Chamblee54

An Atlanta Blogger named Mingaling put up a post the other day about a new challenge, 30 days of lists. It is now the eleventh of March, so the month is one third gone. Maybe we can get a post or two out of this… Celebrities to appear at Northlake Mall when PG worked for the Mall… Ginger Rogers , the Budweiser Clydesdales... Power adapters plugged into the power strip on the desk… modem, router, cell phone, speakers.. Items on desk top…Computer box, monitor, speakers, router, usb wire,and modem…empty box with monitor on top… pad of deposit slips…black #2 pencil, red pencil, black inkpen…pocket knife…piece of marble broken into a triangle…kitchen timer…spoon, empty glass (on coaster), empty bowl…notebook, old envelopes with notes on the back … Last things watched on tv…Super Bowl, something before that… Comedians seen at Great Southeast Music Hall… Martin Mull, Steve Martin, Billy Krystal… Cars owned… chevy nova, vw van, datsun 510, ford fairlane, plymouth satellite, Oldsmobile delta 88, datsun, ford truck, nissan, oldsmobile century, honda accord … jobs involving food…Dipper Dan at Lenox square, Harry Barrron’s at Phipps Plaza…. Blogs that have banned Chamblee54…Fido, Pyromaniacs, Centurion, Neo Prodigy, Purgatorio (Providing links is too much work for this.) …Downstairs neighbors while living in duplex…. Linda Mills, Steve Lackey, Gordon Oeming, John Humphries, Ray Deacon, Ron Clevinger, Kevin Brown, Rob MacGrogan, Robert Deck, Kitty Wilson… Most of these involved households, with more than one person living there. Six had dogs, often with unpleasant results. One of those last names is made up. .. Architecture/ Engineering firms where PG has represented blueprint companies…John Portman, Turner, Carlsten, Newcombe and Boyd, HESM, LAS… Teachers in eight grade…Coach Stubbs (science), Mrs. Ollinger(math), Mrs. Geist(study hall), Mrs. Bartow(english), Coach Casteel(gym), C.D. Puett (Georgia History)… Anchor stores at Buford Clairmont mall/outlet square/plaza fiesta…Woolco, Burlington Coat Factory …Pictures for this are from The Library of Congress. They were taken by Dorethea Lange for the Farm Service Administration.

The post below went up three years ago. It deals with a publicity stunt from the Catholic church, an updated seven deadly sins. The statute of limitations may have run out on this message. The traditional  “seven deadly sins” were anger, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.
The site linked above has a page, the seven deadly sins of Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi. The subcontinental fashion icon lists Wealth without Work, Pleasure without Conscience, Science without Humanity, Knowledge without Character, Politics without Principle, Commerce without Morality, and Worship without Sacrifice.
After 1,500 years the Vatican has brought the seven deadly sins up to date by adding seven new ones for the age of globalization. The list, published yesterday in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, came as the Pope deplored the “decreasing sense of sin” in today’s “secularized world” and the falling numbers of Roman Catholics going to confession. The new deadly sins include polluting, genetic engineering, being obscenely rich, drug dealing, abortion, pedophilia and causing social injustice. HT to Fox News .( aka the eighth deadly sin.)
One reaction is to wonder, what language was used for the list? Phrases like “obscenely rich” and “causing social injustice” can mean different things, and one wonders about the nuance behind the original expression. Now, Just about all of these “sins” can merit comments. Maybe the Catholic church is thinking of moving its headquarters to hell.
polluting We can talk about something where all have sinned, or who should throw the first stone. If you ride in a car, wear synthetic fibers, through away anything, use a less than perfect sewer system (or a functioning one on a rainy day with overflows), then you have polluted.
genetic engineering Here again, there are semantics galore. Much of the food we eat is tweaked  by genetic breeding. This is something Euros get twitchy about, that doesn’t concern most Americans.
being obscenely rich This is one to wonder what the original Italian said. Compared to much of the world, a 900sf house is a palace. However, compared to many of the neighbors, it is lower middle class. Perhaps the emphasis should be on greed, selfishness, and how you gain this wealth. The tenth commandment says something about coveting. It is the forgotten commandment.
drug dealing Is there a distinction between legal and illegal drugs here? If you go by the damage that substances cause, then this rule will speak to bartenders and the clerk who sells cigarettes. Not to mention the media outlets who advertise cigarettes and beer, the legislators who condone these substances while prosecuting potheads, and a whole host of others. The legally based war on drugs is a disaster in this country. Do we really need to drag the Catholic church into it?
abortion. If Mary had gotten an abortion, would Christians worship a vacuum cleaner? Seriously, the Catholic Corporation has flogged this donkey, to great profit, for years. If you don’t want abortions, promote contraception and adoption. Catholics should find another gimmick.
pedophilia When you up pedophile in the dictionary, you see a picture of a Catholic priest.
causing social injustice Can we have a better translation of this?

