list of music stars shared their versions, all evidently eager to share the concept of retreating into a night life sans virtue. Ah, but the singer knows better! And let me add: all trumpet players fancy themselves good singers.

 

Partnership I loved ("discogs" image)

Bring on the brass

So the song found its niche in the 1970s where I remember best the recording of Nelson with Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass. Ah, the pleasing brassy strains behind Nelson's unmistakable vocal styling. I'm biased as a trumpet player. 

The Nelson/Davis collaboration was in 1979, a year after I was out of college. This version got to No. 20 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. 

The parade continued with Aretha Franklin. All of this was the fruit of a seed that got planted in Nelson's mind during a routine nighttime commute in his early professional days. "Paying his dues." 

Such can be the origin of blockbuster hits, the words of which are memorized all over. 

But I ask: where is the genius? I mean, to simply write "when the evening sun goes down, you will find me hanging 'round." Doing what? Seems almost like throwaway thoughts. But maybe such thoughts ring true for a great many, as we ponder the pedestrian nature of our existence, our mundane day-to-day doings.

The essence of songwriting itself? Could very well be. Congratulations to Willie Nelson on his incredible track record, even while fashioning a personal image that contradicts tuxedos. But he's real. And that's what people want from their popular songs: they want them to be real, to penetrate through the pretensions or stodgy parameters in life. Night life may be no good life, but it's endearing country music. 

I remember when the great opera singer Luciano Pavarotti announced Willie Nelson for an award once, and said "Willie Wilson." The amused co-host said "the audience knows who he is!" Nelson was the writer of "Night Life," a song extolling no special virtues at all, rather the opposite, under cloak of depressing nighttime. It reminds of the famous Edward Hopper painting "Nighthawks."

Do you think Nelson ever worries about the "money" aspect of his craft? Do you think Paycheck ever did? Rhetorical question.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

A term that seemed to fit, but. . .

I recently discovered a misunderstanding I had with the English language. My detractors would say "you mean there's just one?" Precision when using the language is important. I only let a "50-cent word" slip into my writing if I feel it's needed for absolute precision. All things being equal, go with the more generally understood word. "Grandstanding" impresses no one. 

It does not hurt to be perceived as erudite sometimes. Maybe it would make some people respect my opinions more? It's nice when one can reach the "erudite" plateau. But the overriding aim is always communication. A friend advised me many years ago, that if I were to have a lapse and write something not all that readable, some people might avoid my writing in the future. Well, it's impossible being perfect at anything. Writing can be like golf? 

Any number of factors might nudge you into an "off" day. With the newspaper here in Morris, pressure to deliver product daily can cause weariness that affects focus. Distractions around you affect focus. Being sleep-deprived? Well that's certainly a given. As I get older, I realize better the importance of having a good diet. For a long time I thought a good hot breakfast could always get me through a full day. Since then I have admitted that greater care is needed. Or am I just getting older?
Rhetorical question? 

So my recent revelation about the English language had to do with the term "weekend warrior." I probably held off on actually using this term in my writing. But it was in my head. Perhaps when the time came where I weighed using it in my writing, I felt I had to confirm the definition. And at that point some revision was called for. 

How might I have developed the misunderstanding? Well, I think it's because I was searching for a term to describe something I had noticed in day-to-day life. To explain: Through the years we have seen a steady fading of the "weekend." It was once ensconced in our lives thanks to two things, 1) primarily the organized labor movement, and 2) the great U.S. middle class that came out of World War II. Today we continue recognizing the "weekend" as when we tell someone "have a nice weekend." It's a line like "how are you today," not meant to convey a whole lot of meaning. It's courtesy. 

But haven't you noticed: the great American weekend has been fading?

Remember "blue laws?" Rather quaint. Shall we hold Sunday sacred? We really don't anymore. More and more normal business gets performed on Saturdays and even Sundays. The trend continues. People need their regular needs met on weekends, after all. Maybe the main street hardware store is closed but then there's Wal-Mart with its big league hardware department. 

As the trend proceeds, there is a corresponding trend, that of weekend employees who try their best but are not as competent as the Monday-Friday people. So you might be advised to watch how you get handled by the weekend folks. I recently had Caribou Coffee screw up what they charged me for my usual breakfast on Sunday morning. It was a young worker who was nice but not really on top of it. 

