Month: May 2020

Culinary no-no #654

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THERE ARE THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF FOOD BLOGS, BUT ONLY ONE CULINARY NO-NO!

In today’s print edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Milwaukee might close some streets to provide more outdoor dining as restaurants reopen amid the pandemic

“In order to create enough seating with proper social distancing restaurants are going to need a heck of a lot of outdoor dining space,” said Bob Monnat, chief operating officer at development firm Mandel Group Inc.

Mandel Group is working on additional covered dining space for both of its restaurant tenants: Cavas, 401 E. Erie St., and Birch + Butcher, 459 E. Pleasant St.

“I think patio dining is going to explode this summer,” Monnat said. “No one’s going to eat inside unless it’s raining.”

Good idea?

This past week here on This Just In…these articles:

Restaurants take to the streets to create socially distanced dining rooms as nation reopens

But can sidewalk tables and parking-lot patios provide enough revenue?

CULINARY NO-NO BONUSES

Reopened restaurants find there’s no one-size-fits-all way to bring back employees

As Starbucks locations reopen nationwide, workers question why they should risk their life ‘for a frappuccino’

Photos of the Week (05/31/20)

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A pictorial week-in-review posted every Sunday. More than 40 this week.

1) NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (right) and Doug Hurley leave the Operations and Checkout Building on their way to the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft on launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on May 27, 2020, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch was postponed because of weather. NASA was scheduled to try again on Saturday for the inaugural flight that will be the first manned mission since the end of the space-shuttle program in 2011 to be launched into space from the United States.  Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty

2) SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.  Space X lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida Saturday afternoon carrying a Crew Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronauts Bob Behmken and Doug Hurley on board. By successfully launching its new Crew Dragon spacecraft with astronauts on board for the first time, Space X became the first private company to launch astronauts for NASA. Behnken and Douglas Hurley are currently embarking on a 19-hour pursuit of the International Space Station. Photos: NASA

3) Milk is poured over the face of a woman who has been exposed to percussion grenades and teargas fired by police during a protest in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd in police custody. Photograph: Carlos Gonzalez/AP

4) Protesters gathered outside the home of the white former police officer who was filmed pinning a black man to the ground by his neck before dying moments later in police custody.  Derek Chauvin, 44, knelt on George Floyd’s neck for eight minutes during his arrest on Monday, despite the man begging him to stop and bystanders warning him he was ‘killing’ him. People descended on his Oakdale, Minnesota home Wednesday and scrawled the word ‘Murderer’ on his driveway.  Another look. Photos:  The Daily Mail

5) In Minneapolis, protesters and police face each other. A video of  George Floyd’s arrest has sparked a fresh furor in the US over police treatment of African Americans.  Photograph: Richard Tsong-Taatarii/AP

6) Looters used children to help pull money from an overturned US Bank ATM near the intersection of East Lake Street and 10th Avenue South. Photo: Anthony Souffle – Star Tribune

7) A protester vandalizes an O’Reilly’s near the Minneapolis Police third precinct, where demonstrators gathered after a white police officer was caught on a bystander’s video pressing his knee into the neck of African-American man George Floyd, who later died at a hospital, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 28. Photo: REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi

8) Protesters gather near the Minneapolis Police third precinct to watch a construction site burn in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 28. Photo: REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi

9) Protesters are seen in front of a vandalized US Bank near the Minneapolis Police third precinct, May 27. Photo: REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi

10) A group of protesters surrounded several National Guard vehicles that were driving on Lake Street towards the blockade under the Hiawatha Light Rail station in Minneapolis. Photo: Renee Jones Schneider – Star Tribune

11) Agitators set the Wells Fargo on fire near the 5th Precinct in Minneapolis. Photo: Richard Tsong-Taatarii – Minneapolis Star Tribune

12) Smoke billowed from a fire at the Wells Fargo near the Fifth Precinct in Minneapolis, Minn Friday night. Photo: Renee Jones Schneider – Star Tribune

13) Demonstrators hold a protest outside the Freedman’s Bank Building on Friday in Washington DC. Photograph: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

14) A man conveys his message to police in Oakland, California, on Friday. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

15) Demonstrators smash a police vehicle in the Fairfax District, in Los Angeles, California. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

