Year: 2017
Obama spying on Trump, yeah right
It’s all in Trump’s poignant imagination.
Or is it?
Chinese Fireworks
Winnipeg Fireworks
A very worthy effort.
“The Duchess” of Rock ‘n’ Roll
“Norma-Jean was my first sidekick. We did everything together.” – Bo Diddley, 2005
One of the first female rock ‘n’ roll guitarists was a tall, stunning black woman with a towering bouffant hairdo, a skintight gold lame dress (or black leather pants), high heels, and a custom Gretsch electric guitar, designed by the man usually standing next to her onstage, Bo Diddley.
Technically Norma-Jean Wofford, nicknamed “The Duchess” by Bo, was the second female guitarist in Diddley’s backing band. She replaced “Lady Bo” (Peggy Jones) in 1962, with Bo hiring her first and then teaching her how to play rhythm guitar. Lady Bo had been Bo’s lead guitar player from 1957 to 1961, leaving to form her own group The Jewel, later called Lady Bo and The Family Jewels, and work as a session musician. Bo’s audiences’ disappointment in not seeing Lady Bo with the band prompted him to hire Norma-Jean.
Having a woman in a rock ‘n’ roll/R&B band who was not simply a back-up singer was unheard of at the time. The Duchess, originally from Pittsburgh, was said to be Bo’s sister or half-sister, a rumor he started himself, partly because he considered her close enough to qualify as family but also because he didn’t want the other band members to make a move on her. He told his biographer, “Part of the reason I decided to go with that little lie was that it put me in a better position to protect her when we were on the road.”.
The Duchess recorded and toured with Bo for four years and was the band member he entrusted with his money. She sang back-up with the Bo-dettes (then comprised of Gloria Morgan and Lily Jamieson, a.k.a. “Bee Bee”), managing simultaneously to sing with them, play rhythm guitar, and not miss a single dance move. The Duchess appeared on several of Bo’s albums, recorded for Leonard Chess’s Checkers label, such as Bo Diddley, Bo Diddley and Company, Bo Diddley’s Beach Party (a live album recorded at the Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina), Hey! Good Lookin’, 500% More Man, and The Originator.
The Duchess left Bo Diddley’s band in 1966 to get married and raise a family in Florida. She was replaced by Cornelia “Cookie” Redmond and later Debby Hastings, who remained in Bo’s band from 1982 to 2007. Lady Bo returned to Bo’s band to play several concerts in 1993 and the Duchess showed up at a Bo Diddley concert to say hello to her old friend in July 2004 in California, where she was then living. She died the following year in Fontana, California. Bo Diddley passed away in 2008.
Bo and The Duchess played identical Gretsch Jupiter Thunderbirds, Cadillacs, and Cigar Boxes, which he had helped design. All three models had unusual rectangular shapes, which he said made them easier to play. Decades later Bo gave one of his Jupiter Thunderbirds to Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, who helped Gretsch recreate the model, renamed the G6199 Billy-Bo Jupiter Thunderbird.
Below, even while overshadowed by Bo and his energetic guitar playing, The Duchess was still pretty hard to miss during their appearances on television shows like Shindig! and the concert film The Big T.N.T. Show /T.A.M.I.-T.N.T. Show (1966).
Dangerous Minds
Sand Highways
In Manitoba we are very familiar with snow drifts causing havoc on our highways.
In other parts of the world they deal with drifts over the highways, but it isn’t snow, it is sand.
Dubai
Namibia
Peru
China
The Levitating Woman Magic Trick Revealed
Those bloody magicians have been frustrating me for decades. Now, thanks to the net, we can find out how the brilliant trickery works. These guys are good and very smart.
This trick requires a super steady forklift operator.
Funny Place Names of Saskatchewan and Newfoundland
There are many funny place names in Canada. Flin Flon, Optic Lake and Wampum in Manitoba; Hungerford, Pain Court and Zigzag in Ontario; Aachikaayusaakaasich Portage in Quebec, Blubber Bay in B.C., Dead Man’s Flats in Alberta, Nuttby in Nova Scotia, Poodles Corner in P.E.I. and Snafu Creek in the Yukon Territory.
But the two provinces in Canada with the nuttiest names have to be Saskatchewan and Newfoundland. As the lists below demonstrate.
SASKATCHEWAN
Amsterdam – Antelope – Baldwinton – Big Beaver – Biggar – Blumenheim – B-Say-Tah – Buffalo Narrows – Cadillac – Candle Lake – Carrot River – Ceylon – Chicken – Choiceland – Climax – Congress – Cut Knife – Druid- Earl Grey – Ebenezer – Edelman Lake – Elbow – Endeavour – Eyebrow – Foam Lake – Frontier – Grandmother’s Bay – Grizzly Bear’s Head & The Lean Man – Hague – Hitchcock – Holdfast – Hoosier – Imperial – Knee Lake – Liberty – Limerick – Lipton – Little Bone – Loon Lake – Love – Lucky Lake – Lucky Man – Major – Mantario- Milestone – Moose Jaw – Mozart – Old Wives Lake – Onion Lake – Oxbow – Pennant – Piapot – Poor Man – Porcupine Plain – Quill Lake – Revenue – Reward – Sanctuary – Semans – Smuts – Spy Hill – Stockholm – Swift Current – Uranium City – Urin – Xena – Yellow Grass – Zip Lake
NEWFOUNDLAND
Ass Hill – Ass Rock – Back Cove – Bacon Cove – Badger – Bar Haven – Bareneed – Bay Bulls – Billy Butts Pond – Blow Me Down – Bottle Cove – Butter Cove – Cape Onion – Catalina – Change Islands – Chapel Arm – Coffee Cove – Come-By-Chance – Comfort Cove – Conception Bay – Cow Head – Cupids – Curling – Deadman’s Bay – Deadman’s Cove – Diamond Cove – Dildo – Exploits River – Ferryland – Fleur de Lys – Flowers Cove – Fortune – Fox Roost – Foxtrap – Frenchman’s Cove – Funk Lake – Furby’s Cove – Gander – Gin Cove – Goblin – Goobies – Halfway Point – Happy Adventure – Happy Valley – Goose Bay – Hare Bay – Hatchet Cove – Hearts Content – Hearts Delight – Heart’s Desire – Jerrys Nose – Lawn – Leading Tickles West – Little Seldom – Low Point – Mosquito – Mouse Island – Nameless Cove – New World Island – Nippers Harbour – Noggin Cove – Old Man’s Head – Old Room – Paradise – Pasadena – Penetanguishene – Petty Harbour – Poor Boy Island – Quidi Vidi Harbour – Red Indian Lake – River of Ponds – Salvage – Seldom – Small Point – St. Jones Within – St. Jones Without – Stag Harbour – Tickle Cove – Toogood Arm – Virgin Arm – Wild Bight – Wreck Cove
Just for the record, I forgot Skookumchuck in B.C. and Whycocomagh in Nova Scotia.
Hawaii from Space
Hawaii – Wikipedia
| Area | Ranked 43rd |
|---|---|
| • Total | 10,931 sq mi (28,311 km2) |
| • Width | n/a miles (n/a km) |
| • Length | 1,522 miles (2,450 km) |
| • % water | 41.2 |
| • Latitude | 18° 55′ N to 28° 27′ N |
| • Longitude | 154° 48′ W to 178° 22′ W |
| Population | Ranked 40th |
| • Total | 1,431,603 (2015 est) |
| • Density | 214/sq mi (82.6/km2) |
The Big Island
Oahu
The MarkoZen Blog 