The Writer's Life 7/2 - Americana

I heard a fun bit of trivia while riding in the car this morning. Each Sunday from 10AM-2PM, Michael Bourne hosts the Singer's Unlimited show on Newark's WBGO, 88.3 FM, a listener supported jazz station. Since the Fourth of July is Tuesday, Bourne played tracks that focus on Americana. He spoke of his love of baseball and how there are more lyrics to Take Me Out to the Ball Game than what is heard during the seventh inning stretch of games. He then cued a beautiful version by Carly Simon. According to Wiki, in 1908 Jack Norworth was inspired by a sign in a subway car that said "Baseball Today – Polo Grounds." He wrote the lyrics, which were set to music by Albert Von Tilzer. At that point, neither man had ever attended a big league game. Norworth and Von Tilzer finally saw their first MLB game 32 and 20 years later respectively. Here's the first verse: Katie Casey was baseball mad,/ Had the fever and had it bad./ Just to root for the home town crew,/ Ev'ry sou1 Katie blew./ On a Saturday her young beau/ Called to see if she'd like to go/ To see a show, but Miss Kate said "No,/ I'll tell you what you can do:" And here's the third verse: Katie Casey saw all the games,/ Knew the players by their first names./ Told the umpire he was wrong,/ All along, Good and strong./ When the score was just two to two,/ Katie Casey knew what to do,/ Just to cheer up the boys she knew,/ She made the gang sing this song:/ Take me out... And here's Simon's version, which is on the soundtrack of Ken Burn's Baseball multi-part documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUF6jzJQYfc Thank you. Mr. Bourne. And here's Carly:

There was a piece in today's NY Post on Warren Buffett's investment in Bank of America stock, which brought him $12 billion. I bought it twice, the first time just before the banking crash. I currently have 405 shares. I'm down a few grand. I've held on, hoping for a miracle and because it pays a dividend. This's is why he is the Oracle of Omaha and I'm an also-ran in the financial aspect of life.

My thanks to the woman who bought Israel The First Forty Years, a pictorial, and to the lovely family of five that purchased Stephen King's Under the Dome for the papa, Anne Rice's The Witching Hour for the mama, and two books for the pre-teen boys, and gave me double what I asked. Unfortunately, I again didn't have anything for the pre-school daughter. They will be moving soon, so it's probably the last time we'll ever meet. I'll miss them. They are so nice and have been so generous. My thanks also to Mr. Conspiracy, who purchased a book on disaster preparation. He and the Mrs. will be traveling to Denmark on Tuesday. I hope he doesn't get into an argument on the plane, or cause an international incident in Europe. He's been chased from stores and knocked on his butt more than once. Bon voyage.

Vic's Sixth novel: http://tinyurl.com/zpuhucj 

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