Mom, it’s August.
The middle of summer, and yet, so close to the fall!
Don’t forget to play you-know-what at the end.
You mean, “See You In September”? You see what I mean?
What, that you’re forgetful?
No! That it’s so close to the fall!!!!
Mom, in the final analysis, this is not very interesting. What’s interesting is this month’s Death Report! Randy Meisner of the Eagles just died at 77!
Wow. So young.
He’s the bass player and lead voice on their smash hit, “Take It To the Limit”.
Ultimately, though, he got himself kicked out of the group for refusing to sing it one night in Knoxville, Tennessee during the Hotel California Tour in 1977. It was scheduled as an encore, and he said he couldn’t reach the high notes—which I’m sure you heard if you watched the end of the video posted above.
He was ordered by Glenn Frey to get out there and sing it but he flat out refused! He didn’t feel well and it was an extended encore that had gone on too long, but Glenn Frey didn’t think so, so a big fight ensued and Glenn said, “Why don’t you just quit!”
Timothy B. Schmit took over as bass player and sang lead on “I Can’t Tell You Why” which went all the way to #1. The odd thing is this, Timothy took Randy’s place in Poco and then took his place again in the Eagles!
Unfortunately, Shana, no one knows who—or what—Poco is.
Poco with Randy, 2nd from the left:
Poco with Timothy, 2nd from the left:
How did Randy die, you might ask?
Well, if I have to….
Apparently it was complications from COPD and sadly it turns out he’s had a lot of health issues I was unaware of, so he’d been out of the public eye for around 15 years which is unfortunate. Apparently his last known public performance was in 2008. Even more unfortunate there was a health issue that kept Randy from participating in the “History of the Eagles” Tour—the one we went to in Philly.
I didn’t know it had a name.
uh… Mom? It was named after “The History of The Eagles” documentary that tells the story of their entire career. I highly recommend it. Anyway, Randy was invited to be part of the tour, which um… given the band’s history of excluding him from things was a step forward. Long story short, due to the health problem which kept him off stage with the band in 2013, he was in a coma…
What???? Good heavens!
…but the silver lining is, apparently his former bandmates paid all his medical bills.
Oh wow, well, that was nice.
I see most people say not-so-nice things about Don and Glenn because of how things went down in the band, especially where Don Felder was concerned.
P.S., no one knows who Don Felder is….
He’s the lead guitarist who got kicked out over challenging Glenn and Don’s presumption that they were entitled to more money than the rest of the band. The story of the Eagles could easily have wound up on Jerry Springer’s “talk” show with its circus-like atmosphere and badly behaved guests! If you want to see them talk about how Randy got fired and replaced by Timothy B. Schmit, click below (Oh, and PS, the face you see in the video clip below is Timothy, not Randy):
It’s a shame the way Randy was treated in the past because apparently several people have cited Randy as being a nice person to work with: Don Felder, James Taylor…
Aaaaah!!!!!!!! I knew it! I knew it!!!
Do you have to scream every time I mention James Taylor’s name? Which reminds me, remember the funny thing I said when I was 4? We were in the bedroom and I said, “Mom! I forgot James Taylor’s name!”
Yes, that was mucho amusing; now, if only we could stop talking about him!
Mom, only on a relevant basis! Also Randy Meisner played bass for James Taylor on “Blossom” and “Country Road”.
Oy vey!
Unfortunately I have more deaths to announce. On August 9th, we lost Robbie Robertson of The Band at 80.
Their most famous song is “The Weight”.
And my favorite, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”.
Joan Baez did a cover of that in 1971. Also … and as you know, I always share interesting facts and this one was news to me; apparently, Robbie is playing guitar on the Carly Simon/James Taylor cover of “Mockingbird” originally done by Inez and Charlie Foxx.
