Toronto has a championship team. Congratulations Toronto Argonauts!

 

The Toronto Argonauts won the Grey Cup yesterday, but I didn't hear any horns honking.  I didn't notice much celebrating.  Too bad, because the Argos are a winning team.  They have won two of the last three Grey Cups.  The Maple Leafs have not won the Stanley Cup since 1967 - 57 long years ago.  In recent years, they have been getting knocked out of the playoffs early.  

The cost of attending a Leaf game is exorbitant. and it will continue to rise.  It is beyond the grasp of many families.

Winning the Stanley Cup is a grind.  The NHL is fueled by pure greed.  There are two many teams and too many games.  The post season drags on until the end of June.  

The Toronto Blue Jays won back-backWorld Series in 1992 and 1993 - over 30 years ago.  In 2022 and 2023, they failed to win a post season series..  In 2024, they finished last in their division, the American League East.  What are the odds of the Jays winning the World Series or even making the playoff in 2025?  I am a fan, but I have to be honest.  Zilch.  The team just isn't good enough and there are too many question marks.  Meanwhile, the cost of Blue Jays tickets continues to rise.

Yesterday, the 111th Grey Cup took place in Vancouver.  It was steeped in Canadian tradition.  Where else can you see members of the Royal Canadian  Mounted Police present the venerable trophy to the champions of Canadian football?

The CFL doesn't have the glitz and the glamour of the NFL and the Super Bowl.  It is certainly more homey and more community oriented.  Grey Cup games are still reasonably affordable, unlike the cost of a Super Bowl ticket.

Unfortunately, the CFL is underappreciated in this country, especially in Toronto.  Some NFL fans take delight in maligning the CFL.  It's their business if they greatly prefer the NFL, but they should keep in mind that the CFL brings much enjoyment to many people.  It shouldn't be denigrated.

Congratulations and thank you Toronto Argos for bringing a championship to our city.  Thank you for making my Sunday brighter. The Grey Cup tradition will continue next year in Winnipeg.

- Joanne

Cass Elliot and Keith Moon died in the same apartment

        

A former work colleague of mine was travelling in Europe and he posted photos of this London apartment on Facebook.  He explained that Mama Cass Elliot of The Mamas and the Papas and Keith Moon of The Who both died there, four years apart.  I was unaware of this, and I became curious.  I decided to do more research.  

The apartment is located on the corner of Curzon St and Curzon Square, in the Mayfair area of London.  At the time of her passing, Cass Elliot occupied Flat 12, owned by American pop star Harry Nilsson.  The flat was Cass Elliot's temporary home in the city.  When Nilsson purchased the place in the 1970s, its location was ideal for him, because of its proximity to Apple Records (he was a good friend of the Beatles).  There were also nearby nightclubs frequented by celebrities.  However, the singer-songwriter was often on the road in the United States.  He rarely had a chance to spend time at his London home, so he rented it out to his musician friends.

When Cass Elliot was found dead in her London flat on July 29, 1974, rumours quickly spread that she had choked on a ham sandwich.  It was later revealed that the 32-year-old singer had passed away in her sleep, and her death was ruled accidental.  On August 5, 1974, Dr. Keith Simpson, a British pathologist, and Gavin Thurston, a London coroner, issued a report that ruled out the theory that Cass had choked on a sandwich.  They found that there was no food in her windpipe, and no drugs in her system at the time of her passing. Simpson's autopsy revealed that her death was due to a "left-sided heart failure" and that she had suffered "a heart attack which developed rapidly.  Cass had been overweight her whole life, and her crash diets likely weakened her heart.

Cass Elliot

Born Ellen Naomi Cohen in Baltimore, Maryland on September 19, 1941, Casa rose to fame with the hippie era California-based folk rock vocal group the Mamas and the Papas.  The Mamas and the Papas performed and recorded from 1965 to 1968.  The group had a brief reunion in 1971 with the album People Like Us, but split up again soon after the album was released. 

The Mamas and the Papas consisted of Americans John Phillips, Cass Elliot, Michelle Phillips, and Canadian Denny Doherty.  The songwriter and leader of the group was John Phillipa.  It was Phillips who arranged the group's vocal harmonies.  The quartet was enormously successful in the turbulent 1969s,  It released five studio albums and 17 singles, six of which made the Billboard top ten, producing such hits as "California Dreamin', "Monday, Monday" and "Dedicated to the One I Love."

