Swinging Blue Jeans – "Hippy Hippy Shake" (1963)

Well, you shake it to the left

You shake it to the right

There are more goofy photos of politicians out there than you can shake a stick at.

One of the most famous shows Calvin Coolidge wearing an Indian headdress:

You would have thought that Barack Obama would have learned from “Silent Cal” Coolidge’s misjudgment, but good ol’ 44 was caught posing in a colorful Native American blanket and a traditional cedar-bark hat:

Here’s Joe Biden wearing a different kind of Indian-themed headgear:

And last but not least, here’s a photo of 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis wearing an Army helmet and riding in a tank:

Some people think that photo – which was featured in a Republican campaign ad that attacked Dukakis for being soft on national defense – cost him the election.  

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Marc Elrich, the lame-duck County Executive of Montgomery County, Maryland – the home of 2 or 3 lines – has posted a lot of goofy photos on social media over the years.

Here’s a recent photo of Elrich at a Hare Krishna festival:

(I know I’ve posted that photo previously, but I just can’t get enough of it.) 

Here’s one of the 77-year-old Elrich trying to look hip in blue jeans and a denim jacket:

I’m not sure if Marc ever attempts to do the “Hippy Hippy Shake.”  But if he does, I’m pretty sure he shakes it to the left and not to the right.  After all, he’s a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

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Why did Elrich post that photo of himself in an all-denim outfit?  He was observing “Denim Day,” of course.

If you’ve never heard of “Denim Day,” it’s the day when people wear jeans to demonstrate their solidarity with victims of sexual assault.  

“Denim Day” – which is observed on the last Wednesday of every April – was inspired by an Italian Supreme Court decision overturning a sexual assault conviction.  Here’s an excerpt from an article in the Columbia Journal of European Law that explains the connection between that case and blue jeans:

On July 12, 1992, an 18-year-old Italian student reported to the police that her 45-year-old driving instructor had raped her the previous day during a driving lesson.  She recounted that the man had driven her to a secluded pathway outside the inhabited center, where, after flinging her down on the ground and slipping off her blue jeans from one leg, he had brutally raped her.  

[The driving instructor] confirmed having engaged in sexual intercourse with his student at the time and place she had recounted, but claimed that it had been consensual.

The man was then initially charged with “carnal violence,” “private violence,” “sexual abduction,” “grievous bodily harm,” and “gross indecency in public.”  [The trial court] convicted the driving instructor only of gross indecency in public, acquitting him of the other charges.  [But the appeals court] held the man accountable for all of the offenses and sentenced him to two years and ten months of imprisonment. . . .

The Italian Supreme Court [ruled] that the appellate court had failed to conduct an adequate and rigorous scrutiny of the trustworthiness of the plaintiff’s accusations and of those circumstances that were inconsistent with the alleged rape.  

In particular, the Supreme Court rebutted the appellate court’s decision that had evaluated the partial removal of the blue jeans as evidence of the victim’s lack of consent . . . .  [T]he Supreme Court pointed out that “it is a fact of common experience that it is nearly impossible to slip off tight jeans even partly without the active collaboration of the person who is wearing them.”  

[NOTE: That reasoning was rejected in subsequent Italian Supreme Court decisions, so the so-called “jeans defense” is no longer available to those charged with sexual assault in Italy.]

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The day after that Supreme Court ruling was announced, female members of the Italian Parliament donned blue jeans and took to the streets to protest the court’s ruling.

The leader of the protesters was Alessandra Mussolini, a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies who was subsequently elected to the Italian Senate and the European Parliament:

I’ll have more to say about Signora Mussolini – who is not only the granddaughter of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini but also the niece of the legendary Italian actress Sophia Loren – in the next 2 or 3 lines.

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Marc Elrich wouldn’t have gotten where he is today without knowing a good photo op when he sees one.  So you can expect to see photos of him decked out in blue denim from head to toe on Facebook, X, and other social media every time “Denim Day” rolls around.

I’m putting a “Denim Day” reminder on my calendar app so I can join him next year.  Please join us!

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Chan Romero, a 17-year-old Montanan, wrote and recorded “Hippy Hippy Shake” in 1959.  His record was a big hit in Australia but didn’t do much in North America or the UK.

The Swinging Blue Jeans had better luck when they released a cover of the song in December 1963.  Their recording of “Hippy Hippy Shake” peaked at #24 on the Billboard “Hot 100,” but made it all the way to #2 on the UK and Canadian singles charts.

Click here to listen to the Swinging Blue Jeans covering “Hippy Hippy Shake.”  

Click here to buy that recording from Amazon.

Fleetwood Mac – "Child of Mine" (1972)

I miss you again

I let the sunlight through my eyes

I won’t cry

In the previous 2 or 3 lines, I introduced you to Marc Elrich, the County Executive of Montgomery County, Maryland – where I’ve lived for many years.

A day rarely goes by without Elrich issuing press releases and posting photos of himself on Facebook, X, and other social media – like this photo of Elrich at a Hare Krishna festival where celebrants throw colored powder at each other:

Elrich won the first time he ran for county executive despite winning only 29% of the votes cast in the Democratic primary.  (Montgomery County Democrats outnumber Republicans by a four-to-one margin, so winning the Democratic primary pretty much guarantees victory in the general election.)

In most jurisdictions, if no candidate gets a majority of the votes cast, there’s a runoff between the top two vote-getters.  

