Country shocker: Spears wins top CMA award

Here is another fakeout news story.


Brittany L. Spears, the near-namesake of the famous singer and entertainer who had herself lived in obscurity, shocked the country music world by winning the biggest prize at the Country Music Association Awards Wednesday night - that of Entertainer of the Year.

Against a formidable field that included Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban, and Rascal Flatts, the 20-year-old bluegrass singer from Beattyville, Kentucky won the award in her first attempt.

At the moment she won, Spears dropped to her knees and cried. Her brother Blanton helped her up and she was able to walk to the stage to accept the award.

"I don't know what to say," Spears said on the live ABC telecast. "This is what happens when you are allowed to dream and make those dreams comes true."

"This is America's Susan Boyle right here," exclaimed Blanton later in one of a number of backstage interviews with the entertainment media. Boyle is the nearly-50-year-old woman who rose to become the most popular singer in Great Britain after appearing on the reality television show Britain's Got Talent.

Spears only became a solo artist in 2009 after years of being the lead singer of the Spears Family Band, whose albums are retellings of Appalachian folk tales through the medium of bluegrass music. The band consists of four generations of performers ranging in age from five to 62 years old. Because her name is a homophone of Britney Spears, she added her middle initial, which is different from Britney's.

In 2010, "When the Bough Breaks," a duet with Buddy Wayne Barefoot, gave Spears her first number-one song on both the U.S. pop and country charts.

Even with her increased popularity, no one figured that Spears would beat the Nashville establishment, with its slick production, professional songwriters, and marketing muscle, for one of its biggest honors.

"This is the greatest thing that ever could have happened to our music. It is on the map forever," said Alison Kraus, leader of the multiple Grammy-winning bluegrass band Union Station.

Spears married Barefoot in October 2009. The couple is expecting their first child in January 2011.

Don't blame me for a close election

The following is a fake-out news story.

Buddy Wayne Barefoot insisted today that the close margin in the race for the 2nd Congressional District seat in North Carolina should not be blamed on his decision not to endorse either candidate. The race, which was conducted in Barefoot's home area, is one of 11 still undecided, even three days after the election.

According to the latest returns, challenger Renee Ellmers, a Republican, trails incumbent Bob Etheridge, a Democrat, by about 1,600 votes, or about 1 percent. Etheridge has promised to seek a recount of all ballots if the margin dips below 1 percent when the state reveals its final certified tallies on November 11.

Barefoot insisted that a public endorsement would not have made a difference, but did admit to voting for Etheridge because "I had a feeling" that the GOP framed Etheridge in a video in which he gave an obscene gesture to a staffer who was posing as a reporter. Previously, he had endorsed Etheridge in every election; the two became friends over their shared backgrounds as basketball players at Campbell University.

"A lot of things are as work here," Barefoot explained to the media at Texas Motor Speedway. "First of all was that video that put doubt in a lot of people's minds, including my own and those in my family. Then there was the general trend of Democratic incumbents losing throughout the country. But what has made it close was that [officials in] Sampson County lost 3,000 ballots [on election night]. They counted them and Etheridge gained 443 votes."

He also acknowledged being spooked by a projection of Ellmers' victory by the Associated Press after Ellmers herself declared victory on election night. "I just hope those words don't come back to haunt her or the AP," he told the media.

Barefoot said that he reached out to both candidates and shared his hope that the battle be resolved as soon as possible.

(Photo courtesy of Politico)

Happy Halloween!

On behalf of Barabbas McRipper and all his ghoulish friends, have a happy and not-so-scary holiday.

(Picture actually of the late Brandon Lee in the 1994 movie The Crow. Lee was killed in North Carolina while filming the movie.)

