Ask me Anything — the Dolly Parton Edition

I love music

It’s hard for me to convey precisely how much I enjoy music. I’d rather go without food for a few days than go without music for a day. Fortunately for me, that would never have to happen. I have music on my phone, my computer, laptop — and of course on Youtube.

Over the decades, I have curated a very large and eclectic collection that includes all kinds of music — Indian classical, Indian popular, Western pop, country, rock and roll, Western classical, world music, electronic and trance, acoustic, heavy metal, and so on.

Some of my friends do like music but no one I know loves music as much as I do. I not only love the music I like, but I can’t bear to listen to bad stuff even for a minute. Anyway, I consider it one of my greatest blessings that so much great music is available to me, and that I have the time to enjoy them so much.

A Favorite

One of my all-time favorites in the country music genre is the lovely Dolly Parton. She’s awesome in singing and song-writing. One of her hit songs Jolene shows her writing talent. Here, listen. When introducing the song, she calls one of the women in the audience a “red-headed hussy” 😊

Her joyous attitude is infectious and her smile lights up the stage. Try this one:

Alright she’s good at what she does but so are so many other hugely talented people. What’s so special about her, you may ask. I think she’s special because she is a wonderful human. She was born poor but she dreamed big. About her dreams when she was little, she said “dreams dressed me up when I was ragged, and filled me up when I was hungry.”

Way back in 2012 when the NPR show “Talk of the Nation” was hosted by Neal Conan, Dolly was a guest. When I need a little pick-me-up, I listen to that interview. And it’s not just because I love the Tennessee accent. (I love that accent because James Buchanan was also from Tennessee.)

As she told Neal Conan, when she’d tell people that she was going to Nashville, they’d ask her if she wasn’t afraid of starving to death, she’d reply, “Well I couldn’t be any poorer than we’ve been here. And I’m not a bad-looking girl.” She sure ain’t.

She describes how she managed to get food sometimes — she would eat stuff that people would leave outside their hotel rooms from their room service orders.

Anyhow, she followed her dream to go to Nashville and be a star. People didn’t take her seriously, of course. Anyhow, listen.

Even if you don’t have the time to listen to the whole 30 minutes, listen to the first ten minutes or so. You’ll not be disappointed.

And now, please feel free to ask me anything.

Bonus track. Miley Cyrus did a Jolene cover. I must admit that she’s not half bad. Nice.

Author: Atanu Dey

Economist.

13 thoughts on “Ask me Anything — the Dolly Parton Edition”

  1. Do you think the 3 week economic lockdown, announced by whimsical Modi, is justified?
    Can Indian government deliver essential goods to people at home for 3 weeks while shutting almost every other industry?
    Does Corona scare justifies risk to crores of daily wage earners due to Lockdown?

    Please write in detail.

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    1. In effect shutting down the economy for three weeks is one of the most retarded things that the retarded Modi govt has done. This one will hurt Indians more than anything that viruses or foreign enemies can — and I dare say — it is something like what demonetization did. I think the Modi govt is incapable of doing anything good.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I had written exactly the same thing in substance yesterday on my blog. But since I don’t know much about the enormity of the virus, I am being told that this has been done for our own good(which is always how it is sold.) That we don’t want to have Italy like situation. There’s lack of health infrastructure in the country, and high density of population, which is why this is the only way. No alternative to stop the virus.
        What do you have to say on that?

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        1. Keshavbedi,

          I went to your blog. The last article is from 2019. I am not sure whether I went to the correct blog. Does your blog have the tagline “Aham Brahmasmiti”?

          Sambaran

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            1. Your blog showed your concern about the negative economic impacts of lockdown.

              The PM must have listened to pro and anti lockdown experts explaining their respective cases with all the diligence. In the absence of our ability to foretell the future, the decision to lockdown looks better than the decision to continue business-as-usual. The lockdown decision is easier to course-correct.

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            2. What makes you think that the PM must have?
              I don’t think he does any deliberation before screwing economy. Its just hubris. That he knows better than everyone. The grand success of his appeal for 22nd March made him do this.

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            4. Keshavbedi,

              Let us ignore Narendra Modi the PM and get his biases/tendencies out of the equation.

              Let us assume that PM gets two conflicting opinions but both from well-meaning experts.

              Opinion-1: Lockdown the country. We do not have the medical system which can cope with N+ corona patients. Locking down will flatten the curve and our dilapidated medical system can then handle it. Mr PM, I cannot quantify the % of death. Nor can I quantify the economic impact.

              Opinion-2: A percentage will die. But a majority will survive. But if you lockdown, you disrupt the invisible hand of the market. So many supply chains will get disrupted that no expert can predict the economic calamity. Mr PM, I cannot quantify the % of death. Nor can I quantify the economic impact.

              Keshav, what would you do if you were the PM?

              If I was the PM, I would enforce the lockdown to buy time. I would ask both experts to go back and get data as soon as possible. If a clear picture emerges out of the data, I would roll back the lockdown. In the absence of sufficient data, I consider lockdown as a safer approach.

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            5. If I were to make the decision on lock down, I would say no because lock down means locking down on the production that people depend on for their survival. I don’t understand how starving people to death is a better alternative to some people dying from a flu.

              Liked by 1 person

  2. India being a hot weather country perhaps is helping slow the spread of COVID-19. Other points: Only around 10 deaths in the whole country? Why put the whole country under lockdown if it is not wide spread? Are they stage managing the news about the virus infection? Mostly rhetorical. 🙂

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