Friday, September 26, 2008

Also Off Topic: Curtain Closing, Too, as You No Doubt Have Heard, on The House That Stein Wrecked

And my nominee for "Number One Yankee Stadium Moment" is the following, which is only better for being fictional.

It's the Great Smoke-Off immortalized by Shel Silverstein (born in Chicago, September 25, 1930 ... and I'm remedying things by noting that anniversary almost two days late, yes) between Pearley Sweetcake (D-California) and The Calistoga Kid (D-New York).

Here's a verbal taste. Then the video embedation.

See the dealers and their ladies
Wearing turquoise lace and leather
See the narcos and the closet smokers
Puffin all together
From the teenies who smoke legal
To the ones who've done some time
To the old man who smoked reefer
Back before it was a crime

And the grand old house that Ruth built
Is filled with the smoke and cries
Of fifty thousand screaming heads
All stoned out of their minds
And they play the national anthem
And the crowd lets out a roar
As the spotlight hits The Kid and Pearl
Ready for their smokin' war




Shel Silverstein - The Great Smoke Off

2 comments:

carl said...

Hey. Playboy's Silverstein Around the World. You need to check it out, if you haven't already. Heffner sent Shel around the world and Shel documented his travels in cartoon form. This book is the collection of those cartoons.

One of his stops was 1960 White Sox Spring Training in FLA. Shel was a Sox fan, and even worked as a vendor at Comiskey. This book has some great vintage Sox cartoons (and some vintage naked ladies). It's required reading for a Sox/Shel/cartoon fan.

Tomb Lung said...

Wow, yeah, I'm going to have to get a copy of that. Thanks for the tip.