16) People surveyed the damage along Lake St. near S. 27th Ave. in Minneapolis on Saturday morning. Photo: David Joles – Star Tribune

17) Volunteers cleaned up charred debris in the alleyway behind Sports Dome on University Avenue in St. Paul on Friday. Photo: Shari L. Gross – Star Tribune

18) Protestors drive on North Humboldt Avenue in Milwaukee  at 10 p.m. on Friday, May 29, 2020. A crowd marched through Milwaukee to protest police brutality on a local and national level. Photo: Zhihan Huang / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

19) The crowd of protesters reaches Milwaukee City Hall on Water Street. Photo: Bill Glauber/ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

20) Protestors were stopped by police at the intersection of Miller Park Way and National Avenue on Friday, May 29, 2020 after walking from S. 45th St and W. Cleveland Ave at an earlier rally. A crowd marched through Milwaukee to protest police brutality on a local and national level. Photo:  Zhihan Huang / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

21) Lionel Clay, 20, chants with a crowd “I can’t breathe” while protesting outside the Milwaukee County Courthouse on Friday, May 29, 2020. He, along with a crowd of about 300, marched from an earlier rally at 26th and Center streets to downtown Milwaukee where they continued to let their voices be heard about recent incidents involving blacks who have been killed by police. Photo: Angela Peterson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

22) Frank Nitty, left, appeals to a sheriff’s department officer to allow some of the protesters who had entered the Milwaukee County Courthouse to be released peacefully on Friday, May 29, 2020. The protesters were released without any incident. Nitty and a group of about 300 walked from 26th and Center streets to downtown Milwaukee to protest police brutality both locally and nationally. Photo: Angela Peterson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

23) A Milwaukee police officer stands outside a looted Walgreens on North King Drive just south of West Locust Street in Milwaukee on Saturday, May 30, 2020. Photo: MIKE DE SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

24) Items thrown about are seen inside a looted Walgreens on North King Drive just south of West Locust Street in Milwaukee on Saturday, May 30, 2020.  Photo: MIKE DE SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

25) “All my hard work destroyed for no reason,” Walgreens store manager Courtney Edwards said after surveying the damage at the store on North King Drive just south of West Locust Street.  Photo: MIKE DE SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

26) Milwaukee police officers in riot gear stand guard outside the Milwaukee Police District 5 station on West Locust Street near North King Drive in Milwaukee on Saturday. Photo: MIKE DE SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

27) Milwaukee police in riot gear stand guard on the roof of the Milwaukee Police District 5 police station on West Locust Street near N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Milwaukee on Saturday. Photo: MIKE DE SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

28) Milwaukee police in riot gear stand guard outside the Milwaukee Police District 5 police station on West Locust Street near N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Milwaukee on Saturday. Photo: MIKE DE SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

29) Times Square billboards go dark for one minute as part of the #DontGoDark campaign staged by a group of companies comprised of chefs, restaurateurs, and other small business owners to communicate a message that the most vulnerable businesses need more support to survive, in Manhattan. Photo: REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs

30) First lady Melania Trump wears a face mask as she sits aboard Marine One with President Donald Trump before they depart from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Photo: AP

31) Visitors sit after sunrise on Memorial Day along the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, which has partially reopened on weekends amid the coronavirus pandemic, on May 25, 2020, in Arizona.  Photo: Mario Tama / Getty

32) A restorer cleans Michelangelo’s David statue while preparing for the reopening of the Galleria dell’Accademia, which was closed for almost three months because of the coronavirus, in Florence, Italy, on May 27, 2020.  Photo: Laura Lezza / Getty

33) People gather on a terrace in a beach where access is not allowed in that time slot, in Barcelona, Spain. Photo: AP

34) A man and a woman demonstrate dining under a plastic shield in a restaurant of Paris. As restaurants in food-loving France prepare to reopen, some are investing in lampshade-like plastic shields to protect diners from the coronavirus. Photo: AP

35) In Madrid, Spain, cinema-goers in cars attend a drive-in screening of the musical Grease. Photograph: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images

36) A U.S. Army soldier stands guard in front of rows of graves as President Donald Trump participates in wreath laying ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in commemoration of the Memorial Day holiday at Arlington National Cemetery outside of Washington in Arlington, Virginia, May 25, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Erin Scott

