So happy to have found your column/space/publication again! Now it’s Lin Brehmer and Mary Dixon I’m missing…
My Mary Day knee jerk song would be With a Little Help from my Friends, cliché and all. BUT with a little introspection I would lean toward Gaelic Storm Don’t Go For the One. I love the nod toward the consequences (and good times) of an impulsive decision, and creative wit to get oneself out of trouble. Kind of opposite song choices!
Thanks for including Garnet Rogers in your tune of the week. If you enjoy Garnet's recordings, you should see him live! I've seen Garnet in concert multiple times, both solo and with Archie Fisher, and it's always a great evening. In fact, it was a Garnet Rogers concert that ended live events for us on March 14, 2020 - we spent the next 15 months remembering it fondly. My favorite Garnet song is Small Victories. Makes me cry (in a good way) every time.
I actually remember hearing Garnet Rogers on XRT, waking up to it I believe, and thinking "what in the hell is XRT playing?", but liked it. I told Brehmer that on the XRT ski trip to Telluride a few days or weeks later, and he just rolled his eyes. Also saw Garnet Rogers at FitzGeralds a few months later, opening for Joe Ely. So there ya go, now you've heard from someone.
When I saw Lemak's name in the header, I froze. Worked for a DuPage municipality at the time of the murders and there were many conversations especially with police officers and firemen about the incident. A neighbor had brought the 3 Lemak children to a fire station for a tour and they were remembered so sadly, beautiful, innocent and vulnerable. She was a monster and she remains a monster. As a medical professional, she had many resources for her own problems and the murder of her own children was a planned and incredibly cruel abomination. Rehabilitating monsters doesn't happen in the real world. Keep her away from other humans.
Hard for me to pick just one song, but I think it would have to be “Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song)” by Warren Zevon, which I think is easily his best tune, but for some reason didn’t catch on, despite having some high octane star power behind it (Zevon’s old friend David Letterman belts out the refrain on the recorded version, Paul Shaffer fills that role on the live version from Letterman’s show, both on YouTube). Musically it’s a great, piano driven melody similar to “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner”; the lyrics tell a poignant, almost tear jerking story, similar to the parable in the John McCutcheon song about Sara Tucholsky that you recently featured. They’ll be especially appreciated by hockey fans, which I’ve been for over forty years, but you don’t have to be one to be moved by this song
One other song I’d play (I know, we’re only supposed to pick one, I swear this will be it) is “Free Four” by Pink Floyd because of it’s morbid sense of humor. This is one of those songs like “Every Breath You Take” or “Born in the USA” in which the jovial, sing-songy musical arrangement throws some people off and causes them to not notice the bleak nature of the lyrics, which in this case have to do with the shortness of life, and the decline of physical and mental capacities toward its end. Some of the lyrics might strike a bit to close to your heart Eric (especially the opening line), but I’m sure you can handle them, and might appreciate them.
Sam Stone by John Prine's first album: because John never got nearly enough airtime, because that might be the best first album anyone ever released, and because we could all benefit by being haunted by a life seemingly unlike our own.
I cannot feel any sympathy for Lemak and I believe executive clemency is not appropriate.
Let her appeal, raise a challenge to her conviction, which she should have set in progress when the drug was found to have severe side effects. If successful, she should be retried.
“She was not in her right mind when she committed an act that was horrifying beyond words. That seems obvious.” -- Zorn
Marilyn Lemak was not in her right mind when she summarily executed her children? What incarcerated murderous mothers do we also know of who with malice aforethought were not in their right minds when they deliberately killed their innocent little children, say, with drugs and manual suffocation? Shall they all be released or given clemency on the unsubstantiated claim that depression and Zoloft made them brutally dispatch their children? How can Lemak claim responsibility but not be responsible at the same time? I don’t sympathize with her – she intended with success to commit the heinous murders that warranted her lengthy incarceration. She should be held to account for it.
Hold My Hand by Hootie and The Blowfish. Janeane Garofalo once made a joke about the predictability of people who loved this song which I found humorous, and for me, accurate.
A truly excellent issue. My favorite line: “When the Ricketts family makes you look bad, Tribune…”
So What/Miles Davis
So happy to have found your column/space/publication again! Now it’s Lin Brehmer and Mary Dixon I’m missing…
My Mary Day knee jerk song would be With a Little Help from my Friends, cliché and all. BUT with a little introspection I would lean toward Gaelic Storm Don’t Go For the One. I love the nod toward the consequences (and good times) of an impulsive decision, and creative wit to get oneself out of trouble. Kind of opposite song choices!
