Elvis '56

“Heck, I just go the way I feel. There ain’t nothing bad about it. I would never do it if I thought it was bad. There is nothing planned in this. It’s just music and singing, that’s all.”

-- Elvis Presley

As the Elvis phenomenon took off with his success on national television, America struggled with losing some of its Christianity.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

The shy hillbilly, whose dedication to his mother was legendary, was the most evil thing that had come on the scene since the Charleston. He was immediately dubbed “Elvis the Pelvis,” a name which nettled Presley.

“That’s about the most stupid thing I have heard from a so-called intelligent adult,” he said. The kids loved that kind of talk. He really was theirs. But it didn’t quiet the uproar. The Reverend Billy Graham was applauded when he commented that he didn’t think Presley was the kind of boy he would like his children to see. Newspaper articles had experts figure out that the decibel level of Elvis Presley’s rock ‘n’ roll could deafen children. Children in the U.S., Australia and England were expelled from their schools when they refused to lop off their Elvis Presley style ducktails. Rock ‘n’ roll dances were banned in several American cities.

-- Steve Dunleavy, “Elvis: What Happened?”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

( Read more... )

Wednesday

I was going to let the cats out early this afternoon, but there is actually still a bit of a puddle by the air-conditioner unit, and more that that, it smells so putrid out there, a heavy marshy stench. It is as though there really was a lake that has just been freshly drained, to be reclaimed and developed. Of course, another three or four hours will not improve conditions that much, but I will take what I can get. Besides, I'd rather have the cats lounging around in the air-conditioned house than in the muggy, hot outdoors, despite their vehement protests to the contrary.

Cold War

Let’s see, America is prepositioning battle tanks with our East European NATO allies to counterbalance Russia; U.S. and Russian military planes recently flew within 10 feet of each other; Russia is building a new generation of long-range ballistic missiles; and the U.S. and China are jostling in the South China Sea. Did someone restart the Cold War while I was looking the other way?

-- Thomas L. Friedman at The New York Times

Yeah, I suppose peace has always been more of a pleasing illusion than a fact of life, and the Cold War seems to be heating up all the time.