Season Liberally

This last spring saw the passing of Freddie Garrity, of Freddie and the Dreamers fame. I used to try to catch them whenever they were on t.v., just to see them do their famous silly dance, The "Freddie." This involved Freddie jumping around, legs akimbo, while the band behind him tried to keep up. It's hilarious and I double-dog dare you not to laugh while watching it. A recent search through the You Tube archives produced this fabulous video from Hullabaloo, wherein Freddie tries to teach Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello how to dance The Freddie. It's a must-see!

Another interesting video from Hullabaloo is this one, of The Strangeloves singing "I Want Candy" in 1965. Bow Wow Wow's later cover is more famous, but this is a lot of fun, and you get the famous Hullabaloo dancers, too. They seem to be wearing dresses based on a Piet Mondrian painting. Keen!

And last but not least (and not from Hullabaloo, sorry) is this wacky clip of The Turtles singing "Happy Together" on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour from 1967. Lip-synching is definitely not their strong suit. It's debatable whether they began by trying to lip-synch or not, but by the end of the song, all attempts to look like they are actually singing devolve into a free-for-all romp, complete with ridiculous costumes. Ah, the Sixties. Sometimes it's good that we can't go back again, but I'm glad I can keep visiting Freddie and friends on the Internets.

I don't really mind all the stuff you have to go through at Airport Security--hell, I'll hop up and down on one foot and sing "My Sharona" (a song everyone knows I detest) if it will guarantee that my flight from Dulles to Oakland arrives in one piece. I've made a lot of changes in my routine, as have all Americans, to fly safely--I don't bring sharp objects in my carry-on, I throw away my Bic lighters before getting in the TSA line, and I take my shoes off ahead of time so I won't hold up my fellow passengers. Now, since the British kerfluffle, we are being asked to do even more: no liquids or gels, including toothpaste, bottled water, sodas, WINE!, bras with gel inserts (No Fakes! Fakes On A Plane!), cold medication, &c. Okay, I guess I can roll with this, too, as long as everyone has to do it. That's fair.

Wouldn't it be great, though, if the TSA folks had some sort of chemical scanner that could detect suspect liquids? Then we could take our harmless liquids onboard--including necessary medications--and not worry. But they don't--or do they?

Apparently they do. There are scanners in place at the White House than can "identify any of 2,500 different chemical compounds in about 15 seconds" according to AmericaBlog. So you're telling me that President Bush is safe, but the rest of us aren't? Why does that not surprise me?

Nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to Bush's "Me First" administration. The Republicans in charge of the White House and both houses of Congress bend over backwards every day to insure that they stay safer and wealthier and more privileged than average citizens. Their families are protected, but ours aren't. Their investments are protected while ours crumble into dust and memory. Their children skip off to Ivy League schools while ours go to Iraq. And now we discover that while we are all making sacrifices to insure our own safety and that of our fellow passengers, the Dept. of Homeland Security could make us as safe as the president, but won't because the administration needs the money to keep the occupation of Iraq going, to provide tax cuts for the wealthy, and to make sure that Cheney's Halliburton stock doesn't take a nosedive.

It's infuriating, but not surprising to anyone who's been sentient for the past five and a half years. Do whatever you can toward getting the greedy Republicans out of Congress and out of the White House--we'll all be safer for it.