My favorite song changes quite often as well, but I think the message in Carole King's 'Beautiful'
is a good outlook to have in life.
The Dad Joke ToTWs (or is it TsoTW?) were REALLY bad. I would've picked none, but I chose the Twister tweet.
Thanks for including Garnet Rogers in your tune of the week. If you enjoy Garnet's recordings, you should see him live! I've seen Garnet in concert multiple times, both solo and with Archie Fisher, and it's always a great evening. In fact, it was a Garnet Rogers concert that ended live events for us on March 14, 2020 - we spent the next 15 months remembering it fondly. My favorite Garnet song is Small Victories. Makes me cry (in a good way) every time.
I actually remember hearing Garnet Rogers on XRT, waking up to it I believe, and thinking "what in the hell is XRT playing?", but liked it. I told Brehmer that on the XRT ski trip to Telluride a few days or weeks later, and he just rolled his eyes. Also saw Garnet Rogers at FitzGeralds a few months later, opening for Joe Ely. So there ya go, now you've heard from someone.
When I saw Lemak's name in the header, I froze. Worked for a DuPage municipality at the time of the murders and there were many conversations especially with police officers and firemen about the incident. A neighbor had brought the 3 Lemak children to a fire station for a tour and they were remembered so sadly, beautiful, innocent and vulnerable. She was a monster and she remains a monster. As a medical professional, she had many resources for her own problems and the murder of her own children was a planned and incredibly cruel abomination. Rehabilitating monsters doesn't happen in the real world. Keep her away from other humans.
Hard for me to pick just one song, but I think it would have to be “Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song)” by Warren Zevon, which I think is easily his best tune, but for some reason didn’t catch on, despite having some high octane star power behind it (Zevon’s old friend David Letterman belts out the refrain on the recorded version, Paul Shaffer fills that role on the live version from Letterman’s show, both on YouTube). Musically it’s a great, piano driven melody similar to “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner”; the lyrics tell a poignant, almost tear jerking story, similar to the parable in the John McCutcheon song about Sara Tucholsky that you recently featured. They’ll be especially appreciated by hockey fans, which I’ve been for over forty years, but you don’t have to be one to be moved by this song
One other song I’d play (I know, we’re only supposed to pick one, I swear this will be it) is “Free Four” by Pink Floyd because of it’s morbid sense of humor. This is one of those songs like “Every Breath You Take” or “Born in the USA” in which the jovial, sing-songy musical arrangement throws some people off and causes them to not notice the bleak nature of the lyrics, which in this case have to do with the shortness of life, and the decline of physical and mental capacities toward its end. Some of the lyrics might strike a bit to close to your heart Eric (especially the opening line), but I’m sure you can handle them, and might appreciate them.
Sam Stone by John Prine's first album: because John never got nearly enough airtime, because that might be the best first album anyone ever released, and because we could all benefit by being haunted by a life seemingly unlike our own.
I cannot feel any sympathy for Lemak and I believe executive clemency is not appropriate.
Let her appeal, raise a challenge to her conviction, which she should have set in progress when the drug was found to have severe side effects. If successful, she should be retried.
“She was not in her right mind when she committed an act that was horrifying beyond words. That seems obvious.” -- Zorn
Marilyn Lemak was not in her right mind when she summarily executed her children? What incarcerated murderous mothers do we also know of who with malice aforethought were not in their right minds when they deliberately killed their innocent little children, say, with drugs and manual suffocation? Shall they all be released or given clemency on the unsubstantiated claim that depression and Zoloft made them brutally dispatch their children? How can Lemak claim responsibility but not be responsible at the same time? I don’t sympathize with her – she intended with success to commit the heinous murders that warranted her lengthy incarceration. She should be held to account for it.
Hold My Hand by Hootie and The Blowfish. Janeane Garofalo once made a joke about the predictability of people who loved this song which I found humorous, and for me, accurate.
I won't be breaking any new ground with this comment,
but I've subscribed to the "PT" since day one,
and this has to be the best issue yet.
It reminded me of watching a great hitter at BP.
Each pitch met with a beautiful, solid crack.
I still subscribe to many papers, but most don't contain as much interesting info as the "PT" did today.
Lemak isn’t the only one to blame mass killings on SSRIs. we have these two experts: https://www.businessinsider.com/mtg-and-tucker-carlson-mass-shootings-ssris-antidepressants-explained-2022-7?amp