This bonus repost is also from early march 2008. BHO was winning the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination, and the skeletons were coming out of the closet. As the struggle went on, BHO threw Jeremiah Wright under the bus, and got elected.
YouTube is an impediment to work. I was going to write some clever words to go with these pictures, but I looked at some videos first. All I wanted was the embed gibberish so I could show them to you, but YouTube has more videos. The only way to get rid of temptation is to give into it.
I am glad I got to see the videos of Jeremiah Wright. Friday I was hearing the tapes of him on the radio, and it was most discouraging. When I saw the video, I realized that he was just a loudmouth.
I worked for 6 years with a professional Jesus Worshiper. He was selfish, hateful, vulgar and loud. He frequently directed this anger at me. He used Jesus to hurt me, often over trivial matters. His voice sounded a lot like Mr. Wright’s.
Once, this Professional Jesus Worshiper shouted me down, and humiliated me, in the name of Jesus. When he was through, he picked up the telephone and told his friend ” I never felt better in my life”. People like that, and Jeremiah Wright, bring shame to Jesus.
One thing I learned while working with the Professional Jesus Worshiper was the importance of the audience. These hatemongers do not just talk to themselves. They need an audience. These audiences enable these poison spewers. To pray with a loudmouth who shames Jesus is morally equivalent to buying whiskey for an alcoholic. Barack Obama is that audience. (spell check suggestions: Barrack, Bareback, Barabbas, Alabama)
Pictures today are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”

This is a rendering of Cat’s Cradle. Parts one, two, three, four, five , six, seven, and eight are previously published. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. They were taken by Dorethea Lange for the Farm Service Administration in 1937 and 1938.
114-when I felt the bullet enter my heart The business of disposing of Papa Lorenzo’s remains was postponed for a little while. Ambassador Horlick Minton, the husband of the lady who indexes, was set to give a speech. The ambassador threw away his prepared text, and spoke of the futility and cruelty of war. He recited a poem from “Spoon River Anthology”, a book that PG read in tenth grade english. This was 1969, the year of the Vietnam War Moratorium. A massive protest was held in Washington, and in high schools around america, students who opposed the war wore ( which is how you say war with a southern accent, the waw wuh is ovah) black armbands. In the english class where “Spoon River Anthology” was studied, the teacher told the one girl wearing an armband to take it off. She refused, and was sent to talk to the principal.
115-as it happened After the speech by the Ambassador, the celebrants went to see the military display. The only trouble was, one of the planes was malfunctioning. It crashed into the base of the castle, destroying the foundation of the castle (the building, not Julian and Philip Castle), and sending most of the people at the ceremony into the ocean. It was a bit like 911, except there was no hijackers, only a plane engine that was not working. Or maybe it was intentional, and Kurt Vonnegut was the mastermind of 911.
116- the grand ah whoom Somehow, John, Frank, and the Crosby’s are spared the fate of the castle, to fall into the ocean. The remains of Papa Lorenzo goes hurtling into space, and into the water below. As Papa goes, so goes the Ice-Nine in the room. Suddenly, the ocean is frozen, and the sky is full of worms. Wendy’s will be making a lot of hamburgers that afternoon.
117-sanctuary John and Mona found a hidden chamber that had been outfitted for emergencies. They were there, as the rest of the people at the castle descended into chaos. The word sanctuary has had many meanings over the years. Not all of them have been evident to the casual observer. In his first quarter of college, PG had an English 101 professor, who was an admirer of William Faulkner. It seems that a woman said to Mr. Faulkner that she had read “Sanctuary” four times and did not understand it. Mr. Faulkner said to read it a fifth time.
118-the iron maiden and the oubliette In their dungeon hideaway, John and Mona are alone from humanity. The radio does not work. Tornadoes are whipping the earth above them. John wants to screw Mona, but she is afraid of becoming Pregnant. And the book of Bokonon is consulted, and the first thing it says is to close this book, it is full of lies.
