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"Defense Of Marriage": The Movie

6/30/2015

Justice Antonin Scalia would be great as himself.

    Last Friday shortly after the announcement of the Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage, the website of the satirical newspaper "The Onion" published a fictional article on how the Justices who tried to block the legalization of gay marriage, Justices Alito, Roberts, Scalia and Thomas, reacted when it hit them that they'd be portrayed as the villains in the movie version of the fight for equal marriage rights.
    "The Onion" imagined this movie would be called Defense of Marriage.
    If you haven't yet seen this article, here's the link:

http://www.theonion.com/article/scalia-thomas-roberts-alito-suddenly-realize-they--32972?utm_campaign=default&utm_medium=ShareTools&utm_source=facebook

    Go to it, read the article, you'll laugh out loud.
    But what's so tickling funny about the piece is that its premise is absolutely believable. I mean, you know full well that there will be a movie - all the basic dramatic elements for a great plot are there, right? And the structure of historical facts will naturally be built upon, with much ornamentation added by the scriptwriters.

"The Onion" suggested subplots with George Cloony as the hero attorney,

...and actor Paul Dano as a gay rights crusader.

Might I also suggest for the roles of the bad-guy Justices:

Greg Kinnear as Justice Roberts,

Rainn Wilson as Justice Alito,

Samuel L. Jackson as Justice Thomas,

... Justice Scalia definitely should be played by himself.

    As for the script, it'll practically write itself.
    The lines for the four dissenting Justices can be taken from the opinions they wrote against the majority ruling.
    For example here's how the scene in Defense Of Marriage might go at the moment when it becomes plain to the opposing Justices that they've lost and that marriage equality is about to become the law of the land:

     Justice Roberts throws up his hands as he whines, "Fine! Let them all - whatever sexual orientation - who favor expanding same-sex marriage, by all means celebrate today’s decision. Celebrate the achievement of a desired goal. Celebrate the opportunity for a new expression of commitment to a partner. Celebrate the availability of new benefits. But do not let them celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it!"
    "Oh, now stop your pouting, John," tsks Justice Bader Ginsberg, (played by Silvia Sydney), patting

his hand, "it did too."
"Okay, so you're telling me," snorts Justice Scalia, dripping sarcasm, "that the five of you who compose today’s majority are entirely comfortable concluding that every State violated the Constitution for all of the 135 years between the Fourteenth Amendment’s ratification and Massachusetts’ permitting of same-sex marriages in 2003?"
"That's correct, Tony," calmly replies Justice Breyer (played by Alan Alda), "but I'm happy to

   say that today we've finally put that very old wrong aright."
    "Well," sniffs Justice Alito, "the Constitution says nothing about a right to same-sex marriage."
    "Yeah, well, we say it does, Sam," snaps back Justice Kagan (played by Kathy Bates).

Justice Alito heaves a deep sigh and looks as if he's about to cry. "I assume," he whimpers, "that those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes, but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers, and schools."
Justice Sotomayor (played by Elizabeth Pena) rolls her eyes. "Aw, cut the drama, Sam! Of course

anybody who spouts bigotry out in public is going to be labeled as a bigot!"
"Yeah, well," huffs Justice Scalia, his expression the avatar of sour grapes, "the substance of today’s decree is not of immense personal importance to me, but I'm just saying that if I ever joined an opinion for the Court that began: 'The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity,' I would hide my head in a bag!"
"Ah, Tony," replies Justice Kennedy (played by Jim Broadbent) with an impish smile, "twenty-five

years from now when history is casting its judgement upon this day and upon those who chose which side of justice to stand on, you'll have to hide your head in a bag!"
    This retort casts half the room into giggles and the other half into silent scowls until Justice Thomas clears his throat and begins speaking in a stentorian tone:
    "Human dignity has long been understood in this country to be innate. When the Framers proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” they referred to a vision of mankind in which all humans are created in the image of God and therefore of inherent worth. That vision is the foundation upon which this Nation was built.
    The corollary of that principle is that human dignity cannot be taken away by the government. Slaves did not lose their dignity (any more than they lost their humanity) because the government allowed them to be enslaved. Those held in internment camps did not lose their dignity because the government confined them. And those denied governmental benefits certainly do not lose their dignity because the government denies them those benefits. The government cannot bestow dignity, and it cannot take it away."
    The other eight Justices stare at him in drop-jawed silence for a moment then begin cat-calling while grabbing sheets of papers from the table, crumpling them, and throwing them at Justice Thomas.
    In the closing scene, while sipping lattes in the Supreme Court coffee shop and looking out the window at the jubilant crowds below, Justice Scalia chuckles to Justice Bader Ginsberg, with whom he is good friends outside the courtroom, "Sheesh, Ruth, was that Clarence's dumbest non-sequitur yet or what?"

