http://www.rollingstone.com/music/photos/28431/194023

Rolling Stone is a fine publication. But its editors got it all wrong when listing the top 10 Beatles songs of all time.

The mag’s pick? “A Day in the Life.”

I’ll concede that it’s a fine tune. But the best of all time? Hardly. It’s not even as good as “Strawberry Fields” or “Get Back.”

I’ve been saying for decades that the best song ever recorded — by any artist ever — is another Beatles ditty: “Hey Jude,” all 7 minutes 11 seconds of it. But that’s just my opinion.

How do I measure this song’s greatness? It’s the only song that I can remember where I was the very first time I heard it. That event ranks right up there with President Kennedy’s murder, the first moon landing and 9/11. For the record, that moment came in my barracks at Fort Lewis, Wash., as I listened to a transistor radio on my bunk in the late summer of 1968. I had just joined the Army and was taking a breather after a day of the usual harassment doled out by drill sergeants to a platoon of young recruits. I have no clue where I was when I first heard “A Day in the Life.”

Rolling Stone rated “Hey Jude” at No. 7 all time. Aw, c’mon. What have those guys been smoking?

I am excited about downtown Amarillo’s downtown progress and the momentum that continues to build toward an eventual revival.

But I’m troubled by the lack of discussion about what to do about a particular piece of property: the old St. Anthony’s Hospital site on Polk Street and Amarillo Boulevard.

It’s been vacant for a long time. Its demise began when St. Anthony’s merged in the mid-1990s with High Plains Baptist Hospital to become Baptist-St. Anthony’s Hospital. Everyone packed up and moved to the BSA site at the medical center complex off Coulter Street.

What’s left now on the northern fringe of the downtown district is a weed-infested, deserted complex of buildings.

I spoke at length this morning with Mike Callahan, the new head of the Harrington Regional Medical Center, about a number of health-related topics. The discussion turned briefly to the Saints campus. He doesn’t know what will become of it. Callahan said a developer purchased the site “for a song.”

But with all the talk about various parcels in our near the downtown district, why hasn’t the old hospital complex been a topic of public discussion and debate?

It’s too big of a piece of real estate to just let rot.

Someone at City Hall, Center City or Downtown Amarillo Inc. — or at all three agencies — needs to get this conversation started.

It took me a few days to figure it out, but I found a not-so-obvious difference between Amarillo and the place where I was vacationing for the past week with my wife.

We didn’t see a single billboard anywhere in Hawaii.

OK, we’re aware of the clear differences between the High Plains and the Island Paradise: We have, um, the big sky; they have heavily forested mountains that obstruct the view of sunsets and sunrises. We have sparse rain and relentless sunshine; they have abundant rain and intermittent clouds day and night. We have wide boulevards and miles and miles of straight-line driving; they have hair-pin turns and narrow two-lane roads that turn into one-lane roads.

We also have billboards that advertise everything. Hawaii gets along quite well, apparently, without them.

I actually thought of Bill Ware, the big-time Amarillo banker who also is a well-known advocate for limiting billboards and other outdoor signage in his hometown. I’m guessing he’s been to Hawaii already, so he knows of which I am writing.

I didn’t miss the billboards. They would have messed up some very beautiful scenery we saw for the week we were tooling around the islands.

And I wouldn’t miss them here at home if they tore them all down immediately. Our big sky also is quite easy on the eyes.

Hey, whatever works …

Gov. Rick Perry has announced that, just as he did in the primary campaign, he will not speak to newspaper editorial boards while he seeks re-election to his third full term.

Perry raised plenty of eyebrows early in the year when he swore off the interviews. He said then he had better things to do than speak to newspaper editors who would question him about why Republican voters should renominate him.

An interesting thing then happened: Virtually all the papers in the state endorsed his major primary opponent, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. From Amarillo to McAllen, and from El Paso to Beaumont — and all the places between — papers spoke glowingly about Hutchison’s credentials as a senator and the dedicated service she has given to the state.

What did that get her? Well, she lost the primary by more than 20 percentage points to Perry.

So, the governor must figure that what worked in the primary can work in the general election.

Perry’s Democratic challenger, former Houston Mayor Bill White, spins the refusal quite differently. In a statement issued today, White spokeswoman Katy Bacon said, “It’s no wonder Rick Perry doesn’t want to meet with editorial boards. He has a lot to answer for, from his spending and the $18 billion budget deficit to a lack of ethics and abuse of state government as his own self-serving, partisan political machine. Texans deserve a leader who’s not afraid of tough questions.”

Bacon does have a point. It’s been a tradition for politicians to meet with editorial boards and to answer pointed questions from ink-stained wretches. Bill White no doubt will get the treatment when he comes calling later this year. It goes with the territory.

But as the governor proved during his winning primary campaign, this is shaping up as an unconventional election year.

