Chamblee54

What follows below is the result of a writing exercise . If you are a picky reader, you may want to go ahead to the rest of the pictures. These images are from The Library of Congress.
It rained on the day of the picnic. This was of little concern to Arnold, who has a lot of money invested in the food. Rain or shine, the food needs to be eaten. The store might be willing to take the canned goods back. The perishables were going to be bought by the church that hosts the picnic
As if things weren’t sticky enough, the stranger came into town, looking for Arnold. He had done the picnic promotion thing before, in another part of the state, and some people didn’t get paid. This is probably what the stranger is up to, although it might just be Arnold’s legendary way with the ladies.
The girl was waiting on the porch for Arnold, when he got home. When he first heard of the stranger, he thought it was Willis the farmer, who sold him a mess of salad fixins on credit, and had not been paid. Instead, here was a girl on the porch, looking at Arnold with a shy smile.
An evening set over the wilderness, and the bears got hungrier, and more angry with each passing minute. When they saw the rains coming in, they anticipated a picnic ground with no picnickers and lots of food. It had been a long time since Arnold had encountered bears, and he forgot how hungry they could be.
Alongside a mountain stream was a bear family. Daddy Chicago Bear was explaining to his long suffering wife Yogine that the anticipated feast from the rained out picnic might not happen after all. It seems like Arnold had a contract with the church to buy up any unused food from the picnic, and they were loading the haul into a big refrigerator.

Inside the pages of an old book lay the invoice from Willis the farmer. Arnold was using it for a bookmark. He was reading a political novel about Texas, called “Children played behind the Bushes”. The latest chapter sees Jen and Laura trying to strangle Barbara, using her pearls.
As the ship sailed into port, the girl on the porch smiled. Arnold, whatever his shortcomings, was a stud. It was a tanker sailing into the port, not a rubber dinghy.
The housekeeper slowly stirred the tea, and waited for Arnold and the porch girl…she called herself Gnarlene. It was her job to fix dinner, after the picnic was rained out, and the food sold to the helpful, prosperous church.
At the pawn shop on the corner, Willis the Farmer waited, to no avail, for Arnold to come and pay his debts. Willis had to pawn a watch his grandfather gave him to pay the fertilizer bill for his farm, and he was in danger of losing it forever if Arnold did not pay up.
This did not stop Arnold and Gnarlene from tearing off another chunk of hot burrito supreme. If Arnold was concerned about Willis the Farmer, he did not show it. It turns out, Arnold had a plan. That night, Willis the farmer was dinner for Chicago, Yogine, and their four cubs eenie, meanie, miny, and moe.
Meanwhile, back in Texas, W staggered out of his room, trying to remember where the rest of the coke was. He saw his wife and daughter trying to strangle his mother, using her pearls. W took another slug off his bottle and passed out, leaving his elderly mother to defend herself.

Lene Lovich was born Lili-Marlene Premilovich in Detroit, Michigan, March 30, 1949. She moved to England as a teenager, and met Les Chappell. He who played guitar in her band, and was the man in her life.
As an art school student, she started to tie her long hair in plaits to keep it out of the clay while studying sculpture. Her recording debut was as part of an audience, when Chuck Berry recorded “My ding a ling”.
Miss Lovich played in several bands, before winding up on the Stiff label. She put out two albums that became popular in the USA, and did a tour. After a while, she retired from music to raise a family, and has made a slight comeback in recent years.
PG had the privilege of seeing Lene Lovich at the Agora Ballroom, Atlanta GA, in the winter of 1980. The opening act was The Romantics. The show was taped for broadcast on the NBC radio network, and Don Pardo was on hand to introduce the bands.
The Romantics were unknown to the crowd at the Agora that night. They came on stage wearing costumes that looked like the Beatles of 1963. Every song they did was a bit better than the one before, and they got a big round of applause when the set ended.
Don Pardo had quite a career. He was the house announcer on November 22, 1963, and was the voice of NBC when he interrupted a soap opera to announce that John Kennedy had been “cut down with assassin’s bullets”. During his career as a TV announcer, Mr. Pardo could not use profanity. That night at the Agora, he made up for lost time…every other word he said was a cuss word.
Soon, Lene Lovich (spell check suggestion:lovechild) and her band came on stage. She was not the typical sexpot rock chanteuse… A bit chubby, with her long hair tied in plaits. Wearing a long sleeve black dress, probably stolen from a convent, she provided fantasy for only the kinkiest. Les Chappell was there, with his shaved head, to stop any trouble before it started, and play guitar.
The material came mostly from the first two albums on Stiff records. ( At some point in the evening, someone…maybe Lovich, maybe Pardo…said “Be stiff”.) She introduced “Lucky Number” by saying ” We have a song that goes ah oh aih oh”. During an instrumental jam in that song, she cried out “We have an American on keyboards”. The American was Thomas Dolby, who would soon go solo, and have a few hits.
The first encore was ” I think we’re alone now”, which had been a hit for Tommy James and the Shondells (spell check suggestions: shoulders, shovelfuls). Soon the night was over. Pictures for this feature are from the ” Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.

