June 2018 - Page 3 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

Suicide is not painless

“We scoff at the naivete of those who, a few hundred years ago, attributed such realities to evil spirits.”

One of the worst things about the movie MASH was the title of the theme song, “Suicide is painless.” Of course, if you’ve ever have been a survivor of suicide – I have been fortunate not to be in that category – it is full of pain for those left behind.

I must tell you that I had no idea who Kate Spade was, but I see her impact on fashion was evidently huge. One of many things I hated in the reportage was that her brother-in-law, comedian David Spade, was “breaking his silence” less than two days after her death. The expectation that we are somehow OWED a statement from her loved one rankles me.

Conversely, I was really sad about the death of Anthony Bourdain, chef, travel host and author, at 61. Early on, I thought he was a real jerk, but as he evolved and – I thought – had faced his demons, he became quite the raconteur, telling stories about food around the world.

Matthew Cutler, a rabbi, wrote When living hurts…, which I found useful.

The network news has actually plugged the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (800 273 talk) multiple times and pointed to info such as recognize the signs of suicide and find help. I wish it were that simple.

Still, I think Michael Rivest, a guy I know IRL, is also correct when he wrote: “In light of the media attention given to Anthony Bourdain’s suicide, it was inevitable that it would flush out those who see suicide as a cowardly ‘choice.’ These are usually the same people who see addiction as a choice, along with poverty, anxiety, sexual orientation, etc.

“We scoff at the naivete of those who, a few hundred years ago, attributed such realities to evil spirits, yet now we fall for the self-satisfied canard that people somehow ‘choose’ to be in pain, or to be victims of social injustice. Sometimes, things only look like a choice to those for whom they would be.”

Read how Amy Biancolli takes on the ‘selfishness’ of suicide.

X is for X-rays, WWI and Marie Curie

One major obstacle was the need for electrical power to produce the X-rays. Marie Curie solved that problem.

Marie Curie, née Sklodowska, is probably the most famous woman of science ever. She engaged in “groundbreaking work on radioactivity”, and became the first person to win the Nobel Prize in two different fields.

“In July 1898, Marie along with her husband Pierre Curie, announced the discovery of a new chemical polonium, naming it after her native country Poland. The same year, the Curies discovered radium.

“In 1903, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics alongside Pierre and Henri Becquerel. Eight years later, she won her second Nobel Prize in Chemistry.”

It’s less well known that she was a major hero of World War I.

“At the start of the war, X-ray machines were still found only in city hospitals, far from the battlefields where wounded troops were being treated. Curie’s solution was to invent the first ‘radiological car’ – a vehicle containing an X-ray machine and photographic darkroom equipment – which could be driven right up to the battlefield where army surgeons could use X-rays to guide their surgeries.

“One major obstacle was the need for electrical power to produce the X-rays. Curie solved that problem by incorporating a dynamo – a type of electrical generator – into the car’s design. The petroleum-powered car engine could thus provide the required electricity.

Eventually, using her fame, “she had 20, which she outfitted with X-ray equipment. But the cars were useless without trained X-ray operators, so Curie started to train women volunteers. She recruited 20 women for the first training course, which she taught along with her daughter Irene, a future Nobel Prize winner herself.”

“Not content just to send out her [eventually 150] trainees…, Curie herself had her own ‘little Curie’ – as the radiological cars were nicknamed – that she took to the front. This required her to learn to drive, change flat tires and even master some rudimentary auto mechanics, like cleaning carburetors.”

Yet she experienced the Matilda Effect, the marginalizing of women in science, named for Matilda Gage, an early suffragette. The French Academy of Sciences, founded in 1666, excluded women, such as Marie Curie, though her husband got in, Nobel winner Irène Joliot-Curie, and mathematician Sophie Germain, for nearly three centuries. “The first woman admitted as a correspondent member was a student of Curie’s, Marguerite Perey, in 1962.”

Marie Curie is included in the 2018 book She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women Who Changed History by Chelsea Clinton.

For ABC Wednesday

Beatles, especially Paul McCartney, on Quora

In the post-Beatles years, John acknowledged some appreciation for the Band On The Run album.

