48 Comments

Alas, I am not a fan of folk music. But your discussion of train songs reminded me of my favorite: Roseanne Cash’s My Baby Thinks he’s a Train. “🎶Just like a train he’ll always give some tramp a ride.”

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Thanks for noticing my comment on "The Mary Ellen Carter" and for recommending another of my favorite inspirational songs - "Another Train". That's a great song to help one survive a long career in corporate America for sure. As long as we are trading songs that lift us, try David Wilcox's "Rise". I imagine a person who has suffered a significant loss and the accompanying sadness as the recipient of this song. And, I can extol the virtues of David Wilcox all day long as a singer-songwriter.

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EZ - Totally, totally agree with you on the "Against ‘e-mail us’ forms" complaint. There's no record of your sending. Another peeve of mine with some of those is that (at least on my Google Chrome) there must be some auto email address auto-populate function of which I am unaware that uses an old (now-unused) email address to auto-populate my (now defunct) email address into the automated form. Gah!

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May 23, 2023·edited May 23, 2023

“If you like uplift, about a year ago I featured ‘Another Train’ by Pete Morton (A better but slower recording is here) The tempo isn’t bouncy or upbeat, but the song is quietly, forcefully inspirational. You will find there are times when it’s just what you need to hear.” -- Zorn

There's another train. There always is.

Maybe the next one is yours.

Get up and climb aboard another train.

This notion of “inspiration” in Morton’s “Another Train” reminds me of the 5th grade singing select educational songs like this uplifting “choo-choo” song by the Grateful Dead:

Casey Jones

Driving that train

H*** on c******

Casey Jones you better

Watch your speed

Trouble ahead

Trouble behind

And you know that notion

Just crossed my mind

This old engine makes it on time

Leaves Central Station

'Bout a quarter to nine

Hits River Junction at seventeen to

At a quarter to ten

You know it's travelin' again

Driving that train

H*** on c******

Casey Jones you better

Watch your speed

Trouble ahead

Trouble behind

And you know that notion

Just crossed my mind

Trouble ahead

A lady in red

Take my advice

You'd be better off dead

Switchman sleeping

Train hundred and two is

On the wrong track

And headed for you

Driving that train

H*** on c******

Casey Jones you better

Watch your speed

Trouble ahead

Trouble behind

And you know that notion

Just crossed my mind

Drive your train

Trouble with you

Is the trouble with me

Got two good eyes

But we still don't see

Come round the bend

You know it's the end

The fireman screams

And the engine just gleams

Driving that train

H*** on c******

Casey Jones you better

Watch your speed

Trouble ahead

Trouble behind

And you know that notion

Just crossed my mind

Driving that train

H*** on c******

Casey Jones you better

Watch your speed

Trouble ahead

Trouble behind

And you know that notion

Just crossed my mind

Driving that train

H*** on c******

Casey Jones you better

Watch your speed

Trouble ahead

Trouble behind

And you know that notion

Just crossed my mind

Driving that train

H*** on c******

Casey Jones you better

Watch your speed

Trouble ahead

Trouble behind

And you know that notion

Just crossed my mind

And you know that notion

Just crossed my mind

Songwriters: Robert Hunter, Jerome Garcia – Grateful Dead.

For non-c********* use only.

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I found the coffin flop vids as pretty gross. What humor? being portrayed required that the bodies be unidentified. Mixing in from the other discussions going on - how funny does the vid become if it is Officer Preston in full uniform that falls to the ground? Or Adam Toledo falls out of his coffin?

Not funny at all…in fact kind of horrific.

What is bad taste becomes Alex Jones taste if the body is known. Like TV, there seems to be no lowest common denominator for social media.

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"Undue reverence for police life"....has me seething. These are the people whom you call to risk their lives for you. These are the people with high rates of suicide and depression due to their jobs and, nowadays, the disrespect and callous disregard for their very lives. What other job entails putting someone else's life ahead of your own and knowingly rushing to danger (other than the FD). Whilst others run for cover, cops run towards the danger. How dare you compare these daily heroes with juvenile criminal wannabes. Erase 9-1-1 from your phone and see how you fare.

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Eric, it seems your delight in bad taste still requires an unknown or made up character to be funny.

I doubt you would be laughing at a coffin flop vid involving your family member.

Think of a coffin flop vid where Joe Biden or Donald Trump falls out…I expect the trolls would go crazy and social media would light up with hate comments.

I find bad taste humor to be a dicey area to explore given our current state of affairs. Do not poke the bear - look elsewhere for areas of humor (puns are fun).

However I would never support banning this by the government in say a DeSantis move - let’s say we agree to disagree.

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My favorite soporific podcast is The Empty Bowl by Justin McElroy and Dan Gobert. It is “a meditative

podcast about cereal.” Episodes are about forty minutes long. They talk about cereal in a quiet way and they often tell listeners that if you fall asleep listening to them it’s Ok. I frequently miss the end of an episode. Give it a try.

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"Zorn — I’m grateful she gives me permission to use her material. Mary is a treasure."

