General Larry Platt

We all got a good chuckle Wednesday out of General Larry Platt and his Pants on the Ground song. Entertaining as he was, I couldn't help but wonder why the American Idol producers saved the last spot of the show for a 62-year-old guy with a funny song.

Now I think I know.

Take a look at the photograph on the home page of the Civil Rights Veterans Movement website. See the young man on the left, looking directly into the camera? That's Larry Platt, age 16.

"We had come by bus in 1963 to a church in Savannah, Georgia to plan a march to desegregate the city," Platt writes. "Reverend Hosea Williams and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were our leaders. That particular planned march was canceled and we were singing to raise our spirits before returning home."

Platt worked with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Georgia, organizing sit-ins in the South.

He was beaten during the Bloody Sunday march from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery.

He got his nickname, "General," from the Rev. Hosea Williams because of his heroic efforts on behalf of the civil-rights movement.

The Georgia General Assembly proclaimed Sept. 4, 2001, Larry Platt Day in Atlanta, because of "his great energy and commitment to equality and the protection of the innocent and for his outstanding service to the Atlanta community and the citizens of Georgia."

He remains a community activist in the Atlanta area and recently has become known for publicly protesting foreclosures.

If anybody in that Atlanta crowd deserved his 15 minutes of fame on national television, it was Larry Platt.

Pants on the Ground

Wednesday night's "American Idol" should only be remembered for one thing:

"Pants on the ground!"

This was the cleverly devised climactic tune belted out by 62-year-old 'General' Larry Platt. The rap, which he claimed to have written himself, was accompanied by an impressively physical dance that had the man break dancing.

"I have a horrible feeling that song could be a hit," is all Simon could muster by the end of it, adding, "I don't think this is the last we'll hear from you."

Sadly, Platt's age automatically disqualified him - contestants can't be older than 28 - which begged the question of why they let him into the audition in the first place.

His unique number was reason enough.

"American Idol" producers played up the song so much, they had everyone singing and taking part. During a montage following Platt's audition, Randy Jackson could be seen dancing by his side, and other contestants outside where chanting its addictive chorus.

"Pants on the ground! Pants on the ground!"

The evening's Atlanta episode was peppered with a few other auditioners hoping for some "Idol" fame. At the same time, as is expected with these audition-themed episodes, several were clearly more interested in chasing that William Hung fame.

But among them were singers seeking real "American Idol" gold, and were invited to Hollywood, such as the guitar-garbed Holly Hardin, country-crooner Vanessa Wolfe, Keia Johnson and Brian Walker.

Hardin's get up appeared to be an instant ticket out the door, but the 20-year-old's voice impressed the judges (all except Mary J. Blige, this episode's guest judge, who seemed to spend much of the episode laughing). Brian Walker, a 25-year-old cop from Tennessee, showed he had soulful vocals with his take on "Superstar."

Next week, "American Idol" auditions wanna-be stars in Chicago.

Haiti Earthquake Twitter

1423 Frank Thorp, a US citizen in Haiti, told The Early Show on CBS he drove 161km (100 miles) to Port-au-Prince after the earthquake to rescue his wife Jillian, an aid worker, from the rubble of their home. He said he dug for more than an hour to free her and a co-worker from beneath 1ft (0.3 metres) of concrete.

1418 The BBC has created a Twitter link, where you can follow tweets from Haiti.

e-mail sent in by reader
1412 Emerson Tan, at London's Gatwick airport, emails:I'm part of a team of volunteer aid workers trying to get to Haiti. There are four of us from my group, Mapaction, and over 70 rescue specialists. The sniffer dogs are here as well. My group provides mapping and information for all the aid agencies. Haiti is extremely poor and a lot of its buildings are badly constructed. Strangely though, the shacks are where more people are likely to survive. The building materials are lightweight and survivors can get out more easily.


1410 Reports from another city in Haiti, Jacmel, say the earthquake has also caused great destruction there. A representative of Unicef in the city, Guido Cornale, told the BBC World Service that at least 20% of buildings had been destroyed in the city of 50,000 inhabitants. He said up to 5,000 people had gone to Jacmel airport looking for shelter.

1403 The UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy says "less than five" UN staff had been found dead at the organisation's headquarters in Port-au-Prince but many are still believed to be in the rubble. The UN has not confirmed reports that their head of operations in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, was killed.

1358 US President Barack Obama will make a statement on the Haiti disaster at 1500 GMT (1000 EST), says the White House.

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1355 Susan Westwood, a paediatric nurse from Scotland working at an orphanage outside Port-au-Prince, e-mails: "I was in the intensive care room looking after a nine-month-old baby girl when the earthquake hit. The floor started shaking violently and the whole building shook from side to side. It lasted about 45 seconds. After that, there was a constant shuddering. The babies were really frightened and started to cry. Other staff and carers were screaming, they were so terrified. It was very upsetting."

1351 Renzo Fricke, emergency co-ordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres, tells the BBC World Service: "We have treated hundreds of patients that were wounded…these patients that have arrived have mostly trauma, fractures and burns. None of them [the hospitals] are functional. They are either collapsed, or without staff or without medicine."

Imogen Foulkes
1345 The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says: The first 48 hours following an earthquake are crucial to saving lives but with roads blocked and nearly all communication lines down it is extremely difficult to assess the situation. Some aid agencies don't yet know if their own staff and buildings are safe.

1340 UN chief Ban Ki-moon says the UN is mobilising an emergency response team and releasing $10m (£6m) from its emergency relief fund for victims of the Haiti quake.

e-mail sent in by reader
1336 Annalie Maning, Philippines, e-mails:My husband, relatives and friends, many Filipinos are in Haiti. I don't have any communication with them. I don't know if they have food water, if they are ok.

comment from blogger
1334 Ezili Danto , a Haitian human rights lawyer in the US, blogs:All the poor living on the mountains, in houses built on the mountains, are feared to have suffered heavy, heavy casualty. Our report is that these houses on the mountains tumbled down, one on top another.


1328 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says the earthquake has had a "devastating impact" on Port-au-Prince but that other areas of Haiti are largely unaffected. "We are yet to establish the number of dead or injured, which we fear may well be in the hundreds. There is no doubt that we are facing a major humanitarian emergency and a major relief effort will be required," he tells a news conference in New York.