Adieu to Joe

From The Capitol Steps CD Papa's Got a Brand New Baghdad

Green Green Grass at Home

(with chords from "Green, Green Grass of Home", written by Claude "Curly" Putman Jr.)

Well this (C)year won't be the same

As the (F)'92 campaign

When those who (C)ran denied that they smoked (G)marijuana

Years a(C)go a guy would (C7)be a goner

(F) Now it's like a (Dm7)badge of honor

To (C)say you smoked the (G)green green grass back (C)home.

Yes, you'd be a fool to (C7)grab a boobie

But (F)it's real cool to (Dm7)light a doobie

Like (C)Kerry, Dean and (G)Edwards did back home

There's not a sound from Wesley Clark

So he might just be a narc

And though Joe Lieberman won't smoke

We think he needs to

Though Al Sharpton says that pot's a dumb thing

His barber must be high on something

He's wearing reefer madness on his dome.

Now it seems that the people long

For the days of Cheech, and of Chong

And the voters they just want their candidates to like 'em

So there's no need to hide that sweet aroma

Or to say you've got glaucoma

If Democrats can call the White House home

Cause the Democrats have got a stealth plan

Marijuana's their new health plan

They'll give you pot, but then you're on your own.

Green Goddesses at the Golden Globes

I wasn't the only one to notice the tribute to the color green that took place at the Golden Globes on Sunday night.

First, Catherine Zeta-Jones appeared in a stunning, off-the-shoulder gown with an antebellum-style skirt in a deep emerald color. Next, Angelina Jolie shone in a glittery green gown that was reportedly chosen by the actress herself and not her stylist.

Zeta-Jones and Jolie are shown in this photo with Catherine's hubby Michael Douglas grinning behind. Douglas seems to be making an amazing recovery from his cancer, and I wonder if the gaggle of green is a tribute to something green that has come to his aid.

Also gracing the red carpet in green were Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss and Mila Kunis, the actress from the pot-friendly That 70s Show who speculated on the George Lopez show that it was marijuana and not salvia that Miley Cyrus was toking up in that YouTube video. 

Kunis and co-star Natalie Portman were impressive dancing and acting in The Black Swan, for which Portman took home a Globe. (Too bad it turned into a creepy slasher flick by the end.) Portman is producing a film called Best Buds about friends who save their girlfriend from marriage by bringing her weed.

Betty Boop

Ah, darn. Just when there might be a reason to watch "Hot in Cleveland," which debuted last year with Betty White playing a caretaker smelling of pot, this season's debut is a pot-party pooper.

Seems White's character hasn't been smoking pot at all, but has instead been using it in an "herbal mixture" to polish stolen silver items her late husband hid in their basement for the mob. Really. Because, that's so much more wholesome than smoking pot.

Makes ya want to return to yesteryear, like the Garden of Eden skit Betty performed with Johnny Carson. Says Johnny, "That Garden of Eden Gold is dynamite."

Joan Rivers said she smoked pot with White and others back in the day. "We had fun," she said. It seems Betty forgot. 

Lillian Hellman Nominated as Very Important Pothead / Tokin' Woman

Writer Lillian Hellman has been publicly nominated as a Very Important Pothead / Tokin' Woman by journalist Fred Gardner, who wrote in Counterpunch that he helped Hellman get marijuana to treat her glaucoma in the 1970s.

Gardner wrote me in an email, "I knew her very well '61-'71...The drink at the Huntington [when he suggested she try medicinal marijuana] was probably '77 or '78." He added, "Lil said she used mj when she was around people who used it. As in 'Whenever I'd be at a dinner with Gene Krupa...' "

According to the 1986 book Lillian Hellman: The Image, The Woman by William Wright, Hellman was a bit of a cougar in her later years, enjoying the company of young single men in New York in the mid-1970s "with a leaning towards the sort of outrageousness that produced the hearty Hellman belly laugh." At one gathering, Wright writes, "one of the company persuaded Hellman to smoke marijuana." The evening was "a raucous success" and Hellman had to be dissuaded from taking a walk down Park Avenue at 2AM by herself.

Hellman's most famous plays include The Children's Hour (1934), The Little Foxes (1939), and Toys in the Attic (1960). Tokin' Woman Tallulah Bankhead starred in the original production of The Little Foxes, a revival of which starring Anne Bancroft was directed by Mike Nichols; Elizabeth Taylor earned a Tony nomination for her performance in the play in 1981 (her Broadway debut), and Laura Linney and Cynthia Nixon co-starred in it in 2017. Hellman's memoir Pentimento (1973) was the basis for the 1977 movie Julia, in which Jane Fonda fittingly played her. (The film also features an early appearance by Meryl Streep.) A cocktail party she gave for George McGovern may have given him the idea to run for president. 

Hellman had a 30-year relationship with "Thin Man" writer Dashiell Hammett, and the two lived in a hotel managed by VIP Nathanael West in LA. She was blacklisted by the movie industry after telling the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1950: "To hurt innocent people whom I knew many years ago in order to save myself is, to me, inhuman and indecent and dishonorable. I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions." (This quote was rephrased and put in the mouth of a man in the film Trumbo; Hellman once got angry at Sue Mengers for quoting it in a lesser context.)

