Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

The revolution will be supervised.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

“But what about the lurkers?”

People are complicated. Love is not.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

You are here: Home / Music / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Dolly Parton, America’s Queen of Hearts

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Dolly Parton, America’s Queen of Hearts

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… Although I always think of her as our Queen of Cups: loving, generous, and wise. Just for giving all those books to all those kids who need them, she’d deserve a place in the pantheon:

… “My dad didn’t get the chance to go to school. And Daddy couldn’t read and write, and that was kind of crippling to him,” Parton said. “He was such a smart man, though. He just had such good common sense. They call it horse sense in the country.”

“But Daddy thought it was just something he couldn’t learn after he was grown, so he never tried to learn to read and write. And that was just kind of embarrassing to him,” she continued. “But I didn’t want Daddy to feel embarrassed.”

Parton was determined to give the children of Sevier County something her father never had: early access to books. She started the Imagination Library in 1995, and involved her father, too. He was able to see the program take off before he died in 2000.

“He got to hear the kids call me ‘The Book Lady.’ He got a big kick out of that,” she said. “But he took great pride and felt like he’d helped do something special.”…

And if she didn’t have that golden voice, she could’ve been a successful comedian. From NYMag:

“All of my life, I have been known for two things,” deadpanned Dolly Parton, as she took the stage to collect the MusiCares Person of the Year, pausing for effect, “Well, not them.”

“I’ve also been known as a singer and songwriter, too,” the country icon clarified. “Although, I’m not complaining — Ol’ Pancho and Lefty’ve been pretty good to me!” She then confided to the packed-to-the-back-wall crowd assembled at the Los Angeles Convention Center: “Everybody always expects me to do a boob joke, and I like to do that right up front.”

To illustrate Parton’s reputation as a stellar songwriter over the course of her five decade career, an A-list assembly of talent from across a wide swath of musical genres took the stage to perform her biggest hits and most personal compositions as the Recording Academy and its philanthropic arm MusiCares paid tribute to Parton’s singular accomplishments and longtime commitment to giving back at its annual Grammy Week gala…

Being honored for her contributions to music, Parton told Vulture on the red carpet, “means more than anything, because if I had to stop everything else and just choose one thing, I’d choose to be a songwriter.”…

For Nettles, who portrayed Parton’s mother in two television movies based on the icon’s childhood, Parton holds a particularly special place in her life. “For me, she is a mentor, she is an icon, she is a hero, someone I look up to as a singer/songwriter, as a woman, as a businesswoman, as a philanthropist, as an actress,” Nettles said. “She’s done it all, and she’s still so vibrant, still so relevant. I look at her, and we should all be so lucky, I think, to be able to have that kind of career and that kind of impact.”

“Those waters run really deep for her,” added Nettles. “You hear all of that depth and all of that gravitas in the stories that she tells, but then she has all this buoyancy on top that really draws us in.”

“I truly, I truly can feel the love in this house tonight — either that or my telephone’s on vibrate,” Parton cracked, telling the crowd she endured the career retrospective with a mix of dismay — “I really thought my hair looked good, back then. Can you believe that hair? Now that’s country music at its finest” — and wry reflection. “Watching them is sort of like watching porn. You’re not personally involved, but you still get off on it. So really got off on this show, tonight. Hey now, don’t blame me. At my age, you’ll take anything you can get. And I’m still hoping that I live long enough to get the Betty White longevity award. I’m working on it.”

Reader Interactions

167Comments

  13. 13.

    Bobby Thomson

    The correction is incorrect, which is apparent reading the story. 100 millionth book delivered; the program is now up to 1 million books per month.

  18. 18.

    Chet

    “Pancho and Lefty” ???

    As an 80s kid my first exposure to Dolly Parton was “Islands in the Stream.” Pretty decent song (although it’s a Bee Gees song). But the more I learn about her music and her character the more I respect her. She is a treasure.

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Republicans had signaled earlier on Wednesday that Trump would not sign legislation that includes back pay for federal contractors,

    Because stiffing contractors is just how he rolls.

  31. 31.

    oldster

    I just went to Ilhan Omar’s ActBlue page and kicked in a contribution.

    It’s the best way I know of saying “thank you” to her, immediately and directly, for her questioning of Eliott Abrams yesterday.

