Random stupid things on your mind. Post them.

[stevesh]

Best steak I ever ate was a 32 ounce Porterhouse at the hotel in Calumet, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula. Bigger than the plate, and you could cut it with a fork.

[ItsOver]

That's one hunk of meat.     Ever notice, though, how you can eat about 2-3 times more of a Porterhouse than about any other kind of meat?  Funny how that works. 

[Sardondi]

That's one hunk of meat.     Ever notice, though, how you can eat about 2-3 times more of a Porterhouse than about any other kind of meat?  Funny how that works. 

Because 32oz of dense muscled protein just "isn't as heavy" as 32 oz of baked potato. We were born to eat meat. I'd love to try a hunk o' buffalo (American bison), but I'm afraid I'd need to mortgage my house. 

[onan]

Because 32oz of dense muscled protein just "isn't as heavy" as 32 oz of baked potato. We were born to eat meat. I'd love to try a hunk o' buffalo (American bison), but I'm afraid I'd need to mortgage my house.

http://tedsmontanagrill.com/menu_steaks.html

[MV/Liberace!]

          This is true. Today's "Lynyrd Skynyrd" is as much Blackfoot or Johnny Van Zant Band as it is Skynyrd.
       Not that 90% of their concert attendees are even aware of this.

         

gary rossington is the only remaining original member... so when he dies, i suspect they'll still go on touring and calling themselves lynyrd skynyrd.  it's a goddam suck fest.

[Eddie Coyle]

gary rossington is the only remaining original member... so when he dies, i suspect they'll still go on touring and calling themselves lynyrd skynyrd.  it's a goddam suck fest.

      The show will go on...and on.  There used to be some "3 original member" agreement about use of the name, but when Leon Wilkeson died in '01 that became muddied. Rickey Medlocke, is now cited as an original member, which is technically true-but he left a year before the debut was recorded in '73. Pyle and Ed King have been crying foul for a long time about what constitutes Lynyrd Skynyrd nowadays.

         It's endemic in southern rock. Molly Hatchet toured without original members for years, Marshall Tucker's dead outnumber the living, same for the Outlaws.

           Which makes ZZ Top's career, same three guys since 1970, all the more the anomaly. And Billy Gibbons could buy and sell pretty much all of them.

[Sardondi]

The show will go on...and on.  There used to be some "3 original member" agreement about use of the name, but when Leon Wilkeson died in '01 that became muddied....

You know, Wilkeson reminds me that we don't have as many rockers cracking 65-70. These are the years when that should be happening. Yes, Mick just made 70. But we're in the shank of the 65th b'day for rockers who make Classic Rock possible, and it goes without saying that their lifespans are considerably less than their non-musician peers. e.g. Leon who only made it to age 49 before succumbing to "chronic liver and lung ailments". Tee hee - he said "chronic".

Something tells me there is an algorithm, perhaps just a factor, which accounts for the toll on life expectancy posed by touring in a rock band. Something like, for every day of touring, a hard workin' rocker can expect to have "x" days or portions of days shaved off the back end of his life. we joke about it, but life on the road is incredibly stressful - it does make you crazy. And stress kills everybody. We joke about how wonderful it would be to live the life of a rock star, but I think a bunch of them would love not to...if they could somehow get out of the golden handcuffs.

Figuring the "Death Factor" out can be done using the violent deaths a la the Lyn Skyn crash, Duane and all the other young dead, but that would be fish in a barrel. I'd be more interested in seeing what kind of price in non-violent death from things like heart disease, alcoholism, etc. the professional rock musician pays. I'm guessing that it will work out that something like for every 3 days of touring, a rocker loses 1 day of life. Or maybe it's 3 days of life for every day on the road.   

Of course those musicians who obviously sold their soul to the devil, such as Keef, Iggy Pop and David Bowie, will skew the numbers, since they will live into their 90's. Thoughts?

