I’m back for another bite at the Saturday apple, hope y’all have a Gala time. This week I have a compendium of reading suggestions and the odd musical selection. Speaking of odd, that brings us to this week’s theme song courtesy of one of the forgotten founders of rock and roll, Mr. Louis Jordan:

I’ve long thought that Jordan is underrated because he was funny. Funny people are usually underrated, especially in the realm of popular music where the solemn often win the day. Just a crackpot theory, more oddity and soddity after the break.

The Astrodome Turns Fifty: My old pal Liprap wrote a swell account of roaming in the Astrodoming gloaming with the little guy: Texmudgeon Melting…just a little.  The only disturbing part of the post is when she conjures up images of the orange rainbow uniforms the Astros used to wear:

Those jerseys made two of the hardest throwing pitchers of that era, JR Richard and Nolan Ryan, look like they played for a rec league softball team sponsored by Orange Julius.

Speaking of the Houston Astros, their horrible jerseys may or may not have played a part in losing the thrilling 1980 NL LCS to the Philadelphia Phillies, but the pitcher in the next segment certainly did.

Steve Carlton: Wackadoodle- Steve Carlton was one of the greatest lefthanded pitchers in baseball history. His nickname was Lefty, which is ironic given his political views of which I was unaware until this week.

I was perusing Joe Posnanski’s 100 greatest baseball player posts and decided to read about Lefty Carlton. I followed a link to a 1994 piece by Pat Jordan about Carlton in retirement and let’s just say it blew the top of my head off. It’s not shocking to learn that a retired white ballplayer is conservative but Carlton was a proto-Teabagger/Birther/False Flags conspiracy kind of guy. Pat Jordan somehow makes it very entertaining.

A washed up 41 year old Carlton pitched in 6 games for the 1986 San Francisco Giants. I don’t recall him broadcasting his bigoted views while pitching in the capital of gay America and working for a Jewish team president, Al Rosen. That’s one advantage of not speaking to the media.

Cutting To The (David) Chase: Speaking of Liprap, she shared a piece from the Directors Guild magazine wherein David Chase walks us through the legendary/infamous final scene of The Sopranos on a shot by shot basis. Chase hints but refuses to confirm that Tony was whacked. I prefer that he keep it that way even though I’m a Tony is dead kinda guy.

Here’s the final scene in all its YouTubey glory:

The Making of Ed Miliband is an epic piece by the Guardian’s Rafael Behr about Miliband’s troubled tenure as Labour Party leader. It’s a warts and all portrait that humanizes the ultra dweeby politician. I’m not sure if the man the tabloids like to call Red Ed can lead his party to victory but this article won’t hurt his cause. This poster from the Tory party depicting him as in the pocket of the SNP’s Alex Salmond was meant to hurt Labour but it flopped:

Hillarymania: There’s something about the Clintons that unhinges people across the political spectrum. The MSM has been barking mad since the announcement. Much of it is caused by fear of a female President, in between cooing at Joni Ernst and Sarah Palin, wingnuts are fundamentally vaginaphobes.

There were two pieces online this week that dealt with Hillary without the author’s baying at the moon. First, Salon’s new teevee critic Sonia Saraiya wrote a fine piece about how Hillary’s ambitions have shaped teevee shows featuring women pols. My personal favorite of the shows mentioned is the hilarious farce Veep, which has retained its name even though Selina Meyer is now our fictional president.

Second, speaking of mothers, Tim Murphy of Mother Jones went to Little Rock to see what the Clinton conspiracy buffs are up to in 2015. The answer is not much. It’s a witty and informative piece with a swell title, My Travels on the Clinton Conspiracy Trail. 

Senator Aqua Buddha Is A Toon: I’ve always thought that about Ron Paul’s boy Randy but now it’s literally true. Dave Weigel told us about a Rand Paul comic book from Bluewater Productions. The company has been grinding out this sort of thing for awhile and plans comics for both Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton. I think they should try a crossover super hero style and have a Hillary versus Jeb comic. I have no doubt that Hillary could kick his preppie ass back to Kennebunkport.

I will be eternally grateful to the people at Bluewater for this image of the most important moment of Rand’s life, THE AQUA BUDDHA INCIDENT:

 The Saturday Standards: This week’s classic album is Frank Sinatra’s A Swingin’ Affair. This 1957 release *may* be my favorite Sinatra album because of Frank’s amazing song selection and the brilliance of Nelson Riddle’s arrangements. Enjoy.