    There have been many Dem politicians that I have admired in the last few decades. But very, very few of them have been willing to buck the DC code of elite unaccountability. According to that code, if you are part of the inner circle, then the laws don’t apply to you. If you break them, you get pardoned. And you continue as a member in good standing.

    (Henry Kissinger is exhibit A for this.)

    If Omar is going to challenge that status quo, then I am going to stand with her.

  32. 32.

    Amir Khalid

    My own favourite of Dolly Parton’s songs is this not-so-well-known one she wrote for Emmylou Harris, To Daddy.
    ETA: A cautionary tale for husbands everywhere.

  34. 34.

    JPL

    From the Washington Post
    For Valentine’sss Day, this zoo says it has just the right snake for your venomous ex
    Just what I always wanted to do.. Name a snake for my ex. lol
    link

  36. 36.

    Matt McIrvin

    When these “Dolly Parton is awesome” stories pop up I keep thinking they’re obituaries and getting sad.

  39. 39.

    JPL

    Scott Pelley is on CBS This Morning discussing the upcoming 60 minutes interview with Andrew McCabe. There were open discussions about how to remove the president. Wow! The asshole is gonna be pissed after that segment airs on Sunday. Must watch TV!

  42. 42.

    Immanentize

    @JPL:

    My favorite line from The Viper is:

    She would not let me use the toothbrush I had given her myself,

    Says it all.

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The best Valentine gift? Not having to buy one at all

    Back when my wife and I started getting serious I told her, “If you want roses on Valentines Day, diamonds for anniversaries, romantic dinners on your birthdays, you better find someone else. You’ll be lucky if I even notice one of them.”

    She likes to say she “married a frog and you’re still a frog.”

  46. 46.

    Kay

    Trump just said on the radio “I think I made my point” with the shutdown.

    The government shutdown cost the economy $11 billion, including a permanent $3 billion loss, Congressional Budget Office says

    Reckless, coddled, insulated people who operate entirely from selfishness. It’s nothing to them.

    Next time the flight attendants and air traffic controllers should go out immediately. They’ll open it right back up the minute a single airport closes. They need to be personally inconvenienced and the slightest inconvenience won’t be tolerated for more than half a day. They have to feel it and they’re so coddled and insulated it doesn’t take much.

  47. 47.

    JPL

    Sunday night we need a thread for the 60 minutes interview. I’m gonna make me some popcorn.
    McCabe says he ordered the obstruction of justice probe of President Trump
    link

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: I read somewhere (WaPo, I think) that the flight attendants did plan to strike — and call for a general strike — immediately if there was a second shutdown. That’s probably a major factor in the GOP fold.

  52. 52.

    Splitting Image

    Dolly Parton is everything that Donald Trump only claims to be. She is a genuinely good businesswoman and a serious Christian. Her family has always meant an awful lot to her.

    She also bankrolled Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, so she’s got that going for her, too.

  53. 53.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @M. Bouffant:

    Heh, “I Will Always Love You” was supposedly written about Porter Wagoner. Think about that the next time you hear Whitney Houston sing it.

  58. 58.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: @Kay: If you and the other lawyers here haven’t yet read it, I think you’d really appreciate this long read Cole front paged yesterday: People Laughed When This Philly Lawyer Sued Led Zeppelin. Nobody’s Laughing Now.

    “Welcome to Hogwarts,” Malofiy jokes as he shows me around the vast oak and stained-glass room that houses the law library at the Beasley Firm, possibly the most fearsome and feared personal-injury law firm in the city, where he worked, in an of-counsel capacity, from 2012 to 2014.

    Fresh out of law school and still wet behind the ears, Malofiy showed up one day in search of mentoring. Granted an audience with Jim Beasley Jr., one of the most successful plaintiff’s attorney in the city, Malofiy ended up with a promise of rent-free office space, the phone extension 666, and a commitment to help finance some of the highly ambitious cases he was mounting — a product-liability suit against Volvo, and a breach-of-contract suit, against a marble manufacturer that had screwed his client out of an ownership share, that resulted in a $4.2 million verdict — not to mention the Usher case. “Jim was like, ‘I keep getting calls from defense lawyers saying That kid’s the fucking devil, so you must be doing something right,’” Malofiy recalls.