So, I came to think of employees like these as "weekend warriors." I ran the term by Del Sarlette one day and he corrected me most forcefully. It's good to get corrected that way if you are really wrong. 

No one bats a thousand. So my understanding of "weekend warriors" was entirely in my own head. 

My definition is amusing, I feel, and I feel a term is needed for what I sometimes notice when making weekend rounds. But I whiffed on "weekend warrior." Mea culpa. I plug on as a writer.

 

From the Urban Dictionary for "weekend warrior": "a person who holds a regular job during the week which restricts their ability to party/go on trips/partake in awesome activities, and thus plans epic weekend adventures to compensate."

 

Football: Rockford 26, Tigers 22

Well, shall I write about football, i.e. "are you ready for some football?" - Hank Williams Jr.

I'm reminded of the late Tim Heuer when thinking of Hank Williams Jr. The country singer is the prime exhibit of how success is achieved in popular music with your own distinct style. He is the son of the late singer Hank Williams, a troubled man. Hank Jr. embarked on his music career riding his dad's coattails some in terms of style. Then he broke away completely. 

I'm biased against Southerners who talk about the Confederate flag and all that stuff, but I can't find it in myself to diss Hank Williams Jr. 

Getting back to football, the MACA Tigers lost on the road Friday night The game was played at Rockford against the Rockets. I could not find any details, outside of the score, anywhere in the media until this morning, Sunday. I stayed home from church because my church is pushing a mask requirement (or strong suggestion) again. I find the mask uncomfortable for the full hour. 

Our Tigers had a huge problem with interceptions Friday. It was the story of the game as quarterback Brandon Jergenson had trouble with errant aerials. My goodness, seven interceptions in the stat report for the normally smooth-performing QB. A good scouting report by Rockford? 

Jergenson did throw for 317 yards and three touchdowns. 

We assumed a 6-0 lead thanks to a scoring pass that had Jackson Loge on the receiving end. It was a 36-yard pass hookup. So things are off to a nice start. After that encouraging first score, my goodness the host Rockets put together a skein of 26 points. We lost in the end 26-22.

We were hurt by just 37 yards rushing. We showed spark late in the game, just not enough. The clock ran out. It was our first loss of the season. 

Loge finished with seven pass receptions for 108 yards and the TD. Toby Gonnerman wrapped his arms around the ball for four catches, 100 yards and a score. Cole Wente caught the football four times for 100 yards and a score. On defense Wente intercepted two passes. 

The Rockets improved to 2-1. Samuel Zilmer passed for 115 yards on six of 13 for the winning effort. He also tossed a TD.

 

My podcast for Sept. 19

If I keep doing this often enough, maybe I'll get a "radio voice?" Just kidding, it doesn't matter. But I invite you to visit my "Morris Mojo" podcast on this sunny Sunday. I share on the potential scandal in South Dakota where super-rich T. Denny Sanford faces child porn access allegations. Very untidy matter. So is money everything? Is golf everything? You may click on this permalink, and thanks:

https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/On-T--Denny-Sanford-e17j230 

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Putting new ABBA lyrics under microscope

A line of lyrics in one of the new ABBA songs got my attention. How many of us really think much about the lyrics? The song title probably grabs us. Often the lyrics are hard to follow if you are a casual listener to the radio. 

ABBA has two new songs out now. This concludes their hiatus of 40 years. Seems remarkable to have such a long interruption. Would that we could see and hear John Lennon still plying his craft. 

"I Still Have Faith In You" is a nice thought. It's a new ABBA song. Here's the complete second half of the opening stanza: "There was a union of heart and mind, the likes of which are rare and oh-so hard to find." 

Sounds nice to be sure. I imagine the way the song "sounds" is primary for most people. A closer look at lyrics is still constructive. The last line from above - "the likes of which are rare and oh-so hard to find" - appears to present a redundancy. Something that is rare would be hard to find. I would probably "flag" such a line and attempt to re-write it, were this my own work. 

It has been said of songwriters that it's not uncommon to see them break a rule here and there, "but you can be sure they know what the rules are." But why do they break rules occasionally? Maybe the rules are not so rock-ribbed. 

