Odor In The Court
Someone collected some courtroom transcripts, and issued them in book form. The result was Disorder in the Court: Great Fractured Moments in Courtroom History. You might have seen these on facebook already. If this is the case, you can go to the amazon one star comments at the end. If those are boring, you can look at the pictures, from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”. If none of that is amusing, then you can watch television.
These samples are typically chats between a witness and an attorney. To make this easier to read, these labels have been dropped. It is fairly obvious which one is the attorney, and which one id the witness. Some of these people might be in the witness protection program. Some need to be in the attorney protection program.
What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning? ~ He said, ‘Where am I, Cathy?’ ~ And why did that upset you? ~ My name is Susan!
What gear were you in at the moment of the impact? ~ Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
Are you sexually active? ~ No, I just lie there.
What is your date of birth? ~ July 18th. ~ What year? ~ Every year.
How old is your son, the one living with you? ~ Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can’t remember which. ~ How long has he lived with you? ~ Forty-five years.
This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all? ~ Yes. ~ And in what ways does it affect your memory? ~ I forget.. ~ You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning? ~ Did you actually pass the bar exam?
The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he? ~ He’s 20, much like your IQ.
Were you present when your picture was taken? ~ Are you shitting me?
So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th? ~ Yes. ~
And what were you doing at that time? ~ Getting laid
She had three children , right? ~ Yes. ~ How many were boys? ~ None. ~ Were there any girls? ~
Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
How was your first marriage terminated? ~ By death.. ~
And by whose death was it terminated? ~ Take a guess.
Can you describe the individual? ~ He was about medium height and had a beard ~
Was this a male or a female? ~ Unless the Circus was in town I’m going with male.
Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney? ~ No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people? ~
All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to? ~ Oral…
Do you recall the time that you examined the body? ~ The autopsy started around 8:30 PM ~
And Mr. Denton was dead at the time? ~ If not, he was by the time I finished.
Are you qualified to give a urine sample? ~ Are you qualified to ask that question?
Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse? ~ No. ~ Did you check for blood pressure? ~ No. ~ Did you check for breathing? ~ No.. ~ So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy? ~ No. ~ How can you be so sure, Doctor? ~ Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar. ~ I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless? ~ Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.
Now, the book has been published. There were 47 reviews. In the best Amazon tradition, 6 of them were one star haters. These often provide the best insight into the true nature of a book. Apparently, the exchanges that made facebook were the only funny ones to be found.
Foul language warning February 20, 2010 Photoman “esib” (Sandusky, Ohio) I only got four pages into the first chapter when I encountered foul language. I did not expect or want to read such tripe. Glad I got my copy at the library to review first. It’s going straight back to the library. Perhaps we should place warnings on books like they do for TV and movies.
Terrible August 5, 2012 Nicki Not funny. Dry. Waste of time & money purchasing this book. Will not even donate. I am an avid reader and I think this possibly is the worst book I have ever read. It was chore that I loathed.
Not so HOT !!! February 28, 2009 Mort Lasnik (REAL NAME) Read the entire book, It was not as funny or as good as the bits of it that I got in e-mail from friends. Some of it was darn right boreing !!!
Don’t buy the kindle version May 5, 2013 C Long (Hong Kong) Don’t buy the kindle version. Lots of pages are missing. I would rate it zero star if i could. I want my money back
Esoteric
The must include word in a monday morning writing contest is PEDANTIC (adjective). This key word is rendered, as always, in all caps. Keyboard communicators have the same opinion of all caps writers that sidewalk based pedestrians have of street preachers. Even if you agree with the message, the medium is too tacky for words.
The writing contest prefers that you use third definition option of this key word. Today, the preferred usage of pedantic is UNIMAGINATIVE; PEDESTRIAN. It is again presented in all caps, with a fig leaf semi colon keeping the peace. This must be an archaic dictionary at work. Today, the unimaginative thing to do is hop in the car, and burn fossil fuels to get where you are going. The enlightened method would be to walk, or to be a pedestrian.
This post is named esoteric, in honor of pedantic’s bff word. (Spell check suggestion: antiseptic’s buff) No one ever accused esoteric of being unimaginative or pedestrian. In tenth grade, PG had a drill sergeant english teacher. One day, the class was discussing “The rocking horse winner,” by D.H. Lawrence. It is a terrible piece of work. One young lady asked the teacher why anyone would write something so esoteric. The teacher had never heard of esoteric, and was enchanted.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. The first time these pictures were used, they illustrate a poem, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. It was foisted upon the unsuspecting public by a facility known as Cyber Recovery. This is not pedestrian, this is runner… you will want to run away.
