The Weekenders
The Weekenders turned up at the Chamblee library. A fresh book by Mary Kay Andrews is always cause for celebration. This one has a twist. In addition to the star crossed lovers, there is a murder. Miss Andrews used to write detective stories. An old talent came to visit.
The story hums along for a couple of hundred pages. Riley Griggs goes to her island house. On the ferry, she runs into a hated former boyfriend. Readers instinctively know that he is going to hook up with with our heroine.
When Riley arrives on the island, she finds a foreclosure notice on the house. The next day, Riley’s about-to-be-divorced husband’s is found face down in the water. His financial shenanigans soon become apparent. The cast of characters springs into action.
The plot gets a little fishy after a while. Riley has a gay brother, Billy. In the first part of the book he is drinking, along with everyone else. Foreclosure, and murder, have that effect on people. We eventually learn, with no advance warning, that Billy is a serious drunk. This leads to a couple of contrived plot twists. While the story is still fun to read, it gets less believable as we move along.
At one point, the old boyfriend, Nate, breaks into an old house on the island. Nate is a dot com millionaire, and wants to buy the house. He is surprised to find Riley in the house. Riley finally admits that Nate isn’t so bad after all. The two have a reunion kiss. They are on, and off, again for the rest of the book. One split up is the result of a diabetic suicide attempt by Riley’s daughter, Maggy.
Towards the end of the story, MKA drops all attempts at reality. All sorts of plot issues come together on the island, and are met by a hurricane. Since chamblee54 avoids spoilers, you will have to find out for yourself whodunit, and whodunwho.
If you don’t think too much, The Weekenders is a fun way to spend 451 pages. This connection to the sci-fi book is a coincidence. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
RIP Jack Chick
Jack Thomas Chick is someone you know, but have never heard of. He created the gospel tract. Go to his site, and you can read his story. Born in California in 1924, he seemed an unlikely candidate for religious superstardom. After a turn in the Army, he became a Jesus Worshiper. In 1948 he married Lola Lynn Riddle, who he describes as being ” instrumental in his salvation”. He hit on the idea for the palm sized comic book for Jesus, and an artform was formed.
The tracts are the result of a rather narrow view of Jesus. The King James Bible is the perfect word of G-d. The tracts have a last page, with instructions on how to be “saved”. Anyone who disagrees is going to go to hell. Many of the tracts tell a story. A kid trusts a drug dealer, only to be disappointed. The Titanic is going to the bottom of the sea, and what will happen to the passengers. A man is about to commit suicide, and Jesus comes to the rescue.
Mr. Chick has a special distaste for the Catholic Church. He had an associate named Alberto Rivera. Mr. Rivera claimed to be an ex bishop of the church, who had been privy to some unsavory secrets. Many of his tracts proclaim conspiracy theories about the Church. Other targets of his scorn include Mormons, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and anyone @ChickPub does not consider “saved.”
Jack Chick is his real name. Any drag queen using that name is probably not the same person. He is reclusive, is rarely photographed and does not give interviews. He drew his early tracts, until he hired a man named Fred Carter in 1972. Mr. Carter is a much, much better artist than Mr. Chick. An advanced search of the Chick website does not show a mention of Mr. Carter.
Mr. Chick has sold hundreds of millions of his tracts, translated into over 100 languages. The tracts sell for sixteen cents each, or a 25 pack for $4.00. This is one cent a tract more than in 2008. Arguably he has sold more copies than any author working today.
This feature was originally posted in 2008. Through the miracle of spare time, aka the devil’s workshop, more information will be added today. A photograph has emerged, that reportedly is the image of Mr. Chick. HT to Dangerous Minds.
Jack Chick is still alive. This obituary is a hoax. movie about him has been released, God’s Cartoonist:The Comic Crusade of Jack Chick. (Here is the trailer.) His website has been updated, with a trendy emphasis on Islam.
Bible tracks have kept up with the times. You can buy an android application with ten popular titles. “Here are 10 more tracts to take with you to view on your phone! … Everyone is talking about Global Warming. Show them this popular title and get a REAL discussion going! With over 800 million Chick tracts in print, they are used by Christians all over the world to fulfill the Great Commission (Mark 16:15-16). Make sure your friends don’t miss out on eternity!”
The internet has had mischief makers poking fun at Mr. Chick. Someone named Psycho Dave put up the Jack T. Chck parody archive in 2000. It inspired an exchange of lawyer letters. More recently, Topless Robot supplied us with The 10 Most Awesomely Insane Jack Chick Mini-Comics.
Not everyone is impressed. Many people who consider themselves Christian disagree with the POV presented in the Chick Tracts. Here are a few Amazon reviews of Chick Tract Assortment.
RACIST, CULTURALLY INSENSITIVE, EXTREME November 3, 2011 “virtuous10” (somerset, NJ) There may be around 10 out of the 100 that were acceptable, but the vast majority of the others were so off the wall it was crazy. If they weren’t weird they were racist and culturally insensitive. To name a few, theres a black man in jail named Leroy who is super sexual and angry, you have Native Americsns drunk, white missionaries who came back from Africa pale faced after there were attacked so often by “those poeple”, you have the catholic church being called evil and the vatican trying to control the world, you have an angry Arab muslim man saying we’re taking over America like we did England, a tract which consisted of scene after scene of a little girl being brutally beaten by a man then left to live on the street….I mean on and on.
Maybe these are popular because you still have pockets of the country that are not diverse, and where churches that don’t believe in interracial marriage abound. Maybe these awful stereotypes or extreme messages are not a big deal there. However I live in the Northeast (and the 21st century) and I dont find this acceptable. I don’t understand how this organization can believe offended people will be open to the gospel. The pure gospel message is unicversal and powerful enough and filled with love to change the heart of any person from any culture. Why add all of this mess? Do a search for “chick tracts offensive”. So many non believers are using this to show Christians are crazy. Thank God I spent only 30 dollars. They will not receive another red cent from me. And AMAZON NEEDS 0 STARS!!! This would be the perfect candidate.
Hate for the Lord August 4, 2011 Matthew Sanborn “Monsterfashion” (Arkham, MA)
Nothing really says religious intolerance like a good Jack T. Chick tract. Molesting your daughter, killing for money, robbing, rape and torture can all be forgiven by God if you simply check “yes” you belive in Jesus at the end of one of these amazing comics. But be warned, if you are Catholic, Musilum, Jewish, gay, play role playing games, have relgious tolerance, read Harry Potter, have any money, or are a Protestant who reads anything but the King James Bible, then there’s a myriad of demons just waiting to throw you in the pit. Well worth the money for the sheer hilarity as you won’t belive anyone, even the insane, could possibly take this stuff seriously. The only problem is that Chick will get some cash from you. But if you want to see religious bigotry and misguided hatered at its best, look no further than here.
spread the good news! July 5, 2011 Provident Savings “bible man” (spring valley,ny usa)
I personally would like to thank Jack Chick for his wonderful work in ministry,by providing the resource the christians to help spread the good news to the lost.The package arrived on time.I highly recommend this seller!
This repost was written like Raymond Chandler. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Jack T. Chick ” died peacefully in his sleep on Sunday evening, according to a Facebook posting Monday by Chick Publications, based in Rancho Cucamonga, California.” The facebook posting is no longer available. The penultimate tweet from @ChickPub reads “@ChickPub Dear ones in Christ, Is your tummy upset over our political circus? Are you fearful about the way everything is…”
Beach Town
It is a happy moment to find an unread Mary Kay Andrews book at the library. The pages of the story turn themselves. Beach Town is more of the same. A book like this is your friend.
The plot is a touch better than recent MKA stories. Greer is a location scout for a movie. She stumbles onto a forgotten town in Florida. Cypress Key seems to be all the Old Florida you can handle. The real life inspiration is Cedar Key, FL.
There are multiple sub plots. Families come together, and blow up again. Small town politics get ugly. A movie set comes to town, with some of the chaos that naturally occurs. Greer only gets fired from the movie once. She was ready to go.
There is lots of “adult activity,” some of which involves a minor. A one star amazon traveler, APNM is dismayed. “So disappointed by this book. I was completely shocked by the gratuitous graphic sex scene between the main characters early in the book, not at all typical in her earlier works. Not sure why the author feels like she must include this kind of stuff now.” One of the players lives on top of his grocery store. When things started to heat up, he went downstairs, and returned with a 40 pack of condoms. He was an optimist.
Him and her kiss for the first time on page 118. They spend most of the book mad at each other. Somehow, they manage to get back together, and then fuss a bit more. Since chamblee54 does not do plot spoilers, you will have to read the book to see how it turns out.
The plot gets a touch unbelievable about three quarters of the way through. In one sequence, Greer sees Allie, the teen aged nephew of the grocery store dude. Allie is horribly upset, at Greer, and the rest of the world. Despite all that, Allie gets in the car. Greer’s long lost father has wrecked his car in a swamp. Allie helps Greer find her dad, with assistance from law enforcement, and cell phone GPS.
Despite, or maybe because of, the insane plot twists, Beach Town is tons of fun. There is no redeeming social value whatsoever. This is reading to enjoy yourself… forget your troubles by worrying about fiction. Pictures for today’s digital entertainment are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
She Always Carries Jonquils
PG found Archival Atlanta: Electric Street Dummies, the Great Stonehenge Explosion, Nerve Tonics, and Bovine Laws : Forgotten Facts and Well-Kept Secrets from Our City’s Past at the Chamblee library. There are always more stories to be heard. This repost has pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. It is written like Margaret Mitchell.
In the 1840s, the Western and Atlantic railroad wanted to hook up with the Central of Georgia railroad. The spot for the meeting was called Terminus. One idea was to name the town for William Lumpkin, a former Georgia Governor and a railroad executive. Lumpkinville sounded bad in the mouth, and the new town was named “Marthasville”, after the daughter of the Governor. (Martha is buried in Oakland Cemetery.) Few people liked this name, and someone decided that the feminine form of Atlantic was Atlanta. Unlike the state flag, this is unlikely to change.
The new town prospered, and recovered from the unpleasantness of 1864. In 1875, there was a problem with stray cows. The answer was the “1875 Cow Ordinance”. The law required that cows be kept in a pen at night. A fine of two dollars was assessed for every stray cow that was caught.
About this time, there were a few very busy railroad tracks going through downtown. People were getting tired of waiting for the trains to go through. One by one, viaducts were built over the tracks, creating a forgotten ground floor. This was built up into Underground Atlanta in the sixties, which was red hot for a while, then cooled off, and is now so so.
In 1897, J.W. Alexander was the first person in town to own a “horseless carriage”. One day, he decided to take a ride to East Point. A mule objected, and kicked man and machine into a ditch.
It is a rule that all history books about Atlanta have to discuss Coca Cola and Gone With The Wind. There are only so many stories to go around. This book tells of an Alpharetta farmer who bought the Tara set from MGM. He stored in a barn, the location of which was a secret. Betty Talmadge wanted to buy it, and the price went from $375k to $5k. After a while, the sale was finalized. There was only one problem…the farmer died, and never told anyone where the barn was. Mrs. Talmadge got the money from her husband’s overcoat, went to Alpharetta, and found the barn. The set was moved into another secret location, where it was in 1996, when Archival Atlanta was published, at an undisclosed local location.
Sam and William Venable owned Stone Mountain, and had a quarry there. (The Ku Klux Klan held meetings on the mountain.) (The spell check suggestion for Ku Klux is Kook Klutz.) Sam built a large granite house at 1410 Ponce de Leon Avenue, and stocked it with ammunition. He thought a race war was on the way, and wanted to be prepared. One night, a chimney overheated. The roof caught on fire. The explosives in the attic exploded, and took the roof off. The house was repaired, Mr. Venable died, and the house became part of a Lutheran church.
One of the few ante bellum houses in Atlanta is near Grant Park. It was once owned by Lemuel Grant, who donated the land for the park. He stays in a large marble house in Oakland Cemetery now. The Grant Park house was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. John Marsh, in partnership with Boyd Eugene Taylor. After the death of Mrs. Marsh (also known as Margaret Mitchell), she was known to visit the house. “Margaret just wanders through the house, looking things over. She never talks, and she always carries jonquils. The first night she came I was very shocked. I went out to her grave at Oakland Cemetery the next day. I’d never been to the house before. But I was almost certain of what I’d find. The plot is covered by a bed of jonquils.”
The Origin Of Barbie
PG found a copy of Snuff at a yard sale. The story was written by Chuck Palahniuk, pronounced paula nick. This book report may have spoilers.
The 197 pages recount an attempt to break a world record. Aging porn star Cassie Wright is trying to take on 600 men in one session. The plan is to die, in a blaze of gooey glory. The story is told by four characters: Mr. 72, Mr. 137, Mr. 600, and Sheila. Each of the four feels a connection to Miss Wright. It is a case of four wrongs making one Wright.
The story gets weirder and weirder. Mr. 72 is convinced that he is the son of Cassie Wright. Mr. 137 became an Okla-homo after being diddled by daddy. Mr. 600 is said to be Miss Wright’s baby daddy. Sheila, original name Zelda Zonk, was another possible Wright baby. After a while, the reader just plows ahead. When PG pays a dollar for a book, he wants his money shot money’s worth.
Snuff has a couple of gimmicks that are repeated to the point of no return. The talent is known by a variety of names, like pud puller, wiener wrangler, page paster, fist flogger, white washer, and sherbet shooter. The movies made by Cassie Wright all had satirical titles, like World Whore One, and The Asshole Jungle. It was funny the first twenty times.
Another gimmick Mr. Nick works us with is the “true fact.” Someone will throw out a chestnut, and say “true fact.” Many of them are Hollywood beauty secrets, like Lauren Becall, and Tallulah Bankhead, drinking eggshell tea. Here is an example.
“… Hitler … was disgusted by seeing his fellow soldiers visit French brothels. To keep the Aryan bloodlines pure,and prevent the spread of venereal disease, he commissioned an inflatable doll that Nazi troops could take into battle. Hitler himself designed the dolls to have blond hair and large breasts. The Allied firebombing of Dresden destroyed the factory … “
Mr. Google has more. “But in 1942 the project was halted when German soldiers refused to carry the dolls because of the potential embarrassment if they were captured by the enemy. Author Graeme Donald uncovered Hitler’s secretive “Borghild Project” while researching the history of Barbie, which was based on a postwar German sex doll.”
“I was actually researching the history of the Barbie doll that was based on a German sex doll of the 1950s. Ruth and Elliot Handler from America visited Germany in 1956 and saw the Lilli dolls that were sold in barbers’ shops and nightclubs – and were not for children Ruth didn’t realise this and bought one and realised later they were not toys. But Ruth and her husband used the doll as a foundation for what became Barbie.”
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Another Roadside Attraction Part Two
This is the second, and final, part of a chamblee54 book report on Another Roadside Attraction, by Thomas Eugene Robbins. The book is due back at the chamblee library today. There are two possible reasons to hurry up, and finish reading the book. A overdue fine from the local library is less of a burden than a failing grade. The effect can be the same… not stopping to smell the verbal roses, but shovelling the animal product that facilitates growth. FWIW, part one is available for your perusal. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
The first note is page 177. John Paul Ziller, and his wife Amanda, decline to get drunk. They consider alcohol to be an imperfect drug. This is a line that PG remembers from the 1978 reading of ARA. What was forgotten was Marx Marvelous, the narrator of the tale. He proceeds to get sloshed, and quotes Bertrand Russell: there is little difference between a man who eats too little and sees heaven, and a man who drinks too much and sees snakes.
Amanda replies that one of the men sees snakes. She says a lot of things in ARA. It is probably quite charming in person, especially when one is warm for her form. In the text, forty five years later, it can be rather annoying. On page 336, Marx Marvelous learns two things about Amanda: she loves him deeply, and it totally indifferent as to whether, or not, she sees him again. The concept of sexist condescention, germinating when ARA was written, has come to politically correct fruition in the age of Obama. If one is of the mind to do so, they could judge ARA harshly for this.
There is an order of renegade monks down the road from the Zillers. An associate, Plucky Purcell (more formally known as L. Westminister Purcell III) is a visitor at this facility. This residency is a marvel of totally unbelievable fiction, and is essential to the plot of ARA. The monks are a Vatican hit squad, and Purcell fits right in. In a stroke of impossible to forsee synchronicity, two *good* nuns stop by for a visit. They are Sister Elizabeth and Sister Hillary. They make two appearances… on page 183 and page 283. Amanda decides it is nun of her business.
The Zillers have a roadside zoo, and hot dog stand. It does not sell coffee, which is disappointing to many road warriors. “they stop for coffee, and feel cheated when they learn the meaning of meaning.” PG first heard the phrase “meaning of meaning” in an eleventh grade history class. It was presided over by a basketball coach, who was not interested in the dribbles and shoots of wars and civilizations. For the first test, “Dudley Doo Right” asked the class to write three pages on the meaning of meaning.
As second time readers know, the essential character in ARA is the body of Jesus. It was in the Vatican, until Plucky Purcell found it, and brought it to the Ziller’s hot dog stand. In this edition of ARA, the mummified savior appears on page 222. This is one third of the anti christ. There is something cosmic about a dead Jesus having a numeric value equal to one third of beelzebub. Or maybe it is merely comic, and the author had an extra s that he had to use before the expiration date.
One of the joys of google era reading is easy access to fact checking. (The proposed french word for google was a palindrome, googelegoog.) On page 280, TER reports that Carmen Miranda wore size one shoes. The page wikiFeet for Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha has pictures, which appear to be larger than size one. The Celebrity Shoe Size List has Carmen Electra (size 7) and Carmen Kass (size 8.5,) but no Carmen Miranda. PG thinks the diva detail to be an apparition of overactive imagination.
As ARA rambles on to the uplifting conclusion, a council of war is convened in the hot dog stand. The Zillers, Plucky Purcell, Marx Marvelous, and Mon Cul (John Paul Ziller’s pet baboon) try to decide what to do with the holy remains, known by now as “the corpse.” On page 290, there is a typo, unless “insited” is a scrabble approved word. On page 288, someone is called “utopianist.” This may reefer refer to utopia. A more whimsical vision sees a keyboard musician working for the United Thank Offering. Those Episcopals think of everything.
There are several sides in this debate. Amanda takes the historic approach, and washes her pretty hands of the corpse. Pontius Pilate hands her a bar of soap. Plucky Purcell wants to publicly display the corpse, with the idea of destrying the Catholic church. Marx Marvelous says that lots of Catholics are good people, and telling them that Jesus is dead would hurt their fee fees. Sister Elizabeth, and Sister Hillary, are used as examples.
In truth, the fictional debate has been rendered moot in the post Nixon, but not post racial, world. The Catholic church soldiers on. The revelation that *some* priests like to forcibly sodomize pre adolescent boys has barely mattered to the masses. The church has taken a (catho) licking, and kept on ticking. Co-dependent Protestantism does even better.
Page 290 was where PG had to throw down the book in disgust. Plucky Purcell, backing down from his plan to destroy the church, admits that *Jesus* was a pretty good guy after all. Never mind that the story he quotes is from the Bible… written by hundreds of anonymous authors, hand copied by anonymous scribes, compiled and edited by the Romanized church, translated by a queer English king. How can you trust a book like that? And yet, the PR of Jesus persists. Even the most vicious critics of the modern Jesus worship church have a soft spot for the old boy.
One *page 69,* John Paul Ziller warns against anthromorphizing, or assigning human emotions to non-human animals. And yet, 222 pages later, the text anthromorphizes the cult of Jesus. It must work, because the conclusion of ARA leaves the Roman Pedophile Church intact.
Another Roadside Attraction Part One
The idea was to read the book, sit down at the machine, and have the text flow effortlessly out. That was five weeks ago, when the library copy of Another Roadside Attraction arrived. Now the book is due back in six days. The bookmark … a library handout about taking the GED … is in front of page 163. Marx Marvelous is having his job interview with Amanda Ziller. The body of Jesus has not appeared, although second time readers know it will.
One place to start is with an internet comment. “… For you see, I have discovered something terrible: Tom Robbins has almost no re-read value. Seriously. It is almost nonexistent. … The man really does have a gift. But that gift is a one term president. It just doesnt have what it takes to be re-elected.”
The fine print page in ARA says “Copyright © by Thomas E. Robbins.” It was written during the Richard Nixon administration. Tricky Dick won a thumping re-election in 1972, but resigned under pressure in 1974. PG first read ARA in 1978, or maybe 1977, when Jimmy Carter was POTUS. Smiling Jimmy did not play the game well, and was sent back to the peanut farm by Ronald Reagan. This led to Daddy Bush, Slick Willie, Idiot son Bush, and the current occupant.
TER novels hold up well to second helpings. PG has redone Cowgirls and Woodpecker, the books that made TER a star. (Bad rhyme alert) There is the fun of seeing bits of verbal derring do that you remember from the first go round. If you are looking for plot subtleties to show up, good luck.
ARA has a different feel from the novels that followed. It was the first TER book that PG read, not knowing what would happen in the next 38 years. There is an optimism to ARA… Marx Marvelous is currently predicting the rise of a new religion, to replace obsolete Christianism. Oh, if only. Christianism is, at the core, a marketing scheme. It has adapted to the changing realities of the past four decayed decades. Jesus worship is a day glo mall of ideologies, with something for everyone. The salvation centerpiece at the heart of the bonanza reamains eternal and unchanging. If the product sells, then trust the marketplace.
Another fun idea is to fact check. TER likes to throw “facts” out at rapid speed. One such incident is on page 82. Amanda is discussing some of her ideas for the roadside zoo. (Baby Thor is nowhere to be seen, and is possibly being raised by Mon Cul the baboon.) JPZ is barely listening, being occupied by rubbing his pecker against her belly. Amanda will not quit talking insect trivia. JPZ counters her by saying that bald eagles have bad breath. Before long, JPZ is one twelth of a fathom into Amanda.
With the internet, and too much free time, we can fact check this claim. The first result for “Do bald eagles have bad breath” is a facebook event, “Ranger Talk – Do Bald Eagles Really Have Bad Breath? · Hosted by The San Gorgonio Wilderness Association.” The next result is a 1997 style web page full of Bald Eagle Characteristics. While the halitosis issue is not settled for sure, it sure does sound likely. Since few of us are going to be within range of a bald eagle mouth, this will have to do.
“Q. Do bald eagles have the same digestive system as humans? A. Now there’s an interesting question! The answer is, no. … part of their stomach has turned into a gizzard, which we don’t have, in which food is ground down to a fine consistency to permit rapid digestion. In eagles, this is also the place where pellets are formed. These are masses of material from prey that cannot be digested, such as fur, feathers, and occasionally bone, that then travel backwards from the gizzard up to the mouth and are cast (like vomited) out the mouth. … Another major difference is that eagles (and other birds) have something called a crop, in the upper alimentary track (esophagus) where food can be stored for days.This is extremely beneficial to eagles…”
The first chapter of ARA has relatively little action. The verbal wizardry that TER is known for is not on display. The first chapter is where we meet Amanda, and see her wedding to JPZ. Plucky Purcell, who is possibly the real life stand in for TER, makes an appearance. Amanda says a lot of things, which are either charming or irritating, depending on the reader.
One way to crunch the verbiage is taking notes. Whenever the reader sees something noteworthy, he writes down the page. (The reader here is PG. Masculine pronouns will be used. There is enough confusion already without gender neutral designations for third person humanity.) The book serving this project is “Bantam trade paperback reissue / May 2003 … ISBN 0-553-34948-1.”
Plucky Purcell made his living selling dope and facilitating abortions. In 1971, this was a dodgy enterprise. Baby killing was not yet legal, and the political squalling not yet begun. (College freshman PG attended a lecture about abortion.) On page 66, it is said “His fees are more than fair: he seeks to make a living, not a killing.” Get your irony fix on page 66.
Page 67 has a spelling mistake…Babylonain is not a real word. Both page 70, and page 98 feature the n-word, in all its six letter glory. On page 79, Amanda is said to smell like the leftovers at an eskimo picnic. TER evolves, and some say matures, as his novels progress. It is fun to go back to the start.
Page 114 is a quote that PG remembers from 1977. It struck PG as being very profound, a thought that would confound the cynical fuddy duddy of 2016. Here, through the miracle of internet quote copy paste is the passage. Profound, or confound? Let the reader decide. “The principal difference between the husbandryman and the historian is that the former breeds sheep or cows or such and the latter breeds (assumed) facts. The husbandryman uses his skills to enrich the future, the historian uses his to enrich the past. Both are usually up to their ankles in bullshit.”
Page 141 … the square root of two with, a similar digital inventory to page 114 … is where the synchronicity sweepstakes announces a winner. Marx Marvelous overhears Amanda Ziller ask if Roland Kirk is indeed the Count Basie orchestra in drag? Little did the fictional Lady Ziller know that PG would see a concert by Rahsaan Roland Kirk on August 9, 1974. This was the night Richard Nixon announced his resignation. Mr. Kirk, aka the modern miracle of the tenor saxophone, passed away December 5, 1977, which is roughly when PG was reading ARA for the first time. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Part two of this book report is now available.
Atlanta Rising
Atlanta Rising: The Invention of an International City 1946-1996 is on the shelf at the Chamblee library. This book is a history of Atlanta in the modern era, written by former fishwrapper scribe Frederick Allen. This is a repost, with pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
The story begins in 1948. AR is weighted more to the older part of the story. The main text is 248 pages. On page 124, Ivan Allen has just built a controversial roadblock on Peyton Road, which would be in 1962. The further along in the story, the fewer details are included. The first big story is when Georgia had two governors. This is one of the best descriptions of the two Governors controversy around, and does not mention Ben Fortson’s wheelchair cushion.
The mayor at the start of the story is William B. Hartsfield. “Willie B” was a leader in creating the Atlanta Airport, and in building it into the powerhouse it is today. He was mayor until 1961, when Ivan Allen Jr. moved into the office.
AR has many moments of unintentional irony. When you read a book 18 years after it was written, and fifty years after the events in the book, you see things that could not have been imagined before. In 1960, many of the political-business elite thought it was time for Mr. Hartsfield to retire. Among his shortcomings was an indifference to sports. Mr. Hartsfield thought that a new stadium would be too great a drain on the city’s taxpayers. Fifty four years, and three stadiums, later, the power elite is going to build another stadium. Atlanta Stadium cost eighteen million dollars. The Blank bowl will cost over a billion. (In the past year, a plan to move the Braves to Smyrna was announced.)
One of the big stories here is civil rights. Atlanta came out of that struggle looking pretty good. It was a combination of image conscious businessmen, enlightened black leadership, and a huge helping of dumb luck. In 1961, the city was under federal pressure to integrate the schools. The state was firm in opposition, and the city wasn’t crazy about the idea anyway. Then, another federal court ordered the integration of the University of Georgia. Since the people would not stand for messing with their beloved University, the state laws forbidding integration were quietly repealed. The city schools were integrated with a minimum of fuss. (The book tells this story much better than a slack blogger.)
The controversy about the 1956 model state flag was going full steam when AR was written. The book has some legislative records, which for some reason never made it into the fishwrapper. There is no clear cut answer as to why the legislature changed the state flag. It was mentioned that at the national political conventions, you could not have a written sign, but you could wave a state flag. This controversy provided a diversion from gold dome crookedness, and hopefully has been laid to rest.
A man named Lester Maddox sold fried chicken, and ran for public office. AR describes Lester as looking a bit like an angry chicken. Through a series of constitutional convulsions, Lester was elected Governor in 1966. The state survived his tenure. In the seventies, when Jimmy Carter was running for President, Lester said a lot of rude things about Jimmy, helping the smiling peanut farmer get elected. In another turn of fate, Lester Maddox died June 25, 2003. This was two days after the eternal departure of Maynard Jackson, the first black Mayor of Atlanta.
The book ends with the 1996 Olympics looming over the city. Billy Payne led a smart campaign to secure the games for Atlanta. One of his moves was to keep Jimmy Carter and Ted Turner out of the action. After the 1980 boycott, and the Goodwill Games, neither person was popular with the I.O.C. The book was published before 1996. The Olympics were a blast.
Deep Dish
Amazon Customer I was very disappointed in this book. This was the first book I have read by Mary Kay Andrews so I don’t know about her other books, but I found the language very offensive. I didn’t read past the third chapter and sent the book back for a refund. I think the story could be told without all the crude language and the bad usage of the name of God.
Monysmomon I am sorry I even picked this up at a bargain basement price – the story was dull, the narration was flat and uninteresting and after a few chapters I couldn’t even stand it anymore. Now I can’t even sell it on Ebay
These one star reviewers are talking about Deep Dish, by Mary Kay Andrews. PG did not notice any bad language. The story is totally PG13, with the two main characters not “hooking up” until spoiler alert time. The two battling food show cooks, Regina Foxton and Tate Moody, are on an obvious path for each other.The suspense on how they will get together is one of the best things this book has going for it.
Some New York producer has the idea of competing cooking shows. The two hash slingers will have it out on Eutaw Island, a fictionalized cross between Cumberland Island and Daufuski Island. As you might expect on the Southern coast, there are bugs, storms, and sharp tongued black women. The food fight show has issues.
As if the homegrown population was not enough, Gina brought over D’John, her makeup artist. Apparently, the only job Miss D’John has is watching over Gina, and making catty comments about boyfriends. D’John is not fully fleshed out. This could have been a contribution to the story, but instead is a cartoon character in the background.
Deep Dish is fun to read, but you will feel foolish when you are through. The plot twists are too contrived to go along with. The characters are walking cliches, except for Lisa, the party animal younger sister of Gina. Lisa is a crawling cliche’, until she mysteriously becomes a responsible adult. The only player with any bite is Tate Moody’s dog, Moonpie.
