Charlie Pride was one of my favorite country western singers when I was growing up. I was fifteen years old when he broke unto the scene. In those days I just enjoyed the music; I never took the time to learn more about those wonderful artists.

I remember this one perhaps more than others. While in a YouTube Dissociative Fugue tonight I happened to run across it again.

Just Between You and Me, Charlie Pride

It's hard to believe that in the 1960's he lived in Helena, Montana, playing baseball for the Helena Smelterites. In the big scheme of things, Helena was not that far from my home town of Williston, North Dakota. Little did I know.

In December, 1966, Charlie makes his debut on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart with the song featured above ("Just Between You and Me") which would peak in the top 10 less than three months later. Two earlier singles had failed to chart.

In 1969, the greatest year ever for music, he scored his first number 1 hit with "All I Have to Offer You is Me."

All I Have to Offer You is Me, Charlie Pride, 1969

I've attended many Charlie Price concerts, and that's just the way it is -- all his women fans going up to the stage to take pictures. It was a most interesting phenomenon.

Enjoy.

The Great Gatsby: Part II

I have a very aggressive reading program to make up for the thirty (30) years following graduate school when I did not read due to my passion for my full-time job, which was more a hobby than a job. But I digress.

As part of that reading program, I recently re-read The Great Gatsby. The preface to my particular edition noted the complexity of that novel: "Complexity for the sake of complexity is bad writing; the structure of The Great Gatsby is functional. The reader is required to reconstruct the actual chronology of events, much of which is revealed in flashbacks -- thereby becoming a collaborator in the narrative."

Today I am re-reading Wuthering Heights for at least the fourth time. Once again, I had to read very slowly to keep track of the characters and the chronology. This time I had a family wiring diagram and a crude drawing mapping the location of the two houses, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, to assist me. I still had trouble keeping track of the narrative. And then I thought of that preface to The Great Gatsby which I noted above.

I laughed out loud. For someone to say that The Great Gatsby has a complex narrative is almost beyond credibility. Wuthering Heights HAS a complex narrative. And so do a number of other novels, but The Great Gatsby is not one of them. If a flashback represents complexity, our high school students are in great trouble.

By the way, this Porter Wagoner classic reminds me of the accident scene in The Great Gatsby. (OK, I know it's a stretch for some of you, but for me, the connection was immediate.) And it puts a little color into this otherwise drab posting.


Carroll County Accident, Porter Wagoner

Bakken Energy Update and Other News Stories

Miscellaneous notes:

This paragraph has to do with the oil business. If you are interested in this, you can find more at Bakken Energy.

Whiting Oil announced another phenomenal well in the Bakken: 3,260 barrels of oil on it first day of production. Remember, just a few years ago a well came in at 300 - 600 bopd in the Williston Basin was considered a big deal. Now, wells that come in at less than 1,000 bopd receive very little interest around the coffee-klatch tables. Here are the initial production numbers of the wells so far released from confidential status in T 153N R 91W, all Whiting wells: 933, 981, 1081, 1323, 1567, 1934, 2004, 2016, 2045, 2195, 2247, 2669, 2825, 3115, 3260, 3889, and 4184. These are phenomenal numbers, folks. And, remember, Washington wants to shut this field down. That link will take you to an interactive map which will show you how much a proposed regulation will decrease oil output in this country.

In other news, Obama's administration has announced he is growing the US Army. Coming in on a swell of "change," this should come as quite a surprise -- that he's growing the army by 20,000 more troops. The folks deployed to Afghanistan/Iraq will appreciate this. The press says this will decrease the length of overseas tours and time away from families. It should be noted that the US Afghan commander has asked for at least 20,000 more troops, so there won't be any less time deployed. Growing the army seems to portend worse news. This announcement was not picked up by the mainstream media. Tell me if you hear about it on the evening news (ABC, CBS, or NBC). By the way, where is the anti-war movement -- especially now that we are increasing the size of the Army.

Finally, the US government purchased 760,000 pounds of ham (pork) at a cost of $1.50 per pound to support social agencies. This was part of the original stimulus outlay. Spot price for high-end deli ham at Food Lion, by comparison, is $0.79. The government failed to take advantage of buying in bulk at a reduced price. Taxpayers paid almost twice the going rate for pork. And this is the same government that says they can reduce the cost of medical care in this country. If the government cannot even correctly price / purchase ham (pork), what possibly suggests the government could price / purchase medical care, a somewhat more complicated exercise? President Obama himself admits, that even though there are some good things about the proposed health program, it will bring about more inefficiencies. Remember, he reads from a teleprompter; this was not a verbal gaffe.

Updates on the Sidebar

As regular readers of my blog know, I generally post five to six times a day, maybe more often.

However, the updates are generally in the "blogs within the blogs" on the left sidebar.

These are some of the BWBs that I updated over the weekend:

T. Boone Pickens throws in the towel on wind energy (you have to scroll down on that page to find the story)

Lily Allen: another example of how the Brits are beating us at music and fashion. The Porter Wagoner tie-in is awesome.

The blog on the largest oil field in America is always being updated.

Comments on Obama's second 100 days continue.