Saturday 9

Saturday 9: I Feel the Earth Move (recommended by Blue County Magic)
If you're not familiar with today's song, you can hear it here.

1) This song is from the album Tapestry, one of the all-time best-sellers (more than 25,000,000 copies sold worldwide). Is it in your collection? Yes.

2) It's about that glorious passion you feel when you first fall for someone. How many times have you been in love? Three times, and I hope I'm not done yet.

3) San Francisco radio stations briefly removed "I Feel the Earth Move" from their playlists after the 1989 earthquake. Have you ever been in an earthquake and literally felt "the earth move under your feet?" I remember the 5.2 tremor in Southern Illinois that rattled me all the way up here.
 

4) Carole King is the first and only woman to win the Gershwin Prize for songwriting from the Library of Congress. Here's your chance to brag a little -- tell us about an accolade you have received.  Gave a presentation Thursday afternoon that our client deemed, "Terrific!"

 
5) Carole wrote "You've Got a Friend," which was a mega hit for her good pal, James Taylor. King and Taylor have known one another for more than 40 years, but have never been romantically involved. Do you have any platonic friends of the opposite sex? Yes, many. 

6) Like more than 80% of the population, Carole is right handed. Are you right handed, left handed (10%) or that most rare of all, ambidextrous (less than 10%)? I'm all rightie, all the way. Completely helpless with my left hand.

7) One of Carole King's earliest hits was Little Eva's "The Loco-Motion." Little Eva was the teenager King hired to care for her young children. Tell us about a sitter who cared for you when you were little. First there was Georgie, then Susie (who briefly dated my Uncle Ted and I wanted them to get married) and Susie's sister, Marilyn. I adored them all. I thought they were highly sophisticated and worldly, which is how a 16 year old looks to a 4 or 5 year old.

8) Beautiful is the title of the Broadway play about Carole King's life. If we were producing your lifestory, what would you want us to call it? The Thing of It Is … because I say it all the time.

 

 

9) Carole wrote "Pleasant Valley Sunday," the Monkees' song about conspicuous consumption. When Crazy Sam looks at her crowded shelf of hair products (paraben-free conditioner, keratin-restoring conditioner, hair masque, hot oil conditioner …), she realizes she's guilty of it herself. Have you bought anything recently that you later decided was a waste of money? I used to spend a small fortune on Living Social and Groupon offers that I really didn't need. I was so swept away by the SAVE 35%! SAVE 80%! that it didn't occur to me that I really wasn't saving anything if I was buying stuff I didn't truly want.

Something to think about on a summer day

With kids out of school, it means no school lunches. For a lot of our neighbors, that school meal is important to keeping kids healthy and staving off hunger. So this week, when you do your grocery shopping, toss something in the cart for your local food pantry.

I find that, if I pick up something for less than $1 every time I shop, I can fill up a grocery bag in no time. Right now I've got spaghetti, tuna, green beans, powdered lemonade and fruit cocktail ready to go. Of course, tomato soup is always welcome. A can goes along way in spicing up a ground beef recipe. Since hot dogs are popular and affordable this time of year, condiments are appreciated, too.

As this Recession grinds on, so does need. It feels good to look out for one another. If you don't know where your local food pantry is, try this Food Bank Locator.

What I've known all along

I've been a Clintonista for decades now. But the umbrella of my devotion only shields Bill. Hillary has never had the same emotional hold on me, my loyalty, my checkbook or my vote.

I know what Bill Clinton is. I have no illusions about the Lewinsky scandal and to this day it turns my stomach. But I get it.

Growing up near Hillary's hometown of Park Ridge, I think I get her, too.

Put too simplistically, his weakness is sex and hers is money. I understand lust better than greed.

The dynamic between these two is complicated. If she hadn't taken the more conventionally "grown up" role and been the breadwinner, he wouldn't have been free to so doggedly pursue his political ambitions. If she wasn't so disciplined, he couldn't be free to be so emotionally resonant. I appreciate that without her, he wouldn't have gotten as far as fast as he did. And I truly believe we'd all* be the worse without him.

So I know it's unfair for me to hold such affection for him and antipathy for her.

But when I listen to Hillary talk about being "dead broke" and how hard they worked to dig themselves out of debt, my skin crawls. Whether it's White Water, commodities trades, or Wall Street, Hillary Clinton has always been too easily seduced by a buck.

I haven't ruled out voting for her. The Clintons have always been very lucky in that the people who attack them tend to more repellant than their own worst acts. I may become an ardent supporter because the attacks on her will become so egregious and disgusting.

But I don't like her and I don't trust her.

*Except, of course, Ms. Lewinsky.