Arthel Lane “Doc” Watson was born on March 23, 1923 in the hills of North Carolina. Stony Fork and Deep Gap to be more specific, if you know where those places are. Blinded by an infection before he was one year old, Watson earned the money for his first guitar by chopping wood with his brother and selling it to a tannery. It wasn’t his first musical instrument. That had been a hand made string instrument...

Fox News maven Roger Aisles recently said that Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart had told him in a bar that he was a Socialist. Jon Stewart returned from vacation with this answer for Aisles: The Daily ShowGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Mitt Romney has a 14-point Gallup lead among veterans in an otherwise close contest for the presidency, a demographic aberration more understandable to one of them after Monday’s experience in a Memorial Day parade. I was in one of those custom-made 1970s Pontiac convertibles, outfitted for Elvis and other rock stars with bull’s horns on the front bumper, rifles and handguns pasted everywhere inside and...

When “The Hillary Effect” came out in December you could have bet that it would have been just one more of these quickie political books that seem to be a collection of uninspired recycled reporting notes, or reworded blog posts, except this time it would focus on the ill-fated Presidential nomination campaign of Hillary Clinton, American history’s first Presidential primary winning female...

Frank “The Fixer” Tagliano is a former New York mafiosi and restaurant owner who after testifying against his mob boss joins the witness protection program. Intrigued by Lillehammer after watching the 1994 Winter Olympics, he is relocated by the FBI to the picturesque town in northern Norway under the assumed name of Giovanni “Johnny” Henriksen. That is the outlandish premise of Lillyhammer,...

Who would have guessed: Since too much inequality can foment revolt and instability, the CIA regularly updates statistics on income distribution for countries around the world, including the U.S. Between 1997 and 2007, inequality in the U.S. grew by almost 10 percent, making it more unequal than Russia, infamous for its powerful oligarchs. The U.S. is not faring well historically, either. Even the Roman Empire,...

TMV’s Info U Can Use Dept: Shucking an Oyster, a video by Pete Van de Putte: FOOTNOTE: I’ve known Pete Van de Putte of Texas for years. He has a delightful sense of humor and is owner of the famous Dixie Flag Manufacturing Company that makes superb flags and banners (I had one made years ago for my non-blogging incarnation and used it for many years at trade shows.)

Milt Priggee, www.miltpriggee.com This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

WASHINGTON — The soundtrack of my youth is fading. That’s hardly an original observation, I realize, but self-indulgence is a columnist’s inalienable right and music has unique power to summon unbidden waves of nostalgia. I’ll spend the rest of the day listening to the “Queen of Disco” and the “Godfather of Go-Go,” and saying goodbye. Donna Summer, who died...

Six months from now, the most highly educated Americans in history will have chosen someone to lead them through hard times. In my lifetime, that process has advanced from control by political bosses in smoke-filled rooms to one dominated by media and money across the spectrum. Tammany Hall is gone, but now thanks to Citizens United, we are in the hands of the Koch brothers and George Clooney’s Hollywood friends....

It’s all a reality show now as the “First Gay President” invites himself to make a graduation speech in the neighborhood where he came of age half a lifetime ago. “This recession has been more brutal, the job losses steeper, politics seems nastier, Congress is more gridlocked than ever, some folks in the financial sector have been less than model citizens,” Barack Obama tells the class of ’12 at...

Nearly everyone knows by now that “The Scream” — Edvard Munch’s iconic doodle of modern angst — broke auction records earlier this month when it sold for a few dollars shy of $120 million. In the weeks since, I’ve been thinking more and more about that sale and what it means. I should confess right up front that I like both “The Scream” and the Norwegian artist...

SNL on Vice President Joe Biden frustrated over President Barack Obama. So he talks to a “friend”:

On Mother’s Day, if you have a mother it’s time to think about her and honor her. If yours is no longer with you, it’s time to reflect on what you owe her and the times when you felt unconditional love. I’m fortunate: my mother is 90 and (God willing) will turn 91 after Memorial Day. She’s in a very nice seniors facility and when I called the other day she said, “Joey, I have...

Should College Football Be Abolished? Tyrades! By Danny Tyree Does Buzz Bissinger score a touchdown with you, or do you find him personally foul? The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist (author of the 1988 bestseller and cautionary tale “Friday Night Lights”) has stirred up quite a firestorm with a recent Wall Street Journal article declaring “Why College Football Should Be Banned.” Yes,...

It’s getting French Revolution-y out there. Mitt Romney is facing villagers with pitchforks, restless natives keep decapitating moderates like Dick Lugar and even new idols like Paul Ryan are being pushed toward the tumbrel. Lugar’s downfall is more 2010 Tea Party guillotining of long-time Republicans, but a search for ideological purity is so intense that even Ryan is forced to disavow his political...

A padded printed book jacket is even worse.

This is probably the first book review you’ve ever read by someone killed off in a book. Well, not me exactly — but my namesake. Joe Gandelman (a different one, assuredly not as good-looking, wise or modest as me) was killed off in a great book I found by accident in one of my periodic searches on Amazon.com to see if there is anything with the name “Gandelman” on the market. I then...

Truly a classic: Aerosmith’s Janie’s Got A Gun:

I read mostly non-fiction and when I read fiction is usually Science Fiction. But I also like a good suspense thriller once in awhile. The RX Factor by J. Thomas Shaw certainly qualifies. There is certainly enough suspense and enough murders and assassinations to qualify it as a thriller. In addition there is a lot of corporate and government malfeasance. Dr Ryan Mathews discovered a cure for ovarian cancer....