Remember when 10 cents vs. 50 meant something?

The "Pylin" of East 7th Street was once such an institution, I suggested that if Prairie Pioneer Days were to be resurrected, it be called "Pylin Days." The idea would be to "pile in" to Morris! It's just an idle dream. Fewer and fewer people in this community remember the Pylin which was the classic drive-in. Consider the movie "American Graffiti." Those were "American Graffiti" times. The old public school, now gone, was along East 7th Street. Gradually this community abandoned this site for school purposes, rather a sea change. The place was once such a "hub" of community life, basketball games etc. Today it's a different kind of life there, but I can't help but think that East 7th has a rather run-down look. That can change. The sidewalk along there is lousy too. You could trip at night and fall right into the roadway. Look out, because maybe the South Dakota attorney general will be coming along. How many of you remember Matt Lesmeister? So many of the old faces have faded, but not necessarily in my memory. Remember Willie Martin? I always think of him on Memorial Day. 

 

Morris once had a place where you could buy "Army Surplus" items. Get a nice canteen, knapsack or other such item. The business was along East 7th Street, in the building now used by Chuck Lesmeister for storage (so I'm told). 

The complexion of Morris has changed so much. The public school building was across the street from the business I reference here. Kids ran downhill on the sidewalk, crossed East 7th and got snacks, comic books or baseball cards at Stark's Grocery. Stark's later became Budig's and the building now houses a monument company. 

East 7th Street was once the main entry to Morris from the east. It was attractive for businesses that catered to people traffic. 

Does inflation worry you now? It's in the news a lot. So I'll remind you that the Dairy Queen along East 7th had ice cream cones priced at five or ten cents. You might think I'm kidding. Definitely not. Those were the days when we'd appreciate the difference between 10 cents and 50 cents, when we'd leave a tip in restaurants with "coins." 

Today, newspapers have had to give up even having vending machines. Gone are the days when a person strolling along a sidewalk might decide to shove a mere couple coins in a vending machine. It's gone with the wind, along with the five and ten-cent ice cream cones (chocolate or vanilla) at the East 7th DQ. 

Here's a question: why have businesses like Dairy Queen decided to make their menus so complicated? They say they have a hard time finding help these days. Maybe the prospective employees just think the pay is insufficient. They have other, better outlets for getting support? But maybe it's not just the pay, maybe it's the stress of dealing with a large and overly complicated menu. And customers can be demanding. 

In the old days the choice was chocolate or vanilla. Take a look at the menu today. And I now learn that the Morris DQ has closed its lobby. The door was locked on Sunday evening, and a sign was on the door on Monday. Maybe this policy is subject to change based on the availability of help. I don't know, but a business risks alienating its customer base long-term with this limitation. 

Stop and think: if you live in a nearby community like Hancock and make a run into Morris some evening, and you decide you'd like a little treat, are you really going to do drive-through or take-out if you're going back to your home? With perhaps ice cream treats? No, I think a fair number of people would like to grab a seat for a few minutes. 

It is off-putting for the Morris community to have eating establishments that do not serve sit-down. I recently asked someone if, to their knowledge, McDonald's still had the kiosk-only policy for ordering inside. I was aware of that sign being in place there if not all the time, a good share of the time. I argued this was off-putting, maybe not so much to the very young crowd that takes to all the new systems. But for older people, I think it's rather an affront. 

The person with whom I was speaking said that, to her knowledge, McDonald's still had the sign up. I have emailed McDonald's corporate about this, got a nice and accommodating response. But it looks like the local owner has the leverage to continue the irritating policy. 

You might say this is a PR issue for Morris. Way back before the pandemic, one of my prime contacts at UMM dropped the comment, "I think Morris could use another restaurant." She brought up the subject entirely.

We lost a classic middle class restaurant, i.e. one with no alcohol, decent lighting and middle class prices, when the Riverwood bank expanded along Atlantic Avenue. Fewer people remember the restaurant that was there, which went by three names through the years. And, a restaurant's value is not just with food. It is a place for people to go and see their friends, because we are after all a social animal. The shutdown measures for the pandemic took a terrible toll because of this. 

The old restaurant had a meeting/banquet room with a sliding partition to offer some privacy, and the room even had a piano. The bank moved in there, and there has been no true replacement restaurant since. 

 

Doing us favors, eh?

Another bank! They occupy so much real estate along Atlantic Avenue. Riverwood is so proud to have a big banner up about how they offer "free checking." Make that "free and easy checking." What a favor this business does for all of us in the besieged middle class: they offer us free checking! Worthy of a banner draped over the side of the building. 