37) First lady Melania Trump watches as President Donald Trump salutes while participating in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington in commemoration of the Memorial Day holiday in Arlington, Virginia, May 25, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Erin Scott

38) Veteran Tom Sitter, 96, of Madison visits the grave of his friend Edward Toporsh on Monday at Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Union Grove. They served together in the Army during World War II. Photo: MIKE DE SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

39) Katherine Corcoran, left, of Muskego comforts John Dutze of Anna, Texas, who was visiting the grave of his father, Harold Dutze, who served in the Navy, on Memorial Day at Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Union Grove. Photo: MIKE DE SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

40) Stefanie Powell of Milwaukee pauses at the grave of her grandfather, Frederick Powell, a U.S. Marine during World War II and the Korean War, on Memorial Day at Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Union Grove. Photo: MIKE DE SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

41) Maria Velez of Orlando, Florida, hugs the tombstone of her son Stephen at the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery on Memorial Day in Seville, Ohio. Photo: Reuters

42) In Carmel, NY, a girl stands on top of a jeep before the start of a car parade for Memorial Day. Participants planned to honor those who died while serving in the military, and show support for the reopening of Putnam county during the Covid-19 pandemic. Photograph: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

43) In Staten Island, two masked women wait for the annual Memorial Day parade to roll by. Photograph: Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

44) A woman wears a mask reading ‘Fascist Muzzle’ at a protest near Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s house in Swampscott. Photo: Reuters

45) In Chicago, artist Jim Bachor has created four pandemic-themed pothole mosaics on the city’s North Side. Here’s one of them. Photograph: Brendan O’Brien/Reuters

46) Tracy Sandridge and Julie Brown of Baltimore pose with inner tubes on wheels dubbed “bumper tables” designed to ensure social distancing when Fish Tales Bar & Grill eventually reopens in Ocean City, Maryland, May 23, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Week-ends (05/30/20)

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A look back at the people and events that made news the past week. Week-ends is a regular weekly feature of  This Just In…

HEROES OF THE WEEK

Retirees at pirate radio station

Texas principal

Curtis Rogers

Jyoti Kumari

VILLAINS OF THE WEEK

Minneapolis police officers

Minnesota State Patrol

Looters, vandals

The media: A Tale of Two Protests: Minnesota Rioters Vs. Anti-Lockdown Protesters

Madison

WI State Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Dallet

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham 

The governor of Michigan’s husband

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

“Please, please, please, I can’t breathe.”
George Floyd

“People are torn and hurt because they’re tired of seeing black men die constantly, over and over again. They took my brother’s life. He will never get that back. I will never see him again. My family will never see him again. These officers, they need to be arrested right now. They need to be arrested and held accountable about everything, because these people want justice right now. Justice is these guys need to be arrested, convicted of murder, and given the death penalty. They took my brother’s life. He will never get that back. I will never see him again. My family will never see him again. His kids will never see him again.”
Philonise Floyd, George Floyd’s brother. George Floyd died in the custody of Minneapolis police. Video shows the arresting officer appearing to shove Floyd’s face into the pavement with his knee for at least seven minutes, His cries for help were ignored.

“While we generally avoid drawing conclusions on the videos of police encounters, this incident offers compelling evidence of what occurred… The actions of the Minneapolis officers were outrageous, deplorable, and revolting, and would not satisfy the use of force standards and best practices employed by law enforcement in Wisconsin. The outright abuse inflicted upon George Floyd not only failed to meet the legal and professional standards that require officers to exercise force reasonably, it desecrated the most basic notions of human decency.We seen no justification for the officers’ actions in this case, and they represent an affront to the core values and principles upon which the law enforcement profession is founded. This incident not only makes the job of every law enforcement officer more difficult, it makes that job more dangerous as well. It undoes the good work that officers do and the strides that law enforcement has made to strengthen its relationships with the public it serves.”
The executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association (WPPA), Jim Palmer

“The horrific murder of George Floyd that America has witnessed is shocking, undefendable and unjustifiable. America witnessed a murder.”
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett

“It is evident that if a member of law enforcement violates public trust anywhere in our nation, their actions impact law enforcement members everywhere.”
Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales called Floyd’s death “tragic” and “serious”

