Sideshow: Whoops! Postal service screws up Maya Angelou stamp

Yesterday, for Poetry Month, kind of, the U.S. Postal Service released a Maya Angelou commemorative stamp, bearing this quote: "A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." Angelou liked to say it. It's associated with her. And - we love it! - it's not hers! It belongs to poet Joan Walsh Anglund, now 89: It's in her 1967 book A Cup of Sun. Stunned silence. Flailing attempts at explanation! Just a reeking mess. USPS spokesman Mark Saunders floundered around, said, "Had we known, etc.," glub-glub-glub. We know why the cornered spokesman blushes! Here's an irony: It was Angelou who objected to a paraphrased quote on the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, and helped get that changed. Well, we love Joan, we love Maya, we love poetry. Go out and buy the stamp - might be worth something someday.

Tuesday was the 100th anniversary of the birth of singing wonder Billie Holiday - right here, please note, in Philadelphia. A recent Inquirer article on Holiday quoted Faye Anderson, proprietor of website All That Philly Jazz (phillyjazz.us): "Why is there no star for Billie on the Philadelphia Music Walk of Fame?" Yeah, WHY??? Tuesday, though, justice rejoiced! The Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame announced it was inducting Holiday into its class of 2015. Yay, Lady Day!

Taylor Swift and Sam Smith lead the 2015 Billboard Music Awards nominations, including for top artist and for Hot 100 song. Others tabbed include Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, and One Direction. The show will be May 17 at the MGM Grand in Vegas.