Cemetery Blues
The facebook friend said “Today is Dead Poets Remembrance Day, Oct. 7th, the day Edgar Allan Poe died. Be sure to visit a graveyard and read some poetry today”. I didn’t have anything better to do. This is a repost from 2010.
The first obstacle was finding a book of poetry. I am not a poetry person. A look at the shelf turned up a paperback, 125 Years of Atlantic. Poetry was to be found between those covers.
The book had two stickers, both saying 69 cents. At the old Book Nook, this meant that the book was half the price on the sticker. With tax, that would be 38 cents.
125 YOA had stayed in my car for a few years. Whenever I was stuck somewhere with time to kill, this book was waiting. One afternoon in 1998, there was a slow day at work. I read a remembrance by Gertrude Stein, about life in France at the start of World War II.
The cemetery of choice was connected to the Nancy Creek Primitive Baptist Church. I have driven by this facility thousands of times. He walked past the graves until he found a fallen tree to sit down on.
The first poem was “Looking for the Buckhead Boys” by James Dickey. I began to read out loud, and soon could smell the drug store air of Wender and Roberts. The author bought fifty cents worth of gas at a Gulf station. Today, fifty cents might buy a tablespoon of gas. Gulf was long ago bought out by BP. Wender and Roberts became a bar, which was torn down.
Buckhead is not what it used to be. When Mr. Dickey was the bravest man in Buckhead (he took a shit in the toilet at Tyree’s pool hall), I was not even thought of. The traffic jams on Peachtree Street are still there, as the blue haired ladies follow poets into the ground.
When I finished reading Mr. Dickey, he put a teal postit in the book, where the poem stood. I looked up, and the graveyard seemed different. Maybe the sun had sank a bit in the sky, and maybe the poem had changed me in a way he could not put into words. Maybe another poem was the answer. Take the glasses off, open the book at random, and turn the pages until a poem shows up.
On page 404…the historic Atlanta area code…was “The Wartime Journey” by Jan Struther. The 1944 work was unknown territory. A group of people are traveling on a train. The wounded vet, the untried recruit, the salesmen shared the space with a lady, taking a baby for her soldier husband to meet. The theme of the rhymes was that America was totally at war, and that war is different from peacetime. Today’s war in Babylon is not like that.
Halfway through the reading, a freight train pulled by. Today, passenger trains are a novelty, and freight rules the rails. The shipment today was double decked containers, ready to pull off and slap on an eighteen wheeler. Just look at all that money.
Deaths are said to come in threes, and reading poetry in a graveyard should be the same. PG went on a random search for a Moe, to go with Curley and Larry. A page of poems by Emily Dickinson was the result. The page left me unmoved. It was as if I was back in the sixth grade, with a horrible English teacher forcing me to memorize Hiawatha. It was time to go home.
Winching The Dead
A recent post included the phrase “getting severely overweight dead people out of an apartment building.” Those are googling words. Most of the results are hand wringing about the number of overweight people. A couple of the results were worth clicking out.
The headline result is from Merry Olde England, which is becoming known as the fattest country in Europe. Fire service called in 50 times to winch fat people out.
“Paramedics in the West Midlands have had to call on their heavy-lifting emergency service colleagues, despite having extra equipment to help move extremely heavy patients themselves. Over a three-year period they called in West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service on 50 occasions, so the patients could be winched out with apparatus designed for lifting car wrecks. Sometimes morbidly obese patients, … can only be extracted from their homes after a window is taken out, say firefighters.
… Nick Harrison, chairman of the West Midlands Fire Brigades Union, said: “In most cases these people are quite elderly and are suffering from serious medical issues which have left them bedridden for a long time, and they have put on a lot of weight. “Many times we have to remove the whole window frame and get them out that way. It’s a lot safer both for them and for the rescuers.”