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Oh Happy Day!

6/27/2015

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Theresa and me, back in the day.

    Yesterday, Friday, June 26, 2014, the news broke that the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 5-4 in favor of gay marriage.
    When I learned the news I felt like I wanted to always remember where I was and what I was doing at this historic moment.
    Alas I was doing something trivially mundane when I learned the news - checking my Facebook page, from which I in fact learned the news.
    At that moment I felt jubilant, proud to be an American, happy for my gay brothers and sisters, my fellow citizens who are finally being granted this certain unalienable - and wonderful - right.
    I was wishing I were out somewhere, celebrating with someone, maybe in front of the the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington, or even just walking around downtown Columbus looking for a crowd of celebrants.
    But I was at home alone. I called Tom, who's in Cleveland taking care of his father. Then I called my sister. Then my daughter. Everyone was working.
    So I celebrated in spirit with my Facebook friends, liking their posts and pictures, commenting, posting my own thoughts, sharing, as it's it's done in the internet age, a historic moment:

My son-in-law Miguel posted this video of the rainbow flag being raised next to the city flag in Chicago.

People began posting over and over a section of the majority opinion written by Justice M. Kennedy:

No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization's oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.
The judgement of the Court Of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed.
It is so ordered.

I can see the beautiful words of this passage becoming iconic, finding a place on plaques and posters, being quoted in part in Sunday sermons and during wedding celebrations, right up there with "Love is patient and kind".
By this morning Facebook was offering the option to show support by have a rainbow filter transposed over one's Facebook photo:

And then one of my friends posted the video of rainbow lights illuminating The White House:

    This does one's heart good. Because for those of us who believe in "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", the good things in life become better when nobody's left out.
    And I believe that's what yesterday's decision was all about.
    And why we should all be celebrating.

A photo of our front yard this morning. This is actually a "Peace" ("pace" is Italian for "peace") flag that my daughter Theresa picked up when she was in Italy years ago. But I figured it was appropriate for the occasion.

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Flags Don't Kill People

6/26/2015

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    It's good that we as a nation have shown the will, long overdue, to retire the public display of the Confederate flag.
    I believe this effort shows a heightened sensitivity to the dregs of racism still remaining in our country as well as a desire for unity and social harmony among us all.
    But on the other hand, bringing down the Confederate flag, while it's the morally right thing to do, is unlikely to save any black lives in the future; nine people were killed last week in Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church not because the Confederate flag was flying over the South Carolina State House, but because a mentally derailed youngster with a racist warp and a police record was able to walk into a store and buy a semi-automatic hand gun* .
    Perhaps 100 years ago when racial discrimination was backed up by the law throughout the South and the Ku Klux Klan was about to enter a Golden Age, the Confederate flag had the power to inflame and unite groups of people in socially acceptable acts of racial hatred and violence.
    But now, in the second decade of the 21st century, the flying of the Confederate flag is merely grossly insulting and disrespectful to African Americans. And racism in this country has devolved since the Civil Rights era into something more subtle and complex that tends to present as economic injustice rather overt harassment, lynchings and other organized acts of physical harm.
    These days members the epithet-spouting white supremacy groups that still rally 'round the Confederate flag are considered by and large part of the socially undesirable fringe. They lack any strong social underpinnings.
   But sadly in our country today what a person lacks in power or influence or mental stability they can make up for in guns.
    If Dylan Roof, strung out and facing a felony charge, hadn't been able to walk into a gun store and come out with a .45-caliber Glock he'd have remained just a weird racist misfit living in the twisted universe in his head, nine good people would still be going about their lives and the Confederate flag would still be flying offensively over the South Carolina statehouse.
    Our nation came together to take care of the flag problem.
    Is there any chance that our government leaders will now find the backbone to do something about the gun problem?