Hellman died in 1984 but remains current: On the red carpet at the Golden Globes on Sunday, "Mad Men" star Elisabeth Moss said she's appearing in London with Keira Knightley in Hellman's The Children's Hour.

Read more about Lillian Hellman. 

Photo (reportedly Hellman's favorite) by the late, great Irving Penn.

Roseanne Tells It Like It Is

Reading at Books Inc. in Berkeley on Sunday from her new book Roseannearchy Roseanne Barr laughed, she cried, and she displayed more compassion and common sense than all the politicians in Washington put together.

Barr has been making the talk show rounds, appearing with everyone from Joy Behar to Bill O'Reilly (she got Bill on board with a Charity Farm). She implored politicians to "stop dividing us against each other so you can rob us." The solution, she said, was to be kind to each other. "We can break free the minute we start sharing."

The no-nonsense Roseanne said she's gotten off Facebook because she realized it's "Satanic....I was thinking I was doing something when I wasn't." Instead, she blogs at Roseanneworld.com and invites all to meditate with her at 2AM on Friday night/Saturday morning (she posts her present time zone on her site). She spoke of the Sufi phrase, "That which occurs before that which transpires" and said, "Let's be that something."

Barr's hilarious HBO special "Blonde and Bitchin'" contained her trenchant observation, "The War on Drugs is a war on poor people using street drugs waged by rich people on prescription drugs."

There are a couple of references to the "Herb of the Goddess" in Roseannarchy. I recommend all buy and read the book to find them. She calls weed "the only drug that should be legal. In fact, it should be mandatory" (a line she borrowed from the great Bill Hicks).

  Read more about Roseanne.

Hempy New Year!

I've decided to merge my award-winning, faux blog, The Very Important Potheads blog with this actual blog, starting in 2011.

To see past VIP blogs, visit:

The Very Important Blog 2010
The Very Important Blog 2009
The Very Important Blog 2008
The Very Important Blog 2007
The Very Important Blog 2006
The Very Important Blog 2005

See the www.VeryImportantPotheads.com main page with over 200 stories of famous folk who've consumed cannabis. (Click on the name or photo for the full story.)

Prominent Korean Actress Calls for Legalization

According to the Korea Times, actress Kim Bu-seon, 46, appeared on MBC TV in her home country on June 19 and spoke in favor of legalization. Kim launched a campaign for cannabis legalization in 2004 after she was arrested for marijuana use and sentenced to a suspended jail term. She then filed a petition with the Constitutional Court for a review of the constitutionality of the country's marijuana-related laws.

In the MBC interview, she protested the recent arrest of actor Oh Gwang-rok on charges of marijuana use, saying his actions caused no harm and that the drug did not affect his ability to act. "Have you ever heard of any news that I committed a crime after smoking marijuana? I have never done anything harmful, as politicians or thieves have," she said.

"Marijuana is not a narcotic; it is technically an Oriental herbal medicine which Koreans have used for 5,000 years," she said. "If smoking it doesn't do harm to others, those who do need it, such as those suffering from depression or cancer patients, should be allowed to use it. Marijuana increases appetite and improves sleep."

"Korea has the highest ratio of death by suicide among OECD members. The nation needs to take marijuana as a depression remedy and make depression patients come back to society....Whenever the government has troubles, it uses drug-taking entertainers to divert people's attention. It is the best way to make entertainers and artists obey the government,'' the astute actress told viewers on the live telecast. So far, MBC has not answered calls for an apology for the broadcast.

Oh Gwang-rok, most famous for his role as a wise man in “Taewangsasingi” (The Four Guardian Gods of the King), was arrested June 18 for smoking marijuana. Oh is suspected of having smoked marijuana on several occasions, including once in February at his house in Seoul. He allegedly smoked with the head of an unidentified information-technology company, known as Park, investigators said. Police said Park bought the pot from a local dealer and shared it with eight others, including animation film director Kim Mun-saeng. Oh has appeared in numerous films including “Seven Days” and “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” (with Kim Bu-seon.)

Meanwhile, former champion downhill mountain biker Missy "The Missile" Giove, 37, has been charged with marijuana distribution and faces up to 40 years in prison and a $2 million fine if convicted, according to The Daily News. Giove is the most successful woman in competitive mountain biking's history, grabbing a record 14 National Off-Road Bicycle Association championships and 11 World Cup wins. Known for her outrageous looks and daredevil riding style, she is openly lesbian, and was featured in a Reebok ad and interviewed by David Letterman.

Investigators spied on Giove as she got off a plane at the Albany County Airport and took a cab to a hotel, where she met a confidential informant and picked up a pick-up truck and box-trailer. Approximately 400 pounts of marijuana were found in the trailer and at co-defendant Eric Canori's house. "Drug trafficking can lead you downhill fast," Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent John Gilbride quipped.