Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds–Dead at Age 46

MoonHowler

The real Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds has died of the ravages of lupus at age 46.
Lucy Vodden died in London after a long battle with the chronic disease.

Many people have always thought that ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ was a tribute to LSD. Actually Lucy, age 4, was a friend of John Lennon’s son, Julian, in pre-school. He came home one day from school with a drawing and told his dad that it was ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.’ Thus, the song came in to being. John Lennon was gathering material for the Sgt. Pepper Album.

Julian and Lucy lost track of each other over the years. They reunited after Julian found out about her illness.

According to Huffington Post:

He sent her flowers and vouchers for use at a gardening center near her home in Surrey in southeast England, and frequently sent her text messages in an effort to buttress her spirits.

“I wasn’t sure at first how to approach her,” Julian Lennon told the Associated Press in June. “I wanted at least to get a note to her. Then I heard she had a great love of gardening, and I thought I’d help with something she’s passionate about, and I love gardening too. I wanted to do something to put a smile on her face.”

In recent months, Vodden was too ill to go out most of the time, except for hospital visits.

She enjoyed her link to the Beatles, but was not particularly fond of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”

“I don’t relate to the song, to that type of song,” she told the Associated Press in June. “As a teenager, I made the mistake of telling a couple of friends at school that I was the Lucy in the song and they said, ‘No, it’s not you, my parents said it’s about drugs.’ And I didn’t know what LSD was at the time, so I just kept it quiet, to myself.”

Vodden is the latest in a long line of people connected to the Beatles who died at a relatively young age

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So the mystery is solved. Just as ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ was a kid’s song, ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ was about a 4 year old playmate of Julian Lennon. 

R.I.P. Lucy. It is also wonderful to read of Julian’s kindness towards an old school mate. It shows there is still much decency in the world.

Full story is at:

 Huffington Post
Wall Street Journal

Mail Online  (includes pictures)

Enlarge picture

The video is from Cirque du Solei -Love- Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Dead Dog Golf Courses

MoonHowler

This is a dead dog,” said Chairman Corey Stewart, R-at large. “We need to put it out of its misery.”

Corey Stewart’s dead dog analogy describes how he feels about being in the golf course business. The Park Authority operates 3 public golf courses: Prince William Golf Course, Forest Greens and General’s Ridge. The courses lost a million dollars this year.

From insidenova.com:

Not one has ever turned a profit, Ellington said. The smallest reported loss was $25,000; the largest, which came this year, was $1 million.

“They’ve been an average $600,000 in the hole over three years,” he said.

It’s not the operations side of business to blame, Ellington said. Rather, debt service continuously eats into revenues.

“Operations has been on the green side,” Ellington said. “It’s been positive all these years. How much we took in for revenue and how much we spent, we’ve been healthy. But our ability to cover the debt is our problem.”

Just this month, the Park Authority took steps to recoup the losses and eliminated 12 full-time positions and cut operating costs by $150,000. Expected savings are $370,030 — but that’s a far cry from the $1.08 million needed to pay the debt balance on the three courses, Ellington admitted

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It sounds like Corey Stewart might be on the right track here. Who wants to buy some golf courses?