Atlanta Rising
Atlanta Rising: The Invention of an International City 1946-1996 is on the shelf at the Chamblee library. It is a history of Atlanta in the modern era, written by former fishwrapper scribe Frederick Allen.
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 new power elite is apparently going to build another stadium. Atlanta Stadium cost eighteen million dollars. The Blank bowl will cost over a billion.
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 the games were played. It was a blast.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
Life Insurance Is Too Morbid
Tom Clancy gave an interview to Don Swaim in 1986. Mr. Clancy sold insurance before his writing career took off. “I never do life insurance. It is too morbid. I do fire and casualty”
1986 was a curious time in history. America was in the middle of an arms buildup. Research was producing space age weapons. These weapons would not be used in combat for several years.
It is said that killing becomes more impersonal as weaponry advances. Certainly fighting with swords is more personal than with rifles. (This does not imply that this killing is less horrible.) With “smart bombs” and drones, killing people has become almost antiseptic to the American forces. “Young men of military age” in Pakistan might have a different opinion.
At the time, the perceived threat was from Communism, and the Soviet Union. The question was raised, why would the Soviets start a war with the west? Mr. Clancy talked about the Japanese decision to attack Pearl Harbor, and the German invasion of the Soviet Union. “The decision to go to war … is probably never a completely rational decision.”
About two thirds through the interview, the speed of the tape slows down. It sounds like the talkers are intoxicated. It is during this segment that a vodka shortage in the Soviet Union is discussed.
After the interview, PG looked at facebook. A friend posted a graphic with a reputed quote from Albert Einstein. “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots”
PG did a bit of research, and left a comment. “I suspect that Dr. Einstein did not say that. Wikiquotes does not have this quote. Whenever you see a quote without a source, you should suspect it. Also, what is the context? If a comment is true, it does not need a famous name at the end.” Two minutes later, Carrie Williams said “Thanks Debbie Downer”.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
Your Life On Text
An all caps graphic washes up on the digital shores from time to time. The author, and copyright status, are not known. It was not written here. Reading it can be a chore, even though it looks cool. It is also selfish… the only opinion that matters is the individual reading it. It doesn’t have a good beat, but you can dance to it. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
This is your life.
Do what you love, and do it often.
If you don’t like something, change it.
If you don’t like your job, quit.
If you don’t have enough time, stop watching TV.
If you are looking for the love of your life, stop:
They will be waiting for you when you start doing things you love.
Stop over analyzing, life is simple
All emotions are beautiful.
When you eat, appreciate every last bite.
Open your mind, arms, and heart to new things and people,
We are united in our differences.
Ask the next person you see what their passion is,
And share your inspiring dream with them.
Travel often, getting lost will help you find yourself.
Some opportunities only come once, seize them.
Life is about the people you meet, and the things you create with them
So go out and start creating.
Life is short. Live your dream, and wear your passion.
“Do you have to be a poet? If you don’t have to be a poet, be a prose writer. You’ll get further faster. Poetry — there’s probably more poetry published today than any time in the history of the world. Nevertheless, there is this — people think they have this blindness when they see a line in the typography of poetry, and it just blocks them. So if you can say the same thing in prose, you’ll probably be better off” Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Yellow Rain
Thursday was the annual yellow rain. The pollen was pouring out of the trees, and a storm rolled in from Alabama to wash it away. PG stayed inside, listening to podcasts while editing pictures from The Library of Congress. (This is the source of tonight’s pictures.) This usually lasts until he hears something that distracts him, and makes him want to hear more. Tonight, it was a chat with Charlotte Chandler.
The real name of Miss Chandler is Lyn Erhard. She writes celebrity biographies, mostly pulled from interview transcripts. Most of the subjects of these books are deceased by the time of publication. Some naysayers claim that these interviews are fictitious. The linked article refers to a book Miss Chandler wrote about Marlene Dietrich, who was notoriously reclusive in her latter years.
Some say that you should never let petty concerns about truth interfere with the enjoyment of a good story. People with this attitude should enjoy this file of Miss Chandler reading from her book about Marlene Dietrich. Allegedly, the chanteuse had a private meeting in the oval office with John Kennedy.
