The cold weather is still with us in New Orleans. I’m getting more use than expected out of the light flannel shirts I bought on sale at the end of last winter. I call them my Fogerty shirts after a certain singer-songwriter you might have heard of.

The big local controversy involves the Houma based grocery chain Rouses. They came to New Orleans after Katrina. I’ve known for four years that former CEO Donny Rouse Senior is a Trumper. I processed the information back then and continued shopping there. Why? The employees at the nearby Tchoupitoulas store are so damn nice; many of them know Dr. A and me by sight and some by name.

It came out that Rouse Senior attended the Twelfth Night Trump rally. Despite claims to the contrary, there’s no evidence that he took part in storming the Capitol. A boycott movement has arisen, which I get. What I don’t get is how so many people didn’t already know about his politics. It was no secret.

I’m still where I was four years ago because 90-95% of Rouses employees in New Orleans are Black. They’re the ones who will suffer from a boycott, not the Rouse family who have stores in redder parts of the Gret Stet. Rouse Senior’s politics are terrible, but he’s retired. Additionally, the other major grocery chains are GOP donors. Boycotting Rouses to support Wal-Mart makes no sense whatsoever. I guess this means that I’m not woke. That’s okay because the idea of being woke puts me to sleep.

John Hiatt wrote this week’s theme song for his 1995 album Walk On. It’s one of the biggest-selling albums of his career.

You Must Go is the second track on the album. I’m using it to send a message to President* Pennywise: “there’s a place, you must go.”

Another reason I love You Must Go is that Jayhawks Mark Olson and Gary Louris sing back-up vocals. We’ll get to them later.

We have two versions for your listening pleasure: the Hiatt original and a recent cover by his daughter, Lilly.

I’m not quite ready to let go. What about you: Are you ready to go? Asia sure was:

One more go song, make that Go-Go’s:

My get up and go seems to have gotten up and went or some such shit. Maybe jumping to the break will revive me. Let’s go.

Before starting our second act in earnest, two Jayhawks songs featuring Mark Olson on lead vox:

After a brief 21st Century reunion, the Louris-Olson Jayhawks collapsed. One reason was Mark Olson’s loose lips: he said in an interview that he disliked the three Jayhawks albums recorded after his departure. You know what they say about loose lips and ships.

Here’s one of the best songs from one of the “scorned” Jayhawks albums:

Holy winter song, Batman.

Enough Jayhawks trivia. On to our second act, which begins with a tragic tale of loss and redemption.

Raskin Family Values: Maryland’s Jamie Raskin is one of my favorite House Democrats. He’s a brilliant and cheerful man who was just made lead impeachment manager. It’s been a tough year for him so far: he buried his 25-year-old son Mark the day before the Twelfth Night White Riot. I hate it when bad things happen to good people.

Our sincere condolences to the Raskin family.

John Hendrickson has the details at the Atlantic.

The bereaved father published a lovely tribute to his son on Medium. Thank you for sharing that, sir.

Here’s some New Orleans funeral music in tribute to Tommy Raskin:

I’m a bit verklempt after that segment. Let’s move on to another piece about families. This one is guaranteed NOT to make you weep.

Belknap Family Values: As usual, the Kaiser of Chaos is getting bad advice. This time about impeachment. He’s being told that if he resigns, the senate trial will just go away. That’s not true. Ulysses Grant’s corrupt War Secretary, William Belknap was impeached after his resignation but not convicted by the Senate.

I knew this from my reading about Grant as well as Gore Vidal’s historical novel, 1876. A reminder surfaced in an USA Today op-ed written by one of his descendants, Andrea Belknap. Thanks, Ms. B.

The Belknap story makes me want to ring a bell and take a nap. The last word of the segment goes to The Band:

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth Stolen Tweet Edition: One of my recent social media highlights was when the great baseball writer Bill James followed me on Twitter. It’s only fair to post this SAB tweet featuring former NBA Coach George Karl and the late great actor Carroll O’Connor.

Did you ever notice how much George Karl looks like Archie Bunker? pic.twitter.com/SmoKQ8IkOw

— Bill James Online (@billjamesonline) January 11, 2021

Seeing Archie in his chair makes me want to tell a dingbat to stifle. There’s no shortage of dingbats in the House Republican Caucus.

Let’s see what Michael Imperoli and Steve Schrippa are up to.

Talking Sopranos Moment: Tony Sirico who played Paulie Walnuts has not appeared on the podcast yet, but the boys love to talk about him.

The Classic Movie List: This is the first time I’ve listed, or whatever the hell you call this, a screenwriter. I’m not sure why because you can’t make a good movie without a good script. Ben Hecht was one of the best ever. He was also the leading script doctor of his era. He worked on some 165 scripts most of them uncredited rewrites. The list only includes films for which he received credit.

My Top Ten Favorite Ben Hecht Movies

1. Notorious
2. His Girl Friday
3. Scarface
4. Twentieth Century
5. Spellbound
6.  Whirlpool
7. Kiss Of Death
8. Ride The Pink Horse
9. Nothing Sacred
10. Where The Sidewalk Ends

Saturday GIF Horse: This week some GIF’s from the great film noir, Murder, My Sweet an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s Farewell My Lovely. First, Human Claire Trevor as femme fatale, Helen Grayle followed by Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe.

It’s hard to be Cupid, y’all. That reminds me of a song:

Weekly Vintage Music Video: Little Village was a short-lived super group consisting of John Hiatt, Nick Lowe, Ry Cooder, and Jim Keltner. They first worked together on Hiatt’s Bring The Family album but only did one album together. It’s a pity. I saw them live on their only tour and they were excellent. Anyway, here’s the video:

It’s time for some comic relief.

Lagniappe Video: A friend of mine shared this on the book of faces. Another friend described it as combining her favorite childhood comic strip with her favorite band in high school. That’s a paraphrase. The names are omitted because this post is too damn long as it is.

Let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some more music.

Saturday Classic: Hot Rats was one of the first albums Frank Zappa recorded under his own name. It’s a killer, mostly instrumental album. The lobe vocal comes from the great Captain Beefheart.

That’s it for this week. The last word goes to the aforementioned Little Village: Jim Keltner, Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, and John Hiatt. It’s Hiatt-Hopper month, after all.