“It’s inconvenient from a societal standpoint, from an economic standpoint to go through this,” (Dr. Anthony) Fauci stated at the end of March. How come he is so understated when it comes to compassion for the people whose lives have been wrecked by his policies but so demonstrative when trying to scare the American people?
From Dr. Rand Paul, a physician, a Republican who represents Kentucky in the U.S. Senate, and Rep. Andy Biggs, a Republican, who represents Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives

“I am not an anti-vaxxer. To get a COVID-19 vaccine within a year or two … causes me to fear that it won’t be widely tested as to side effects.”
Melanie Dries, 56, of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Only about half of Americans say they would get a COVID-19 vaccine if the scientists working furiously to create one succeed, according to a new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

“I would not want people to think that we’re cutting corners because that would be a big mistake. I think this is an effort to try to achieve efficiencies, but not to sacrifice rigor. Definitely the worst thing that could happen is if we rush through a vaccine that turns out to have significant side effects.”
Dr. Francis Collins, who directs the National Institutes of Health, insists safety is the top priority. The NIH is creating a master plan for testing the leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates in tens of thousands of people, to prove if they really work and also if they’re safe.

“I’m definitely going to get it. As a father who takes care of his family, I think … it’s important for me to get vaccinated as soon as it’s available to better protect my family.”
Brandon Grimes, 35, of Austin, Texas

“What I was saying was, I was asked 11 questions as to why churches would be allowed to reopen. It was a bit peculiar to be asked these 11 questions in a row. And for the onus and the focus solely to be on why churches are essential, I’ve never been asked why liquor stores was essential. So I was merely pointing that out. And to the point about questioning the journalists and asking why they’re asking certain questions, I field hundreds of questions a day. Journalists are not above being questioned themselves. Journalism is a great and noble profession, but there’s been a dearth of journalists asking the real questions for President Obama, the criminal leak of Michael Flynn’s identity, who leaked that identity, the dossier which was used to launch a three-year investigation into this president and spy on his campaign. Why aren’t those questions being asked? It’s journalistic malpractice not to ask those questions.”
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany pushed back on criticism after she took issue with the number of questions she received at a press briefing about churches being considered essential

“Although the sense of the importance of religion is still quite strong in America, it has weakened. With that weakening, we’re seeing a weakening of behaviors that keep a nation strong: record lows in the rate of marriage and the number of children born.

“Also, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 45% say that the coronavirus crisis has had a negative impact on their mental health. This could be tied to a weakening of faith.

“Leadership is about staking out principles and standing by them. President Trump ran for president to ‘Make America Great Again.’ He is exercising leadership by declaring religion and church attendance essential to American greatness.

“The president is right to defend the constitutional protection of religious practice and to identify the freedom to worship as essential.”
Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and author of the new book “Necessary Noise: How Donald Trump Inflames the Culture War and Why This is Good News for America”

“Barely five months before the most important presidential election of our lifetime, with the Supreme Court on the line, is no time to convert the election machinery of more than 100,000 election precincts to an unprecedented, untested system of any kind (mail-in ballots). Yet Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer seeks to send absentee ballot applications to 7.7 million people on an error-ridden list of potential voters.

“States can more easily manage the integrity of a small number of mail-in ballots compared with being overwhelmed by everyone, even illegal aliens, voting by mail.

“The costs are staggering, and states ask Congress to force taxpayers to foot the bill for this folly.

“Democrats even want unions to be allowed to collect ballots, but that would add unwanted intimidation of voters to the process. Unionized workers should be free from union coercion when they mark their ballots.

“Allowing votes to be mailed until Election Day means that counting ballots and declaring a winner may not occur until weeks later. The post office can take up to ten days to deliver a letter, particularly amid high volume, and in a close election the outcome could change when ballots are lost in the mail.”
John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work

“Just imagine the apocalyptic response if Donald Trump stated that ‘if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Biden, then you ain’t white.'”
Ian G. Haworth is a political commentator and writer and the host of a daily podcast

“I’d sit for 15 minutes and cry because I missed my grandson, and I was convinced I was never going to see him again. And then I’d move on.”
Ema Martinez of Lubbock, Texas maintained a routine during her quarantine. For 15 minutes each day, she would throw herself a “pity party” and weep. At her home  Martinez used to watch her 3-year-old grandson, Hendrix, so often that he has his own bedroom for overnight visits. But after Martinez, who suffers from chronic leukemia, decided she had to quarantine alone to protect herself, the room sat empty and silent.

