And Toast . . .

I offer my deepest appreciation and my most profound apologies to the plants and animals whose lives were forfeit for our good health this day.

We give thanks to the ranchers and the farmers, their workers and their hands whose skill, sweat and toil have brought forth this bounty from the Earth.

We are grateful to the workers in the fields who pick our food, the workers in the plants where our food is processed, the teamsters who carry it to market and the stockers and the checkers who offer it up for our selection.

We are particularly appreciative for those at this table who have prepared this food with love and affection for our enjoyment and nourishment this day.

We remember fondly those who the miles and circumstance keep from joining us today as we remember those who are no longer with us and are grateful for the time we have shared with them.

We enjoy the warmth and fellowship that surrounds this gathering as we share the fervent hope  That people the world over can share the good fortune, warm feeling and conviviality that  embraces this gathering.

(“Nonbeliever’s Grace” by Paul Diamond, who was inspired by a column in Ann Landers where an atheist asked what to say when asked to say “grace” before a meal)

What do you think?
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OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Something Fishy . . .

Missouri police office Darren Wilson says that he could not have done anything differently to have prevented Brown's death. Wilson, who shot 18-year-old Michael Brown,a total of 12 times on August 9 according to autopsy reports also said he had a "clean conscience" and that he was "simply doing his job", a surprisingly cold, over-simplified conclusion to a complex and real situation that has evoked extremely emotional reactions from many people.

Granted, the officer felt that Michael Brown was a threat to his own life.  He is a police officer.  He has been trained to react when encountering just such a situation.

Granted, Officer Wilson was taken aback when a twice-shot, bleeding but unarmed Brown came running towards him again.  Was his training inadequate in providing him a tactic for subduing a wounded man instead of shooting him multiple times in the head?

Granted, Michael Brown may have been belligerent, large and scary to Wilson, but Wilson was and is not the complete justice system contained in one human package. 

Granted, the grand jury rendered their decision but the conduct of the prosecutor and Wilson himself show a remarkably insensitive disposition to the entire episode.

Something is fishy and less than 'just' in this situation.

What do you think?
Tell me at
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OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Unconventional . . .

Carlos Alomar and Nile Rodgers, former collaborators with David Bowie, recently commented on the latter's work habits during his creative heyday. “In order for him to stay up all night and finish the tasks at hand, it (cocaine) was a huge factor. Its function was to keep you alert, and that’s what he was doing. It did not stop his creativity at all.” Alomar admitted that it occasionally affected their concerts. If Bowie forgot a lyric, it fell to Alomar to pick up the lead vocal until Bowie could find his place in the song. Bowie gave up drugs in the late ’70s, but by then they had already done some permanent damage. Rodgers, the Chic mastermind who produced Bowie’s smash hit 1983 album, ‘Let’s Dance,’ said, “He told me there are years of his life that he doesn’t remember. He said, ‘I know that’s me singing, I know that’s my record and my picture, but I don’t remember writing the songs, I don’t remember going into the studio.’”

Bowie came to the public's attention in 1969 when his song "Space Oddity" reached the top five of the UK Singles Chart. After a three-year period of experimentation he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the flamboyant, androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust, spearheaded by the hit single "Starman" and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Bowie challenged rock music conventions of his time and created the largest cult in popular culture. But in true creative fashion, Ziggy was only one facet of a career marked by continual reinvention, musical innovation and striking visual presentation.

In 1975, Bowie achieved his first major American crossover success with the number-one single "Fame" and the hit album Young Americans, which Bowie himself characterized as "plastic soul". The radical shift in style initially alienated many of his UK devotees. He then confounded the expectations of both his record label and his American audiences by recording the minimalist album Low (1977)—the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno over the next two years. Low, "Heroes", and Lodger, the so-called "Berlin Trilogy" albums, all reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise. In the late 1970s, Bowie had UK number ones with the 1980 single "Ashes to Ashes", its parent album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), and "Under Pressure", a 1981 collaboration with Queen. He then reached a new commercial peak in 1983 with Let's Dance, which yielded several hit singles. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles, including blue-eyed soul, industrial, adult contemporary, and jungle. Bowie's latest studio album The Next Day was released in March 2013.

(thanks to http://ultimateclassicrock.com/david-bowie-cocaine/?trackback=tsmclip and wikipedia.com)

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html 


OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Reading . . .

. . . the faces . . .


Maybe it's me.  The stories of Chuck Hagel's resignation and speculation about the reasons has been varied, believable and interesting.  They've even been uncharacteristically (for the press) objective.
All sound plausible from McCain's explanation that the administration micromanages and that Hagel, like his predecessors felt they were inhibited to the administration rep's comments on Hagel not being up to the job.