    *In my post from 6/19/2015 I stated that Dylan Roof received his gun as a birthday gift. More recent investigation by the FBI points to the gun having been purchased by Roof with money given to him by his family.

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Once Blind, But now We See

6/25/2015

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        In the week since the murder of 9 members of a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, Americans, both black and white, have been shocked into consciousness of the the display of the Confederate flag in this country.
    It's amazing that for 150 years after the defeat of the pro-slavery Confederacy most of us white Americans have been near-oblivious to the offensiveness to black Americans inherent in the public display of this flag.
    But it's equally amazing how suddenly our eyes were opened.
    Within days of the tragic act in Charleston the cry of a few to take down this flag from the Charleston statehouse grew into a movement, and in response retailers across the country quickly pulled the flag along with other Confederate-theme memorabilia from their inventory, from major national chains like Walmart, Target, Sears and Amazon to small family-owned stores like The Flag Lady Flag Store here in Columbus.
    But to me most amazing of all is how this sudden national awareness of the racist import of the Confederate flag cut across racial, geographic and political lines.
    Who would have guessed that Southerners and their leaders could ever be so willing, so demanding to immediately reliquish this flag along with other monuments and symbols that once stood for Southern pride and solidarity? Who would have guessed that lawmakers from the South would be in the forefront in calling for the abolition of these icons from their own states?
    Who would have dreamed 150 years ago that the flag that divided us as a nation would one day, in a moment of tragedy and grief, unite us?
    And yet that day has arrived.
    And I believe in my heart that if there's one thing that horrific act of violence in Charleston has made us realize is that, whatever our politics, no decent person in this country wants to live in a racist society. I believe that we, most of us, really do want to live in a land where the truth is held as self-evident that all people are created equal and entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
    I believe that is the land all good people desire to live in.
    And who knows, maybe today with a clearer vision we'll start moving a little closer to that land.

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Every Day Was A Party, Part 2

6/23/2015

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 ...Continued from yesterday:
Though, as I noted yesterday, it's easy enough to keep a 2-year-old and a 4-year old happy around the house as long as you spend every minute with them

and don't mind your house devolving into a messapalooza,

...still, finding a suitable place to take a pre-schooler and a toddler on a outing can be a tad more challenging.
However we found several spots around our quadrant of Columbus that turned out to be good destinations for an excursion with our little ones:

1. Krogers.
Perhaps not for every member of the younger set, but my grand daughters loved going Krogering, pushing around the mini-carts and acquiring their blue, red and yellow "I've been Krogering" stickers at the checkout.

Makaila, hurrying along as we picked up a few last-minute things on Sunday morning for Sienna's birthday party (see post from 6/17/2015).

2. Coffee Time (see post from 10/28/2014).

Makaila remembered our Coffee Time "tea party" from her last visit at Christmastime (see post from 12/31/2014) ) and wanted to go back.

So on Monday we met one of my Posse members there for snack.

Coffee Time has a really nice play area, where the children can play while the grown-ups visit.

My friend brought each of the girls a gift of an Elsa (from "Frozen") baby doll - a huge hit, as were the Coffee Time treats.

    3. The Columbus Airport.
    On Wednesday morning Tom and I took the girls with us to the airport to pick up my daughter Claire, who flew in from Chicago to see Maria and the girls while they were here.
    As it was pouring rain that morning it shouldn't have come as a complete surprise that Claire's plane was 2 hours late. However 4-year-old Makaila and 2-year-old Sienna found the airport a fine place to spend a morning. They were happy to run up and down the waiting area, study the paintings of the zoo animals on the wall ("Don't be afraid, Sienna," said Makaila, squashing her little sister in a a protective hug, "it not a real lion"), and checking out the shops.
    But their favorite activity, which they always came back to, was sitting on chairs in the food court and watching a screen that flashed advertisements for various food court offerings. They called this "watching TV".

    As Wednesday evening was to be the first time in years when all four of my children were home together we planned a big celebratory dinner

which the girls, of course, wanted to help with.

"Is this another party?" Makaila asked.

I assured her that it was.

