They would never have published that terrible antisummer snotwhine that is Salon's lead article today, and was supposedly written by a New Yorker.

Made fun of it, yes.

, after reading these letters. Abba is for little white princesses, and anyone, of any age, sex or gender, who wants to recapture (or just capture) that feeling.

In researching the lyrics to the song, I found a listing for a grainy video of the original performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival. I had no idea it existed. Lyrics aside, Les McCann's piano is irresistible, even for Abba fans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OawoYrv9OUY

Prior to the era of crud personified by ABBA, we went through a long period of music that was actually about something -- political and metaphysical ideas. Apparently the questions being asked got too uncomfortable for a lot of people ("Could the government actually be working against our interest?"), leading to Saturday Night Fever, this, and an even longer period of nothink that we may (or may not) just be emerging from now.

So why do we love it so much? What you mean we, white woman? ABBA was a cultural tragedy, and some pretty awful music as well. The best American music (and all rock is influenced by American music) has always been played by some variation of guitar, piano, sax, bass and drums, in live performance. ABBA's about as far away from that as it's possible to get. Bubblegum pop for small children, given, but children ought to grow up sometime.

I've been playing this all summer, for some strange reason. It's by Gene McDaniels, from 1969, most memorably performed by Les McCann and Eddie Harris. You want Waterloo? I got your Waterloo....

1. Love the lie and lie the love

Hangin' on, with a push and shove

Possession is the motivation

that is hangin' up the God-damn nation

Looks like we always end up in a rut (everybody now!)

Tryin' to make it real — compared to what?

2. Slaughterhouse is killin' hogs

Twisted children killin' frogs

Poor dumb rednecks rollin' logs

Tired old ladies kissin' dogs

Hate the human, love that stinking mutt (I can't stand it!)

Try to make it real — compared to what?

3. The President, he's got his war

Folks don't know just what it's for

Nobody gives us rhyme or reason

Have one doubt, they call it treason

We're chicken-feathers, all without one gut (God damn it!)

Tryin' to make it real — compared to what? (Sock it to me, now)

4. Church on Sunday, sleep and nod

Tryin' to duck the wrath of God

Preacher's fillin' us with fright

Tryin' to tell us what he thinks is right

He really got to be some kind of nut (I can't use it!)

Tryin' to make it real — compared to what?

5. Where's that bee and where's that honey?

Where's my God and where's my money

Unreal values, crass distortion

Unwed mothers need abortion

Kind of brings to mind ol' young King Tut (He did it now)

Tried to make it real — compared to what?!

I did earlier in the week, and got over 300 unwanted e-mails in 48 hours. Every e-mail sent by a group member is automatically directed to all other members.

I tried several "options" on the website to cut off the flow; none of them worked. The only way I could end the torrent was to drop membership in the group entirely.

Either MBO is gaming this page of their main site to shut it down, or it is so ineptly administered as to be counterproductive. There are several other sites doing the same work; Glenn Greenwald lists some, and there are MoveOn, ThinkProgress, 'the Dean brothers' Democracy For America and Russ Feingold's Progressive Patriots' Fund, the ACLU and TruthOut to name others. I like the idea of the site, but it was more of a timewaster than anything, and we've already wasted enough time. This group needs its own independent voice.

This is what airline travellers have to go through routinely.

I'm still looking for my shoes. The upside is, there will be a lot fewer of them in future. United just announced that it's tacking a hundred dollar fee onto anyone who tries to redeem frequent flier miles, the only thing that keeps the industry going. As always, others are expected to follow suit.

And it just goes on. And down. Not something you should say when talking about airplanes.

But they were waterskis pulled by a motorcycle, right? A jetski?

Oh well. It makes a better story that way.

There's a pretty entertaining book on the subject called, appropriately, "Jump the Shark," detailing sharkjumping moments in popular culture of the last thirty years. http://www.amazon.com/Jump-Shark-Jon-Hein/dp/0452284104/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215705486&sr=1-2

My favorite shark-jumping moment was on "Laverne and Shirley" when Laverne and Carmine and a ghost, or something like that, reenacted the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics in Laverne's living room. Small children playing alone would have showed more imagination.

So, when do you think Salon jumped it?

"Jump the shark" denotes the exact instant that a pop culture symbol ceases to lose all relevance and becomes an inane parody of itself, yet still won't give up. The name comes from an episode of "Happy Days" where Fonzy, on vacation with the Cunninghams instead of burglarizing their house while they're out of town, literally jumps a (caged) shark with his motorcycle. Why? Because the writers had completely run out of ideas, yet the damn thing went on for another couple seasons.

At Salon, many observers point to Joan Walsh's ascendence to Editorship as the shark-jumping moment, but I think it's more complicated than that. I'd go with the first piece by Rebecca Traister. Or Camille Paglia. Or Debra Dickerson (who appears to be currently blogging for the Rev. Wright's PTA group). Or Alex Koppelman.

Or, if you could hold on that long, Bacon Week.