I was in first grade at the time and this damn talking flute used to freak me the hell out!
Let’s not even bring up the repressed memories I have of Gumby.
Former Radio 1 DJ and Live Aid presenter Andy Kershaw dies aged 66 Andy Kershaw: Former Radio 1 DJ and Live Aid presenter dies aged 66 - BBC News
Ouch. He was a hell of a songwriter, somehow balancing briefly with the incomparable Steve Winwood in early iterations of Traffic, before that balance broke.
RIP.
Guy
I read Naked Ape around 2014. It all seemed rather overstated and low-level. I’m sure when it was published it was rather controversial.
Tragic karma
Anyway…
Fixed
Woke pronoun libtard!
I loved he-man when I was a kid, of course, then I grew up
Take this life and shove it! I ain’t living here no more.
A tall tale giant of country music, Coe was a complicated self-made loudmouth braggart and shit stirrer. He wrote a song entitled “N*****rfucker” about some guy’s woman leaving him for a black man. He also wrote the gay protest anthem, “Fuck Anita Bryant”. He always claimed that he was doing a Randy Newman style of satire and his songs were written from the POV of his redneck characters, not necessarily him.
(Shel Silverstein encouraged him in this direction when they were hanging out for what that’s worth.) mail order only 70s albums are the filthiest and most offensive country records ever recorded. GG Allin acknowledged Coe as his biggest influence.
Coe was hardly the first, or even the most offensive. Risqué (and racist) songs have been written and performed in the US since the beginning.
Coe released two R-rated albums, both of which he said were songs he only sang around the campfire for bikers. He claimed he never sang those songs in concerts for the general public.
I don’t think you have to search far to find equally bald singer-songwriters of American music. Just a few years after Coe’s last biker album there was Raunchy Business: Hot Nuts and Lollipops (1991), with an explicit version of Shave ‘em Dry, i.e. the version that cost Lucille Bogan her recording career in 1935.
Anyway, RIP David Allen Coe
Never heard of her, but apparently she was a big deal among feminist comic strip geeks for what that (niche market’s) worth.
Eh…if these are the best examples, not funny.
Alex Zanardi (59)
I did not follow his career closely, just saw him during his Formula 1 years. What a man. Horrific racing accident, both legs amputated, continues professional racing as a touring car driver (wins the Italian Superturismo), then goes on to become a Paralympic champion (4 Golds in two Olympic games) in handcycling, competing in marathons and triathlons. Then another horrific accident he never really recovered from.
What a sports legends. Boundless energy and willpower.
Hearing on X that CNN founder Ted Turner has died. Not seeing any article yet.
Ted Turner had what biz schools call “vision.” I remember when he bought the MGM library, and I thought, what a disaster. Wrong. I remember working late in the early 00s and finding a Ted’s Montana Grill open on a Saturday night and thinking I had walked into an 1880s Cattleman’s Association lounge. The lush walnut woodwork, the upscale tableware, the smell, the whiskies, the bison rib-eye steak. Amazing place. He was wrong on that one, unfortunately.
RIP
https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2026/05/06/ted-turner-dead-cnn/
Bison is good and leaner than beef. I’ve only had it once or twice but would get it more often if I could. How was the food at the restaurant?
The food was great, especially the bison steak. I agree with you re: bison. I think the restaurant had just opened; it was almost deserted late on a Saturday night.
But I remember it was snowing as I pulled up, the lighting was dark but bright enough, the woodwork was satin walnut, and the white tablecloth must have been a quarter inch thick. There was crystal, heavy silver, good bread, and the room smelled of fresh milk. I would definitely go back.
“If only I had a little humility I’d be perfect.”
-Turner
“Ted is a complicated guy, but he is part genius. Ted doesn’t mean the harm he causes; he just cannot shut up.”
-Fay Vincent
Ted Turner was a (only slightly) less narcissistic version of Donald Trump. Similar appetite for risk, similarly brash, equal in media savvy. And yet, like Trump, still managed to be one of a kind.