    During Malofiy’s tenure at Beasley, he took out a controversial full-page ad in this magazine that depicted him crashing through a courtroom in a hot rod, looking every bit James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. Many members of Philadelphia’s uptight, buttoned-down legal community thought it was disrespectful. “Everyone was outraged, but I thought it was funny,” says Beasley. “He has a pretty good ‘fuck you’ attitude that comes from an inner confidence. He might have had a little too much of that early on, but I think he’s throttled back a bit. So many of a judge’s decisions are ties and jump-balls that are not reversible, and if you piss the judge off with your pirate act, the judge can make it difficult for you. Sometimes you could avoid all that by not swinging your pirate sword around.”

    He is quite the character:

    At Malofiy’s insistence, I’ve been tailing him for the better part of a month: from a big-dollar NDA’d settlement in a judge’s quarters, to a Port Richmond dive bar called Chuckles, to a Bucks County gun shop where he plunked down $1,729 for a handsome Benelli shotgun (a gift for his right-hand man Fluehr), to a back-alley strip bar in Center City and the disused factory under the Commodore Barry Bridge that he’s purchased and plans to renovate into office space, living quarters and a beer garden. I watched him hide his $82,000 Land Rover from the repo man (“It’s all a misunderstanding”) and then, days later, saw a pile of white letter-size envelopes stacked on his desk, each containing what looked to be thousands in cash. What I have come to learn is this: When you write about lawyers, there is so much you can’t write about lawyers.

  61. 61.

    Highway Rob

    @raven:

    Ok, I got the roses and cards on the table! Let her rip.

    Long ago it was decreed that V-Day would no longer be a gift giving holiday in our house. And this year I was told I should not get flowers, either. I like getting her nice things; what was I to do?

    Brownies. From the really good bakery. We ate ’em two days early. Winner winner brownie dinner.

  62. 62.

    oldster

    @debbie:

    Wow, that’s very disappointing. When Omar is holding a war criminal accountable, that is newsworthy.

    But Nice Polite Republicans don’t want to hear that a long-time Washington insider is a war criminal.

  63. 63.

    germy

    Dolly, the first cloned sheep, was named after Ms. Parton. Because the scientists were basically giggling schoolboys deep inside their hearts.

  66. 66.

    Immanentize

    @Highway Rob: my experience was, even if Julie and I had decided to not give gifts or really cut back on some given holiday, really beautiful jewelry was never rejected.

  67. 67.

    germy

    CBS Evening News hasn’t been the same since Scott Pelley left. There were times during his broadcasts that I thought he might be a Balloon-Juice commenter, the way he dug deeper into the top stories, highlighting details the other networks ignored.

  72. 72.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    That’s probably a major factor in the GOP fold.

    I think it was and it wasn’t covered enough, I believe because it makes them feel vulnerable that the lowly flight attendants can wield all that power. It was covered a lot on labor twitter :)

    I just think it’s both amusing and sad that all those employees suffered for weeks and weeks and the MOMENT it became even potentially inconvenient for powerful people they were all screaming for relief. Weeks and weeks compared to, um, 4 hours. That’s the “capacity for pain differential” between the two groups. They’re cream puffs.

  75. 75.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Immanentize: Mrs G&T and I decided long, long ago that Valentine’s Day is for amateurs and have ignored it. But you’re right, good jewelry is never rejected.

  77. 77.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    They’re cream puffs.

    They put aside their racism to elect Obama by a large margin in 2008 because their 401(k)’s we’re hurting, but when things were better for them in 2016….well, you know the rest.

  81. 81.

    germy

    New movie coming out about a man (an unsuccessful rock musician) who gets knocked on the head and wakes up in the world where there were no Beatles. But he knows all the songs.

    So he performs the songs and takes credit for the songwriting, causing a major sensation:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uqvgPm8U4c

    From the dirctor of Slumdog Millionaire

  82. 82.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    If only someone had warned McCabe that planting smears against Clinton could result in Drumpf’s election, who in turn would trash him and his wife and take away his pension.

  84. 84.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Personal injury and criminal defense lawyers are the mavericks – they’re generally interesting people. They see themselves as underdogs but they really enjoy the role. Even if they’re quiet and serious (and some of them are) if you talk to them they’ll often have passionate opinions. We had a big shot personal injury lawyer run the volunteer voter protection effort for Obama in Toledo in ’08. He did a really good job. He worked harder than anyone, and it was rigorous. He’d hold meetings at 8 AM but you didn’t mind because he’d been there since 7, reviewing election laws. It was as good as any paid effort would have been, and we were all volunteers.