But wouldn't you prefer a bank where you could go like in the old days, to deposit money which would then earn interest for you? Remember when banks paid interest? You did business with a bank and then the bank actually paid you. A novel concept? Well, it has been the norm for most of U.S. history. You could get a certificate of deposit or a long-term CD that would pay more interest than the standard. 

Interest rates have been so low as to be negligible over the recent past. There was a slight break in 2018 when a push toward "normalization" was attempted. It failed. The Federal Reserve makes all these decisions, yet the Fed is supervised by unelected people. 

The Fed chopped interest rates by a full point when the pandemic started. This they did in a "special meeting." But when interest rates need to be raised, the process is much slower, as we are now witnessing. The Fed prioritizes the stock market. So congratulations if your "401K" or whatever seems to look decent, but just weigh that against prices for everything going up like all get-out. 

Aren't you feeling anxiety about the increasing prices? And remember the prices at the old Dairy Queen on Morris, East 7th Street, cones for a nickel or a dime. Push a couple coins into a vending machine, maybe just one, for the morning newspaper. Leave a coin or two on the restaurant table as your "tip." 

Oh, I remember. Go over to Lesmeister Motors and get your Army Surplus canteen. Or hey, a "mess kit!" Stop at Stark's Grocery for a fudgesickle and a current "Superman" or "Batman" comic. All things must pass, I guess. 

These days we guard our kids so closely, we might as well have them wrapped in Nerf.

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

"Christian nationalism" upsetting USA apple cart?

The image from Twitter is Jim Carey's caricature of Mike Pence. Pence is ever more being shunned by the main body of Trump supporters. "Christian nationalists" truly have a litmus test. They lament the failure of the Jan. 6, 2001, attempted revolution. Or was that just a "rehearsal?" Are you on board with that? Can you "sell" this to your children?

 

Can Christianity be re-captured by the truly benevolent and caring people of America? Don't you think this is a fundamental question this nation faces? We hear references to "Christian nationalism." We hear how our beloved faith has become perverted, made grotesque by getting interwoven with the January 6 assault on the capitol. 

Don't you worry about the kind of impression being made on our youth? A religion that is supposed to be loving, forgiving and concerned about the poor and afflicted has been co-opted. Co-opted by truly sinister forces, people willing to threaten murder and most likely commit it, if given the chance. 

A friend of mine echoed my exact thoughts a few days ago: It is difficult to stay interested in the Jan. 6 hearings because of how all of it just drones on. Let's say "ad nauseam." (And, I have learned to spell that word properly, not like "museum.") 

Let's say it's nauseating because it's so long after the Jan. 6, 2001, disruption, we tire of hearing the new questions getting asked, the new info getting confirmed. If Congress really cared about getting to the bottom of the attempted violent revolution, it could have summoned the proper resources in a timely way. It could be an existential question for America. 

Concerned as I feel, I am also developing some detachment. There is a sense of futility. The process slogs on. News tidbits are offered each day that are supposed to get us excited. But it's nearly July of 2022, for goodness' sake, and the mid-term elections are not far off. Not only that, there is a general consensus in the media that the Republican party will make gains in the mid-terms. In other words, there appears to be no stopping this train. 

If only we could get a super majority of Democrats at all levels of government for four years, we would achieve stability. At the end of four years, maybe we'd be sick of them. By then, maybe the Republican party will have learned better manners, to be more civilized. 

Check out your own friends and neighbors. Where are they at with their attitudes? Are they just impressed watching Trump on TV? He understands the power of television. Roger Ailes brought Bill O'Reilly on board because O'Reilly "understood television." Know what I mean when I cite "understanding television?" The unique power it has to shape our views? How the personalities onscreen project the illusion that you "know" them? You begin to put trust in them. They might seem relatable when they're on the screen in your home. Like Bill Cosby was for years and years. 

As for O'Reilly, he just became too messy with his personal misdeeds for even Fox News to keep around. Remember how O'Reilly used to suggest he was "one of the folks?" Illusion. It's like Hollywood being the "dream factory." O'Reilly had to pay out something like $32 million to avoid a sexual harassment lawsuit. Ailes who ran Fox News for a long time got in trouble in a like way. 

