Names making news

 It's Halloween weekend, but for Republicans, every day is another day in a philosophical Twilight Zone.

Take, for example, Senator Cheesehead (Ron Johnson), who, when taking a call from a viewer on a Wisconsin program, said he is "fully aware" that children in Wisconsin schools are using litter boxes in the restrooms. The caller claimed his niece told him this story, but it is total BS.

The whole litter box hoax started with a Michigan parent, Lisa Hansen, a few months ago, so of course, in neighboring Wisconsin, the hoax picked up speed like a pandemic.

It's really a dog whistle to the homophobic bigots to attack the LGTBQ+ community, threatening to undo several decades of progress in social inclusitivity. Johnson, running for re-election, doesn't care if it's a lie. As long as his ill informed voter base buys it, so much the better.

If those same people believe the moon is made of cheese, I'd begin to wonder if some of them substituted cheese balls for brain cells somehow.

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Elon Musk closed the deal to acquire Twitter, fired some staffers, and less than 24 hours later, the bigots are back out in full force. Musk is an advocate of free speech, I get that, but you still have to regulate it to the point where you don't have a repeat of the breakdowns in social discourse that got a certain bloviator bounced from the site nearly 2 years ago.

Oh, by the way, said bloviator repeated his claim that he won't return even after Musk has taken over. Then again, his own platform is tanking, and.....!

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Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Tom Brady made it official today. He & wife Gisele have been divorced after 13 years of marriage.

Actually, it was Gisele who announced an amicable split between the two, amid rumors that she wasn't happy that Brady decided to rescind his retirement to play one more season with the suddenly skidding Bucs, who've lost three straight after falling to Baltimore last night.

Of course, it'll come out before the season is over that there was someone else involved in all this. That's what the overpriced supermarket tabloids will insist on, but I doubt that. It's not helping, either, that Brady reportedly had been in contact via text with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis of late.

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Two days after rumors of his demise were debunked, music legend Jerry Lee Lewis has passed away at 87.

The last of Sun Records' legendary "Million Dollar Quartet" with Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, & Carl Perkins, Lewis stirred up as much controversy as record sales in the 50's, the shifted gears from pop to country in the 60's. In 1972, my first exposure to Lewis wasn't any of his earlier hits, but, rather, a cover of the Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace", with altered lyrics, airing on WOKO.

Here, though, from 1969 on Hee Haw, is Lewis, at the piano, with "Another Place, Another Time":

I don't think he ever shared the stage with his cousins, country singer Mickey Gilley and evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, and if that never happened, it'd be a missed opportunity.

Rest in peace, Jerry Lee.