In the early seventies, a hotel opened in Colony Square called the Fairmount. There was a supper club there, where people would pay large sums to see live entertainment. Marlene Dietrich performed there. “I have never been so disappointed in my life. She did the same songs that she had done for the last forty years. At the end of the show, somebody had to help her step down from the stage.”
Maybe PG should have stuck with stories presented as fiction. With made up stories, you don’t have to worry if it is true, or not. Tonight’s entertainment featured a story, The Suicide Witch, on the Pseudopod podcast. The witch is a young lady, who is preparing a girl for a fake funeral. The plan is for her to join her bf after the psuedo burial. Sometimes things go according to plan.
Life
PG found a copy of Life, the autobiography of Keith Richards, at the Chamblee library. It is due back today. Whatever virtues this book may have, it is not worth an overdue fine.
The first chapter is about a bust. During the 1975 tour, Keith and Ron Wood go to a diner in backwoods Arkansas. They stay in the men’s room for forty minutes, and someone calls the cops. The vehicle is pulled over, and the crew is busted. With the help of a politically connected lawyer, they get out of jail, and the tour continues.
Keith is not a very nice man. When the stones are in France, making “Exile on Main Street”, Keith goes into town with his bodyguards, and gets into fights. He says when you see trouble starting, to be sure to land the first blow.
This is when he cops some pure heroin, and learns to mix it himself. The formula is 97 parts cut, to 3 parts smack. If you go 96 to 4, you might die. There are lots of drug stories in this book. Keith finally quits sometime in the late seventies, about when Mick is the darling of Studio 54. Mick and Keith are sometimes pals, sometimes enemies, but always counting the money as it rains in. The music industry is corrupt and cutthroat, and Keith fits right in.
The ghost writer is James Fox, and he does a good job of channeling Keith. The copyright is assigned to something called “Mindless Records”. The bonus cd was stolen by someone at the library. The pictures are safe for work. Pictures for today are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”. This is written like David Foster Wallace. This book does not include the meaning of life.
A True Natural Look
This feature is about what happens to a person in the time between death and funeralization. Some people might find this feature to be in bad taste. If you are one of these people, you are encouraged to skip the text, and enjoy the pictures from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
Funeral homes like to talk about service to the community. In Toledo OH recently, a funeral home greeter went a bit further. This is not one of the 13 Things the Funeral Director Won’t Tell You.
British writer Jessica Mitford went into more detail in her essay, Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain. “Embalming is routinely performed on the recently departed, even though it is not required by law or religious custom. “The author concludes that unless the family specifies otherwise, the act of entrusting the body to the care of a funeral establishment carries with it an implied permission to go ahead and embalm.”
The copy of the Formaldehyde Curtain used today is from Hartland High School . In the study notes, it says “First, in Mitford’s piece, carefully focus on allusion, verbs, irony, direct address, and tone. Second, reflect on your notes and thoughts; think aloud on paper; reconsider your notes; ask questions; and think about your thinking.” This essay is possibly an excerpt from Ms. Mitford’s underground classic, The American Way of Death
The essay gets off to a rip roaring start. “The drama begins to unfold with the arrival of the corpse at the mortuary. Alas, poor Yorick! How surprised he would be to see how his counterpart of today is whisked off to a funeral parlor and is in short order sprayed, sliced, pierced, pickled, trussed, trimmed, creamed, waxed, painted, rouged, and neatly dressed-transformed from a common corpse into a Beautiful Memory Picture.”
The first step is no surprise. Mr. John H. Eckels, president of the Eckels College of Mortuary Science, thus describes the first part of the embalming procedure: “In the hands of a skilled practitioner, this work may be done in a comparatively short time and without mutilating the body other than by slight incision-so slight that it scarcely would cause serious inconvenience if made upon a living person. It is necessary to remove the blood, and doing this not only helps in the disinfecting, but removes the principal cause of disfigurements due to discoloration.” In olden times, many people feared premature burial … being lowered into the ground without first expiring. With the removal of blood, and other soft tissue, this possibility is eliminated.
Once the blood has been drained, embalming fluid is pumped into the arteries and veins. One supplier is Hydrol Funeral Supply Company. Their catalog offers Co/Preinjection Fluids, Arterial Fluids, Cavity Fluids, Specialty Fluids, and Embalming Fluid Dyes.