… Official statistics show the West Midlands to be the fattest region in Britain, which is itself the fattest major country in Europe. According to the Association of Public Health Observatories, about 25 per cent of adults in Britain are now clinically obese. In the West Midlands, the figure is 29 per cent. By comparison, across the European Union as a whole it is just 14 per cent. “
One of the commenters had a constructive suggestion: “The ‘feeders’ should be brought to court and punished. For every obese person there is one or more ‘feeders’, who shop, supply the food, help the person eat it etc. Being a ‘feeder’ should be a criminal offense.”
This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
An Old Farmer’s Advice
Many of you have heard “An Old Farmer’s Advice”. This is a repost. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
“Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong. Keep skunks and bankers and lawyers at a distance. Life is simpler when you plow around the stump. A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor. Words that soak into your ears are whispered…not yelled. Meanness don’t jes’ happen overnight. Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads. Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you. It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge. You cannot unsay a cruel word. Every path has a few puddles. When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty. The best sermons are lived, not preached. Most of the stuff people worry about ain’t never gonna happen anyway. Don’t judge folks by their relatives. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll enjoy it a second time. Don’t interfere with somethin’ that ain’t botherin’ you none. Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance. If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’. The biggest troublemaker you’ll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin’. Always drink upstream from the herd. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment. Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in. If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to G-d!”
No one knows who the old farmer is, or what he grew. Some say he really worked in an office writing ads for Massey Ferguson. Some say he had a bull farm, and believed in the product. In this age of industrial strength commodity wisdom, the first reaction of some is to look to google. In this case, you can go to a forum at Snopes. No one claims to be the grandson of the old farmer.
“My father in law is an old farmer. He’s given me some advice. It was more like: Don’t try to fix a broken porchlight in a rainstorm. corollary: Disconnect power to the sprinkler system before fiddling with the wiring. If you wear longer socks, the chiggers won’t bite you. Cool Whip makes everything taste better. Do whatever your mother in law says.”
quote: “A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.” ~ “Yeah, but you try getting a bumble bee to plow your fields. With the tiny little plows attached to their wings, it could take days.”
quote: “Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly…” ~ “And above all else, verb adverbly … There’s my problem, I’ve been living deeply, loving simply and speaking generously.”
quote: “Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.” ~ “I’m not sure of the lesson here…you should leave a bunch of tree stumps in your farm fields? But then you lose valuable real estate, the crops have to compete with the tree roots, and combine harvesting is significantly more dangerous. Maybe, if you take just a little time to remove the stump properly, it pays dividends and saves you time and energy in the long run. … But life is a lot cooler, and more productive if you go down to the general store, buy a few blasting caps, and blow that mother to kingdom come.”
“The sentiments aren’t too bad, but they missed “Now get orf moy laaand!” from the end…”
quote: “Most of the stuff people worry about ain’t never gonna happen anyway.” ~ “Oh, so I shouldn’t worry about not being able outrun a bumble bee on my John Deere tractor? Thanks.”
quote: Always drink upstream from the herd. ~ “But, unless your at the absolute source of the river, there’s always another herd further upstream.”
quote: The biggest troublemaker you’ll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin’. ~ “I knew it. I knew that SOB had a camera in there. I’m going to the police.”
