Wildlife: Big male Whitetail deer welcomed me home Wednesday night -- had to run, though.



Visit: A Tale of Two Movies

Charity Alert: The Literacy Site and some other fine projects!

Weather: Rain last night -- GOOD. Sprayed our trees for destructive insectoids yesterday -- UGH.

In the Community: The Honors Symposium lecture about Social Security with Harry Zeeve from the Concord Coalition was more of an extended Q & A session than a talk, but it was a very good evening anyway. Fiscal conservatism is a virtue in my eyes -- always has been, and I'm glad that someone was arguing for financial sensibility on the part of a National Government which currently shows no inclination to do anything of the sort.
We are living in an irrational age, unfortunately, where columns of black-and-white figures are ignored in favor of blood-red hysteria which is more easily sold through the ravenous mass media.
By the way, Harry is a great guy -- loves guitar music!
Next lecture: The Politics of Health Care in America by Dr. John Wilkerson, from the Political Science Department at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Media Watch: When does the next round of this Jeopardy championship start?
A nice program called Monster Hoax on the A&E Network -- an animatronic-powered plastic creature named "Lucy" swimming in Loch Ness. It was a high-spirited practical joke by a bunch of grown men who had more time and money than was safe for them. Lucy sank, along with a miniature sub, during testing, and also capsized in Loch Ness itself -- sending one of her diver-operators to the hospital.
Mbube on PBS -- a documentary about the legacy of Solomon Linda. He was a South African singer who wrote a great group-vocal tune in 1939 called "Mbube" that Pete Seegar transliterated as "Wimoweh" around 1949. In 1961 a group of young American musicians called The Tokens sang "Wimoweh" with some English lyrics added to make a song called "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," which became an international number-one hit.
Like most black people in South Africa, Solomon Linda led a hard life, and died with no material wealth in 1962. The expession "died in poverty" is often used about him, but his daughter pointed out in the film that he was neither "a hungry man" nor a "hobo." He worked all day and sang all night to support his family, among other very poor Black South Africans, and his people loved him.
The filmmakers made this movie as a way of pleading for justice towards Solomon's family -- his tune has made millions of dollars, and his estate deserves a share.
Pete Seegar's publisher, and Solomon Linda's record company are sending profits where they belong now, but Dan Weiss, the lyricist of "Lion" hasn't given up a dime -- shame on him, and a music industry which allows situations like this.
The Disney Corporation's assets are tied up in South Africa because of their use of that 'stolen song' in "The Lion King." Maybe it'll help pry a fair settlement out of the powers-that-be eventually.