One arterial fluid is Velva Glo. “Velva-Glo offers the maximum of perfection in cosmetic and preserving results. It is formulated to give a flexible body with minimum rigidity. Velva-Glo is not a non-hardening fluid, but so designed that minimum firmness and maximum preservation is obtained. Velva-Glo’s slow action permits full distribution of the fluid before the tissues are set, insuring thorough saturation. Velva-Glo is absolutely non-coagulating. An interesting feature of this fluid is its action on the blood. Harsh, quick-acting fluids lose their potency or power after contact with the blood for several hours. This is because the formaldehyde is consumed. With Velva-Glo, tests which we have made show the formaldehyde maintains its full power after days of contact with blood, while such tests made with harsh, quick-acting fluids show the formaldehyde entirely disappears. Velva-Glo is a non-desiccating, non-burning fluid which offers the utmost in perfect embalming. While Velva-Glo is desirable for all cases, it produces exceptional results when used for women and children.”
Ms. Mitford mentions a dye, Lyf-Lyk tint. “Lyf-Lyk Tint is easily applied with a brush. It spreads evenly and dries quickly, leaving a natural, porous, velvety appearance. Seven specially developed shades enable you to provide the proper complexion for each individual case. Lyf-Lyk Tint leaves a permanent finish that is an ideal base for powder or rouge. It is not affected by weather and will not streak or fade. It may be applied over wax or face covering. The tint is resistant to handling, but may be removed if necessary with a soft damp cloth.”
“The next step is to have at Mr. Jones with a thing called a trocar. This is a long, hollow needle attached to a tube. It is jabbed into the abdomen, poked around the entrails and chest cavity, the contents of which are pumped out and replaced with “cavity fluid.” This done, and the hole in the abdomen sewn up, Mr. Jones’s face is heavily creamed (to protect the skin from burns which may be caused by leakage of the chemicals), and he is covered with a sheet and left unmolested for a while. But not for long-there is more, much more, in store for him. He has been embalmed, but not yet restored, and the best time to start the restorative work is eight to ten hours after embalming, when the tissues have become firm and dry.”
Some of the cavity fluids are HYPOST, CAVAMINE, NITROL, SUPER-50, CAVICEL, HYTEK, THOROL, and TISS-U-TONE. Of the latter, the catalog says “Tiss-U-Tone humectant is an accessory embalming chemical which modifies or softens the action of embalming fluid, acts as an internal tissue filler in emaciated cases and, when used externally as a massage, prevents excessive dehydration of the skin. …Tiss-U-Tone will build up the average body but where sunken spots appear around eyes and temples, HYDROL TISSUE BUILDER, injected hypodermically, should be used after embalming is completed. Tiss-U-Tone contains no formaldehyde. Tiss-U-Tone, because of its wide external use, has been made with a delightful odor which imparts a pleasing scent to the embalming room. “
Eight to ten hours after embalming, the staff prepares “Mr. Jones” for viewing. Again, a variety of chemicals and tools are available to help. An example would be HY-GLO MORTUARY COSMETICS Hy-Glo Base Cream – Blush.
“Here is a line of mortuary cosmetics unsurpassed for their NATURAL LOOK. With Hy-Glo Cosmetics, there is no need for powders, paints, special lighting or last minute touch-ups. Hy-Glo Cosmetics dry instantly, do not rub off on white shirts, dresses or casket-liners yet are water soluble and easily removed. They do not distort skin texture, but do give it the full color of life. This dramatically effective cosmetic result is achieved by first using Hy-Glo Sealer Cream. When lightly applied, the cream leaves a flexible microfilm on the skin which positively prevents the passage of air through the skin tissue, and maintains skin texture in a natural permanent state without dehydration.
One of the Hy-Glo base colors is then selected and if necessary blended with the #4 Hy-Glo tints to achieve a perfect color match. The cosmetic is applied evenly and sparingly with a short bristle brush and dries instantly. The result is a clear microscopic film which is permanent and undetectable. A small amount of #5 Hy-Glo Hilite brushed on the chin, cheeks, ears, nose and eyelids completes the job. The Hy-Glo Kit also contains shaving cream which utilizes the same microfilm principle to allow the razor to glide over the skin, eliminating razor burn entirely. No powders are necessary because the amazing Hy-Glo Cosmetics leave a true NATURAL LOOK.”
C.S. Lewis
There was a facebook link to a feature, Ayn Rand Really, Really Hated C.S. Lewis. It turns out to be verbatim droppings from Ayn Rand’s Marginalia : Her Critical Comments on the Writings of over Twenty Authors. If you are interested in details, there are the links.
