Friday Odds & Sods is a 12 O'clock Fellow (In a 9 O'clock Town)

Hello once again, loyal readers.  It seems from all available visual and tactile evidence that spring has well and truly arrived.   And with the coming of longer days and pleasanter weather, people once again are going about with smiles on their faces and songs in their hearts.  Even your humble narrator, usually one to more indoor pursuits, has found himself heading to the park for pastoral frolics.  Of course, while spring fever may be in the air, this has not prevented me from assembling your weekly blog round-up.  As steady as the ticking of a grandfather clock, here comes this week's odds and sods.

• With the Presidential campaign season hard upon us, I though it would be interesting to take a look at two stories about the manufacturing of reality, or as a laymen might put it, lying.  In the first case, how Russia is attempting to win the media war in Ukraine, and in the second, how pundits are attempting to win the war on democracy.
• Another historical anniversary occurred this week in a year already teeming whit them, the martyrdom of Abraham Lincoln.  In commemoration, an article about the man who shot John Wilkes Booth that reminds us how weird history actually is.  
• An interesting account of the mixing of Mohawk and Catholic traditions on the Canada-New York border. 
• Finally, an interview with an NYC bluesman.