Go Retire Psychiatrist

Big Mo Pod Show: “Smoke Stack Howlin”

I got a big kick out of the Big Mo Blues Show last night. And the Big Mo Pod Show this morning was another great teaching session by John Heim aka Big Mo.

Big Mo Pod Show 068 – “Smokestack Howlin”

It’s also another peek into the lives of blues and rock musicians which would appeal to the headshrinkers in the listening audience, including me. Coincidentally, on the shout-outs part of the show, Big Mo announced somebody he called “Dr. Jim, the shrink.” There are probably a lot of guys who could fit that moniker, not just me.

Anyway, one of the artists listed on the pod show included James Booker who played a piano piece entitled “Junco Partner.” It turns out Booker was in and out of jail and struggled with substance use disorder. He eked out a living from tips playing piano in bars.

The highlight of the pod show was Big Mo’s history of Howlin’ Wolf (Chester Burnett) who is well known for his song “Smokestack Lightnin.” As I usually like to do, I glanced at the web articles on sites with biographical information about Burnett, although I’m unable to curate them for accuracy. So, I checked the Britannica website entry. There are different versions of the story about what “Smokestack Lightnin” means. As near as a I can tell, I think Big Mo’s explanation is probably as accurate as you can get. There are web articles that claim Burnett said it was about train engine sparks blowing out of the stack.

Interestingly, Burnett formed a group that included another artist on the pod show, Little Junior Parker, whom I knew nothing about and as it turns out, neither did Big Mo. The question posed by Producer Noah was about how he got his name. Did “Little” mean there was a senior Parker? The African American Registry entry doesn’t shed any light on it. But both Burnett and Parker were inducted into the blues hall of fame. Burnett was also inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame.

Just a smidgeon of trivia on Little Junior Parker’s song “Look on Yonders Wall.” I know that other artists have recorded this song. Elmore James is one of them and I happen to still have a copy of the CD, Elmore James, Shake Your Money Maker, Best of the Fire Sessions, released in 1960 (I didn’t buy it in 1960). It’s just an odd thing that you can find on the web a YouTube version of that, the title of which has an odd note, “Wrong Lyrics.” It has the lyric “look on yonders wall, hand me down my precious cane” instead of “walkin’ cane.” I’m unsure if it’s legit. And the words of the title are “Look on Yonder Wall” instead of “Look on Yonders Wall” although I think I can hear Elmore James sing “yonders.”

Now, one of the most interesting parts of the blues show last night was not something on the pod show today. I think it was during the last half hour of the blues show. I heard a rock and roll song I’d never heard of and I don’t know how I missed it because it was during my wasted youth when I was listening to similar songs at the time. It was released in 1975. It was the song “Green Grass and High Tides” by The Outlaws. I was absolutely open-mouthed thunderstruck by the guitar licks. One bit of trivia is that the song title is very similar to the title of an album released in 1966 by the Rolling Stones, “High Tide and Green Grass.” There’s no song with that title ever done by the Rolling Stones, it’s just the name of their album.

Rock on, Big Mo!

Summertime Goldfinches!

Sena took video this morning of a pair of goldfinches having breakfast in our backyard garden. They were all about getting the seeds out of the thistle or knapweed, whatever that is out there. The female is harder to see, naturally, because of its muted coloration to make it less visible. The male is loudly dressed as usual.

Bottoms Up Prune Juice!

We were having a prune juice moment early this morning. I didn’t know Sena was going to buy it about a week ago. I’m not having any problems with getting enough fiber in my diet. I draw the line at prune juice and also Metamucil.

This brings back memories. When me and my younger brother were kids, we both had problems with irregularity and a doctor recommended mineral oil. I guess we should have been glad he didn’t recommend castor oil. I think mom just ignored us when we displayed our histrionics about the awful taste. She just insisted it didn’t have a taste.

Technically, mom was right; mineral oil is tasteless. But I think the oily consistency is what grossed us out. It doesn’t take much imagination to think you’re swilling motor oil. I don’t remember that it helped much with constipation. You’d think the exercise of sprinting away from the house would help us avoid the mineral oil ordeal, but mom usually caught up with us just before we got to the railroad tracks a few blocks away.

After I got older, early in our marriage I developed a minor problem again with irregularity. I tried prune juice then but I had to throw a few ice cubes in it to moderate the flavor. There are a few breakfast cereals that helped, like bran flakes and the like. I was in my second year of medical school before I found out about Colon Blow.

