REMEMBERING I FORGOT DAY

I can’t truthfully say that I forgot July 2nd is I FORGOT DAY, because I didn’t know of such a day in the first place. But this morning, I didn’t forget to look up upcoming days to take up for a future post….and finding that today is just such a day. You now know what day, I FORGOT DAY.

And what better way to remember this day than with a few unforgettable songs (at least, I find them so, because I recall all but the oldest of these oldies). Let’s start with the little remembered YOU FORGOT YOUR GLOVES from “The Third Little Show” (1931). The delightfully sophisticated lyrics are by songwriter, playwright, actor and producer Edward Eliscu, who is likewise all but forgotten today:

Next we fast forward six years to this Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein III song from “High, Wide and Handsome” (1937):

For a change of pace, I close with a 1920s song so obscure that even I don’t remember it: WHY HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN WAIKIKI….but at least I have a good excuse: I’ve never been there.

JUNE, GOODBYE; HELLO, JULY

It seems like I just saw June,
Passing by, bustin’ out all over.
Goodbye, June. Hello, July, soon
To be gone too, you restive rover.

As I was pondering what to post
Before June burns into July,
It dawned on me June shouldn’t become toast
Without tunes to remember her by.

So I offer such songs as these
Without further ado —
“Oldies but goodies,”
And as you’ll see, (just like me) good as new:

For the record, only one of the songs is younger than I.
Do not ask me which one, and I will tell you no lie.

IMPERVIOUSNESS TO EVIDENCE

The above title comes from a sentence in the book THE AGE OF AMERICAN UNREASON by Susan Jacoby, published in 2008. The sentence reads as follows: “The ideological fixations of otherwise intelligent men in America’s Gilded Age [see below] offer a recognizable precursor of the imperviousness to evidence that permeates many ideologies in our current age of unreason“ (an age become all the more impervious to evidence since the ascendancy of Trump/Trumpism).

There is no more obvious testament to such imperviousness than the former President and his GOP allies continuing to claim not only that the 2020 election was stolen, but refusing to accept any and all evidence and court decisions (over sixty) to the contrary….not to mention the sworn witness of former Trump officials testifying before the January 6 Committee.

But I write this, neither to try to reason with impervious Trumpists (which would be a waste of time and an exercise in futility) nor to “preach to the choir” (agreeable as that may be). I write this post simply because I am a writer, and this is what I have a mind to write. And it is about time, because time (over a long life) has changed me from a practicing Catholic and idealist to a near-agnostic deist and cynic. That being the case, what more can I say? So I’ll end this post as a quoter of others whose words I came to see ring true:

“I think God, in creating man, somewhat over-estimated his ability.” –Oscar Wilde

“If God has created us in his image, we have more than returned the compliment.” –Voltaire

“Religion, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.” –Ambrose Bierce

“If there is a God, atheism must seem to Him as less of an insult than religion.” –Edmond de Goncourt

“We must be greater than God, for we have to undo His injustice.” –Jules Renard

“Creator: a comedian whose audience is afraid to laugh.” –H. L. Mencken

“God is not without sin — He created the world.” –Evan Esar

“Since a politician never believes what he says, he is always astonished when others do.” –Charles De Gaulle (Really? De Gaulle obviously never met Donald Trump.)

AMBROSIA, n. A banquet of Ambrose Bierce

Tomorrow being the birthday (June 24, 1842) of DEVIL’S DICTIONARY lexicographer AMBROSE BIERCE, I thought I’d peruse perforce his pernicious perversion of delicious definitions and post a savory sampling of selections for your edification and enjoyment. Seriously.

For those who aren’t familiar with this deviously devilish dictionary, here’s the lowdown:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil%27s_Dictionary

With that introduction the hell out of the way, what say we delay no further….starting with Bierce’s definition of Introduction, n. A social ceremony invented by the devil for the gratification of his servants and the plaguing of his enemies. [It] attains its most malevolent development in this country being, indeed, closely related to our political system.

Abasement, n. A decent and customary mental attitude in the presence of wealth or power.

Aborigines, n. Persons of little worth found cumbering the soil of a newly discovered country. They soon cease to cumber; they fertilize.

Accomplice, n. One associated with another in a crime, having guilty knowledge and complicity, as an attorney who defends a criminal, knowing him guilty. This view of the attorney’s position in the matter has not hitherto commanded the assent of attorneys, no one having offered them a fee for assenting.

Air, n. A nutritious substance supplied by a bountiful Provider for the fattening of the poor.

Arena, n. In politics, an imaginary rat-pit in which the statesman wrestles with his record.

Bait, n. A preparation that renders the hook more palatable. The best kind is beauty.

Brain, n. An apparatus with which we think that we think.

Cannon, n. An instrument employed in the rectification of national boundaries.

Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.

Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.

Cynic, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a cynic’s eyes to improve his vision.

Now that you’ve learned the ABCs of it, I commend continuing through the D through Zs of it by virtue of going to The Devil’s Dictionary….preferably by honest means, like online or at your local bookstore. If you dare ask me to procure a copy for you, don’t say “The devil made me do it.” I’m not buying it.

WAY DOWN YONDER IN NEW ORLEANS

This is a post with a simple purpose: to honor the memory of a long-forgotten pioneering black songwriter who was born on this date in 1879. He may be forgotten, but a number of his all-time standards are still played today….including the title song above. His name? HENRY CREAMER.

https://blogs.loc.gov/music/2020/02/the-curious-case-of-henry-creamer-or-a-mammy-a-mule-and-a-moon/

And who better to play the title song than New Orleans-born jazz great Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong:

Creamer’s first big hit was AFTER YOU’VE GONE (1918), which was given a big send-off by Al Jolson at The Winter Garden and in vaudeville by Sophie Tucker, who later recorded the song in 1927 (backed by Miff Mole’s Molers):

Creamer’s last big hit, IF I COULD BE WITH YOU ONE HOUR TONIGHT, was first recorded in 1927 by another New Orleans jazz legend and songwriter, Clarence Williams, but didn’t become popular until recorded by others in 1930 — the year Creamer died. Here is the original recording:

Thankfully, classic jazz fans still have these classic recordings to remember the above by long after they’ve gone. Thank you, Henry Creamer et al, for enriching our lives.

