The Godfather of Soul

My summer class ended yesterday. I still have a bunch of grading to do, and goodness knows I'll still have plenty of Department Chair stuff to do for the rest of the summer, but things are easing up a bit. We're gearing up for some visits to family over the next month and a half, which we are very much looking forward to.

I haven't had much time in the last few weeks to write anything too fun (unless you consider my ruminating about watch and wait and survival statistics to be fun), so I've been looking back at my Favorites List at all the great links and photos and videos that I've been saving up. I'm going to start sharing them with you.

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Today, something very special. Given my James Brown "I Feel Good" avitar, I had to share this news item with you, describing a Christie's auction of The Godfather of Soul's personal items. His estate is holding the auction to pay some back taxes. On July 17, they will be auctioning off 320 items. Now, I know my birthday and Father's Day both passed a few weeks ago, but it's still not too late to buy me a present. There are some very expensive items, like his wife's silver fox coat, estimated to sell at $1000-$5000:

Not the embroidery inside: "Mrs. James Brown, the Godmother of Soul." The catalogue doesn't say which of his four wives this belonged to. (Though the fourth maybe wasn't really his wife when they got married, because she was already married to someone else so she could get her green card...it's complicated....)

Anyway -- how cool would it be to own coat? Of course, I'd never expect any of you to shell out that much money just for me.

But who among you couldn't spare the $100-$200 estimated for this, a signed photo to James Brown from Snoop Dogg:

Snoop, apparently, loved James Brown like a microphone. Amen to that.

Snoop has all but become the Official Rapper of the Lympho Bob Blog, but I hesitate to make it official because of my fondness for Run-DMC.

The auction site has a large number of incredible items, some (like the Snoop picture) at very reasonable prices. Others are a little pricey, but worth it. I'll let you visit the site and see for yourself.

But it is worth pointing out to you a few of the items that are related in some small way to the Lympho Bob Blog. For example:

Here, for example, is James Brown's Medic Alert bracelet:I don't wear one myself, but Mr. Brown apparently was diabetic. Like me with fNHL, he had a chronic disease.

How about this? It's an award to James Brown upon his induction into America's Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame:
I guess it's a tree, but it looks like a stalk of broccoli. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, and kale, are high in antioxidants and known cancer fighters. (This particular Hall of Fame is apparently defunct. I was looking for a web site to find out why they give broccoli trophies to their inductees. I guess the answer died with Mr. Brown.)

The auction features a number of President-related items. Mr. Brown was a staunch Republican, but there are a few things given to him by Democrats. But to keep with my NHL theme, I had to show you this, a Presidential Honor Roll certificate signed by Ronald Reagan and John McCain:

I have no idea why McCain's signature is on there with Reagan's, but since McCain's a cancer survivor, I have to put it in here.

Finally, another odd item with no explanation of its relevence provided by the online auction catalogue -- a shoeshine box once owned by James Brown:

This has nothing to do with NHL or cancer, really. It just gives me a golden opportunity to tell my brother to go get his shine box.

So, visit the auction site just for your amusement, or feel free to buy me something. My 6 month diagnosis anniversary is July 15, so there's your excuse. Or save it for me for Christmas. Or just get your own leather jumpsuit and pretend you're the Hardest Working Man in Show Business.