Good evening, Kibitzers! In the New York area, September 11 can be a bit somber because, you know. It’s also the peak of hurricane season, and as a result, the anniversary of a lot of destructive events. On this date, Hurricane Edna struck New England in 1954; Hurricane Carla struck Texas in 1961; Hurricane Iniki rolled over Kauai and Oahu in 1992; and last year, Hurricane Irma, having plowed through the Caribbean, made landfall in Florida.
Other than to send our love 💙 to our friends who are evacuating in the Carolinas ahead of Hurricane Florence, we have likely thought enough about bad things by this time of day. Nicer things have happened on this date, birthdays and such. Let’s look at a few, thanks to these handy websites.
Today marks the birthday of actor Herbert Kuchačevič ze Schluderpacheru, in Prague in 1917. Since he wanted to act, he wisely changed his name to Herbert Lom. It was under this name that we knew him best as the ever-frustrated Chief Inspector Dreyfus, boss of Inspector Clouseau in the original Pink Panther movies, although he had many other roles in his long career. He passed away in 2012 at age 95.
Turning 75 today (I know, right?): Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart. I had a cheerful hour or so looking at Dead videos for this diary, but it seemed fairer to include this one, also quite cheerful, of his post-Dead band, Mickey Hart & Planet Drum.
Ace acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke turns 73 today. If you’re not familiar with his work, I can recommend it, and for that, IIRC, I can thank my uncle Paul. Thanks, Uncle Paul!
There’s more going on than just birthdays! In 1914, W.C. Handy, “Father of the Blues”, cemented his right to that nickname on this date by publishing St. Louis Blues, a song so popular that, before record-buying was commonplace, it sold a million copies of the sheet music. Here, he appears on the show Ed Sullivan had before The Ed Sullivan Show, to play his famous composition.
On this date in 1962, the Beatles recorded their first singles, Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You. They’d just fired their original drummer, Pete Best, and replaced him with Ringo Starr. Brian Epstein was dissatisfied with their first session with Ringo, and hired session drummer Andy White for the September 11 recordings. In the end, the first pressing of Love Me Do used the Ringo drum track, but subsequent pressings had Andy White’s drums and Ringo’s work confined to tambourine. I’m glad they finally ironed it out!
The Rolling Stones made six appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show between 1964 and 1969. Their fourth was on this date in 1966. It was their fifth appearance, though, in January 1967, that was notable because they planned to sing Let’s Spend the Night Together. Ed Sullivan had very strong feelings about his show being a “family” show, and, as the person who posted this video put it, “En 67 au ED SULLIVAN SHOW, les Stones sont obligés de chanter, ‘Let's spend some time..’ au lieu de ‘Let's spend the night..’" Since I don’t speak a bit of French, I assume I don’t have to explain that to you, either.
Well, they sort of did it, some of the time. You can watch the whole hilarious song below, waiting for Mick’s great big eyeroll at about 2:17, or you can get a much clearer view at this link, which is really an ad for a set of DVDs, but has a perfectly clear, full-face closeup of the eyeroll. I’ve cued it up at the link about five seconds before the cut to the middle of this song, so you need to pay attention the moment the picture goes to color — it’s pretty quick, but pretty funny.
Oh, and then, there’s some guy named Markos turning 47 today. He looks almost respectable in his nice suit and tie, doesn’t he?
🎂 Happy birthday, kos! 🎂
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with readers of Daily Kos who aren’t throwing pies at one another. Drop by and tell us about your weather, your garden, or what you cooked for supper. Newcomers may notice that many who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but we welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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🌟 GOTV 🌟
🌟 POSTCARDING: If you are looking for a way to help and can’t do things like canvassing or phoning, consider hand-writing postcards asking people to vote. It’s easy because you’re given specific talking points from the campaign you’re working with, so you don’t have to think up what to say, and no one will be coming back at you with questions. And if you like to color, you can get creative decorating the cards. Note that you are responsible for buying postcards (and stamps if you don’t use pre-stamped ones.) Postcard stamps are 35 cents each; pre-stamped postcards from USPS are 39 cents each; two different pretty designs. If you can spend a little more, jan4insight makes some nice ones, the two postcard sites sell their designs, or searching the phrase “postcards to voters” on Amazon will show you many designs.
To get started:
🌟 CONFIRM YOU ARE REGISTERED, REPEAT REGULARLY, AND GET YOUR FAMILY AND OTHERS TO DO THE SAME!!!
- Many kossacks have been surprised to find that their or a family member’s registration has mysteriously disappeared, even though it had been active. Don’t wait until too late to catch and correct this bullshit.
- HEADCOUNT.ORG will direct you to your state’s Department of State/Division of Elections (or similar) webpage, which is the horse’s mouth, as it were. My state page shows me as registered at my current address, for example.
- VOTE.ORG looks you up in its own database, which they admit is older than states’ databases. They do not show me as registered at my current address.
- Or, google something like “am I registered to vote” plus your state, and go to your state government’s page directly.
🌟 FOLLOW Yosef 52: Several times every day, the dauntless Yosef 52 posts GIANT resource diaries, containing links for virtually every Democrat who is running this November for just about anything north of dogcatcher. At the end, there are links to online tools for taking a wide variety of action. Please rec and share these diaries as you can, to get more eyes on these resources, and also, don’t forget to make use of them if you’re looking for a candidate to help or a way to help them!
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It is now Day 103 of the new hurricane season.
This is considered the peak of the season. Sept. 20 will be a year since Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico. Today, Puerto Rico and USVI sit along the edge of the “forecast cone” for Hurricane Issac on Friday evening. (And as NWS notes, “The cone contains the probable path of the storm center but does not show the size of the storm. Hazardous conditions can occur outside of the cone.”)
PLEASE FOLLOW Denise Oliver Velez and the SOS Puerto Rico group for the latest news about developments in Puerto Rico and the USVI. Denise’s most recent Puerto Rico diary is here (and another here). She generally collects resonant tweets at the top of her comment threads, as well, and in the APR’s thread most mornings, to make it easy to retweet. If you tweet or FB, please share something about Puerto Rico and USVI regularly.
PUERTO RICO and USVI DISASTER RELIEF DONATION LINKS
The Daily Kos community has its own project: Puerto Rico resident Bobby Neary (newpioneer) leads a small team dedicated to helping a specific rural elder who was left by the storms without power, water, a roof, or any belongings but a moldy mattress. If you like to see concrete results, this is the project for you. See newpioneer’s diaries for ways to help. See this one in particular, and this comment with photos. See also his lovely and heartbreaking poem.
(🌅 = most recently recommended by Denise)
In case you were confused:
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