OMG! Don’t remind people of that unfortunate mishap! We should probably tell the story of The Band. They got the name because they were “the band” that backed Bob Dylan after he abandoned folk music…
…for a career in Rock ‘n’ Roll. He was so despised for abandoning folk music that everywhere he went, every show he did, he and “the band” got booed off stage! Here is a great summary of that phenomenon:
The band, originally called “The Hawks”, lost half its members; Robbie Robertson and drummer Levon Helm split off from them and stayed with Bob Dylan through the agony of having to appear on stage and be booed on 3 continents!
But their persistence, it seems, paid off, leading to the birth of a new musical form, something called “Folk-Rock”, folk-type music with more instruments than just a guitar and bass (notably drums) which utterly blossomed into smash hits like the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin'”, Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” and the Byrds’ “Hey Mr. Tambourine Man” (which I’m sure Shana is about to say, “Mom! It’s just called ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’!”) But anyway, eventually, The Band gained popularity on its own. Here they are doing my favorite — “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, written by Robbie Robertson, sung by drummer Levon Helm:
Good-bye, Robbie, thanks for the great songs!
A day before (August 8th) Robbie’s passing, we lost a voice actor from “King of the Hill.” Johnny Hardwick (“Dale Gribble”) died at 64 rather unexpectedly. The reports say he was found dead in his home when Law Enforcement went to do something called a “well check”.
I hope that everybody remembers our quiz, “What Remedy Is Hank Hill”.
If you do, you should remember his idiot neighbor, Dale Gribble.
Before Johnny died, he acted on six episodes of the “King of the Hill” reboot. Then came the Hollywood writers’ strike.
I hope we get to see those 6 episodes and that they can find a sound-alike replacement for him. This brings me to the topic for this month’s Quiz:
What Remedy Is Dale Gribble?
Now, how to explain Dale Gribble? He’s a conspiracy theorist and gun-nut. Mom and I have often quoted a famous line of Dale’s every time someone has gotten a death threat—which seems to be happening a lot these days— (like the meteorologist who dared to blame the Canadian wildfires on “Climate Change”—apparently, in certain circles, “Climate Change” is a “hoax”): “You don’t know who I am, but I know where you live….”
That was Season 1, episode-2 of “King Of The Hill”. In that episode, Dale was threatening Hank’s wife, Peggy, because she was offered a job teaching, uh… the birds and the bees to her son Bobby’s class at school.
Sex-ed, Shana; sex-ed! In fact, that’s the episode I want everyone to see right now. This episode is in 8 parts, each 3 minutes long. Each one should play seamlessly, one after the other, so, no need to click on anything, just watch. But first, I have to summarize it for our readers who can read English but not speak it — very well:
Summary of “Square Peg”
OK, we start off with substitute teacher, Peggy Hill, grading papers in her office, which is actually a broom closet in her house, when her husband Hank calls her to say he’s pulled his back out. Peggy eagerly begins to apply something called “Icy-Hot” to Hank’s back. Bobby walks in unexpectedly with a permission slip and Hank freaks out!
Bobby Hill
“Peggy, not in front of the B-O-Y!”
He quickly puts his undershirt back on and prepares to sign Bobby’s permission slip. “What is this for, permission to be on the football team?”
“No, Dad, it’s permission to take sex-ed.”
“What???!!!” cries Hank.
Bobby says the course was made in Washington DC. This infuriates Hank, since Washington is up “North”, you know, where the “liberals” live? So he sends Bobby to his room. Hank and Peggy commiserate over how inappropriate it is for schools to be teaching sex-ed. Sex should be taught to children by their parents—even though Hank and Peggy seem totally uncomfortable with it. Peggy goes into Bobby’s room and asks him if he knows anything about sex. He replies only that he worries about being a slut. Peggy quickly realizes that she can’t talk to Bobby about sex so she leaves the room.
Hank is outside watching his neighbor, Mr. Boomhauer, prune the tree. Boomhauer speaks in a true Texas accent which means he can’t be understood by anyone! Hank informs Dale that his (Dale’s) son Joseph is in the same straits as Bobby. Dale launches into an incoherent conspiracy rant about how “Zero Population Growth” and the United Nations are behind this whole thing. Apparently if we stop having children, there won’t be enough people to maintain a standing army, and that’s when the Chinese will come marching in!
