What a story about that TP book (M&D)! Considering what an infamous recluse he is, the number of inscribed books of his must be exceedingly rare. You think it's only worth 20,000? Bet there are a lot of wealthy Pynchonites (John Larroquette, for example) who might pay more (unless they already have such in their possession). What a find! But I'd keep it mum. I happen to know that there are several John Hagestads on this site alone--they might want to come looking for it ("Oh, Dom, thank you for finding my autographed M&D. I think I left it in the loo").

I had an autographed Bible once. "To Bill, With fond memeories of our good times together, God." He was signing them at a Barnes and Noble in Pittsburgh.

EXACTLY! Ok i accept you!

That's a hilarious bit of public humiliation through advertising HA

I'll read your stories soon. But now I just got some mystery sheet music...Fernando Cruz Cordero's six Divertissements from 1852! Have you heard of him? Me neither. hopefully its sweet.

Later.

Oh i have a wee theory about why NYC is so great...because a person can't be a failure there and hang around and sulk. So everybody in that city is up to SOMETHING.

That's why NYC is so great, in case you were wondering.

say...did you ever play those fella's in washington square? I played them a bit, got creamed, came back a couple years later and beat those beginners (i must have improved...miraculous) so they just bumped me up to the next guy...back to humiliation doh! Well i had the satisfaction of contributing to the local underground economy at least.

HAHAHAHAHAH

Er.. Not sure where you are getting your historical information about <Jimmy Carter> from- but he was so woefully ineffective as a legislator that he was popularly regarded to be a <Giant Ball of Cotton Batting>.

He proposed scads of legislation, none of which got past the "Are you kidding me?" stage of the House of Representatives.

Which was just as well, since it is rumored that the Senate secretly refused to acknowledge his election in the first place.

He was the EXACT OPPOSITE of that other White Southern Democrat- <Lyndon Johnson>- who was not only more macho than Dick Cheney (LJB shot to kill), he also "got the job done" that <JFK> only talked about-

Viz-

1. Kicking ass all over Vietnam with lots of expensive military equipment- something <JFK> advocated, but was too chicken to actually do.

2. Actually passing, rather than merely proposing, all of that Civil Rights legislation that <Kennedy> still gets all the credit for.

<Kennedy> might have taken care of bidness if he hadn't been getting drunk with Frank Sinatra and banging Marilyn Monroe instead of pitching up for work at 9:00 am.

In his autobiography Tip O'Neill explains why Carter didn't get legislation passed. He went straight to the public and asked them to convince their congressmen to vote for his bills, rather than trying to convince congressmen and senators directly. That didn't go over well.

This video was deemed too sheety for youtube so I had to put it on <metacafe>

"The Lamia"

As you know, <JFQ>, the King never wrote his own stuff, and that line in fact is a remake of a song by a local band maybe 20 years ago. Indescribable musical style. Sort of New Wave parody. The chorus went "It was a bus full of nuns, holding babies. A bus full of nuns, holding babies. A bus full of nuns holding babies, went over the cliff."

The stunning dramatic climax to the song was when the singer was told it was even worse than it sounded. When he asked how that was possible, he was told "The nuns were blind, and the kids were refugees."

Possibly just diehard romanticism with a mask of a virtually unaccountable obsession with 18th century English land reform?

I'm not exactly sure how the long hair and glittery outfits pertains to Jethro Tull or the proliferation of enclosures, however.

Perhaps this mystery will never be solved.

Anyways thanks for checking it out, and for your cheerily upbeat encouragement.

I'm glad you have a soft spot for England's olde Frogge Rockers- it's a lot of fun to laugh at them, but the guilty pleasures can be profound- such as when you secretly begin weeping for all of the poor sheep that won't be able to graze after the enclosures.

AND YOU RIDE ROUGH OVER THE FIEEEEEEL EEL EEL EEE ELLLDS

"Really don't mind if you sit this one out..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-vX...

"So you ride sail over the fields
And you make all your animal deals
And your wise men don't know how it feels
To be Thick as a Brick"

I have an *original* vinyl copy of Jethro Tull's 'Thick as a Brick', complete with the *very rare* 12-page newspaper that came with early copies. Offers from rich prog fans only.