It’s the coldest Carnival kickoff in over a decade. I’ll be found inside sitting in front of a space heater instead of on the streets grubbing for useless trinkets. It’s okay: I’m not feeling it this year. The cold just gives me a better reason to sit this weekend out.

The cold escalated last night. This weekend will be the coldest yet. We’re experiencing the joys of life in a 100+ year old raised house designed to cope with the summer, not the winter. At least we’re not expecting another freak snow storm. There’s been enough freakery this month to last a lifetime.

It’s the last day of January, which concludes one word title theme song-Edward Hopper featured image month. It’s driven me to drink today as I ponder the fate of bootleggers bringing booze in from Canada, tariff free.

John Fogerty wrote this week’s theme song for CCR’s 1969 album Bayou Country. The album came out in January of that year: Coincidence or fate? In a word: Coincidence.

We have two versions of Bootleg for your listening pleasure: The Creedence OG followed by Los Lobos.

How about a couple of booze songs before we move on? I’ll drink to that. Will you?

Buck recorded that song as Corky Jones. It’s a real corker as is this number:

Thanks, Bing.

We begin our second act with an essay about the use of profanity in period movies.

Fuck No, Presentism: I’m not squeamish when it comes to profanity. I wrote a post called Fuck Yeah, Minnesotans this week, after all. I am not, however, a fan of onscreen presentism. F bombs were strewn throughout Netflix’s Garfield series  Death By Lightning. I am skeptical that there was this much PUBLIC cursing by politicians in 1880. I am certain that Roscoe Conkling never called anyone a motherfucker while on the stump.

The most preposterous F bomb is dropped in the fakakta scene in which Lucinda Garfield visited assassin Charles Guiteau in prison. Never happened and Mrs. Garfield would have never said fucking. No fucking way.

The kids in the Stephen King series Welcome To Derry were potty mouthed high schoolers. I went to high school a decade later and rarely heard or dropped the F word. It was not socially acceptable in sophisticated suburban San Mateo in the Seventies and would have been even less so in rural Maine of the Sixties.

These are just two examples. I don’t have a problem with public swearing, especially not if an F bomb is aimed at a Trumper. I do have a problem with presentism in period films. That is all.

The last word of our second act goes to Harry Nilsson:

I never get tired of posting that song. YouTube required age verification for Liz Phair’s Fuck and Run. Fuck that.

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth Casting Edition: I may have some qualms about Death By Lightning, but I loved Bradley Whitford’s performance. I’ve always found James G Blaine to be more than just the continental liar from the state of Maine. He was one smart cookie, albeit a cookie laced with arsenic.

Your Basic Basie: This time, the Count and his big band back Billy Eckstine on a luridly titled tune:

Have I told you lately how much I love Count Basie?

The Best Of SNL: I haven’t watched SNL regularly since the Tina Fey-Seth Myers era. Last week’s cold open is a classic that rips a certain egomaniac a new one.

Classic Movie Trailer: Thunder Road is on brand this week. It’s about hillbilly bootleggers and their muscle cars.

Grading Time: What’s not to like about a movie starring Robert Mitchum? I give Thunder Road 3 stars and an Adrastos grade of B.

I give Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder Road 4 stars and an Adrastos Grade of A. It’s a stone cold classic.

Saturday GIF Horse: Nucky Thompson’s Boardwalk Empire was built on bootleg booze. It’s enough to make one join a conga line. Dance, Nucky, dance.

Have I told you lately how much I love Steve Buscemi? That goes for Aretha as well:

Threading The Skeet: I first saw this vicious post on Threads. I couldn’t embed the OG, so here’s a knock-off.

— BlueMonkeyBoy (@bluemonkeyboy.bsky.social) 2026-01-29T01:46:32.751Z

Ouch. I told you it was vicious:

I’ve always dug this opening line, “Vicious, you hit me with a flower.”

Toon Time: Mike Luckovich has some thoughts about the Melania movie too:

— Mike Luckovich (@mluckovich.bsky.social) 2026-01-28T19:29:56.225Z

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

Saturday Closer: Bruce Springsteen isn’t the only lefty singer-songwriter to have written a song about MAGA’s Minneapolis madness. Enter Billy Bragg.

That’s it for this eventful week. The last word goes to Edward Hopper.