MAYDAY!
from the French: m'aider (help me)
Mayday! - Mayday!
Worldwide renewal happening
recycling time saturated culture
Mayday! - Mayday!
Exultant waves ebb and flow
in divisible world eye
Mayday! Mayday!
Celts, Saxons and Beltane
spin wooden wheels
rolling into fields
blessed by the Catholic Church
Mayday! - Mayday!
Peaking flamboyant priests
chanting, singing, and blowing
Walpurgisnacht - night of witches.
Mayday! - Mayday!
Phallic 
pole
of MaymenWomen
holding ribbons to be entwined
Green Man - Mayday!
Praising spring time
communists partying
earthlings dancing
on May Day! - May Day!
-- Hammond Guthrie and friends
FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2002
Every
child in America, and almost every adult, knows the Hokey Pokey.
You just put your right foot in and put your right foot out to
perform one of the best-known circle dances in American history.
Its popularity belies its age, and conceals its author.
Larry LaPrise wrote the tune for the Sun Valley, Idaho, ski crowd in the late 1940s, but it took a recording by big band leader Ray Anthony to make the Hokey Pokey a nationwide phenomenon. (It appeared on the B side of the "Bunny Hop" single.)
LaPrise didn't receive royalties for the song until the 1960s, when its rights were purchased by country star Roy Acuff's publishing company.
In recent years, LaPrise worked in the post office
in Ketchum, Idaho. Children often wrote him notes addressed to
"The Hokey Pokey Man."
Larry LaPrise died last week at age 83. It was extremely difficult for the family to keep him in the casket. They'd put his left leg in and .....well, you know the rest."
Babbs's response: Now
I know what they mean by no rest for the weary.
Dear Sir,
I am the first wife of the late UNITA leader
who was killed last month in Angola.
The main motive of my mail to you is that am looking for assistance
in your country, I need a trustworthy individual to deal
with who has a legitimate and profitable business and would like
to go into partnership with me, because am in possesion
of some of my husband wealth and I want to utilise this
opportunity to invest it. There is a box containing precious
stones which I want to move out of our country now and am
so worried that I don´t even know what to do , but my immediate
problem now is a huge sum of money logded with a security
company in Europe for which I require your assistance.
Please try as much as you can to get in touch with me
so that I can know if there is any business opportunity .
I look forward to your response, thanks
Mrs Mariam Savimbi
Babbs replies:
Whoa! Trustworthy? You've come to the right place. Where else
can you order a product and get it and then pay for it? So send
the stones. You got UPS in your country? The huge sum of money
you can wire direct. 
HOLD THE PRESSES!
Man, I hit a nerve on this one. Turns out I don't qualify. Trustworthy was okay but I flunked the legitimate and profitable test.
HERE'S what some concerned readers had to say:
Ken - Whoa!
I'm sure you've already been told this, but... that letter
is called a 419 scam and it's going on all over the place.
Many people have lost thousands of dollars by getting
involved and a few have actually been killed. The secret
service has a web site set up where you can forward those
'cause they're trying to catch them. So, keep your sweet,
trusting buns out of trouble and ignore them darned things.
Love ya
Babbs answers: Much grass
for the headsup. But no way am I going near a secret service
web site with my unscrupulous gains, taking advantage of an African
widow. Can I use the expression, "Black Widow?" Wait'll
she tries to loot my account. Too late, mamselle, the IRS beat
you to it.
ANOTHER concerned reader's message:
It's a variation of a scam. they get the number to your account. and yes they wire money... but in the opposite direction!
Babbs answers: Well, pop my bubble. Did you hear about the reporter who decided to get to the bottom of the story? She set up a hotmail account with a fake name and responded to the scam. It got so wild and crazy with demands and threats she got scared and killed her hotmail account. Grave matters, indeed. Let's return to the land of the living:
Bill Walton was on Late Night with David Letterman last night. As he was introduced, Paul's band played "Sugaree" and Walton came out in suit pants and a tye die tie to die for. He mentioned Ken Kesey's name 3 times and THE BUS at least as many. It was great!
Okay, now get back to work!
.
A long
time ago Kesey and I had the idea to go over to Afghanistan with
our laptop and digital camera and satellite phone and do dispatches
from the front. Unfortunately we couldn't leave home. Now I gets
an email from Robert Schwartz who did just that thing: went to
Afghanistan and although he didn't have his own website he was
nice enough to send us his pictures. Here they are. Thanks, Robert,
and to all you Afghanies we are pulling for you to come through
these tough times and restore your country to its previous groove.
-- Ken Babbs
Kids looking in the jeep.
Metal worker.
Mine victim.
New moms.
Girls.
Blacksmith.
Woman on donkey.
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