119-mona thanks me After a few days in the dungeon, John and Mona climb out into the world. It does not appear to be very hospitable. When PG was a kid, we assumed that the Russians were going to drop the bomb on us. Many people built fallout shelters, so they could live underground until the radiation faded enough to come out. The only problem was, what were you going to do then.
120-to whom it may concern John and Mona go exploring, and find a lot of corpses. It seems like Bokonon came across all these people, waiting for him to deliver them, and he told them to eat ice nine and die. This was thirty years before the jonestown kool aid party. No only was Bokonon a prophet, he didn’t have to worry what flavor of kool aid to use. When you ask google “what flavor kool aid did they use at jonestown?”, you get 6,300 results. It turns out that the magic potion was flavor aid, a cheap imitation of kool aid. The flavor used was grape.
121-I am slow to answer Mona looks at all the frozen bodies, thinks it is cool, and kills herself. John then steps into a taxi, along with H. Lowe and Hazel Crosby, and Newt Hoenikker. The appearance of the cab is one of those plot devices that does not make sense. This is near the end of the book, and it makes less and less sense all the time. Mr. Vonnegut has been quoted as giving three of his novels a grade of A+. Those are Cats Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five, and Mother Night. Slaughterhouse is the best known of his books, and was made into a movie, thus becoming the most profitable book of the Vonnegut archive. It is said that when a young author cops a contract to publish a book, 95% of the people he tells about it will say “Will they make a movie of it?”.
122-the swiss family robinson John, the Crosbys, and the Hoenikker brothers settle into an idyllic lifestyle. Everything they could want has been frozen, and need only be thawed out. Being swiss does not mean they have been sliced into sheets with large holes.
123-of mice and men This book is essentially over. PG has read through to the end. The five remaining humans on the island are never rescued. How the manuscript of John’s book got to New York is a mystery, along with the cab that worked after the ice nine catastrophe. There are a lot of questions at this stage, such as, what was PG thinking when he thought doing a rendering of this book was a good idea? Of course, writers block is a cruel inmate, and this concept may be in for another go round. Maybe a chapter by chapter rendering of the Bible will keep the Jesus worshipers amused. PG was once told, by a professional Jesus worshiper, that “you are nothing but the devil”. Actually, he heard that more than one time, from the same professional Jesus worshiper. If, as some say, PG is the devil, then it might be his duty to do a chapter by chapter on the magic book of.
124-frank’s ant farm Frank has built an ant farm, and watches it intently. Cable tv does not reach the island anymore, and the ant farm is the only live entertainment. Frank says the ants work well together because they cooperate. PG thinks that cooperate is French for “shut up and do it my way”.
125-the tasmanians Errol Flynn was from Tasmania. When he was a child, he tied a piece of fat onto a string. The fat was fed to a goose, who immediately eliminated it. The piece of fat was fed to another goose, while still tied to the string that ran through goose number one. The second goose eliminated the fat, while keeping the string going through his body. The process was continued until several geese were thus connected by a string.
126-soft pipes, play on John and Newt Hoenikker consider going to the top of Mount McCabe, and leaving a symbol on top. At first it was going to be an American Flag, but the seamstress was sewing on six pointed stars, and it did not seem right. John could not think of what would be a proper symbol to leave on top of the mountain. This is the reason PG never got a tattoo. He could not think of an image that he wanted to be permanently connected to his body.
127-the end This is the last chapter of Cats Cradle. We still don’t know John’s last name. We still don’t know how the manuscript gets to New York, much less the five caucasians still on the island. We still don’t know what the Americans and the Russians do with their ice nine supply. The rumors that the collapse of the castle, and the subsequent contamination of the region with ice nine, the rumors that this was a cia sponsored test of the capacity of ice nine…we don’t have the answer to that either. Mainly because PG just made that up. We do know that Bokonon (spell check suggestions: Boondocks, Nabokov, Beckon) makes a guest appearance in the last chapter, and talks about killing himself. But this is the end. Jim Morrison was 16 when this story was set, and probably had never heard about Bokonon. This is the end. The killer awoke before dawn…

A while back, an ad copywriter named Greg Rutter put out a list of 99 things you should see on the internet. Chamblee 54 wrote a a four part series about this phenomenon. Sometime later, Mr. Rutter put out Greg Rutter’s Second Definitive List of The 99 Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet Unless You’re A Loser or Old or Something. PG is going to take a look at this.