Kamala Will Be On
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GGACP presents Frank DeCaro … discusses his book, “Drag: Combing Through the Big Wigs of Show Business.” Also in this episode: Tommy Velour! “Jethrine” Bodine! The artistry of Charles Pierce! The other side of Flip Wilson! Uncle Miltie’s “meaty tuck”! And Herman Munster becomes a cocktail waitress! · gsu · This is a repost from 2013. · This is a repost. · reruns are an important part of publishing a blog. When you are too lazy to produce new material, you pull something out of the archive. Today we have a book report, of a @tomboyle book about Tim Leary. · There is a trending topic, #IDFfoodies. If you look at it, you will see tweets that say “Tumbuh Bersama Membangun Ketahanan Pangan Indonesia!” … “Growing Together to Build Indonesia’s Food Security!” · Ben Franklin wrote a letter in 1755, supporting the right of the Colonial government to assess taxes. Today, that quote is used by tax-hating conservatives. @QuoteResearch · there is a thread on reddit. “Do you think the jews in israel might be possibly more evil than the regular german civilian in 1940?” The Germany did not publicly defend what they were doing to the Jews. Israel defends and excuses what they are doing in Gaza and Lebanon, and blames it on the people they are slaughtering. · This is a repost from 2013. On June 10, 2018, Briarcliff United Methodist Church Briarcliff United Methodist Church held its final Sunday service. The building is currently used by The Globe Academy. … · “I read the book I urge people to read the book we’re gonna sell the book here whether you like it or not.” · “you know what’s funny you need at least the attitude of a comedian when you’re doing this business” · pictures today are from The Library of Congress · selah
DJT On JRE
Donald John Trump’s appearance on Joe Rogan Experience premiered while I was watching The Glenn Show, featuring John Hamilton McWhorter. I am a longtime fan of Glenn & John, even if I am bored by the inevitable race-talk. This weeks episode was especially galling, with JHM offering pro-Israel arguments that made no sense.
JHM’s anger was directed at The Message, by Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates. I have not read TM, despite the best efforts of JHM, and his fellow travelers. Finally, Glenn Cartman Loury made a comment that forced me to take notes: “I read the book. I urge people to read the book. We’re gonna sell the book here whether you like it or not.”
I was going to write a tweet about the clip, and I decided to illustrate it with an edited screenshot. While I was working on this, I started to listen to DJT. Some people have a life on Saturday afternoon.
DJT has been the target of enormous amounts of hate over the last nine years. Lately, this negativity provokes the opposite effect with me. (This should not be confused with support for DJT.) The Trump-bashing comes across as politically motivated projection. The tortured logic, the lies, the hypocrisy, the lies, the flaky prosecutions, the lies … it is getting very old. The problem here is with the haters, and not the hated. Preaching to the choir has its limits.
There is no shortage of negative things you can say about DJT. Unfortunately, crookedness and incompetence do not have the power to incite hatred as “racist.” America’s political discourse is being poisoned by this cynical appeal to prejudice by Democrats. When the rhetoric shifts to “If you vote for Donald Trump, then you are a racist.” … then you are pitting American against American. All of this divisive rhetoric is so we can elect a different AIPAC-owned politician.
The Washington Post is in the news today, because they are not endorsing a candidate. In 2016, WAPO spread the ridiculous story that the KKK endorsed DJT. WAPO shamelessly trashed DJT, on behalf of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Maybe not endorsing a candidate will do less damage.
The DJT/JRE conversation was not that interesting. I listened to about an hour, until I got tired of the obvious lies. This incontinent bullshitter is just as boring as his haters. DJT did say one noteworthy thing about politics: “You know what’s funny. You need at least the attitude of a comedian when you’re doing this business.”
The election is November 5, which is not a minute too soon. DJT has numerous flaws. Unfortunately, Kamala Devi Harris may be worse. Both DJT and KDM support Israel’s reign of terror against Gaza and Lebanon. I am going to vote my secret ballot, and hope for the best.
The Church Sign
This is a repost from 2013. On June 10, 2018, Briarcliff United Methodist Church held its final Sunday service. The building is currently used by The Globe Academy. Traffic on Briarcliff Road never changes. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Religion is very personal. When you have a miserable experience with Jesus, it will not go away because of glib expressions of “faith.” When you put a sign by the road, you don’t know who is going to see it. You don’t know how they are going to be feeling.
I was driving to dinner one night, when I drove by Briarcliff United Methodist Church. The facility is on a busy road. They have a sign in front, with a message that changes from time to time. This night, I was in a bad mood. I was thinking about people who have humiliated me for Jesus. The sign in front of BUMC said “When was the last time you prayed?”
The concept of prayer is collateral damage in my struggle with Jesus. As I became alienated from Jesus, the idea of a person talking to God appeared selfish and self aggrandizing. There is something about having an angry bully for Jesus snarling “I’m going to pray for you brother” that makes the concept of prayer repulsive.
