Chamblee54

The internet has spawned numerous fads. A site will go up, become mega popular, and then go away. There is always something new, and sometimes even improved. The first adventure today is thisiswhyyourefat. ( Crazy Owl once knew someone named Godurfat). This a series of photos of dishes “to die for”
The one featured today is “The Luther Rory…A one third pound of sirloin topped with two slices of white American cheese, four strips of bacon, peanut butter, between two Krispy Kreme donuts.”
Well, you need a dessert after something like that. What about “Flapjack Fiasco…Layers from bottom to top: pancake; cookie dough; pancake; peanut butter and jelly; pancake; chocolate and bananas; pancake; caramel, oreo, marshmallow, sprinkles, M&M’s; pancake; caramel buttercream frosting granished with Trix cereal.
If that doesn’t satisfy you, there is : “Mork’s Dork From Ork…A half pound duck and pork patty, cheddar cheese, seven pieces of maple bacon, sauteed onions and zillion island sauce on a kaiser roll.”
The next part of this double feature is Awkwardfamilyportraits. This popular outlet has charming family pictures, and stories from readers. One story goes like this:
“Settling into university and making new friends is always going to be a big thing, and having two friends to stay at home after a drunken night out, my mother (them being two giggly girls) felt in good company enough to invite them upstairs excitedly whilst I was out of the room. The girls – also in possession of terrible hangovers – mystified but intrigued, followed my mother where they were told to close their eyes for a mere moment. When they opened them, my mother was sitting on the edge of her bed with her brand spanking new ventriloquist doll, apparently deciding it would be an appropriate morning to perform an impromptu comedy sketch. Awkward.”
On a lighter note, PG finished reading “Genius and Heroin“. ( Amazon calls it a catalogue). There was nothing in the rest of the book that was worth repeating. A person is born with talent and problems, not always in that order. Eventually the person dies. The output of the talent lives on. The problems stick around as well, although modern drugs have put a dent in syphilis. Mental illness and substance abuse keep getting bigger and better.

The morning started in Saturday MARTA fashion. There was an OTP family going downtown, and they were staying together. At Brookhaven, a lady told the driver that a man had tried to assault her. The train was stopped until a police officer came to investigate.
After a long wait at five points, PG got on the west train. He had never been to the Bankhead Station before, and was not sure how the system worked down there. PG left the train at the Ashby station, and saw Will and Eli. PG had met them the week earlier on the machete hike. A train soon came along, with the message board saying Vine City. A lady from MARTA then came by to tell people that this was the train going to the Bankhead station.
At Bankhead, a crowd of 30 or so people was milling around. By their backpacks and water bottles, it was easy to guess that this was the urban hiking group. A few more people were en route, so the start of the hike was delayed by a few minutes. By this time PG had stashed his phone in his pack, and was blissfully unaware of time.
The plan was to walk along the beltway corridor, from Bankhead station to Piedmont Hospital. The hardy hikers could go on to Piedmont Park. As it turned out, only about half of the hike was on the beltline route. The part from Bankhead station to the Howell Mill gulch was needed for access to the beltline path.
The hike began through a wooded area behind the Bankhead Station. This area had a few homeless shelters, whose residents were not around. The first rail portion was behind the Fulton County Jail and Dog Pound. It was a pleasant stroll, with kudzu on both sides. There is an abandoned quarry in this area, which is going to become a city park.
The rail tracks the hike was on are active tracks. While approaching a tunnel, a train was heard in the distance. A decision was made to get off the tracks while the train passed.
The ground beside the tracks was muddy, with the algae of run off sewerage apparent. Eli took a leadership role in jumping off the tracks. His right boot sank a foot deep in sewage enhanced mud. PG saw this, and decided to be careful where he stepped.
The train passed by, and the group proceeded through the two tunnels. The second tunnel was an old concrete tunnel that was about 100 yards long. PG said to himself, this is so #@%&* cool.
Before long, the group made a ninety degree turn, and was on another line. Soon, another train came down the tracks, this one pulling only another engine. A white truck pulled up on a gravel road, and had a chat with the hikers at the end of the procession.
According to Eli, the man was very nice. He said he got nervous when his crew tells him there are thirty people hiking on the railroad tracks. People, please be careful. Soon, the engine carrying train came back in the opposite direction as before. PG suspected that the CSX railroad was just showing off.
The rest of the hike went smoothly. Soon, they reached Piedmont Hospital. No one needed to go to the ER. PG decided to retire at this point, and walked up the hill to Peachtree Road. After another hefty wait, a bus appeared. Some of the hikers were not used to the Breeze Card system, and there was some confusion while everyone got paid up. The cash customers had to pay again to use the trains. PG wondered if he saved much time by not hiking to Piedmont Park.

It started when PG saw a cell phone for four dollars at a yardsale. The antique Nokia had been dropped, had keys that got stuck, and did not text out. If PG wasn’t the slacker that he is, the Nokia would have been in cell phone heaven long ago. The Motorola seemed like a good bet at four dollars. It was in a plastic bag with Disney cartoons on it. PG thought that the phone was made for little girls to talk on. If this was the case, it would be a sturdy piece of equipment.
The first call was to T Mobile. PG said “agent” after entering his phone number, which he thought would bypass the voice activated system and get a live person. “Agent”, while golden with AT&T, is useless with T Mobile. PG has a short temper when dealing with voice activated robots (VAR). After much anger, he got to talk to a person.
PG talked to several “Ladies of the World”(LOTW) while dealing with this issue. They were all very kind, but did not completely understand English. The first asked for the PIN. PG vaguely remembers using a PIN when he set the account up, but had no clue what it was. He went and got the papers from setting the account up, to no avail. The lady suggested he call 611 and set up a new PIN. (The first call was from a land line, the second from the Nokia) This entailed another round of VAR, and pushing the wrong button to land in limbo. Meanwhile, the human representative hung up.
PG then tried to dial 611 and set up a PIN. The robot said that you could call another number for a direct connection. When he got to the point of entering the new PIN, PG punched in what seemed like a good number. He was asked to repeat the new PIN, the 6 key on the Nokia stuck. When he pressed the 6 key to get it to work, it repeated the number twice. The backspace button is one of the non functioning buttons. PG hung up in dismay. Another call was made to 611, on the Nokia. PG made friends with the VAR long enough to get a PIN.
The next call was to T Mobile. PG said “representative” as suggested by LOTW one. The VAR was not deterred, but continued to ask questions. Finally, another LOTW took the line. It was suggested that PG take the SIM card out of the Nokia and put it in the Motorola. The Motorola said it was an invalid SIM card. The LOTW suggested that PG call Motorola and get an “unlock code” to make the thing work.
At this point, the land line rang. It was a stupidvisor from the days of working at Redo Blue. It seems like a friend of PG’s, a lifelong bachelor, had gotten married.
Back to the telephones, this time to Motorola. The VAR was less persistent, and yielded without protest to the LOTW. Before long, PG was told that Motorola could not unlock the phone to allow it to use a T Mobile SIM card. He would have to call a company called Trackfone.
The last call of the day was to Trackfone. Before a LOTW was available, PG needed to wait on hold for a few minutes. Finally, the representative was on the line. It seems like the SIM in the phone that PG bought had been suspended for non payment two years ago. Trackfone would need to send a new SIM card ( which was free of charge). It was not possible to unlock the Motorola to accept a T Mobile SIM. The new SIM should arrive in three to five days, although it may take as long as seven.

MJ is gone, but not forgotten. The rest of the news is kinda rotten.
In Iran, the protest and bash cycle is starting up again. In Israel, Mr. Netanyahu is acting strange. ( It might not be acting). It would be a natural move for him to start a war with Iran, or maybe a feel good crackdown in Gaza. He has the bomb.
Back in the YouEssAA, the pundits just won’t leave Sarah Palin alone. Andrew Sullivan posted a few words on why he won’t let up. His thesis is that a woefully deficient woman was almost elected Vice President, and he doesn’t like that.
To PG, this is too little and too late. In 2000, George W. Bush ran for president against Al Gore. W turned out to be a dangerous mistake. Maybe, if the press had scrutinized him with the vigor they are showing Mrs. Palin, W would have lost the election.
There have been indications that 911 was motivated by a personal grudge against the Bush family. If Al Gore had won the election, 911 might not have happened. Even if it had, it is reasonable to speculate that Gore’s reaction would have been more competent. There is a good chance Mr. Gore would not have invaded Iraq to punish Saudi Arabia.
Of course, the failure of the W regime is one reason why the McCain-Palin ticket went down in flames. And, at the end of his administration, BHO may look just as bad as W did in 2008. BHO is going to make mistakes, and the special interests that control him are essentially the same ones that controlled W. In 2016, Sarah Palin may look like a good alternative.
Maybe she quit because she is pregnant again.

PG is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. The economy is based on getting folks to move here. The whining is tolerated if the checks clear.
There is a list of rules today on FunnyJokes about life in the west. PG suspects that it is similar to what goes on here. People from the outside world don’t always fit in. Sometimes, making a list of suggestions helps to relieve the stress.
PG has met enough people from the west (they move to Georgia just like everyone else) to know that rule 13 has a LOT of exceptions.
Editorial comments by PG below are in gray.
Cowboy rules for: Arizona, Texas , Colorado , Oklahoma , New Mexico , Wyoming , Montana , Utah , Idaho ,and the rest of the Wild West are as follows:1. Pull your pants up. You look like an idiot.//2. Turn your cap right, your head ain’t crooked.//3. Let’s get this straight: it’s called a ‘gravel road.’ I drive a pickup truck because I want to. No matter how slow you drive, you’re gonna get dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.// 4. They are cattle. That’s why they smell like cattle. They smell like money to us. Get over it. Don’t like it? I-10 & I-40 go east and west, I-17 & I-15 goes north and south.. Pick one and go.( As Lewis Grizzard used to say, Delta is ready when you are)//5. So you have a $60,000 car. We’re impressed.. We have $250,000 Combines that are driven only 3 weeks a year.(Both bankers are worried)//6. Every person in the Wild West waves. It’s called being friendly. Try to understand the concept.// 7. If that cell phone rings while a bunch of geese/pheasants/ducks/doves are comin’ in during the hunts, we WILL shoot it outa your hand. You better hope you don’t have it up to your ear at the time.// 8. Yeah. We eat trout, salmon, deer and elk. You really want sushi and caviar? It’s available at the corner bait shop. (Do you really want to eat sushi from the corner bait shop?)//9. The ‘Opener’ refers to the first day of deer season. It’s a religious holiday held the closest Saturday to the first of November.//10. We open doors for women. That’s applied to all women, regardless of age.// 11. No, there’s no ‘vegetarian special’ on the menu. Order steak, or you can order the Chef’s Salad and pick off the 2 pounds of ham and turkey.//12. When we fill out a table, there are three main dishes: meats, vegetables, and breads. We use three spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup! Oh, yeah . . We don’t care what you folks in Cincinnati call that stuff you eat IT AIN’T REAL CHILI!!//13. You bring ‘Coke’ into my house, it better be brown, wet and served over ice. You bring ‘Mary Jane’ into my house, she better be cute, know how to shoot, drive a truck, and have long hair.// 14. College and High School Football is as important here as the Giants, the Yankees, the Mets, the Lakers and the Knicks, and a dang site more fun to watch.//15. Yeah, we have golf courses. But don’t hit the water hazards – it spooks the fish.//16. Turn down that blasted car stereo! That thumpity-thump crap ain’t music, anyway. We don’t want to hear it anymore than we want to see your boxers! Refer back to #1!

PG retrieved his free copy of the Neighbor Newspaper, and looked for the editorial page. He had not been angry enough lately, and wanted to see what Dick Yarbrough had to say. PG soon heard the familiar ding ding ding of his BS detector.
Mr. Yarbrough was commenting on the subject of journalists who do not have their priorities in line. A prime example was some comments by Mike Wallace. The story was that Mr. Wallace… “who once proclaimed to a group at Harvard that if he were traveling with enemy soldiers he would not warn U.S. soldiers of an impending ambush.”
This made PG think, and the result was an unpleasant headache. He sent an email to Mr. Yarbrough. Nitpickers in the audience will note the use of first person. And yes, PG is using his “real” name.
I read your column today about Mike Wallace, and journalists in general. Mr. Wallace is 91 years old. He is not going to be traveling with enemy soldiers anytime soon. I seriously doubt that he ever has. So what if he says he would not warn American troops of an upcoming ambush? Even if he was in the company of enemy troops, how would he have knowledge of an upcoming ambush? And how would he get the information to our troops?
Also, do you have a reference for this quote? What was the context? What was the “group at Harvard”? Did you consider that this might never have happened?
In the last administration, someone had a problem with a journalist. The get revenge, his wife was outed as a CIA agent. Maybe the quote should have been, “You’re Americans first and Government Officials second”.
You are hereby warned…you are corresponding with a blogger who is likely to use this conversation for his blog.
Luther Mckinnon https://chamblee54.wordpress.com/
Mr.McKinnon. Blog your little heart away. You can find all the references on the Internet. I don’t have time nor inclination to be your secretary. Peter Jennings was also in attendance.
Dick Yarbrough Syndicated Columnist http://www.dickyarbrough.com
Thank you for your fast reply.
A google search to “Mike Wallace said at Harvard that if he were traveling with enemy soldiers he would not warn U.S. soldiers of an impending ambush.” yielded information about those comments.
One advantage of writing online to “dead tree” journalism is the ability to provide a link to more information. Below are two sources about this discussion. http://www.mrc.org/Profiles/wallace/welcome.asp and http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2006/cyb20060317.asp#5.b
My other questions remain. I can sum them up in six letters…so what?
An elderly man was answering a hypothetical question. There was no way Mr. Wallace was going to be traveling with enemy troops in a war.
Luther Mckinnon
One, justifying his comments as being from an “elderly man” strikes of ageism. Be careful.
Two, when you have attained the status of Gene Methvin, I will take the time to tell you “so what.” Don’t think you are quite there yet. Too judgmental, too quickly. But at least you care.
All the best.
Dick Yarbrough Syndicated Columnist http://www.dickyarbrough.com
To begin with, I am 55, and rapidly approaching grumpy old man status.
I had another thought on the subject. Let’s say the enemy had an embedded American journalist. This enemy ( the war and enemy were not specified) knew that this journalist would report back to the American troops. What would stop them from giving this reporter phony information, that would put our troops in danger?
This panel discussion was in 1987 ( when Wallace was a chipper 68). This was fourteen years before 911. It is tough to imagine what sort of war they were discussing. It is also tough to imagine the taliban having an embedded American reporter.
At any rate, I think I have plenty of material for a good post here. I will provide links to your column, and to the online articles about the panel discussion. This way anybody reading can look at all the materials, and make up their own mind. I might even do a google on Gene Methvin, and see if I can find that column.
Thank you for your help. Luther Mckinnon
Go get ‘em. DY PS: 55 is a young man.

After sending this letter, PG took a look at the video. It was a panel discussion for PBS that was taped at Harvard. The question that started it all is not shown.
Peter Jennings begins by saying that he would try to warn the Americans, although it would cost his life. Mr. Jennings was glad this was a hypothetical situation. Mike Wallace then said he would cover it like a journalist covering any other story. The moderator sits down on the panel in front of Mr. Wallace and confronts Mr. Wallace.
At the 1:05 mark in the video, Mr. Wallace says “I’m an old man I don’t know what I’d do”. A nervous smile soon follows. Body language readers should enjoy that part of the video. Soon, the discussion is so hypothetical as to be useless. PG cannot tell if the issue is whether to warn American troops, or to turn off the cameras while the fighting takes place.
It is never made clear exactly what the reporter was supposed to do to help the US troops, If he had warned the US forces, he would have either been killed, or passing along deliberate misinformation. If the reporter was on the enemy turf and photographed Americans being killed…there are two sides to that, it might inspire the home front to greater efforts on behalf of our troops. Or it might arouse anti war sentiment.
This discussion was in the late eighties, long before the “War on Terror”. The panel seems to be discussing something out of World War II, with regular armies in a conventional war. It is tough to imagine the Taliban with embedded American Journalists. It is even tougher to figure out what a 22 year old video of a retired journalist superstar has to do with much of anything.

The other day, PG was researching the 10:09:36 quandary, and he found a place on the web called Stupid Question™ .It should be noted that Stupid Question™ is a registered trademark. The bottom of the home page is littered with disclaimers. The Boortzesque nadir is: “Stupid Question™ contents are for informational purposes only. Readers are encouraged to think for themselves and act at their own risk”.
Stupid Question™ is now defunct. The property of John Ruch, SQ wallowed in knowledge from June 25, 1998 until May 23,2005. The last recorded question was Q: Did the military ever really try to build a “death ray,” or is it just science fiction?—Michelle, from the Internet. The answer was that the Masters of War tried, but failed. A death ray was too expensive, and simply not feasible for a host of reasons.
The first question is from the ever popular anonymous. Q: Is it true that Keith Richards had a blood transfusion to clean the drugs out of his body? If so, how does that work? It seems like the picker, and fashion model, went to a clinic in Switzerland once. He was connected to a dialysis machine, and his blood was filtered for a few days. It didn’t work, and he was soon smack at it. It is like Mark Twain said about quitting cigars, he has done it dozens of times.
This went on once a week for seven years. The results will provide PG with lots of material when there are no dead celebrities to make fun of.
Ok, so you want one more today? On April 19, 2001, Tom Bryant asked : “Q: What’s the difference between ketchup and catsup?” The answer is that they are both English versions of the same asian word. They both refer to tomato puree. This is like the way a historic Russian ruler is spelled czar and tsar. They all mean the same thing. You might even say ta-may-toe or ta-mah-toe.
This does not address an issue that has caused PG to stay awake at night. Whenever you get a little condiment package of ketchup, it always says “fancy ketchup”. Is there plain ketchup? And why does a place like McDonalds only serve “fancy ketchup”?

PG decided that this was the day for his scheduled vehicle maintenance. It is the 55k round, so it should not be too technical.
The book for the waiting room is “Genius and Heroin”. PG finished his part one post on page 123, with Jean Harlow. Continuing through the H section, he sees that LSD was the drug of choice for Jimi Hendrix. This is not the first time the PG has doubted G&H, nor is it likely to be the last.
Later, in a sidebar to Henry VIII, the cause of death for some English kings is listed. The hot poker massage of Edward II is not mentioned. We do see that James I had gout in 1625, probably from the consumption of too much meat. George II met his maker after “excessive pushing” on the throne in 1760. His heir, George III, did a little excessive pushing of his own, and lost 13 colonies.
William Sydney Porter went to federal prison for bank fraud. He used the time to write the short stories that made him famous. His prisoner number was transliterated into his pen name, O Henry.
The dealership has a customer workroom, with a door to separate it from the main waiting room. This is a quiet place, without the TV that is required for the modern waiting room. Today is the memorial service for Michael Jackson. The sound of Al Sharpton goes through the glass door to annoy PG.
“Genius and Heroin” is a series of mini biographies. The honorees were brilliant men and women who had problems, many of which led to an early grave. PG suspects that if it was being written today that it would have a section about Michael Jackson. Al Sharpton, by contrast, is still alive, and has not produced any artistic work of value.