Cass Elliot was the last member to join the Mamas and the Papas.  Cass had been Doherty's bandmate with the Mugwumps, an American group formed in New York City in 1964.  The group had released one single before breaking up in late 1964.  Despite her association with Doherty, Cass did not have an easy time in joining the Mamas and the Papas.  John Phillips, had reservations about her becoming a member of the group.  Phillips was deeply concerned that her voice was too low for his arrangements, that her obesity would be a detriment to the band's success, and that her personality was incompatible with his.  Somehow, Cass overcame those obstacles and joined the group.

In May of 1968, the Mamas and the Papas released an album entitled The Papas & The Mamas.  It was the band's first album not to go gold or reach the top 10 in the United States.  Against John Phillip's wishes,  Dunhill Records decided to release Cass's solo from the album, a remake of "Dream a Little Dream of Me," as a single credited to "Mama Cass with the Mamas & the Papas.  The song reached No. 12 in the United States and No. 11 in the United Kingdom.

Mama and the Papa on Ed Sullivan Show 1967

Cass's death came just after she had established herself as a solo artist.  Her goal had been to rid herself of her "Big Mama" image.  After years of struggle, she was finally on the way to achieving her objective.  She was shifting her image from "Mama Cass" to Cass Elliot.  In fact, the last album she released before her death was entitled Don't Call Me Mama Anymore (September, 1973).

     

On that fateful July 27, 1974, Cass had just completed a successful two-week stint at London's Palladium, where she had received nightly standing ovations.  Her stage manager, Bobby Roberts, stated that that "was one of her lifetime ambitions."  Producer Lou Adler recalled her final performance.  "She was really up," he said.  "She felt she was opening a new career, she'd finally got together an act she felt good doing - not prostituting herself, but middle-of-the road people enjoyed it and she enjoyed doing it."  Sadly, Cass passed away just as she was hitting her stride.  In London, she had enjoyed the taste of a successful solo career, but it was not destined to be long term.  

In 1978, Keith Moon, the eccentric drummer for The Who, occupied the flat where Cass had died four years previously  Harry Nillson was initially reluctant to grant Moon's request to use the flat because he apparently considered the place to be 'cursed.'  However, Who guitarist Pete Townshend convinced Nillson that lightning doe not strike twice in the same place."  As it turned out, Moon died in the very same bed in which Cass Elliot had passed away.  The 32-year-old British rock star was also the same age that Cass had been at the time of her death.  

Keith Moon

On September 7, 1978, Keith Moon and his girlfriend , Annette Walker-Lax returned home after attending a midnight showing of the film The Buddy Holly Story at the Odeon, Leicester Square. 

They were guests of Paul McCartney, who had  purchased the international rights to more than 40 of Holly's songs.  Inside the cinema, Keith was agitated.  He was restless.  According to Annette, he wanted to leave an hour into the movie.  

Moon, had long struggled with alcohol abuse.  Ironically, the cause of his death was an overdose of  clomethiazole, a prescription drug intended to treat or prevent symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.  A month prior to the rock star's death, The Who released Who Are You, the group's first new album in years.  However, Keith's drinking and drug use had affected his performance and his appearance.  On the cover photograph of the album, he posed in a a way that his paunch was concealed.  Due to their drummer's condition, The Who were in no position to tour, which left him feeling anxious.

Annette spoke to Tony Fletcher, author of Keith's biography, Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend, about the night he died.  She remembered Keith "taking his usual glass of water and bucket of pills" before falling asleep about 4 a.m.  Moon had been taking more than his prescribed dose of clomethiazole, in the manner he generally abused drugs.  Annette did not realize quite how many pills of the powerful sedative he was consuming

According to Annette, Keith awakened at 7:30 a.m. and asked for food.  He was in a foul mood and they argued.  Nevertheless, Annette served him some lamb.  After finishing his meal, Moon ingested some more clomethiazole and fell asleep again.  Annette was disturbed by his snoring, so she slept on the sofa.  When she returned to the bedroom, she discovered Moon lying on his stomach with his left arm hanging over the side of the bed.  "I couldn't hear him breathing," she told Fletcher.  "Right there and then I knew something was wrong.  I went into a panic."  Annette phoned Dr. Geoffrey Dymond, the physician who had prescribed the  clomethiazole.  Dr. Dymond called an ambulance, but it was too late.  Keith had been dead for some time, but it wasn't until 5:50 p.m. that he was officially pronounced dead.

