Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2016 Part Two
This is the rest of the published entries from the 2016 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Part one hit the ether yesterday. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. The Atlanta Crackers played ball at Ponce de Leon Park until 1964. If you get tired of the text, skip over it and look at the pictures.
There are no bad writers from Georgia in this contest. This is the fifth year of chamblee54 coverage, and there has never been a Georgia writer mentioned. Maybe Florida, and North Carolina, were too productive, and exhausted the southern quota.
PG read all of the material, and should recover. What follows is the product that got PG’s attention. The samples here are in alphabetical order, starting with “Knowing well.” The winner for most popular first word is the, which begins five entries. The next most popular first word is she, which is utilized four times. Maybe we should just start the bad writing party.
Knowing well the hand signals of his platoon leader, Private James Dawson silently dropped to the dirt, concealed and motionless for what seemed an eternity, a move that he had learned, coincidentally, from his parents whenever the Watchtower ladies would ring the doorbell.
Peter S. Bjorkman, Rocklin, CA
Little Jenny would stop at nothing in her ambition to become an astronaut—that way she wouldn’t end up as an unfulfilled cashier married to a dweeb like Colin Snodgrass, with a sizeable mortgage and four lazy kids who couldn’t even be bothered to pick up a book like this, never mind become astronauts. — Julie Crowley, Ballyphilibeen, Ireland
Osgood knew he wasn’t popular, well-liked, or even very good looking, and could suck the life out of a room like a fat kid sucking the filling out of a Twinkie, but surely a date with the beautiful blonde in the corner wasn’t out of the question, he thought as he licked the cream from his fingers.
Marie Gaither, Asheville, NC
Patrice— the most-feared henchman of the global terrorist mastermind Ivan Terrible—staggered back to his car, wiped the dead cocktail waiter’s blood from his hands, picked up his smartphone, and texted a terse status update to his employer’s personal assistant: “Tell IT that our server is down.”
Gwen Dallas, Austin, TX
Quiet mornings, long lazy afternoons, and spectacular sunsets were de rigueur for Elbert and Ethel Salipit since their early retirement and internment at the Happy Valley Cemetery for Eternal Rest and Relaxation. — Tim Petteys, Malden on Hudson, NY
She couldn’t decide whether it was the tail-less rat devouring another neighboring rat’s brain in his glassed cage, or just the way the doctor and his white-haired assistant were applying the saw to Aslan’s skull casing as he lay dismembered on the great table, but something told Lucy they’d tumbled through another portal and out of Narnia.— “Lionrhod,” Winter Park, FL
She walked toward me with her high heels clacking like an out-of-balance ceiling fan set on low, smiling as though about to spit pus from a dental abscess, and I knew right away that she was going to leave me feeling like I had used a wood rasp to cure my hemorrhoids. Charles Caldwell, Leesville, LA
She was like my ex-girlfriend Ashley, who’d stolen my car, broken my heart, murdered my father, robbed a bank, and set off a pipe bomb in Central Park—tall. — Rachel Nirenberg, Toronto, Canada
She was uncertain how or when it had happened, but over the years her svelte figure-8 frame had gone lopsided and become a wretched parody of the symmetrical numeral—indeed, the bottom oval was as lumpy and pear-shaped as the carelessly-thrown-aside velour sack of the average mall Santa.
April Olion, Gainesville, FL
The evidence at Evan’s Seaside Bird Sanctuary was mounting: the scattered precocial plumage, the tidal pond encircling a quartet of lifeless birds, the brine-soaked ascot, the cane—could it be that Maurice Chevalier sank Evan’s four little gulls? — Peter S. Bjorkman, Rocklin, CA
The girl screamed, the wind rustled, something moved in the night closer and closer; the moon hung heavily over the night, white as a pearl, blood dripped from Vlad’s mouth, the girl’s pale body hung in his hands, sparkling in the moonlight—he was a vampire, after all.
Heather Fougere, Center Conway, NH
The Halkan prediction of galactic revolt did indeed come true when Han Solo seized the throne of Gandolf, was overthrown by Captain Jim Kirk, all the Wookies were slaughtered by a ragtag band of renegade Hobbits, Tribbles were ground up and made the sixth flavor of Skittles, and Saurian brandy was sold as a premixed chocolate-flavored cocktail by the Martian partners of Nestle.