Agreed.

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founding

Allow me to defend the E-mail us form from a business perspective.

We started it to help streamline the issues from the consumer. Too many emails were being sent to us with incomplete information so we could not help the person as easily. We have many products and sell them in many different places. With our form email, we get all the necessary information in one place. That lets us respond more directly and with a specific solution.

Occasionally, we still have more questions and when we do, the email to our consumer comes from a real persons email address.

When I first started the company 15 years ago, every complaint email went directly to me and I directly responded. I wish I could still do that. While I see a log of every complaint, it is not possible for me to respond directly. I am glad I used to get these when we started out. I learned a lot about how to improve our products and got new ideas for new products. I do not play favorites in the company, but I admit to giving the customer service team a little more leeway knowing what they do everyday for us with our most unhappy customers.

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author

Via email from Ted M --

It is hard for anyone who is a member in good standing in America's white community (sorry, but I am obliged to acknowledge such demarcations because they are real and guide or dictate our lives) to accept what Joanie W above said, but anyone who belongs to any ethnic group other than white knows she spoke the truth without qualification. Her view is true to life in America, even in its more progressive redoubts, like Chicago, where true egalitarianism only comes close to have been achieved, when, getting down to the crunch, the statistics say it is unfinished business.

Yes, we all owe a debt of gratitude to law enforcement officers for doing their best to keep the peace and arrest wrongdoers. It is a demanding and sometimes dangerous task; which is why they are paid well to do so. (Most cops retire without ever having had to draw their weapon on duty.) But one's sense of where one stands in the cultural/racial pecking order does determine how one behaves; and as concerns law enforcement officers, that sense is not automatically fair, evenhanded or noble just because one of them puts on the uniform for a duty shift.

Ingrained racial postures are permanent; they don't modify just because one puts on a badge, sorry to say. This is proven repeatedly by ongoing events around the nation where unarmed minority civilians are mistreated or killed by one or more white cops. Proof: We never read of it happening tdo white victims. Consider: Of all the stories of people dying unnecessarily at the hands of cops, how many involve cops of color killing (or otherwise harming) white civilians? It's nearly always (99.9%?) the other way around. This statistic cannot be explained away except by invoking the ugly word "racism," which abides in our culture so broadly that it cannot be overlooked or denied. This does not mean that every single interaction involving whites with non-whites, that non-whites get the worse of it. Only in the preponderance of cases, defying the law of probability.

As a city, as a nation, we are slowly improving on this score; but progress spans generations. What exists can't be ignored or buried. It needs to be acknowledged and aired, for the betterment of all. How long has America allowed the Ku Klux Klan to exist, openly or surreptitiously? Please explain why. And why do shadowy wannabees exist, such as the Proud Boys and random militias and hate groups? Why have the powers that be, mostly in the hands of other whites, not squelched them permanently? These disturbing questions abide, but are never addressed. So the hate groups stay with us.

Thank you Joanie W. for reminding us how far short society still is of living up to our code of conduct on an equal basis.

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Dave W. states "... a large percentage of our police are Prejudiced and prone to violence". Wow, what a great piece of hyperbole of prejudicial stereotype. I don't imagine you have any data to back up this statement, do you?

FBI uniform a crime reports for the past several years reflect that lacks are the offenders in the majority of homicides and robberies nationally, despite representing just over 13% of the population. So this data would seem to support the statement that waxed as a group are much more prone to violence. So there's a statement that's based out of data, but I'm sure that it does not strike you well, right?

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Dave wrote, "I see the death of Adam Toledo equally as tragic as that of Areanah Preston ...." I don't. I see Adam Toledo's death as tragic. I see Areanah Preston's as an outrage. To put it simply, Toledo was not murdered.

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founding

I appreciate and agree with EZ's opinion on the reaction to different killings. But it also reminded me of the apparent decline in the acceptance of societal norms. There used to be near universal agreement that justice institutions (the courts and police) were essential to public safety and order. As such, an attack on any of the officers of the court (judges, prosecutors, defenders, police) was an attack on the whole society and a threat to social order. There are many historical and current examples of countries where order and safety were significantly undermined by forces that attacked the justice system. The murder of an off-duty police officer, going about her daily life, represents a complete collapse of respect for the justice system. The more widespread this disrespect or rationalization of it, the less safe and orderly for all of us.

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founding
May 24, 2023·edited May 24, 2023

I will restate my opinion of the mayor's 'carefully crafted speech'. The mayor has said he will 'not cut a dime from the police budget', but he did not say that in his lengthy speech. He said nothing about policing in his speech. I think the mayor was using Toledo, Roman, and the people that murdered Officer Preston as examples of people that would not have been 'on the street' in his imagined future of resolved root causes. I think this view is supported by the remainder of the speech after his mentions of Toledo and Preston.

I was also put off by the mayor inserting himself into Officer Preston's story and proclaiming her to share his motivations.

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Steven, I'm afraid I am one of those "anti-establishmentarians." BUT I respect that thin blue line we need so much, as do many other liberals.

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