Miss Rand has read more C.S. Lewis than PG. There was a copy of a CSL work at a yard sale once, which PG invested a quarter in. He read as far as the appearance of a pig named trufflehunter. Maybe it was a bad day for books, but PG put CSL down, never to make another attempt.
There was a sixth grade english teacher at Ashford Park named Mrs. Ruff. Lots of people talked about how sweet she was, but PG was not impressed. One day, between handing out mimeographed copies of poems to be memorized, Mrs. Ruff started to talk about Narnia. It was a fantastic and amazing story. With a hint of primness, she told the class that Narnia was really about Jesus.
The Correct Spelling Of Friedrich Nietzsche
In late 1968, Georgia Governor Lester Maddox faced a question about prison reform. He gave what many feel is a common sense answer. “We’re doing the best we can, and before we do much better, we’re going to have to get a better grade of prisoners.”
Before we break down that gubernatorial wisdom, a note on google is appropriate. The only source on the front result page, with the verbatim quote, was Art Buchwald. He is a humor columnist. The piece was in the Toledo Blade, December 2, 1968. The column above is from Drew Pearson, and employs the phrase President Johnson and President elect Nixon. Those were scary times.
Moving along on this wet sunday, someone made an all caps comment on facebook: “NOW HOW REAL IS THAT!!!!” The quote displyed a graphic, based on an alleged saying of Friedrich Nietzsche. “People don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” Readers of this blog should know what comes next. Posting a quote, and saying it is real, is begging for an investigation.
Wikiquotes does not show that quote. The search words used were truth, and illusions. Mr. Nietzsche wrote in German, which PG does not read. He did write some things similar to the poster.
Are designations congruent with things? Is language the adequate expression of all realities? It is only by means of forgetfulness that man can ever reach the point of fancying himself to possess a “truth” of the grade just indicated. If he will not be satisfied with truth in the form of tautology, that is to say, if he will not be content with empty husks, then he will always exchange truths for illusions.
Truths are illusions which we have forgotten are illusions — they are metaphors that have become worn out and have been drained of sensuous force, coins which have lost their embossing and are now considered as metal and no longer as coins.
It should be noted that the wikis sometimes contain mistakes. Since Mr. Nietzsche wrote books, it would seem that a source could be found for this quote, if it is indeed accurate. When you type the phrase “Did Friedrich Nietzsche…” into google, the automated search possibilities are believe in G-d, have children, how did Friedrich Nietzsche die, what did Friedrich Nietzsche believe.
Quote Fail says “This quote appears to have been created within the Tumblr-verse.” They don’t think it is genuine. QF has a coupon for endless enchiladas at a restaurant called on the border.
If you are not too picky, quote factory has posters, available for sale, in eleven different designs. This is a responsible site. “Add corrections to the Quote – Is the Quote wrong? Or the author? Help us making this the most accurate and complete Quote site on the planet!
Today’s exercise is the story of a quote about truth. The quote was presented, with the phrase “NOW HOW REAL IS THAT!!!!” The quote, about truth and illusion, is essentially the truth. However, it is credited to Friedrich Nietzsche, without any more information. There is no comment about context, the original language used, or where this quote is to be found. As it turns out, Mr. Nietzsche probably did not include this quote in his books. This does not make the quote less accurate. The concept of mythos over logos is “real”. However, this does give a twist to this pretzel…if a quote about truth is erroneously credited, is the quote less “real”? Whether the reality of the question is affected by the use of all caps is a question for mighty minds to ponder. Pictures are courtesy of Gwinnett County.
Neil Sheehan
In 1988, C-SPAN presented a five part interview with Neil Sheehan. He was promoting a book, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam. Mr. Sheehan was a reporter in Vietnam during the early years of the war. Here are some highlights.
LAMB:(Brian Lamb, host of Booknotes) Neil Sheehan, author of “A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam.” What role did the press play in the war? Mr. SHEEHAN: At the beginning, I suspect the press helped us to go to war in Vietnam. The the press was in gen the the the the news media of this country, in my opinion, tend to be quite conventional. They reflect conventional ideas. They are not the cabal of liberal plotters that the right wing would have us believe, at least, that thus that thesis doesn’t stand up to reality in my experience.
