Jimmy Carter turns 100 today.
A hundred years of caring, sharing, and helping the poorer among us to have a life.
Unlike all other Presidents who holed up in their compounds, ranches, or penthouses after their stint in the White House, Jimmy continued to serve people all over the globe.

Short and Sweet

I'm out of town and pocket today. I put this together Friday, so there may be more recent stories which I hope you'll describe below. The big stories this week include 'elensky's trip to the US and UN, hat in hand. The Israel and Hezbollah conflict continues to escalate, and Russia sits in the catbird seat of the Ukraine/NATO proxy war. Drama over these conflicts took place at the UN this week. Censorship is on steroids at YouTube, and the UK is a censorship and scandal center. All this and more below the fold.

Afternoon folks!

This week we have some great acoustic blues for you. Starting out we've got a compilation of delta slide guitar wizard Tampa Red's 78's from the 20's and 30's. Following that is a nice album of Piedmont Blues from John Jackson. After that, we go electric with Beaumont, Texas' Phillip Walker followed by an early (1969) Chambers brothers album. Then it's on to blues-rock with a live album from Canned Heat which may have a cut that is not available in the U.S. - if you have a vpn, you can probably get it. After that, we've got some straight rock from an EP I found laying around in my old 45's from Be Bop Deluxe, and we finish off with an album from Redbone which features their big hit. You'll probably recognize the hit when you hear it, though you might not remember the title or the band.

Enjoy the tunes and have a great weekend!

Lots of craziness around the world right now, wouldn't y'all agree?

Still, we have good music, good friends, art, literature, and landscapes to keep us appreciating our lives. While I didn't mention good family specifically, I have few blood related family members, so in my mind, my friends are my version of "family".

I suggest we keep in constant touch with our families, keep each of them informed, prepared, and give them some sense of security when our economy goes down the commode with a quick flush.

As you read this my wife and I will be on our way to the gorgeous white sand and blue waters of Gulf Shores, Alabama.

We really lucked out on this one. Gulf Shores is just a hop, skip and a jump from Hurricane Helene's landfall in the panhandle of Florida. I hope those folks over there in the Big Bend area will be OK. Helene was a Cat. 4 when it hit the shore, it's a big one.

The area east of the hurricane is getting hammered as well. There's massive rain and wind over Florida, and it will move up into Georgia and the Appalachians. To the west of the hurricane, where Gulf Shores is, will be pretty calm and quiet. Like I said, we really got lucky on this one, a little wobble to the west and our vacation will have been much different, as in nonexistent.

It was a nail biter all week tracking the hurricane and it's a relief that we get to go, but at the same time we feel guilty in our pleasure knowing what those folks are going through just a short distance away. A hurricane, Beryl, went right over the top of us in Southeast Texas a few months ago. It made landfall south of Houston as a Cat. 1 hurricane and by the time it went over us it was just a tropical storm, but that was bad enough. There was flooding, trees down everywhere and we were without electricity for 6 days. That, I'm sure, is nothing compared to what folks are going through beneath Helene.

Hopefully everyone got to high ground.