  86. 86.

    delk

    My husband and I took a road trip to her theme park, ‘DollyWood’ one Xmas. If they could put a string of lights on it, they did. So much fun we did it again a few years later.

  87. 87.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Thanks for that read! I love the older attorney’s comments about jump balls and how you learn that you can’t always be wild because it will hurt your client. But you can almost always be the best prepared person in the courtroom…

    My early lawyer days in Miami were as wild as they were serious. I swear crack cocaine was invented like 6 months before I started. It was devastating poor people, minority communities, street life folk — i.e. my client base. Meanwhile, prosecutors would celebrate sending some poor prostitute to jail for a gram of rock while they had an eight ball of powder in their pocket. And then, AIDS….

  88. 88.

    Kay

    The contract employees must not have worked during the shutdown, right? It’s against the law to not pay people for work. They shouldn’t need a special Trump dispensation if they worked and weren’t paid.

  90. 90.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: But the government is not responsible for contract worker’s pay — the contracting company is.

    That’s why Trump served friggin junk food to athletes.

  91. 91.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    Personal injury and criminal defense lawyers are the mavericks

    Some of my best friends are criminal defense lawyers. Hmmmmmmm…

  92. 92.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Highway Rob:

    Brownies.

    That’s what I was requested to make for V Day. My killer, to-die-for truffle brownies. They’ll be ready to devour when Ms. O gets back from work.

  93. 93.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @JPL:

    At least you didn’t give her a framed copy of your favorite poem.

    Hmmm, sounds like there’s a story behind that.

  94. 94.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    Exactly. They can’t contract around paying them for work that is performed, can they? It’s illegal.

    I know I rant but this is what I mean about “pain” and “accountability”. If the contractors take a hit this will stop. We’ve swaddled these people in layers of cotton and then we wonder why they’re so reckless. They have to get hurt. Now we know something else- we know that even a slight injury or the mere threat of an inconvenience (the flight attendants did not actually go out or make any formal move to go out) makes them fold, so it doesn’t even have to painful for the rest of us. The equivalent of a weather delay at an airport is unbearable – “forget the wall- make it stop!”

  96. 96.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize:

    O God, and the wedding! All her family and her friends
    and only a handful of mine all scroungy and bearded
    just waiting to get at the drinks and food-

    I think he attended my first wedding.

  97. 97.

    Elizabelle

    Good morning, Valentine jackals.

    Dolly Parton is a good person to bring to mind more often. Be like Dolly.

  101. 101.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    My husband is one so I’m biased but if they’re any good at all they’re worth every penny. They really do make a huge difference.
    My husband was a prosecutor and left and switched sides, which is not at all uncommon. Prosecutors get a ton of trial experience and they know all the players in that world, so it’s an easy transition. His heart was never in putting them away- he was always in trouble with superiors- it’s really top down. He’s happier on the other side. Better fit.
    I had a close friend tell me “oh, that’s too bad, I liked him in a white hat” and I just found that so offensive. Like the other side is a black hat.

  102. 102.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: Lots of contractors had to work — they aren’t furloughed or made “essential personnel.” Many were laid off for the three weeks, but lots of privatized parts of government just continued and the contractors will now have to eat the cost.

    You know what’s privatized? Drone operations. But I think the DOD runs that and they were not part of the shutdown….

  110. 110.

    WaterGirl

    Good thoughts for you and your pups, TaMara as Scout goes in to get spayed and Baby gets to go to the vet.

    How did Baby do with his toy when he got it back?

  112. 112.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: A very good friends was a Fed PD. She caught a case against a made guy once. The cops fucked up and the prosecutors doubled down on the shady shit in a hearing and she caught them all red handed in the cookie jar. Got the case thrown out lickety split.

    As he is walking out of court a free man he stops and says to her, “If any one ever gives you any kind of trouble what so ever, you got a freebie coming, Just call me.” She likes to remind people that she’s still owed a free hit so we better not piss her off.

  120. 120.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Just knowing people matters a lot. Not in a gross way, not “special favors”, but just spending a lot of time with that crowd and knowing what they’ll do and how they operate. There’s a real home court advantage.
    I watched a true crime trial once and the defendant brought in a Detroit attorney to Virginia and I knew they would be mean and unfair to the Detroit lawyer, and they were. They were all like “no one knows our rules” in this proud way. I was outraged on his behalf, because Virginia doesn’t actually have unique rules on basic civil rights process protections, at least I hope they don’t. I’m pretty sure they’re still covered by the constitution, although CLEARLY very learned and superior :)

  122. 122.

    raven

    @Immanentize: Wolfman Jack’s estate too! He and his partner did airline litigation but, as he says, planes quit falling out of the sky. Since he already was managing the Floyd cover band entertainment and copyright seemed to be a good way to go.

