I've had nights like this...

Todays AT40

Is January 14, 1984

Last Week's top 3 were...

• Union of the Snake
• Say it isn't So
• Say Say Say (which as we know from last week it was the #1 song of the year, not saying much for the year to come)

So this was my 8th grade year, in the deep of a north florida winter.  Not too many memories of this other than digging the music.  I remember more about the spring, once biking around became a little less painful.  One particularly annoying day around this time was that my dog followed me to school and I had to wait it out (outside in the cold) while the office called my mom to give me permission to walk her back.

The PE class would actually still have outdoor games even if it was near freezing (that school has a gym building now, but they didn't back then).  I remember a particularly frozen soccer game with us all yell-singing "we're having a heat wave!".  didn't work too well.

And the countdown is off on a good start with...

40: Send me an Angel from Real Life

( 39-21... )

And into the top 10 we go with

10: Richie continues (this one on its way up), Running with the Night
9: Culture Club's Karma Chameleon
8: Elton John guesses Why They Call It The Blues
7: Break My Stride, from Matthew Wilder.  faireraven loves this but I was 'meh then and 'meh now.
6: The Romantics hear you Talking In Your Sleep.  Liked it, but since I started my 80s revival, it's come up a little too much on XM Radio's playlists.
5: ONJ's Twist of Fate, which really grew on me recently in my fitness craze given the tempo.  Probably was a big aerobics song (after Physical, which started the craze).  Written by the same guy who wrote Physical and much of the non-ELO tracks from Xanadu.  This would be the last hit he'd write.
4: Duran Duran's Union of the Snake dropped out of the top 3.
3: Say It Isn't So helps Hall & Oats surpass The Everly Brothers as top duo of all time
2: Yes's Owner of a Lonely Heart from 90125 hits #2 (on its way to #1, Yes's biggest anything ever).  Most probably know this (not sure if Casey ever did), but Trevor Rabin had this sketched and demoed before he met Squire and White (nevermind Jon, who joined late in the process), and had gotten the idea for the original riff while sitting on the toilet.  Some classic Yes fans consider that prophetic of the Rabin years, but I didn't care.

Oddly, Michael Jackson's Thriller is still the #1 album, even though he's not in the countdown with anything from it, as his single is #1 without being actually from that album:

1: Say Say Say

And with that, I'm eating lunch and cleaning the kitchen.

(technical issues, the "now playing" is off - it hasn't shown the right song yet, and actually isn't even close (like it's calling The Fixx's Sign of Fire as Chicago's Stay the Night!)...but I'm not complaining)

eating healthy and avoiding snacks for the wrong (right) reason...

I got a snack craving (it's a diet, duh), and am staring very very intently at the Nature Valley Sweet & Salty Bar that I, of course, can't eat because I'm awaiting to see if it is or isn't on the (still incomplete) recall list.

grumble...ok, gave up and just had regular peanuts...

providing a translation for you all...

when a press report says "some sources suggest it may cost...", followed by a dollar amount, the actual meaning is "I pulled out of my ass a total guess that it might cost...".

I'm not saying this won't be expensive, though $150million still qualifies for "petty cash" in the federal budget.

I'm just saying that the current AP report that's throwing this dollar tag around is absolute soft-market fluff meant to create controversy by presenting he-said-she-said commentary on a made up dollar figure, and does nothing to justify or investigate where that dollar figure comes from or how these "sources" estimated it.  It may include events that actually aren't official parts of the inauguration but some bureaucrat somewhere included them in order to pad the figure for his/her own reasons.

Keep in mind there are a LOT of balls, not all of them official and not all of them the President may attend.  It's akin to the 7 or 8 post-Oscar parties out there.

But this AP report going around with its $150 has absolutely no justification for it, and makes the article about people's opinions of it rather than the FACTS about what may (or may not) be costing so much and how much of it is really taxpayer paid for.

Recession or not, Obama's people claim they raised $40 mil so far - that is NOT taxpayer money, that is freely donated through free speech first amendment expression (within the $30k limits for individuals to avoid the impression of impropriety).

Now, is the other $110 (if that's an accurate figure at all) taxpayers or admission ticket paid for?  Who knows? What specifically does that $40 mil go to? Who knows? Are there any other income sources (like Ball admission prices) that can help pay for this $150 million? Who knows?

And THAT is the problem with this AP release. It tells us what people think ABOUT some claim without actually justifying if that claim is even accurate.

The "liberal" media today apparently just means the media is "free" to just make shit up now, and then justify its own existence by getting opinions on the shit it made up rather than the facts it is supposed to be researching.  Rather than really informing us of what is really going on, it is asking our opinions first and using them to make up the most attractive piece. E.g., people freshly laid off don't want to see the government wasting dollars, so they'll throw out some huge dollar amount to make it look like the government is wasting (your) dollars and then ask your opinion on it to justify our "research".

I don't want to know what people THINK about what is going on (especially as I know people DON'T FUCKING THINK - they act totally on emotion and gut instinct).  I want to know what is really going on so I can make my own INFORMED opinion.

Right now, my INFORMED opinion is that the AP is utterly unable to INFORM anybody of anything beyond its, and therefore their own, ignorance.