“Some players like Steve Nash used to lick his hands. Some people still have that in their routine. Some people wipe the sweat off their face and put it on the ball. It’s going to be weird how they try to control it, because we have to touch each other. And then you have to worry about the family members that we may be touching.”
Bam Adebayo, NBA All-Star with the Miami Heat

“When that thing happened with (Rudy) Gobert and the (NBA’s Utah) Jazz, the whole sports world — maybe even the whole world — was like, ‘I got to take this serious.’ So we’re test-tube babies. That’s why it’s even that much more important that we take every precaution before we even think about coming back.”
Marcedes Lewis, Green Bay Packers tight end entering his 15th NFL season

“There have been many cycles, but this is the third wave, and this current wave, I have to tell you, is kicking my ass. For the last seven days, I have been virtually worthless, virtually useless. I haven’t left the house. I haven’t done much of anything except just try to rest and relax. Every day, I wake up and the first thing I do is thank God that I did. Just waking up is a blessing.”
69-year old radio host Rush Limbaugh, who is battling advanced lung cancer

“It’s an agonizing, terrible decision, but one that we felt was the right decision…what we struggled with here at the Wisconsin State Fair is how to put together a safe venue that everybody would feel secure, that we would know that we did everything right and doing everything right meant unfortunately we had to cancel.”
WI State Fair Park Board Chairman John Yingling on his decision to cancel the fair this year

OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK

Death of George Floyd in Minnesota

This is what the mask has turned into in America

MOST UNDER-REPORTED STORY OF THE WEEK

Biden losing economic argument to Trump as U.S. begins to re-open

MOST OVER-HYPED STORY OF THE WEEK

Cops do this all the time.

MOST UNUSUAL STORY OF THE WEEK

Worry, haste, retail therapy: What have we bought and why?

The media loves bad virus news; MLB star wants safety;church burned down; we’re not in this together

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Here are this week’s highly interesting reads:

Today’s highly interesting read (05/29/20): WHY WE’RE ‘NOT ALL IN THIS TOGETHER’

Today’s highly interesting read (05/28/20): Assure me we’ll be safe

Today’s highly interesting read (05/27/20): My church was burned down because we want to worship in person

Today’s highly interesting read (05/26/20): Why the media is so desperate to turn good COVID-19 news into bad

The Barking Lot – America’s Finest Dog Blog (05/30/20)

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The Barking Lot is a regular weekly feature of This Just In…Written by my lovely wife, Jennifer and me.  It opens with the weekend dog walking forecast followed by the main blog from dog lover, Jennifer. Then it’s DOGS IN THE NEWS and our close. Enjoy!

THE WEEKEND DOG-WALKING FORECAST: We grade the weather outlook for taking your pet outdoors.

TODAY:   Partly cloudy. High of  66.  “B”

SUNDAY:  Sunny. High of 68.  “B”

Now, here’s my lovely wife, Jennifer, with this week’s main blog.

If you were in trouble, would your dog take action to help?

Well sure. That was Disney drama working its magic. But seriously. What about your non-Hollywood superhero pet?

Joshua Van Bourg, a graduate student in Arizona State University’s Department of Psychology, Jordan Elizabeth Patterson of the same department, and Clive Wynne, an ASU professor of psychology and director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at ASU wanted to find out. Is your dog strong and bold and brave? Or when the chips are down, is it more like a dark night and the fireworks just went off?

In their recently released study the researchers wrote “For thousands of years, dogs have been trained to assist humans with tasks such as herding and guarding livestock, yet the extent to which dogs understand the consequences of these helpful behaviors, as well as their underlying motivations for performing these actions, remain unclear.

So they experimented. A total of 60 dogs were used, all over 9 months of age. There were three tests in the study. In the main test, each owner was confined to a large box that had a light-weight door which the dog could move aside. The owners faked distress by calling out “help,” or “help me.”  This was the distress test. The idea was to see if dogs would open the door to the box.

To be clear before any testing took place the researchers coached the owners so their cries for help sounded real. Owners could not call the dogs by name which might have resulted in the pets acting out of obedience instead of actual concern.