4. Easton.
On Thursday Claire, Maria, and I took the girls to the fountain park at Easton.

As it turned out they were over-
whelmed by the fountain,

...but loved the model train display.

Later that evening we returned to Easton for a family dinner at Brio,

...which turned out to be the perfect place to take kids since,

as the restaurant borders the fountain park and the train display,

when the girls got antsy Tommy and I were able to take them outside to run around.

Of course this time, now that they weren't in their bathing suits, they wanted to run through the water.

5. The High Point Elementary School Playground.
On Friday it rained most of the day so we were mostly housebound,

...until evening, when the rain finally let up and we decided to head over to the local elementary school playground

for some running around,

...and swinging.

6. Polaris
As Saturday was yet another rainy day Maria and I took the girls to the Polaris Mall for lunch at the food court, where we shared pizza and a plate of Chinese food.

After lunch we headed for our destination, the mall's enchanting and, on this rainy day, kid-packed play area known as "The Zoo"

Then we enjoyed a couple more turns around the mall in one of the double strollers that the mall lends out for free as a courtesy to shopping parents.

On Saturday evening Makaila found my Advent calendar while rooting through a drawer and wanted to play "Christmas".

So we did.

On Sunday afternoon it was time for Maria and the girls to head back to Los Angeles, but there was still time in the morning for one more excursion to Krogers to pick up a few things for their trip.

And then, sadly, the party was over.

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Every Day Was a Party, Part 1

6/22/2015

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Yesterday afternoon my daughter Maria and my two granddaughters returned to Los Angeles after a week's visit.

    After helping Maria schlepp kids, suitcases, car seats, carry-ons and a stroller to the airport then through check-out and security we waved one last good-bye then walked away from the gate holding each others' hand.
    "A shame they couldn't have stayed longer," Tom sighed. "Another week or two."
    "If only they lived closer," I sighed, "like right around the corner."
    I know grandparenting is a different game if you have grandchildren who live close by and who you see regularly than if if your grandchildren live on the other side of the country and you see them for intense week-long stretches only a few times a year.
    I, by fate, fall into the latter category.

Tom and I tell ourselves that this is a good thing because our daughter and her family are well and happy living in sunny Los Angeles,

and because it gives us someplace to travel to,

...and because every visit with our grandchildren is a special occasion, for us as well as them.

Of course, it doesn't take much to create a special occasion for a a 4-year-old,

...or a 2-year-old.

That is to say, it doesn't take much besides every minute of your time,

...and an unqualified ageeableness to having your house in a state of joyful, messy chaos,

...in which state our house has been for the past week.
But I knew this was only a special occasion mess, though it brought me back to those days when my house was in a permanent state of child-induced sprawl. And I found myself recalling the the words I used to say to my children under my breath when they were young :

 It's lucky you're so cute!
To be continued...

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Flying The Enemy Flag

6/19/2015

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Wait, what? You're telling me the Confederate flag flies over the South Carolina statehouse? Seriously? On government property, in front of a government building? Really?

We're talking about the flag that was the banner of an enemy power that bombed American soil and started a war that took the lives of between 640,000 and 700,00 American soldiers and 250,000 civilians, right?

The Battle of Gettysburg left approximately 7,000 corpses in the fields around the town. Family members had to come to the battlefield to find their loved ones in the carnage. (Library of Congress)

That flag?
Can you imagine a seat of government in this country today flying the flag of Hitler's Germany or Hirohito's Japan, the flag of North Vietnam, Al Quaeda or ISIS, or the flag of any other enemy, past or present, of the United States of America?

But to be flying that flag, the one that stood for human enslavement, for black lives as property to be bought and sold, used and abused, shackled, worked, beaten, bred, raped, traded, bartered for then disposed of according to the wishes of the owner? To be honoring the flag that stood for lives lived from birth to death in restraint and hard labor for the profit of people who had legal claim upon their bodies as well as the bodies of their spouses and children?

