When Willie Nelson Smoked a Joint at Jimmy Carter’s White House September 14, 2010

Willie Prefers an "Austin Torpedo"

On This Date In History: It’s just an odd coincidence that former presidential press secretary Jody Powell died a year ago today some 33 years after a rather interesting footnote to history that revolves around his old boss. Remember during the 1976 Presidential election how Jimmy Carter used his stellar integrity as a campaign club? Remember the famous “adultery in my heart” comment to Playboy magazine and the focus on his Southern Baptist upbringing? President Carter was extremely bright. He served honorably in the United States Navy as a Lieutenant directly under the command of Admiral Hyman Rickover aka the “father of the nuclear navy”. President Carter was known as a peanut farmer in campaign literature but the truth is he was a nuclear engineer of great ability. He and President Herbert Hoover are the only academically trained engineers to serve as President…you can draw your own conclusions. Anyway, all of this makes what happened in the middle of September 1980 all that more remarkable.

On this date in 1980, the old Red Headed Stranger was probably feeling pretty good about himself.  On the night of  September 13, 1980 President Carter hosted a concert by none other than Willie Nelson at the White House. Willie Nelson of “Whiskey River” and “Outlaw” fame. Willie Nelson on his 3rd marriage at the time. Later Nelson went on to run up an interesting rap sheet of marijuana arrests and was convicted of failure to pay his income taxes. Not one to be kept down, Willie made a new record called The IRS Tapes: Will You Buy My Dreams? A lot of people did because Willie paid back the hundreds of thousands, if not millions(I can’t remember how much it was) in back taxes.

But, I suppose to forgive is Divine, especially if you are forgiving a country music star with some good tunes. Seems President Carter liked to listen to Nelson’s music while pondering policy and other items associated with the pressures of being President. Carter told Rolling Stone magazine, “All the good things I did as president, all the mistakes I made — you can blame half of that on Willie.” Nelson, who was a public supporter of NORMAL (National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws) exercised his protest right, I suppose, by lighting up what he called “a big fat Austin torpedo” while on the White House roof.   That would be a giant joint for all of you lacking in the hip verbiage of the day. According to a recent biography, Nelson has been smokin’ weed since he was 10.   Most likely, Willie did the tokin’ just prior to or after midnight which means that on this date in 1980, like in Luckenbach, Texas he was feelin’ no pain.  Carter said he never knew about it but Nelson claims the Secret Service kept a sharp eye on him while he sparked up on the Carter White House roof. Nelson has traced his lineage to the American Revolution. Perhaps he was doing his version of the Boston Tea Party as he toked away on top of the Presidential residence. As it turns out, apparently Willie wasn’t the only entertainer to spark up at the White House. Here is a list of 5 who make the claim to smoking doobs at the Executive Mansion.

Weather Bottom Line:  Through Wednesday we will be similar to what we had on Monday which is a high lurking around 90 and overnight low around 60.  Front on Thursday will try to make some rain but it better bring its own moisture because we are so dry that it won’t have much to work with. 

Finally The Saints Time February 4, 2010

Click Image for "Finally the Saints Time"

Fortunately For New Orleans, This Forecast Was Wrong

The Saints Go Marching to Miami:    If you have ever lived in New Orleans, then you know how devoted the Saints’ fans are.  Even when they were terrible, which was most of the time, the fans might have shown up in paper bags bearing the word “Aints”  but they showed up.  But, it’s not just New Orleans.  I’ve also lived in Lafayette and also Alexandria and wherever you go on a Sunday during football season, you will find people crowded around televisions in bars, hotels and even hospitals when the Saints are on.  But, I noticed that if the Saints weren’t on and it’s a different game, the audience in front of those tv’s are sparse or non-existant.  Even when there was a  great game being shown or a playoff game sans Saints, hardly a soul.  When I realized this, I understood that Louisiana fans are largely Saints fans and not so much general football fans.  On the radio, the Cowboys football network was on a few stations and some folks followed them, but certainly you never heard a peep about the nearby Houston Oilers which was the closet AFC market to the area.  No, in general, it was the Saints or nothing.

Click on the Dixie Beer Logo for "The Night We Drank That Dixie Down"

Since the Saints have only had 9 winning seasons out of 43 years of operation, this time of year the TVs have largely been broadcasting to many empty chairs in public locations as the Saints had only won 1 playoff game out of a handful of appearances until their recent success.  I wrote about their futitility in a piece that included what I called the greatest football song of all time, The Night We Drank That Dixie Down, which was an homage to the Saints.   I got a lot of queries wondering who it was that penned such lyrics and made the video put to a famous Robby Robertson tune.  As it turns out, the band and the writer wrote me.  It seems that the inspiration for the song was to pay tribute “to capture the melancholy surrounding the nature of being a long-time Saints fan.”

