“I Want to Come Home for Christmas,” written by Forrest Hairston and Marvin Gaye, recorded and produced by Mr. Gaye in 1972. While there were other R&B Christmas songs about the Vietnam conflict, this may be the only one written from the POW point-of -view. The recording was not released until after Marvin Gaye’s death.
2020 note: Stay the hell home this Christmas. COVID-19 is not an appropriate yuletide gift.
“I Want to Come Home for Christmas,” written by Forrest Hairston and Marvin Gaye, recorded and produced by Mr. Gaye in 1972. While there were other R&B Christmas songs about the Vietnam conflict, this may be the only one written from the POW point-of -view. The recording was not released until after Marvin Gaye’s death.
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Starbucks is moving into Vietnam, and will open its first coffeehouse in Ho Chi Min City next month. The chain already has 3,300 stores in 11 other countries in the China and Asia-Pacific region.
Talk about bringing coals to Newcastle. Vietnam has plenty of bad coffee already — they grow it. The country is the number one coffee exporter in the world. Last year Vietnam exported more coffee beans than Brazil, but they’re cheap robusta beans, not high-quality arabica beans like Starbucks uses.
The Vietnamese do drink lots of coffee, but they like it thicker than Starbucks’ dreadful Pike Place Roast. And then there’s the price issue. Per capita income in Vietnam is about US $1,270, and that won’t buy a lot of latte at “Fourbucks.”
More:
“Vietnam coffee shops not too worried by Starbucks’ arrival,” Mike Ives, AP via MSN News
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Image (“Starbucks World Domination”) by Mike Licht. Download a copyhere. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Rolling Thunder is back. The annual motorcycle event, originally conceived to draw attention to the plight of Vietnam-era POWs and MIAs (“Operation Rolling Thunder” was the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam) but it has grown into a roaring tribute to all of America’s military veterans.
Contingents of cyclists come from across the country, and salutes roar past armed service monuments. The largest tribute starts at Noon Sunday at Arlington Cemetery, crosses the Potomac over the beautiful Memorial Bridge, circles the National Mall, and stops near the Vietnam Memorial, where many riders will dismount, then quietly look for the names of fallen comrades and loved ones on The Wall. Music and oratory will complete the afternoon.
Many Washingtonians bring cameras to the DC end of Memorial Bridge to shoot “The Ride for Freedom,” but many hesitate to photograph dismounted riders at the Vietnam Memorial — it feels emotionally wrong, an invasion of privacy. But do go to The Wall. Unlike the triumphal military monuments spread across the Capital City, it does not glorify war, but memorializes sacrifice in a profoundly human way.
For more on the meaning of the National Vietnam Memorial, read The Last Firebase, by Lydia Fish.
Image by Mike Licht.
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Flu Facts Public Health Posts. Seventh and last in the series. A public service of NotionsCapital.com
Disclaimer:This blog post is not intended to substitute for the advice of qualified physicians, animators, pharmacists, cinematographers, licensed health-care professionals, or kwazy wabbits. Contact your health care provider if you suspect you have a medical problem. Th-th-that’s a-a-a-all, folks!
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Sarah Louise Heath Palin, Governor of all 670 000 Alaskans, energized the Republican Base at the Republican Convention last night, causing a brief shortage of blood pressure medication in the St. Paul area. As Vice President, Governor Palin said, she will employ the same administrative skills she used as Mayor of Wasilla, AK (population then: 5500). That means she and John McCain will hire a City Administrator to do their jobs so they can spend their time trying to ban books in public libraries and and keep Sex Ed out of classrooms.
In her prepared remarks, Governor Palin chastised “Community Organizers” and their failed, unAmerican methods of “Self-Help” and “Citizen-Involvement.” Thanks to the efforts of Mayor Palin (and suburban sprawl from nearby Anchorage), Wasilla today is a thriving metropolis of beautiful big box stores and spacious parking lots. The population has grown to nearly 8,000, as Sarah Palin is an ardent proponent of Abstinence-Only Sex Education.
After the March 4th primaries, Senator John McCain is the indisputable, bulletproof Republican presidential nominee. GOP voters in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont put him in a mathematically-certain position, with enough delegates to swing the convention. Senator McCain has certainly survived tougher fights than this one; he has another ahead of him.
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