There is another thing to consider here. Pushy Christians assume that they have the right to grill you about a sensitive personal issue. The idea of saying this to passing motorists is incredibly disrespectful. It is none of your business if I pray.
I looked up BUMC on the internet when I got home. They have a modern website. The top tab on the menu said “Prayer Requests.” This is for people who want someone to pray for them. Maybe you can leave a prayer non-request. Ask them to respect discomfort with their religion, and don’t put intrusive messages by the roadside.
Further down on the website is an email address (church@briarcliffumc.com.) While not expecting a miracle, I decided to send them an email. Here is the text of that message.
You have a message board in front of your church. The message when I went by was “When was the last time you prayed?” I was offended by this message.
I have had a tough time with religion. I have been humiliated many, many times because of Jesus. I have heard about your scheme for life after death thousands of times, and simply do not agree with it. An intrusive roadway sign is not going to change my mind.
My belief is that my opinions about God are none of your business. If I trust you, then we can have a discussion. Having a rude sign by the road side is not going to help me trust you.
Even though it is none of your business, I am going to answer your question. Even though I was talking to God, and not to you, I am going to repeat what I said. “God please help these people to have respect for their neighbor, and take that awful sign down”.
Battery
I took my brother to Walmart this afternoon. The car battery struggled, and I resolved to get it tested later. When I tried to go home, the vehicle would not start.
The first move was to call a wrecker, to come boost me off. This would mean a two hour wait, and $108.00. The next move was to ask a taxi to help me. They all refused. One lady drove me down to my car, in the parking garage, and when she saw what I wanted, drove off.
There was a man collecting shopping carts. He suggested I go upstairs, get a battery charger, and take it back when I was through. I decided to try getting a battery instead. Since I did not know what type of battery to get, I took a picture of the old battery. This turned out to be useless in the store.
The first battery had a anti-shoplifting tag. I went to customer service to pay, and have it taken off. Ahead of me in line was an argumentative man trying to return merchandise without a receipt. When I go to the line, a man said that I could not buy the battery, for some reason. I went back in the store, and got another one.
The battery had a core charge, which I could redeem for the old battery. I decided to install the new battery there. I took the old battery off, and learned that the new battery was too big for the vehicle. I went back in the store, and could not find one that looked like it would fit.
I decided to boost the old battery with the new battery, and go to the parts store. I called the wrecker company to cancel my service call. Since I was downstairs, with no cell phone reception, for most of the time, they might have already called, and gotten no answer.
When I got to the parts store, I asked to use the restroom. I wanted to wash my hands. The man took me in the back, past a maze of shelves and work benches, to a very, very basic bathroom. The lady who took my order went outside, and installed the second new battery. I took the first new battery back to Walmart, and got a refund. Pictures today from The Library of Congress.
What Ben Franklin Really Said
It is a popular line. “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” The credit, or blame, for this gem is assigned to Ben Franklin. Did he really say it? What was he talking about?
The good news is that Mr. Franklin did say these words. (Here is the text.) What follows was written by a lawyer. Prepare to be confused.
“The words appear originally in a 1755 letter that Franklin is presumed to have written on behalf of the Pennsylvania Assembly to the colonial governor during the French and Indian War. The letter was a salvo in a power struggle between the governor and the Assembly over funding for security on the frontier, one in which the Assembly wished to tax the lands of the Penn family, which ruled Pennsylvania from afar, to raise money for defense against French and Indian attacks. The governor kept vetoing the Assembly’s efforts at the behest of the family, which had appointed him. So to start matters, Franklin was writing not as a subject being asked to cede his liberty to government, but in his capacity as a legislator being asked to renounce his power to tax lands notionally under his jurisdiction. In other words, the “essential liberty” to which Franklin referred was thus not what we would think of today as civil liberties but, rather, the right of self-governance of a legislature in the interests of collective security.”