The post before this is about Arizona SB1070, a controversial measure dealing with illegal immigration. One of the men quoted is the Sheriff of Pima County, which lies on the border with Mexico.
Pima County is named for the Pima Tribe, whose land was in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Their name for the “river people” is Akimel O’odham. According to Wikipedia, “The short name, “Pima” is believed to have come from the phrase pi ‘añi mac or pi mac, meaning “I don’t know,” used repeatedly in their initial meeting with Europeans.”
Many of the Mexicans crossing the border are Native Americans. They did not agree to the Gadsden Purchase , or the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo . In other words, they were here first, and the white man (and his black associates) are the uninvited guests. Maybe the natives should ask the English speakers for their papers.
The second part of this feature is a repost . One of the best known Pimas was Ira Hayes. He was one of the Marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima.
One of the enduring images of World War II was raising the flag on Iwo Jima. Three of the six men raising the flag died on the island in the next month. A fourth, Ira Hayes, became a casualty after the war.
The story of Ira Hayes is well known, but needs to be told again. A Pima Indian, his people had not been treated well by the conquerors. Nonetheless, when the War against Japan started, men were needed for the struggle, and Ira Hayes joined the Marines.
Iwo Jima was a steppingstone to the main island of Japan. After Iwo Jima and Okinawa were in Yankee hands, preparations could be made for the invasion of the main island. However, the stepping stone islands proved to be incredibly tough to secure. There were more American casualties on Iwo Jima than on D Day.
On the fourth day of the battle, a picture was made of six marines raising the flag on top of Mount Suribachi. A month of sticky, treacherous fighting was ahead for the fighting men. Of 21,000 Japanese soldiers, 20,000 died. Still, the image is inspiring. The photographer fiercely denied having staged it.
The flag was raised on February 23, 1945. Germany was all but defeated. The “explosive lens” for the atom bomb had been successfully tested. Viewed from the standpoint of 1945, it seems inevitable that the costly island hopping needed to continue, to be followed by an invasion of the Japanese mainland. From the view of 2009, one wonders if the fight for Iwo Jima, in retrospect, was really needed. War is fought in the present tense.
Two of the twelve hands holding the flagpole belonged to Ira Hayes. Ira Hayes did not adjust to peacetime well. He became a drunkard. On January 24, 1955, he passed away.
Ira Hayes was a native American. Thousands of African Americans have returned from foreign wars, to be treated poorly. If a man or woman is accused of being gay, the service is forgotten. On this Memorial Day, we should struggle to ensure that all future veterans are treated with respect, all year long.
Thank you Wikipedia,  luxunsghost, and The Library of Congress, for the pictures.

John McCain was a candidate for President. He is the reason Sarah Palin (spell check suggestions: plain, pain, paling) is famous. He is currently involved in a tough campaign for re election in Arizona. (And who was representing Arizona while Mr. McCain was running for President?)
He has an ad on TV, making noise about immigration. It is filmed at the border, and features a law man. What the ad does not say is, the talking sheriff works 115 miles north of the border.
The sheriff of the border county, where the ad was filmed, has a different story to tell. “the Santa Cruz County Sheriff who’s job would be to enforce the law in and around Nogales has been quite critical of Arizona’s race-baiting policies, such as the recently passed SB 1070. “Local law enforcement has a great relationship with the Hispanic community,” said Sheriff Antonio Estrada about the new law. “Something like this is really going to scare these people.” …The Sheriff of neighboring Pima County (which covers a large swath of Arizona’s border with Mexico) was even more blunt. Calling the law “racist,” “disgusting” and “stupid,” Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has gone so far as to say he will order his deputies not to enforce SB 1070 – even though it subjects such law enforcement to liability if they don’t start racial profiling. “
Ht to LittleGreenFootballs.