People ask a lot of questions about The Beatles on Quora. Seeing that it’s Paul McCartney’s 76th birthday – I get Macca’s newsletter every month – I thought I’d steal a few. You’ll find other, sometimes contradictory, answers as well, at the links.

Are there any Beatles songs that were written solely by Paul McCartney that were sung solely by John Lennon, and vice-versa?

Alex Johnston: “‘Every Little Thing’, on Beatles For Sale, was written entirely by McCartney but sung by Lennon, with backing vocals from McCartney and Harrison.”

What did the Beatles think of the Rolling Stones?

Alexander Chiltern: “Yes, they were friendly… A more attentive reading has suggested me that they had envy of each other, but specially The Beatles were very, very envious of the Stones.”

Which classic rock band has aged most embarrassingly?

Stanton Nicholas: “I’m going to commit a cardinal sin among Beatle-philes by suggesting that Paul McCartney is about ready to join this group if he doesn’t stop touring soon.” I saw him in 2014 and I thought he was great, FWIW.

Is there any band artistically better than the Beatles at any time?

Rosalind Mitchell: “The Beatles more or less wrote the rules for bands. It is also that no band has ever been do versatile.”

What are John Lennon’s favorite songs by Paul McCartney?

David Sylvester: “In John Lennon’s interview with Playboy in September 1980, he singled out several Paul songs for praise. These include:
All My Loving (‘it’s a damn good piece of work’)
Things We Said Today (‘Good song’)
For No One (‘one of my favorites of his’)
Yesterday (‘well done’)
Got To Get You Into My Life (‘one of his best songs’)
Hey Jude (‘one of his masterpieces’)
Why Don’t We Do It In The Road (I enjoyed the track’)
Oh Darling (‘a great one of Paul’s that he didn’t sing too well’)
Fixing A Hole (‘writing a good lyric’)
The Fool On The Hill (‘proving he can write lyrics’)

“In the post-Beatles years, John acknowledged some appreciation for the Band On The Run album, the song Monkberry Moon Delight, and notably Coming Up, which he fixated on in the summer of 1980.

I’m occasionally tempted to answer some of these queries, but time and, usually, a sufficient extant answer dissuades me. For instance, there are always questions about whether the Beatles will be remembered decades from now. There is no telling the future, but the preponderance of evidence, such as the sheer number of cover albums of their music being produced each year, suggests the answer is YES.

Oh, yeah, Father’s Day again

I have started to embrace the notion of hinting for gifts.

You may find this weird, but I only really stopped being resentful about Father’s Day in the past year or two.

Before that, all those holiday ads I would get – gift ideas from a slew of retailers – would send me into a flurry of anger at first, followed by melancholy.

You would think, I gather, that being a father myself would have alleviated the antipathy, but no. I continued to be sad that, unlike my sisters’ daughters, my daughter will never know my father.

I wonder what nickname he would have allowed. His three grandchildren, including the one he never met, were born about a dozen years apart. Would he suggest she call him “oom-pah”, as he did with one of the others, or would the two of them have develop a different moniker for him?

I think it’s easier now because, as a “senior citizen,” as my kind daughter was so helpful in pointing out, I recognize that I haven’t got time for the pain.

Did I ever mention that my parents-in-law, who are pretty swell folks, have birthdays almost exactly a decade apart, in the same respective years? This is mighty handy, I’ll tell you. Any cheat will do.

I have started to embrace the notion of hinting for gifts. It’s not that I really want, and certainly don’t need, stuff. But it’s nice to be remembered.

My sisters started sending me Father’s Day cards fairly early on after I first became a day. One of them sent me one this year, the one NOT in the hospital; she gets a pass. Frankly, it would have never occurred to me to send them Mother’s Day cards, but I think it’s sweet that I receive cards from them.

Meanwhile, my daughter is on her way to high school. People say, “I can’t believe how quickly the time pass.” I think, though I don’t always say, “I can.”

Is it just me, or maybe it’s parents who were already of a certain age, who feel that the time is passing at approximately the correct speed?

I learn a lot from her about the world, but don’t tell her. She might get a swelled head.

