Retirement: 6:00 PM ...... 1/2 OFF Merchandise: 6:05 PM

The best part (aside from these all now being 50% off) is that each shirt is symbolically turning its back on you ... or is it that they are just walking away?  Well, except one ~ 'cause ya never know with "God's Gift to Football".  What will ESPN do now?  Or John Madden?

You Reap What Youb Sow

Yet another debacle brought on by RI elected officials AGAINST the stated desires of the citizens of the state multiple times. And now we are supposed to acquiesce to the PURCHASE of this mess because our politicians have trapped us by irresponsible budgeting?
This state's politico already HAVE a reputation for corruption and insider deals. How do ya think THIS will work?

Pathetic.

New RI slogan: "Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate "
from Dante's "Inferno".


(and for the non-Italian speakers: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here)


R.I. Ponders Buying Out Ailing Casino
By Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff February 5, 2009
LINCOLN, R.I. - Rhode Islanders marveled when the seedy old Lincoln Greyhound Park was transformed by investors into a lavish gambling salon, with a map of the state etched into the terrazzo marble floor and soaring columns fashioned to appear like autumn oaks.
But the legions of new gamblers that were supposed to flock to the glitzy slot parlor, rebranded as Twin River and purchased and renovated at a cost of nearly $700 million, never came. Its operators cannot meet heavy debt obligations and have defaulted on the terms of their loans. Bankruptcy threatens.
So to avoid the risk of a closure and the loss of $250 million the slot machines generate annually for state coffers, the state's politicians are considering ways to keep it open, including a possible purchase - an unprecedented move that would make Rhode Island the first state to own a "racino."
For states, the choice facing Rhode Island starkly illustrates the dangers that accompany the rewards of legalized gambling.
Twin River provides Rhode Island's third-largest revenue source, behind only the income and sales taxes. For state officials grappling with huge deficits created by the recession, it has become, in the recent parlance applied to bank bailouts, too big to fail.
"We're so deep into it," said John J. Cullen, a Lincoln resident and longtime critic of expanded gambling who nonetheless sees the logic of a state buyout. "The state has become addicted to the revenue source."
Rhode Island's general treasurer, Frank Caprio, first proposed a buyout if Twin River fails to right itself. Other prominent officials have jumped on board, including the speaker of the Rhode Island House, saying it must be considered.
Governor Donald L. Carcieri, a Republican, has retained a national law firm and equity analysts to advise him on how to respond to Twin River's financial crisis. Until the studies are done, Carcieri is withholding judgment, said Amy Kempe, the governor's spokeswoman. She called talk of a state takeover "sheer speculation," but said Carcieri has not ruled it out.
"The state needs to stand ready, if this facility is forced into receivership or bankruptcy," Caprio said in an interview.
Caprio likened the proposal to buying a foreclosed home, not to bailing out a Wall Street bank. The state could conceivably purchase Twin River at a discounted price, perhaps $250 million, and hire its own casino manager, he said. Twin River could remain open, and the state could conceivably collect an even greater percentage of house winnings than the 60 percent it currently receives under state law, he said.
Twin River's owners hope to renegotiate their estimated $525 million in debt, or cut a new deal and pay the state less than its current percentage - something state officials have steadfastly refused to do. If they can't do those things, a sale to the state, bankruptcy filing, reorganization, or a post-failure state takeover are all possibilities, said Patti Doyle, a Twin River spokeswoman.
The idea of a taxpayer-financed bailout or a takeover has some state residents worried.
"The state has plenty of things they can spend their money on, rather than bailing out a semi-casino," said Matt Buteau, 34, of Smithfield, who works for an oil and gas company.
The Rev. Dr. Donald C. Anderson, executive minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches and a gambling opponent, said putting state officials in full control of Twin River could lead to an expansion from the current slot parlor to a full-blown casino with blackjack, craps, and other games.
"There could be temptation here for the state to see expansion of gambling as one way to dig itself out of this hole," Anderson said.
Yet some think it's not a bad idea. "I think it could be a moneymaker in the right hands," said Kerri Maloney, 45, a self-described "day-care mom" from Greenville. Although she does not favor gambling, "if it's in our state, I'd rather we have control over it."
The operators are BLB Investors LLC, a partnership that includes Len Wolman and Sol Kerzner, who developed Mohegan Sun in Connecticut and also are the investors in a proposed Mashpee Wampanoag casino in Middleborough. They first missed a debt payment early last year and have received multiple extensions from lenders.
Chief lender Merrill Lynch Capital Corp. is "continuing discussions with all parties and interests," spokesman Bill Halldin said Sunday, as talks continued.
Twin River already won the right from Rhode Island officials to operate 24 hours a day on weekends and holidays, over the objections of Lincoln residents. But local and national economic woes have continued to take a toll. Rhode Island's 10 percent December unemployment rate ranked second among the 50 states.
The gross amount of money gambled rose to about $2 billion last year, but to encourage that higher rate of gambling, Twin River has given away increasing amounts of money in winnings and frequent-gambler rewards programs. That left less than $193 million to be divided among the state, Twin River, and other parties from July through December 2008, down from $215 million in the first half of the year.
"It's almost like a perfect storm in terms of circumstances forcing the owners to take a hard look at their debt and say, 'We need to take a step back, and we need some assistance,' " said Doyle.
Those who track casino gambling say there is no precedent for a state takeover, though government ownership is the rule in Canada, where the casinos are owned by the provinces but managed by contractors. In 2007, Kansas became the first US state to legalize casino gambling in a Canadian-style fashion, but it has yet to open its first casino, according to the American Gaming Association.
Some academics say state ownership in Rhode Island may be a mistake.
"I think we've got to do whatever we can to help Twin River get out of the situation they're in," short of buying it, said Edward M. Mazze, a professor and former business school dean at the University of Rhode Island. "If [you] thought casinos that were run without the state had an air of gangsterism, just imagine when the state runs it. I mean, this state cannot run itself."