In fact, it appears that people who are teachers for a living are too rock-ribbed - they enforce rules and make you feel humiliated if you break them. 

I remember being diminished once because of a redundancy I appeared to commit in a poetry writing assignment. Oh, I get my feelings hurt easily? Perhaps. I have an instinctive aversion to apparent redundancies now, beyond what would be reasonable. For example, I was recently combing over lyrics of a song I'm considering to have recorded. I became concerned about one stanza. I talk about something being "the best kind of bliss" and then two lines later, to complete a rhyme, I present the payoff line: "It does not get better than this." I wrote the final line before the ones preceding it. 

Redundant?

I was writing about the author Jim Bouton who initially made his name as a baseball pitcher. 

"It doesn't get better than this?" What was I writing about? To the extent this fellow got famous and made money after his sore arm forced him out of baseball, I suggest that his experience on the ball diamond in front of fans could never be surpassed. "It does not get better than this." 

I remember the line from Olympics coverage about the runner Carl Lewis many years ago. Lewis got in a grumbling and complaining mood about certain things. The commentator considered this, and then suggested through his writing that Lewis savor the essence of the championship moment: "It does not get better than this." 

I think the writer used the contraction "doesn't." I was writing song lyrics - the separate words worked better. Lyricists unlike pure poets have to recognize "prosody," how the words sing, roll off the tongue. Casual listeners to songs tend not to appreciate this fact enough. Sometimes a songwriter will "slip" and admit that the lyrics are governed mainly by "how well they sing." And the performers appreciate the approach, I might add! 

It's funny to realize how song analysts interpret lyrics as if there's a hidden meaning, when no such thing was necessarily intended! 

 

ABBA in 2021

So, ABBA sings "the likes of which are rare and oh-so hard to find." Seems redundant but why should anyone care? It's a terrific song to listen to. Hey it's ABBA! We're waiting to see if the group's comeback has staying power. A little secret: it's almost impossible to predict this in popular music. 

Why was ABBA in hibernation for so long? 

Music groups like the "Cowsills" are known for saying that if they could have hung together longer, well, another string of 20 or so hits would have happened. Intrinsic optimism of us humans? Groups and performers fade off because of various sticky complications and conflict. Also, as much as we're enamored with their best material, it really has a shelf life. You might think it shouldn't. I can't blame you if you were mesmerized by the early ABBA. However, our attention span gets strained in a way we tend not to be conscious of.

We really do get tired of a particular sound. The reason the Beatles became so other-worldly with their success was that they were a rare example of a music act that really could re-invent themselves. This began with the "Rubber Soul" album. The Beatles moved into their new phase as a studio band partly because they couldn't hear their own singing in front of the masses of young fans. Like at Shea Stadium. I'm sure Lennon was thinking "this is nuts!" 

ABBA? They are not re-inventing themselves. They are clearly doing the opposite, not only keeping their style but seeking through tech tricks to present their younger selves! I personally think that's risky. They could have decided to sink or swim as "themselves." Is aging such a taboo thing? What they're doing now seems rather like plastic surgery. 

Their music is good, obviously, but it has always fallen within a narrow realm. It's instantly recognizable. 

The redundancy of the ABBA lyric line I pointed out earlier? Does anyone besides me care about that? Perhaps I still feel a little hurt by a teacher or two from when I was young? These people pushed rules, I now realize because that's what they were paid to do. Without rules, we wouldn't need teachers. Teachers teach structure. It's to excess much of the time. But they need to feel valued (and they need the paycheck). 

A redundancy in lyrics? It's not prima facie bad. ABBA's appears no big deal. We need to apply our common sense. Premier song craftsmen know when to flag a redundancy. 

Choosing words for song lyrics is an extremely delicate thing. It can be maddening because sometimes you'll be "in the zone" and the lines get written as if they're coming from outside of you. At other times, a songwriter will labor endlessly trying to complete something, and even though it seems fruitless - like Sisyphus - we'll plug on! My theory is that such sessions, though futile on the surface, actually serve to build up your skill! 

The best songs can have a throwaway line or two, or an ill-chosen word, but it has to be done to complete the whole. So my Bouton song includes the word "bliss" which is sort of like "heartwarming." What's the word, hackneyed? So sorry, but. . . This was a setup word for the rhyme which was completed with my payoff line: "It does not get better than this." 