I Bet Rockin' Sydney Agrees its Finally the Saints Time

Now that the Saints have made it to the first Super Bowl in franchise history, a new song and video seemed appropriate and that new effort has the title,  Finally the Saints Time.  The words and video are set to the famous one hit wonder song “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves.   Rather ironic that they chose Katrina and the Waves for the source of the tune.   The lead vocalist is Tracie Simon, but on the Drink That Dixie song, the lead singer is Valerie Andrus.    These folks are part of a group who hail from Lafayette, Nick Lick and the Hickies.  They’ve been what they call a “studio ghost band” around Acadiana for some two decades.  They apparently just get together from time to time with various musicians from other area bands at night and create little songs for radio stations just as a way to have some fun.  They don’t do it for any commercial purposes but simply to provide radio stations with well produced tunes as a way to connect with their audience.  The local public loves the songs, everyone gets a laugh and the radio station managers are particularly happy since they get content for free.

Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys Might Be Found at Freds

I don’t know who else the muscians are for these songs but I do know that Pat Onellion is responsible for much of the material put out by Nick Lick and the Hickies.  Not sure if Pat was the actual writer of Drank That Dixie or Finally the Saints Time, but I suspect Pat was heavily involved.  I’m not even sure if Pat is short for Patrick or Patricia!  But that’s okay because he, or she, is a pretty good representative of musical talent that is all around Acadiana.  Every morning our TV show, Passe Partout, on KLFY would start off with about 15 or 20 minutes of videos from local musicians.  Some had more commercial success than others.  Some played traditional cajun music, others were zydeco musicians.  I loved Rockin’ Sydney and a local favorite was Rockin’ Dopsie whose footsteps have been followed by Rockin’ Dopsie, Jr.   There was a very popular band that I saw once at a Mardi Gras street party in Mamou, where if you ever go, you must go to Fred’s Lounge.  The band was an is  Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys.  I believe that Steve and the boys  have received three Grammy Award nominations.  I also had the opportunity to meet the band Beausoleil, whom I know for certain won several Grammy Awards and have had other Grammy nominations.  You may have seen them too on the Today Show.   

You Never Know when the former Prez will show up with this horn

 When I was in Alexandria, I had the pleasure of working with Bobby Felsenthal who is one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met and is one of the best rock and roll piano players you could find.  He and another great musician, Dave Duplissey, whom I believe is in the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame as a fantastic saxaphonist  had many tales from their days on the road, including one great one involving a gig they once did in Arkansas.  It seems that  the young, and then little known, Arkansas Attorney General, showed up with his saxaphone to sit in with Dave.  Today, we know of that musician as President Bill Clinton.   The Nick Lick and the Hickies songs capture the fun, skill and creativity found in the Louisiana music scene, which is a great contribution to the unique art form known as American music. 

NAM Snow Midday Saturday

GFS Snow Midday Saturday...not as bullish as NAM

Weather Bottom Line:  The forecast is about the same as it was before, save for some sniping from a weather critic.  He’s actually pretty astute but, we’ll get to that in a moment. No sense giving him top billing.  Look for rain Thursday night through Friday.  I doubt it, but I suppose it’s possible for some snow overnight up around Seymour or so, but the ground is probably too warm to allow for much accumulation aside from maybe some short term stuff on grassy areas so its no big deal.  The big issue continues to be the roads on Saturday morning area wide.  The main low will move basically up along the western flank of the Appalacians.  The nation’s capital could see as much as two feet of snow.  Look for the snow in DC, Philly and Baltimore as the big story on the national news over the weekend.  We will have the upper level part of the storm.  There will be a change over to snow.  How much depends on whether or not the upper low is right over Louisville, which it might be, and we get and extended period of colder air aloft.  As it is, even if it does not pass over us, we get wrap around colder air and we get a turn over to snow.  Top side would be 3-4 inches, low side more like 1-2 inches and i bet its the low end.  But, the amount isn’t the issue.  My concern would be wet roads and temperatures falling below freezing. No brine solution can be used because of the rain so look out on Saturday morning starting a few hours before sunrise when the mercury may fall to 32 or a couple of degrees colder and ice develops on roadways.

