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Maybe it's me ..... but isn't the guy who used to spend his time in undisclosed locations showing up with frequency elsewhere?
SEPARATED at BIRTH - Sioux Falls, South Dakota Catholic Bishop Paul Swain and former VP Dick Cheney.
Help keep this crazy train rolling: stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
LOST AMIDST THE TRAGEDY of the horrific plane crash that killed so many Polish government officials - they were visiting Russia to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre of Poles by Soviet forces.
MONDAY's CHILD is a 19 year-old English kitteh, aptly-named Tiger the Cat - of whom postmen have complained that Tiger attacks them as they approach the cat flap, before chasing them down the garden path.
A RECENT CARTOON by Tom Tomorrow is entitled "All the Rage".
POLITICAL NOTES - a rising star in French politics is the Green Party leader Cécile Duflot who describes herself as a "totally average brunette from the suburbs".
SEPARATED at BIRTH - film stars Tom Green and Hans Gruber (portrayed by Alan Rickman).
WHO WOULDA THUNK that global warming has helped lead to Europe's fastest-growing wine region being in .... Britain.
POLITICAL NOTES - the upcoming election in Great Britain will feature, for the first time, US-style television debates: and PBS newsman Jim Lehrer offers his take (having moderated ten of them himself).
THE ALWAYS PERCEPTIVE UK political columnist Gary Younge compares the GOP to the Delta House fraternity (inspired, yes, by Bluto and Otter).
TUESDAY's CHILD was a resident at the Ontario SPCA which was ordered closed due to animal neglect. The Toronto Humane Society will take over management of the shelter after a six-week facility overhaul.
LITERARY NOTES - an upcoming Irish literary festival will examine just how influential the New Yorker magazine was in introducing Irish short-story authors to the American public.
DEBAUCHERY CENTRAL - Canadian artist Lisa Murphy has published a pornographic book for the blind - with explicit text and raised pictures of nudity.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - English TV star Sonya Walger ("Lost", "FlashForward") .....
.... and Australian TV star Simon Baker ("The Mentalist").
LAST YEAR for the first time ever: Brits spent more purchasing wine than beer.
MATHEMATICAL NOTES - the UK author Alex Bellos names his choices for the all-time "10 best mathematicians" - and three of them are still alive.
THEATRE NOTES - the playwright David Mamet has a new book - and one excerpted passage from it explains how Broadway has been transformed in the past forty years.
SCIENCE NOTES - an essayist looks at the legacy of the Hubble telescope at age 20 - and thinks its successor has big shoes to fill.
SAY WHAT? - why settle for white (or pastel) toilet paper, when the paper company Renova has long offered vibrant colors?
And now, they have trained staff to help choose which color roll of toilet paper to match your mood at their first shop in Cascais, Portugal.
LEGAL NOTES - I have long admired the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón who examines the most important criminal cases in Spain, including terrorism and organized crime.
In recent years, he has been focused on crimes committed by the Pinochet and Franco regimes - which, of course, has led to the right wing seeking to have his power stripped.
But those whose cause he has championed have not forgotten him - including Amnesty International.
THURSDAY's CHILD is Snowball the Cat - a kitteh reunited with his family (via microchip) after an improbable, four-state journey.
BOOK NOTES - a new biography of the Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl Buck notes how she wanted to return to China at the time of Richard Nixon's 1972 trip (and only a year before her own death) but - although "The Good Earth" author had resided in China nearly half of her life - the Communist Party would not allow it.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - film stars Guy Pearce (portraying Andy Warhol) and Brad Pitt (portraying Benjamin Button).
BEVERAGE NOTES - the extent to which February's earthquake has damaged the wine industry in Chile isn't yet clear.
ART NOTES - an exhibit entitled The Talent Show will be at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota through August 15th.
ELECTED OFFICIALS - dislike planning for cities that anticipate smaller populations - but urban planners in the former East Germany feel that urban green zones and huge outdoor art could be part of the solution.
FRIDAY's CHILD is Rodney the Cat who agrees: "Pets and knitting, perfect together".
....... and for a song of the week................................................................... funny how this works: but it took a Separated at Birth from last week to recall how much I enjoyed the music of The Pretenders these past thirty years, seeing them live in the early 80's and a different band in 1994. The one constant is, of course, lead singer Chrissie Hynde - and while they have become something of a legacy band this past decade, wotta legacy it is: birth in the New Wave/punk era and becoming a mainstream rock band over the years.