Mr. SHEEHAN: Let me back up for one moment. There’s a considerable misimpression about the role of the press in Vietnam all along and particularly in this early period. The reporters who went to Vietnam early on, like myself, were not anti war dissenters. We were very much in favor of American intervention in Vietnam. We had the same set of illusions everyone else did. What we wanted to what we felt was our well, was our duty excuse me we felt our duty was to report the truth, so that the president would know what was happening in Vietnam the president and the rest of the leadership and win the war. And the advisers in the field, like John Vann, told us, `Look, this isn’t working. The policy isn’t working. We’re losing. And here’s why.’ And we were writing these stories and and they were being denounced.
Mr. SHEEHAN:… the South Vietnamese army wouldn’t fight, that the Diem regime (Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam before November 2, 1963) was deliberately holding deliberately holding it back from fighting, that they wouldn’t take on the Communist guerrillas. Because Diem wanted to preserve his army as a force in being to to preserve his regime. The Americans thought of the army, the South Vietnamese army, as a force with which to fight the Communists. Diem saw it as a force to keep him in power. And so he had a he had a secret order out to his commanders not to take casualties. And the advisers couldn’t get them to tangle with the with the guerrillas, and they would tell us this.
Mr. SHEEHAN: .. it was stupid to be shelling and bombing civilian hamlets, that we were just killing women and kids and we were turning the population against us. He (John Paul Vann) showed us the extent to which the ARVN, the Regular South Vietnamese Army, was avoiding contact with the enemy and would not fight the Viet Cong, would not take them on. He showed us the extent to which we were arming the guerillas through these outposts. Again, John would gather the data, precisely how many American arms were going to precisely how many outposts and we ended up – as I said in the book, we ended up arming the Viet Cong in South Vietnam with American weapons because the American generals were pouring weapons into the South Vietnamese Militia and the Viet Cong were collecting them from these outposts. And so, you were giving a communist guerilla who had a bolt action French rifle a fast firing semiautomatic M1 Garand, which was a World War II weapon, but which was a very good weapon in the mid – in the early 60s. This was prior to the fully automatic weapons, the M16, et cetera. The Garand was a fine weapon and we were arming our enemy. … the United States of America, are arming our enemy and giving them far better weapons than with than they already have and we’re going to change the whole the whole kind of wa we’re going to change the war we’re fighting. We’re we’re creating a a monster here.’
LAMB: Given your experience, and this book and other books, could a Vietnam ever happen again to the United States? Mr. SHEEHAN: No. Well, not in the foreseeable future. I think Vietnam has changed this country, for the foreseeable future, at least. I an event like Vietnam is unique in the history of a country. Vietnam was our first bad war …. And it was the first it was the first war in which Americans could get could and did get killed for nothing. Now the Europeans had learned that you could go to war and get killed for nothing, that you could go to war and and your in which you could get involved in a war in which your le leadership was was was driven by illusions rather than reality. We had never learned that as a nation. … And so I think the impact of that on us has been so profound, because the war was so divisive that it remains with us today and you ca the president of the United States cannot so blithely send Americans off to war as he does not have the power to do it that Kennedy and Johnson had, because the public doesn’t give him the credibility that it gave them those presidents.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
The Girls’ Guide To Hunting And Fishing
PG was riding his bike one afternoon. He rode by a house with trash at the curb. Part of the loot was paperback books. A few months later, the time to read had come. The amazon one stars would say not to buy The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing, that it was not worth the hype. When you find a book that is thrown away, this is not a factor. PG had never even heard the phrase “chick lit”.
GGTHF got off to a slow start. The hero, Jane, goes to the beach with her parents, and meets her brother’s gf. PG was about to put the story down, until dad said, “Hair is the roof of the soul”.
There are seven sections to this book. They are loosely connected by the participation of Jane Rosenal, the daughter of a Philadelphia doctor. In one chapter, her only participation is living in an apartment upstairs from the action. This chapter is confusing. Someone’s son shows up for dinner with a new gf. The son announces that the gf is pregnant, as is his ex wife, and he is the daddy for both babies.
The author of this tale is Melissa Bank. The book is copyrighted 1999, and took twelve years to write. Ms. Bank is still alive, and stays in East Hampton, NY. At the 96 minute mark of this video, she explains why her continued existence is remarkable. While riding a bike home from radiation treatment, Ms. Bank was hit by a car. She landed on her head, and forgot vocabulary. This is a problem for a writer.
The last two chapters of GGTHF have a different feel from the first five. PG speculated they were written by a another person. After hearing about the bike wreck, this different style makes a bit of sense.
The last chapter is puzzling. Jane gets a book on manipulating men, and talks to the authors. In the end, she ignores the book, and gets kissed.
Chamblee54 
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