Then came a reading test where the owner sat in the box and read aloud from a magazine while conveying a calm and relaxed state. The owner was told to match the volume and pace of his narration in the first distress test.

Finally, the food test. Food was placed inside the box for the third task. The owner did not participate in the food test but remained in the testing room, sitting in a chair facing the wall while ignoring the dog. An experimenter dropped a food reward inside the box, released the dog, and exited into a hallway. The dog was then given two minutes to open the box. If the dog successfully opened the box and retrieved the treats, the dog was permitted an additional 30 seconds for exploratory behaviors. The test was then ended.

OK. Let’s run through that again with the help of video.

So, what happened and what does it mean?

Of the 60 dogs tested, 20 rescued the owner in the primary distress test, 19 successfully retrieved treats from the apparatus in the food control task (meaning more dogs rescued their owners than retrieved food), and 16 released the owner from the apparatus in the reading test.

“During the distress test, the dogs were much more stressed,” Van Bourg said. “When their owner was distressed, they barked more, and they whined more.”

As for the food test, “The fact that two-thirds of the dogs didn’t even open the box for food is a pretty strong indication that rescuing requires more than just motivation, there’s something else involved, and that’s the ability component,” Van Bourg said. “If you look at only those 19 dogs that showed us they were able to open the door in the food test, 84% of them rescued their owners. So, most dogs want to rescue you, but they need to know how.”

In the reading test,  four fewer dogs, 16 out of 60, opened the box than in the distress test.  Van Bourg’s explanation: “But that doesn’t take anything away from how special dogs really are. Most dogs would run into a burning building just because they can’t stand to be apart from their owners. How sweet is that?”

Wynne added, “What’s fascinating about this study is that it shows that dogs really care about their people. Even without training, many dogs will try and rescue people who appear to be in distress — and when they fail, we can still see how upset they are. The results from the control tests indicate that dogs who fail to rescue their people are unable to understand what to do — it’s not that they don’t care about their people.

But like just about every other study ever done the researchers also concluded that more study is necessary.

“Next, we want to explore whether the dogs that rescue do so to get close to their people, or whether they would still open the box even if that did not give them the opportunity to come together with their humans,” Wynne said.

To make a long research project short: Your dog really does want to rescue you.
—-Jennifer Fischer

Thanks Jennifer!

Time now for DOGS IN THE NEWS, canines that made headlines the past week.

There’s a National ‘Dog Shortage,’ But Is That the Case for Milwaukee?

How do you ease your dog out of lockdown?

Picking up poo among ‘doodies’ of dog ownership on or off base.

Wounded military working dog the most accomplished in Marine Corps history.

Why the sudden interest in the Alaskan Klee Kai?

Jason Hoke judges dog shows around the world while remaining a top-notch chef.

COLUMN: The solace of walking the dog.

THAT’S IT FOR DOGS IN THE NEWS.

HERE’S OUR DOG PHOTO(s) OF THE WEEK.

Finley, a 6-year-old golden retriever, holds five tennis balls in his mouth at his family’s home in Canandaigua, Ontario County, on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2020. His family first noticed his ability to hold four tennis balls a few years ago, and he’s learned to use his paws to wedge up to six balls into his mouth on his own. Finley has finally as a Guinness World Record holder for his adorable, preternatural talent of holding six tennis balls in his mouth at once.  Photo: Georgie Silvarole/USA TODAY Network New York

We close as we always do with our closing video, or two, or three.

First, an innocent dog  was part of one of the biggest news stories of the week.

The racial aspects of the story got the most attention. But what about how she’s handling that dog? Inappropriate?  Cruel?

Next: Pets of the Pandemic: Wisconsin shelters seeing historic adoption rates. CBS 58 in Milwaukee reports.

AND: The Sky Dog of Kamloops: Meet Aeris, the paragliding pup. The video is in this article.

That’s it for this week.

Thanks for stopping by.

We kindly ask that you please share with other dog lovers you know.

See ya, BARK, next Saturday morning!

 

Image may contain: outdoorAlaskan Klee Kai Association of America

Goodnight everyone, and have a B3 weekend!

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Every Friday night we smooth our way into the weekend with music, the universal language. These selections demonstrate that despite what is being passed off as art today, there is plenty of really good music available. Come along and enjoy.