Chrissie Hynde was born in Akron, Ohio (later to spawn punk bands such as The Cramps and Devo). She was a student at Kent State on that fateful 1971 day, and relocated to London two years later.
She had two interesting jobs in that time: writing for the the New Musical Express weekly, and part-time at the clothing boutique SEX owned by Vivienne Westwood and (the late) Malcolm McLaren. And since this was ground-zero of the oncoming punk movement - well, she was in the right place at the right time.
After recording some demos, she was encouraged to form a band and did.
** drummer Martin Chambers of whom Chrissie Hynde says of his audition, "as soon as Martin started playing with us, I knew this was it".
They made their first Top 40 - a cover of "Stop Your Sobbing" by the Kinks - in late 1979, and had subsequent hits with "Kid" and Brass in Pocket which was - to Hynde's surprise - an early MTV hit, and a staple of their sets ever since.
Their eponymous debut album in 1980 is considered a classic.
Their 1981 follow-up Pretenders II wasn't nearly as well-received ...
... but did have hits with Talk of the Town - reflecting Chrissie's relationship with The Kinks' Ray Davies - and "The English Roses". I had a chance to see the band during this period in New Jersey and thought their future unlimited. But as VH-1's "Behind the Music" would say ...
In June of 1982, Hynde fired bassist Farndon (whom she had dated years earlier) due to his unreliability due to drug problems. A mere two days later, guitarist Honeyman-Scott died of of a cocaine/heroin overdose. Chrissie Hynde went into seclusion, as she was then pregnant with Ray Davies' child. Then two months after giving birth in February, 1983 she learned that former bassist Pete Farndon - who was trying to begin a band with former Clash drummer Nicky Headon (also dealing with drug issues) - died of a heroin overdose.
Hynde remade the band with bassist Malcolm Foster and Scottish guitarist Robbie Mcintosh. Their album Learning to Crawl garnered some good reviews ....
.... and had hits with Back On The Chain Gang and a song which later helped finance her social activism (environmentalism and vegetarianism).
When your-friend-and-mine Rush Limbaugh began using the music-only from My City Was Gone two results were:
(a) the irony of him using a song about Akron suffering from corporate downsizing and (b) Hynde now donates the royalties to PETA that Rush was forced to pay (after initially balking).
(Chrissie Hynde maintains her ties to Ohio; singing the Star Spangled Banner at the 1995 World Series in Cleveland).
Meanwhile, the band's personnel began changing often, with Hynde even firing drummer Martin Chambers, her sole remaining original band mate in the mid-1980's. But still more fan favorites followed, such as Don't Get Me Wrong plus "A Thin Line Between Love & Hate" ...
...as well as Hymn to Her throughout the 1980's and early 1990's.
Hynde was married for a time to Jim Kerr, the Scottish lead singer from the band Simple Minds - of "Don't You (Forget About Me)" fame.
Fifteen years after the band's founding, drummer Martin Chambers rejoined them for the 1994 Last of the Independents album ...
... which spawned a single in Night in My Veins and a nice cover of Bob Dylan's "Forever Young". I saw them in Albany, NY and discovered a band no longer playing large venues but with a a mature sound that still served notice they could still rock.
Which they do to this day with guitarist James Walbourne and bassist Nick Wilkinson.
... and this is also included as a second disc along with a Greatest Hits compilation in 2009.
Then this past February's Live in London CD/DVD set showcases the current line-up.
The Pretenders were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005 and one would be advised not to close the book on them yet.
While my favorite Pretenders tune remains "Mystery Achievement" from their debut album: at the 1994 concert I attended I immediately sensed that I'll Stand by You (fair-use extract below) would henceforth be a fan favorite.
Uncharacteristically co-written by a pair of tunesmiths (Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg) it was later performed by Patti Labelle, Rod Stewart, Shakira and two talent-show stars: Girls Aloud in 2004 ....
So if you're mad, get mad
Don't hold it all inside
Come on and talk to me now
Hey, what've you got to hide?
I get angry, too
Well, I'm a lot like you
When you're standing at the crossroads
And don't know which path to choose
Let me come along
'Cause even if you're wrong ...
I'll stand by you
I'll stand by you
Won't let nobody hurt you
I'll stand by you
Take me in to your darkest hour
And I'll never desert you
I'll stand by you