PG left the job interview, and headed to the dmv. The man said to get a mvr, which is something you want to hear at the end of a job interview.
The Department of Motor Vehicles is a place where you wait. It is not possible to get through in less than an hour. For emergencies like this, PG keeps a book in his vehicle…Tales of Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet. PG was at a yard sale once, in the hottest part of the summer. TOM was on sale for one dollar, and PG was going to pass, but when he got back to his bike, the creeping heat told him to go back up the driveway and buy that book.
The lady in front of PG in line has a birth certificate from Miami Florida. Why are Miami birth certificates so pretty, when the Fulton county thing PG has is a negative image copy, ugly as sin? Maybe it is compensation for something.
There are two old ladies in line before the lady from Miami. They both have hair dyed some hideous shade of faux blonde. Whatever happened to letting your hair go white, and being proud of living that long?
So PG got his number, and found a plastic chair that seemed clean. For the next forty five minutes, every time a number was announced, he would look up at the lightboxes above the booths. This did not make his number come up any faster, and before long PG realized that every time he had been in a government waiting room, his number got called, if he only waited long enough.
Back to the book, which was a series of short stories, told in easy to read sentences. The first story was about a bartender in Key West, who tried to drown himself in the waist deep water off the shore. He heard the phone ring in his house, and he decided to go back and answer. It was the phone company, calling to say it was cutting off his service for not paying his bill. When that was over, he was so angry, he decided he wanted to live.
The next tale was about a young man who meets his rock and roll star hero, and winds up hanging out with him. The hero tells the young man there are rules for becoming a star. They were ( in paraphrased, copyright dodging form) the bar owner is your enemy, some folks are elbows, and will always be like that, and stay out of police custody. The rockstar is telling stories that get wilder and wilder, like the time he was playing in Montana, the audience was breaking the guinness record for drinking cheap beer, and his bass player and keyboard man are fighting on stage.
Before this story was over, the number was called, and PG got his mvr. How the story turned out will have to wait until the next waiting room. Pictures are from the Library of Congress.

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you.
Millions of people have heard this . It is a part of the process, a message that you are indeed in trouble. It takes less than a minute. Now, some people think that for a “terrorist”, that one minute is too much time.
After the botched bombing in Times Square, there are new calls for someone labeled “terrorist” to lost the basic rights of citizens. It is up to the authorities to decide who gets called the T word. Many so called conservatives, who should know better about the folly of trusting the authorities with our freedom, want to give big brother this ability ( to label anyone a terrorist, and deem them unworthy of having rights).
The sad part is that our President agrees. The administration ” said Sunday it would seek a law allowing investigators to interrogate terrorism suspects without informing them of their rights.” If Mr. Holder knows as much as he claims about the Times Square wannabomber, couldn’t he get a conviction without testimony from the defendant?
This blog doesn’t feel warm and fuzzy about Faisal Shahzad, or anyone else who wants to kill people. He also does not trust law enforcement. They can expand the definition of terrorist at will, to include anyone johnny law has a problem with. That is why we have a constitution, and we make the police prove their case in court. Today it is the wannabomber, tomorrow it may be you or me.
Matt Taibbi (pronounced like the island) has a good quote on the administration, and our liberties. “The only reason we’re even talking about this Miranda issue is because a bunch of morons on talk radio made a big fuss about it, and if our president is going to go sticking his thumbs into the constitution every time he can’t take a few days of getting reamed by a bunch of overpaid media shills whose job it is to hate him no matter what he does, then we’re all in a lot of trouble.”
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

Bloggingheads likes to have a science podcast on saturday, frequently with these two old men. This week, they were all over the place. The first “write it down” moment was at 39:00, when someone said that people who wear bicycle helmets are more likely to have accidents. This was related to the way that plastic helmets have led to harder hitting in football, with an increase in injuries.
The next high point came at 51:00, with a consideration of “the moral calculus of weeds”. This took up the rest of the hour, with the comment that “you’re lucky those weeds are rooted in the ground and can’t come back after you”. There are pesticide resistant weeds, the air pollution caused by tillers versus chemical controls, and all sorts of spill off issues. The closing comment about weeds not seeking (obvious) revenge reminded PG of the deer hunt balance, with zero hunters shot by a deer.
The text only internet is not to be denied. Obsidianwings supplies this tasteful quote by Sean Hannity: (spell check suggestions:Hannibal, humanity) “Hannity: I’ve actually had an idea — no one listens to little ol’ Sean Hannity. But I’m like — I think the Iraqis, with all their oil resources, need to pay us back for their liberation. Every single solitary penny. “
Aside from the jaw dropping amorality here, there is a practical reason to oppose this. As a commenter says ” I am sure the Kuwaitis will be very happy to relieve Iraq of reparations from 1990, just so the money could be sent to us…not to mention the rest of the international community that was strong armed to reduce or eliminate Saddam era debts.
Aside from whether we deserve Iraqi money, debt would destroy any chance (however slim)of Iraq emerging from a nightmare. We would get neither money nor “victory.”
Mr. Hannity used to work in Atlanta, before he became a Fox superstar. PG stalked him once.
It was during a parade downtown. Veterans Day comes to mind…a weekday parade that does not get a large crowd. Mr. Hannity was riding in a convertible, waving at the crowds. PG began to follow the car, looking at Mr. Hannity with a blank look. Finally, the talent took notice of PG, and said “Are we having fun yet?”
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