David S. Nelson, Falls Church, VA
The jar was oozing, and the ooze was jarring: a dank fetid oleaginous slime that slapped and slithered across the bourgeoisie marble countertop like loathsome Gerber’s Lovecraftian puree.
Marlon McAvoy, Oak Ridge, TN
The sea roiled like water in a pasta pot about to boil, an apt simile thought Captain Samuel Turner, because if they didn’t fix their engine soon he and his crew would be floating face down like overcooked manicotti—bloated, white, limp and about to be consumed by something that wished it were eating ahi tuna instead.— Alex Bosworth, Ketchikan, Alaska
Tinkerbell the Fairy and Amy the Elf were BFFFs (best fairyland friends forever), and they loved having adventures in Big-People Land, like eating marshmallows for dinner, galloping fast on the backs of tiny lizards, and taking naps on the pillows of very important people like Judges, Mayors, and Millionaires.— David S Nelson, Falls Church, VA
Watching Emily sleep in exhausted, naked bliss while bathed by the soft shower of lucid moonlight that titillatingly teased glimpses of her supple features he had come to know, Sebastian tried to remember the last time he had seen a woman’s body so beautiful, but after the collision of his ’02 Pontiac Aztek with a Bug-X exterminator truck on East Hermosa Vista Drive in Mesa, Arizona, two months ago left him with long-term memory loss, he couldn’t. — L.A. Jackson, Apex, NC
Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2016
*Results* of the 2016 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest have been announced. The the XXXIVth Lyttoniad is a bad writing contest, named for Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton. Every year, thousands of writers-who-shouldn’t submit a first sentence, to a terrible novel. Chamblee54 wrote about BLFC in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015.
The *winner,* and one other featured player, establish a new category this year: the dingy yellow glow. Here are the two players. Which one was the overall winner? It doesn’t really matter.
Even from the hall, the overpowering stench told me the dingy caramel glow in his office would be from a ten-thousand-cigarette layer of nicotine baked on a naked bulb hanging from a frayed wire in the center of a likely cracked and water-stained ceiling, but I was broke, he was cheap, and I had to find her. —William “Barry” Brockett, Tallahassee, FL
With his lamp giving off a dull yellow glow General Washington sat up late into the night contemplating his problems: Not enough food, not enough clothing, not enough men, and that idiot Private Doodle who kept putting feathers in his cap and calling it macaroni.
Dan Leyde, Shoreline, WA
A *value added feature* of this BLFC report is the contestants with funny names. Here are the writers, in search of a pen name: Andrew Caruso, Akron, OH, Barbara L. Pawley, Los Angeles, CA, Domingo Pestano, Caracas, Venezuela, Dorothy Harbeck, Fair Haven, NJ, Heather Fougere, Center Conway, NH, Henry Biggs, Sydney, Australia, James Siragusa, Lewiston, ME, Julie Crowley, Ballyphilibeen, Ireland, Kathryn El-Assal, Middleton, WI, Leslie Craven, Wellington, New Zealand, Neil T Godden, Nouméa, New Caledonia, Peter S. Bjorkman, Rocklin, CA, Rachel Nirenberg, Toronto, Canada, Raluca Murg, Paris, France, Randy Denker, Tallahassee, FL, Ted Downes, Cardiff, Wales, William Lattanzio, Boyertown, PA.