  123. 123.

    Gin & Tonic

    In reading about the affairs of my local government I have found that one of the (lesser-known, I guess) appointed town officials is the “Sealer of Weights and Measures.” Now I’m intrigued as to what his responsibilities are.

  124. 124.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: Yep, talk to the locals and hire the guy they recommend. I had a DFS case worker (division of family services) recommend a guy to me when the shit hit the fan with my ex’s husband. She said something along the lines of “He and I have sparred plenty in court. He’s mean and tough but I respect him.”

  125. 125.

    Gelfling 545

    @Baud: His father, Dave Thomas, was a local celebrity here in Buffalo as a weatherman and Commander Tom on the Rocketship 7 kids’ show.

  126. 126.

    Mnemosyne

    Speaking of adult literacy, G tutored an adult learner whose second language is English and who had given up trying to learn to read while she was in school because her teachers were so impatient. Now she’s taking classes to get her GED so she can find something better than fast food work. And I think we may be invited to her younger daughter’s quinceñera.

  127. 127.

    donnah

    @germy:

    We started watching CBS evening news after Trump has elected because Scott Pelley was unafraid to call Trump a liar. Pelley delivered straighforward news and didn’t hesitate to say when the Republicans and Trump were doing questionable things.

    I wrote to CBS news and told them I appreciated Pelley’s commentary; soon after that he was “relocated” to 60 Minutes. I hope he can still ask the tough questions.

  128. 128.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Gin & Tonic: Here in Misery the state Dept of Agriculture has the job of testing and certifying that all “Weights and Measures” are accurate. I see their seals on gas pumps and scales all the time. I’d bet that’s what his job is

  129. 129.

    Kathleen

    @Kay: I hired an attorney in St Mary’s to handle matter for family member. I thank God for him every day. He was a gem.

  132. 132.

    eclare

    @JPL: The herpetologist here at the Memphis Zoo named the reticulated python after his ex, Ann. One day that 20 foot long monster broke through the glass!

  137. 137.

    Kay

    Eric Umansky
    ‏Verified account
    @ericuman
    1h1 hour ago
    More
    Trump admin officials are supposed to avoid lobbying for 5 years after leaving office.
    We found 33 former officials who are already back at it, including Ryan Zinke.
    Almost all work on issues they oversaw or helped shape while they were in govt.

    “Avoid”. What a bullshit word. Countries collapse from corruption and we’re not unique. If this keeps up unchecked we’ll be in that club. We’re not immune. The shit will really hit the fan when contracts can’t be enforced without bribes – when one of these people turns to The Rule Of Law and it isn’t there anymore. They all take it for granted but it’s not a given. It’s an infection and it spreads.

  138. 138.

    Amir Khalid

    @eclare:
    I agree. Whitney’s vocal fireworks are spectacular, but have always struck me as a poor fit for the lyrics. These aren’t words you shout to someone from a distance; Dolly meant them to be uttered tenderly to the one you’re breaking up with, perhaps with a touch of regret, in an intimate setting, and that’s how she did the song.

  140. 140.

    The Lodger

    @Gin & Tonic: Back in PA the gas pumps all had stamps from the county superintendent of weights and measures with his name on them. It was a bit odd because I knew the guy.

  141. 141.

    Highway Rob

    This thread may’ve gone the way of the dodo, but in case it hasn’t:

    @Immanentize: I’d ordinarily agree with you, but I could tell from her tone and the look in her eye that “no, not even jewelry” was the rule this time.

    @O. Felix Culpa: Recipe?

  144. 144.

    Haroldo

    @Kay:

    “Avoid”. What a bullshit word. Countries collapse from corruption and we’re not unique. If this keeps up unchecked we’ll be in that club. We’re not immune. The shit will really hit the fan when contracts can’t be enforced without bribes – when one of these people turns to The Rule Of Law and it isn’t there anymore. They all take it for granted but it’s not a given. It’s an infection and it spreads.