On Moon's death certificate, the official cause of death was listed as "Clomethiazole overdose, self-administered but no evidence of intention."  It was later revealed that Keith had had 26 undissolved clomethiazole tablets in his body when he passed away.  

Harry Nilsson was truly devasted by the deaths of his two friends, Cass Elliot and Keith Moon, at his apartment.  Nilsson felt that he could no longer live at that  'cursed'' flat, so he sold the place and and moved permanently to Los Angeles.  The buyer was none other than Pete Townshend, Keith Moon's bandmate with The Who.

It seems to me that Cass Elliot and Keith Moon were like bombs waiting to go off, Cass with her obesity and Keith with his alcoholism and drug abuse.  It happened that the bombs went off in the same place.

END NOTES

* Cass Elliot's daughter, Owen Elliot-Kugell wrote a memoir of the life and death of her mother.  The book is entitled My Mama, Cass.  It was published in May of 2024 by Hachette Books, 50 years after Cass's death.  After Cass's passing, her daughter Owen was raised by Cass's sister, Leah Cohen, and her husband, drummer Russ Kunkel.

Born on April 26, 1967, Owen was just seven years old when Cass die.  She was unable to spend much time with her mother, but she is dedicated to making sure that Cass's life and her musical legacy are not forgotten.  

For years, Owen had to endure jokes and innuendo that her mother died after choking on a ham sandwich.  In the course of researching her book, Owen spoke to her mother's close friend Sue Cameron.  It was Cameron who had written in her book Hollywood Secrets and Scandals that Cass had died from choking on a ham sandwich.  

Cameron revealed to Owen that she had called Cass's London apartment and had spoken to her manager Allan Carr, who told her that Cass had died.  Carr was upset and in a panic.  According to Cameron, he said, "There's a half=eaten sandwich on the nightstand.  You have to do this.  Just say she died choking on the sandwich." Carr wanted to counter any other rumours that might arise, especially concerning drugs.  So many of Cass's contemporaries, such as Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison. had died from drug overdoses.  Owen believes that "Allan was afraid they'd make the same assumption" about Cass. Although no drugs were discovered in Cass's at the time of her death, Owen isn't certain that earlier drug use didn't play a part in her mother's untimely demise.

If she were alive today, Cass Elliot would be a grandmother.  In 1991, Owen married Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer Jack Kugell.  They have two children, a son Noah and a daughter Zoe.  They reside in the San Fernando Valley in California.

* On October 22, 2022, Cass was given a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  The ceremony was attended by her daughter Owen.

* The Mamas and the Papas were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.  The group  reunited for the second and final to perform at the induction ceremony.  Own filled in for her deceased mother.

* John Phillips passed away in 2001 at the age of 65.  Denny Doherty died in 2007 at the age of 66,  Michelle Phillips, born June 4, 1944, is the only surviving member of the Mamas and the Papas..

* In early 2023, Cass's 1969 song "Make Your Own Kind of Music" went viral on TikTok.

* In 2011, Rolling Stone readers voted Keith Moon the second-greatest drummer in history.  In 1990, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Who.

SOURCES:  ati (allthatsnteresting.com), "The Truth About :'Mama' Cass Elliot's Death And The Urban Legend That Followed," by Marco Margaritoff, October 14, 2021, updated March 8, 2024;  Living London History (livinglondonhistory.com), "Death in Mayfair: The 'Cursed' Flat Of Curzon Square," December 8, 2021; People magazine, "All About Cass Elliot's Daughter Owen Elliot Kugeel, by Kara Nesvig, May 1,  2024; Louder (loudersound.com), "What really happened the night Keith Mood died?" by Mark Blake, September 6, 2022; Wikipedia

- Joanne

American nightmare: The aftermath of Election 2024

Did I wake up from a nightmare, or is it really true?  Sadly, it wasn't a bad dream.  It really did happen, and I am truly devastated.  I am still in shock.  The United States of America has elected a vulgar, racist criminal as its president.  America has chosen a misogynist who thinks of women as playthings, a man who has been found liable to sexual abuse, a man who has told women that he will protect them, whether they like it or not.  Yep, you've come a long way, baby!