So these are the people who managed and manipulated the kind of messages that get into our living rooms now. Trump was a master of TV before he declared for the presidency. The flim-flam man has something to sell for people who will buy it. Do you think Trump is motivated by even one ounce of benevolence? He is the antithesis of humility, obviously. "Ike" Eisenhower had an outlook of "giving credit to others, taking blame for myself." And wasn't Ike the epitome of honor? And of real manliness? And Trump ought to impress you as 100 percent the opposite. 

Yet a major portion of our beloved Christian faith in America has bought into him. We see the phenomenon right here in the Morris area. Apostolics have driven around with "Trump" flags flapping in back of their pickups. Oh, along with "Keep America great." As if skeptics of Trump do not want America to be great. 

Elect Trump again and you'll see more tax favors done for the richest one percent, maybe just a fraction of the one percent. This is well-known, yet so many rank and file American fall all over themselves to stay on the Trump train. To trumpet "election fraud" in connection with 2020. And if they don't exactly support what happened on Jan. 6, 2001, their attitudes are mild about it. They feel stronger in the negative about any Democrats involved in the process, or "traitors" like Liz Cheney. 

 

Pence cast adrift

Doesn't Mike Pence look pathetic now? He has been thrown overboard by the Christian nationalists. What if Pence's own family had been violently attacked or killed on Jan. 6? Such was the sentiment. Pence knows his standing now. He did not attend the 2022 Faith and Freedom Coalition annual conference in Nashville TN. I love Nashville so I think it's unfortunate the event was held there. Pence now knows he best not show his face there. 

Trump still rules with a significant chunk of America, and a major portion of people who call themselves "Christian." Ron DeSantis has like standing. 

What if Karen Pence had been beheaded on Jan. 6? Instances of this have happened through world history. If the attempted coup had succeeded, and if an autocracy had truly been established, would the Morris area Apostolics and other basically like-minded "fundamentalists" really be satisfied, or would they find it's too late to wake up about all this? 

The coup supporters are such hard-line people, they do not accept dissent at all. They consider dissent to be treasonous. And I think they are prepared to punish this kind of treason with death. Congressman Jim Jordan has appeared to suggest as much. This kind of thing started happening with the Nazis. How would our news media cover it? I mean, the ones who would dare try to cover it? 

Once a sinister type of revolution like this gets started, we can find it's too late to restore order. It's like the horse "Boxer" in George Orwell's book "Animal Farm," who found it was too late to fight - he had gotten old, worn out from overwork and too weak. Is that the kind of America we are headed to?

I attend an ELCA church, so does that mean I will go to hell, in the eyes of the people I am criticizing here?

 

Reprise of my poem

Here once again, my lyrics or poetry about the Jan. 6 incident. Thanks for visiting this blog site. 

 

"January 6 Lament"

by Brian Williams

 

A place where cherry blossoms

Adorn the public space

Is where we should be solemn

And not be moved by hate

So why should we be hearing

The call to "hang Mike Pence"

We should have been more leery

Of those devoid of sense

The new year was just dawning

A placid winter scene

We all should have been yawning

And followed our routine

But MAGA stoked the fire

Of riot and revolt

The denizens conspired

To give us all a jolt

We thought we might be dreaming

With manufactured fears

There just was no believing

A travesty so weird

But there it was before us

A crowd that wanted blood

An insurrection chorus

They moved as if a flood

Behind it all a grifter

Just pulling all the strings

He had his fans atwitter

To blow up everything

And though he said "be peaceful"

It would not rule the day

On top of all the evil

It was just CYA

The siren song of Fox News

Had wafted far and wide

And Newsmax had its own views

Dispensing fear and lies

We had been teased on TV

And let it all take wing

Like football players kneeling

As if that was a thing

So many came to foment

A riot in its name

The image of one woman

Just lingers like a flame

Her name was Ashli Babbitt

So loyal to the cause

She saw her chance and grabbed it

There was no time to pause

She came from California

Traversed the USA

To show her love of MAGA

She would not be delayed

She had been in the Air Force

A patriotic stance

But something caused a new course

A QAnon romance

So Ashli had a vision

She shared with all her folks

Of going on a mission

To nullify the votes

A window had been broken

The chance to move was there

The president had spoken

He urged them all to dare

A sea of discontented

Now why were they so mad?

Their feelings were cemented

Behind a single man

The signs were all around them

That Trump was not their friend

They could not seem to fathom

He's just about himself

So Ashli was a victim
A cop just had to act

Her family rued her mission

She should have just stayed back

We feel for Ashli Babbitt

Her soul resides in peace

Could she not understand it

The cesspool of deceit?

