Pass the Biscuits, Please . . .

Regarding the film ODE TO BILLY JOE (from Wikipedia):

Max Baer Jr. (a tall boy), who had played the role Jethro (which I was often called, back then) in THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, got the idea of using the title of a popular song as a movie title, acquiring the rights to the Bobbie Gentry hit song and producing Ode to Billy Joe (1976). Made for US$1.1 million, it grossed US$27 million at the box office, plus earnings in excess of US$2.65 million in the foreign market, US$4.75 million from television, and US$2.5 million from video. The film starred Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor.

Since the success of Ode to Billy Joe, the motion picture industry has capitalized on the idea, producing more than one hundred song title movies. Baer decided to pursue the rights to the hit song "Like a Virgin", recorded by the singer Madonna in 1984. When ABC tried to prevent him from making the film, he sued and won a judgment of more than US$2 million.

Since then, he has retired to his home at Lake Tahoe, Nevada. He still makes occasional guest appearances on television.

It has been one hell of a week, and time to step back before moving on.

Most of it, I spent memorializing Evan Fish, and readers responded, driving hits to this blog to more than double their highest previous daily rate of 482 -- and (not including yesterday's posting as it's too early to tell) those posts have shot to the 6th, 8th, and 10th most popular postings of all time. That on a blog site whose popularity has been rising exponentially since I began in earnest two years ago with a very modest readership. The only dips were the two months Ben David had me in jail, or I was in protective custody (March, July, and August of this year).

To date this month, hits are at 5,000, so I project a total exceeding 15,000 hits this month -- more than twice the previous peak of 6222 this June. Total all time hits should exceed 50,000 on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11.

Just for fun, here are the three all-time most popular posts:

1.: http://scottkenan.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-ass-aint-royal-but-you-can-still.html
2.: http://scottkenan.blogspot.com/2010/02/nancy-reagan-queen-of-holly-wood-blow.html
3.: http://scottkenan.blogspot.com/2010/08/sending-out-hurried-press-release-nazis.html

I might "monetize" the blog as Google keeps trying to make me do. Most forms of journalism, including TV, magazine, and newspaper accept ads, so I guess it wouldn't be a sell-out. I've been thwarted at every effort to earn money -- even my walking tour, HENRY FLAGLER, MARY LILY KENAN, TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, & ME!, which Evan was going to partner with me in is currently in limbo until I find another sales/marketing manager.

I owe royalties paid me by Amazon.com to several, but have had to use them. I intend to put a sale site on the face of this blog so that I can sell the book directly. Amazon STILL refuses to answer my inquiris regarding their mishandling of the book's sales and refusal to do their part of the marketing. I suppose I can't complain too much since I've been too political to have time to market, myself.

I've ruffled feathers hither and yon, and maybe even contributed to the fall of the Tea Party Republicans who were too lazy to do the research to see that Gen. James Kenan actually led the first armed resistance to the Crown over the Stamp Act here at Wilmington. Since the Yankees won, the history books were rewritten -- as is the Victor's right -- but it doesn't change facts. Kenans never gave a damn about credit; we're addicted to effectiveness instead.

But dare I say it, KENAN has raised its ugly head and pulled another one off for Liberty and Justice for ALL, partially through me. Hell, even Br'er Obama's sudden leap into manhood the other night might have been part of the result!

Time will tell.

So now it is time to move on. Somehow, when I think of Evan Fish today, a phrase from Bobby Gentry's iconic ODE TO BILLY JOE, which was a monster hit my senior year at Whetstone High School in Columbus, OH, ". . . pass the biscuits, please", a reminder that life goes on -- and we must all be practical.

Here are the complete lyrics:

Ode to Billy Joe

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet"
And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge"
"Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"


And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas
"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please"
"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow"
And Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge


And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?
"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right"
"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge"
"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"


And Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?"
"I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite"
"That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today"
"Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way"
"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge"
"And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"


A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe
And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring
And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge

.