Author: John Holton

Internet disc jockey, lover of old TV (especially the commercials), inveterate wise guy.

Five For Friday: Not In RRHOF, Part 4

Here is Part 4 of the list of artists that have yet to be nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, according to BestRockBands.com. Parts 5 and 6 will drop on Monday and Friday next week. The description of each is from the article as well.

  1. Country Jope & The Fish, "Vietnam Song" (NSFW LANGUAGE): San Francisco psychedelia met Berkeley social commentary in the ’60s. They were ubiquitous at festivals and on radio.
  2. Jim Croce, "I’ll Have To Say I Love You In A Song": His life was cut short before he had a chance to truly develop but the trove of hits he left behind was substantial.
  3. The Crystals, "Da Doo Ron Ron": Even more than the Ronettes, the Crystals were Phil Spector’s go-to girl group. Darlene Love and La La Brooks were (and still are) dynamic singers.
  4. Dick Dale, "Misirlou": The man invented surf guitar. That’s enough.
  5. The Damned, "Neat Neat Neat": The first bona fide British punk band, who later expanded their sound.

And that’s Five For Friday for May 20, 2022.

#TBTMemory No. 39: Reading And Books

Maggie chose this week’s prompts on the subject Reading Culture And Books.

Who were the readers in your family? To an extent, all of us were. Dad read a lot, mostly mysteries like the Nero Wolfe books and the Inspector Maigret ones. Grandma Holton, Dad’s mother, read quite a bit. She an her sister Florence walked to the Rogers Park Branch of the Chicago Public Library, which was kind of a hike, I think at least a half mile. She liked to read mystery novels and also historical biographies. I’ve talked a lot about Mom and how she believed that, if you could read, you could do just about anything. She wasn’t that much of a fiction reader, though. She read the newspaper and Time magazine (in the days when it was actually worth reading) and magazines like Better Homes & Gardens and Good Housekeeping, and would read popular novels like The Thorn Birds and Airport, mostly when she was on vacation. My stepather liked thrillers like the Ken Follett and John LeCarré novels. My brothers and I did a lot of reading for school. I can only speak for myself: in high school, I read MAD magazine and a few music magazines like Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy, and Circus, and Sports Illustrated, an annual gift from my Aunt Florence. I was also the kind of music fan who would put an album on and read the album jacketgetting as much information as I could from it, things like the composers of the songs. the name of the publishing company, personnel on each track, name of the producer, recording engineer, remix engineer, cover designer etc. Why? I dunno…

Were there some people who did not like to read or could not read? I didn’t know any.

Did your family subscribe to the newspaper? We subscribed to the Chicago Daily News when I was in high school, then to the Chicago Tribune when the Daily News folded. Mary and I subscribed to the Chicago Sun-Times for a while, and to the Atlanta Constitution and Marietta Daily Journal when we moved to Atlanta.

If you did get the paper, was your Sunday newspaper considered special? What part did you enjoy? We would buy the Sunday papers (Tribune, Sun-Times, and Chicago Today) on Saturday night and read then for the rest of the weekend. I enjoyed the "funny papers," the Sports section, the Entertainment section, the magazine, and the TV books. By Sunday night, usually out of sheer boredom, I’d read the rest of it.

Did you frequent the library at school? Only when I had to.

How about the local community library? Did you have a library card? We didn’t go to the neighborhood library much in Chicago, and Northfield really didn’t have a library. Winnetka did, but I didn’t know where it was.

What was the first book you remember reading? A Golden Book starring Howdy Doody.

Did you have a collection of books (Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Happy Hollisters, etc?) The Hardy Boys (the pre-politically coorect ones) and a lot of books by Leo Edwards that had belonged to Dad and his brothers in the 1940’s (Jerry Todd, Poppy Ott, Tuffy Beans etc.).

Did you read comic books? If so, what titles? Yes: Superman, Batman, Dennis the Menace, Archie, and a few others. (When we were sick, Mom would get some comic books, usually a Superman or Batman and a couple of Archie comics.) And MAD, if you consider that a comic book.

Did you end up a bookworm, a casual reader, or someone who read only when required? A little of all three…

Is there a book from your childhood you would like to read again? If so, what book? There was a book called Alvin’s Secret Code by Clifford B. Hicks that I took out of the St. Ignatius School library every year. I have a Kindle copy of it and read it from time to time.

What book or books have been extremely meaningful or influential in your life? The Golden Age Of Chicago Children’s Television, by Ted Okuda and Jack Mulqueen. I grew up in Chicago during the Golden Age, and reading through it puts me back in touch with myself.

Sorry no GIF’s this week. I had a tiring day at the dentist’s…

Tally-ho and away we go!
See you next week with a brand new show!

Writers Workshop: My Five Favorite Restaurants

In these days of the coronavirus, Mary and I have discovered that DoorDash is a lifesaver. If Mary doesn’t feel like cooking, she tells me to order something, or sometimes I’ll suggest we go that route. Our five favorite restaurants that we can order from DoorDash:

  1. Five Guys: They sell burgers, fries, and shakes as well as some other items, such as Mary’s current favorite, the grilled cheese sandwich made from an inside-out hamburger bun. Their regular cheeseburger is a double cheeseburger; if you want a single, that’s a "little cheeseburger." The quality of the meat in them is excellent, better than most of the other fast food places. A "little fries" is enough for Mary and me. Their shakes are the real thing, not what you get from McDonalds that turns into some gelatinous mass of goop after an hour. You pay a lot, but I think it’s worth it.
  2. O’Charley’s: A chain of casual dining restaurants mostly in the Southeast. I particularly like their chicken tenders (which are easy for me to eat one-handed), while Mary will get a steak, a salad, or a French dip. They’re reliable, and offer pretty good bargains on their gift cards ($50 gift card for $40, up from $35), so we get a few of those and use them to pay there.
  3. New Lucky China: The Chinese restaurant in the area. They also offer Thai food and sushi. We’ve made a meal out of their egg rolls alone, but their other dishes are good as well. I have been going with Cashew Chicken lately, but also like their Kung Pao Chicken and General Tso’s Chicken. Mary likes the Sesame Chicken.
  4. Jim ‘n’ Nick’s: A great barbecue place, though once again I generally go with their chicken tenders, which are tender and juicy. Mary likes the brisket and their Pig In The Garden salad, which is a large salad with a generous portion of pulled pork on top. They have excellent small muffins which are served with every meal, and even sell the muffin mix in the store. We should try that sometime…
  5. Jersey Mike’s: A great sandwich place. Mary and I can make a meal out of one of their giant sandwiches, and often do. My preference is for the Italian sub (Provolone, ham, prosciutto, pepperoni, cappicola, and salami) done "Mike’s way" (onions, lettuce, tomatoes, vinegar, oil and spices). Mary also likes their Big Kahuna cheesesteak (though she generally has them leave off the jalapeños).

We have lots of other restaurants in the neighborhood, but those are the big five.