Edie

Go DC go!

Train Kept a Rolling -- their version is much nastier (and by nastier I mean better) than the Yardbirds'.

And Speed Racer

Ashes, War on War and encore 1 of Via, PP and Spiders... nice list!

A man needs a maid

back to you. One of my goals in life is to convert as many people into Cheap Trick fans as possible. Current conversion total: 7 (but that includes my 3 oldest kids so I'm not sure they count).

One of my best friends in HS is their manager -- we listened to Black and White and In Color in his basement in the late 70s. Then he goes on to manage them

Cheap Trick forever

I am pulling from the case that my new favorite NPR show This American Life talked about -- but the insertion of a person's employer into to one's healthcare choices is crazy.

Get Your Wings and Toys in the Attic.... wow those were great records. After that, not so much.

I would rather stick needles in my eyes than deal with the iPhone keyboard for business. Give me real keys. I can email up a storm on my old 8830.

Albany (all ba nee) NY vs (all ben nie) GA

From the AP today:

If a government plan is part of the deal, "as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent whose vote Democrats need to overcome GOP filibusters.

Not to besmirch Mr. Lieberman's conscience, but United Healthcare and Aetna, just to name a few, are located in CT. Coincidence? Doubtful.

I'm not changing

Yankees won. Forces of evil indeed.

No, you're right. The biggest problem is that these factions are moving the wrong ways. In the Republican Party, especially. The moral wing keeps moving further right and the economic wing keeps moving further to the left. Leaving someone like me wondering what in the hell to do.

See, this is what happened to me in 1988. Go to the light!

Confederacy of Dunces was a bore. My old BF gave it to me to read as he loved it. I gamely finished it but would have put it down had he not insisted. This should have been a tip off

Also, I HATED Great Expectations. It ruined my sophmore year of HS English, and turned me off Dickens forever.

Beltmann has the sorts of opinions that you pretty much want to marry someone for having.

QFT.

That oughta be a rule!

Speaking of rule, Bjorn does

And happy birthday!

Someone needs to bump the "Rank the Wilco albums" thread as a foil to this one.

Thanks for resurrecting this -- I had missed Sue's post. "Roger That"

It isn't just Obama who says that our current system is wasteful:

Healthcare system wastes up to $800 billion a year

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor Maggie Fox, Health And Science Editor

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. healthcare system is just as wasteful as President Barack Obama says it is, and proposed reforms could be paid for by fixing some of the most obvious inefficiencies, preventing mistakes and fighting fraud, according to a Thomson Reuters report released on Monday.

 

The U.S. healthcare system wastes between $505 billion and $850 billion every year, the report from Robert Kelley, vice president of healthcare analytics at Thomson Reuters, found.

 

"America's healthcare system is indeed hemorrhaging billions of dollars, and the opportunities to slow the fiscal bleeding are substantial," the report reads.

 

"The bad news is that an estimated $700 billion is wasted annually. That's one-third of the nation's healthcare bill," Kelley said in a statement.

 

"The good news is that by attacking waste we can reduce healthcare costs without adversely affecting the quality of care or access to care."

 

One example -- a paper-based system that discourages sharing of medical records accounts for 6 percent of annual overspending.

 

"It is waste when caregivers duplicate tests because results recorded in a patient's record with one provider are not available to another or when medical staff provides inappropriate treatment because relevant history of previous treatment cannot be accessed," the report reads.

 

Some other findings in the report from Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters:

 

* Unnecessary care such as the overuse of antibiotics and lab tests to protect against malpractice exposure makes up 37 percent of healthcare waste or $200 to $300 billion a year.

 

* Fraud makes up 22 percent of healthcare waste, or up to $200 billion a year in fraudulent Medicare claims, kickbacks for referrals for unnecessary services and other scams.

 

* Administrative inefficiency and redundant paperwork account for 18 percent of healthcare waste.

 

* Medical mistakes account for $50 billion to $100 billion in unnecessary spending each year, or 11 percent of the total.

 

* Preventable conditions such as uncontrolled diabetes cost $30 billion to $50 billion a year.

 

"The average U.S. hospital spends one-quarter of its budget on billing and administration, nearly twice the average in Canada," reads the report, citing dozens of other research papers.

 

"American physicians spend nearly eight hours per week on paperwork and employ 1.66 clerical workers per doctor, far more than in Canada," it says, quoting a 2003 New England Journal of Medicine paper by Harvard University researcher Dr. Steffie Woolhandler.

 

Yet primary care doctors are lacking, forcing wasteful use of emergency rooms, for instance, the report reads.

 

All this could help explain why Americans spend more per capita and the highest percentage of GDP on healthcare than any other OECD country, yet has an unhealthier population with more diabetes, obesity and heart disease and higher rates of neonatal deaths than other developed nations.

 

Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said on Sunday that Senate Democratic leaders are close to securing enough votes to pass legislation to start reform of the country's $2.5 trillion healthcare system.

Also, if you missed this on NPRs "This American Life" -- listen ASAP. This is part 2 of a two part program from the "Planet Money" team's take on healthcare, including a fascinating look at how the healthcare system evolved and who really is to blame for the escalating costs.

I would have definitely gotten him wrong in a "dead or alive" question. He was ubiquitous in 60s-early 70s TV. In the old days, Mike Douglas and other talk show hosts would have their main guest on for a full week. I am sure that Soupy was on that show multiple weeks....

Oh, and RIP Soupy

And didn't you also question why it was still going? Jeez, some people

Nothing like a little velveeta to make your mouth water!

The olives and celery bits look like orbiting faces, don't they?

I would settle for FLACs of each show. Please pretty please??

Monica Lewinsky showed up at a show in NYC several years ago. Unfortunately, Wilco passed on the opportunity to cover Pink Floyd's 'Have a Cigar'.

Or "devil with the blue dress"?

Nevermind. I should just be sick and stop posting

FYI...I'm posting links to the Youtube videos from the show in setlist order on my site:

 

http://www.ChicagoConcertgoers.com

 

Go to the site, click the message board and enter the Concert Reviews section. I'll be adding links to videos as they're posted.

 

While you're at my site, be sure to vote for your favorite Wilco album on the home page.

VC Rules and Regs say:

Wilco has a long-standing policy against the videotaping of their shows, and out of respect for this policy, the posting of such videos on Via Chicago is not allowed. This also applies to solo Jeff Tweedy shows.

Just pointing it out -- not meant to be bitchy