An epilogue is needed

Of justice breaking through

To see a man defeated

Who showed us he's a fool

There is still time to salvage

The best of who we are

To neutralize the damage

And clear away the scars

I pledge allegiance to the flag

In the "thick" of things with mowing

My front yard with downed trees from "derecho"

It's a year in which summer seems never to want to take hold. We hear about the unique things that are happening because of climate change. I noticed another one a few days ago. 

My grass had gotten to a typical height where I consider cutting it. Let's use the correct term for a certain type of mower: it's "walk-behind" mower, not "push" mower. "Push" might suggest those borderline antique things that have no motor at all. The Cyrus Post Office had one of them, as of a few years ago. I shouldn't say "no" power because the power came from human exertion. 

So my powered walk-behind mower was set to go a few days ago. I had previously mowed with my rider. Now I wanted to give the lawn more of a "haircut" where I'd get to the base of trees better, that sort of thing. My walk-behind had just had the carburetor cleaned. 

Word is, the standard unleaded gas has higher ethanol these days and this is bad for small engines. There's an alternative fuel which I hear is available at only two places in Morris. A friend tells me it's "oxygenated" but I think he might have meant "non-oxygenated." Whatever, it all gets confusing even after one has consulted the Internet, and that's unusual. My response to my friend this morning:

 

One question again about the gas for mowers: The "gold pump" gas at Jerry's, is that oxygenated or non-oxygenated? I think you meant non-oxygenated. I have tried researching this using Internet but no matter where I look, I just get confused. Usually the Internet helps boil everything down, but not with this. And what about the term "premium?" Then we get into octane levels etc. I just want to know what pump to look for. What's it called? Whatever, I think I might just sink or swim with gas from Casey's. Just get a new mower every three years or so, if I have to.

 

Whatever fuel you settle upon, it appears there are pluses and minuses. What about the old days when you just went and bought "gas?" Everything in life has gotten too complicated. 

Is the ethanol content of the unleaded gas a government-mandated thing? To help the farmers? Farmers don't seem to face much risk these days. It's not at all like the days of old. There was a time when farmers fretted to the point of irritation. We had to feel for them, but still. It appears now we have "over-corrected" for the farmers. They'll claim they still face some issues because that's human nature. No class of people will ever say they have it made. They're still looking around for favors. 

But it appears farming has developed to where it's quite risk-free. 

If the ethanol is creating problems with small engines, I wish the government would end any special policies that are contributing to this. The government could just straight-up pay the farmers. Pay farmers for not growing something? Is there any precedent for that? 

I'm just shrugging and continuing to buy the unleaded gas. So a few days ago I cranked up my walk-behind and was game to take on the grass. I consider my mower to be quite good enough. This was a first-time experience at my property: the grass was too think and moist to be tackled by your average walk-behind mower. It would stall and kill after a few seconds. 

I cranked up my rider again. The rider could overcome this, thank goodness. So I charged forward in the rider, ensuring that my property would continue to have a civilized look. People can give me a pass for having two downed evergreens in the front yard. Scenes like that are common now. The "derecho" passed through. Have you ever before heard that term applied to local weather? Almost certainly we are seeing climate change. 

There's a home on east end of my neighborhood where a fallen tree is still pressed up against the side of the house. I'm surprised it has not been attended to. Have the occupants of the home been gone? This is Morris, after all, a town about which I have joked that "we're going to be gone" should be on the water tower. So who knows? 

 

Cultural shift

In the old days we'd all know each other's business better. There was an up side and down side to that of course. The early days of my neighborhood saw everyone very open and friendly with each other. There is nothing un-friendly now, but we've all sort of withdrawn into cocoons - people everywhere have. You hear the joke or irony about how we don't even know our neighbors anymore. A stone's throw away. I only observe that norm because it is the norm. I would not mind at all having more open relations. But when in Rome, do as the Romans do. 

Sometimes when we feel inhibitions, we send emails! Emails are like a refuge for when we really feel we need to communicate with someone. My theory is that it feels safe because we're not demanding immediate feedback. We say what we need to say, then it's up to the recipient how, or if, to answer. I have the email addresses of three of my closest neighbors. They have proven useful at times. 

Telephone is a whole different proposition than in the old days, because so many people opt not to "pick up." You must realize that in the old days, standard behavior was to just "answer the phone" when it rang. The norm began fading because of telemarketing. And then we decided we liked the "cocooning" stance of not being as available. People my age will remember the transition. I am 67 and have the perception of a "boomer." 