GO TO HELL

Actually, I’ve already gone (to the town of Hell, MICHIGAN, that is). But that was just for the hell of it — weather I like it or not, Hell lately has been temperatures in the high nineties (with 80% humidity) in my red neck of the woods (“red neck,” as in sunburn-hot around the collar, not the kind of neighborhood I live in). In short(s), friends, we’re having a….

But as hot as the heat wave is hereabouts and, no doubt, in Hell, Michigan, it’s an even hotter scene in Hellzapoppin’ (1941). When these guys and gals scorch the surface, I can feel the floor burns from afar:

In the end, is there a hell? Who knows….nonetheless, we can go there in quotes:

Go to Heaven for the climate, to Hell for the company. –Mark Twain

If there is no hell, a good many preachers are obtaining money under false pretenses. –Evan Esar

My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She’s ninety-seven now, and we don’t know where the hell she is. –Ellen DeGeneres

Hell is other people. -Jean-Paul Sartre

Eskimo: “If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?” Priest: “No, not if you did not know.” Eskimo: “Then why did you tell me?” –Annie Dillard

Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell. –George Orwell

Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned. –Milton Friedman (I would’ve said, “like an autocrat scorned”)

The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.–Philip Roth

In that case, my work on this post has come to where the pavement ends.

LOEWE AND BEHOLD

Today is the birthday (June 10, 1901) of composer FREDERICK LOEWE, who collaborated with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner on some of the greatest musicals (MY FAIR LADY, GIGI, PAINT YOUR WAGON, BRIGADOON, CAMELOT) and show tunes of all time.

With such a richness of glorious music to listen to, why pour more than these brief introductory words into this post? Without further ado, then, I bring you songs from the first three of the above shows which, with a little bit of luck, I hope you will remember well:

PAINT YOUR WAGON wasn’t as highly acclaimed as MY FAIR LADY and GIGI , nor were there any big hit songs from the show. Nonetheless, I found the film and the songs (including this one) most moving:

Wouldn’t It Be Loverly if life were a song as fair as the Lady of Frederick Loewe’s inspiration?

LYRE, LYRE, IS FOR THE BIRDS

When it comes to lying, I think most of us thought Donald Trump was in a class by himself….until now. I don’t like to crow, but I have just come across a fowl-mouthed creature who puts the Lyin’ King to SHAME (something I didn’t think possible):

As you saw and heard, the Lyre is a bird who does his thing in order to attract female Lyres, whereas The Mane Man (aka Donald Trump, aka Orange Gross-beak) does his lying in order to attract cuckoos….at which he has been a roaring success.

Speaking of success, yours truly has published many a post that’s for the birds, but never one about birds. Well, my fine feathered friends, there’s a ‘birds’ time for everything, so I’m going to wing it the rest of the way, see what I can come up with, and hope I don’t birden you any more than nestecessary.

As you may know, poet/writer Maya Angelou wrote a best-selling autobiography 53 years ago titled I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS….which calls to mind a bird song of the “caged” variety composed 69 years previously titled A BIRD IN A GILDED CAGE. Here is a later send-off of that tearjerker type of song popular in the early 1900s:

We’re not out of the Woods yet, but we will be after this hardy perennial from the prolific pen of composer Harry Woods:

WHAT SHALL WE TALK ABOUT TODAY?

The war in Ukraine?
It’s literally a pain.
Mass shootings everywhere?
Death simply is not fair.
The world according to Trump?
Don’t take me for a chump!
Today’s news in general?….
In life’s grand scheme, seems so ephemeral.
The answer is plain to see — without a doubt,
The question has to be: What NOT to talk about?

So, if we’re not going to talk about love,
Or any of the other subjects above….

“No use talking at all” may work for us….
But who’s to say others won’t make a fuss?

All this talk in my head — is it nothing more than that:
A matter of chatter, simply talking through my hat?
If so, saying what we think is absurd….
But I think not. You have my word.

THE BEST PART OF IGNORANCE IS….

….you don’t have to know what you’re talking about.

….you don’t stick out like a sore thumb among dumb chums.

….you have the makings of a politician (IF you also have a shameless sense of self-importance).

….you believe, without giving it a second thought, that “What you don’t know can’t hurt you.”

….you believe, like these three CBS (Certified Bull Sitters), that:

You see, I’ve been thinking lately about ignorance — writing a post about it, that is — however, I wasn’t sure if my audience of deep thinkers would dig the subject. But, on the theory that it pays to get to the bottom of such a pervasive thing, I’ve decided to let the cliques fall where they may — mostly in the form of ten quotes from those wise in the ways of ignorance:

I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. –Thomas Carlyle

When ignorance gets started, it knows no bounds. –Will Rogers

It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man by argument. –William McAdoo

Most ignorance: we don’t know because we don’t want to know. –Aldous Huxley

There is nothing so absurd that it cannot be believed if repeated often enough. –William James

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. –Voltaire

In the future, the so-called Dark Ages will perhaps be lengthened to include our own. –G. C. Lichtenberg

Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise. –Thomas Gray

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. –Martin Luther King Jr.

There is no darkness but ignorance. –William Shakespeare

….and then there’s the kind of dark ignorance where you don’t know if you’re coming or going:

Not me. I’m done gone outta here.