After looking at 11 of the suggestions, PG has decided that Mr. Rutter has very low standards. Most of these are from youtube, and many are not that amusing, educational, or inspiring. The first entry on the list ( which is not in any sort of order) is http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/. This is an animated musical, with badgers, a snake, and a mushroom. Maybe Mr. Rutter is kept in the dark and is fed animal waste.
Number 11 is fun, and is the first one PG wants to bookmark. Texts from last night. should deliver hours of fun … I found a horn on the street but it’s okay I disinfected it with vodka // I got lit on fire and andy went to jail last night. Totally unrelated incidents though. // You know, I had the money for a pregnancy test, but at the time, tacos were more important. // He could tell i had a fever by feeling my tits. He gets docter of the year. // Now accepting hypotheses about how i managed to get a bruise between my boobs…. This site has three ads for Groupon on the front page.
The concept was for PG to visit all 99 spots on the list, and report back. Ninety nine bottles of this on the internet, ninety nine bottles of this. Take one done, pass it around, ninety eight bottles of this. Ninety eight bottles of… you get the idea. A couple of years ago it provided enough matter to populate four posts. The only problem is the spam guard computers are on a rampage, and “99 things” has been deemed unworthy. This web page at http://www.youshouldhavealsoseenthis.com has been reported as an attack page and has been blocked based on your security preferences.
These are strange days in the internet security sphere. This site, chamblee54 , was suspended last night for a terms of service violation. An attack of the automated anti-spam controls. It seems as though the digital servants are turning on the vacuum tube masters. As for 99 things, there is no shortage of places to look online for cheap thrills and expensive education.

PG stared out at the gray sky, and thought that the sunday before mardi gras might be the most depressing day of the year. A cd was playing, a promotional device recorded at an ATT convention once. Bjork sang “Gloomy Sunday“. The ever cheerful PG has an idea for a repost . Pictures today are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”
Billie Holiday had a hit with”Gloomy Sunday”in 1941. The legend is that people would listen to the song, and kill themselves. As a result,  the song was banned from the radio. Or was it?
“Gloomy Sunday” was written in 1933 by Rezső Seress. Additional lyrics were later written by László Jávor. It became known as the ” Hungarian Suicide Song”, and was reportedly banned in Hungary. An english translation ( which is said to not do justice to the original Hungarian) was rendered.
The song has a melancholy sound, even as an instrumental. The story is about a person…it is not gender specific…who decides to join a loved one who has died. A third verse was added, to the english version, where the singer says it was all a dream.
The song became popular in the United States. And the suicide stories started to spread, along with rumors that the song had been banned from the radio. ( It was indeed banned by the BBC) There are indications that these rumors were part of a publicity campaign.
The urban legend busters Snopes calls the story “undetermined”. Legends like this get a life of their own. A grieving person hearing this song on a dreary Sunday is not going to be uplifted. One thing is known for sure…the original composer did take his own life. Rezső Seress jumped off a tall building in Budapest in 1968. The legend is he had never had another hit song after writing “Gloomy Sunday”.

There is a bit of instant wisdom floating around facebook…”Charlie Sheen 45, is all over the news because he’s a celebrity drug addict. While Andrew Wilfahrt 31, Brian Tabada 21, Rudolph Hizon 22, Chauncy Mays 25 are all soldiers who gave their lives this week with no media mention. Honor THEM instead by re-posting this status” This brings to mind the sign in stores, “all credit cards honored”.
As some have noted, Charlie Sheen in in the news this week. The publicity given him does not make the problems of substance use and human abuse any less painful. Just like ignoring those servicemen will not end “Operation Enduring Freedom”.
The Virtual Warriors’ Walk has this report. “Spc. Andrew C. Wilfahrt, 31, of Rosemount, Minn., died Feb. 27, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 504th Military Police Battalion, 8th Military Police Brigade, 8th Theater Sustainment Command, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.”
Minnesota Public Radio has an interview with his mother. It is noted that Spc. Wilfahrt was gay, and went back into the closet so he could serve his country.
The Department of Defense reports on Brian Tabada. “The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Spc. Brian Tabada, 21, of Las Vegas, Nev., died Feb. 27, in Konar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire and a rocket propelled grenade. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.”