    And we are well on our way. Transparency.org ranks the US as the 22nd least corrupt country in the world (out of 180).

    https://www.transparency.org/cpi2018

  146. 146.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I hear the jets a-screamin’,
    As their wheels hit the cement,
    But I ain’t seen the sunshine
    Since Trump was President –

    I’m stuck in this damn prison
    For an eternity,
    But it beats bein’ a free man
    Drinkin’ polonium tea…

  147. 147.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Highway Rob: Truffle brownie recipe here. I skip the nuts and use a reduced amount of half-and-half (around 2/3 cup or a little less) in place of the 3/4 cup cream in the ganache. I also like to add a little bit of strong coffee or Kahlua to the batter for a hint of mocha flavor.

  148. 148.

    Brachiator

    @satby:

    Illiteracy is crippling. We take basic literacy for granted in this country. And we shouldn’t, because we have an estimated 30 million adults who can’t read above a third grade level.

    And one of those adults is currently the president of the United States.

  156. 156.

    Brachiator

    @Amir Khalid:

    Whitney’s vocal fireworks are spectacular, but have always struck me as a poor fit for the lyrics. These aren’t words you shout to someone from a distance; Dolly meant them to be uttered tenderly to the one you’re breaking up with, perhaps with a touch of regret, in an intimate setting, and that’s how she did the song.

    I understand exactly what you mean and yet I absolutely love Whitney Houston’s version. It’s not just the vocal fireworks, but the feeling that is also conveyed.

    I did not know for a time that Parton was the songwriter, and when I heard her sing it, I admit that I still preferred Houston’s version, but acknowledged Parton as a great damn songwriter.

  158. 158.

    dww44

    @donnah:They caved to the monied class. As is almost always the case. Another reason that we must reclaim our representative democracy from their outsized influence.

  159. 159.

    Brachiator

    @satby:

    I think his lack of function is because he’s declining cognitively. Seriously declining.

    I don’t think that there was ever much there. But I keep reading armchair diagnoses of Trump’s various supposed disabilities. Doesn’t matter since the official report says that he is the healthiest president ever.

    And that we’re somewhat powerless in the ability to remove him shows the weakness in our version of democracy.

    I don’t know what country has a version of democracy that has recently removed a president or prime minister because of diminished capacity, etc.

  161. 161.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Immanentize: I saw Corso at Goucher College in the late 1960s. He read some fairly nondescript verse & then asked if anyone had a request. The crowd stood up as one person & shouted in chorus,

    Marriage!
    We want Marriage!
    You must read Marriage!

    “But I can’t,” he halfwhimpered, & again as one the crowd roared, Why not? – & he pointed to his wife & child in the first row. Fuckin’ copout he was.

    (I used to be famous for dramatic readings of “Marriage” – & I still owe one to a dear friend & his wife, who I have never met because I’ve never been able to arrange to visit them – & I had to miss their wedding because my only niece was gatting married the very same day 500 miles away. Time to arrange that visit & brush up my memory. Should I get married? Should I be good? Astound the girl next door with my velvet suit & faustus hood? Usw .)

    (ETF Thai Poes)

  162. 162.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    And the priest! He looking at me if I masturbated
    asking me Do you take this woman for your lawful wedded wife?
    And I trembling what to say say Pie Glue!
    I kiss the bride all those corny men slapping me on the back
    She’s all yours, boy! Ha-ha-ha!
    And in their eyes you could see some obscene honeymoon going on–

    IMHO “Marriage” is the ultimate example of what I cal “slapstick poetry” – begging to be hammed up up the Wazoon (there’s that river in Pennsyltucky again!) in performance.

  163. 163.

    Kosh III

    She’s such an asset to the country. I only wish she had felt led to enter poltics: Gov. Parton-D or Sen. Parton-D. Woohoo

  165. 165.

    indianbadger1

    I always appreciated how she completely cracked Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show.

    Carson: Are those really yours? (Staring at her immense cleavage)

    Dolly: Of course Johnny, I paid for ”em!

    Carson just went under the desk laughing.

  167. 167.

    cckids

    @eclare:

    I know Whitney gets all the love, but I always preferred Dolly’s version of I Will Always Love You.

    One of my favorite Dolly moments was sometime after Whitney’s version was the massive hit it became; Dolly was on some morning show & the host asked her if it didn’t bother her that Whitney’s version was so so much bigger than hers had been. Dolly laughed, patted his arm and said “Oh honey. Have you ever heard of royalties? Whitney can sing ANY song of mine she’d like.” She’s awesome.

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