What follows is a sampling of the writers in the BLFC hall of shame. If you want to see more, use this link. This report is being divided into two parts, with the second half coming out soon. The blurbs are in alphabetical order, by the first word. Three entries begin was “As.” The last entry in part one begins with the phrase, “It was a dark and stormy night.” Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
“Penguins, damnable penguins,” Cooperman muttered bitterly, staring hard into the maelstrom of cheap gin and bargain-basement vermouth swirling hopelessly in the low ball glass he held in his pale, doughy hand, the shards of rapidly melting ice crystals cruelly reminding him of those endless winter nights in the Antarctic weather station, and of Kwakina, with her lithe, lubricious figure, and tuxedo-feathered form. — Stephen Lewis Davis, Sacramento, CA
A murder of crows, ravenous with hunger, alighted on the skeletal limbs of a desiccated oak tree, their cacophonous scolding admonishing the solitary figure, cloaked in black, who had entered the gloomy graveyard to pay tribute to Poe’s tombstone, just as a tintinnabulation of church bells began chiming a counterpoint to the avians’ caws-stick chorus. — Kathryn El-Assal, Middleton, WI
As its newly-incentivized next-gen thought leader, Li-Kwan Patel saw the handwriting on the wall: there was no kicking the can down the road because the paradigm shift at Synergex, Inc. necessitated him to hit the ground running, avoid low-hanging fruit like the plague, and strategize scalable core competencies to close the loop on feedback redundancy, for at the end of the day it all boiled down to boldly going where none had gone before. — Thomas Frohlich, Miami, FL
As Night fell with the finality of a Sycamore toppled in a windstorm, the neon-clogged Arteries of the great Metropolis came alive with the banshee shriek of asphalt-tortured tires, the ululation of yammering sirens, and the bellow of brazen-lunged air horns, Predator Calls of the insomnolent Urban Jungle. —Anna McDougald, Winnipeg, Manitoba
As she reclined, naked, on the chaise longue, Constance’s breasts looked like two mounds of creamy coleslaw served up on a fine porcelain plate—but the good kind of coleslaw, not the violent, neon-green stuff you get at KFC.— Lisa Liscoumb, Oshawa, Ontario
Detective Hammer Logan III woke with a start, images of the bizarre bayou murder still fresh in his mind’s eye—a dame in trouble, body covered with bloody toothprints and saliva—but as sleep lifted, the grizzled detective remembered that he was a dog and the dame a coyote, so he spun on the bed three times and slept the rest of the day. — Jacob Smith, Dallas, TX
Francine was intrigued by the idea of a threesome with a unicyle-riding circus clown, a zither-playing contortionist, and a milkman because she didn’t know that the latter still even existed.
Randy Denker, Tallahassee, FL
Her grandmother had mopped her brow with the same antique kerchief for twenty years whilst working in the barley fields, and now Anastasia was to wear it on her wedding night knotted into a baggy loose panty; while her lover Anatoly would wear his father’s ancient gray and tattered undershorts tied around his neck to honor the old village custom of marital odor-blending.
David S. Nelson, Falls Creek, VA
I never did see the last thing I saw, the truck and the red light, the last thing I saw was a plus-size girl in a petite ensemble, giving her the appearance of a marshmallow tightly wrapped in dental floss.
Ted Wise, Hanover, PA
It was a dark and stormy night, and that translated into unchecked pandemonium among Los Angeles residents who hadn’t worn anything but open-toed shoes for five years, but tourist Alwyn Brewster was thankful for the scant traffic on Sunset Boulevard as he desperately accelerated his rental car through the tony neighborhoods, too preoccupied with the raging rivers of high-end, plastic patio-ware, which were making a break for the ocean, to notice the black Land Rover with diplomatic plates hot on his trail. — Barbara L. Pawley, Los Angeles, CA
SJW Are Yucky