Bliss. . .this. So is it OK? I'll share here the whole stanza:

To hear the crescendo of cheering fans

Is really the best kind of bliss

So Jim could remember and understand

It does not get better than this

 

Jim Bouton

A couple years ago I shared the full lyrics for the Bouton song in a blog post. I had a melody in mind all along: a two-part melodic idea that repeats itself - no chorus or bridge. 

I found that the original presentation was too long for a song. I just had to cut it down. I had to show humility, to be willing to admit that some of my writing was expendable! I guess that's a sign of maturity for a songwriter. I appear to have the song pretty well prepared now. Maybe I'll have it recorded. 

Jim Bouton was the No. 1 influence on my approach to journalism in my formative years. He was a questioning person. During questioning times. He rejected first and foremost, superficiality and pretense. Moi? Well, I guess. 

Ernest Hemingway was not a teacher but he did suggest rules of his own for writing. I smile. If he was so certain about such rules, why did he seek to tell the world about them? It's like sharing stock market investing advice: if you're so sure you're right, why not keep the info to yourself and benefit from it? 

It was a nice thought that Hemingway shared: "Never describe something for what it is not, describe it for what it is." 

Why would anyone want to argue with that? But consider the Lennon-McCartney lyrics for "Oh! Darling." The second line is "I'll never do you no harm." OMG, deliberate bad grammar! But besides that, the singer isn't singing about treating someone well, he's saying "I won't hurt you." I wouldn't be so sure with Lennon. But seriously, he was a genius and my generation has never been able to get over his assassination. Painful as it is to accept, we simply must. When a person dies, that person is gone, period. 

"Oh! Darling" was a McCartney tune, written and sung. You might mistake it for Lennon.

Let's keep our eye on the ABBA foursome in the coming few months.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Roaring start, then a fade for MACA girls at home

MACA volleyball showed potential for getting out of its early-season funk on Tuesday. Indeed the Tigers were strong as the action got going in front of the home fans. The home crowd may have buoyed the orange and black as they took Game 1 by a 25-17 score. 

We're in search of our first season win. The win was not forthcoming Tuesday in spite of the strong start. On the other side of the net was BOLD, the Warriors. They took a close Game 2 and built up steam after that. The Tigers fell to 0-7 on the young season. A long road lies ahead for seeking a reversal in fortunes. 

The West Central Tribune website reported that the match was played in Olivia. I found contrary reporting on our (fine) radio station website, and this was confirmed by a check of the "Minnesota Scores" site. Erratum, West Central Tribune. 

If the Tigers' fortunes pick up, Brienna Dybdahl might well have a key role. On Tuesday this Tiger had 14 assists and ten digs. We remember her as fast-pitch softball pitcher from last spring. Speaking of softball - ahem - wasn't the new Holmberg Field going to get lights for night play? Didn't the funeral home get credit some time back for providing $ for this goal? I regularly walk past the place and I see no lights up at either the new varsity field or the new secondary field. Did I misunderstand something? 

Actually I have noticed no new work or new construction, outside of a few piles of dirt (?), so I'm wondering how the significant new infusion of $ from the school board will play out. Something like $220,000, right? I believe the amount had been revised upward. Prices never get revised downward. We could only expect price hikes coming out of the pandemic slowdown. 

Actually it looks like we may be entering a new slowdown. We're fervently hoping such a development does not happen. But we've been warned about what will likely happen with the cooler and drier air of fall. Sorry folks but brace yourselves. 

Speaking of price hikes, a popular restaurant in town - frankly there aren't many of them - has "new menus" out as of this morning. I was offered a look but I declined. I can withstand some price inflation now, grudgingly yes, because I do not have a girlfriend. 

 

Parking redux

I see no progress with developing a parking resource at the softball complex. The school superintendent has exited his position, I guess due to a family health matter. Good luck to him, but who now will talk to Marshall at the radio station re. the complex? I remember Supt. Ferguson confirming a "re-design" with the project. I just had to interpret that as basically a scaling-down. And if that's true, I wish it had been presented as such, just from the standpoint of transparency and yes, honesty. 

