I Got Them Washin' Machine Blues

It's not that our washing machine doesn't work anymore, it's just that we have to walk it through every cycle. Hell, we've had it for ten years and it's serviced five adults and three teens all that time. I'd say we got our money's worth, but since we can't afford a new one, and because I grew up with a dad who could make a washing machine last twenty years, I refuse to stress over it. All it needs is a new timer, and that we can get after the first of the year. Meantime, it's taking twice as long to do a load of wash because I keep forgetting to get up and advance the cycles

Ah, life.

The YouTube Generation

Yesterday, as I watched some Beatles videos on YouTube, I read some of the comments that other viewers had made, and the sad, nay, disgraceful shape of our educational system was really evident. Across the board, the kids cannot spell, or even form a coherent sentence. "I should of..." is common enough, but I saw even worse examples. And I'm  not talking textonics or lack of even intermediate language skills, I'm talking about gross misspellings of basic words that most of us learned by the third grade...

Sixties Faces: Astrid Kirchherr

Well, that title is a bit misleading, isn't it? This entry is really about a woman who created faces—or images—that still hold power over our thinking half-a-century later.

Astrid Kirchherr was a mere 22 when she met the as yet unfamous Beatles in 1960. They were playing in a dive in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg, Germany, and she saw something in them that inspired her artistic eye. The Beatles were young then (George Harrison was only 17), and they learned a great deal about life working and living in the red light district of Germany's "naughtiest" city...