[Eddie Coyle]

You know, Wilkeson reminds me that we don't have as many rockers cracking 65-70. These are the years when that should be happening. Yes, Mick just made 70. But we're in the shank of the 65th b'day for rockers who make Classic Rock possible, and it goes without saying that their lifespans are considerably less than their non-musician peers. e.g. Leon who only made it to age 49 before succumbing to "chronic liver and lung ailments". Tee hee - he said "chronic".

Something tells me there is an algorithm, perhaps just a factor, which accounts for the toll on life expectancy posed by touring in a rock band. Something like, for every day of touring, a hard workin' rocker can expect to have "x" days or portions of days shaved off the back end of his life. we joke about it, but life on the road is incredibly stressful - it does make you crazy. And stress kills everybody. We joke about how wonderful it would be to live the life of a rock star, but I think a bunch of them would love not to...if they could somehow get out of the golden handcuffs.

Figuring the "Death Factor" out can be done using the violent deaths a la the Lyn Skyn crash, Duane and all the other young dead, but that would be fish in a barrel. I'd be more interested in seeing what kind of price in non-violent death from things like heart disease, alcoholism, etc. the professional rock musician pays. I'm guessing that it will work out that something like for every 3 days of touring, a rocker loses 1 day of life. Or maybe it's 3 days of life for every day on the road.   

Of course those musicians who obviously sold their soul to the devil, such as Keef, Iggy Pop and David Bowie, will skew the numbers, since they will live into their 90's. Thoughts?

I hate for such a simplistic answer on this front, but seeing that "upper echelon" rockers who lived recklessly through the 1960-80's,(Bowie,Townshend, Jagger,Page,Tyler,Ozzy etc) but still draw breaths in 2013 almost inevitably points to wealth. How did the fuck did Elton,Jagger,Bowie escape the AIDS scourge? Of the big rock stars, only Freddie Mercury died from the disease and it's speculated he caught it quite early, probably 1982, certainly 1983. If Johnny Thunders had Keef's revenue stream he probably lasts beyond 1991. If Richard Wright had David Gilmour's cash flow, does he see 70?  When rockers drop dead between 50-70, they almost inevitably are of rock's "lower and middle" classes...the Ronnie Montroses, Bob Welchs,Bert Janschs,Gary Moores...where Neil Young and Bob Dylan survive their substantsial scares, the guys with far lesser dough succumb.

           And definitely there is a life span factor(3 days to our one seems right), and I think travel/touring has to play a major role...outside of the drugs,booze and sexual practices.

          I saw Johnny Winter "live" in 1997 and he was in such shit shape that he was my number one pick in the 1998 death pool I was in at work. I told everyone there's no way he'd reach 55. And yet, the old albino with the 43 year Methadone habit is now 9 months from turning 70. But..his old bandmates like Randy Hobbs,Richard Hughes,Dan Hartman(AIDS) Uncle John Turner are all dead. See, Johnny had more money...

[Sardondi]

          I hate for such a simplistic answer on this front, but seeing that "upper echelon" rockers who lived recklessly through the 1960-80's,(Bowie,Townshend, Jagger,Page,Tyler,Ozzy etc) but still draw breaths in 2013 almost inevitably points to wealth....

Excellent point.

I saw Johnny Winter "live" in 1997 and he was in such shit shape that he was my number one pick in the 1998 death pool I was in at work. I told everyone there's no way he'd reach 55. And yet, the old albino with the 43 year Methadone habit is now 9 months from turning 70...

Holy crap. 43 years!. How is it possible to not wean off in that time?

[Agent : Orange]

Of course those musicians who obviously sold their soul to the devil, such as Keef, Iggy Pop and David Bowie, will skew the numbers, since they will live into their 90's. Thoughts?

No mention of Lemmy Kilmister? I am disappoint.

[Eddie Coyle]

Holy crap. 43 years!. How is it possible to not wean off in that time?

