The idea behind Who Won the Week is to give you the opportunity to select who (or what) you think “won” this past week. Your selection can be anyone or anything — politicians, celebrities, athletes, authors, bloggers, your friends or family members, books, movies, TV shows, businesses, organizations, whatever.
I will be posting this prompt on Sunday mornings (my time). If you want to participate, write your own post designating who you think won the week and why you think they deserve your nod. Then link back to this post and tag you post with FWWTW.
My Who Won The Week pick for this week is the health of Americans living in blue (democratic leaning) states that voted for Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
According to an article published in the New York Times this past week, the political divide over vaccinations is so large that almost every reliably blue state now has a higher vaccination rate than almost every reliably red state.
Further, because the vaccines are so effective at preventing serious illness, Covid deaths are also showing a partisan pattern. Covid is still a national crisis, but the worst forms of it are increasingly concentrated in red America.
And when you get even more granular, in counties where Donald Trump won at least 70 percent of the vote in the 2020 election, Covid-19 has killed about 47 out of every 100,000 people since the end of June. In counties where Trump won less than 32 percent of the vote, the Covid death rate is about 10 out of 100,000.
I wonder what lesson we can learn from this.
What about you? Who (or what) do you think won the week?
“Andy, what the hell did you stuff into this backpack?” Andy’s father asked him. “It weighs a ton. Did you pack the whole kit and caboodle?”
“The kit and the what?” Andy asked.”
“The kit and caboodle,” his father said. “It means that you’re taking with you more than you could possibly need. Like everything, including the kitchen sink.”
“Dad,” Andy said, “I think we’re experiencing a verbal generation gap when you use expressions like kit and caboodle.”
For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday prompt, Jim Adams is getting all hot and bothered. He wants us to choose a song about having sex, talking about sex, insinuating sex, or hinting about sex. The song I chose is “Let’s Spend the Night Together” by The Rolling Stones.
“Let’s Spend the Night Together” was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and was originally released by the Rolling Stones in the U.S. as a double A-sided single together with “Ruby Tuesday” in January 1967. It also appeared as the opening track on the American version of their album Between the Buttons. Marianne Faithfull, Jagger’s ex-girlfriend, claimed that he wrote this song after their first night together.
It’s unmistakable in this song that singer Mick Jagger is making a play to get the woman he’s singing to to sleep with him so that he could “satisfy her every need.” Because of the obvious reference to sex, many American radio stations either refused to play the song or bleeped out the word “night.” Hence, even though both songs, “Let’s Spend the Night Together” and “Ruby Tuesday,” entered the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in late January, by March, “Ruby Tuesday” reached number one, while “Let’s Spend the Night Together” stalled at number 55.
On January 15, 1967, the Rolling Stones, who had yet to score their first Top 10 hit in America, made their fifth appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan himself told Jagger, “Either the song goes or you go” and would likely have banned them from the program if they didn’t follow his rules. In an unusual capitulation for Jagger, when the band played this song, they altered the lyric to “let’s spend some time together.” Jagger made his displeasure clear on the live TV show by rolling his eyes when he sang the altered line. I actually watched the live show on TV and it was hilarious.
Here are the lyrics to “Let’s Spend the Night Together.”
My, my, my, my Don’t you worry ’bout what’s on your mind (oh my) I’m in no hurry I can take my time (oh my) I’m going red and my tongue’s getting tied (tongues’ getting tied) I’m off my head and my mouth’s getting dry I’m high, but I try, try, try (oh my) Let’s spend the night together Now I need you more than ever Let’s spend the night together now
I feel so strong that I can’t disguise (oh my) Let’s spend the night together But I just can’t apologize (oh no) Let’s spend the night together Don’t hang me up and don’t let me down (don’t let me down) We could have fun just groovin’ around, around and around Oh my, my Let’s spend the night together Now I need you more than ever Let’s spend the night together
Let’s spend the night together Now I need you more than ever
You know I’m smiling baby You need some guiding baby I’m just deciding baby, now I need you more than ever Let’s spend the night together Let’s spend the night together now
This doesn’t happen to me everyday (oh my) Let’s spend the night together No excuses offered anyway (oh my) Let’s spend the night together I’ll satisfy your every need (your every need) And I now know you will satisfy me Oh my, my, my, my, my Let’s spend the night together Now I need you more than ever Let’s spend the night together now (oh my my my my my my) Let’s spend the night together Now I need ya, need ya more than ever (oh my) Let’s spend the night together I satisfy your every need (whoa my) Let’s spend the night together Now I know, I know you satisfy me (whoa my) Let’s spend the night together I beg ya baby, (Let’s spend the night together)
Welcome to October 3, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).
Today’s word — or in this case, two words — are “splitting hairs.”
Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.
Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.
And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.
This, That, and the Other 