Mr. Franklin was writing on behalf of legislators who wanted to assess a tax. The quote is used by tax hating conservatives. The modern conservative wants to send a hundred thousand troops to a conflict eight time zones away, and pay for it with tax cuts.
Another article tells much the same story, but with a couple of twists. There is a google gimmick that shows how often a quote is used. The BF quote was little known until the twentieth century.
The techcrunch article introduces a dandy word for the rampant misuse of quotes. The word is contextomy. This explanation is from Matthew McGlone of the University of Texas at Austin.
“‘Contextomy’ refers to the selective excerpting of words from their original linguistic context in a way that distorts the source’s intended meaning, a practice commonly referred to as ‘quoting out of context’. Contextomy is employed in contemporary mass media to promote products, defame public figures and misappropriate rhetoric. A contextomized quotation not only prompts audiences to form a false impression of the source’s intentions, but can contaminate subsequent interpretation of the quote when it is restored to its original context.”
The spell check suggestion for contextomy is contentment. This is a repost. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.”
Outside Looking In
Outside Looking In is a 2019 novel by T.Coraghessan Boyle, usually known as TC. It is the story of Fitz Loney, a grad student at Harvard in 1962. He, and his wife Joanie, start attending “sessions” conducted by Tim Leary. The psycho-experimentation always has ups and downs. Soon, the Loneys, and their son Corey, spend an idyllic summer in Mexico, before moving back to cold Boston. Around this time, Dr. Leary finagles an estate in upstate New York. The Loneys move in.
Like other Boyle novels, utopia turns to shit. At the end of OLI, the Loneys are essentially separated, and Fitz has made a mess of his life. Since Fitz is a fictional character, we have no way of knowing what happened. Sometimes things are best left to the imagination.
The story is fun to read. Boyle is a master storyteller. Detail is pinned onto de-donkey. After about 250 pages, all you want to do is read more … even knowing that it would be over all too soon. If you apply your logical mind, you might find a few plot inconsistencies. That is for scholars and critics. If you just want to be entertained, OLI more than fills the bill.
OLI was the transition book for me during cataract surgery. When I got it from the library, I had scheduled the procedure. The first part, I read with the old eyes and glasses. Then, the right eye was de-cataracted. For an agonizing week, there was one renovated eye, with various levels of reading glasses. First, the left eye lens was covered with tape, then just ignored. It was with relief that the left eye was re-done, to match the right.
Finding the best reading glasses is a work in progress. Usually, 1.5x is a good fit, except for sitting at a table, where 2.5x seem to be best. There is work to be done here. You can make a lot of mistakes at the dollar store. The arrival of two matching eyes came at about the time when OLI started to catch fire.
Towards the end of OLI, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters came to call on Tim. In The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, the bus goes to Millbrook, and finds out that Tim is on an important trip, and cannot be disturbed. That is more or less what happens in OLI, except some of the other players enjoy the Pranksters. A few pages before this, someone is talking about a new novel by Ken Kesey. Very few other novelists are mentioned in OLI. It seems a bit odd that the Leary devotees would be talking about Ken Kesey. This is one of the head scratchers in the plot.
The Library of Congress supplied the historic pictures today. This is a repost.
Be Kind To Your Enemy
Did Jesus say to “Love your enemy”? Some believe this, and do it. Some claim to believe this, and practice the opposite. There are others who claim to love their enemies, but you have to understand what they mean by it. It can be very confusing. This is a repost.
I went to a source for documentation. Oh, the blessed conjunction of copy/paste with public domain. When I entered enemy (singular) in the search engine, 100 verses came up. When the request was made plural (enemies), 237 entries popped up. The last mention of enemies is Revelation 11:12 “And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.” Loving your enemies does not include bringing them to heaven with you.There is also the star of the show.
Matthew 5:44 “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
There is scholarly debate about what Jesus did, or did not, say. The words available to modern man have been copied by hand, edited, translated, and interpreted. I do not know Aramaic from Alabama. Like anyone else, I can only read and listen, and think for myself.