Syracuse.com has the story of Rudolph Hizon. “Spc. Rudolph R. Hizon, 22, of Los Angeles, Ca., was killed Feb. 28, in Logar province, Afghanistan, when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. He was an infantryman with the 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. “ A netflix popup ad went along with this notice.
Waronterrornews reports on two more deaths. ” The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Feb. 28, in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device. Killed were: Staff Sgt. Chauncy R. Mays, 25, of Cookville, Texas. Spc. Christopher G. Stark, 22, of Monett, Mo. They were assigned to the 63rd Explosive Ordnance Disposal Battalion, 20th Support Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. “
All five of these men died in Afghanistan. There is no indication when we will have exacted sufficient revenge for 911, and bring our troops home. There are few reports in our media of the names of Afghanis who have made the ultimate sacrifice in this conflict.
The media, mainstream and conservative, has had few reports on drone attacks. These unmanned aircraft fly over Afghanistan, and supposedly neutral Pakistan, and dispatch death to those on the ground. Some of the dead are insurgents, some are Al Queda, and some are women and children. The media has reported almost no names of people killed in drone attacks.
The pictures for this report are from The Library of Congress.

So much for world affairs. It is time for a repost, with no redeeming social value.
In 1980, I was staying at a place called the Sea Haven Hostel, affectionately known as Sleaze Haven. This was in Seattle WA, which is about as far as you can get from Atlanta, and still be in the lower 48. I was working through Manpower, and staying in a semi private room for $68 a month.
There was a Christian group that met in the basement on Sunday Night. Now, as some of you may know, I am a recovering baptist. However, the lure of a free meal was hard to resist, so I went to a few meetings. One night, after spending the afternoon doing quality control work on the local beer supply, I joined the after dinner discussion. This was the night when I realized that the Bible is not the Word of G-d. This concept that has been very handy in dealing with efforts at conversion.
They seemed to like me, though, and welcomed me back. Maybe it was the southern accent. One Sunday, it was time to have a prayer to begin the meeting. I raised my hand.
Now, Jesus Worshipers enjoy prayer as entertainment . When they bow their heads, you see them stretching and deep breathing, in anticipation of a lengthy message to G-d. My message was a bit of a disappointment. Instead of a long winded lecture about Jesus and the magic book, I said what was on my mind. ” Lord, thank you for letting us be here today”.What else do you need to say?

Chamblee54 is getting a bit of recognition. On the front page of the current Blogginheads.tv , there is a column of links sent in by listeners. At the top of the list is a contribution by Chamblee54.
In the link, Timothy Noah observes that Scott Walker, the embattled Governor of Wisconsin, is not as bad as Hitler of Stalin. PG’s initial reaction was that Mr. Walker has only been in office a few weeks. To amass a record like Adolf or Josef takes time. Not to mention that, with Saddam Hussein frolicking in paradise, the job of next Hitler is open.
Mr. Noah’s co talker on this episode was Ann Althouse . Ms. Althouse is a Law Professor at the University of Wisconsin, and is personally affected by the disruptions.
Ms. Althouse got downright quotable later in the conversation. She was talking about hair , specifically on actors arriving for the Academy Awards. “What is this stuff that is in the position of hair on their heads? It is horrific”.
This caught PG’s attention, because he has wondered the same thing about Ann Althouse. The lady was born in 1951, and currently has bright blond hair. It is highly unlikely that she was born with hair that color. If you look at her photostream, you will see pictures of her from 1968 and 1976. She has brown hair in those pictures.
Historic pictures are from The Library of Congress. They were taken, in Palestine, in 1917.

PG saw where a facebook friend had taken “The Political Spectrum Quiz”, and was intrigued. A visit to Google City showed 162k ways to measure this factor. PG thinks that labels are meaningless, and should be not be used as insults or points of pride. A lot of people disagree. Pictures for today’s entertainment are from The Library of Congress.
Gotoquiz has the top spot on the hit parade. (There is no idication of whether or not they paid for this.) This site has a header ad for something called Yoostar2, which allows you to be inserted in famous movie scenes. The quiz has a series of statements (Some people should not be allowed to reproduce.) The quizzee is asked to make two decisions for each statement. First, you either agree or disagree, strongly or not, with an option for neutrality. The second decision is how important this issue is to you, with a setting in the middle as the default. The quiz has 53 statements, and you will burn some brain cells completing it.