PG recently got a temp job making deliveries, and someone said you need a gps device. After thinking long and hard, and taking notes in different stores, the purchase was made.
You don’t just plug these things in and run. Fortunately, PG had a day before he started to experiment. You learn to listen between the lines. When the device says 400 yard ahead, and you know that it is really 200 feet, you just make the turn where you know you need to go.
The first day of the job started, and PG was in a familiar neighborhood, and found the first stop with a map. Then, he had to decide where to go next, and noticed that the list of stops was in a logical order. The device was plugged in, the next stop punched in ( zipcode, streetname, number …something you learn during experiment day), and the next stop appeared, as if by magic.
The afternoon of the second day, the job was getting a bit easier, and the device was working like a charm. You learn that it will tell you to make a turn twice, and will tell you again before the turn. If you pass a street, and it doesn’t say to turn, then that is not the stop.
PG began to think too much, and realized that there was an element of trust, and “submitting to a higher power” in the device. While you are getting a message, sometimes you have to understand the message. A few minutes later, PG drove through spaghetti junction, and the device got confused. The good news is, PG knew the correct ramp to get on.
About an hour later, the device said to stay on Pleasant Hill and cross Peachtree Industrial. (Atlanta readers will know these are heavy traffic roads). As soon as the crossing was made, the device said to turn around and make a left turn. The honeymoon is over.
The stop of the moment turned out to be a nail salon in a shopping center…at the location where PG was turned around. Instead, PG took a left at the light, and drove a half mile north until the device told him to turn into an apartment complex. The complex had a gate, and PG called the lady on the list. She was Vietnamese. After a few confusing minutes of conversation, PG made another left turn on Peachtree Industrial (without a light), and found the nail salon.
The directions for the next stop were punched into the device. Make another left on Peachtree Industrial, and turn right into the gated complex. Call the lady, and find out that she does not live in a gated complex. Instead, she lives in a complex off a road a mile south. PG turns the device off and finds the complex using the verbal instructions.
The good news is, the device started to perform better after this, but the aura of perfection was in a tangled heap, at the gated complex. The next day, PG had a stop in “de hood”, and the device gave a couple of shaky instructions. Perry Boulevard is no place to get lost, especially on a delivery with no telephone number. The stop was a retirement home, the lady was located on the phone box in the lobby, and all was well in the world.

Part two is a repost . Maybe I am not a real man. I once asked for directions.I don’t think that jokes about asking directions are very funny.
It is a rule that female comedians cannot perform without telling at least one joke about men not asking for directions. Never mind that when you ask for directions, you are asking for trouble. Many directions from strangers will leave you more lost than you already were.
With GPS systems coming into popularity, the female comedian is an endangered species.That is, unless she marries a Cuban bandleader, cries a lot, and dyes her hair red.
Did the Three Stooges ever ask for directions?
Why did Moses wander in the desert for forty years? He wouldn’t ask for directions.
Mapquest is not a perfect solution. It can steer you into wild goose land just as surely as that toothless man at the gas station.
One I had to take something to a place outside Gainesville. My boss gave me the mapquest directions he had used before, and said that he got lost using them.
I called the lady I would be taking the product to. She gave me directions to the place, and I found it without a problem. ( Sometimes people give good instructions). I mentioned that her directions were good, and she said that they were the same ones she gave my boss.
Mapquest is a good tool, but is not the final word. A map book is your friend, even if it is not perfect. Urban Legend has it that cartographers will insert nonexistent streets into their product as a method of copyrighting. Maybe female comedians can make jokes about that.

This is a repost. My newest frequentfolder blog is twentytwowords. He posted a thingie today called
“10 things we don’t mention in worship songs, but that I’m happy God saved me from”

1- Jesus Worship
2- Getting caught driving DUI
3- republican politics
4- pre arthroscopy knee surgery
5- believing the doctor who told me to get spine surgery
6- The Unification Church
7- confusing G-d for my father
8- Living anywhere except Georgia
9- cable television
10-Making complete lists

PG foolishly answered the question “If you’re not proclaiming the Gospel, why not?”. His reasoning involved non agreement and good taste, and he soon found himself in a fun filled dialog. After the third entry, someone named “Otternam” made this observation: Zach, I was anon earlier, but I can talk now… chamblee is a troll, so don’t play too rough, ok? I can’t tell if he is Jewish or simply superstitious with the whole G-d wordplay… Id just cut to the chase and use the tetragrammaton… “
This is a family blog, and the x rated evidence PG could supply (re: is he Jewish?) is not conclusive in the modern USA. Readers will just have to take his word that he is a recovering baptist. In addition, he had never heard of the tetragrammaton. (Zach, the blog owner, used the phrase “decalogue of Exodus 20” to refer to the Ten Commandments.)
The T-ton is four letters which represent the G-d of Israel. The four letters are YHWH. This is not a song by the Village People. It’s pronunciation is disputed, and some say it should not be spoken aloud anyway. Many say it is Yahwah, which sounds really cool with a southern accent. Yahwah come back now, heah.
At some point, YHWH degenerated into Jehovah and G-d. The third commandment prohibits the improper use of sacred names, but that doesn’t stop very many people. The internet is not inhibited either, and a website for the T-ton is in operation.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.

May 6 is a day in spring, with 35% of the year gone by. It has it’s fair share of history, some of which did not turn out well. In 1861, the Confederate Congress declared war on the United States. In 1937, a German zeppelin named “Hindenburg” exploded while trying to land in New Jersey. In 1940, Bob Hope did his first show for the USO, somewhere in California.
In non metric news, in 1954 Roger Bannister ran the first sub four minute mile. The current record is 3:43.13 by Hicham El Guerrouj on July 7, 1999, with a party with Prince to celebrate. Since most track meets now use 1500 meters, the mile record is more or less obsolete.
On this day, Georgia has strapped two notable prisoners onto the gurney of no return. In 2003, Carl Isaacs was put to death. Mr. Isaacs was the ringleader in the Alday family killing, in Donalsonville GA, 1973. Five years later, in 2008, William Earl Lynd was poisoned by the state. This was the first execution, in Georgia or the USA, after the Supreme Court ruled that execution by poisoning was constitutional.
According to Wikipedia, which is never wrong, several notables were born on May 6. Included are: 1758 – Maximilien Robespierre//1856 – Sigmund Freud//1895 – Rudolph Valentino//1903 – Toots Shor//1915 – Orson Welles//1924 – Patricia Kennedy Lawford//1931 – Willie Mays//1937 – Rubin Carter//1945 – Bob Seger//1953 – Tony Blair//1954 – PG//1961 – George Clooney.
To make room for these folks, someone has to die. For May 6 this would mean: 1862 – Henry David Thoreau//1919 – L. Frank Baum//1992 – Marlene Dietrich.

Today is the National Day for Prayer. PG has this edited repost to offer:

Good Morning G-d. Please give me the slack I need to make it through this busy life. I have a birthday today, and am getting older. Please give me less pain, both above and below the neck. Thank you for letting me get this far. Thank you for the gift of sobriety, and the memory of inebrience. The gift of moderation would have been appreciated. Help me to overcome body chemistry telling me to be unhappy. If this doesn’t work, help me hide it better.
Please tell the Jesus Worshipers to shut up. They make too much noise. Help me to forgive them. Give Jesus Worshipers a bit more humility. Help Jesus Worshipers to get over their confusion, and quit hating gay people. Let people know that G-d does not write books. Let men know that A REAL MAN KEEPS CONTROL OF HIS TEMPER. Please tell the proud people praying today that it is better to listen than to talk.
Please find a happy medium for Atlanta water. Let us have neither drought nor flood. It would help if the developers would move to North Carolina, and the politicians would grow a conscience. This may be asking too much.
G-d, Please try to get along better with Allah. This is important. Maybe if you and her got along better, then all those religious crazies would hate each other less. Help white people and black people get along better. Please be good to the people who have already lived, and are now deceased. Please understand that I am not in a hurry to join them.
Help Mr. Obama with the mess this country is in. Help Israel get along with her neighbors, and live within her borders. Help the world solve the carbon dioxide problem.
Thank you for the birds that sing. I will listen to them, and not an electronic device. Thank you for dogs, and dog owners who clean up. Thank you for earth, air, fire, and water. Thank you for the people who enjoy this prayer. Help those who are offended to get over it. Namaste, amen, all my relations, Good Bye.