Some years back, an “F-K-er” (“Fellow Kiwanian”) turned 70 years young and I got him a birthday card that showed an ancient looking lady on the front with the question “Do you remember me?”
Inside, the lady said to our birthday boy, “You were a year ahead of me in high-school.”
He loved it, once again proving that I may have few innate skills, but picking birthday cards is one of them.
On the question of aging, it now appears certain that both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are angling for new presidential runs, along with Hillary Clinton. Joe Biden is keeping up appearances and saying that he’ll be running, too, but I think we can put that idea to rest. His fellow Democratic sharks smell blood and are circling him.
And of course there’s always Donald “the Don-Don” Trump looming over things, too.
Warren, Sanders, Clinton, Biden, Trump: Between them, they’re what, 650 years old?
Warren and Sanders, though not my cup of tea, still seem mentally mostly there, so there might at least be some reason to excuse them from the “No Geriatrics in 2024” rule the nation needs to put in place for the upcoming presidential campaign. But Clinton, Biden and Trump need to hang it up.
Will they? Not without a fight.
ANOTHER CLASSIC VOICE SILENCED: The Wikipedia deaths list brings news that Canadian singer-songwriter Susan Jacks has died at 73.
To be honest, it was not a name I knew, but her voice I do: She was the vocalist for the Poppy Family’s 1969 hit “Which Way You Goin’, Billy?” Kind of sappy and syrupy, but memorable.
That song hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, being kept from the #1 spot by both “Everything Is Beautiful” by Ray Stevens and “The Long and Winding Road” by the Beatles.
I’d say that, these days “Which Way You Goin’ Billy?” might well be the theme of kindergarten-transgender-awareness-day festivities in certain, ahem, progressive school districts, but the corporate lawyers may not approve, so I won’t.
The song is below. And if you know your 1960s music, you will notice that, at the time, Susan Jacks was the wife of Terry Jacks, also in the Poppy Family and who, as a soloist, gave us “Seasons in the Sun.”
- Scott McCaffrey