Odds And Ends -- Nothing About The Bakken -- Nothing About Investing -- January 10, 2023

Posted elsewhere.

The top 100 songs of 1969.

There was an 18-month-period, from late 1968 through mid-1970 that clearly had some of the best music ever.  This was the year of Woodstock. The Beatles were still going strong, but touring less, and would soon stop completely.  Led Zeppelin's first two albums, Zeppelin I and Zeppelin II, were released in 1969. Self-titled "Velvet Underground" was released in 1969. The era of "free love" and the uncertainties of the Vietnam War probably contributed to some of this really incredible music.

Speaking of the Vietnam war, I turned 18 in 1969. My lottery draft was July 1, 1970; my lottery number was 103. The highest lottery number called for this group was 125; all men assigned that lottery number or any lower number, and who were classified as available for military service, were called to report for possible induction.

I would have been deferred by virtue of being enrolled in college. I was worried that I would be called up before I graduated from college. I was convinced, but wrong, that the war would still be going on when I graduated from college.

Whoo-hoo! My "insight" never ceases to amaze me. 

Add this to the list of "1969" great songs. LOL.

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The Book Page 

Released today, brand new edition, released / copyright / published January 10, 2023. Amazon delivered to to my door today.

I opened the Amazon box that contained this book about ninety minutes ago.

Five minutes ago, I paged through it with Marlowe (1969) playing in the background.

My first thoughts on paging through the book in the past 120 seconds.

• this particular edition needs to be read by every serious reader of literature;
• this book should not be used to compare Mailer to Hemingway, but rather to J. D. Salinger;
• Hemingway would never write a novel this long -- around 708 pages;
• the twenty-three letters written to his first love, Beatrice, and his family, are priceless; nine of these letters are published for the first time -- written while Mailer was deployed in the Philippines (and still fighting) and in Japan following the end of hostilities;
• released to mark the centennial of Mailer's birth and the 75th anniversary of his landmark debut novel;
• I did not look at but am eager to read the "detailed notes."
  
• Mailer: The Naked and the Dead; Selected Letters 1945 - 1946. J. Michael Lennon, editor, c. 2023.
  

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The Lego Page

For the grandsons.