However, the National Conference of Editorial Writers is having its annual meeting next month in Dallas. One of the featured speakers will be, um, Rick Perry.

I wonder if he’ll take questions.

I spoke too soon. Shame on me.

I had thought I had dodged a bullet because the seal-coating operation under way in my southwest Amarillo neighborhood wouldn’t affect me much because of our rear-entry driveway. And I said as much in an earlier post on this blog.

Well … I was wrong. I went brain-dead and forgot about the street behind our house from which we enter the alley that leads to our driveway and garage.

I went home last night and found that gritty asphalt-covered gravel all over the street behind our house. It splattered the undercarriage of my car.

Then, this morning, I awoke early (as usual) and headed down the alley for my morning workout. Then it happened.

The car began howling from a noise underneath. I guess some of the seal-coated rocks had gotten into the brakes, causing that hideous whining sound.

At least that’s what I hope happened.

A notice was hanging on our front door the other day. It was from Amarillo street department, telling us to prepare ourselves for a slight inconvenience this week. The city is going to lay down some seal coating, which comprises asphalt-covered pebbles.

I mention this because I heard this past week some faint grumbling from residents in the Estacado neighborhood near where we live. Their streets have been treated already and the residents don’t like it. The gravel gets kicked up onto their driveways, sidewalks and it gathers along the curb. Plus, some folks have said, the gravel plays havoc with their vehicles’ undercarriage.

Knowing about the grumbling, and having just received the notice, I took a brief walk Saturday morning along my street — which is all of two blocks long. It has cul-de-sacs on both ends and I joke all the time that the only people who drive on our street either (a) want to be there or (b) are hopelessly lost. I walked to one end of the street, then to the other. I looked for flaws in the pavement. I didn’t find any.

Indeed, the city just laid down some asphalt just about three, maybe four, years ago.

I know what the city’s response is to the gripes: Laying this coating down protects the street; if we don’t do it, City Hall officials say, the pavement will buckle, crack and will be harder on our vehicles.

But here’s the saving grace: We live in a neighborhood with rear-entry driveways. I don’t have to drive on this nasty stuff while it’s settling.

But the current street surface in front of my house looks to be in nearly mint condition. I’m still wondering why the city needs to do it so soon after the previous work on it.

Let’s say you’re the president of the United States. You’ve been in office just a few weeks, having replaced a beloved man who had served for 12 years; he had just taken the oath for his fourth term before he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Alex Rodriguez hit his 600th career home run Wednesday and what does he get? A collective yawn from the sporting public, unless you live in and around New York City.

Is there any surprise? Of course not.

A-Rod has admitted using steroids back when he played for the Texas Rangers. Well, he’s hitting dingers for the New York Yankees these days. He became only the seventh player in major league history to pass the 600-HR mark, but no one seems to care.

He cheated to get there.

I recall the day when such a milestone created almost a national holiday. Willie Mays hit No. 600 and we stopped in awe. Hank Aaron’s 600th and then his 700th career HRs were cause for dancing in the streets.

These days? Big deal. A-Rod’s 600th is seen by millions of fans as just another home run.

I used to truly root for Rodriguez to break Barry Bonds’ career home run mark of 762. But that was before he admitted to using ‘roids — after denying it for many years prior to that.

Now? I don’t give a rip.

To no one’s surprise, certainly not mine, my jury summons ended with a recorded phone message last night that told me I need not report this morning to the Randall County Justice Center.

All jurors summoned for duty were excused until the next time we’re called for duty, the recorded message said.

Call me out to lunch, but I have been waiting for years to serve on a trial jury. I keep getting these directives to report for jury duty, but far more often than not the litigants all settle before these cases go to trial.

Once, not long after moving to Amarillo, I did get a summons and reported for duty in Canyon. I sat in a jury impaneling room for most of the morning. In walked then-47th District Judge David Gleason, who thanked us for taking time out of our day to report for duty. He then told us are services were no longer required.

Drat!

I still got paid $6 for my half day of “work” on behalf of the state’s criminal justice system.

I’m hoping my moment will arrive — one of these days.

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-news-sunday/#/v/4299765/sarah-palin-on-fns/?playlist_id=86913

Check out the link here. It shows former half-term Alaska Gov. Sarah “Barracuda” Palin declare that President Obama lacks the “cojones” to enforce federal immigration law.

Her appearance on Fox News Sunday was interesting as well in the question that the show’s host, Chris Wallace, didn’t ask her to follow up on her statement about the president’s manhood.

Imagine this question:

“Governor, you say that President Obama isn’t man enough to enforce federal immigration law. But in fairness, governor, this illegal immigration crisis didn’t begin with the current president. His immediate predecessor, George W. Bush, faced the same problem. So did his predecessors: Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, you name ’em. This list covers both political parties. Did these men lack the same qualities you say is lacking in the current president?”