This is comment 66.6 I agree with you that SJW are yucky. I disagree with a blanket condemnation of Islam. I would have dealt with white self loathing, and the obsession with OPRAH…other people’s racial attitudes hello. However, you are the one who took the time to make a video. If you want my opinions, you can go to my blog. ~ Listen more than you talk. If you want to be understood, try to understand others. Labels are for jars, not people. ~ @AngryBlackLady It’s not my problem if you (a) are bad at Twitter; (b) get riled up over out-of-context screenshots; (c) can’t read; or (d) are stupid. ~ @dailyzen Find creative ways to release anger that don’t involve having a temper tantrum. ~ the third commandment includes memes ~ @SlavojTweezek great confusion, fallacious argument, intellectual masturbation…. aka the 2016 presidential election ~ Is the big announcement the retirement of Willie Wonka? ~ This would also explain Bernie Sanders. ~ 4110 glenwood road 30032 – 215 sycamore street 30030 ~ @LearningthePath @Frank_Turk @ABereanOne Given that it’s an apologetics podcast and not a discernment podcast… @chamblee54 Maybe it is just somebody that likes to use a lot of big words that they don’t understand ~ Our commenting rules are pretty simple: If you make any overly offensive comment (racist, bigoted, etc..) or go way off topic when not in an Open Post, your comments will be deleted and you will be banned. If you see an offensive or spammy comment you think should be deleted, flag it for the mods and they’ll be forever grateful and give you their first born (although, you probably don’t want that). ~ You and I used to know a few people that would benefit from knowing this. ~ Matt lives in Virginia, where you will, theoretically, have a vote. Many of us do not have a vote. The state we live in is written off to one party or another. Another thing to consider is the local races. Apparently Matt does not worry about the local races. What a conservative. ~ your right to be angry does not include my obligation to listen ~ @KingEric55 Eight years have brilliant Black man as POTUS has so damaged white racists feeling of superiority that many have suffered mental breakdown @chamblee54 8 years with mixed race POTUS has inflated constipated egos to point that many have exploded in shower of shit ~ I would like to believe this. However, the polls said the Senate and Governor’s race was close in 2014. On election day, it was a Republican rout. ~ Is the non binary dude/dudette a dud? ~ @DanaSchwartzzz Even if they want him out, I say the GOP needs to carry their candidate fully to term ~ The sidebar of other articles at the site is called “Thou Shalt Read” ~ @50NerdsofGrey ‘I’ve been a very bad girl,’ she said, biting her lip. ‘I need to be punished.”Very well,’ he said and installed Windows 10 on her laptop. ~ I quit reading when I saw “gaslighted.” ~ @RachelMcKibbens white savior poems that interrogate other white saviors is like watching the front end of a loaf of Wonder bread talk trash on its back end ~ Luther Mckinnon If you were to take a transcript (or a cis-script) of this program you could put a blank every time Kat says black or white. Then, you could put either black, or white,in many of the blank spaces, and it would be true. In a few spots, you would have to substitute prejudiced for racist, because that is how we use those words. Still, many, though not all, of the things Kat is saying about white people, are also true for black people. ~ Kat Blaque Black people have never had the history of supremacy and power that white people have had. So no, these aren’t interchangeable and you look old enough to be more aware of that than the emailer. ~ Luther Mckinnon I was referring to the concept that the community you are familiar with affects the way that you think. ~ Kat Blaque Sure. I didn’t grow up in a black community so I’m not sure how that applies to me. Sometimes switching places doesn’t work. ~ Luther Mckinnon It would have been fun to be comment six, for episode sixty six.~ @suzannahweiss A friendly reminder that even women who are open about sex don’t appreciate being objectified, disrespected, harassed, or made uncomfortable ~ @chamblee54 A friendly reminder that men don’t appreciate being objectified, disrespected, harassed, made uncomfortable ~ @TheBillyProcida Dude if you’re a listener of my podcast, I’m ashamed of you. Bye, boy. ~ @chamblee54 you have just illustrated my point ~ You are blocked from following @TheBillyProcida and viewing @TheBillyProcida’s Tweets. ~ @suzannahweiss Writer, editor, dick pic theorist. Get me drunk & I’ll talk about robot ethics. @glamourmag, @Refinery29, @bustle, @washingtonpost, etc Suzannahlweiss@gmail.com ~ @chamblee54 the manwhore podcast dude blocked me… you have the right to your opinion but men don’t deserve gratuitous abuse ~ You are blocked from following @suzannahweiss and viewing @suzannahweiss’s Tweets. ~ 2 bodies found behind Roswell Publix ~ Natalie Henderson, Carter Davis ~ Keaira Palmer ~ Woman shot in head while driving in Atlanta ~ Ariel & Alaynah ~ Jamarion Rashad Robinson ~ Dylan Scott ~ Robert Wright ~ Exposure to Sexist Humor and Rape Proclivity: The Moderator Effect of Aversiveness Ratings ~ Jessica Lynn Sanders