To be honest, I am heartbroken.  Donald Trump and his MAGA movement are the embodiment of everything I oppose, everything I find repugnant.  Trump supporters say that they vote for him because he's similar to them.  They claim that he speaks to them in the same way they speak to their friends.  Is this true?  Are Americans really so crude and hateful?  Do they lack empathy?  Some do.  However, a great many have been deceived and misinformed.  The American economy is strong.  It is humming along right, thanks to President Joe Biden.  Biden has never received the credit he deserves for that.  He took the mess Trump left him and turned it around.  Yet, many Americans falsely believe that Trump was good for the economy.  They falsely blame Biden for high inflation, which he did not cause, and for which he did everything possible to bring down.  

Thanks to Fox News and right-wing extremists s such as Tucker Carlson, many Americans are convinced that January 6th was just a walk in the park in which no lives were threatened or lost.  They don't see it as a violent attempt to overthrow the 2020 election.  They do not believe that Trump and his followers threatened to hang Vice President Mike Pence.  When asked about Pence, Trump replied, "So what!."  The life of his vice-president, a fellow human being, meant nothing to him.

Donald Trump inherited a good economy from Barack Obama and took credit for it.  Now he will inherit a good economy from Biden and will happily accept responsibility for that, too.  Trump will then impose his ill-advised tariffs, and tax breaks for billionaires such as Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch and Jeff Bezos.  He will eventually ruin the economy.  Sadly, corporate media are controlled by a cabal of billionaires.  They held Kamala Harris to a much higher standard than Donald Trump.  Trump's bizarre behaviour was dismissed as just Trump being Trump, but Americans were told that they didn't know enough about Kamala Harris.  This, despite her many speeches about her family background and her qualifications for the job of president.  She has been a prosecutor, a district attorney for San Francisco, Attorney General of California, a United States senator and vice president of the United States.  

When Donald Trump became president in 2017, he had held no political office.  He was a shady businessman with six bankruptcies under his belt, and a realty show host on NBC.  Trump has always presented himself as a tough guy and he is a quintessential bully.  Underneath his tough guy veneer, he is full of jelly and as soft as a pillow.  Many males support him because they like his macho attitude and his Alpha Male personality.  They are unaware of his insecurity and his incessant need for his ego to be stroked.  Real men are courageous and empathetic.  They are confident and self-assured.  They don't need to put others down in order to raise themselves up.  They are comfortable in their own skin.

Lower income Americans do not realize that in voting for Trump, they have voted against their own interests.  Big Oil, Big Pharma and Big Insurance are thrilled with the return of Trump.  They will make billions of dollars by spewing greenhouse gases, keeping the price of prescription drugs high, and destroying Obamacare.  Americans with pre-existing conditions will lose their health care coverage.  Trump intends to replace Obamacare with a "concept of a plan."

Non-white immigrants and migrants have no place in Trump's America. even if they are legal citizens  Undocumented immigrants are less than human in Trump's America.  All that ails America is caused by immigrants.  They are "illegal aliens," no better than vermin.  He and JD Vance promise mass deportations.  Doesn't that sound horrifying?  In Trump's America, non-white immigrants are the great scapegoats.  If they work hard, they are taking jobs from "real Americans" (i.e. white), even if they are citizens of the United States.  If they are unemployed, they are lazy.  They are living off welfare.

Make no mistake, the United States will never be the same again.  With Trump at the helm, it will sink into authoritarianism.  He has no guardrails now.  He will only listen to those who tell him what he wants to hear.  This is a profoundly sad day.  I am Canadian, but the effects of this elections will reverberate in my country and throughout the world.  I can't sugarcoat what has happened.  Donald Trump is unstable and he has fascist tendencies.  He is obviously in cognitive decline. 

Until now, I believed that the American electorate would always chose hope and optimism. Americans voted for Franklin Roosevelt over Herbert Hoover in the depths of the Great Depression.  FDR's message was that "Happy Days Are Here Again."  In 2024, the stage seemed set for the election of the first female president of the United States.  Kamala Harris ran a great campaign.  She exuded energy.  She had momentum.  She had  a message of hope for the future.  Yet, her vision was rejected for some 1950s vision of the past, when women never worked, white men were in control, and Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Muslims were marginalized.

