We all share the same mitochondrial DNA...we are a human family. We get our mitochondria (the powerhouse of the cell) from our mother. It is like a symbiotic bacteria in our cells.

In 1987, studies of mitochondrial DNA (which tracks maternal ancestry), suggested that all human beings were descendants of one woman who may have lived in Africa about 200,000 years ago.

We also have other mothers in common. We all live on Mother Earth and in Mother Nature. This week we'll take a break from the news and honor Mothers...

Afternoon folks!

There's some great blues here for you this week, starting off with a B.B. King album recorded with a bunch of prominent British blues-rock types back in the early 70's. Following that is a German Clarence Gatemouth Brown release, showing off a more countryish blues style with a good helping of Gatemouth's fiddle playing. After that we've got an album of a couple of lesser-known Chicago blues players, Morris Pejoe and Arthur "Big Boy" Spires the latter of whom is accompanied by Willie "Big Eyes" Smith in his early incarnation as a harmonica player before he became a drummer for (among others) Muddy Waters.

Next we move on to a great album from David Bromberg followed by Paul Geremia (a lesser-known acoustic blues guitarist and harmonica player). After that it's diversity time, there's some rock and roll with NRBQ, some country rock from Richie Furay (formerly of Buffalo Springfield and Poco) and we finish off with a fine album from Emmylou Harris.

Enjoy the tunes and have a great weekend!

Good morning, good people! We are still here, haven't been blown up, and no cyber attack to take away our communication! That's something good. Uh, can't think of much else good.

Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joseph Biden, Donald Trump.

These are the presidents I've lived through.

I don't remember anything about Eisenhower, I was too busy being a kid.

The same with JFK, except for the Cuban missile crisis and having to duck under our desks, and when he was assassinated. Oh boy, do I remember that.

Lyndon Johnson. I came of age in the 60s, especially politically, I remember that SOB very well.

Richard Nixon, the crook. Although recently there's been rumors he may have been a victim of the so called Deep State.

Gerald Ford, an attempt to heal the nation after Nixon, IMHO, it didn't succeed.

Jimmy Carter. His heart was in the right place, but he was eaten up by the system.

Ronald "Raygun" Reagan. The start of the celebrity presidents. I remember rough times at the start of his term, who knows who ran the country during his later years as president.

From there on I want to highlight a self conceived pattern. More below.

11 Years Old

Here in the Puget Sound area an 11 year old boy was arrested at a local Middle School (no, not even a High School) for trespassing with knives. That an 11 year old boy, basically a little kid, has to be arrested for knife possession and trespassing is bad, and sad, enough. What it says about society, about some people, parents, children, whatever, in society is awful. But this is even worse.

The same 11 year old was arrested last month for trying to stab a fellow student at the same school. A teacher intervened and stopped it from happening. The attacker fled and was at large for a day before he was turned in by one of his parents and was booked into a local juvenile justice center, for a time.

Alderwood Middle School in the Edmonds School District, WA Image from here

80 years ago today -

Unconditional surrender of the German Third Reich to the 'Allies' signed by General Alfred Jodl at Rheims, Northern France

10 years later -