Just yesterday I realized there was not a post scheduled for this day in final semi-private month of Saragun Springs.
That will not do.
But I cannot move myself to bash around the rerun cabinet, just yet. That feels lazy, and the gods have a way of punishing lazy people by extending the “to do” list. It is a common and annoying punishment that I am tired of experiencing. So, I will add something new.
When seeking something new, the time honored and much revered concept of “Complaining” usually runs to the front of my mind. Oh, my head is a rich field of complaints. Vexations everywhere. Recently there was yet another ugsome development in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Complaint Field in my mind.
You see, Chubby Checker was just voted in. I personally have nothing against Chubby, I admire someone who can make a good living off one song that he did not write nor even recorded first. That takes perseverance and a lot more than luck. And I must congratulate him on appearing at least once in my memory, in every year I have been alive, which, sigh, is getting to be an ungainly sum. For me, you cannot have The Peppermint Twist without Chubby Checker.
Still, I have always been under the impression that a Hall of Fame is for the very best. That such exists to extol the greatest in a field. A place in which the difference between Great and good is clearly marked. The Beatles and Ray Charles are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and damn well deserve it. But the addition of Chubby tells me there are people out there, people in charge of safeguarding the excellence of music history, who believe that Chubby Checker is of the same grade as, say, Nobel laureate Bob Dylan.
You have got to be kidding.
Chubby had been pissing and moaning about his exclusion for a number of years. I will not blame him for that, no doubt he is reasonably involved with the fame level of Chubby Checker. But I cannot help but think that he got in because the Hall got tired of his whining about it. Like Cher (who for me is better qualified than Chubby but hardly compares in quality to someone like Etta James), who bitched loudly saying she’d never accept, but who did not let the ink dry on her invitation when asked.
The Moral: You Can Complain Yourself Into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Maybe the tactic will swell the hall to include the 1910 Fruitgum Company. Or, how about, Bobby “Boris” Pickett, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, ? and the Mysterians?
Anyway, I do not believe that any Hall of Fame should adopt the Participation Trophy standard.
Ah, here we are at the point where this is long enough to be a post.
Thank you again Garden of Contempt!
Leila
Saragun Springs 
Prizes for existing have been one of the major contributions to what is wrong with society today. Yes, a big claim but when everyone gets a prize for simply breathing why is there any encouragement to try harder. Okay, there will, I suppose, always be those who will do it anyway but the great wash of those who believe just turning up is enough outnumber them and keep on wanting more and more medals. There we are, joined in, backed you up, shouted in agreement. Great start to the day! Now I can go out and scowl at people. dd
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Hello Diane
Accomplishments should always be special. Pro athletes understand the lessons that can be learned from loss because they have to. Sometimes people lose when they should win and the other way around goes as well. But a winner and a loser will always happen and when people do not know how to deal with it trouble brews.
Thanks again!
Leila
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Good post.
There was a popular football chant in England forty-odd years ago: ‘If Lee Dixon can play for England, why can’t I?’ A complaint hurled to the heavens by thirty thousand ironic voices in unison – the joke that kept on giving and made everyone feel better about the basic unfairness of life. It was said that Lee Dixon’s mum didn’t like it much, but even she came to understand that it sent people back home with a smile.
If Chubby Checker can get into The Hall of Fame, why can’t I?
mick
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Hi Mick
Funny tale about the footballer.
I have nothing against Chubby, but really.
Leila
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Leila
The world is in desperate need of SELECTIVITY more than almost anything else. There’s simply too much of almost everything.
Perhaps we should establish a Dance Hall of Fame and admit all those who know how to line dance on cruise ships or in retirement villages. Or we could have an Eating Hall of Fame and include all those of us who are ten pounds overweight (or more). Or maybe an Ex Alcoholics Hall of Fame where all former drunks (like me) can be celebrated for blowing their pay checks, hiding bottles, throwing up, falling down stairs and ruining family gatherings during the holidays.
I think the Academy now nominates 50 movies as “The Best of the Year.” Meanwhile, not one of them is any good.
“Once upon a time you dressed so fine, threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?” I think Dylan was talking to America.
Dale
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….what a beautiful totem pole photo!!….
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