RIAA going gold, platinum, diamond

I have 12 albums on both LP and CD

The Recording Industry Association of America (EIAA) is celebrating 60 years of Gold & Platinum albums, representing sales of 500,000 and 1,000,000 units, respectively, in the United States.

The first Gold album certification was awarded to the cast album of “Oklahoma!”

In 1999, RIAA unveiled the Official Diamond Award, representing sales of 10,000,000 units. There are a lot of statistics and stories at the link. The LP or CD designation notes in what format, if any, I own that album. (I have none on cassette.) Sales in millions.

1. MICHAEL JACKSON- THRILLER, 33 (LP, CD with extras) – DECEMBER 30, 1982
33X Multi-Platinum | February 16, 2017
The extras involved producer Quincy Jones and the late songwriter Rod Temperton talking about putting the album together. Note the spike in sales after June 25, 2009.

2. EAGLES- THEIR GREATEST HITS 1971 – 1975, 29 (LP, CD) – FEBRUARY 1, 1976
29X Multi-Platinum | January 30, 2006
This became the RIAA’s first Platinum Album. For a time early in the 21st century, it was the #1 best seller again.

3. BILLY JOEL -GREATEST HITS VOLUME I & VOLUME II, 23 (CD) – JUNE 28, 1985
23X Multi-Platinum | October 26, 2011
The very first CDs I ever purchased, after SOMEONE gave me the first four Beatles CDs, KNOWING I had nothing to play them on

3. LED ZEPPELIN – IV, 23 (LP) – NOVEMBER 8, 1971
23X Multi-Platinum | January 30, 2006
This is the one with Stairway to Heaven

3. PINK FLOYD -THE WALL, 23 (LP) – NOVEMBER 28, 1979
23X Multi-Platinum | January 29, 1999
I had written bawdy lyrics to the title track.

6. AC/DC – BACK IN BLACK, 22 – JULY 21, 1980
22X Multi-Platinum | December 13, 2007
Never owned any AC/DC, though I have a country cover compilation.

7. GARTH BROOKS – DOUBLE LIVE, 21 – NOVEMBER 17, 1998
21X Multi-Platinum | November 1, 2006
Own some Garth, but not this.

7. HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH -CRACKED REAR VIEW, 21 (CD) – JULY 5, 1994
21x Multi-Platinum | May 21, 2018
How did this album go from 16 million to 21 million? Brian Cantor, the story’s writer, explains: . “RIAA certifications are not issued automatically – the label has to apply. Often (especially with older releases), they won’t apply until there’s a compelling milestone — such as double diamond.”

9. FLEETWOOD MAC – RUMOURS, 20 (LP) – FEBRUARY 4, 1977
20X Multi-Platinum | October 3, 2014

9. SHANIA TWAIN – COME ON OVER, 20 – NOVEMBER 4, 1997
20X Multi-Platinum | November 15, 2004

11. THE BEATLES – THE BEATLES, 19 (LP, CD) -NOVEMBER 25, 1968
19X Multi-Platinum | February 6, 2001
This is the white album, which wasn’t dubbed platinum until 1991

12. GUNS N’ ROSES – APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION, 18 – JULY 21, 1987
18X Multi-Platinum | September 23, 2008

12. WHITNEY HOUSTON – THE BODYGUARD (SOUNDTRACK), 18 – NOVEMBER 17, 1992
18X Multi-Platinum | November 17, 2017
I’ve never seen the movie, but I HAVE seen the musical based on the movie.

14. BOSTON – BOSTON 17 (LP) – AUGUST 25, 1976
17X Multi-Platinum | November 20, 2003

14. ELTON JOHN – GREATEST HITS, 17 (CD) – NOVEMBER 4, 1974
17X Multi-Platinum | April 28, 2016
Another one of my first CDs, since I owned so many of his albums on vinyl.

14. GARTH BROOKS – NO FENCES, 17 (CD) – AUGUST 27, 1990
17X Multi-Platinum | November 1, 2006
Bought a box set of Brooks at one point.

14. THE BEATLES – 1967 – 1970, 17 (CD) – APRIL 2, 1973
17X Multi-Platinum | August 27, 2010
A present I received for my birthday, or maybe Christmas.

