Chamblee54

The latest episode of Blocked and Reported is a return to form. Jesse and Katie are fun to listen to again, although that can change at a moment’s notice. There is a story about a nine year old boy in Vermont inventing a statistic about paper straw use. It was repeated endlessly, without anybody ever asking if it was true. Supposedly, every american uses 1.5 plastic straws a day, although nobody knows what happens to the other half of the second straw. What few thought to say, at least here, was that this was a straw boy argument.
I am the lurking in the bowels of Walmart. That putrescent high Temple of fevered consumerism, where the unwashed masses pay tribute to the mammon of whatever product the boats from China can drag in. And who do I see in the cake mixes, with her cartoon image on the front of a box of Duncan Hines, but Dolly Parton. Who’d a thunk it? Those clever guys know what they’re doing. Dolly is a trusted name brand, with a whole lot more sex appeal than the Pillsbury Doughboy. I suppose you shouldn’t be surprised at anything you see these days.
A cherished part of Little 5 Poetry Bash is stopping for junk food on the way home. First Burger King on North Druid Hills, then Taco Bell on Buford Hiway. It is a treat, and only once a month. The first one to fall was the Taco Bell, which is now closed permanently. The TB on North Druid Hills is a drive through only nightmare, which leaves BK. Tonight, after a night of poetry and a coffee refill … sleep is overrated … it meant braving the pot-hole infested menace of Briarcliff/North Highland, only to find that the time-honored BK has closed.
One of the poets at L5PB posted some pictures. One was me, in my Big Chicken sweater vest, wishing I had not put that haircut off. I was reading my most recent product, a sonnet about passive agressive cliches in today’s discourse. The thing that most offends me is the overblown rhetoric that “both sides” are using to promote their cause. The poem was printed on the back of a list of Piedmont medical facilities, and a few sentences promoting MyChart, the well meaning Piedmont online portal. One cause of high medical costs is the redundant paperwork your provider supplies.
L5P is an alternate reality, especially when you live in McMansion City and only venture into town on the first Monday night every month. When I got to Euclid Avenue, there was a man, walking down the sidewalk with a blanket wrapped around him, shouting Godknowswhat to himself. I get into Java Lords, get my coffee … another thing I don’t do every day, but you have to patronize the establishment. It was a great night, even when Han Vance looked me in the eye while shouting “you’re my wife.” Does Rosser wear the outfit, or does the outfit wear Rosser?
“either you are on the bus or you are not on the bus … that was a catchphrase of the merry pranksters in the electric kool aid acid test” That is a good quote for Mardi Gras. I was in New Orleans for the carnival in 1990, which is the only time I have been there. Tuesday started with mushrooms and a “special” cake, and walking over to where a neighborhood parade was starting. I was thoroughly overwhelmed by the whole experience, sort of enjoying it but feeling an intense sensory overload, and totally feeling like I did not fit it. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Arthur Rothstein took the photograph in July 1938. “A veteran steelworker, Aliquippa, Pennsylvania” · selah