But I guess Ferguson is out of the picture now. The taxpayers are never out of the picture. Is there a "watchdog?"

Marshall himself tells me he thinks the new parking might be restricted to handicapped, but that was not my initial understanding. The supt. made it sound like the developers only suddenly had the realization that errant balls could hit windshields. As I have responded previously, why not this realization from the start? I do question the sincerity of communications. 

I can't imagine next spring will dawn with no improvements in parking, because the place was a dangerous mess last spring, the danger confirmed by none other than my old friend Mark Ekren, school activities director, at a public meeting. "Someone's gonna get run over." And if the new fields get lit and we see night games, well holy mackerel, the danger will be compounded enormously along Prairie Lane. 

I refer to Prairie Lane as "boondoggle alley" because the city's water treatment plant is there too. 

 

Volleyball vs. BOLD

So Dybdahl was a top contributor for MACA volleyball on Tuesday. Her stats were a nifty "double double." Then we see Kortney Sanasack as quite active on the floor with her 23 digs. Maddy Grove came at the Warriors with six kills and a block. Whitney Bruns executed eight assists and also performed eight digs. 

We lost some of the sizzle from Game 1 and got bested narrowly, 25-27. It was downhill from there, 14-25 and 11-25. 

The West Central Tribune online coverage had no individual stat details for the Tigers. It's nice to see that the "Minnesota Scores" site is now current with schedule and W/L info. 

Leslie Snow executed well for the victorious Warriors. Snow accumulated eleven kills. She dug up the ball ten times and performed three ace serves. Delaney Tersteeg facilitated the attack with 21 set assists. Lidia Plass was a back row stalwart with 19 digs. Layla Pfarr sent three serve aces at the Tigers, as did Snow, and TerSteeg had two serve aces. Abby Meyers went up for seven ace blocks. BOLD came out of the night at 2-0.

 

TV movie recalls history

My podcast episode for today, Sept. 8, springs from the new made-for-TV movie about the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal and subsequent impeachment. Clinton was not removed from office. I'm a Democrat who now feels ashamed thinking back on all that. I invite you to visit my Morris Mojo podcast:

https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/So-long-ago--Bill-Clinton-e173853 

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Labor Day weekend lacks real purpose but it's an escape!

Las Vegas is a recommended destination for the three-day Labor Day weekend. The photo shows Morris native Greg Cruze along "the strip." We found this photo amusing because of the coincidence of having the "1/2 pound" in the background. We might have considered Greg a little hefty at the time. This was many years ago. Our understanding of what constitutes "overweight" has been adjusted over time. We think rather nothing of a "rotund" look now, and our society is better off. Greg, his brother Art and yours truly enjoyed Las Vegas more than once on Labor Day weekend. I may have suggested the scheduling because for me, it was a three-day "bulldog weekend" as the Morris paper went to press Friday for the Tuesday edition. This may have opened up a three-day weekend, but we had to work like hell in the week leading up! Flying to Vegas was a nice relief right after that. I remember the plane flight when we were offered first class even though this was not our arrangement, and I discovered the generosity with alcoholic drinks there, quite unlimited. I availed myself because after all, we were "goin' to Vegas, baby!" Art Cruze graduated from Morris High School the same year as me, 1973. We were with the recently-deceased Allen Anderson. The Cruze family left Morris before Greg graduated, and he got his diploma in the friendly community of Paynesville. Our Las Vegas party would sometimes be joined by others. Yours truly has no special reason today to "escape" to Vegas for any sort of R & R or whatever. I won't specify the whatever. I haven't worked at the Morris paper in 15 years. I love the memories of Vegas. I also cherish many memories associated with the old twice-a-week Morris paper, from the totally pre-digital days. If you can imagine that. Our flights were long before 9/11 so everything was more relaxed. We could get rather "wasted" in first class! We laugh about such things now, heh heh. I love Las Vegas. Viva Las Vegas. Viva 1/2 pounders!

 

Many of us probably have to be reminded that it's Labor Day weekend (Sept. 4-6). I used to tease Jim Morrison, every year in fact, about how he should get fired up writing an editorial for the occasion, talking up the "role of organized labor in building our great country." Well. . . Jim would not be of a mind to write such a thing, based on pretty unsubtle political inclinations. 