Chicago Racist ~ Does anyone know what happened before the video started? What did MrCrim3 say, or do, to the young lady? ~ Photographer Files $1 Billion Suit Against Getty for Licensing Her Public Domain Images ~ Black Lives Matter Atlanta leaders you should know: Mary Hooks ~ MyScriptFon ~ Admitting that white privilege helps you is really just congratulating yourself ~ @SlavojTweezek In which I show that postgenderism leads to racism, classism, and marriage with animals. The Sexual Is Political ~ @jaxx_mca This should be read, if only to witness great confusion, fallacious argument, and intellectual masturbation. ~ Read Bret Easton Ellis’ excoriating monologue on social justice warriors and political correctness ~ Sky Ferreira ~ campus map ~ Trump or Jesus? ~ Letter to the Terrorists of Palestine ~ Critics See Efforts by Counties and Towns to Purge Minority Voters From Rolls ~ Airbnb’s racism problem is much bigger than a few racist hosts. ~ Black Lives Matter’s Jewish Problem Is Also a Black Problem ~ “it doesn’t matter who you love, or how you love, but that you love”. ~ @NotShaunKing SJWs are now more offended by the Gadsen and Confederate flag, than the ISIS flag. Nice job, people! ~ Wearing ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ insignia could be punishable racial harassment ~ did betsy ross own slaves ~ pictures are from The Library of Congress. ~ selah
Don’t Tread On Me
Sometimes these stories write themselves. This one began with a tweet. @NotShaunKing “SJWs are now more offended by the Gadsen and Confederate flag, than the ISIS flag. Nice job, people!” The “Gadsen Flag” is the Revolutionary War banner. A coiled rattlesnake rests above the phrase “Don’t Tread on me.” It is a staple of American history.
Supposedly, someone is making a federal case out of wearing DTOM in the workplace. The google search shows stories by Fox News, and The Blaze. The slightly more reputable Washington Post has an article, Wearing ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ insignia could be punishable racial harassment.
“Here’s an excerpt from Shelton D. [pseudonym] v. Brennan, 2016 WL 3361228, decided by the EEOC two months ago: On January 8, 2014, Complainant filed a formal complaint in which he alleged that the Agency subjected him to discrimination on the basis of race (African American) and in reprisal for prior EEO activity when, starting in the fall of 2013, a coworker (C1) repeatedly wore a cap to work with an insignia of the Gadsden Flag, which depicts a coiled rattlesnake and the phrase “Don’t Tread on Me.” Complainant stated that he found the cap to be racially offensive to African Americans because the flag was designed by Christopher Gadsden, a “slave trader & owner of slaves.”
PG read that, and began to think. This is never a good omen. If Christopher Gadsen was a slave owner, then what about Betsy Ross?
Elizabeth Griscom Ross is, according to legend, the seamstress who created the stars and stripes. The story is disputed. For this sake of this blog post, lets assume that the legend is real. Betsy Ross created the American Flag, albeit with thirteen stars. Did she own slaves?
One internet forum raises the question, Did Betsy Ross have a slave? “no, Betsy ross did not have a slave. RE: Her husband had slaves though ” Could women own property in 18th century America? Who knows? Bear in mind, this is an undocumented internet forum. As is the next story.
“Have you ever heard Betsy Ross had children by her African slaves and was shunned by the Quakers because of it? Betsy Ross was widowed three times, and I have heard that since she knew how white men were having children by African women to increase their slave population, she decided to do the same. … Betsy Ross had children by her male slaves to increase her slave popuplation (and in essence, her property value).”
FWIW, Betsy, (January 1, 1752 – January 30, 1836,) was indeed married three times. The lucky men were John Ross (m. 1773–1776,) Joseph Ashburn (m. 1777–1782,) and John Claypoole (m. 1783–1817.) In both cases, she was remarried the next year. If she did take a slave baby daddy, she was very efficient. Maybe the husbands were understanding.
Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. The Atlanta Crackers played ball until 1965.
Hiroshima 71 Years Later
At 8:15 am, August 6, 1945, Hiroshima got nuked. It was the start of a new era. Since Japan is 13 hours ahead of Georgia, and standard time was used, the literal anniversary is 8:15 pm, August 5.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi was working in Hiroshima when the bomb hit. He survived, and found a train to take hime to his home town, Nagasaki.