Classified as both cool and cheesy, the Hammond organ has made a mark in just about every musical genre. The creation of inventor Laurens Hammond was unveiled in 1934. Hammond had set out to somehow replicate the harmonic sound of a church pipe organ. Technically, Hammond allocated nine mechanical wheels to each key. Then he put in “drawbar” controllers that could fade in or out any of the frequencies from the various tonewheels in the organ. Thus countless combinations were possible.

The new organ found its way into churches and ice rinks. But when the B3 model emerged in 1954, the Hammond organ was about to flourish. Pop and rock stars found that the organ’s motor added versatility and soul.

Production of the B3 stopped in the 70’s but a new version came out in 2002. Whether the sound is wobbly or like a revving engine, the organ can be distinctive, standing out to make a piece even more noticeable and inviting.

Tonight, the famous B3.  We open with the house band for the Stax/Volt labels. They appeared on more than 600 Stax/Volt recordings, but also were a successful recording group in their own right, cutting 10 albums and 14 instrumental hits.

The MG stood for Memphis Group.

In 2019 Booker T. Jones released his memoir, “Time is Tight: My Life, Note by Note.”

He’s had plenty to write about. During more than 60 years as professional musician, Jones has  backed up famed gospel singer Mahalia Jackson during an afternoon tea when he was 12 years old to playing with the Drive-By Truckers, contemporary Southern rockers, in 2019.

Now we’re talking baseball. Yes, baseball.

Pitcher Denny McLain compiled a 31-6 record in 1968 and led the Detroit Tigers to the World Series. McLain became the first pitcher in 34 years to win 30 games in a season. He won the Cy Young Award that season and shared the pitching honor in 1969 when he had a 24-9 record.

During his rise to the top, McLain showcased another talent: playing the organ. We’re talking major league ballpark organ playing quality. Immediately following the ’68 Series, McLain took a job playing the organ at a Las Vegas hotel. McLain was so good, he released two albums on Capitol Records, a major record label (Can you say, Beatles?).

You won’t be able to find those McLain albums, but some of his material is available on the Ultra-Lounge compilation series.

That was McClain performing on the Ed Sullivan Show on October 13, 1968.  The Tigers had defeated the St. Louis Cardinals for the World Series championship just three days earlier.

About 16 months after that Ed Sullivan TV show life fell apart for McLain. In February of 1970, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspended McLain until July 1 for bookmaking activities, one of three suspensions he was hit with that year. The suspension came after Sports Illustrated reported on McLain’s role in a bookmaking operation in Michigan during the 1967 season. McLain was never the same.

Convicted in the mid-eighties of federal racketeering charges involving gambling and cocaine, McLain spent 27 months in prison. Then in the 90’s, he returned to prison, this time for looting a company’s pension fund.

He retired from baseball in 1972 at the age of 28, leaving with a 131-91 career record in 10 major league seasons.

One of the top recording singles for Henry Mancini was the theme for the TV series, “Mr. Lucky” that had a dominant organ theme. The organist who played a smooth stylized Hammond B3 organ solo phrase on the popular theme recording was Buddy Cole, an organist based in Los Angeles.

Mancini would produce a Latin-themed response to Mr. Lucky. Reports are Buddy Cole was feelings hurt when Mancini did not use him on the sequel LP “Mr. Lucky Goes Latin.” So he thereafter accused Mancini of “stealing his sound.”

Mancini’s response was that he used other organists on other albums. When Cole refused to play organ on the Latin version of Mr. Lucky, Mancini went with Bobby Hammack.

From the original liner notes from the RCA Victor album “Mr. Lucky Goes Latin”:

“Too frequently, the term ‘Latin Music’ refers to wild, exotic and primitive rhythms. Although the rhythm is certainly a part of Latin music, there should obviously be more to it than that. And there is. When properly presented, there is melody, romance, humor and sophistication.

These are the elements emphasized in this album. The exotic rhythms are there, but the real accent is on romantic melodies, intriguing sounds and sophisticated humor… the stocks-in-trade of the incomparable Henry Mancini and his suave friend, Mr. Lucky. Lucky is on hand, too, his now famous theme gone delightfully native. Every selection shows overwhelming evidence of (to steal the title of one of his recent albums) ‘The Mancini Touch’.

