HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Yanno. I was gonna go all informational about today but decided...naw. I'mma stick to my usual snark. Yep. It’s that time of year. Pumpkins. Apple Cider. Candied Apples. The turning of the leaves. Sweaters. Crumb snatchers at your front door expecting candy.  Some of them big enough, and old enough, to have stopped darkening doors 20 years ago. And the real adults. Oh boy, the real adults. The ones at the parties who get beyond loose after having been a wet blanket all year. You know the kind I mean. The same folk at the holiday office parties. The tightly-wound chicks who can’t wait to don the Sexy Anything costumes for Halloween. Pirate. Nurse. Mermaid. Bus Driver. Dog Catcher. School Teacher. On and on. And then you got the dudes who think it’s the time to release their inner drunken juice pig. Their costumes? Usually themselves with a $1 mask and fueled with ½ a keg of beer. Probably orange.

Personally, I wasn’t that much into candy. I wanted spiced wafer cookies. Piles of spiced wafer cookies. Irwin’s. Yum. To this day, nothing says Fall or Halloween like spiced wafers.

So, however you get your ghoul on, please do it appropriately (no blackface, redface, yellowface, etc. I’ll make it simply. Just no one’s ethnicity as a costume. OK? And don’t pout. Those exclusions leave a ton of other things to be) and safely.

Happy Halloween!

The "Lady Doctor" of early 20th century Colorado - Dr. Justina Ford

http://blackamericaweb.com/2016/10/14/little-known-black-history-fact-dr-justina-ford/

Well, seems "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" had a predecessor and was based in real life. Except Dr. Ford was black. A true example of making a way when there is no way, Dr. Ford thumbed her nose at the large hospitals that would not allow her to work in them lest she "disturb" the white staff and patients. Plus, she was barred from joining medical associations which would have given her the connections to get work. Associations. Organizations. Clubs. Never, NEVER let someone tell you those places where the "in crowd" gathers to give each other a leg up don't matter. If the person does, that person is hindering you and mos def is blocking your way. Anyhoo, Dr. Ford took her services to the hinterlands where the poor of ALL colors needed medical care. And probably didn't care who attended them once pain hit their ass. She specialized in gynecology and was the ONLY female doctor in the state for decades, let alone the only African-American one.

Go on with your bad self, Dr. Ford!

info courtesy of black america web

Remembering Gloria Naylor

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/04/books/gloria-naylor-national-book-award-winner-dies-at-66.html?_r=0

A writer of capable female characters who were the personification of their times, Gloria Naylor was a pro at depicting more than the neck-wiggling, eye-rolling and smart-talking black women.

The Women of Brewster Place. Linden Hills. Bailey's Cafe. Mama Day. The Men of Brewster Place. Each book is her legacy to the world.

She won the American Book Award and the National Book Award for 1st novel in 1983, the same year Alice Walker won the National Book Award for best novel for The Color Purple.

Talent Overload.

Rod Temperton – You wanna talk “blue-eyed soul, Justin and Robin?” Well, he was it

Another great, and a piece of the soundtrack of my life, has gone on to his reward. The native of England, who remained in England after his touring days ended, and who used to FAX his contributions to his collaborators, passed recently. Rod Temperton was the keyboardist, and composer for one of the best groups to come out of the 70s, HEATWAVE. Go listen to Always and Forever (with the unbelievable voice of the late Johnnie Wilder, Jr.) and I dare you not to wish you’d been there with flares on!

He worked for the rest of his life creating music with and for others. You might know some of these gorgeous songs:

For his group, HEATWAVE: Always and Forever; Grooveline

George Benson: Gimme the Night

Michael Macdonald: Yammo Be There

Michael Jackson: Rock Wit You; Thriller

Lionel Ritchie: Say You, Say Me (from the movie White Nights)

And it goes on and on.

Generous, original, prolific, tempered talented as opposed to just grinding out “hamburger” because another 3-minute-long something was due a record company, he left his distinct mark on 70s funk and 80s ballads.

Justin who? Robin who?

R. I. P. Mister Temperton

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