In 2008, PG saw Mary Kay Andrews at the Dickhater Book Festival. At the time, she said she was working on a book about two celebrity cooks, who were married to each other. They would sneak behind each other, and add spices to creations in progress. Deep Dish is copyrighted 2008, so it may be that book. The copyright is assigned to Whodunnit, Inc. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Skink–No Surrender
PG had Skink–No Surrender, by Carl Hiassen, sent to the Chamblee Library. It is another Hiassen book for young adults, like the previously consumed Scat. Skink–No Surrender was entertaining, if a bit unbelievable. Actually, more than a bit far fetched, but still fun to read.
At one point, the teenage hero, Richard, and his buddy Skink, go across the state in a borrowed vehicle. Skink injures his foot, and cannot drive. The fourteen year old Richard takes the wheel. This goes well until blue lights appear. It is Skink’s state trooper buddy, with a learner’s permit for Richard. The state trooper buddy is African American, which makes it ok.
Skink is a favorite character of Mr. Hiassen. A disillusioned former Florida Governor, Skink has one eye, lives in the wild, and eats roadkill. Richard is on the beach with his cousin, Malley, when they find Skink in a fake turtle egg nest. The character is trying to catch people who steal turtle eggs.
Malley runs away from home, not for the first time. She is with a seedy character that she met online. Richard and Skink take off to find her. The action moves quickly, if implausibly, until the conclusion.
The amazon one star customers have their say. Amazon Customer October 8, 2014 He must need money to write this boring garbage, i have enjoyed all of his books until this unfortunate catastrophe Kindle Customer January 4, 2015 Title nails it. I need 17 more words, the book doesn’t’ deserve them. Now 7 more words needed Don’t buy it
One afternoon, in Georgia’s worst parking lot, PG was on page 85, when something caught his eye. “Skink had scavenged a dead racoon on Highway 98. It had been struck by a vehicle with extremely large tires, and the furry ringed tail was the only way to know what kind of mammal it was.” PG had thought that mammals were big dumb animals, like cows and humans. It turns out that a racoon is a mammal. We also learn that sporange is a word that rhymes with orange.
Much of the action takes place in the Florida panhandle. This reminds PG of a story he heard a few hundred times, and can be told again. The family was going to Panama City, and stopped for gas near Ebro. The gas station man saw mom, and said “She putts me to mind of one of the Gilbert girls from De Funiak Springs.” Pictures for this post are from The Library of Congress. These pictures, with one exception, are soldiers from the War Between the States.
Fear Of Dying
PG took his brother GP grocery shopping. While waiting in Georgia’s worst parking lot, PG read Fear of Dying, Erica Jong’s rhyming followup to Fear of Flying. On page 170, PG realized that he might not want to finish the book: “So, this is a story about heaven and hell. The hell of writing is self censorship. The heaven is the speaking of the truth. Women have a particular problem with this.”
Erica Mann Jong (born Erica Mann, with no middle name) does not have a problem with sounding pretentious. EMJ is a feminist, and a Jew, details that are obvious to anyone who reads her. Her saving grace is writing fun books. Her amorous adventure stories are finely crafted works. Even with the parking lot discovery, PG is only 27 pages shy of the end. This is due day at the library, so that may be that. (Roxane Gay might have a different opinion.)
FOD is about wealthy Jewish women that get old. Her parents and poodle die. Her old and wealthy husband has an anuerism. . Wealthy older husband does not need to know about his wife’s adventures on zipless.com. The readers are not spared.
EMJ is good at the book tour game. While promoting FOD, she appeared on The Diane Rehm Show. This is public broadcasting, complete with upbeat intro music, and a hostess from the Lois Reitzes school of non commercial announcing. EMJ began the show by saying “It’s wonderful to see you, Diane. And you — age cannot wither nor custom stale your infinite variety. You look fantastic.” Skype is good for white lies. Later, EMJ tries to explain that she is not exactly Isadora Wing.
JONG Connection, we don’t need fast sex anymore. We need slow sex in a fast world.
REHM In a relationship is what…
JONG We won’t be satisfied by a ZF.
REHM Exactly.
JONG Nothing — we never were, actually. People made much of it, but I, as, you know, the author, never, never liked that kind of sex, never. But I intuited that it was in the zeitgeist. And I remember thinking when people would write in magazine, if the Erica Jongs of this world had their way, women everywhere would hop from bed to bed to bed to bed. And I thought, but I’ve always been monogamous…. Sometimes when a relationship is breaking down, I get itchy, as does the man I’m involved with, but as long as the relationship is totally satisfying, I have always been monogamous. So people do confuse the fantasy in a book with the reality of the author’s life.
A few minutes later, the ladies have a disagreement.
REHM And now it does seem to me that what’s happened with this book is that you’ve gone through all of that. You’ve experienced all of that. You’ve put that behind you, and somehow now you are facing into the reality of your own, as well as Vanessa’s, mortality. And what I want to know is what are you afraid of?
JONG Well, you know, Woody Allen said, who blurbed this book, I’m not afraid of death, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.
