Word purge

Can you believe that Mark Knoppfel (sp?) of Dire Straits had to change the wording of one of his songs because it contained the word "faggot" in it!! Apparently, a gay guy in Newfoundland complained to a human rights tribunal and won. It's almost as bad as the move afoot in the US to purge Mark Twain's works of the word "nigger". I mean, come on people! Mark Twain wrote his books when this was an ordinary word. And Dire Straits wrote that song ages ago and so what!? Have you ever listened to black rap music these days? Everyone's a "ho" or a "nigger" or a "bitch"......and on and on. But I love Knoppfel's response. He is going to re-record the song and substitute the word "fudger" for the word "faggot". Brilliant. Not a guy to dig in on principle. No, he's going to continue to cash in the royalties by changing the word. Wonder if Mr. Newfoundland will like "fudger" better? It certainly has a number of meanings, so he's kinda check-mated there.

Darling Susannah York died the other day. How could she have been 73??!! Remember her in 'Tom Jones'? She was adorable, with her little perky breasts and her impish grin. And Gerry Rafferty died too. A great musician and song-writer, I have played his music for 40 years. Apparently he could not kick the booze. He grew up in the slums of Scotland and was a childhood chum of Billy Connolly. I love Connolly. He suffered physical and sexual abuse as a child, but came out of it. Proves it is possible.

Got an e-mail the other day from my old friend Sandra, the one I met 35 years ago through my ex-husband, Bob. She still wants to get together and I am reluctant. As I told her, the only thing we have in common is Bob and I don't want to spend hours talking about him. She also wanted to include another woman I knew well who ended up living with Bob after our divorce. Whaaaaat??!! I don't think so. But she is insistent that at least the two of us get together, so I agreed on the condition that we not go back 35 years and talk about "old times". More on that when I get back from Blighty.