Gordon Lightfoot passed on a few days ago.  At 84 he had a good long life, and was still performing a few years ago despite some health problems.  He was a favorite of mine from way back, even before 'Summertime Dream', which probably snared a lot of new fans with the iconic "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".  I put him in a class with Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and a handful of others even if he doesn't occupy that niche in music history generally.  The church mentioned in the song (apparently) honored him by ringing the bell 30 times, which seems appropriate.  Perhaps somewhere the twenty-nine men and Gordon can talk about old times.  The first time I heard the song (not familiar with the event at the time) I was reminded of an exerience I had around that time (1979 or 1980) while riding a ferry from Zeebrugge to Felixstowe and rode out a pretty ugly storm on the North Sea.  It was night and all I knew was that every time the ship rolled it felt like it was on its side.  I figured to be one body that would never be found.  It was a Townsend Thoresen ferry, and I rode them a lot in those days.  and a few years later I saw on the nightly news that one of its ships had capsized in the harbor we had departed from that night due to operator error, with numerous fatalities.

The long-awaited Durham "investigation" report is out.  Essentially "the FBI committed all these crimes and here are the reasons we can't do anything about it." 

Shades of the Watergate "Saturday Night Massacre"?  We should be so lucky as to see a similar result. 

 In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the maritime sailors' cathedral
The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee Superior, they said, never gives up her dead When the gales of November come early

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald Gordon Lightfoot - 1976