GFS Snow by Tue Morning close to 4 inches with more to come; other models more bullish

Okay…the weather cynic.  Actually, he was absolutely right. I had said that we could see significant snow for Tuesday through Thursday.  He pointed out that everyone else said Monday.  I did, in fact, look too quickly and not look at a calendar and was off by one day.  But, I pointed out for him not to be surprised to see the days get shifted closer to what I had erroneously reported. That is because, in my experience, it is not unusual for long term models to be about 24 hours or so too fast.  Sure enough, today, the Candian model is calling for snow to start on Tuesday, not Monday.  At this point, I think that Tuesday will still be the main part of the snow with some carry over to Wednesday, but it will probably not start until late Monday or Monday evening or night.    Either way, it’s still a bit up in the air but the ranges continue to be somewhere around 4-8 inches, but, the GFS for some reason has lately decided some of that falls as rain sandwiched in between periods of snow.  I don’t like that solution so I will pretend its not there.  Be careful on the roads Saturday morning.

Global Warming Kills Filipinos! Broken Glass Deters Burglars! Frankie Shoots Johnny! October 15, 2009

This Pig and the Philippines Were Victims of Climate Change, Not a Typhoon, According to the Philippines President

Tropical Storm 22 Forecast Track Creates Typhoon Lupit and Sends it to the Philippines

CLICK HERE For a more recent update on Typhoon Lupit, 

Even though US news media outlets have largely been silent on the subject, the Philippines suffered from the effects of two tropical cyclones over two weeks time.  One of those storms, Typhoon Parma, came back for a second landfall on the island.  This was in the wake of Tropical Storm Ketsana. Together, the two storms took at least 710 lives in the Philippines and greatly damaged rice production, infrastructure and the Filipino economy in general.  As Parma made a final assault on Vietnam, heading near Hanoi, Philippines President Gloria Arroyo made a speech in which she asked for international aid.  Now, the UN tried to raise $74 million in funds but only got pledges for $19 million.  So, perhaps seeing that the international community wasn’t responding to the run-of-the-mill plea for help, the president is trying a new tactic to get some attention. She says that the Philippines is a victim of climate change and that, as victims, the Philippines is due compensation from the real culprits to their calamity,which is the rest of the world.  It will be interesting to see where this goes because if Arroyo is successful in this argument because, if she is, then other underdeveloped countries will be standing in line for compensation every time there is a weather related disaster.

Watch Typhoon Lupit Develop in Most Recent Loop

Perhaps she should hold off and wait for more evidence.  You see…there is another tropical cyclone developing.  The Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecasts that tropical storm 22 will become Typhoon Lupit and strike the Philippines.  At this point, the Typhoon Lupit forecast track (if it were to become named) is currently oriented to hit almost the exact same spot that Typhoon Parma hit the Philippines.   Each storm name is provided by a different country and it’s ironic that Lupit was submitted by the Philippines.

The Tichenors

In another impoverished country, Snow White and I have friends who are doing missionary work.  I told you about how Bowen and Lindsey Tichenor sold everything that they owned, including raffling off their home, took their 3 small children and went to the Dominican Republic to build water purification facilities for the extremely impoverished people in that island nation.  They managed to avoid any strong tropical cyclones but, crime is a real problem.  They have an ingenious way to protect their home and family.  Outside the home they have spread broken glass to deter any night-time prowlers.  You can follow their updates on the Tichenor website or read an update in this PDF File:

TichenorN…pdf (2.0 MB)  You can also get on their facebook page or follow their exploits on Twitter.

A woman shot a man on this date in history the ballad about the shooting became an American classic, though it wasn’t too accurate.

Blind Fold too tight for Frankie?

On This Date in 1899, Frankie of Frankie and Johnny were lovers fame shot her boyfriend. But, her lover was named Allen, also called Albert, not Johnny. The woman in question was Frances Baker and the then 22-year-old was acquitted in the murder of her 17-year-old boyfriend in a self defense stance. She said that she shot him only when he came to her house and drew a knife to kill her. She had a silver plated pistol at her bedside and shot him. But, the song claims that she shot him when she found him with another woman. Baker said that she knew that he was seeing Alice Pryor but “never fussed with her about it.” She also said that the song had it wrong when it said that she shot him “root a toot-toot-toot three times.” She said it only took one shot.

