For What It's Worth

I have been asked a couple of times, why “For What It’s Worth” as a blog title? So, I thought I might take a moment to explain and also give a few insights into some of the symbology I use within it.

First, every blog must have a title or name. It should be something, catchy, memorable, and provide an idea of the content. Based on the purpose of my blog, I wanted to share “my thoughts on current events and items of interest to me”. I did not want anything like “My Two Cents” or any cute variation, such as “.02” or “2¢” or even “$0.02”. Also, I did not want my name or moniker to appear in the title, such as “Eddy’s Views On…” or “A Marine’s Take”. I did consider for a while naming it “A Redneck Marine’s Guide To Life, Love, and Liberals”. I thought I might attract the wrong crowd so I decided against it.

After a bit of thinking, I remembered a phrase my Dad used to say when he wanted to voice his opinion, normally in an unsolicited manner. He would say, “If it means anything,” then add his comment. People tended to listen when my Dad “added his .02”. At times, Dad must have felt like E. F. Hutton. If you do not recognize the name, then you probably need to read my blog so I can help fill your brain housing group with useful information. To that end, E. F. Hutton was a brokerage powerhouse. Commercials and advertisements had the phrase, “When E. F. Hutton talks, people listen”. In other words—also an idea for a blog title—produce something that people will stop what they are doing and “listen to what you have to say” or more literally, in this case, read what I have to write.

"For What It's Worth" cover in 1967.

While kicking around a few ideas, I was listening to a Spotify station playing music from the 60s and 70s. I heard a song by Buffalo Springfield, a Folk-Rock band. Buffalo Springfield had several well-known musicians. Richie Furay, who went on to form the Country-Rock band Poco. Stephen Stills and Neil Young would get together with David Crosby and Graham Nash to form Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Jim Messina would later partner with Kenny Loggins forming Loggins and Messina and Jim Fielder moved on to Blood, Sweat, & Tears. Needless to say, there was a lot of talent in this group.

In the mid-60s they wrote and recorded a protest song that was untitled. When Stills gave it to the band’s agent he said, “I have this song here, for what it’s worth, if you want it”. Based on the phrasing of the sentence, the agent believed the title to be “For What It’s Worth”. They cut it as the A-side to a single. For those inquiring minds, the B-side was “Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It?”. However, the song title to the A-side song is nowhere in the lyrics of the song. You might assume the protest song was about the Vietnam War that was just getting in high gear in 1967. Well, you would be wrong. While it is a protest song, it is not about war. If you want to learn about this, do a little research. It won’t hurt.

When I heard the song, I recognized it and I immediately knew this was my blog title. The band had something to say, “Hey what’s that sound?” it got everyone’s attention. Like E. F. Hutton, people stopped and listened. Having decided on my blog title, I was going to do something different. Every individual post or entry I publish to my blog will have the title of that post appearing somewhere in the text.

With the exception of “The World Is Black, The World is White” published on 24 AUG 13, the blog title For What It’s Worth, and the first letter in each post is purple. I chose not to use any color in the aforementioned post because it is about race relations between blacks and whites. The post is all black and white except when referencing bloodshed and violence. Here I use red in an attempt to illustrate we may have different skin colors, but we all bleed red. Back to the reason for using purple.

Purple is my favorite color. It is the color of royalty. However, that is not why I chose it. I have a wonderful, sweet friend whose favorite poem is “When I Am An Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple” by Jenny Joseph. She encouraged me to write years ago. She reminded me of my gift and that I need to share it with the world. This is my homage to her; my way of recognizing her impact on and importance in my life. To this person, PEAS.😉

Because of my health, my writing is sporadic. Trying to think in a coherent manner when all you want to do is yell, makes it difficult to capture your thoughts. This situation is compounded by the dulling effect of pain meds. Regardless, I try to write something each week. Most of what I write is never published; never read by anyone but me.

I write a lot of political posts or entries but have a fair amount of military stories as well. I have tried to tag or label each published post with pertinent identifiers to aid readers find a post or something to read. Posts that are not political, historical, or about the military, are what I call “Fun Zone”. These are posts, much like this one, that allow the reader to escape reality for a moment and mentally check out. Maybe a ten-minute break while having a cup of coffee. Fun Zone posts include, “Cheers!”, “Battle of Ed’s Shed”, “Where Dreams Come True”, “LabCorp Comedy Club”, etc. Just use the drop-down list on the top left “All Labels”

If you have read this far, I hope by now you are interested enough to read some of my other posts. If you like it, disagree with it, or just have something to say, please let me know. Don’t be surprised if you come across some EDDYoms (idioms). I have made several, such as NERDvana—a mental or emotional state of Utopian bliss as a result of doing anything “nerdy”; Palate Party—a tasty bite of food that is a “taste bud treat”; Premature Exclamation—being in such a hurry to reply, you fail to fully compose your idea before you speak or hit Send/Enter; Electronic Erection—sort of self-explanatory, but any form of excitement brought about by electronic gadgets. To clarify, it is far short of NERDvana.

Who knows, you might read something here and find yourself in a conversation later in the day beginning with, For What It’s Worth…..