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Bing Crosby was born on 3rd May, 1903. Bing said of his profession: “I think popular music in this country is one of the few things in the twentieth century that have made giant strides in reverse.” For my personal tastes, popular music’s peak was spread across the middle of the twentieth century: Bing, Count Basie, Glen Miller, Sinatra, Elvis, Hank, The Beatles, Dylan, The Beach Boys, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, David Ackles, Michael Murphey, The Dillards, Steve Young, Paul Siebel and Willie Nelson. I rate the zenith of last century’s popular music as lasting from 1965 with the Nobel...

The best traditions of western society are a framework within which decent people can live good lives. Those traditions are being trashed. But if all the good people stand up for what is right against what's wrong, The West can survive. And dream the dreams we want to dream. Like White Christmases. Etc etc. While this open letter is addressed to one polise sergeant who is the president of one police association, it needs the support of many more people than him to succeed. May our God bless us all.

Donald Trump talks tough and attacks and demolishes opponents better than any other modern president. It's a major political asset. But to capture the middle ground for victory, does he need a softer side as well? (He can do it on his own sometimes but it isn't his signature .... he is a modern Archie Bunker who only really sings with Edith at his side ...... "One Minute’s Silence for SOTU – FREEDOM, DEMOKRASI AND CIVILISED HUMANITY" https://freedom-demokrasi-and-civilised-humanity.com/2020/02/07/one-minutes-silence-for-sotu/amp/ .) What needs to happen softly in the background for Trump's tough rhetoric to triumph again? Will he channel the gentle listening...

Welcome to the weekend, your host is here again as fingers of politicians remain firmly in the wind Joe Biden saying he loves Israel for the cameras and something else off them. Biden also trying to pretend he speaks for all Democrats on Israel.... Today's numbers in Israel 18 new positive tests with partial vaccination at 58.50 percent not moving upwards at all by the way and full vaccination at 54.98 percent... This week Russia'a Tass published a story with officiaks there seeing 'herd immunity' when vaccination reaches about 60 percent... "YoU-F-O" It was a Johnny Carson "Tonight Show" joke...

Whether you're cozied up with your sweetheart or enjoying a girls' night, grab some popcorn (and chocolate) and treat yourself to the classics.Picking a movie is always a daunting task in my family. My mom and I have had to sit through our fair share of war movies with no discernible plot, while my dad and brother have patiently suffered through “Gone With The Wind.” The beauty of a good rom-com is having enough “rom” to satisfy more sentimental audiences and enough “com” to keep less romantic viewers interested. As a connoisseur of the “rom,” I can’t guarantee all the...

“I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” originally recorded by Bing Crosby in 1943, tells the story of a soldier writing home while stationed abroad during World War II. He pleads for his family to have “mistletoe and presents by the tree” upon his hopeful return, knowing all along that Christmas this year will only come to life in the cold, hard bunk of his barracks, as he closes his eyes and dreams of a better place and a better time. “If only in my dreams” is a lyric that has transcended time, as old wars have ended and new ones begun,...

Welcome to the weekend just six days before Christmas preparations underway here there and everywhere. Some scrooges and grinches out there in the USA to be sure of course at the very top in the UK as illustrated in this cartoon... Now the talk show hosts are actually willing to criticize the mask and support businesses being locked down by the government ala Buck Sexton and Glenn Beck. I guess those radio guys need to move in some new direction of course Ammon Bundy and People's Rights leading the way in resisting when it comes to masks and business shut...

I love seeing Donald Trump speak against the fear mongering surrounding Coronavirus. The most draconian lockdowns in the world in Australia have seen one million people (4% of the Australian population) seeking mental health services because of the stress of the many forms of police state imprisonment and destruction of freedom imposed on the people. Anyone who has read and believed Exodus knows that God sends pandemics to test people’s capacity to accept His will. Many people of a more scientific and less religious disposition believe that Mother Earth is a self correcting whole where pandemics may be a result...

Senator Elizabeth Warren is embroiled in controversy once again, this time after she admitted to wearing racially offensive "paleface" at a costume party back in her college days.

Three quarters of a century ago - September 1944 - this week's song was in the midst of a nine-week run at Number One on the Billboard pop chart. It's stuck around through all the decades since - which is unusual because it's not a timeless love ballad, but rather a cautionary tale for slacker schoolkids set among the grubbier habitués of the barnyard. It was introduced earlier that year in the film Going My Way, in which Bing Crosby played an unconventional Catholic priest and Barry Fitzgerald tagged along heavy on the blarney. The movie was a smash, cementing...

The Obama family has landed. In Hawaii. For their last tax-payer funded Winter Holiday (whoops! trigger warning!)The Won with Wee Won 1The entire Happy FamilyPerhaps a little vacation - well okay, you and I might consider 17 days in paradise a really BIG vacation, butt a little perspective here, people! – will renew their HOPE.And the best part about this year’s vacation: when they return they’ll only have 15 days left in the White House. That will renew our HOPE! for CHANGE!So as we all go about our Christmas shopping/baking/tree trimming/chores here’s a little something to make the time fly...

Irving Berlin, 1906. Photo from Wikimedia Commons Late in 1940, so the story goes, Irving Berlin found himself in Los Angeles writing songs for the movie "Holiday Inn," starring two of the biggest stars of the moment, Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.  The challenge Berlin had set himself was enormous: to capture the spirit of major holidays in popular song.  And the Christmas song had to be the best of all.  Nothing about Los Angeles, where he found himself, reminded him of the Christmases he'd known as a young boy back in New York City. The snow, the cold...

...a Christmas classic...  Bing Crosby had an annual Christmas TV special; this was recorded on 11 Sept. 1977 for the show which would be broadcast that year: 'Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas.' From wiki: The pair exchanged dialogue about what they do for Christmas before singing "Little Drummer Boy" with a new counterpoint with original lyrics written for the special, "Peace on Earth." Bowie's appearance has been described as a "surreal" event, undertaken at a time that he was "actively trying to normalise his career." He has since recalled that he only appeared on the show because "I just knew...

The unconventional Father Charles "Chuck" O'Malley (Bing Crosby) is assigned to St. Mary's parish, which includes a run-down inner-city school building on the verge of being condemned. O'Malley is to recommend whether or not the school should be closed and the children sent to another school with modern facilities... Co-starring Ingrid Bergman and Henry Travers.

Tributes to two of the most famous American entertainers of the 20th century serve as a reminder of how fame flees. The entertainers are Bing Crosby and Bob Hope; the reminders are the documentary “American Masters: Bing Crosby Rediscovered,” which had its premiere last week (and will run again on Dec. 26 ) on PBS, and “Hope: Entertainer of the Century,” a new biography by Richard Zoglin. Neither Crosby nor Hope have much cachet with contemporary consumers of art and culture, but the accounts of their careers make convincing cases that their contributions still influence their respective fields, even if...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzKRdPStAF8 The Christmas season is the inspiration for this week's feature. "Holiday Inn", the film that introduced the world to the perennial classic song "White Christmas". Easily one of the best musical films of the 1940s. Enjoy.

How a near pristine black-and-white reel of the entire television broadcast of the deciding game of the 1960 World Series — long believed to be lost forever — came to rest in the dry and cool wine cellar of Bing Crosby’s home near San Francisco is not a mystery to those who knew him. Crosby loved baseball, but as a part owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates he was too nervous to watch the Series against the Yankees, so he and his wife went to Paris, where they listened by radio. “He said, ‘I can’t stay in the country,’ ” his...