The Republican Party and unions are rather the antithesis of bedfellows. Morris legend has long proclaimed that we were in position to get the big new 3M plant, but cold water got tossed on that by certain movers/shakers who feared unions. We have government-based institutions whose employees are in unions. In fact, government has seemed to be a last grand bastion for unions, n'est-ce-pas? 

BTW Alexandria got the 3M plant. Alex is rather known to run rings around us in a variety of ways. We can only respond to that with a shrug. Morris couldn't even get its grant approved for an extension to the biking/walking trail. The trail is a nice place to go when you want to ponder questions like: why is there no local recognition of Labor Day? No speeches like for Memorial Day. And yet we observe the three-day holiday weekend. 

The MACA football team played on Thursday so maybe that makes it a four-day weekend. Why not? The Tigers won 15-6 at Howard Lake. 

Now we just have to take one week at a time as we all try to fend off any re-emergence of the pandemic. Odds are, it can only get worse as the air gets cooler/drier, unfortunately. DeToy's Restaurant was packed this morning, Saturday. It will be likewise tomorrow as people stop by after church, so our churches must be doing well for the time being. Ah, "for the time being." Keep that line handy. 

Amidst the angst, are political conservatives really celebrating what happened with abortion in Texas? Such folks appear strangely quiet now, not exactly celebratory. What gives? They've been talking up the pro-life cause emotionally for years. Now they are starting to get their way. That's what happens when we elect a right wing president who appoints multiple Supreme Court members. We've made our own bed. You know the rest. 

So now Texas has a "vigilante" system for abortion prohibition. Isn't that classy? At the same time we're dealing with the pandemic and all its ramifications. 

 

Alternate history

Hillary Clinton would have attacked the pandemic with rules, laws and guidelines that, yes, would have gotten many of us upset. That's what happens when we're forced to obey laws, like the seat belt law. People grimace and complain, as per human nature from time immemorial, but we move on, learn to fasten our seat belt, and we're all the better for it. 

But we decided to elect an unbalanced reality star con artist president, he of the attempted secret dalliances with porn stars and Playboy models, and of all people, the religious right went along with it, became the leaders of it. 

Maybe in heaven we'll all find our sanity. If I go there, will I have to share space with the Mississippi governor? This individual recently said we shouldn't be all that afraid of covid because Christians can count on eternal life. I challenged all Stevens County ministers to give their sermon tomorrow based on that statement, that logic. Thing is, people in public positions like governors are supposed to serve all the people, all their constituents. Without bias. 

Trump and his fellow travelers have dispensed with old norms. Like, the norm of not trying to influence the Federal Reserve. There were hot suspicions during the Trump presidency that the Fed chairman was made to answer to the treasury secretary. C'mon, can you dismiss such a suspicion? Trump was inclined to try any impulsive idea. And maybe the fallout hasn't all impacted us yet. It hasn't came home to roost, not yet, but what about when it does? 

The conservative media skews everything. Extreme conservatives were a backwater when I was a kid. Thing is, this element has learned to seize the new electronic media so effectively. So the real paranoid folks have an appreciable audience now. The vaccine and mask deniers can wave their arms and get noticed. 

 

Whither the academic year?

What lies beyond this Labor Day weekend? Schools at all levels everywhere are whistling in the dark as they hope to manage somewhat normal schedules. It appears various "red" states in addition to Texas are going to apply the abortion trick, the "vigilante" trick. 

Our complete breakdown of civilization may lie ahead. We just lost another war. What do you think of that? That war was begun by George W. Bush who was once seen as the conservative bright light. Everything has gotten deconstructed since then. Bush looks like an eminent scholar compared to what we got from 2016 to 2020. Bush had a modicum of sense about respecting our institutions. Liz Cheney recognizes that. But even she has turned into an outlier now. 

So, what should we be expecting in this Labor Day weekend of 2021? Enjoy the three days, because the outcomes after that could be under a shroud of bleakness. I just close my eyes and wonder if I should bet the green numbers at the roulette table.

 

My podcast for September 4

I invite you to visit my "Morris Mojo" podcast where today, the new music from ABBA is top of mind. That's the grist for today's offering, and I invite you to click on permalink:

https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/New-music-from-ABBA-e16tmu3 

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com