What really got Baker upset about her infamy in song was that the song questioned her virtue, calling her a “queen sport.” She had to move from St. Louis to Omaha and then Portland but couldn’t get away from the negative publicity. The song was turned into a play and then a movie in 1936 and Baker sued Republic Pictures for the use of the song. In her 1942 trial, she said she didn’t wear diamonds like the movie portrayed and only had cotton dresses, not the fancy clothes portrayed in the movie. In the end, the more she told her story, the more convinced the jurors of the court became that the song wasn’t even about her. Even though her St. Louis neighbors said the song was indeed about her, Frances “Frankie” Baker lost the case and returned to Portland and in 1950 was committed to a mental institution and died at age 75 two years later. But…her efforts were for naught. St. Louis for a time billed itself as the “birthplace of Frankie and Johnny” and no one deterred singers from reciting the lyrics “he was her man, but he done her wrong.”

So, the songwriters and movie script writers got the story so wrong that even the court didn’t believe that the song was about Frances Baker. Seems that Baker did too good of a job convincing the court that she was wrongly portrayed in song, and it cost her $200,000. Then again….Johnny…or Albert…or Allen…wasn’t able to tell his side of the story.

Weather Bottom Line:  Told you the weather would suck on Wednesday and its not getting much better for the rest of the week and perhaps into Saturday.  Chilly and wet.  Wonder if the president of the Philippines would say we are victims of climate change.  I want compensation!

Jimmy Carter Gave Willie Nelson 1/2 Blame for His Success and Mistakes. September 14, 2009

Willie Prefers an "Austin Torpedo"

 On This Date In History: It’s just an odd coincidence that former presidential press secretary Jody Powell died today at the same time that today’s look at history revolves around his old boss.   Remember during the 1976 Presidential election how Jimmy Carter used his stellar integrity as a campaign club? Remember the famous “lust in my heart” comment and the focus on his Southern Baptist upbringing? President Carter was extremely bright. He served honorably in the United States Navy as a Captain directly under the command of Admiral Hyman Rickover aka the “father of the nuclear navy”. President Carter was known as a peanut farmer in campaign literature but the truth is he was a nuclear engineer of great ability. He and President Herbert Hoover are the only academically trained engineers to serve as President…you can draw your own conclusions. Anyway, all of this makes what happened in the middle of September 1980 all that more remarkable.

On this date in 1980, the old Red Headed Stranger was probably feeling pretty good about himself.  Just the day before, on September 13, 1980 President Carter hosted a concert by none other than Willie Nelson at the White House. Willie Nelson of “Whiskey River” and “Outlaw” fame. Willie Nelson on his 3rd marriage at the time. Later Nelson went on to run up an interesting rap sheet of marijuana arrests and was convicted of failure to pay his income taxes. Not one to be kept down, Willie made a new record called The IRS Tapes: Will You Buy My Dreams? A lot of people did because Willie paid back the hundreds of thousands, if not millions(I can’t remember how much it was) in back taxes.

 

But, I suppose to forgive is Divine, especially if you are forgiving a country music star with some good tunes. Seems President Carter liked to listen to Nelson’s music while pondering policy and other items associated with the pressures of being President. Carter told Rolling Stone magazine, “All the good things I did as president, all the mistakes I made — you can blame half of that on Willie.” Nelson, who was a public supporter of NORMAL (National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws) exercised his protest right, I suppose, by lighting up what he called “a big fat Austin torpedo” while on the White House roof. That would be a giant joint for all of you lacking in the hip verbiage of the day. Carter said he never knew about it but Nelson claims the Secret Service kept a sharp eye on him while he sparked up on the Carter White House roof. Nelson has traced his lineage to the American Revolution. Perhaps he was doing his version of the Boston Tea Party as he toked away on top of the Presidential residence.  As it turns out, apparently Willie wasn’t the only entertainer to spark up at the White House.  Here is a list of 5 who make the claim to smoking doobs at the Executive Mansion.

Weather Bottom Line:  Our string of really nice weather will be coming to a halt but its unclear to what degree.  We have a weak front trying to make its way down.  To the south, we have an inverted trof coming in.  That is when the trof is sticking up northward instead of digging southward as we usually expect.  The parent low really doesn’t come all that far inland so, at the least, we’ll have clouds increasing.  If the front comes to our south, then we have overrunning clouds and maybe a shower.  If the front goes far enough south, then the clouds may get shoved out and the rain chances decrease. On the other hand, the front may flop back and forth.  It’s really a tough call and you’ll probably see some CYA forecasts for the next few days with about a 30% chance of rain or t’storms each day for the rest of the week.  To be more definitive than that really gets beyond the realm of the abililty to forecast, IMO.  So, just think it won’t be a disaster…as long as the inverted trof and parent low don’t come farther inland…but it won’t be as lovely as its been.

Wednesday 8 AM