It's incredible and something I became aware of while reading a book about Rick Derringer(his section of the 2002 book Gallagher,Marriott,Derringer and Trower), who talked about Johnny being institutionalized in 1970/71 and got off Heroin, but developed a Methadone habit in response which apparently continued unabated. From reading other bios about Johnny...he has been surrounded by a coterie of his own "Dr. Nick" types for many years. I've read recent articles that Johnny's dosage had been lowered to the point of negligibility and perhaps he may even be off it...but I've heard that story before. He was supposedly "clean" when I saw him in 1997, but the biography released about him in 2009 said otherwise.
     

[Agent : Orange]

http://youtu.be/1gYE5TyijxE

[stevesh]

          I hate for such a simplistic answer on this front, but seeing that "upper echelon" rockers who lived recklessly through the 1960-80's,(Bowie,Townshend, Jagger,Page,Tyler,Ozzy etc) but still draw breaths in 2013 almost inevitably points to wealth.

I've wondered about that in a different context. A guy I worked with years ago contracted ALS and died less than a year after diagnosis. Stephen Hawking is still going after 50 years with the disease. Is quality of care the difference ?

[onan]

Is quality of care the difference ?

There are lots of variables to consider. Genetics, coexisting illnesses, patient history, diet, and others. But in a nut shell yes quality of care is one of the primary differences in patient outcomes.

[stevesh]

Can we assume that ObamaCare (or any 'universal' health care system) would smooth out the disparity, where my co-worker might have lived longer, and Hawking would be gone ?

[onan]

Can we assume that ObamaCare (or any 'universal' health care system) would smooth out the disparity, where my co-worker might have lived longer, and Hawking would be gone ?

I doubt that. From the little I have learned about ALS, depending on what muscle systems are first affected has some relationship to survivability. Chemical processes in the body are complicated and probably as varied as snowflakes. Hawking may well have been fortunate enough to have less glutamate affecting his neural paths than your friend, or his nerves were more resilient. Or his treatment was better... I dunno.


There is a certain amount of common sense logic in thinking that if there is x amount of services and then more are offered those services, all service will deteriorate. And that would be true if we were dealing with a closed system, but we aren't. Are there road blocks and stumbling points along the way? yep, nothing is perfect and there is always someone to throw a wrench into the monkey works.

[Sardondi]

Can we assume that ObamaCare (or any 'universal' health care system) would smooth out the disparity, where my co-worker might have lived longer, and Hawking would be gone ?

Equality is for the little people. There will always be superior treatment for the nomenklatura and the apparatchiks. There are numerous "executive safety valves" built in to Obama Care, in which the President with an imperial wave of the hand can mandate special treatment for his friends, as we've already seen in a multitude of examples of contributors and supporters who have received Obama Care waivers.

[onan]

Equality is for the little people. There will always be superior treatment for the nomenklatura and the apparatchiks. There are numerous "executive safety valves" built in to Obama Care, in which the President with an imperial wave of the hand can mandate special treatment for his friends, as we've already seen in a multitude of examples of contributors and supporters who have received Obama Care waivers.

Like that hasn't always been the way it is. The ruling class has always played that game with willing participants on both sides of the fence. To make Obama the boogey man seems a bit myopic.

[General Johnson Jameson]

Oh how I love adding polls to threads 

[stevesh]

Like that hasn't always been the way it is. The ruling class has always played that game with willing participants on both sides of the fence. To make Obama the boogey man seems a bit myopic.

Just for the record, I used the term 'ObamaCare' as shorthand, not partisanship. Hawking may be an important mathematician, but I wouldn't consider him part of the 'ruling class'. I assume he has the best possible health insurance, with a commitment beyond his policy from Cambridge.

My question was more about whether government-run universal health care tended to move quality toward the mean, in both directions. The rich will always get theirs, regardless.

[b_dubb]

I think part of the reason Bowie is still alive is because food was optional for him for a big chunk of his life. Heroin addicts never eat. The Western diet creates a lot of the illnesses you see in people. Most notably heart disease. 

[onan]

Just for the record, I used the term 'ObamaCare' as shorthand, not partisanship. Hawking may be an important mathematician, but I wouldn't consider him part of the 'ruling class'. I assume he has the best possible health insurance, with a commitment beyond his policy from Cambridge.