Of course, the other side of the food remedies for irregularity is the opposite of constipation—meaning accidental overflows. I haven’t had trouble like that so far, but it reminds me of a comedy bit Big Mo does on KCCK jazz and blues radio, which is 88.3 on your FM dial. If you follow this link, you can hear part of Dr. Shorty’s Adult Diapers (“…they’re ready when you aren’t!”). By the way “camo” color is short for camouflage, which is a mix of green, brown, and gray—an obvious hint about overflow.

Sena’s got a lot of prune juice to drink.

CDC ACIP Meeting Today on Covid-19 Vaccine

We watched the Covid-19 vaccine part of today’s meeting this morning. I thought it got off to sort of a rough start, mainly with technical difficulties. I can’t recall any other meetings in which the camera flipped back and forth oddly between speakers and their slides. I thought that was distracting.

The question-and-answer periods ran too long which put them behind schedule. One member of the original 8 committee members, Dr. Michael Ross, was missing from the CDC roster. There were news articles about his withdrawing after a review of financial holdings.

While most of the Covid-19 presentation was review, I thought it was too bad that ACIP Chair Dr. Martin Kulldorff announced there would be no vote on the Covid-19 vaccine today. He also said that the ACIP committee would look forward to the missing Evidence to Recommendations (EtR) material in the fall. Dr. Adam MacNeil, the presenter of the Covid-19 vaccine review, admitted that the EtR was not finished. I was not clear on why.

I didn’t really see the point of Dr. Kulldorff’s giving a rather long speech about why he was fired from Harvard after he refused to get the Covid-19 vaccine. I would much rather have heard him give details about his emphasis on the importance of conducting controlled trials (I think he meant placebo-controlled?) and posing this as a question to Dr. MacNeil. I think this is what led to Dr. MacNeil’s response which implied that they would take too long to produce actionable results (I might be putting words in his mouth but that’s my interpretation)—which could lead to saving more lives. It looked like a rather awkward moment.

Dr. MacNeil reviewed the FDA approval of using a JN.1 lineage vaccine at the VRBPAC meeting in May and also mentioned the FDA leadership preference for the LP.8.1 variant. I noticed the CDC variant genomic tracker today shows that the new kid on the block, NB.1.8.1, is now just as prevalent or more prevalent as LP.8.1. They’re both from the JN.1 lineage.

Some of the questions from the newly appointed committee members were over my head. But in all fairness, one of the members asked a question which not only I didn’t get but that Dr. MacNeil said he didn’t quite understand either.

So far, we’re planning to watch the influenza vaccine presentation tomorrow morning. I’m not sure why there’s a vote on thimerosal in the flu vaccine tomorrow but there was no vote on the Covid-19 vaccine today.

Sena Gets her Measles Vaccine-and Will Not Be Defeated!

Sena got a measles vaccine booster today just to be on the safe side given the increase in the number of measles cases all over the country, including Iowa.

The history of the measles vaccine is fascinating by the way. It can make it challenging to figure out who might need a booster.

Despite the mild headache from the shot—she won our cribbage match again. She will not be defeated!

CDC Advisory Committee Meeting on Vaccines Starts Tomorrow

The CDC ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON IMMUNIZATION PRACTICES (ACIP) is scheduled to begin their meeting tomorrow at 10:00 AM ET despite US Senator Bill Cassidy’s recommendation that it be postponed due to concerns about the lack of experience of the committee members and because there is not yet confirmation of a new CDC Director.

In fact, the CDC Director nominee, Dr. Susan Monarez, of Wisconsin, is scheduled for her confirmation hearing at the same time as the start of the CDC ACIP meeting tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM ET. Dr. Monarez would be the first CDC director “…in decades…” (according to a report posted in The Hill in May) who has neither previously worked at the CDC “…nor obtained a Doctor of Medicine degree…”

As of this morning around 10:00 AM, the meeting agenda has not yet been finalized. So far, it looks like there will be no vote on the Covid-19 vaccine update, although there will be a vote on Thimerosal in flu vaccines about which the FDA has previously published an extensive summary.

Will Not Be Defeated!

Sena has again been winning virtually every cribbage game. We always play 3 games, best of two wins and skunk wins don’t count. I think I play pretty well. She just plays better.

It reminds me of the song “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better).” It’s a song from the musical “Annie Get Your Gun.”

Her motto is “I will not be defeated!” I’m beginning to suspect there is extraterrestrial assistance at her elbow. If that’s the case, can a 29 hand for her be far behind?

Svengoolie Schlock Alert!

“Calling all stations, clear the air lanes, clear all air lanes for the big broadcast!” (Svengoolie show intro).

