In a recent entry, TAB (http://shameonyou.blogstream.com/) had a "shaggy dog" story about an indian tribe. I added my own about the mysterious foo bird.

Shaggy dog stories (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaggy_dog_story), also called feghoots, are a loved and revered (?) form of American humor. There are a million of them, literally. This webiste has some(http://www.heggen.net/entertainment/shaggy_dogs/) including a foo bird one not nearly as good as the one I put on TAB's site. This one has literally thousands, mostly REALLY bad: http://www.awpi.com/Combs/Shaggy/

Here is one that I remember from somewhere but is not original:

"Back in the days before the revolution, Iran had a king called the Shah. The Shah was in total control and if you did not do what he said, off with your head.

The Shah had a brother whose title was the Shan. Unfortunately the current Shan was the victim of serious epileptic seizures. So the Shah had some burly guards assigned to him, some with EMT training, because he dearly loved his brother, the Shan.

Wouldn't you know, while the guards were inattentive, messing around in the harem, the Shan suffered a massive siezure, fell off his camel, and succumbed.

The Shah, in a rage summoned the guards, asking them:

What did you do when the fit hit the Shan?"

And now, a completely original one. Came to me as I was clearing my brain, sitting on the toilet just a few short minutes ago. In case, the reference is not familiar to you, I refer you to http://www.answers.com/topic/damn-the-torpedoes-1 That is Admiral Farragut standing in the rigging in the Battle of Mobile Bay in the picture at the top of this entry, looking out for torpedoes ?

"A very important Admiral, The Right Honorable Admiral Porter, was in charge of a multitude of responsibilities. These resposnibilities kept a constant stream of paper pushers and junior officers constantly banging on his door.

The Admiral had two marine orderlies stationed outside his door. The were Sgt. Pedro Ramirez and Cpl. Pedro Gonzalez. Known to one and all as the Two Pedros.

One particular day, there were so many knocks on his door that The Admiral could not take a nap, have his toddy, even go to the bathroom. Finally, in a fit of pique, he decided to have his door closed to all comers so he could at least take care of his bodily functions. So, he called to his orderlies and said:

Jam the door, Pedros, I'm going to the head."

Here is one of the best. Not a good video but the best I could find:

And a Texas playlist as of today:

If anyone has some to add, I need recommendations and reminders of ones I have forgotten.

And if you want to see good stuff:

On March 2nd, celebrate the Declaration of Independence.

This Presidential campaign has brought up a bunch of issues. One is a topic that has been a pet peeve of mine, the separation of church and state. The First Amendment to our Consitutuion says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_church_and_state): “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof… The phrase building a wall of separation between church and state was written by Thomas Jefferson in a January 1, 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association.”

Certainly a cornerstone of American life. I would like to propose that this separation should go both ways. The government does not interere with churchs. Churchs do not interfere with government. France and Turkey both do this to some extent. It is called “laicite”.

By no means would or should it prevent a candidate or office-holder from bringing his/her religious beliefs with him. That is not church interfering with government. Church is a business organization, not a belief.

Washington said “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness -- these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.”

Candidates and governmental officials definitely need to bring strong religious beliefs and our American morality with them into their application of our laws and Constitution.

The situation in our current presidential campaign, and in our government, however, is the power of an organization to effect the everyday life of those who are not a part of that organization. We rant and rave about PAC's representing big business. Church is also a big business with lobbyists. The Islamic radicals are trying to force nonparticipants, majority or minority, to come under their power. Our churchs should be better than that.

Consider myself to be a Christian and more than averagely religious but not a church goer. Church is my backyard.

My thanks again to Bored Johnny (http://annoiato.blogstream.com/) for showing me how to use the neat stuff on the internet. In this case, the music on Imeem. Another treasure (see my 11 December entry).

I have a cabinet full of great old platters downstairs. But, alas, no player for them. Woe is me. What I really want is a way to put them onto a CD. Don't have a digital player yet but need to move up to the 21st Century, get one and put these onto it somehow.

One of the songs on one of those records is a classic. It is Louis Armstrong doing “My Bucket's Got a Hole In It”. He sings about his bucket and Trummy Young tells him it's past closing time and he can't buy no more beer.

There are two versions of that old classic. The Hank Williams version and the Louis version. Like both but Louis, the old blues version is the best.

Imeem did not have the Louis version. The Gremoli one on my Bucket list is close. All of these four versions are good and the differences are intersting. At any rate, here is a great old song, whether from Louis or Hank: