Guest Post: Chicken Fat and Me!

So my Buddhist monk friend ChiSing, who died in 2018, gave a sermon once (we call them "dharma talks," but they're sermons, so let's just call a spade a shovel) where he had this big bowl. He said something like, "Imagine this bowl is full of all the suffering in the world. You see this bowl and say, 'Wow, that's a lot of suffering.' And you want to help, and you should help, of course, when you can. But a lot of people are doing this." (Picks up the bowl and puts it completely over his face) "And you're saying, 'Oh, the whole world is suffering!' When that's not true at all."

(Puts down the bowl.) "Friends, put down the bowl. Yes, there is suffering, but there are also good things in the world. People love you every day. There is laughter and song every day. The sun rises every day, and every night there are stars, even behind the clouds. Help where you can and when you can, and do what you can to make life easier for other beings. But put down the bowl, friends. Put. Down. The. Bowl."

Which brings me to the election. (!) If you were to watch the news or browse stories on CNN or Yahoo News or any one of a dozen other sites, you might be forgiven for thinking that the 2024 U.S. national presidential election this coming November was the only thing going on in the whole world. And you might think the Orange Shitgibbon was a shoo-in to win this thing, and that the U.S. is going to rocket straight into fascism. I don't think any of that's going to happen. First of all, His Orangeness is showing some very obvious signs of being sick in a way that would negate the possibility of his being President. Second, we're not that fucking stupid.

Yes, there's a mighty cult of orange; of course there is. Cult members generally don't leave cults, which is how you end up with 900 people dead in Guyana. They don't leave because literally everything is there. Their family members. Their friends. Their homes. Often also their livelihoods. To say nothing of eternal salvation. And the sunk cost fallacy. If they leave, what's left? Plus, they'd then have to admit that they've been played, which most people are loath to admit. And all their friends are still voting for His Orangeness.

Maybe they'll lie and secretly vote like a sane person. Maybe they just won't vote. I don't know. But I do know that nothing His Orangeness has done or said in the last six months has won him any new fans. All it's done is continued to justify to his current fans why they should keep hanging in there.

Also, that stuff he's saying on social media? That's not him. As I said, he's not well. The rambling, slightly incoherent stuff he's saying on a regular basis? That's him. That's where he's really at mentally. Stuck in about 2007 and not really sure which way is up. I don't know who's tweeting for him. Probably not one of his kids, as they seem to have fled the scene. Not his wife, either, who might have actually left him. Maybe Steve Bannon. I don't know.

But here's what I think is going to happen; this whole facade is going to build to a crisis point, and probably in the next few months, where it becomes obvious, even to the cultists, that he can't be President. He will have to withdraw from the race. And the Republican Party will be thrown into a state of panic unlike anything seen since the passing of Obamacare. Biden will win the election. The problems and issues we have that got us into this mess will still be there, of course. But we'll have four more years to try to solve some of them. And without His Orangeness, the cult members might be able to start walking away.

I mean, I could be wrong. I have been wrong before. If I'm wrong, you can, I dunno, throw Tarot cards at me. But I don't think I'm wrong. By the way, did you guys see the State of the Union Address? I didn't, but I heard it was a barn-burner. Put down the bowl, friends. Put down the bowl.

Speaking of Tarot cards and crystal balls (bowls)? we have a guest post for today from my wife.  It's all about chicken fat. I'll let her continue from here.

"Chicken Fat" and Me, by J.C.

I have a love-hate relationship with the "Chicken Fat" song. If you're of a certain age, you at least know the chorus "Go, you chicken fat, go away! Go, you chicken fat, go!" Yeah. That one. (And if you don't know it, click here.  Warning, it is loud. )

It played very often in my 1st? 3rd? grade classroom. And on the playground, all the mean kids would start singing that chorus when they saw me. Fun times. At least it was a musical interlude amongst the general fat-bullying. So, yeah. I hated it. Except that I love the song and still do.

There are a plethora of reasons why I love "Chicken Fat."

I love musicals. I blame "The Music Man". When I was 6 or 7, I went to a high school production of it. My first live theater experience of any kind. I was completely captivated. And when Mayor Shinn was berating the River City-izens for falling for Harold Hill's chicanery, and bellows "He promised us a band. Where's the band? WHERE'S THE BAND??!?!!???", the high school's marching band came down the aisles playing "76 Trombones" full blast.

Mind. Blown.

(Hang on, I will get to "Chicken Fat.")

I imprinted on "The Music Man" like a baby duck on its mama. I have seen the movie so many times I can do the dialogue as well as sing all the songs - and both parts of the ones in counterpoint. Robert Preston's voice will grab my attention like a tornado siren. (Loved him in "Victor, Victoria' as well - his drag version of "The Shady Dame From Seville" is pure gold.) So here we get the first connection to "Chicken Fat": Robert Preston. How can I not love a Robert Preston song?

Not only that, guess who wrote "Chicken Fat?" If you clicked on the YouTube link to it, you know the answer: Meredith Willson. And who wrote "The Music Man?" Yup. Same guy. Composer, flutist, radio & television musical director, etc. etc. etc. Very talented man. Very fond of counterpoint. The Christmas song "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas/Pine Cones and Holly Berries" ought to ring a bell. That's him, too.

On top of being a HUGE fan of Meredith Willson, I've got a 5th-degree connection to him. My grandfather--his father--Arthur Pryor--John Philip Sousa--Meredith Willson. (And then on to Arturo Toscanini, according to Willson's Wikipedia bio.) A pilgrimage to Mason City, Iowa and the Meredith Willson Museum is on my bucket list.

Finally, to put a big ol' bow on it:  Willson and Preston recorded "Chicken Fat" while making the movie version of "The Music Man" which is why it sounds like it's being sung by Harold Hill.

I can't not love this song.

But I hate this song because it was used by bullies as a weapon against me.

Conflicted, me.

dis-MISSED!!