News from the last month

It has been one month since my last post, largely because nothing much has happened. However, there have been some developments:

• As a result of my attendance at a high school class reunion earlier this month, I have gotten interest which could lead to possible sales of my book. I brought it to the reunion site, the Cerritos Sheraton hotel, to show my fellow classmates from 1990 what I have been up to. The reaction was mostly positive.
• At some point in time, I expect to start work for Los Angeles Habilitation House, helping to negotiate contracts with the United States Department of Defense. This is part of a subcontract won by LAHH as part of the AbilityOne program, which sets aside some contract work for people with disabilities. I can't wait to share my book with some new co-workers!
  

Most common first names in Idealia

I haven't written anything in a while, but I wanted to reconnect with the site and I think publishing these simple lists is a good place to start.

TOP 10 FIRST NAMES FOR GIRLS/WOMEN

• Laura
• Rebecca
• Heather
• Jennifer
• Brandy
• Kimberly
• Elizabeth
• Mary
• Bonnie
• Amy
  

TOP 10 FIRST NAMES FOR BOYS/MEN

• Robert (Bob/Bobby)
• William (Bill/Billy)
• Michael
• Brett
• Ryan
• Brian
• Brandon
  
• Adam
• John
• Paul
  

Hello there again!

If you haven't noticed, it has been more than three weeks since my last posting. I have spent most of that time cleaning up some old business.

Five years ago, I imagined what would happen if the top NASCAR drivers up to that point had competed in an all-time series. I ran race results in my head based on some statistics I picked up and ran the results. Unfortunately, I wasn't happy with some of what I created and threw everything away! Four years later, I learned of a website called the506 which breaks down which areas of the country receives NFL football games each week. I then learned of a forum that further analyzes what is on the main site, and which has since extended to a wide variety of topics. One of those was simulations of past sports event scenarios - e.g. what would have happened if the NFL had not gone in strike in 1982 or Major League Baseball had done the same in 1981 or '94. I remade the NASCAR sims, set in the same era, for the506 and added "all-star leagues" for other sports.

When administrator J.P. Kirby banned further use of the sims, a forum member named Anthony used some software to create a "spinoff" called alltimesports. I finished up NASCAR there, then added similar results, which I had planned to do in 2006, for the NFL, the NBA, college basketball, and the NHL. As for MLB, I have yet to add my all-star league for that, but I have helped an undermanned crew finish up the '81 and '94 simulations. The latter is still ongoing, but might be completed by September 1.

The point of all of this is to explain why this site has been inactive, despite my promise to be active here over the summer. I will try to pick it up before I expect to return to ABC Adult School next month.

I will, however, let slip the most exciting event in my world this summer: Pinky Ann McPipkin, the country/Southern rock singer and "biker girl," won the most recent Heritage Cup in her auto racing debut! In some ways, this is more incredible that Buddy Wayne Barefoot's win three years ago for many reasons. Two of them come to mind:

• She is the first woman ever to win the 300-lap short track car event, akin to Danica Patrick winning at, say, Bristol Motor Speedway in a NASCAR race.
• Just about everyone else had at least some experience in the Legends-style cars used in the race and some even competed in NASCAR races like Bunky Barefoot, Bubba Ray Lumpkin, and Luke Barneycastle.

I'll have an "interview" with Pinky (pictured at top right) about her extraordinary night, and I promise it will be within the next few days.

Buddy's required reading

Here are some recent web articles that I have found online and which I am sure Buddy Wayne Barefoot would also have felt passionate about:

• Daniel Hemric won the Legends Million, the auto race I have referenced several times here on this site because of my character's decision not to compete in it. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular David Ragan finished fourth. Here's the story.
  
• ESPN ombudsman Don Ohlmeyer, one of the top executives in the history of televised sports, cuts the network he is following a new one on its coverage of the announcement that LeBron James was to sign with the Miami Heat.
• An obituary of Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Vernon B. Davis honors not only his heroism, but his dignity in fighting in a U.S. Army that was still segregated. Comment #2 at the end of the article expresses the perversion of media priorities that Barefoot has railed about for a long time.