When Peggy fails at teaching the facts of life to Bobby, Hank gives it a try. He takes Bobby to a dairy farm, as that’s how he was taught by his father. Well, it seems that bulls don’t mount cows anymore… it’s all done by machine now, so, Hank and Peggy cave in, realizing that sex-ed being taught at school maybe isn’t such a bad idea after all.
Hank takes his turn at pruning the tree when Dale drops by and assures him that the sex-ed teacher has been “taken care of”.
Next thing we see is Peggy taking a phone call. “Hank,” she says, “that was the principal. Some right-wing maniac just called the Health Teacher with a death threat and she quit.”
Hank said, “Well, I’m sure it was just a harmless nut case, but at least we can put the whole thing behind us now.”
“Oh no,” said Peggy, “they found a replacement for her already, the Substitute Teacher Of The Year–ME.”
Peggy is poring over the text book she’s supposed to use.
She remembers how her mother tried to explain sex to her.
“Peggy? You’re getting to that age now where you’re about to receive a monthly visitor.”
“Who? Uncle Joe?”
Peggy’s mother gives up and drops a book in her lap, The Loveliness of Woman.
Back outside pruning the tree, Dale drops by feeling defeated. “So much for my phone call,” he says; “they found some other harlot to teach that sex-ed class; but don’t worry Hank, I know people who can take care of this woman if you know what I mean.”
“Dale,” says Hank, “That woman is my wife.”
“I thought Peggy was your wife.”
After Bobby is ridiculed at a softball game for being the son of the new sex-ed teacher, Dale makes another threatening phone call—to Peggy this time.
“You don’t know who I am but I know where you live….”
“Dale?” says Hank.
“Oh Hank. Is Peggy there?”
Peggy is trying diligently to study the chapters in her sex-ed text book. She can’t get the words out due to embarrassment! She tries practicing with her niece, Luanne, saying words like “vagina” over and over again, louder and louder each time, hoping to get used to saying them. It’s giving Hank the creeps! He gets into a fight with her, saying Bobby shouldn’t have to know the names of female body parts and tears up the permission slip. He takes Bobby to work with him instead of letting him go to school.
Bobby is fidgeting in his chair at Hank’s job. He’s bored. He’s asking Hank a lot of questions that make Hank realize his son has all the wrong ideas about sex. “Don’t worry Dad, I’m never going to have sex. That’s what you want, right?”
It is at this point that Hank realizes that Peggy has a very difficult, but necessary job!
Just as Peggy is introducing herself to the class, Hank shows up with Bobby. “Just take a seat son, I’m sure your teacher will teach you everything you need to know. She’s the Substitute Teacher of the Year, I understand….” Peggy’s spirits soar! She starts the class, beginning with asking all the students to turn in their permission slips. Not a single parent gave their child permission to learn sex-ed! They all left but Bobby.
So that’s it! Now, here’s the video:
The point about Dale is… get a good look at him, because he’s the wave of the future! Back in ’97 when this episode was made, Dale was some amusing character on the fringe of society; now he’s mainstream! He’s what we call “Donald Trump’s base”! All Trump has to do is ridicule someone, say that someone is a “lunatic”, “deranged” or “a terrible person”, and here come the Dale Gribbles out of their under-ground bunker with their death threats, AK-47’s and high-capacity magazines, all psyched up for a kidnapping, mass-shooting or a hanging!
They are awash in “conspiracy theories”: they think the Democrats (the “liberals”) drink the blood of children, that Hillary Clinton (former Secretary of State) runs a child sex ring out of the basement of a pizza parlor in DC, they think the world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles and they think that Donald Trump is the real president and is secretly running the country!
Well, as Ben Franklin once said, “It’s a Democracy, if you can keep it!” (But he never could have imagined anything as stupid as this!)
