This week, Larry O’Connor have to crawl off the beaten path, thanks to exercise-related injuries, but we still manage to sing the blues anyway! Both Larry and I decided to join Elon Musk’s efforts at Twitter with Twitter Blue, and for largely the same reasons. “I’m encouraged by the steps that Elon Musk is taking in terms of transparency,” I explain, while noting that it still needs significant improvement. We talk about the Bud Light Blues and how badly Anheuser-Busch has “screwed the pooch,” in one of our less profane descriptions. And we take some time to remember the late, great Gordon Lightfoot and the beautiful music he left us — plus much more!
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Welcome back to our aVIP video series “Off the Beaten Path,” featuring my friend Larry O’Connor! The Townhall columnist and Salem News Channel host starts off our week by discussing stories and ideas that may fly under our radar, in culture, politics, sports, and more. Plus, Larry previews tonight’s SNC show!
A few high points of this episode:
- “Well, I’m glad you got the blue check,” Larry tells me. “I got it because of the functionality aspects of it and also to support Elon. … It’s not perfect, but I do support what he’s been doing and I want the company to be successful now.”
- We chat about Adam Baldwin and I claim, “I’m Jan on the Brady Bunch,” I tell Larry. “Once again proving your age,” Larry retorts.
- Speaking about Lightfoot: “If You Could Read My Mind is maybe the most heartbreaking real ballad. I’m a huge Jim Croce fan, and he also had some beautiful ballads,” I say. “It’s inexplicable to talk about one without the other, right?” Larry asks. That song, I say, “is the quintessential failed relationship ballad,” and I contrast it to another Lightfoot classic, ‘Carefee Highway’.
- We spend quite a bit of time on ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’ and the genius behind it. That leads us to discussion of Harry Chapin, Billy Joel, and Sting.
- On the Bud Light meltdown: “I don’t think I’ve seen a corporation f*** up as badly as Anheuser-Busch has,” I say after warning that I wanted to go the full Kurt Schlichter. “All they needed to do was just apologize, really, for Alissa Heinerscheid’s remarks.”
- Now they’re trapped, Larry says, thanks to their lack of strategic thinking. “My favorite development,” Larry remarks, “is that the spokesperson for Human Rights Campaign, which is the LGBTQ activist group in Washington DC — really a lobbying group — they have sent a letter to the CEO of Anheuser-Busch saying, ‘you better double down and express your support for Dylan Mulvaney and the trans community because you’re acting like cowards right now’.”
There’s lots more in this free-wheeling discussion, so be sure to watch it all and join us in the comments!
