The state of the culture

A piece on THE Great Lost Album. Like most pop criticism, it's overthought and overwrought, but it's right that the Beach Boys' importance and Brian Wislon's talent often get overlooked. And I defy anydody to find better driving-around music.

Can you imagine how much better our lives would have been if we got to use the Five Times Rule instead of always having to toe the line?

Hunter Thompson was one of a kind. Where is he now that we need him to cover an absurd memorial service with the snarling cynicism it deserves?

If there are so many ways to be famous in such small niches, maybe Andy Warhol's "15 minutes of fame" should be reduced to a minute or two. On the other hand, if you want to nominate me and make me a little bit famous, I wouldn't mind. One of the people in the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame is someone I once worked with.

Let's see. I can fight traffic, try to find a parking space, spend $8 for a ticket and a king's ransom for popcorn and a drink and put up with the screaming kids and the people in front of me who won't shut up. Or I can wait a few weeks and watch the DVD in the comfort of my living room. What a tough call.

First, the NCAA puts the squeeze on Native American mascots and nicknames. Now, New Mexico State University is disarming Pistol Pete and putting a lasso in his hands. Guess we're supposed to purge both Indians and Cowboys from our history.

Can a panhandler's ability to ask for money be restricted, but a firefighter's right to stand by the road and raise money for charity be upheld, without somebody's rights being violated? Such questions are important to ask, but every time the issue is brought up, advocates always find a new right nobody ever thought of before. A proposed ban on begging in Atlanta has some claiming it is a civil rights issue, since many of those begging are black.

No f***, no "F word," no "freakings, friggings or firkings," either. It's the complete expletive to end all expletives, or nothing at all. That's the way they're doing it in Canadian newspapers these days, at any rate. How things change. I remember a huge fight at my last newspaper when Jimmy Carter said he was going to "whip Teddy Kennedy's a**" -- and the publishers weren't thrilled that we even went so far as to use the asterisks.

Holy cow. They must have finally run out of things to poll people about if they've gotten around to this -- Americans' favorite dead celebrities. Lucille Ball tops the list, followed by Bob Hope and John Wayne. Our least-favorite room-temperature famous people are Robert Atkins, Tupac Shakur and Johnnie Cochran; talk about getting no respect. Guess there's still hope for those of us who don't leave this world as well-liked as we might have hoped.

The prime directive of libertarianism and a pretty good restatement of the Golden Rule: "Just don't stand on anybody's head." Not sure I buy this marriage of conservatism and Dead Head-ism, but it's a fascinating read. For sure, more people on the right are fans of Jerry Garcia than of the Rolling Stones. Joke I heard once: What did the Dead Head say when he ran out of pot?