50 Years Ago Today - "The Day the Music Died"

I never really paid attention to it until the Don McLean song (American Pie) came out, what with being less than 2 when it happened and all... but to listen to the songs that Buddy Holley and Ritchie Valens wrote, I can see why people felt it was th eend of the "free writing" R&R era...



by Todd LeopoldCNN - 02-02-09
(CNN) -- The facts are these: Just after 1 a.m. February 3, 1959, a three-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza went down about five miles northwest of Mason City Municipal Airport, near Clear Lake, Iowa. The plane crash took the lives of the pilot, Roger Peterson, and three musicians: Charles Hardin Holley, better known as Buddy Holly, 22; Ritchie Valens (originally Valenzuela), 17; and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, 28.
It has become famous, in Don McLean's "American Pie" formulation, as "the day the music died."
The event has echoed through rock 'n' roll history for 50 years, representing, if not the end of rock 'n' roll itself, the close of an era, the end of the first bloom of rock anarchy and innovation.
"It was like a curtain coming down," said Terry Stewart, president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, which is co-hosting a series of events in Clear Lake for the anniversary, including classes putting the event in historical context.
As they have for decades, visitors have been making the pilgrimage to the resort town about 110 miles north of Des Moines. On Monday night, the 50th anniversary of the trio's deaths, the city's Surf Ballroom and Museum will host a huge concert in conjunction with the Rock Hall.
Expected are luminaries including Graham Nash, whose 1960s British band was named for Holly; the Smithereens' Pat DiNizio, who wrote the song "Maria Elena" for Holly's widow; Los Lobos, who followed in the Hispanic-rock tradition begun by Valens; Texans Delbert McClinton and Joe Ely; and Tommy Allsup, who was a Holly sideman at the show 50 years ago. "The vision [for the Monday show] has always been that we go back to the roots," said Laurie Lietz, the Surf's executive director. "There were so many who were influenced by [the trio]. So the tribute concert is really a tribute to each individual."
The Surf, which was refurbished in 1995 by a local family (it's now run by a foundation), includes the original stage, the telephone where Holly and Valens placed their last calls, guitars, photographs and a green room with hundreds of autographs.
They all pay tribute to the last show for three men.
Holly, Valens and Richardson were part of the Winter Dance Party, a ramshackle tour that had started in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and headed to small cities in Minnesota and Iowa.
The tour, which also included Dion and the Belmonts and members of Holly's backing band, had lumbered along in subfreezing temperatures in unheated buses; two days earlier, one bus had stalled out on a lonely Wisconsin road. By the time the group reached Clear Lake, Holly in particular was ready to bolt.
"Buddy was very determined when he wanted something," said his widow, Maria Elena Holly, of her "otherwise laid-back" husband of six months. He booked the plane to fly to Fargo, North Dakota, where he planned to rest up and do laundry in advance of the group's next concert in Moorhead, Minnesota, across the state line.
Fargo native Bobby Vee, who remembers the tragedy vividly, acknowledges that he owes his career to the event. The then-high school sophomore named Robert Velline had come home for lunch and heard a local DJ talking about the Moorhead show.
"I had a ticket for the show. I was a huge Buddy Holly fan and a huge rock 'n' roll fan," he recalled, adding that a major rock 'n' roll concert in the area was a rarity. "As I got closer into the kitchen ... [my mother and brother] were talking about this plane crash that had taken place. I couldn't put it all together."