PG notices details, sometimes. One thing is the time on clocks and watches in ads. The time is 10:09:36. Sometimes, it is 01:51:25. There are occasional exceptions, but 10:09:36 seems to be an industry standard.
It focuses attention on the top part of the watch, and makes the bottom part visible. Typically, the logo of the manufacturer is framed by the hands. The manufacturer wants the logo to be visible in the ads.
The hands lifted upward make a welcoming gesture. If you hold your arms out at the 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock positions, it will look like you are about to hug someone. This shape also looks like a smile.
After this, we get into the myths. At this particular time (10:09:36) US deployed the atom bomb on Japan. This particular time is used to remind people of the US dominance. A bit of research into pre atom bomb advertising might disprove that, but PG thinks that is too much work.
Another hypothesis is that Abraham Lincoln was shot at 10:15 pm on April 14, 1865, and died at 7:22 the next day. How this translates into 10:09:36 is anyone’s guess. It should also be noted that standard time was not used in the United States until 1883. Thus, the precise “time” of Mr. Lincolns retirement is not known.
Someone wrote the Timex company about this issue.
A: WE CALLED TIMEX FOR YOUR ANSWER AND IT SAYS THE HANDS ON A CLOCK ARE PLACED AT TEN-TEN BECAUSE IT’S A CREATIVE STANDARD INDUSTRY. TIMEX SAYS THE HANDS ON TIMEPIECES ARE PLACED AT TEN-TEN SO THE COMPANY LOGO ON THE FACE WILL BE FRAMED AND NOT BLOCKED BY THE HANDS.
TIMEX SAYS THE INDUSTRY STANDARD USED TO BE EIGHT-TWENTY BUT THAT LOOKED TOO MUCH LIKE A FROWN AND CREATED AN UNHAPPY LOOK. TIMEX SAYS IN ITS ADS, THE CLOCK HANDS ARE PLACED AT TEN-NINE AND THIRTY SIX SECONDS, EXACTLY.”
Another source discusses this issue when the “creative standard industry” was 8:20. At that time people still said it was the time that Abe Lincoln was shot and or died.
Yet another source, the poetically named stupidquestion.net, has a few more tidbits. It seems like in the 1880’s, pocket watches became popular. In ads, the case was shown more than the face. The omega watchmaker established the 10:08:35 standard in 1915, and the industry followed suit.  This  would also seem to contradict the atom bomb theory given above.
PG has always wondered something else. Are all photographs for watch ads shot at 10:09:36? If not, then the ads are a lie. According to StupidQuestions, watchmakers send out non functioning dummy watches that are frozen at a certain time. PG (who does not wear a watch, but uses wall clocks) says this makes him question the honesty of the ad.

PG is reading “Genius and Heroin” by Michael Largo. There are some good stories.
It seems that Margaret Mitchell met a friend for drinks at the Atlanta Womens Club one night. No one really knows how many she had before she stepped in front of the taxi. PG has heard about her all his life, but never heard that part.
Truman Capote freaked out his mother so bad, she had two abortions later. She was afraid of having another kid like Truman.
Mary Lincoln had terrible headaches. Her husband Abraham wanted to cancel their visit to the theater because of his wife’s headache. Finally, an opium product called laudanum was procured, and Mrs. Lincoln’s headache went away. The next day, a friend asked her, ” Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?”
There are two self descriptive blogs now, the page69test and the page99test. On p.69 of G&H, the story of Stephan Crane is told. Mr. Crane wrote  high school perennial “The Red Badge of Courage”, and married the madame of a whorehouse. Page 99 is a divider between sections of the alphabetically arranged text. On page 99, you see a stylized F set against a gray background.
The motto of the page99test is “Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you.” In this case, it is either the F word or a failing grade.
PG is now at page 123. There, he finds the Jean Harlow story. Curiously, G&H does not mention her marriage to Paul Bern.