The photo above right is the more interesting of the two but the one left is there purely for contrast. Whatever the mutual feeling on the left, (when Panetta left and Hagel joined) all appear relaxed and, for lack of a more descriptive term:  happy.  The one right clearly portrays something practically opposite happy.  And while the resignation of a cabinet officer is certainly not a happy occasion.  But I detect in the one on the right, something more;  deeper.  Maybe the version that Hagel was forced out?

What do you think?
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OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Pies Etc. . .

Pizza, or something very much like it, has been made since the neolithic age. Records of people adding other ingredients to bread to make it more flavorful can be found throughout ancient history. The precursor of pizza was probably the focaccia, a flat bread known to the Romans as "panis focacius", to which toppings were then added. In Sardinia, French and Italian archaeologists have found bread baked over 7,000 years ago. The Ancient Greeks had a flat bread called plakous which was flavored with toppings like herbs, onion, and garlic. Foods similar to flatbreads in other parts of the world include the Indian Paratha, Central and South Asian Naan and Roti, Sardinian Carasau, Spianata, Guttiau, Pistoccu and Finnish Rieska. Also worth note is that throughout Europe there are many similar pies based on the idea of covering flat pastry with cheese, meat, vegetables and seasoning such as the Alsatian Flammkuchen, German Zwiebelkuchen, and French Quiche.

Johnny’s Pizza, by the way, is extraordinary – beginning with breakfast. Doors open at 8am to showcase a delicious breakfast pizza. Brushed with butter and smothered with eggs, several delectable cheeses and a bevy of optional toppings, it takes pizza to an unexpected level of delicious. The best fast-order cooks in town deliver other selections that include customary choices like bacon, sausage, pancakes, French toast and more. Don’t miss the chance for a free mimosa or Bellini.
(Sources www.wikipedia.com and http://johnnyspizzapub.com/ocean-city-md-location)

Join OHO Saturday, November 2, 2014 at 8:30PM at Johnny's Pizza and Pub,

5601 Coastal Hwy Bayside, Ocean City, MD 21842, Phone:410-524-7499

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html 


OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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ç

A Will? . . .

(from Treatise On The Gods by H.L. Mencken)
". . . The earliest religion, I daresay, arose out of some extraordinary series of calamities, unprecedented and intolerable. As the cells of his cortex multiplied, primitive man found even the ordinary discomforts of life increasingly disagreeable, but it is probable that he was still too close to his infra-human forebears to do anything about them. When it rained, and there was no cave or thicket handy, he simply got wet, as the other mammals got wet. When food was scarce he chewed on twigs. When it was cold he shivered. When a rival stole his wife he sent without the domestic consolations until the rival tired of her, or he could make and wive a widow. All such misfortunes were unpleasant, and the new trick of thinking made them more so, but they tended to be transient, and they were not often fatal, nor even disabling. Beyond them lurked others of a greater fearsomeness: drowning, dropping sunstruck, getting killed by lightning, by wild beasts of by falling rocks and trees, dying in general. An inimical volition seemed to lurk in all of them. It was not hard to imagine some evil will throwing down the avalanche, or sending the lightning, or drawing the drowning man down to death. In fact, it was easier to imagine it than not to imagine it. . . "

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html 


OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Meet Me at the Pizza Bar Tariq . . .

(from Tradewindsnews.com)
"It appears that a relaxing luxury cruise to Turkey is a good way of preparing for the hardships of fighting in the wasteland of Kobane. The international police organization, Interpol, is calling for airline security checks to be extended to cruise lines as some of those hoping to fight in Syria and Iraq are now going by sea. Interpol's counter terrorism chief, Pierre St Hilaire, said there was evidence that jihadis were taking cruise ships to the Turkish port of Izmir. Carnival’s Costa Crociere subsidiary, MSC Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line are among the operators offering voyages that include calls at Izmir. St Hilaire had no details about how many would be jihadis were taking a cruise to war but up to 15,000 foreign fighters are reported to have joined Islamic State and other groups fighting in Syria and Iraq. "Because they know the airports are monitored more closely now, there's a use of cruise ships to travel to those areas," added St Hilaire. Interpol wants to extend its I-Checkit program that allows airlines to check passenger information to cruise lines and others that might be able to detect extremists going off to fight. But the trade body, Cruise Lines International Association, claims that shipping companies are already taking security as seriously as the airline industry."

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html 


OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet