Stupid Question™
This content was originally published July 11, 2009. … The morning started in Saturday MARTA fashion. There was an OTP family going downtown, and they were staying together. At Brookhaven, a lady told the driver that a man had tried to assault her. The train was stopped until a police officer came to investigate. After a long wait at five points, I got on the west train. I had never been to the Bankhead Station before, and was not sure how the system worked down there. I left the train at the Ashby station, and saw Will and Eli. I had met them the week earlier on the machete hike. …
… A train soon came along, with the message board saying Vine City. A lady from MARTA then came by to tell people that this was the train going to the Bankhead station. At Bankhead, a crowd of 30 or so people was milling around. By their backpacks and water bottles, it was easy to guess that this was the urban hiking group. A few more people were en route, so the start of the hike was delayed by a few minutes. By this time I had stashed my phone in his pack, and was blissfully unaware of time. …
… The plan was to walk along the beltway corridor, from Bankhead station to Piedmont Hospital. The hardy hikers could go on to Piedmont Park. As it turned out, only about half of the hike was on the beltline route. The part from Bankhead station to the Howell Mill gulch was needed for access to the beltline path. The hike began through a wooded area behind the Bankhead Station. This area had a few homeless shelters, whose residents were not around. The first rail portion was behind the Fulton County Jail and Dog Pound. It was a pleasant stroll, with kudzu on both sides. There is an abandoned quarry in this area, which is going to become a city park. …
… The rail tracks the hike was on are active tracks. While approaching a tunnel, a train was heard in the distance. A decision was made to get off the tracks while the train passed. The ground beside the tracks was muddy, with the algae of run off sewerage apparent. Eli took a leadership role in jumping off the tracks. His right boot sank a foot deep in sewage enhanced mud. PG saw this, and decided to be careful where he stepped. The train passed by, and the group proceeded through the two tunnels. The second tunnel was an old concrete tunnel that was about 100 yards long. …
… I said to myself, this is so #@%&* cool. Before long, the group made a ninety degree turn, and was on another line. Soon, another train came down the tracks, this one pulling only another engine. A white truck pulled up on a gravel road, and had a chat with the hikers at the end of the procession. According to Eli, the man was very nice. He said he got nervous when his crew tells him there are thirty people hiking on the railroad tracks. People, please be careful. Soon, the engine carrying train came back in the opposite direction as before. …
… The rest of the hike went smoothly. Soon, they reached Piedmont Hospital. No one needed to go to the ER. I decided to retire at this point, and walked up the hill to Peachtree Road. After another hefty wait, a bus appeared. Some of the hikers were not used to the Breeze Card system, and there was some confusion while everyone got paid up. The cash customers had to pay again to use the trains. I wondered if I saved much time by not hiking to Piedmont Park.
This content was originally published <a href=”” target=”_blank”>July 8, 2009. … The other day, I was researching the 10:09:36 quandary, and he found a place on the web called Stupid Question™ .It should be noted that Stupid Question™ is a registered trademark. The bottom of the home page is littered with disclaimers. The Boortzesque nadir is: “Stupid Question™ contents are for informational purposes only. Readers are encouraged to think for themselves and act at their own risk”. Stupid Question™ is now defunct. The property of John Ruch, SQ wallowed in useless and pointless knowledge from June 25, 1998 until May 23,2005. …
… The last recorded question was Q: Did the military ever really try to build a “death ray,” or is it just science fiction?—Michelle, from the Internet. The answer was that the Masters of War tried, but failed. A death ray was too expensive, and simply not feasible for a host of reasons. The first question is from the ever popular anonymous. Q: Is it true that Keith Richards had a blood transfusion to clean the drugs out of his body? If so, how does that work? It seems like the picker, and fashion model, went to a clinic in Switzerland once. …
… He was connected to a dialysis machine, and his blood was filtered for a few days. It didn’t work, and he was soon smack at it. It is like Mark Twain said about quitting cigars, he has done it dozens of times. … The stupid questions appeared once a week for seven years. On April 19, 2001, Tom Bryant asked : “Q: What’s the difference between ketchup and catsup?” The answer is that they are both English versions of the same asian word. They both refer to tomato puree. …
… This is like the way a historic Russian ruler is spelled czar and tsar. They all mean the same thing. You might even say ta-may-toe or ta-mah-toe. This does not address an issue that has caused me to stay awake at night. Whenever you get a little condiment package of ketchup, it always says “fancy ketchup”. Is there plain ketchup? And why does a place like McDonalds only serve “fancy ketchup”? … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken June 10, 1966. “Beauty Contestants at Dinkler Plaza Hotel.” The video Foolish Questions was featured at the original post.
Luther Burger
This content was originally published July 12, 2009. … The first adventure today is This is why your’e fat. This a series of photos of dishes “to die for”. The one featured today is “The Luther Rory … A one third pound of sirloin topped with two slices of white American cheese, four strips of bacon, peanut butter, between two Krispy Kreme donuts.” … Well, you need a dessert after something like that. What about “Flapjack Fiasco … Layers from bottom to top: pancake; cookie dough; pancake; peanut butter and jelly; pancake; chocolate and bananas; pancake; caramel, oreo, marshmallow, sprinkles, M&M’s; pancake; caramel buttercream frosting granished with Trix cereal. … If that doesn’t satisfy you, there is : “Mork’s Dork From Ork…A half pound duck and pork patty, cheddar cheese, seven pieces of maple bacon, sauteed onions and zillion island sauce on a kaiser roll.” …
… The next part of this double feature is AwkwardFamilyPhotos. This popular outlet has charming family pictures, and stories from readers. One story goes like this: “Settling into university and making new friends is always going to be a big thing, and having two friends to stay at home after a drunken night out, my mother (them being two giggly girls) felt in good company enough to invite them upstairs excitedly whilst I was out of the room. The girls – also in possession of terrible hangovers – mystified but intrigued, followed my mother where they were told to close their eyes for a mere moment. When they opened them, my mother was sitting on the edge of her bed with her brand spanking new ventriloquist doll, apparently deciding it would be an appropriate morning to perform an impromptu comedy sketch. Awkward.”
This content was originally published July 12, 2009. … Abraham Piper has a blog called 22 Words. The concept is to say what you like in 22 words or less. On Friday, he posted this: “This isn’t an exciting, encouraging, or inspiring reason that I’m a Christian, but it is a reason.When I can’t believe something about Christianity, I ask myself if I can believe the opposite? I’m Christian because I answer No.” (The first sentence is the title of the post. The second part was exactly 22 words) To me, this is not a good reason to follow a path of spiritual discipline. …
… There are numerous issues with this line of thinking. What does it say to a person who prefers practice over belief? How can you tell what “the opposite” of something is? I had an answer it. It is one thing to believe in saying everything in 22 words of less. It is another to count your words, trim the fat, and practice this. A gram of practice is worth a pound of belief. The comment was “When I ask if I can believe in the opposite of the homophobia that infects Jesus Worship, the answer is yes.” A person named Dawn replied “How very cliché.” …
… Drew asked (44 words) “I’m a little confused by this. For instance, if you have trouble believing Jonah really lived for a few days in a fish, you ask, “Can I really believe Jonah *didn’t* live in a fish?” And the answer you come up with is “no?” Dawn contributed (40 words) “The real question you are asking is…Is the Bible true? But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights. Jonah 1:17 Can you beleive the opposite?” …
… What is the opposite of the Jonah story? Is it really capable of being described as the opposite of something? And, if the real issue is the truth of the Bible … I disagree with the notion that the Bible is the word of G-d. G-d does not write books. Using the Bible as a lens to view G-d distorts her. There are both good and bad things to say about the Bible. As for the story of Jonah, it has been translated several times. There is no doubt a context, and much for scholars and theologians to discuss. …
… I had a reply … “Would the opposite be that Jonah swallowed the great fish?” Dawn replied with a link. “Answering the fool” I was brought up thinking that fool was a serious insult. There is probably a Bible quote about calling your neighbor a fool, and being in danger of hell fire. Even if the magic book doesn’t say that, I don’t feel it is appropriate to call someone who disagrees with you a fool. The final comment was soon made. “Regarding the Jesus Worship custom of insulting a person with whom you disagree, I try to practice the opposite.” … At some time in the last 16 years, Abraham Piper sold 22 Words. It is now a spam nightmare.
The pictures for today’s entertainment are from This is why your’e fat. These delicacies include: Hot Dog And French Fry Pizza · Potachos Thick potato chips covered with chedder, bacon, tomatoes, onions, ketchup, chives and sour cream. · Shake Shack Shack Stack A deep fried cheese-stuffed portabello mushroom between two cheeseburgers. · Toad In The Hole Sausages in Yorkshire pudding batter served with vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy and served in an edible square bowl. · Corn Dog Casserole Layers composed of hash brown patties, crumbled bacon, baked beans, corn, french fries topped by corn dog slices with mustard icing. · The Cornhole Corn on the cob wrapped in hickory bacon with two hot dogs and two Colby-Jack cheese sticks wrapped in ground beef. · Fat Sam Cheesesteak sandwich with chicken fingers, french fries, mozzarella sticks, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, bacon, and topped with egg and hot sauce. · Hamburger Cake ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
Six Letter Slurs
In the spring of 1963, KQED filmed a show, “Take This Hammer”, about James Baldwin. The snippet in the video above seems to have been the last three minutes of the show. Here is a transcript. Mr. Baldwin discusses a six letter insult. The n-word is more about the speaker, than the spoken of. A 2010 blogger had this to say.
“I’ve often felt that people’s projections of me are oftentimes just that – their projections. However, Baldwin’s ending sums up a solution to this perfectly: “But you still think, I gather, that the n****r is necessary. Well he’s unnecessary to me – he must be necessary to you. Well, I’m going to give your problem back to you…you’re the n****r, baby…not me.”
It is now 2025. (All discussions of race must mention the year.) The TV show was sixty two years ago. A few things have changed. To many white people, overt expressions of racism are seen as bad manners. The n-word is taboo in polite company. The overall attitudes may not have changed, but most white people are careful how they say things. … A few weeks ago, this blog published a feature, James Baldwin And The Six Letter Word. At the center was selection of James Baldwin talking about the n word. There was a transcript available, which makes today’s exercise a lot easier.
Mr. Baldwin was discussing this nasty word, and offered an insight into who the user of this nasty word was really talking about. Now, there is another nasty word being casually tossed about these days. This other nasty word is racist. What would happen if you took Mr. Baldwin’s talk, and substituted racist for nasty? It is an interesting way to look at things. What follows is not a perfect fit, and may be offensive to some. At times, it is very close to the truth.
Racist and n****r have a curious relationship. Both words have six letters. One starts with r, while the other ends with r. One I am forbidden to say, one I am forbidden to not say. Both can be hurtful to the reciever, in different ways. One has been “reclaimed” by the target population, and endlessly repeated. Our society would be better off without either word being used.
Who is the racist? Well I know this…and anybody who has tried to live knows this. What you say about somebody else (you know) anybody else, reveals you. What I think of you as being is dictated by my own necessities, my own psychology, my own fears and desires. I’m not describing you when I talk about you…I’m describing me.
Now, here in this country we got somebody called a racist. It doesn’t in such terms, I beg you to remark, exist in any other country in the world. We have invented the racist. I didn’t invent him, white people invented him. I’ve always known, I had to know by the time I was seventeen years old, what you were describing was not me and what you were afraid of was not me. It had to be something else. You had invented it so it had to be something you were afraid of and you invested me with it.
Now if that’s so, no matter what you’ve done to me I can say to you this, and I mean it…I know you can’t do any more and I’ve got nothing to lose…and I know and I have always known you know and really always..…I have always known that I am not a racist … but if I am not the racist … and if it is true that your invention reveals you … then who is the racist?
I am not the victim here. I know one thing from another. I know that I was born, am gonna suffer and gonna die. And the only way that you can get through life is to know the worst things about it. I know that a person is more important than anything else. Anything else. I’ve learned this because I’ve had to learn it. But you still think, I gather, that the racist is necessary. Well he’s not necessary to me, so he must be necessary to you. So I give you your problem back. You’re the racist baby, it isn’t me.
This content was originally posted in 2013. 071813 091013 Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. These men were soldiers in the War Between the States. ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
The Doors Of Perception
This content was originally published July 16, 2009. … There was a concert in Atlanta on Armistice day, 1971. The show was at the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium. I have talked to dozens of people at that show, and heard hundreds of opinions. There was a controversy about police on the stage, with the band almost refusing to play. The Great Speckled Bird didn’t think it was that great, and said the only player that was up to par was Phil Lesh. One person who did like it was someone we will call Hampton. He became “born again” as a Dead Head that night. …
… In “The Doors of Perception” Aldous Huxley describes listening to a classical album under the influence of a psychoactive substance. He had the sense of hearing everything that was available to hear in the album, and pondered the concept of music made to be listened to while tripping, by musicians that were likewise tripping. This was written years before the acid tests in San Francisco. The house band for these evenings was the Grateful Dead. I always felt that the key to the band was Bob Weir. Weir played counterpoint to Garcia’s leads, and lead him on and up. …
This content was originally published July 17, 2009. … There is a dandy little squabble going on right now. On the one hand there is Corey Lynxx. He makes videos without wearing a shirt, or lighting his face. He might have other talents, but that is not evident from his videos. Mr.Lynxx got upset with a local restaurant owner, and decided to call the man at work to discuss this problem. The restaurant owner, a man named Shaun, was busy at the time and declined to discuss Corey’s problem. The next player in this drama is Andisheh Nouraee. Copy and paste is wonderful for Persian names. …
… Mr. Nouraee writes a column for Creative Loafing that I seek out every time I get a copy. The column makes tries to make sense of the world beyond the lower 48, and manages to crack a joke or two along the way. Andy was offended by the manner in which Corey was dealing with his problem, and made a video of his own. The next two entries in this exchange were made by Mr. Lynxx. The video monger manages to light his face, not that it is especially attractive. …
… Andy wrote a cover story at CL a while back about the best five blogs in Atlanta. A lady named Spacey Gracey was not included, and said lots of mean things about Andy. Nor was Chamblee54 mentioned. I took a look at Andy’s twitters. A Federal judge ruled in favor of Alabama and Florida, in the tri state lawsuit over the water of the Chattahoochee River. The Atlanta area has grown astronomically in recent years, without attending to the basic need of people for water. The Georgia legislature would rather worry about the State Flag. …
This content was originally published July 19, 2009. … There seems to be something about Sunday that makes people want to talk about religion. By way of Andrew Sullivan, here is a story about Atheism and semantics from England. The money quote: “Today one of the most insistent forces arrayed in opposition to us vocal atheists is the “I’m an atheist but” crowd, who publicly deplore our “hostility”, our “rudeness” (which is actually just candour), while privately admitting that we’re right. They don’t themselves believe in God, but they certainly do believe in belief in God. It’s not always easy to tell who just believes in belief, since the actions motivated by believing in belief” …
… Maybe the only appropriate thing to do is tell a joke. This is courtesy of funnyjokes.com. … “An old hippie dies and goes to the Pearly Gates. St. Peter looks him up in his big book and says, “I’m sorry, but you’ll be going down to Hell.” The hippie, astounded, peers through the gates and sees God walking in the distance. “God!” he says. “What gives? Remember that time I was tripping on acid? I saw you, and you said we’d be in Heaven together forever!” God thought for a minute, then said, “Oh yeah, but I was drunk.” … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the social media picture in March 1941. “This family had moved out of the Santee-Cooper basin and were trying to get an addition built to their small “new” house. Near Bonneau, South Carolina”
The Diane Linkletter Story
Did Art Linkletter’s daughter, Diane, jump out a window while high on LSD? This was one of those indications that the sixties would soon be over. But what really happened? The more one looks, the stranger it gets. Let’s look at the basic story. This is a three part series.070621 070721 070821
“At 9 a.m. on the morning of 4 October 1969, Diane Linkletter lept from the kitchen window of her West Hollywood apartment, plunging six floors to the sidewalk below. She died at County USC Medical Center at 10:30 a.m. The preliminary cause of death was given as “multiple traumatic injuries” according to a coroner’s statement. An autopsy was conducted that afternoon.”
Soon the rumors started to “fly.” Diane was tripping on LSD, thought she was a bird, and jumped out the window. When her father, beloved TV personality Art Linkletter, heard the news, he went into attack mode. He blamed her death on LSD, and those who advocate for its use. Art was still raging eleven years later when he confronted Timothy Leary.
Part of the weirdness was Art Linkletter, who some called the squarest person in America. He hosted an afternoon TV show. Every afternoon, a group of kids would be on. Kids Say the Darndest Things. Art would mug for the camera after every one. This video, hosted by Bill Cosby, showcases the talent. Art was also a popular pitch man for commercials. Two of these commercials featured Diane. (Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Circus Nuts)
Here is the snopes synopsis of October 4. Many things in this account are contradicted elsewhere. “Edward Durston was in Diane’s apartment at the time of the fall. … He arrived at 3 a.m., after Diane telephoned him sounding “very upset” and asked him to come over. She baked cookies shortly after his arrival, and they sat up all night talking.”
“About 9 a.m. … Diane Linkletter went into her kitchen and didn’t return. Durston went looking for her but failed to “reach her as she approached the window … She went over to a window. I tried to grab her and she went out.” She was found lying on the sidewalk immediately below her kitchen window. After interviewing Durston, LA homicide detective Lt. Norman Hamilton was convinced the girl had been in a “despondent, depressed, emotional state,” that she was “concerned with her identity, her career.” She had complained she “could not be her own person.” …
“According to Art Linkletter, Diane had called her brother, Robert, just shortly before 9 a.m. on the morning she died, and he was hurrying to her side at the time she jumped. Art Linkletter asserted … that Diane had taken LSD the night before her death, with her panic over its effects leading to the fatal plunge. (Art spoke for the family on the subject of Diane’s death. It appears, however, he was relying upon Robert’s account of his phone call with Diane for that tidbit of information. By all accounts, Art Linkletter hadn’t had direct contact with his daughter during the last twenty-four hours of her life.)”
Edward Durston … made no mention of Diane telephoning her brother. According to Robert Linkletter, however, after he spoke with Diane, he then spoke with Durston, asking Durston if he could handle things until Robert got there. …
“Whatever the truth of the phone call, Robert’s account of it appears to be the source of all claims that Diane’s death was related to LSD, both the original claims that she had taken drugs the night before and died while on an out-of-control trip, and the later claims that she had experienced flashbacks from a bad trip taken six months earlier and was panicked into taking her own life.” (There are unverified stories about Robert Linkletter.)
Was Diane tripping that morning? We honestly do not know. The toxicology report shows no sign of drugs in her system Of course, the dosages used for LSD are very small. They might not show up in a post-mortem blood test. This source says “LSD was detectable in blood samples taken 16 hours after participants had been given 200mcg of LSD.” This report was written in 2019. The test used might not have been available in 1969. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
WFMU Beware of the Blog had a tribute to Art Linkletter, after his death, at 98, on May 26, 2010. The story had a link to We Love You, Call Collect, the spoken word entertainment recorded by Art, and Diane, a few months before she self-defenestrated. One of the comments sent me down a google rabbit hole. “Recently, I was poking around for info on Bobby Jameson/Chris Lucey, who put out the enigmatic Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest, in ’65. Turns out Jameson was pals with Diane Linkletter right up until the time of her death. The liner notes to Rev-Ola’s reissue of “Songs of Protest…” (released, apparently, without Jameson’s permission) repeated the falsehood that Jameson had supplied Linkletter with the LSD that killed her.” This story is about to get weird.
Bobby Jameson aka Chris Lucey was a piece of work. He was recently honored by Ariel Pink with Dedicated To Bobby Jameson Mr. Jameson was a neighbor of Diane Linkletter, and roommate of Ed Durston. Mr. Durston was with Diane Linkletter when she took her final step. There is a blog, with many stories. What follows is just one version of October 4, 1969. It is not verified, and will differ from other accounts. Selections from four posts are used. Bobby Jameson died May 12, 2015.
The Rev-Ola Records story appears to be real. “In my hands is the paper fold out from Rev-Ola Records reissue of the Chris Lucey album-cd “Songs Of Protest” from 2002 … distributed by Rev-Ola Records …, without my permission or knowledge … “Art Linkletter had a television program entitled “Kids Do The Damndest Things” and he couldn’t have been more right about that on the night of October 5th 1969. On this date, his own daughter, Diane Linkletter (originally turned on to LSD by none other than Bobby Jameson) apparently took her own drug-induced leap into infinity.”
“Nancy Harwood and I ended up subletting an apartment from Timmy Rooney, one of Mickey Rooney’s sons. It was located across the street from the Shoreham Towers, where Diane Linkletter lived on the 6th floor. … We ended up with a roommate in the new place, because he already lived in the apartment. His named was Ed Durston. I didn’t want another roommate, but it was the only way Nancy and I could afford to live there. …”
“The apartment was on the second floor of the building. Below us lived another musician named Jimmy George. … Ed Durston was a shady dude to say the least, but he was highly intelligent and quick witted, so if nothing else, he was fun to spar with mentally and verbally. I had to keep an eye on him though, because his interest in Nancy was obvious. Along with just about everybody else during those times, Ed was a loady, and to some extent that was more of a convenience than a problem. Ed always knew where to get drugs, so he did serve a purpose … Both Timmy Rooney, and his brother Mickey Jr, were always dropping by the apartment to see how we were doing. They were well acquainted with Diane Linkletter. … Nancy and I would get to know Diane as well.”
Here is Bobby Jameson’s October 4 story. “I went up … to talk to Ed Durston after Timmy Rooney told me Ed was in the apartment when Diane jumped from her 6th floor kitchen window. I also wanted to see Jimmy George, who lived below the apartment where Nancy and I had lived with Ed. From what I’d learned, Jimmy had actually been outside his apartment, and seen Diane falling to the pavement below. At first he’d thought someone was playing a practical joke and had thrown something out the window, but then realized it was a person. He didn’t know at first it was Diane, and he’d seen her hit the ground. He was in shock, but ran over to where the person hit the pavement, and that is when he realized it was Diane. He told me he could not do anything for her, and it made him feel like an asshole. He said she was still alive when he reached her, and that she looked up at him but couldn’t speak. He said she was bleeding a lot from her head, and he wanted to help her, but didn’t know what to do. …”
“When I got to Ed, he was doing better than Jimmy, but he still looked like he’d been through the ringer. I asked him, “What the fuck happened Ed, what the fuck was going on?” He looked up at me from where he was sitting and said, ” I don’t know man, I really don’t know. We were just there, the two of us,” he said, “talking a long time about life. You know, like half the night …”
“Then she just started acting crazy.” “Whatta ya mean Ed, crazy how?” I asked. “Well, we were sitting on the couch, and she got up and went out on the balcony, and just started climbing up on the railing like she was gonna jump off. I ran out there and drug her off, and pulled her back into the living room, and pinned her down on the floor and said “What the fuck are you doing Diane? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Ed was ringing his hands as he told me the story. He was having a lot of trouble going over that night. “So did she tell you what was wrong?” I pleaded. “No,” said Ed, “She told me she was just screwing around and everything was OK and to let her up because it was just a joke.” Ed kept rubbing his hands together like he couldn’t get them clean. He just kept rubbing them together. He continued on, “I made her promise me that if I let her up she wasn’t gonna do anything crazy, and she said, “I promise.” “I let her up, and she said she was going to go in the kitchen and get a glass of water, and I said OK.” Ed looked like he might start crying at any second, and I didn’t blame him, because it was too awful to comprehend.”
“She walked into the kitchen and I turned around to watch her and she just climbed up on the countertop by the window over the sink. I ran in the kitchen and tried to grab her, but she just went out the window before I could get there.” He paused for a moment, as if to get his courage up and said, “I had a hold of her ankle man, I had her by the ankle, but I couldn’t hold her, I just couldn’t hold her man.” I stood there in front of Ed with this crystal clear picture of Diane’s kitchen in my head, with her going out the window, and Ed trying to hold her by the ankle. I just broke down and cried like a little boy. I just couldn’t believe that it had happened. I stood there in front of Ed crying, for I don’t know how long. I just sobbed, because there wasn’t anything I could do about it either.”
Art Linkletter Control Freak is the last Bob Jameson post to be excerpted today. It is a doozy. In this post, we will be introduced to Harvey Dareff. We will hear more about him later.
“This is a picture of the Shoreham Towers, the building where Diane Linkletter lived. To the left is Horn Ave. where Nancy and I lived with Ed Durston. As I mentioned earlier, Diane had a major problem with her dad, Art Linkletter, who was a control freak and attempted, successfully, to intervene in every single attempt by Diane to have a boyfriend. When I got to know Diane, she had met and was extremely happy about it, a guy name Harvey Dareff. …”
“When her dad found out about Harvey he pulled his usual bullshit and appeared on the scene to carry out his dirty work. Art Linkletter showed up to meet Harvey one day and shoved a $10,000 check in Harvey’s face and told him to take the money and stay away from Diane. Harvey took the check and tore it into little pieces and threw it in Art’s face and said “No” thus canceling out Art’s theory that all any guy wanted from Diane was her money. …”
“Art liked CONTROL, he would go to any length to get his way, period. More than anything else in Diane Linkletter’s life, this incident proved to be the final straw and catalyst that pushed Diane over the edge. In conversations with me she complained that her life was not worth living in, unless she could get her father to stop fucking up every relationship she attempted to have. She told me she had even started having relationships with other women, because she was so goddamned lonely …”
“The trouble with people like Art Linkletter, is that they have constructed a false image of goodness about themselves, and use it to manipulate the world around them to their own satisfaction. Prior to Diane’s death, Linkletter’s oldest daughter’s husband also committed suicide by shooting himself. Maybe someone ought to ask what the fuck was going on in that family that caused 2 young people to end their lives in rapid succession. Art Linkletter used his daughter’s death to blame all things on drugs and thus removing himself as any possible cause for the tragedy. My experience in 1969 with Diane, was that her father Art had more to do with her death than any other single factor there was. ”
This is part two, of a three part series. 070621 070721 070821 Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Image #06663: “Fifth International Pageant of Pulchritude and Eleventh Annual Bathing Girl Revue, Galveston, Texas, August 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1930”
On Halloween, 1948, a fifth child was born to radio personality Art Linkletter and his wife Lois. The couple named the baby Diane. Her godfather was Walt Disney. … Diane’s life was untroubled until her teenage years. Like most teens, she struggled to find herself. Diane’s path to adulthood was complicated when she eloped at age 17 with Grant Conroy (seven years her senior). Diane thought she was pregnant, and Grant offered to “do the right thing.” When she discovered she was not pregnant, her parents had the marriage annulled. Diane and Grant never even lived together.”
“Diane moved into Shoreham Towers, a luxury building in West Hollywood. The building’s residents were older than Diane, so she made friends closer to her age in the neighborhood. One of Diane’s new friends was Ed Durston, who lived with a roommate in a building across from hers. On Friday evening, October 3, 1969, Diane went out with a friend, Robert Reitman, to a show at the Griffith Observatory. Robert dropped Diane off at her apartment about midnight.”
Bob Jameson says “Ed Durston was a shady dude to say the least.” Ed Durston, aka David E. Durston, was with Diane when she took her final step. In the seventies Mr. Durston became the director of gay porn movies, with Manhole and Boy ‘Napped.
In 1985, Mr. Durston went to Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico, with Carol Wayne. She was an actress, best known as the “Matinee Lady” with Johnny Carson. Miss Wayne drowned on January 13, 1985. IMDB says it was “extremely suspicious circumstances.” Ed Durston died May 6, 2010.
SECOND HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION PROGRESS REPORT covers the incident at 10050 Cielo Drive, August 9, 1969 … the murder of Sharon Tate, and four companions. “On Saturday, 10-4-69, Dianna Linkletter committed suicide at her residence by jumping from the 6th floor kitchen window at her apartment. At the time she jumped, Edward Durston (LA 978 312D) was in the apartment. … As result of previous information from an unreliable informant, Durston had come up as a possible suspect in this case. With Sheriff’s homicide investigators cooperating completely (supervised by Lt. Norman Hamilton), Durston was given polygraph examinations … Included in the examinations were some keys in the Tate homicides. The polygraph operator … , and the investigators are convinced Durston was not involved in the Linkletter death or the Tate case.”
“Also connected with Durston in the original information received were three other hippies, all users of drugs and car thieves: Harvey F. Dareff (LA 978 313D), is the boy friend of Dianna Linkletter, and had lived with her for several months and was substantially supported by her. He is presently in New York as of approximately 9-25-69. He has not been eliminated as a suspect. …. Robert Parker MacDonald, aka Bobby Jamison (LA 684-737J), and James Steven Williams (LA 978-318W); these two subjects are presently in the Sunset Strip area and dealing in narcotics. Narcotics Division, LAPD is attempting to build a case on both subjects at this time. Neither has been eliminated positively as suspects. Investigators feel Dareff is a good suspect as some information has been received indicating he may have gone to the Cielo residence on the evening of 8-8-69, to possibly buy or sell narcotics. This information has not been verified–investigation is continuing.”
The Cielo Drive killings were unsolved on October 4. There are other indications that “Linkletter was a friend of Abigail Folger and probably knew Sharon Tate. … Durston was a “speaking acquaintance” of Voityck Frokowski.” You cannot discuss these cases without wild eyed speculation. Some of it involves the players in the Linkletter drama. It can be neither proved, nor disproved.
“Diane Linkletter-Harvey Dareff’s live in girlfriend, supposedly committed suicide in the presence of Ed Durston … (Durston was an early LAPD suspect in the Tate murders.) … Dareff was at the Cielo Drive residence the afternoon of the murders as part of a drug deal. (recall that a large MDA shipment was due to be delivered to Cielo the evening of the murders). … Dareff and Durston’s friend Bobby Jameson are very strongly believed to be two of the hippies in the van who famously drove caretaker William Garretson home from Sunset the evening of the murders … “
This concludes a three part series. 070621 070721 070821 For more accurate information, you can see a John Waters movie The Diane Linkletter Story. There is a book, Diane Linkletter: A Princess Wrongly Accused. At all times, you should be skeptical of everything you hear. ““Inter city beauties, Atlantic City Pageant, 1925” illustrate this feature. This is a repost.
Reopened Connector Tunnel
The display of a link on this page does not indicate approval of content.
I Think I’ve Seen This Film Before The Genocide in Gaza started as a Colonial War …
Reopened Connector tunnel, more bike lanes in works for Midtown Goal is to increase …
In wake of closures, West Midtown aims to make parking easier New interactive map …
Peachtree Boulevard Water Transmission Main Replacement Project Begins July 7
AIPAC DEMS EXPOSED By Lib ‘Wine Moms’ on “I’ve Had It” Pod
Remove Brandon’s Confederate Monument – Hate Has No Place in Our Towns
The 4 psychological markers of ideological extremism How many boxes do you tick?
aipac · declutterthemind · buddhism · elvis · half pint
mchc · mini philosophy · WIGO · gsu · contrapoints i/p
Jon Ossoff $783,344 · jon ossoff · Nikema Williams $91,140 · Franklin Abbott · fast
invasive species · invasive species · 10% happier · misha · jon ossoff
This is your monday morning reader for today. The picture below is a haiku reduction, based on the words of Hank Chinaski … who would have hated itI was listening to a podcast. The host said that some beliefs “sound pretty woo” Immediately after hearing that, the phone interrupted the show for a call. The voice on the phone said “spam risk” @danbharris @PJVogt · Dorothea Lange took the social media piture in May 1939. “Tulare County, California Sick woman in FSA camp for migratory agricultural workers” · selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · Puntabulous is currently “Komerčný magazín produktov a služieb.” · textsfromlastnight is the content recycling operation that refuses to die. … (404): Words of wisdom-never eat a peanut-butter covered banana on a construction site ever again · Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The social media picture: Private William Henry Dorsey of Co. K, 1st Virginia Cavalry Regiment … Photograph shows identified soldier, who was wounded on approximately May 10, 1863, and hospitalized at Charlottesville, Virginia, wounded on October 11, 1863, at Raccoon Ford, Virginia, and killed on May 9, 1864, at Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia. · The picture below: Pvt William Henry Dorsey of Co. K, 1st Virginia Cavalry Rgt … wounded May 10, 1863, hospitalized at Charlottesville VA. Wounded October 11, 1863, at Raccoon Ford VA. Killed May 9, 1864, at Spotsylvania Court House, VA. · Here is some recycled content from 2009. Topics include American Health Care, a blogging FAIL, and Tuesday. Pictures are soldiers from the War Between the States · His bad opponent’s “facts” he sweeps away, And drags his sophistry to light of day; Then swears they’re pushed to madness who resort, To falsehood of so desperate a sort. Not so; like sods upon a dead man’s breast, He lies most lightly who the least is pressed. Text by Polydore Smith aka Ambrose Bierce · I was looking to download some meditations. I found a link to a Sam Harris website. The first thing I saw was a program, “Zionism & Jihadism.” I was looking for peace. What I found was conflict. · AIPAC Tracker @TrackAIPAC Sen. Raphael Warnock has received >$928,000 from the pro-Israel lobby since elected in 2020. Warnock voted for the spending bill that cut UNRWA funding and consistently votes for unconditional military aid to Netanyahu. He currently has a 0% score on the Congressional Democrat Palestine tracker. #CeasefireNOW #GASEN · trackaipac Nikema Williams GA-05 (D) Lobby Total: $103,590 · The social media picture was taken August 16, 1949. “WBGE interviewing Atlanta Crackers” · The Monroe Drive/Boulevard thing is a part of Atlanta. If you want to find out more, here it is. If you want to turn up your nose and say it was racism, you can always look at the pictures · Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Vachon took the social media pictures in April 1940. “Transient men waiting in line for evening meal served at 5 p.m. at the city mission. Dubuque, Iowa.”· selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
Monroe Drive Or Boulevard
It is an Atlanta cliche. Boulevard turns into Monroe Drive because one was black, and the other white. The white people did not want to live on a street with the same name as the black neighborhood. You hear this all the time, with very little explanation. It is plausible. At one time, Ponce de Leon Avenue was a dividing line between the white, and black, neighborhoods. There are, however, a few questions about this name change business. This is a repost.
In the space between I-85 and Dekalb County, there are four streets that change names when they cross Ponce De Leon Avenue. These are Juniper/Courtland, Charles Allen/Parkway, Monroe/Boulevard, and Briarcliff/Moreland. Several streets cross Ponce without changing names, including Spring Street, Peachtree Street, Piedmont Avenue, and North Highland Avenue.
Four thoroughfares are affected by the Ponce rebranding. Juniper/Courtland is mostly commercial, at least south of Ponce. Briarcliff/Moreland is mostly white until you get to the railroad tracks south of Little Five Points. When Moreland Avenue goes under the MARTA line, the neighborhood is Reynoldstown….which was not named for Burt Reynolds.
Charles Allen/Parkway does change from white to black at Ponce. The street name then changes to Jackson Street, the original name, at Highland Avenue. Monroe/Boulevard, one block east of Charles Allen/Parkway, also goes from white to black at Ponce. However, when you cross the railroad tracks, Boulevard goes through Cabbagetown, a white neighborhood. Boulevard residents change color several times before the road dead ends at the Federal Prison. Oakland Cemetery, and Zoo Atlanta, do not play a role in this drama.
If this litany of street names is boring, it is all right to skip over the text. The pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Roads change names all over the metro area, for a variety of reasons. In the area between Ponce De Leon Avenue and I 20, there are roads that change at railroad tracks (North Highland/Highland, Krog/Estoria.) Others change at Highland Avenue (Parkway/Jackson, Glen Iris/Randolph) or Decatur Street (Hilliard/Grant, Bell/Hill.) Some of these changes are racially motivated, while others are not. Some make sense, while most do not.
No one seems to know when this Monroe/Boulevard thing happened. An 1892 “Bird’s eye view” shows Boulevard sailing off into the horizon, past a racetrack in today’s Piedmont Park. A 1911 map shows Boulevard starting near “L.P. Grant Park,” and sailing past Ponce up to Piedmont Park. 1940 and 1952 maps show Boulevard going past Park Drive, only to turn into Monroe Drive at Montgomery Ferry Road. Finally, a 1969 map of “Negro Residential Areas” shows Monroe Drive changing into Boulevard at Ponce De Leon Avenue. Boulevard is a stand alone street name at all times.
If anyone knows about this name change business, please leave a comment. It would be interesting to know when these changes were made, and what government agency made them. Google has not been helpful, except for pointing the way to several map collections. UPDATE After the last publication of this post, a comment was made about the namesake of Monroe Drive. A post inspired by this comment is reposted below. UPDATE 99% Invisible produced a story about Collier Heights, a pioneering suburb built for Black people. Included in the documentation was a “residential security map” from 1938. The map color-coded the city’s neighborhoods: A, green,”The Best,” B, blue,”Still Desirable,” C, yellow,”Definitely Declining,” D, red, “Hazardous.” The implication was that the D neighborhoods were where Black people lived. If you look at Boulevard on this map, you see that it is still called Boulevard north of Ponce De Leon Avenue. The neighborhood is C. Boulevard does not become a D neighborhood until Wabash Av., a few blocks south of Ponce De Leon.
“North Boulevard was renamed Monroe Drive in 1937 to honor noted Landscape Architect W.L. Monroe who built his house and a plant nursery on the road and was noted for his many landscape projects and public parks in Atlanta.” Faset (Bill) Seay, February 4, 2020, 3:48 pm This comment was made to Monroe Drive or Boulevard. MDOB looks at Atlanta roads that change names, and the reputed racial motivations for these changes. The Monroe story takes place in Piedmont Heights.
“In 1823 Benjamin Plaster was granted 3,000 acres of land along Peachtree Creek and Clear Creek in recognition of his military service during the War of 1812. This was two years before Archibald Holland acquired a similar tract several miles to the east where another village called Terminus was founded in 1837, later renamed Marthasville and eventually Atlanta. … Plaster built a bridge across Peachtree Creek and the trail to it became known as Plaster’s Bridge Road. The bridge’s stone abutments still remain on the creek banks and a short section of the old road, running along the northern boundary of today’s Piedmont Heights, is now called Plasters Avenue. As other settlers followed a township called Easton grew up around Walker’s Grist Mill on Clear Creek near the site of today’s Ansley Mall at Piedmont Road and Monroe Drive.”
“Around 1850 Captain Hezekiah Cheshire arrived from South Carolina. His sons, Napoleon and Jerome, settled on opposite sides of the south fork of Peachtree Creek. They built a bridge across the creek near to connect their farms and the road to it became Cheshire Bridge Road. … In 1864 General Sherman’s Union soldiers swept through Atlanta. General T. J. Wood’s troops built entrenchments along the eastern edge of Easton on the property of Benjamin Plaster’s son Edwin, putting the little community in the battle of Atlanta. These entrenchments remained until the 1950s when they were destroyed by the construction of a Holiday Inn. Today a few crumbling stone steps and historic marker on the site honor the Edwin Cheshire family’s handyman “Gold Tooth John” whose ghost is rumored to still wander the halls of the old hotel at night.
“In 1871 the Atlanta and Richmond Air Line Railway opened a line between Atlanta and Toccoa, Georgia with a depot at Easton. Its “Air Line Belle” train, said to be the finest on the line, allowed Easton residents to commute to Atlanta without having to ford Clear Creek which still had no bridge. Train service spurred growth of the township to 100 residents by 1888 but the surrounding area remained rural and mostly devoted to farming and dairying. The rail line serving Easton was called the “Southern Railway Belt Line” and in 1883 the “Georgia Pacific Belt Line Railroad” connected with it just north of Easton at Belt Junction, an area which later became known as … Armour/Ottley. … In 1895 North Boulevard was built, running through Easton parallel to the railroad, as a main route into Atlanta. … In 1912 Fulton County annexed Easton and renamed it Piedmont Heights. Plaster’s Bridge Road was paved in 1917 and its name changed to Piedmont Road.” (According to this narrative, the Boulevard-Monroe thoroughfare was originally called North Boulevard. This is not the same road as North Avenue. Confusing road names is not limited to multiple Peachtrees.)
“In 1925 Landscape Architect W. L. Monroe bought 15 acres on North Boulevard at Wimbledon Road where he operated a popular nursery and landscaping business for many years, … Remnants of two small stone structures that Monroe built … remain on the grounds of today’s Ansley-Monroe Villas Condominiums. In 1927 a portion of North Boulevard was renamed Monroe Drive in honor of Monroe’s many landscape projects in the city.” … “In 1928 the City of Atlanta began annexing Piedmont Heights by taking in the lots along North Boulevard. In the 1930s a new home could be bought for $4,700 on North Boulevard or Wimbledon Road.”
There is a bit of confusion here. One source says the Monroe renaming was in 1927, while another source says 1937. Then there is the story told by maps, found in the original post.
An 1892 “Bird’s eye view” shows Boulevard sailing off into the horizon, past a racetrack in today’s Piedmont Park. A 1911 map shows Boulevard starting near “L.P. Grant Park,” and sailing past Ponce up to Piedmont Park. A 1940 map shows Boulevard going past Park Drive, only to turn into Monroe Drive at Montgomery Ferry Road. Finally, a 1969 map of “Negro Residential Areas” shows Monroe Drive changing into Boulevard at Ponce De Leon Avenue, like it is today.
Two things are worth noting. None of these maps have a “North Boulevard.” The street name is a stand-alone Boulevard. Second, the 1940 map shows the street as Boulevard at Eighth Street, and Elmwood Drive. The first mention of Monroe is at Montgomery Ferry, near the Monroe Nursery. This might contradict the racial narrative.
The information about Mr. Monroe neither proves, nor disproves, the story that black Boulevard was changed to white Monroe. City on the Verge: Atlanta and the Fight for America’s Urban Future states “In 1925 landscape architect W. L. Monroe bought fifteen acres on what was then called North Boulevard, establishing a plant nursery that thrived for many years. In 1937, the street north of Ponce de Leon was renamed Monroe Drive in his honor (and to distinguish it as a white area as opposed to Boulevard to the south of Ponce).” The book offers no evidence for this, and its “woke” tone is cause for skepticism. While there is circumstantial evidence to support the legend, verifiable facts are hard to come by. A similar story might be the 1956 change of the state flag.
“William Lott Monroe, Sr. (1891-1965), landscape designer and nurseryman, is recognized in newspaper articles as the “landscape artist” during the development of North Fulton Park (later renamed Chastain Memorial Park) in the late 1930s and early 1940s. This work was financed partially through WPA (Works Progress Administration) funds and supported with local prison labor. … There are three main areas in Chastain Park with Monroe’s signature style as a landscape designer: (1) the master grill area; (2) the picnic grounds area; and (3) the amphitheater. … Monroe’s Landscape & Nursery Co. is removed from Fulton County’s payroll: “… Drawn more than $17,000 from the county in the last year and one-half… The company was drawing $500 a month for supervising landscaping of county parks, which was in addition to flowers, shrubs and blueprints sold by it to the county.” (“Nursery Company Is Cut Off Pay Roll.” Atlanta Constitution, Jan. 25, 1941)” … “1941 Amphitheater still under construction, originally planned as an outdoor venue for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.” … “It is unknown if Monroe oversaw the completion of construction at the amphitheater.” … “October 22, 1965 William Lott Monroe, Sr. dies in Atlanta.” Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
A recent facebook discussion covers that old crowd pleaser, why does Monroe Drive turn into Boulevard? The story is that the street name changed because White people live North of Ponce De Leon Avenue, and Black people live south. Chamblee54 has covered this topic before. The information today will be a bit dry. If you want to skip over the text, you can always enjoy the pictures, from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.”
“The name changes were intentional and rooted directly in racism.” This judgment from Atlanta magazine is a popular opinion. Unfortunately, there are some street name changes that apparently are not racial. In discussions like this, once racism is blamed, the conversation shuts down. Asking any questions, or exploring the possibility of nuance, is considered racist.
The Atlanta magazine article does not really address Monroe/Boulevard. A 1913 measure, the Ashley Ordinance, is brought up, as well as some of the skirmishing in SW Atlanta over integration. None of those items were in play in the Monroe/Boulevard matter.
The opinion of chamblee54 has not changed. It is entirely possible that Monroe/Boulevard was racially motivated. That sounds like something a Georgia government, of a certain era, would do. However, it does not address the other streets. When were the names changed, and by what government? The answers to the last two questions have been elusive. If anyone reading this has any answers, please leave a comment.
In the space between I-85 and Dekalb County, there are four streets that change names when they cross Ponce De Leon Avenue. These are Juniper/Courtland, Charles Allen/Parkway, Monroe/Boulevard, and Briarcliff/Moreland. Several streets cross Ponce without changing names, including Spring, Peachtree, Piedmont, and North Highland. A wikipedia page, List of former Atlanta street names, has some information about the name changes. More information was found in a collection of maps at the GSU library.
It turns out that Juniper/Courtland change names at North Avenue, one block south of Ponce. As early as 1895, those streets have the same names. On old maps, Juniper ends at North, and Courtand starts a quarter-block west. Wikipedia adds this about Courtland: “North Collins Street (for pioneer James Collins — renamed because of South Collins Street’s reputation as a red light district)”
Briarcliff/Moreland has always been a problem for the racism hypothesis. The race change has traditionally been at the railroad tracks, a half mile south of Ponce. Moreland Avenue was originally County Line Road. It was renamed in honor of a Confederate officer, Major Asbury Fletcher Moreland. “He owned quite a bit of land between County Line Road and Pike Road, which is now Euclid Avenue, some of which is now part of the city’s Bass Recreation Center. Ever the businessman, Moreland built rental homes and a park, which featured a pond and animals — appropriately called Moreland Park — that became a summer getaway for city dwellers.”
Briarcliff was originally known as Williams Mill Road. It changed to Briarcliff after Asa Griggs “Buddy” Candler Jr. built a palace at 1260 Briarcliff Road. The house still stands, barely, and served as the GMHI facility for many years. In 1911 and 1917, Briarcliff is known as Williams Mill, before changing into Moreland. In 1925, and maps issued after 1925, the road is shown as Briarcliff.
Charles Allen/Parkway, one block west of Monroe/Boulevard, was originally known as Jackson Street. The road is still known as Jackson Street, south of Highland Avenue. The earliest map to show Jackson is 1895. By 1930 it has been changed to Parkway, ending at Piedmont Park. Charles Allen Drive does not appear until 1959. Charles Allen was the pastor at Grace United Methodist Church.
Wikipedia has this on Boulevard: “Jefferson Street (marked in 1878 map from North Ave. to Foster St. (now Edgewood Ave.) in today’s Old Fourth Ward) – Rolling Mill Street (north of the railroad) from the late 1860s to about 1880, for the Confederate Rolling Mill, which the retreating Confederate army inadvertently destroyed in 1864.”
Wikipedia has a surprise “Monroe Drive (to honor the Monroe Landscaping Company which did extensive plantings in the area)[17]” The footnote links to a Morningside neighborhood newsletter. There is no mention of Monroe Drive in the cited newsletter.
Before going further with Monroe, we should look at a controversy involving the landscaper William Lott Monroe. “1941 (Jan. 25) Monroe’s Landscape & Nursery Co. is removed from Fulton County’s payroll: “…[D]rawn more than $17,000 from the county in the last year and one-half… The company was drawing $500 a month for supervising landscaping of county parks, which was in addition to flowers, shrubs and blueprints sold by it to the county.” (“Nursery Company Is Cut Off Pay Roll.” Atlanta Constitution, Jan. 25, 1941)” In 1941, Mr. Monroe was working on North Fulton Park, later known as Chastain Park. This park was annexed into the City of Atlanta on January 1, 1952.
The first time Boulevard is mentioned on maps is 1895. The first mention of Monroe Drive is 1951, when Monroe starts at Montgomery Ferry. (Before the Northeast Expressway was built, the road ended at Plasters Avenue, north of the present I 85.) It is not until 1959 that Monroe appears immediately north of Ponce De Leon.
These maps were used in researching this feature. 1878 1895 1911 1917 1921 1925 1930 1930 1931 1934 1935 1939 1946 1951 1952 1952 1954 1959 1967 ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
Profiteering Inefficiency
This content was originally published July 20, 2009. … The Repubs made a mess. We got mixed up in wars, where the only victories will be ruinously expensive. The economy is a mess. And yet, the “right wing” continues to point fingers, and play any number of rhetorical games. We were offered Sarah Palin as a Vice President. On the other hand, BHO has a fanatic constituency now that is hypersensitive to criticism. It is going to be a long four years. The POTUS is a magnet for criticism, satire, humor, and meanness. It is just the way it is. BHO is a product of Chicago politics, and can more than take care of himself. …
… BHO is the first dark skinned President. He had a white mother, and his father was from Kenya. He is not the descendent of slaves. By the Jewish tradition… i.e. the children of a Jewish mother are Jews….BHO is white. On the other side of the fair and balanced fence, the conservatives movement is a piece of work. It makes you wonder why anyone would want to be POTUS. As firebug William T. Sherman said: “If forced to choose between the penitentiary and the White House for four years, I would say the penitentiary, thank you.”
This content was originally published July 21, 2009. … Road building is the job of the government. Very few people question this fact. While there is corruption, inefficiency, and other big government problems, millions of motorists travel billions of miles on government roads every year. Likewise, armed forces defending America is the job of the government. Regulation of various markets, public education, and tax collection are all conceded to be the job of government. Perhaps it is time to include Health Care. There is an ongoing debate about health care in America. There are many who say it is too expensive, and that we do not get a good return on our investment. …
… There is profiteering, inefficiency, and unfair treatment of human beings. The ballooning cost is one of the problems with our economy. Will a Government takeover make things better? The shrill voices of the naysayers are frequently financed by the health industry, who wants to keep a license to print money. Those who do not trust government to do a good job cannot be ignored. But the fact remains that in many ways the system is broken. Too many people are without insurance. The medical/insurance oligarchy is notorious for playing games, at the cost of human suffering.
This content was originally published July 28, 2009. … There is a phrase in some circles, “suicide tuesday”. It seems like some people, who chemically enhance their weekends, come crashing down on tuesday. The result is not always pleasant. In some hispanic cultures, Tuesday is considered an unlucky day. There is a saying “En martes, ni te cases ni te embarques,” meaning, “On Tuesday, neither get married nor begin a journey.” Elections are traditionally held on tuesday. In november, it is the first tuesday after a monday. The evil that is done on this day is balanced by the relief of the campaigns being over. …
… According to wikipedia “Tuesday was the earliest day of the week which was practical for polling in the early nineteenth century: citizens might have to travel for a whole day to cast their vote” This may be part of why carnival season ends on Mardi Gras, or fat tuesday. It is the day before ash wednesday, or the start of Lent. This is too catholic for me to comprehend. … Nine Eleven was on a tuesday. D day was on a tuesday. A key day in the Stock Market crash of 1929 was October 29, or black tuesday. In theory, one seventh of all events happen on a tuesday. …
July 29, 2009. … A few days ago, Chamblee54 posted a story about Ben Rothlisberger. As even ESPN is reporting now, the gentleman is being sued because of an incident at a casino last year. I found out about the story at a blog called “yesmeansyes“. The post was written by jaclynfriedman (that is copied off the original post). I left a comment at YMY. It stayed up for a few days, with the note that “your comment is awaiting moderation”. When I visited the blog today, the comment had been deleted. On July 28, YMY posted a story about the negative comments she received. …
… There was a reply to these comments. She used FAIL in all caps a lot, which seems to be the trendy thing to do. The first time I heard the word blog, the writer was talking about Andrew Sullivan. ( Back then it was a “vanity webpage”). Mr. Sullivan is still a leader, admired and condemned in roughly equal measure. He wrote a post once on “Why I Blog.” The money quote: “Rudeness, in any case, isn’t the worst thing that can happen to a blogger. Being ignored is.” …
… Here is the comment: “What if Mr. Roethlisberger is innocent? What if the lady is lying? If he was not a high profile celebrity, would anyone care? This rush to assume guilt is another part of “rape culture”. … “Unfamiliar with the concept “rape culture” FAIL. Also, false rape claims happen no more frequently than other false claims of violent crimes – about 2-8% of the time. So we can be at least 92% confident that she’s telling the truth, which certainly makes her allegations worth considering, which is all we’re doing here. … not gonna apologize. FAIL.” … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The social media picture: Private William Henry Dorsey of Co. K, 1st Virginia Cavalry Regiment … wounded on approximately May 10, 1863, and hospitalized at Charlottesville, Virginia, wounded on October 11, 1863, at Raccoon Ford, Virginia, and killed on May 9, 1864, at Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia. · selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
Crusty McDonald’s Napkins
This content was originally published July 24, 2009. … I read the comments at Puntabulous, and heard about textsfromlastnight. Below is a selection. The texts are labeled with the area code of the sender. Special preference is given to Georgia area codes. … (254): you could play connect the dots with the people ive fucked in this room ///(254): Turns out I’m a social drinker… I just happen to be REALLY social///(302): I’m giving you permission to use the abortion money to pay for your DUI. ///(678): Think about all of the events that have led to this: me sitting in the back of my classroom drinking beer out of a taco bell cup, telling the teacher I have to leave early to go to an AA meeting. …
… (770): Dear Mark, please dispose of your crusty mcdonalds napkins used to jerk it at my desk…(678): discrete masterbation is a lost art/// (678): you were calling yourself Ulickes S. Cunt./// (770): I just needed to know whether or not to wear panties to work tomorrow./// (770): Masturbating after my cheeseburger. It’s unavoidable./// (770): Anddd after the worst sex of my life, he said..”do you mind taking off the condom, tying it up, and throwing it at the door?” Weird.///(770): I know its time to do laundry… i cant even find a dirty sock to wear because they all have jizz in them …
… (770): Should I feel badly because I just bought a really hot pregnant girl a drink after I lit her cigarette?///(770): I got drunk and threw up on a kid at the amusement park. I think they’re pressing charges./// (770): I wanted to tell him he wasn’t actually in me, but my god, awkward?///(770): I kind of had a moment like that kid whose mom cancelled his WoW subscription, except I didn’t try to shove a remote control up my own ass.///(404): her nose should be used as a dorsal fin …
… (404): Watching Miami Social reminded me of how much I miss snorting coke with burger king straws in a life guard hut on the beach until we noticed someone was drowning///.(813): i wonder if i could find a boyfriend who would call me big papa…(404): sure if you go to prison///(404): Words of wisdom-never eat a peanut-butter covered banana on a construction site ever again/// (706): Was it a mistake telling him I couldn’t get the abortion until I was 2 months along on the first date? ///(706): so i decided not to tell her that her fiance is cheating since i already bought the bridesmaid dess …
… (219): I have a deodorant stick dedicated to my balls///(318): Just caught my bro jerking off to a lane Bryant catalog ///(616): theyre doing shots to celebrate her boob jobs anniversary///(706): Just found my girlfriend’s stash of animated Japanese porn…(706): And to think, I actually considered breaking up with her///(706): Did we have sex?…(1-706): No you put the condom on then passed out on the bed so I left/// (706): Now that I’ve come to graduate college. I realized the only discernible skill I learned was how to roll a joint properly. go me….(1-706): Well thats $24,000 well spent. …
… (706): i just met rob pattinson in italy. he’s so stupid, i feel like i would have to say “your penis goes here!”///(706): So I’m going back to my apartment just to get my vibrator….(404): I thought you were moving in with your boyfriend for the summer?…(706): Well….one will keep me from having to pay rent and the other satisfies. I’ll let you figure it out.///(706): hitting rock bottom=girl fakes converting to christianity in order to get out of having sex with you./// (478): Dude. I haven’t taken a shit in a week…(706): Try anal, it works wonders. …
… (760): Dude I just picked up a married chick while her husband was playing pool….(912): What do you mean you picked her up? How are you gonna leave the bar?…(760): I didn’t. I fucked her in the men’s room. Come get me before he finds out.///(912): i woke up with socks on this morning…(485): so?…(912): i didnt wear socks last nigh///(814): I overheard a kid saying to his mom at Walmart: “Mommy.. should we buy cups for daddy’s spit?” … textsfromlastnight is still publishing, although the posts are not dated. The concept is going strong on instagram (tfln), X (@TFLN), and facebook. Puntabulous is currently “Komerčný magazín produktov”. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Dorothea Lange took the social media picture in May 1939. “Tulare County, California Sick woman in FSA camp for migratory agricultural workers” · selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
The Beltline In 2009
This content was originally published July 31, 2009. … I couldn’t decide whether to go on the beltway hike. The weather radar showed a lot of red and yellow moving into Atlanta. Finally, at 9am, I decided to take the plunge. When I called Angel to confirm the hike was going ahead, the sun came out. I got to the West End station first, but did not have to wait long. The other seven hikers arrived shortly. The first part of the walk was down West Whitehall Street. The hike made a slight detour to see part of the beltline site. It is a kudzu theme park.
… The sixteen legs moved past Adair Park, and down Allene Street. This is where they first walked on railroad tracks. The story is that, while this is an active track, it only gets about one train a month. This is the same story as the walk a few weeks ago, where there were four trains to go by. The end of Allene Street was the first time anyone heard thunder. Unfriendly clouds appeared at the end of the horizon. The first bridge was over Stewart Avenue Metropolitan Parkway. …
… As the crew moved down the tracks, a few drops of rain arrived. On the left appeared a large tract of unused land, waiting for development. In the distance was the overpass for i75-i85. Angel said ” we can take shelter under the freeway”. The bottom dropped out. After taking a break under the freeway, the rain slacked off and the hike continued. We went over Pryor Street, on a vintage bridge. Approaching the tunnel under McDonough Boulevard, the rain was back. This tunnel was a joy to walk through, a high arch lined with bricks. …
… The good news is that the rain showers, though sometimes intense, did not last more than a few minutes. The tracks went by the site of Stanton Park, another project waiting for the future. The rain returned again, and the hikers took shelter in an abandoned city warehouse. After the clouds passed the third time, the sun came out. Before long, the problem was heat from the sun, compounded by soggy clothes. Going south of Grant Park, I could see condos in the distance. Somewhere behind Girls High, the group got off of the tracks and moved onto the Glenwood Road Connector to cross i-20. …
… Passing through a development off Glenwood Road, the team stopped for a break at a coffee shop. Back on the path, there was one last stretch of old railroad land on the other side of Memorial Drive. Soon, this was impassible, and the crew walked around it on a side street. Angel showed where he had been attacked by bees while trying to clear some of the weedage. By this time, I was struggling. The heat and the long walk left me feeling ragged. To my delight, before long the Inman Park Marta Station appeared. The bench in the air conditioned train felt so good.
This content was originally published July 3, 2008. … Patriotism is one of the games that almost everyone plays. The rules seem to vary. In 1967, John Sidney McCain was flying planes in Nam. I was in the eighth grade. Barack Hussein Obama was in the first grade. BHO was in Hawaii, which might have been where JSM went for R&R, if Hanoi did not have other ideas. America was about to hit a turning point about the Vietnam War. At first people were supportive, albeit without much enthusiasm. Opposition started to arise, and was frequently confused with treason. …
… As the war dragged on, the homefront began to see things differently. The patriots of 1967 were the ones who opposed the war. The conflict in Indochina was to cause many problems for the United States. Eventually, Richard Nixon got a fig leaf treaty, that he called Peace with Honor. The early opposition was heard, but not after losing more than 58,200 Americans. That is the first way to be a patriot…to keep an eye on the government, and speak out in opposition when it is needed. …
… The war in Babylon was an experiment in war without sacrifice. There was a tax cut, when it was apparent we were planning an invasion. The national debt has gone out of control, and the dollar is not worth as much as it once was. The oil market is based on the dollar. Oil is just as valuable as ever. The dollar is not, and it takes more dollars to buy a barrel of oil. This is an important factor in the rise of gas prices. … · selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
Middle East Conflicts
The display of a link on this page does not indicate approval of content.
How the First World War Created the Middle East Conflicts (Documentary)
Stop Misusing these Philosophy Quotes (here’s what they really mean)
Bobby Sherman – I’m Into Something Good (Shindig – Nov 11, 1964)
shaun maguire · cbs · ww1 · mtg · July 11, 2008
gabby weeder · beans · buddy ebsen · joe pistone · barbie beach · spinal tap
The social media picture: Pvt Richard Henry McKaughan of Co. G, 7th Confederate States Cavalry Battalion and Co. D, 16th North Carolina Cavalry Battalion … Photograph shows identified soldier, who was captured on April 1, 1865, at Dinwiddie Court House, Virginia, and imprisoned at Hart’s Island, New York Harbor. · Here is the monday morning reader for this week. The picture is Pvt Richard Henry McKaughan of Co. G, 7th Confederate States Cavalry Battalion and Co. D, 16th North Carolina Cavalry Battalion … captured on April 1, 1865, at Dinwiddie Court House, Virginia, and imprisoned at Hart’s Island, New York Harbor · do you use the cloud? i don’t trust it. I use one drive to transfer files from a laptop to a desktop … my one extravagance … and tonight a key folder got lost … i learned a while back to keep a copy on the originating device, so no harm done, but damn that is frustrating … a good argument against going all cloud, and not having a home machine hard drive · @RonanFarrow looks more like Frank Sinatra than Woody Allen · The “trans movement” made a mistake in using the social justice tactic of overheated rhetoric Israel is making the same mistake now · The social media picture: First Lieutenant Robert Charles Finley of Co. E, 74th Ohio Infantry Regiment · Today’s exercise is archaic platforms is a visit to August 2008. We look at the late Roy Buchanan, Cynthia McKinney, and a couple of turkeys who wanted to be President. The picture below is First Lieutenant Robert Charles Finley of Co. E, 74th Ohio Infantry Regiment · The social media picture: “Rich’s Diamond Jubilee, Jan. 2, 1942. The Diamond Jubilee celebrations began on January 1, 1942, when Margaret Mitchell dedicated five murals commemorating the first years of Rich’s Department Store.” · In the 1996 Olympics, the last runner in the Men’s Marathon had an injured leg, and ran a few minutes after the rest of the runners. He represented Afghanistan, and he finished the 26 mile course · John Vachon took the social media picture in April 1942. “Bannack, Montana Old time residents of Bannack, Montana, formerly a booming gold mining camp, who now operate a small mine.” · UPDATE: 771 Spring Street is still standing. · This look back at 2008 looks at the effort to prevent the demolition of 771 Spring Street. To my amazement, the building was standing in March 2025 · While the nation is having a hissy fit about the mayor’s race in New York, Atlanta is about to re-elect, with little opposition, the mayor who helped build Cop City · @wildethingy I would never worship any God that gets offended I don’t believe in them. · Do you want fries with that nothingburger? · I was listening to the Tucker Carlson/Scott Horton conversation. The host casually said something about Iran’s “religious leaders” If that had been the United States, it would have been “faith leaders” · selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
Peroxide
This content was originally published July 11, 2008. … I got an email the other night urging me to sign a petition. The intent of the petition was to urge Georgia Tech not to tear down the Crum and Forster building at 771 Spring Street. I worked for a few years in an adjacent building. The company located at 771 Spring owned the parking lot. During this time, this part of Midtown did a 180 degree turnaround. A big part of this change was the construction of the Tech Square Complex. This was a psychological breakthrough for Tech, expanding the campus on the east side of the expressway. …
… The current plan is to destroy the building, and replace it with a grassy field. I cannot see Tech letting such costly real estate lie unused. Maybe we are going to have a Presidential Motorcade along Spring Street, and need a grassy knoll. Now, the building in question would need serious renovation. It may not be economically feasible to save it. While the exterior is glorious, my visits to the interior recall a dilapidated mess. And this is Atlanta, where Historic Preservation is a dirty word. The patron saint of this town is William Tecumseh Sherman. UPDATE: 771 Spring Street is still standing.
This content was originally published July 8, 2008. … A blind man and his guide dog enter a Bar and find their way to a bar stool. After ordering a drink, and sitting there for a while, the blind guy yells to the bartender, “Hey, you wanna hear a blond joke?” The bar immediately becomes absolutely quiet. In a husky, deep voice, the woman next to him says, “Before you tell that joke, you should know something. The bartender is blond, the bouncer is blond and I’m a 6′ tall, 200 lb. blond with a black belt in karate. What’s more, the woman sitting next to me is blond and she’s a weight lifter. …
… The lady to your right is a blond, and she’s a pro wrestler. Think about it seriously, Mister. You still wanna tell that joke?” The blind guy thinks a moment and says, “Nah, not if I’m gonna have to explain it five times.” … The event which put the peroxide in the bottle for this post involved an inactive blog. Now, there are supposedly a hundred million or so blogs in existence. Of those, maybe a hundred are actively posting. The rest go into nogoblogland. One of these inert bandwidth vampires is Jokesandhumoronline. And sure enough, in their farewell post, they had a blond joke. …
… The Blond Bird Lover … You were the sexy blond woman at the Marina Safeway last night at about 6:30. I was the guy in the poultry section who kept lifting the frozen chickens out of the freezer, holding them above my head, screaming ?be free? We know the chickens are frozen, but are they really dead? … I could tell by the way you were looking at me that you liked the cut of my jib. If you remember, I asked you your name and you said “I. Carrie Mace.” But you left so suddenly, I couldn?t get your number. Coffee? …
… A TRUE SOUTHERN LADY … A very gentle Southern lady was driving across the Savannah River Bridge in Georgia one day. As she neared the top of the bridge, she noticed a young man fixing to jump. She stopped her car, rolled down the window and said, ‘Please don’t jump, think of your dear mother and father.’ ‘Mom and Dad are both dead; I’m going to jump.’ ‘Well, think of your wife and children.’ ‘I’m not married and I don’t have any kids.’ ‘Well, think of Robert E. Lee.’ ”Who’s Robert E. Lee?” ”Well bless your heart, just go ahead and jump, you dumb ass Yankee … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Vachon took the social media picture in April 1942. “Bannack, Montana Old time residents of Bannack, Montana, formerly a booming gold mining camp, who now operate a small mine.” · selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
Chamblee54 
leave a comment