My generation has always been so powerful and trend-setting. Are we prepared to relinquish some of that? The time has come, and in fact is probably already here. The boomers will have a storied place in American history. What made us unique, shockingly so in some respects? I will distill that answer down to one chief thing: we were the first U.S. generation of kids to be marketed to. Marketing is manipulation. It made us cynical. It made us smart alecks. 

The world cares less and less about what we have to say now. We are becoming relics, though surely we are in denial about that. Inevitably we will pass from the scene. 

 

Music video as time capsule

My 50-year high school reunion is next summer. Ah, the transitions we have seen. I was reminded of three of them when I called up an old music video recently. What a delightful video: "Born in East L.A." from Cheech and Chong. It's not a "stoner" thing. It gets humor from illegal immigration, which I think is taken far more seriously now. The video made an impression on me because right at the start, there are three things that are very dated. 

At first, the singer coming out of his home is struck in the chest by a newspaper tossed by a "delivery boy" on bike. Newspaper delivery boys! From the days when they were oft-seen, considered a normal part of the landscape. No Internet as of the year 1985 of course. I was 30 years old. 

Next we see the singer get distracted by two "shapely" women who he decides to fawn and ogle over. Quite dated! We bitterly object to objectifying women today. I welcome the new attitude. Had we activated our brains, we would have been concerned about how all the (apparently) non-attractive women felt about the fuss being made. But we don't judge women like that now, and if you insist to do so, please just do so in your private thoughts. Today we have #MeToo of course. Sometimes it gets carried away, but on the whole it's constructive. 

Sometimes I feel for someone like Garrison Keillor who, frankly, just had the not-uncommon problem of being overwhelmed by his hormones. Am I subject to this? No comment. 

OK, still another dated thing from the Cheech and Chong music video: right after the encounter with the females, the guy goes to the corner store to get "a loaf of bread and box of smokes." Horrors. But this was when smoking was still quite accepted out and around, and even if the smoke irritated you sometimes, it was considered bad form to make a fuss about it. The law eventually took care of this. Restaurant owners were privately glad that happened. 

So here we are in mid-June of 2022 and with grass in the rather unique condition of being stubborn to mow, so that the standard "walk-behind" equipment won't work. If no rider, you might have to hire someone. I'm hoping to get the tree guy to my place soon. Maybe we'll have some normality by the Fourth of July. 

Don't forget that Donald Trump considers climate change a "hoax." Hey, he's still popular in Stevens County.

 

Addendum: I am hopeless for spelling "carburetor" without looking it up.

  

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

Mariah Carey/Andy Stone schism tarnishes Christmas?

She's a sweetheart: Mariah Carey

There was a time in the history of the "Morning Joe" TV program that the panel was not fixated on hot-button politics. Not fixated on the partisan mudslinging and gamesmanship of the "Beltway." I pine for the days when the panel would discuss song-stealing lawsuits. They might go on for 20 minutes on such a thing. And it would be fascinating. 

I cannot rule out that the panel today (6/6/22) will touch on the Mariah Carey thing. I watch "Morning Joe" in bits and pieces now on YouTube. I am a "cord cutter" with cable. So maybe the "Joe" gang will talk about the breaking news of a new lawsuit in the alleged song-stealing world. But in general terms, let's accept that the direction of the morning program has plunged the depths of the incessant and depressing political posturing. 

What would they say about the song-stealing suit? There is an educated basis for speculating. This show and any other with a modicum of sensibility would say the lawsuit really has zero chance. That's based on the accepted principle that "you cannot copyright a song title." It's off the table, CW has it. But remember in the original "Star Wars" how the bad guy leader in the "Death Star" at the end was so convinced he couldn't be vanquished? A concerned subordinate approached him and said "I've studied the strategy of (the attackers) and there is a danger." 

The danger may have seemed negligible. But the Death Star blew up. So is there "a danger" for Mariah Carey and her operation with what emerged in the news the last couple days? And I'm not sure the news media should really make a big deal out of a "lawsuit" being announced. Silly rabbit, anybody can sue anybody. It does not prove anything. Massive coverage of a lawsuit like this actually has consequences affecting people. Carey might walk away from this untouched, but people will always remember the suit. They might suspect that even though she legally escaped, well, maybe there was something to it, a tiny bit. 

"There is a danger?" Let me explain: even though it's accepted judgment that a song title cannot be copyrighted, the case in question here has a somewhat special quality. Here it is: the length of the song title. Yes, it is an especially long song title. The longer the title or phrase, the less likely that the duplication was inadvertent. I didn't come into town on a turnip truck. This is an issue that deserves serious attention in this particular case. 

