February 22, 2019, T+51 -- Charlie Pride Tonight

Updates

February 25, 2019: in the original post, I asked about the relationship between Charlie Pride and Montana. Two readers responded.

First note I received:

Charley Pride was a client of the --- firm I was with in Montana. He came to Montana playing semi-pro baseball and stayed to work in the aluminum smelter near Helena.

While doing that, he started playing country music and quickly became a hit on the bar circuit around Montana. His tenure in Montana was over by the time I joined the firm in 1968. However, [Charlie Pride still kept his relationship with the firm]. I always found it ironic that the [individual] in charge of his work was a classical musician as an avocation.

I think I mentioned to you that I was playing in a band in Glasgow, Montana, while I was getting my practice going. This would have been the 1962 to 1968 period. I remember stories of a great black country singer that often came to nearby Malta to play at a bar there. You can only imagine what a novelty that was at the time.

In the meantime, he had moved on to Nashville and began recording. Of course, when he hit the big time in the mid-60s, everyone remembered seeing him play “up close and personal in the good old days”. Kind of like everyone on Montana seems to have been at the Red Lion Inn in Missoula to see Jimmy Buffett play during the month he was there before he hit the big time. Anyway, that’s my recollection of Charley’s Montana connection. Great singer.

Second note I received:

Charlie Pride played minor league baseball in Helena, MT, for LA Dodgers. Saw him sing the national anthem in Helena a few years ago for a Carroll College football game.

Original Post

First things first: Charlie Pride documentary on PBS tonight, 8:00 p.m. Central Time, I believe, but check your local listings. Quick: how is Charlie Pride "connected" to Montana? I've probably seen Charlie Pride in concert more times than any other performer. The best concert ever for me? Charlie Rich. Long story. Liberace a close second. 


Is Anyone Goin' To San Antone? Charlie Pride
First things first: brewery to expand in Williston -- 

More than three years after Williams County opened a new building for its highway department, the owners of a Glasgow, Montana, brewery have made an offer to buy the old building. The Williams County Commission unanimously accepted a $700,000 bid from Ben and Connie Boreson, who own Busted Knuckle Brewery in Glasgow.

Williston: Boot Barn will open in the former Sears site. Sears has re-opened in the former Aaron's, a branch of NAPA Auto Parts. Aaron's is moving into the former Budget Home Furnishings building.

Shut off the lights on the way out: FT is quotes a hedge fund forecasting the demise of coal in Europe within three years. Hold that thought. We'll check back in 2025.

Surfeit of riches. For North Dakota, it simply doesn't quit. North Dakota overtakes Texas as the top lignite producer in 2018. Link here. So, #1 in certain grain products; #1 in honey; #1 in ICBMs (not sure if that still holds); #1 in lignite; #1 in common sense (at least in the western half of the state).

Spoiler alert: two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar, everyone for reparations, stand up and holler. Pocahontas and Kamala Harris have both signed on. This is a deal killer. Even Barack Obama knew that. It's only slightly worse than telling coal country that "a lot of coal miners will be out of work when I'm elected president." Regardless of whether it's morally right or wrong, here are the demographics: African-Americans in the US: 15%, with projections to 18% in 2060. Hispanics in the US: 18% in 2016. Remember: all politics is local.

Of the 10 states with the largest Hispanic population, Georgia's Hispanic population has more than doubled since 2000.

California: African-American, around 6%; Latino, around 38% and growing;

They track everything: AOC -- "Occasional-Cortex" to the rest of us. But AOC: Amazon online customer.

Scott Adams asked this blogger to provide the five best arguments against AGW.

Coral reefs in west Hawaii are poised for recovery. Another "polar bear" story/study, I guess.