    Really?
    Does the flag that once enshrined the most reprehensible racial oppression imaginable really yet wave o'er the capitol building in a state where one-third of the population is African American?
    And the citizens of South Carolina are fine with this?
    I'm stunned. I suppose I believed that, other than in historical presentations, display of the Confederate flag was relegated to kitsch art and "Dukes Of Hazard" - syle comedy.
    But no, the Confederate flag flies high and proud in the city of Charleston, even now after a sick, twisted young racist, inspired by the ethos represented by that flag, walked into a church last Wednesday night and murdered a group of black people at prayer with a Glock 42 handgun that had been recently given to him, deranged as he was, by his father as a gift for his 21st birthday.
    And now legal experts are quibbling over whether this was a hate crime or an act of terrorism.
    As if this point were so important, as if it mattered to the heartbroken families, friends, and community left behind.
    And that flag still flies.
    I understand that controlling the availability of guns is out of the question because guns don't kill people and if we all weren't permitted to own all the guns we wanted and to carry them everywhere we went then our country would collapse and life as we know it would cease to exist.
    But could the South Carolina General Assembly, out of respect for the 9 African Americans dead in Charleston and the 45 million still alive in this country, not take down that flag?

References:
1. "Civilian Deaths Civil War", Civil War Talk, April 19, 2011, http://civilwartalk.com/threads/civilian-deaths-civil-war.23466/
2. "Civil War Casulaties", Historynet, http://www.historynet.com/civil-war-casualties

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The Memory House

6/18/2015

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It had been at least 10 years since my daughter Maria had been to her grandparents' house in Richmond Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.
And so she greatly desired while in from Los Angeles to take her children to visit her 96-year-old grandfather, Tom's dad,

Charlie Liszkay,

...and to let them see the house built in 1957 where he still lives, where their Grandpa Tom grew up, and of which she, Maria, has so many childhood memories.

Tom's family's house.

Maria found the house much as she'd always remembered it, in fact little changed inside since she was a child,

...still full of interesting and old-fashioned things, some brought over from Hungary by relatives of Tom's mother, Mary Biro Liszkay, who came to America as a teenager from a small Hungarian village near the Russian border.

Other pieces belonged to Tom's father's father, who came to this country from a part of Hungary that became part of the former Czechoslovakia.

But most of the things still left in this house are things that have always been here, and this house recalls a time when things were kept for life then passed on to the next generation and, rather than being replaced with age, became more loved.

My niece Audrey, sister of my local nephew Randy,

...but still geographically one of the "Cleveland Cousins", also came to visit Grandpa and introduce her daughter Avery to the "Los Angeles Cousins".

The girls played with some of the toys from the old toy box upstairs that still held the same toys Maria and Audrey used to play with during visits to their grandparents; the same toys in fact that had belonged to their parents, Tom, his brothers Steve and Donald, and his sister Mary Jane, when they were young.

Makaila played with her great-Aunt Mary Jane's Barbies.

...And Sienna napped in a bed that once belonged to her great-great grandfather.

But Maria also wanted her daughters to have the experience of playing in their great-grandparents' vast yard,

...and walking to the beautiful creek at the back of her grandfather's property where she, her siblings, and cousins used to play, as did her father, aunt, uncles and their cousins before her.

Maria wanted to bring home some small meaningful memento from her grandparents' house and her Aunt Mary Jane offered her the Barbies, which she accepted.

Some houses, like some people, live to hold more memories than others.

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Another Happy Birthday

6/17/2015

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Last Saturday evening our daughter Maria and two granddaughters Makaila and Sienna flew in to Columbus from Los Angeles.

As Sienna’s 2nd birthday was the next day, Maria had invited some old school friends and their children over for a birthday party on Sunday afternoon.
Including family and friends we ended up with a head count of 9 children and 13 adults and I took a stab, and succeeded fairly well, at putting together a simple and kid-oriented party menu of:

Pulled pork,

    Hot dogs on the grill,
    Tater tots,
   Macaroni and cheese,
    Green beans almondine,
     Hummus and chips,
    Veggies and dip,
    Fresh strawberries, and

Fresh blueberry shooters.

The desserts were:

A Giant Eagle cake for Sienna and Tom, too, whose birthday had just passed,

...and a tray of store-bought cookies.

Maria had brought along the Frozen-themed decorations (at 2 years old Sienna is already as avid a Frozen fan as her big sister) and we all got to work Saturday night setting up for the party.

Earlier in the day I’d gone to the Dollar Tree and bought a dozen helium balloons – by the by, if you ever need helium party balloons, they’re only a dollar each at the Dollar Tree – which I hid in a closet until the girls went to bed then set free in the living room so that on Sunday morning the girls came downstairs to a room full of balloons.