Fee Fi Fo Fum, something shlocky this way comes! Next Saturday the Svengoolie show will present the movie “Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster.” It’s not the Frankenstein’s monster you know and love necessarily, and it involves Martians looking to repopulate their planet’s female population. Can I even stand it?

Svengoolie Movie: “Village of the Danged Eyeballs!”

OK, so the name of the film is actually Village of the Damned, released in 1960 and directed by Wolf Rilla. It stars George Sanders as Professor Gordon Zellaby and Barbara Shelley as his wife, Anthea Zellaby. It’s based on a British Novel, The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. The gist of the story is that the whole village of Midwich falls asleep, wakes up a few hours later and things are fine until two months pass. That’s when all the trouble starts. You can see the movie on the Internet Archive.

It just so happens that the Great Mutato (Izzy) from the X-Files episode, “The Post-Modern Prometheus” is running around the village impregnating all the women. OK, so Izzy’s not part of the plot at all but it sounds cool.

One morning, all the people of Midwich fall unconscious in the middle of whatever they’re doing, which might have been a community wide orgy (usually prohibited by Homeowner Association rules) based on what happens next. The Midwich women do all get pregnant at the same time which raises eyebrows, and leads to the men raising many glasses of beer because they’re not thrilled about it.

According to an x-ray, which happens to be that of a man, the pregnancy outbreak is indiscriminate. Actually, Svengoolie let the cat out of the bag on that, revealing the goof of using an x-ray of a man by mistake. Of course, the doctors point at the film and sagely remark that the fetus is developing normally. One of the doctors is a smoker. Maybe the x-ray of a man was used to avoid using an x-ray of a pregnant woman, which is not the greatest idea in the world.

This reminds me of our freshman medical school radiology teacher. Dr. Bill Erkonen was the nicest guy in the world and he always reassured us that we shouldn’t try to memorize anything for the radiology exams. He would advise, “Just learn it.” Of course, we were medical students and we knew there was no way to learn anything in medical school; memorization was the only path. We loved him.

Anyway, they (meaning the women) all deliver at the same time and the whippersnappers mature at a highly accelerated rate (males learn quickly to stay away from dangerous things like vacuum cleaners). And their eyes glow. All they have to do is stare at the adults who immediately buy them expensive cars, jewelry, and designer sunglasses. They also teach adults to avoid the self-checkout aisles at grocery stores.

But they can also force adults to do scary things. This becomes a world-wide phenomenon leading to drastic actions by governments to do something about the kids with the danged eyeballs. The solutions don’t include hiring them to work for the post office.

I thought this was actually a pretty good movie. It’s probably a film inspired in part by the post-WWII, Cold War era and the threat of attack from some outside unknown, malignant force. The title of John Wyndam’s book “The Midwest Cuckoos” is based on bird behavior, specifically that of cuckoos laying their eggs in another bird’s nest leaving it to be raised by another bird at the expense of its own. Brown-headed cowbirds do the same thing. The X-Files extraterrestrial-human hybrid mythology is another way to express the idea. The violence in the film makes it unsuitable for younger or sensitive viewers.

Big Mo Pod Show: “Grab a Twelve Pack and be Somebody”

I caught the Big Mo Blues Show last night and the podcast this morning, titled “Grab a Twelve Pack and be Somebody.” I had a hard time picking out any of the five songs having anything close to a lyric that would be close to “Grab a Twelve Pack and be Somebody” but it’s easy to get the idea that many blues and rock songs seem to involve references to alcohol.

Big Mo Pod Show 067 – “Grab a Twelve Pack and be Somebody”

I think even Big Mo thought one of the selected songs had something to do with either a 6 or 12 pack of beer. But he did talk about the song “Brown Liquor” by Ally Venable & Christone Kingfish Ingram reminding him (and it reminded me also) of Bob Margolin’s song “Brown Liquor in a Dirty Glass.”

In line with the theme of the podcast today, you could endorse the saying “The Blues had a baby and they named it rock and roll.” I had to look up that line and it’s from Muddy Waters” album, Hard Again (which I still have, by the way) and there’s a song on it with that title. Bob Margolin was in the band at that time. I still don’t understand the lyrics of another song on the album with the title “Crosseyed Cat.” But it’s still one of my favorites.

Just a remark on the Margolin’s song “Brown Liquor in a Dirty Glass” I found out something I didn’t know about ordering a drink “in a dirty glass.” It might mean adding an olive or olive juice. I don’t know if that’s true or not.

I was surprised to learn that one of last night’s song, “Sinner,” was by Robert Randolph, head of a gospel group. Judging from the lyrics, it sounds like the song is against religion.

But the first song of the night was “Summertime Blues”. It sort of fits the heat wave this weekend.