My question was more about whether government-run universal health care tended to move quality toward the mean, in both directions. The rich will always get theirs, regardless.

Steven Hawking is English. His residence is in England.


Here is a quote from him:

"I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS," he told The Guardian. "I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived."

As far as I can tell nations with universal healthcare tend to be healthier than citizens in the US, across the board. And they spend far fewer dollars per capita than doing so.


There is a lot of finger pointing as to responsibility for the costs in the US healthcare system. Considering that most hospitals are now for profit and up until this year and into 2014 insurance companies have made huge profits along with muddying the discussion on Obamacare.

[Eddie Coyle]

I think part of the reason Bowie is still alive is because food was optional for him for a big chunk of his life. Heroin addicts never eat. The Western diet creates a lot of the illnesses you see in people. Most notably heart disease.

He weighed about 110 pounds in 1975-76, at the height of the "Thin White Duke" era, but I think you're onto something- as awful his habits were, he probably avoided the carcinogenic/artery cloggers that prevade most of our diets.

       "I wanna die happy, not healthy" was a bumper sticker on my door as a kid. Right next to the Frankenberry sticker from 1983 which probably still has that Frankenberry smell. Yum.

[Sardondi]

I think part of the reason Bowie is still alive is because food was optional for him for a big chunk of his life. Heroin addicts never eat. The Western diet creates a lot of the illnesses you see in people. Most notably heart disease.

He weighed about 110 pounds in 1975-76, at the height of the "Thin White Duke" era, but I think you're onto something- as awful his habits were, he probably avoided the carcinogenic/artery cloggers that prevade most of our diets....

Pah on those no-heart-disease theories. Bowie is alive today because and only because he is under the personal protection and care of the Prince of Darkness, I tell you. Or Catherine Deneuve, I forget which. 

[Pragmier]

Iman would definitely inspire me to get up every morning.    And anyway I though Bowie was an alien.

[Eddie Coyle]

Pah on those no-heart-disease theories. Bowie is alive today because and only because he is under the personal protection and care of the Prince of Darkness, I tell you. Or Catherine Deneuve, I forget which.

That's right, good ole' Wiggsley Streiber gave us a Bowie flick. But Bowie himself may be the bringer of death. In September, 1977 in one week's time he filmed segments with Marc Bolan and Bing Crosby...Bolan died later in the week, Bing about 3 weeks later.

     

[Sardondi]

That's right, good ole' Wiggsley Streiber gave us a Bowie flick. But Bowie himself may be the bringer of death. In September, 1977 in one week's time he filmed segments with Marc Bolan and Bing Crosby...Bolan died later in the week, Bing about 3 weeks later.

Don't know about the lil jeepster, but Crosby deserved to die for the absolutely terrifying duo he did with Bowie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiXjbI3kRus

[BobGrau]

...Hawking may be an important mathematician, but I wouldn't consider him part of the 'ruling class'. I assume he has the best possible health insurance, with a commitment beyond his policy from Cambridge.

My question was more about whether government-run universal health care tended to move quality toward the mean, in both directions. The rich will always get theirs, regardless.

Pretty much any connection to Oxford or Cambridge makes you part of the ruling class.

I generally think the NHS is a good thing, but would it work in a country the size of the US?

[MrMajestik]

Why can't I get my shit together and go outside and do all those projects i've been planning to do all winter?
I sat indoors looking out at the snow and cold for months thinking "I'll do this project, or I'll do that when the weather is warm". Now It's in the 70's all week and I just want to chill on the Internet all day.

[ItsOver]

Why can't I get my shit together and go outside and do all those projects i've been planning to do all winter?
I sat indoors looking out at the snow and cold for months thinking "I'll do this project, or I'll do that when the weather is warm". Now It's in the 70's all week and I just want to chill on the Internet all day.

Hahahaha... I live in a part of the country where if I don't do the outside projects in the cooler spring, I'll be dying of heat stroke if I put it off until Summer.  Fear of death is a great motivator.     Of course, "there's always the Fall!", the Procrastination Devil keeps whispering in my ear.