I don't think it is enough for the suit to succeed. Success would have difficult ramifications for the songwriting world. That world has faced headwinds just because of the fear of suits like this. Songwriters have been deterred from their craft by fear of inadvertent copying of a previous musical idea. The fear is that "inadvertent" won't be a good enough defense. Who wants to be sued? 

Songwriters had to pay attention to the Katy Perry case. Boy, if this wasn't a "firebell in the night" for them. And why does a jury even get to decide these things? Put a case like this in front of a jury, and those bozos will almost always side with the accuser. It's elementary: if an alleged song-stealing case gets so far as to be weighed in a courtroom, with jury, then the two songs under scrutiny must certainly have some similarities. 

But to cross the line into actual "theft" affirmation? Who wants to be accused and found guilty of theft? 

Mike Barnicle of the "Morning Joe" panel had to deal with his own issues of this kind from when he was columnist with the Boston Globe. Today he boils it down to a basic "joke-stealing" thing. Heaven help us if we cannot recycle jokes. Or song titles. 

I ply songwriting myself some, am proud to do so. And a long time ago I took the title of a Bill Chase number, "So Many People," a song I really liked, and re-processed it for my own totally original song. Mine is not on YouTube. It's filed away on a cassette tape. I had the demo recorded by an outfit in Canoga Park CA. My lyrics were styled after "Blood, Sweat and Tears" in that the theme was philosophical as opposed to interpersonal relationships and feelings. Well, enough about me - I just would point out how I can relate to the current news story re. Carey. 

Carey with Christmas theme

Carey is famous for "All I Want For Christmas is You." I gush with enthusiasm for this song and the original video. IMHO there was no need to do an updated video, but that's what people do nowadays. The original has an "archival" quality to it, but so what? It's a non-issue 100 percent. The original song and video complements the Christmas holiday season like nothing else. But hey, the song title is rather long. 

When it comes to alleged plagiarism in the writing craft, there is this guideline: up to six words can be coincidence, inadvertent. As soon as you get past six words, odds increase greatly that you are borrowing something. Not sure this even applies to the Carey case, because I'll state again that "song titles cannot be copyrighted." So unless that stance is going to be modified - shudder - Carey need not sweat. Much. 

But who wants to be sued? Katy Perry for the rest of her career might have to shake off the stigma of having been sued. The original judgment went against her. So there was considerable attention over that. The judgment was overturned on appeal. The basic melody was not even the crux of the matter. The crux was background stuff, so heaven help us all if that's a basis for winning a suit. 

The Perry song in question was "Dark Horse." Her initial setback was dealt by a cotton pickin' jury. A pox on them in cases like this. It took a judge to get everything straightened out. 

Sorry George Harrison, I cannot sympathize with you. There were two melodic elements, not just one, at question in his "My Sweet Lord" matter. 

Hey, didn't Harrison have a song called "Dark Horse?" 

Pick a number

Carey now faces a $20 million lawsuit, jaw-dropping and cause for media attention, right? So I might suggest that the damage is already being done her - not fair. It's all about money of course. 

Songwriter Andy Stone is the guy tossing the brickbat. He wrote a song with the same title five years earlier. But it's just a title. Yes, a title with a fairly long series of words by the standards of song titles. So is there a crack of an opening for success? Hmmm. I cannot decisively say "no" on that. So we'll see. 

The writer of Carey's song may well have been totally aware of the previous iteration if you want to call it that. If so, he might as well admit it. So what? I admit that I used "So Many People" but that's just three words. Copywriting song titles? Man, that would be an absolute sea change in popular music. 

Stone wrote his song under the name "Vince Vance and the Valiants." I have listened to it now. It is a very nice song. Endless new Christmas songs of high quality are written all the time. Ahem, I have written a few. 

I haven't read of anyone suggesting that Stone's song has any similarity with Carey's outside of the title. Sure enough I see none. But hey, Stone is going to get lots of attention now and his song will be called up by countless people out of curiosity. So maybe that's the whole idea? Take out "maybe." 

All I want for Christmas is no more lawsuits like this.

Shameless plug: my newest original song on YouTube is "Why Can't We All Get Along?" based on what's happening in Ukraine/Russia. The title is inspired by the words of Rodney King of the infamous Los Angeles traffic stop/beating. King was no saint but his "get along" words had/have staying power, don't you think? Why did I think of it? Bless you if you give a listen to my song. Here is the link:

https://youtu.be/7JEC2ot6t2o 

 

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