When the umpteenth variation of “Dead of the Living Night” comes on television, it’s tempting to deride the caliber of entertainment available today. And I do, but as human beings we’ve always had something of a spotty track record when it comes to spectacle. Imagine a huge tent filled with people waiting for somebody to be shot out of a cannon. Not long ago, that was entertainment. Before that, it was bear-baiting and feeding people to wild animals. Maybe we’ve come further than we think.
Big Shot
By Jimmy Johnson
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402 responses to “Big Shot”
Early birds get to see new daily first! And read your current A and J at midnight, as does Ghost!
Welcome back, Jimmy!
Looking to see if I quoted Twain correctly, didn’t find the quote about funerals but found this!
“It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse races.” Mark Twain
My opinion on diversity and this blog well written.
Love, Jackie Monies
Jimmy, we are still shooting people out of cannons… In 2012, America’s got talent was doing it. Here’s the video of the audition. The bear baiting and feeding people to animals has moved to the political arena. Sure, I know it is only figurative, but the spectacle is about the same and it is certainly for the same purpose– the masses must be entertained lest they realize they are in charge.
Here’s the human canonball from AGT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S2a6PnrV5s
Okay, so I can’t spell cannonball… 🙁
That’s OK David, they can shoot prelates and priests, more drama than the Flying Nun.
Love, Jackie
Guess what I always liked best about the circus? Hint: It wasn’t the elephants. Additional hint: Lower right, panel #1. (A feature which sadly seems to be missing from the AGT clip.)
As I recall, Travis McGee also had a certain fondness for circus girls.
Mr. Clemens could really turn a phase, couldn’t he? I’ll repeat the similar Gen. Patton quote I posted recently, which I believe also applies to this hardy band of Villagers…”If everyone is thinking alike, then someone isn’t thinking.”
What, you never heard anyone turn a phase? (Stupid keyboard!)
Good morning, Villagers! I missed out on whatever happened yesterday. I was sitting in the local hospital while Husband had a small tumor removed from his back. It had grown from the size of a pencil eraser to a large egg, and he decided it was time for it to go. The surgery went well, and the tumor was benign, but still, sitting and waiting is not easy. He is home and all is once again right with the world.
And before anybody else does it…Big Shot! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEea624OBzM
That’s ok, Ghost sweetie. We turn a lot of phases here! 😉
Coming from the glass house… Is turning a phase anything like a new leaf? Moulting? Emerging from the chrysalis? Wasn’t it Teddy Roosevelt that invented canon law? No– I guess that was cannon law for him. Thinking of Canon, here’s a great rant on Pcahelbel in D:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM
Other people’s children had “normal” experiences. My kids got to be circus performers/show girls courtesy of having a weird mama.
Oldest as a teen/young got to ride the lead elephant in to open the Shrine Circus in Houston wearing a skimpy bikini showgirl costume and a huge floral head dress that extended out about five feet each direction.
Total training was, “Give me your foot, I’ll throw you on top.” Second instruction was “Lay flat when he gallops through the doorway, the door will break your neck.”
She did both gamely, then got pinched by all the circus personnel and about a thousand Shriners who wanted to pose with her. I think they asked her if she wanted to run away with the circus.
If my life has been interesting, so has my kids unfortunately!
Love, Jackie Monies
Come to think of it, teenagers must turn phases all the time. At least that was often said of me when I was one. (“Oh, he’s just going through another phase.”)
Any hey, the moon does, too.
This would have been about all it took to fire up a young boy’s nascent libido back in mid-20th Century America. (There’d probably be a Jean Shepherd story hiding somewhere in that remark, were he still living.)
http://www.circusesandsideshows.com/images/clydebeattycircus9large.jpg
Jimmy Buffett song, “Earl’s Dead- Cadillac For Sale” about the human cannonball and his career.
I know who Jimmy Johnson listens to.
Love, Jackie Monies
Don’t forget Hugo the Human Cannonball by Ray Stevens! Or Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (not a song but a good book about a strange circus).
Another favorite quote from Andrew Jackson, “It is a dull man who can only find one way to spell a word”, when criticized for his erratic spelling.
Love, Jackie
Good morning, Villagers. Pot roast is all gone from last night, just a bunch of veggies. 🙁 Hungry teenage boys! Oh, well, I’ll just freeze ’em and use ’em for next time.
Favorite Twain quote: “If you take up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bit you. That is the primary difference between a man and a a dog.”
I loved Ray Stevens! Remember the squirrel in the prayer meeting? He used to play at a nice restaurant/lounge my stepdad’s partner owned in my home town, so I guess stepdad got lots of reports on me!
Funny thing I remember about seeing him was my date, who was a sports writer for local newspaper, had a brand new Chevrolet convertible. We went outside to leave and no car!
Called police. They are taking report. Date looks up and cries “There goes my car down the street!”
Police apprehend, driver is totally drunk, turned out he had a rented Chevrolet same color but hard top and had just gone out, put in key and driven off.
Remember universal keys?
Love, Jackie Monies
My friend has a 1929 Daimler, extensively restored, that starts with a button on the dash. No keys, except for the boot!
I don’t know about universal keys but I worked at a parking lot in downtown Fargo one time and we had a large ring of about 50 keys that would get us into and start any GM product. Needed to move a lot of double parked cars on Monday night when the stores were all open. This was before the death of downtown everywhere with the rise of the “Maul”
canonball:
The party the boys had in Nicea after the Council adopted the Nicene Creed. How their young servers were dressed and whether they were male, female, or if it didn’t matter has not been recorded.
Nihil obstat; Imprimatur. Peace, emb
Wow, Peanuts is deep today. I have added it to the file I use for visual aids when it is my turn to teach Sunday School.
Why rant about Pachelbel’s Canon when you can dance to it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV5_xj_yuhs#t=17
Darn, now I will have to wait for lunch to dance. *feet twitch* Last time I went dancing down the sidewalk in the twilight I got picked up on suspicion of being drunk. They were so disappointed that I passed my Breathalyzer and could stand on one foot till I counted twenty
Thanks for the memories, CXP. Fun to think about bygone days. Tornadoes, of course, are not fun but certainly are interesting. We never had a close encounter but saw plenty of the after-effects, including around Washburn. Jim’s sister and brother-in-law just got missed by that one.