ALANIS MORISSETTE -JAGGED LITTLE PILL, 16 (CD)
BEE GEES – SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (SOUNDTRACK), 16 (LP, CD)
EAGLES -HOTEL CALIFORNIA, 16 (LP)
LED ZEPPELIN – PHYSICAL GRAFFITI, 16 (CD)
METALLICA – METALLICA, 16

BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS -LEGEND, 15 (CD)
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – BORN IN THE U.S.A., 15 (LP, CD)
PINK FLOYD – DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, 15 (LP)
SANTANA – SUPERNATURAL, 15 (CD) – achieved Diamond status in one year

ADELE -21, 14 (CD)
GARTH BROOKS -ROPIN’ THE WIND, 14 (CD)
SIMON & GARFUNKEL – GREATEST HITS, 14 (CD)
STEVE MILLER BAND – GREATEST HITS 1974-1978, 14 (CD)

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & E STREET BAND – LIVE 1975 – ’85 13 (LP)
PEARL JAM – TEN, 13 (CD)
PRINCE & THE REVOLUTION – PURPLE RAIN (SOUNDTRACK), 13 (LP, CD)

BOYZ II MEN -II, 12 (CD)
DIXIE CHICKS -WIDE OPEN SPACES, 12 (CD)
JEWEL -PIECES OF YOU, 12 (CD)
KENNY ROGERS -GREATEST HITS, 12 (CD)
LED ZEPPELIN -II, 12 (LP, CD)
MATCHBOX TWENTY – YOURSELF OR SOMEONE LIKE YOU, 12 (CD)
PHIL COLLINS – NO JACKET REQUIRED, 12 (LP)
SOUNDTRACK -FORREST GUMP, 12 (CD)
THE BEATLES -ABBEY ROAD, 12 (LP, CD)
THE ROLLING STONES -HOT ROCKS, 12 (LP)
TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS -GREATEST HITS, 12 (CD)

ADELE -25, 11 (CD)
AEROSMITH -GREATEST HITS, 11 (CD)
EAGLES -GREATEST HITS VOLUME II, 11 (LP)
JAMES TAYLOR -GREATEST HITS, 11 (CD)
LED ZEPPELIN -HOUSES OF THE HOLY, 11 (LP)
OUTKAST -SPEAKERBOXXX / THE LOVE BELOW, 11 (CD)
SOUNDTRACK -TITANIC, 11 (CD)
THE BEATLES -SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND, 11 (LP, CD)

BILLY JOEL – THE STRANGER, 10 (LP)
CAROLE KING – TAPESTRY, 10 (LP, CD)
CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL – CHRONICLE: 20 GREATEST HITS, 10 (LP, CD)
DIXIE CHICKS – FLY, 10 (CD)
DOOBIE BROTHERS -BEST OF THE DOOBIES, 10 (LP)
ERIC CLAPTON -UNPLUGGED, 10 (CD)
GARTH BROOKS -GARTH BROOKS, 10 (CD)
GREEN DAY -DOOKIE, 10 (CD)
HAMMER -PLEASE HAMMER DON’T HURT ‘EM, 10 (CD)
LED ZEPPELIN -LED ZEPPELIN, 10 (LP)
MADONNA -THE IMMACULATE COLLECTION, 10 (CD)
NIRVANA -NEVERMIND, 10 (CD)
NO DOUBT -TRAGIC KINGDOM, 10 (CD)
NORAH JONES -COME AWAY WITH ME, 10 (CD)
PATSY CLINE -GREATEST HITS, 10 (CD)
R.E.O. SPEEDWAGON -HI INFIDELITY, 10 (LP)
STEVIE WONDER -SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE, (LP, CD)
THE DOORS – THE BEST OF THE DOORS, 10 (CD)
U2 – THE JOSHUA TREE, 10 (CD)
VAN HALEN – 1984 (MCMLXXXIV), 10 (LP)
ZZ TOP – ELIMINATOR, 10 (LP)

If I counted correctly, there are 73 albums with at least 10 million sales in the United States, only 6 of which I’ve never owned. I have 16 on LP, 39 on CD and 12 on both, though there are probably a few LPs that I also have on CD through “alternative” means.