In a sense it does not matter what Jesus “really” said. Christians are going to believe what they want to believe. More important, they are going to do what they want to do. As far as the difference between what Jesus “really” said, and what his believers say and do … they can explain.
What follows is a humble suggestion. Did the translators and scribes get it wrong? Maybe Jesus did not say to love your enemy. Maybe what Jesus said was to show kindness to everyone. This is a practice thing, rather than a belief thing.
It is not as much fun to be nice to someone, as it is to scream about life after death. Kindness does not need to be justified by a quote from a magic book. You just need to do it. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Opinion Essay
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Comedy Central did a Donald Trump roast. In this clip, Gilbert Gottfried asks him some questions that have somehow been overlooked. · @kendallybrown In 48 hours, Texas is going to execute an innocent disabled man for a crime that DID NOT EVEN HAPPEN. Robert Roberson’s 2 year old daughter died of pneumonia. But the state of Texas convicted her father of murdering her. Here’s what happened: · Get thou behind me Satan And turn down those high beams · Comedy Central did a Donald Trump roast in 2011. Gilbert Gottfried skewers him in this clip. It is far worse than the KKK jokes. · This is a repost from 2012. The electoral college continues to wreak havoc. Unfortunately, the “two party” system benefits from the EC, and changes are not made. The nauseating choice between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris may produce another popular vote/electoral college disagreement. · The 1941 image shown here is “McConnell’s Five and Dime Store, Watkins Building, Ponce de Leon Avenue (Decatur)” · This is a repost from 2012. David Van Cortlandt Crosby moved on to page 44 on January 18, 2023.. … · But Arnold Palmer was all man when I say that in all due respect to women and I love women. But this guy, this guy, this is a guy that was all man. This man was strong and tough and I refused to say it. But when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, oh my God, that’s unbelievable. I had to say it. · The Library of Congress · selah
The Velvet Warlocks
PG was listening to disgraceland episode#64, about the grateful dead. He was at a stopping point with multi tasking, and decided to look something up. The show mentioned the first show by the Warlocks, later known as the grateful dead. This was 50 years before “dead name” was a dirty word.
“On May 5, 1965 ‘The Warlocks’ … played their first show, at Magoo’s Pizza Parlor in Menlo Park, California.” This was the day before I turned 11. Lyndon Johnson was settling in for his elected term as President. The Braves were playing their lame duck season in Milwaukee. Combat troops had been in Vietnam for a little over two months. This was the start of the escalation. “By the end of 1965, more than 184,000 American troops were in Vietnam.”
At 27:44, dg-gd dropped an item that could not be ignored. The Warlocks had to find a new name. Someone else was called the Warlocks, and there were complications. It seems as though the warlocks … a pretty obvious name … was also an early name of the Velvet Underground. Other early vu names included the primitives and the falling spikes.
“When they (vu) finally did come across a name which stuck, it was thanks to a contemporary paperback novel about the secret sexual underworld of the 1960s that Tony Conrad, a friend of John Cale, happened across and showed to the group. The novel, written by Michael Leigh, remains in print most likely thanks to the band which appropriated its title.”… “Had Lou Reed and John Cale not seen a copy of this book in a New York City gutter (fittingly) and decided to use its name for their group, this little volume would have been justly forgotten. Written in a style which titilates while decrying the scene it describes, it’s a piece of blue-nosed junk.”
The rest of the show rolled on. Jerry stuck his finger in a dictionary at random, and found Grateful Dead. It was the name of a story. The band played at the acid tests, which mostly went well, until they did not. Pigpen drank rotgut to excess, until it killed him.
PG was editing pictures out of a folder labeled pa41. The images were shot by John Vachon,in June 1941. The last picture, while the 27 club end of Pigpen played over the speakers, was Women washing clothes in utility building at FSA (Farm Security Administration) trailer camp. Erie, Pennsylvania. Another picture, from January 1941, is Pinochle game in Czecho-Slovak Dramatic Club. Ambridge, Pennsylvania. Both pictures are included in this feature. This is a repost from 2020.
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