The listener will find all of the taste and musicianship which have made Mancini one of the nation’s top composer-arranger-conductors, plus some new glimpses into his creative (and frequently whimsical) imagination.

https://i0.wp.com/www.virtualstampclub.com/2004/mancini.jpg

“Mr. Lucky” was about the owner (Mr. Lucky) of a gambling casino ship. He kept the ship just outside the 12-mile legal limit off the coast of California. In each episode, it would appear that Mr. Lucky was involved in a crime with one of the “low-life” visitors to his ship. He would then have to prove his innocence to keep from going to jail. The show was based on a 1943 movie starring Cary Grant … also named, “Mr. Lucky.” It aired on CBS from 1959-1960.

Mancini died in 1994. He was 70.

From one legend to another. Guitarist Carlos Santana has a brother who also plays the guitar and also had his own band. Jorge Santana was leader of Malo in the early 1970’s, best remembered for their 1972 smash, “Suavecito.” Santana left the group in 1974.

The Latin-rock group’s third album released in 1973 features Ron DeMasi on the Hammond organ along with Santana. “Entrance to Paradise” was a composition the band did regularly before live audiences since 1971, but Santana was reluctant to include it on the album, thinking it sounded too much like his brother. It eventually made the cut and the result is beautiful.

Jorge Santana (above) died earlier this month at his California home of natural causes at the age of 68.

That’s it for this week’s segment.

Goodnight.

Sleep well.

Have a great weekend.

Let’s close with a classic. What should it be?

The Rascals: Good Lovin’

Steppenwolf: Magic Carpet Ride

Question Mark & the Mysterians: 96 Tears.

The Spencer Davis Group: I’m a Man

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown: Fire

Procol Harum: A Whiter Shade of Pale

No.

Let’s go with:

The Doors: Light My Fire

In 1998, Doors’ keyboardist Ray Manzarek told NPR’s Terry Gross that the lengthy album version which contained a Manzarek solo had to edited, more than chopped in half so a single could be made to get radio airplay and exposure. Here’s some of Manzarek from that interview.

Seven minutes. We had to cut down seven minutes to two minutes and under three minutes. You know, two minutes and 45 seconds. 2:50 would be ideal.

Paul – Paul Rothchild, brilliant, genius producer. And Bruce Botnick was our engineer. Those two guys were – those were the Door number five, Door number six. Paul said, I’m going to – I’m going to make an edit here. I’m going to do some edits. I’m going to cut “Light My Fire” down from seven minutes to 2:45, 2:50. I said, good luck, man. I don’t see how you’re going to do it. I figured he’s going to have to do little bits and cuts in here and there. And two days later Rothchild calls and said, OK, man, I got it. I said, you’ve got it. How did you do it so fast? You got a thousand cuts.

And he said, no, no, no. I’m – just come on in. I’m not going to tell you what I did, how I did it. I just want you to listen to it. So the song starts. We’re all in the control room on the big speakers at Sunset Sound. The song starts.  We’re at the regular introduction.  And it’s going along. And then come on, baby, light my fire. And that’s going along.

Now we’re into the second verse.Nothing has changed. Everything is exactly the same. Come on, baby, light my fire. Try to set the night on fire.

Now it’s time for the solos. I think, where’s the edit, man? And we’re into the solos.  And I thought, I don’t know where he’s going to cut. This is insane. And all of a sudden, where I’m supposed to go, you know, playing my organ solo, what happens?  It goes to the end of the solos and then back into the turnaround. And there’s like not a solo. There’s no solos.

I’m out. I’ve got three minutes of solo. Robby’s got two and a half minutes of solo. It’s all gone. And then verse number four. And that’s the end of the song. And that’s it. It’s two minutes and 45 seconds long. And there are no solos in the entire song. And I thought, I’m going to kill this guy. And Paul said, hold it. Hold it. Listen. I know the solos aren’t there. But just think. You don’t know the song. You’ve never heard the song. You’re 17 years old. You’re in Poughkeepsie. You’re in Des Moines. You’re in Missoula, Mont. You’ve never heard of The Doors. All you know is a two minute and 45 second song is going to come on the radio. It’s called “Light My Fire.” Does that work? And we all looked at each other and said, you know what, man? You’re right. It does. It works.

Here’s audio of the album version along with various video clips.

BONUS