Category: 1

A Singing Voice Silenced

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

I think it was the summer of 1982. There was an Earth Day celebration being held in Central Park. I was there with Shana (and her mother) and I was carrying Shana in a backpack on my back. And as we were wandering around, Shana suddenly started bouncing up and down and saying, “Puff! Puff!”

I listened and picked out what Shana had heard so acutely: Someone was singing one of her favorite bedtime songs, “Puff the Magic Dragon.” Then I realized it was three someones. It was three someones whose voices I recognized immediately.

Her mother and I hotfooted it in the direction of the bandshell and there found, to our surprise, Peter, Paul and Mary singing one of their signature songs. Shana would pipe in “Puff!” every time they got to the refrain.

PP&M were always part of my young adult life. Back in the days when Howie Weinstein was living in NY, he would always organize an expedition for all the local authors whenever PP&M were performing in Westbury Music Fair.

I haven’t seen the trio in years, though, and now I’m saddened to learn that I’ll never have that opportunity again. Nor, even worse, will any of my kids.

RIP Mary Travers.

PAD

The Intellectual Dishonesty of the Internet Mindset

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

For reasons surpassing understanding, for the past four days I’ve engaged in an email exchange with a Scans_Daily denizen who seemed to want to have a genuine dialogue, but apparently didn’t. After four days they were just as resolved as ever that I was a big old meanie because I thought perhaps Marvel’s copyright was being violated and said something to Marvel about it. Yet abruptly they didn’t want to talk anymore when I queried about the following notice on their website and asked if it didn’t make them a teensy bit hypocritical:

Official legal notice

If you wish to publish any material from this journal anywhere else, you must ask my permission first. This applies to any form of publication, whether individual items or the whole journal via RSS feed to another website. I am the author of this journal: the contents are © (name omitted) 2000-2009.

It should be noted that I don’t have a copyright notice on this site (at least, I don’t think I do.) The reason is that I consider this a venue for my opinions, and I don’t want to do anything to impede anyone’s desire to mention those opinions elsewhere. By the same token, plenty of people feel the need to protect their IP by putting a copyright notice on their sites. I totally understand and respect that. What I have little patience for are those who are quick to protect their own interests while having no respect for the same rights of others.

PAD

Gotta Love the Congressional Democrats

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

There’s absolutely no advantageous situation handed them that they can’t screw up.

Wilson made an idiot of himself. Even hardcore GOP reps shied away from his actions. He apologized to Obama. Obama seemed to be cool with it. That should be that.

Now the Democrats are insisting he apologize from the House floor. Wilson’s refusing to do so because–I dunno. Because perhaps he sees it as an enforced exercise in humiliation and groveling. Which it is. So now they’re talking about rebuking him.

To what end? So that he can be transformed from a loudmouth into a man of principle? So that the GOP can rally behind him? So that the public can hear “You lie!” over and over and over again and, as a result, remember only the accusation, which is what typically happens in these circumstances. That’s why, in a debate situation, you always reframe an accuser’s statement rather than repeat it, because viewers just remember the accusation.

He heckled the President. He apologized. The President seems ready to move on.  Move along with him  before Wilson is turned into a martyr or even a hero.  They’re supposed to be serving the public, and the public will be better served focusing on getting health care done rather than obsessing about a footnote in the debate.

PAD