The device dropped on Hiroshima, the Little Boy, had an estimated force of 13 kilotons of Trinitrotoluene, or TNT. A kiloton of TNT is roughly a cube whose sides are ten meters. This device is fairly tiny compared to many of the warheads developed since. Many of the modern appliances are measured in megatons, or millions of tons of TNT. The Soviet Union had a bomb with a capacity of 50 megatons, or 4,000 times the size of the Little Boy.
The largest weapon tested by The United States is the Castle Bravo. This device destroyed Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. The two piece swimsuit was named for this island. The Castle Bravo device had a yield of 15 megatons of TNT. This is roughly 1,000 times the power of the Little Boy.
The decision to drop the bomb has long been controversial. There are a lot of factors and gray areas, and the issue does not lend itself to sound bite solutions. The conventional wisdom is that Japan surrendered because of the nuclear attack. This meant the war was shortened by at least a year, there was no invasion of Japan, and many lives were saved. PG is scared by the moral calculus involved in a decision like this….do 100,000 civilian deaths prevent the deaths of 500,000 soldiers? PG suspects that even G-d herself would lose sleep over that one.
There is also evidence that the bomb was not needed. Japan was whipped in August 1945. The air raids were conducted in daylight with little resistance. A debate was going on in the Japanese government on whether to continue the fight.
An event happened the day between Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, which influenced the Japanese decision to surrender. The Soviet Union had agreed to help the United States with the war against Japan. On August 8, The Soviet Union invaded Japanese occupied Manchuria. There are indications that Japan knew the fight was hopeless at this point, and would rather surrender to The United States than The Soviet Union. This is one of the gray areas that never seems to be mentioned.
The United States wanted the war to end quickly for obvious reasons, and a few subtle ones. America did not want to share the spoils of Japanese war with The Soviet Union. There were already tensions between the two allies, and the cold war was not far off. Many felt The United States used the Little Boy as a warning to The Soviet Union.
When you get your moral software out, you might want to figure in the effect of opening the nuclear Pandora’s box. Would the nuclear bomb have been developed by other countries if America had not led the way? The science is not that complicated…after all, America hit paydirt with the Manhattan Project fairly quickly. Nonetheless, there is karma involved in using a terrible new device on a civilian population. The United States started the wind of the arms race, and has yet to feel the whirlwind.
This is a repost. The pictures are from The Library of Congress. Ansel Adams took pictures of Japanese Americans, in a World War Two internment camp. The ladies in the bridge game are Aiko Hamaguchi, Chiye Yamanaki, Catherine Yamaguchi, and Kazoko Nagahama.
#NPS2016 Semi Finals
When PG left the Decatur Library auditorium wednesday, he thought he was through with the National Poetry Slam. Too much anger. Too much shouting. Going home with a headache is not pleasant. Your right to be angry does not include my obligation to listen.
An email thursday changed that. “Hello All, We also have ten to twelve shifts to fill for Friday that are up for grabs! Please shout out if you can be one of those people :)” Maybe Wednesday afternoon was a fluke, and things would be better with another try. PG replied to the email. The next assignment was a semi-final bout on Friday night. The venue was a chapel at Agnes Scott College. This is the beautiful women’s college just south of downtown Decatur.
The event began like most volunteer NPS gigs. You show up on time, and wait for something to do. The email said something about keeping food out of the auditorium. PG wound up standing at the front door, welcoming people with badges and tickets, and directing those needing tickets to the sales lady. It was the loosest door PG has ever seen. It was basically honor system, and seemed to work pretty well. The chapel was about two thirds full.
The plan was for a few teams, who won the first round, were competing for the finals. People… either solo, in pairs, or in teams… performed the work. The pieces were memorized, not read. Judges gave a score. Somebody was keeping track of the points. At the end, a winner was announced.
When the subject matter got too heavy, PG would step back into the lobby, or go outside. It was not an endurance contest. Most of the first few performers talked about black anger. This is a constant topic at NPS, and the rest of America. PG is sympathetic up to a point. This is a sensitive issue. If listening to all this anger would produce good results, PG would cheerfully do so. Instead, PG just tries to remember that he is one of G-d’s children. These things too shall pass away.
