My two-cents worth and then some. An online journal by LP Brown.

Putting A Different Spin on Paper or Plastic

by on ·Baby Boomers

Boomers, remember when you were a child and began receiving a weekly allowance? I don’t know about you, but my poor pals and I felt rich on allowance day when our parents dropped a few shiny coins — or, in my case, a thin dime — in the palm of our hand. I’m not mad about the ten cents, because for a child growing up in those Father Knows Best days a dime went a long way. I could buy 20 two-for-a-penny cookies (Oatmeal, thank you.) or an equal amount of Jawbreakers and Squirrel Nuts, or a Three Musketeers bar.

Allowances have increased. Today’s youngsters expect

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An Open Letter to President Obama

by on ·Lifestyle and Culture, Politics

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Dear Mr. President,

I, like many of my friends, was disappointed to hear you publicly announce your support for gay marriage. This is not an anti-gay commentary and it may sound hackneyed when I say that I have gay friends, but I do. Perhaps it is because of those friendships that I better understand how homosexuals feel about entitlement, civil liberties and why gay partners want to marry to have the same rights afforded heterosexual married couples, but just as they have their opinion I have mine and I cannot in good conscience support same sex marriage. As much as I resist agreeing with Mitt Romney on anything, I share his belief that marriage is a union between a man and a woman.

The current issue of Newsweek magazine features you on the front cover with a rainbow halo above your head. Unlike many people I know, I do not believe that your “coming out” on the matter of gay marriage was sincere. I think it was

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Remembering the Multi-generational Chuck Brown

by on ·Baby Boomers

Chuck Brown died yesterday. Brown, also called the “Godfather of Go Go,” was a Washington, DC legend and a 2010 Grammy Award nominee whose unique mix of funk, soul, jazz and Latin music transcended generations. Sometime during the 1970s, Brown’s style of music, as well as that of a few other local bands in the nation’s capital, came to be called go-go, and a popular line in some circles was — if you don’t know about Go-Go, then you don’t know DC.

Brown, as recognizable by his gold front tooth as for his style of music, was born in 1936. Although he was a Great Depression era baby, originally from Gaston, North Carolina, when he became a master of go-go in the DMV (District, Maryland and Virginia), he captured the hearts of many of the local teenaged offspring of Baby Boomer parents, and some of his tunes won the admiration of Boomer parents as well; even before the rest of the country knew who he was.

From the time my son was about 16, he was a fan of Chuck Brown and The Soul Searchers, but because go-go music sometimes attracted a troublesome crowd, I tried to discourage his attendance at local go-go events.

My concern about the violence associated with go-go was expressed

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