REHM Yeah. I saw that, and I recognize that you’ve gotten lots of wonderful blurbs. Here’s one from Judy Collins, who was just on this program the other day. She says, fear of dying by Erica Jong is hysterical and touching, compelling and heartbreaking and makes me want even more to live joyfully forever. So I wonder because, you know, Erica, I’m not afraid of dying, and I would like to understand what it is that you think is making you afraid.
JONG I don’t think I’m afraid anymore. (EMJ makes choking sounds.)
REHM Erica is having a little problem with her throat. She’s just put a lozenge in her mouth. Let me give you time to relax and get your voice back, have a little sip of water …
JONG Endless book tour. In fact I am not afraid of dying.
REHM You’re not. Good, I’m glad to hear that.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Scat
PG turned off the canned noise, and opened a window. Sometimes the pitter patter of rain is the best background sound. It was christmas eve eve, and PG is trying to write a book report on Scat, a “book for young readers” by Carl Hiassen.
PG found Scat on the internet, pun intended, and had a copy sent to the Chamblee library. When he learned of the juvenile intention, PG decided to read until he got bored. Veteran Hiassenites can tell you this will not happen until the book is finished, and the blank pages appear. The spell check suggestion for Hiassenite is Whiteness.
One amazon one star review disagrees. jayess99 Is anyone else sick of adults writing like and about children? This book was great for about the first two pages, and then it morphed into a kid’s tale. Why don’t they advertise it as such? Because they want your DAMN MONEY, that’s why! They dont give a hoot if you actually like the book, they just want your money. Think about it – why else would he even write this dross unless he just wanted your money?
Evidently, there is a British version of Scat, with British slang substituted for American. Just a guy from France was not amused. “Since the book takes place in FLORIDA, even the most insulated British kid is going to know that people there speak American English and I would expect that British kids would find themselves puzzled at least, and those who wanted to read an *American* book would feel cheated by this Bowdlerized bastardized abortion of a book.”
Scat is similar to the adult books written by Mr. Unpronounceable. The plot is set in Florida, and has more twists and turns than the flying spaghetti monster’s beard. There is endangered Florida wilderness, dastardly criminals, well meaning ordinary citizens, and weirdos. There is a degenerate who listens to classical music, and has a macaw that speaks English, French, and German.
The story starts in the classroom of the biology teacher from hell… don’t worry, she has a heart of gold. BTFH leads the class on a field trip, only to be interrupted by a fire in the swamp. Mrs. Starch goes into a burning swamp to find an asthma inhaler, and does not come out for a few weeks. It should be noted that normal people do not go in burning swamps to find an asthma inhaler. Things happen in Scat that require a suspension of disbelief, but are necessary to advance the plot.
When a teacher cannot show up for class, there is a substitute. In this case, the fill in instructor is a weirdo, Wendell Waxmo has unusual methods. On Monday, he teaches page 117 of the book. On Thursday, it is page 329, and Friday features page 263. PG decided to skip ahead, and read the page of the day. Telling you what happens on these three pages is a good way to summarize the plot of Scat. This is using the “BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF.” It is a hard back first edition, Copyright ©2009 by Carl Hiassen.
Page 117 has a conversation with Nick and Marta. They are students of Mrs. Starch, who take an inexplicable role in the investigation after the swamp fire. Marta has seen the Prius that Mrs. Starch drives. Some strange man is driving. A classmate of Marta’s, Smoke, is in the passenger seat. Smoke, the son of the the tri-lingual macaw owner, is suspected of setting the swamp fire.
You probably think that Nick and Marta are a couple. You might be wrong, This is a book for young readers, and does not have the hanky panky that Hiassenites have come to expect. Most people in Scat have had bad marriages. Nobody seems to have sex. The only happy couple is Nick’s parents…. daddy just got back from combat duty in Iraq, minus his right arm
The Thursday class, featuring page 329, takes place on page 159. When you skip ahead to page 329, what you see will not make sense. The fourth and fifth words on the page are “Mrs. Starch,” which tells you the witch is still alive. Smoke, Marta, and Nick are present, along with a panther cub. When you look at this page when you are supposed to, it makes a bit more sense. This is when the various plot lines are hurtling towards a conclusion, and the reader is having too much fun.
On page 263, Twilley Spree is looking for a panther. Mr. Spree is another weirdo, albeit with lots of money. Out of nowhere, a pile of equipment and supplies appears. Someone is trying to dig an oil well, on land that belongs to the State of Florida. This is highly illegal, and is central to the plot of Scat. Twilley Spree decides to teach someone a lesson. What is the lesson, and who are the students? Spolier alerts are for babies. Pictures from The Library of Congress.
So this report has eleven paragraphs. If it is going to have rainbow text, there needs to be at least one more paragraph. Maybe we should consider spending $21.95 for Scat: Novel-Ties Study Guide. The “Most Helpful Customer Reviews,” which is also the only review, gives SNTSG four stars. lydia “I would recommend this study guide for Scat to other teachers. My only criticism is that the vocabulary activities are matching. Excellent literary analysis activities are included in this study guide. There are also extension activities that enrich the novel study experience.”
Chamblee54 
leave a comment