But the promoter had decided to go on with the show and invited local bands to participate. Vee was in a garage band, and a friend suggested that they participate. The band, so loose it didn't even have a name, got on the bill. At the end of the night, a local booking agent approached them, and the Shadows (a name Vee came up with as they waited offstage) entered the music business.
Vee's hits eventually included 1961's "Take Good Care of My Baby" and 1967's "Come Back When You Grow Up."
"It changed my life," Vee said. "I was a 15-year-old. I'd never experienced that kind of tragedy. I wasn't there to start a career -- I didn't know what a career was -- I was just there to help out, because that's what people do when there's a problem."
Rock critic Dave Marsh also remembers hearing about the crash.
"I went to the door of our little house in Pontiac, Michigan, and I picked up the newspaper, and ... it was the first thing I saw: Three rock 'n' roll guys dying in a plane crash," he says. "I was 9, but I had an aunt who was just seven years older than me and a mother who was an Elvis fan and who watched 'American Bandstand' every day. So I was aware. ... It was something to deal with, people that young dying."
But, indicating the lack of esteem for rock 'n' roll at the time, it wasn't a major national news story. The New York Times put a plane crash on its February 4 front page, but it was an American Airlines flight that had crashed near LaGuardia Airport. The Clear Lake tragedy was on page 66. The same was true for other major newspapers."[Holly] really wasn't known to the older generation," said "Austin City Limits" executive producer and Holly aficionado Terry Lickona. "Even in his hometown [of Lubbock, Texas], they were embarrassed by him."
The trio's deaths coincided with a period of dark events in rock 'n' roll history, including Elvis Presley's induction into the Army, Jerry Lee Lewis' blacklisting, the record industry payola scandals and Chuck Berry's Mann Act conviction, not to mention the rise of manufactured teen idols such as Frankie Avalon and Fabian.
Partly thanks to McLean's lingering phrase, the ensuing years have been painted as a rock Dark Ages, rescued only by the Beatles' arrival in 1964 at the vanguard of the British Invasion.
Marsh says that canard, which he has refuted in "The Book of Rock Lists" and "The Heart of Rock and Soul," should be laid to rest once and for all.
"I think what happened was that people weren't paying attention themselves and assumed no one else was, either," he said. "I think it's also a way that glorifies the lack of stars [compared to rock's early days]. That was missing. ... I don't think Roy Orbison had quite the same stature."
Which doesn't mean that the music of Orbison, Phil Spector, early Motown or Gary U.S. Bonds deserves to be overlooked, he added: "The quality of the music is undeniable." What would have happened to the trio in that era is, of course, impossible to know. Valens, celebrated in the movie "La Bamba," was just starting his career and may have produced more hits; Richardson, a former DJ and radio program director who shot some rudimentary music videos, had shrewd entrepreneurial instincts.
And then there's Holly, with his songwriting talent, his arranging abilities (he did the strings on "It Doesn't Matter Anymore," his last single) and sheer knowledge of music.
Maria Elena Holly, who watches over his legacy, says Buddy had big plans: He wanted to do albums with Ray Charles and Mahalia Jackson; he wanted to try film music; he wanted to do music publishing.
"He was a multitasker in every way," she said. Monday, he and the others will simply be remembered at the ballroom where it's always February 2, 1959, and they're putting on another great show.
"When I come to these things, I don't think about [that] this is the last time I talked to him was from here. I think, I'm meeting the fans who have kept his memory alive," said Maria Elena Holly, who admits to getting "a little bit teary" when she hears "True Love Ways."
"And that's really what Buddy wanted to happen with his music: He wanted people to enjoy the music, to listen to it and make them happy," she said. "And when I think of it that way, I think at least his dream came true."