The answer page is a graph. North is authoritarian, east is right, south is libertarian, and west is left. PG scored Left: 4.29, Libertarian: 4.21. On foreign policy, PG is -7.3, a non interventionist instead of a neo con. On cultural issues, PG is -6.75 on the cultural liberal side. There is an ad on the answer page, with a picture of Rand Paul urging the quizzee to “Sign the right to work petition Obama fears“. The other ad is from Groupon, with 90% off the funnest stuff in town.
That was a lot of work for a silly blog post, that few people are going to read. PG hopes the remaining quizzes are less labor intensive. Political Compass has six pages of statements. You have four options, agree /disagree, strongly/ no adverb. Neutrality is not an option, which can be a problem for the wishy washy. After soldiering through the quiz, PG copped a left leaning -2.88, and -4.31 on the libertarian side. ( The graph pits left against right, and authoritarianism against libertarianism.)
Advocates for Self Government score with the “World’s Smallest Political Quiz”. (WSPQ could be a radio station.) There are ten statements, with agree, maybe, disagree as the choices. Like the first two, the score is a graph, which can be a bit confusing. PG is 70% on Personal issues, and 20% on Economic issues. This puts him on the left side of the box for left/right, but in the middle for libertarian/statist. The one word answer is Liberal.
The Pew Research Center ( not connected to the deodorant industry) chimes in with “The 2005 Political Typology”. There are 25 statements, each of which has two parts. An example is “Using overwhelming military force is the best way to defeat terrorism around the world//Relying too much on military force to defeat terrorism creates hatred that leads to more terrorism ” You agree, strongly or mildly, with one of the choices, with neutrality not an option. Typology classes people as Enterprisers, Social Conservatives, Pro-Government Conservatives, Upbeats, Disaffecteds, Conservative Democrats, Disadvantaged Democrats, Liberals, Bystanders. They agree with the other studies that PG is a liberal.
OK Cupid is playing the political quiz game. Quizzees are asked to agree or disagree with these statements… “1. The government should subsidize struggling museums, theaters, and artists.//2. I am troubled by the eroding distinction between entertainment and marketing.// 3. Protesters cause more good than harm.//4. A person cannot be truly spiritual without regularly attending church or temple.// 5. Something like the theory of Natural Selection explains why some people are homeless.// 6. If countries are unwilling to cooperate with our military plans, we should treat them as enemies.” As it happens, there are a few more pages to answer. The default answer is “strongly agree”, and is registered if you skip over a statement ( or don’t click hard enough.) PG is rated as Social Liberal ( 73% permissive) and Economic Moderate (41% permissive), and best described as a Democrat.
Noted introvert Glenn Beck has been promoting the Nolan Chart survey. This quiz will cause brain damage. There are ten questions, with four multiple choices each. The choices are several complete sentences, and sometimes contradict each other. An example would be the question about a National ID card. “…We need a national ID card in order to prevent events like the attacks of 9/11 but without intruding too far into the personal privacy of the innocent…” There is no indication that a national ID card would have prevented a terror attack that would benefit the newly elected Bush regime. As could be expected, this test said that PG was a liberal.

Several movies have had a world premiere in Atlanta. We will take a look today. Pictures are from the ” Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”. Information about the films is from the Internet Movie Database. This is an encore presentation.
As some of you may know, “Gone With The Wind had it’s world premiere at the Lowes Grand Theater on December 15, 1939. The Lowes Grand site is the current location of the Georgia Pacific building. There is a vacant lot next door, on top of some MARTA paraphernalia. This lot was the site of the Paramount Theater, another movie palace that did not survive.
The GWTW premiere was a big deal. Ten year old Martin Luther King Jr. sang with his church choir. Clark Gable requested a private meeting with Margaret Mitchell, who became the envy of every woman in America. When Mr. Gable checked out of his hotel, a lady was going to be given his room. The clerk asked for a minute to change the sheets on the bed, and the lady said, no, I want to sleep on the same sheets as him.
It was the golden age of movies, and the next year Atlanta hosted the first showing of “Who Killed Aunt Maggie”. The premiere was at the Rialto, on October 24, 1940. The review at IMDB said it was an enjoyable mystery, even if it was a cliche fest. It is not often seen today.