But that’s not the case in the People’s Republic of Montgomery County, where the candidate who gets the most votes wins even if – like Elrich – he didn’t come close to getting a majority.

So we ended up with a County Executive who had been rejected by 71% of the voters from his own party.

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Elrich was re-elected to his second term by an even narrower margin.  

Once again, Elrich fell far short of winning a majority of the votes cast in the Democratic primary – most of the members of his party preferred another candidate.  

But because we don’t believe in majority rule in Montgomery County, that didn’t matter.  All Elrich needed to win re-election was a tiny plurality – which is exactly what he got.

After the 140,000-odd ballots cast in the Democratic primary that year were tabulated, Elrich ended up with 32 more votes than the runner-up.  

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!  

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After winning two such fluky victories, a humbler man would have thanked his lucky stars and quit while he was ahead.  

But Marc “I Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Majority” Elrich is made of sterner stuff.  So after squeaking through the 2022 election, he immediately announced his intention to run for a third term in 2026.

“Not so fast!” said tens of thousands of horrified Montgomery County voters, who rushed to the polls at the next opportunity to approve a measure that prevented Elrich from running for a third term by a two-to-one margin.

“You’ve got Republicans who couldn’t beat me in a one-on-one election.”  Elrich whined to the Washington Post.  “The best strategy, as they knew, was to try to knock me out using term limits.”  

Which is utter nonsense.  As previously noted, Montgomery County Democrats outnumber Republicans by a four-to-one margin.  The term-limit ballot question that threw cold water on Marc Elrich’s dream of winning a third term was supported by about twice as many Democratic voters as Republicans.  

So even if zero Republicans had voted in that election, there would still have been a majority in favor of denying Elrich a third term.

It’s simple math, Marc.

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A few years ago, the Houston Astros used 151 different starting lineups – which is believed to be a record.

Fleetwood Mac fell far short of that mark, but did field nine different lineups between 1967 (when the group was founded) and 1975 (when they released their hugely successful tenth studio album, Fleetwood Mac, which probably outsold their first nine albums combined).  

Drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie were members of all nine of those lineups, but the band has had more guitarists and lead vocalists than you can shake a stick at.  

Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer were the group’s original guitarists and singers, but were eventually displaced by Danny Kirwan and Bob Welch, respectively.  Kirwan was booted in favor of Bob Weston, who bailed after two albums.  Then Welch was replaced by Lindsey Buckingham.

The late Danny Kirwan

The group had started out as an all-male aggregation but eventually added the late Christine McVie (John McVie’s wife) and then Stevie Nicks (Lindsey Buckingham’s girlfriend).

My favorite Fleetwood Mac member is probably Danny Kirwan, who made his debut on Then Play On (the group’s third studio album) and stayed around through Bare Trees (their sixth).

Today 2 or 3 lines is featuring “Child of Mine” from Bare Trees, which demonstrates Kirwan’s talents as both a songwriter and a guitarist.  

“Child of Mine” is a relatively simple composition, and Kirwan’s guitar work on the track is restrained rather than show-offy.  (Less can be more, you know.)

Click here to listen to “Child of Mine.”

Click here to buy “Child of Mine” from Amazon.    

Alice Cooper – "Elected" (1972)

I never lied to you

I’ve always been cool

I wanna be elected!

They say a leopard can’t change its spots.

They also say that a politician will shove his mother out of the way if she’s standing between him and a camera.

Here’s a recent photo of the head of my county’s government, Marc Elrich, attending the annual celebration of the Holi festival with local followers of the Hare Krishna movement:

When I first saw that photo, I thought that someone had pranked Elrich.  But it turns out that Holi – which people celebrate by throwing colored powder at each other – is actually a thing.  (Who knew?) 

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The obvious explanation for Elrich’s willingness to attend an event like the local Holi festival is that he’s a politician who is determined to leave no stone unturned in his efforts to put himself in front of potential voters.  (Is it possible that there are enough Hare Krishnas in Montgomery County to have any effect on local elections?  Better safe than sorry!) 

Elrich will be 77 years old when his second term as the County Executive of Montgomery County, Maryland – the home of 2 or 3 lines – ends next year.  You might think that would be enough to discourage him from running for re-election.  But there are plenty of recent examples of people that old or older holding high office to demonstrate that advanced age is no match for a politician’s ego.    

Unfortunately for Elrich, last year the voters approved a ballot measure prohibiting from running for a third term as County Executive.  And there’s really no other elective office that would make sense for him to seek.  (I can’t imagine he would run for a lesser office at this point, and the higher ones are all spoken for.)

Elrich to Montgomery County voters:
“We don’t need no stinkin’ term limits!”

So if Elrich isn’t running for re-election, why does he continue to attend events like the Holi festival and post photos of himself shaking hands and kissing babies on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere? 

Possibly for the same reason that the scorpion in the old fable stings the frog that is carrying it across a river.  

“Without me to carry you across the river, you will drown,” the frog asks after the scorpion delivers the fatal sting.  “So why did you sting me?”

“Because that’s my nature,” the scorpion answers.

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I’ll have a lot more to say about County Executive Elrich in the next 2 or 3 lines.

In the meantime, you’re invited to click here and enjoy the brilliant music video for Alice Cooper’s “Elected,” which was released in 1972 on the Billion Dollar Babies album.  (John Lennon once told Alice that “Elected” was a great record, but that Paul McCartney would have done it better.  One out of two ain’t bad.)

Click here to buy “Elected” from Amazon.