So, I want you to make a list of the elements of the case, find rubrics for them, repertorize, and then write to me at [email protected] and tell me: What Remedy Is Dale Gribble? The answer will be in next month’s ezine.
Oh, and by the way: See You In September!
Votes:
Anacardium
Veratrum alb.
Lachesis
Syphilinum
Hey everybody we’re back! Who wants to go first this time? I think I see our friend Edina.
Hi Elaine….
Hi Edina!
I have not seen “King of the Hill”, so based on the summary, this guy, Dale, displays a sycotic miasm.
I was considering Lachesis, like Trump, but this guy is stupider, and not as self destructive as Stramonium would be.
I got Anacardium for the mentals and delusions:
Mind, delusions, conspiracies: anac 2, ars 2, lach 2, stram 1
Surrounded by enemies:
Anac, 2, lach, stram 3
Mind, violent behavior:
Anac, lach, stram are all 4’s
Mind, threatening behavior:
Anac, caust, lach, stram, taren
Mind, attack others desire to:
Anac, lach, stram, tarent
Mind contempt for society
Anac, cic, plat
Mind fanaticism
Anac, caust
Mind cruelty, anac, lach
How did I do?
Great! I love the Fanaticism rubric, I didn’t think of that! Excellent!
So I was right?
Anacardium was my choice; though we can’t be sure without actually giving Dale the remedy!
Finally! Thanks for the quiz! I love the drug pictures…I wish everyone was so easy to profile.
Thanks again for voting!
Who wants to go next? I think I see the gang from Slovakia!
Hello Elaine and Shana,
Hello Miroslav and Jitka!
We send our short answers to your last quiz.
Miroslav answers: Lachesis
I read the quiz, first I felt absolutely lost in it, then I read it again and the only thing that comes to mind is probably the main rubric:
Mind, threatens to kill – Lachesis.
Lachesis came in 2nd for me. Good guess.
Jitka’s answer: Veratrum album
This type of quiz is quite difficult for me, I don’t know the series about these guys, but I will try to match Dale with the traits of character and constitution according to your description:
Dogmatic, rude, quarrelsome, haughty, abusive – Veratrum album
Well, Jitka, at least you made a list of the elements of the case!
Dogmatic, rude, quarrelsome, haughty, abusive. Very good. There are a few you missed, though. He’s a conspiracy nut; so, an important rubric for this case would be:
Mind: delusions, conspiracies
And, here’s an important one. I’m sure a lot of people have wondered, “What’s the rubric for people who are always blaming others? Nothing’s ever their fault!” Well, the rubric is:
Mind: reproaches others
Also, a big aspect of this case is Hatred! These people hate everybody — unless, you happen to be straight, white, Christian and male! Therefore:
Mind: hatred
So, here’s what I came up with:
As you can see, Anacardium comes up in first place, just barely edging out Lachesis. What do we know about Anacardium? Kent says, “Disposed to malice…. He feels cruel. Can do bodily injury without feeling. Cruel, malicious, wicked. Full of strange notions and ideas … fears he is pursued, looks for thieves, expects enemies, fears everything and everybody.”
Have a beautiful time.
Jitka
I see that Pamela from the Plymouth Meeting Study Group is here!
I’m going to say Syphilinum.
Mind:
Mentally dull, heavy, stupid and esp. stubborn, sullen and usually suspicious
Has fixed ideas
Unsocial
The remedy of criminals and the criminally insane
These are the AK47-toting classroom killers.
Jerks!!!! Thanks, Pamela, very instructive! I hope you enjoyed taking the Quiz.
Good guesses all around. Don’t forget to try this month’s quiz, we’re back to our usual topics, and it should be very easy for everyone!
Bye, see you in October!
___________________________________
Elaine Lewis, DHom, CHom
Elaine takes online cases. Write to her at [email protected]
Visit her website: https://ElaineLewis.hpathy.com