In 1946, “Song Of The South” had it’s premiere at the Fox Theater. SOTS is a controversial item these days. It was based on the Uncle Remus stories, which were written down by Joel Chandler Harris. For those who don’t know, these stories were told by the rural black people that Mr. Harris knew when he was growing up near Eatonton GA. As Wikipedia tells the tale “Controversy surrounding his southern plantation themes, narrative structure, collection of African-American folklore, use of dialect, and Uncle Remus character, however, has denigrated the significance of Harris’ work”. In other words, Brer Rabbit is not politically correct.
The reviews at IMDB tell a different tale. To them, SOTS is a happy children’s movie. The Disney company seems to wish it would go away and be forgotten. Copies are tough to come by these days. PG would say to see it for yourself and make up your own mind, but  Disney won’t let you.
The female lead in SOTS was Ruth Warrick. Miss Warrick was a versatile talent. Her first movie role was in “Citizen Kane”, as Kane’s first wife. She was in many movies, before moving to television. She was perhaps best known as Phoebe Tyler, in the soap opera “All My Children”. Wikipedia tells a story about her, that is ironic for the female lead of “Song Of The South”
“In July 2000, she refused to accept a lifetime achievement award from the South Carolina Arts Commission because she was offended by legislators’ decision to move the Confederate flag from the state Capitol dome to another spot on the grounds in response to a boycott of the state by flag opponents. A lifelong supporter of African-American rights, she felt the flag should be removed completely, and commented, “In my view, this was no compromise. It was a deliberate affront to the African-Americans, who see it as a sign of oppression and hate.”
In 1949, the Paramount had the first screening of “The Gal Who Took The West”. The female lead was Yvonne De Carlo, who later achieved immortality as Lily Munster. In November 1951, the spotlights returned to Lowes Grand for “Quo Vadis”.
The last film in the GSU picture collection is “The Last Rebel”. This western had it’s premiere at the Rialto, May 27, 1958. The movie was a return to Atlanta glory for Olivia De Havilland. The film is the story of a man, whose wife dies in a fire during the war between the states. PG questions the use of the Stars and Bars on the marquee.
In 1974, Ringo Starr produced and acted in “Son of Dracula”. The movie had it’s world premiere at the Cherokee Plaza Theater. Cherokee Plaza is a shopping center on Peachtree Road, just east of the Atlanta city limits. The theater was torn down during a renovation, and the space is currently the produce department at Krogers.
A local radio station hired a band to play in the parking lot at the premiere. At some point, a long limousine pulled up to a stage, and Ringo Starr and Harry Nillson got out. Both were wearing sunglasses, even though it was after dark. Ringo got on the stage, waved a wand at the crowd, and said “I am turning you into frogs”. He went inside to see the movie, the crowd went home, and the movie was mercifully forgotten.
In 1981, PG went to a supper in an apartment building (now a vacant lot) across from First Baptist Church on Peachtree Street. There was a commotion down the street at the Fox, and PG went to see what it was. “Sharkey’s Machine” had it’s World Premiere that night.

This is a rendering of Cat’s Cradle. Parts one, two, three, four, five , six, and seven are previously published.Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
101-like my predecessors, I outlaw Bokonon John is preparing to become President of San Lorenzo, and he considers legalizing Bokononism. Reality intervenes, and he realizes that there is nothing he can offer the starving peasants to replace the thrill of an outlaw religion. Like when the US government outlawed cigarette commercials, including the toe tapper for 101. They were 101 millimeters long, a silly millimeter longer than the longest cigarette available. Even though TV ads for cancer sticks were outlawed, people continued to smoke. All it did was give the tobacco companies more money, because they did not spend it on tv commercials.
102-enemies of freedom As part of the installation of John as president of San Lorenzo, a collection of cardboard bad guys are floating in the ocean. They will be ceremonially murdered by Air Force planes. The villians include Joe Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Adolph Hitler, and Kaiser Bill. Even in 1959, few people remembered Kaiser Bill. He was the big dog in Germany during World War One, which was called the European War at the time. The idea that there would be a World War Two was not fashionable, indeed some called the first conflict ” the war to end all wars”. In Gallipoli, an Australian gentleman says that if he does not go to Gallipoli and fight the Germans, then the Germans were going to invade Australia and fight him there. This was said about our war in Babylon.
103-a medical opinion on the effects of a writers strike John and Philip Castle discuss a writer’s strike, until man comes to his senses. This is something that might have been considered in 1959, when reading was an honorable pastime. Today,with all the multi colored forms of entertainment, a writer’s strike would scarcely be noticed. Unless it was for television script writers, and those can be re used, even the ones read by the news casters. In 1959, the concept of a writers strike was something to be feared, something that would cause “petrescenceof the heart or atrophy of the nervous system”.