The other hot subject was rape. The winner of the haiku tournament was a lady from Austin TX, Gloria B. She performed a piece about rape. There was a lot of fast, loud, angry talking. PG missed some of the qualifying details. What he did hear was at the end. This is not a verbatim quote. “Men, if you want to know what rape culture is, it is you.” While Gloria B might not have meant that…. that men were rape culture … that is the message the PG heard. When people are shouting, subtleties and nuance go out the window. What comes through is the message… YOU ARE RAPE CULTURE.
Gloria B, and a partner, had a piece later in the show. The two women shouted, both standing up and crouched over. The piece could be summed up by a haiku Gloria B did wednesday… again, this is not a verbatim quote… call me bitch and that gives me permission to show you what one is. The piece was extremely well received by the audience. As for confusing Gloria B with a lady dog ….
There were several rounds of competition. One man did a delicious piece about bacon. A team from Charlotte did a piece where a black man told a poem, and a white man danced. The black Charlotte man later performed a piece, that referenced some of the other performers. The piece acknowledged the anger that drives many of the poets, but also saw a need to move past this into something for the greater good. (This is way one volunteer usher heard it.) PG thought this was the best piece of the night.
The winners were announced. Neo Soul, from Austin TX, goes to the finals. This is Gloria B’s team. PG hung around the chapel for a while, until the late show crew took over. PG had a headache when he left. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. While looking for these pictures, PG found his annual post about Hiroshima. The first atomic bomb was dropped on Japanese civilians seventy one years ago today.
Trump or Jesus?
There is a facebook thingie this morning, Trump or Jesus? When creating the document for this feature, windows decided not to *save* the document with the T 0r J title. That is an omen.
The idea is simple. You get a quote, in contemporary english. You choose whether it was said by Jesus, or Trump. Jesus is in a blue box, while Trump is red. White letters are used for both choices. Those who think Christ is the last name will be confused.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5.
“My IQ is one of the highest… Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure; it’s not your fault.” source
“You know, it really doesn’t matter what the media write as long as you’ve got a young, and beautiful, piece of ass.” source
“Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34.
“If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” Matthew 5:39
“If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously, okay?” source
“If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” Matthew 19:20
“The point is that you can’t be too greedy.” source
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” John 13:34
“The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families.” source
This is not a tough test. It is even easier here, with Bible verses for one, and links for another. Jesus did not tweet. The media, IQ, and Terrorist are modern phrases. (There is evidence that the phrase terrorist was coined by the Jewish rebels fighting to create the state of Israel. Ben Hecht wrote a fund raising ad, Letter to the Terrorists of Palestine. It “appeared on page 42 of the May 14, 1947 edition of the New York Post.”)
We do not know what translation was used in this test. Jesus spoke Aramaic, which was recorded in Greek, and endlessly translated. There are stories of editing by the Catholic church. Many scholars question the validity of some Gospels, especially John. While Jesus may have said something like these verses, they are not verbatim quotes.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Conservative Liberal Racist
The management of this blog is not responsible for brain damage incurred while reading this post. If you cant take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Those threatened by this discussion, or not interested, are encouraged to skip over the text, and look at the pictures. These images, of Union Soldiers of the War Between the States, are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
There is a meme, with the text a conservative is a liberal who has been labeled a racist. A few comments followed publication. Someone was paying attention. Uhm…WTF?! ~ its a long story ~ All three labels are useless and misleading. I try not to let the labels of others describe me, but sometimes it happens. It is a bit of poetic license.
The words liberal and conservative are useless. When he started to make the comment, PG intended to refer to those two expressions. Then he started to type.The realization hit … the word racist was just as obsolete as liberal and conservative, and probably misused more often.
The next day at work, PG began to think. If you saw a mushroom cloud rising over Jimmy Carter Boulevard, that is what you saw. Random thoughts began to emerge.