Now, Americans and people around the world must face the dire consequences of Trump's return to the White House.  He will help his buddy Vladimir Putin take over Ukraine.  Somewhere in the Kremlin, Putin is sipping vodka in celebration, setting the groundwork for invading another country.  As for climate change, which is arguably the most important issue facing humanity, it was hardly mentioned during the 2024 U.S. election campaign.  Trump thinks it's a hoax.  He thinks wind turbines cause cancer.  Meanwhile, Florida has just been ravaged by Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene has caused widespread destruction and many fatalities across the Southeastern United States.  Spain has just been hit by devastating floods.  This past summer, beautiful Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada was severely damaged by wildfire.

Kamala Harris will graciously accept the results of this election. On January 20th, there will be a peaceful transfer of power.  Biden and Harris will not claim that this election was rigged.  Today is a dark day, but I will continue to search for reasons to hope.  I still believe that the world can never give up on democracy and freedom.  We can never give up on humanity.  America, it's time for some soul searching and deep reflection.  What kind of a society have you become?

- Joanne

it's Decision Day in the USA

November 5th has finally here.  Election day has finally arrived in America.  It seems as if this campaign has lasted for an eternity.  For me, this day is bittersweet.  As I write this, I truly believe that Kamala Harris will be the next president of the United States.  Her campaign has been full of hope and optimism, as compared to the dark, dystopian vision of Donald Trump.  After suffering through a terrible pandemic, Americans are in search of a brighter tomorrow.  They do not need to hear a prospective president insulting women and Puerto Ricans.

What saddens me is that so many Americans, especially men, will cast their vote for a racist, misogynistic wanna be dictator.  The United States would never be the same if  Donald were to end up in the Oval Office.  Trump is a very sick man, physically and mentally.  He should not be running in this election in the first place.  It has become more and more apparent that he has some form of dementia or cognitive decline.  It has already been documented that he slurs his words and can't speak coherently.  

Most Americans are sick and tired of all the chaos, hate, division and rancour surrounding Trump and his supporters.  It's time to move on.  Kamala represents the future.  Donald Trump represents an oppressive past dominated by white males.  As Kamala says, it's time to turn the page.

By the way. I am certain that Kamala will win the popular boat.  The only chance for Trump is the unfair, out-of-date Electoral College system.  The majority of Americans prefer Kamala.  They would like to move forward, not backward to the 1950s.

I  live in Canada.  As a Canadian citizen, I am unable to vote in this election.  However, the whole world has a stake in this election.  If democracy is lost in America, it will be a tragedy.

-- Joanne

The Washington Post and Jeff Bezos should be ashamed

Jeff Bezos

 
"I really disagree. The Post thought, it has a news side and an editorial side. It's one institution. During Watergate — can I go back 50-plus years to talk about? When Carl Bernstein and I wrote stories that were denied, the Washington Post editorial department stood squarely behind us all of the way."

- Bob Woodward on ABC's The View

The Washington Post, the newspaper that uncovered the Watergate scandal, should be ashamed of itself.  It has refused to stand up for democracy.  It has refused to endorse a candidate in the 2024 election.  How disgraceful!  There is a clear choice in this election between a man who will not recognize the peaceful transfer of power, who is a misogynist and racist, and a woman who want to lift everyone up.  Kamala Harris does not consider her political opponents to be enemies.  

The Washington Post has traditionally backed candidates since the 1980s.  However, owner Jeff Bezos declared that the tradition had ended, despite the fact that a written endorsement for Harris had been in the works.  It is estimated that about 200,000 subscribers cancelled their subscription to The Post after Bezos announcement.  Furthermore, three members of the editorial board resigned from their posts in protest.

Frankly, I'm not surprised at Bezos' decision.  He's a billionaire, the founder of Amazon.  Trump is known to be favoured by billionaires.  When he was president, he gifted them with tax breaks.  He will do it again if he should return to the White House.  Let me be clear.  I don't believe that billionaires should be soaked.  I strongly believe, however, that they should pay their fair share.  They control too much of the wealth of America.  Some, like Elon Musk, are greedy Trump supporters.  They want to Medicare and repeal the Affordable Care Act.  They know that Trump will do their bidding.  Trump and his friends do not care about ordinary people who have suffered through a pandemic and are trying to support their families  

The Los Angeles Times and USA Today have also opted not to support Vice President Harris or former President Donald Trump.  Are these publications too cowardly to take a stand?  Are they afraid that if they do not support Trump, he will regard them as "enemies of the people" should he win the election?

- Joanne