104-sulfathiazole Have you ever wondered where drugs get their names? Take sulfathiazole. There is something in the sound of certain words that makes them sound different.
105-pain killer John ate some albatross meat at a reception, and ran screaming from the room. He wound up in the private chamber of Papa Monzano, who is dead as a doornail. He was killed by ice-nine, turned into a rictus of frozen flesh. This is what some would have predicted for a substance that causes water to flash freeze, since most of the human body is water. Whether this is tap water, bottolled water, canal water, or toilet water makes no difference. Water is water.
106-what bokononists say when they commit suicide Even though this is the updated version of cats cradle, and we have replaced bokononist with bokononer, we will reproduct the chapter titles faithfully. Faithfully is an anagram for fat hill ufy. There is a singer named Faith Hill, either country or gospel, and she did not sing at the super bowl and forget a line to the star spangled banner. PG saw that episode in music history, and didn’t notice. He was waiting for the game to begin, and wondering if he should get more real food or start in on the desserts. As it turns out, he did both. The game wasn’t that great, and the packers won. The steelers threw an interception that was run back for a touchdown, and it was a pathetic pass. PG has long suspected that most super bowls are rigged, and that pathetic pass would be exhibit a.
107-feast your eyes! John confronts the children of Felix Hoenikker about ice nine. For those who are late to the party, lets refresh your memory about ice nine. Dr. Hoenikker was a research scientist, and he worked on military matters. This is how science usually goes, the best advances are made for military purposes, and once the killing is done, then the knowledge is put to the benefit of the living. The marines were tired of fighting in mud. Dr. Hoenikker concocted a substance that would turn the mud into ice, and then the marine vehicles could drive over it. The only problem is that human beings are made of mostly water, and ice nine would turn them into blocks of ice. A Gomer Pyle popsicle could not kill the viet cong, but could only say ssshazzzzzam ssssaargent caaaarrrrterrr.
108-Frank tells us what to do Two people have been killed by ice nine, and the foreshadowing department of this novel says that more are coming. Currently, John and the three living Hoenikkers are in a room with two frozen corpses. Newt Hoenikker threw up. Frank Hoenikker, the adult in charge, said to clean up the mess.
109-Frank defends himself Fends is a good word, whether the use is for offense or defense. PG once got a certificate for using fend in a sentence. It was 1986, and PG wrote about the newsletters the other tall clubs sent the Atlanta Sky High club. A man named Ryan Anthony did the same thing in Tucson AZ, except his “tall town observer” went on for twenty pages every month. Jared Loughner was not yet born. So, one day, someone wrote in, one of the other tall club newsletters, about a discussion she had with a friend. Do relationships fail or end? PG saw this, and helpfully suggested that maybe they fend. Ryan Anthony was amused, and declared this to be the best one liner in a Tall Clubs International newsletter in 1986.
110-the fourteenth book We learn that ice nine went from the possession of the three Hoenikker children, to the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Republic of San Lorenzo. At least the Soviet Union stole it. This is dissected in book fourteen of the bokonon chronicles. The title of this book is “What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on earth, given the experience of the last million years? The answer is “nothing”.
111-time out Felix Hoenikker died in a wicker chair, on the beach of Cape Cod, on Christmas Eve. We are going to say it was 1957. The Beatniks and rock and roll were getting going in 1957, in fact, Jack Kerouac was probably at his home on Long Island that Christmas Eve. The only thing was, Jack Keruac was a real person, and Felix Hoenikker was fictional. Any resemblance between him and a real person is coincidental. That is a disclaimer with teeth, putting the dental into coincidental.
112-Newt’s mother’s reticule So Frank and Newt were cleaning up in the kitchen of the Cape Cod house, and accidentally gave this dog some ice nine. The dog froze solid. They went to look for their father, and found him frozen solid. Maybe Papa Monzano wasn’t the first ice nine casualty after all. The kids called the funeral home, and buried dad under a forty centimeter block of stone. They put the dog in the oven. History is not always culinarily proper.
113-history There is a saying that there are three kinds of lies…lies, damn lies, and statistics. PG proposes a fourth division of lie…history. History is written by the winners of wars to justify their murders. History is used by robbers to justify their thievery, often for Jesus.