The “balloon forest” (as the girls called it) was a big hit.

We spent the morning running around getting ready for the party,

Cleaning up the patio,

Setting up the pool, parachute and water toys in the backyard,

...and, as party time approached, setting out the finishing touches.

     Shortly before the guests arrived I told Makaila that it was almost time for the party. She gave me confused look and replied, “But Grammie, this is the party!”
     It’s wonderful to be 4 years old.
    The guests began arriving at 3:00, some with more balloons to add to the “forest”.

I invited everyone to dig into the food as soon as they arrived,

…though the kids seemed more interested in diving into the water toys.

The adults, between chasing after and playing with the kids, enjoyed catching up,

…and, of course, eating.

Me, I went for a hot dog topped with pico de gallo, relish and mustard, a sort of Chicago/Mex combo. It was quite awesome,

...though not quite in the same league as the dog put together by Tommy, upon which he piled the same ingredients as mine then topped them with pulled pork and a pickle slice .

After a bit we cut into the cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to the birthday girl.

Then the party moved to the inside toys.

In a while the guests began leaving, each one taking with them a balloon or two. By 7:30 the last of the guests had gone;

...which meant, of course, that it was time to grab another plate and start digging into the left-overs.

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The Mysterious Faith Tones

6/16/2015

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    So last Thursday night Theresa and I were checking out the collection of vintage record albums on the wall of the fM restaurant lobby (see Friday's post),

...when this one stopped us in our tracks.

       Our initial what the heck?! reaction quickly evolved into a discussion over whether this supposed album cover from - when? The 50's? The 60's? - was real or a photo shop creation; were The Faith Tones an actual group? If so did they represent satire or sincerity? Were they women? Or guys in leisure suits and bouffant 'do's?
    Anyway, when we got home Theresa googled "The Faith Tones" and what we learned was that this this 60's - or possibly pseudo-60's - trio that I'd never heard of is in fact a great internet mystery with a cult following.
    There are numerous sites debating the existence of "The Faith Tones" and their album. There are those who swear that the album, supposedly released in 1964, exists; that they, or their father, or their cousin's friend's uncle in fact own, or used to own a copy. There are others who claim that they've scoured the internet looking for a copy of "Jesus Use Me" and that they've never found any evidence of its existence.
    Some hold that the album is just a fabricated meme image, an internet urban legend .
    Not that you can't find a recording of the title song.
    A recording of the of the song "Jesus Use Me", an Old Timey piano gospel tune sung in close three-part women's harmony, was posted with a photo of the album cover on Youtube in 2013. You can check it out at:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RciSEvedXvs
     If you listen to the recording it sounds authentic enough, and the person who posted that also posted two other songs from the album, "It's Different Now" and "God Bless America."

But then after snooping around a bit I found this:

    The above photo accompanied a supposedly rare recording by a supposedly 60's Canadian Christian girl rock group. That recording is at:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMjlz7aCVzE
    So does this prove that the Faith Tones are a fake? Or that they were just moonlighting?
    Anyway, there are enough believers out there that "Jesus Use Me" has a place - sometimes first - on several "Worst Album Cover Ever" sites, and there are numerous parodies of the cover kicking around the 'net:

There's also a hilarious youtube video called "Faith Tones Exposed" that reveals the "true identity" of The Faith Tones. This one you should check out:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0ewF1jtAJs
     I did come across one blog that posted a very believable, detail-filled and rather touching biography of the group members that was picked up by Wikipedia...until the author admitted that the story was fiction.
    Suspiciously, the person who posted the fake biography appears to be the same one who posted the Faith Tones recordings on Youtube. So go figure.
    In any case, here are the conclusions I've come to about the Faith Tones:
    1. Be it real or fake, there are three individuals somewhere out there, though at this time we know not who for sure, who posed for that album cover, and
    2. If The Faith Tones really were a female trio that produced an album in 1964 that is now enjoying a dubious renaissance, you'd think they'd step forward and try to cash in on the phenomenon. Or step forward and tell everyone to knock it the heck off.

Anyway, next time I go to the fM I'm definitely going to ask if anybody there knows where this came from.

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