A- The popularity of con, lib, and rac, derive from America’s blind allegiance to the belief paradigm The general thought is that what you believe is more important than what you do. The dominant religion in America is Jesus Worship, which is based on beliefs rather than practices. While America is not officially a Christian country, their thought processes dominate the way things work here.
B- The belief paradigm filters down to the popularity of silly labels.We have people who claim to be small government conservatives, and who support sending 200k troops to a war eight time zone away. You can treat your black neighbors with kindness and grace, but if you say the wrong things on facebook you are considered a racist. It is a funny system.
C- Conservatives use liberal as an insult. Liberals use racist as an insult.
D- No one is certain what the words conservative, liberal, and racist mean. You should beware of anyone who claims to be certain of what these labels represent.
National Poetry Slam
PG thought he could help out by volunteering for the National Poetry Slam. The 2016 edition is in Decatur GA, just a few dozen red lights down Clairmont Road. Three shifts were involved. They ranged from boring, to enjoyable, to busy/enjoyable, to excruciating.
The first day was registration. There was nothing to do, except sit behind a table, hand t-shirts to people, and point out the “money lady.” Eventually, there were a couple of chats to listen in on, and an urban explorer to compare notes with. Later was volunteer orientation, which was about as interesting as you might expect.
For some reason, PG volunteered to take on another shift. It was for a “Daytime Performing Venue.” PG went to the library, then to the hotel. He saw a schedule. The event was “Rookie Showcase,” held at the dependable Java Monkey.
The poets performed in an open mic format. It was the usual OM assortment, perhaps a touch better than Java Monkey Speaks. One lady talked about the joys (?) of motherhood. A couple of men talked about dealing with G-d. All PG had to do was be there, set up chairs, and pick up chairs when the event was over. It was a pleasant enough way to spend the morning.
The third day was general support at Afternoon events. At one o’clock, the event was “Head 2 Head Haiku.” People were paired off, the green performer and the blue performer. They read a haiku, and the judges held up a green, or blue glow stick, to indicate the winner. Whoever won that round moved into the next round, against another winner. It goes on until one person wins.
The host put PG to work. Working from a list of names, PG copied the names on slips of paper, to be drawn out of a hat. Next, the names were written on postit notes, to be stuck on the wall. After a round, the winner’s postit goes to the next round, and the loser goes on the table.
After a brief intermission, the second event was “Black Poets Speak Out.” A series of poets stood on the stage, and shouted. They were concerned about people being killed, mostly by policemen. After the third performer shouted that “we are in a post racial america, with a black overseer,” PG decided not to endure the toxic rhetoric.
Wednesday morning, four miles south of the Decatur library, 15 year old Keaira Palmer went to the S&N Superette on Glenwood Road. “She was just supposed to be going to the store to get a Sprite, a bag of hot chips and a Slim Jim.” Someone else drove by the store, and started shooting. None of the black poets spoke out about this incident. At least, not before PG left.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
The End Of Racism
One of the touted TED talks in the weekly email is Color blind or color brave? It is by Mellody Hobson, a POC in the investment business. It is the standard call to talk more about race. Talk, talk, talk, and talk some more. The word listen is not used.
At the 3:13 mark, Mrs. Hobson makes a remarkable statement. “Now I know there are people out there who will say that the election of Barack Obama meant that it was the end of racial discrimination for all eternity, right?” It is possible that someone has said that. There are also people who say the earth is flat.
PG asked Mr. Google about this. The top two results are about the TED talk. The third result is an article in Forbes magazine, Racism In America Is Over. It is written by John McWhorter, one of the “black guys at Bloggingheads.tv.” Dr. McWhorter does say racism is over, sort of. The problems that remain are a lot worse. Too much food for thought, for a population with intellectual bulimia.
There is a quote in the Forbes article that is pure gold. “When decrying racism opens no door and teaches no skill, it becomes a schoolroom tattletale affair. It is unworthy of all of us: “He’s just a racist” intoned like “nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!””
There are a lot more results. PG is getting tired of looking. If you want to see for yourself, google “the election of Barack Obama meant that it was the end of racial discrimination for all eternity.” Except for a rogue title editor at Forbes, almost nobody has said that. This is a repost. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Chamblee54 
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