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Don't Try This At Home

Things I've Learned from Classic Rock

By Bob on September 9, 2009 4:39 PM

CCR Album.jpg
  1. Regardless of what John Fogerty may have told you, people on the river aren't happy to give.

  2. If you don't eat your meat, you won't get any pudding.

  3. A blackbird singing in the dead of night is irritating as hell.

  4. Southern man doesn't need Neil Young.

  5. You don't have to live like a refugee, but miss two car payments and you'll get a chance to find out.

  6. I know it's only rock and roll, but I like it.

I was listenting to my favorite Sirius XM station the other day as I was driving to Lowe's.  Lowe's, in case you've been living under a rock for the past decade, is where Boomer males go on Saturday to get out of the house.  We pretend we're buying supplies to complete all the jobs on our to-do lists, but we really just like looking at crap like belt sanders and bungee cords.


I've seen guys walk out on their wives in Bed, Bath and Beyond when they fire up the grill.  It's like Night of the Living Dead with an all-beef frank.


They also have hot dogs.  It's a well documented fact that the smell of grilled onions can make a man salivate at any time of the day.  Lowe's knows this secret and uses onion phermones to lure men within a 50-mile radius to their front door.  I've seen guys just walk out on their wives in Bed, Bath and Beyond when they fire up the grill.  It's like Night of the Living Dead with an all-beef frank.

 

Classic rock has the same hold on me.

 

Yeah, a lot of it is CRAP (sorry J. Geils Band, but somebody had to say it).  There is no denying it played an important role in my trip to adulthood.  There was wake up music, (The Who, Rolling Stones and very early Kinks).  Make up music (just about anything in the Moody Blues and James Taylor discography).  Road music (Allman brothers, Skynyrd, Beach Boys, Bonnie Raitt, Jim Morrison, or just about anything from Clapton).  Sad girl music (thanks, Joni Mitchell).   Make out music (Robert Palmer,  Al Green, Marvin Gaye).  And of course, late-night music (Lou Reed, with and without the Velvet Underground, Tom Waits, Van Morrison, Laura Nyro, Traffic, Pink Floyd and very early Emerson Lake and Palmer). 


Music is the coin worn smooth by being traded among friends. 


 

Classic rock is the Rosetta Stone that helped me decipher life from adolesence through adulthood. 

 

I was never tied to a whipping post, but I knew what the Allman brothers meant.  Gram Parson's drug-adled brain helped me understand longing and regret through the plaintive strains of "Hickory Wind" and "20,000 Roads".   And Neil Young?  Anyone who's ever listened to the lyrics of "Sugar Mountain" will wax nostalgic about what it feels like to move into that first dorm room.

 

Music is more than something to help you pass the time between home and Lowe's on a Saturday morning.  It's the coin worn smooth by being traded among friends. 

 

Ask anyone their favorite musicans and you'll get a pretty clear picture of their personality.  You may come away with a stereophonic stereotype, but it does help frame a person and place them in a pretty good light.

 

Easy is better.  Yeah, we mess up on occasion and peg a perfectly good person for a DB just because they like Barry Manilow.  No harm done.  If we break something we can probably fix it by picking something up on our next trip to Lowe's.

 

Hey, do you smell grilled onions?

 

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Diabetes-Friendly Chicken Burrito Bowl

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By Laura Cipullo and Lisa Mikus, authors of Everyday Diabetes Meals
Image credit: Colin Erricson

Prepare your own Mexican quick fix with this Chipotle-inspired bowl. Carbs are moderated by filling the bowl with beans, extra veggies and chicken. No need for rice, since the beans count as carbs.

Tips:

If you love tomatoes, increase the quantity to 1/2 cup, but note that the carbohydrates will also increase.

If preparing this recipe for one person, cut all of the ingredients in half. Or simply prepare the full recipe up to the end of step 2 and store leftover chicken and vegetable-bean mixture in separate airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Reheat in the microwave on High for 1 to 2 minutes, or until heated through, and continue with step 3.

Health Bite: The iron, calcium, magnesium, manganese, copper and zinc in black beans help to keep bones strong and healthy.

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Windy City

It's been almost 18 years since Alison Krauss gave us a solo album, but the wait is over with Windy City. The release (her fifth solo studio album) features ten covers of classic songs (and some bonus tracks) she picked with producer Buddy Cannon.

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