I thought about writing a list of some of my favorite things. The first day of October...It's always nice this time of year - Indian Summer - yeah, right? Today the thermometer read 39-degrees in the morning sun. Then, I thought I might write a list some of my favorite things and other thoughts. I'd conjure up images in your mind, like the taste of my favorite Colombo Peach or Nantucket Berries yogurt, a good cup of Dunkin' Donuts coffee, the morning papers awaiting on my New England doorstep, the prompt service at Honda Village service center to make a quick fix on the Honda Accord that we've named "Rajon Honda."
But, that's all trivial pursuit of a BLOG column on a busy day. Let's move onto more important topics, like:
1. Sports! Today is the first day of the regular season in the NHL. The hometown Bruins remind me of the 1979-80 NY Islanders. Back then, the Isles - best team in the league in '79 fell mightily in the playoffs to Lanny McDonald and the Leafs only to rebound in 1980 to take the first of four consecutive Stanley Cup titles. Go get 'em Lucic and the gang. My Isles will have to wait for a few years before they can even begin to compete. (The Nassau Coliseum being a blog topic for another day).
2. Music and Entertainment! The Boss - Bruce Springsteen - opened up the first of a gazillion shows at Giants Stadium in scenic East Rutherford, NJ. Springsteen and the E Street Band are sending off the stadium -- "my backyard," according to his Bossness, in grand form by performing full albums within their concerts. Last night, "Born to Run." But, looking ahead, you'll hear "Darkness, Born in the USA and another go 'round of "Born to Run."
Obviously, for most of us, "Born to Run" is among the most influential albums of our lives. I can only imagine what it was like to hear it played live. True Heaven.
I particularly like the song, "Meeting Across the River." Always have and always will be one of my favorites. I often wondered how it was placed on an album of pure 'kick ass' rock songs. I love its placement on the LP, and that is an art that is being lost in the world of CDs ITunes and music by demand. (Can you remember having to eye-ball the needle of the turn-table and place the needle right on the groove to catch your favorite song on the LP?)
Anyway, to finish the thought on "Meeting Across the River," the song took on new meaning for me as I got so heavily involved in the publicity and inner workings of "COVERT, My Years Infiltrating the Mob," which was a frequent topic of postings in the past. I always thought of "Mtg Ax the River" as the PERFECT opening song for COVERT, the movie and I will promise to see that through. (I will make this a full blog topic when the time is appropriate... but, Bruce, if you or Wayne are reading and listening... let's use the Oct 8th show to dedicate the song to a certain NJ State Trooper who risked his life for good and helped "put away" evil. All you need to do is change "Eddie" to "Bobby" and we're set!
Here was the set list from last night:
"Wrecking Ball"
"Seeds"
"Johnny 99"
"Atlantic City"
"Outlaw Pete"
"Hungry Heart"
"Working On a Dream"
"Thunder Road"
"Tenth Avenue Freeze-out"
"Night"
"Backstreets"
"Born To Run"
"She's the One"
"Meeting Across the River"
"Jungleland"
"Waitin' On a Sunny Day"
"The Promised Land"
"Into the Fire"
"Lonesome Day"
"The Rising"
"Badlands"
"No Surrender"
"Raise Your Hand"
"E Street Shuffle"
"Growin' Up"
"American Land"
"Dancing In the Dark""Hard Times"
"Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)"
And, here's a new song that the band debuted:
***
Then, there's POLITICS: Now, the hard part of today's blog which brings me back to the opening lead graph. John Edwards. Ahem.
For some reason, I truly believed that John Edwards was the best candidate for the presidency of the USA as the campaign began with a crowded list of democratic candidates which, of course, included Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Obviously, I was wrong and I've failed to write that in prior blogs - sort of ignoring the whole situation.
Well, no longer. I am going to clip a piece and then add a link to a story that makes a bad situation even worse. I will not offer my view on this, but I print it for a reason. I post it to let you know that I'm not afraid to say, "I was wrong." and I post it to allow you to conect the dots and make your own decision on how you will view John Edwards and his newfound legacy.
Here you go: click HERE
When John Edwards returned to North Carolina in the course of his long quest for the presidency, Andrew Young always met him at the airport in Edwards’s big black Chevy Tahoe. Young drove, and Edwards rode shotgun, silently raising his left hand whenever he wanted a Diet Coke, which Young would wordlessly supply.
When Edwards and his family arrived home, Young had made sure there was fresh milk in the fridge, a neatly trimmed lawn and neatly folded dry cleaning. When he arranged their vacation to Disney World in 2004, he naturally booked himself a ticket. And when Edwards’s mistress became pregnant, Young — at the cost of his reputation, his wife’s and his minister father’s — stepped forward to say the child was his.
Young sometimes described himself as Edwards’s “special assistant” and dreamed of serving in an Edwards White House. Other aides, with a combination of disgust — and, perhaps, a bit of envy — referred to him as Edwards’s “personal servant,” or worse, Edwards’s “butt boy.” The relationship was so intense, at least on Young’s side, that it generated friction between him and Elizabeth Edwards. But if Elizabeth and John Edwards sometimes seemed to feel that Young — at 40 no longer an eager kid, with three children of his own — had gotten too close, there was no getting rid of him. He had made himself indispensable.
“John was his idol — his hero — and probably who he considered his best friend and his mentor,” said Tim Toben, a former John Edwards supporter and friend of Young’s who now lives next door to Young on the rural west edge of Chapel Hill. “He thought that he had offered the ultimate sacrifice and was left on the curb.”
Young has fleetingly emerged from the wreckage of Edwards’s political career as a character from central casting. First he was the fall guy, and now he’s the sellout, peddling his story in a tell-all book. But the real story of Young is about the passions of politics and the classic political triangle of the candidate, his wife and the sometimes sycophantic aide. The consuming devotion that politicians command from a small handful of loyalists is familiar — and not just in presidential campaigns.
“Almost every politician has people like that around him who will do almost anything, sometimes to a fault,” said Gary Pearce, a consultant to Edwards’s 1998 Senate campaign.
Neither Elizabeth nor John Edwards responded to a request — relayed through a spokeswoman — for a comment on Young. Young also declined to comment, though he did, through a friend, pass on the names of several allies for a reporter to call. About a dozen former Edwards aides described his relationship with the Edwardses to POLITICO, most on the condition of anonymity to avoid getting dragged into the campaign’s tawdry aftermath.
