Yeah, yeah, so I'm on a 1920s kick

Life on the chain gang has been keeping old Joe Bones away from the Dispatch.

Let me tell ya, I'll be happy when things slow down a bit and I can find an hour or two to enlighten my readers with the latest flotsam and jetsam bobbing about my brain.

In the meantime, now that I know how to embed videos from YouTube, I figured I'd stay in the 1920s for a while and present you with a gem of a ditty that was first published in 1924, "I'll See You in My Dreams," written by Gus Kahn with music by Isham Jones.

I believe Cliff Edwards, aka "Ukulele Ike," was the first to have a hit with this ballad. The version you're about to see and hear is by Joe Brown, who closed out the tribute concert for George Harrison with this perfect rendition on the ukulele. Why end a George Harrison tribute concert with a song he didn't write? Well, George was a big fan of 1920s music and of the ukulele as well. That fast, vaudeville-style uke strumming you hear at the end of The Beatles' "Free as a Bird"? That's George.

Several years ago I saw Eric Idle of Monty Python fame perform in New York City as part of his "Greedy Bastard Tour." Reminiscing about his old friend, Idle said you couldn't visit the Harrison homestead without George pulling out his ukuleles and handing you one to play.

Anyway, if this song doesn't tug at your heartstrings, check your pulse.

Take it away, Joe...

A day like Annette

With the temperature hovering in the 60s and the sun peeking through scattered clouds here in Sleepy Hollow, I thought this spring-like day would be the right time to post the only known film clip of my favorite singer of the Jazz Age--and perhaps any age--the great Annette Hanshaw.

Hanshaw was a singer who inspired the imagination rather than leaving nothing to it. Small wonder Tommy Dorsey called her "a musician's singer." In this short she displays a combination of playfulness and grace that I find sexy as hell.

So without further ado, here is Annette Hanshaw in 1933 singing "We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye," from Captain Henry's Showboat:

Explaining climate change: Mars says the Sun is king

Additional support for "the-sun-is-responsible-for-climate-change" hypothesis (see my Feb. 11 post) is coming from, of all places, Mars:

In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide "ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row.

Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of the St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun.

"The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars," he said.

Most everyone by now is familiar with the recent news revealing "humans-are-responsible-for-global-warming" champion Al Gore's Gulliver-sized carbon footprint. The former vice president claims his mega energy use is zeroed out by his purchase of carbon offsets. But, as the Wall Street Journal quotes Tennessee blogger Bill Hobbs, commenting on the latest Gore revelation in his local newspaper:

[H]ow Gore buys his "carbon offsets," as revealed by The Tennessean, raises serious questions. According to the newspaper's report, Gore buys his carbon offsets through Generation Investment Management:

"Gore helped found Generation Investment Management, through which he and others pay for offsets. The firm invests the money in solar, wind and other projects that reduce energy consumption around the globe . . ."

Gore is chairman of the firm and, presumably, draws an income or will make money as its investments prosper. In other words, he "buys" his "carbon offsets" from himself, through a transaction designed to boost his own investments and return a profit to himself. To be blunt, Gore doesn't buy "carbon offsets" through Generation Investment Management--he buys stocks. . . .

As the great comedienne Lily Tomlin once said, "No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up."